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More Murders in Maine.

Here are the murders that were left out of the post “Murders in Maine” on 6/2/2012. Insert the text of this post between paragraphs two and three of the previous post to get the entire article published in the Boston Daily Globe on July 9, 1888.

Little Murders

(From The Boston Daily Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, July 9, 1888.)

Murders in Maine.

...
At the State prison at Thomaston more than 30 Maine murderers are imprisoned, nearly all for life. Here are Mrs. Mary Barrows and Oscar Blaney, her son-in-law, the woman who plotted her husband’s death and the boy who was her tool. Here is Thomas J. Libby, the Scarboro man who killed his mistress in bed at a Portland hotel. Here is old Joe Preble, the Androscoggin county wife murderer, who had been behind Thomaston’s walls since 1861. Charles E. Prescott, who hauled his victim’s body up and down the streets of Portland in a cart, is now in the last stages of consumption, and strenuous efforts are being made for his pardon.

On the scaffold in this old stone building Wagner, the Isle of Sholes murderer, Clifton Harris, who killed the two old women in Auburn, and Gordon, the Thorndike murder, expiated their crimes with their lives. Of these, the murder for which Clifton Harris was hanged was most awful in its detail. More than 20 years ago two old ladies lived alone in a little house in the outskirts of Auburn. It was a wild and stormy night in the dead of winter when the crime was committed. Late the next day a neighbor, thinking the absence of all signs of life about the little dwelling to be something unusual, entered the house. The sight was most horrible. There in the little bedroom lay the dead bodies of the two old ladies. One of them had been strangled to death and ravished while dying. To say that the community was wild with excitement is nothing. Men, women and children thirsted for the life of the assassin. In less than a week

The Saugerties Bard.

Sketch by Johyn Hughes Kerbert

Before the Civil War, a prolific balladeer named Henry S. Backus roamed the Catskills in New York State singing original songs about current events. Better known as The Saugerties Bard, he wandered from town to town singing about explosions, fires, prize fights, riots, and of course, murders.

Travelling in a broken-down wagon festooned with American flags and bells, he would enter a town, usually accompanied by a procession of barking dogs, and begin playing popular songs on flute or fiddle to the gathering crowd. He would sing his original songs then sell printed copies for a penny.

Henry Backus had been a school teacher with a wife and five daughters. When his wife died he began drinking heavily and became “rabid” with religion ending up in an insane asylum in Hudson, New York. By 1850 he was back in Saugerties and beginning his career in entertainment. 

In 1941, 87-year-old Johyn Hughes Kerbert, drew a sketch of Backus from memory. He remembered the Saugerties Bard as “rather short, stocky, well built, long grey hair and beard, grey suit, a ‘Grant Hat’ and a wooden leg.”

The Brooklyn Barber.

A farmhand walking through an oat field in Watervliet, New York on August 7, 1873, came across the corpse of a one-armed man at the top of a ravine. Decomposition had set in and the man’s facial features were all but obliterated by the sun. A razor found on the ground near the body inclined the coroner to think the death was a suicide, but a closer examination revealed that, in addition to having his throat cut, the man had been shot nine times in the head and chest. There was nothing on the body to indicate the identity of the man except for a business card from a barbershop in Brooklyn, 150 miles south of Watervliet.

Joseph Sherer.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Joseph Sherer.

"Two human forms, one that of a young man, the other that of a girl, the latter cold in death, the former in death’s agonies, each weltering in blood, that had streamed from deadly wounds; a revolver empty and harmless, now that its fatal work was done. This was the ghastly sight that met Police Captain Davidson of Albany, N. Y., on the night of June 16, 1888, when one of the doors leading into a bedroom on the second floor of an eating house on William Street, had been broken open. The man’s name was Joseph Sherer, and the woman’s Lizzie McCarthy. Investigation revealed the fact that Sherer shot Lizzie, who was his sweetheart, because she refused to marry him, and then shot himself."

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

Murders in Maine.

This article on murders in the State of Maine appeared in The Boston Daily Globe on July 9, 1888. It was quite long, so I edited out six or seven gruesome Maine murders, leaving only the two stories that the author compares to those of Poe and De Quincey.  I may post the rest at a later date.

Little Murders

(From The Boston Daily Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, July 9, 1888.)

Murders in Maine.

A State of Very Many Awful Crimes.

Tragedies That Rival in Horror the Tales of Edgar Allen Poe.

More than Thirty Murderers Now Behind the Bars of Thomaston.

Lewiston, Me., July 8.—It certainly seems as if there were more murders committed in Maine than in any other State in the Union. Every few weeks the papers are called on to describe one. It was but three months or so ago that Chase shot Mrs. Stevens in the streets of Portland  and then tried to kill himself. Then came the killing of old Mrs. Gould at Saccarappa, and then the butchery of the old farmer at Wiscasset by the boy. And now the postal-car murder at Bangor is followed by the tragedy at Monson.

The story of the many murders in Maine in the past 20 years is a most peculiar one. It is especially peculiar in this respect—that out of the scores of tragedies hardly one has been the result of drink. In some few instances the murderers have been drinking men, but they were sober when the crime was committed. Another peculiar feature of the story of capital crime in Maine is that almost every murder is marked by some striking and novel feature, something unusual in the motive or in the manner of the crime. Edgar Allan Poe could not have told a more gruesome story than that of the Watson murder in the town of Parkman, and De Quincey, before writing his famous essay on “Murder as a Fine Art,” might have talked with profit to the never-to-be-detected assassin of Tax Collector Elliot of Glenburn.

Love and Law.

The tragic love affair between Charles Kring and Dora Broemser ended in one maddened instant—he asked her to leave her husband, she refused, he shot her dead. The prosecution of Charles Kring for the crime of murder lasted eight years, included six trials and required a ruling by the United States Supreme Court.

Dan Driscoll.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Dan Driscoll.

Dan Driscoll was without doubt one of the most notorious criminals of his day. He was the recognized leader of the notorious Whyo Gang of the 6th Ward of New York, and he has probably figured in more shooting scrapes and brawls than any ruffian of his age. He was born in the 6th Ward and was never out of it unless in prison. His aptitude for crime became evident at an early age and as he grew older he became more hardened. He always carried a pistol, which he at last used with fatal result, having killed a woman named Breezy Garrity, although it was his intention to kill a pal by the name of McCarty. For this he was hung in the Tombs in February 1888.

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

The Car-Hook Tragedy

The night of April 26, 1871, while stepping off a Manhattan horse-car, Avery Putnam was struck from behind and killed by William Foster wielding an iron car-hook. This cowardly and unprovoked attack outraged the people of New York but before its ultimate resolution, outrage over “The Car-Hook Tragedy” would be overshadowed by a bitter public debate on the morality of the death penalty, and allegations of threat and bribery to prevent Foster’s execution.

Forty Years Suspected of Murder.

Little Murders

(From Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, November 9, 1885.)

Forty Years Suspected of Murder.

Jonas L. Parker, a resident and tax-collector of Manchester, N. H., was enticed from his home one dark night in March, 1845, and murdered. His body was found the next day near some woods on the outskirts of town, the throat cut and a deep gash in the hip. A shoe knife and razor lay by his side, left by the murderer, who hoped to leave the impression of suicide. A watch and about $2000 were found in the victim’s pockets. The case attracted wide attention and for four years no evidence was found to implicate anybody. Finally in 1849 it leaked out that Parker had visited Saco, Me., a few days before his murder with the object of buying a hotel. There he met Henry T. Wentworth, to whom he explained his visit and showed a large sum of money he had about him. So Henry T. Wentworth, his brother Asa and his wife were arrested on suspicion and tried at Saco in February 1849. For lack of evidence the judge dismissed the case. Suspicious and slight circumstantial evidence, however continued to accumulate, and in May, 1850, the Wentworths were again arrested and taken to Manchester for trial. Gen. Butler and Franklin Pierce, afterwards president of the United States, appeared for the defendants. The trial lasted 12 days. The accused were again acquitted and since then the matter has rested, the Wentworth family being suspected all the same of having done the deed.

Horror!

For several days there had been no activity on the Deering farm, just south of the city of Philadelphia, so on April 11, 1866, their neighbor, Mr. Ware, went over to see what was wrong. He found the house empty, but in the barn, he saw a human foot protruding from the hay. Ware ran for help, and together they uncovered the brutally mutilated bodies of Christopher Deering, his wife Julia, four of their children—ranging in age from eight years to fourteen months—and Elizabeth Dolan, a visiting cousin. Outside the barn they found the body of Cornelius Cary, seventeen-year-old hired hand, similarly mutilated.

The following day, the headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer bore the single word: “Horror!”.

Joseph Crawford.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Joseph Crawford.

Joseph Crawford is serving a term of seventeen years in Joliet State Prison, for a most cold blooded murder. He was a typical Chicago hoodlum, ready for any deviltry or crime. He, with two other companions were carousing in the streets, making night hideous with their ruffianly revelry, noticed a poor laboring man approaching, when they proceeded to hold him up. The poor man showed he did not have a cent, when the ruffian Crawford out of spite and disappointment, shot the poor man dead.

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

Jack-Pot in Alaska

In an old book, recently, I found a story about a murderous 1897 card game in Alaska which featured the notorious outlaw, Soapy Smith. To get an expert’s opinion, I sent the story to Jeff Smith at Soapy Smith’s Soap Box. It turns out, the story is very likely true.

Here is a link to the story and Jeff’s take on it: A Jack-Pot in Alaska: The story of an unknown gunfight.

Our Murderers.

Little Murders

(From Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 6, 1875)

OUR MURDERERS.

Eleven Men Awaiting Trial for Homicide in Allen County.

The Recent Record of Bloody Crimes in this Vicinity.

 Some of Whose perpetrators Were Never Apprehended.

Brief Account of the Terrible Deeds to be Avenged.

During the past few months Fort Wayne and Allen county have gained an unenviable reputation abroad by reason of the number of murders and other deeds of violence and lawlessness which have been committed within its limits during that time. The result is seen in the fact that we how have in this county the alarming number of eleven men awaiting trial for murder in some of its degrees. In addition to the crimes for which these men have been arrested, three probable murders have been committed within little over a year, of which no clue to the perpetrators was ever obtained—we refer to the cases of Andrew Tiernan, David Boesch and James W. Chaney.

Poor Mary Stannard!

A little after 1:00 pm on Tuesday, September 3, 1878, Charles Stannard saw his twenty-two-year-old daughter, Mary, leave their home in the Rockland, Connecticut carrying a tin pail; she was off to pick berries, just a few hundred yards away. Mary never reached her destination. At 6:00 that evening, Mary’s father found her lifeless body lying in the path leading from the house. She had been stabbed in the throat and left lying on her back with her hands folded across her stomach. As the news spread through town, so did rumors and speculations as to her killer. By Thursday all speculation pointed to one man: Mary’s Methodist pastor and onetime employer, the Reverend Herbert H. Hayden.

Confessing an Awful Crime.

Little Murders

(From Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 18, 1894)

CONFESSING AN AWFUL CRIME.

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A Georgia Man describes How He Butchered His Five Children.

Waynesboro, Ga, April. 19.—Edward Dowse, who is held in jail charged with the murder of his five children, has confessed his guilt. He says his children kept accumulating upon him, while his ability to support them diminished, and on the morning of the murder he felt an uncontrollable desire to rid himself of the burden. Pretending to his wife that he wanted some necessary article in the cabin he went there, and having fastened the door behind him, he attacked the youngest child with an ax and killed it. The others held him by the legs, beseeching him to spare the child. Turning from his dead victim he grasped two others and beat their heads against each other until they became unconscious. With the ax he then killed them. The two remaining children sought refuge under the bed. Reaching for them he killed them also and left five dead bodies on the floor. Closing the door he returned to work, giving no sign of the bloody work in which he had been engaged. It is believed that his wife and sister, who have disappeared, are also guilty.

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Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 18, 1894.

George Tartar.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

George Tartar.

"George Tartar, who is a most desperate thief and villain, making his home in Kentucky when out of prison, and has added to his numerous crimes that of murder. A dance was given at a distillery near Summerset, Ky., and there was a large assemblage on hand. Tartar, who was out of jail only twelve days, invited himself. After arming himself with a pair of brass knuckles and a dirk, he had not been at the dance long before he showed his determination to create a fight. Tartar commenced by knocking an inoffensive young man down, and others coming to his assistance, Tartar pulled out his dirk, slashing right and left, literally hacking one man to pieces, who afterwards died."

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

Startling Parallelisms.

Just five days before the start of Lizzie Borden’s trial for the murder of her father and step-mother in Fall River, Massachusetts, the town was shocked by another brutal axe murder. The mutilated body of Bertha Manchester was found in the kitchen of her home. The “startling parallelism” between this case and the Borden murders—the excessive number of wounds in each case, the fact that both incidents occurred in broad daylight, the lack of any apparent motive—threatened to open a new line of defense in Lizzie’s trial. It would, at very least, challenge many of the prosecution’s stated assumptions.

51 Murder Mysteries in Two Years

The New York City newspaper, The World, printed this map in their July 18, 1897 edition, indicating the locations of 131 murders in the city during the previous 28 months. The accompanying story had some interesting statistics regarding New York’s murders. To an overwhelming degree, the killers who were captured received only minor sentences; only fifteen of the murderers were sentenced to death or to life in prison. And in fifty-one of the cases—more than a third of the total—the mystery was unsolved and likely to remain unsolved. The World assessed the situation this way:

Thus the murderer’s chances in New York, estimated from the experience of two years past, may be summarized about as follows:

Of capital punishment  ………………………………………… 1 in 18

Of life imprisonment    ………………………………………… 1 in 16

Of minor punishment   ………………………………………… 1 in 3

Of escape altogether …………………………………………… 1 in 3

Though the murder rate in New York City 1895 - 1897 seems high, according to Memoirs of a Murder Man by Arthur A. Carey—who was the head of New York’s Homicide Bureau during this period—of all the major American cities, only Los Angeles had a lower murder rate than New York. These were bloody times.


The World article lists all 131 of the murders and surprisingly, only one of them has already been covered at Murder by Gaslight—the murder of Domenico Cataldo by Maria Barbella. This is likely to change.


While there is little point in duplicating their entire list, a few selections from the unsolved mysteries may be interesting:

DARKEST OF THE MYSTERIES

• Henry Neumeister – Struck on head by an unknown person and killed at Columbus Avenue and One Hundred and First Street March 1895. A mystery.
• William H. Bower—Killed with a billiard cue at 1502 Lexington Avenue Feb.27, 1897. John Cotter accused of the killing, has never been arrested according to the entry in District-Attorney’s office.
• Michael Healy—Stabbed in the eye, Nov. 9, 1895, on Grove street with umbrella in hands of unknown person. Died from injuries. A mystery.
• Dennis Hurley—Killed, May 4, 1897, by brick thrown from roof of 210 East Forty-fourth street by unknown person.
• Prof. Max Eglau—Killed in the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes. Lexington  Avenue and Sixty-Seventh Street. Feb. 10, 1896. Several of the pupils in the school were arrested on suspicion and discharged. The murder is still a profound mystery.
• Maggie Riley, alias “Diamond Flossie” Murphy—Killed at 228 West Twenty-fourth street, April 22, 1897. Strangled. Still a mystery.

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Sources:

• Carey, Arthur A., and Howard McLellan. Memoirs of a murder man,. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1930.
• "Fifty-One ‘Murder Mysteries’ in Two Years." The World [New York] 18 July 1897: 28.

A Woman Scorned.

William Goodrich paid a visit to the lodging of his brother Charles, on Degraw Street in Brooklyn, on March 21, 1873. Getting no response at the door William entered the house to search for his brother, and found Charles  lying dead on the basement floor, neatly posed, as if laid out by an undertaker. Charles had been shot in the head, and lying on the floor near his hand lay a revolver, suggesting suicide. But William Goodrich knew his brother too well to believe this.

“You never did this yourself!” he said, “This is murder! Not suicide!”