“Wife Murders Child Of Eleven Years Because She Kissed Father Too Much." - 1915

Misandric academics and professionals, when confronted with cases such as this one, can twist and turn attempting to explain them with their Misandric theories, but no matter how hard they try they cannot manage it. And that is why such cases -- and female-on-female violence in general -- in history is seldom openly dealt with in "gender" studies.

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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Muskegon, Mich., May 4. – Can a wife become so jealous of a daughter –  a step-daughter as a rival for the affections of the husband and father that she will murder?

That is the question that arises in the must coolly executed slaying that this part of Michigan ever experienced.

The step-daughter, who was 11 years of age, was the image of her divorced mother. She kissed her father and sat on his lap – until forced to abandon it by threats from his second wife.

Then she did it secretly – and the step-mother found it out. The next act was the finding of the body of little Evelina Steele in an alley back of her home, and the step-mother’s confession, but not satisfactory explanation of the murder.

Mrs. Albert Steele, on arrest, admitted the killing and revealed the horrifying details. She told of stripping the little girl of every bit of clothing in a wood shed in the rear of her home. She told of binding her arms tightly at her sides, of blindfolding her, and then, having the little girl helpless, pulled out her tongue and forced a spoonful of muriatic arid down her throat. She described how the child gulped down the poison and her death struggles.

Acid burns over the body of the girl testify that she knew what was happening to her and in her fight for life spilled several spoonfuls of the poison before the fatal dose was administered.

The step-mother then decided to bury the child and dug a hole in the yard but on a later thought decided to throw the body into the alley, where it was found.

After her confession the step-mother declared her motive for the killing was to save the girl and relatives from shame [this is a euphemism for the claim the girl was pregnant], but physicians who examined the body say this statement is preposterous.

Albert Steele, the girl’s father, is on the verge of madness. He curses the woman – his wife – who killed his daughter that none other might snare his affections.

He walks out in the yard frequently to view the hole the step-mother had dug for burial.

“Why didn’t they fill that hole?” he cries. “It will be in front of me for the rest of my life.”

“It had always been my custom,” said Steele, in a calmer moment, “to kiss my wife and Evelina when leaving for work and when returning. In the evenings the child would sit on my lap and tell me the little incidents of her day at school. Before retiring I would go into her room and kiss her.”

“Then suddenly this all changed. When the three of us would be together in the evenings the girl would remain by herself and refuse to sit on my lap. She would say nothing, and as I recall it now, seemed to be in fear of her step-mother.”

“Whenever the latter left the room she would dash over to me and kiss and hug me – but never in the presence of her step-mother. Perhaps I did display more affection for the child than for my wife, but that is common in any home and does not mean that a man loves his wife the less.”

The authorities are convinced that Mrs. Steele killed the girl through jealousy – perhaps as much because the child looked like her mother, and constantly reminding the step-mother of her predecessor, as for the attention her father gave her.

Evelina, some time before her death, confided to a school chum that her mother struck her with a broom, told her it was not lady-like for her to kiss her father and sit on his lap and ordered her to do so no longer. The step-mother is being held for murder in the first degree.

[“Wife Murders Child Of Eleven Years Because She Kissed Father Too Much.” The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Ind.), May 4, 1915]

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Muskegon, April 23. — Further investigation by the physicians who performed the autopsy over the body of 11 year old Evelina Steele, whose stepmother confessed to her murder, has disclosed that the mother mistreated the body after death to give an appearance of truth to the first story in her purported confession that the child died while she was attempting criminal operation [a euphemism for “abortion”].

The doctors who performed the autopsy agreed that the alleged mistreatment took place after death and not before. Acid marks were found on the child’s back, indicating that she was naked when the acid was poured down her throat and struggled in vain in her mother’s arms for release.

Mrs. Steele’s first confession in which she claimed that her stepdaughter died while she was attempting to perform an illegal operation, was carefully thought out before the murder, the police have learned.

Jealous of her husband’s love for his daughter, the child’s stepmother bound and blindfolded the little girl, forced muratic acid down her throat and then held the child in her arms until she died, Mrs. Steele so confessed to Prosecutor Galpin. The body of the child was found yesterday partially conceded in an alley near her home. Suspicion was directed against the child's stepmother because of conflicting stories she told regarding the child’s disappearance.

[“Fiendish Stepmother Mistreated Body of Girl After Murder,” The Marshall News-Statesman (Mi.), Apr. 24, 1915, p. 1]

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SEE: Maternal Filicide: Spousal Revenge Motive for similar cases

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For more examples, see Step-Mothers from Hell.

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