“According to historian Carol Wilson, Cannon confessed to
nearly two dozen murders of black kidnap victims, and died in prison as a
suicide while awaiting trial.” [Wikipedia; Carol
Wilson, Freedom at Risk, University of Kentucky Press, 1994/2009
(paperback), p. 37]
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Possessed
of rather a coarse style of beauty, with brilliant black eyes, hail as
black as the raven’s wing, and cheeks like red roses in June, but. with
harsh and masculine voice and unfeminine manner, she played the role of a
Princess, thinking, no doubt, that by this means she would bring to her
feet some gallant knight, whose great wealth might minister to her
consuming desire to dress extravagantly and lead a life of ease and
luxury. Her capacity in this respect was not gratified, however, for
failing to realize the dream of her imagination, she finally married a
very commonplace admirer, and thus became the notorious “Patty Cannon”
of this story. This marriage having failed to give her the wealth she
coveted she fell upon another plan—a cruel and remorseless one—to
achieve the object of her desires, and many are the stories still told
in that locality of her snares and machinations to entrap into her power
the ignorant and unsuspecting blacks from far and near, that she might
make merchandise of them and live in luxury upon the price of their
liberty.
Those
of her captives that could not be profitably disposed of wore roasted
alive, and those who stood in the way of her plans were ruthlessly
murdered. Many peddlers who in those days were wont to travel through
that section and vend their wares to the country people are said to have
met with a bloody death at her hands, when she would possess herself of
their money and other valuables and bury their bodies in the vaults of
the cellar underlying her dwelling. Unsuspecting travelers asking
shelter for the night, unconscious of the danger, were murdered in their
beds, and even the blood-stains upon the floors of the building still
bear witness of her crimes. The house still stands as it was built,
partly in Maryland and partly in Delaware, and there are about the
various apartments to this day many traces of its former occupant,
though recently it has undergone alterations and passed into other
hands. The exact crossing place of the stream which she forded in going
on her expeditions is still remembered and pointed out to all curious
inquirers.
But
how, for so long, was the queen of darkness enabled to continue her
reign of terror! Was there no avenging Nemesis to palsy her ensanguined
hand and mete out the punishment so long delayed? The solution is easy.
To the ignorant she was not a woman endowed with the ordinary human
attributes: she was a spirit of evil, whose movements were uncontrolled
by any limitations of time or distance. The more intelligent believed
her to be in league with a band of thugs, who executed her fiendish
decrees and shared the spoils of her bloody warfare. The hand of justice
knew not where to strike till, emboldened by life-long successes, she
took no pains to conceal her villainies, but relied solely upon the
chances of escape which the peculiar location of her dwelling afforded.
When
process for her arrest was issued in one State she sought refuge in the
other, thus managing for a time to thwart all efforts to capture her.
But the end drew near. The whole community was bent upon her
destruction, and there was no longer a single chance to escape. She was
at last hunted down and placed in close confinement to await trial for
the many outrages which had gone so long unpunished. Here she did
not long remain. To her death by her own hand was far mere to be
desired than a trial certain to result in conviction. Fearing that
justice might one day overtake her in her career of guilt, it was her
habit to carry about her person a vial containing poison. From this she
took the fatal draught which ended her wretched existence. But even this
was not sufficient to dissipate the fears of many dwellers in that
secluded neighborhood. In all such places a century ago ghosts, witches
and hobgoblins were dreaded realities. It was vain to persuade these
simple folks that “Patty” was no more. To them she was still existent,
and this act of self-destruction was only one of her old tricks to
baffle the efforts of those who sought to hold her in chains. Her power
to do evil was in no way lessened, and her reappearance about her old
haunts was something to be daily looked for. Thus for long years her
name remained a spell of power and of might, and mothers well understood
that a hint of Patty’s return would strike terror into the hearts of
children and in a twinkling bring the most refractory urchin to his
senses.
[“Cruel
Patty Cannon. - The Criminal Career of an Ambitious and Bloodthirsty
Woman.” Iowa State Reporter (Waterloo, Io.), May 19, 1887, p. 5]
***
EXCERPT: On one occasion one of the negro women had a little child about five years old sometimes subject to fits, and in these fits the child used to scream in a terrible manner. It happening to have one of these fits while in Lucretia Cannon's house, she became so enraged upon hearing its cries, that she flew at the child, tearing the clothes from off the poor victim of her wrath, beating it at the same time in a dreadful manner; and, as if this was not enough to satisfy her more than brutal disposition, the child continuing its cries, she caught it up and held its face to a hot fire, and thus scorched the child to death in her own hands burning its face to a cinder, she then threw it in the cave in the cellar.
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For similar cases, see: Female Serial Killer Bandits
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EXCERPT: On one occasion one of the negro women had a little child about five years old sometimes subject to fits, and in these fits the child used to scream in a terrible manner. It happening to have one of these fits while in Lucretia Cannon's house, she became so enraged upon hearing its cries, that she flew at the child, tearing the clothes from off the poor victim of her wrath, beating it at the same time in a dreadful manner; and, as if this was not enough to satisfy her more than brutal disposition, the child continuing its cries, she caught it up and held its face to a hot fire, and thus scorched the child to death in her own hands burning its face to a cinder, she then threw it in the cave in the cellar.
[p. 16: Anonymous, Narrative and Confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon
(1841), New York.]
***
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
In 1829 bodies were discovered on the farm property Cannon owned in Delaware by
a tenant farmer doing plowing there. In April, 1829, she was indicted on four
counts of murder by a grand jury of 24 white males:
an infant female on April 26, 1822
a male child on April 26, 1822
an adult male on October 1, 1820
a "Negro boy" on June 1, 1824
The indictments were signed by the Attorney General of
Delaware, James Rogers. Witness Cyrus James stated he saw her take an injured
"black child not yet dead out in her apron, but that it never returned." James had been purchased by Cannon when he
was only seven years old, and had grown up in her household and participated in
her crimes.
Cannon died in her cell on May 11, 1829, at an age estimated
to be between sixty and seventy years old. Sources
differ on whether she was convicted and sentenced to hang before her death in
the cell, and on whether she committed suicide or died of natural causes. The Entailed Hat, or Patty Cannon’s Times (an 1884 novel
by George Alfred Townsend) attributes her death to self-administered poison.
Her body was initially buried in the jail's graveyard. When
that land became a parking lot in the 20th century, her skeleton, along with
those of two other women, was exhumed and reburied in a potter's field near the
new prison. However, her skull was separated from the rest of her remains and
put on display in various venues, and loaned to the Dover Public Library in 1961.
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For similar cases, see: Female Serial Killer Bandits
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[6093-2-13-19]
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[6093-2-13-19]
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Wow.... what an evil sick bych (cannon)!! smh
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