A Mysterious Tragedy.

Dr. Henry Clark of Boston was summoned to 11 Hamilton Place at around 7:00 the morning of December 30, 1879. A woman had been shot and needed urgent care. When he got there, she was nearly gone, and there was nothing he could do. 

A policeman and a medical examiner arrived soon after and determined that the woman, Mrs. Helen J. Ward, had been shot twice in the head. One shot entered her temple and went through her head, the other fractured her skull without entering. 

Her 18-year-old daughter, also named Helen, did her best to explain what happened. Mother and daughter shared a bed. They worried about burglars, so they kept a revolver on a chair beside the bed. Miss Ward believed she had been in a somnambulant state and fired at a moving object that she thought was a burglar. Alternatively, she thought the gun may have discharged accidentally. This took place around 4:00 am, raising the question of why she didn’t contact someone sooner. Miss Ward was considered cold and unfeeling because she did not seem overly affected by her mother’s death.

“I cannot cry,” she moaned. “I only wish I could.”

The police suspected foul play and arrested young Helen Ward for murder.

Mother and daughter lived together in a two-room apartment. Mrs. Ward divorced her husband 12 years earlier because he had been intimate with another girl out west and was forced to marry her. Mrs. Ward and her daughter both had good reputations and were on good terms with each other. However, they were seen as somewhat eccentric, having late suppers extending far into the night. Mrs. Ward would sometimes shut herself up in her room for days at a time, though in perfect health.

The night of December 29, they had been entertaining young Helen’s fiancé, Charles Parker, night clerk at the Parker House hotel and nephew of the owner. The conversation turned to crime, and both women expressed fear of burglars invading their home. They had previously told Parker their fears, and he had loaned them his revolver for protection. He left around midnight, and they took the revolver with them when they went to bed.

The inquest was a private hearing before Judge Churchill held on January 6. Witnesses were prevented from hearing each other’s testimony. Miss Ward’s story of the killing had become more specific and much more detailed. She said they had both been frightened of burglars when they went to bed, and she put the pistol under her pillow. 

Her mother had been nervous that night to the point of illness. Helen messaged her and gave her cider, then brandy to help her sleep. Despite that, Mrs. Ward woke up twice during the night and asked her daughter to go into the sitting room and make sure no one was there. Laughingly, young Helen reached for the pistol and brandished it in a mock-heroic style, saying, “If anyone comes, I will shoot him."

She woke up around 3:00 and found the pistol under her in the bed. She replaced it under the pillow and then went back to sleep. Contrary to her original statement, she said she was aroused again at around 7:00 by a loud pistol report and awoke to find the revolver clutched tightly in her hand. She said she had been dreaming of burglars and, in her dream, had fired at one at the foot of her bed. When she saw that her mother had been shot, she got up and dressed, then sent for the doctor.

Outside of court, many believed Helen Ward was guilty of premeditated murder. Both women were considered attractive and were often taken for sisters. Perhaps young Helen was jealous of her mother's close relationship with her fiancé Charles Parker. Killing her would end any rivalry. 

Inside the courtroom, however, no evidence was presented to contradict Helen Ward’s story. Though she had shot her mother, the judge found no evidence that it had been willful murder. Helen Ward was released.

After the ruling, some accused the police of being too hasty in charging Miss Ward with murder. A legislative committee was convened to study the matter, but they concluded that, given the circumstances, the police had acted correctly.

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Sources: 

“The Autopsy,” The Boston Globe, January 3, 1880.
“A Boston Tragedy,” Columbus Evening Dispatch, December 30, 1879.
“The Death of Mrs. Ward,” Boston Evening Journal, January 6, 1880.
“The Hamilton Place Mystery,” Boston Evening Journal, January 10, 1880.
“The Hamilton Place Tragedy,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 31, 1879.
“The Helen J. Ward Case,” The Boston Globe, January 20, 1880.
“A Hub Horror,” Illustrated Police News, January 10, 1880.
“Mrs. Helen J. Ward the Victim of the Boston Shooting Mystery,” Illustrated Police News, January 17, 1880.
“The Mysterious Boston Murder,” The New York Times, January 1, 1880.
“Shocking Affair in Boston,” The Daily Item, December 30, 1879.
“A Tragedy in Hamilton Place,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 30, 1879.
“The Ward Matricide Inquest,” Boston Globe, January 6, 1880.

Horrible Beyond Precedent.

In 1872, George Wheeler married May Tilson in Boston. He soon fell in love with May’s younger sister, Delia, and they began an intimate relationship. In 1880 George and Delia were living together in San Francisco. There, Delia began a relationship with another man, and Wheeler declared he would rather see her dead than with another lover. According to Wheeler, Delia felt so conflicted and disgraced that she agreed with him and begged him to cut her throat. Instead, he strangled Delia and hid her body in a trunk.

Read the full story here: "Thus She Passed Away."

Image from "Horrible Beyond Precedent," Illustrated Police News, November 6, 1880.

What Lust Will Do.

From the confession of Mary Brown to the murder of her husband, John Brown, by her paramour, Joseph Wade:

When I first went to the gate Mr. Brown was lying with his feet about the middle of the gate and his head towards the buggy, close to the hind wheel. The buggy robe was under him and the blanket over him, so that I could not see his head. After I took the child in and returned Brown was still groaning, as he was when I first come to the gate. I said: "My God, Joe, what have you done?" He said: "Darling, this is what love will do," and threw his arms around my shoulders. He said: "I love every hair of your head better than my own life." Mr. Brown was still groaning, and he (Joe) said: "Shall I hit him?" I said: "No." He said: 'I shall have to finish it now." He added: "I will have to hit him or use my knife." I said: "Oh, my God; no; don't touch him. Let me take him in the house." I had not seen his head and didn't know he was so badly hurt. Wade said: "No, this has got to be finished."

"What Lust Will Do," Illustrated Police News, February 28. 1880.

Read the full story here: The Brown Tragedy.

A Young Fiend.

Maggie Thompson, a pretty eight-year-old girl living on Merchant Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, mysteriously disappeared on May 9, 1889. She was coming from school, just two blocks away, but she never reached her home. Detectives, police constables, and private citizens searched the neighborhood to no avail. They found no trace of Maggie.

In early June, Joseph Shovell, who lived seven doors away from the Thompsons on Merchant Avenue, noticed a foul smell coming from somewhere in the house. The building housed two families: the Shovells in one half and the Leuths, a family of German immigrants, in the other half. At the time, Mrs. Leuth was in the hospital and Mr. Leuth was away on business. Their sixteen-year-old son Otto was staying with his older brother but had a key to his parents' house and would come and go. 

Shovell complained to Otto about the smell. Otto said rats had probably died in the cellar. Also, a mattress upstairs was full of worms, and he would attend to them. He carried a mattress and featherbed to a shed, and the smell abated somewhat.

Two days later, Otto’s parents returned to the house and immediately noticed the smell. By the following Sunday, June 9, the stench became intolerable. The Leuths and the Shovells investigated together. The ghastly scene they found in the Leuths’ cellar left them nearly paralyzed with fright. The naked body of a child, partially covered by rags, lay mutilated and decomposing. The head and right arm had been severed. There was little doubt; it was Maggie Thompson's body. Mr. Leuth hurried to the police station to report the crime.

The police moved the remains to the yard outside, and the coroner examined them on-site. The skull was broken in three places, the jaw was broken, the head was severed, and the right arm was torn off at the elbow. Both families, including Otto Leuth, were arrested on suspicion.

Mr. and Mrs. Leuth had solid alibis and were released. The Shovells were released as well when the investigation focused on Otto Leuth. Otto seemed indifferent, treating the whole matter as a joke. He said he had never seen Maggie in his life and did not know the body got in the cellar. But the police harshly questioned Otto, and when they confronted him with the bloody mattress he hid in the shed, he broke down and confessed to the murder.

He confessed to the police that he enticed Maggie into the house and attempted to assault her sexually. When she resisted, he smashed her skull with a hammer and continued the assault. At the coroner’s inquest, gave the following statement:

I am sixteen years old and live at No. 42 Merchant Avenue. Right after my mother went to the hospital, I stopped work at Rauch & Lang's. On Thursday, May 9, I was standing at our gate when little Maggie Thompson came by and asked me about some buttons. This was about 11:30 o'clock in the morning. I told her to come into the house and she came in and went upstairs with me. When she got upstairs, I struck her on the head with a hammer two or three times. When she fell, I pulled off all her clothing, put her on the bed, and covered her up. I went out on the street but returned to the house again in the afternoon. I left the body in bed for nearly a week but did not sleep at home during that time. The Wednesday following, I took the body and carried it to the cellar and carried the clothes down there also. I wrapped the remains in the clothing and pushed them through the opening which communicates with the space between the cellar wall and the foundation. I crawled behind the body and pushed it to the spot where it was found. I killed her because I wanted to outrange her, and after I had struck her, I renewed the attempt. The hammer I had had been upstairs for a long time, and I think it was brought from the old country.

Otto Leuth was charged with first-degree murder and held without bail at the county Jail.

Though he had confessed several times, he pled not guilty at his indictment. When his trial began the following December, his attorneys tried to have the confessions excluded, claiming they were not voluntary statements. The judge ruled against them, leaving the jury to decide their merit.

The trial lasted nearly a month, and after deliberating for six hours, the jury found Otto Leuth guilty of first-degree murder. His attorneys moved for a new trial, and the judge refused. He sentenced Leuth to hang on April 16. Otto’s mother, Lena Leuth, screamed and frantically waving her arms she began to shriek in German. The New York World translated (and censored) her rant:

The jury be ______. The judge be ______. All thirteen men be ______. They are all bought, they are all fools. They killed my boy. It is a shame to hang a child sixteen years old. The jury be ______! Their children and grandchildren be ______! I ____ them, I the mother of that poor murdered boy!

The bailiffs carried and half-dragged her out of the courtroom.

While the murder of Maggie Thompson was considered the most heinous crime committed in Ohio to date, many were hesitant to execute a sixteen-year-old boy. The court granted Leuth a stay of execution until June 20 while his attorneys prepared to argue the case before the Court of Appeals. When the Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court refused their motion for a new trial, they were granted another stay of execution until August 29 so they could argue before the Board of Pardons. When this failed as well, they appealed directly to Governor Campbell. He also refused their plea. 

On August 29, 1890, Ohio held a double hanging in the annex of the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. “Brocky” Smith, who murdered an elderly widow in Cincinnati, would also die that day. At 11:00 pm, August 28, the prisoners were marched to the gallows. Leuth would hang first, and Smith would hang immediately after Leuth was declared dead. 

Leuth’s last words were, “Now do that business good; all ready. Let it go.” 

At 12:05 am, the trap was sprung. Seventeen minutes later, Otto Leuth was pronounced dead.

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Sources: 

“The Boy Leuth Must Hang,” Newark Daily Advocate, January 3, 1890.
“A Child Beheaded,” Eau Claire Daily Free Press, June 11, 1889.
“Condensed Telegrams,” Newark Daily Advocate, June 17, 1889.
“Crimes Expiated,” Salem Daily News, August 29, 1890.
“Cursed Judge and Jury.,” New York World, January 4, 1890.
“A Ghastly Find,” Salem Daily News, June 11, 1889.
“A Ghastly Story,” Salem Daily News, December 14, 1889.
“Hanged at Midnight,” World, August 30, 1890.
“Leuth's Confession,” Salem Daily News, December 13, 1889.
“Lured Her on to Death,” New York World, June 11, 1889.
“Otto Leuth's Death,” Syracuse Evening Herald, September 12, 1890.
“Otto Leuth's Hanging Postponed,,” Newark Daily Advocate, April 20, 1890.
“Respite for Cleveland's Boy Murderer,” Piqua Daily Leader, June 20, 1890.