The Confessions of Edward Tatro.

Charles Butler, aged 25, owned a farm two miles north of Highgate Centre, Vermont, eleven miles from St. Albans. He lived there with his lovely 21-year-old wife Alice. Also in the household were Charles’s elderly father and Edward Tatro, a 20-year-old French-Canadian farmhand.

Charles had to go to Highgate Centre on June 6, 1876, and he asked Alice to join him. She declined, saying she felt ill and planned to go to bed. Charles’s father was away visiting friends that evening, so Tatro said he would stay and take care of Alice. Charles left home at about 7:00.

He returned at about 10:00 and put his horse in the barn. As he approached the house, he was surprised to see no lights. Charles entered the dark kitchen, and as he looked for a match, he stumbled over something lying on the floor. He was shocked to see what it was.

“He lighted the match, and there met his sight the lifeless remains of his lovely wife in a pool of blood, in the most mutilated condition,” said the St. Albans Daily Messenger, “her head beaten almost to a pumice, and her brains oozing out on to the floor.”

Charles saw an axe covered with blood, several bloody sticks of wood, a chair broken to pieces, and his rifle lying on the floor. A pair of pants lay near the stove, and Alice was naked from the waist down.

When he regained his composure, Charles started out looking for assistance. He heard voices approaching and saw Edward Tatro approaching with some of his neighbors. Tatro was crying and howling like a madman.

“Ed, what does all this mean?” said Charles.

“Oh,” responded Tatro, “poor Alice is dead; they have killed her; for God’s sake, save me!”

Tatro was not wearing pants; he wore just a tattered and blood-stained shirt. His bare legs were spattered with blood, as were his arms. Blood was visible in the cracks of his chapped hands. He told a wild story. He said he was upstairs and took his pants off to go to bed when Alice came running up, chased by a man. The man turned to Tatro and knocked him down twice then threw him down the stairs. Tatro got up and ran for help.

Charles was skeptical of the story and rode back to Highgate Centre to see the police. He returned with Constable O.E. Sheridan and Dr. O.S. Searle. The doctor confirmed that Alice had died from blows to the head. She also had bruises on her shoulders and defensive wounds on her hand. Dr. Searle turned his attention to Tatro and found some scratches on his neck. There was no evidence that he had sustained the level of beating that he claimed. All of the blood on him was Alice’s.

There were blood stains and signs of a struggle in the upstairs bedrooms of Tatro and he Butlers, as well as the kitchen. Tatro’s room was separated from the Butlers’ by a plaster partition. Investigators found a small hole dug through the plaster. They believed Tatro had used it to spy on Alice Butler.

The following day, an inquest was held at the scene of the crime. The coroner’s jury examined the premises and heard the facts, then concluded that the deceased was murdered by Edward Tatro. The severity and circumstances of the murder were compared to the murders of Josie Langmaid and Marietta Ball in New Hampshire and Vermont. The killer, Joseph Lapage, also French-Canadian, had been arrested the prior year.

The police arrested Tatro and took him to Highgate Centre to face a grand jury. By now, the whole community knew of the murder. Crowds gathered, and the officers succeeded in keeping order despite threats of lynching.

The authorities believed that Tatro attempted to sexually assault Alice Butler and murdered her to hide the evidence. Tatro took off his pants and then went into the downstairs bedroom where Alice was lying. He got into bed and tried to attack her. They found her drawers on the floor between the bed and the stand. She escaped and ran upstairs. In the struggle that followed, he pulled off her skirt. She ran downstairs, and he followed, knocking her down in the kitchen. He went to the shed to get the axe and finish her off.

Tatro stuck to his story, professing innocence to the murder. But, three days of intense questioning weakened his resolve. After a visit from his mother, Tatro made a full confession:

Mrs. Butler was lying on the bed in the room downstairs; went in there and sat down in a chair near the bed; I felt sick at my stomach, probably from the effect of some liquor I had previously drunk, and she got up and prepared me some saleratus (sodium bicarbonate) and water; I went upstairs after I took the saleratus and water; I went to my room and turned own the quilts to my bed but did not take off my pants; Mrs. Butler soon came upstairs and went to her room. I heard her when she came up, then I went in there and found her sitting on the side of the bed; we talked a few minutes, and I sat down by the side of her and then pulled her over back on the bed; she jumped up and ran out into the other room. She picked up a chair that was near the stove and threw it at me; I threw the chair back at her, and she threw it at me again. Then I took it and struck her and knocked her down. I broke the chair all to pieces there; I don't remember of hitting her but once. It was dark; I must have broken the chair upon the floor. She got up and went to the head of the stairs; there we had a hard tussle and both struggled along downstairs. In the dining room, she got up and ran out through the kitchen into the woodshed and got the axe. I stood by the kitchen stove. I told her to behave herself and I would. She threw the axe at me. I threw it back near the water pail where she stood; she threw it at me again; I left it where it fell; she ran down to the wood box and got a stick of wood and threw it at me; it hit the palm of my hand as I raised it to ward off the blow; then she struck me over the eye; I picked up the stick and struck her with it and knocked her down; I picked up the axe and went to her and struck her with it.  I went and got the gun, which was in the kitchen stairway, and laid it on the floor near the front door; I did that for a blind; the gun was not used at all; I then went out of the front door and ran over to Mr. Fortune's.

Under further questioning, Tatro said he had been drinking some that night. He did not remember when he took his pants off. His mother asked if any other person was connected with the horrid deed. Tatro said he did it alone.

While in the St. Albans jail awaiting trial, Tatro made another confession. He said he did not kill Mrs. Butler alone; he was at work with a young Frenchman (name withheld) who suggested putting Mrs. Butler out of the way when her husband was out to steal their money. The man was the first to attack her. Tatro struck her once, but the other man delivered the death blow with the axe.

On April 23, 1877, the case was brought to trial, and interest in the proceedings was so great that extra chairs had to be brought into the courtroom. The trial began before a standing room only crowd. Tatro’s attorneys moved for a change of venue because they did not believe he could get a fair trial in St. Albans. The motion was denied. They also moved to exclude Tatro’s first confession from testimony. This was denied as well.

Their defense now was insanity, brought on by delirium tremens, and they called witnesses to testify to Tatro’s excessive drinking. His brother Albert said that Edward drank liquor as often as he could get it, and his brother John said Edward had been drinking often since he was eight years old.

The trial lasted six days. At 1:00, April 28, the jury had dinner and began deliberations. At 2:15, they returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder. Tatro was sentenced to death but would first serve a two-year sentence at the State Prison in Windsor—twenty months of hard labor and the rest in solitary confinement. He would hang on the first Friday of April 1880.

As he was led away, Tatro said, “Well, by God, that settles my hash.”

That July, while still in the St. Albans jail, Tatro and three other convicts attempted to escape. They dug through the wooden floor of the cell and were removing masonry beneath it when discovered. They said they had first planned to knock down the Sheriff when he opened the cell door, but none were willing to take the lead.

After being transferred to State Prison, Tatro made another confession. Being left alone with Alice Butler that day, he resolved to “have connection” with her and went to her room upstairs. She resisted, and he knocked her down with a blow on the head from a chair. She promised to yield if he would let her go down the stairs. Suspecting that she meant to escape, he seized her, and they went struggling down. When she tried to run away, he knocked her down with a stick and finished her with an axe. Then, when she was writhing in her death struggle, he accomplished his fiendish purpose. “I started to do it,” he said, “and by God, I did it.”

As execution day approached, Tatro made a new confession. He said the death of Mrs. Butler was an outgrowth of an agreement with Mr. Butler. Tatro was to have certain undue privileges with Butler’s wife, to enable the husband to obtain grounds for divorce. This story only served to further decrease Tatro’s credibility.

The New York Post dubbed April 2, 1880, “Hangman’s Day.” Eight men in five different states were executed that day. One was Edward Tatro. He mounted the gallows at the State Prison and made a brief speech before the hanging. He confessed to the murder once more but, this time blamed the liquor that Charles Butler let him have. Butler taught him to drink and was his ruin. He laid the blame for the whole matter on Butler. At 2:37, the trap was sprung; fifteen minutes later, Tatro was pronounced dead.

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Shources: 

“An Absurd Story by Tatro the Highgate Murderer,” Rutland Weekly Herald., September 14, 1876.
“Another Murder,” LEWISTON EVENING JOURNAL., June 3, 1876.
“Attempted Jail Escape,” Rutland Daily Globe., August 2, 1877.
“Brutal Murder in Vermont,” Evening Post, June 3, 1876.
“Confession of a Fiendish Murderer,” St. Johnsbury Caledonian., February 1, 1878.
“Edward Tatro,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, April 2, 1880.
“Edward Tatro,” New York Herald, April 3, 1880.
“Edward Tatro, Murderer of Mrs. Alice Butler at Highgate,” Illustrated Police News, February 8, 1879.
“Edward Tatro's Trial,” St. Albans SEMI-WEEKLY Advertiser, April 27, 1877.
“End of the Trial,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, April 28, 1877.
“The Highgate Murder,” Rutland Daily Globe., June 6, 1876.
“The Highgate Murder,” Rutland Daily Globe., June 8, 1876.
“Horrible Murder in Vermont,” Boston Daily Advertiser, June 5, 1876.
“Horrible Murder in Highgate,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, June 3, 1876.
“Tatro's Last Days,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, March 30, 1880.
“Trial Of Edward Tatro,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, April 23, 1877.

Ann and John.

Mrs. Ann E. Freese ran a brothel in a section of Rutland, Vermont, known as the “Swamp.” On June 9, 1874, the house burned to the ground. Amid the rubble was the body of Mrs. Freese, badly burned but recognizable. She had been stabbed several times in the throat before the fire started. The investigation proved daunting with so many anonymous men coming and going from the house, but one man stood out. John Phair, a known associate of Freese, left town around the time of the fire. When he was identified as the man who pawned her jewelry in several Boston pawnshops, Phair was arrested. He was convicted of first-degree murder and hanged in 1879, professing innocence to the end.

Read the full story here: Fire in the Swamp.

A Mysterious Tragedy.

Dr. Henry Clark of Boston was summoned to 11 Hamilton Place at around 7:00 the morning of December 30, 1879. A woman had been shot and needed urgent care. When he got there, she was nearly gone, and there was nothing he could do. 

A policeman and a medical examiner arrived soon after and determined that the woman, Mrs. Helen J. Ward, had been shot twice in the head. One shot entered her temple and went through her head, the other fractured her skull without entering. 

Her 18-year-old daughter, also named Helen, did her best to explain what happened. Mother and daughter shared a bed. They worried about burglars, so they kept a revolver on a chair beside the bed. Miss Ward believed she had been in a somnambulant state and fired at a moving object that she thought was a burglar. Alternatively, she thought the gun may have discharged accidentally. This took place around 4:00 am, raising the question of why she didn’t contact someone sooner. Miss Ward was considered cold and unfeeling because she did not seem overly affected by her mother’s death.

“I cannot cry,” she moaned. “I only wish I could.”

The police suspected foul play and arrested young Helen Ward for murder.

Mother and daughter lived together in a two-room apartment. Mrs. Ward divorced her husband 12 years earlier because he had been intimate with another girl out west and was forced to marry her. Mrs. Ward and her daughter both had good reputations and were on good terms with each other. However, they were seen as somewhat eccentric, having late suppers extending far into the night. Mrs. Ward would sometimes shut herself up in her room for days at a time, though in perfect health.

The night of December 29, they had been entertaining young Helen’s fiancé, Charles Parker, night clerk at the Parker House hotel and nephew of the owner. The conversation turned to crime, and both women expressed fear of burglars invading their home. They had previously told Parker their fears, and he had loaned them his revolver for protection. He left around midnight, and they took the revolver with them when they went to bed.

The inquest was a private hearing before Judge Churchill held on January 6. Witnesses were prevented from hearing each other’s testimony. Miss Ward’s story of the killing had become more specific and much more detailed. She said they had both been frightened of burglars when they went to bed, and she put the pistol under her pillow. 

Her mother had been nervous that night to the point of illness. Helen messaged her and gave her cider, then brandy to help her sleep. Despite that, Mrs. Ward woke up twice during the night and asked her daughter to go into the sitting room and make sure no one was there. Laughingly, young Helen reached for the pistol and brandished it in a mock-heroic style, saying, “If anyone comes, I will shoot him."

She woke up around 3:00 and found the pistol under her in the bed. She replaced it under the pillow and then went back to sleep. Contrary to her original statement, she said she was aroused again at around 7:00 by a loud pistol report and awoke to find the revolver clutched tightly in her hand. She said she had been dreaming of burglars and, in her dream, had fired at one at the foot of her bed. When she saw that her mother had been shot, she got up and dressed, then sent for the doctor.

Outside of court, many believed Helen Ward was guilty of premeditated murder. Both women were considered attractive and were often taken for sisters. Perhaps young Helen was jealous of her mother's close relationship with her fiancé Charles Parker. Killing her would end any rivalry. 

Inside the courtroom, however, no evidence was presented to contradict Helen Ward’s story. Though she had shot her mother, the judge found no evidence that it had been willful murder. Helen Ward was released.

After the ruling, some accused the police of being too hasty in charging Miss Ward with murder. A legislative committee was convened to study the matter, but they concluded that, given the circumstances, the police had acted correctly.

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Sources: 

“The Autopsy,” The Boston Globe, January 3, 1880.
“A Boston Tragedy,” Columbus Evening Dispatch, December 30, 1879.
“The Death of Mrs. Ward,” Boston Evening Journal, January 6, 1880.
“The Hamilton Place Mystery,” Boston Evening Journal, January 10, 1880.
“The Hamilton Place Tragedy,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 31, 1879.
“The Helen J. Ward Case,” The Boston Globe, January 20, 1880.
“A Hub Horror,” Illustrated Police News, January 10, 1880.
“Mrs. Helen J. Ward the Victim of the Boston Shooting Mystery,” Illustrated Police News, January 17, 1880.
“The Mysterious Boston Murder,” The New York Times, January 1, 1880.
“Shocking Affair in Boston,” The Daily Item, December 30, 1879.
“A Tragedy in Hamilton Place,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 30, 1879.
“The Ward Matricide Inquest,” Boston Globe, January 6, 1880.

Horrible Beyond Precedent.

In 1872, George Wheeler married May Tilson in Boston. He soon fell in love with May’s younger sister, Delia, and they began an intimate relationship. In 1880 George and Delia were living together in San Francisco. There, Delia began a relationship with another man, and Wheeler declared he would rather see her dead than with another lover. According to Wheeler, Delia felt so conflicted and disgraced that she agreed with him and begged him to cut her throat. Instead, he strangled Delia and hid her body in a trunk.

Read the full story here: "Thus She Passed Away."

Image from "Horrible Beyond Precedent," Illustrated Police News, November 6, 1880.

What Lust Will Do.

From the confession of Mary Brown to the murder of her husband, John Brown, by her paramour, Joseph Wade:

When I first went to the gate Mr. Brown was lying with his feet about the middle of the gate and his head towards the buggy, close to the hind wheel. The buggy robe was under him and the blanket over him, so that I could not see his head. After I took the child in and returned Brown was still groaning, as he was when I first come to the gate. I said: "My God, Joe, what have you done?" He said: "Darling, this is what love will do," and threw his arms around my shoulders. He said: "I love every hair of your head better than my own life." Mr. Brown was still groaning, and he (Joe) said: "Shall I hit him?" I said: "No." He said: 'I shall have to finish it now." He added: "I will have to hit him or use my knife." I said: "Oh, my God; no; don't touch him. Let me take him in the house." I had not seen his head and didn't know he was so badly hurt. Wade said: "No, this has got to be finished."

"What Lust Will Do," Illustrated Police News, February 28. 1880.

Read the full story here: The Brown Tragedy.

A Young Fiend.

Maggie Thompson, a pretty eight-year-old girl living on Merchant Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, mysteriously disappeared on May 9, 1889. She was coming from school, just two blocks away, but she never reached her home. Detectives, police constables, and private citizens searched the neighborhood to no avail. They found no trace of Maggie.

In early June, Joseph Shovell, who lived seven doors away from the Thompsons on Merchant Avenue, noticed a foul smell coming from somewhere in the house. The building housed two families: the Shovells in one half and the Leuths, a family of German immigrants, in the other half. At the time, Mrs. Leuth was in the hospital and Mr. Leuth was away on business. Their sixteen-year-old son Otto was staying with his older brother but had a key to his parents' house and would come and go. 

Shovell complained to Otto about the smell. Otto said rats had probably died in the cellar. Also, a mattress upstairs was full of worms, and he would attend to them. He carried a mattress and featherbed to a shed, and the smell abated somewhat.

Two days later, Otto’s parents returned to the house and immediately noticed the smell. By the following Sunday, June 9, the stench became intolerable. The Leuths and the Shovells investigated together. The ghastly scene they found in the Leuths’ cellar left them nearly paralyzed with fright. The naked body of a child, partially covered by rags, lay mutilated and decomposing. The head and right arm had been severed. There was little doubt; it was Maggie Thompson's body. Mr. Leuth hurried to the police station to report the crime.

The police moved the remains to the yard outside, and the coroner examined them on-site. The skull was broken in three places, the jaw was broken, the head was severed, and the right arm was torn off at the elbow. Both families, including Otto Leuth, were arrested on suspicion.

Mr. and Mrs. Leuth had solid alibis and were released. The Shovells were released as well when the investigation focused on Otto Leuth. Otto seemed indifferent, treating the whole matter as a joke. He said he had never seen Maggie in his life and did not know the body got in the cellar. But the police harshly questioned Otto, and when they confronted him with the bloody mattress he hid in the shed, he broke down and confessed to the murder.

He confessed to the police that he enticed Maggie into the house and attempted to assault her sexually. When she resisted, he smashed her skull with a hammer and continued the assault. At the coroner’s inquest, gave the following statement:

I am sixteen years old and live at No. 42 Merchant Avenue. Right after my mother went to the hospital, I stopped work at Rauch & Lang's. On Thursday, May 9, I was standing at our gate when little Maggie Thompson came by and asked me about some buttons. This was about 11:30 o'clock in the morning. I told her to come into the house and she came in and went upstairs with me. When she got upstairs, I struck her on the head with a hammer two or three times. When she fell, I pulled off all her clothing, put her on the bed, and covered her up. I went out on the street but returned to the house again in the afternoon. I left the body in bed for nearly a week but did not sleep at home during that time. The Wednesday following, I took the body and carried it to the cellar and carried the clothes down there also. I wrapped the remains in the clothing and pushed them through the opening which communicates with the space between the cellar wall and the foundation. I crawled behind the body and pushed it to the spot where it was found. I killed her because I wanted to outrange her, and after I had struck her, I renewed the attempt. The hammer I had had been upstairs for a long time, and I think it was brought from the old country.

Otto Leuth was charged with first-degree murder and held without bail at the county Jail.

Though he had confessed several times, he pled not guilty at his indictment. When his trial began the following December, his attorneys tried to have the confessions excluded, claiming they were not voluntary statements. The judge ruled against them, leaving the jury to decide their merit.

The trial lasted nearly a month, and after deliberating for six hours, the jury found Otto Leuth guilty of first-degree murder. His attorneys moved for a new trial, and the judge refused. He sentenced Leuth to hang on April 16. Otto’s mother, Lena Leuth, screamed and frantically waving her arms she began to shriek in German. The New York World translated (and censored) her rant:

The jury be ______. The judge be ______. All thirteen men be ______. They are all bought, they are all fools. They killed my boy. It is a shame to hang a child sixteen years old. The jury be ______! Their children and grandchildren be ______! I ____ them, I the mother of that poor murdered boy!

The bailiffs carried and half-dragged her out of the courtroom.

While the murder of Maggie Thompson was considered the most heinous crime committed in Ohio to date, many were hesitant to execute a sixteen-year-old boy. The court granted Leuth a stay of execution until June 20 while his attorneys prepared to argue the case before the Court of Appeals. When the Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court refused their motion for a new trial, they were granted another stay of execution until August 29 so they could argue before the Board of Pardons. When this failed as well, they appealed directly to Governor Campbell. He also refused their plea. 

On August 29, 1890, Ohio held a double hanging in the annex of the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. “Brocky” Smith, who murdered an elderly widow in Cincinnati, would also die that day. At 11:00 pm, August 28, the prisoners were marched to the gallows. Leuth would hang first, and Smith would hang immediately after Leuth was declared dead. 

Leuth’s last words were, “Now do that business good; all ready. Let it go.” 

At 12:05 am, the trap was sprung. Seventeen minutes later, Otto Leuth was pronounced dead.

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Sources: 

“The Boy Leuth Must Hang,” Newark Daily Advocate, January 3, 1890.
“A Child Beheaded,” Eau Claire Daily Free Press, June 11, 1889.
“Condensed Telegrams,” Newark Daily Advocate, June 17, 1889.
“Crimes Expiated,” Salem Daily News, August 29, 1890.
“Cursed Judge and Jury.,” New York World, January 4, 1890.
“A Ghastly Find,” Salem Daily News, June 11, 1889.
“A Ghastly Story,” Salem Daily News, December 14, 1889.
“Hanged at Midnight,” World, August 30, 1890.
“Leuth's Confession,” Salem Daily News, December 13, 1889.
“Lured Her on to Death,” New York World, June 11, 1889.
“Otto Leuth's Death,” Syracuse Evening Herald, September 12, 1890.
“Otto Leuth's Hanging Postponed,,” Newark Daily Advocate, April 20, 1890.
“Respite for Cleveland's Boy Murderer,” Piqua Daily Leader, June 20, 1890.

The Cronin Trial.

 

W. S. Forest, of counsel for the defense, cross-examining the expert microscopist Tollman.
Defendants (far left) 1. Beggs, 2. Coughlin, 3. O'Sullivan, 4. Burke, 5. Kunze.

Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin was a prominent Chicago physician, and a member of Clan-na-Gael an American political organization formed to promote Irish independence from British rule. After Dr. Cronin uncovered corruption among the leaders, his naked body was found stuffed in a sewer with icepick wounds to his head. In the 1889 murder trial of five members of Clan-na-Gael, the defense tried to paint Dr. Cronin as, alternately, a violent radical and a British spy. 

Read the full story here: Clan-na-Gael and the Murder of Dr. Cronin.

A Youthful Murderer.

George Wilbur and Michael Kildorf, both 17 years old, were good friends in North Plains, Michigan. On January 28, 1879, they went together into the woods to hunt rabbits. At some point during the hunt, a dispute arose between them. The cause of the disagreement was not disclosed, but it continued to escalate. Kildorf was resting on the root of a tree when Wilbur came up behind him and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Wilbur took Kildorf’s revolver and went back home.

Later that day, Kildorf’s body was discovered, and the authorities tracked Wilbur to his father’s house. They arrested him and brought him before Esquire Simpson. Wilbur waived examination and was committed to jail.

George Wilbur was from a good family and was “respectably connected.” Michael Kildorf was a stranger in North Plains, living with his aunt, Mrs. Burke.

The public sentiment in North Plains was overwhelmingly in Wilbur’s favor. A correspondent who did not share the “maudlin sympathy for murderers” commented sarcastically:

Now is the time to commence sympathy for poor Wilbur. Oh! he must be in jail! How unpleasant it must be when Kildorf is so comfortable underground, below the frost. Will poor Wilbur have to be tried? He ought not to be, for he must have been insane—poor fellow. Oh, how easy he whipped out that pistol and drove that bullet into the back of Kildorf's bead! He must have been ready at any time—poor fellow. And then if he had missed Kildorf's head how bad he would have felt. I hope he won't have to be tried. Can't we get him out on low bail, and then let him off—it will be so unpleasant for him to stay in jail and then be tried? And then if we had hanging for murder, how bad the poor fellow would feel when they put the rope round his neck. And then if he should be ten or fifteen minutes in dying, when he slipped Kildorf off in about one minute, and so easy. And then to be hung up and not touch the ground! Oh! horrible! Oh, the poor fellow! He will go straight to Heaven, of course.

It does not appear that George Wilbur was ever tried or sentenced for the murder.

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Sources: 

“A Deliberate Young Murderer,” Illustrated Police News, February 15, 1879.

“Minor Telegrams,” PORTLAND DAILY PRESS., January 31, 1879.
“A Youthful Murderer,” Detroit Free Press, January 30, 1879.
“A Youthful Murderer,” The Inter Ocean, January 30, 1879.

A Red Path of Jealousy.

 

When William W. Place’s first wife died, he married his housekeeper, Martha Scovoll. It was a whirlwind courtship and William did not listen to his relatives who thought Martha would bring trouble. Sure enough, before long, Martha’s true nature came out. She had a quick temper and was irrationally jealous of William’s relationship with his young daughter Ida. Martha had violent fits of temper and threatened to kill both William and Ida. On February 8, 1868, she made good on her threats, strangling Ida to death and attacking William with an axe. She was convicted of first-degree murder and was the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. 

Read the full story here: 

The Brooklyn Murderess.

The Norwich Poisoning.

Around February 1878, Charles H. Cobb, City Collector of Norwich, Connecticut, was stricken with a mysterious illness. His doctor diagnosed his condition as lead poisoning from lead water pipes or a lead drinking vessel. He prescribed various tonics without success, and the illness lingered for months. Then, on June 6, Cobb died suddenly and unexpectedly, arousing suspicion.

Cobb’s friends and neighbors believed he was murdered, and they had a ready suspect. Wesley W. Bishop was having an affair with Cobb’s wife, Kate, and they were not very discreet. Bishop had purchased arsenic, which he said he had given to Cobb, and Bishop’s wife had died four months earlier under similar circumstances.

A post-mortem examination of Cobb’s body found arsenic in his stomach and other organs, indicating small doses of arsenic taken over a long period of time.  The doctors also found strychnine in his system, which was probably the immediate cause of his death. Bishop’s wife was exhumed and examined, and her organs contained arsenic as well. Wesley Bishop and Kate Cobb were both charged with first-degree murder. The suspects would be tried separately, and Kate Cobb’s trial would be taken first.

Kate Cobb and Wesley Bishop had known each other as schoolmates but lost touch until they met again at a Masonic dance. Bishop was an expressman who moved furniture and delivered groceries. Bishop would stop in and spend time with Kate when he delivered to the Cobbs or any of their neighbors. Their relationship turned romantic, and they began exchanging letters and gifts. When Charles was out of town, Bishop would spend the night with Kate.

Their love grew strong, and they wanted to leave their spouses and marry each other. Bishop thought he could get a divorce, but Kate knew Charles would not agree to divorce, and she had no grounds to file herself.

Before Kate’s trial, Bishop issued a public confession describing their relationship. Their decision to kill Charles Cobb, he said, was her idea.

“I know of but one way to become free,” She told him, “And that is to bury the one I now live with.”

Kate Cobb’s trial began on December 31, 1878. Doctors testified about Cobb’s illness and the poisons they found in his body. Several people, including Cobb’s mother, testified to the “improper intimacy” between Kate and Bishop. The most damaging testimony came from Wesley Bishop, who had turned state’s evidence. He restated his confession with more detail.

Bishop said he supplied the poison, but Kate administered it. First, she tried putting morphine in Cobb’s tea, but he found it too bitter to drink.  Then she tried arsenic, but it was taking too long. Finally, she killed him by putting strychnine in his tea. His wife, he claimed, had died of natural causes.

Testifying in her own defense, Kate Cobb denied everything Bishop said about the murder. She said that one day in February, when Bishop delivered groceries, he tried to get Cobb to try a new kind of tea. Bishop had put morphine in the tea, but Cobb would not drink it. In April, Bishop gave Cobb some brandy, and after drinking it, he had an attack of illness. She also found some powder Bishop gave him as medicine. On the day he died, Cobb ate something Bishop had given him.

Kate also said she thought her husband had been secretly taking arsenic in an attempt to gain weight. He was self-conscious about his skinny frame and believed that arsenic increased appetite.

It is likely that the jury did not fully believe Bishop or Kate. After seven hours of deliberation, they found Kate Cobb guilty of second-degree murder. The judge sentenced her to life in Weathersfield State Prison.

Kate issued a public letter proclaiming her innocence. Her attorneys filed a motion for a new trial. They had found a witness who would testify that Cobb told her he was secretly taking arsenic for his weight. The evidence was not strong enough, and they withdrew the motion.

As a reward for turning state’s evidence, the judge accepted Bishop’s plea of guilty of second-degree murder, saving him from the gallows. He was also sentenced to life at Weathersfield prison. The charge against Bishop of murdering his wife would be allowed rest for the time being. The district attorney would reopen the case if he ever tried to secure his freedom.

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Sources: 

“The Bishop-Cobb Murders,” Connecticut western news., October 9, 1878.
“Bishop's Confession,” New York Herald., January 4, 1879.
“Cobb an Arsenic Taker,” New Haven Evening Register, January 22, 1879.
“The Cobb and Bishop Murder,” New York Herald, September 17, 1878.
“The Cobb Poisoning Case,” Boston Evening Journal, July 19, 1878.
“Imprisoned for Life,” New York Herald, January 18, 1879.
“Kate Cobb,” New York Herald, January 17, 1879.
“Kate Cobb's Life Sentence,” Illustrated Police News, January 25, 1879.
“Kate Cobb's Trial,” New York Herald., January 1, 1879.
“Kate Cobb's Trial,” New York Herald, January 3, 1879.
“Kate M. Cobb's Own Story,” Sun., January 10, 1879.
“The Motion for a New Trial of Mrs,” Harrisburg Daily Patriot., February 22, 1879.
“Murder Trial,” New York Herald, July 16, 1878.
“Pleading For Kate Cobb,” Sun., January 16, 1879.
“Poetry and Poison,” New York Herald., January 5, 1879.
“Poisoning Case at Norwich, Conn,” Boston Daily Advertiser, July 12, 1878.
“Total Depravity,” Daily Globe., October 2, 1878.
“Wesley Bishop's Fate. ,” New York Herald, May 20, 1879.
“Wesley W Bishop's Confession,” Springfield Daily Republican, October 3, 1878.

The Fatal Shot.

 

In the wee hours of February 8, 1888, burglars broke into the mansion of Amos J. Snell, one of the wealthiest men in Chicago. They went straight to Snell’s office and opened his safe and a strong box but did not find the fortune they expected. The thieves went upstairs and began gathering silver items.

The noise awaked Snell who came down in his nightshirt, armed with an old muzzle-loading pistol. Hearing the thieves in the parlor, he shouted, “Get out! Get out of here!”  and fired his pistol through the closed parlor door. The thieves responded by firing back through the door. Snell turned to run outside, and the thieves opened the parlor door and fired two more shots, killing Snell. 

The massive manhunt that followed involved the police, the Pinkertons, and many private detectives. The family offered a $50,000 reward for the killer's capture, reported at the time as “the largest amount ever offered for the capture of any human being in the world.”  Despite more than 1,000 arrests and several false confessions, the case remained unsolved until 1910, when a professional thief named James Gillan confessed to the murder on his deathbed. The confession was taken as fact, but there was little evidence that Gillan committed the crime.

Read the full story here: The Snell Murder.

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Pictures from Chicago Daily News, February 9, 1888.

The Body in the Trunk.

 

On April 14, 1885, the manager of the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, responded to complaints of a foul odor emanating from room 144.  Inside a trunk in that room, the manager found the murdered body of Charles Arthur Preller, one of two Englishmen who had checked in two weeks earlier. The killer left a note implying that the death had been a political assassination, but it was, in fact, the tragic ending of a “peculiar relationship.” The hunt for the killer, Hugh Mottram Brooks, would end 8,000 miles away in New Zealand.

Read the full story here:

 The St. Louis Trunk Tragedy.

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Pictures from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, April 25, 1885.

The Montville Tragedy.

On Saturday, January 25, 1879, George Rowell returned home to Montville, Maine, from a trip to Bath, eighteen miles away. He lived in the house owned by John and Salina McFarland, a married couple in their seventies. Rowell, 40, married their son’s widowed wife, Abby, who had a 14-year-daughter, Cora McFarland. She also had an infant son with Rowell. All six lived together in the Montville farmhouse.

George W. Rowell.

Rowell was a big, muscular man weighing over two hundred pounds. Due to his erratic behavior, he was viewed as somewhat insane, but he was generally quiet and considered harmless. Tired from his trip, Rowell went to bed about 6:00 that evening. A short time later, he got up and went into the room where the family was sitting.

“Why, George,” said Abby, “what are you up for?”

“I do not like to sleep alone,” said George, “I want a woman with me.”

He grabbed Cora then and tried to carry the struggling young girl into the bedroom. He told her to be quiet, he wouldn’t hurt her and said their child would be an angel. Rowell carried her into the bedroom, but John McFarland put his foot in the door to prevent it from closing. Rowell dropped Cora, knocked down McFarland, and went for his rifle. Abby and Cora grabbed the baby and ran outside to the house of a neighbor, Alonzo Raynes. John and Salina McFarland followed them.

The Murdered Child.

On May 23, 1875, Thomas W. Piper lured five-year-old Mabel Young to the belfry of the Warren Avenue Baptist Church on the pretext of viewing pigeons. There he beat her to death with a cricket bat, then escaped by leaping from the belfry window.

Read the full story here: The Boston Belfry Tragedy.

Pictures from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, June 12, 1875.

Mattie Collins.

Mattie Collins lived with her mother in a large farmhouse in Buckner, Missouri, about 9 miles from Kansas City.  Also living in the house were her brother, Davis “Doc” Collins, and her sister and brother-in-law, the Darks, with their four children. 

Twenty-year-old Mattie was described as beautiful, intelligent and talented. In February 1879, she was engaged to marry John Bast. Some in Buckner believed Bast was an average young man who would make a good husband, while others thought he was a ne’er-do-well. Mattie’s family was in the latter camp and did not approve of the engagement.

On the night of February 8, 1879, Bast came calling and Mattie’s brother-in-law, Jonathan Dark, met him at the door. He would not let Bast in the house and told him he must cease his visits. Mattie was livid. She spent the rest of the night berating Dark, her anger becoming increasingly fierce.

The next morning, she was still angry. She went into a fit of rage, smashing windows and threatening Dark with an axe. Her mother was alarmed and sent for Deputy Constable James M. Adams. Mattie left the house for a while. When she returned, she was still angry but seemed more subdued. Constable Adams believed the danger was over and left the house.

When Adams was gone, Mattie approached Jonathan Dark.

“I have you now,” she said, drawing a pistol from her pocket. She fired, hitting Dark in the right breast. He fell to the floor.

The Bloody Century 2.

New! 

The Bloody Century 2

The long-awaited sequel to The Bloody Century takes the reader back to 19th-century America in all its gory glory.

The second volume of The Bloody Century presents 60 more true tales of murder. These sensational crimes present a fascinating journey through enforcement methods and legal procedures in the 19th century. Killers driven by Jealousy, Revenge, Insanity, and random violence are joined by remorseless serial killers. Most stories end with justice well served, while others remain forever unsolved.

Available at Amazon.

Read three sample stories.

More information.

The Victim's Orphan.

Illustrated Police News, March 8, 1879

In 1876, Mary Stannard had a child out of wedlock, whom she named Willie. Mary’s friends and family knew she was easily manipulated and saw her as the object of pity rather than blame. Reverend Herbert H. Hayden took a special interest in Mary’s case and hired her as a housekeeper.

The Reverend’s relationship with Mary became a little too close. In August 1878, when she believed herself pregnant again, she accused Hayden and sent him a letter asking for assistance. On September 3, 1878, Mary’s body, stabbed and poisoned, was found on the path outside her house. Rev. Hayden was tried for her murder and acquitted.

Mary’s orphaned son, Willie, a bright 3-year-old, was put up for adoption.

Read the full story here: Poor Mary Stannard!

Femmes Fatales.

 

Nellie and Fanny.

Nelly Dalton and Fanny Coburn, two young Boston women, were out on the town one autumn afternoon in 1855. They met and flirted with William Sumner and Josiah Porter, two promising young college graduates. Though both women were married, they arranged to see the boys again.

Nelly and William embarked on a heartfelt correspondence. Their amorous letters sometimes included romantic poetry. Everything was fine until Mr. Dalton found the letters.

Benjamin Dalton told Edward Coburn about Nellie's dalliance with William Sumner and Coburn's wife's flirtation with Josiah Porter. The husbands enticed the boys to Dalton's home, where they severely beat them. When they were satisfied, they kicked them out the back door.

Porter lived to file charges against Dalton and Coburn, but William Sumner died a few days later. A victim of the femmes fatales. 

Read the full story here: Erring Wives and Jealous Husbands.

The Murderer's Attack on His Mother.

Frank Gouldy was a wild and restless young man. Unable to hold a job, he lived in idleness and dissipation in his father’s house. He was sometimes pleasant to his brothers and sisters but more often morose and vengeful, with an uncontrollable temper.

Frank came home at about ten o’clock on October 26, 1858, and his father reprimanded him about money he had taken. Frank responded with “a low chuckling laugh, full of moaning and fiendish wickedness.” He entered his stepmother's room, and as she lay in bed, he hit her several times on the head with a dull hatchet. She rose up, trying to ward off the blows, then fell to the floor. He continued his violent spree, leaving three family members wounded and one servant dead.

Read the full story here: The Thirtieth Street Murder.

The Pokomoke Tragedy.

Ella Hearn.

Ella Hearn and Lilly Duer were two young women living in Pokomoke City, Maryland, in 1878. Accounts differ as to their exact ages, but both girls were around 19. Both were from socially prominent families and had recently graduated with honors from an academy where they lived as roommates.

Both Ella and Lilly were considered beautiful but were opposites in nature. Ella was quiet and retiring with a delicate build and ladylike manners, while Lilly was described as “a madcap, independent sort of girl, and exceedingly eccentric.” Lilly wore her hair short and, on hunting expeditions, would dress in male attire.  She enjoyed target shooting and had pockets sewn into her dresses to carry a small revolver unobserved.

As roommates, Ella and Lilly became quite intimate. In 1878, the word “lesbian” was not in common parlance, so the newspapers used elaborate explanations to describe their relationship. The New York Herald said, “The freaks of human nature which give us womanly men and manly women are among the most curious and occult because it often happens that there is little or no exterior guide to the psychic anomaly.”   

Lilly Duer.

By that November, however, Ella was far less committed to the relationship and was growing tired of Lilly’s possessive jealousy. The turning point of their relationship occurred that October when the girls took a walk in the woods to pick berries. They had gotten separated, and Ella was walking ahead. Lilly called out, asking her to stop. When Ella did not heed her, Lilly pulled out her pistol and fired three shots, narrowly missing Ella. As Lilly ran up behind her, Ella turned, knocking the pistol from her hand. 

“Did you intend to shoot me?” Ella said.

“I only intended to frighten you and make you stop,” Lilly replied.

Ella said she would never go into the woods with her again, and the relationship effectively ended.

In Lilly’s mind, the relationship was far from over. On November 4, she sent Ella a message asking her to come over that evening. Ella went, accompanied by her younger sister. Lilly tried to persuade her to go into the woods with her the next day. Ella refused.

“Before Almighty God, Ella Hearn,” said Lilly, “if you don’t go into the woods with me tomorrow, I’ll never ask you to go anywhere else.”

The next day, Lilly went to Ella’s house. She attempted to kiss her, but Ella pushed her away and started laughing. She told Lilly to go home and leave her alone. 

Lilly asked her if she loved Ella Foster, another of their schoolmates. 

She replied, “Yes.”

“Repeat that, and I’ll kill you,” said Lilly.

A moment later, a neighbor passing the house heard a pistol shot followed by a woman’s scream. He ran inside to find Ella Hearn lying on the floor with her hands clasped over her mouth to stop the bleeding. Standing over her, holding the still-smoking pistol, was Lilly Duer. Lilly asked him to run for a doctor, then she began to weep bitterly.

As Ella’s father began legal proceedings, Lilly left town. She cropped her hair, borrowed one of her brother’s suits, and, disguised as a man, took a train to Baltimore.

Ella was bedridden and treated by a physician. The bullet had gone through her lip, broken a tooth, and lodged somewhere in her head. As she slipped in and out of consciousness, she sometimes accused Lilly of shooting her intentionally. Once, she sat up in bed and, glancing wildly about her, exclaimed, “Don’t, Lilly, please don’t; I’ll marry you.”

Other times, she would speak kindly of Lilly and even requested that she be brought to see her. Lilly, who had returned from Baltimore, did call but had no sooner reached the bedside when she was promptly ordered away by the wounded girl.

Ella held on to life for a month, then died on December 5. Lilly was indicted for first-degree murder. She was released on $2,500 bail pending her trial.

Lilly told police that the shooting had been accidental. She said, “I had the pistol in my hand after giving up the attempt to kiss her and was looking at the cartridges, counting them, when the pistol went off.   I am not a murderess.”

When her trial began in Snow Hill, Maryland, on May 29, 1879, Lilly was housed in the National Hotel across the street from the courthouse. She was in the custody of the sheriff, who believed that jail was no fit place for any young woman.

Lilly would not let her attorneys plead insanity, so they argued that the shot had been entirely accidental. They also raised the possibility that the shot had not been fatal, but Ella’s death was due to chloral administered by a physician.

The people of Maryland had been evenly divided as to Lilly’s guilt, but as the trial progressed, sympathy turned in her favor. When the verdict was read on June 19, Lilly was found guilty of manslaughter. She was fined $500, but keeping with the sentiment that jail was no place for a young woman, she was given no prison sentence.

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Sources: 

“A Beautiful Girl Kills Another,” READING DAILY EAGLE, December 10, 1878.
“The Hearn-Duer Mystery,” Morning Herald., December 13, 1878.
“Lillie Duer Fined $500 for Shooting Ella Hearn,” EVENING STAR., June 20, 1879.
“Lilly Duer's Passion,” New York Herald, December 13, 1878.
“Miss Duer Indicted for Murder in the First Degree,” The Sun, May 22, 1879.
“Miss Duer Indicted for Murder in the First Degree,” Smyrna Times. [volume], May 28, 1879.
“Miss Lillia Duer's Trial,” Sun, May 28, 1879.
“My Maryland,” Morning Herald., December 18, 1878.
“News Article,” Smyrna Times. [volume], November 13, 1878.
“The Peril of Playing with a Pistol,” daily dispatch., November 13, 1878.
“Pocomoke's Tragedy,” New York Herald, May 28, 1879.
“The Pokomoke Mystery,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, June 28, 1879.
“A Remarkable Eastern Shore Case,” DAILY TRUE AMERICAN., May 22, 1879.
“Remarkable Tragedy,” daily gazette., December 13, 1878.
“Sensational Shooting,” Cincinnati Commercial, December 8, 1878.
“A Shooting Case,” daily gazette., December 9, 1878.
“A Tom-Boy's Terrible Love,” READING DAILY EAGLE., May 26, 1879.
“Was Miss Hearn Killed With Chloral! ,” New-York Tribune., June 10, 1879.
“Women Who Love Women,” Sunday Mercury, June 1, 1879.