by Dick Kreck
September 15: Henwood granted a sixty-day stay by state Supreme Court.
December 23: Case appealed to state Supreme Court for a second time.
1914
April 13: Appeal heard by Supreme Court.
July 8: Supreme Court affirms decision of lower court. Hanging set for week of October 25.
October 4: Supreme Court denies petition for rehearing.
October 16: Governor Ammons commutes Henwood’s sentence to life in prison.
October 18: Henwood transported by train from Denver to the state penitentiary in Cañon City, Colorado.
1917
April 19: Isabel Patterson Springer dies at Blackwell’s Island, New York City, at the age of thirty-seven.
October 23: Henwood asks for pardon.
1918
December 14: Henwood denied mitigation of original sentence by state pardons board.
1921
April 18: Henwood makes second appeal for pardon.
November 17: Pardon denied again.
1922
May 26: Henwood granted executive clemency by Governor Oliver Shoup and moves to New Mexico.
1923
March 26: Henwood is returned to the state penitentiary for parole violation.
1929
September 28: Frank Henwood dies at the state penitentiary, Cañon City, at the age of fifty-two.
1945
January 10: John W. Springer, age eighty-five, dies in Littleton, Colorado.
Murder at the Brown Palace: A Chronology ~
~ Murder at the Brown Palace
Notes on Sources
Chapter One
Prelude to Murder
As they did throughout the time of the murders and trials, Denver’s four fiercely competitive newspapers (The Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Times, and The Denver Republican) printed story after story, most of them factual. They were an invaluable source, mainly for the courtroom testimony, because the original documents have disappeared from the Colorado State Archives. The folders remain but the paperwork is gone, pilfered by persons unknown.
The bulk of the conversations between Frank Henwood and Tony von Phul comes from courtroom testimony by Henwood and, to a much lesser extent, others. A good account of the murders and the events that led up to them are in Timber Line, Gene Fowler’s entertaining though often embellished history of The Post and its two founders, Frederick Bonfils and Harry Tammen. The murder is given passing retelling in various histories of the Brown Palace Hotel, although the background of the participants is generally glossed over.
Chapter Two
The Shooting
A point of constant disagreement between prosecutors and Henwood’s defense team was whether Tony von Phul turned his back on Henwood after knocking him down in the bar of the Brown Palace. Prosecuting attorneys frequently referred to a wound in von Phul’s back, while Henwood’s lawyers maintained that von Phul fixed Henwood with a hateful stare. Most witnesses agreed that von Phul had turned away from Henwood after decking him with one punch.
Newspaper reporters, court officials, and other observers rarely agreed on Frank Henwood’s name. His given name was Harold Francis Henwood, but he was called Frank H. Henwood, Harold F. Henwood, Harold Henwood (his father’s name), F. H. Henwood, H. F. Henwood, and other variations.
A reasonably accurate account of the shooting is contained in the chapter called “Murder at the Brown Palace,” part of a compilation of stories on peculiar crimes that appeared in the 1946 book Denver Murders, edited by Lee Casey.
The appearance of Follies of 1910 at the Broadway Theater in May 1911 was a highlight of that year’s theater season. Flo Ziegfeld, his shows, and his career are related in an excellent history, The Ziegfeld Touch, by Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld.
Chapter Three
Tony von Phul
Sylvester Louis “Tony” von Phul was a legend in St. Louis, his hometown. His balloon adventures and his way with beautiful women raised him to matinee-idol status. His exploits in various ballooning competitions were covered frequently by the St. Louis press.
Some newspaper accounts claimed that von Phul and Isabel Patterson Springer were high school classmates in
St. Louis and, maybe, childhood sweethearts. No evidence could be found to corroborate what were little more than rumors. Much of the biographical information on von Phul came from a generally glowing account of his life in the
St. Louis Republic of May 23, 1909. His balloon-riding exploits are mentioned at some length in reminiscences by his friend Maj. Albert Bond Lambert in the June 1928 issue of the Missouri Historical Society Magazine.
Chapter Four
Frank Henwood
Reporters for Denver’s newspapers were given extraordinary access to Henwood and his jail cell. A glib and social promoter, Henwood became friends with many of those who covered him.
It can be a confusing matter to understand whether Henwood was tried for killing von Phul or his other victim, George Copeland. Prosecutors decided they stood a better chance of getting a conviction over Copeland’s death, but most of the testimony was about Henwood’s fear of von Phul and about whether Henwood acted in self-defense. Henwood was never on trial for killing von Phul, only for the accidental death of Copeland, a barroom bystander.
Exception and incompetency are legal terms dealing with courtroom procedure. An exception is a lawyer’s way of establishing in the record that he disagrees with a court’s ruling and gives the court an opportunity to change its mind. It also lays the basis for an appeal. (It is no longer required in Colorado courts.) Incompetency refers to evidence so lacking in credibility that it is not admissible.
That Isabel Springer’s adventures with her two lovers were probably well known around town prior to the shooting may be inferred from the fact that only two days passed before her name appeared in newspapers, suggesting her as a cause of the friction between the two principals.
The 1906 murder case of Harry K. Thaw, Evelyn Nesbit, and Stanford White, remarkably similar to the Denver shooting and scandal, is covered in a February 1999 Smithsonian Magazine article, “Pictures of a Tragedy,” and in detail in The Architect of Desire, by Suzannah Lessard. The story is also one of the key subplots in E. L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel Ragtime (later made into a Hollywood film).
Chapter Five
John Springer
The life of John Wallace Springer is chronicled in Wilbur Fiske Stone’s History of Colorado.
Polly Pry frequently criticized Springer and his political ambitions in a magazine that bore her name. She was best known as The Denver Post’s “sob sister,” a teller of sad tales.
The incredibly crooked mayoral campaign of 1904, in which Robert W. Speer defeated John Springer, is dealt with in reformer George Creel’s Rebel at Large. Political corruption in general is detailed by David Graham Phillips in The Muckrakers, edited by Arthur and Lila Weinberg.
Former Denver Mayor Quigg Newton, whose mother was John Springer’s niece, was particularly helpful in providing access to a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings and other memorabilia chronicling Springer’s political career.
Chapter Six
Guilty
The Denver Post, The Denver Times, and the Rocky Mountain News ran more or less complete transcriptions of Frank Henwood’s testimony in their June 23, 1911, editions.
Henwood’s excoriation of Judge Greeley Whitford after he was found guilty of second-degree murder may be unequaled in American judicial history. It was within Whitford’s authority to give Henwood a sentence of as little as ten years—but after Henwood’s lecture, Whitford sentenced him to life in prison. Henwood’s entire diatribe appeared in The Post on July 28, 1911.
Chapter Seven
Isabel Springer
Men’s fascination with Isabel Springer is rather difficult to unravel at this late date. She was a beautiful creature, and accounts of her personality described her as vivacious and high-spirited, but she was
a high-maintenance attachment. She was a poor judge of her admirers. Like many women of her time, she was beginning to find interests outside the home, a phenomenon chronicled in Henry Allen’s What It Felt Like.
The city’s society writers fawned over Isabel and her
theatrical interests, describing her in glowing terms when she first arrived as John Springer’s constant companion in the summer of 1906. Their praise quickly turned to disapproval when her role in the scandal become public in 1911.
Isabel’s trail grew vague after her departure from Denver. It is clear that her addiction to drugs and alcohol was severe. She managed in the years between 1911 and her death to spend all of the rather generous settlement she received from her cuckolded husband.
Her friendship with Audrey Munson, the premier nude model of her generation, was an odd one. Though Munson was a top-flight model and noted silent-film actress (one of the first to disrobe for the motion-picture camera), Isabel was merely a bit player. Munson wrote, in an often-melodramatic newspaper series called “Queen of the Artists’ Studios,” how drugs and alcohol took a toll on Isabel’s legendary beauty.
Chapter Eight
The Reason
The only known accounts of Isabel Springer’s series of impassioned letters to Tony von Phul were carried by The Denver Post and The Denver Republican, mainly in 1913. The newspapers only hint at whether the “unprintable” ones were more graphic. The published letters were relatively tame by current standards, little more than mash notes.
John Springer managed to have Isabel’s letters expunged from their divorce case and, though several copies of them were made, none has surfaced since some of them were printed in the Denver papers.
Chapter Nine
A Second Chance
Denver Post reporter Frances “Pinky” Wayne, so named for the color of her hair, spent a great deal of time with Henwood after his arrest. Her reports, such as the one in which she described his appearance as “ghastly,” have a strong sense of disapproval about them.
The shrill squabbling between opposing attorneys can scarcely be imagined today. The give-and-take between John Bottom and prosecutor John Rush, particularly hostile, was printed word-for-word in The Post of March 10, 1913. The West Side Court, scene of many high-profile trials, was often a legal battleground but rarely at this level of animosity.
The Post’s antigun, antiviolence stance was surprisingly modern for its time.
Chapter Ten
An Old Friend
John Springer’s appearance on the witness stand took everyone by surprise. His refusal to testify in the 1911 trial was never explained, although embarrassment and his divorce were probably leading causes. His appearance in 1913 came after much soul-searching until he was clear in his mind that Henwood was acting on his behalf in the matter. His testimony and his courtroom encounter with Henwood are detailed in The Denver Post of June 17, 1913.
Chapter Eleven
The Final Verdict
Henwood was a broken man after his second conviction. It was about this time that his mental state began to become a concern among his friends and jail keepers. His erratic behavior and outbursts of anger became more frequent.
A good account of his state appeared in the June 19, 1913, edition of the Rocky Mountain News.
Author Gene Fowler, who covered the Henwood trials as a young reporter for The Post, found Henwood an engaging fellow and recounted his remembrances of him in Denver Murders.
Although it is a legal fine point, there is a difference between Henwood being released on “executive privilege” by Governor Oliver Shoup and receiving a parole. Executive privilege is at the discretion of the governor while a parole is a statutory option. The effect was the same: Henwood was released from prison, and newspapers and others spoke of him being given a “parole.”
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