In 1916, Newton, Massachusetts tailor Manoog Kardashian was attacked by one of his employees who stabbed him with cutting shears and bit a chunk out of his right cheek over what may be one of the dumbest reasons to assault someone. Kardashian died nine days later, but not necessarily from his wounds. I came across this story while searching another case and thought it noteworthy not just because of the last name, but for all the circumstances that surround it. Beware that newspaper reporters of the day couldn’t seem to agree on the first names of both the victim and attacker, and that the attacker’s last name changed twice.

Kardashian Stabbed, It Is Alleged, by Parmerrian, an Employee in His Newton Tailor Shop.

[Newton, Massachusetts, Dec. 16, 1916] M. Kardashian, proprietor of a tailor shop at 1157 Walnut St. was taken to the Newton Hospital tonight with a deep gash in the intestines, several wounds in the leg and cuts on the hands inflicted, it is alleged, by an employee, M. Parmerrian, aged 24, with large cutting shears. His name is on the dangerous list.

According to other employees, the men quarreled and Parmerrian rushed at his employer and slashed him with the cutting shears. Kardashian, covered with blood, ran shouting from the shop.

Sergeant Clay and patrolman Fuller helped him to the office of Dr. C.A. Thompson who pronounced his condition critical and he was hurried to the hospital.

Parmerrian was arrested by patrolman Fuller for assault with a dangerous weapon. Kardashian is married and has a family.

Source: Boston Globe, Dec. 17, 1916, page 156.

Murder is Charged
Manoog Tarmerian Held at Newton, Charged with Death of Manoog Kardashian

[Newton, Massachusetts, Dec. 27, 1916] Manoog Tarmerian, [name change] 24, was arraigned before Judge W.F. Bacon this morning in the local Police Court on the charge of murder in having caused the death of his employer, Manoog Kardashian, by assaulting him with a pair of tailoring shears on the afternoon of Dec. 16 in his tailor shop at 1157 Walnut St, Newton Highlands. Probable cause was found and he was held without bail for the January term of the grand jury.

At the hearing evidence was brought out that Kardashian died Monday [Dec. 25] from pneumonia, and not from the direct result of the several wounds inflicted by Tarmerian. Medical Examiner George L. West testified that his death was due to pneumonia, as also did Dr. Loury of the Newton Hospital staff. This, both men stated, may have been brought on by giving the man ether, which has been known to happen in medical annals.

Patrolman William E. Fuller testified to the statement made by Tarmerian to the police officials. According to the officer’s testimony, Tarmerian stated that Kardashian made some comment over the way a pair of trousers were pressed, then grabbed him about the throat and bit him on the right cheekbones. All the witnesses bore out the fact that the man had a mark on the cheek after the fracas. Others testified to the fact that Tarmerian smelt of liquor when arrested.

Source: Boston Evening Globe, Dec. 27, 1916, page 5.

Tamerian On Trial in Manslaughter Case

[East Cambridge, MA, January 16, 1917] M. Tamerian of Newton Highlands was placed on trial on the charge of manslaughter in the Middlesex Superior Criminal Court at East Cambridge yesterday. He is charged with having caused the death of employer, Mancoz Kardashian [In the previous story, his first name was Manoog] a tailor of the same city. The case is being heard before Judge Stevens and a jury and will take several days.

It is alleged that Tamerian, who is little more than 21 years of age, attacked Kardashian with a pair of scissors in a dispute over the proper way to press trousers. Kardashian died at the Newton Hospital nine days later from a wound in his abdomen. [It was pneumonia in the previous article.] Two witnesses were called yesterday, one the widow of Kardashian, and the other William J. Cozens, a real estate dealer, who occupied a store adjoining the tailor shop where the alleged assault occurred.

Source: Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 17, 1917, page 3.

Disagree On Tamerian
Newton Man Tried on Manslaughter Charge Growing Out of Kardashian’s Death

[East Cambridge, MA, January 23, 1917] The jury in the trial of Martin Tamerian [I thought his name was Manoog?] of Newton on the charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of Mancooz Kardashian [Manoog & Mancoz in previous stories], a Newton tailor by whom he was employed, disagreed yesterday in the Superior Court at East Cambridge. The case occupied three days of last week and went to the jury on Friday.

Tamerian, it is alleged, attacked Kardashian with a pair of scissors, wounding him in the thigh. The latter, the state contended, contracted inhalation pneumonia during the administration of ether for an operation made necessary by the wound. The alleged attack occurred in Kardashian’s tailor shop in Newton Highlands on Dec. 16, following a quarrel.

Source: Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 23, 1917, page 9.

Unfortunately, there were no more newspaper articles about the Kardashian case after Tamerian’s trial ended in hung jury. Although I’m not positive, I suspect Tamerian (or Tarmerian or Parmerrian) accepted a plea deal which negated the need for a second trial and follow-up newspaper coverage.

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The following article might explain why the first woman executed in Arizona also became the last woman executed in Arizona. Let’s just say, it did not go as planned. She was sentenced to hang for the murder of a rancher she was employed with after his buried body was miraculously discovered 11 months after the murder. According to a Wikipedia article, she was married five times and all of her husbands disappeared. Assuming she killed them, a safe assumption, that would make her a serial killer.

[STATE PRISON, Florence, Ariz., Feb. 21, 1930, Associated Press] —Mrs. Eva Dugan, the first woman to be legally executed in Arizona, paid with her life on the gallows shortly before dawn today for the slaying in 1927 of A. P. Mathis, Tucson rancher. The trap was sprung at 5:02 a. m. As the trap clanged and she dropped more than six feet, the noose tightened, severing her head, and the body catapulted to the floor. Dr. L. A. Love, prison physician, pronounced her dead immediately.

Warden Lorenzo Wright immediately cleared the gallows room, and turned the body over to the prison physician and an undertaker. Six women witnessed the execution.

Mrs. Dugan, unshaken, calmly climbed the 13 steps to the gallows and smiled as the black hood was adjusted over her head. She said she had no statement to make.

Warden Wright clasped her hand and said, “God bless you, Eva.” Mrs. Dugan smiled and said “good-bye, Daddy Wright.”

A few seconds later the steel trap was sprung and Eva Dugan had cancelled her debt to society for the crime of which she was convicted.

Warden Lorenzo Wright created a sensation a few minutes before the hanging by revealing to newspaper men the discovery of what he believed was a plot by Mrs. Dugan to cheat gallows by taking poison before she was removed to the death chamber.

Acting on a tip that the woman had procured a poison dose, Wright said he transferred her from her prison cell to the condemned chamber about 1 a.m. A search of the abandoned cell, the warden said, led to the discovery beneath a mattress of a 2 ounce bottle of a “deadly poison.”

The bottle, he said, bore the label of a Florence drug store. A search of her person a few minutes later disclosed three safety razor blades. Wright said the woman apparently intended to commit suicide but was prevented from taking it by the vigilance of guard. An investigation has been begun to explore the source of-the poison and razor blades.

The 52-year-oid housekeeper, who was convicted of the murder of Mathis, her employer, in January, 1927 in order to gain possession of his property, spent the hours preceding her execution in the company of the prison chaplain and a few friends. Until after midnight she sat at a card table and played whist with two women friends and a woman prisoner, while outside her cell the death watch paced back and forth.

Occasionally she reached out to caress a telegram which lay on the table—a farewell message form her daughter, Mrs. Cecil Loveless, During the course of the game, Mrs. Dugan requested that her “guests,” be served with orangeade. Several minutes passed before the drink was served, and the condemned woman called to a guard: “please bring on the orangeade. I want it now. Tomorrow will be too late.”

Since early evening the sky had been overcast, and a light rain was pattering on the graveled pathway as the woman was led from her cell to the prison proper across an open-space to the death cell. She smoked a cigarette and joked with guards as she marched along and as they neared the gallows house she laughed and sang “I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.”

She kissed two of the guards who left her at the door of the death house and said: “I love everyone connected with the prison. You have all been good to me, and I can’t blame you for what the law is going to do to me.” The guards were store visibly affected than was the woman who stood in the shadow of the scaffold.

A telegram delivered to her in the condemned cell revealed a hitherto unknown chapter of her early life. The message, signed “Ada ostapple, (sic) Seattle, Wash., Read: “I sympathize with you and have the greatest admiration for your bravery and grit.”

“Ada is an old friend of the Yukon days,” Dugan said, “Probably you didn’t know it, but I was one of those who followed the gold rush into the Yukon.”

Mrs. Dugan will be buried in the prison graveyard, in a shroud of white silk which she made herself. Several weeks ago she purchased a casket and paid an undertaker to prepare her body for burial.

Her 82-year-old father, William McDaniels, of Ceres, Calif., was unable to grant her wish to be with her during the hours preceding her death. She ref used to disclose the name of her son, and the name of her daughter was not revealed until the message came from her last night.

Mrs. Dugan was convicted of murdering A. J. Mathis, an aged rancher, on the desert near Tucson, about two years ago.

Mathis was last seen alive Jan. 14 1927 about a month after he had employed Mrs. Dugan as housekeeper. A few days previously Mrs. Dugan and a mysterious “Jack,” a 17-year-old boy, left the ‘Mathis ranch and dropped from sight.

“Jack” is just a name as far as the accumulated record of three years is concerned. He appeared on the Mathis ranch a day or two before Mathis’ disappearance and has not been seen since.

Following Mathis’ disappearance, Mrs. Dugan, after attempting to sell a cow and some chickens on the ranch, left in a coupe owned by Mathis, in company with “Jack.” It is believed that this young man, whose last name has never been learned, was employed by Mrs. Dugan to drive the car.

Mrs. Dugan and the boy first went to Amarillo, Tex. where she sold the coupe for $600, signing the papers “Eva Mathis.” The boy signed “A. J. Mathis.” There Mrs. Dugan bought tickets to Kansas City.

After discovery of the body of Mathis on December 11, 1927 by J.F. Nash, an Oklahoma machinist, who had selected the precise spot where the body was buried to drive a tent stake, Mrs. Dugan was arrested at White Plains, N. Y., returned to Tucson and convicted of first degree murder. She was originally sentenced to be hanged June 1, 1928, but obtained a stay of execution upon appeal to the state supreme court Dec. 1929. The supreme court affirmed the judgment of conviction and resentenced her to be hanged Feb. 21, 1920, exactly two years from the date her trial began.

Last month an application was made to the board of pardons and paroles for commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment. Following a hearing, by a vote of two to one, the board declined to recommend commutation.

After a jury found Mrs. Dugan sane, the board was asked for a reprieve, which was refused.

Source: Associated Press via The Prescott Evening-Courier, Feb. 21, 1930, pages 1 & 4.

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Although the beliefs and practices of what is now known as the Blackburn Cult are bizarre and border on humorous, they were probably responsible for the deaths of several people for which they were never prosecuted. This included non-prosecution for manslaughter after “baking” one of their disciples in order to cure her from a blood disease.

This story is not without a bit of macabre humor. Two of the cult’s followers, a married couple, preserve the dead body of their foster daughter for almost five years. During the first year of preservation, they moved around a lot with the cult and were naturally obliged to take their daughter’s body with them. In order to transport her from one residence to the next, they propped her up in the back seat of their automobile. “The remains were so well preserved that passers-by thought they saw a living girl.”

There are four stories below which begin with the time that authorities began their investigation into the cult known then as “The Divine Order of the Royal Arm of the Great Seal,” and end with her conviction on fraud charges. After the four stories is a link to a PDF file of a March 29, 1930 Sunday newspaper feature magazine insert about the cult. It’s a little hard to read but the entertainment value is worth it. After the PDF file link, I’ve posted some links to more current information about the cult. There is also a self-published, fact-based novel written by the son of the last surviving member of the cult entitled: “The Blackburn Chronicles: A Tale of Murder, Money and Madness.” The book is available at Lulu.com .

Update on 10/16/2014: A new, non-fiction book about this cult has recently been published and is available on Amazon: “The Cult of the Great Eleven.” The author has asked me to add his comments to each story.

Story #1:

BELIEVE CHILD SACRIFICED IN RITUAL OF CULT

Find Body in Casket at Foster Parent’s, Home In Los Angeles

PRESERVED IN ICE

Expected Resurrection, Authorities Told By “High Priestess”

[LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 1929] —Documents of a strange religion cult were examined by the police here today in an effort to determine whether the death of Willa Rhoads, 16-year-old “High Priestess” of the organization, whose body was found in a specially made casket beneath the floor of her foster parent’s home here, was sacrificed as a part of ritual of the organization.

The Great Eleven Club cult leaders, May Otis Blackburn and her daughter, Ruth Wieland Rizzio. Photo Source: UCLA Digital Library Collection

The foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Rhoads were held as material witnesses yesterday after the officers unearthed the casket containing the girl’s body and another in which were the bodies of seven dogs.

Mrs. Rhoads tearfully admitted that the girl died more than four years ago and that her body had been kept for more than a year in the hope she would be resurrected through the powers of the cult. For more than a year after Miss Rhoads’ death on January 1, 1925, the corpse had been preserved in ice, the foster mother said.

Although a preliminary examination failed to produce anything indicating the girl had met a violent death. Captain B. W. Thomason, of the police “bunco” squad voiced-the theory that her life had been sacrificed in the operations of the cult.

Police suspicion was directed to the Rhoads home’ after two other members of the cult, Mrs. Otis Blackburn, the “High Priestess,” and her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Angelina Wieland Rizzio, had been held on charges of embezzling about $50,000 from persons who had contributed to the organization which bore “the name of “The Divine Order of the Royal Arm of the Great Seal.”

The dogs had been pets of the dead girl and, according to the story old by Mrs. Rhoads, represented the seven tones of Gabriel’s trumpet, which the cultists expected to proclaim “resurrection morn.”

The investigation was started- at the request of Clifford R. Babney, wealthy Venice, Calif., oil operator, who charges that after becoming a member of the cult he advanced approximately $40,000 to Mrs. Blackburn pending the completion of a book she was writing, to be known as “The Sixth Seal,”‘ and upon which the colony based its beliefs

Mrs. Blackburn’s arrest on an embezzlement charge disclosed activities of the cult, which brought revelations leading to the discovery of the girl’s body.

Story #2

Los Angeles,  Oct. 9, 1929 (AP)] —Los Angeles authorities today attempt to ascertain whether four missing women, all purported members of the religious cult known as “The Divine Order of the Royal Arm of the Great Seal,” are dead, and if so what caused their deaths and what disposal was made of their bodies.

The body of 16 year-old Willa Rhoads, [the caption below says 19] described as a priestess of the sect was found Sunday in casket under the flooring of a house occupied by her foster parents Mr. and Mrs. William Rhoads, cult members. Investigation of the circumstances of her death and burial both indicated she died of natural sauces, but a chemical analysis of the body is being made.

AP photo dated Oct. 7, 1929. Caption: The caskets of Willa Rhoads, 19 year-old princess of The Divine Order of the Royal Arm of the Great Seal, whose body was buried under the home of her foster parents, and of the seven dogs (in the other casket) which were buried in the same grave as part of the cult practices. – Photo donated to HCD by “Deb.” -Click to open larger photo in new window.

Members of a colony maintained by the religious order in the Santa Susana Hills hills north of here, were being questioned regarding the reported deaths of Frances Turner, Harlene Sartoris, Katherine Bolz and Addle McGuffin. Investigators say they have evidence to indicate ‘the women are dead and are attempting to learn in what manner they died and where they are burled.

Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, head of the cult, her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Angeline Welland-Rizio, and Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads wore held In the Los Angeles county jail until completion of the investigation of the reported deaths, the burial of Willa Rhoads, and charges of embezzlement made by Clifford Dabney, Long Beach oil man against Mrs. Blackburn and Mrs. Welland-Rizio.

Story #3

[Los Angeles, March 3, 1930] Mary Otis Blackburn, organizer and high priestess of the Divine Order of the Royal Arm of the Great Eleven, a religious cult, today awaited sentence on eight counts of grand theft.

The woman, whose “concord” in the cult was that of “the North Star,” was convicted yesterday by a jury which had deliberated since Friday. She was ordered to jail. Her attorney has not revealed whether he will appeal the case. The penalty under California law is from one to 14 year in the penitentiary for each count.

The high priestess received the verdict with compressed lips. Her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Wieland-Rizzo and Mrs. Blackburn’s aged father wept.

The grand theft charges grew out of a complaint by Clifford Dabney, wealthy oil operator, that the cult leader had bilked him out of $40,000. He testified she obtained the money from him to finance the writing of a book to be known as “The Great Sixth Seal,” which she told him was being dictated by the Archangels Gabriel and Michael.

Dabney testified Mrs. Blackburn told him that the book would reveal sources of untold wealth in oil and mineral deposits.

Upon her promise to reveal the secrets of the book to him three years before it was distributed to the public, he said he agreed to finance it.

Dabney made his complaint to the district attorney last October. An official inquiry into the activities of the cult began immediately and resulted in the discovery of the body of a young priestess, Willa Rhoads, buried beneath the floor of her foster parent’s home. The girl had been dead three years, but the body was not buried until 1926 as Mrs. Blackburn told the foster parents the competition of “The Great Sixth Seal” would result in her resurrection.

Miss Rhoads body was preserved with ice, salt and spices. In the grave were found the bodies of seven dogs symbolizing the seven notes of Gabriel’s trumpet. The girl’s parents Mr. And Mrs. William Rhoads testified that burial was made when they lost faith in Mrs. Blackburn. An autopsy revealed the girl died of natural causes and no action was taken.

Story #4:

[Los Angeles, March 14, 1930] Mrs. May Otis Blackburn, cult leader, yesterday was sentenced to one to 10 years in San Quentin penitentiary for the grand theft of $45,000 from Clifford Dabney, oil operator and cult follower.

A writ of probable cause was granted by superior court permitting her to remain in the county jail pending an appeal. A motion for a new trial was denied.

Mrs. Blackburn was accused of obtaining the money from Dabney on false representations that angels were aiding her in writing a book which would reveal the location of vast mineral deposits on the earth.

Update on 10/16/2014: Comments & Clarification from author of a book on this cult.

May Blackburn was released on appeal in 1931 by the California Supreme Court, which ruled, among other things, that the cult deaths and disappearances brought up during her trial were inconsequential to the fraud charge against her, and so prejudiced the jury.  There was also the question of religious freedom, the court ruling that as an American, anyone is free to give away as much money as they want to whatever religious leader they want, and if they are of sound mind, they can’t say they were defrauded.

Samuel Rizzio, May Blackburn’s son-in-law in 1924, disappeared after an altercation with his wife, Ruth.  There was circumstantial evidence he was poisoned during a subsequent cult ceremony, but since a body was never found, no charges were ever pressed against any member of the cult.  His brother, Frank, actually managed to convince May Blackburn to give him a job driving for her, and then spent his free time snooping around trying to collect clues on his brother’s death.  He actually found some, but to no avail.

The cult practiced frequent dog sacrifice, but also sacrificed mules and other animals.  It also sacrificed cars and trucks.  Its ceremonies and beliefs were about as odd as you can imagine.

Story #5

PDF Link: http://www.historicalcrimedetective.com/pdf/Blackburn-Cult-March29-1930-Feature-Story.pdf

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Links:

Divine Order’s Tale Smacks of Cult Fiction

Wikipedia – The Blackburn Cult

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Like many of the stories I run across, I cringe when I read them because they just seem too  ghoulish or graphic. But then I think, ‘well, this is the way it was and it’s better to be honest with this history than hide it.’ That’s how I came to decide to post this story. As gruesome as this story is, we also have to think in the context of the times since there were no plastic anatomical models, and very few donations made available from local morgues. There were several good anatomy books available, like “Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body” with colored illustrations, but that was for adults.  It’s apparent from this story that medical students studying pediatrics were DESPERATE. If this work was NOT done by medical students, well, then the whole thing is just something that can hardly be imagined.

[August 26, 1907, New Jersey] Detectives are working on several theories today with a view to discovering the fiends who desecrated the grave of little Margaret Kuhlewind, eight years old, in the cemetery at Bernardsville, New Jersey and mutilated the body.

The child was killed Aug. 14 in an automobile accident when Grant Schley’s machine, which had been taken out without its owner’s consent by Thomas Clarke, the chauffeur, collided with a pole and killed the child and Clarke and badly injured three others.

A few hours after the burial the grave was opened, the coffin forced out and the body taken out and horribly mutilated. Thrown back into the casket without even smoothing the shroud over the mutilated body, the coffin was lowered into the grave and the dirt hastily piled back.

The police believe that more than one (person) took part in the ghoulish work and lean to the theory that medical students did it.

Superintendent’s Discovery

Margaret Kuhlewind

Margaret was buried on the afternoon of Aug. 17 in the cemetery of St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church, which has a wealthy and fashionable congregation at this season. The cemetery’s superintendent banked on her grave the many floral designs that were sent so the highest pieces were at the head of the grave.

The day after the funeral the superintendent saw that the flowers had been disarranged. Investigation showed that the grave had been tampered with.

He (the cemetery caretaker) summoned William L Bonfield, one of the church’s Cemetery Committee, who agreed that an attempt at least had been made to open the grave. But they decided before going further to await the return to his residence at Bernarndsville of Richard V. Lindabury, a leader of the New Jersey bar, who is chairman of St Bernard’s Cemetery

Mr. Lindabury returned Saturday and Margaret’s grave was opened in the presence of her father, Mr. Mr. Bonfield and Isaiah Power, the undertaker who prepared the body for burial.

Reburied Feet First

The girl’s body was curled at the foot of the casket. Plainly, when the coffin was put in the grave again, it was lowered foot first. There were unmistakable signs that the body had been placed on the casket lid, which was used as an extemporized dissecting table.

The burial clothes had been ripped open in front with a very sharp knife which, it seemed, was in the hand of a man who has knowledge of anatomy.

When the body was returned to the coffin not even an attempt was made to smooth the disordered garments.

Will Hunt Them Down

Mr. Lindabury said today that neither effort nor money would be spared to apprehend the perpetrator.

As no medical men were present when the body was disinterred, it is probable that an examination will be made by physicians for the purpose of having expert testimony in case the culprits are caught.

It is reported that two medical students from New York or Philadelphia were boarding near Bernardsville at the time of the accident and that when they left one carried a mysterious looking jar. The police are believed to be seeking them to ask a few questions.

Source: The New York Evening-World, Aug. 26, 1907, page 5.

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 Over-Zealous Newspapers Quick To Play Up Story

2 day Interrogation Leads to False Confession

Police Tactics Criticized

[Note: Versions of the following three stories appeared in 80 newspapers for the newspaper archive database I used in this case. That doesn’t mean that only 80 newspapers published this story, it only means of the newspapers the archive service happens to have collected in their database, 80 of them covered versions of the following three stories. Keep this in mind when you get to Story #5 & 6.]

Story #1: December 16, 1935, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
A Manchester, NH practical nurse confessed tonight, police said, to the “mercy killing” last Wednesday of Mrs. J. Valmore Normandin, 47, wife of a former city auditor here.

Marie Simone Sevigny, “The Mercy Killer” Nurse

FACES MURDER CHARGE

The nurse, Marie Simone Sevigny, 26, who had been attending the victim from Dec. 2 until her death, was arrested and will be arraigned tomorrow on a murder charge, authorities said.

Later, authorities disclosed that for three months prior to Dec. 2, the same nurse had attended a Mrs. Frank Prince of East Douglas, Mass., who died December 1, reportedly of diabetes and tuberculosis. Massachusetts state-police hurried here to question, Miss Sevigny regarding her connection with Mrs. Prince’s case.

TO TEST SANITY               

Miss Sevigny, according to police, confessed she gave Mrs. Normandin an ammonia solution because she allegedly wanted to put the patient out of her suffering and because she “considered it a merciful thing to do.”

Authorities said alienists [an old word for psychiatrist] would examine the nurse to establish her sanity.

The nurse had been held for questioning while medical authorities performed an autopsy on the body of Mrs. Normandin, which was exhumed late today after Mr. Normandin became suspicious of circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.

DOCTOR REPORTS SUICIDE

Police said that shortly before her death, the victim was found moaning and in semi-conscious condition by a son who had returned from school.

They revealed that a partly filled bottle of ammonia was found behind a radiator in an adjoining room. In the death certificate, Dr. S. Edgar Tanguay, Woonsocket medical examiner, had reported that Mrs. Normandin’s death was “due to drinking of a solution containing ammonia, causing a lung congestion which brought on death apparently suicide.”

Normandin became suspicious, it was said, because he claimed his wife never had talked of death nor hinted suicide.

Physicians said Mrs. Normandin had been suffering from a natural illness common to women of her approximate age.

Source: United Press

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Story #2: December 17, 1935, Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Big Headlines Appeared In Newspapers Across the Country. The story of the mercy killing nurse was even bigger than a story on actress Thelma Todd.

While she was on the verge of collapsed and unable to appear in court a plea of not guilty was entered today for Marie Sevigny, 26, dark-eyed practical nurse charged with administering a lethal dose to a patient under her care,

Having confessed, according to police who subjected her to a two day grilling, that she mixed a deadly potion for Mrs. Valmore Normandin, 47-year-old wife of a former city auditor, Miss Sevigny was almost carried into the courthouse,

Police Surgeon Myers, called to examine her, said her pulse was so weak she could not be given a stimulant nor permitted to face regular arraignment.

Attorney Louis Galberg entered the plea to a charge of murder. Henry A. Roberge, clerk of courts, accepted the plea and Dec. 27 was set as the date of hearing.

Miss Sevigny was ordered committed to the Providence County jail at Cranston.

Deputy Chief of Police John E, Crowley said Miss Sevigny confessed last night she killed Mrs. Normandin and an immediate investigation of three other former patents, including that at East Douglas, Mass., of Mrs. Frank Prince,

Crowley said the woman admitted she had administered cleaning fluid to Mrs. Normandin, who died last Wednesday.

The officer said the other deaths to be investigated had occurred in families in this city and In East Douglas, Mass., where Miss Sevigny had been employed.

The nurse, according to Crowley, had clippings and a snapshot pictured of the four persons who died, and pictures of members of other households where she had worked. Quoting her confession, Crowley said Miss Sevigny admitted administering knowing the fluid would kill Mrs. Normandin.

Asked why she had administered the dose, Crowley said she replied to ‘calm her down.” Later, he said, she explained to “take her sat of her suffering.”

Source: Associated Press

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Story #3: December 17, 1935, Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Reclining on a couch in an ante-room of Twelfth District court, Miss Marie Simone Sevigny, 26, unregistered nurse, today was formally charged with the ammonia “mercy killing” of one of her patients, Mrs, J. Valmore Normandin, 45, wife of an auditor of the division of intoxicating beverages.

Asked to plead, the defendant, who had cried for a “mercy killing” for herself, moved her lips with the words “not guilty.” She sank into the arms of the police matron, Mrs. Lydia Young.

Miss Sevigny, suspected by police of being a second Jane Toppan, ,who in 1901 while morbidly Insane allegedly killed 31 patients in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was removed to the state institution at Cranston, to be examined by alienists.

Earlier in her cell at police headquarters, she screamed: “I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it. I want to die. Be merciful to me. Why don’t you let me die? Be merciful to me.”

Extra guards were posted at the cell of the nurse to balk any possible suicide attempt.

One of her sisters is an inmate of the state hospital at Concord, N. H., and another sister died there a year ago.

”I killed her because I couldn’t bear to watch her awful suffering and I wanted to help her.” That, according to police, was the reason the nurse gave for administering ammonia to Mrs. Normandin, sufferer from nervous trouble.

Other death cases being investigated were those of Mrs. Arthur Genlinas, Mrs. Jacob Kane and Mrs. Prank Lancot, all of this city.

Massachusetts authorities were probing the death of Mrs. Frank Prince, of East Douglas, Mass. Police said Miss Sevigny was nurse in these cases. The bodies of the Woonsocket women will be exhumed.

Source: International News Service

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Story #4: December 27, 1935, Providence, RI

The District Court hearing of the murder case of Marie Simone Sevigny, 26 year-old unregistered nurse and self-styles “mercy killer” was postponed today until Jan. 10.

Miss Sevigny, accused of killing Mrs. J. Velmore Normandin, 47, of Woonsocket with poison, was to have appeared in court at Woonsocket tomorrow. Attorney General John E. Donley reported he had not completed his examination of the nurse.

Story #5: January 10, 1936, Providence RI

Note: According to the newspaper archive database I used in this case, the following Associated Press story only appeared in two newspapers.

A grand Jury here today refused to charge a dark-eyed young nurse with the murder of her patient.

Police Inspector Leo Vanasse, of Woonsocket, announced a month ago that the nurse, 26 year-old Marie Sevigny told him she administered a caustic agent to Mrs. L. Valmore Normandin, 47, to end her suffering.

The grand jurors said that, in their opinion, the patient, Mrs. Normandin, wife of an auditor for the state alcoholic beverage commission died Dec. 11 of poison which she administered to herself.

And the jurors had this to say regarding the police:

“Apparently proceeding on a premise that there was no question about Miss Sevigny’s guilt, they did not bother to find out whether or not there was any testimony other than that used to build up their own case.

“We deplore the fact that the young woman, whom we all believed to be innocent of any criminal action, has been branded by sensation-seeking newspapers and a careless police department as a murderer.

“We believe that, the methods to gain her ‘confession’ should be not part of the procedure of a civilized police department in these days and we hope that our long and carefully considered action in thus freeing Miss Sevigny from the stigma attached to her, may, in part, at least, bring about a favorable reaction from the public.

Source: Associated Press

Story #6: February 6, 1936, Providence. Rhode Island

The Rhode Island General Court was asked today to compensate Marie Sevigny, formerly of Manchester, NH, in the amount of $5,000 “for damages arising from her false arrest and incarceration” in connection with the death in December of Mrs. J.V. Normandin. Miss Sevigny, a practical nurse, was exonerated last week by a grand jury.

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Part 1

[MONROE, Michigan,  Jan. 20, 1937]—The bullet-pierced body of Michigan State Policeman Richards F. Hammond was found handcuffed to a mail box on a lonely country road today, five hours after he was abducted by a former convict he had arrested.

A posse of more than 200 officers from Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan searched wooded areas for Alcide (Frenchy) Benoit; alias, Joe La Rue, who was paroled from the Michigan state reformatory at Ionia a year ago.

Airplanes piloted by Detroit police and Indiana state police joined the search and Michigan state police issued radio appeals for farmers to arm themselves and search their out buildings for the fugitives

Had Halted Pair

Hammond, a husky, six-foot troopers with a fellow officer, Sam Sineni, halted two men while blockading the highway at Monroe shortly before last midnight in search of two gunmen who abducted Fred Williams, a used car salesman, in Detroit, and left him tied to a tree in Toledo. Hammond took Benoit in the state patrol car while Sineni entered a car operated by the second suspect, John Smith, alias Mike Delberto, formerly of Flint, and also a former convict.

En route to the state police barracks at Erie, Mich., Benoit suddenly overpowered Trooper Hammond •and sped away with him in the motor car.

A Running Gunfight

Trooper Sineni pursued the fugitive patrol car for 10 miles, exchanging shots with Benoit until the pursuing car was ditched.

Two Monroe county deputy sheriffs, Joe Dansard and Robert Navarre, came upon the hunted car near Lulu, Mich., and again a gunfight ensued with Benoit finally abandoning the patrol car. He escaped on foot into nearby woods. In the bloodstained car was the uniform coat of Trooper Hammond. It was saturated with blood.

At 5 a.m. officers patrolling roads in the area came upon the body of the missing trooper. Hammond had been shot through the head. His body was slumped against a rural mail box and his wrists were shackled with his own handcuffs to a steal post.

Capt. Lawrence A. Lyon of the Michigan state police, who is directing the search, Identified Benoit as the man sought. He said Trooper Sineni brought Smith to the Erie barracks after the gun battle and then joined the search for the former convict.

Killer Is Parolee

State police Identification bureau records show that Benoit wes sentenced to the state reformatory at Ionia after conviction in Detroit of carrying concealed weapons and of receiving stolen property. Benoit was released on parole Jan. 2, 1936. Smith also served a sentence in the reformatory.

Captain Lyon said the motor car in which Benoit and Smith were arrested last night was stolen from Williams, the Detroit used car salesman, in Toledo last night. Hammond, whose home was in Hanover, Mich., had been a member of the state police for 18 months.

Source: AP via The Miami Daily-News Record, (Oklahoma), Jan. 20, 1937, Pages 1,2

Part 2

[Monroe. Mich.. Jan. 21, 1937] – Alcide (Frenchy) Benoit, youthful paroled convict captured after a 20-hour manhunt, told today how he killed Michigan state policeman Richards P. Hammond and then handcuffed the officer’s body to a rural mailbox.

County Prosecutor Francis Ready announced the confession of the 24 year-old black-haired gunman shortly after Benoit’s desperate game of hide-and-seek over sleet-covered country areas with officers or three states and the federal government ended In Monroe—a short distance from the spot where he abducted Trooper Hammond of midnight Tuesday.

Hammond and Trooper Sam Sinei halted a stolen car occupied by Benoit and John Lee Smith, 23, alias Delbert, and decided to take the pair to headquarters for questioning In connection with the abduction of Fred Williams, a Detroit used car salesman who was left tied to a tree at Toledo early Tuesday night.

“I got into the patrol car with the officer (Hammond),” Benoit orally confessed to Prosecutor Francis Ready, State Police Captain Lawrence A. Lyon and Sheriff Joseph J. Ready. “Sinei and Smith followed in the seized automobile.

“As the car started, I jammed the gun into the officer’s rib and told him to slow down,” Benoit said.

“Instead, Hammond started to go faster so I slugged him over the eye with the butt of my pistol and told him to turn onto a side road.

“The other officer (Sineni) behind came up close. I turned around and fired three shot. When I started shooting Hammond said he was going crash the car and I told him if he did, I’d kill him sure.

“Then the other car went into the ditch and I stopped. I was going to take my partner (Smith) away, from the other cop, but a truck blocked the way, so I made Hammond drive down lonely roads until we came to where I left him.”

This was five miles southeast of Erie, Mich., about ten miles from the place where Benoit abandoned the blood-stained patrol car and escaped into the woods.

“I made Hammond stop,” Benoit was quoted as confessing. “Then got out and put one of the handcuffs on his wrists. When I tried to get him out of the car he put up a fight and we rolled over on the ground. I could see he was getting the best of me. Then I fired during the scuffle and he got limp. I cuffed his hands around the poet lot the mail box.”

Benoit, bleeding profusely from cuts on his head insisted to officers, however, that he did not realize, he had shot Trooper Hammond until the officers’ body went limp and he succeeded in shackling him to the post.

After leaving the body, Benoit said, the wireless in the police car brought realization that a highway blockade had been set-up which he could not hope to penetrate. He said he heard orders sending all available Michigan officers, into the area, with reinforcements from Ohio and Indiana.

After brief burst of gunfire from county and state officers, Benoit said, he abandoned the patrol car and ran on foot across a field. Later he took refuge in a barn to escape freezing rain, Benoit said, and remained until darkness fell last night. Then, Benoit walked into a farm house near Federman, Mich., and at gunpoint forced Paul Balog, 55, and his son, Steve, 16, to drive him in their light truck.

Another member of the Balog family raised an alarm and four state troopers participated in the capture after Benoit at the wheel of the truck, had narrowly escaped cruising police cars by turning into alleys.

Arraignment

Benoit faced arraignment today. If convicted of first degree murder in the state courts, he faces a mandatory life sentence, the maximum penalty In Michigan.

Benoit was captured by four state troopers at the intersection of Michigan state highway 50 and Telegraph Road, about three miles from Monroe.

Harry Nelson and Trooper Russell Moore on duty on Telegraph Road, saw the Balog truck going northeast on Telegraph Road at the edge of Monroe. They forced Benoit to turn onto a side road and there the troopers fired a shot into the hood of the truck, Benoit stopped the truck and got out—his hands in the air as two other officers arrived.

“You’ve got me, coppers!” he shouted. “Yes, I’m the guy,”

Anna Balog, 13-year old daughter of the Monroe farmer, was credited with giving state police the tip that led to Benoit’s capture.

The girl, ignoring her mother’s protests, got out in a driving rainstorm over a soggy road to the farmhouse of a neighbor, Irvin Karns to notify him that a stranger had appeared at the farm house about 6:45 p.m. He made the Balogs believe at first they were going to help him out his car out of the ditch.

“When they drove away,” Anna said, “I grabbed a lantern and started up the road to the Karns’ place.

“I was scared.” Steve Balog, telling of the capture, said: “The state police seemed to be all around the car. They pulled him out and, boy was I glad!”

Source: AP via The Daily Mail, (Hagerstown, MD), Jan. 21, 1937, Pages 1, 2

Note: Alcide “Frenchy” Benoit pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison at Marquette State Prison in Michigan.

“The two visitors were so far on their way to dreamland that they did not pay any attention to the entrance of the officer.” – My favorite quote for this story.

Opium Den Raided

[Burlington, Iowa, Sept. 12, 1901]—Two sallow-complexioned Chinamen and one wreck of white humanity lined up at the police station bar yesterday to answer to charges of conducting and resorting to an opium den. M. E. Blake ay- , peered for the defendants and entered, a plea of guilty for both. They were fined and released, but Judge Gillespie promised both a much more severe punishment should either be caught a second time.

Besides the two prisoners, their pipes, lamps, scales and dope were also taken to the court room. They were all the genuine article and before the trial was over the police court room smelled like a typical Chinese laundry. [Okay, they got a little bit racist there.]

The Celestial goes by the name of Fong Sing and runs the laundry at the corner of Valley and Third streets. In the rear of the place a room is fitted up with Minks and curtains, small lamps and an abundant supply of thick, black opium. For some time the police patrolmen have had their eye on the place, but no raid was made until about midnight on the night before last.

It is understood that besides the one man caught in the place, two well-known women are also regular customers of the den [prostitutes?],but there is no positive proof, or at least the officers have not at this time enough evidence to convict the women, so they were not arrested. The place will, however, be closely watched hereafter and the next raid will, no doubt, have more serious results.

Source: The Waterloo Daily Courier, Sept. 12, 1901, page 1

OPIUM DEN RAIDED

(Officers of Rochester, Montana determined to Break Up Chinese Joint).

[Rochester. Mont. July 12, 1901]—Deputy Sheriff J. R. Stark of Twin Bridges at 3 o’clock this morning raided an opium den at this place (Rochester) conducted by Lee Lou.

The complaint was sworn to by another Chinamen, and when Officer Stark, armed with a warrant, broke down the door of the cabin he found, beside the proprietor, two persons inside taking a smoke. The two visitors were so far on their way to dreamland that they did not pay any attention to the entrance of the officer.

The persons found Inside were Jim Jacobs, an itinerant musician [why am I not surprised they found a nomadic musician?], and Maude Owens, a woman of the half-world of Rochester. All three were placed under arrest and will be taken to Twin Bridges for trial today. In the cabin was also found all of the accessories for smoking, and the outfit was also seized and will be used as evidence at the trial.

The Joint has been in operation about three weeks and during that time has been closely watched by the officers. It was intended to raid the place July 8 but the conditions were not favorable. The raid today was successful and the officers do not doubt but that a conviction will be secured.

Source: The Anaconda Standard, July 13, 1901, page 1

Two garden variety, turn of the century opium users in China.

Okay, this may not be a crime story per se, but there was no way I was NOT going to post this from our: “We couldn’t make this up department.” The only crime committed here is stupidity.

[LOS ANGELES. May 1, 1941]- In blasé, nonchalant tones, Samuel Brummel, 56-year-old insurance salesman, testified Thursday that his wife rented him out to another woman for a year for S10,000, promising him half of the money. Brummel, a dark, cigar-chewing little man, told the story as trial of his suit to divorce Mrs. Lillian Brummel, 55, and to collect his half of the “fee.”

The other woman is Mrs. Norma Peppin, middle-aged county employee, who married Brummel in 1938 but obtained an annulment on grounds that the first wife’s Mexican divorce was illegal.

Following Brummel to the stand, Mrs. Lillian Brummel denied making any such deal with Mrs. Peppin.

Following Brummel to the; stand, Mrs. Lillian Brummel denied making any deaf with Mrs. Peppin. She said Mrs. Peppin volunteered, before the Mexican divorce, to give her the $10,000 as compensation “for the harm done me,” by Mrs. Peppin’s failing in love with Brummel.

In commenting on discrepancy in the testimony, Superior Judge Starry F. Sewell issued a subpoena to bring Mrs. Peppin into court.

Brummel, asking for $5,000 from his first wife as part of the community property, was questioned by her attorney, John A. Cronin, regarding his claim.

“Where did this money come from?” Cronin asked.

“It was a business deal,” Brummel replied.

“You testify in a deposition that your wife had an agreement where she was loaning you out for S10.000?”

“Yes.” said Brummel, “She told me that.”

“What did you say to the arrangement?”

“I said all right.”

Deposition Read

The deposition then was read into the court record and in it Brummel elaborated on the so-called business deal:

“In the summer of 1937, I came home one day and my wife told me she had a good surprise for me—that this woman was inheriting a large estate that might amount to $80,000” read Brummel’s deposition.

“My wife said she had arranged everything for $10,000; that she would go ahead and get a divorce: that I would not stay with her for a year, but that I was to come back to her after that. In other words, she was just loaning me to her.”

Brummel detailed how his wife promised to give him half the money after he divorced the second Mrs. Brummel.

Asked if he continued to see his first wife while he was married to the second, Brummel said: “Oh, yes, we saw each other right along.”

Another Reason

The first Mrs. Brummel testified later that she received the $10,000 bu that it was given by the second wife for a reason other than that which Brummel. 56, related.

“She came to me in 1937 and said: ‘I am going to make a confession and tell you something that will surprise you.'” Mrs. Lillian Brummel, 55, told the court.

“She said ‘I’ve done the worst thing I could do to a dear friend and so I want to do for you  now what I would expect someone else to do for me under the same circumstances. I am in love with Mr. Brummel. It is just one of those things and I can’t help it but I am going to compensate you. I fell heir to quite a sum of money and I am giving you $10.000.'”

Source: AP via The San Antonio Express, May 2, 1941, Pg. 1

From L-R, Lillian Brummel, Samuel “Too Hot” Brummel, and Norma Peppin

Follow-Up Story, June 4, 1941

[LOS ANGELES, June 3, 1941] Plump little Samuel Brummel, who claims his wife rented him to another woman for $10,000, today was denied his claim to half the ”rental fee.”

Acting Superior Judge Harry Sewell granted a divorce to the Insurance man’s wife, Mrs. Lillian Brummel and ruled that the 510,000 which Brummel claimed was community, property belongs entirely to the wife.

“The astounding claim made by the husband that in effect he was rented by his wife to another woman for $10,000 and that therefore is entitled to a sham of the proceeds defeats Itself upon the very threshold of the litigation”, Judge Sewell commented.

“To be such a claim upon an alleged state of facts which are in themselves contrary to public policy; to good morals and to common decency would deprive him of the aid of any court of equity and the court would be impelled to leave this parties exactly as it finds them.”

In his testimony, Brummel said Mrs. Norma Peppin, a county employee, came to his wife and said she had fallen in love with him and wanted to “borrow— Mr. Brummel for a year and would pay $10,000 for the loan of Mrs. Brummel’s husband.

The little insurance agent said that when his wife told him of the proposal she promised that if he agreed to be loaned out as proposed by Mrs. Peppin, he could have half of the $10.000 fee.

Brummel related he agreed and Mrs. Brummel obtained a Mexican divorce, following which he married Mrs. Peppin in 1938.

Last year, however, the second, Mrs. Brummel obtained an annulment of her marriage to Brummel on grounds that the Mexican divorce obtained by his first wife was illegal.

It was Brummel, reunited by court order to his first wife, who started the divorce action and Mrs. Lillian Brummel filed a cross complaint charging cruelty.

In his complaint, Brummel listed the $10,000 paid for his rental by Mrs. Peppin as community property and asked for his half-share as had been agreed upon when he consented to marry Mrs. Peppin.

Still pending in court is a civil suit filed by Brummel against Mrs. Lillian Brummel in which he seeks control of the entire $10,000.

Source: UP via The Arizona Independent Republic, June 4, 1941, page 37.

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I almost feel sorry for the police. This kid is like the “James Bond” of juvenile delinquents.

[November 18, 1949] A thin, wiry, 14 year-old boy who has led officers of three states on a merry chase for seven crime-packed weeks was captured today at his Texarkana home.

The boy, small for his age, launched his crime wave seven weeks ago by stealing a raccoon from the Texarkana Zoo.

Since then, officers say he has:

1. Stolen a long string of automobiles, motorcycles and even a motor-scooter.
2. Burglarized an ex-police commissioner’s home of $580.
3. Escaped from officers three times. Once was a thrilling getaway from a 50-man posse when he jumped from a car handcuffed.

Tipped that the boy was back in Texarkana after escapades in Houston, Arkansas and Louisiana, detectives and policeman from Texas and Arkansas found him hiding in a closet of his home here and he surrendered without resistance. Texarkana Detective Homer Goff said the boy was “as far back in that closet as a person could get.”

Here is the boy’s crime career as outlined by officers:

He was caught and released after he had stolen the raccoon. Then, he stole two motorcycles here (Texarkana).

He was apprehended after stealing the first motorcycle but broke away from the officer who had him in custody.

On the second motorcycle, he rode to South Texas. He wrecked it and stole a motor scooter in Houston.

He visited the Houston home of his stepfather but ended the visit abruptly by stealing $58 from the home and his stepfather’s car.

He drove the car to Texarkana and abandoned it.

Then he went on to Nashville, Ark., and burglarized the home of an ex-police commissioner of $580. He also stole a couple of cars in Nashville. He went on to a town near Shreveport and stole another car.

He drove that car to Houston and parked in front of the home of an aunt. He went in the house and went to sleep. The aunt called police to come and get him, but he awakened and heard them coming. He jumped through a window and hid in the woods till they were gone.

They made the mistake of leaving the stolen car in front of the house. The boy promptly got in it and drove away.

He was next spotted in the woods near Addicks, Texas, in Harris County. A 50-man posse called for him to come out, but he didn’t. They waded into the woods and caught him. Officers in the group handcuffed him and placed him I their car and headed for Addicks.

En route, the boy opened the back door of the car with his toes and leaped out. This time, the posse didn’t catch him.

The next word of him was the telephoned tip to police here last night that he was in town. It resulted in his arrest.

Texarkana officers say they’ll turn him over to Nashville, Ark., authorities today.

[Note: Why do I get the feeling the story doesn’t end here?]

Source: AP via The Pampa Daily News, (Texas), Nov. 18, 1949, Pg. 1.

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This story has been removed and is now a part of my award-winning book, Famous Crimes the World Forgot: Ten Vintage True Crime Stories Rescued from Obscurity, Volume I.

Boston Globe Headline, Feb. 24, 1901

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