FULL TEXT from October 6, 1912:
Increase of Homicides by Women. Especially in West and South. Accompanied by Growing Unwillingness of Juries to Convict Female Offenders – Petticoats Confer Immunity – Men Usually Victims – Prominent Attorney Analyzes Stagecraft by Which Women Defendants Work on Sympathy of Male Jurors – Three Recent Cases in St. Louis in Which Women Were Acquitted ----
Increase of Homicides by Women. Especially in West and South. Accompanied by Growing Unwillingness of Juries to Convict Female Offenders – Petticoats Confer Immunity – Men Usually Victims – Prominent Attorney Analyzes Stagecraft by Which Women Defendants Work on Sympathy of Male Jurors – Three Recent Cases in St. Louis in Which Women Were Acquitted ----
Some future historian of the feminist revolution will
attempt to explain why the rise of woman towards equal suffrage and economic
independence was concomitant, in the first part of the twentieth century, with
a remarkable crescendo of feminine crime, particularly murder; and will trace
the curious process by which the human savage, who more than any other mammal
held his females in abject servility, became gradually so uxorious that he not
only failed to avenge homicidal rebellions effected against his own sex by his
former underlings, but, through the voice of his juries, even pardoned and
justified them in their crimes.
The murder of men by women, is proved by criminal records to
be steadily on the increase, especially in the South and West; and this
deplorable phenomenon accompanies, and is no doubt partly due to, a waxing
unwillingness on the part of men to convict any woman of a capital offense. The
defendant may be ignorant, homely and and depraved; she may be in all respects
inferior to the average man and even to criminal man; her guilt of a cowardly
and revolting crime may be obvious to every impartial mind; but her petticoats
hedge her about with a mysterious divinity which practically assures her of
immunity. It is declared that on an average a man is slain by a woman every day
in the United States, and that scarcely one conviction occurs in 50 such
cases.
The historian will point out that, while women were on every
hand asserting their equality with men in nearly every field, those accused of
crime instantly betook themselves for defense to the ancient fortress of the
sex – male pity aroused by woman’s weakness; and that the defendants hastened
to emphasize their pose of hopelessness with every means afforded by dress,
falsehood and tears.
The annalist will relate that dexterous lawyers her husband
to death: Women are spiteful. They would show no mercy to a woman. They would
take pleasure in convicting me.
Mrs. Louise Lindloff, indicted for seven deaths by poison: I
want justice and woman have been pretty successful to getting justice from
juries composed of men. I want no women to sit on the jury that tries me.
Lulu Blackwell, charged with killing Charles Vaughn: It
would be foolish to consent to have a jury of women try me. I want a man’s jury
to sit on my case.
Margaret McCabe, charged with killing Edward Lee: No women
for me. If the State’s Attorney wants women juries, that is reason enough why I
should not want them.
Elizabeth Buchanan, charged with the killing of Josephine
Rice: I would never consent to be tried by women.
In a recent interview Attorney Wayman skillfully dissected
the mental processes which actuate male jurors holding the fate of women
criminals in their hands. His text was the case of Mrs. Minnie Bernstein of
Chicago, who was accused of murdering her sleeping husband, and against whom,
according to Wayman, the evidence was so clear that, “had a man been the
defendant, he would have been convicted by any jury in the world.”
Nevertheless, Mrs. Bernstein was acquitted, the jury declaring she was insane
when she killed her husband.
“In acquitting Mrs. Bernstein,” said the attorney, “the jury
gave a typical illustration of the attitudes of American juries towards women
charged with murder. Mrs. Bernstein is not pretty, yet in her widow’s weeds
there was much in her appearance that would appeal to any man of susceptible
nature and tender heart.
“She, like all women, was a sufficiently clever actress to
make the most of her looks and the dramatic possibilities of her situation.
With her pallid face and dark eyes she looked wistful, helpless and appealing.
At times she wept into a dainty lace handkerchief – this is a fetching trick o’
women defendants – and again she bowed her head upon her arms while her
shoulders shook with sobs.
“The ordinary man such as the juror is feels sure that this
woman who looks so much like the woman who looks so much like the women of his
own family must have been abused and hounded and driven insane by the cruelty
of the man she killed. So in almost all cases the juror, unsophisticated in the
subtle psychology of the woman criminal, has made up his mind long before he
retires to the jury room that the woman on trial committed her crime during
some violent brainstorm that rendered her irresponsible.
“There is but one remedy. That is, to give women the right
to serve on juries.
“Only a woman can understand a woman. Only a woman can can
be uninfluenced by sentiment. Only a woman would punish a woman guilty of
murder. Only a woman could construe the law impartially where a woman is
concerned. A jury of women would look upon a woman criminal with cold, sexless,
unsentimental eyes and return a verdict in accordance with the merits of the
case.”
Wayman pointed out that in the last nine years in Chicago 38
women charged with murder, 20 of whom were accused of killing men, were
acquitted. During the same period only seven women arraigned for killing men
were found guilty. Wayman declared that if men had been accused they would have
been hanged in nearly every instance.
Mrs. Rene B. Morrow, a poetess and writer, was acquitted
only a few weeks ago of the murder of her husband, who was found dead on the
back porch of their home in the fashionable Hyde Park district, Chicago, with two bullets in
his body.The State showed that they were estranged and had been heard in
violent quarrel on the night of Morrow’s death.
While Mrs. Dora McDonald and Webster Guerin, with whom she
was engaged in a Hason [sic], were alone in a Chicago office, Guerin was shot
and instantly killed. The defense was that he shot himself while in a scuffle
with the woman for possession of a pistol. She was acquitted.
Lucille McLeod, a girl still in her teens, and William
Nieman Jr. were found in a Chicago hotel, the man dying and the girl severely
wounded. She recovered, was tried for murder, and asserted that the shooting
was done by Nieman. She was acquitted.
Mrs. Minnie, a trained nurse, was arraigned for the murder
of her husband, who was asphyxiated by gas flowing from a range in a room
adjoining that in which he slept. He had insurance of several thousands of
dollars on his life. A jury found that his death was due to murder, but
acquitted his widow.
Mrs. Jane Quinn was arraigned a few weeks ago on a charge of
killing her husband, who was shot as he lay asleep in bed. Two former husbands,
heaving insured, had died under mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Quinn said her
husband had been killed by a burglar, and was acquitted.
Mr. Louise Vermilya, charged with murdering nine persons
with poison, was arraigned for the death of Arthur Bisonette. The arraignment
resulted in a disagreement of the jury. She is to be tried a second time for
the murder of Richard T. Smith.
One of the most theatrical trials in St. Louis was that of
Mrs. Dora Doxey, accused of poisoning William J. Erder, whom she was charged
with having married bigamously and whose insurance she collected. Despite a
formidable array of circumstantial evidence she was acquitted.
Mrs. Clara Murray of St. Louis, charged with killing her
husband, pleaded that she did not know the rifle she pointed at him was loaded,
and that, anyhow, he had treated her cruelly. She was acquitted in February.
Mrs. Alma James was tried in St. Louis last March for
shooting her husband, Leo James, as he lay asleep in their flat. The jurors,
who significantly bound themselves not to discuss for publication the manner in
which they reached a decision, reported the following double-barreled verdict:
“We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty on the ground
that she was insane at the time she committed the offense as charged in the
indictment, and she has at this time entirely and completely recovered from
such insanity.”
Mrs. Moses Felton of Mexico, Mo., who shot her husband while
he lay asleep, was exonerated by a Coroner’s jury on her plea of self-defense.
Mrs. Lucy Matheson of Fort Worth, Tex., traced her husband
to the house of a negress and killed him. A jury freed her in 10 minutes.
Mrs. Assunta Mollicone was not brought to trial in Denver
for killing her husband after she told the Prosecuting Attorney Mollicone had
misused her and that she shot in self-defense.
Mrs. Frances O’Shaughnessy shot her husband in New York “to
save his soul” and was freed on the ground that she was insane.
Mrs. Laura Stannard of Ontonogan, Mich., was acquitted by a
jury of the murder of her husband, who died from poison administered in a
drink cure.
Mrs. Sudall shot her husband in the back and was acquitted
of murder by a San Francisco jury.
A plea of self-defense acquitted Mrs. Eleanor Valentine of
Denver, who shot her husband.
Mrs. Maude Lee Allen of
Sherman, Tex., shot her husband five times. Arrested for murder, she
worked on the sympathies of a grand jury with a plea of self-defense until the
jurors voted “no bill” and took up a collection of $12 for her among
themselves.
Only a month ago the spectators in a court at Harrodsburg,
Ky., applauded for 30 minutes when the Judge dismissed Mrs. Dora Russell on a
charge of murdering her husband. She testified that she met Russell at the door
and on declaring he would killer and the children, whipped a revolver from
behind her back and shot him four times.
Mrs. Lizzie Brooks of Fort Worth killed Mrs. Mary Binford,
with whom Brooks was said to have been intimate. At her trial, after resisting
how her home had been shattered, Mrs. Brooks’ attorney closed his argument to
the jury by singing “Home, Sweet Home.” The defendant was instantly acquitted.
Other women charged with murdering men and acquitted in
recent years include Mrs. Gertrude G. Patterson, Estelle Stout, Mrs. Antoinette
Tolla, the Baroness de Mansey, Florence Burns, Nan Patterson, Josephine
Terranova and Mrs. Annie Birdsong.
[“A Man Is Killed By A Woman Every Day!” St. Louis
Post-Dispatch (Mo.), Oct. 6, 1912, Sunday Magazine, p. 3]
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
***
For more on this topic, see Chivalry Justice Checklist & Links
[2043-1/25/19]
***
