Unveiling Secrets: The Untold Saga of Alias Agnes, a Gilded Age Spy Who Defied All Odds
Reviewed by Anthony J. Mohr
Madeleine Pollard came from an everyday family in Kentucky, a girl who used her charms to worm her way into Washington, D.C.’s elite society. By age 17, she tumbled into an affair with William C.P. Breckinridge, a 44-year-old congressman from her home state. The liaison would last 10 years until he tossed her aside and married someone else.
Pregnant at the time, Madeleine didn’t take that lying down. She sued for breach of promise to marry, a powerful cause of action during the 1890s, when the lawsuit took place, followed by a trial. In a well-paced narrative, Elizabeth A. DeWolfe shows what happened in Alias Agnes: The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy (The University Press of Kentucky; March, 2025)
