Mrs. Nobles Took An Axe....

A note: I recently swore off telling historical true crime stories on my blog here, disgusted by the fact that other websites are stealing my stories, cutting and pasting them onto their own websites with nary a link to say where they came from, including pornographers (don't ask) and many others. Unsolvedmysteries.com is one of several websites that have stolen my work. And then, at the bottom of the stolen post, it advises: "All stories are copyright protected and may not be reproduced in any form, except by specific written authorization." Oh, the irony.

But I can't help myself. There are some stories begging to be told. But I won't include my sources any more and feel compelled to impart a word of warning: I am losing my patience with thieves and rascals, so kindly take note that all stories on this website are copyright protected and may not be reproduced in any form, except by specific written authorization, and I'm prepared to take drastic action the next time my copyright is violated.

The crime itself was not particularly remarkable. Mrs. T. Elizabeth (Scarborough) Nobles of Danville, Georgia, tired of her husband -- an old story. So she hired another man, Gus Fambles, to help her rid the earth of William H. Nobles. Mrs. Nobles and her ten-dollar accomplice snuck up on Mr. Nobles with a hatchet. It was never perfectly clear which one of them wielded the instrument, but it did take several hacks to accomplish the deed.

It was sloppy work, and the guilty parties were handily caught and put on trial for premeditated murder. During the two-day proceeding, which was quite well attended, it was noted that Mr. Nobles' life was insured. Elizabeth Nobles was quoted as saying if she'd known they were going to raise that much fuss about it, "I wouldn't have killed the old man." Both defendants were convicted and sentenced to death.

But it was 1895. The ladies of Georgia were appalled. A murder conviction -- a death sentence -- for a woman? It could not be countenanced. A movement began, meetings were called, committees formed, petitions drafted, appellate counsel hired, and letters to the editor poured into the offices of newspapers across the state. "Never has the fate of a criminal caused such widespread interest," said one journalist. Prominent men were quoted as saying that it was shameful to hang a woman, no matter what she'd done, and the state brought disgrace upon itself by contemplating such an action.

But the husbands of Danville -- surely alarmed by the female reaction to the case -- wanted to see her hanged, so they responded with special meetings and committees of their own. The group passed a resolution pressing for the execution, chastising "those unacquainted with the horrid details of the crime" whose effort to save her "was induced by mawkish sentiment rather than a desire to promote the ends of justice." They pointed out that there was never the slightest doubt of the guilt of this murderess who was polluted with the life blood of her husband.

So the supporters of Mrs. Nobles trotted out what they believed to be mitigating circumstances. For one thing, they said, the poor, ignorant old woman had never seen the inside of a church until she was eighteen years old. She was totally illiterate, did not know even one letter of the alphabet. She did not even know what jailhouses and courthouses were until after she killed her husband.

Since the Georgia Supreme Court proved itself immune to sympathy, her case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that Mrs. Nobles, after her conviction, had become insane and therefore could not be hanged.

The insanity defense was predicated upon her statement that she had talked to her dead husband. But in explaining her "vision," she undermined her claim of illiteracy (if the heavy use of adverbs is any indication of literacy). She was quoted in the Atlanta Constitution as saying:

Last night he stood right in this cell by my cot. I saw him distinctly and heard him speak plainly. He looked perfectly natural and asked me about our children. He inquired especially about our oldest son, Archie, who is in the Indian Territory. He also asked about our son-in-law... he made no allusion to the killing and only talked about our children... there was no sign of blood.... I knew he was dead, for I had seen his corpse myself, and this was only his spirit that had come back to earth."

Well. Given that statement, she must be insane, or at least entitled to a jury trial on the question of her sanity, per the "Save Mrs. Nobles" clubs that had sprung up across Georgia. But the U.S. Supreme Court also proved itself unassailable. Mrs. Nobles and her accomplice were scheduled to be hanged in April, 1898.

It looked as though the governor would not budge. “I am in sympathy with any unfortunate, especially a woman,” he said. “Sympathy, however, is not to be obeyed, and I cannot interfere with the law unless some good, strong reasons are presented to me.”

Therefore, her supporters made the following points in an effort to save her neck:

• A Georgia Congressman begged the governor to at least spare Mrs. Nobles the shame and disgrace of being hanged alongside her accomplice, whom he described as “a negro wretch.” The newspapers picked up the theme: “a woman, destitute, depraved, guilty though she may be, yet still the image of the most sacred form the eye of man can contemplate, can be executed upon a scaffold by the side of a negro felon… the scene does not belong to this end of the nineteenth century.” (Never mind that this was the fellow whom she chose as her accomplice.)

• One editorial opined that since women are not full citizens, they had no say in the formation of the criminal law, and therefore no woman could be held to a statutory standard of conduct. (An oft-cited argument for women’s commutations which, if carried to its logical conclusion, would seem to exclude anyone outside the Legislature from punishment for anything.)

• In the final analysis, women should never hang, ever, it was believed, because the manhood of Georgia simply couldn’t tolerate such an outcome (because it afforded women an equal footing on the scaffold?).

The governor never cited the specific argument that finally moved his pen, but days before the execution, he commuted her sentence. An immediate complication arose in that it suddenly seemed unfair to hang the other fellow when the woman escaped the noose, so his sentence was commuted, too.

Mrs. Nobles eventually died in prison at the age of 71 in 1916. For many years, the women of Georgia looked back with pride on the outcome of her case and the fruit of their efforts to have her treated as a Southern lady ought to be treated. Never mind the blood on her hands.

Comments

[LoLo]

I would miss your stories and I will add that though I don't read many of the other true crime blogs if I should find any site plagarising your work I will report it back to you.

Meantime, I hope that you continue with your writing.

[imahologram]

I love reading your stories and would miss them if you stopped. If someone steals your work again, nail ‘em!

[Cindy Rushforth]

Can you find anything about a young woman whose last name was Wilson. She was murdered by a jilted boyfriend who gave her a box of poisoned candy. This was in the state of Georgia and probably Harris, Heard or Troup county. Back in the 1920's or 1930's, I think.