The morning of January 12, 1889,
22-year-old Elmer L. Sharkey ran to the home of his neighbor, John Clare. A noise
on the stairway frightened Sharkey, who jumped out of the second-story window. He
thought a burglar was in the house and ran for help.
Sharkey and Clare returned to the Sharkey farmhouse, two
and a half miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio. They found his mother, Caroline Sharkey,
lying in bed in a pool of blood. Her arm was broken, and the back of her head
was “crushed to a jelly.” The murder weapon lay on the floor nearby—a wooden
maul with iron rings on each end, used for splitting rails. Caroline Sharkey,
age 46, was a widow living with her son on her 130-acre farm. Sharkey stuck the
burglar story, though nothing was taken from the house.
News of the murder spread quickly, generating tremendous excitement
in the region. Suspicion fell on Elmer Sharkey. Although he offered a $1,000 reward
for the capture of his mother’s killer, he seemed utterly indifferent to his
mother’s fate, showing little emotion.
Sharkey became restless and uneasy. After his mother’s
funeral on January 14, he called his uncle and cousins together to talk about
the murder. Then, in the presence of a reporter from the Cleveland Plain
Dealer, Sharkey admitted that he killed his mother but did not know why he did it.
Fearing a lynch mob, the police arrested Sharkey and quickly took him to jail.
The following April, Sharkey was tried for the first-degree
murder of Caroline Sharkey. The motive given by the prosecution was Sharkey’s
desire to inherit his mother’s 130-acre farm and to remove her objection to his
proposed marriage.
For his defense, Sharkey pled insanity. In addition to Sharkey’s
strange behavior after the murder, the defense attorneys cited massive evidence
of insanity in Sharkey’s family history. His mother had been in an insane asylum
and twice had tried to commit suicide—once by jumping down a well and once by
hanging herself. Her sister Sarah had also been in an asylum and had two insane
children. Her uncle, John Risnger had attempted suicide by butting his head
against a building. His sister Malinda had strange spells of suspected
insanity, as did her brothers William and Levi. William’s daughter suffered
from epilepsy, and several more of Elmer’s mother’s relatives were considered
insane.
On his father’s side, his father Henry was epileptic and
had attempted suicide, his uncle Michael had two insane children and a feeble-minded
son, his uncle Noah had two epileptic daughters, and his aunt had two children
who committed suicide.
However, the “insanity dodge,” as one newspaper called it,
was unsuccessful. The jury found Elmer Sharkey guilty of first-degree murder,
and he was sentenced to hang on September 13.
Sharkey was granted a stay of execution while his attorney
prepared an appeal. The state Supreme Court granted a new trial due to errors
in the first trial, and in April 1890, he was retried for the murder of his
mother. Once again, Sharkey was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
As his execution drew near, Sharkey claimed he had no
recollection of what happened the night of the murder. He claimed his confession
had been forced through threats of lynching.
Despite another appeal and a petition to commute his
sentence to life in prison, Sharkey could not escape the gallows. Shortly after
midnight on December 18, 1890, Elmer Sharkey was hanged in the annex of the
Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus.
His last words were, “I will answer to God for what I have
done and forgive all.”
Sources:
“The Boy Murderer,” Evening Post., April 9, 1890.
“Convicted of the Murder of his Mother,” Evening Post, May 2, 1889.
“Elmer Sharkey Convicted,” Democratic Northwest., May 16, 1889.
“Found Murdered in Her Bed,” Cleveland Leader AND MORNING HERALD., January 13, 1889.
“Got a NEw Trial,” Lexington Herald Leader, November 20, 1889.
“Her Skull was Crushed,” National Police Gazette, February 2, 1889.
“Killed By Her Son,” Plain Dealer, January 15, 1889.
“A Murdered Mother,” Evening Post., January 14, 1889.
“Murderer Sharkey to Hang,” Ccourier-Post, May 22, 1889.
“News Article,” Erie Morning Dispatch, April 1, 1890.
“News Of The State,” Plain Dealer, February 26, 1890.
“Respited,” The Dayton Herald, November 20, 1889.
“Sharkey Must Go,” Columbus Evening Dispatch, July 25, 1890.
“A Stay of Execution Granted ,” The Piqua Daily Call, August 3, 1889.
“Two Murderers Hang,” The Daily Interocean, December 19, 1890.
“A Young Fiend,” Cleveland Leader AND MORNING HERALD., January 15, 1889.
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