FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 4): Cleveland, Jan. 19. – Mrs. Flossie Hartman, 32, found her estranged husband five times killing him, said Detective Anthony Kosicki.
“Please get me out of here,” Kosicki quoted her as saying
from the jail hospital ward where she held today, pending filing of charges in
the slating of the husband, Joseph, 32.
“Will they kill me for this?”
Police said Mrs. Hartman told them she arrived from Dunkard,
Pa., only a few hours before the killing, which occurred in an automobile
parked across the street from Hartman’s residence.
“I don’t know how she missed the baby,” said Miss Mary King,
34, who was sitting in the car also occupied by another man, Neil McKay. Miss
King said she once had “gone steady” with Hartman in Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Hartman, who said the couple’s two other children, Roy,
9, and Joseph, 3, are in a Waynesburg, Pa., orphanage, told police that she had
come her to effect a reconciliation with her husband, from whom she had been
separated six months.
[“Woman Faces Murder Charge – Held In Cleveland After Police
Report She Shot Husband, Holding 11-Month-Old Son,” The Evening Independent
(Massillon, Ohio), Jan. 19, 1937, 1]
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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): Cleveland, March 20 – A 32-year-old mother of three children planned to leave this afternoon for her home in Waynesburg, Pa., freed of the charge she murdered her husband.
The woman, Mrs. Florence Hartman was accused of killing her
estranged husband, Joseph, here last Jan. 10, by firing four shots into his
head as he sat in an auto with a 34-year-old divorcee.
The jury, which returned its verdict yesterday, was
criticized by Trial Judge Samuel H. Silbert.
Witnesses testified Mrs. Hartman was holding her year-old
son in her arms when she shot her husband. [This account is contradicted in
later articles on the case.]
Sympathy in the court room yesterday appeared to be entirely
with the defendant, a frail woman. During testimony spectators to the room wept
and tears were in the eyes of the jury.
Members of the jury, the foreman said, balloted only on a
manslaughter verdict, although Mrs. Hartman was charged with first-degree
murder.
Judge Silbert, in discussing the case said: “I believe a
conviction should have should have been considered. This is a time when a jury
is not a reasoning machine but acted as a human institution. The defendant
certainly had been mistreated. She twice collapsed on the stand, although this
was not done with the intention of influencing the jury – but it did.”
Mrs. Hartman testified her husband beat her frequently and
“ran around” with other women. She said he left her in Waynesburg last
September, telling her he was going to get a divorce.
She said she had to beg money to come to Cleveland where she
intended to attempt a reconciliation.
When the verdict was returned, Mrs. Hartman kissed her
attorney. Donald W. Hornbeck. Sympathetic court room spectators gave her $100
worth of clothing to return to her home.
“I am going to forget all about what happened. There’ll be
no more marriage for me. I’ve learned my lesson. Getting freed was a pleasant
surprise,” Mrs. Hartman said.
[“Woman Killer Freed By Jury – Cleveland Judge Criticizes
Verdict for Waynesburg, Pa., Mother,” The Pittsburgh (Pa.), Mar. 20, 1937, p.
3]
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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): Waynesburg, Pa., Sept. 17 – For
the second time in less than two years, the life of Mrs. Florence Hartman, 33,
mother of three children, will be in the hands of a jury here this week.
A Cleveland panel freed Mrs. Hartman of the charge of
murdering her husband Jan. 10, 1937.
A Greene County jury, probably beginning Tuesday, will
decide the guilt of Mrs. Hartman on the charge of slaying her sweetheart, John
Andrenok, 22, in her one-room Taylortown home last June 19.
Mrs. Hartman previously was accused of firing four shots
into the head of her husband, Joseph, while he sat in an auto with a
34-year-old divorcee in a Cleveland park.
The Cleveland jury that freed Mrs. Hartman on March 19,
1937, was criticized by the trial judge, Samuel H. Silbert, for permitting the
woman’s emotional outbursts at the trial to influence their verdict.
The trial in Andrenok’s death originally was scheduled to
begin tomorrow, but was postponed a day because of the illness of Mrs.
Hartman’s attorney, W. Robert Thompson.
Dist. Atty. Frank Throckmorton said today he would ask for a
first-degree murder verdict. The prosecutor said hee would try to prove that
Mrs. Hartman purchased the rifle that caused Andrenok’s death in Morgantown, W.
Va., two weeks prior to the shooting.
When first questioned by police, Mrs. Hartman was reported
saying that she and Andrenok had gone to sleep on the floor at the foot of the
bed where her three children were sleeping. She said, according to police, that
she was awakened by the rifle shot and found Andrenok lying wounded on the
floor.
Later was said to have changed her story, claiming that the
gun had accidentally discharged while she and Andrenok were scuffling for its
possession.
Mrs. Hartman, frail and timid in appearance, has been in
jail since her arrest. Her three children have been wards at the Greene County
Home.
The trial judge will be Challen W. Waychoff.
[“Taylortown Woman Again Faces Trial for Slaying – Freed in
Death of Husbands, She Faces Charge of Killing Her Sweetheart,” The Pittsburgh
Press (Pa.), Sep. 18, 1938, Society Section, p. 12]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 4): EXASPERATED and amazed, Judge
Samuel H. Gilbert heard the jury foreman pronounce the “Not Guilty” verdict.
White with anger he pounded the bench with his fist as he charged:
“In view of the direct nature of the evidence it is obvious
that emotions, not facts, governed your deliberations!”
Florence Hartman, the exonerated defendant, hardly heard
what the judge said; she had been promised a permanent by a publicity-conscious
beauty parlor operator if she won her freedom on the charge of killing her
husband, and so on that afternoon on March 19, 1937, she walked out of the
Cleveland, Ohio, Criminal Court with a saucy flirt of the hips and a crooked
smile on her pretty face. . .
Redheaded Florence Marshall had married Joseph Hartman in
1928 at Washington, Pennsylvania, and had borne him four children, the last yet
an infant, Hartman proved to be a good provider even if his jobs did take him
away from home for months at a time when mechanic’s jobs were scarce in his own
state. But his wife, an incorrigible flirt and fiery-tempered, had no
appreciation for the efforts of her plodding, conscientious mate; her viperish
tongue and ill-concealed amorous associations with men drove Hartman away from
home on at least three different occasions.
The last time, alter a particularly bitter quarrel in
January, 1937, the harried husband left for Cleveland and Florence finally
realized that she had alienated his love and patience. She placed three of her
children in an institution and with her baby in her arms followed Hartman to
Ohio.
Arriving at the boarding house where her husband was stopping
Florence found him seated in a car with a young lady named Mary King; the
couple were discussing the sale of Hartman’s automobile to Miss King. Florence,
her infant in the crook of her arm, greeted the pair cordially and then,
smiling, placed the baby in her husband’s lap.
She then asked for permission to climb in the back seat;
this her husband sullenly granted. As soon as she was seated she began
pleading: “Joe, won’t you take me back, please.”
“No!” her husband answered. “I took you back three times,
it’s useless to try again. I’m going to divorce you and get custody of the
children. That’s the only chance we will ever have for peace and happiness.”
Then he turned his attention to the baby and the prospective
purchaser of his car. The wife didn’t argue. Matter-of-factly she unzippered
her handbag and withdrew an ugly .38 calibre automatic; slowly she raised it to
the back of her husband’s head and pulled the trigger. The explosion tore a
scream from the King girl’s throat – she scrambled out of the car and Mrs.
Hartman deliberately fired three more shots into the sagging head of the man
she had sworn to love, honor and obey.
This was the killing which the jury judged no crime – a
verdict that brought denunciation from the bench, and a few hours later
permitted the elaborately coiffured widow to turn her pretty red head in the
direction where she got her greatest satisfaction in the direction of the
gullible male.
On June 19, 1938, Sheriff Henry Flowers, of Greene County,
Pennsylvania, heard about the shooting of 21-year-old John Andrenock shortly
after the youth succumbed at the Memorial Hospital at Waynesburg. Andrenock,
Sheriff Flowers was told, had committed suicide at the bungalow of Mrs.
Florence Hartman who had returned from Ohio in April, 1937.
Dr. Robert Gans, who phoned the sheriff, stated that he had
been called by one of Mrs. Hartman’s neighbors at 3 a. m. that morning, and
when he reached the modest home he found Mrs. Hartman sitting on the floor,
with the patient’s head in her lap, sobbing, “Why did you do it, Johnnie dear?
Oh, why did you do it?” The youth was in a critical condition so the doctor got
him to the hospital where he worked over him without success. Mrs. Hartman had
accompanied the wounded boy and was with him when he died there some three
hours later.
Sheriff Flowers first drove to the bungalow, which was
deserted; there he found a blood-stained mattress and a reddened pillow in the
middle of the living room floor, a brand new .22 rifle lying significantly
alongside. The sheriff picked up the rifle gingerly it was a most uncertain and
awkward weapon for suicide. After he stowed the rifle in his car he went
through the little house carefully but could find nothing that would warrant
the supposition of foul play.
He drove to Waynesburg only to learn there that the woman
had left. However, a hint as to her whereabouts had been indicated when she
confided to a nurse that her hair looked a mess.
Indeed, Flowers found her in a beauty shop and escorted her
to his office for formal investigation and questioning.
The widow showed great distress over Johnnie’s death. She
and Johnnie, who was a miner, were to be married in the Fall. Why he should
take his life that way, she said, might only be explained by his financial
circumstances which would not. permit their immediate marriage.
They had been keeping company for almost a year, and, in
spite of scandal-mongers, the gap of ten years in their ages made no difference
in their full determination to wed.
Her lover, she continued, called at her home Sunday night
and seemed depressed; so when he informed her he was going for a short walk
before retiring she made no protest; and while he was gone she made a bed for
him on the floor there it would be coolest.
“I went to bed and fell asleep right away so I didn’t hear
him come back. How long I slept I don’t know but I was awakened by a shot that
frightened me terribly. I managed to get out of bod and into the living room.
When I saw the gun I realized what had happened so I dashed to my nearest
neighbor and asked him to call a doctor . . . The rifle? I have no idea where
it came from. Maybe poor Johnnie borrowed it from somebody while he was out
walking.”
The sheriff watched the tears welling in his visitor’s great
blue eyes. Then for the first time he recalled that this appealing, pretty
woman before him had once calmly killed a man. Immune to her blandishments he
decided to lock her up as a material witness until he was satisfied beyond the
shadow of a doubt that young John Andrenock had died by his own hand.
Flowers had been unable to find a suicide note at the
Hartman bungalow, but there was a possibility that the young miner and
recovered the fatal slug. In probing for its course they discovered that it ran
straight in, indicating that the gun had been held at a perfect right angle
with the left side of the head.
He found no suicide note, but a pants pocket contained
something else that puzzled the officer. The pocket held four .22 long rifle
shells and, inexplicably, one .33 calibre pistol shell.
If the widow’s story were true, the rifle shells could be
accounted for. But why the pistol shell? Did the dead youth own a pistol? If he
did why would ho use a small calibre, hard to handle rifle to end his life when
a revolver or automatic would have been so much more convenient and certain?
Had the .22s been planted?
To account for the extra shell Flowers drove to the little
town of Moffitt-Sterling where young Andrenock had lived with his parents. From
this grief-stricken couple the sheriff learned that their boy owned .38 which
they showed him and permitted the officer to take with him. They told the
officer they knew John had been visiting the. widow but they were certain that
marriage had been furthest from his intentions.
While all this heightened the sheriff’s suspicions it did
not constitute incriminating evidence on which he could logically or legally
base a charge against Mrs. Hartman.
Flowers knew he would have to work fast now because it would
be a simple matter for an able attorney to secure his prisoner’s release. To
establish the ownership of the death weapon seemed to be the next logical step.
Flowers examined the .22 cartridges and recognized them as a
type sold only in the Montgomery Ward stores. This narrowed the search
considerably because there was only one of these stores in the district, just
across the state line in Morganstown, West Virginia.
The sheriff made the trip immediately and questioned John
Ashburn, the clerk who handled the sporting goods. Ashburn recalled selling
three model 15 Springfield rifles the previous week, one of which he thought
was to a woman; but unfortunately he was not required to take names when
selling either ammunition or weapons. The clerk readily agreed to make the trip
to Waynesburg to see if he could identify Mrs. Hartman as the woman
purchaser.
The sheriff took Ashburn to the widow’s cell in the County
Jail and was disappointed when the clerk looked in at the prisoner through the
barred door and began to shake his head in non-recognition.
Just at that very moment, however, Florence Hartman rose
from her iron bedstead and stepped to the door with a gay: “Hello, there!
You’re the boy I bought the rifle from last Friday. I knew you’d remember me.”
Sheriff Flowers was dumfounded. Evidently the woman had not
seen Ashburn’s head shaking, and in an attempt to outsmart the officer had
stupidly trapped herself.
“I thought you said Andrenock borrowed the rifle!” snapped
the officer.
“I was too shaken to think straight, sheriff,” she replied
gesturing pathetically. “I hope you won’t hold me to all I said when I was so
broken up over poor Johnnie.”
The officer’s steely grey eyes stared right through her
histrionics as he growled: “I am and I’m placing you under arrest for the
murder of your young lover, John Andrenock!”
“But why, sheriff? Why would I kill the man I loved?” she
cried. “Why?” repeated the officer sourly. “Because he wouldn’t marry you!”
Later that day Flowers watched while two physicians
performed the autopsy on the young miner and recovered the fatal slug. In
probing for its course they discovered that it ran straight in, indicating that
the gun had been held at a perfect right angle with the left side of the head.
But this was a most improbable position for a right-handed
man which the victim was, according to his friends. Further, the flesh showed
no powder burns which most certainly would have been there if the muzzle had
been held close to the head.
Though all this was still highly, circumstantial, Flowers
took his evidence to District
Attorney Frank Throckmorton who considered it strong enough to bring the widow
to trial on a first degree murder charge.
The trial was scheduled for September 28th, before County
Judge Challen W. Waychoff. J. Ernest Isherwood was retained as special
prosecutor by the United Mine Workers Union to which the dead youth belonged.
On the other hand Mrs. Hartman was defended by two famous and brilliant
attorneys, W. Robert Thompson and former Judge A. H. Sayers.
The prosecution had worked diligently up to the time of
trial roundup forty-four witnesses to testify for the Commonwealth that Johnnie
had stated publicly and privately that the widow was trying to rope him into
marriage and that he was doing his utmost to get shut of her. They had no
inkling of the defense strategy the woman would offer, because after she
inadvertently admitted buying the weapon she would say absolutely nothing more
to the police.
But early in the trial the defense showed its hand. Chief
Defense Counsel Thompson stated that he would show the jury, without shadow of
a doubt that young John Andrenock had been, killed by a bullet “fired
accidentally find during a struggle.”
When the widow entered the courtroom she appeared demure in
a simple green frock that accentuated the beauty of her hair, and her large
melting eyes played up to the “twelve good men and true” as only a woman who
had known many men could artfully contrive.
But when District Attorney Throckmorton informed the jury
that he would demand the death penalty, the coy defendant was so visibly
shocked into realizing her dangerous position that she completely forgot to
act.
For two days she sat in sheer terror while the Jury was
being selected. On the third day she heard medical testimony to the effect that
the weapon could not have been fired by the victim himself and had most likely
been fired from some distance. The evidence was graphic, with photographs and
diagrams at which Mrs. Hartman stared nervously and with visibly increasing
fear and terror.
When the widow left the courtroom for noon recess she gave
vent to tears and for the first time appeared on the verge of a breakdown.
Everyone expected a dramatic development that afternoon, but none was quite
prepared for what actually occurred.
[Terry McShane, “The Strange Case of the Self-Made Widow,”
The Gaffney Ledger (S.C.), Dec. 21, 1943, p. 7
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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
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[745-1/3/21]
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