Killer Colt Page 33

  8. Tucher, Froth & Scum, p. 149.

  9. Srebnick, Mary Rogers, pp. 4, 17.

  10. Stashower, Beautiful Cigar Girl, pp. 77–78.

  11. Ibid., pp. 15–17.

  12. Ibid., pp. 80–82; New York Herald, August 17, 1841, p. 2; Srebnick, Mary Rogers, pp. 18–19.

  13. Stashower, Beautiful Cigar Girl, pp. 89–90.

  14. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” reprinted in John Walsh, Poe the Detective: The Curious Circumstances Behind “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1968), p. 100.

  15. Walsh, Poe the Detective, p. 26.

  16. Stashower, Beautiful Cigar Girl, p. 96.

  17. Ibid., p. 192.

  18. Ibid., p. 16; Walsh, Poe the Detective, p. 10.

  19. Walsh, Poe the Detective, p. 98.

  20. See Stashower, Beautiful Cigar Girl, pp. 91–92, 132–54.

  21. See Walsh, Poe the Detective, p. 34.

  22. Ibid., p. 33. Though the case was never definitively solved, the most likely explanation was provided by Frederica Loss. In a deathbed confession made in the fall of 1842, the innkeeper claimed that on Sunday, July 25, 1841, Mary Rogers had come to her roadhouse from the city in the company of a young physician and had died at his hands during a botched abortion. Her body—with a strip of cloth wound around the neck to make it appear as if she had been assaulted and murdered—was then dumped in the river. Also see Srebnick, Mary Rogers, pp. 29–30.

  CHAPTER 19

  1. Copies of the Literary Cadet and Rhode-Island Statesman (which began life as a weekly called the Literary Cadet, and Saturday Evening Bulletin) are on file at the Rhode Island Historical Society Library in Providence. Information on the firm of Smith & Parmenter can be found in Glenn H. Brown and Maude O. Brown, A Directory of Printing, Publishing, Bookselling and Allied Trades in Rhode Island to 1865 (New York: New York Public Library, 1958), p. 156; Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the United States, from 1690 to 1872 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873), p. 337; Printers and Printing in Providence 1762–1907 (Providence, RI: Providence Printing Company, 1907), pp. 27–28. For the scant facts about Samuel Adams’s early life, see the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 33 (Boston: New-England Historic, Genealogical Society, 1879), p. 104; Brown and Brown, Directory, p. 15.

  2. See Hudson, Journalism in the United States, p. 337. Also see Grant James Wilson and John Fiske, Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biographies, vol. 5 (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1900), p. 588. Interestingly, John Howard Payne worked as an editor for Smith’s Sunday News, which suggests the possibility that the famed author of “Home, Sweet Home” was not only a friend of both Colt brothers but an acquaintance of Samuel Adams.

  3. Unsigned notice in “Monthly Commentary” section, American Monthly Magazine, vol. 10 (December 1837): p. 596.

  4. See the testimony of Samuel Adams’s foreman, James Monahan, in Lawson, American State Trials, vol. 7, pp. 468–69. The panic of 1837 precipitated an economic depression that lasted seven years. Also see Howe, What Hath God Wrought, pp. 502–4.

  5. Ransom’s testimony appears in a handwritten deposition before District Attorney J. R. Whiting, dated November 17, 1841, in the file of the New York City Municipal Archives. Nicholas Conklin’s testimony is part of the trial transcript, reprinted in Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 253.

  6. New York Herald, September 25, 1841, p. 2.

  7. Founded by a group of culture-minded business and professional men, the Apollo Association—which evolved after a few years into the American Art-Union—mounted public exhibitions of paintings and sculptures by the country’s leading artists. For an annual subscription of five dollars, members received free family admissions to the shows, an engraving published by the association from a painting by a contemporary American artist, and a lottery ticket for an original artwork from its collection. The definitive history of the organization is Mary Bartlett Cowdry, American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union: Introduction 1816–1852 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1953).

  8. Trial testimony indicates that Adams and Colt had known each other for three years at the time of the murder. See Lawson, American State Trials, p. 467.

  CHAPTER 20

  1. For information on the Granite Building and its tenants, see Transactions of the Apollo Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts in the United States, for the Year 1841, p. 3; The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, vol. 17, no. 5 (May 1841): p. 445; Beaumont Newhall, The Daguerreotype in America (New York: Dover, 1975), p. 25; John Flavel Mines, A Tour Around New York and My Summer Acre: Being the Recreations of Mr. Felix Oldboy (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893), pp. 60–61; Hugh Macatamney, Cradle Days of New York: 1609–1825 (New York: Drew & Lewis, 1909), p. 191; New York Times, February 12, 1876, p. 8.

  2. As late as 1856, Wheeler’s blurb was still being used in ads for Colt’s textbook. For example, see the promotional appendix in P. A. Fitzgerald, The Exhibition Speaker: Containing Farces, Dialogues, and Tableaux, with Exercises for Declamation in Prose and Verse (New York: Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman, 1856).

  3. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 253.

  4. In his classic story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.”

  5. Colt’s threats to George Spencer and Mr. Howard are described in two letters—one anonymous, the other signed “H. W. Robinson”—sent to District Attorney J. R. Whiting, on file in the New York City Municipal Archives. For information on the Broadway bookseller Homer Franklin, see Ronald J. Zboray, A Fictive People: Antebellum Economic Development and the American Reading Public (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 137–38.

  6. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 230.

  7. See Zboray, Fictive People, p. 24; Michael Winship, American Literary Publishing in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Business of Ticknor and Fields (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 138.

  8. Life and Letters of John C. Colt, p. 8.

  9. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 252.

  CHAPTER 21

  1. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 249.

  2. Ibid., p. 246.

  3. Ibid., p. 248.

  4. Ibid., p. 250. Also see Wells’s deposition before Police Magistrate Robert Taylor on September 24, 1841, in the John C. Colt file, New York City Municipal Archives.

  5. Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee, As You Pass By (New York: Hastings House, 1952), p. 184; Stephen Jenkins, The Greatest Street in the World: The Story of Broadway, Old and New, from the Bowling Green to Albany (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911), p. 129.

  6. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 249.

  CHAPTER 22

  1. See Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 230–31; Asa Wheeler’s deposition on September 24, in the John C. Colt file of the New York City Municipal Archives.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Reverend Enoch Hutchinson and Reverend Stephen Remington, eds., The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Record: Devoted to the History, Biography, Literature & Statistics of the Denomination, vol. 8 (New York: Z. P. Hatch, 1849), p. 299.

  4. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 233–34.

  5. George J. Lankevich, American Metropolis: A History of New York City (New York: NYU Press, 1998), p. 84; Stashower, Beautiful Cigar Girl, p. 88; Augustine Costello, Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police (New York: Augustine Costello, 1885), pp. 158–59; George W. Walling, Recollections of a New York Chief of Police: An Official Record of Thirty-eight Years as Patrolman, Detective, Captain, Inspector, and Chief of the New York Police (New York: Caxton Book Concern, 1887), p. 32.

  6. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 234–35.

  7. Ibid., pp. 262–63, 277.

  8. Ibid., p. 234.

  CHAPTER 23

  1. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 235; Deposition of Law Octon before Police Magistrate Robert Taylor, December 24, 1841, in the John C. Colt folder, New Yor
k City Municipal Archives.

  2. Affidavit of John B. Hasty, February 4, 1842, on file in the John C. Colt folder, New York City Municipal Archives.

  3. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 235; Deposition of Law Octon before Police Magistrate Robert Taylor, December 24, 1841, in the John C. Colt folder, New York City Municipal Archives.

  4. The definitive work on this subject is Graham Russell Hodges, New York City Cartmen, 1667–1850 (New York: New York University Press, 1986). Hodges also supplies the illuminating introduction to the facsimile edition of Isaac S. Lyon, Recollections of an Old Cartman (New York: New York Bound, 1984).

  5. For the detail of the green umbrella, see New York Times, December 4, 1887, p. 12.

  6. Howard Clark, The Mill on Mad River (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1948), p. 252.

  7. This account of Barstow’s activities comes from his trial testimony (Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 235–36), as well as from two separate depositions he made before Police Magistrate Robert Taylor, the first on September 25, the second on September 26, 1841, both in the John C. Colt file, New York City Municipal Archives. Thomas Russell (whose trial testimony appears in Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 236) made depositions on the same dates.

  8. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 232.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid., p. 262.

  CHAPTER 24

  1. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 232.

  2. New York Sun, September 22, 1841, p. 2. For information on the changes Beach made to Day’s original format, see Frank M. O’Brien, The Story of the Sun: New York, 1833–1918 (New York: George H. Doran, 1928), pp. 89ff.

  3. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 250; New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1841, p. 2; Mabel Abbott, “A Mystery of the Tombs,” Detective Fiction Weekly, February 1, 1930, p. 687.

  4. New York Sun, September 23, 1841, p. 2.

  5. Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, September 23, 1841, p. 3; New York Tribune, September 23, 1841, p. 2; New York Herald, September 23, 1841, p. 2.

  6. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 239–40.

  CHAPTER 25

  1. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 240, 260.

  2. Like John Colt’s onetime business partner Nathan Burgess, Chilton would go on to become a pioneering practitioner of the new art of photography. See Newhall, Daguerreotype, p. 22.

  3. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 242; New York Sun, September 27, 1841, p. 2. Also see Chilton’s deposition before Robert Taylor, September 26, 1841, on file at the New York City Municipal Archives. Precisely what chemical analysis Chilton employed is unclear, since the first reliable test for bloodstains was not devised until the latter half of the nineteenth century. Also see Tal Golan, The Laws of Men and the Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), pp. 144–51; W. D. Sutherland, Blood-stains: Their Detection, and the Determination of Their Source (New York: William Wood & Company, 1907), pp. 11–37.

  4. Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, September 25, 1841, p. 2.

  5. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, pp. 240–41, 266; New York Herald, September 27, 1841, p. 2.

  CHAPTER 26

  1. Hodges, Cartmen, pp. 139–40.

  2. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 237. See also depositions of Thomas Russell and Richard Barstow, John C. Colt file, New York City Municipal Archives.

  3. Dunphy and Cummins, Remarkable Trials, p. 237.

  4. New York Times, December 4, 1887, p. 12.

  5. New York American, September 27, 1841, p. 2.

  6. See Emeline Adams’s deposition, John C. Colt file, New York City Municipal Archives.

  7. New York American, September 27, 1841, p. 2.

  CHAPTER 27

  1. All of these accounts are taken from page 2 of the New York Herald on the following dates: September 11, 12, 16, 19, 22, 1841.

  2. Though the banner headline was first used as early as 1851, it didn’t become a regular feature of American newspapers until the advent of the yellow press in the 1890s. See Helen MacGill Hughes, News and the Human Interest Story (Somerset, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1980), p. 33, n. 2.

  3. All of these headlines appeared on the second pages of the newspapers on Monday, September 27, 1841.

  4. New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  5. Transactions of the Apollo Association, p. 5.

  6. New York American, September 27, 1841, p. 2.

  7. New York Herald, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  8. New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. New York Herald, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  12. New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  13. New York Herald, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  14. Ibid., September 29, 1841, p. 2.

  15. New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 28, 1841, p. 2.

  CHAPTER 28

  1. Edwards, Colt’s Revolver, pp. 162–63.

  2. Maurice G. Baxter, One and Inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), p. 308; Lundeberg, Submarine Battery, p. 20.

  3. Rohan, Yankee Arms Maker, pp. 140–41.

  4. See the unsigned article “Repeating Fire-Arms. A Day at the Armory of ‘Colt’s Patent Fire-arms Manufacturing Company,’ ” United States Magazine and Democratic Review (March 1857): p. 248.

  5. Edwards, Colt’s Revolver, p. 169.

  6. Ibid., p. 170.

  7. See the Southport (WI) Telegraph, November 2, 1841, p. 3.

  8. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 8, 1841, p. 2.

  9. John Livingston, ed., Biographical Sketches of Eminent American Lawyers, Now Living (New York: United States Monthly Magazine, 1852): pp. 96–97.

  10. From a letter to Samuel in the Connecticut State Library. From remarks made by James in subsequent letters to Sam, it appears that Christopher Colt, Jr., distanced himself entirely from John’s case and had no contact with his doomed brother throughout the crisis.

  11. This and the following letter are in the collection of the Connecticut State Library.

  12. Smethport (PA) Settler and Pennon, November 4, 1841, p. 3.

  CHAPTER 29

  1. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 8, 1841, p. 2.

  2. For example, see the Maine Farmer and Journal of the Useful Arts, October 30, 1841, p. 9.

  3. Tucher, Froth & Scum, p. 143.

  4. New York Herald, September 30, 1841, p. 2. The text that Colt had allegedly plagiarized was James Arlington Bennett’s The American System of Practical Book-Keeping, originally published in 1831.

  5. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 8, 1841, p. 2.

  6. Life and Letters of John C. Colt, p. 7.

  7. New York Herald, October 18, 1841, p. 2.

  8. According to an item on page 3 of the October 16, 1841, issue of the New York Evangelist, Colt’s trial was originally scheduled for Monday, October 4, but “postponed on application of the prisoner’s counsel to Monday the 1st of November.”

  9. New York Herald, November 2, 1851, p. 2.

  10. Ibid., October 25, 1841, p. 2, November 2, 1841, p. 2; Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, November 3, 1841, p. 2.

  11. Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, November 3, 1841, p. 2; New York Herald, November 2, 1841, p. 2.

  12. New York Herald, November 2, 1841, p. 2.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 3, 1841, p. 2.

  PART FOUR: THE GARB OF JUSTICE

  CHAPTER 30

  1. Letters dated December 18, 1841, and January 10, 1842, in the Samuel Colt archives, Connecticut State Library.

  2. See Edwards, Colt’s Revolver, pp. 170–71, and Lundeberg, Submarine Battery, p. 21.

  3. Lundeberg, Submarine Battery, pp. 20, 22.

  4. See R
ywell, Man and Epoch, p. 80; Evans, They Made America, pp. 74–84; Lundeberg, Submarine Battery, pp. 34–35.

  5. Lundeberg, Submarine Battery, p. 21.

  6. Edwards, Colt’s Revolver, p. 170.

  CHAPTER 31

  1. New York Herald, January 18, 1842, p. 1.

  2. Herbert Bergman, ed., The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: The Journalism: Volume 2: 1846–1848 (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), p. 205.

  3. New York Herald, January 18, 1842, p. 1.

  4. Rossiter Johnson, The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, vol. 3 (Boston: Biographical Society, 1904), p. 471; Tucher, Froth & Scum, p. 101; Srebnick, Mary Rogers, pp. 31–32; Clifford Browder, The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1988), pp. 35ff. In one of those six-degrees-of-separation instances, Madame Restell first came under attack in the pages of the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, whose editor, Samuel Jenks Smith, was the original employer of Samuel Adams in Providence, Rhode Island. In an editorial published in July 1839, Smith denounced Restell’s newspaper advertisements for her contraceptive “Preventive Powder” as “monstrous and destructive”—“subversive of all family peace and quiet.” Also see Browder, pp. 17–18.

  5. Browder, Wickedest Woman, p. 40. Three years later, the conviction was overturned on appeal, and Restell won a new trial. By then, however, the “chief witness had died and her depositions had been invalidated.” The prosecution dropped the indictment, and Madame Restell went back to work peddling her birth control nostrums and procuring abortions. After relentless persecution by the moral reformer Anthony Comstock, Restell (who was suspected of having performed the procedure that killed the “beautiful cigar girl,” Mary Rogers) would commit suicide in 1878 by slitting her throat.