A young woman entered the Treasury Building in Washington,
D.C. on the afternoon of January 30, 1865. She went to the office of the Comptroller
of the Currency and opened the door just enough to peek in and see the clerks
at work. After locating the man she sought, she closed the door and waited in
the hall for his workday to end.
The man, A.J. Burroughs (Adoniram Judson, sometimes reported
as Andrew Jackson), left the office at 4:00. He hadn’t gone more than three
feet when he heard the crack of a pistol. Realizing that he had been shot, he
turned around to see the female form standing in the hall. “Oh!” he exclaimed
and hurried toward the stairway. A second shot rang out, and he fell to the
floor. His comrades, thinking he had fainted, rushed to his aid. They conveyed
him to a room nearby where he died fifteen minutes later.
The woman did not try to escape. She put the pistol, a
small, Sharps four-barrel revolver, back in her pocket. When the authorities
came for her, she gave her name as Louise E. Devlin, from Janesville,
Wisconsin. She said that she killed Burroughs because he failed to redeem his
promise of marriage to her and married another. He had not seduced her, she
said, and added forcefully, “As God is my witness, I am virtuous!”
When in custody, her story changed. Her name was Mary
Harris; she was 19 years old, and she had come to Washington from Chicago. The
deceased had betrayed her, taken her from her home and friends, and placed her
in a house of ill fame in Chicago.
Mary Harris first met A.J. Burroughs at her parents' house
in Burlington, Iowa. She was 12 years old, and he was 27. Mary was very fond of
Burroughs and would sit on his lap when he came to visit. They became very
close, and as she grew older, his attentions took on the character of a suitor.
Her parents were opposed to the relationship, not just because of the age
difference but because they felt his family was too high for her. Burroughs was
from a wealthy family; her parents were poor Irish immigrants.
Burroughs left Burlington and moved to Chicago. In 1863, he
wrote to Mary that he was raising a company of men to fight for the Union and
expected to get a commission. He requested that she come to Chicago and
arranged for her to stay with Miss Louisa Devlin, a friend of his who ran a
store where she could work. Mary defied
her parents and moved to Chicago.
Burroughs broke his ankle and was unable to go to war with
his company. He maintained a correspondence with Mary, whom he affectionately called
“Dear Little Mollie” or “Dear little Rosebud.” He would close his letters affectionately—“With
a cart-load of kisses I bid you adieu.”
She sent him a photograph of herself, and he was overjoyed
to receive it:
Oh! that beautiful picture! beautiful! beautiful! beautiful! and my beautiful! beautiful! Mollie!...Oh! Mollie, Mollie! you have turned my dry, sterile, old bachelor heart into a gushing fountain of glad emotion and warm, gentle affection; and Mollie, dearest daring Mollie, is the source and end of all.
He wrote that he “…could enjoy life with a certain little
black-eyed, curly-haired, mischief-loving girl.” Mary, understandingly,
believed that they were engaged to be married.
Then the letters stopped. Mary learned that he had married
another woman without telling her and moved to Washington, D.C. She was
devastated. She could not return to Burlington because her parents disowned
her, thinking she was living in sin with Burroughs. So, she remained in Chicago
with Miss Devlin.
In September 1864, Mary began receiving letters from J.B.
Greenwood, a man she did not know, professing love for her. Though the
handwriting was disguised, she believed the letters were from A.J. Burroughs.
He asked to meet her at a house which Mary knew to be “the most notorious in
Chicago.” She did not go at the appointed time, but later went to the house
with Louisa Devlin’s sister Jane. They showed the lady of the house a
photograph of Burroughs, and she recognized the man. He had been there the
previous Friday to meet a woman named Harris, waited several hours, then left.
Mary did not know what to make of this, and she fell into a
state of despair. She lost weight and became pale and yellow-looking. Sometimes
she had violent outbursts or prolonged crying jags. Mary hired a lawyer and
sued Burroughs for breach of promise.
Not content to wait for the outcome, Mary left in January
for Washington, where she knew Burroughs was working as a clerk in the office
of the Comptroller of the Currency. Before leaving Chicago, she purchased the
pistol.
After several postponements, the trial of Mary Harris for
murder began in July 1865. There was no question that Mary killed Burroughs,
but the defense claimed she suffered from paroxysmal insanity and was not in
her right mind when she did it. Citing an earlier Washington murder case,
the trial of Daniel Sickles for murder, they claimed Mary had acted while temporarily
insane.
Over the prosecution's objections, the defense introduced Burroughs’s
letters to Mary to show how he had played with her emotions, deceiving her and inciting
her insanity. At least ten of his letters were read in court and had a great
effect on the jury. They found Mary Harris not guilty.
For the most part, the public was satisfied with the verdict.
However, newspapers were critical. The New York World said, "...if she be insane, then are
nine-tenths of all women crazy, and furthermore, that this plea of insanity is
seriously interfering with the workings of justice.” This sentiment was echoed by
newspapers across the nation.
Following the trial, it was reported that Mary Harris moved
to Richmond, Virginia. She worked as a milliner, “and has apparently quite
recovered from her insanity.”
Sources:
“Exciting Tragedy,” Daily Morning Chronicle, January 31, 1865.
“The Harris-Borrough Tragedy,” World, February 3, 1865.
“The Harris-Burroughs Affair,” World, February 11, 1865.
“The Harris-Burroughs Tragedy,” World, February 4, 1865.
“Homicide by a Woman,” New-York Daily Tribune., January 31, 1865.
“The Mary Harris Trial,” EVENING STAR, July 11, 1865.
“The Mary Harris Trial,” EVENING STAR, July 12, 1865.
“The Mary Harris Trial,” EVENING STAR, July 20, 1865.
“The Mary Harris Trial,” World, September 16, 1865.
“Mary Harris' Trial,” The New York Herald, July 20, 1865.
“The Trial of Mary J. Harris,” Daily Morning Chronicle, July 11, 1865.
“Trial of Miss Mary Harris for the Murder of A.J. Burroughs,” Daily National Republican, July 10, 1865.
“Trial of Miss Mary Harris for Murder,” National Intelligencer, July 4, 1865.
“The Washington Tragedy,” The New York Herald, February 2, 1865.
“The Woman Harris,” World, July 25, 1865.
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