The Murder of Chong Ong.

Little Murders

 

(From New York Herald-Tribune, New York, New York, November 21, 1885)

The Murder of Chong Ong.

 

A Cuban Charged with the Crime.

Arrested on the Testimony of a Boy who Saw the Chinaman Stabbed.

 

A tall Cuban, whose dark skin showed that he had negro blood in his veins, was locked up at Police Headquarters yesterday, charged with the murder of Chong Ong, the Chinaman who kept a restaurant at Spring and Wooster sts., under the name of Antonio Solao. The arrest of the Cuban was based on evidence which was kept secret by the police after the discovery of the murder, which occurred on November 2. The police were first informed of the crime by a vender who found the mutilated body of Chong Ong lying on the floor of the basement restaurant. It was believed that the Chinaman had been killed by a thief who also was a Chinaman. For a time the police were not able to ascertain that there had been any witnesses of the crime, and the indications were that Ong was murdered in the basement. On the evening of the murder, however, Captain McDonnell was informed that George Manz, a boy who was employee in the store of William Schimper & Co. at No. 138 Wooster st., had been a witness of the murder and could identify the murderer.

The Black-McKaig Homicide.

As children, Harry and Myra Black were playmates with William McKaig, but as adults McKaig did not view the Blacks as his equals—the McKaigs were wealthy, the Blacks were not. As events transpired, their relationships grew to resemble a melodrama where the rich but unscrupulously evil villain seduces and ruins the innocent maiden. Her betrayal is avenged by her equally upright brother. But will his goodness be pure enough to save him from the gallows?

William Agnew.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

William Agnew.

"Of all the cold blooded villains, this is one of the worst. Wm. Agnew lived in Palyra, N. Y. [sic] He went home with his wife one night from a ball, and after some angry words, picked up a rocking chair and dealt her several blows on the head, crushing in her skull. He then carried her up-stairs to bed and she died that night. He slept in the same room with the murdered woman and remained about the house for several days until the body was discovered."

 

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

"Murdered by a Maniac” Guest Post by James Schmidt

I am pleased to welcome guest blogger, James M. Schmidt to Murder by Gaslight. James writes about the American Civil War is the author of several books, including Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom. An article of his was recently published in The New York Times for their “Disunion” series on the Civil War. James also blogs about the Civil War from a medical point of view at Civil War Medicine (and Writing).

Today James will be taking a break from the battlefield, but not from violence, as he relates a fascinating tale of murder in Connecticut from the 1850s:

 

Murdered by a Maniac

by James M. Schmidt

 

The epitaph on a headstone in Sperry Cemetery in Bethany, Connecticut, bears witness to a horrible crime committed on New Year’s Day 1856:

In Memory of
Ichabod Umberfield
who was murdered by a maniac
Jan’y 1, 1856

The grim prose is actually only a hint of a week’s worth of violence and madness that began on Christmas Eve 1855 and took three innocent lives.  It offers a trail of treasure in primary material and engaging stories for anyone who takes the time to investigate the tale.  It also crosses multiple subjects of interest to people who enjoy studying the 1800s: cults, Spiritualism, mental illness, journalism, court proceedings, incarceration, class distinctions, and much more.

Mr. Umberfield was murdered by Charles Sanford, who had also killed another man, Enoch Sperry, earlier that day.  News of the grisly killings was reported throughout the area and then across the country.  Typical was this notice in the Hartford Daily Courant on January 3, 1856:

Terrible Affair with a Maniac

Two Men Murdered!

GREAT EXCITEMENT IN WOODBRIDGE.

The father of Hon. N. D. Sperry, Secretary of State, and a farmer, named Ichabod Umberfield, were cruelly and savagely killed by a lunatic named Charles Sanford, in the town of Woodbridge, on Tuesday… He seems to have accidently encountered Mr. Sperry, in his sleigh, about a half mile from the main road, on what is called the Shunpike, about 11 o'clock A. M.; to have made an assault on Mr. Sperry; dragged him from his sleigh … Mr. Sperry was struck first on the right temple with the head of the axe; then another blow just above the right ear, both of which produced fractures of the skull. He was then struck with the edge of the axe on the neck, the blow entering just under the chin, which it wounded and nearly severed his head from his body.

Sanford was apparently driven mad by the murder of a relative a week earlier, and that is an even more interesting story!

The Massachusetts Borgia.

The Order of Pilgrim Fathers was a Massachusetts social group whose chief purpose was to provide cheap life insurance for working-class men and women. In the summer of 1886 the Order became suspicious of one of their members, Mrs. Sarah Jane Robinson, whose son William was on his death bed just six months after the death of her daughter Lizzie. When officers of the Order of Pilgrim Fathers expressed their concerns to the Chief of Police, they learned that Mrs. Robinson was already under investigation for the death of her nephew just a few weeks earlier. In each case the cause of death was arsenic poisoning and when the full tally of Mrs. Robinson’s poison murders was revealed, the press would dub her “The Massachusetts Borgia.”

How to Abolish Murder.

In 1869 H. H. Bingham, agent of the Michigan State Prison, issued a pamphlet analyzing the effect of Michigan’s abolition of the death penalty some twenty-two years earlier.  In place of hanging, Michigan sentenced capital offenders to solitary imprisonment for life (though the longest anyone actually stayed in solitary confinement was five years). Bingham concluded that, though the number of criminal convictions in Michigan increased during that period “…there is no evidence in the increased convictions that there is an increase of crime beyond the ratio of increase in population.” In fact, the number of convicted murderers, as a percentage of total convictions, actually decreased.

About five years later the information in the pamphlet was summarized in a number of mid-western newspapers. Bingham’s conclusions were greeted with a good deal of skepticism as illustrated by this sarcastic editorial in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette:

HOW TO ABOLISH MURDER.

A correspondent writing from Michigan says the abolition of capital punishment in that State has diminished the murder rate. What an anomaly is human nature! Persons inclined to murder find that in Michigan they can not enjoy the privilege of being hanged for it; so they resolve they won’t play. Probably they go off to other States where hanging is allowed, to do their business. We presume that equally trustworthy statistics would show that murder has increased in the adjoining States since Michigan abolished Hanging. If this diminution of the terror of the penalty for murder has diminished murder in Michigan, it follows logically and morally that if she should abolish all penalties, murder would cease entirely in that State for want of encouragement. There are persons of equal intelligence of human nature who think that if the common people are permitted to see a public hanging, they will incontinently be seized with a propensity to go and murder somebody in order to play a star part in so attractive a spectacle.
 

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Sources:

Collections of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan. Lansing: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company, 1907.

"How to Abolish Murder." Cincinnati Daily Gazette 15 Oct. 1875.

A Brutal Murder.

Little Murders

(From Sedalia Daily Democrat, Sedalia, Missouri, October 15, 1876)

A Brutal Murder.

 

A Quarrel Between Colored Secret Societies Results in a Hanging Scrape.

St Louis, Oct. 12—A special to the Globe-Democrat from Waco, Texas says: A most brutal murder was committed near this place two weeks ago, and the coroner’s jury to-day completed the investigation, which proves that a body of colored Masons had opposition from another secret clique, and the Masons were to have their Worshipful Master, a person named Jones, murdered by another negro named McCann. Therefore Jones conterplotted, and McCann was urged several times to come out of his hole at night, but refused till the night of the 30th, when he agreed, and a party of negroes numbering ten, among them Jones, met and murdered him as per the following sample of evidence, given by Alex. Cox, who turned state’s evidence.

A Contract with the Devil.

On April 16, 1897, cashier Joseph A. Stickney was murdered during a daring daylight robbery of the Great Falls National Bank in Somersworth, New Hampshire. The frenzied investigation that followed, crossed state and national borders resulting in the arrests of Joseph Kelley, a resident of Somersworth with peculiar habits. Joseph E. Kelley confessed to the murder, leaving the court to decide whether his actions were driven by a mental disorder, whether he was feigning mental disability, or whether Kelley had in fact made a contract with the devil.

Miss Fails in Court

Little Murders

This looks like a good one. I'll keep searching for more information.



(From Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, December 15, 1897)

Miss Fails in Court

 

Murder in Second Degree

That is her Plea.—She Will Be Sentenced Saturday.—Kern Indicted for Murder.

 

Waverly, Dec. 10.— One chapter in the celebrated Kern murder  case was closed late yesterday afternoon, when Delilah Fails, supported by Mrs. Parrot, wife of Sheriff Parrott, staggered into the crowded court room, and through her attorney, E. L. Smalley, entered a plea of guilty to murder in the second degree.

August Hetzke.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

August Hetzke.

"This individual was convicted in Chicago, Ills., of murder in the first degree, he having beaten his little step-son to death. He was always most cruel to the child and on every opportunity treated him in an inhuman manner. The child’s suffering only seemed more to anger this brute, until at last he beat him to death. The case caused a great deal of excitement at the time in Chicago."

 

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

“…cut off in her youthful bloom”

In August of 1810, four little girls picking berries at the foot of a precipice near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, discovered the broken body of a beautiful young woman.  She was identified as Polly Williams, last seen walking to White Rocks to meet her fiancé Philip Rogers. Though the mysteries of Polly Williams’s death have endured for two centuries, her story is neatly summarized the words engraved on her tombstone:

Behold with pity, you that pass by;
Here doth the bones of Polly Williams lie;
Who was cut off in her youthful bloom;
By a vile wretch, her pretended groom.

Three Iowa Murders.

Little Murders

Here are three little Iowa murders from the same edition of The Marion Sentinel:



(From The Marion Sentinel, Merion, Iowa, December 9, 1897)

Mrs. Behrens Found Guilty.

 

Davenport Woman Convicted of Killing her Husband.

Davenport, Dec. 2.—In the second trial of Mrs. Claus Behrens the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, fixing the penalty at life imprisonment at hard labor. This is the first instance in which a woman has been convicted of murder in the Second congressional district. The case has become celebrated, and has cost the county two trials, with another one following. The evidence showed that Mrs. Behrens administered paris green, causing her husband’s death in order to get his insurance and then marry Henry Brendt, who, it is alleged, gave her the poison. He will be tried next week.

The Talbotts.

Dr. Perry H. Talbott was among the most prominent citizens of Nodaway County, Missouri. In addition to being a skilled physician, Talbott was state legislator, a writer and a newspaper editor. He was a civic minded citizen with strong beliefs, highly admired by friends and neighbors. But towards his family, Dr. Talbott was cold and distant. Miserly and neglectful, he had little interaction with his children beyond the occasional scolding. When Dr. Talbott was shot by an unknown assassin on September 18, 1880, in his dying breath he blamed his political enemies. The Nodaway county authorities, however, believed the killer was someone closer to home.

August Detlaf.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

August Detlaf.

"John Phillips and Skip Larking of Chicago, Ills., were shot and instantly killed on the evening of July 29, 1888, by August Detlaf, who is a Pole. The two men were on their way home from a ball game. The murder was a most unprovoked one and occurred in a general row among a number of Poles, precipitated by some jesting remarks made by Phillips and Larkin. During the affray, Detlaf appeared on the scene suddenly, with a 44 caliber revolver and deliberately shot the two men alluded to."

 

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

Alabama Lynching.

Little Murders

(From The Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, Iowa, January 1, 1893)

Alabama Lynching.

 

Two Murders Strung Up by a Mob.

Not given a chance for prayer.
 

Unlike Most Southern Lynchings the Victims This Time Were White Men and Had Murdered a Tax Collector and Robbed Him of $2,000 in Cash—Both Men Confessed Their Crime—How the Mob Entered the Jail.
 

Greenville, Ala., Dec. 31. – About midnight Thursday night two strangers went to the residence of Jailer Hill Bargainer and, arousing him, told him they had a prisoner to put in jail. Bargainer went with them to the jail and upon reaching that place was met by 100 armed and masked men, who, with pistols pointed at his head, demanded the keys of the jail. He gave the up and the cells of the John Hipp and Charles Kelley, murderers of Tax Collector C. J. Armstrong of Butler county were opened. Both men were taken out in their nightclothing. Ropes were place about their necks and they were hurried to the court house near by and hanged, not even being given time to pray. The mob then quietly dispersed. The verdict of the coroner’s jury was that the men were hanged by unknown Persons.

The Murder of Armstrong.

On Dec. 17 last, Tax Collector Armstrong while collecting taxes in Butler county was waylaid, murdered and robbed at Panther Creek bridge, the murderers getting $2,000. Rewards amounting to $1.500 were offered for the arrest of the murderers and great indignation existed among citizens. A week ago John Hipp, a noted desperado, was arrested for the murder after a desperate fight with the sheriff’s posse, in which Hipp was seriously wounded. Last Monday Charles Kelly was arrested in Monroe county, Ky, as Hipp’s accomplice. The confession of the gang made the evidence convincing. Both were white men.

 

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The Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, Iowa, January 1, 1893

A House Divided.

Tensions in the Ware household outside of Berlin, New Jersey, were near the breaking point. On August 16, 1870 they snapped, when a dispute over a milk pan turned mother against daughter, brother against sister, and drove John C. Ware to turn a shotgun on his father.

Nels Olsen Holong

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Nels Olsen Holong.

"Nels Olsen Hulong is another one filling the long list of murderers.  The crime was committed at Fergus Falls, Minn., and the victim was a woman named Lillie Field. The case was at the time the sensation of that part of the country, and the evidence was so plain that it only took the jury twenty minutes to find the fatal verdict."

 

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

The Murder of Patrick H. Dwyer

Little Murders
 

(From The New York Times, New York, NY, January 26, 1883.)

The Murder of Patrick H. Dwyer

Recorder Smyth’s Charge—The Jury Locked up for the Night.

The trial of Charles H. Warren, a contortionist, for the murder of Patrick H. Dwyer, proprietor of a pool room at No. 108 Bowery, in a dispute arising out of the refusal of the former to engage in a game of pool on the night of Sept. 21 last, was resumed in the Court of General Sessions yesterday. The deceased saloon keeper received a shot in the back, which proved fatal. Warren, who is an extraordinary freak of nature, amused the court officers during the long hours in which the jurors were deliberating on his case by his wonderful actions, dislocating the various joins of his body at will and resetting them with a sharp click, disagreeably suggestive of the operating room. The defense was that Warren fired in self-defense, Dwyer having attempted to shoot him. The case on both sides having closed on Wednesday evening, Recorder Smyth, on the opening of court yesterday, commenced his charge to the jury, and occupied an hour and a quarter in his delivery. His Honor charged that if the jury believed that before firing of the fatal shot Warren had time for premeditation and formation of a design to kill, his offense, if any was murder in the first degree. If he showed no premeditation, his offense would be murder in the second degree. He withdrew the offense of manslaughter in the first and second degrees form their consideration as inapplicable to the case at issue, and defined the law in relation to manslaughter in the third and fourth degrees. If, he said, Warren believed that Dwyer intended to kill him or to do him serious bodily harm, he had the right to take the life of the latter. It was no longer the law of the State, the court explained, that a man should retire before an armed assailant, when to do so would expose his life or person to danger. He had a perfect right, in the defense of his person or life, if unable to escape in safety from his antagonist, to stand his ground, and, if necessary, take the life of his assailant. He would be justified, too, in governing himself according to appearances. If he was menaced with a pistol—even though it should afterwards transpire that the weapon was not loaded—he had the right to act upon appearances, and take the life of his assailant. His Honor charged the jury to take into consideration the evidence of the defendant’s previous good character, and if they had any reasonable doubt of the guilt of the defendant it was their duty to give him the benefit of that doubt and acquit.

 

The jury retired at 12:50 P. M. and at 10 last night, not having agreed upon a verdict, was locked up for the night.


 

(From The New York Times, New York, NY, January 27, 1883.)

 

The Warren Jury Disagrees

 

The jury in the case of Charles H. Warren, the contortionist, on trial for the murder of Patrick H. Dwyer, proprietor of a saloon at No. 108 Bowery, whom he shot in a dispute arising from a refusal of the defendant to play a game of pool, entered the Court of General Sessions yesterday morning, after having been locked up all night, and had the evidence of one of the witnesses of the prosecution read to them. They returned to their room and on coming into court again at 2 P. M., informed Recorder Smyth that they found it impossible to agree upon a verdict. As they had been together 25 hours and could arrive at no conclusion, the Recorder said he did not feel justified in detaining them any longer, and discharged them from the further consideration of the case. The jury stood nine for acquittal, and three for conviction of some grade of murder. Warren was then taken back to the Tombs. His counsel will endeavor to procure his release on bail.

The Baltimore Sorrow.

William James and Denwood Hinds of Baltimore were close friends who had served together in the Fifth Maryland Regiment. The friendship would have remained strong if William’s sister, Lizzie James, had not become hopelessly infatuated with Denwood Hinds. Lizzie’s love set off a chain of events that not only ended her brother’s friendship with Denwood, but resulted in her own death and the murder of her father.

Brutal Murder in Middletown.

On September 24, 1843, Lucien Hall murdered Mrs. Lavinia Bacon in Middletown, Connecticut.  I am planning a more detailed post on this murder, but for now, here is a great picture and summary reprinted from the 1844 edition of Confessions, Trials, and Biographical Sketches of the Most Cold Blooded Murderers by George N. Thomson:

Brutal Murder in Middletown.

A brutal murder was committed at Middletown on the person of Mrs. Bacon, by a man named Hall who was one of three taken up on suspicion. Hall confessed himself to be the murderer at the trial, and said he could not let the innocent suffer. He says he entered the house and took some money from a desk, before Mrs. Bacon discovered him. She entered the room where he was, he knocked her down with a chair, and beat her to death. He stabbed her with a large butcher knife several times while she was struggling to save her life. The murder was committed about 11 o’clock, A. M. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be hung on the 20th of June 1844.

Source:

Thomson, George N, Confessions, trials, and biographical sketches of the most cold blooded murderers, who have been executed in this country from its first settlement down to the present time ... Hartford: S. Andrus and Son, 1844.