TRIFLES is Based on a Real Murder Case

In 1900 Susan Glaspell reported on the murder of farmer John Hossack. The Hossack family lived in Medora, Iowa, which is located near the city in South Central Iowa, Indianola. Glaspell reported extensively on the case in the Des Moines Daily News.  As part of her reporting, Glaspell visited the farmhouse of the Hossack farm and the memory of that visit influenced her use of the farmhouse setting in Trifles. Below is the image of the victim's head wound that appeared in the newspaper along with Glaspell's reporting in December 1900. Note the last sentence in the original caption that highlights the sensational nature of the story and the fact that this image is an exclusive in this paper.

 
The case remains an unsolved murder and a book was recently written about it entitled Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland (Algonquin Books, 2005).