“A dark, mean little bedroom, a woman, half-undressed, dirty and pale, and blear-eyed from long excesses, a male companion, leaning over her with a revolver at her head, two shots, a shriek, an ugly hole under the ear, and the vice and crime of Boston had added another murder to its long score.” - The Boston Herald’s vivid description of the murder of Josephine Brown on Christmas Eve, 1891. | |
It was Santa Claus' Fault.On Christmas Eve, 1889, chaos ensued at a Shawneetown, Illinois, Christmas party, when the tags fell off some of the presents and were replaced haphazardly. The room erupted into a free fight with chairs, clubs, knives, and pistols. it looked as though several combatants would be killed, but none of the wounds proved fatal. A Christmas miracle. | |
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Mrs. Southern's Sad Case.At a Pickens County, Georgia Christmas party in 1876, Kate Southern warned her husband not to dance with his mistress, Narcissa Cowan, and she warned Narcissa to stay away from her husband. When they danced together anyway Kate borrowed her father's pocketknife and plunged it into Narcissa's chest. |
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That Bad Man Stagolee.Troubadours have sung the story of Stagolee for over a hundred years. Each singer seems to know a different version and tell a different story of its origin. But the story is true. The legend was born when Stack Lee Shelton shot Billy Lyons, in a fight over a Stetson hat, in Bill Curtis's Saloon, on Christmas night 1895. |
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Delia's Gone, One More Round.On Christmas Eve 1900, Cooney Houston shot and killed Delia Green. If that isn’t tragic enough, they were both 14 years old. Their sad story would have been long forgotten, even in Yamacraw – the black neighborhood in the western end of Savannah, Georgia, where the killing took place – if it hadn’t been for a song. The ballad of Delia’s murder traveled from Georgia to the Bahamas, then back to the States during the folk boom of the 1950s. |
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Murderous Christmas Celebrations.
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Youthful Killers.
Horrible Murder in Twelfth Street.Alfred Buchanan - age 19.
Mrs. Sarah Shancks was found dead in her millinery store in
New York City on December 7, 1860. She had been brutally beaten and slashed,
her throat cut so deeply she was nearly decapitated. 19-year-old Alfred
Buchanan was indicted for the murder, but before his trial, he was pronounced insane
and committed to the state lunatic asylum. | |
"Girl Slays Girl."Alice Mitchell - Age 19.
Alice Mitchell and her 17-year-old schoolmate, Freda Ward, declared love for each other and planned to elope to St. Louis to live together as
husband and wife. When Freda’s family stopped the relationship, Alice Mitchel
met Freda Ward on the street and cut her throat with a straight razor. | |
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Orrin De Wolf.Orrin De Wolf - Age 18. In 1844, Orrin De Wolf boarded at the home of William Stiles in Worcester, Massachusetts. He fell in love with Stiles’s young wife, Eliza Ann. De Wolf strangled Stiles with a silk handkerchief, hoping to steal his landlord’s wife. Instead, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. |
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The Murdered Congressman.Thomas Hamilton - age 18. U.S. Congressman Cornelius S. Hamilton returned to
Marysville, Ohio, because his son Thomas was experiencing mental problems. He
was preparing to send Thomas to an asylum, but when he went to the barn for
some feed, Thomas hit him in the back of the head with a fence post, fracturing
his skull and killing him instantly. |
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Another Boy Murderer.In 1883, Francis Kelly, of Rockport, Indiana, decided that
farmwork was not for him. He took a job with a man trading illicit liquor from
a boat. After an argument over his share of the profits, Kelly shot the man in
the head and burned his boat. He was convicted of first-degree murder and
sentenced to life in prison. |
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Shot by Her Stepson.Thomas McCabe - age 16, Thomas McCabe enjoyed life in New York City but did not
like the discipline of school or his parents.
He decided to rob his parents and leave town, and in the process, he shot
and killed his stepmother. McCabe was easily captured and convicted of second-degree
murder. |
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Jesse Pomeroy - "Boston Boy Fiend."Jessie Harding Pomeroy - age 14. In 1874, Jessie Pomeroy of Boston, Massachusetts, murdered 10-year-old Katie Curran and 4-year-old Horace Millen. He had previously assaulted and tortured several other children. Pomeroy was captured and convicted of first-degree murder. He spent the next 53 years in prison. |
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Delia's Gone, One More Round.Moses "Cooney" Houston - age 14. In Savannah, Georgia, on Christmas Eve 1900, the tail end of the 19th Century, Moses “Cooney” Houston shot and killed his 14-year-old girlfriend, Delia Green. The murder of Deila Green was the source of the folk song “Delia’s Gone,” still sung 125 years later. |
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A Boy Murderer.John Wesley Elkins - age 11. Around 2 a.m. on July 24, 1889, John Wesley Elkins went into his parents' room and shot his father in the head with a rifle. Then he beat his mother to death with a club. He did it because he was unhappy about having to take care of his infant half-sister and wanted to go off on his own. Elkins served twelve years of a life sentence for murder. |
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Some Very Cold Cases.
In 2014, Murder by Gaslight posted Unsolved, a collection of
19th-century murders that had never been fully explained. The list included
some famous cases, including the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, Carrie
Brown, Benjamin Nathan, as well as several other homicides that were never
prosecuted.
Since then, Murder by Gaslight has posted many more murder cases
that were never solved. Either the evidence was too thin to charge the prime
suspect, or the entire case was shrouded in mystery. Here are a few of Murder by Gaslight’s very cold cases:
The Assassination of Corlis.On March 20, 1843, Charles G. Corlis was shot outside of the bowling saloon he owned in New York City. Witnesses saw someone running from the scene—maybe a man, maybe a woman, maybe a man dressed as a woman. Suspicion fell on Henry Colton because Corlis was having an affair with his wife, Hannah. The police arrested both Coltons, but Henry had an alibi, and no one could say conclusively that the woman in question was Hannah. The Coltons were released from custody, and no one was ever charged with the murder.
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A Shrewd Rascal.
Samuel Smith and his wife Emma appeared to the world as a happy and affectionate young couple. She was pretty and vivacious with a dazzling wardrobe, and he was energetic with a winning personality. But beneath the surface was a hidden turmoil that did not come to light until 1885, when Emma was found dead in their Chicago apartment, her head blown apart by a shotgun blast. Samuel Smith was the prime suspect, but he left Chicago and was never seen again.
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The Snell Murder.In the wee hours of February 8, 1888, burglars broke into
the mansion of Amos J. Snell, one of the wealthiest men in Chicago. They went
straight to Snell’s office and opened his safe and a strong box, but when they did
not find the fortune they expected, they went upstairs and began gathering
silver items. Snell heard them in the parlor and fired his pistol through the
closed door. The thieves fired back, killing Snell. Despite a large reward and
a massive manhunt leading to more than 1,000 arrests, no one was charged with Snell’s
murder. |
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The Maggie Hourigan Mystery.The body of Maggie Hourigan was found floating in a pool of
water on October 20, 1889. Dr. S. Walter Scott performed a hasty autopsy and concluded
she had committed suicide. No one who knew her believed that Maggie had killed
herself, and a second autopsy discovered a wound on the side of her head, indicating
that she was dead or unconscious when she entered the water. With no other
suspects, the New York Sun implied that Dr. Scott may have come to a false
conclusion to hide his own involvement in the murder. He sued the Sun for libel
and received a settlement. The true circumstances of Maggie Hourigan’s death
remain a mystery. |
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The Mysteries of Mary Tobin.On May 12, 1889, the janitor of the Clifton Boat Club on Staten Island found the body of Mary Tobin floating in the water. The police suspected suicide. Perhaps she had been seduced and betrayed and had drowned herself to hide her shame. But the coroner found no evidence of pregnancy or abortion. He found no marks of violence and no trace of poison. Mary Tobin’s life was filled with mystery; she was engaged to be married but also contemplating joining a convent. The final mystery of Mary Tobin’s life—did she die by murder, suicide, or accident—has never been solved. |
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The Stillwell Murder.Fannie Stillwell told police that around 2:00 am on December
30, 1889, she heard a disturbance and got up to find her husband, Amos, lying in
a pool of blood, with a terrible gash in his head. Amos Stillwell was one of
the wealthiest men in Hannibal, Missouri, and his wife was 30 years younger than
he was. The police investigation was futile, but a year later, when Fannie
Stillwell married her physician, Dr. Hearne, the couple became the prime
suspects. Dr. Hearn was tried and found not guilty; charges against Fannie were
effectively dropped as well. The people of Hannibal would remain appalled that
one of their most prominent residents could be murdered without retribution. |
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15 Corning Street.The strangulation of Alice Brown in her room at 15 Corning
Street in Boston’s South End dominated the front page of the city’s daily
newspapers in the autumn of 1897. The Boston newspapers aggressively
followed clues and gathered background, hoping to scoop each other and the
police in their vivid reporting of the crime. In the end, they may have been
too aggressive, adding more confusion than clarity. The case was muddled with
rumor and innuendo, but not enough evidence to indict anyone. It remains one of
the city’s unsolved mysteries. |
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The Medford Mystery.Walter R. Debbins was shot twice in the back, in broad
daylight, on Highland Street in Medford, Massachusetts, on the afternoon of
Saturday, March 27, 1897. Though no one saw the murder or heard the gunshots,
there was enough traffic on Highland Street that afternoon for the police to
precisely pinpoint the time of the shooting to between 1:00 and 1:05. But that
was all they could pinpoint; everything else about the crime was shrouded in
mystery that grew more dense with each new revelation. The mystery was never resolved. |
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Special Guests.
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Elizabeth Kerri Mahon - May 7, 2011 Author and blogger, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, shared the story
of Mary Ellen Plesant, one of several dozen brazen ladies— famous and
infamous—profiled in her fascinating book Scandalous Women: The Lives and
Loves of History's Most Notorious Women. |
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Cheri Farnsworth - July 16, 2011 Cheri Farnsworth writes about murder and hauntings in Northern New York State. She shared this story from her book Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County. The “Watertown Trunk Murder” – Hounsfield, 1908’ |
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"Headsman" - Executed Today Since 2011, Headsman, the enigmatic blogger at ExecutedToday.com has shared execution tales of five 19th Century American murders: 1858: Marion Ira Stout, for loving his sister - 9/10/2011 1887: William Jackson Marion, who’d be pardoned 100 years later - 5/11/2013 1897: Ernest and Alexis Blanc, brothers in blood - 4/12/2014 1846: Elizabeth Van Valkenburgh, in her rocking chair - 11/1/2014 Six Men Hanged - 2/25/2020 |
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Anthony Vaver - October 8, 2011
Anthony Vaver is an author and blogger (Early American Crime) who writes about crime, criminals, and punishments from America's past. This story is from his book Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America. Charles O’Donnel: His Life and Confession |
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James Schmidt - March 9, 2013
James Schmidt has written several books about the American Civil War, including Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom. This story is a break from the battlefield, but not from violence - a fascinating tale of murder in Connecticut from the 1850s. "Murdered by a Maniac" Guest Post by James Schmidt |
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Harold Schechter - February 19, 2014
Harold Schecter, the master of historical true crime, included Murder by Gaslight in his blog tour promoting the book The Mad Sculptor. He gave a synopsis of the book and described his writing process. The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, The Model, and the Murder that Shook The Nation |
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Kyle Dalton - November 11, 2019
Historian Kyle Dalton works at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and maintains the website British Tars: 1740-1790. He shared the story of the assassination of Captain Watkins Assassination of Captain Watkins |
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Undine - December 16, 2019 Undine, "Blogger of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Remarkably lifelike," plies her trade at Strange Company. She related the murder of Olive Peany, an ambitious but hard to please Ohio girl. |
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Shelley Dziedzic - January 18, 2020
Shelley Dziedzic blogs at Lizzie Borden Warps & Wefts, the prime source for accurate information on the Borden murders. Her post tells the story of a gruesome murder/suicide from another branch of the Borden family tree. Murder in the Well |
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Don Everett Smith Jr. - March 14, 2020
Don Everett Smith revisited the 1850 Van Winkle killings, expanding on his book, The Goffle Road Murders of Passaic County. Revisiting the Goffle Road Murders |
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Howard and Nina Brown Howard and Nina Brown run JTRForums.com, a discussion group for all things related to Jack the Ripper. They provided two posts on Ameer Ben Ali, arrested for the murder of Carrie Brown, considered by some to be an American victim of Jack the Ripper. Ameer Ben Ali & an Actor's Tale.- October 17, 2020 The Rescue of Ameer Ben Ali.- February 6, 2021 |
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Donna Wells - April 16, 2022
Donna Wells, a former archivist with the Boston Police Department, shared an old photograph she found, believed to be a portrait of Jesse Pomeroy, who, at age 14, who murdered two children in Boston. Rare Photo of America's Youngest Serial Killer. |
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Bob Moody - May 6, 2022
Bob Moody, a retired radio personality, chronicled the murder of his great-great-granduncle, Tom Moody, in his book, The Terror of Indiana; Bent Jones & The Moody-Tolliver Feud. His post relates the events leading to the feud and the murder. The Moody-Tolliver Feud. |
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Howe and Hummel.
| Museum of the City of New York |
William Howe and Abraham Hummel were the most successful
criminal lawyers in Gilded Age New York. With a combination of skill,
showmanship, and unethical practices, they defended most of the city’s significant
criminals and many of its murderers. Whether they won or lost, Howe and Hummel
made every trial sensational.
Here are a few of the many accused murderers defended by Howe and Hummel:
| Defendant | Victim | Year | Story |
| James Logan | Charles M Rogers | 1869 |
The Rogers Murder. |
| Jacob Rosenzweig | Alicd Bowlsby | 1871 |
The Great Trunk Mystery. |
| Billy Forester | Benjamin Nathan | 1871 |
Who Killed Benjamin Nathan? |
| Edward Reinhardt | Mary Reinhardt | 1879 |
The Silver Lake Mystery. |
| Thomas McCabe | Catherine McCabe | 1882 |
A Boy Murderer. |
| Dan Driscoll | Breezy Garrity | 1886 |
Murder Among the Whyos - Part 1. |
| Daniel Murphy | Dan Lyons | 1887 |
Murder Among the Whyos - Part 2. |
| Hannah Southworth | Stephen Pettus | 1889 |
Avenging Her Honor. |
| Mickey Sliney | Robert Lyons | 1891 |
The Confessions of Mickey Sliney. |
Saturday, October 30, 2021
The Insanity Dodge.
Insanity was seldom a popular defense to murder -- while defense attorneys used terms like temporary insanity, transitory frenzy, and monomania, to the press and the public it was “the insanity dodge.” The first successful use in America of temporary insanity as murder defense was the trial of Dan Sickles for the 1859 murder of Phillip Barton Key. Sickles appeared perfectly sane at his trial but claimed that his wife’s infidelity had temporarily made him unable to tell right from wrong.
Here are a few cases using the insanity dodge with varying degrees of success:
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Dan Sickles's Temporary Insanity. 1859 - First successful use of the temporary insanity plea in America. |
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The Worst Woman on Earth. Lizzie Halliday unsuccessfully pled insanity for the murder of her husband and two servants in 1893. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to the electric chair but the governor commuted her sentence and sent her to an insane asylum. There she murdered her nurse. |
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Crazy John Daley. John Daley, known as “Crazy John," pled insanity for the axe murder of his wife in 1883 and was easily acquitted. “Daley became a homicidal maniac through a frenzy of religious excitement.” Said the press. |
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Shot by a Jealous Husband. When Daniel Monahan shot his wife for adultery in 1886, the public viewed the murder as justified. He was acquitted on the grounds of insanity and the verdict was well received. |
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Transitory Frenzy. Charles Henry was obsessed with actress Effie Moore. She led him on for a few weeks, but when he learned she was already married he shot her. He pled not guilty by reason of “transitory frenzy”; to everyone’s surprise, the verdict was not guilty. |
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A Contract with the Devil. Joseph E. Kelley murdered Joseph Stikney during an 1897 bank robbery. He pled guilty but during sentencing medical experts described him as “A high-grade imbecile” “about 8 or 9 years old, mentally and morally.” Their diagnoses saved him from the gallows but he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. |