Emeline Meaker

Emeline Lucy Meaker (born June 1838 in Barre , Vermont , † March 30, 1883 in Windsor , Vermont) was an American murderer who was the first woman in Vermont to be sentenced to death and hanged .

Life

Emeline Lucy Meaker was born Emeline Lucy Bates, daughter of Asa Bates (1794–1876) and Phoebe Ainsworth Bates (1810–1880), in Barre Vermont. In 1857 she married in Plainfield Horace Meaker (1832-1904). With him she had the son Lewis Almon Meaker (1861-1893) and the daughter Eleanor Mahal Meaker.

The fact

On April 23, 1880, Emeline Meaker and her son Almon Meaker murdered the only nine-year-old Alice Meaker, a half-sister of her husband Horace Meaker, who, as a half-orphan after the death of her father, was given to the Meakers household in Duxbury together with her brother Henry was. The Meakers received $ 400 to care for the children up to the age of majority.

Alice Meaker was severely ill-treated during the two years she lived in the Meakers' household. She was often beaten and tormented by Emeline Meaker. Emeline Meaker didn't want Alice in her house. Alice should have gone to a farmer's assistant the week after her death. According to the Free Press , the neighbors in Duxbury knew this and no one wanted to intervene so as not to make things worse for Alice. The Montpelier Watchman later wrote that the residents of Duxbury were also complicit in their fate and murder by looking away.

A sack was put over Alice Meaker 's head in her bed that night and she was taken a short distance to Henry Hill in a rented team. There she was given strychnine , which Almon Meaker had bought the same day in Waterbury . While the poison took effect, they drove under a covered bridge where Alice died. Emeline Meaker covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream out loud. They buried the dead girl in a swamp. After the girl was missing from the husband and the neighbors, Almon Meaker was asked about her whereabouts, after contradicting statements he finally confessed to the crime and stated that he had done it alone. After his confession, Almon Meaker took the deputy to the scene and helped him dig up the child. The strychnine poisoning was found during the later autopsy .

Almon Meaker pleaded guilty to the murder. The reason he gave:

“She wasn't a very good girl; no one liked her, and she was hard to get along with. I thought she would be better off if she were dead, and so I killed her. "

“She wasn't a lovely girl. Nobody liked her and she was difficult to deal with. I thought she would be better off dead, and that's how I killed her. "

He later retracted this confession, stating that he and his mother committed the crime. Emeline and Almon Meaker were sentenced to death. Because of his cooperation in the education and because he was influenced by his dominant mother and forced to participate in the murder of Alice, the death sentence in the case of Almon Meaker was commuted to life imprisonment. Emeline Meaker denied the act and declared herself innocent to the end. During her detention, she tried to fake madness, screaming and attacking anyone who entered her cell.

Emeline Meaker was hanged on March 30, 1883 at 1:30 p.m. in the courtyard of the prison in front of more than 100 invited observers. Her death was determined 14 minutes later. Her husband and family refused to bury her dead body, so she was buried in the prison cemetery in Windsor .

Media coverage

The cruelty of the act sparked wide media coverage. In addition to local newspapers, national newspapers also reported on the crime and the later execution of the death penalty.

The New York Times wrote that there was not a murderer in Vermont that caused wider media coverage. This is partly due to the cruelty of the crime and partly due to the fact that the murder was committed by a woman.

The Chicago Tribune reported on the execution, saying that the act was so heartless and brutal that Mrs. Meaker had no sympathy. No relative came to the execution and the husband and daughter refused to bury their body.

The Springfield Republican commented that the firmness with which they carried their fate was not a cause for admiration but a cause for grief.

literature

• Kerry Segrave: Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899: Death Sentences and Executions in the United States and Canada . McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7864-3823-5 , pp. 118 ff . ( books.google.com ).

Web links

• Emeline Meaker in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Emeline Lucy Bates Meaker (1838-1883) - Find A Grave Memorial. In: findagrave.com. Retrieved October 7, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Duxbury historical Society newsletter November 2009 ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on October 7, 2015.  
3. ↑ Alice Meaker (1871-1880) - Find A Grave Memorial. In: findagrave.com. Retrieved October 7, 2015 . 
4. ^ Daniel Allen Hearn: Legal Executions in New England: A Comprehensive Reference, 1623-1960 . McFarland, 1999, ISBN 978-1-4766-0853-2 ( books.google.com ).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Marlin Shipman: The Penalty Is Death: US Newspaper Coverage of Women's Executions . University of Missouri Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8262-6305-6 ( books.google.com ).
6. ^ ^{A b c d} Daniel Allen Hearn: Legal Executions in New England: A Comprehensive Reference, 1623-1960 . McFarland, 1999, ISBN 978-1-4766-0853-2 ( books.google.com ).
7. ^ The American female hanged 1608-1937. In: capitalpunishmentuk.org. Retrieved October 7, 2015 . 
8. ^ Marlin Shipman: The Penalty Is Death: US Newspaper Coverage of Women's Executions . University of Missouri Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8262-6305-6 , pp. 28 ( books.google.com ).
9. ↑ ^{a b} Kerry Segrave: Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899: Death Sentences and Executions in the United States and Canada . McFarland, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7864-3823-5 , pp. 120 ( books.google.com ).