False Rape Accusation as a Political Weapon – June Kelly’s Lie - 1944

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 3): New York, Aug. 4 – Edwin P. Banta, 75, was held in $1,900 bail for trial on Sept. 11 today on a charge of conspiring to have a false charge of attempted rape brought against Arthur Derounian, on the theory it would "blow that sedition trial in Washington sky-high."

According to District Attorney Frank S. Hogan Banta was a friend of George Sylvester Viereck, one of the defendants in the sedition case.

Derounian, who under the pen-name of John Roy Carlson, wrote the best-selling “Under Cover” has been a key witness for the prosecution.

Hogan charged that Banta, an orator for the German American Bund [U. S. organization formed by the German National Socialist Party, commonly known as the Nazis] when that organization was flourishing, posed as a violent anti-Nazi and recently succeeded in obtaining a job as investigator for the anti-Nazi league.

Banta's motive in taking that position, Hogan declared, was in the hope of aiding Viereck and other defendants in Washington. Banta enlisted June Kelly, 21, according to the district attorney, who said she was induced to bring a charge of attempted rape against Derounian.

When questioned, she admitted the charge was false. She was named as co-conspirator in the information on which Banta was arraigned yesterday but was not a defendant.

Banta denied the charge contending he was the victim of the Anti-Nazi league.

[“Hold Banta On False Charge Conspiracy,” Dunkirk Evening Observer (N.Y.), Aug. 4, 1944, p. 3]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): New York, Oct. 18 – Special sessions court seeks today to learn the source of $1,000 which was promised red-haired June Kelly, 21, if she would accuse John Roy Carson [pseudonym of Arthur Derounian], author of “Under Cover,” of rape in an alleged conspiracy to “blow the Washington sedition trial to hell.”

Miss Kelly testified yesterday that Edwin P. Banta, 73, alleged master mind of the plot, told her he would “write to Rep. Fish (Hamilton Fish, R., N. Y.), Mr. Deatherage (George E. Deatherage, organizer of the Knights of the White Camelia) and a Mr. Robinett (of Chicago) about raising money.”

Carlson is to be a government witness in the trial of 29 alleged seditionists which has dragged for weeks in a federal court in Washington.

Miss Kelly testified that she had been Banta’s secretary, and that he visited her room the night of June 19. “I told him Carlson had been to see me and he got very excited. He said ‘I have a great idea. You see he raped you and we will blow the sedition trial at Washington all to hell.”

Banta told Miss Kelly he had informed New York’s police commissioner Lewis J. Valentine of Carlson’s “attack” on her, she said, and a deputy chief inspector called to hear her story, which she told while Banta sat in the bathroom of her apartment within earshot.

“Banta told me to tear my dress, scratch my arms and shed tears when I told my story to the inspector,” Miss Kelly testified. She said she refused tear her dress because it was new, but she did accuse Carlson, and later telephoned police to say the story was “a frameup instigated by Banta.”

[“Probe Plot To Disrupt Trial of 29,” syndicated (UP), The Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, In.), Oct. 18, 1944, p. 3]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): New York, Oct. 23 – Edwin P. Banta, 73, was found guilty on a charge of conspiracy in an attempt to discredit Arthur Derounian, author of “Under Cover,” by asking a girl to falsely accuse the writer of raping her.

Presiding justice Irving Ben Cooper of Special Sessions announced sentence would be imposed Nov. 9 after “a full investigation of this defendant.”

Banta, faced with a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment, was accused of asking June Kelly, a pretty red-haired girl, to make the false accusation against Derounian, who wrote under the name John Roy Carlson, in order to “blow the seditionist trial in Washington all to hell.”

[“Found Guilty Of Attempt To Smear Carson,” The Gazette and Daily (York, Pa.), Oct. 24, 1944, p. 6]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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False Rape Accusations - Checklist

Following is a small selection of historical articles dealing with false rape accusations. Research on historical cases of this variety is still at an infantile stage.

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►• False Rape Accusations: General

1925 – Bill Against False Rape Accusations & Sexual Blackmail - 1925

A Wisconsin state legislator attempts, unsuccessfully, to protect men from the epidemic of false rape accusations he has been observing.

1945 – The Original Feminazis?: “The Battle Of The Fake Rape Cases” - 1945

False rape accusations are used as a weapon of war by the German military in an organized attempt to destabilize the allied occupation. The US military’s usual punishment for rape committed by one of its members was execution.

1981 – A False Rape Accusation Epidemic in Okaloosa County, Florida - 1981

An article that discusses the arrests of a series of false rape accusers. Such cases seldom made the news until fairly recently due to the fact that most false rape accusations are typically identified before arrest and until recently the accused were not routinely arrested – and their arrest publicized – without appropriate investigation.

2012 – What Does A Kidnapper Look Like? - Like a False Rape Accuser!

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►• False Rape Accusations: Individual Cases

1889 – Grant and Elihu Pugh, Falsely Accused of Rape and Almost Lynched – 1889

1889 – Maud Compston – St. Paul, Minnesota.

1894 – Albert Heuck & Henry Azbill: Two False Rape Accusation Cases - 1894

1896 – False Rape Accuser Mary Miller - 1896

1897 – Elsie Shipton – Los Angeles, California

1898 – False rape: George W. Wilson

1914 – A Fake Rape Case in Maryland: ”Negro Was a Myth” -1914

1931 – Dorothy Skaggs – Norfolk, Virginia

1944 – Ida Granata – San Bernardino, California

1944 – Edna Hancock – New York, N. Y.

Woman was charged with perjury after it was discovered her testimony the put her victim in jail was untrue.

1944 – False Rape Accusation as a Political Weapon – June Kelly’s Lie – 1944

A leading American Nazi sympathizer tries to "derail" a trial of sedition (collaborating with the enemy at time of war) with his secretary's willing cooperation.

1954 – Mary Gillen – New York, N. Y.

Two teenaged boys were held for 5 weeks for a rape that never happened. The accuser, a bar-hopping lush had passed out in a park and imagined the rape scenario.

1956 – Harold Miller – Chicago, Illinois

A man served four years of a life sentence. He had been accused by a mentally ill woman, a chronic schizophrenic, and was finally vindicated.

1958 – Joan & Catherine Carvella – Mineola, New York

Mother and daughter join forces to accuse a young man with whom the daughter had consenting sexual relations. The motive was spite; he did not want to marry her.

1959 – William Lott (victim) – New Orleans, Louisiana

1960 – Promiscuous Woman’s Fake Rape Story Aroused Racial Tension - 1960

1980 – Andrea Cohen – Mineola, N. Y.

1988/91 – Elizabeth Irene Richardson – Nebraska

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•◊••◊•

America's fastest growing hobby

It's a meme.

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Elsie Shipton, California False Rape Accuser - 1897

FULL TEXT: After two years’ confinement in the County Jail, awaiting the action of the Supreme Court, Clifton E. Mayne, charged with having committed rape upon the person of Elsie Shipton, is now a free man, the District Attorney having moved to dismiss the case in Department One yesterday.

Mayne was convicted in 1895 upon evidence which appears to have been perjured, for the most part. The trial was sensational in every particular, made specifically so from the fact that Mayne had been prominent in State politics, and was credited with having succeeded in “putting through” the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco some of the slickest jobs known to local history in that city.

In his capacity of a political manipulator. Mayne became mixed up with Boss Buckley, to whose influence, personally and financially, he attributes much of the force developed by the prosecution in his case. Mayne, it appears, had an idea or two of his own concerning political maneuvers, and soon graduated from the position of under study to the powers of the Bay Buckley and Mayne became at outs; the former had a little deal in San Diego in connection with the control of the city water supply; Mayne decided to checkmate him, and did so.

Shortly after, Mayne adopted Della Shipton and brought her to this city, accompanied by her sister Elsie. Then the charge of rape was preferred and Mayne was arrested, thrown into jail, and subsequently tried and convicted. At the trial Elsie swore positively that Mayne had had criminal relations with her, and Della, the defendant’s daughter by adoption, corroborated her statement.

Immediately after his conviction, Mayne appealed to the Supreme Court, including among the formal papers several affidavits of witnesses who swore that their testimony at the trial had been given under pressure brought to bear by friends and relatives. Among these was Della Shipton, who made the following statement:

“First – All the testimony I gave at the trial of C. E. Mayne was false. I was forced by threats to say what I did. C. E. Mayne was not in bed with me and Elsie,” as testified to by me.

[“Mayne Set Free. – The District Attorney Moves To Dismiss The Case. – Awaited Action by the Supreme Court for Two Long Years – Witnesses for the Prosecution Say Their Testimony Was False.” Los Angeles Times (Ca.), Oct. 26, 1897, part II, p. 9]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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Maud Compston’s Rape Accusation Found Untrue – Minnesota, 1889

FULL TEXT: Hal Reid is a free man! The alleged ravisher of Maud Compston was yesterday, ranted a free pardon by Gov. Merriam. Convicted by the trial court, the conviction being upheld by the appellate court, as a last resort an appeal was made to the chief officer of the state for an absolute pardon. These papers were originally filed with Gov. McGill, who left them as a legacy for his successor. Gov. Merriam has given considerable thought to the case, and in the legal points has had the matured opinion of Attorney General Clapp. Two eminently reputable citizens of the state made affidavits placing an entirely new feature in this notorious case, and adduced evidence which did not come out at the trial, which greatly favored the position taken by Reid in this matter. These affidavits were amply substantiated by others, and in the interests of justice, Gov. Merriam says, he could see no other was than grant the accused an unconditional pardon.

~ SCENE AT THE PRISON. ~

Hal Reid’s pardon arrived at the state prison at 1:30 o’clock yesterday, after he had served thirteen months of a fifteen years’ sentence on conviction of rape. His father, in expectation of to-day’s action of Gov. Merriam, had come over from Minneapolis in the morning, and when the Globe reporter called at the warden’s office, so in after 1 o’clock, the doctor was anxiously, yet lightly, pacing, the floor, his eyes continually turning to the. clock and toward the space in front of the office. He was waiting for the 1:25 Duluth train from St. Paul, on which, if no hitch occurred, Hal’s sister, Mrs. Levering, would come from the, capital, bearing the precious document. The train was a “little ahead of time, and Dr. Reid was still in the office, so that when the conductor stopped in front of the prison Mrs. Levering alighted alone, and with the pardon conspicuous in her hand, hurried across to the prison and entered the office, her face deathly pale, and her form trembling with excitement. “I have it. It is here,” she exclaimed, and in a moment the father and sister passed within to meet the prisoner to whom such good tidings had come. In scarcely fifteen minutes they reappeared accompanied by Hal, faultlessly dressed in black pants and vest, and an imposing Prince Albert. He, too, was very pale and agitated, but said to the Globe reporter: “I have expected it, because knew justice must be done. If it had been done earlier I would not have been here five minutes. He hastily seized the pardon and read it, saying: “It is a complete vindication. That is right.” The document recites, that the governor’s action is based on application for pardon filed by W. D. Washburn, Charles A. Pillsbury, S. P. Snider, Anthony Kelly and. many other prominent citizens of the state, supplemented by. affidavits now on file in my office showing that Maud Compston, the complaining witness, had made statements and admissions seriously impeaching her testimony given at the trial, and whereby I am convinced that great injustice has been done said J. H Reid, and that he is not guilty of the crime of which he was convicted. The outgoing 4:20 train stopped at the prison for the Reids, they especially wishing to avoid trip down town, where news of the pardon had spread.

~ DATA OF THE CASE. ~

Hal Reid was arrested on : the morning of Sept. 9, 1887, and confined in the county jail until the 2lst, when he was bailed out by. his father. Dec. 3 of the same year lie was convicted and again confined in the comity jail until the 11th of January, 1888, when he was conveyed to the state prison at Stillwater. So he has served fifteen months upon the sentence of fifteen years for the conviction or the crime of which he declares he is innocent.

[“Hal Reed Is Happy. - Gov. Merriam Pardons the Alleged Ravisher of Maud Compston. - Prominent Citizens Submit Evidence Tending to Prove Reid’s Innocence. – The Executive Decides  to Right the Grievous Wrong Done Him. -  Lou Murray, It Is Said, Is to Be Set at Liberty.” St. Paul Daily Globe (Mn.), Feb. 26, 1889, p. 2]

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Dorothy Skaggs, Virginia False Rape Accuser - 1931

FULL TEXT: Norfolk, Va. – What punishment will the Commonwealth of Virginia mete out to Dorothy Skaggs, a white woman, whose false testimony sent William Harper, 22, to the very shadow of the electric chair? And who and what will be done with the police officers who she said deliberately planted the luckless lad in the lineup for her to pick him out for the sacrifice of death?

These questions hung on the minds on the minds of a breathless throng of white and colored men and women who heard a white jury pronounce Harper not guilty after one of the most sensational “rape” trials ever heard in this country, which ended here Saturday.

~ Sentenced to Die ~

Harper, who was a friendless and ignorant youth, was on trial for the second time. He had been convicted of criminally assaulting the white wife of a sailor and had been sentenced to die in the electric chair.

He was “identified” from lineup on January 6, as the man whom Mrs. Dorothy Skaggs said had attacked her, pulled her into an alley and criminally assaulted her. She went on the witness stand in the first trial and swore to this. It was corroborated by a signed confession obtained by police and, following conviction, the sentence of death was passed.

The conviction and sentence to death of Harper occurred on January 29, and a week later the verdict was set aside by Judge A. R. Hankle, who presided at the first trial, on the grounds that full disclosure of the facts had not been brought out at the trial.

~ Sensational Development ~

Among the sensational developments brought out at the second trial, which recruited in the freeing of the youth, were the following:

1. Mrs. Skaggs confessed to T. E. Gilman, white Portsmouth attorney, that she had falsely accused the youth to cover up the fact that she had spent the night of January 6, at an Elizabeth City (N.C.) road house with W. P. Kid, a married man.

2. The white woman testified that the youth’s accuser was at the road house at the time she said the crime was committed.

3. Mrs. Skaggs, it was testified, had stated that police officers gave her the description whereby she “identified” Harper in a lineup. It was stated that Harper was picked because he was ignorant and that there would be little bother if he were sent to the chair.

4. Commonwealth’s attorney, Harry E. McCoy, had been apprised of all these facts but refused to use them to the end that justice might be done.

5. police officers “skeered” Harper into making the “confession” which helped to bring about his own conviction and sentence to the death chair.

A white jury at the second trial found the prosecution’s trial found the prosecution’s case so openly false that it rendered its verdict of not guilty without even having the cuused take the witness stand.

~ Ask Prosecution ~

An AFRO-AMERICAN representative here found an almost community-wide demand that the Mrs. Skaggs be prosecuted on a perjury charge and that the white police officers who “planted” Harper in the lineup also be prosecuted.

A leading column-and-a-half editorial in the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, white daily, calls upon Commonwealth’s Attorney McCoy to swear out a warrant at once charging Dorothy Skaggs with perjury. “This woman,” it says, “was on the stand, after having been put under a lawfully administered oath, and swore falsely. She put an innocent man in the very shadow of the electric chair by her false testimony. If this is not a material matter or thing, then human life is not material.”

An AFRO-AMERICAN representative at the trial found Harper almost unconcerned about what was going on. As the commonwealth’s attorney cross-examined witnesses, he spat tobacco juice.

The prisoner’s desk was used as a press box, and before court opened Harper sat and chatted with press representatives. There was no evidence of mob spirit.

[“Perjury Charge Faces White Rape Accuser – False Testimony of Dorothy Skaggs Gave Death Sentence. – Boy Acquitted – Police Said to Have Planted Him in Lineup.” The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), Mar. 14, 1931, p. 3]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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Ida Granata Racial Rape Hoax – San Bernardino, California 1944

FULL TEXT: San Bernardino, Cal. – Army Air Corps investigators possibly averted a bloody racial clash here when they proved untrue a white girl’s story that she had been raped and slashed about the face by a colored man last week.

The girl, who is said to be Ida Granata, of Rochester, N. Y., is a resident of the women’s dormitory project, which provides living accommodations for civilian employees of the army air depot.

~ “Incident Closed” ~

“Since the woman perpetrated a hoax against the army which has jurisdiction over the dormitories, it is considered proper to inform residents of this fact,” said Maj. Bert C. Brown, of the San Bernardino Army Air Force. “The attack never occurred and the army considers the incident closed.”

The rape report directly involved all colored men who reside in a civilian dormitory project nearby on East Third Street. Officers are said to have told a group of suspects after several days’ search. “The girl cut herself with a piece of lass from a radio dial and staged the act of having been raped and assaulted by a colored man.”

[“Cal. Rape Story a Hoax, Air Corps Investigators Say,” The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), Feb. 12, 1944, p. 11]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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Rape Hoax Bared; Man Gets Pardon: William Lott, New Orleans, 1959

FULL TEXT: New Orleans – A 28-year-old barber college student, who pleaded guilty to rape “Because I didn’t want to gamble with my life,” was free from prison yesterday after an investigation showed she was innocent

William Lott, 28, received a pardon and restoration of citizenship from Gov. Earl K. Long Friday after spending a year in state prison.

The pardon  followed an investigation by District Attorney Richard Dowling. He ordered Lott’s case reopened when the girl involved was charged with filling a false report in another alleged incident.

Lott pleaded guilty to simple rape and received a five-year prison term July 24, 1958.

In the case which led to Lott’s freedom, the girl told police she was beaten by a band of Negroes who tried to rape her. She later admitted the report was false.

Assistant District Attorney’s Walter Doane represented the girl as the complaining witness in the Lott case. Suspecting another hoax, he began checking. A special investigation proved the girl’s story against Lott was false, the District Attorney said.

Lott said he would try to effect a reconciliation with his wife, who divorced him as a result of the incident.

[“Rape Hoax Bared; Man Gets Pardon,” syndicated (AP), St. Petersburg Times (Fl.), Jul. 12, 1959, p. 4-A]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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Harold Miller, 4 Years in Jail on Fictional Rape Charge – Chicago, 1956

FULL TEXT: (Chicago, Illinois) – Life for Harold Miller this week took on all the sweetness of the candy he used to mix before he spent four years in prison for a a crime of which he was falsely accused and convicted – a crime which in all likelihood was only the figment of a tortured mind.

Before his four-year nightmare began, Miller, who is now 31, was a chocolate mixer at a candy company. Quiet and unassuming, he lived with his mother, relaxed after work with his friends and engaged in the usual activities of any normal Chicagoan.

~ RIDING A BUS ~

One fall night in 1951, Miller was riding on a bus, unaware that a woman passenger was pointing him out to her husband as the man who had raped her four nights before. When he left the bus he was trailed by the husband of Mrs. Barbara Latimore, while she rushed to call the police.

Arrested, Miller was accused of having accosted Mrs. Latimore in a vacant lot, dragging her to the rear porch of a house at 3429 S. Indiana ave., and attacking her.

The testimony of free friends – who took lie detector tests – that the accused man had been with them at the time of the alleged rape bore little weight with the police.

Miller was brought to trial, and on May 2, 1952 was sent to prison.

~ HAD FAITH IN HIM ~

But there were people who believed in his innocence. Jim McGuire, Sun-Times Reporter; Roy Woods, Miller’s stepfather, Charles Lieman, his attorney; and Ken Doughty of the Civil Liberties committee worked tirelessly to clear him.

McGuire died, but the others persevered. They found that Mrs. Latimore was a chronic schizophrenic, who was capable making even the most fantastic lies sound plausible. Two years after the after the alleged attack she was committed to Manento [State Hospital] for a series of shock treatments.

She was released conditionally in Feb. 1954, and her discharge became permanent one year later.

~ NEW TRIAL PLEA ~

On November 10, armed the information about Mrs. Latimore’s mental condition, and with the fact that a medical examination had failed to substantiate the claim of rape, Liebman asked Judge A. Sbarbaro, who had sentenced Miller, for a new trial.

Judge A. Sbarbaro refused the request and Liebman appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial.

Last week, three psychiatrists and a psychologist explained to Judge Sharboro the mental delusions under which Mrs. Latimore was suffering at the time of the accusation and pointed out that Miller had been convicted on her testimony alone.

~ AN INJUSTICE ~

Judge Sbarbaro said he would hold a new trial and declared that the conviction had been “an injustice to the individual and to the community.”

Miller would not have to endure the ordeal of the new trial, because Assistant States Prosecutor Francis Riley said the state will not re-open the case.

With tears in his eyes, Miller thanked the people who had worked to free him – all that is, except Jim McGuire. But Mrs. McGuire knew how her husband would have felt. She said:

~  JIM NOT PRESENT ~

“It is wonderful. I am sad to think that Jim was not present, but I feel that he won from the grave. This is the third man he had gotten out of prison.”

As for Miller, he has no ill-feeling toward anybody. He summoned up his ordeal this way:

“I believe that God and trusted Him all the way. At times, when everything seemed hopeless, I lost faith, but each time it was quickly restored.”

Harold Miller was the unfortunate victim of a sad miscarriage of justice. Back home with his mother at 7325 South Parkway, he is adjusting himself to the fact that the future holds more for him than the prospect of life in prison.

He does not know if he will go back to making candy, but of one thing he is certain – life itself had never been so sweet.

[“Free At Last – Man Wrongly Jailed Four Years Starts Life Anew,” Chicago Defender (Il.), Apr. 7, 1956, p. 8 (?)]

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Edna Hancock, False Rape Accuser Indicted for Perjury – New York, 1944

FULL TEXT: (New York, N. Y.) – Mrs. Edna Hancock, thirty-one-year-old former hospital attendant, who is charged with having falsely accused Murray Goldman, salesman, of attempted rape, was indicted yesterday for first-degree perjury.

The indictment against Mr. Goldman, who was convicted last fall on Mrs. Hancock’s charges and as a result faced a possible ten years in Sing Sing, was dismissed last Tuesday,  by Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz, of Kings County Court, who at the same time ordered Mrs. Hancock held in $25,000 on a perjury charge.

Mr. Goldman was freed by Judge Leibowitz after a lie detector test given two months after his conviction because new evidence uncovered during the trial raised doubts about his guilt in the minds of both his guilt in the minds of both Judge Leibowitz and the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney John E. Cone.

The indictment handed up yesterday by the grand jury said that Mrs. Hancock stated under oath at the trial that “while the attempted attack took place she screamed and hollered for twenty minutes, while in fact she did not.” The indictment added that Mrs. Hancock stated under oath at the trial that “while the attempted attack took place she screamed and hollered for twenty minutes, while in fact she did not.” The indictment added that Mrs. Hancock also stated under oath that she did not know Murray Goldman until the day of the alleged attempt, July 1, 1943, while she actually met him in May and at the time rode about town with him in the subway and in an automobile.

According to Mrs. Hancock the attempted attack took place at the nurses’ home in the Brooklyn Hospital, 681 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, where she was employed.

Mrs. Hancock, who is being held in the Women’s House of Detention in Manhattan, was in court yesterday to hear the indictment read. Her lawyer, Vincent O’Connor, asked that pleading be postponed until Monday. Judge Leibowitz again fixed bail at $25,000.

Mr. O’Connor later told reporters that Mrs. Hancock had sent a telegram to her husband, William Clark Hancock, a Seabee, stationed in Dansfield, R. I., asking him to try to get leave to come to New York for the trial.

A perjury conviction could bring five years in prison on a $25,000 fine.

[“Indict Woman For Perjury in Goldman Case – Jurors Find Discrepancies in
Mrs. Hancock’s Story of His Alleged Attack,” New York Herald-Tribune (N.Y.), Feb. 18, 1944, p. 16]

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Mary Gillen’s Passed-Out-Drunk Rape Fantasy – New York, 1954

FULL TEXT: An assistant District Attorney conscientiously switched from public prosecutor to public defender and won vindication yesterday for two teen-age boys falsely accused of attempted rape. They had been released from jail ten days ago after five months imprisonment awaiting trial.

Peter D. Andreoli, of District Attorney Frank S. Hogan’s staff, was scheduled to prosecute Enerio Santo, sixteen, and Victor Caban, seventeen, on a four-count indictment charging rape, assault and violation of the Sullivan law.

In studying the case against them, based solely on the testimony of the alleged victim – a fifty-one-year-old woman – the prosecutor came to the conclusion that parts of her story “did not fit.”

After thorough investigation. Mr. Andreoli came into General Sessions with new evidence yesterday showing that the woman, Mrs. Mary Gillen, of 44 W. 86^th St., had been intoxicated and “had imagined it all happened.”

As a result, Judge Harold A. Stevens dismissed the charges against the boys, praised Mr. Andreoli for “excellent work in the highest tradition of the District Attorney’s office” and tongue-lashed Mrs. Gillen for “one of the most reprehensible things that the court has experienced.”

The boys, both unemployed restaurant workers, were arrested at 2:10 a. m., June 25 in Central Park near W. 88^th St., when police found Mrs. Gillen “almost naked” lying on a path near them. Mrs. Gillen charged that they accosted her, forced her into the park at knife-point, tore off her clothes and attempted to rape her.

~ Lodged in the Tombs ~

The boys were locked up in default of $10,000 bail each and were lodged in the Tombs waiting trial, scheduled for next week. Mr. Andreoli began working on the case and questioned all concerned.

He obtained from police records the name of a man who had been strolling on Central Park West at the time of the alleged rape. He was John J. Brady, of 58 North Lansing St., Albany.

With the co-operation of Albany police, Mr. Andreoli had Mr. Brady returned to the city. He questioned him and later had the witness confront Mrs. Gillen. Mr. Brady, the prosecutor said, told him that he was helping a crippled woman that morning when Mr. Gillen, whom he described as being drunk, approached him and tried to kiss him. Mr. Brady said he pushed the woman away and watched her “stagger toward the two kids.”

~ Admits Visiting Bars ~

Mr. Adreoli said he then questioned Mrs. Gillen, who admitted she had visited several bars that night and that “her recollection was not too good.” She admitted that Mr. Brady looked “familiar” and then, according to Mr. Andreoli, “admitted that the story she told police was what she imagined had happened as she could not see why she should be in the park with these two boys.”

As a result of his findings, Mr. Andreoli moved on Nov. 30 for parole of the two boys pending of the two boys pending completion of his investigation. Judge Stevens acceded and asserted he did not wish the youths to “spend another minute injail” if they were innocent.

Judge Stevens dismissed the indictment on Mr. Andreoli’s recommendation and told him:

“When we find an official who not only accept the allegations but, when some occasions arise which create a doubt in his mind he uses all the facilities and resources at his command to ascertain the truth, we feel that he is deserving of the highest commendation, and we do so commend you.”

[“Prosecutor Clears 2 Boys Held 5 Months in Rape Case,” New York Herald Tribune (N.Y.), Dec. 10, 1954, p. 25]

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Mom-Daughter Fake-Rape Team – 1958

FULL TEXT: Mineola – A woman and her pregnant daughter yesterday admitted plotting to frame a youth on a phony rape charge after he had refused to marry the girl.

Police said the two hatched the plan after an argument with the 19-year-old East Meadow truck driver and his parents on Sunday. The girl, 20-year-[old] Joan A. Carvella and her mother, Catherine, then drove to a police station and filed a charge of first-degree rape – a charge later denied by the youth, Police uncovered the plot when the women’s stories failed to check out.

“I guess we didn’t think about what were doing. We acted too fast,” Mrs. Carvella, 39, said yesterday after she and the girl pleaded guilty to filing a false report and entering into a conspiracy. Both charges are misdemeanors.

The intended victim of the mother-daughter conspiracy, William Porter of 1852 Cole Dr., East Meadow, was unaware that the women had gone to police until informed last night by Newsday. “I’m shocked. I don’t know what to think,” he said. “I met her about four months ago and went out with her a few times. My friends said they heard she liked me. and then she used to follow me around. Nut I wasn’t interested. I haven’t seen her in the past 10 weeks.”

Porter denied being the father of the girl’s unborn child. “Out of the blue, the gal came to my home Sunday morning and told me she was pregnant. She spoke to me and my father and wanted to know what we were going to do about it. I said I had nothing to so with it and after about 15 minutes she left. On Sunday night, the girl, her mother and some relatives came over and started all over again,” he said. But, he said, he resisted all demands to marry Jean.

The mother and the daughter, who live at 32 George Ave., Hicksville, cooked up a plan as they drove home from the Porter house. After making up their story, they drove to the Second Precinct at about 10:30 PM and saw Det. Andrew Heberer. They told him that Porter had taken John out on their first date Saturday night. On the way home, the Carvellas said, he stopped along Division Ave., Levittown, and forced Joan to submit to him.

Heberer said the women’s statements appeared to contain inconsistencies. Among other things, the girl said she had not threatened with any weapon. She said she did not scream and suffered no bruises. After about three hours, Heberer said, the mother and the daughter broke down and admitted they had decided to file the rape charge to get even with the youth and his family.

Both women stood stiffly in First District Court yesterday and each spoke bthe word “no” when asked if she wanted an attorney and the word “guilty” when asked for a plea. Judge Edwin R. Lynde released both in $500 bail to await a probation report and sentencing Sept. 22.

[Leo Seligsohn, “Girl, Mother Admit Frame-Up of Youth,” Newsday (Long Island, N. Y.), Sep. 9, 1958, p. 7]

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George W Wilson, Falsely Convicted of Rape in Utah - 1898

FULL TEXT: [Salt Lake, Utah] – It is now reasonable to believe that George W Wilson, who was convicted of the crime of attempting to commit rape and sentenced on Nov 19, 1895 to a term of four years imprisonment, may be innocent of the charge. His conviction was secured mainly on the testimony of police officers, who arrested him under suspicious circumstances in their zealous effort to learn the truth that justice might be meted out the supposed victim of the alleged assault was frightened into telling a falsehood which formed the basis of the conviction. Such was the view taken of the case yesterday by the state board of pardons, in giving Mr. Wilson the benefit of the doubt and granting him an unconditional pardon.

~ FAVORABLE TO WILSON ~

When Wilson’s petition for a pardon was first heard last year it resulted in a denial though his previous untarnished character was amply certified to by hundreds of prominent persons in California, where the accused formerly lived before securing employment here as the Walker house. His light sentence was due to the belief that he was of unsound mind. Judge King before whom he was tried and Judge Howat, the then prosecuting attorney endorsed his second petition. Chief Pratt and the police officers who the case against Wilson, joined in his request for his pardon.

~ STRANGE REVELATIONS ~

The motive prompting the board of pardons to exercise clemency in Wilson’s behalf were the affidavits tending to prove that he was not guilty of the offense charged. Lille Carney, the young girl up on whom the assault was alleged to have been committed deposed that through fear of the police sending her to jail as they had threatened to do she finally admitted that Wilson had assaulted her and testified at the trial when in truth the accused had never laid hands upon her or violate her person, but on the contrary he had always been kind and correct in his deportment toward her. She also deposed that she had frequently related to her mother and to others that she had testified falsely against Wilson.

The affidavits of Mrs. Senie Carney, the girl’s mother, and Mrs. E. D. Temple corroborated the statements made in the deposition of the prosecution.

[Note: This article continues, but with discussions of separate cases of unrelated types of crimes. The text reproduced her is the full text of the first of these cases, the Wilson rape case.]

[“The Board Of Pardons. – George W. Wilson Is Given His Liberty. - The Deposition of Lillie Carney – Says She Testified Against Wilson – S. W. McConnell Pardoned.” The Salt Lake Herald (Ut.), Apr. 17, 1898, p. 5]

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Andrea Cohen’s Hairy Rape Lie – New York, 1980

FULL TEXT: Mineola, N. Y. – A New York City employee won $10,000 in state Supreme Court after he gave a convincing demonstration of his argument that he had been falsely sued for rape.

Jeffrey Gordon, a 30-year-old accountant with the New York City comptroller’s office, was arrested last year and charged with first-degree rape. When a grand jury refused to indict him, Gordon sued the woman who brought the charge against him, 29-year-old Andrea Cohen, for $2.5 million for alleged libel and slander.

Miss Cohen testified Wednesday during the one-day non-jury trial that when she was raped, she had pulled at Gordon’s hair.

At that point in the testimony, Gordon stood up [and] removed his toupee.

Justice Angelo Roncallo directed the $10,000 settlement, saying he didn’t believe the alleged rape ever happened.

[“Hairpiece figures in rape case,” syndicated (AP), Boca Raton News (Fl.), Nov. 13, 1980, p. 14A]

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Elizabeth Richardson's Broadcast About Her Rape Lie – Nebraska, 1990

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 3): Omaha, Neb. – A woman who falsely accused a man of raping her was ordered to run radio and newspaper advertisements apologizing to him. But the man says the sentence will not undo the damage.

“You can’t change a wrong to a right,” said Gary Nitsch. “I lost a job. I had to get a lawyer. The kids at school were saying to my kids, “Your dad’s a rapist.”

And the ads may never be printed or aired.

Elizabeth Irene Richardson, 24, is considering appealing the sentence, which the Nebraska Civil Liberties Union says may be cruel and unusual punishment.

Richardson accusing Nitsch, 44, of Overton, of raping her in September 1988. she reportedly told police that he raped her when he came to her housed in search of a painting job.

Nitsch was arrested and charged with sexual assault, but the case was dropped in February this year for lack of strong physical evidence.

Word reached authorities that Richardson has told friends the rape was a hoax. Her attorney, Todd McKeone, said Richardson admitted she made up the accusations to get attention from her husband, a trucker who is often away from home.

Richardson pleaded guilty to perjury in April and was sentenced June 8, according to press reports.

A judge ordered Richardson to apologize to Nitsch in half-page advertisements in every newspaper and on commercials on each radio station in Dawson County, a country of about 22,000 in central Nebraska.

The media campaign was expected to cost about $1,000, her attorneys said. She also was sentenced to 180 days in jail and was placed on two years’ probation.

A panel of state civil liberties union attorneys who reviewed the case said the sentence may violate Richardson’s rights under the Eighth and 14^th amendments.
 

The Eighth Amendment protects individuals against cruel and unusual punishment and the 14^th Amendment ensures due process.

The organization is “concerned about the scarlet letter approach in sentencing,” said Bill Schatz, NCLU executive director. “Suppose someone is arrested for shoplifting. Are we going to make him wear a sign saying he’s a convicted shoplifter? Is there such a thing as punishment fitting crime?”

If the case is appealed, the organization will offer research services and may file a friend-of-the court brief, Schatz said.

Nitsch said he was still puzzled about how his name came up in the rape charge.

He said he met Richardson once during the spring or summer of 1988 when he went to her house inquiring about the painting job she had advertised.

“I would just like to have someone tell me how I was named,” he said.

He said his ordeal has taken a toll on his family.

He said his wife, Naomi, “doesn’t like to come to town and face people.” His 18-year-old daughter quit high school in March because of the was she was being treated, Nitsch said.

“We’ve lived in a trailer house since 1973,” he said. “We’re saving for a home, but when you have attorneys’ fees, it’s hard.”

Nitsch said he was fired from his job as a driver after being questioned at work by authorities and jailed for three days. He’s now a part-time construction worker.

He said he wants a full-time job but “people want clean help. They don’t want somebody that’s been in trouble with the law.”

 “I used to go into town and drink coffee and joke with people, but everything just kind of turned sour,” Nitsch said.

“The first year, I was so depressed I didn’t want people to see me,” he said. “If I went into town I had to have somebody drive me so I could scoot down in the seat so nobody would see me.”

Nitsch said he is also bitter about the way authorities handled his case. His attorneys are suing four sheriff’s deputies for $100,000, claiming he was arrested and his home was searched without cause.

“Mr. Nitsch is apparently the victim of some lies. But that is not the fault of the sheriff’s department,” said Randy Goyette, an attorney representing the Dawson County Sherfiff’s Office.

Jim O’Rourke, now a district court judge, was Dawson County attorney at the time.

“I believe that the case was very professionally and accurately handled,” O’Rourke said. “We went with what we had and we did the best we could.”

O’Rourke said Richardson decided not to pursue the case after he told her the trial would be difficult for her without corroborating evidence.

[“Woman Must Apologize in Ads For Falsely Accusing Man of Rape,” Sarasota Herald Tribune (Manatee AM Edition), Jul. 3, 1990, p. 2A]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): Lexington, Neb. – A woman sentenced to apologize in radio and newspaper ads to a man she falsely accused of raping her won’t appeal the sentence to the state Supreme Court, her attorney said Friday.

An attorney for Elizabeth Irene Richardson said he mailed a dismissal of the appeal to the
Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday.

Ms. Richardson, 24, did not want to risk having a judge gave her a longer jail sentence if the Supreme Court decided she could not be ordered to pay for the advertisements as a condition of probation, said defense attorney Tod McKeone.

“There’s still some possibility of not having to run them (the ads),” he said.

He said the defense was considering alternatives to appealing the sentence to a higher court, including possibly filing a motion asking the district court for a sentence reduction.

“It would have been an interesting case to test this kind of sentencing to see if it would send up under constitutional grounds,” McKeone said.

Ms. Richardson, a former Lexington resident, was sentenced June 8 to 180 days in jail and was placed on two years probation for perjury.

A Dawson County District Court judge also ordered Ms. Richardson to apologise to Gary Nitsch in a half-page advertisement in every newspaper and a primetime spot in each radio station in Dawson, a central Nebraska county of about 22,000 people.

Ms. Richardson now lives in Overton, had accused Nitsch, 44, of Overton of raping her in September 1988. he was arrested and charged with sexual assault. Ms. Richardson told friends the rape was a hoax. She was convicted of her perjury last February. County attorney John Marsh said the woman’s was trying to get the attention of her husband, a truck driver who was often away from home.

Authorities later learned that Ms. Richardson told friends the rape was a hoax. She was convicted of perjury last February. County attorney John Marsh said the woman’s was trying to get the attention of her husband, a truck driver who was often away from home.

Nitsch, who said he had met the woman only briefly when he went to her house inquiring about a painting job she had advertised, has said that as a result of the false charge, he lost his job and his family was harassed.

[“Woman in phony rape case pulls appeal,” syndicated (AP), the Tuscaloosa News (Al.), Jul. 22, 1990, 2F]

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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): Lexington, Neb. - A woman who falsely accused a man of rape apologized Sunday in court-ordered radio ads, saying she hopes time will heal the damage to. the man's reputation. Elizabeth Irene Richardson, 24, was ordered to run radio and newspaper ads throughout Dawson

County in central Nebraska as part of her sentence for a perjury conviction last February. She was later to begin a six-month jail term for falsely accusing Gary Nitsch, 44.

"I want the public to know that these allegations were not true and that I made up the story for personal reasons," Ms. Richardson said in the radio ad. "While I realize there is nothing I can really do or say to repair the damage I have caused, I sincerely pray that time will heal the wounds my false allegation have inflicted on Mr. Nitsch and his family," she said. Ms. Richardson accused Nitsch of raping her in September 1988. He was charged with sexual assault, but the case was dropped for lack of physical evidence.

[“Woman apologizes for false charges,” The Hutchinson News (Ka.), Sep. 3, 1990, p. 5]

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Grant and Elihu Pugh, Falsely Accused of Rape and Almost Lynched - 1889

FULL TEXT: Readers of the Bulletin are no doubt still familiar with the facts in the case of Commonwealth against Grant and Elihu Pugh, who were convicted at Flemingsburg about a year ago, and pent to the penitentiary for twenty years for rape.

A special says it was developed Friday they were convicted on manufactured and perjured testimony; that the alleged victim was a notorious woman who now consorts with low colored courtesans to whom she confessed her schemes, and they have been verified by careful investigation.

There was an epidemic of criminal assaults in Fleming at the time, no less than eight being committed in thirty days, and the public mind was violently inflamed. One night a mob broke into the jail at that place. They secured but one of the prisoners a negro charged with rape.

He was taken to a bridge near the town limits and strung up. The Pugh brothers, however, were brought here for safe keeping and lodged in the Maysville jail until the next term of court, when their trial resulted as above stated. While here they were seen by a representative of the Bulletin and protested their innocence, asserting that the woman had accused them falsely. But little attention, however, was paid to their protestations at the time. The recent developments have put a new phase on the case though, and the Governor will be appealed to at once to pardon them. The petition is signed by all the magistrates of Fleming County, ten of the jury who convicted, one being dead and the other removed, and the county and district attorney who prosecuted.

Commenting on the case the Cincinnati Post says: ‘The men have served but a few months of their twenty years’ sentence, and now by the confession of their accuser they are found to be innocent. The application is obvious. If the mob had succeeded in murdering two innocent men in the blind fury of the moment their consciences must have been most unpleasant companions henceforth.”

[“A Lesson For Lynchers. - The Pugh Brothers Sent Up From Flemingsburg Convicted on Perjured Testimony.” The Evening Bulletin (Maysville, Ky.), Nov. 4, 1889, p. 3]

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Albert Heuck & Henry Azbill: Two False Rape Accusation Cases - 1894

FULL TEXT: Governor Markham has pardoned Albert Heuek, who was sentenced in the Superior Court of San Diego County in October, 1889, to seven years at Folsom for an assault to rape. He gives the following reasons for his action:

From written evidence produced by Walter Ferral and M. L. Ward, District Attorney of San Diego, it was shown that Heuck was convicted on the testimony of the complaining witness, who swore positively that at the time of the alleged assault she had never had intercourse with another person. Since his conviction, however, it is proved that before that time she was living with another man.

It further appears that at the time of the trial her true character was not known, nor was the fact known that she was living as a kept mistress of the man spoken of and the associate of persons of questionable morality.

Farther, it appears that since Heuck’s incarceration she has brought suit for damages against another party with whom she claimed to have been criminally intimate prior to the time of the alleged assault by Heuck, and as the District Attorney found her testimony in the two cases did not agree, he refused to have anything to do with the last case.

The State Board of Prison Directors being satisfied that Heuck had been unjustly condemned on perjured testimony, recommended his pardon, which is granted, and he is restored to citizenship.

He has also pardoned Marcus Cesena, sentenced by the Superior Court of Monterey County in September, 1889, to six years' imprisonment at San Quentin for an attempt at rape.

The State Board of Prison Directors, alter careful investigation of the case, have recommended that the sentence be commuted to four years on the grounds that from the testimony submitted there seems to be grave doubts of his guilt.

It is shown by letters from many prominent citizens that the prisoner had an excellent reputation prior to his conviction, and the petition is signed by the majority of the jury that convicted him, the Sheriff and District Attorney of the county and many prominent citizens and county officials.

It also appears from the papers on file that it is the general impression among the better class of people in the county that the defendant was innocent of the crime, and the party on whom the assault was claimed to have been committed has at different times and to different people acknowledged that her testimony was false, lie is therefore pardoned and restored to citizenship.

He has also commuted the sentence of Henry Hunt, who was sentenced in March, 1882, by the Superior Court of Los Angeles County to imprisonment for life for murder in the first degree, to twenty-one years.

The Prison Directors have recommended the commutation for the reason that the murder was not a cold-blooded, deliberate one, the man killed having interfered while defendant was trying to shoot another man, and the killing being apparently accidental.

Although the prisoner was an old man at the time of the murder, he had always borne a good reputation as a peaceable man, and was not a bad man, a ruffian or a desperado. In the opinion of ex-Sheriff W. B. Rowland and a number of other prominent citizens, the punishment was an excessive one under the circumstances and the prisoner was guilty of no higher crime than manslaughter, and is a lit subject for executive clemency. His conduct has been uniformly good since his imprisonment, and Warden Aull and Captain Murphy unite in recommending him to clemency. He is now old and feeble and has now been incarcerated for nearly thirteen years, and it is the opinion of the board that he has been sufficiently punished.

His sentence will expire in February, 1895.

The sentence of Henry L. Azbill (Lilburn Azbill) who was sentenced by the Superior Court of Ventura County in to four years' imprisonment for assault to rape, has been commuted to two and one-sixth years, to expire next month.

Hon. B. T. Williams, Superior Judge of Ventura County, who sentenced Azbill, says that the boy was beyond the age when he could be sent to the Reform School, where he should have been sent rather than to San Quentin. The girl's father and mother have since related facts raise a doubt as to whether the offense was actually committed, and the boy and his parents were densely ignorant. His father has died and his mother and her children are county pensioners. He has always behaved well and complied with all rules of the prison, and the directors think that the ends of justice have been attained.

[“Pardons And Commutations. - Governor Markham Records Four in One Day. - Two Men Sentenced on Perjured Evidence of Women – An Excessive Sentence.” The Record-Union (Sacramento, Ca.), Mar. 1, 1894, p. 4]

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