“I don’t know. I had the habit of keeping my personal papers locked in a box.”
“When did your husband first come to know about your intimacy with Arthur Pennell?”
“It was on New Year’s Day 1900 when I told him in reply to his question that I had been out walking with Mr. Pennell.”
“Wasn’t that quite imprudent of you to reveal that?”
“Yes. It was.”
“At that time did you give Pennell’s letters to your husband for him to read?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you remove some letters from your locked box and place them in his hands in anger?”
“I unlocked it.”
“How did you happen to unlock it?”
“He forced me to.”
How did he ‘force’ you?”
“He took me by the throat.”
Mrs. Burdick did not remember how long after this incident that she rented a box in a safe deposit company’s vaults. It was not when her husband had her by the throat, but more recently, after she had received papers about her husband’s activities from the private detectives she claimed Pennell had hired.
Edwin Burdick had not started divorce proceedings, and she claimed she did want to get a divorce from him. She no longer had any love for Burdick, but she did love Pennell and expected to marry him. She said she expected him to get a divorce from his wife.
“Did Mrs. Carrie Pennell consent to her husband’s asking for a divorce?” asked the District Attorney.
“Sometimes she did and sometimes she didn’t.”
Mrs. Burdick went on to say that she had never talked with Mrs. Pennell about the matter. She said that it was Pennell who’d hired private detectives to shadow Mr. Burdick. She said it was after realizing he was being investigated that her husband sent her away from their family in May of 1901.
Coatsworth then produced a letter from Mrs. Burdick to Mr. Burdick written from Atlantic City on May 27, 1901 in which she promised never again to see Arthur Pennell and begged her husband to take her back. In it she promised that “hence forward I will be a true and loving wife.” She wrote that she could not promise that Pennell would leave town but that Pennell would decline to do anything that would mean a loss of his self-respect.
Another letter written by Mrs. Burdick to her husband referred to her being taken back into the family home, and in it she promised never again voluntarily to see or communicate with Arthur Pennell. She made a plea on behalf of the children. “I promise to be a good girl to you,” she wrote.
Coatsworth waited a few beats, then asked, “Were you a good girl to your husband then? Did you stop seeing Pennell? Stop communicating with him?”
“No, sir.”
Mrs. Burdick claimed she wrote these promises in good faith but failed to keep them.
Another letter was read aloud to the court in which Mr. Burdick declined to take her back.
In yet another letter Edwin Burdick wrote saying that she could not be trusted, that he had loved her truly and honestly long after she had stopped loving him, but that if she truly tried that she might win back both his love and his respect.
It was read aloud to the court:
“You wear a ring given to you by Pennell over your lawful wedding ring, that which I myself placed on your finger on our wedding day. I put no faith in Pennell’s promises to you, and I believe you only wish to return home to me and to the girls for as long as it takes Pennell to free himself from his wife. You have not solely betrayed your husband. You have betrayed your children, your girls, who look to their own mother as a guide as to their moral behavior in life. Is yours an example any mother would wish to employ as a guide for her daughters?”
The resulting murmur from audience in the courtroom sounded like angry bees exiting a hive to organize an attack.
In other letters, Burdick wrote that he forgave his wife for the wrongs she had dealt him, that he vowed to fight for what little honor she had left him, and stated his intentions to fight for custody of the children. He insisted that any counter suit would be heard in open court, so that all the details of her sexual affair with Pennell would be made public, believing that this might shame her into repenting.
It worked, as three weeks after the date of this letter Burdick took his wife back yet once again. She did return to her family but returned also to Pennell’s lustful arms. She claimed it could not be helped, that Pennell was constantly soliciting her, and she began meeting him alone in the house on Seventh Street.
They were there together one day when Edwin Burdick showed up with a gang of his friends, as they had been tipped off to the lovers’ tryst by his daughter. Mrs. Burdick escaped by jumping out the window before he could catch her. She ran directly to church to seek sanctuary there, believing her husband would not assault her in a church. She did not hear until afterward that Burdick’s friends had collared Pennell as he was jumping from another window, having unwisely taken the time to put his pants and shoes on. Mrs. Burdick had simply pulled up her skirts to receive his lovemaking, and thus was able to flee more expediently. The group pummeled Pennell after dragging him back into the house.
Mrs. Burdick admitted meeting Pennell in yet another house on Seventh Street after that particular incident, but insisted “that was all.”
She changed her story yet again after Coatsworth read a statement from Pennell admitting they had begun meeting at a house on Whitney Place ‘two or three” times after being discovered on Seventh Street. Coatsworth then grilled her about additional meeting places he’d found clues of, but she claimed no memory of any of those in which the District Attorney insisted they had also rendezvoused, including the cozy office at Ellicott Square.
It was not until all these incidents had taken place that Burdick expelled his wife from the home for the final time just after Thanksgiving. She had refused Thanksgiving dinner with her family, instead sneaking away to see Pennell. Her most recent exile took her back to Atlantic City where she remained waiting for Pennell to make his move until she received the news of her husband’s murder.
“These letters from Pennell, Mrs. Burdick...did your mother ever read them?”
“No. My mother was not aware that I was receiving letters from Mr. Pennell.”
“Not aware? How could that possibly be? Weren’t these letters brazenly delivered to your husband’s home where your mother lived? Delivered at a time of day when your mother was there to receive the mail but your husband was safely away at work?
“I don’t know.”
“Did your mother Mrs. Hull know anything of the relations between you and Pennell?
“No, sir. Nothing”
“Did she ever say anything to you about Pennell?
“The night I went away she told me she blamed Pennell more than she did me.”
“Blamed for what? You just testified that your mother knew nothing.”
“I don’t know.”
“Did your daughter Marion ever say anything to you about Pennell?”
“No, sir.”
“Don’t you recall that your own daughter told you she thought you were doing wrong?”
“No, sir.”
“Isn’t it true your own daughter slapped you across your face and called you a whore?”
The courtroom exploded at the speaking of the word, and it took a full minute for the room to calm.
“Have you received any information as to who killed your husband?”
“No, sir.”
You’re positive about that?”
“I am.”
“Has anyone told you who killed your husband?”
“No, sir.”
“You swear you have no knowledge of information as to who killed your husband?”
“I do.”
“You never heard anyone say that he or she was going to do it?”
“No, sir.”
“Then how do you explain Mr. Pennell’s letter in which he wrote to you, “I fear I must kill Ed Burdick.�
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“I do not know.”
“No, Mrs. Burdick. You just testified you never heard anyone say he or she might kill your husband and yet Mr. Pennell wrote these very words to you in his letter. That is perjury, madam!”
“No it is not. You asked me if I heard anyone say that they were going to kill my husband. And I have never heard anyone say any such thing. Mr. Pennell wrote it, he didn’t say it.”
“That’s all.” Said a disgusted Mr. Coatsworth.
Next, Mrs. Burdick was questioned by her own attorney, Mr. Hartzell, who was determined to shift focus away from Mrs. Burdick and place it elsewhere.
Alice Burdick said that Pennell had learned from her husband at the charity ball they all attended together that he, Burdick, had possession of all the letters that Pennell had written to his wife. Pennell was greatly angered by this and demanded that Burdick give him the letters.
“Did he fear the revelations of a divorce action?”
“Yes, very much.”
“Who went with you to the Charity Ball?”
“Mr. Burdick, the Pennells and quite a party.”
“Who assigned the partners at that ball?”
“Mr. Burdick.”
“He seemed to want to throw you together?”
“He did always.”
“Now, this den of his was his special pride?”
Yes, sir.”
Now, at the Red Jacket Golf Club, who did you normally associate with?”
“Pennell.”
“With your husband’s knowledge and consent?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And with whom did Burdick associate?”
“With other women.”
“Now, in all these associations with Pennell, did you seek him out or did he seek you?”
“He sought me.”
“He was infatuated with you?”
“He was.”
“Were you ever in a compromising position with him?”
“No, sir.”
“Were your relations with him ever immoral or criminal?”
“No, sir.”
“Did Pennell ever make any improper suggestions or solicitations to you?”
“Never.”
“Your friendship was just that, a platonic friendship? Nothing more?”
“Yes, sir. Nothing more.”
“Pennell was always the perfect gentleman?”
“He was.”
“Then why was he afraid of the divorce proceedings?”
“He was afraid of being humiliated.”
“After you returned to Buffalo from Atlantic City and promised your husband that you would be a good girl, did you resist Pennell?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Did you refuse to make appointments with him?”
“Most certainly.”
“And did he then relentlessly and constantly solicit you, and importune you, and waylay you until you were forced to yield to his harassments?”
Yes, sir.”
“Was Mr. Burdick fond of the ladies?”
“Yes, he was very fond of them.”
“If Pennell or any other person had made any threats against your husband, what would you have done?”
“Why, I would have warned Ed!”
“Pennell never made any such threats?”
“No, sir.”
Mr. Burdick and Mrs. Pennell were friendly?”
“Yes, sir, very friendly.”
“And would he have admitted Mrs. Pennell to his house at any time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Even at night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Without any fear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Mrs. Pennell has been to your house many times?”
“Yes, sir.”
“She knew the layout and contents of the house very well?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And she was familiar with the dining room and the den?”
“Yes, sir.”
The door of the den faced the front entrance door to the house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And a person could tap on the window of the front door and attract the attention of anyone in the den without ringing the doorbell?”
“Yes, sir.”
Next, Alice Burdick was questioned by the Court. Justice Murphy asked questions prompted by Chief of Detectives Cusak.
“Didn’t you know that Mrs. Pennell loved her husband and wanted to remain married to him?” asked the Justice.
“No. She may have, once.”
“Did you and Mrs. Pennell never have a conversation on the subject? Didn’t she feel that you had wronged her?”
“No, I don’t think that she did. She knew I was not to blame. She knew it was all Arthur’s fault.”
“Mrs. Pennell would not agree to a divorce when Mr. Pennell asked her because she loved her husband very much, isn’t that correct?”
“No sir. I don’t think she did. It was because she dreaded the scandal and the publicity that surround divorce proceedings.”
“Isn’t it true that Pennell told you that Mrs. Pennell was at Mr. Burdick’s home the night of the murder?”
“No, sir.”
Didn’t anyone tell you that she was?”
“No, sir.”
“Do you know that Pennell was there that night?”
“No, sir.”
“When Mr. Burdick made you give him the box containing the letters you’d received from Mr. Pennell, what did he do with it?”
“He turned the box over to my mother without removing the letters.”
Called to the stand next, one by one, were the three daughters of Edwin and Alice Burdick; Marion age sixteen, Carol age thirteen and Allie age ten. The girls were calm, composed and spoke clearly. The wisdom of putting them through this public vetting and what value if any their testimony might have was in question in the minds of many, especially as the two younger girls had no direct involvement in the interactions of the adult parties. Marion, the oldest, responded only with the least number of words necessary to answer the question, clearly unhappy and uncomfortable with being examined so publicly.
Her attitude too was interpreted as frigid and detached, arousing suspicion and animosity among some members of the citizens’ gallery and the press.
Marion snapped back at the District Attorney when he harangued her needlessly, putting the exact same question to her in ten different ways, in contrast to her mother and grandmother unemotionally tolerating Coatsworth’s endless badgering.
No one at this point knew, except her dead father, Mr. Parke, and detective Boland, that she had followed her mother to her love nest, and she was determined that no one would discover this. The entire matter was to remain between her and her parents. She revealed nothing of what she had witnessed, taking her account of the incident to her grave soon enough thereafter.
The inquest was adjourned until the following day.
Hannah & Annie In The Courtroom
Hannah and Annie were excited to have garnered tickets to the Burdick inquest with the help of their husbands’ influence. The public demand for entry was overwhelming. Sophie the servant girl was home with the Alderman’s small ones, and Hannah and Jim’s young David was securely at school. The women excitedly perused the finery worn by the many women and men present. Some had crossed over into outlandish choices in a bid to be noticed apart from the others. The newspapers had begun to pay as much attention to the peacockery and strutting of the adorned inquest spectators of both genders and the various ways in which they were dressed and wore their hair as they did the scandalous inquest itself.
The two brothers’ wives sat together at enthralled attention in the courtroom, their focus sometimes diverted to someone’s hat or shoes during particularly banal intervals of testimony.
District Attorney Coatsworth’s stinging question reverberated around the room, aided by the silent pause taken by Alice Hull Burdick, the dead man’s phi
landering wife.
“No, sir,” she finally said, emphatically.
“You swear you have no knowledge or information as to who killed him?”
“I do.”
Mrs. Burdick was much improved over the previous day. She was stronger, calmer, more confident.
She denied Coatsworth’s insistence that she had provided her lover a key to her family’s house. A key that might have allowed him to enter the home and murder her husband as her mother and children slept mere feet away just up the stairs. Coatsworth insisted that Mrs. Burdick had several duplicates made of her house key for her paramour while they were in New York on a tryst to allow him to enter the house. He reworded his question in a number of ways, hoping to trip her up, but no matter what form it took, she denied any such activity, or even that her key had ever left her possession for a moment.
The District Attorney read again from letters that were exchanged between Mrs. Burdick and Pennell in which he said life was “not worth living without her,” and that “death would not be unwelcome.”
She claimed no knowledge of a document found in her safety deposit box contracting Arthur Pennell to pay her the amount of $25,000 in the event of his not being able to marry her. It was contained amongst her important papers, in a vault no one else had access to, yet she disavowed any knowledge of its existence.
She said that on the Tuesday evening before the murder, Pennell had left her in Atlantic City. He had taken the night train back to Buffalo, arriving Wednesday morning. She said she knew nothing of her husband’s murder until she received a telegram from her mother, Mrs. Hull, on Friday morning. She rushed back to Buffalo hastily and arrived early Saturday. A brief message of sympathy was delivered to her at her mother’s house that same day, signed by Pennell. Alice Burdick claimed that was the last she ever heard of Arthur Pennell.
With all of the principals in the case now dead, Alice Burdick was free to invent. She claimed it was her husband who was the wanton philanderer, and it was his behavior that drove her to her “special friendship” with Pennell. With the dead Mrs. Pennell unable to respond, she painted a picture of Carrie Pennell as a suspect in the murder, arriving at the family’s home to multiple private meetings with her husband in his den “with doors closed.”
Fingy Conners & The New Century Page 35