The Murder of Dr. Chapman
The Legendary Trials of Lucretia Chapman and Her Lover
Epilogue
LUCRETIA’S THEATRICAL CAREER WAS only partially a success. She joined a troupe of strolling players and toured in various parts of the country, but from time to time theatergoers realized who she was and shunned her performances. In Cincinnati, in November 1834, she was hissed and booed off a stage. “How she has fallen!” a Philadelphia man wrote to one of his brothers after reading of the incident, and went on to marvel at the fact that “degraded as her present occupation is, even [out West] the finger of scorn is pointed at her and she is greeted with hisses and general disaffection.”
Did she deserve such scorn? Was she as lacking in guilt as her acquittal had implied, or was she in fact a woman upon whose lips an enigmatic smile sometimes played as she slipped into her costumes or fashioned her hair, the smile of a woman who has gotten away with murder? Her neighbors thought this might be the case, so did many of her former friends, and in time in Bucks County she came to be viewed as having been every bit as evil as the well-known poisoner whose Christian name she shared, the infamous Lucretia Borgia.
I myself see her differently, see her as a woman maligned by Lino and consequently by history, for Lino has had the last word till now.
I don’t think she participated in William’s murder. But I do suspect she was an accomplice after the fact. It’s my belief that the secret things Lino told her the last time he set foot in Andalusia were that he had killed William, that if he was apprehended he would blame the murder on her, and that if she knew what was good for her she’d get him out of her way by recommending him to her relatives at the Cape and keeping her mouth shut about both his revelations and where he was going. As we know, she recommended him to her relatives and kept silent about that last conversation.
I could find no solid clues to what became of Lucretia after her abortive performance in Cincinnati in 1834, although one 1909 commentator on the case said she worked for a time as a silhouettist, drawing and cutting out the black profiles that were so popular in her day. But he also said she died in 1841 in Florida, and Florida’s archives contain no record of the death in that year of either a Lucretia Chapman or a Lucretia Winslow.
Perhaps she changed her name to hide her identity. “Quite likely,” said a Tallahassee archivist who helped me in my search. “Probably a lot of the people who came to Florida in the early 1840s were trying to hide something. Otherwise why come here? The state was mostly a mosquito-infested swamp.”
Whether or not she changed her name, and wherever it was that she died, Lucretia did die in 1841. She was fifty-three years old. After her death, her remaining property was sold at auction, and each of the children received a one-fifth share of the proceeds. They were all still minors, except for Mary. Little is known about what became of the children except that William Jr., who apparently inherited his father’s scientific bent, attended college, graduated, and became a dentist and that Mary went to live in Massachusetts with her Winslow relatives.
The Chapman house itself, situated as it was just off the turnpike, struck its first buyer as an ideal spot for a tavern. He turned it into one, the Old Union, and it remained a tavern until being bought in 1861 by a Reverend Doctor Horatio Thomas Wells, who turned it back into a school, first a school for boys seeking “moral, religious and intellectual training,” then a college he founded and named Andalusia College. Today none of the original house remains, and a Catholic church, the Church of St. Charles Borromeo, occupies the corner of Lucretia’s land that faced the turnpike, which still exists, albeit jammed now with automobiles. But across the way from the church there’s a dilapidated old brick-and-stucco structure. “That building was standing at the time of the murder you’re writing about,” said an expert on the early architecture of Bucks County who was helping me locate sites mentioned in my research.
I imagine it might have been the Boutchers’ farmhouse.
As to William, he was as unfortunate in the manner in which his name lived on after his death as he was in the manner of that death itself. His scientific work faded into oblivion. And the inscription on his tombstone seems to have done so, too. According to the records of All Saints Episcopal Church in Hulmeville, where he was buried, William is still interred in the church’s graveyard. But although when I visited the graveyard I saw in the oldest part of the yard the tombstones of quite a few Chapmans who were buried there in the first years of the nineteenth century, I saw no stone for William—at least no stone with his name. Most of the tombstones in this antiquated section of the graveyard are sturdy gray slabs with clearly legible inscriptions. But one stone is different from all the others. It is so bubbly and disintegrated that it looks as if it is made of melted sugar, and whatever inscription it may once have borne is totally indecipherable.
I suspect it’s William’s, and that Lucretia, out of bitterness or distraction, never put up a proper tablet.
After the Chapman case was over, some of the people who had played roles in the affair lived lives bright with achievement.
The pharmacist Elias Durand became the second vice president of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where his portrait still hangs.
David Paul Brown became even more famous than he was at the time of Lucretia’s trial and wrote a fascinating book about his career, The Forum, or Forty Years of Practice at the Philadelphia Bar.
Thomas Ross not only got elected to Congress but gained a national reputation by making a speech welcoming California into the Union.
The two men participated in another important trial besides that of Lucretia Chapman, but this time they were allies, not adversaries. In 1838 they were hired by a black abolitionist to help prevent an escaped slave named Basil Dorsey from being reclaimed by his Maryland owner. Brown did the talking for his and Ross’s side, arguing that the slave owner from whom Dorsey had fled had offered no evidence to show that under the laws of Maryland he was entitled to own a fellow man.
His client didn’t have to introduce such evidence, said his lawyer. “Everybody knows that Maryland is a Slave State.”
Brown thundered, “Everybody is nobody! Common report does not pass before a court of justice.” Then, arguing that he couldn’t believe Maryland’s laws would allow such an egregious offense as slave owning, he demanded that a copy of the laws be produced, but insisted it be a certified copy.
The slave owner’s counsel didn’t have a certified copy of Maryland’s laws with him, and asked for time to get one.
Brown and Ross maintained that until such time as he produced the document, the case ought to be dismissed.
It was dismissed, at least temporarily, and while the court was in recess, Dorsey was hurriedly spirited off to New England. The judge who dismissed the case was John Fox—“a man,” said the abolitionist who’d hired Brown and Ross, “with human feelings [even] if he was a judge.”
Some of the other figures in the book had more troubled, checkered, or even tragic lives.
Sheriff Morris had so many nightmares about having pulled the rope that ended Lino’s life that he quit law enforcement and became a tavernkeeper.
William Du Bois became a department head at the U.S. Mint, where he falsified numismatic facts and earned a reputation as a crook.
High Constable Blayney’s twenty-five-year-old son was murdered in a street brawl.
And what of Lino? Only this, that a year after his execution he was blamed for a terrible natural disaster. The waters of the Neshaminy, the creek alongside which he’d been hanged, roiled and rose and swept away all the bridges that crossed the creek. It was the dead man’s vengeance, said the locals, and they named the catastrophe the “Mina Flood.”
Endnotes
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Years ago, when I first began writing about legal and criminal matters, an attorney friend who wanted to encourage my new interest gave me as a gift a rare copy of William E. Du Bois’s Trial of Lucretia Chapman, with its supplement on the trial of Lino Amalia Espos y Mina. “Read this,” my friend said. “Maybe you could write something comparing how murder trials were conducted in the early nineteenth century with how they’re conducted now. Besides, it’s a great read. A scandal, plus a murder by chicken soup!” But I was busy, preoccupied with scandals and murders of the moment, and I put aside the decaying volume with its crumbling pages and minuscule print. Twenty years rolled by and the book languished on my shelf. Then one day in a moment of leisure, I picked it up, and when I did I was immediately enthralled. After finishing the book I immersed myself in the Chapman case, delving into old newspapers, memoirs, and biographies, and discovering in the process that the murder of William Chapman, although altogether forgotten now, had been one of the major crime stories of the nineteenth century. I understood why, for I was hooked by the tale, and eventually I began writing this book.
For anyone who wants to know more about the case, the three best resources are the Du Bois work, the newspapers of the period, and David Paul Brown’s The Forum, or Forty Years Full Practice at the Philadelphia Bar.
Du Bois produced what was, in effect, the equivalent of a modern-day trial transcript, recording almost every word of the witnesses’ testimony; the lawyers’ opening statements, legal arguments, and florid summations; and the rulings made by the judges. His account does not, however, read the way a contemporary court transcript does. For example, Du Bois often didn’t write down the lawyers’ questions, merely the witnesses’ answers, so I have at times had to surmise the questions from the answers.
The newspapers covered Lucretia and Lino’s trials in great detail and with increasing prominence. Indeed one paper, the Barnstable Patriot, after running several pieces about the case in its inner pages, moved the story to the front page, apologizing for this unprecedented placement of a murder story by explaining, “We supposed it would be as interesting to many … as the President’s Message,” a standard front-page item.
Brown’s book is interesting on the subject of himself—he was a man of vast ego—as well as on his various cases and what it was like to be a criminal defense attorney in mid-nineteenth-century America. Alas, his account of Lucretia’s trial is short. Still, he does explain his strategy and talk about some of his personal experiences during the trial.
In addition to these three resources, a fourth that is of considerable interest is a collection of documents concerning the trial and its principals that was donated to the Bucks County Historical Society by the late George B. Ross, a descendant of prosecutor Thomas Ross. The collection, the Mina-Chapman Murder Case Papers, includes originals of the letters exchanged between Lucretia and Lino, as well as Mary Ross’s letter urging her son to visit Lino before his execution, William Chapman’s alien registration and citizenship papers, Dr. Hopkinson’s autopsy report, some of Lucretia’s tuition bills, and many other fascinating tidbits.
I would also recommend looking at Lucretia and William’s book on their United States Institution for the Treatment of Defective Utterance, and Lino’s The Life and Confession of Carolino Estradas de Mina. The latter, filled with miraculous events and lush descriptions of tropical scenes, reads in places like a tale by Gabriel García Márquez.
These were my principal research tools. I also used many additional sources, including books, newspaper articles, government documents, and information provided by the individuals cited in my acknowledgments.
In reconstructing events and providing dialogue, I have adhered to the historical record. Regarding the dialogue, while it was occasionally necessary to render as direct quotation remarks that appeared in the source material as indirect discourse, the remarks all come from the court testimony recorded by Du Bois or the accounts written by Brown and various contemporary journalists. Only rarely have I made alterations in these remarks, other than to clarify a speaker’s meaning with small grammatical changes, and wherever I deemed it requisite to make an alteration, I have provided the original words and an explanation for my change in the chapter notes that follow.
ABBREVIATIONS
DPB Brown, David Paul, The Forum, or Forty Years Full Practice at the Philadelphia Bar, 2 volumes, Philadelphia, 1856.
WC Chapman, Mr. and Mrs. William, United States Institution for the Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance Such as Partial Speechlessness, Stuttering, Stammering, Hesitancy, Weakness of Voice, Mis-Enunciation, Lisping, Etc., Etc., Philadelphia, 1826.
TLC Du Bois, William E., The Trial of Lucretia Chapman, Philadelphia, 1832.
STMC Du Bois, William E., Supplement to the Trial of Mrs. Chapman: The Trial of Lino Amalia Espos y Mina, Philadelphia, 1832.
CEM Mina, Carolino Estradas, The Life and Confession of Carolino Estradas de Mina, Philadelphia, 1832.
M-CMCP Mina-Chapman Murder Case Papers, Spruance Library, Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pa.
CHAPTER NOTES
CHAPTER 1 BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
1 Dr. John Phillips’s eminence, his willingness to see patients, and his attitude toward doctors who had not been trained at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School: Green, A History of Bristol Borough, pp. 181–82.
1 Lino’s appearance: Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832.
1 Phillips’s height: Green, A History of Bristol Borough, p. 181.
2 My description of Dr. Phillips’s visits to the dying William Chapman is drawn from his testimony as well as from testimony given by Dr. Knight, Ann Bantom, and little Lucretia Chapman; see TLC, pp. 24, 32–33, 69, and 89–91.
3 Lucretia’s appearance: Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832; see also DPB, vol. 2, p. 419.
3 “A beefsteak would do me more good than anything else”: TLC, p. 33.
4 “Not much” and “He may eat plenty of that”: TLC, p. 90.
4 Calomel drops: Calomel drops were considered effective against even Asiatic cholera. I came across a yellowed newspaper clipping from Hall’s Journal of Health, pinned inside an 1849 cookbook, Mrs. Putnam’s Receipt Book and Young Housekeeper’s Assistant, that stated that “a pill made up of ten grains of calomel with a little gum-water” could arrest cholera “unless it is in the very last stages … in nine cases out of ten.”
5 “I’m drowsy from waiting on Mr. Chapman” and “Call me if I’m wanted”: TLC, p. 34.
CHAPTER 2 CAPE COD AND PHILADELPHIA
7 Cape Cod: I am indebted to Thoreau for my description of the Cape: see Thoreau, Cape Cod, p. 14.
7 Mark Holman: The story of Lucretia’s girlhood romance with Holman was told to me by Al Clark of the Barre Historical Society. Clark wasn’t sure whether the young couple’s indiscretion occurred in Barre or at the Cape, and I have set the incident at the Cape because it seemed to me for a variety of reasons more likely to have happened there.
8 Lucretia’s grandfather and great-grandfather: Holton, Winslow Memorial, pp. 71–89, 130–131, and 403.
8 Zenas Winslow’s history: Holton, Winslow Memorial, p. 403, see also Josiah Paine, A History of Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620–1800, Rutland, Vt., 1937, p. 340.
8 Disgraced girl written about by Lucretia’s neighbor: See Vicery, Emily Hamilton, a Novel, Founded on Incidents in Real Life, published in Worcester, Massachusetts.
8 An age well past that at which most of the girls she knew were not just already married but already mothers: See Wright, Views of Society and Manners in America, p. 33.
9 Lucretia goes to Philadelphia: In a letter to a friend, reprinted in the Germantown Telegraph on February 15, 1832, Lucretia remarks that she left the Cape and went to Philadelphia in 1813. She does not say just when in 1813 she went there. I discovered the month of her arrival serendipitously, while leafing through 1813 advertisements in Philadelphia newspapers: see Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 15, 1832.
9 Endured such a rattling and shaking … skulls would be crushed: My description of Lucretia’s harrowing stagecoach ride was inspired by Charles Dickens’s description of a stagecoach ride he took several years later; see his American Notes, p. 254.
10 Heavily accented English: Bergerac’s accent is an assumption on my part, based on the fact that he was already in his thirties when he emigrated from France. See Naturalization Records, 1789–1880.
10 Location of Bergerac’s academy: See the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, Sept. 7, 1813.
10 Somewhere en route, all her possessions had disappeared: See the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, Sept. 7, 1813.
12 Lucretia’s sallies around Philadelphia: In constructing a likely itinerary for Lucretia, I drew upon numerous sources, among them Relf’s Philadelphia Gazette and Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser for the months of September to November 1813, an article by Frederic Trautman that excerpted the diary of the early nineteenth century traveler Ludwig Gall, an album of watercolor illustrations of old Philadelphia houses painted by G. Albert Lewis (now in the possession of the Library Company of Philadelphia), and the books of Merritt Ierley, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, John F. Watson, and Edwin Wolf. The books portray, for the most part, a Philadelphia that was orderly and sparklingly clean. But Gall, who was there in 1819, noted that the streets were muddy and the houses draped with drying laundry. The odd information that dentists of the time transplanted human teeth is something I came across in both Watson and Oberholtzer. Watson, writing in 1830, says, “It may surprise some of the present generation to learn that some of the aged persons who they may now meet have teeth which were originally in the heads of others” (Annals of Philadelphia, p. 167). Oberholtzer cites an Eighth Street dentist’s 1818 advertisement suggesting that patients “who have objections to the use of … human teeth can be supplied with natural teeth which are not human, to answer all the valuable purposes of the grafted human teeth” (Philadelphia, p. 119). Such teeth were apparently taken from the jaws of horses, hippopotami, and other animals (Philadelphia, p. 118).
12 ablaze with a … fiery light: The illumination of Philadelphia occurred on September 24, 1813. See Relf’s Philadelphia Gazette, Sept. 25, 1813.
12 The office would specialize, he announced … collecting overdue debts: See Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, Sept. 24, 1813.
13 William’s emigration from England on the Roebuck: see Passenger and Immigration Lists, Philadelphia, 1800–1850.
13 Information about the Roebuck and about the hardships experienced by passengers at the start of the nineteenth century: Interview with Norman Brewer of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, and Diane Snyder Ptak, A Passage in Time: The Ships That Brought Our Ancestors, 1620–1940 (Albany, N.Y., 1992).
13 William’s sparse possessions: See Baggage Entries, 1799–1856, Records of the Port of Philadelphia.
13 Schoolteacher: See “Visa of William Chapman,” M-CMCP.
14 When he spoke … fearsome grimaces: See WC, pp. 2 and 4.
14 “A stammering tongue signifies a weak understanding, and a wavering mind”: Aristotle’s Master-Piece Completed (New York, 1798), p. 101.
14 “Painful commiseration” WC, p. 2.
14 “the most respectable references”: Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, Sept. 24, 1813
14 He had also applied to become a citizen of America: See Naturalization Records, Philadelphia, 1789–1880.
14 Interviewing prospective citizens in local taverns: See the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, Sept. 22, 1813.
14 Officially an alien, and as such, forced to register: “Registration as Alien of William Chapman” and “Visa of William Chapman,” M-CMCP.
15 William promptly signed up: It is certain that William, who according to Kite’s Philadelphia Directory for 1814 was the only William Chapman residing in Philadelphia that year, volunteered to serve his new country. Pennsylvania’s archives contain several references to a militia volunteer named William Chapman, one to a William Chapman serving under a Captain Tucker, the others to a William Chapman serving under a Captain whose name is given variously as McMillen, McMillin and McMullen. It is less clear whether these references are to one man or two, and consequently I have simply placed William in the militia, without specifying in which company he served. See Pennsylvania Archives, 6th Series, vol. 7, pp. 80, 347, and 351, and vol. 8, p. 15.
15 Called to an onerous duty: According to Oberholtzer, “all [italics added] the old companies [of volunteers] and several new ones were formed into one body” to protect the approaches to the city. See Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, p. 18.
15 “Not a stitch of dry clothing in the camp. Never rained harder since the flood”: Thackara, Diary of William Wood Thackara, p. 305.
16 “Three cheers for Cadwalader”: Thackara, Diary of William Wood Thackara, p. 308.
17 For the rest of his life he would revere that year, mark it as a turning point: See WC, p. 2.
17 The edict of Philadelphia’s administrators and the exodus from Philadelphia: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, p. 17.
18 “The damned British have been defeated and their general killed”: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, p. 20.
18 The investigation of Mark and Edward Winslow: Commonwealth v. Edward Winslow, 1814–1818.
19 LeBrun’s method: see Charles LeBrun, Le Directeur des Enfants Depuis l’Age de Cinq Ans Jusqu’à Douze, Philadelphia, 1811.
19 A bee who so surfeited himself on nectar that he could no longer fly: The bee story appears in N. Picket, The Juvenile Expositor, or Sequel to the Common Spelling-Book (New York, 1810), pp. 28–29.
19 The good little boy who broke his family’s best mirror but confessed: The mirror story, one of many such stories about children who couldn’t tell lies—most notably George Washington—appears in Picket, The Juvenile Expositor, p. 24.
19 “Without frugality, none can be rich”: Picket, The Juvenile Expositor, p. 33.
19 “Diligence, industry, and proper improvement of time are material duties of the young”: Picket, The Juvenile Expositor, p. 35.
20 An expensive instrument cost as much as a small house, while even an inexpensive one … a half-year’s wages: Larkin, The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790–1840, pp. 249–250.
20 “To beautify the room by so superb an ornament” and “the only thing that distinguishes ‘decent people’ from the lower and less distinguished”: Larkin, Reshaping of Everyday Life, p. 143.
20 “masculine”: Germantown Telegraph, February 22, 1832.
21 Girls … being educated would benefit the country: See Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution, p. 106.
21 “A new race” and “any nation on earth”: Wright, Views of Society and Manners in America, p. 35.
21 “Miss Winslow most respectfully informs her friends and the public … useful and ornamental branches of a polite education”: Relf’s Philadelphia Gazette, Sept. 27, 1817.
22 “rely on the most scrupulous attention being paid to … morals and improvement”: Relf’s Philadelphia Gazette, Sept. 27, 1817.
22 “Have you rose early enough for the duties of the morning.… Have you combed your hair with a fine tooth comb, and cleaned your teeth every morning”: from “Rules for the School and Academy,” written in 1814 by Eliza Ann Mulford, a student at Miss Sarah Pierce’s Female Seminary in Litchfield, Connecticut, and printed in Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, compiler, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1838, Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and Her Litchfield School (Cambridge, Mass., 1903), p. 147.
23 “Show” meat: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, pp. 82–85.
23 Waxwork displays, balloon ascensions, inhalation of nitrous oxide gas: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, pp. 46–47.
24 “crowds upon crowds of buyers, sellers, and gazers”: Oberholtzer, p. 103.
CHAPTER 3 MARRIAGE
27 Methods of correcting stammering: see Alfred Appelt, Stammering and Its Permanent Cure: A Treatise on Individual Psychological Lines (London, 1929), pp. 31–38, and Benson Bobrick, Knotted Tongues: Stuttering in History and the Quest for a Cure (New York, 1995), pp. 85–94.
28 “tell, reveal … Rules thereunto belonging”: Agreement, M-CMCP. 28 “the” cure: Germantown Telegraph, August 3, 1831.
28 Sign language schools: Wilson, Picture of Philadelphia, pp. 85–86 and 91–92; see also Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, p. 128.
28 Lino’s birthplace and family: Davis, History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1876, p. 858–59.
29 Lino’s father’s employment: Davis, History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1905, p. 357.
29 Lino as a daydreamer and tale-teller: See CEM.
29 The idealization of mothers and the appearance of the first child-rearing manuals: Larkin, The Reshaping of Everyday Life, pp. 52–53 and 70.
30 “tender” and “seemed to enjoy an uninterrupted happiness in each other’s society”: TLC, p. 95.
31 “The bills are true except for the signature of the bank’s president”: See testimony of Nathaniel Crocker, Commonwealth v. Edward Winslow, 1814–1818. Crocker’s exact words were: “the Bills were true except the signing of the President’s name.”
31 “Here I stood to make some money, but there must always be some damn fool in the way”: See testimony of Nathaniel Crocker, Commonwealth v. Edward Winslow, 1814–1818. Crocker’s exact words were that Winslow “stated there had been a great chance for him to make some money but there must always be some damn fool in the [illegible word].”
31 “in the land of the living … this world of trouble and anxiety”: Zenas and Abigail Winslow letter, in Documents Pertaining to the Incarceration and Pardon of Edward Winslow, 1820–1823.
31 Edward’s reformation: A document signed by Seth Lee, Eleazar James, and others, included in the collection cited above, asserts that by 1823 Edward was “humble” and had “become a sincere penitent.”
31 Mark’s persistence as a counterfeiter: Mark was arrested in 1826, and died in prison in 1832. I was told by Barre local historian Clark that according to one account he’d read but was unable to locate, the citizens of the town were so afraid of Mark, against whom some of them had testified, that when his coffin was brought to Barre for burial, they implored a doctor to open the casket and make certain that it was his body and not a wax effigy that was laid out within.
32 “the vulgar term drunk [to] give place to inflated”: Hamilton, Men and Manners in America, p. 221.
32 Tilghman and Hopkinson’s membership in the Wistar Society: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, p. 32.
32 “there is no country in which scandal … is so rare as in the United States”: Grund, The Americans in Their Moral, Social and Political Relations, p. 37. Grund goes on to write that a French gentleman, remarking to him that he found American society dull because “it precluded the very idea of a liaison,” termed the United States “‘le paradis des maris!’”
33 The visitor from Scotland: He is Thomas Hamilton, who wrote that Philadelphia “is Quaker all over. All things, animate and inanimate, seem influenced by a spirit of quietism as pervading as the atmosphere”; see his Men and Manners in America, p. 196.
33 “The collar of my coat appeared to stiffen … my hands folded themselves upon my breast of their own calm accord”: Dickens, American Notes, p. 139.
34 Lino’s predations on the Cuban country folk: see Davis, History of Bucks County, 1876, pp. 858–859.
34 “discovery”: Philadelphia Gazette, Sept. 16, 1826, cited in WC, p. 25.
35 “We are perfectly satisfied that no other person in the country possesses the effectual cure for stammering … have spent their time and money fruitlessly with such pretenders”: Leigh, Facts in Relation to Mrs. Leigh’s System of Curing Stammering, p. 2.
35 “Mr. and Mrs. Chapman respectfully inform the people of the United States that they have conducted an Institution for upwards of NINE YEARS”: WC, p. 2.
35 “is the first institution of the kind that has been established in the United States”: WC, p. 3.
35 “the inventor”: WC, p. 3.
35 “Original Discoverer,” “secret,” and “an all-wise Providence”: WC, p. 2.
36 “irksome”: WC, p. 6.
36 “violent contortions”: WC, p. 4.
36 “That numerous instances of cures have been effected by Mr. Chapman cannot longer be questioned”: WC, p. 30.
36 “If a great and important discovery demands a tribute of admiration … the superlative benefits of which shall continue to be felt through the rounds of time”: WC, p. 31.
37 Andalusia’s exotic name: Wainwright, “Andalusia,” p. 7.
37 Andalusia in the 1790s: McNealy, “Andalusia,” p. 91.
37 Tenant farmers: Conversation with Terry A. McNealy in August 2002.
37 Boutcher: Davis, History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, pp. 858–59.
38 Bristol’s market: McNealy, “Andalusia,” p. 50.
39 Lucretia’s advertisement for her school: A copy can be found in M-CMCP.
40 Exceptionally well versed in the catechism: See the Reverend Scheetz’s testimony, TLC, p. 92.
41 Lucretia’s criticisms of William: TLC, pp. 66–67.
CHAPTER 4 LINO
43 The raid on the royal treasury in Havana: Germantowm Telegraph, June 20, 1832.
43 He was insane: Barnstable Patriot, June 27, 1832.
44 Lino’s affection for his daughter: In his final days, Lino demonstrated his strong feelings about the girl by attempting to bequeath property to her: see STMC, p. 9.
44 Lino’s arrival in Boston: Barnstable Patriot, June 27, 1832.
44 The Sun Tavern: See ads for the tavern in the Boston Morning Post, Feb. 20, 1832, and Feb. 26, 1832.
45 The meteor on December 31, 1829: Lichtenwalner, Bensalem, p. 311.
45 A. Bronson Alcott’s school in Germantown: Madelon Bedell, The Alcotts: Biography of a Family, New York, 1980, p. 55–67; see also Germantown Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1832.
45 The use of globes: James McIntire, A New Treatise on the Use of Globes (Baltimore, 1826), pp. 63–64.
46 The teaching of botanical nomenclature and classification: See Mrs. Lincoln Phelps, Familiar Lectures on Botany (Hartford, Conn., 1829).
46 “My friends are on the other side of the Atlantic”: TLC, p. 69.
46 Sophia’s proximity to the Chapmans: see Bensalem Township Census, 1830.
47 Bonaparte’s grounds: Clarence Edward Macartney and Gordon Dorrance, The Bonapartes in America (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 87.
47 Bonaparte’s art collection: Owen Connelly, The Gentle Bonaparte: A Biography of Joseph Bonaparte (New York, 1968), p. 250.
47 Some visitors grew faint at the sight: Connelly, The Gentle Bonaparte, pp. 252–53.
48 Confidence men: The term “confidence man” is believed to have been coined in 1849 by the New York press while covering the trial of a swindler named William Thompson; Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. 6.
48 Advice manuals: Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, pp. 1–32.
48 Lino’s scams while at the Sun Tavern: Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, October 22, 1831.
49 Celestino Almentero: This name was used by Lino until he left prison. The keeper of the prison Anglicized the name and called him Celestine Almentarius. See STMC, p. 11 and TLC, p. 66.
49 Lino’s appearance: See eyewitness descriptions of Lino in Philadelphia Saturday Courier, May 26, 1832 and Germantown Telegraph, June 20, 1832; see also the lithograph portrait of him in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.
50 Philadelphia’s Eastern Penitentiary: The prison, which is now known as Eastern State Penitentiary, is still standing and is open for tours April through November.
50 “I am persuaded that those who devised this system of Prison Discipline … which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay”: Dickens, American Notes, p. 131.
51 Lino’s cell and his work in prison: The Eastern Penitentiary was a must-see destination for most foreign travelers to the United States. I used several eyewitness accounts to describe the cell, among them Dickens’s American Notes and Hamilton’s Men and Manners in America. I also used information provided to me by Brett Bertolino, program coordinator of the Eastern State Penitentiary. Lino’s prison job is mentioned in the testimony of the keeper of the prison, Israel Deacon, TLC, p. 66. 52 Lino’s letter to the prison inspectors: STMC, pp. 10–11.
52 Only four dollars … departing prisoners: Conversation with Bertolino.
53 Lino’s behavior on the morning of his release: Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, Oct. 22, 1831.
53 The steamboat’s luxurious furnishings and elaborate breakfast buffet: see Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, pp. 70–71.
53 Lino’s refusal to buy a ticket and his being thrown off the boat: Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, Oct. 22, 1831.
54 First stop for northbound steamboats: MacReynolds, Place Names in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, p. 7.
54 “I need victuals and lodgings for the night”: TLC, p. 20. 54 His shirt was a disgrace. Not worth anything, she thought: See Ellen Shaw’s testimony, “His shirt was not worth anything,” TLC, p. 22.
54 Lino asked if he could see the master or mistress of the house: TLC, pp. 19–20.
55 “I need a night’s lodging”; “They refused me”; “There’s a tavern up the hill [italics added]”; and the story Lino tells upon arriving at the Chapmans’: TLC, p. 20.
55 Carolino Amalia Espos y Mina: Lino’s last name appears variously in the documents of his day. Sometimes it is spelled Espos y Mina, sometimes Esposimina, sometimes Esposymina. (Lino himself signed his name as both Esposimina and Esposymina, but never Espos y Mina.) Similarly, his second name appears variously as Amalio and Amalia. I have chosen to use Carolino Amalia Espos y Mina, the spelling William Du Bois chose for The Trial of Lucretia Chapman.
55 “My father’s a Mexican general. The governor of Upper California” and “My dear, if you think so”: TLC, p. 37.
56 Jackson’s dismissal of Sam Ingham: Yerkes, “John Ross and the Ross Family,” p. 373.
56 Joanna Clue: Philadelphia Saturday Bulletin, April 30, 1830.
56 The story Lino tells at supper: TLC, p. 27; see also Kenderdine, “The Chapman-Mina Tragedy,” p. 455.
58 “What am I to do for shirts if this Lino has them all”: TLC, p. 22. 58
58 “Suppose you go with this gentleman and get someone to drive you”: TLC, p. 57.
58 Bonaparte’s generosity and his reputation as an easy mark: Wright, Views of Society and Manners in America, pp. 141–42.
59 Bonaparte’s sculpture: Wright, Views, p. 137.
59 “Count Bonaparte has company. He cannot be seen for two or three hours” and “I have to return to my school tonight”: TLC, p. 37.
60 Lucretia’s evening prayer: see “Evening Prayer” in Prayers for Female Schools (New York, 1825).
60 “You’d best let him alone. He’s a Spaniard. A body don’t know what he might do” and “He’s a fine young man … one of my own sons”: TLC, p. 20.
61 “Sir, I have the pleasure of addressing you … acquiring such an addition to his English education as the time may admit of” and “four hundred and eleven [such] pupils of both sexes … great distances in the United States”; “Lino, you know I do not understand your language. If you will write the letter, I will sign it”; and “I have done for you … for I have signed what I do not understand”: TLC, p. 38.
62 “Dear Madam” and “I am happy to inform you … at the table”; TLC, p. 38.
63 The high style of Chestnut Street tailors: Wright, Views of Society and Manners in America, p. 128.
63 “He has no money … hasn’t a suit fit to visit in”; “Make the clothes and charge them to me”; and “Could hardly hold them up”: TLC, p. 26.
64 “My name is Carolino … I beg you to hear my misfortunes,”: TLC, p. 81.
64 General Mina in Philadelphia: Connelly, The Gentle Bonaparte, p. 255.
65 Strange fellow.… Looks more like a beggar than the son of a Mexican nobleman: Cuesta mentions in his testimony that Lino was “so dirty that he looked like a beggar.” See TLC, p. 81.
65 “Your manners, your way of speaking. These do not show you to be such a man as you would have me believe”: I’ve adapted this quotation slightly; Cuesta’s exact words were that “I observed that his manners, and his bad language, did not show him to be such a man as he would have me believe”: TLC, p. 82.
65 “It’s true” and “I am an ignorant man.… to improve my manners”: TLC, p. 82, although I have added the phrase “by whom I was raised” because Lino gave Cuesta this information earlier in his monologue.
65 “I did not know there was any governor by the name of Mina in Mexico”; “I only heard it from my grandfather”; “He is in some high employment, and I thought it was governor”; and “Where in Mexico did you reside”: TLC, p. 82.
66 “You’re lying to me” and “You’ve never been in Mexico”: Adapted from Cuestas’s statement “I knew from his answer that he had never been in Mexico, and told him so”: TLC, p. 82.
66 “All I’ve stated is true. But I have been suffering so much … that I am almost out of my senses”; TLC, p. 82.
66 “Give me some proof that you’re Mexican”; “What proof”; “Your passport”; “I have none”; “Your certificate of baptism, then”; and “Lost”: TLC, p. 82.
66 The man has an answer for everything … brought him here in it: These thoughts are expressed by Cuesta in TLC, p. 82.
66 “I have some business in town. I’ll come back for him in an hour”; “I’m ashamed to write in front of you because my handwriting is very bad”; “I’m busy. Write to your mother yourself—particularly as it’s rather her fault that you write badly, isn’t it”; “It is a custom in my country … merely as an act of politeness”; and “We are just beginning to eat … honored if you would”: TLC, p. 82.
67 “Would they like a sweet? And you? Would you care for a drink”: Adapted from a more wordy statement of Cuesta’s about how he offered Lucretia and her children sweets and a drink: TLC, p. 83.
67 “Cold lemonade”: TLC, p. 83.
68 “Romania speaks a little English. She can keep you company while you wait for Señor Mina”: Adapted from Cuesta’s statement, “I went upstairs to ask my elder sister, who could speak a little English, to be company for her till Mina was done”: TLC, p. 82.
68 “In his own country he’s very rich”: Lucretia Chapman, letter to Cuesta, TLC, p. 86.
68 “You must come and see me at my house” and “And you must come and see me here again”: adapted from Cuesta’s statement, “She told my sister she would be glad to see us at her house; my sister reciprocated her politeness by the same offer,” TLC, p. 83.
68 Altogether dispelled: TLC, p. 107.
CHAPTER 5 BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
70 She asked William to help Mary … kick with her foot: TLC, pp. 19, 21, and 67.
70 Esther Bache’s visit: This scene is drawn from Esther’s testimony, TLC, p. 23.
71 “We fear for his life” and “Mr. Chapman hardly understands anything”: TLC, p. 23.
72 The next morning … they’d be back in the evening: See TLC, pp. 21–23.
73 “Who wants to be troubled with a butterfly like you”: TLC, p. 22. At the time, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term butterfly meant “a light-headed inconstant person” or “giddy trifler.”
74 “Maybe they’ve run off to Mexico”; “I wouldn’t be surprised. The way they’ve been going on”; and “I wish the ship that brought Mina from Mexico had sunk”: TLC, p. 67.
74 The thoughts attributed to William in this scene are drawn from the testimony of Edwin Fanning, TLC, p. 68.
75 “A rogue” and “I’d rather be poor than have my peace disturbed the way it’s been since this fellow came here”: TLC, p. 68.
75 “In all probability their object is to tarry until the family has retired and perhaps then to engage in improper conduct”: Abbreviated from Fanning’s report that William said to him, “In all probability their object is to tarry until the family has retired, and I would like to know whether they would be guilty of improper conduct after they do return.” See TLC, p. 68.
75 “If I know of their going together … by God I’ll kill him” and “You stay up, and if they come home and go to that rogue’s room, you let me know”: TLC, p. 68.
76 William’s sympathetic treatment of Lino: This scene, too, is drawn from the testimony of Edwin Fanning, TLC, p. 69, as well as from that of little Lucretia Chapman, TLC, p. 89.
76 William’s letter to Watkinson: TLC, p. 174; see also TLC, p. 38.
77 Durand’s pharmacy: England, The First Century of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 1821–1921, pp. 101–02, and 357–59.
77 “We haven’t. But we might prepare it” and “If you have plain arsenic powder, that would answer”: TLC, p. 30.
78 Arsenic was a principal ingredient in taxidermy: An eighteenth-century French apothecary named Becoeur was the first to use a paste containing arsenic to preserve animal skins. He was reluctant to publish his recipe, but in 1820, taxidermist Louis Dufresne did so, and by 1831, when Lino made his request, arsenic had become the chief ingredient in preservative formulas. It remained in widespread use throughout the nineteenth century, and continued to be used by some taxidermists until the 1930s. See WAAC Newsletter (a publication of the Western Association for Art Conservation) 18, no. 1, Jan. 1996.
78 My description of Durand is based on the portrait of him in England, The First Century of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.
78 William’s first uncomfortable night: See TLC, p. 90.
79 “The doctor will only give me medicine. I have drops for stomachache in the house. I’ll take those”: TLC, p. 90.
79 “You’ve had a mild attack of cholera morbus”: TLC, p. 32.
79 “A beefsteak would do me more good than anything else”: TLC, p. 33.
79 She decided on rice gruel … helping out in the kitchen: TLC, p. 90.
80 Little Lucretia was keeping William company.… He was vomiting again: TLC, p. 90–91.
81 “Not so well as in the morning. I have a misery at my stomach. It feels very much like fire”: TLC, p. 24.
81 “Tarry with me through the night”: TLC, p. 31.
82 “When Don Lino is sick all attention must be paid to him. But now that I am sick, I am deserted. I am left.”: TLC, p. 68.
82 “Then give him some salt and water … heard it recommended”: TLC, P. 31.
82 “I cannot live so”: TLC, p. 32.
84 “Bury them”; “Fish water can kill ducks”; and “They’ve been poisoned”: TLC, p. 35.
85 “Fifty-five beats in the minute” and “Now it’s forty-five”: TLC, p. 34.
86 “I studied medicine for two years”: TLC, p. 35.
86 The Marsh test and the history of arsenic: Dr. Anil Aggrawal, “The Poison Sleuths: Arsenic—The King of Poisons,” Science Reporter, February, 1997.
88 “Why would Don Lino not do,” “Because he’s a stranger. A stranger, and undersized,” and “Yes. I see no impropriety in that”: TLC, p. 35.
88 Scheetz had scolded the sexton … Dug right through the loamy clay to the sandy soil beneath: TLC, p. 92.
89 Putting straw on coffin lids: According to Nadianiel Hawthorne, this New England custom came about because “the clods on the coffin-lid have an ugly sound.” See Larkin, The Reshaping of Everyday Life, p. 101.
89 Covering the mirrors with white cloth: I’d always thought this a Jewish custom, but Larkin cites it as a New England one as well. See his Reshaping of Everyday Life, p. 100.
CHAPTER 6 BETRAYAL
91 Lucretia’s remark that even the sun looked gloomy to her: TLC, p. 37.
92 According to Lucretia, it was Lino who proposed: TLC, p. 53; see also TLC, p. 75.
92 “Lino never forgets a favor. If you will marry me … shall share a part of them”; “Would it not be more proper for you to marry my daughter Mary”; “No, it is you … not knowing who I was”; and “It would be thought nothing of in Mexico”: TLC, p. 39.
92 “Lino, I want you to marry me,” “Not till I ask my father,” and “I love you so much”: STMC, p. 3.
93 “My Dear Lino … Lucretia Esposimina”: July 5, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Albany, N.Y.) to Mina, M-CMCP.
93 It was a crude conveyance … mere twists of irregular-shaped logs: See Hand, From a Forest to a City, Personal Reminiscences of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY, 1889, p. 36; see also Franklin H. Chase, Syracuse and Its Environs, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., New York, vol. 1, p. 306.
94 My description of Lucretia’s ride from Albany to Syracuse is drawn from the July 7, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Syracuse, N.Y.) to Mina, M-CMCP.
95 Comstock’s Hotel: see Syracuse Courier, Syracuse, N.Y., March 15, 1880.
95 “I have not lain down one minute … dear companion for life” and “I very well know … without resting on her bed”: July 7, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Syracuse, N.Y.) to Mina, M-CMCP.
96 Lucretia’s ascetic lunch: It was probably just as well that she didn’t take the time to eat a big meal. Charles Dickens, who dined at Comstock’s some years later, complained, “I have tried all the wines in the house and there are only two wines, for which you pay six shillings a bottle, or fifteen, according as you feel disposed to change the name of the thing you asked for. (The article never changes.) The bill of fare is in French, and the principal article … is ‘Paettie de shay.’ I asked the Irish waiter what this dish was and he said: ‘It was the name the steward giv’ to oyster patties—the Frinch name. These are the drinks you are to wash it down with: ‘Monseuz,’ ‘Abasinth,’ ‘Curacco,’ ‘Marschine,’ ‘Anise,’ and ‘Margeaux.’” See “Dickens’ Correspondence,” Syracuse Journal, Dec. 8, 1879.
97 The property of married women: In 1831 all that a married woman possessed belonged to her current husband; New York, the first state to pass an act protecting the property of married women, did so in 1860. See “The Married Women’s Property Act,” in Miriam Schneir, Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings (New York, 1972), p. 122.
97 Early feminists … were already denouncing such laws: Frances Wright called the laws governing married women’s property “absolute spoilation” which permitted “robbery, and all but murder, against the unhappy female who swears away, at one and the same moment, her person and her property.” Cited in Tyler, Freedom’s Ferment, p. 428.
97 “They’ve moved ten or fifteen miles into the country,” “Spend the night with us” and “I should not be able to sleep”: July 7, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Syracuse, N.Y.) to Mina, M-CMCP.
99 “My pretty little husband,” “be careful, my dear, and not spill and so lose our precious love,” “let our children see the nonsense I have written,” and “Goodbye, goodbye, dear Lino … as is my young General Esposimina”: July 8, 1831 letter from Clay, N.Y., included with July 7, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Syracuse, N.Y.) to Mina, M-CMCP.
99 “As a memento,” “the black woman took them,” and “I followed her … pay the rest”: TLC, p. 39.
100 Lucretia’s clothes: see “London Female Fashions for May,” Godey’s Lady’s Book, Philadelphia, June 1831, and “Philadelphia Fashions for the Month of July 1831,” Godey’s Lady’s Book, July 1831.
100 Two new girls: TLC, p. 37.
101 “But you have William’s already”: TLC, p. 39.
101 “My Beloved Wife … Repay you with ingratitude”: July 18, 1831, letter, Mina (Philadelphia) to Lucretia Chapman, M-CMCP.
102 “The whole house is dull … with melancholy”: TLC, p. 44.
103 “Those stars … given to me without stopping”: TLC, p. 44.
103 Receiving forty dollars for them: Receipt, Lino to Samuel Miles, n.d., M-CMCP.
104 Heat wave: Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, July 22, 1831.
104 The resorts of Cape May and Long Branch: Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, pp. 50–51.
104 The resorts of Sweet Springs and Niagara Falls: Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, Friday, July 22, 1831.
104 “They’ve gone to the Falls of Niagara”: July 31, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Andalusia) to Mina (Washington), M-CMCP.
105 Gone for quite a while: Cuesta left the city long before Lucretia’s visit. He departed on June 20, 1831, TLC, p. 84.
105 “Señor Espos y Mina has not been here for a long time”: July 31, 1831, letter, Lucretia Chapman (Andalusia) to Mina (Washington), M-CMCP.
105 The United States Hotel: see Hamilton, Men and Manners in America, p. 215.