T H E S I N S O F N E W Y O R K
As "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
By: Edward Van Emery
P A R T I
THE ORIGINAL POLICE GAZETTE (1845)
Chapter 8
The Most Beautiful Illicit Love Tragedy
(Murder in the Tribune Office, Death Drama in the Astor House, and
Travesty in the Court of Justice)
"Why talk you of the posey or the value?
You swore to me
That you would wear it till your hour of death,
And that it should lie with you in your grave."
1) ABBY SAGE THE ACTRESS AND AUTHOR
NERISSA declaimed the somber beauty of Shakespeare's prose with a
voice that had more tenderness in its thrush-like softness than ever before.
This night Portia's waiting-maid was not making response to the
supplications of her doubleted suitor on the stage. Her heart was in her
mouth and her tongue had only message for the lover she knew was watching
her eagerly from among the sea of faces that made up the dark background
beyond the proscenium arch. Soon the play would be over and the footlights
dimmed, and he would be waiting by the narrow alley leading to the stage
door of the Winter Garden Theatre.
Could she be one and the same with the Abby Sage whose girlhood had
been spent in the little Massachusetts mill town of Lowell, and who had been
the teacher of a tiny rural school in Manchester, New Hampshire, only ten
years ago? Was it no more than a dream that this same Abby Sage now found
herself a successful actress filling an engagement at the munificent salary
of twenty-five dollars a week and playing in support of no less a stage
luminary than the eminent Edwin Booth in "The Merchant of Venice"? And she
had written little pieces about children and nature that had not only been
published, but paid for; and a book of poems under her signature had already
appeared in print. And it would be only a matter of months now before the
error of her early marriage would be legally erased and she would be the
wife of one who had already taken a place of some importance as a successful
man of letters.
2) THE NIGHT OF MARCH 13, 1867, MARKS ABBY'S LAST APPEARANCE ON
THE STAGE FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Maybe it was well that Abby Sage should have her dreams for a little
while. She was not far away from stark tragedy___days when her name was to
be vilified through the pitiless publicity of a notorious court case of many
weeks" duration, that followed in the April, five months after the country
had been startled by the sensational murder that happened on Thanksgiving
evening, 1869, in the offices of the New York Tribune. But we are meeting
Abby Sage two and one-half years before her discarded husband fired the
death bullet into the body of the man who had taken his place in her
affections. On the night of March 13, 1867, of which we are writing, and
which was to mark Abby's last appearance on the stage for several years, her
lines were fraught with no foreboding significance when the thrush-like
softness of her voice murmured of the posies of love, and
"That you would wear it till your hour of death,
And that it should lie with you in your grave."
3) FINDING HER HUSBAND'S INTEMPERANCE AND CRUELTY UNBEARABLE, ABBY
FALLS IN LOVE WITH RICHARDSON.
When Abby Sage, or Mrs. Daniel McFarland, as she then was, kept her
tryst with Albert D. Richardson, neither knew that her husband was skulking
in the shadows close to the stage door. Three weeks previous she had found
the intemperance and cruelty of this man unbearable and had fled with her
two children to the home of Samuel Sinclair, publisher of the Tribune, and
whose wife had done much to befriend Abby. There, in the presence of the
Sinclairs; of her father, who had been summoned to the conference; and also
before several other witnesses, Mrs. McFarland told her husband she was
through with him forever, and he agreed to abide by her determination. That
same evening Richardson, whose friendship with Abby and the Sinclairs shall
be gone into later, called at the house. As he was about to leave, Abby
followed him to the door, and as they stood alone in the hallway, she
murmured with an emotion she could not hide:
"You have been very kind to me. I cannot repay you."
"How do you feel about facing the world with two babies?" he asked.
"It looks hard for a woman, but I am sure I can get on better without
that man than with him," was her answer. All the while her hand was still in
his. His voice was so low his words were almost a whisper as he said:
"I wish you to remember, that any responsibility you choose to give me
in any possible future, I shall be glad to take." And he hurried away
without even bidding her good-night. Two days later he called on her again
and told her he wanted to give his motherless children to her care, and that
he wanted to marry her so soon as she was free. She had but one answer to
give.
"It was absolutely impossible for me not to love him," was later the
simple admission in her affidavit.
4) McFARLAND'S FIRST ATTEMPT ON RICHARDSON'S LIFE
After this proposal, to pick up the Gazette story in our own words,
Richardson departed for Hartford, where he went to complete work on a book
he was then writing. He returned to New York on the night of March 13 and
waited to escort Abby home from the Winter Garden Theatre. As these two
under the spell of love moved eagerly toward each other, McFarland came up
from behind and fired three shots at Richardson, only one of which took
effect and resulted in a slight wound of the hip. (The second attempt on
Richardson's life resulted in the fatality.)
5) THIS TRIANGLE CAME PROMINENTLY TO THE PUBLIC ATTENTION,
INVOLVING MANY IMPORTANT PERSONAGES.
But, notes the Gazette, "this triangle came prominently to the public
attention with the first attempt at murder, and when it finally had
culmination in death it became exceptional not only for its tragic romance
and the fact that it involved so many important personages, such as Horace
Greeley, Whitelaw Reid, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Edwin Booth and Daniel
Frohman (then a mere youth), but it involved abnormal religious, political
and editorial controversy." Moreover, "women were getting too
strong-minded." Already there was much talk of the "Sorosis," the first
women's club to be incorporated In New York and which came into existence
the following year
Incidentally, it is interesting to examine into the somewhat different
point of view that the same paper, the National Police Gazette, takes of
this same case at different periods. At the time of the happening this
publication seemed to be aligned with those who regarded McFarland as
justified in taking the life, through emotional insanity, of the man who had
shattered his domestic peace. Fifteen years later, which was in the Fox
regime, whether due to a more clarified viewpoint or a change in the trend
of thought, the review of the case is more than favorable to the murdered
man, and to the woman who had been the indirect cause of his death. The
writer even refers to this as "the most beautiful of illicit love
tragedies." Let us look at its outstanding figures through the eyes of the
Gazette.
6) A LOOK AT THE OUTSTANDING FIGURES THROUGH THE EYES OF THE
GAZETTE:
A) ALBERT DEANE RICHARDSON
Albert Deane Richardson, who so manfully gave his life for love,
as we shall see, was in the middle thirties at the time of his meeting with
Abby, who was seven years his junior. Franklin, Massachusetts, was his
birthplace, and he was a teacher in Boston for a while. He formed an early
taste for journalism and after various experiences through the Midwest,
where he gained some prominence as correspondent for various New York
newspapers, he joined the staff of the Tribune. By that paper he was sent
into the South as a secret correspondent during the Civil War. He was
finally captured by the Confederates and consigned to Libby Prison in
Richmond. After a five months' detention there he was removed to Salisbury
Prison in North Carolina, from where he succeeded in making his escape in
1864 and traveled four hundred miles on foot until he reached the Union
Lines in Knoxville. His story in the Tribune telling how he came " Out of
the jaws of death and out of the mouth of hell," was a thrilling one and had
prominence, in its time, as one of the outstanding newspaper stories.
On his return to New York Richardson made his adventures into a book
and this, and one or two other literary ventures, had sales which netted him
what was a considerable fortune in those days. With the means thus
accumulated he purchased six shares of Tribune stock. He became one of the
featured writers on that paper and his accounts of his overland trip for the
inauguration of the Pacific Railroad also kept his name in the foreground.
So he was a man of no little standing at the time of his first meeting with
Abby Sage, which happened in 1866. And from the first, though a twelve month
and more went by ere she admitted this to him, he was her ideal of an
intereting and romantic personage. What is more, he was a fine figure of a
man, tall and straight of carriage and weighing well over two hundred
pounds. His ample whiskers of a ginger color and his steady hazel eyes gave
him what was then regarded as a distinguished appearance.
While incarcerated in Libby Prison, the young lady whom he had married
during his sojourn in Cincinnati passed away. Upon his return to his
fireside he found his three children motherless. At the time of his death
their ages were respectively, thirteen, ten and six. These were the charges
he left to the care of Abby Sage.
B) DANIEL McFARLAND
Daniel McFarland, who brought to an end the earthly existence of
Richardson, was the senior of his wife by a score of years. As a youth he
showed an early promise that his mature years failed to realize. He was
close to forty years of age when he took Abby Sage as his bride, and he must
have already found himself face to face with the bitter knowledge that he
was destined to make a failure out of the ambitions that had stirred him to
something in the way of early achievement. Though Abby had no gleaning of
this when she plighted her troth, intemperance had already made him
something of a weakling, though he still carried himself with egotistic
optimism.
As a youth he had broken away from an apprenticeship to a
harness-maker, scraped together enough money before the attaining of his
majority to take a course at Dartmouth College, where he gained his degree
of Bachelor of Arts and was an assistant to one of the professors of
chemistry. By this professor he was sent abroad, but on his return he took
up the study of law in Boston and gained admission to the Bay State Bar, but
never practiced. This last fact probably revealed the weak link in his
character. He had ambition without the determination to fulfill a purpose.
For a short time he was Professor of Logic, Belles Letters and Elocution in
Brandywine College, but when Abby became Mrs. McFarland he had been in turn
a lecturer and speculator. Through the ten years of their married life his
undertakings met with one failure after another.
1). The Life He Gave to Abby Was Wretched Poverty From The Start.
At the outset Abby was undoubtedly deeply enamored of her mate. To
her he was a man of the world. His pale, sallow features were not uncomely.
He dressed and talked well; he probably lied beautifully of himself and his
prospects. Anyway, the fortune of between $20,000. or $30,000. that he
claimed before becoming a benedict quickly evaporated into nothingness with
the depreciation of some mysterious land interests, which probably never
existed. They knew wretched poverty from the start. Within a few months
after making their first home in Madison, Wisconsin, Abby was forced to
return to her father's roof and to his charity.
2). Mrs. McFarland Was Always a Loving, True And Encouraging
Help-mate, Through The Years of Disillusionment.
All the unfair testimony that was turned loose against Mrs. McFarland
when her character was so bitterly assailed in the trial following the death
of Richardson, did not disturb the truth, that she had been a loving, true
and encouraging help-mate through those early years of disillusionment. They
were forced to set up makeshift homes in New York, Brooklyn, Newark and
Croton, establishing a second residence in Madison on the very day Fort
Sumter was fired on. Three children came to them during those early years of
marriage, the first-born dying within a few months. Time and again her
father was forced to save her from starvation. When her second child, Percy,
was born the physician's bill was paid through her earnings out of the
proceeds of a public reading that she had given in 1860, when she had
already shown some early talent as a elocutionist. But very little of this,
or other facts that might have shown the husband in his true light, was
permitted to come out in the McFarland trial, or if it was, then it was
always distorted in his favor. In particular, little or nothing was given
out of the facts that he owed his desk in the Provost Marshal's office, and
later in the office of the City Assessor, to the help of Mrs. Calhoun, of
the Tribune, and Mrs. Sinclair, whose friendships had been so valuable to
Abby. Later McFarland publicly charged through his lawyers that these women
were "the procuresses through whom his wife's affections had been alienated
to the keeping of her lover."
C) MRS. McFARLAND (Abby Sage)
But let us now turn our attention to the woman in the case. We find
some differences in the descriptions of her appearance that make up the pen
pictures that have been handed down by various writers. At least they all
agree that she had grace and beauty and charm of person, which is something
that can be readily accepted, since she was given her engagement by Booth
even on her limited stage experience, which had been had through her several
public readings, though she prepared for this work under the schooling of
Mr. and Mrs. George Vanderhoof. This schooling was at the instigation of
McFarland, though in his trial he had it made out that he had always been
able to support his wife and therefore discouraged her dramatic ventures
from the first.
As to her appearance, I like best the Gazette estimate, which pictures
her as molded into a slender elegance. With hair of a dark brown blue
through which glinted fleeting glimpses of strands that had grayed soon
after life had brought its severest ordeal___the dying whisper of the man
she had learned to love, who had murmured to her when he knew the end was
near: "Sweetheart. Yours was a love worth living for. Even more, it is a
love worth dying for." And he must have loved her eyes, for the velvet brown
of their luster was set off by dark lashes that gave a regal arch to her
brow. Though the inflexibi of her Puritan stock was strongly in evidence,
yet there was somehow a hint of the fires of a personality. To her lover she
must have been even more of a breathing, throbbing loveliness than she
appeared back of the footlights, where her work seemed to be marked more by
preciseness and comeliness than inspiration.
7) ABBY'S LITERARY EFFORTS
Her literary efforts were a fair example of the innocuous stuff that
then went into the reading that was prepared for small children. Her first
book, which was brought by the Houghtons was no doubt inspired and written
out of love of her second child and was a collection of poems under the
title of "Percy's Year of Rhymes." It is said to have returned her several
hundred dollars. Her most ambitious effort was published by the American
Publishing company, of Hartford, and was entitled "Pebbles and Sunshine."
Richardson had some hand in its acceptance. A number of selections from this
work appeared in the Gazette shortly after McFarland's crime. Though it may
react against your sympathies for Abby Sage, all the evidence will not be in
unless we inflict just one example of her muse. You will note that she
rhymes " drest " with " priest ." Notwithstanding, Richardson thought well
of the effusion, which was not the worst of those reproduced by the Gazette,
and he encouraged her ambitions to write. Possibly, you will not doubt after
reading this, that the man was very much in love.
LITTLE DAN
Little Dan has eyes of radiant blue,
And hair of a wonderful golden hue___
The roundest, merriest, baby face,
And movements of the airiest grace.
He's full of the oddest pranks___
Of merry jests, and quips and cranks___
Now, he's a baby, and now a grown man,
And acts his parts as a mimic can.
Sometimes, he puts on a princely air___
Tosses back his flowing golden hair___
Assumes a look of regal pride,
And orders his carriage to take a ride.
Anon, he's a jolly beggar boy___
Kicks little bare feet with shouts of joy___
Scoffs at sorrow and turns up his nose,
If you tell him "Earth is a vale of woes."
Again, he will play a tragic part___
Will tell a tale to break one's heart___
And before the tears are fairly dried,
The wag will forget he has ever cried.
At night, in his flowing night-gown drest,
He turns to a little white-robed priest,
As he says with a wondrous, solemn air,
In his lisping way, an infant prayer.
Oh, a wonderful mimic is little Dan,
And he plays as only an actor can.
And you'll scarcely believe it when you're told,
Our darling is just only three years old.
8) MRS. L.G. CALHOUN A COLUMNIST FOR THE TRIBUNE INTERESTED
HERSELF IN ABBY'S FUTURE..
Mrs. L. G. Calhoun, who wrote an interesting column on social and
other doings for the Tribune and whose kindnesses were so misrepresented
during the murder trial, first interested herself in the future of Abby,
while the young wife had her home for a short time in Newark. She brought
her to the attention of Mrs. John F. Cleveland (a sister of Mr. Greeley)
and Mrs. Sinclair, who also became exceedingly fond of Abby. Through their
assistance she gave several dramatic readings in Steinway Hall, which never
netted less than one hundred dollars, since Mrs. Sinclair disposed of
tickets among her numerous friends. She had her husband use his influence
with Horace Greeley, through whose intercessions McFarland gained his city
appointments. It was Mrs. Calhoun, and not Richardson, as was made out, who
secured for Abby her engagement with Booth.
9) McFARLAND IN A DRUNKEN RAGE, HITS MRS. McFARLAND.
Five years after their marriage, in 1862, McFarland, in one of his
drunken rages, which were now more than periodical, turned on Abby suddenly
as she tried to soothe him and struck her in the face, sending her reeling
backward. "There was a look in her eyes that made him burst into a paroxysm
of tears and to beg wildly that she should forgive him."
"But from that moment," she said, "I could never tell him that I loved
him or forgave him, because it would not have been the truth."
10) HOW RICHARDSON AND ABBY MET
Four years after this incident came the first meeting with
Richardson, who, as can be readily understood, moved in the circle with Mrs.
Calhoun and the Sinclairs. In January, 1867, the McFarlands rented rooms
from Mrs. Mason at 72 Amity Street. One month later Richardson moved from
61, on the same street, and was not only under the same roof with Abby, but
had the rooms adjoining hers. Needless to say, much was made of this point
in the trial, though an explanation of how this came about was brought out
to the annoyance of McFarland's lawyers. It seems that Richardson was first
shown a single room on another floor, but this was objectional to the
would-be tenant for the reason that he would use it in part for his office a
nd for his writing and that ladies would call and "it would be indelicate to
receive them in a room where there was a bed." Which brought the comment
from McFarland's lawyer: "Imagine a butcher ashamed of blood." Anyway Mrs.
Mason effected the transfer of tenants that enabled Richardson to have the
two rooms beside the McFarlands.
The two, Abby and Richardson, were often seen in each other's rooms.
This was naturally brought out very strongly during the trial and any sort
of construction can be placed upon the extent of their intimacy.
11) WAS THERE DISCRETION?
William D. Norris, a Negro servant, was examined and the following
dialogue took place between the lawyer and the witness:
Lawyer: "You know what liberty is___now. Did you ever see
Richardson take liberties with Mrs. McFarland?"
Norris: "Yas, sah, I did. I've seen them shake hands together."
These facts are not inserted with a view of creating the impression
that Abby was steadfast to her marriage vows. She may have safeguarded
herself within a bulwark of treasured ideals; she may have found the tides
of human emotion too treacherous. Yet, who would begrudge her a few drops of
pleasure, who had to drink so deeply of sorrow. There were many ready to
believe the worst___naturally, the Gazette included.
12) RICHARDSON'S LETTER TO MRS. McFARLAND READ IN COURT.
A letter in Richardson's handwriting that had been intercepted was
read in court and was thought to give strong evidence of their intimacy.
The envelope bore the postmark "Hartford, Conn. March 9, 1867." It was
addressed to Mrs. A.S. McFarland, care of Samuel Sinclair, Esq., Tribune
Office, New York City, and had been inadvertently turned over to Daniel
McFarland. On the back it was sealed with red wax on which were stamped the
letters "D.A.R." The letter read:
What a goosie it is about my coming home. Of course, I shall come,
whenever my business compells or will let me. What judgment shall you fear,
doing no wrong? The circumstances make it right and unnoticeable, and I will
not stay away for 40,000 Mrs. Grundies. I will not neglect work to come; but
it is quite possible I may have to come next week. I have not been waiting
for you, darling, all these long years to wear haircloth and serve seven
years now; I want you always. A hundred times a day my arms seem to stretch
out toward you. I never seek my pillow without wanting to fold you to my
heart, for a good-night kiss and blessing, and the few months before you can
openly be mine will be long enough at best. No grass shall grow under my
feet, but I never let public opinion bully me a bit, and never mean to; so,
Sunbeam, I shall come whenever I can and stay as long as business will
permit. I will decide about the summer just as soon as I can, darling; can
probably surmise by Monday or Tuesday.
Darling, I should be afraid if you had fascinated me in a day or a
week. The trees which grow in an hour have no deep root. Ours I believe to
be no love of a noonday hour, but for all time. Only one love ever grew so
slowly into my heart as yours has, and that was so tender and blessed that
heaven needed and took it. My darling, you are all I would have you, exactly
what I would have you, in mind, body and estate, and my tired heart finds in
you infinite rest, and riches, and sweetness. Good-night my love, my own, my
wife.
Burn this___will you not?
13) ABBY DIVORCES McFARLAND, AFTER HIS ATTEMPT ON RICHARDSON'S LIFE.
Less than three weeks before the above letter was written___February
19, was the date____McFarland found his wife in conversation with Richardson
before her own door. As soon as he was alone in the room with Abby he made
all manner of charges against her. The next day she left McFarland and was
taken in by the Sinclairs. After the first attempt on Richardson's life,
arrangements were planned for Abby's divorce. On October 31, 1869, she
returned from Indianapolis to the home of her parents a free woman. There
Richardson spent Thanksgiving Day. He returned to New York and to his death.
14) McFARLAND REVENGEFUL MORTALLY WOUNDS RICHARDSON.
At five o'clock on the afternoon of November 25, 1869, Daniel
McFarland came into what was known as the counting-room of the Tribune from
the Park Row entrance and lingered in a corner without attracting attention.
On the testimony of Daniel Frohman and others who were employed in the
office, McFarland had a wait of fully fifteen minutes before the object of
his vengeance appeared. Yet his act was made out as an unpremeditated one.
Richardson entered from Spruce Street and walking to a desk at the end of
the counter asked for his mail. Several letters were passed over to him and
as he started to examine them a figure sprang toward him; not until then was
Richardson aware of the presence of McFarland. There was only time for an
exchange of glances. The room echoed to the detonation of a pistol. For a
moment Richardson clutched at the edge of the counter, then he staggered off
and on wavering legs he climbed two flights to the editorial rooms, where he
threw himself on a sofa. He lay there in dreadful agony; he had been shot
through and through the body and the wound which was two inches below the
breast-bone on the left side was a mortal one.
15) RICHARDSON ON HIS DEATH-BED IDENTIFIES McFARLAND AS THE ASSASSIN.
The wounded man was carried across City Hall Park to Room 115 in
the Astor House. There, with his life ebbing slowly away he was made as
comfortable as medical attention would permit. Before he breathed his last,
one week later, two dramatic scenes took place in the death room. Within
less than five hours following the shooting McFarland was found in the
Westmoreland Hotel by Captain Allaire of the Fourth Precinct and was told he
was under arrest for shooting with intent to kill. He was brought to the
room where Richardson lay dying. The stricken man raised himself feebly,
gave one look at his assassin and said:
" That is the man!"
16) RICHARDSON FROM HIS DEATH-BED MARRIES ABBY SAGE McFARLAND.
Three days before the end came, Richardson requested of Horace Greeley
that arrangements be made so that he could marry Abby without delay, as he
felt the end was near. And that same day the ceremony was performed by Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher and Rev. O.B. Frothingham that made Albert D. Richardson
and Abby Sage McFarland man and wife. This tender and touching marriage was
described in the trial as "a horrible and disgraceful ceremony to get the
property of a dying man and that tended to hasten his demise." Mr. Beecher
was forced to answer to his flock. When he got through they knew they were
answered. And the members of the church board lost no time in asserting that
they stood behind their brilliant pastor.
Albert Deane Richardson died on the morning of December 2. His hand
was in that of his bride of three days as he passed away.
17) THE ERA IN WHICH THIS CASE HAPPENED.
April 4, 1870, Daniel McFarland was brought to trial, if the travesty
that was enacted may be described as such. But first let us draw a little
picture of the era in which this case happened.
A) "The political ring which was the golden setting for Tweed
greed," had had virtual control through six years of incorrigible
corruption. Greeley, a Republican, and other editors, were fighting the
Democratic administration for a cleaner government: and the Republicans were
outnumbered three to one in the city of New York and the citizens were
taking politics as a serious matter. Editorial comment was often inflaming
and subsidized; Tweed and his gang manipulated the policy of his several
newspapers and swayed the courts to his own interests to no little extent.
The man on trial was a Catholic and the man he had put in his grave was a
Protestant, and religious tolerance was less mildly practiced then. During
the trial Greeley and his friends were accused of extending financial
donations so that the case would go against the accused. And yet there was a
District Attorney whose duty it was to bring about the punishment of an
offender against the laws, and no one inquired where the $10,000. fee was
coming from that was to go to the McFarland defense, though the accused was
known to be practically penniless. The Greeleys, Sinclairs, Calhouns and the
Woodhulls and Claflins were branded believers in free love and Mormonism and
worse; they were "immoral persons who had conspired to steal Abby from her
lawful husband."
B) Roebling had just announced his plans for a bridge over the
East River. The Arcade Railroad had submitted diagrams for a proposed subway
that would extend beneath Broadway___an absurd proposition that was quickly
vetoed. A successful trip had been made by officers of the Elevated Railway
from Cortlandt to Thirtieth Street. As yet the road was laid only on one
side of the street, but "it is intended to have two roads, so that
passengers may go uptown, while others are going down." Some of the
onlookers were heard to declare that this was "flying in the face of
Providence." One reporter who made the trip informed that he knew precisely
what housekeepers were doing their spring cleaning, and that he had seen
fair ladies putting up their back hair and thought elevated traveling very
interesting. The ride had taken only sixteen minutes. If Gazette pictures
are to be relied on, this must have been a highly dangerous mode of transit.
C) The New York Circus had opened for a short season on
Fourteenth Street, opposite the Academy of Music, and featured "The
Wonderful Cynocephalus," though what this might be, aside from being "the
most unique of novelties," could not be learned. "Little Dorrit" was nearly
ready in the Plum Pudding Edition of the works of Charles Dickens published
by D. Appleton & Co., and the author was to give a reading from his new book
at Steinway Hall. Mr. J.W. Wallack was playing "Rosedale" at his own
theater. Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard "and the dogs" were doing "The Watchman and
His Dogs" at the Bowery Theatre in conjunction with "The Signet Ring, or the
Triumph of Greece," also "Sixteen String Jack." Ouida was writing what were
then judged to be very sexy novels, though they would read as tame stuff
now. Also, in scanning the old Gazette files, we learn that "Bret Harte, a
young Western writer, has turned out a moving and realistic tale in "The
Luck of Roaring Camp."
18) THE TRIAL OF MR. McFARLAND
A) Four Days To Select A Jury Of Twelve Men.
It took four days to panel a jury of twelve men after six hundred and
twenty triers had been examined. McFarland was represented by John Graham,
Elbridge T. Gerry and Col. Charles S. Spencer. For the prosecution District
Attorney Garvin had the assistance of Noah Davis. The hearing was before
Recorder Hackett. Col.
B) Col. Charles S. Spencer Delivers The Opening Address To The Jury
For The Defense.
Spencer delivered the opening address to the jury for the defense. It
took up practically all of the fifth day of the trial and was described as
eloquent and thrilling. "He was thrice applauded. Once the large audience,
which listened with eager attention to catch every word that dropped from
his lips, burst out in a perfect storm of applause." This is what caused the
storm: during the address, which was embellished by extracts from no less
than five poets, Spencer made reference to the Richardson letter already
reproduced here.
"I believe it is my best trait," the gentlemen of the jury were
informed, "that I love my wife, and I believe she is as pure as an angel;
but if ever I discovered a letter like that to her from any man, I would
shoot him whether it made me mad or not."
C) Insanity Was To Be The Grounds Of Defense.
Spencer imparted the information that insanity was to be the grounds
of defense. McFarland had been "an insane man who simulated sanity."
Then John Graham took charge for the accused man and his work was a
masterly exhibition of witness-baiting, browbeating of the court and of an
absolute distortion of the actual evidence in the case. It was prolonged
into the eighth week and almost two days were taken up by Graham in his
summation for the jury; and he broke down and wept as he finished. In short,
Attorney Graham was privileged to run the affair pretty much as he pleased
and whatever he did was right, and what the other side did was wrong if he
so decided. Here are just two examples of the manner in which he jockeyed
proceedings during examination of witnesses:
Witness: "I call myself an inventor."
Graham: "I should call you the same."
Witness: "I am a dentist."
Graham: "If you don't pull teeth any quicker than I pull your
answers from you, then you can't make much of a living at your business."
Now note the difference when the witness is there with the snappy answer.
Graham: "Did McFarland strike you as a drinking man?"
Witness: "I should not take him for a temperance lecturer."
Graham: "That is not very becoming, Mr. Pomeroy. A man is on
trial for his life, and your wit is out of place here."
When Attorney Davis, for the People, could stand the high-handed
proceedings no longer and endeavored to explain to the Court just how
infamous was the course of his opponent, then Graham threatened with his
fist and called Davis "a damned coward."
"If you say another word," he blustered, "I'll have the clothes off
your back. God damn you, I can lick you. I'll teach you what is due one
gentleman to another."
He did not quiet down until McFarland came up to his counsel and said
to him: "I hope you won't do anything to hurt my case." Which was a sane
thought for an insane man.
D) The Murderer is Portrayed As A Model of Excellence.
It can readily be imagined how, under the circumstances, the murderer
was made out a paragon as a husband and father, and a model of temperance
and as a provider as well, while Richardson's grave was his well-earned
tomb," and all his associates were vile people. The law was made to take a
back seat and Attorney Graham earned his $10,000. fee.
E) John Graham Attorney For The Defense Makes Closing Statement.
Graham wound up his long harangue with the following telling words for
the consideration of the jury:
'Let those who dare dishonor the husband and the father, who
wickedly presume to sap the foundations of his happiness, be admonished in
good season of the perilousness of the work in which they are engaged. As a
result of your deliberations, may they realize and acknowledge the
never-failing justice of the Divine edict that (and the concluding words
were fired with rhetoric intensity) JEALOUSY IS THE RAGE OF MAN AND THAT HE
WILL NOT! CANNOT! AND MUST NOT! SPARE IN THE DAYS OF HIS VENGEANCE!"
F) Little Was Made Of The Facts Presented By The Prosecutor District
Attorney Garvin:
Richardson's record in the days of the war between the North and the
South proved him a man of proud and brave spirit that the prisoner had taken
the law in his own hands and sent the dead man to his last account without
trial or question; that men seldom marry their mistresses except upon
compulsion; that insanity was claimed as the excuse for crime, and the
insanity was not proven; that___but why go on. The District Attorney spoke
long and well, and while his summation was more able, if less flowery, than
that of his opponent and not so prolonged, it could not carry the same
weight.
Apparently it was altogether beside the point that McFarland was
guilty of a premeditated murder. Also, through all the mass of testimony and
the long examinations of the witnesses and evidence, the real legal weakness
of the defense was never brought forward. McFarland was permitted to justify
his crime on the grounds that Richardson had robbed him of his wife___yet:
"Abby Sage had not been morally the wife of McFarland for more than two
years and one-half before he shot Richardson, and at the time of the killing
Abby had not been even the legal wife of the man on trial."
G) The Jury Reaches A Verdict
At two minutes after three o'clock on Tuesday, May 10, the jury
retired. A storm which had been lowering all the day burst forth in a
thunderstorm of unusual violence and flash after flash of lightning lighted
the gray sky and reflected through the windows of the courtroom. Amid this
disturbance of nature the jury returned with its verdict at 4:50 P.M.
Taking all things in consideration, maybe it was cause for wonder that
the jury was out as long as it was before the verdict was found:
"NOT GUILTY!"
Sins of New York
As "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
By Edward Van Every
Publisher: Frederick A. Stokes Company--New York
Copyright: 1930 3 Printings October 15, October 23 and October 30.
Prepared and Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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