Centenaries - whole and half

[Mayerling]

Yes, I agree, Jeff. By the way, what a strange character John Amery was, apparently. No moral compass whatsoever and a very strange personal life. A trouble to his parents from the time he was small.

His case is barely known in the U.S., but it was really big in post-war England, as his father Leo Amery was a leading figure in the Tory Party (Leo was the one who in a moment of total disgust after the Norway fiasco in 1940 told Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain to go). I first read of John in Rebecca West's "A New Meaning of Treason", and of how he pleaded guilty to the charge (thus making a public trial unnecessary). There has been much discussion of this decision of his ever since, as to whether or not John was protecting his family from revelations about his own life or not. The problem was that while a guilty verdict after a trial might have been reduced by the legal system out of some compassion or feature that had come out in the trial, a guilty plea made that action impossible - so John Amery was hanged.

I always was fascinated by the Joyce Case, and the "comedy" about the British, German, and United States citizenship and passport questions as of September 1, 1939. I have never seen anything like it elsewhere.

Jeff

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 October 20 - In Tennessee, Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson is executed for war crimes. He had killed numerous wounded and captured Union soldiers as well as some civilians he considered to be Union sympathizers.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 October 21 - The remains of John Kilbride, 12, are unearthed from an English moor. John had been slain in 1963 and was the second known victim of British serial child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. By this time they were under arrest and were eligible for the death penalty because they had killed more than one person in seperate events but capital punishment for murder was abolished in Britain before their trial was concluded. Brady is still incarcerated however Myra died in 2002 while serving her sentence.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 October 26 - In Indiana, Sylvia Likens, 16, dies after weeks of torture by Gertrude Baniszewski, 46, her children and youth minions. When Mrs. Baniszewski wasn't torturing girls to death, she occupied her time playing around with her 14-year-old boyfriend who was also involved in the crime. The toyboy, Ricky Hobbs, was convicted on a lesser charge and sent to prison. Baniszewski was convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence but was released in 1985 on grounds of "good behavior" and died in 1990 from cancer.

[sdreid]

450 years ago - 1565 November 1 - William Fynne dies from a mysterious illness. A local woman named Agnes Waterhouse is eventually charged and convicted for causing his death by bewitchment. The case featured several bizarre elements including a supposed talking cat named Satan. Watterhouse was hanged in the following Summer and was the first woman to be executed for witchcraft in England.

50 years ago - 1965 November 1 - In Poland, a young hotel receptionist named Janka Popielski is stabbed and mutilated with a screwdriver by Luciak Staniak. She was not the first murder victim of the serial killer, also known as The Red Spider due to the writing style he used in his correspondences to authorities, nor will she be his last. Staniak was finally captured in 1967 and sent to an insane asylum.

[Ginger]

Baniszewski was convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence but was released in 1985 on grounds of "good behavior" and died in 1990 from cancer.

I lived in Indiana at the time, and to say that people were scandalized doesn't even come close to the truth.

[sdreid]

150 years ago - 1865 November 10 - In DC, Henry Wirz is hanged for war crimes. He had been sentenced to death for his actions as commandant in the Confederate POW camp at Andersonville, Georgia.

[sdreid]

50 years ago - 1965 November 12 - A Chicago prostitute, Ernestine Williams is stabbed to death by Donald Lang. The killer was determined to be unfit to stand trial and sent to a mental institution. In 1971, Lang was freed then killed another woman the year following and was returned to the asylum.

[sdreid]

250 years ago - 1765 November 13 - Patrick Ogilvie is executed by hanging in Scotland for the murder of his brother Thomas. Catherine Ogilvie, who was Thomas' wife and Patrick's lover, was also sentenced to death but was given a tempory stay so she could bare the child she was carrying. After the birth and while preparations were in motion to carry out her execution, she escaped from prison and was never recaptured.

[sdreid]

400 years ago - 1615 November 15 - In England, Anne Turner is executed by hanging for the poisoning murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. There were five others involved in the plot and three of them were hanged as well.

[Rosella]

Wasn't Overbury a close and personal friend of one of the boyfriends of James I of England, Robert Carr? Carr, and more likely his new wife Frances Howard, probably thought Overbury was surplus to requirements and likely to blab, so searched around for poisons.

[Mayerling]

Wasn't Overbury a close and personal friend of one of the boyfriends of James I of England, Robert Carr? Carr, and more likely his new wife Frances Howard, probably thought Overbury was surplus to requirements and likely to blab, so searched around for poisons.

Carr was James I of Great Britain's "favorite" (read his homosexual lover) from 1606 to 1614. Overbury was Carr's secretary, and something of a minor poet and literary figure (he wrote a book about "Character" types in English literature that was well respected in his day). Overbury was a smart guy - perhaps too smart. When Carr showed his heterosexuality by aiming for marriage with the Frances, Countess of Essex, Overbury disliked it because he felt it weakened Carr's relationship with the King. Francis, Robert Carr, and James conspired to give Francis grounds for her divorce from Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and when that was attained in 1611 she married Carr. He was now Earl of Somerset, so she was still a Countess. Frances was a willful and selfish woman, and she manipulated Carr into having Overbury arrested and sent to the tower on a trumped up charge. There (with the aid of Mistress Turner, who was something of a female pimp and beautician, and three others) she made sure all of Overbury's food was poisoned. Yet it took him two years to die. Unfortunately for Carr and his wife they found 1) they didn't really have much going for them but power and sex - they couldn't stand each other elsewise; 2) James had a new toy-boy at court: George Villiers, who would eventually end up Duke of Buckingham in the reign of James' son Charles I.
By 1615 Carr's days of power were collapsing. Suddenly revelations concerning the death of Overbury arose, and Carr, Frances, Mistress Turner, and the other three were put on trial for murder. It was (in that day) the biggest murder case and political scandal ever to rock England. Carr and Frances and their four accomplices were found guilty, but only the accomplices were hanged (Mistress Turner had invented some dye for the ruffs on women's costumes that was a tin blue and yellow color - King James hated it, and ordered that she wear a ruff with that tint on it to her execution to help speed it's way to oblivion as a fashion statement). Carr and Frances were stuck in a country house they owned - ordered to stay there forever under house arrest. They did have a daughter they both showed actual affection for, but otherwise it was a torment for both of them living together.
Frances died of cancer of the overies in the 1620s (William Roughead said that she would have been better off if she died by hanging). Carr died in the 1630s.

[Rosella]

Thanks for the information, Mayerling. Ive forgotten a lot of what I've read about the Overbury affair. I do remember that James was very worried that somehow he was going to be dragged into the scandal and that poor Overbury died by inches. I believe Charles I had a bit of a crush on Buckingham, or perhaps it was hero worship, but James certainly adored George. He was reputedly extraordinarily handsome.

[Mayerling]

Thanks for the information, Mayerling. Ive forgotten a lot of what I've read about the Overbury affair. I do remember that James was very worried that somehow he was going to be dragged into the scandal and that poor Overbury died by inches. I believe Charles I had a bit of a crush on Buckingham, or perhaps it was hero worship, but James certainly adored George. He was reputedly extraordinarily handsome.

Charles actually had hero worship for Villiers, not a crush. But it did interfere with Charles marriage to Henrietta Marie in 1625. Villiers, as Duke of Buckingham, was an inept Prime Minister to Charles, especially as he faced as his foe Cardinal Richelieu of France (like a house cat facing a lion). In 1628 Buckingham was assassinated by John Felton, either for religious reasons (Felton was a Puritan), or for anger at not getting a promotion (more likely). After Buckingham's death Charles and Henrietta became closer until his death in 1649.

The main mystery of Overbury's horrible death was if James (who did assist Carr and Frances in trumping up the charges that put Overbury in the Tower of London) was involved in the poisoning. James sounds like he was an accomplice before the fact (like Dr. Mudd knowing Booth before the assassination and probably being aware of the actor's earlier "kidnapping of Lincoln" scheme, not the assassination plot). It is not likely he'd have seen any reason to be involved in the poisoning.

There is a book by Miriam Allan de Page, "The Overbury Affair" that was written in the 1960s and won the Mystery Writers Award for best true crime book.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Error

The author of "The Overbury Affair" was Miriam Allen de Ford, not de Paige.