The Manheim Tragedy.

September 21, 2013, 5:46 am

Richards & Anderson

On a sunny December morning in 1857, Mrs. Anna Garber and Mrs. Elizabeth Ream were raped and murdered in Mrs. Garber’s home in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Evidence overwhelmingly pointed to Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards, two African American workmen seen in the neighborhood. Though there was little doubt as to who committed the murders, a question still remained: would they be tried by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or would the case would be handled by "Judge Lynch."

Date: December 15, 1857

Location: Manheim, Pennsylvania

Victim: Mrs. Anna Garber and Mrs. Elizabeth Ream

Cause of Death: Blows to the head, Slashing

Accused: Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards

Synopsis:

Anna and Conrad Garber had raised ten children in their farmhouse in Manheim Township, “one of the most beautiful and fertile sections of the country.” On December 15, 1857 the peace of that township would be shattered by a tragedy more outrageous than any seen before in Lancaster County.
Conrad had gone to work, leaving his wife in the kitchen making butter. Their neighbor, Mrs. Elizabeth Ream stopped by that morning to visit with Anna Garber as she worked. The women were related by marriage, Mrs. Garber’s daughter Mary Ann had married Mrs. Ream’s son.

Around 1:00 Mary Ann Ream stopped by as well, “to keep the old folks company.” When she opened the door to her mother’s house, Mary Ann knew something was wrong. The furniture was in disarray and there were bloodstains on the floor, but nothing could have prepared her for the horror she found in the back room. Her mother and her mother-in-law both lay dead on the floor, their skulls cracked and their throats slashed from ear to ear, each body lying “in an indelicate position.” Money and some other articles had been stolen, and one of the assailants had left behind a pair of shoes. As soon as she recovered from the shock, Mary Ann fled the house and alarmed the neighbors.

Suspicion immediately fell on two African American men (one was described “a mullato speaking the German language”) who had been looking for work in the neighborhood that morning. Around 11:00 they stopped at the house of Isaak Kaufman, who lived opposite the Garbers, and said they were sweeps and wished to clean his chimneys. When Kaufman said he had no work for them they asked him for food and he gave them some bread. Kaufman saw them walk to the Garbers’s house and assumed they found work there because he saw them enter but did not see them leave.

The killers had not been hard to capture; they had been seen heading down Litiz Pike towards Lancaster and were arrested in that town in time for the story to be printed in the evening paper. They were taken to the Mayor’s office where they identified themselves as Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards. Anderson had $90 in gold and silver under his shirt in a salt sack tied in a silk handkerchief. Richards had three dollars wrapped up in a piece of German newspaper, similar to one found in the chest where the money was taken. He was also wearing Mrs. Garber’s shoes - a pair of boots she would wear to market. A handkerchief with black bars in Anderson’s possession was a perfect match to one worn by Mr. Garber. They had been cut from one piece of cloth that Mrs. Garber hemmed into two handkerchiefs.

News of the murders and arrests travelled quickly, spreading outrage throughout Lancaster County. The shock of the brutal act and the anger directed against the killers is expressed in this self-censored passage from the murder pamphlet The Manheim Tragedy.

Their double-murder was the work of a triple motive—they demanded blood—gold—and————. The heart sickens—thought recoils within the dungeon of the mind—imagination palls—the pen involuntarily stops, at the contemplation of such a compound deed of fiendish brutality. While it was enacting, angels wept and averted their earth-reaching eyes, unused to look down upon such human depravity; and devils trembled at the contemplation of the consequence of their own hellish conception and instigations.

The fact that the two killers were black fanned the flames of outrage, and as Anderson and Richards were being questioned, a mob formed outside the mayor’s office. Shouts of “Lynch the damned niggers!” could be heard emanating from the growing crowd. It looked as though the crowd was ready to act on that suggestion when the officers brought them down from the mayor’s office, but the prisoners made it safely to the jail.

The funeral of Mrs. Garber and Mrs. Ream took place the following Thursday morning. Sermons were preached by three ministers, one Lutheran, one German Reformed, and one German Baptist but rather than subduing thoughts of violence, their solemn words only enflamed the crowd all the more. A mob gathered again around the jail, forcefully testing the strength of the walls. Some expressed a lack of faith in the courts, fearing the killers might be set free by some legal technicality. There was talk of saving the state the cost of a trial by taking the men into the woods and burning them alive.

The jail was surrounded again on Saturday, December 19, the date of the preliminary hearing. Fearing mob violence, the aldermen decided to hold the trial in storeroom of the jailhouse rather than at the courthouse. After the prisoners were identified by witnesses, and evidence of their guilt presented to the court, Anderson and Richards were indicted for the murders of Anna Garber and Elizabeth Ream and their trial was set for the third Monday of January.

Trials: January 21 & 22, 1858

By the opening day of their trial, fervor for lynching Anderson and Richards had died down, but interest in the case had not. Before the trial commenced, every seat in the courtroom was occupied and the hallways outside were filled to capacity. The sheriff ordered that no one else could enter unless someone inside left, but crowds rushed the doors anyway, pushing their way inside. Finally the sheriff locked all of the doors, allowing no one in or out until the trial ended for the day.

Anderson and Richards were tried separately and Anderson’s case was taken first. Though he pleaded not guilty the testimony and evidence against him was overwhelming. Anderson’s court appointed attorney offered no real defense, but cited cases where relying on circumstantial evidence led to the conviction of the wrong man. He hoped that the growing sentiment in Pennsylvania against the death penalty would persuade the jury to convict his client of a lesser charge. The jurymen were not convinced and took only a few minutes of deliberation to convict Alexander Anderson of first degree murder.

Henry Richards’s trial the following day was even quicker. His attorney responded to the same evidence by arguing that Richards was weak of mind and easily led. He had not participated in the murders, just agreed to stand by his partner and not give him away. Richards was also found guilty of first degree murder.

Verdicts: Guilty of first degree murder

Aftermath:

While awaiting execution, Alexander Anderson was persuaded by some clergymen to make a full confession. It would be printed and sold to provide money for his wife and children. Anderson wrote it himself but the confession was edited by the clergymen. Though they claimed that they only corrected the spelling, the clergymen probably adjusted the tone as well, making it was somewhat moralistic, especially regarding alcohol. Anderson wrote that he began drinking whiskey at age six and began stealing soon after.

Anderson confessed that on the day of the murder he and Richards had gone out intending to rob a house. Instead of his chimney scraper, he was carrying a hatchet in his belt to open trunks. He and Richards got very drunk before heading out. They went to the Garber’s house and asked about work and left when Mrs. Garber said she had none. Then they decided to go back and ask her for “a levy” to buy more whiskey. The violence started when Mrs. Garber refused to give them money. The two women put up a terrible struggle but were eventually subdued by blows to the head. Then, in Anderson’s words:

“We then had to do with both of the women, before they were dead. Richards had to do with Mrs. Ream and myself with Mrs. Garber.”

Then they ransacked the house. The women were still groaning when they prepared to leave, so they cut their throats and killed them.

“Oh, I pray God that all who read this Life and Confession will give up drinking whisky,” Anderson added, “because now you see the fruits of whisky! If I hadn’t followed the practice of drinking whisky I would never have been in prison—I would not now be on my way to the gallows!”

Henry Richards seemed indifferent to his plight and laughed at anyone who suggested he confess. He maintained his innocence with a series of conflicting stories putting all the blame on Anderson. But as his execution day approached Richards finally confessed as well, revealing details of the crime that corroborated Anderson’s confession.

On Friday, April 9, 1858, Anderson and Richards were hanged in the yard of Lancaster jail. More than two thousand people applied to witness the execution, but the Sheriff stuck to the terms of the law. The only official witnesses were the twenty-four jurymen who convicted them, the sheriff, two deputies, two clergymen and state senator Cobb – a proponent of the death penalty who attended all Pennsylvania hangings.

Outside the prison walls, the public found other ways to witness the execution. People in surrounding houses could see inside the prison yard from their roofs. One entrepreneur erected a scaffolding on a hill outside the prison and charged a dollar a seat. Those without a view stood outside the prison walls waiting to cheer when the execution was confirmed.

At twenty-five minutes before twelve the trap was sprung and within five minutes both men were dead. The bodies of Alexander Anderson and Henry Richards were interred in the burying ground of the Lancaster Poor House.

Sources:

Books:

Rockafield, H. A.. The Manheim tragedy . Lancaster: Printed at the Evening Express Office, 1858

(Courtesy of Readex.)

Slaughter, Thomas P.. Bloody Dawn. Washington: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Newspapers:
"Execution of Murderers." Springfield Republican 10 Apr 1858: 5.
"The Double Murder in Lancaster County." Sum 19 Dec 1857: 1.
"The Manheim Lancaster County, Tragedy." Public Ledger 27 Jan 1857: 1.

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Crime and Criminals.

September 28, 2013, 5:57 am

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Little Murders

(A bad weekend in the Midwest -
FromDaily Inter Ocean , Chicago, Illinois, January 30, 1877)

Crime and Criminals.

Another Horrible Chapter of Murder and Murderous Affrays.

Another Whisky Murder—Fatal Stabbing.

Special Telegram to the Inter Ocean.

Decatur, Ill. Jan. 29.—On Saturday night Joab Wilkinson took from Decatur to Niantic a jug of whisky, which he distributed to some of his friends. A riot grew out of it, in which three Connihan brothers attacked a Mr. Carson, one of them striking him with a grubbing hoe, breaking his skull. The doctors have trepanned it, and he may recover. Today the parties were committed to await the result.

Last night Mr. McCall got into an altercation with Douglas Morris, at the house of the latter, in Decatur, and stabbed him twice, it is feared, fatally. McCall was at once arrested and lodged in jail.

Still Another Terrible Example

Special Telegram to the Inter Ocean.
Huntington, Ind., Jan. 29.—A house of Ill-fame at this place on Sunday afternoon was the scene of a bloody and fatal fight. Thomas E. Billings, the keeper, attempted to eject Delatus Shaffer, the clerk of the Hubbell House. Shaffer was intoxicated, and was very noisy, and was abusing the inmates. Finally Billings drew a revolver and shot his assailant, the ball entering the right side and inflicting a wound which will probably prove fatal. Billings was arrested a short time after and taken to Fort Wayne for safe keeping. He has kept a house of ill-fame at that place for several years.

Murders at St. Louis and in the Vicinity—“Had Been at the Tavern.”

St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 29.—A most brutal and unprovoked murder was committed about 1 o’clock this morning at the Comique Theatre, on Vine, between Third and Fourth streets. It appears the William Wiener, the night watchman, and serving as what is called the bouncer, accused Lawrence Mack, assistant bookkeeper of the establishment, with making some disparaging remarks about him to the head barkeeper, which Mack denied. Whereupon the ruffian drew hs revolver and shot Mack in the neck, killing him almost instantly. Mack was a very slight and small man, while Wiener is a great, burly, broad-shouldered bully, and is under bonds for attempting to kill his wife a few weeks ago.
St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 29.—The proper name of the young man murdered at the Theater Comique this morning was A. V. Lawrence. He was formerly from Cambridge, Ohio. Weiner, his murdrer, was arrested and placed in jail.

Another murder was committed some time last night about seven mils from the city. An old man named John Bishop, 75 years old, well known in that section, had been at the Seven-mile House with some friends during the evening, and at 9 o’clock left for his home, not far away. This morning his dead body was found by the roadside a short distance from the tavern, his head being partly submerged in a little marsh, his pockets turned inside out, and his boots gone. It is supposed that some footpads how have infested that part of the country during the winter suffocated the old man in the marsh and then rifled his pockets and stole his boots.

St. Louis, Mo, Jan. 29.—Later information from the country is to the effect that John Bishop, reported murder hear the Seven-mile House, was very drunk when he left the house and circumstances go to show that he fell into a ditch of soft mud and water, and, not being able to get up, was smothered. The rifling of his pockets and stealing of his boots are supposed to have been done buy some negroes who passed along the road and saw that the old man was either dead or helpless.

A Clergyman Shot.

Special Telegram to the Inter Ocean.
Bloomington, Ind., Jan. 29.—The Rev. G.W. Greer, of Elletsville, this county was shot and dangerously wounded while trying to pacify Chris Smith and Mr. Malicote, who were quarreling, last night.

"Crime and Criminals."Daily Inter Ocean 19 Dec 1877.

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Murderous Clergy.

October 5, 2013, 6:00 am

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In the nineteenth century men of the cloth were often looked upon with as much suspicion as respect. When a minister was accused of murder it would turn the community against him, especially if a woman was involved. Though often condemned in the court of public opinion, clergymen fared much better in a court of law. All of the religious leaders in in our list were acquitted (though one Sunday school superintendent was hanged.)

	Rev. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery - 1832 Rev. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery was accused of seducing and murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, but the two had a long, contentious history and the jury was convinced that Sarah killed herself and framed Rev. Avery.
	The Prophet Matthias - 1834 Robert Mathiews, aka the Prophet Matthias, was the leader of a religious cult and controlled all aspects of his followers’ lives. When co-founder Elija Pierson was found dead, the Prophet Mathias was accused of going too far. The jury disagreed.
	Rev. Henry Budge - 1859 When the wife of Rev. Henry Budge was found with her throat cut, suicide was suspected, but soon suspicion fell on the Reverend. Despite compelling evidence against him, Reverend Budge was acquitted.
	Rev. John S. Glendenning - 1874 Church organist Mary Pomeroy was seduced and abandoned by her pastor, Rev. John Glendenning. She died soon after giving birth to his child. Though not technically a murderer, Glendenning was tried by the Presbyterian Church who found him innocent of all charges.
	Rev. Herbert H. Hayden- 1886 Rev. Herbert Hayden was accused of stabbing and poisoning Mary Stannard, a young housekeeper employed by his wife. Many believed that he had seduced and impregnated her. He denied it all and was released after a hung jury.
	Theo Durrant - 1895 Mild-mannered Theo Durrant was the superintendent of Sunday school at Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco. But Theo had a dark side—he murdered and mutilated two young women, leaving their remains in the church. "The Demon of the Belfry" was convicted.

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Another "Bender Family."

October 12, 2013, 6:00 am

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In the 1870s the people of Kansas were outraged by the crimes of the Benders, a family of four who welcomed weary travelers then murdered and robbed them. The Benders managed to escape before their crimes were discovered and, by most accounts, they were never captured. When another family in Kansas, the Kellys, duplicated the Benders’ crimes in 1887, the people of Kansas were determined to make them pay.

Date: September – December 1887

Location: Oak City, Kansas

Victim: J. T. Taylor and at least ten others.

Cause of Death: Dropped down a trap door

Accused: The Kelly Family

Synopsis:
Travel through the Kansas No-Man’s-Land was dangerous in 1887; there was always the possibility of being waylaid, robbed and murdered by highwaymen. Reports of a number of cattlemen, salesmen and other travelers entering No-Man’s-Land and not coming out, in the last four months of that year barely raised an eyebrow.

The Kelly family, believed to be respectable, honest and industrious, owned a ranch in No-Man’s-Land about ten miles from the town of Oak City. The family consisted of 55-year-old William Kelly, his wife Kate, their son Bill, age 20, and daughter Kit, 18. The ranch was close to the main road and visitors would often stop in for a meal or to spend the night with the Kellys.

In early December, 1887, the Kellys suddenly, and for no apparent reason, left their ranch and set out for parts unknown. A week or so later a group of men went out to look around the abandoned ranch. In the cellar beneath the house they found the decomposing remains of a man and in one corner found two other bodies, both so decomposed that they were unrecognizable. Four more bodies, including one woman, were found buried beneath the stable, two more were found alongside the barn, and another two at the corner of the barn. Only one body was identified, a man better dressed then the others, was believed to be J. T. Taylor who had been reported missing.

Reports of the discovery were delivered by travelers through No-Man’s-Land arriving in Wichita, the end of December. Mr. Charles Randolph, prospector from Chicago described the Kelly’s mode of killing:

“A very ingeniously arranged trap door was found in the floor of the house through which it was supposed the victims were dropped and killed…Either the father or in some cases, the daughter, who was not a bad looking girl, carried on a conversation with the guest while the mother prepared the meal. Everything being ready for the sacrifice the victim was seated at the table, his chair being placed on the trap. At the given signal the spring was touched and the unhappy traveler would be thrown down into the basement, where in the dark—if the fall did not break his neck—he could be dispatched at pleasure. This is supposed to have been the modus operandi, for no one is known to have ever escaped from their clutches.”

It was believed that the Kellys had taken their ill-gotten gains and headed for Mexico and a posse was formed to ride into Texas and find them. The posse caught up with the Kellys encamped about fifty miles south of Oak City where they put up a desperate fight.

Reports of what happened next vary. One account says that Kate and her daughter were shot to death, the son Bill was lynched, and old William managed to escape. A later account says that Kate fell off her horse during the chase and was left where she lay. Bill and Kit were both lynched from the same tree limb.

William got away, but his trail was easy to follow as his horse was only shod on the front. After three hours of riding the posse came close enough to order him to halt. There was a brief gunfight then the old man surrendered. They asked him to confess but he claimed he had never killed anyone and it was the talk of foul play in No-Man’s-Land that prompted him to move his family to Texas.

The posse strung him up and left his body swinging for several minutes then let him down and asked him again to confess. This time he admitted that he and his family had killed and robbed nine men and two women. All of the family members were equally guilty. He told the posse where they could find the money. He was strung up again and this time left to hang until he was dead.

Sources:

"An awful find."Kansas City Times 24 Dec 1887: 1.

"Another Bender family."National Police Gazette 14 Jan 1888.
"Benders Out-Bendered."Daily Inner Ocean 26 Dec 1887: 1.
"Four Wretches."National Police Gazette 21 Jan 1888.
"Human Tigers Lynched.."New York Herald 31 Dec 1887: 10.

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Mabel Smith.

October 19, 2013, 6:28 am

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Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Mabel Smith.

"This big mulatto is a wicked creature, who severed her grandmother’s head from her body with an axe, in order to effect her elopement with her white paramour, who called himself Thomas B. Hayward. After the deed, they skipped off together in a buggy. The old woman was opposed to the connection, and it was supposed the deed was done in a fit of anger while quarreling over the man. They were both captured a few hours after the deed."

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

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The Brooklyn Wife Murder.

October 26, 2013, 6:10 am

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Little Murders

(From The National Police Gazette, November 10, 1883)

The Brooklyn Wife Murder.

A Saloon Keeper, Prompted by the Green-Eyed Monster,
Kills his Better Half.

The shooting of Mrs. Thomas Young by her husband formerly a clerk in the Internal Revenue Department, and latterly a saloon keeper and politician, has created much excitement in the city of Brooklyn. The affair occurred on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Husband and wife had quarreled for some days, and on the 20th ult. Mrs. Young, who was a woman of great personal beauty, left the conjugal roof and went to live with her mother, Mrs. Mary Cole, at No. 95 Tompkins avenue. On the 23d Young called at this place and asked his wife to return to live with him. She refused emphatically. To his further entreaties she said,

“You have often threatened to kill me, and I know you intend to do it now. You have a pistol in your pocket, and you have come here to kill me.”

Young said he had no such intention, and denied that he had a pistol. He then appealed to his mother-in-law, and asked if he could not go into a private room with his wife, so that they could talk the matter over. If he could see her alone, Young said, he could induce her to return to his home. Both mother and daughter objected. Young again denied that he had any murderous intention, but even while he was speaking his wife saw him draw a pistol from his pocket. She ran from a back room on the first floor, where they had been talking, toward a front room, but before she could escape Young fired directly at her, the ball entering her abdomen.

James McCabe, who lives in the upper part of the house, ran down stairs when he heard the shot. Seeing Young with a pistol in his hand and Mrs. Young lying on the floor. McCabe knocked the husband down and took the pistol from his hand, and held him until the arrival of Roundsman O’Reilly, of the Thirteenth Precinct. After the pistol had been taken from his hand, Young got down on his knees and begged his wife to say that he had not intended to shoot her. Mrs. Young could not speak, but her mother said that no such statement could be made truthfully, because she had seen Young take deliberate aim at her daughter. On the following day the latter died and Young was held to await the action of the grand jury. Jealousy was the cause of his trouble with his wife.

Reprinted from "The Brooklyn Wife Murder."National Police Gazette 10 Nov 1883.

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The Marlow Murder.

November 2, 2013, 6:28 am

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William Bachmann came to Jamestown, New York, from Toledo, Ohio, in August 1871, intent on purchasing some property and he told everyone he met that he was carrying $6,000 in cash. This was a mistake. Bachmann was last seen alive at a brewery owned by Charles Marlow and Marlow was quickly arrested for Bachmann’s murder. But prosecuting Marlow would prove difficult because there were no eye-witnesses to the crime, there was no identifiable body, and Marlow’s mother-in-law, under oath, confessed to murdering Bachmann.

Date: August 16, 1871

Location: Jamestown, New York

Victim: William Bachmann

Cause of Death: Blows to the head.

Accused: Charles Marlow

Synopsis:
Charles Marlow, a German immigrant, kept a brewery in his home in the suburbs of Jamestown, New York. He lived there with his wife, Augusta and their two children, along with Augusta’s sister and her mother, Mrs. Julia Ortman. Also living and working at the brewery was Valentine Benkowski, a Polish immigrant (called a Polander by the press) who had a working knowledge of German but spoke very little English. Charles Marlow was known as an industrious man and had run the brewery for two years, but in 1871 he was deeply in debt.

According to Benkowski, William Bachmann came to the brewery on August 15 and spent the night. He woke up, had a glass of beer, and left before breakfast. Marlow told Benkowski that the stranger claimed he had $6,000 in cash and had asked Marlow to take care of it during the night. Marlow had told him to take care of it himself. Marlow told Benkowski he was going into town to find out whether Bachmann had money or not. He hitched up a team of horses and hauled some beer kegs into Jamestown.

Bachmann was intent on buying some property in Jamestown and offered Louis Donner $1,500 for some land he owned on Chautauqua Lake. He asked Donner to give him change for a $20 bill. Bachmann also offered to pay cash for some property owned by Christian Schmidt. A number of people recalled seeing Bachmann in Schmidt’s saloon with a fat wallet they believed to be full of greenbacks.

Marlow, apparently satisfied with Bachmann’s financial position, brought the stranger back to the brewery. Benkowski saw the two men go into the drinking room for some beer. Some time later he heard conversation in the cellar beneath the brewery. Though the trap door to the cellar was closed, Benkowski heard, what he believed to be, the report of a revolver. Frightened, Benkowski left the building.

When he returned he saw Marlow coming through the cellar door. He had blood on his forehead and spots of blood on his boots. Later that day Benkowski went to the cellar and saw that the stairs had been washed from top to bottom. He also found the brew house stiflingly hot; there had been a large fire in the arch furnace in the cellar below.

Benkowski believed that Marlow had murdered Bachmann and burned his body. The next day he quit his job at the brewery and took a train to Dunkirk, New York, where he discussed the matter with some of his countrymen who lived there. Word of Benkowski’s suspicions spread quickly, and the next day the police brought him in for questioning. On the strength of Benkowski’s story, Charles Marlow was arrested for murder.

a. Drinking Room.
b. Brew House
c. Dining Room
d. Kitchen
e. Bed Room
f. Pantry
g. Arch, in Brew House
h. Ice House, over Vault
i. Staircase to second story
k. Double Trap Door to Cellar
d. Doorways

a. Vault under Ice House
b. Long cellar communicating with Vault
c. Cellar under Brew House
d. Doorways

The line of dots represent blood stains

The police searched Marlow’s brewery, and amid the ashes in the grating of the furnace they found pieces of bone and part of a man’s arm, including the elbow. Blood was found in the cellar under the ice-house and in the next room was a trail of blood, as if a bloody body had been dragged. Near the house they found a barrel full of ashes. They sifted the ashes and found more pieces of bone, some recognizable as fingers, toes or pieces of skull. They also found two ivory bosom studs and three vest buttons, similar to those worn by Bachmann.

On August 19, Charles Marlow was arrested for murder. A coroner’s jury was summoned and an inquest was held. The jury was taken to examine the brewery and view the remains. Valentine Benkowski testified, as did the doctors who examined the remains and Marlow’s sister-in-law, Christine Ortman, but on advice of counsel, Charles Marlow and the rest of his family refused to testify. The jury found that Charles Marlow shot and killed William Bachmann on August 16, 1871 and that his wife Augusta was an accomplice. The formal indictment contained twelve counts of murder—in case they were wrong about the gunshot, Marlow was also charged with stabbing, striking with a hammer, striking with an axe, burning and seven other means of murder.

Trials: 1. September 20, 1871; 2. January 15, 1872

The prosecutors in Marlow’s trial introduced testimony from the investigators who had found the bones and articles of clothing at the brewery, and from the doctors who verified that the bones were human. They also provided testimony from several neighbors who recalled thick, black, foul smelling smoke emanating from the brewery on August 16. But the most damning testimony came from Valentine Benkowski who, testifying through an interpreter, told of hearing the revolver shot and seeing blood stains on Charles Marlow. The prosecution rested on the third day of the trial.

In his opening address, Marlow’s attorney, C. R. Lockwood conceded that the remains found at the brewery were human and that they were, in fact, the remains of William Bachmann. But he also introduced an experiment conducted by the defense which proved that with the trap door down, coming from the vault under the ice house where Bachmann was allegedly killed, it was impossible to distinguish between the sound of a gunshot and the sound of someone hitting a beer keg. Lockwood claimed Marlow had gone back to Jamestown that afternoon and did not have time to have burned the body. Then Lockwood dropped a bombshell when he said:

“Now I can make a most startling statement! He came to his death at the hands of the aged mother!!”

According to Lockhart, Bachmann was not as wealthy as he claimed to be and with Marlow gone he confronted Marlow's wife and demanded money. When she refused he chased her and threw her on the floor. Mrs. Marlow’s mother Julia Ortman heard the noise and ran to see what was wrong. She found Bachmann on top of her daughter, choking her. Unable to pull them apart, Mrs. Ortman grabbed a hammer and gave Bachmann a fatal blow to the temple. Mrs. Ortman and her daughter then carried the body to the furnace and burned it. Charles Marlow had no knowledge of any of this until he was arrested for Bachmann’s murder.

Julia Ortman was the first witness for the defense. She only spoke German, so through an interpreter, she verified all that Lockwood had said. Charles Marlow’s defense strategy was to discredit Benkowski and provide the jury with an alternative story.

After one week of testimony the case was given to the jury. They were hopelessly deadlocked at six for conviction and six for acquittal; Marlow was taken back to jail to await another trial.

The second trial began on January 15, 1872. It lasted twenty-two days and followed much the same course as the first trial but with more detail. This time there were no startling revelations. On February 6, after three and a half hours deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Verdict: 1. Hung jury; 2. Guilty of first degree murder.

Aftermath:
Charles Marlow was sentenced be hanged on March 29, 1872. As his execution day approached, Marlow was moved to another cell. In the old cell, guards found a knife blade hidden in the floorboards and one of the bars of his cell was partially sawed through. It was believed that the blade was hidden in an apple that Marlow’s son gave him during the trial.

The day before his scheduled execution a scaffold was built in the prison yard at Mayville, New York. Marlow assisted with the testing of the gallows; he wanted his death to be clean and swift. Though he appeared to be ready for death, Marlow showed no surprise when, at the last minute, he received a stay of execution from the governor.

The court need more time to examine some affidavits that had been filed by the defense, so they asked the governor to postpone the hanging. There had been some irregularities in the selection of Marlow's second jury, and more dramatically, the Sunday before their deliberation, the jury was taken to a Baptist church where they heard this prejudicial remark in the sermon:

“Release unto me Barabbas; now Barabbas was a robber. Some in this house may think I am pleading for mercy for the man now being tried for his life in this village. Such is not the case, for I believe the man’s hands are reeking with blood, also his wife’s and her mother’s reeking with blood. I have read and carefully examined the evidence, and from that have come to this conclusion.”

In the end, the court upheld the verdict and the date of Marlow’s execution was set for August 8. In the meantime there was another escape attempt. One morning in July, Marlow arranged his bunk making it appear that he was sleeping there. When Dunton, the turnkey, came to wake him as he did every day, Marlow attacked him with a club—a bed post taken from a cross leg cot bedstead. Marlow hit Dunton several times in the head and probably would have killed him if the room hadn’t been too small to allow Marlow a good swing. Marlow was captured and put in irons before he could leave the prison.

Charles Marlow maintained his innocence until the night before his execution when he made a formal confession to the murder of William Bachmann. After having a beer with Bachmann in the drinking room of the brewery, he led him to the vault. There he gave Bachmann a glass of beer laced with strychnine. The drink induced spasms in Bachmann but did not kill him, so Marlow took a bar of iron and hit him on the head until he died. Then he cut the body up and burned it in the furnace. He told his wife about the murder and she helped him dispose of the ashes. If he had known that Valentine Benkowski suspected anything, Marlow would have killed him as well. The motive of the murder was theft.

A gallows was constructed inside the Mayville jail. There were so many spectators attending the execution that the sheriff had to request that those in front kneel down so that those in the rear could see. When the trap was sprung Marlow fell seven feet three inches; his neck was broken and he died quickly.

Sources:

Books:

Marlow, Charles. The Marlow Murder!. Jamestown: Daily and Weekly Journal, 1872

Newspapers:
"Court! The Marlow Murder!."Jamestown Journal 9 Feb 1872.
"Marlow--How he didn't hang.."Jamestown Journal 5 Apr 1872.
"Marlow--The plan for Escape--His Appearance and Condition.."Jamestown Journal 26 Jul 1872.
"Murder!! The Marlow Trial."Jamestown Journal 29 Sep 1871.
"The Feigned Indifference of Charles Marlow--His Attempts to Cheat the Gallows." Jamestown Journal 22 Mar 1872.
"The Scaffold."Cleveland Leader 5 Aug 1872: 1.

Websites:
Panoramio: Map of Jamestown

↧

Did it Mean Murder?

November 9, 2013, 6:27 am

≫ Next: Theodore Baker.

≪ Previous: The Marlow Murder.

Little Murders

(From Kansas City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, October 17, 1885)

Did it Mean Murder

Two Sisters Quarrel and Separate, and the Younger Visits the House of the Elder at Night.

Discovered, and Being Unknown, She is Pursued and Shot, and Two Revolvers are Found on Her Person.

A Probable Tragedy Averted.
(Special to the Kansas City Times.)

Seneca, Kan., Oct. 16.—Capioma is a small trading point about sixteen miles southeast of this city, and is surrounded by one of the richest agricultural districts in the state, all the farmers being well-to-do, and some quite wealthy. A highly sensational occurrence has just leaked out, which has thrown this unusually quiet neighborhood into a fever of excitement. The facts are as follows:

Walker Downs, one of the must substantial farmers in that section, was married to a Miss McCarty, who had a younger sister, Nellie, who lived with them prior to about three years ago. It seems that Nellie and Mrs. Downs had some difficulty which resulted in very bad feelings between the sisters and Miss Nellie left for Iowa to visit other relatives. A short time ago some one was seen to look into the windows of the Downs residence late at night, but on inspection no one could be found. The next night there was as a repetition of the occurrence of the night before, and the dog kept up an incessant barking until about 3 o’clock in the morning, but Mr. Downs and his hired hand, on going outside could see no one. The next evening about 10 o‘clock the dog began to bark but stopped in about an hour, and when the family awoke in the morning they found him dead on the doorstep. That night Mr. Downs and his hired man armed themselves and took their positions on the outside to watch for their tormentor. About 10:30 they saw what they supposed to be a man with an overcoat on approaching and demanded the person halt. No attention was paid to the command, and the party started to run, and the hired man followed calling several times to the fugitive to halt, with no better results, and he finally fired three shots, the past of which took effect and the wounded intruder exclaimed, “My God, you have killed me!” He and Mr. Downs hastened to the spot when they were horrified to find that they had shot Miss Nellie McCarty, sister of Mrs. Downs. She was taken to the house and it was found that the ball entered the fleshy part of the leg and was not dangerous. They also found on the young lady two 38-caliber revolvers and a large bottle of strychnine. Many stories are float as to what the young lady’s intentions were, some claiming that she intended to poison the stock, others that she intended to shoot her sister then poison herself. She is still at Mr. Downs’ and no prosecution will follow. She expresses herself deeply regretting her actions. She is about 25 years old, a school teacher and very pretty.

Kansas City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, October 17, 1885

↧

Theodore Baker.

November 16, 2013, 6:43 am

≫ Next: The Raven Stream Crime.

≪ Previous: Did it Mean Murder?

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Theodore Baker.

"Theodore Baker was hanged at Los Vegas, N.M.(sic), for killing of Frank Unruh, a wealthy ranchman, in December 1885. Baker worked on the ranch for Unruh and became infatuated with the latter’s wife, and it is supposed his love was returned. Mrs. Unruh engaged the highest legal talent to defend Baker. At one time he was taken from jail by a mob and hanged to a tree, but was rescued in the nick of time, and reserved later for the legal hangman."

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

↧

The Raven Stream Crime.

November 23, 2013, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Guilty of Murder.

≪ Previous: Theodore Baker.

Rose Clark Ambler

Rose Ambler said goodnight to her fiancé at the Raven Stream Bridge, the night of September 2, 1883, and started walking home alone as she usually did. She was never again seen alive. Her body was found the next day, beaten and stabbed, and the perpetrator was never captured. Rose Ambler joined Mary Stannard and Jennie Cramer in the growing list of unpunished Connecticut murders.

Date: September 2, 1883

Location: Stratford, Connecticut

Victim: Rose Clark Ambler

Cause of Death: Beating, Stabbing

Accused: William Lewis

Synopsis:
Rose Ambler was visiting was visiting with her fiancé, William Lewis, at his father’s house the evening of Sunday, September 2, 1883. They were to be married on Thanksgiving and would move into a new house that Lewis was having built. Around 9:30 Rose started walking back to her parent’s home, about a mile and a half away. Lewis walked with her as far as the Raven Stream Bridge, but Rose declined his offer to walk her all the way home. She knew he had to get up early the next morning for his job peddling vegetables and felt safe walking through the peaceful neighborhood outside of Stratford, Connecticut.

That night, Preston Hodges who lived not far from the bridge, was awakened by a violent thunderstorm. Around 11:00 he heard an intense scream; at the time he thought it was an owl screeching. The following morning the body of Rose Ambler was found, beaten and stabbed, lying near a wall in a meadow between the bridge and Hodges’s house.

It was thought that she had been raped. Rose was not carrying any money and there did not appear to be any other motive for the crime. The first suspect was Boston White, a young black man with a bad reputation in Stratford. A group of angry citizens broke into his house and demanded that his mother show them Boston’s clothing so they could check for blood stains. They found no blood, and Boston White had an alibi. He had been sleeping in a stable several miles away, a fact that was verified by the stable owner. He knew Rose Ambler, as did most residents of Stratford, but he had no connection with her. In fact, there had been no evidence against Boston White other than his reputation and he was soon dismissed as a suspect..

An autopsy revealed that Rose had not been raped, forcing investigators to look at her rather complicated personal life for a motive. She was born Rose Clark and at age 18 was engaged to be married to a sailor. He went to sea and was gone longer than anticipated. While he was gone, she married Norman Ambler, a farmer who lived near Stratford.

Rose and Norman Ambler were divorced several months after their marriage and it was rumored that she was abused by her husband. It was later uncovered that Rose had been cheating on him. Norman Ambler’s cousin and business partner, William Lewis, was living in the same house with them. Rose fell in love with Lewis and he returned her affection. When Norman learned of this he sent Lewis away. Norman and Rose began quarrelling which led to separation and divorce.

Rose Amber was usually described as pretty or even beautiful but this was disputed by a New Haven newspaper which said that she was “…hardly up to the average in good looks…She was however, intelligent, and was highly esteemed and universally liked.” William Lewis knew that she was also fickle and flirtatious. Lewis, who was described as “…an ideal Connecticut countryman, with oiled hair, bushy blonde whiskers, and blue flannel clothes,” was also extremely jealous.

Norman Ambler was jealous as well, and still bitter over the loss of his wife to Lewis. The two men met shortly before the murder and Ambler reportedly told Lewis, “You will never marry this woman; either you or she shall die first.”

Coroner's Inquest: September 4, 1883

A day after the body was discovered, Deputy Coroner J. A. Joyce began a closed-door inquest to investigate the murder of Rose Ambler. While the Coroner was taking testimony, the Stratford police, assisted by Pinkerton detective J. S. Wood, continued to look for evidence. A reward of $300 – later raised to $1,000— was offered for information.

The first suspect to emerge from the inquest was Norman Ambler. A witness testified to seeing him in town that day and his threats against Rose and William Lewis were well known. But since the divorce, Ambler had been living at the home of Henry Hatch in New Milford, forty miles away. Hatch swore positively that Ambler was home in bed the night of the murder.

Boston White was brought back in to testify, this time to be asked about a companion of his, a white man named Michael Heslin. There were three deep scratches on Rose Ambler’s neck and Heslin was known to be missing a finger. Edward Bertram testified that he saw Rose Ambler walking with a man Sunday night. Miss Julia Roberts saw a man behaving strangely near the bridge that night. Neither could identify the man they saw but both knew Michael Heslin and could swear that it was not him.
Another suspect was an unnamed man staying at a hotel in Stratford. There had been complaints from women claiming that he had been harassing them. It was believed that he was the unidentified man seen with Rose that night.

Though the detectives had ruled out William Lewis as a suspect, he was rapidly becoming the prime suspect of the inquest. Blood stains were found on the lap-robe in Lewis’s carriage. Some fibers found on Rose’s clothing matched fibers from the lap-robe. Though it had rained that night Rose’s clothes were dry. It was thought that Lewis had murdered her in his barn then wrapped it in the lap-robe before dropping it by the wall. Witnesses testified that he and Rose had been heard quarrelling and it was speculated that he either had second thoughts about the wedding or had killed her in a fit of jealousy. But William Lewis had a solid alibi as well.

The inquest went on until September 29 and reached no conclusion. There was not enough evidence to charge anyone with murder, though it was stated that the jurors “think suspicion points toward” William Lewis. No one was ever charged for Rose Ambler’s murder and the case remains unsolved.

Aftermath:

Speculation as to what really happened the night of September 2, 1883 continued for years. Most theories involved Rose having a romantic relationship behind Lewis’s back and was either killed by her new lover or by her jealous fiancé.

Most people believed that William Lewis was the killer. Reverend M. Houghton of the Church of the Messiah in Stratford made headlines when he preached a sermon against William Lewis saying, “Lewis’s actions show him to be a man of low animal instincts, and just the type of individual to execute such a horrible deed.”

The unsolved murder of Rose Ambler prompted many comparisons to previous unpunished murders in Connecticut—most notably those of Mary Stannard in 1873 and Jennie Cramer in 1881. Mark Twain commented, “He killed a woman in Conn. No matter-- it is a crime they do not punish there.”
'

The magazine Puck placed the blame on the rural character of Connecticut at the time:

Now, we do not believe that the murders committed in Connecticut are any more mysterious in their essence than the ordinary crimes committed in other states. The trouble is that there is no adequate machinery of law to deal with them…You cannot trust the untrained minds of a lot of excited countrymen to study out the immediate and urgent necessities in such a case as the Rose Amber murder, which is now throwing an interesting gloom over a small Connecticut community…By the time that the Medical Examiner and the Coroner have had their fight out, and the Inquest—which is no inquest, but really a trial—is concluded, any murderer of average intelligence has had time to either escape or to cover up his tracks.

Sources:

Books:

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Volume 3. San Francisco: University of California Press, 1878.

Newspapers:
"Rose Ambler.."Aurora Daily Express 6 Sep 1883.
"The Mystery Unsolved."New York Times 6 Sep 1883.
"Rose Ambler's Murder."New Haven Register 5 Apr 1885.
"Looking for Bad Lewis."New York Times 23 Sep 1883.
"The Raven Stream Crime."New York Times 24 Sep 1883.
"Who Killed Rose Ambler."New York Times 11 Sep 1883.
"Rose Ambler's Assassin."New York Times 8 Sep 1883.
"Norman Ambler's Story."Troy Times 4 Oct 1883.
"The Rose Clark Ambler Mystery."Trenton Evening Times 14 Sep 1883.
"Rose Clark Ambler."Kalamazoo Gazette 12 Aug 1892.
"The Verdict in the Rose Ambler Case."New York Herald 30 Sep 1883.
"History of a Crime."Truth 16 Sep 1883.
"The Rose Clark Murder Mystery."New York Tribune 7 Sep 1883: 5.
"The Stratford Tragedy."New Haven Register 4 Sep 1883.
"Cartoons and Comments."Puck 19 Sep 1883.

Websites:

Harvard University Library : Rose Clark Ambler
Find A Grave: Rose Clark Ambler

↧

Guilty of Murder.

November 30, 2013, 5:39 am

≫ Next: The Victorian Murderess.

≪ Previous: The Raven Stream Crime.

Little Murders

(From Huntsville Gazette, Huntsville, Alabama, August 9, 1884)

Guilty of Murder.

A Verdict of Murder in the First Degree Found Against "Big Bill" Kinney at Wheeling, West Virginia—Lynching Talked of.

Wheeling, W. VA., August 7.

The jury in the trial of “Big Bill” Kinney returned a verdict at four o’clock last evening, of murder in the first degree. Imprisonment of life was fixed as the penalty. The murder being a particularly shocking one, there is very general satisfaction over the verdict. Two cousins, known as Big and Little Bill Kinney entered the house of Barney Doyle, struck him on back of the head with an axe and killed him. The Kinneys then beat out the brains of Doyle’s youngest daughter, aged eight, and attempted to kill the second girl, aged thirteen, but who recovered, and on her testimony the Kinneys were convicted. Little Bill was sentenced last week to seventeen years in the Penitentiary. Lynching of Big Bill is freely talked of. The community is a wild one. Nine murders have occurred in the county in thirteen months and no hanging yet.

"Guilty of Murder."Huntsville Gazette 9 Aug 1884: 1.

↧

The Victorian Murderess.

December 7, 2013, 6:22 am

≫ Next: The Notorious Patty Cannon.

≪ Previous: Guilty of Murder.

The ideal woman in Victorian (and pre-Victorian) America was modest, prim and respectable, but when a woman deviated from the ideal she did it with gusto. When a Victorian woman turned to murder she was ruthless, efficient and often brutal. Poisoning was the traditional method for women; it required no strength and allowed for dispassionate murder at a distance. But when the murder was driven by passion, Victorian women proved equally adept at shooting, stabbing, slashing, strangling and chopping. Here in chronological order are Murder by Gaslight’s female killers:

	Lucretia Chapman - 1831 Lucretia Chapman conspired with her young Cuban lover, Carolino Amalia Espos y Mina, to poison her husband William Chapman. Lucretia went free; Carolino went the gallows.
	Frankie Silver - 1831 After enduring years of physical abuse from her husband, Charles, Frankie Silver could take no more. She chopped him up with an axe and burned the pieces in the fireplace.
	Henrietta Robinson - 1853 Henrietta Robinson wore a black veil over her face throughout her trial for poisoning her neighbors, Timothy Lanagan and Catherine Lubee. The motive for the murder was as mysterious as the murderess herself.
	Emma Cunningham - 1857 Emma Cunningham did all she could to get her clutches on wealthy dentist, Dr. Henry Burdell. But when he proved unfaithful, she left him stabbed and strangled in his office.
	Lydia Sherman - 1864-1871 After poisoning her husband, Horatio, Lydia Sherman was so impressed by the effectiveness of arsenic that she poisoned two more husbands and seven of her children.
	Laura Fair - 1870 For fifteen years, Alexander Crittenden promised to leave his wife and marry his mistress Laura Fair. When Laura finally realized that it would never happen, she shot Alexander, point blank, in front of his wife and son.
	Fanny Windley Hyde - 1872 From the age of fifteen, Fanny Hyde had been sexually harassed by her boss, factory owner George Watson. At age eighteen she found an effective way to end the harassment—a bullet to George Watson’s head.
	Kate Stoddard (Lizzie King) - 1873 Kate Stoddard met Charles Goodrich through an ad he had placed in the newspaper, looking for a wife. She fell hopelessly in love with him, but Charles was still shopping around. When she learned that he was engaged to another woman, Kate confronted him with a pistol.
	Sarah Jane Robinson - 1881-1886 Perpetually in debt, Sarah Jane Robinson was always looking for ways to augment her income and cut expenses. She found the perfect solution: murdering family members. Mrs. Robinson poisoned seven members of her family and one landlord.
	Roxalana Druse - 1884 Trapped for twenty years in a loveless and abusive marriage, in 1884 Roxy Druse could take it no more. With the help of her brother, daughter, and son, she shot her husband William, chopped him into pieces and burned them in the stove, then dumped the ashes in the swamp.
	Minnie Walkup - 1885 Minnie Wallace married 48-year-old James Walkup when she was only 16. A year and a half later he died of arsenic poisoning. Though Minnie was acquitted of murder, her second husband also died from poison, as did a lover she took after his death.
	Alice Mitchell - 1892 Alice Mitchell’s “unnatural love” for Freda Ward caused Freda’s family to separate the two girls. Alice decided that if she could not have Freda, no one could, and she slashed her with a straight razor.
	Lizzie Borden - 1892 Though acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother, Lizzie Borden’s guilt is still debated. If, as many believe, she actually did chop up her parents with an axe, she was probably the most brutal murderess of the century.
	Maria Barbella - 1895 Maria Barbella was drugged and seduced by Domenico Cataldo. He kept her as his mistress, but Maria wanted marriage. When he told her that marriage was for pigs, Maria cut his throat with a razor.
	Frankie Baker - 1899 Frankie Baker was a St. Louis prostitute in love with her pimp, Allen Britt. When she learned he was cheating on her with Alice Pryar she went after him with a pistol. The story of the murder became one of the most popular American songs of all time - "Frankie and Johnny”.

↧

The Notorious Patty Cannon.

December 14, 2013, 6:20 am

≫ Next: Murder on Christmas Morning.

≪ Previous: The Victorian Murderess.

Patty Cannon was, by all accounts, among the most barbarous and amoral women in American history. In antebellum Delaware, Patty Cannon led a gang who kidnapped free blacks and sold them into slavery further south. She would indiscriminately murder any man, woman or child—including her own husband and baby— who stood in her way. An1841 murder pamphlet sums it up, “And we can truly say, that we have never seen recorded, a greater instance of moral depravity, so perfectly regardless of every feeling, which should inhabit the human breast.”

Date: 1820s

Location: Sussex County, Delaware

Victim: At least 4 people

Cause of Death: Stabbing, shooting, burning

Accused: Patty (aka Martha, aka Lucretia) Cannon

Synopsis:
According to the pamphlet Narrative and confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon, published in 1841, Patty Cannon’s father, L. P. Hanly, was the son of an English nobleman who disowned him after L. P. took to drink and secretly married a prostitute. With nothing left for them in England, Hanly and his wife traveled to Montreal where they set up a smuggling operation between Montreal and towns in New York and Vermont. The Hanlys lived a double life, prospering on illegal activities while giving the appearance of a respectable family. All was well until acquaintance named Alexander Payne uncovered their operation and threatened to turn them in. Hanly decided that it was necessary kill Payne, but he was only partially successful—he split Payne’s head with an axe but was captured before he could escape. He was hanged soon after.

With her husband gone, Mrs. Hanly returned to her old occupation, opening “a house of entertainment for persons travelling for pleasure.” As her mother had done for her, Mrs. Hanly taught her daughters the arts of deception and as soon as she could, married them off to men of respectability.

Her youngest daughter, Lucretia, better known as Patty, was sixteen years old when she married Jesse Cannon (called Alonzo Cannon in the pamphlet), a wheelwright from Delaware, who had taken sick during his visit to the Northcountry. Mrs. Hanly, having ascertained that Cannon was wealthy, nursed him back to health and encouraged a blossoming relationship between Cannon and her daughter. Upon his recovery Mrs. Hanly convinced Cannon to marry Patty and take her with him to Delaware.

They settled down on the Nanticoke River, near the Maryland boarder, and had two children. But it wasn’t long before Patty’s evil character emerged and Cannon’s health began to fail again. Within three years Cannon was dead. Many supposed he had died of grief over an unpleasant marriage, but Patty would later confess that she had slowly poisoned him.

Joe Johnson's Tavern

Without the fetters of a husband, Patty went wild. She gathered a group of ruffians who were perfectly obedient to her will, and began a career in robbery. Some time later, Patty and her son-in-law, Joe Johnson, built a house and set up a tavern there, known as “Joe Johnson’s Tavern.” Allegedly, the building straddled the border between Delaware and Maryland so that if authorities entered, she only had to walk a few steps to be in another jurisdiction.

When travelers stopped at the tavern, Patty sized them up and if they had anything worth stealing she would shoot or stab them and bury the bodies in the yard. If it was not convenient to kill them on site, she would let them leave, then dressed as a man, she would lead her gang to hijack and murder the travelers on the highway. Her men would later say that Patty had her own graveyard.

Delaware was unique before the Civil War, because although it was a slave state, in 1830 only 4% of its population were slaves; 20% of its population were free blacks. This made Delaware an attractive destination for runaway slaves but it was also dangerous for freed slaves who might be kidnapped and sold back into slavery. This was the business that ultimately attracted Patty Cannon; kidnapping freed slaves was lucrative and all but risk free.

The gang bought a sailing ship to transfer their captives and recruited some black members to help in the work. A black man named Ransom would travel through the city mingling with the free black population, and entice men onto the ship. Once the men were aboard and below decks, the hatches would be secured and the men chained. The ship would travel south where the kidnapped freemen would be sold into slavery.

They also worked with a brothel keeper who could supply Patty with black women as well as men. If the women had children, and they were acceptable, they would be sold too. If the children caused trouble they were murdered and buried in a cave in the basement of the tavern.

One famous example of Patty Cannon’s cruelty involved a five-year-old child who was subject to fits. During one of the child’s fits, the screaming so angered Patty that she grabbed the child and started beating it. When the screaming continued, Patty held the child’s head over a hot fire, burning its face to a cinder.

Patty’s murderous career ended after a traveler who stopped at the tavern for the night and was robbed and killed. When he did not arrive at his destination, suspicions were aroused. While the neighbors were investigating, one of the gang members privately told them there was something awful in the cellar. They took the information to the sheriff who went to the house the following day with a warrant and a dozen armed men.

In the attic the sheriff found twenty-one people in chains, awaiting transport to the slave market. They were immediately freed. Patty and all the members of the gang were arrested and taken to Georgetown, Deleware to be tried. One member of the gang turned state’s evidence and told the police where the bodies were buried.

Patty and two of her accomplices were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Three others were convicted as accessories and each was sentenced to four years in prison.

Another version of this story says that the murder of the traveler was not solved until fourteen years later when a field was being plowed and his shallow grave uncovered. After this discovery, Patty was betrayed by a member of her gang.

In fact, there is no evidence that Patty Cannon was ever tried for anything. Joseph Johnson was tried for taking a free black man from Delaware to Maryland, but he is the only member of the gang that was ever brought to court. In 1821 an indictment for kidnapping was issued against Joseph Johnson, Mary Johnson, Jesse Cannon, Jesse Cannon Jr., John Stevenson, and Martha Cannon. It is presumed that Martha Cannon was actually Patty Cannon.

An indictment, dated April 13, 1829 charged Patty Cannon with the murder of three infants, seven years prior that time. In another indictment of the same date, she is charged with being an accessory to the murder of a boy. She was probably arrested and jailed on these charges.

Aftermath:

All sources seem to be in agreement that Patty Cannon committed suicide in prison. Narrative and confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon, which claims that Patty was convicted of murder and awaiting execution when she took poison, gives a vivid description of her death.

About three weeks before her scheduled execution, the pamphlet states, Patty Cannon obtained some poison in prison. She killed herself to avoid a public execution, the fate that had befallen her father. The poison had a terrible effect; before she died she would alternate between raging fits and remorseful depression. During the fits she would rip her clothes off, tear her hair, destroying everything in her reach, and “cursing God and the hour that gave her birth.” It took three men to keep her on her bed. In her calmer moments she would cry bitterly and reproach herself for the awful crimes she had committed, then the rage would start again. During a calm moment, about an hour before her death, Patty asked for a priest so she could make her confession. She confessed that she had killed eleven people with her own hands and was an accessory to the murder of more than a dozen others. She also admitted to poisoning her husband and strangling one of her own children when only three days old. Then Patty was seized by another fit of despair, she sank back on her pillow and died.

An historical marker in Reliance, Maryland identifies the location of Patty Cannon’s headquarters. However the PBS television show “History Detectives” has determined that the house standing there now is not the original Joe Johnson’s Tavern. They proved that Patty Cannon had owned the property, but the original building was torn down in 1948.

This fact is indicative of the confusion surrounding the story of Patty Cannon (aka Lucretia P. Cannon, aka Martha Cannon.) The murder pamphlet Narrative and confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon is the source of much anecdotal evidence on Patty Cannon, but it is sparse on hard facts, such as names of victims and dates of events. It is impossible at this point to know how much of its material is true. Another source adding to the mythology of Patty Cannon is the novel The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times by George Alfred Townsend, published in 1884. It was not used in preparing this account.

Following her death, the skull of Patty Cannon was given to the phrenologist, O. S. Fowler, for study. He used Patty and her sister Betsey (who was also depraved and prone to violence) to illustrate his theory of “Heredity Descent” stating that the sisters had “inherited both the destructive propensity of their father, and the sexual passion of their mother.”

Sources:

Barclay, E. E. Narrative and confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon. New York: Printed for the publishers, 1841.

Hartnet, Stephen John. Executing Democracy, Volume Two. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2012.

Fowler, O. S.. Heredity Descent. New York: O. S. & L. N. Fowler, 1843.

Shannahan, J. H. K., Jr.. Tales of Old Maryland. Baltimore: Mayer & Thalheimer, 1907

Websites:
Genealogy Trails: The Notorious Patty Cannon

Historical Marker Database: Patty Cannon's House

PBS: History Detectives: Cannon House

↧

Murder on Christmas Morning.

December 21, 2013, 5:59 am

≫ Next: Arthur Spring Jr. vs. Arthur Spring Sr.

≪ Previous: The Notorious Patty Cannon.

Little Murders

(From New York Tribune , New York, New York, December 26, 1899)

Murder on Christmas Morning.

A Motorman Falls Asleep in a Barroom and Shoots the Saloonkeeper When the Latter Attempts to Eject Him.

Christmas was unfortunately marked in Jersey City by a tragedy. Nicholas Schmitt, fifty-three years old, a saloonkeeper at No. 1,134 Summit ave., was shot and instantly killed by Theodore Brunnert, twenty-three years old, of Homestead. The police acted promptly, and Brunnert is in custody on a charge of murder.

Brunnert, who has been employed as a motorman by the Jersey City, Hoboken and Rutherford Traction Company, quit work about 9 o’clock on Sunday night and visited his stepfatner Christian Schopp, who keeps a saloon at New-York-ave. and Hutton-st., Jersey City. He had several glasses of beer while there, and left there at midnight. He stepped into Schmitt’s saloon, drank two glasses of beer and fell asleep. About 3 o’clock Schmitt started to arouse him, and the fatal quarrel began. The stories are contradictory as to whether the pistol was used in self-defense or whether the mortal wound was inflicted without provocation.

Lizzie Schmitt, fifteen years old, heard the noise in the saloon, and running downstairs, found her father engaged in a fight with Brunnert.Her brother Martin was summoned, and went to his father’s aid. Martin Schmitt states that they ejected Burnnert back into the saloon after the shot had been fired to detain him, but Brunnert broke away and escaped, as he fled, Martin Schmitt said, his father reeled and fell lifeless.

Brunnert alleges that Schmitt and his son had him down and were clubbing and kicking him when he drew his pistol and fired, as he feared they would kill him. Brunert’s face is badly swollen, and his head is cut and both eyes are discolored, and the police found a club that belonged to Schmitt broken in two and lying on the floor, and suspect that it was broken on Brunnert.

The Schmitts quickly informed Policeman Saunders of the fatal assult. Brunnert was a stranger, but they know that he wore a uniform of a motorman. The uniform and description of Brunnert were the only clews. Saunderspromptly reported the tragedy, and Captain Wohlleben and Inspector Archibold, who is in command of the Department, as Chief Murphy is ill, where summoned. A policeman was sent to the Traction company’s office at Hoboken, and Saunders was sent to the power house at Secaucus. The latter learned that Brunner, who lived at the Plank Road at Homestead, answered the description and proceeded to Homestead, where the inspector, captain and Patrolman Holderer were waiting. They visited the house where Brunnert boarded about 6 o’clock. He had gone to bed and left word to be called at 10 o’clock. Officer Holderer followed the woman to Brunnert’s room and arrested the man.

He admitted that he had shot Schmitt, but was not aware of the fact that the wound was mortal, and he was not informed of the death of Schmitt until he had been lodged in the Sixth Precinct police station, where he made a statement, after having been warned that anything he might say would be used against him. He stated that he was roughly handled by Schmitt in awakening him, and when he objected Schmitt became more violent, as was reinforced by his son. The forced him to the floor and were kicking and clubbing him when he pulled out his pistol and fired. He is held without bail.

The police believe that if they had not moved so promptly word would have reached Brunnert, and he would have fled. The prisoner is unmarried and has served in the Navy, and it is said deserted from the Army.

Schmitt leaves a widow and six children, five sons and one daughter. The youngest child is ten years old.

"Murder on Christmas Morning."New York Tribune 26 Dec 1899

↧

Arthur Spring Jr. vs. Arthur Spring Sr.

June 29, 2013, 6:08 am

≫ Next: The Notorious Patty Cannon.

≪ Previous: Murder on Christmas Morning.

On the morning of March 11, 1853, the bodies of Mrs. Honora Shaw and her sister Mrs. Ellen Lynch were found brutally stabbed and beaten in the front room of their home on Federal Street in Philadelphia. Circumstantial evidence pointed to Arthur Spring, a frequent guest of Mrs. Shaw’s, as the murderer. But the most damning evidence against Spring was the testimony of his nineteen-year-old son, Arthur Jr. who directly accused his father of the murders. Arthur Spring vehemently denied the charge and countered by pinning the murders on his son.

Date: March 10, 1853

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Victim: Mrs. Honora Shaw and Mrs. Ellen Lynch

Cause of Death: Beating, Stabbing

Accused: Arthur Spring Sr.

Synopsis:
Arthur Spring was nineteen years old in 1833 when he emigrated to America from Ireland. He settled in Philadelphia and that same year married a sixteen year old girl who had also come from Ireland. They were together for about eleven years before Mrs. Spring died, leaving Arthur to care for a son and two daughters.

Spring had tried his hand at a number of businesses; he had been a saloonkeeper, a grocer and a confectioner. The candy store was the most successful, but the return was too slow to please Spring so he augmented his income with robbery. As a result he served several terms in prison.

In 1852, all but destitute, Arthur Spring was living in a Philadelphia boarding house with his son, Arthur Jr. – his two daughters had been sent to an orphanage in Washington, D.C. In Philadelphia Spring became reacquainted with Honora Donavan, whom he had known as a boy in Ireland. She was now Mrs. Honora Shaw, though her husband had left her for the California goldfields and was presumed dead. The exact nature of Arthur Spring’s relationship with Honora Shaw is not clear; he would later claim that they were engaged, and were to be married on the confirmation of her husband’s death, others said she did not like him, but helped Spring and his son out of pity.

Honora Shaw was living with her sister Ellen and Ellen’s husband Bartholomew Lynch in an apartment on Federal Street, sublet from Mr. and Mrs. John Carroll who occupied most of the house. Ellen Lynch had recently given birth to twins and her sister had moved in to help her with the babies. Arthur Spring began calling on Honora Shaw at the Federal Street house, much to the disapproval of the Lynches and the Carrolls.

The night of March 10, 1853 Honora Shaw and Ellen Lynch were alone in the house. Bartholomew Lynch had left that day to spend several days in New York on business, and the Carrols had gone to a ball that night. Mrs. Carroll returned from the ball around 7:30 the next morning and in the front room, on the first floor, she found the bodies of Honora Shaw and Ellen Lynch lying in a pool of blood. They had been beaten and stabbed multiple times. Mrs. Shaw appeared to have been attacked suddenly, as there was no sign of a struggle. Mrs. Lynch had gashes on her hands and arms indicating that she had tried in vain to ward off her attacker. Mrs. Shaw had been stabbed seventeen times, Mrs. Lynch forty-one.

The sheaf of a knife was found under one of the bodies and a piece of heavy lead pipe was found in the room, covered with blood and hair. Blood stains on doors and walls showed that the killer had gone to Mrs. Lynch’s room and broken into her trunk. The tip of a knife—a three cornered dirk—was lying on the floor where it had been used to pry open the hasp of the trunk.

Though the motive of the killings was apparently robbery, the killer was probably someone known to the household. Mrs. Lynch had been dressed in her nightclothes and it is unlikely that she would have left her babies and come downstairs if a stranger had broken into the house. Suspicion fell upon Arthur Spring—in addition to being a frequent visitor to the house, he was left-handed, and from the bloodstains on the doors it appeared that they had been opened by the killer’s left hand. In Arthur Spring’s room police found a shirt with bloodstains in the breast. Spring and his son were arrested for murder the following day.

At the preliminary hearing, Arthur Spring Jr. wasted no time bringing testimony against his father. He said that on the night of the murder his father had pretended to go to bed early but had actually gone out, unseen by anyone in their boarding house. Between 10:00 and 11:00 that night Arthur Jr. met his father coming in the backdoor. His shirt was bloody and he was carrying his shoes. Spring showed his son seventy dollars in gold coins and told him he had robbed the Lynches and murdered Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Lynch in the process. He had known that the Carrolls would be out and that Mr. Lynch had gone to New York. He took the opportunity to steal the money Lynch had left for his wife. One censored account reported that Spring told his son, “Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Lynch were two d—d –––, and that it was no sin to kill them.”

Arthur Sr. called his son a liar and said that it was Arthur Jr., along with some of his companions, who murdered the women. Arthur Jr.'s story was believed, Arthur Sr.'s was not. Arthur Spring Sr. was held for trial.

Trials: March 21, 1853; April 4, 1853

The morning of Monday, March 21, 1853 the Philadelphia Court House was filled to capacity with spectators anxious to see the trial of Arthur. A large crowd had also gathered on Sixth Street, along the route the prison van would be taking to the courthouse. Fearful of a lynch mob, the police took the precaution of placing an imposter in the prison van driven down Sixth Street. They brought Spring to the courthouse in a hack taking a different route.

The evidence against Arthur Spring was all circumstantial except for the testimony of his son, and that was quite compelling. Arthur Jr. testified for three hours, relating all he had seen and heard that night, declaring his father’s guilt while stressing that he himself had no involvement in the murders.

The defense contended that one man alone could not have overpowered two strong women. The use of two distinct weapons would indicate at least two killers. They characterized Arthur Spring Jr.’s testimony against his father as unnatural and self-serving, and they spoke against his character and that of his friends, a group of idlers known as the Outlaws, who hung out on street corners and read the Police Gazette in saloons.

On the fourth day of the trial the case was given to the jury who deliberated for three hours before finding Arthur Spring Sr. guilty of murder in the first degree.

Soon after the trial ended, Spring’s attorneys received an anonymous letter explaining that there had been an irregularity in the jury selection. At that time a man named Charles McQuillan had answered to the name Bernard Corr when Mr. Corr was summoned. McQuillan continued the impersonation after being impanelled as a juror and never revealed his true identity. The attorneys filed a motion for a new trial and the motion was granted.

With the exception of meticulous jury selections, Arthur Spring’s second trial, which began on April 4, 1853, was essentially a replay of the first. Spring was once again found guilty of first degree murder.

Verdicts: Guilty of first degree murder (overturned); Guilty of first degree murder.

Aftermath:
As is often the case with convicted murderers, then and now, Arthur Spring “…was made a hero by romantic women.” They had taken a fancy to portraits of him that had been published in several illustrated newspapers. This adoration was short-lived; Arthur Spring was hanged in Moyamensing Prison on June 10, 1853. Spring maintained his innocence to the end. On the scaffold he reiterated that he had not murdered Honora Shaw and Ellen Lynch, but he also declared that his son was innocent as well.

After his execution, the body of Arthur Spring was taken to the dissecting room of the Philadelphia College of Medicine where, with the permission of Arthur Jr., the body was given a post mortem examination. His head was examined by phrenologists who found:

“Benevolence and other organs, which are indications of a good disposition, were found to be very poorly developed, while selfishness and firmness were large, and cautiousness was well developed. Secretiveness was large and the animal organs such as combativeness and destructiveness were enormous. The base of the brain was very large. The forepart of the head was very small and the back very large, indicating sensuality and cruelty. The professor styled the cranium of the deceased as a ‘bull dog head.’”

When the examinations were concluded the body was sent in a coffin to the coroner but somewhere along the way the remains had disappeared. When the coffin was opened it was found to contain a log of wood and some clothing. The coffin was interred nonetheless.

While the people of Philadelphia were happy to see Arthur Spring Sr. hang, very few had any positive words for the son who had betrayed him. Arthur Spring Jr. moved to Washington D.C. where his sisters were still residing in an orphanage. There he took an appointment as messenger in the Register’s office of the Treasury.

Sources:

Books:

Jackson, Joseph. America's Most Historic Highway: Market Street, Philadelphia,. Philadelphia: Joseph Jackson, 1918.

Spring, Arthur. The Life and Adventures Arthur Spring . Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, 1853.

Newspapers:

"Arthur Spring." Adams Sentinel [Gettysburg] 15 Aug. 1855.

"Examination of the Remains of Arthur Spring." The New York Times 14 June 1853.

"Execution of Arthur Spring." The New York Times 11 June 1853.

"Spring's Body Not Buried." Racine Daily Advocate 27 June 1853.

↧

The Notorious Patty Cannon.

December 14, 2013, 6:20 am

≫ Next: Scenes from the Burdell Murder.

≪ Previous: Arthur Spring Jr. vs. Arthur Spring Sr.

Joe Johnson's Tavern

Sources:

↧

Scenes from the Burdell Murder.

December 28, 2013, 5:28 am

≫ Next: Chloroformed to Death.

≪ Previous: The Notorious Patty Cannon.

The 1857 murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell, with its colorful cast of characters and upscale urban setting, was the kind of story that sold papers for the penny press and the nascent illustrated newspapers of the day. In fact, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper was on the verge of bankruptcy when they sent an artist to the Burdell crime scene. The coverage sold enough copies to keep the paper afloat and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper became a national institution publishing for another sixty-two years.

This post summarizes the Burdell murder using engravings from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and other contemporary sources. The details of the Burdell murder can be found here: The Bond Street Tragedy.

The murder took place in a boarding house at No. 31 Bond Street in Manhattan, owned by Dr. Burdell and managed by his paramour, Mrs. Emma Cunningham. All of the murder suspects boarded there.

The Residents of 31 Bond Street.

Dr. Harvey Burdell Dr. Harvey Burdell was a prominent and successful New York City dentist and real estate speculator. He was also a sporting man and a libertine, known to frequent gambling halls and borthels. In 1857 his affair with Emma Cunningham was turning sour and he was planning to evict her from the house.	Mrs. Emma Cunningham Emma Cunningham was a widow with five children when she set her sights on Harvey Burdell and won his affection. She knew her position with him was tenuous and she was jealous of the other women she knew Burdell was seeing. After Burdell’s death she produced a marriage certificate showing that the two were married; at his request they had kept the marriage a secret.	John Eckel John Eckel was tanner who had a room on the third floor of 31 Bond Street. His room shared a door with Mrs. Cunningham’s bedroom and maids at the boardinghouse testified that the two were sleeping together.

Augusta Cunningham Augusta Cunningham was Emma Cunningham’s twenty-two year old daughter. August was implicated in the murder because a business associates of Dr. Burdell testified that Burdell feared violence from Augusta and her mother, along with John Eckel and George Snodgrass.	George Snodgrass George Snodgrass was a poet and a banjo player with a room on the third floor of the boardinghouse. He was going out with Mrs. Cunningham’s daughter Helen and when his room was searched the police found some of Helen’s undergarments. It was implied that he was sleeping with Augusta as well.	Helen (Ella) Cunningham Helen Cunningham, Mrs. Cunningham’s fifteen year old daughter had a room on the same floor as George Snodgrass.

The Crime Scene.

The morning of January 31, 1857, the body of Dr. Harvey Burdell was found in his office. He had been strangled and stabbed multiple times in the heart..

Evidence.

Dagger. The police searched the entire house and in a bureau in Mrs. Cunningham’s room they found a dagger	Bloody Sleeve. In an attic closet they found a shirt with blood on the sleeve.	Attic Room. The police believed that other bloody clothing had been burned in a stove in an attic room.

In The Tombs. Mrs. Cunningham, John Eckel, and George Snodgrass were arrested and taken to the Tombs prison.

Mrs. Cunningham's Cell.	Mr. Eckel's Cell

The Trial.

The trial of Mrs. Emma Cunningham for the murder of Harvey Burdell began on May 6, 1857 and drew enormous crowds. Her attorneys succeeded in focusing the trial on Dr. Burdell’s reputation and Mrs. Cunningham was acquitted. Charges against John Eckel and George Snodgrass were dropped.

The "Borrowed Baby." Though Emma Cunningham was acquitted of murder, this was not the end of the story. Harvey Burdell’s relatives were contesting Emma Cunningham’s assertion that she and Harvey were married. While still in jail, Emma came up with a plan to secure her claim to Burdell’s estate—she falsely claimed to be pregnant with his baby. When the time came to deliver the baby she arranged for her doctor to obtain a baby from Bellevue Hospital. The ruse was carried out, but the doctor had already told the district attorney of the plan. Emma was caught with the “borrowed baby” and arrested for fraud.

The "Borrowed Baby." '	Elizabeth Anderson, the baby's real mother.

Sources:

"[Mrs Cunninngham's Cell]."Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 16 May 1857: 16.
"Another Terrible Act in the Burdell Tragedy."Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 15 Aug 1857: 168.
"The Bond Street Tragedy."Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 21 Feb 1857: 186.
Triplett, Col. Frank. History Romance and Philosophy of Great American Crimes and Criminals. New York: N. D. Thompson Publishing Co, 1885.

↧

Chloroformed to Death.

January 4, 2014, 7:02 am

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≪ Previous: Scenes from the Burdell Murder.

A terrible crime occurred at the home of Dr. Arthur Kniffin, in Trenton, New Jersey, the night of January 2, 1890. While Dr. Kniffin was out of town, someone entered the house and chloroformed his wife Myra and her cousin Emma Purcell. Myra Kniffin died as a result, but Miss Purcell recovered and told of burglars charging through the door and subduing them both. Friends and family accepted this story, but Miss Purcell had a history of crying wolf and rumors afloat in Trenton said that Dr. Kniffin’s relations with his wife’s cousin “were not what they should have been.”

Date: January 2, 1890

Location: Trenton, New Jersey

Victim: Myra Kniffin

Cause of Death: Chloroform

Accused: Arthur Kniffin & Emma Purcell

Synopsis:
Early on the morning January 2, 1890, Dr. Arthur Kniffin left to catch a train to the town of Broadway, New Jersey, to look at a piece of property he was planning to buy. Broadway was the home of his wife’s cousin, Emma Purcell, who was living with the Kniffins in Trenton in 1890. She worked there as a typist for the Empire Rubber Works. Dr. Kniffin had seen Miss Purcell at the train depot when he arrived in Broadway— she had been home for the holidays and would be returning to Trenton that afternoon.

Dr. Kniffin had also been away from home on the night of November 30. That night three burglars climbed a ladder and broke into the house through a third story window. They entered the room where Emma Purcell and Myra Kniffin were sleeping and while one man held Emma in bed at knife point, the other two went through the house, opening drawers and examining jewelry. They left with $16 cash and nothing else. Mrs. Kniffin, in the same bed, managed to sleep through the entire incident. The police were notified and an investigation was begun, but after several days with no clues, they gave it up. The case was entered in their books as “mysterious.”

Though little was taken, the burglary upset the household and the Kniffin's ten-year-old son, Lennie, began sleeping at the home of his grandmother, Mrs. James Murphy. On January 2, with Dr. Kniffin away again, Mrs. Murphy asked her daughter and Emma to stay with her as well. Myra declined, saying she was not afraid; she kept a loaded seven-shot revolver under her pillow.

The following morning Dr.Kniffin’s partner, Dr. William Shannon, arrived at 7:30 to open the office. He found the furniture in disarray, burned matches on the floor, and other evidence of burglary. He called for Mrs. Kniffin and receiving no reply, went upstairs to her bedroom. He found Mrs. Kniffin lying in bed and Miss Purcell lying on the floor. Thinking they were both dead, Shannon hurried downstairs for help. When he returned with two men from the drugstore, he found that Miss Purcell was partly conscious and when touched she exclaimed, “Oh the burglars! Run, Myra, run!”

Myra Kniffin was dead. A corner of a quilt had been saturated with chloroform and held over her face. The odor still lingered in the room.

Later that afternoon, when Emma Purcell was sufficiently revived to make a statement, she said she was not unconscious when they found her on the floor but felt as though she was paralyzed unable to move her hands and feet. She and Mrs. Kniffin, Emma told the police, had gone to bed at the same time. Both were cheerful and stayed awake talking for a time, then she nodded off. She couldn’t say how long she had slept but was awakened by a touch from Mrs. Kniffin who screamed that there was a burglar pushing open the door. Miss Purcell heard the noise and sprang out of bed, and running to the front window, called loudly for help. One of the burglars seized her then, threw her to the floor, and pressed a wet cloth over her face. That was all she remembered. When she was told that Mrs. Kniffin was dead, Miss Purcell became hysterical.

Dr. Kniffin was summoned home by telegraph but not told of his wife’s death until he arrived at 8:30 that night. He was taken to Police Headquarters and extensively questioned about his movements on the previous day then brought to his house to determine if anything had been stolen. While the furniture had been disturbed in the dental office, nothing appeared to be missing. The day’s receipts were usually kept in a drawer there, but Dr. Shannon had taken the cash home with him the night before for safekeeping.

While relatives of Mrs. Kniffin, including her mother, believed Emma Purcell’s story of the burglary, the police and the press did not. In a story dated January 3, the New York Times put the word “robbery” in quotes while describing Miss Purcell’s account. The house had been locked, there was no evidence of a break-in, and nothing was taken. Dr. Kniffin was known to be a sporting man who would bet $500 or more on a horse race. That would explain why his house might be targeted by burglars but not why the burglaries always occurred when he was away. To the chagrin of the Kniffin family and their friends, the police were doing nothing to investigate the alleged robbery.

The murder became the talk of the town and the rumor mills of Trenton were churning out their own opinions of the case. Dr. Kniffin was a lifelong resident of Trenton, prominent and well known; many in town had stories about the family. It was said that relations between Dr. Kniffin and has wife had deteriorated and he was known to hit her on occasion. Dr. Kniffin would often walk Emma Purcell home from the Rubber Works where she worked, and the two had been seen “in secluded localities together, conducting themselves as lovers usually do.” Many believed that the burglary story was a ruse and that Emma Purcell had conspired with Dr. Kniffin to murder his wife.

Coroner's Inquest: January 6, 1890

As the coroner’s inquest into the cause of Mrs. Kniffen’s death began, events outside the courtroom took another sensational turn.. Around 3:30 a.m. on January 7, Dr. Kniffin attempted suicide. Emma Purcell’s brother, David Purcell was staying at the house and he and Dr. Kiffin had been up after 1:00 to see off another relative. Dr. Kniffin told Purcell that he wanted to take a bath before bed. Around 3:30 Purcell heard Dr. Kniffin stumbling to bed and went to see what was wrong. He found Dr. Kniffin vomiting and realized that Kniffin had taken poison; he was also bleeding from his wrist and throat. Purcell gave him an emetic and ran to get help. He brought two physicians back to the house and Dr. Kniffin’s life was saved.

The family said that Dr. Kniffin had acted out of grief over the death of his wife, but once again the police and the press were unconvinced. Though Dr. Kniffin had ingested a large amount of the poison aconite, he would have known that effect would be nausea, with the result of eliminating the poison. On his wrist was a slight cut, “a feeble attempt to sever the radial artery” and on the right side of his neck was “another weak attack on the carotid artery.” Both cuts were only deep enough to penetrate the skin. If he had really been intent on suicide, he had plenty of uninterrupted time to do so.

As the inquest proceeded, with more than sixty witnesses scheduled to testify, Dr. Kniffin and David Purcell hired the Pinkertons and a local private detective, to do what the Trenton police refused to do: find the burglars. The people of Trenton were divided in their opinion though most were against Dr. Kniffin. As the story became national news, the police received letters from around the country expressing opinions as to how they should proceed.

The inquest into Mrs. Kniffin’s murder went on until January 28, with the courtroom filled to capacity every day. Dr. Kniffin, and Emma Purcell were considered suspects and by the end, Dr, Shannon, Kniffin’s partner was also considered, but James Murphy, Mrs Kniffin’s father, and other members of her family, did not believe that anyone in the household or Dr. Shannan was involved. There was some attempt to identify the alleged burglars but in the end the jury found that Myra Kniffin was murdered by the hand of “some person unknown to the jury.” But the jury had their suspicions and recommend that the case be taken up by the Grand Jury. This was done in February but, to the consternation of the Trenton Police, the Grand Jury did not hand down any incitements.

Aftermath:

With no one indicted, the Trenton Police’s interest in the case was effectively over, but the press would have one more go-round. The following December the Washington Critic-Record printed an unsubstantiated rumor that Dr. Kniffn had married Emma Purcell and the two were living together in New Brunswick, New Jersey. When confronted, Dr. Kniffin accused the newspapers of persecuting him but did not deny rumor.

Sources:

Newspapers:

"Chloroformed To Death!"Trenton Evening Times 3 Jan 1890.
"A Very Peculiar Case."New York Times 4 Jan 1890.
"Chloroformed To Death."New York Tribune 4 Jan 1890.
"A Case of many theories."New York Times 6 Jan 1890.
"Kniffin Tries Suicide ."Philadelphia Enquirer 7 Jan 1890: 1.
"Murdered in Bed!"National Police Gazette 18 Jan 1890: 7.
"The Kniffin Murder."National Police Gazette 25 Jan 1890.
"End of the Kniffin Inquest."Philadelphia Enquirer 29 Jan 1890.
"Freed by The Grand Jury."Philadelphia Enquirer 14 Feb 1890.
"Kniffin, Pursell and Cupid."Critic-Record 11 Dec 1890: 1.
Webster, Charles, IV. "Bygone murder and intrigue."The Trentonian 13 Mar 2012.

↧

William D. Sindram.

January 11, 2014, 5:58 am

≫ Next: Murder Told in Pictures.

≪ Previous: Chloroformed to Death.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

William D. Sindram.

"On Friday, the 21st day of October 1882, William D. Sindram was hanged in the Tombs, New York City, for the murder of his landlady, Mrs. Cave. The murder was committed a year earlier. Sindram had been drinking, and entered his boarding house, and without provocation shot his landlady. He maintained a bold front up to the minute of his execution, and walked without flinching to the gallows, and showed more nerve than one would suppose possible under the circumstances."

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

↧

Murder Told in Pictures.

January 18, 2014, 5:47 am

≫ Next: Victims of a Mysterious Strangler.

≪ Previous: William D. Sindram.

Robert Hoey told police that as he was coming home from work in the early hours of March 15, 1898, he literally tripped over the body of a dead woman in the courtyard of the tenement where he lived at No. 27 Monroe Street in New York City. An autopsy revealed that the woman had been strangled to death and the police believed that the body had been dragged to the courtyard known in the neighborhood as “Hogan’s Alley.” She was about thirty-five years of age, with light complexion, light brown hair and blue eyes. As she lay in the morgue several people claimed to identify the woman but in each case the identity proved false.

Mrs. Downing, housekeeper at 27 Monroe, said she had seen a group of men standing in the courtyard at around 2 o’clock that morning. Hoey changed his story then, and said he and two friends, wagon driver Thomas Cosgrove and mandolin player Charles Weston, had seen their friend John Brown leaning over the body. Brown was a “deep water” sailor whom the press would refer to as “Sailor” Brown. None of them knew who the woman was.

Three more people were arrested after Mrs. Lynch, another tenant of 27 Monroe told police she had heard fighting in the Hoey’s apartment. Following some noisy quarreling and door slamming, she heard a woman calling for water. Robert Hoey’s common law wife Mary was arrested along with two others who had been in the apartment that night, Mamie Largo and James Dee. Mary Hoey told police that “Sailor” Brown had been there with the murdered woman, but none of them knew her name. The police now believed that “Sailor” Brown had murdered the woman in the Hoey’s apartment.

Maggie Crowley

On March 19 the body was positively identified by Mrs. Maggie Clark as her daughter Margaret (also called Maggie) the widow of John Crowley. Detective Kenly had seen Mrs. Clark wearing blue and white shawl, a distinctive item of clothing identical to one found on the body, and asked accompany him to the morgue. After overcoming the shock of seeing her daughter on a mortuary slab, Mrs. Clark said, “The girl was always a good girl, and her only fault was that she drank too much mixed ale at times. I suppose the poor dear got too much drink on and the men took the chance to kill her.”

Jennie Isaacs, who kept a saloon at No. 19 Monroe Street, said she had seen “Sailor” Brown in her saloon with Charles Weston and his wife Mamie. After they left she saw Brown outside with the murdered woman.

John "Sailor" Brown

Four of the suspects were released, but John “Sailor” Brown, Robert Hoey, and Thomas Cosgrove were indicted for the murder of Margaret Crowley. Brown’s case went to trial the following July. He was prosecuted by Assistant District-Attorney McIntyre. In a strange twist, Brown’s attorneys, probably court-appointed, were McIntyre’s two sons. On July 11 the district attorney called Jennie Isaacs to the stand but she could not be found. The judge asked the younger McIntyres if they would consent to having the affidavit of Jennie Isaacs read in court. They refused. When the district attorney said he had no other testimony the judge said, “Then I direct the jury to acquit the prisoner. A case should not be submitted to a jury on mere conjecture and suspicion.”

Charges were dropped against Hoey and Cosgrove as well. No one was ever convicted of murdering Maggie Crowley.

Sources:

"Strangler Mark on Dead Woman's Neck Told of Murder."New York American 15 Mar 1898.
"Murder Told in Pictures."New York American 16 Mar 1898: 2.
"4 Men Arrested."New York American 16 Mar 1898.
"Seven Murder Suspects Held."New York Tribune 19 Mar 1898.
"More Clews to Dark Mystery of the Strangler."New York American 17 Mar 1898: 1.
"Strangled Victim Positively Identified as Maggie Clark."New York American 19 Mar 1898: 7.
"'Sailor' Brown Goes Free."New York Tribune 12 Jul 1898.

↧

Another Horrible Chapter of Murder and Murderous Affrays.

Rev. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery - 1832

The Prophet Matthias - 1834

Rev. Henry Budge - 1859

Rev. John S. Glendenning - 1874

Rev. Herbert H. Hayden- 1886

Theo Durrant - 1895

Lucretia Chapman - 1831

Frankie Silver - 1831

Henrietta Robinson - 1853

Emma Cunningham - 1857

Lydia Sherman - 1864-1871

Laura Fair - 1870

Fanny Windley Hyde - 1872

Kate Stoddard (Lizzie King) - 1873

Sarah Jane Robinson - 1881-1886

Roxalana Druse - 1884

Minnie Walkup - 1885

Alice Mitchell - 1892

Lizzie Borden - 1892

Maria Barbella - 1895

Frankie Baker - 1899

The Residents of 31 Bond Street.

The Crime Scene.

Evidence.

In The Tombs.

The Trial.

The "Borrowed Baby."