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Today's DW ship of the day is...
Shelly x Dazzle !
Ship names; ExtinctedSadness, PastTears, SadPast, TragicHistory
Taliesen: Secrets, Shock, and Sadness in Spring Green
In the beginning of the 1900s many different aspects of America were changing alongside the start of the new century. New industries began to emerge, urban populations were growing, and the styles of the American people and their environments began to shift. Ushering in these new styles were artists, but some of them worked on pieces much larger than any canvas. In the early part of the 1900s American architecture began to shift, and one of the biggest names in the field was Frank Lloyd Wright. By the time Wright died in 1959 he was an icon of American architecture with landmark structures all over the world. He had a long and storied career, but one major event in Wright’s story does not involve style, bricks, and blueprints. In August 1914 Wright was in Illinois working on Chicago's Midway Gardens. He had no idea a bloodbath was unfolding back home.
By the time the calendar pages flipped to welcome in 1914 Frank Lloyd Wright was both famous, and controversial. The forty-seven-year-old architect was married to his wife Catherine and the pair had six children together, but for the last eleven years the Wright family had been broken. The rift unknowingly began within the Oak Park Women’s Club where Catherine Wright and Martha Cheney (also referred to as Mamah) were both members and the two women became close friends as did their husbands, Frank Lloyd Wright and Edwin Cheney. The Wrights and Cheneys were “neighbors and intimate friends” and as stated by the Fort Wayne Sentinel on February 26th 1912, “To the Cheneys the door to the Wrights always was open, and vice versa.” It only made sense that when Edwin Cheney was looking for a new home he approached his friend and in 1903 he commissioned Wright to build a house in Oak Park, Illinois. Edwin’s intent was to have a home for his family, but hiring Wright only tore it apart when the architect began an affair with his wife.
Frank Lloyd Wright circa 1953. Image via wikipedia.com.
By 1909 what may have started as a slow simmering secret in 1903 had transformed into a plan of action. Wright had made his way to Europe and was there on the day that Martha contacted her husband. She was in Colorado with the children when she reached out to Edwin requesting that he come get them from her, and when he arrived he was met by his children, but not Martha. Without his knowledge she had already left the country to meet Wright in Europe. The pair stayed overseas for approximately one year before Wright arrived back in the United States in 1910. Although Wright had returned to the States, Martha remained in Europe where she officially filed for divorce from Edwin on the grounds of abandonment. Edwin did not contest the divorce and while Martha was in Europe she resumed the use of her maiden name, Borthwick, and continued working on a project she had taken up translating the works of Swedish writer Ellen Key. With Borthwick still in Europe, Wright set his focus on another architectural project, but this was not for a client. This was to construct a home for himself and Borthwick, and he set his sights on Wisconsin.
By 1911 Wright may have believed everything was headed in the best direction. He had secured 600 acres of land near Spring Green, Wisconsin (signed for by his mother in order to not draw attention to the purchase), Martha had returned from Europe and after temporarily staying in Canada with her children, was back in the United States. In August of 1911 her divorce was finalized from her husband and it was in that same month she and Frank moved into Taliesin, a 75,000 sq foot estate that Frank built near Spring Green to serve as their new home. It was just before Christmas that year that the news of Frank and Martha living together made it to the surrounding village. The goal may have been to quietly start a new life, but the news of the two living together, especially since Wright’s wife never agreed to a divorce, reverberated loudly and the opinions on the two were harsh and unforgiving.
Wright may have named his new home “Taliesin” (meaning “shining brow” in Welsh) but the press referred to it as a “love cottage,” and “castle of love” both of which sounded far kinder than what the community had to say about it. The superintendent of Iowa County’s schools told a reporter “The scandal is bound to have a demoralizing effect on the school children of the community. It is an outrage to allow young men and women and boys and girls to grow up in the belief that a man and woman can go disregard the marriage bonds.” Threats were made, neighbors asked for the police to arrest Wright, and yet there was nothing that could be done. The construction on Taliesin continued and the pair went about their lives seemingly unbothered by the scathing opinions of them. The biggest question being asked was how Wright and Borthwick could possibly do this to their families. According to The Fort Wayne News and Sentinel published on February 26th 1912:
“More and more Mrs. Wright devoted herself to her home and her growing children. More and more Mr. Wright closeted himself with his work and gave himself up to his architectural dreams. When he sought recreation, diversion, communion of spirit, he found them less and less in the companionship of Mrs. Wright….Then he discovered that Mrs. Cheney was more nearly on his plane of thought, that she sympathized the closer with him, shared his dreams and ideals, appreciated his efforts, and gave him the inspiration for work which, he complained, he could not draw from the companionship at his own fireside. Thus, thought Mr. Wright both fate and the law were against him and his normal development.”
Clipping from The Washington Herald on December 31st 1911. Image via newspapers.com
Wright gave his own explanation, telling reporters that “Two women were necessary for a man of artistic mind—one to be the mother of his children and the other to be his mental companion, his inspiration and soul mate” and voicing his opinion that normal rules simply did not apply to him, saying “Laws and rules are made for the average. The ordinary man cannot live without rules to guide his conduct. It is infinitely more difficult to live without rules, but that is what the really honest, sincere, thinking man is compelled to do.”
Clipping from the Cincinnati Explorer on December 31st 1911. Image via newspapers.com.
Wright may have felt unstoppable, but his time with Mamah in their little paradise called Taliesin would not last long before it came crashing down.
On August 15th 1914 Frank Lloyd Wright was nearly two hundred miles from his new home, working in Chicago on the Chicago Midway Gardens. Back home in Taliesin, Martha and her two children eight-year-old Martha and twelve-year-old John, sat down on the porch for lunch. Also sitting down for lunch inside the main dining room was the construction crew still working on the home, settling in around a table and waiting to be served by Julian Carlton, a thirty-year-old man who worked at Taliesin as a servant and handyman. Carlton’s wife Gertrude prepared the food and after serving everyone soup, Carlton told his wife she had to leave the property.
It was shortly after that that Carlton went back onto the porch with a hatchet and brutally murdered Martha and her two children.
The crew seated in the dining room twenty-five feet away may not have even had time to process what was going on. Nineteen-year-old Herbert Fritz was among those seated at the table when he and the others heard loud swishing noises outside the door. Then they saw it, liquid pouring underneath the door and covering the floor. Even if the smell didn’t give it away first another man in the room, thirty-five year old carpenter William Weston knew what it was. Just before eating, Carlton had asked Weston permission to go get a canister of gasoline in order to clean some rugs. Weston said yes and now the gasoline was pouring into the room. The door was locked. Within moments the entire room was ablaze.
One of the first people to get out was Fritz, managing to break a window and escape the fire, rolling down a hill to extinguish the flames trying to devour him. Fritz’s timing was what may have saved him from a much crueler fate, as people from the dining room scrambled and broke through the barricaded door they were met with curtains of fire from Carlton spreading more gasoline along outside walls. Others rushed to broken windows believing they found an escape only to learn the horrible truth when they discovered Carlton waiting for them with the hatchet on the other side. Weston was one who fell right into the path of Carlton and was attacked with the hatchet but he was able to run, followed by Carlton, until he was again struck with the weapon. Believing him to be dead Carlton then returned to the home but Weston was in fact still alive, as was Fritz, and a third man who made it out of the house, landscape gardener David Lindblom. With an inferno of flames, shock, and confusion raging behind them the three men found each other and ran together to a home half a mile away to call for help.
Ciipping from Springfield News Sun August 23rd 1914. Image via newspapers.com.
When the smoke cleared the authorities were left with a horrifying scene. Multiple bodies were strewn both inside the home and outside, succumbing to either fire, a hatchet, or both. The building, intended to be a quiet place of peace and a starting point for new lives, was now a charred and silent tomb with Martha and her two children laying slaughtered in the remnants of the porch. Carlton was later found in the basement, hiding inside the furnace where he was alive, but barely conscious. Looking to exit this life alongside the horrors he created he had swallowed acid, severely damaging his throat and stomach but leaving him alive. However, Carlton’s still-breathing body would not bring any clarity to the situation. The former employee of Wright plead not guilty and refused to speak or give any explanation for his actions. When questioned, his wife Gertrude shed small glimmers of explanation, stating that Carlton had grown increasingly paranoid and hostile, even taking to sleeping with the hatchet next to him. She also confirmed that she and her husband were terminated by Wright and they were due to take a train back to Chicago the night of the attack. For seven long weeks Carlton remained in prison before dying of starvation, unable to consume anything due to the damage from the acid he swallowed.
Taliesen after the fire. Image via wikipedia.com.
When Wright received the note in Chicago it scarcely conveyed the tragedy that had unfolded in his home nearly two hundred miles away. Reading simply “Taliesin destroyed by fire” he would not learn until later that the loss was more than a house. Seven people were killed in Carlton’s rampage (David Lindblom, one of the men who ran for help later died from his burns) and with no definite explanation to the reason and his new family suddenly ripped from his life Wright now had to decide how to move ahead after the tragedy. He wrote a lengthy letter to his neighbors, an essay that sang the praises of Martha, addressed how their relationship was covered by the press, and thanking them for any and all courtesy extended to her while living in Taliesin. He also revealed two, probably surprising, actions. For one, Martha was buried in an unmarked grave in a small chapel cemetery near the home. And second, that he fully intended to rebuild Taliesin as a memorial to her, while also still continuing to live there as his permanent home.
Clipping from the Ogden Standard Examiner on September 5th 1914. Image via newspapers.com.
Wright rebuilt the home, now referred to as “Taliesin II,” and he did not stay there alone. After his wife finally agreed to a divorce Wright married again in 1923, to a woman named Maude Noel, who wrote him a condolence letter after the tragedy at Taliesin. But, the house was not done with him and in April of 1925 the home was gutted by an electrical fire. Like the first fire, he set out to rebuild it, finishing it later that year only to lose it to foreclosure in 1927, the same year he and Maude divorced. With some financial assistance he was able to re-purchase it back the following year ushering in the era of “Taliesin III.”
Wright used Taliesin III as his primary home and studio until the end of his life, sharing it with his third wife Olga (Olgivanna) Lazovich, establishing a fellowship for architectural students, and designing some of his most famous works there including Fallingwater and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Upon his death in 1959 the home was left to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation who conducted renovations until 1990 when a nonprofit organization known as Taliesin Preservation Inc. (TPI) took over the location. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and in 2019 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Taliesen in 2024. Image via Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Today, Taliesin still stands in Spring Green, Wisconsin and is visited by tens of thousands of people every year looking to walk the halls that were not only crafted by, but called home, by one of the world’s most prolific, influential, and important pioneers of architecture. The website for Taliesin welcomes the viewers with the words “take a stroll through paradise” and it’s easy to see how it earns that name. With its open floor plan, dramatic spaces, stone, ample natural light, and its integration into the natural landscape around it, the home is a picture of tranquility. It is hard to picture that beneath this air of artistic peace lies a tormented history filled with controversy, turmoil, and the horrific and bloody loss of eight lives that for a period of time marked it as the site of the deadliest mass murder in Wisconsin’s history.
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Sources:
Conradt, Stacy. “The Terrible Crime at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin.” Mental Floss, 5 Dec. 2017, www.mentalfloss.com/article/28519/taliesin-tragedy.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. “About Frank Lloyd Wright.” Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 2019, franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/.
Klein, Christopher. “The Massacre at Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Love Cottage” | HISTORY.” HISTORY, 8 June 2017, www.history.com/articles/the-massacre-at-frank-lloyd-wrights-love-cottage.
“Mystery of the Murders at Taliesin.” Bbc.co.uk, 14 Jan. 2001, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1110359.stm.
“Take Queer View of Marital Life.” Newspapers.com, 26 Feb. 1912, www.newspapers.com/image/29239543/?match=1&terms=Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright%20.
“Taliesin History.” Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, www.taliesinpreservation.org/taliesin-history/.
“Taliesin: Wright at the Time.” Frank Lloyd Wright | Ken Burns | PBS, www.pbs.org/kenburns/frank-lloyd-wright/taliesin-frank.
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Rooted in Truth: A Murder and a Marker in Mobile
Walking through Mobile, Alabama visitors can shop in some of the many specialty boutiques, visit historic homes and museums, or perhaps take part in some of the many festivals held in the city such as the Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival or Mobile’s own Mardi Gras celebration being celebrated where it originated in 1703. Mobile has a lot of history, but on Bayou Street many visitors walk past a bizarre story hidden in plain sight.
In November 1833 Charles R. S. Boyington was adjusting to his new home. A printer by trade and poet by heart, the nineteen-year-old moved to Mobile from the northeast and was living in a boarding house while waiting to find his fortune in the cotton boom that brought him down south. Sharing a room with Boyington was Nathaniel Frost, and the two friends tried to fit into the high society of Mobile despite each of them fighting their own battles. Boyington was an uprooted gambler, and Frost was riddled with tuberculosis that he expected would eventually take his life.
Map of Mobile, Alabama circa 1838. Image is public domain via University of Alabama Department of Geography.
It was not unusual to see Boyington and Frost walking together so when the pair were seen near the Church Street Graveyard on the afternoon of May 10th 1834 there was no cause for suspicion. That changed when Boyington returned home alone. When asked where Frost was he allegedly became agitated saying he didn’t know and he couldn’t wait for him. He was in a hurry to get to the river and board a steamboat headed for Montgomery, Alabama but not before stopping at a store to buy a knife and two guns.
The scene found the next morning stunned the residents of Mobile. Nathaniel Frost was found brutally beaten, bloodied, and stabbed, his body found just outside the Church Street Graveyard with some reports stating his body was hanging from a tree. Amid all the questions swirling through the minds of Mobile there was one certainty, the last person to be seen with Nathaniel Frost was Charles Boyington and he was on a boat taking him far from the crime.
Horses raced out to stop the steamship and when officials found Boyington on board he had his hands full of playing cards. He was taken back to Mobile and imprisoned at the Conde Charlotte Jail to await his fate. The evidence against him was thin and Boyington was adamant that he was innocent, what proof was there other than they were seen together? He may have been sure a pardon was coming but one never came, and when it was revealed that Frost owed Boyington money it convinced the court that the gambler took his payment in the form of his terminally ill friend’s life.
When Boyington left the Conde Charlotte Jail on February 20th 1835 people lined the streets to watch his last walk to the gallows. He maintained his innocence and made a promise to the people of Mobile, that they would know the truth because after his burial an oak tree would grow above his grave as a sign of his innocence. He was buried in the potter’s field section of the same graveyard where he and Frost were last seen together.
Today along portions of Government Street lay the many dead of the Church Street Graveyard. Closed since 1898, at some point the walls of the graveyard were moved inward leaving some of the departed to now lay just outside the graveyard walls. According to records, one of them now at rest outside the walls is Charles R.S. Boyington, his grave only marked by the sixty-foot-tall oak tree that grew over his body as he promised. Arborists have determined the tree to be over 150 years old.
The Boyington Oak. Image via Wikimedia Commons Altairisfar, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
When Charles R.S. Boyington faced death he promised that an oak tree would grow from his grave to prove he was innocent. A tree did grow, and what the tree could not speak others did when years later two men revealed on their deathbeds that they were Nicholas Frost’s killers.
Today the oak tree, now referred to as The Boyington Oak, stands over the body of Charles Boyington and a nearby red sign tells his tale with an inscription reading:
“THE BOYINGTON OAK
IN 1835, CHARLES BOYINGTON
UNJUSTLY HANGED FOR FRIEND’S
MURDER. PREDICTED AN OAK
WOULD GROW FROM HIS HEART
TO PROVE HIS INNOCENCE.
ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2020”
The Boyington Oak historic marker. Image via William G. Pomeroy Foundation https://www.wgpfoundation.org/historic-markers/the-boyington-oak/
As is the case with many tragic tales, stories have grown and taken root just as firmly as the tree they focus on. According to some of the many visitor accounts involving The Boyington Oak people standing in the shade of its branches are hit with sudden cold spots, whispers and sobs can be heard, and a general feeling of sadness permeates the air under the 100-foot-long branches.
Whether affected by the sadness of the story or by the unresolved sadness of Charles Boyington, the tree stands today as a natural memorial to an innocent man accused of murder who promised that nature would speak his truth for him well after his voice was silenced.
Piece about the Boyington Oak printed in The Anniston Star, Anniston Alabama on February 20th 1935.
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Sources:
Andrews, Chris. “Haunted History of Mobile - the Boyington Oak.” Bienville Bites Food Tour, 2024, bienvillebitesfoodtour.com/blog/haunted-history-of-mobile-the-boyington-oak/.
Collins, Kimber. “The Science and the Story of the Boyington Oak.” WKRG News 5, 29 Oct. 2019, www.wkrg.com/haunted-history/the-science-and-the-story-of-the-boyington-oak/.
Kleen, Michael. “Church Street Graveyard’s Boyington Oak.” M.A. Kleen, 5 Apr. 2017, michaelkleen.com/2017/04/05/church-street-graveyards-boyington-oak/.
“The Boyington Oak.” William G. Pomeroy Foundation, 10 Sept. 2020, www.wgpfoundation.org/historic-markers/the-boyington-oak/.
Dead End: The Walk, Box, and Shock of Wallingford Connecticut
Founded in 1670, the town of Wallingford, Connecticut has witnessed centuries of change. Once connected to multiple influential figures in Colonial history and the American Revolution, by the 1800s the town became an industrial hub and in the later part of the 19th century Wallingford found itself featured across headlines all over the country. Unfortunately for the residents of the town, this new notoriety had nothing to do with Wallingford’s industry and everything to do with a horrible discovery.
On the morning of August 8th 1886 brothers Edward and Joseph Terrell, their friend Giles Sommers, and Edward’s dog were walking along an isolated dirt road looking for berries when they noticed something out of place. Hidden under some bushes was an 18” X 30” wooden crate with lettering on the outside claiming it was holding a “dozen pairs of finely stitched men’s shoes.” It seemed innocent enough, but when the dog approached the box its curiosity quickly turned to barking and whines of warning. Then there was the stench. The men left the scene, later returning with crowbars. When they pried open the box there were no shoes. There was straw, soaked in blood and packed around a headless human torso wrapped in tar paper.
The news of the horrific discovery sent shockwaves through Wallingford and beyond. The medical examiners estimated the torso belonged to a man between twenty-five and forty years old, weighing anywhere from 150 to 175 pounds, and that they had been dead between five and ten days before being discovered packed into the shoebox. Interestingly, the stomach was removed by the medical examiner and they discovered that there was a large amount of arsenic present in the victim’s system before he died. While this was all valuable information, it was the only information and the hope for answers quickly faded with authorities openly admitting there was very little to go on. As stated by the coroner, “This is the most mysterious case I have had since I was appointed coroner. With one exception, I have found out exactly what caused death, but this case puzzles me more than any yet. I can’t say whether or not I have obtained any clues.”
Newspaper headline about the body in the box. Image via newenglandhistoricalsiciety.com
The torso had no other bruises or injuries and it appeared the limbs and head were severed haphazardly with a knife or similar dull object. It was buried the next day but the questions continued to permeate headlines and conversations. One of the first suspected victims was Arthur J. Cooley, a Civil War veteran with very well known problems with drinking. Cooley worked at a local slaughterhouse for two decades before abruptly retiring and collecting a pension of $1,500 and his family had recently reported him missing after he was seen leaving a tavern but never returning home. But, Cooley eventually reappeared after an extended time away drinking and the mystery resumed. The next theory was more of a stretch and asked the people of Wallingford to look back to a series of fires that destroyed multiple buildings in town. Three years earlier Frank H. Morse Jr. was accused of setting two buildings ablaze that his father, Frank H. Morse Sr., was using for glass production. There was no question that it was arson, the guard was drugged prior to the fires breaking out and the charges were that Morse had his son intentionally set the blaze in order to collect insurance money. The trial of Frank H. Morse Jr. was recent, taking place only five months before the torso was found but due to a lack of evidence and Morse Jr. having an alibi that he was home the night of the fires, the charges were dropped. If Morse was truly home the night of the fires, did his father have someone else commit the crime for them and did they end up in the box as a punishment for not covering up their tracks well enough to prevent the suspicion of arson? When the torso was discovered the arson case was still open and people wondered if there was a connection. Others wondered if the murder was not an isolated incident. Only a few weeks before finding the torso in the box Edward Terrell was walking in the same area with his dog when he found the body of a deceased woman. Medical schools were questioned, rosters of missing persons were scoured, and there was no answer to who met their grisly end with a stomach full of arsenic but without their limbs and head.
With no human connections being made, authorities looked to the box for answers. The torso was packed into a wooden crate that was manufactured for a shoe factory located over 100 miles away in Fall River, Massachusetts. From there the box was filled with shoes and shipped to a wholesale boot and shoe dealer in Chicago, Illinois who then sent it to a local shoe shop. Once the crate was unpacked it was thrown in the back of one of these shops before it was sold to a man who was never identified. While this was the fairly normal lifecycle of these types of shipping cartons, the fact that it was in Chicago raised some more suspicions. Only a few months earlier in May 1886 Chicago was the site of the bloody Haymarket Riot where striking laborers fighting for workers’ rights clashed with police in Haymarket Square. A bomb was thrown into the crowd killing multiple people leading to the arrest of eight labor leaders and the eventual execution of half of them. With the riot fresh in their minds, the crate’s ties to Chicago, and no other leads, people began to wonder if the crate was shipped back home from Chicago containing the body of someone involved in the riot that fell to a different form of justice.
The absence of answers left a lot of room for speculation to thrive. One story claimed that a mysterious bag was seen at the bottom of a well that disappeared before it could be recovered and a young man claimed that he saw the box sitting in the bushes for over a week before it was found. Rumors and theories swirled but in the weeks following the discovery there were some random, but very real additions to the story. Early in the investigation pieces of scalp were found near the site of the body in the box but they provided no groundbreaking information other than the pieces pointing to the victim having dark hair. While these pieces of scalp could not be proven to be from the same victim, another discovery had a connection that was hard to ignore. On September 26th a farmer found a pair of arms and legs near the site where the bloody box was found. The limbs were not at the site when the box was originally discovered and they were wrapped in the same tar paper as the torso.
With these seemingly connected, terrible finds people began speaking up. A local Wallingford woman came forward and told the authorities that in early August a disheveled, bearded man knocked on her door asking for directions to a nearby pond. He was carrying a sack and was wearing a shirt covered in blood but she assumed he was homeless and directed him to the water. She stated that later on she saw him again, walking past her house without the sack and wearing a clean shirt. With the first real lead finally coming out the police prepared for a manhunt, but only a few days later the woman totally recanted her story stopping any progress. Another woman named Mabel Preston claimed at first to know everything regarding the murder and was subpoenaed by the court but once she was under oath she changed her story, saying she knew absolutely nothing about the crime. She didn’t have much time to change her mind again, two years later Mabel committed suicide.
With the only two possible leads revoking their information the case was left floating in limbo until it gradually began to fade from the headlines and public memory. Major news about the case would not appear again until 1926 when the former police chief of Wallingford came forward with a shocking claim. Dan O’Reilly was chief of police when the bloody box was discovered in 1886 and four decades later he spoke exclusively to The Journal, not to discuss his opinions of the case, but to say that he knew exactly who the murderer was. According to O’Reilly, he had “several reasons” for never disclosing the truth about the killing including: “…the fact that the perpetrator of the crime, that is the actual killer, has now been dead nearly twenty years and I know of no good reasons why the descendants or relatives of the murderer should be made to bear the ignominy which revelation of his identity would impose on them.” But who were these descendants that would be so affected? O’Reilly told the paper that contrary to opinions, this murderer was not some rogue bloodthirsty madman or a cold-blooded predator, he stated the killer “was no outcast beyond the pale of society, but the scion of one of New England’s oldest families, a native of New Haven county, whose ancestry traces directly back to the Mayflower.” He also revealed details about the victim, that he was a resident of Fairfield county and that he was brutally murdered to silence him because he was aware of people involved in a “serious crime” committed against the state of Connecticut. Despite these salacious claims and the decades gone bye he reiterated that he would not change his mind on his secrecy, stating: “…I shall carry this secret, already locked in my heart for twenty years, to the grave with me.” O’Reilly kept his promise, never disclosing the name of the killer.
Story printed by The Journal where former chief Dan O'Reilly claimed to know the killer. Image via newspapers.com.
The “Wallingford Shoebox Murder” was never solved and is still considered an open case despite the trail going cold nearly 140 years ago. Today the most prominent remnant of the crime stands silent, but in plain sight with the road where the box was discovered now being officially named Shoebox Road.
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Sources:
Kilianski, Michael. “The Connecticut Shoebox Murder Mystery: America’s Oldest Cold Case.” Blogspot.com, 23 May 2021, creativehistorystories.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-connecticut-shoebox-murder-mystery.html.
Landrigan, Leslie. “The Mystery of the Wallingford Shoebox Murder.” New England Historical Society, 8 Aug. 2015, newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-mystery-of-the-wallingford-shoebox-murder/.
Mangan, Gregg. “The Shoe Box Murder Mystery.” ConnecticutHistory.org, 8 Aug. 2020, connecticuthistory.org/the-shoebox-murder-mystery/.
“Notorious Shoe Box Murder No Mystery to Dan O’Reilly Knows Who Was the Slayer.” The Journal , 7 Aug. 1926, www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal/172560421/.
The Wrath of Rampjaar: The Death and Destruction of Johan De Witt
The 1600s was a difficult chapter for human life. All over the world wars tore at the seams of land and families, and those that did not fall in battle found themselves vulnerable to falling from disease and plague brought on by forces that could not yet be understood. Many things that could not be explained resulted in further violence, fanaticism, death, and destruction dealt from one hand only to be horrifically felt by the other. Breakthroughs in science, exploration, and the arts collided with religious extremism and prejudice as humanity as a whole spun on, seemingly with chaos in every corner.
The Netherlands were one part of the world with turmoils erupting within their borders. In 1672 the country formerly known as the Dutch Republic was seeing the end of the “Dutch Golden Age” with simultaneous wars with England, France, and two German cities. The year 1672 would enter the history books as the Rampjaar, The Disaster Year. The Dutch people coined a phrase to describe this most unfortunate time: “The people were irrational, the government helpless, and the country beyond salvation.”
Allegory of the Disaster Year by Jan van Wijckersloot (1673). Image via Wikipedia.
Although it was obvious there were multiple problems facing the Dutch Republic in the 1672, some believed the problems took root decades earlier. William II Prince of Orange died of smallpox in 1650 leaving the Dutch with no official leader (referred to as a Stadholder.) It was this same year that Johan De Witt began to make his mark in the politics of the region. Johan’s family were bitter rivals of the Oranges and as De Witt began to move up the political ladder he allegedly (with the help of his powerful father who spent time in prison for his involvement in a coup d'etat of William II) quietly made moves and had words written into political documents to keep the young William III or any member of the Orange family from ruling. This allowed wheels to be set in motion to form a fully Republican regime with De Witt at the helm. After holding a number of high-standing positions he was elected to the role of Grand Pensionary of Holland in 1653, essentially making him the ruler of all Dutch provinces.
By the time the 1672 Year of Disaster loomed over the Dutch Republic the people had already endured enough war and horror to last a lifetime under the eye of Johan De Witt. There were the Anglo-Dutch Wars which threatened the land, but De Witt remained focused on the sea, taking every step possible to protect the economic interests in shipping and trading that filled his pockets while paying little mind to the forces surrounding the Dutch at their front doors. He also made it a point to delay the appointment of William III as captain general. The stubbornness of De Witt would have deep consequences when in May 1672 Louis XIV invaded the Dutch Republic, thus beginning the third Anglo-Dutch War.
Portrait of Johan De Witt by Adriaen Hanneman (1652). Image via Wikipedia.
As troops moved straight into the heart of their homeland the exhausted Dutch people felt betrayed by their leadership and all eyes turned to Johan De Witt. Some were content to simply, but loudly, voice their opinions that the House of Orange should take back their power by any means necessary. Others showed their feelings of anger and betrayal in much more aggressive ways. On June 21st 1672 Johan De Witt was attacked by a man who was armed with a knife and an intent to kill. The assailant did succeed in brutally stabbing him, but he survived. Johan’s brother Cornelis was also feeling the pressure of the simmering public and on July 24th he was arrested under charges of treason against the House of Orange. He was brought to prison in The Hauge where he was tortured in order to obtain a confession. While his brother was recovering from being nearly assassinated, Cornelis was refusing to confess to any wrongdoing and was eventually sentenced to exile.
Being attacked with a malicious blade changed De Witt and after a lengthy recovery he resigned from his position on August 4th 1672. At the time of his resignation his brother Cornelis was still wallowing in prison with his exile looming. On August 20th Johan visited his brother at the prison to assist him and see him off on what was supposed to be his date of forever departure from his homeland. It is unknown what the pair discussed that day, but it is almost certain they had no clue what was about to happen. Yes, Johan resigned and Cornelis was exiled, but the Dutch people were not ready to let the brothers walk peacefully away into a new chapter while they were left with suffering and debt that could follow them for generations. As the brothers talked in the prison they were attacked by a mob that were set on tearing them limb from limb.
The Murder of the de Witt Brothers by Pieter Fris. Image via Wikipedia.
What unfolded was a scene that was feral, ferocious, and that has gone down in history through eyewitness accounts and multiple pieces of art. The mob ravaged the De Witt brothers. They were dragged into the street, shot, stripped of their clothing, and taken to the public gallows. If the brothers thought their end would be found in a broken neck at the end of a hangman’s noose they were terribly wrong. Once strung up the mob began to take souvenirs. Some accounts report that their eyes were stolen, others say they were later cut into pieces and distributed to the masses, and while that is up for debate one thing that is certain is that their bodies were sliced open, their livers stolen, and the organs were then roasted and consumed by those in attendance. After a lifetime of prestige and twenty years in power, Johan De Witt departed life alongside his brother after being mutilated and cannibalized by his own countrymen.
The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers by Jan de Baen. Image via Wikipedia.
With De Witt gone power went to William III of Orange, the same man who had his appointment as captain general stalled by De Witt and the son of William II whose death was used by De Witt and his father to make the turn to the Republican force that they hoped would keep the House of Orange out of power for good.
Whether William III had a hand in planning the attack and death of the De Witt brothers is debated to this day with answers unknown.
Today the prison where the De Witt brothers spent their last moments on earth still stands and has been repurposed as a history and art museum.
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Sources:
That Time the Dutch ate their Prime Minister by Vlad Moca-Grama. DutchReview.com, March 3rd 2023. https://dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-history-crowds-ate-prime-minister/
A Dark and Stormy Bite: That Time a Bunch of Dutch People ate Their Prime Minister by Lillian Stone. TheTakeout.com, January 15th 2021. https://thetakeout.com/a-dark-and-stormy-bite-that-time-a-bunch-of-dutch-peop-1846044366
Johan De Witt. Encyclopedia.com.https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/johan-de-witt
Keep Him Safe: The Blood Bargain of Leonarda Cianciulli
From early on Leonarda’s life was filled with tragedy and deep pools of darkness, but by the time she was forty-five years old it may have appeared like the bad years were behind her. According to all outward appearances she had four children that she adored, her family was freshly settled into a new home, she opened a small shop that proved to be successful, and she found friends in her neighbors. It seemed like there was very little to dislike about Leonarda. After all, she was friendly, generous, wise, and she was known to lend a helping hand to people chasing their dreams that reached far outside their town of Correggio. And then there were her baking. Her treats were enjoyed by many, but only because no one knew the truth about them.
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Read the rest of the story in Hushed Up History Volume I, available now through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com!
A later photograph of Leonarda. Image via https://horroresrevelados.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/leonarda-cianciulli-creaba-jabones-con-humanos/
