Louise Rutter’s Fifth Arrest for Husband-Beating – New Jersey, 1900

FULL TEXT: Hackensack, N.J., Jan. 5. – Louise Rutter, who was convicted here yesterday of husband beating, was to-day sentenced to serve two months in the county jail as punishment. When she was called to the bar for sentence Judge Zabriskie said:

“Mrs. Rutter, if I am not mistaken, this is the fourth time you have been before me charged with offense.”

“That is wrong; this is the fifth time,” was the cheerful reply.

“We’ll, it’s five times too often,” said the Judge, “and I want to know if you intend to stop having to come before me on this charge.”

“I guess not, so long as occasion demands,” said Mrs. Rutter, complacently.

Judge Zabriskie looked at the woman for fully a minute without speaking. Then he shook his head as if admitting defeat and murmured: “Two months.”

The prisoner was led away not altogether cast down.

Mrs. Rutter is thirty-two years of age, strong, and muscular. Her husband, whom the law is trying to protect, is fifty-five.

[“Fifth Time Once Too Many. – Muscular Mrs. Rutter Gets Two Months for Beating Her Husband.” New York Times (N.Y.), Jan. 6, 1900, p. 1]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Henderson Cass, War Veteran Buggy-Whipped by Wife - Kentucky, 1903

Following is a brief news report which tells a story that contradicts the official “herstory” fairytale narrative of domestic violence in the bad old days.

A wife whose 76-year old war veteran husband spent money on himself because he “wanted to have a good time” is reprimanded by a judge for such “abuse” of his wife. The appropriate treatment of an elderly Civil War veteran accused of such “abuse” was deemed to be having him trashed with a buggy whip in public by the “abused” wife. Makes sense, right?

Now you know what it the term “abuse” means when you see applied to the treatment of a wife. Husbands are, as Marxism-steeped gender ideologues who create public policy,  tell us,  fundamentally “abusers,” due to their “male privilege.” And women are fundamentally innocent gentle, fearful victims of that same oppressive “male privilege.” Than goodness we have public servants selflessly dedicated to protecting victims of “male privilege.”

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FULL TEXT: Henderson Cass, Lexington, Ky., aged 76 years, a veteran of the civil war, was horsewhipped in public by his wife by the order of Police Judge Riley. The woman had lodged a complaint against her husband, claiming that he was squandering his pension money and was drunk a great deal of the time. He was brought into court and told Judge Riley that he wanted to have a good time. The Chicago Chronicle correspondent says the judge asked the abused wife why she did not whip him, and she said she could do it all right if he said she might. Judge Riley replied:

“Well, I will get you a whip and see that you do it.”

He told Patrol Driver Wallace to bring him a buggy whip, and, arming the woman with the whip, he told her to march her husband into the station-house lobby and lay it on him until she got tired. The woman did so.

The husband at first took the matter as a joke and laughed, but soon he began to realize, after the woman began laying on lick after lick with full force that she was in earnest and he begged her to stop. He promised to be sober and a good husband and she stopped.

[“Wife Whips Husband. – Police Judge in Lexington, Ky., Orders Matrimonial Thrashing for Civil War Veteran.” The Havre Plaindealer (Mt.), Sep. 5, 1903, p. 3]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Irene Marsh’s Career of Violence with Pistols & Whips - 1906

NOTE: The following article describes Mrs. Irene Marsh’s April 1906 attack on her husband, but Mrs. Marsh was a well-document violent woman. On August 13, 1902 she fired four shots at Alice Murray, and on January 29, 1907, again tried to kill her, firing three shots and wounded a male bystander, Hugo Carr. The portrait of Mrs. Marsh  is taken from a 1902 article.

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FULL TEXT: San Francisco, Apr. 9 – A feature not down on the program occurred at the Orpheum Theater in this city last night. The performance had hardly started when a woman entered the theater and made her way down the center aisle, carrying a riding whip. Suddenly she produced the dainty lash, and without a word of warning brought it down vigorously on the shoulders and across the face of John W. Marsh. He fled with all the alacrity at his command, and the irate woman turned her attention to the young damsel who occupied the adjoining seat. The whip descended upon the latter and the angered madam followed the man up the aisle. At the door both were requested to step outside which they did. The woman with the whip was Mrs. Alice Murray, upon whom he has lavished his affections.

[“Woman Horsewhips Husband In Theater,” The Evening News (San Jose, Ca.), Apr. 9, 1906, p. 5]

(Note: spelling of “tisle” has been corrected to “aisle”; “with ut” has been corrected to “without”)

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Mary Dubal, Suffragist Husband-Beater – New York, 1912

FULL TEXT: Binghampton, N. Y., May 31. – Mrs. Mary Dubal of this city is said to be the first suffragist in the United States who has been given a penitentiary sentence for husband beating. She was arrested on a warrant obtained by Mr. Dubal.

City Judge Albert Hotchkiss found her guilty and declared if women desired men’s prerogatives they should also have men’s punishments when found guilty of law. He always dealt severely with wife beaters, he said, and accordingly he sentenced her to three months in the penitentiary.

[“Husband Beater Sentenced – New York Suffragist Ordered to Jail for Three Months.” The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wa.), Jun. 1, 1912, p. 2]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Catharine Scully Beat Her Husband With A Shovel – New York, 1889

FULL TEXT: Mrs. Catharine Scully, a middle-aged woman, on Wednesday beat her husband, Patrick Scully, on the head with a shovel at their home, No. 528 West Twenty-eighth-st., and inflicted injuries which may cause his death. Captain Murphy heard of the fight yesterday, and finding Scully in a dangerous condition, had him removed to Bellevue hospital. Mrs. Scully was arrested, Justice Patterson, at the Jefferson Market Court, yesterday committed her to the jail to await the result of her husband’s injuries.

[“Beat Her Husband With A Shovel.” New York Tribune (N.Y.), Jan. 27, 1889, p. 7]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Equal Punishment for Violent Wives Proposed in Delaware in 1901

FULL TEXT: While Mrs. Carrie Nation, exulting in the security of her womanhood, is sweeping the East with a besom and raising something like a riot in every town in the State, the legislators of Delaware have under consideration a bill which, if enacted, will startle her worse than the sight of a gin mill in open working order next door to her own house. The Delaware measure is nothing more nor less than a proposition to equalize punishments in that State and to treat vicious wives in the same way that vicious husbands are treated.

According to the reports that come to us the bill provides that “if any person, being the wife of any man, shall, by physical violence, abuse” maltreat or beat her husband, she shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by being whipped at the whipping post with not less than five and not more than, thirty lashes by the Sheriff, or by her husband, at his election.”

To the people of California such a bill will appear nothing more than a legislative josh; but they are treating it seriously in the East. The New York Times notes: “There is a subtle touch of grim humor in the phraseology of the bill, which makes it optional with the wronged husband whether he or the Sheriff shall administer the disciplinary castigation to the virago under correction. There is reason to fear that the Sheriff, having no personal interest in the matter, would discharge his duty in a more or less perfunctory manner; whereas the husband of the person being the wife of any man, who has rendered himself amenable to the penalty of the husband-beating misdemeanor would certainly apply the scourge with no sparing hand, if moved to apply it at all.”

There are reasons for fearing that husband-beating is a too frequent practice; in that part of the country, and that few husbands are safe when their wives are infuriated. There is a tradition that even John L. Sullivan, in the height of his career, once complained in a Boston court that his wife was in the habit of beating him unmercifully whenever he went home too drunk to put up a fight and defend himself. The Delaware bill may therefore be in the interest of wholesome household reform, but all the same the husband who sends his wife to the whipping post will have a just claim upon the sympathy of the world as soon as the dame gets home again.

[“A Delaware Reform.” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Feb. 15, 1901, p. 6]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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Mrs. Sterling Whipped Her Husband in Public – Pennsylvania, 1888

FULL TEXT:  Yesterday afternoon excitement was created South Fifth street caused by a wife whipping her husband. James C. Sterling, living at 139 South Fifth street, and two young women, intended to take Misses Mollie Warfel and Mame Hogentogler out for a ride. They were in the carriage when Mrs. Sterling saw the party and she jumped into the carriage. She admitted the girls and compelled her husband to get out of the carriage. The affair is the talk of the town.

[“Whipped Her Husband.” The Lancaster Intelligencer (Pa.), May 1, 1888, p. 4]

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For more cases see: Domestic Violence: Non-Lethal Female on Male

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