The Crosby Street Murder.

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.

Frank and Christie.

Frank Almy and Christie Warden.
(Life, Trial, and Confession of Frank C. Almy, Laconia, N.H.: J.J. Lane, 1891.)

While working as a farmhand in Hanover, New Hampshire, career criminal Frank Almy (aka George Abbott) fell in love with the farmer’s daughter, Christie Warden. When Christie did not return his love Abbot went back to his old ways and took it at gunpoint in the shady hollow known as the Vale of Tempe.

Read the full story here: Murder in the Vale of Tempe.

Murderous Christmas Celebrations.

Murder never pauses for Christmas; it is all too often an unwelcome guest at Yuletide parties.

Here are a few murderous nineteenth-century American Christmas "celebrations." 

	Two Shots, a Shriek. “A dark, mean little bedroom, a woman, half-undressed, dirty and pale, and blear-eyed from long excesses, a male companion, leaning over her with a revolver at her head, two shots, a shriek, an ugly hole under the ear, and the vice and crime of Boston had added another murder to its long score.”  - The Boston Herald’s vivid description of the murder of Josephine Brown on Christmas Eve, 1891.
	It was Santa Claus' Fault. On Christmas Eve, 1889, chaos ensued at a  Shawneetown, Illinois, Christmas party, when the tags fell off some of the presents and were replaced haphazardly.  The room erupted into a free fight with chairs, clubs, knives, and pistols. it looked as though several combatants would be killed, but none of the wounds proved fatal. A Christmas miracle.
	Mrs. Southern's Sad Case. At a Pickens County, Georgia Christmas party in 1876, Kate Southern warned her husband not to dance with his mistress, Narcissa Cowan, and she warned Narcissa to stay away from her husband. When they danced together anyway Kate borrowed her father's pocketknife and plunged it into Narcissa's chest.
	That Bad Man Stagolee. Troubadours have sung the story of Stagolee for over a hundred years. Each singer seems to know a different version and tell a different story of its origin. But the story is true. The legend was born when Stack Lee Shelton shot Billy Lyons, in a fight over a Stetson hat, in Bill Curtis's Saloon, on Christmas night 1895.
	Delia's Gone, One More Round. On Christmas Eve 1900, Cooney Houston shot and killed Delia Green. If that isn’t tragic enough, they were both 14 years old. Their sad story would have been long forgotten, even in Yamacraw – the black neighborhood in the western end of Savannah, Georgia, where the killing took place – if it hadn’t been for a song. The ballad of Delia’s murder traveled from Georgia to the Bahamas, then back to the States during the folk boom of the 1950s.

The Just End of a Monster of Iniquity.

 

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, “The Lambeth Poisoner” and possible Jack the Ripper suspect, was hanged at Newgate Prison in London on November 15, 1892. Dr. Cream had already been convicted of murder by strychnine in the United States. In fact, if he had not been released early from Chicago’s Joliet Prison, four young London women would have been spared excruciating death. 

Read the full story here:  The Lambeth Poisoner.

The Knife in Boston.

On the afternoon of November 27, 1874, Aaron P Barnes went, with his business assistant, John W. Ganie, to a lodging house Barnes owned on Gouch Street in Boston. One of the lodgers had left, and they wanted to ensure the room was ready for the next tenant. They went upstairs and found three young ruffians, somewhat intoxicated, lounging in the furnished but otherwise vacated room.

The men, Richard Nealon, James McCall, and George Watson (alias Jeremiah Cummings), appeared ready for a permanent stay. Barnes told them to leave, and they refused. An argument ensued.

McCall stepped up and said, “Shut your mouth; I’ll shoot you.”

This fired Ganie’s wrath, and he proposed to his boss that they “go for them.” Instead, Barnes told him to go and fetch a police officer. Gaine went to the 3rd Police Stationhouse. The officer in charge heard his story but decided that, as the men had performed no act of actual violence, he had no jurisdiction in the matter. 

While Ganie was gone, Nealon and McCall left the building. They saw Ganie returning on the other side of the street, so they crossed over. Nealon confronted Ganie and struck a heavy blow to his face. A fierce struggle ensued, and Ganie drew a large sheath knife and plunged it into Nealon’s chest. He dropped the weapon and fled into the house.

Officer Thomas Lynch, who was in the vicinity, not in uniform, witnessed the fight instigated by Nealon, but did not see the stabbing. He ran to the scene to arrest Nealon but was surprised when Nealon said, “I am stabbed.” When Lynch saw the blood flowing from the wound, he assisted Nealon to a nearby doorway. McCall went for a doctor.

When Dr. Crilly arrived and saw the severity of the wound, he commandeered a passing wagon, loaded Nealon into the wagon, and told the driver to rush to Massachusetts General Hospital. As they rode, the doctor reached into the wound and grasped the severed artery with his fingers to stop the bleeding. However, at the hospital, they discovered that the damage was even worse than it appeared, and Nealon died within five minutes of arriving. 

A group of police officers searched for Ganie on Gouch Street. They found the weapon. It was a large knife, six to eight inches long with a broad, keen blade, “being altogether an ugly-looking affair.” They found Ganie in a dark room in a different building on Gouch Street. He offered no resistance and was soon behind bars in the Third Stationhouse.

Richard Nealon, the victim, was 22 years old. He was the least intoxicated of the three, but was known to have a wild disposition. At the time of the murder, Boston detectives had a warrant for his arrest for some earlier crime.

John W. Ganie, the murderer, was 26 years old, born in Canada, dark-complexioned, and had Indian blood. He was an eccentric individual, and some who knew him doubted his sanity. He was considered more intelligent than average, but investigated spiritualism, “and many other of the ‘isms’ of the day.” He would sometimes go an entire day without food while poring over some book. He had roomed with Aaron Barnes for upwards of ten years and was employed by Barnes as an assistant in his business.

The coroner’s jury concluded that Richard F. Nealon died as a result of a stab in the left breast inflicted by a knife in the hands of John W. Ganie. Although it was not stated in the verdict, the jury were of the opinion that Ganie acted in self-defense. When the case went to trial the following February, the trial jury agreed with the coroner’s jury and found Ganie not guilty.

---

Sources: 

“Coroners' Inquest,” Boston Globe, December 2, 1874.
“Coroner's Inquest,” Boston Globe, December 3, 1874.
“The Fair,” Boston Daily Advertiser, February 19, 1875.
“The Knife in Boston,” Illustrated Police News, December 10, 1873.
“Superior Criminal Ccourt,” Boston Globe, February 17, 1875.

Adolph and Lizzie.

(National Police Gazette, November 20, 1881.)

After less than two years of marriage in Iowa City, Iowa, Lizzie Stein filed for divorce from her husband, Adolph. She was tired of Adolph’s abuse, but he said that he would not live without Lizzie. When the divorce became final, on November 4, 1881, Adolph slashed and stabbed Lizzie, then he poisoned himself with belladonna.

 “The horror of the deed threw a chill over the entire city, and the remembrance of it will not pass away for many years,” said the Chicago Tribune.

Read the full story here: A Day of Blood.

So Far from Home.

The Pearl Bryan Murder

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Killed her Pretty Rival.

Henry Provenchia (sometimes spelled “Provencher”) met Lizzie Hutchins in 1890 at a dance in Somersworth, New Hampshire. Three weeks later, they were married. He was 19, she was 15. They were happy for a while, but Lizzie had an ugly temper, and when stirred up, she became physically abusive. Henry said that once, “he saw stars when she biffed him on the nose.”

After Lizzie gave birth to a son, she started drinking heavily. Her temper became worse, and the couple frequently quarreled. In 1897, they realized they could no longer agree and decided to separate.  Henry took the boy and moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, and Lizzie stayed in Somersworth.

In Rochester, Henry hired 18-year-old Annie Cox as his housekeeper, and their relationship blossomed into romance.  Lizzie’s mother, Sadie Fuse, also lived in Rochester, and she could see Annie Cox as she came and went from Henry’s house. She relayed this news to Lizzie, who became consumed with jealousy.

Lizzie would go to Rochester and spy on Henry and Annie, peeking through windows, hiding in the woodshed, and trying to break in. She would visit Henry alone and try to reconcile. Allegedly, they still occasionally slept together. But the last time she went to his house, Lizzie asked him to kiss her, and he refused. He did not wish to have anything more to do with her. She angrily responded that she would make it hot for him.

On January 31, 1899, Lizzie, along with Henry’s sister, Agnes Provenchia, visited Lizzie’s mother. They had been drinking the night before and were still intoxicated. Sadie Fuse described the visit:

My daughter, Lizzie Provencher, came up from Somersworth on the 11:27 train this morning. She came to my house bringing with her Henry Provencher's sister. Her first words were, 'You are mad with me.'

My reply was, 'Lizzie, you know that I don't welcome anyone who comes to my house intoxicated as you are.' 'Perhaps you would not be so mad if you knew what I have come for,' said Lizzie.

Then she went on to say, ' I have come to kill that woman who is living with my husband and I am going to do it. I have a man locked in my room in Somersworth. I have got his watch and his revolver, and he can't get out of that room until I get back.'

She then asked for some machine oil, and taking a revolver from her stocking, sat down and deliberately oiled and cleaned the weapon. After spending some time in the house, during which she and her companion went down cellar to drink, she went out. This was early in the afternoon.

Lizzie and Agnes went to Henry’s house. Agnes would later state, in a thick French-Canadian accent, that she went under threat of bodily harm. When she learned of Lizzie’s intentions, she did not want to go, but Lizzie threatened to shoot her if she didn’t.

Agnes said that they entered the house without knocking, and Annie Cox received them pleasantly. Lizzie asked if it was her intention to live with Henry permanently. Annie said she was preparing to leave, and if Lizzie would not harm her, she would get out at once. Lizzie said she ordered Annie to leave the house, but Annie refused.

Either way, Lizzie was not satisfied.  When she drew the pistol from her stocking, Agnes fled from the house. Lizzie fired at Annie, hitting her in the arm. She fired three more shots, and Annie fell to the floor, dead.

As Lizzie returned to her mother's house, she met Joseph Hunneman, an acquaintance, on the street. She could not contain herself and had to tell him what she had done.

“Do I look like a woman who has killed another?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“I have,” she replied, “I fired three bullets into Annie Cox. I am going to kill my husband.”

He tried to persuade her not to do so, but she said, “Yes, I have thought it over for six months, and I am going to kill my husband.”

Lizzie was laughing when she returned to her mother’s house. She said she had killed Annie Cox because if she couldn’t have Henry, no other should. She removed all but one bullet from the revolver.

“That one I will reserve for myself,” she said, “If the officers get too close, they will never take me alive.”

The man Lizzie claimed she had locked in her room in Somersworth was Assistant Marshal Paquette. Agnes had invited him up to the apartment the night before. The three of them drank a considerable amount of liquor, and Paquette stayed the night. Sometime during the night, Lizzie took possession of his revolver, the gun she would use to commit the murder. Paquette easily escaped from the locked room the next day, but when he learned what had happened, he knew he was in trouble.  He quickly left town and sent a telegram to his boss from Haverhill, Massachusetts, to say he would not be reporting for duty.

Joseph Hunneman was the first to find the body of Annie Cox. After meeting Lizzie on the street, he went to Henry Provenchia's house to see if she told the truth. He found Annie’s body lying in a pool of blood. For some reason, Hunneman delayed telling the police about the murder, and Lizzie had enough time to leave Rochester.

Lizzie and Agnes went to the train depot but found that they had missed their train. They separated then. Agnes stayed in Rochester, where she was arrested as a witness. Lizzie hopped a freight train, riding in a car carrying horses. She got off in Dover, New Hampshire, and was seen boarding a train for Portland, Maine. The police were waiting for her in Portland, and after obtaining extradition papers, they took her back to Rochester.

Lizzie Provenchia was indicted for first-degree murder. She said she would plead not guilty and claim self-defense, saying Annie Cox attacked her first. But when the case went to court in Dover that September, she retracted her plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree. The court accepted her plea and sentenced her to twenty-five years in prison.

A large crowd gathered at the depot in Dover on October 3, 1899, to see Lizzie off to prison. Lizzie was stylishly dressed in a black satin gown. Around her neck she wore a black feather boa, and her hat was tastefully trimmed in black feathers. A wrap was carelessly thrown over her arms to conceal her manacled wrists.

---

Sources: 

“Alleged Murderess,” Worcester Evening Gazette, February 1, 1899.
“Begins Long Sentence,” The Boston Globe, October 4, 1899.
“The Cox Murder,” Evening Bulletin, February 2, 1899.
“Deliberate Murder,” Lowell Sun, February 1, 1899.
“Horrible Murder,” Foster's daily Democrat, February 1, 1899.
“In First Degree,” Weekly Union, February 22, 1899.
“Inquest at Rochester,” Daily Kennebec Journal, February 2, 1899.
“Killed Her Pretty Rival,” National Police Gazette, February 28, 1899.
“Mrs Provenchia Arrested,” Springfield Republican, February 2, 1899.
“Shot Dead by a Lealous Wife,” Evening Times, February 1, 1899.
“A Stormy Life Led to Crime,” Evening Times, February 4, 1899.
“Without Bail,” Weekly Union, February 8, 1899.

Charles and Hugh.

Charles Arthur Preller and Hugh Mottram Brooks
(Illustrated Police News, April 25 & May 2, 1885)

Charles Arthur Preller and Hugh Mottram Brooks (alias Walter Maxwell) met in Liverpool, England, in January 1885, and traveled together by steamship to Boston. During the voyage, they began an amorous relationship. When the ship landed in America, they went separate ways but agreed to meet later in St. Louis.

They booked separate rooms at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, but it was well known by the staff that both men were sleeping in Brooks’s room. On April 6, 1885, Brooks checked out, telling the hotel that Preller was traveling on business and would return for his luggage. 

On April 30, after guests reported a foul smell, the manager found Charles Preller’s corpse decomposing inside a trunk. The manhunt that followed ended with the arrest of Hugh Brooks in Auckland, New Zealand. 

Read the full story here: The St. Louis Trunk Tragedy.

Scott Jackson's Evil Eye.

 

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Killed by their Landlord.

On December 30, 1865, Francis McGaghay noticed that the coal stove in his apartment at 597 Grand Street in New York City was not drawing well. He went up to the roof, tied a brick to a string, and lowered it down the chimney. He found the flue obstructed about eight or nine feet from the top. He went down to the apartment on the third floor, the floor above his, and asked if he could examine their flue. The girl who answered the door refused admission.

McGaghay’s mother, Rosa, and 4-year-old son, Francis Jr., also lived in the apartment. When Francis Sr. came home at 1:00 Sunday morning, he found his mother and son awake but groggy and nauseous. He comforted his son and then lay down on the bed with him. McGaghay did not wake up until 9:00 that night and found himself at a house on Monroe Street, with no idea how he had gotten there. A neighbor, Maria Congrove, had gone to the McGaghays’ apartment around 2:00 that afternoon and found Rosa and Francis Jr. dead. Francis, still alive, was taken out of the apartment.

A coroner’s jury convened on Monday and quickly uncovered the cause of the deaths. Dr. Beach, who performed the post-mortem examinations, found the lungs of both were congested and discolored. The stomachs were also congested, and the livers and kidneys were fatty. The right side of the child’s face was ecchymosed—discolored by bruising. The doctor concluded that both had died as a result of inhaling poisonous gas.

The Grand Street tenement was owned by Mrs. Eliza T. Hunter. She had recently made her son, Edwin B. Hunter, the agent in charge of the building. Anxious to increase his income, he wanted the McGaghays to move out so he could rent more space Bearup & Causker, a tinsmith renting on the same floor. Forty days earlier, he told them they had twelve days to move out. Rosa told him she had hired the place for life and would not move.

Hunter obtained a dispossess warrant but did not serve it. Instead, he told one of the residents, he intended to smoke them out. On the Thursday before the deaths, he brought a mason into the apartment on the floor above the McGaghays and had him insert a flat stone in the flue below the stove. When the mason asked why, he said it was none of his business. At the inquest, Hunter testified that he told the McGaghays not to build a fire as the chimney was stopped.  He acknowledged that he knew that the result would be; if they did not leave it would kill them.

The coroner’s jury returned the following verdict:

That the deceased came to their deaths by suffocation, by inhaling coal-gas, through the action of Edwin B. Hunter, in having a stone placed on the flue of the chimney leading from the room where the deceased resided, at No. 597 Grand Street, December 31^st, 1865.

Hunter was held on $3,000 bail while awaiting the action of the Grand Jury. His mother paid the bail. It is unclear whether the Grand Jury heard the case or indicted Edwin Hunter.

---

Sources: 

“The Case of Suffocation in Grand Street,” The New York Herald, January 2, 1866.
“From New York,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, January 3, 1866.
“The Grand Street Case of Suffocation,” New York Herald, January 3, 1866.
“The Grand Street Tragedy,” New York Herald, January 6, 1866.
“A Murder, Out of the Pale of Law,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 20, 1866.

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So Far from Home The Pearl Bryan Murder The headless corpse of a young woman, discovered in the woods of Northern Kentucky in February 1896, disrupted communities in three states. The woman was Pearl Bryan, from Greencastle, Indiana, and her suspected killers were students in Cincinnati, Ohio. How Pearl Bryan died so far from home is an enduring mystery.

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Scenes from the Cronin Murder.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, June 8, 1889.

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.  He publicly accused the Executive Board of Clan-na-Gael of embezzling funds. On May 4, 1889, Dr. Cronin disappeared. Eighteen days later, his naked body was found wedged inside a catch basin. He had been stabbed to death with an icepick.

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

"Portuguese Joe."

18-year-old Lizzie McDaniels was walking home from a wedding party in Cherokee Flat, California, at around 4:00 am on June 1, 1871. Two companions, Mr. Wells and Miss Glass, walked with her.  Without warning, a man sprang from the bushes, seized Lizzie by the head, slashed her throat from ear to ear, and stabbed her in the heart. The attacker let go, and Lizzie ran about ten feet, then died in the arms of Miss Glass. The attack was so sudden that it took them all by surprise. Wells drew his pistol and fired but missed the man as he ran away.

The killer was a former lover of Lizzie McDaniels, known as “Portuguese Joe.” He had been courting her for about two years but she was trying to discourage him. He said he would kill her if she would not consent to be his bride, but she had not taken his threat seriously.

Portuguese Joe was also known as Austrian George, though some said he was Italian. This was likely to make it challenging to identify the killer. To make matters worse, there were several criminals known as Portuguese Joe operating in the region—a Portuguese Joe in Placer County was convicted of grand larceny, a gang of Mexican horse thieves in El Dorado had a Portuguese Joe, and a Peruvian arsonist in Nevada was called Portuguese Joe. But the community was outraged and determined to capture Lizzie McDaniels’ killer. The Marysville Daily Appeal said, “If taken it is probable that the courts will not be troubled with a trial of his case. Judge Lynch will preside, and a stout rope and short shrift will be given the murderer of Miss McDaniels.”

Lizzie’s Portuguese Joe was captured at his hideout in the mountains near Cherokee on June 5. Though he was not lynched, the Appeal was correct that the courts would not be troubled with a trial. Portuguese Joe was shot through the head while trying to escape. They placed his corpse inside his cabin and set fire to the building. Nothing was left but ashes.

---

Sources: 

“Committed to Jail,” Sacramento Daily Record, February 2, 1871.
“Events of the Day,” Critic, June 6, 1871.
“Horrible Murder,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 1871.
“Horrible Murder,” Marysville Daily Appeal, June 2, 1871.
“Killed,” Daily state register., June 7, 1871.
“Not a Mexican,” Gold Hill daily news, September 15, 1871.
“Oroville, June 1st,” Weekly Alta California, June 10, 1871.
“Pacific Coast News,” Cheyenne daily leader. [volume], June 6, 1871.
“Taken Below,” The Placer Herald, July 29, 1871.
“Terrible Murder of Miss Lizzie McDaniels by Her Lover in California,” National Police Gazette, June 24, 1871.
“Thieves Caught,” Placer herald., February 4, 1871.

Butchery in Baltimore.

Captain McGregor of the No. 8 Engine Company on Fifth Street in Baltimore saw a woman come out of the house across the street and collapse on the pavement on the afternoon of January 8, 1889. He ran to the woman and found her covered with blood.

“Ida did this,” she told him. She said, in German, that her servant, Ida Kessel, had demanded money from her and, upon being refused, assaulted her. She swooned and said no more. Captain McGregor sent for the police, who took her to City Hospital.

The woman, 65-year-old, Margaret Schneider, had been severely hacked with twenty-two gashes to her face, throat, and hands. Her left ear was mashed, and the front of her skull was crushed. During the afternoon, she had periods of semi-consciousness but was never lucid enough to provide any more information than what she gave Captain McGregor. She died at 8:30 that evening.

Mrs. Schneider lived on Fifth Street with her daughter and grandson, both of whom had been in Philadelphia that week. Their servant, Ida Kessel, had only been with them since the previous Thursday, and they believed she had been stealing silverware.

There was confusion early on as to the identity of the killer. The family knew her as Ida Kessel, but her real name was Kunegunde Betz. Mrs. Schneider’s daughter, Susan Leahr, gave the police a detailed description: 30 years old, five feet seven inches tall, with broad shoulders, jet black hair, high cheekbones, and dark brown, deep-set eyes. She spoke only German.

Two policemen saw her board a streetcar on January 10, and they jumped on the front platform.

The driver said, “Have you arrested yet the woman you fellows are looking for?”

“No,” said Officer Khatz, “but I will do so now.”

He walked over to the woman and politely asked her to accompany him. She refused, and when he put his hand on her shoulder, she jumped up and tried to flee. Officer Krouse grabbed her before she could escape, and they took her to the Eastern Police Station.

Kunegunde Betz, alias Ida Kessel, spoke only German and was questioned through an interpreter. She claimed that she was in the kitchen when a black man jumped over the fence and entered the house. He choked her and asked where the old woman was. She told him upstairs, and when he went to find her, Kunegunde gathered her clothes and left. When Detective Seibold asked her if the black man spoke German, she said no, but she understood what he said.

The police were aware of the house on Fifth Street even before the murder. Neighbors had been suspicious and reported that the house was quiet during the day but lit up all night, with people coming and going at all hours. When the police went inside, they found evidence of a brutal struggle, with blood on the walls and floor, and a trail of blood where the victim had been dragged. The rest of the house, however, was scrupulously clean. While the house looked plain from the outside, it was magnificently furnished within. The bedrooms looked like bridal chambers, upholstered in different colors. In a second-floor back room, the police found a complete opium layout. They also found a bundle of letters addressed to Mrs. Shneider—some making appointments or reserving rooms, others due bills for wine, etc. It was a house of ill-fame and Mrs. Schnieder was a procuress, providing women, wine, and opium for the “club men” who visited.

The police found a hatchet, which they believed to be the murder weapon. They also found a dress saturated with blood. The killer took it off and changed clothes before fleeing.

Kunegunde Betz was indicted for first-degree murder, but her trial was postponed when it was discovered that she was pregnant. She had the baby in prison and carried it in her arms when she stood trial the following December. Her attorneys argued that she could not get a fair trial in Baltimore, and were granted a change of venue to Towson, Maryland.

The prosecution presented a straightforward case of Betz assaulting and killing Margaret Schnieder when she refused to give her money. However, they could not directly connect her to the hatchet or the bloody dress.

The defense argued that Mrs. Schneider kept a house of ill-fame where any number of persons had access and could have committed the crime. The attorney also wanted to read the incriminating letters in court. The defense objected strenuously to both. The judge, after hearing from both sides and reading the letters himself, ruled that before entering testimony on the character of the house, the defense had to prove that it was customary for keepers of houses of ill-fame to allow visitors to have keys to the house. The letters, he said, offered such meager light on the subject that it was better not to read them in court.

After three days of testimony, the case was given to the jury, who found Kunegunde Betz guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to six years in the State Penitentiary.

---

Sources: 

“"Ida Did This.",” Omaha Daily Herald, January 9, 1889.
“Arrested for Mrs. Schneider's Murder,” Trenton Times, January 10, 1889.
“Brained with a Hatchet,” Illustrated Police News, January 26, 1889.
“Cleverly Captured,” Sun, January 10, 1889.
“Convicted of Manslaughter,” Sunday Telegram, February 16, 1890.
“For Murdering Her Employer,” New-York Tribune., January 10, 1889.
“Forecast of Baltimore and Vicinity,” Sun, February 25, 1895.
“In the Courts,” Sun, June 3, 1889.
“Kunigunda on Trial,” Sun, February 13, 1890.
“Mrs. Schneider's Murder,” sun., January 10, 1889.
“News of the Day,” Alexandria gazette., January 9, 1889.
“Noted Murder Cases,” Sun, December 4, 1889.
“Was Mrs. Schneider Killed With a Hatchet?,” Sun, January 17, 1889.
“A Woman without Fear,” Sun, February 14, 1890.

Emma and George.

Emma Malloy and George E. Graham
Illustrated Police News, April 17, 1886 & May 15, 1886.

Famous Evangelist, temperance leader, author, and publisher Emma Molloy opened her home to the lost and lonely, much as others would take in stray cats. She had an adopted daughter, two foster daughters, and she found a job at her newspaper for George Graham, an ex-convict she had met while preaching at a prison. They all lived happily together on Emma's farm in Missouri. 

But George Graham was having sexual relations with both Emma and her foster daughter, Cora Lee. His decision to marry Cora without divorcing his current wife resulted in a murder, a lynching, and a scandal for the entire family.

Read the full story here: The Graham Tragedy.

The Richardson McFarland Tragedy.

On the afternoon of November 25, 1869, Daniel McFarland walked into the office of the New York Tribune and there shot and killed Albert Richardson, a Tribune editor. Richardson had planned to marry Daniel McFarland’s ex-wife, Abby Sage McFarland. The facts of the murder were irrefutable, but the trial that followed focused instead on the behavior of Abby McFarland. Was her adultery an attack on the sanctity of marriage that drove Daniel McFarland to murderous insanity? Or had she been justified in leaving a drunken, abusive husband, running to the safety of another man’s arms?

Read the full story here: The Richardson-McFarland Tragedy.

Undue Religious Excitement.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 28, 1868.

Robert Sprague, a normally peaceful man, was spending a quiet evening with his family in their home in Jasper, Iowa, on February 17, 1868. He was reading the Bible with his mother, wife, and children when his 70-year-old mother asked him a question in relation to a religious meeting the night before. 

At the previous night’s meeting, Sprague had acted strangely. It was not specified exactly what he did, but it caused others there to believe he was “laboring under a deranged mind.”

Sprague’s 13-year-old daughter replied to her grandmother’s question, hoping to defuse its effect on her father. It was too late. His mother’s question had triggered Sprague to spring to his feet and threaten to kill her. She ran to the door but fell as she was leaving the house. Sprague leaped on his mother and began choking her while his wife and children tried to pull him off.

When she was dead, Sprague stood up, and in a moment of clarity, he realized he was out of control. “Send for Baumer to tie me,” he said to his wife, referring to his neighbor. Then he told her to take the children and leave at once. She did as he ordered.

The police came soon after and arrested Sprague. There is no record of what happened to Robert Sprague after his arrest, a fact which artificial intelligence reluctantly confirmed (see “Why I Hate A.I.”) It was believed that Sprague suffered from insanity caused by "undue religious excitement." He was probably committed to an insane asylum without a trial.

---

Sources: 

“Crimes and Casualties,” Troy Daily Times., March 3, 1868.
“In Jasper, Iowa,” Nashville Union and Dispatch., February 29, 1868.
“A Man Murders his Mother in the Presence of his Wife and Children,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 28, 1868.
“A Man Murders his mother in the Presence of His Wife and Children,” Chicago Tribune., February 25, 1868.

The Demon Druses.

 "The verdict of the coroner’s jury charges that Mrs. Druse shot her husband with a revolver, struck him with an axe upon the head, and severed his head from his body, causing instantaneous death. That Roxalana Druse afterward cut up and burned the body. Mary J. Druse, George W. S. Druse, and Frank Gates are charged with being feloniously present and abetting the said Roxalana Druse in committing the murder."

--"The Demon Druses", Illustrated Police News, February 14, 1885.

Read the full story here: The Druse Butchery.

Why I Hate A.I.

Artificial Intelligence would be an excellent tool for historical research, but for one flaw – it does not distinguish between fact and guesswork. 

I was researching Robert Sprague, who murdered his mother in Jasper County, Iowa, in 1868, and I could not find any information on his trial and sentencing. I decided to ask Grok, which very confidently returned a quite detailed answer, concluding with this:

"On November 3, 1868, Judge H. S. Winslow sentenced Sprague to life imprisonment at hard labor in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. He was transported there shortly after and served his sentence without notable appeals or pardons recorded in state archives. Sprague died in prison in 1902 from natural causes related to age and health decline."

It sounded good, but I won’t post anything without specific references. I went back to Grok and asked, “What is the source for Sprague's trial information?”

Grok responded with two book titles. Both were available online, but neither had any reference to Robert Sprague. I went back a third time and said, “These references do not contain information on Robert Sprague. Please provide specific sources.” To which Grok responded:

"Upon further investigation using digitized historical archives, genealogical databases, and period-specific resources, I was unable to locate verifiable primary or secondary sources confirming the details of Robert Sprague's arrest, trial, conviction, or imprisonment for the alleged 1868 murder in Jasper County, Iowa. Searches across 19th-century Iowa court records, local histories, newspaper archives (including Chronicling America and Newspapers.com), and penitentiary registers yielded no mentions of this individual or case."

Apparently, the first answer was a guess, cobbled together from historical information gathered using the time and place provided, without finding any actual information about the Sprague case. It then presented its guess as fact. I had to ask three times before Grok admitted that it did not know what it was talking about. 

Now, more than ever, do not trust anything on the internet that you can’t verify independently.