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| William H. Devlin (Illustrated Police News, December 22, 1877) |
The officers went to the home of William and Ellen Devlin and found the door locked. After receiving no response to their knocks, they broke it open. Inside, they were shocked to find a woman lying on the bedroom floor, battered and wounded, blood oozing from a deep gash behind her left ear, and her whole face was swollen and distorted, all indicating an agonizing death. On her breast, an infant lay dead, its neck and face showing signs of brutal treatment.
The Devlins had three other children: a boy, 10, a girl, 7, and a boy, 5, who the police found at their grandmother’s house. They were reluctant to speak of the assault, but after a meal at the police station, they told what had happened. On Saturday, their mother, Ellen Devlin, suffered from a toothache. She went to Sheldon & Rodliff’s grocery store and borrowed twenty-five cents on her husband’s account to have her tooth extracted. When their father, William Devlin, heard this, he was livid. He believed she had borrowed the money to buy alcohol. William was drunk, himself, when he came home that night, and he began to berate and threaten his wife. Their argument quickly came to blows when he punched her above the right eye. He threw her on the floor, kicked her, and began jumping on her. She gained her feet as soon as possible and, grabbing the baby, started upstairs. He threw her down again and dragged her into the bedroom. He beat her with a piece of wood, poured water on her head, stabbed her in the neck with a butcher knife, and then covered her with a few old dresses. The children were crying to see their mother so abused. William told them to keep quiet, or he would kill them.
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| Discovery of the Bodies. (Illustrated Police News, December 22, 1877) |
On Sunday, William went out, locking the children in the house. During the day, the oldest boy, John Devlin, uncovered his mother’s face and could see she was dead. When their father returned, the baby was crying. William tried feeding it, but when that failed to quiet the infant, he covered its head with the bedclothes and smothered it to death.
Monday morning, William gave John ten cents to buy the children candy. He said to go to his grandmother’s and say that his mother was dead, but to say nothing of the row between their mother and father. When the children left, he locked all the doors and windows.
William went to an attorney’s office to collect $20 pension that he was owed. Then he walked to the North Chelmsford train station and bought a ticket to Ayer, Massachusetts. There, he bought a ticket to Rutland, Vermont. When the police learned he had a sister in Rutland, they were able to trace his movements. They telegraphed ahead, and the news reached Bellows Falls, Vermont, before the train arrived. After some resistance, he was taken off the train.
The following day, Devlin was put in irons and, sitting between two officers, was taken by train back to Lowell. Hundreds of spectators were waiting at the depot, and they followed the carriage to the police station. Devlin was kept under heavy guard due to threats of lynching.
William Devlin was born in Ireland and emigrated to Vermont in 1852. He fought for the Union in the Civil War and, after the war, met and married Ellen Manning. They moved to Lowell and had been there about eleven years. Ellen’s mother had nothing good to say about her son-in-law. He was a heavy drinker, and she told the press that “drunk or sober, he was the ugliest man she ever knew.” By the time of the murder, Ellen was addicted to alcohol as well.
Devlin was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. His trial before the Supreme Judicial Court in East Cambridge began on December 3, 1878. The only witness for the defense was Devlin himself, testifying on his own behalf. Stressing his war record, Devlin said he received a saber cut on his head at Antietam. Since then, he had usually been dizzy when in the sun, and when drunk, he got a blur over his eyes, so he did not know what he was doing.
On the day of the murder, he came home about half past four, somewhat intoxicated. His wife was sleeping with the baby in her arms; she got up and went upstairs; he took the baby out of her arms. When she was about halfway up, she fell headlong. He put out his arm to catch her and dragged her into the bedroom. He went out for more drinks, came back, and, leaving his wife on the floor, went to sleep in the chair. She slept all day Sunday, and on Monday morning, he found her dead.
The most persuasive testimony came from Devlin’s children, now a year older. John Devlin, 11, testified to seeing his father kick his mother, jump upon her, and throw her downstairs. He stamped on her six or seven times and stabbed her twice. 8-year-old Nellie Devlin said she saw her father strike her mother with a knife. Mother said, “Don’t kill me.” Father said, “Yes, I will.”
Devlin’s attorney, after defining for the jury the different degrees of murder, argued that his client was so much under the influence of alcohol at the time to be in a state of mind unable to commit the offense of murder in the first degree.
The jury deliberated for seven hours before returning a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. Devlin took it in stride, saying, “Well, gentlemen, I suppose I’ve got to hang for it.”
Following his conviction, community attitudes against Devlin changed somewhat. Sympathetic supporters circulated a petition to commute his sentence to life in prison. Governor Talbot and the council agreed to a public hearing. The main argument for commutation was to prevent the stigma of Devlin’s death on the gallows from being fastened on his children. Devlin’s attorney argued that the children’s testimony had been coached by the victim’s parents, and the jury had been confused about their choices. Chief State Detective Clemence testified that “Devlin was a man of many vices and few virtues. He was of a nervous temperament, jealous and revengeful, and had several times mad unprovoked assaults on persons.” The governor declined to commute the sentence.
William Devlin was hanged in Cambridge on May 14, 1879. His last words on the gallows were, “I thank all my friends for their kindness to me. I recommend all my friends abstain from rum, and I recommend my soul to God.”
Sources:
“A Brutal Murder,” New York Herald, December 4, 1878.
“A Cursed Murderer in Lowell, Mass,” Illustrated Police News, December 22, 1877.
“The Devlin Case,” Lowell Weekly Sun, March 1, 1879.
“Devlin Muerder Case,” Lowell Daily Citizen, December 4, 1878.
“The Devlin Murder,” Lowell Daily Citizen, December 11, 1877.
“The Devlin Murder,” Lowell Daily Citizen, December 12, 1877.
“Devlin's Case,” Lowell Daily Citizen, February 26, 1879.
“Devlin's Doom,” Lowell Daily Citizen, March 14, 1879.
“A Horrible Tragedy,” Worcester Evening Gazette, December 11, 1877.
“Murder in the First Degree,” New Haven Evening Register, December 5, 1878.
“Shocking Murder,” Lowell Daily Citizen, December 10, 1877.
“Tried for His Life,” Lowell Weekly Sun, December 7, 1878.
“Wife Murder,” New York Herald, December 5, 1878.
“William H Devlin Arraigned for the Murder of His Wife and Child,” Lowell Daily Citizen, April 16, 1878.
“William H. Deflin,” Evening Bulletin, March 14, 1879.
“Wm. H. Devlin,” Lowell Daily Citizen, January 9, 1879.
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