The Linda Wolfe Collection

by Linda Wolfe

  142 “intellectual superiority,” “acquisitiveness” and “destructiveness”: Fowler, Hereditary Descent, 1848 edition, p. xi.

  142 “conscientiousness” and “benevolence”: Fowler, Hereditary Descent, 1848 edition, p. xi.

  142 Lucretia’s disguise: Barnstable Patriot, Nov. 16, 1831.

  143 “unequalled by any County Court House and jail in the state”: Bucks County Intelligencer, January 1833, cited in Davis, History of Doylestown Old and New, p. 28.

  147 The conditions of Lino’s confinement, his relationship with Brown, his prison break, and the remarks he makes to the army officer who apprehends him are drawn from accounts of his escape in the Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, Nov. 12, 1831, and Dec. 10, 1831.

  149 Lucretia’s stay in Greenfield, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, Nov. 19, 1831.

  150 “An able Advocate … to aid him in pleading her cause”: TLC, p. 86.

  150 “Ah! From what a height I have fallen” and the quotations in the following two paragraphs are from Lucretia’s letter to Cobb, printed in the Germantown Telegraph on Feb. 15, 1832. The letter was eventually widely reprinted.

  151 “very wellbred and intelligent woman” and “imprudently”: Boston Morning Post, Dec. 1, 1831.

  151 Brown’s account of Lucretia’s visit to him: DPB, vol. 2, pp. 410–20. Page references to specific dialogue and thoughts from that account are cited below.

  152 “striking,” “slender,” and “well-proportioned”: DPB, vol. 2, p. 419.

  152 “What service can I render you, Madam?”: DPB, vol. 2, p. 419.

  152 “Mrs. Chapman”: DPB, vol. 2, p. 420.

  152 Who could have put such an idea into the editor’s head … no idea: Brown writes in DPB, vol. 2, p. 419, that he was “apprized through the public journals” that it was understood, “from what quarter I am at a loss to ascertain,” that Lucretia’s defense would be entrusted to him. But it’s highly likely he put out the word himself. According to Friedman in his History of American Law, “Almost all lawyers, then, were constantly seeking new business and were in constant need of advertisements for themselves … lawyers reached out for the public through notices (‘cards’) and the newspapers” (p. 309).

  152 Delicately, oh as delicately as possible: DPB, vol. 2, p. 420.

  152 Remember … if you perform your task feebly, the blood of the defendant may be upon you. Do not, therefore, allow a feverish desire for notoriety blind you to the difficulties and dangers by which you will inevitably be surrounded, for the trumpet of fame cannot drown the small still voice of remorse: DPB, vol. 1, p. 82. Brown originally wrote this maxim, and several others, which he called “Capital Hints in Capital Cases,” in 1850, setting them down for the edification of his sons, who had just been admitted to the bar.

  153 Lucretia’s trial was due to start in just a few short days: The concept of a speedy trial meant something in those days. Lucretia was arrested on Nov. 11, 1831. She visited Brown on December 10, 1831. She was indicted on Dec. 12, 1831. The first hearing in her case was on Dec. 14, 1831. And her trial commenced on February 14, 1832.

  153 “a splendid mansion, in which wealth and taste are alike diffused”: Royall, Mrs. Royall’s Pennsylvania, p. 60.

  153 He would be like the commander of a ship in a storm.… perish gloriously in the faithful discharge of his duty: DPB, vol. 2, p. lxxxvi.

  154 He had assumed the responsibility of a cause upon whose outcome depended … the hopes and happiness of all who belonged to her: DPB, vol. 2, p. 420.

  CHAPTER 9 PENNSYLVANIA V. LUCRETIA CHAPMAN, PART ONE

  155 Brown’s first expedition to Doylestown: DPB, vol. 2, pp. 420–23.

  157 “Lucretia Espos y Mina … Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”: TLC, pp. 3–4.

  158 “Iago,” “old Judas,” and “a stripling of old Judas”: Yerkes, “John Ross and the Ross Family,” p. 377.

  158 John Ross’s difficult personality: Book of Biographies, p. 12.

  158 “Dear Tom … acceptable”: Yerkes, “John Ross and the Ross Family,” p. 382.

  158 Mary Ross: Yerkes, “John Ross and the Ross Family,” p. 384; see also Book of Biographies, p. 12.

  158 Intended soon to tell a jury: In his opening remarks, Ross would call Lucretia “wanton” and declare she was “possessed of no moral principle sufficient to restrain her” from committing murder: TLC, p. 18.

  158 “Not guilty … Not guilty”: TLC, p. 6.

  159 McDowell’s appearance, popularity and success as a lawyer: Davis, History of Doylestown Old and New, pp. 144–45; see also Caleb E. Wright, “Four Lawyers of the Doylestown Bar,” p. 267.

  159 “How would you be tried … By God and my country”: TLC, p. 6.

  159 A jury half composed of foreigners: although McDowell and Rush had informed the court that they might request such a jury (TLC, p. 6), in the end they did not do so.

  159 “Are you ready for trial” and “Yes”: TLC, p. 7.

  160 “To urge an immediate trial … highest degree unjust”: TLC, p. 7.

  160 William B. Reed: The Dictionary of American Biography, 1935.

  160 “We are ready to go to trial.… earlier than February”: TLC, p. 7.

  160 “January ninth”: TLC, p. 8. For the purpose of narrative energy, in both this chapter and the next I have frequently put into Fox’s mouth words that DuBois attributed merely to “the Court” or “the judges.”

  160 Judge Fox’s appearance and background: for his solemn and aristocratic looks, see the portrait of him in Davis, History of Doylestown Old and New, p. 304; for his stint as deputy attorney general of Bucks County, see Pugh, “The Rodmans and the Foxes,” p. 230; for his intimacy with and services to Andrew Jackson, see Davis, History of Doylestown Old and New, p. 36.

  161 “January thirtieth” and “Case continued until Monday, February thirteenth”: TLC, p. 8.

  161 “if life was to be lost, it would not be without a [valiant] struggle”: DPB, vol. II, p. 424.

  161 Brown and McCall’s roadside mishap and the one-day delay of the trial: TLC, p. 8.

  162 “Mr. Speaker! Who can bear the thought of seeing a black speaker occupying that chair in which you are now seated”: Philadelphia National Gazette, Feb. 21, 1831.

  163 Crushing the ribs of one guard: Kenderdine, “The Chapman-Mina Tragedy,” p. 459.

  163 Lucretia and Lino’s appearance and dress: Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832.

  163 “My application for separate trials is a mutual one … injustice would be done if both were tried together”: TLC, p. 8.

  163 “The mode and manner … granted separate trials”: TLC, p. 9.

  164 “If our application is refused … that it may not be granted”: TLC, p. 11.

  164 “We can’t proceed”; “The prosecution … direct that they be allowed to have separate trials”; and “We would like to take up the case of Lucretia Chapman first”: TLC, p. 12.

  165 “a sort of moral torture”: TLC, p. 14.

  165 “the doors of the prison … the trouble of a trial”: TLC, p. 14.

  166 Quaker opposition to serving on juries deciding capital cases: In subsequent years many Bucks County Quakers would ask to be excused from serving on juries that decided capital cases. Thaddeus S. Kenderdine, writing in 1907, says, “In the several murder trials in Bucks County since [the Chapman-Mina trials] I doubt if there has been a single member [of the Society of Friends] on the jury,” and explains the willingness of Quakers to serve on the Chapman and Mina juries as being due to “the public desire for the riddance of monsters so great”: Kenderdine, “The Chapman-Mina Tragedy,” p. 460.

  166 “Opposition to capital punishment … have such scruples, others have not”:TLC, p. 16.

  166 The jurors: for the son of a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1790, see Davis, History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, vol. 2, p. 84, re Hartzell; for the organizer of a society that promoted farming, see Davis, History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, vol. 2, p. 353, re Wats
on; for the coal merchant, see Davis, History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, vol. 3, p. 124, re Yardley.

  167 “Gentlemen of the jury … any other country”: TLC, p. 17.

  168 Lucretia’s tears and the presence of the children in the courtroom: see Philadelphia National Gazette, Feb. 28, 1832.

  168 Mercy’s daughter and son-in-law, Mrs. and Captain Baker, are referred to by McIlvaine, TLC, p. 52.

  168 “We shall lay before you a letter of Mrs. Chapman’s … Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies”: TLC, pp. 18–19.

  169 “They went up to Bonaparte’s” and “I saw Mina and Mrs. Chapman together often”: TLC, p. 19.

  169 “Under what circumstances?” This is a surmised question. Du Bois almost never recorded the questions put by the lawyers and judges, merely the answers witnesses gave to their questions. Here, and throughout the courtroom scenes that follow, I have had to infer the questions from the answers. Additionally, for dramatic purpose, I have at times put the questions into quotation marks, rather than presenting them, as DuBois did on the rare occasions when he bothered to include questions, as indirect discourse.

  169 “Mina used to have fits … closed the windows”; “I don’t think Mrs. Chapman treated her husband right”; and “She called him a fool on Sunday, as we were going to church”: TLC, p. 19.

  169 Brown’s questions: TLC, p. 20.

  170 “this plaguey trial”: TLC, p. 67.

  170 “His shirt wasn’t worth anything”: TLC, p. 22.

  170 “He was a Spaniard”: TLC, p. 20.

  170 “They used to kiss each other” and “They sang love songs to each other”: TLC, p. 21.

  170 “They were often engaged in a private room by themselves”: TLC, p. 22.

  170 “Mrs. Chapman went up to Lino’s room.… wearing her nightdress” and “His spells … soon over them”: TLC, p. 21.

  170 Mrs. Chapman said she had to have the horse … could do as she pleased: TLC, p. 66.

  171 “She spoke pretty harsh sometimes”: TLC, p. 21.

  171 “She used to tell him she was ashamed of him … tired of him”: TLC, p. 67.

  171 “Was that why you left the Chapmans’ employ?”: Question inferred from Ellen’s answer, which follows.

  171 “I left because there were things going on … great deal of talk about Mrs. Chapman and her boarder”: TLC, p. 21.

  171 The woman’s a human volcano … bent on total destruction: TLC, pp. 168–70.

  171 “I have had no difference with Mrs. Chapman” and “Mrs. Chapman always had the chief management of the household”: TLC, p. 21–22.

  171 “You say … what room was that”: As mentioned earlier, Du Bois was in the habit of writing down witnesses’ answers and leaving out the questions to which the witnesses were responding. Thus, in this scene, Brown’s questions are surmised from the answers Ellen gave him.

  171 “The parlor”; “Religious service … much good did it do”; “What did you mean … did no good”; and “No. It just seems that way, seeing the way things turned out there”: TLC, p. 22. I have adapted this line of Ellen’s from Du Bois’s statement on p. 22 that when Ellen was “asked by the Court what she meant by that last phrase [i.e., ‘much good did it do,’], she said she had no fact to ground her opinion upon … except the way things had turned out.”

  172 “Was your employer in the habit of singing songs?” This is a surmised question, based on the answer that Ellen gives next.

  172 “She was not in the habit of singing songs,” and “She had a piano, and played and sung hymn tunes”: TLC, p. 23.

  172 “What hymns did she sing?”: Again, this is a surmised question, based on the answer Ellen gives next.

  172 “I can’t tell the names of any of the songs” and “This court has already refused … former case”: TLC, p. 23.

  173 Sat down at Lucretia’s right: TLC, p. 23.

  173 Where else should the boarder have sat … nothing at all: these musings are drawn from the remarks Brown made about Esther Bache’s testimony in his closing argument; see TLC, p. 170.

  173 The pivot upon which the prosecution intended to rest its whole case: See Brown, TLC, p. 171.

  174 Brown’s thoughts regarding Boutcher: In his summation, Brown would make a pun about “quackery” and the poultry farmer’s “long lamented Quacks” (TLC, p. 172). It was a pun that the Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin of May 5, 1832, would criticize as being in bad taste, and call an “ill-timed and misplaced” attempt at humor.

  174 “Who brought the soup and uneaten chicken back to the kitchen”: A surmised question, based on Ann’s answer, which follows.

  174 “Mrs. Chapman put it on the table and left it there”: TLC, p. 25.

  174 “Did Mrs. Chapman … the leftover chicken”: Again, surmised, based on the answer that follows.

  174 “I don’t recollect that she said anything”: See TLC, p. 25.

  174 “Was it thrown out right away”: Again, a surmised question, based on answer that follows.

  174 “No, the chicken stood on the table … washed up the dishes”: TLC, p. 26.

  174 “Was anyone else in the kitchen while the chicken and soup were sitting out”: Again, a surmised question, based on the answer that follows.

  174 “The whole five of the children … being in the kitchen every day”: TLC, p. 25.

  175 “Did Mrs. Chapman clean the pot”: Fox’s question is surmised from the answer Ann gives next.

  175 “I do not think she cleaned the pot”: TLC, p. 25.

  175 “Did she tell you to throw away the leftover food”: again, a surmised question, based on the answer that follows.

  175 “Mrs. Chapman gave me no directions to throw the soup or the chicken away”: TLC, p. 25.

  175 Poisoned chalice: Brown would use the phrase “poisoned chalice” and argue that it was beyond belief that a mother would permit such an object to remain “in the very centre of her children” in his closing arguments, TLC, p. 172.

  175 “Carolino Estradas was born … generous, and liberal”: CEM, p. 5.

  176 “A quarter of a pound of arsenic … gave it to him myself”: TLC, p. 29.

  177 “I saw no want of tenderness … unbecoming to a wife”: TLC, p. 33.

  177 “Might arsenic have accounted for Dr. Chapman’s symptoms”: A surmised question, based on the answer Phillips gives, which follows.

  177 “If arsenic had been administered, it would, I think, have accounted for some of the symptoms … But neither am I prepared to say that natural causes and natural disease might not produce the same symptoms”: TLC, p. 33.

  177 “At present, the aspect of affairs … so strong a case as was expected”: Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832. The story was actually written earlier; its dateline is Feb. 17, 1832.

  178 When the trial resumed … suddenly sympathetic to her: The change is reported in the Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832.

  178 “She absented herself … thought right”; “I do not remember her saying she had no servant,” and “I do not know if … reluctance to take the medicine”: TLC, p. 34.

  178 “There were between twenty and thirty that died that day and the next”: TLC, p. 35.

  179 “For him to describe these bones … miraculous organs”: TLC, p. 70.

  179 “this side of the grave”: TLC, p. 48.

  179 A clear reference to the pair’s having committed murder: TLC, p. 124.

  179 Brown, of course, viewed the words differently … one the jury might well appreciate: TLC, p. 151.

  180 “Several letters were put in evidence today … sought after with great avidity”: Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832.

  180 Murder trial books: see chapter six, “The Sensational Press and the Rise of Subversive Literature,” in Reynolds, Beneath the American Renaissance.

  181 He would make it a big book … all the romantic and seamy details: see Du Bois’s “Advertisement,” for his book, TLC, p. 1.

  181 The publishing firm of G. W. Mentz & S
on: Robert Cazden, A Social History of the German Book Trade in America to the Civil War (Columbia, S.C.), p. 81.

  182 Brown’s questions in this scene are, as explained earlier, surmised from Hopkinson’s answers.

  182 “Putrefaction might be retarded by dry soil”; “I never heard or read … belonging to arsenic”; and “Though I have never … terminate fatally”: TLC, p. 56.

  183 “No one can be certain … found in the body”: TLC, p. 59.

  183 “Chemical proofs … of its presence”: TLC, p. 62.

  183 “Smearcase and pork … sure to hurt him”: TLC, p. 63.

  184 “Other substances can produce … one may be deceived”: TLC, p. 65.

  184 Most trials at the time were exceedingly short … a few hours: Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History, p. 245.

  184 Ross’s gold snuff box: Davis, “Half an Hour with the Old Taverns of Doylestown,” p. 437.

  185 The high constable had a sick child … official duties: TLC, p. 96.

  185 “Your Honor, the stagecoach from Philadelphia … without his person”; “No further delays”; “May it please your Honors … staked upon the issue of your decision”: TLC, p. 70.

  CHAPTER 10 PENNSYLVANIA V. LUCRETIA CHAPMAN, PART TWO

  187 Brown’s strategy: DPB, vol. 2, pp. 432 and 436.

  188 “Do you know what you have come here for”; “To swear to all I know”; “Do you know what will become of you if you do not tell the truth”; and “I will be cast into hell fire forever”: TLC, p. 89.

  188 “Pa was sitting in the rocking chair, nursing little John”: TLC, p. 89.

  188 “truckle bed”: TLC, p. 91.

  189 “Mary brought the chicken and soup upstairs”; “The soup was in a blue quart bowl. The chicken was on a plate, I think … Pa cut it himself”: TLC, p. 91; “Pa tasted the gizzard, but it was tough. He gave the rest to me and I ate it” and “Pa ate only a few spoonsful of the soup, but ate very heartily of the chicken. I ate some of the soup myself”: TLC, p. 90.

  189 “Her character was more than moral”; “very religious”; and “If anything had happened … informed of it”: TLC, p. 92.