Great American Crime Stories Page 10

  The wife of the deceased detailed the particulars of the affair, which will be given in her own words.

  On the 25th of May, about 6 o’clock in the morning, she came to the grocery for a quart of beer and some crackers. She came again about 8 o’clock. She had sent a man called Ilalev (who was her gardener), to borrow $2 for her, and came to see what detained him. I told her that I had no money in the house, and thought of sending to borrow it. She replied she “was sorry I was so short and would to-morrow lend me $100. She then went away, but returned about 11 o’clock and told me that she had received a telegraphic dispatch informing her that Robinson was hurt on the cars. She went into the kitchen, a lot of men were there. I soon heard her quarrelling with them and went in to advise her to go home.

  After a short time she left. I saw her again about 1 o’clock, she came into the kitchen, where myself, Lanagan and Catharine Lubee were at dinner. She took the egg and eat it while I peeled a potato for her. She then said that Catharine and I must have a glass of beer with her. We answered that we did not like beer, when she said she would put some sugar into it to make it good. I took a saucer and fetched from the store some white powdered sugar and then went for the beer, which I poured into two glasses. When I came back, she was walking about the room with the sugar in her hand. I did not have beer enough to fill both glasses, so Mrs. Robinson sent me for more; when I returned she was putting sugar into the tumblers, and I filled up the glasses with beer. As I sat down to my glass, the other one was placed before Catharine. I noticed a little foam on the surface of the beer, which I thought might be dust from the sugar, so I took a spoon and was going to skim it off, when Mrs. Robinson took the spoon out of my hand and said, “Don’t you do so—that is the best of it.” At this moment my husband called me, and I went into the grocery, leaving my beer untouched.

  Then my husband went into the kitchen and I turned round and saw he was drinking my beer. I don’t know that Mrs. Robinson drank any. Boon after this she went away. When she was eating the egg I saw a white paper in her hand. A short time elapsed when Catharine asked Lanagan how he felt after taking the beer; he replied he did not feel very comfortable. Mrs. Robinson came again. Catharine was laid on a bed in the kitchen very sick. Mrs. Robinson went to her and asked her how she felt; she said, very poorly; you have put something into the beer and it made me sick. About 3 o’clock my husband came back very sick and could hardly speak; he said “ Run for the doctor, I am done for.” I turned round to Mrs. Robinson, who was standing near, and said, “What have you done? you have killed the father of my children.” She answered, “No, I have done no such thing.” She then attempted to speak with him; but I prevented her. Lanagan’s mother came in now and assisted me to put her out of doors. She did not come back again, but sent by Haley that I was to go and see her. I refused to go.

  During the examination of this witness the prisoner was closely shrouded in her veil so that she could not be easily identified. An attempt was made to induce her to remove her veil, but she would not. Several times during the trial similar scenes occurred, the prisoner firmly resisting all attempts to remove the blue veil, and even when compelled to do so by the court, she contrived by her hands or in some other way, as effectually to screen her face as if the veil were still before it.

  The officer who arrested Mrs. Robinson testified that he found two revolvers on her. And on searching the house found some arsenic under a carpet which was tacked down to the floor, and some jewelry, a watch and a locket. On her way to the jail, she joked and laughed, but made no allusion to the murder.

  The coroner, who was also a physician, gave an account of the inquest and post mortem examination He testified that arsenic was found in the stomachs of both the deceased persons in sufficient quantities to produce death. As to the appearance and manner of the prisoner he added:

  There was a strange, wild, unnatural appearance of the eye. She laughed a good deal at times, and her answers to questions were not pertinent. I saw her frequently after this and was always impressed with the idea that she was not sane. Once I charged her with the crime. She seemed to take no notice of what I had said, but chattered on with the same incoherent jumble as before. I do not think she comprehended what I said. On my first visit to Mrs. Robinson in jail, I said, I have come to search you. She elevated her hands so as to facilitate the search. One reason why I believed her to be insane was the wild, unnatural expression of her eyes, and the strange, unnatural expression of her countenance. At our first interview I came to the conclusion that she was irrational. When I told her that she had poisoned these people, I thought it strange it did not affect her in some way. I thought it queer, she did not say something one way or another.

  Her counsel at the trial demanded her acquittal on the ground of insanity.

  The pleading was begun by Martin J. Townsend, Esq., on behalf of the prisoner. He began by paying a compliment to the ability of the opposing counsel, and added, “Not only on this account, but from the fact that the defence of insanity was looked on with suspicion, he felt considerably embarrassed.

  On the 8th of December last, I examined with attention the evidence taken before the coroner’s jury, and found that no cause of enmity existed between Lanagan and the prisoner, and that Miss Lubee sat at the table during the time Mrs. Robinson was alleged to have put the poison in the sugar. Then I was driven to the irresistible conclusion that the story was absurd. How could she put the arsenic in before the eyes of this girl ? “No gentlemen, I have stated that I should express fearlessly what I had to say, and now I have no hesitation in declaring it to be my deliberate judgment, founded upon her own evidence, that it is far more probable, that Mrs. Lanagan herself poisoned that beer than the prisoner at the bar.” If we believe her evidence, she herself consented to take a friendly glass with Mrs. Robinson. Why did she fill only two glasses if all were going to drink, when as she asserts three had consented to drink together. She retired from the kitchen, leaving only two glasses there. Her husband happened in then, and what must have been her surprise when she saw him drinking the fatal draught that had been prepared for another. I do not charge Mrs. Lanagan with this crime, but in order to acquit her of all suspicion it is necessary to prove Mrs. Robinson insane.”

  He then reverted to the point that there was no motive on the part of the prisoner, and went into the question of her insanity, contending that it was real, not feigned. In this poor woman’s case, all her hopes were centered in _____. For him she sacrificed her virtue, her honor, her all, and then imagined she was to be cast away a worthless, dishonored thing. Is not this a sufficient cause for insanity? There is not a woman on God’s footstool who would not have lost her reason under similar circumstances. After referring to the question of intoxication and some other points, he concluded an address which occupied him five hours in its delivery.

  As Mr. Townsend sat down, the prisoner leaned forward and whispered to him the following equivocal compliment, “A very able speech, Mr. Townsend, but you might have said all that was necessary in fifteen minutes. The idea of my insanity is absurd.”

  Mr. Van Santvoord for the people rose and said, he supposed that the plea of insanity would be the only ground of defence; the idea that any one else perpetrated the crime was absurd, for the irresistible evidence was that the prisoner poisoned Lanagan and Lubee. As a motive for the crime he referred to the quarrel at the time of the dance, and the refusal of Mrs. Lanagan to lend her two dollars. This to a woman of her reckless and depraved nature, of violent temper and turbulent disposition, would be a sufficient motive for the crime.

  After reviewing the testimony against the prisoner, he said that there was such a thing as a moral certainty as well as a mathematical calculation. The blood of the murdered victims is on the hands of the prisoner, and like the conscience-smitten Lady Macbeth she may exclaim, “ Out, damned spot,” in vain. The “smell of blood” is there still; “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten�
�� it; it never can be washed out. To sustain the plea of insanity, he said, the defence ought to have proved her previous life and disposition, to let us see that her behavior lately is at variance with it; but they have not done so. The mystery that has been thrown around the prisoner is still unveiled, and I see no proof of her insanity. Her eccentricities were rather the fruits of intoxication than insanity. Her counsel tell you that she supposed ______ had deserted her; is that circumstance likely to drive a woman who carries pistols in her bosom, drinks bad brandy, and indulges in profane and obscene language, into madness. With regard to what she tells about herself, it only proves that this woman had a mania for lying, and her dancing and frantic laughter are nothing but the strivings of a wicked heart to throw off the painful memories that oppressed it. As to her conduct while in jail, you may attribute it to delirium caused by deprivation of the stimulants she had been used to, and the gnawings of a guilty conscience.

  Her counsel made indefatigable efforts to obtain a new trial, which the prisoner as strenuously opposed; in fact, when she heard that the Supreme Court had denied the motion, she celebrated the news with a grand illumination, and walked amidst the blaze, with great glee, listening to the shouts of the mob who were drawn together by the illumination. On the 14th of June, 1855, she was finally called up for sentence. After some preliminary remarks, which were often interrupted by the prisoner, Judge Harris said—“The sentence of the Court is, that you, Henrietta Robinson, be detained in the county prison of the county of Rensselaer until the 3d day of August next, and on that day, between the hours of 10 o’clock in the forenoon and two o’clock in the afternoon, you be hanged by the neck until you be dead, and may God, in his infinite mercy, save your soul.”

  Mrs. Robinson immediately said, “You had better pray for your own soul;” then springing on her feet, denounced in very strong language both her friends and her supposed foes, and declared with great vehemence that she was the victim of a “ political conspiracy.” The Court hero said she had better be removed, when pointing her finger at the Judge, said solemnly, “Judge Harris, may the Judge of judges be your judge.” She was then removed from Court.

  Great exertions were made to prevail on the Governor to commute her sentence to imprisonment for life.

  On the evening of the 27th of July, it was announced to her that the Governor had commuted her sentence to imprisonment for life in Sing Sing Prison.

  When the prisoner obtained this information, she commenced breaking up the furniture, and tearing the bed clothes into strips, and then threw them from her barred window to the people in the street, exclaiming while doing it, “I will not go to State prison. I want to die. Why will they torment me more?”

  Notwithstanding the every day intercourse which I have had for ten years with cases similar to Henrietta Robinson’s, and notwithstanding I have conducted all her correspondence, and had other official dealings with her, during her three years’ confinement in this prison, I am by no means positive as it regards the question of her insanity; but am inclined to the opinion, that she is, at least, a monomaniac, or periodically deranged, and that she was so when she committed the murder. I doubt, in fact, whether she ever had a “well-balanced mind.” At any rate the same eccentricities that the testimony on her trial attributed to her are still manifested. She makes the same efforts to hide her countenance from the gaze of strangers now that she made then. She changes from the most innocent and inoffensive looks and language to the most repulsive and vehement, as suddenly now as she is reported to have done then. She assumes the ability to control the political destinies of certain candidates for office as she did then. In a word, here, where for about three years she has had no artificial stimulants whatsoever, (to which the prosecution attributed any appearance of insanity on her part,) she has continued to exhibit, almost daily, the very traits of character upon which her counsel founded a plea of insanity. “Mrs. Robinson,” says one of our Inspectors, in a late newspaper article, “still keeps on her airs, and is a high-spirited, head-strong woman. Whenever a stranger enters her presence, she turns her face to the wall with an air which seems to disclose the inner working of the uppermost thought of her heart—that she is some superior” being.

  The impressions I have gathered from the ever changing course pursued by this woman since she came here, respecting her sanity, are so well and cogently expressed by a gentleman who had frequent personal interviews with her in Troy jail, besides being familiar with the testimony given at her trial, that I beg leave to close this sketch by quoting his words as then uttered:

  If the doomed woman was not insane, it is difficult, indeed, we may add, impossible, to analyze to any degree of satisfaction, her mental or moral character. On any other supposition her deportment is without a parallel, and utterly incomprehensible. That she believes herself a political victim, sacrificed upon the altar of party vengeance, there can be little question. Neither can there be much, if any doubt, that she regarded the suggestion of a commutation of her sentence as a subtle device of her enemies, to accomplish a political end, and to subject her to grievous wrongs and injuries. In her religious moods she was evidently sincere, for the time being. Still in all her acts, so unnatural and inconsistent, there were evidences of hallucination. In one breath she would beg for the salvation of her own soul, and in the next consign the souls of her enemies to perdition. In the midst of her devotions, with hands clasped, and kneeling before the cross, some mirth provoking memory would arrest the solemnity, and as the visitor approached her cell, whether his ears were to be greeted with sounds of prayer, the voice of laughter, or the utterance of bitter malediction, depended on her mood.

  9

  The Mountain Meadows Massacre

  Mark Twain

  B.G. Parker

  On September 11, 1857, at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah, a Mormon militia (with some members disguised as local Paiute Native Americans) slaughtered about 120 men, women, and children of the Baker-Fancher wagon train, known as “emigrants.” Only seventeen were spared, all children under age seven, whom the assailants assumed were too young to bear witness to the evil they had experienced. Everyone else was murdered with guns and knives after being disarmed, and their bodies hastily buried in shallow graves. The emigrants, headed for California, were mostly from Arkansas, and camped at Mountain Meadows on September 7. The killers disguised themselves as Paiutes and attacked. The emigrants circled their wagons to form makeshift defenses and fought back. Several were killed, and—running low on food, water, and ammunition—they surrendered a few days later after being told, falsely, that the Mormons had worked out a truce to spare their lives with the attacking “Paiutes.” On a signal, the Mormons attacked and murdered all emigrants but the aforementioned children, who were taken in by local families. Mormon militia leader John Doyle Lee (1812–1877), who apparently spun this tale to the emigrants, was the only person ever convicted in the massacre. He was executed by firing squad on March 23, 1877, at the site of the massacre he’d helped perpetrate almost twenty years before.

  Famed author Mark Twain wrote the following passage about the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Appendix B of his travelogue Roughing It, published in 1872. B.G. Parker also wrote about the massacre in his book, Recollections of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, published in 1901. His account, partially reproduced here, follows Mark Twain’s.

  The persecutions which the Mormons suffered so long—and which they consider they still suffer in not being allowed to govern themselves—they have endeavored and are still endeavoring to repay. The now almost forgotten “Mountain Meadows massacre” was their work. It was very famous in its day. The whole United States rang with its horrors. A few items will refresh the reader’s memory. A great emigrant train from Missouri and Arkansas passed through Salt Lake City and a few disaffected Mormons joined it for the sake of the strong protection it afforded for their escape. In that matter lay sufficient cause for hot retaliation by the Mo
rmon chiefs. Besides, these one hundred and forty-five or one hundred and fifty unsuspecting emigrants being in part from Arkansas, where a noted Mormon missionary had lately been killed, and in part from Missouri, a State remembered with execrations as a bitter persecutor of the saints when they were few and poor and friendless, here were substantial additional grounds for lack of love for these wayfarers. And finally, this train was rich, very rich in cattle, horses, mules and other property—and how could the Mormons consistently keep up their coveted resemblance to the Israelitish tribes and not seize the “spoil” of an enemy when the Lord had so manifestly “delivered it into their hand?”

  Wherefore, according to Mrs. C. V. Waite’s entertaining book, “The Mormon Prophet,” it transpired that—

  A ‘revelation’ from Brigham Young, as Great Grand Archee or God, was dispatched to President J. C. Haight, Bishop Higbee and J. D. Lee (adopted son of Brigham), commanding them to raise all the forces they could muster and trust, follow those cursed Gentiles (so read the revelation), attack them disguised as Indians, and with the arrows of the Almighty make a clean sweep of them, and leave none to tell the tale; and if they needed any assistance they were commanded to hire the Indians as their allies, promising them a share of the booty. They were to be neither slothful nor negligent in their duty, and to be punctual in sending the teams back to him before winter set in, for this was the mandate of Almighty God.

  The command of the “revelation” was faithfully obeyed. A large party of Mormons, painted and tricked out as Indians, overtook the train of emigrant wagons some three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City, and made an attack. But the emigrants threw up earthworks, made fortresses of their wagons and defended themselves gallantly and successfully for five days! Your Missouri or Arkansas gentleman is not much afraid of the sort of scurvy apologies for “Indians” which the southern part of Utah affords. He would stand up and fight five hundred of them.