Cordelia Adelaide Botkin, née Brown, was born in 1854 in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1872, Cordelia married a man named Welcome Botkin and the couple had one son together, Beverly. They made their home in Stockton, California, where Welcome worked as a grain broker. The couple became estranged. In 1895, Cordelia met John Preston Dunning. Although she was nearly a decade older than him, John was smitten with the 41-year-old married woman. Although John developed an infatuation with Cordelia, he was married to Mary Elizabeth Penington-Dunning, and they had a baby daughter, Elizabeth. The married couple lived at 2529 California Street, in San Francisco. Mary’s parents were Congressman John Brown and Rebecca Rowan Penington of Dover, Delaware. Cordelia thought very highly of herself, despite her frumpy appearance and advancing age. She bragged about being photographed in over 100 poses, her favorite pose being with her hands behind her head, and elbows out — very haughty for...