NOTE: Belinda Laphame (alias Mrs. Dr. Godfrey, alias Belinda Rozet, alias Dr. Goodman, alias Dr. Mary Goodwin, alias “Gypsy Queen.”), a midwife, was tried for three separate murders and acquitted each time. Two of the trials followed the deaths of abortion clients. One of them was for the murder of a two-day-old baby.
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 1 of 3): San Francisco, May 3. – Lottie Watson, the young woman
whose infant daughter Mrs. Belinda Laphame, the Geary street midwife, is
accused of murdering, gave sensational evidence at the preliminary examination
this afternoon. She said Mrs. Laphame kept in the house three small babies, which
had been killed by her. Their little bodies were preserved in alcohol and the
jars were kept in her room. When questioned by Judge Conlan she said the babies
were all well developed and according to Mrs. Laphame’s remarks to witness had
been born alive. They had been murdered by her because she could not get any
one to adopt them.
[“Bottled
Babies - Sensational Testimony at the Laphame Infanticide Examination.” The
Herald (Los Angeles, Ca.), May 4, 1893, p. 4]
***
From
the inquest testimony of Mrs. Watson, mother of the baby whose dead body was
found to have contained opium.
EXCERPT
(Article 2 of 3): “At home I have seen many new-born babies and I know that
mine was weak and sick. Several weeks ago I hurt myself in stepping from a
buggy, and I was afraid I should lose the baby. It didn’t cry much.”
The
doctor said it was very weak. It would not nurse, so the doctor fed it from a
bottle, but it only took a little.”
“I
had it with me, but it got cold, and so she took it downstairs near the stove.
I bad it with me some of the time— not half though. I don’t think — I liked to
have it; but she said it was better downstairs. Besides I was awfully weak, and
suffered pain all the time.”
“On
Monday she brought me in a bottle of that stuff they say the baby died of. She
said it had been bought for the other lady.
She
gave me doses of it for a while. When she brought it to me it was empty from
the bottom of the label up.”
“I
saw my poor little baby about two hours before it died on Tuesday. After she
told me it was dead I asked her to bring it up, but she said I had better not
see it.”
“She
cried some herself. She was always gentle and kind to it, and to me, too. I am
awfully sorry for her.”
“Did
you tell Dr. Laphame that you wanted the baby put in a foundling asylum?”
The
girl smiled faintly. “Oh, no, I was for takin’ it away with v«. I wanted the
baby. It’s my first baby.” She smiled again.
[“Infant
Murder. - Dr. Laphame Arrested For Poisoning A Babe. - Opium Found In Its Body.
- Suspected Foul Play Leads To A Startling Discovery. - The Inquest Held
Yesterday. - A Female “Specialist” Accused of Murdering Lucy Williams’
Two-Days-Old Child.” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Apr. 22, 1893, p. 8]
***
FULL
TEXT (Article 3 of 3): There were some sensational developments in the Laphame
murder case in Judge Conlan’s court yesterday afternoon when the preliminary
examination was resumed. Attorney Ferral recalled Mrs. Mary Ann Watson, mother
of Lottie Watson, who give birth to the murdered babe.
In
answer to questions she said she never saw Mrs. Laphame give medicine to the
child, but saw her give it to her daughter out of the bottle handed in in
evidence. The medicine was only given
her daughter once while she was suffering pain and the bottle was left on a
small table in the daughter’s room.
Judge
Conlan, at this stage, said to Attorney Ferral: “I wish you would endeavor to
control your client. Her unseemly levity will only hurt her case.” The rebuke
had the desired effect.
Mrs.
Watson continued her evidence. She saw the child alive over an hour and a
half before it died in the kitchen. She was not sure if any grown-up person was
there at the time. She advised her daughter to get the baby adopted, as she did
not wish to take it to Brentwood.
Lottie
Watson was recalled by the prosecution, and gave some startling testimony.
“When
the Coroner called at the house,” she said, “Mrs. Laphame came to my room and
she had three or four babies from four to five months old in her besom which
were preserved in alcohol in jars, and which she said she had taken out of the
jars as she was afraid the Coroner might in his search discover them. She said
she wanted to shield herself for fear of the detectives.”
“Why
did you not testify to this before?” asked Judge Conlan.
“I
didn’t remember at the time. A young lady had a baby on the Wednesday I was
there, and it was also preserved in alcohol.”
This
testimony created a profound sensation in court, and the defendant glared
savagely at the witness.
Attorney
Ferral commenced his cross examination by asking:
“Do
you think you could recollect anything else if you had more time?”
“I
don’t know.”
“Have
you talked with any one about the case?”
“I
might have spoken to my own people. I spoke with Mrs. Burmeister, my brother
and mother about it.”
“Did
any one speak to you about it?”
“Yea.
Mrs. Maynard asked me why I had not told about the babies.”
“When
did you first see the babies in the jars?”
“The
first day my brother and I went to the house on April 8. We had been talking
for a little, and then she showed them to me”
Attorney
Ferral asked her to draw upon paper the size and shape of the babies, but as an
artist Lottie was a signal failure.
“Now,”
said Mr. Ferral, “why did she show you the babies in the jar.”
“She
said why did I not come sooner, and she could have attended me, and she then showed
me the babies in the jars as an illustration of her process with other girls. I
never asked Dr. Popper or any one else if that could be dime. The babies in the
jars were in a closet in the dining-room downstairs where she kept her medicine
bottles, and she told me if I had taken some of the medicine I wouldn’t have
had any trouble at all. I told Detective Rogers about the babies to-day.”
Attorney
Ferral pressed her hard with questions as to why she had not told the detective
or others about the babies before, to all of which Lottie answered, “I didn’t
like to tell.”
Continuing
she said:
“I
think it right to tell it now to save others from the same trouble. Mrs.
Laphame showed
them to me wrapped up in a cloth the day the Coroner was at the house, and she
said she was going to burn them that night. She was crying and nervous at the
time and afraid of being arrested.”
“Who
was the first person you spoke to about the babies in the jars?”
“Mrs.
Williams, the other patient in the house, as she bad also seen them.”
“On
the Wednesday before I had my baby Mrs. Laphame showed me a baby which had been
prematurely born that day.”
This
closed the case for the prosecution.
C. L.
Barrington, chemist, who made the analysis of the babe’s stomach, was the first
witness for the defense, but he simply repeated the testimony he had already
given.
Mrs.
Amanda M. Brunkall, a dressmaker, testified to having known the defendant for
the past three months. She saw her last on April 18 at her house. Mrs. Hogan
and Mrs. Watson were, there in the kitchen.
“I
went there,” said the witness, “at a quarter to 1 in the afternoon, stayed till
a quarter to 7, left and came buck at a quarter past 7 and stayed till 8. A few
minutes after I first entered Mrs. Laphame asked me to look at the two babies
and said she thought one of them was dying. I said, ‘Don’t they (meaning the
mother and grandmother) feel bad about it?’ and she said, ‘No, I don’t think
they care; they won’t look at it.’ The grandmother came in and I spoke to her
about it dying, and she said, Well,
it will be better off.’ The baby died shortly before 8 o’clock that night.”
Mrs.
Annie Hogan, 131 Turk street, said she had known Mrs. Laphame several years.
“I
was in her house.” she said, “on April 18. I went about 5 p. m. and remained
till 6. Mrs. Laphame told me to look at the two babies. One was very sick and
in spasms. I helped her to bathe the sick baby in warm water.
“Mrs.
Laphame said to me, ‘What will I do if it dies?’ and I said to send to an
undertaker’s and get it buried. I then left, and immediately sent my boy to the
United Undertakers on Fifth street. It seemed to be a nice healthy looking
baby.”
In
answer to Prosecuting Attorney O’Keefe the witness said: “The baby wasn’t dead
when I left and I immediately sent to the undertaker’s.”
“Do
you mean to say,” said the Judge, “that you sent to the undertaker’s before the
babe was dead ?”
‘Yes,
I saw it was going to die. It was getting black and blue.”
“Is
your husband Pete Hogan, who was in my court to-day on a charge of vagrancy?”
“Yes,
sir,” replied the witness.
Dr.
O’Brien cave some evidence as to the result of the autopsy on the child’s body.
Mrs. Laphame then took the stand and she proven a most unsatisfactory and
intractable, witness. She was cautioned again and again by her counsel to only
answer the questions put to her, but she branched off always and kept it in
hot water all the time.
She
said Lottie Watson told her the rather of the child was dead, and subsequently said
she was to be married in the end of May to the son of a Baptist clergyman.
The
man, who proved to be Lottie’s brother, told her to be very careful of his
wife, meaning Lottie.
Defendant
denied that she had ever shown Lottie any dead babies and never showed her the
closet in the dining-room.
She
denied giving Lottie any medicine out of the bottle produced in evidence and
never made the remark, “What’s good for the mother is good for the child.” She
would not give tincture of opium to any child or, in fact, anybody.
She
denied taking the babies to Lottie’s room the day the Coroner was there, and
never told her to say nothing about the babies or hew her own baby died. All
she told Lottie was that she needn’t give her true name, as she and her mother
were afraid of publicity.
At
the time she told Mrs. Hogan to go to the undertaker’s she thought the baby was
dead, but it did not die for ten minutes after she left. She told Mrs. Hogan to
go to the city undertaker’s so that the baby could be buried at the city’s
expense.
She
talked about knowing an undertaker named O’Connor on Mission street who buried
her own child, but was stopped by her counsel.
There
was no cross-examination. Mrs. Hogan was recalled by Judge Conlan, and said she
called at 5 p.m., on April 18, and left at 6. The baby was then not dead, but
had spasms.
Mr.
Brunkall was also recalled and said she called at Mrs. Laphame’s house on April
18, at a quarter past 4, remained until a quarter to 7, came back at a quarter
past 7. Baby died almost exactly at 8. Mr. Hogan had just gone when witness
returned at a quarter past 7.
The
Judge wanted to satisfy himself as to the contradictions regarding the time the
babe, was supposed to have died.
“This
is not one of the usual preliminary examinations for murder,” said Judge
Conlan.
I
must say the conflicting testimony and the contradiction; of the witnesses are
remarkable on both sides.
“Lottie
Watson and her relatives are shielding each other as much as possible and it is
the same with Mrs. Laphame and her friends.
“It
is not worth while for me to review the testimony. The judgment before the.
Superior Court on the charge of murder.”
“Will
you grant bail?” asked Mr. Ferral.
“No,
I will not,” said the Judge.
Mrs.
Laphame became quite hysterical. She kissed Mrs. Brunkall, laid her head on her
shoulder and sobbed bitterly, she also kissed Mrs. Hogan and went below sobbing
and crying as if her heart would, break.
[“Held
For Murder. - Startling Points Against Mrs. Laphame. - What Lottie Watson Saw.
- Babies Preserved in Alcohol in Jars. Conflicting Testimony and Contradiction
of Witnesses.” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), May 4, 1893, p. 7]
***
NOTES ON CASE:
ALIASES:
Belinda Laphame, alias Mrs. Dr. Godfrey, alias Belinda
Rozet, alias Dr. Goodman, alias Dr. Mary Goodwin, alias “Gypsy Queen.”
DEATHS:
5 babies in “bottles”
or jars, reported by abortion client
Lottie Watson’s child, 2-days-old, died May 1893 (“Mrs.
Lucy Williams,” error in early reports)
Amelia Donely, died Oct. 10, 1893, abortion client; tried
and acquitted (“Donelly”)
Lillie Staley, abortion client, died 1894; tried and
acquitted
***
***
***
***
***
***
For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.
***
For more cases of “Baby Farmers,” professional child care providers who murdered children see The Forgotten Serial Killers.
***
[954-12/28/20]
***
No comments:
Post a Comment