At around 6:30, the morning of February 4, 1877, the residents of Crosby Street in New York City were alarmed by the sound of a woman’s shriek. Many were preparing for church that Sunday morning, and from their windows, they watched a woman, barefoot, wearing just a skirt and a thin chemise, run across the street, pursued by a man wielding what appeared to be a long iron spike. She ran to the house at 52 Crosby Street, screaming, “Open the door; for the blessed Virgin’s sake, open the door.”
As the man reached the doorstep, she turned and said to him, “For God’s sake, James, don’t strike me!”
He plunged the weapon into her breast. She fell to her knees, then tried to rise but fell backwards onto the sidewalk. The man quickly ran up to Spring Street and disappeared. A second man started running toward the Bowery and was intercepted by a policeman who took him into custody and held him as a witness. Two more policemen carried the woman in a stretcher to the Mulberry Street station, where she died.
 |
| Tinsmith's Reamer |
The weapon was a tinsmith’s reamer, an iron tool for cutting holes in block tin. It was about a foot long, pointed at the end with a square blade, and a little iron crossbar welded to the shank. The killer left it behind—in some accounts, he left it stuck in her chest.
From officers’ reports and eyewitness accounts, the police were able to identify the killer as James Flood, a tinsmith. They reconstructed the sequence of events leading to the murder. Around midnight, the night before the murder, Officer Corry saw Flood standing in front of a grocery shop on Crosby Street owned by a German man named William Alfka. Flood said his wife, Mary, was in the shop, “criminally intimate” with Alfka, and he wanted Corry to bring her out. Corry told him there was nothing he could do, so Flood left.
Flood went to the Bowery and met up with Joseph Morrison, the witness who would be arrested at the scene of the murder. They went on a spree, going from saloon to saloon, drinking all night. Early in the morning, they were back in the alley behind Alfka’s store, though Morrison didn’t know why. Flood went into a hall outside Alfka’s bedroom in the rear of the shop and tried to break into the locked bedroom door. When Mary heard him, she hastily put on her skirt and ran, barefoot, out the other door, through the front of the shop, into the street. Alfka hid the rest of her clothing under his mattress.
Flood went back outside and chased Mary across the street. She ran to the door of 52 Crosby, where she and Flood had previously lived together. The door was locked, and no one came to open it. Flood caught her on the front steps and killed her, then fled.
The police took Alfka into custody to guarantee he would appear at the coroner’s inquest. James Flood had gone to Brooklyn and remained at large until Tuesday night. He didn’t realize he had killed Mary until he read it in the newspaper. When he learned that the police were looking for him, he turned himself in at the Fourth Precinct Station in Brooklyn.
The inquest was held on Friday, February 9. A coroner’s jury heard the testimony and charged James Flood with first-degree murder. Joseph Morrison was charged as an accomplice. Both were held without bail, awaiting the Grand Jury.
While the suspects were in custody, the police learned more about James and Mary Flood. His real name was James McFarland. He changed it to Flood, his mother’s maiden name, when he fled a murder charge in Toledo, Ohio. He met and fell in love with Mary Beach in Toledo. Both were in their twenties and born in Ireland. But he was not the only man in love with Mary, and James stabbed and killed his rival in a street fight.
James changed his name and fled with Mary to New York City, where they rented a room at 52 Crosby Street. But things did not go well; his work took him out of town for months at a time, leaving Mary with no income. When he was home, James would drink excessively and ill-treat Mary. During his absences, Mary became intimate with William Alfka, the grocer across the street. Finally, James and Mary separated, and each found different lodgings off Crosby Street. Wracked with jealousy, James kept watch on Mary’s activities.
James Flood was indicted for first-degree murder, and Joseph Morrison was released. At his trial in June 1877, Flood was represented by William Howe of Howe and Hummel, the city’s most successful criminal attorneys. Howe did not win an acquittal but managed to save Flood’s life. The jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. During the sentencing, Judge Sutherland expressed his disapproval with the verdict, saying:
Flood, you ought to be full of gratitude to the jury. You have had a lucky escape. Had not the jury the right to determine from the evidence in the case, from your prowling around that grocery store and telling the policeman that you thought your wife was in there with Alfka, that you formed a premeditated design to kill. I repeat, you ought to be thankful to the jury for treating you so mercifully, and no man ever had a fairer trial. The sentence of the Court is that you be confined in State Prison for the term of your natural life.
Sources:
“An Escape from the Gallows,” New York Herald, July 1, 1877.
“The Antecedents of James Flood,” Chicago Daily News, February 12, 1877.
“Brutal Wife-Murder,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 5, 1877.
“Crimes and Casualties,” Worcester Daily Press, February 5, 1877.
“Crime's Darkest Phases,” New-York Tribune, February 5, 1877.
“The Crosby Street Murder,” Evening Post, February 9, 1877.
“The Crosby Street Murder,” Evening Post., February 12, 1877.
“Flood, The Wife-Murderer,” Sunday Mercury, February 11, 1877.
“James Flood Surrenders Himself,” New-York Tribune, February 7, 1877.
“The Murder of Mrs. Flood,” New-York Tribune., February 10, 1877.
“Murdered for her Fault,” sun., February 5, 1877.
“Murdered For Her Fault,” Illustrated Police News, February 17, 1877.
“The "Reamer" Murder,” New York herald., February 7, 1877.
“The "Reamer" Murder,” New York herald., February 8, 1877.
“Slain in the Street,” New York herald., February 5, 1877.
“Summary of Law Cases,” New York herald., February 15, 1877.
.jpg)
