CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

Conduct Unbecoming a Widow

The amateur collector of murders is a much more discriminating person than the chance observer understands. He is often a determined antiquarian and reactionary; when any new murder comes out he bends his attention toward an old one.

-- Edmund L. Pearson in What Makes a Good Murder?

The news shows in the U.S. are dominated this week by the sad tale of one Todd Sommer, a Marine Corps sergeant who died of arsenic poisoning. His widow, Cynthia Sommer, came to the attention of authorities after she embarked on a Menendez-style spending frenzy that began with a boob job.

This crime du jour appears on its face to be yet another example of the arsenic school of marital termination. But the historical true crime aficionado who tunes into the coverage can't help but think -- is this a rerun?

Arsenic poisoning of a spouse for gain is a painfully unoriginal and old-fashioned murder and a bit of a surprise in a modern context considering the advances in medical science that make its detection all but unavoidable. There are many better (indeed classic) examples of this type of crime; a would-be widow would have been well served to study the outcomes of the cases of her foremothers before embarking on a course of conduct that in any other age would see her hanged or worse.

Among the more famous arsenic widows were Elizabeth Reed (the first woman publicly executed in Illinois; in 1845 she was hanged for poisoning her husband with arsenic); Priscilla Bigadyke (the first woman privately executed in Britain; she was hanged in 1868 for poisoning her husband with arsenic); Bertha Zillman (who was beheaded in Germany in 1893 for poisoning her husband with arsenic); and as evidence that this is a co-ed institution there is the example of Major Armstrong (who poisoned his wife with arsenic and was hanged in 1922 and is by one account the only attorney ever hanged in Britain).

But the most famous spousal murder by arsenic is certainly the case of Florence Maybrick. The Liverpool trial of the American woman for the murder of James Maybrick remains one of the most controversial trials of all time. To this day, Florence has staunch defenders. Her case will forever remain an enigma, and there will never be agreement on the question of whether justice was served by the outcome. And if you aren't already familiar with the last chapter of Mrs. Maybrick's case, I won't spoil it for you.

And today we get to enjoy the proceedings involving the widow Sommer. She faces murder charges in a death-penalty state and the hot glare of television cameras focused not-all-that-nonchalantly on the products of her husband's insurance proceeds. The surprising news of a possible modern example of a marriage ending with a dollop of arsenic goes to show that some things never go out of vogue; on the other hand, if she is convicted and yet does not receive the death penalty, then there may yet be some conclusions to draw about changing times.

Black Juries Doled Out Justice

The first all-female juries made headlines when they were empaneled in jurisidictions across the United States (see my summary) and the same was true of the first all-black juries -- particularly in the South.

One of the most famous murder cases tried before an all-black jury was the trial of Ben Chaney. He was the younger brother of slain civil rights worker James Chaney. In 1970, Ben (age 17) and two of his friends (who were 15 and 19 years old respectively) were accused of slaying a white man who ran a roadside fireworks stand. John Bazemore was murdered near Hardeeville in South Carolina. One of the young men involved in the robbery was fatally shot by a teenage boy who worked as a helper at the stand. Chaney was accused of driving the getaway car -- which was traced to two Florida co-eds who had been murdered.

The selection of an all-black jury for the case was remarkable at the time. It was the first all-black jury to serve in a capital case in South Carolina where the victim was white. Before the panel retired to deliberate, the judge said, "You have been one of the most attentive juries I have encountered in my years upon the bench." While Chaney's alleged accomplice was convicted, Chaney was acquitted.

In another once-famous but now inexplicably forgotten case, twelve Hanafi Muslims were accused of conducting an armed siege of three buildings in Washington, D.C., murdering one person and capturing 150 hostages. In 1977 an all-black jury convicted them for the seige that terrorized the capital of the United States and made headlines across the world. 

But it was much more common for all-black juries to hear cases involving black victims and defendants -- such as the murder trial of Ed O'Neil in 1923 before the first all-black jury in Kentucky. They convicted him.

If you are aware of other early cases involving all-black juries, drop me a line.

"Voyage of the Courtesans"

One wouldn't think to look to public television for racy historical stories, but the highlight of this season's run of the program "Secrets of the Dead" was an episode featuring "The Voyage of the Courtesans."

It was 1789; the prisons of London were overflowing with condemed women, while in distant New World colonies, the all-male settlers were tempted into "gross irregularities." The solution: authorities arranged for a shipment of women prisoners who would ensure the success of a troubled settlement in Australia. 

Highlighted in the program are some contemporary Australians who have traced their lineage back to three women who made that voyage: Rachel Hoddy (a prostitute who was sentenced to transportation for rolling a customer; see her Old Bailey case summary); Ann Marsh (who stole household goods from her landlady; see her Old Bailey case summary); and a girl named Mary Wade, whose act of theft would eventually lead her to become one of the founding mothers of Australia.

The program's supporting website has a nice summary of events on board the ship and afterward. Suffice it to say the sailors were not unhappy with their human cargo and it was a long voyage, and there were more people on the ship at the end of it than at the beginning.

Enjoy!

Legal History With Footnotes

For those interested in very obscure historical subjects and an academic treatment of same I refer you to The Law and History Review. This publication comes from the American Society for Legal History (via the University of Illinois Press). The last several years' worth of academic papers are online; recently I found one in particular very interesting. In This Death Some Strong and Stout Hearted Men Doth Choose: The Practice of Piene Forte et Dure in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England author Andrea McKenzie relays the history of a method of execution in which the subject was pressed to death -- and why some selfless English prisoners chose to die in that horrifying way.

Enjoy!

A Temporary Change in Focus and A Murder Extinct

Your correspondent is about to begin her confinement (translation: I'm grossly pregnant). For the next several weeks, Clews will alas not be relaying original stories but will instead bring you intermittent dispatches that highlight the internet writings of other students of law and history and crime as I balance my keyboard on this handy shelf of flesh.

There is a vast amount of well-written material on my favorite subjects all over the world wide web and today I bring to your attention the work of journalist Evan J. Albright. This gentleman is the author of a thoroughly well done website called "Cape Cod Confidential -- Dedicated to the History of Crime and Scandal in America's Vacationland." In it, he relays some of the famous and not-so-famous murder cases in that locality.

My favorite story from this collection is How NOT To Get Away With Murder. There is a certain school of murder that no longer graduates anyone, thanks be to advances in humanity. I call this now-extinct form of homicide the "I Found Someone Better So You Have To Die" murder. Albright's essay is a good example of this type of case. It goes like this: A young and ambitious [doctor / businessman / clergyman] woos and beds a young and pretty [shopgirl / factory girl / student] but then he manages to win the heart of [an heiress / the boss's daughter] whom he then plans to marry; but when the [shopgirl / factory girl / student] reveals to the [businessman / clergyman] that she is with child, he [drowns / poisons] her. Think Carlyle Harris and Helen Potts or Chester Gillette and Grace Brown (the latter inspiring Theodore Dreiser to pen An American Tragedy). Consider the case of Rev. Ephraim Avery and Sarah Cornell, New England's infamous "Haystack Murder."

Albright brings us yet another of these cases from 1911 in Massachusetts. A young and ambitious clergyman named Rev. Clarence Richeson wooed and bedded a student named Avis Linnell but then managed to win the heart of an heiress named Violet Edmands. When Miss Linnell revealed to the reverend that she was with child -- mere weeks before he planned to wed Miss Edmands -- he poisoned her with cyanide of potassium.

Do you know of other cases from this special school? Am I correct in thinking this is a particularly old-fashioned murder scenario with no modern examples?

As always thank you for stopping by.

"I shouldn't be alive"

The Discovery Channel has a fascinating new show called "I Shouldn't Be Alive." The program profiles people who found themselves in do-or-die situations and somehow managed to survive: a man who crashed his small airplane in an African desert... a family stranded in a blizzard in a remote area... travelers who got lost in the Amazon jungle.

But these stories pale in comparison to the tales of those people who managed to survive their executions.

One such story was recently relayed by The Scotsman, which tells the tale of "Half Hanged Maggie Dickson." She was found guilty of "concealment of pregnancy" in 1728 (and presumably committed infanticide as well). After she was hanged in the customary fashion and her body was on its way to the churchyard, she managed to return to life in her coffin. Under Scottish law, Maggie was considered dead, so she was free to go about her business thereafter. (Thanks to P.J. for the link.)

In a similar vein, author James Farr relayed a story in his recent book A Tale of Two Murders (which I recently reviewed and highly recommend). In a fascinating aside to his main story, Farr tells the tale of Helene Gillet, who was also convicted of infanticide but this time in 16th-century France. Since she was of noble blood, her fate was beheading and not hanging. But the executioner, trying to accomplish the bloody deed with a broadsword, swung -- and missed. He struck her shoulder. A second blow went high and slashed her head. The crowd went crazy. The executioner's wife leapt forward and tried to end Gillet's life with a garrotte, but by then the crowd was throwing stones in protest. The executioner's wife tried slashing Gillet's throat with a pair of scissors. Still the girl would not die. Finally the crowd -- sensing a miracle in the making -- rescued Gillet and rushed her to a surgeon. The capitally condemned woman eventually managed not only to survive her execution but to obtain a pardon from the king and retire to a convent.

Anne Greene was yet another woman condemned for infanticide who somehow managed to survive her hanging in Oxford in 1650. And the tale of another person half-hanged appears in a newspaper account from Bristol, 1736; Joshua Harding was hanged for an undescribed offense but miraculously came back to life only to be condemned to being "transported for 14 years." (Thanks to Sharon Howard for these links).

It's one thing to survive an awful situation when Mother Nature wants you dead. But when it is man who is determined to end your life -- and yet you somehow come out of it alive -- now that is an impressive story of survival against the odds.

Women and the Death Penalty in Alabama - Part II: Why No One Wept for Miss Dennison

The number of murderers put to death since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976 has now topped a thousand. Since journalists like to have a "news hook," the occasion has resulted in a plethora of stories about the death penalty in theory and practice in the United States. It seems that public opinion is slipping a bit; polls show that support for the death sentence has dropped from four in five Americans to two in three... but that's still a clear majority.

And it's stories like the murder of Shirley Dianne Weldon that engender such support.

It's hard for the mother of a little 2 1/2-year-old boy to write about a murderess such as Miss Earle Dennison, the sixteenth woman executed by the State of Alabama. The very fact that she was the first white woman ever executed in Alabama tells you she did something perfectly awful and horrible to contemplate.

Miss Earle Dennison was a widow and a surgical nurse; she worked at the Wetumpka General Hospital for more than 25 years. Her late husband had a sister who also had a husband and a little girl named Shirley and a boy named Orville.

Shirley was a little over two years old when Aunt Earle paid an early afternoon call to their humble farmhouse in rural Elmore County on May 1, 1952. During the visit, Aunt Earle gave little Shirley an orange drink that included a substance that is very bad for little girls. When Shirley began to vomit, Aunt Earle gave her a bottle of Coca-Cola that was also laced with something. Shirley became terribly sick, and her mother insisted on rushing her to Wetumpka General.

When it appeared that the little girl was gravely ill and would die, Aunt Earle left the hospital. She drove twelve miles to the home of an insurance agent. There she paid the premium for a life insurance policy she had taken out on her niece's life -- the policy was about to lapse. Aunt Earle, you see, had insured little Shirley for $6,500.

In 1952, that was about enough money to buy three nice new cars.

A few hours after the policy on her life was renewed, Shirley Weldon died. An autopsy revealed the presence of arsenic, which was also found in the cup and Coca-Cola bottle out of which the little girl drank. Arsenic was also found on the dresses worn by the girl's mother and aunt, where Shirley had vomited.

The existence of the insurance policies was discovered in a matter of days. Earle Dennison took an overdose of sleeping pills and was unconscious when arrested. Her life was salvaged at the hospital and thereafter she confessed on several occasions and in writing to having murdered her niece.

Dennison was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. The Alabama Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the decision (Dennison v. State, 259 Ala. 424 (1953)). She was executed in the electric chair on September 4, 1953. Her last words were "Please forgive me for everything I did. I forgive everybody."

From the date that Earle Dennison murdered Shirley to the date of her execution, one year, four months, and three days elapsed. Justice was swift for confessed child murderers in 1953. Much more swift than it is today. And if every case were as clear as the Dennison case and as awful to contemplate, one has to wonder whether public support for the death penalty wouldn't be even stronger.

Legends of True Crime Reporting: Jerry Mitchell

It sure seems as though American journalism is having a very bad year. Dan Rather resigned in disgrace. Ted Koppel's Nightline went off the air. Peter Jennings died suddenly. The WMD debacle has made toilet paper of the New York Times. Pulitzer winner Judy Miller of same is proven to be quite flaky at best. Even that living icon Bob Woodward has been caught being less than impeccable as reporter after reporter appear before -- for crying out loud -- a grand jury. Meanwhile the federal government is planting news stories both here and abroad.... Fox News is screaming itself hoarse.... CNN fills its 24 hours a day with the same old b.s. -- video ad nauseam of the latest almost-fatal (!) plane crash landing and the current forest fire in California ("Three thousand acres! Two sprawl-divisions threatened! -- Do they keep this footage on a loop?).

Just when one is prepared to pronounce the Fourth Estate dead -- dead -- dead along comes a fellow like Jerry Mitchell. Now this man is a journalist, a legend in the making, who will restore your battered faith in investigative reporting.

Mitchell is a reporter for the Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion-Ledger. In 1989, he took an interest in Mississippi's criminal history -- specifically the all-too-long list of unsolved cases dating to the civil rights era and involving the murders of civil rights workers and black folk in the South. His reporting has directly led to the reopening of several old murder cases -- and has resulted in convictions.

Four men are now behind bars as a result of Mitchell's work: Sam Bowers (who murdered NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer in 1966); Byron De La Beckwith (who murdered NAACP leader Medgar Evers in 1963); Edgar Ray Killeen (who murdered three civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner in 1964) and Bobby Cherry (who bombed a Birmingham church and killed four little girls in 1963).

Perhaps what is most amazing about Mitchell's reporting is the fact that that he convinces -- he actually convinces -- these old klansmen to talk to him. To leak documents to him. To sit down over catfish dinner for six hours and open up about the past. Mitchell describes himself as "the opposite of Mike Wallace" because he can get anyone to talk to him.

To his credit, Mitchell urges the public not to view these old men as tattered grandpas who are best left alone. According to Mitchell, he has interviewed some of the most profoundly racist people living in the United States today.

Indeed, their philosophies go well beyond racism and into some sort of deeply rooted mental disorder. Murdering kluxer De La Beckwith, for example, told Mitchell in an interview -- citing the book of Genesis -- that black people do not have souls.

On another occasion Mitchell tried to track down a convicted murderer by the name of Billy Ray Pitts. Pitts was one of the few men who was actually convicted in connection with the murder of Vernon Dahmer; Mitchell wanted to know how long a stretch Pitts served in prison. Come to find out that Pitts never served a single day of his life sentence for murder. When Mitchell tried to figure out why this was so, he was told that Pitts went into a federal witness protection program.

The only trouble with that excuse was that the witness protection program did not even exist at the time of Pitts' conviction.

So Mitchell went onto switchboard.com to try to track down Billy Ray -- and there he was -- name and address and phone number. And the gutsy reporter had the nerve to call the convicted murderer to ask him for an interview. He got one. Pitts was eventually arrested.

So why would this old racist murderer give a journalist an interview? First of all, Mitchell says, he passes the "test." He's a southern white man and a Christian. He's a low-key sort of guy. But also of importance, Mitchell says, is the fact that "everyone wants to tell their story... it's amazing. I'm the last person I would be calling if I was one of these old kluckers."

Mitchell has already received several journalism awards and the most recent came from the venerated Columbia School of Journalism; one of the judges said he deserved the award for recognizing that these stories belonged to journalism and not to history.

I for one expect to see his name connected with even grander journalism prizes in the future. When you single-handedly restore people's faith in the power of investigative reporting -- despite the plethora of awful headlines for the profession as a whole --  that sort of thing tends to happen.

History Carnival XXI

I have ever had a Pleasure in obtaining any little Anecdotes of my Ancestors.

--Benjamin Franklin

Historians and history buffs have been kicking up dust in our corner of the internet culture, and for a roundup of some of the best of recent history postings, Clews presents History Carnival No. 21. Thanks to those who sent links -- and apologies to those who were not included. Unlike a few prior hosts I found myself flooded with nominations and had a great deal of trouble winnowing it down to manageable size; some excellent posts were forwarded for consideration for the next edition of Carnivalesque.

So with no further dawdling here is your latest issue of The History Times.

HARD NEWS FROM THE CONTINENT:

OTTO LIVES? Bill Rice (By Dawn's Early Light) asks -- is Germany's newly elected chancellor Angela Merkel a reincarnation of Otto von Bismarck?

I'LL SAY ANYTHING. Orac (Respectful Insolence) is somewhat troubled by the recent arrest in Austria of an infamous British historian (and is not alone) but cautiously celebrates the effect that the prospect of a long prison stretch seems to have had on the views of a well-known Holocaust denier.

SHOCK AND AWE CIRCA 1939. Brett Holman (Airminded) reports on one man's hopes that England, France, and/or Poland could obliterate Berlin in a single, massive air attack -- and why that hope was dashed.

IN MEMORIAM:

R.I.P. Chris (Outside Report) reminds us that late November cannot pass without a brief perspective on the life and death of John F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, Penny Richards (Disability Studies) reports on efforts to replace old headstones, engraved solely with numbers, with markers that contain the actual names of the former institutionalized people who lived in asylums across the United States.

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS:

GREG ON GREGS. Greg (This Set Down) honored the feast day for the Saints Gregory with brief biographies of both.

WAS WASHINGTON A CHRISTIAN? Jonathan Rowe (Positive Liberty) says that Thomas Jefferson knew the answer but kept it on the QT.

AN UNANSWERABLE LOGICIAN. Brandon Watson (Houyhnhnm Land) introduces Lady Mary Shepherd, a mid-19th century philosopher respected (!) for her flawless logic.

BUSINESS NEWS:

PROOF THAT HISTORIANS CAN CONTEXTUALIZE ANYTHING. Evan Roberts (Coffee Grounds) offers reflections on a long-held anxiety about mass distribution in Walmart as Utopia.

PERFECT CIRCLES. Jamie Kenny (Blood & Treasure) offers a personal perspective on the origins and longevity of an industrial powerhouse in the English midlands in Last Train to Etruria.

NOT A NEW CONCEPT. From Switzerland to Easter Island, Jennifer McQueen (Terry) examines the meaning of "sustainable" development.

HEALTH AND BEAUTY:

KEEPING THEM NATURAL. Alam Baumler (Frog in a Well) reflects on a 17th-century ban on footbinding in a surprising locale.

PERIODS IN HISTORY. Natalie Bennett (Philobiblion) offers a collection of quotes and thoughts on menstruation and engenders much interesting commentary.

CLIP ART:

IT'S ABOUT TIME. We can stop searching for the missing link -- Carl Buell (Olduvai George) has finally unveiled his long awaited blog in which he illustrates the last 65 million years.

SOMETHING FISHY. Phil Harland (Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean) managed to mention astrological symbols, Jewish synagogue art, pagan art, and early Christian symbols in a single post about the significance of the fish in early mosaics.

ENGAGING ENGRAVINGS. P.K. (BibliOdyssey) posts some thoughts with pages of illustrations from Microcosmos (Gerard de Jode, 1579).

CRIME HEADLINES:

THE MAID'S REVENGE. Jonathan Edelstein (The Head Heeb) reports on the danger of trying to mislead the help.

BE CAREFUL WHOM YOU.... Rebecca Goetz ((a)musings of a grad student) reports on the variety of punishments to which one might have been subjected for interracial fornication in Virginia circa the 1640s.

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT PLAY WITH GRENADES. Seamus McGraw (Crime Library) tries to explain the politics of Iraq circa the 1960s and '70s and how Uday Hussein became a monster. (Warning: graphic photos.)

OPINION PAGES:

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT. David Neiwert (Orcinus) gives Bill O'Reilly a history lesson about Hitler sympathizers on the conservative right.

TORTURED THOUGHTS. Jason Kuznicki (Positive Liberty) supports his claim that torture doesn't work with a retrospective on the "twisting" of heretics and witches.

ANCIENT STEREOTYPES. Kerim (Savage Minds) tackles the lazy stereotype of "ancient peoples" in a "modern" world.

PHRONETIC HISTORIANS. Jonathan Dresner (Cliopatra) finds justification for the intuitive judgment of our favorite social science.

CONTROVERSIAL CONTRITION. Owen Miller (Frog in a Well) tells the tale of a Tokyo teacher disciplined for having her class apologize for a politician's denial of the Japanese invasion of Korea.

ENTERTAINMENT:

ROME PER HBO. Miland Brown (World History Blog) has enough historical knowledge of Caesar's successor to dare some predictions on Season 2 of HBO's historical. But Glaukopis (Glaukopidos: An Anachronism in Modernity) says she doesn't mind if the producers of the show take a few liberties.

SHE DID WHAT OUT HER WINDOW? Natalie Bennett (My London Your London) reviews a thousand years of history at London's revamped city museum and confesses to dramatically killing off her avatar in the Medieval Game of Life.

SEXIEST MAN NOT ALIVE. So People named Matthew McConaughey the sexiest man alive in 2005. Melissa Bell (Science Creative Quarterly) says Nikola Tesla is pretty hot for a dead guy if you can -- um -- overlook a few things.

LAST WORDS AND NEXT HOST:

If you've considered hosting a carnival, I'd encourage you -- it's a mind-broadening exercise, it's not all that hard -- though it does consume the better part of a full day and provokes a bit of anxiety about what to include. But, well, no matter what mistakes you or I may make in the selection or the rendering, we won't be the first.

The next host for History Carnival XXII is Jonathan Dresner at Frog in a Well Korea. You can email him at dresner [at] hawaii [dot] edu.

And Long Live the Ubercarnival!