1. "May 30 & May 31--Bertha Manchester-Anniversary"
Posted by Kat on May-31st-02 at 1:49 AM

THE EVENING STANDARD
Wednesday, May 31, 1893
"HORRIBLE CRIME
Bloody Work of a Fiend in Fall River
Further Particulars of the Memorial Day Murder
Victim of the Butchery Was a Most Lovable Girl
Did A Man's Work On Her Father's Farm
Perpetrator of the Crime Still at Large
Family Strongly Object to the Removal of the Mutilated Body
Scene at the House in Which the Medical Examiner Figured
A Suspect Run Down By the Police In This City

THE MANCHESTER MURDER.
Details of the Horrible Memorial Day Crime in Fall River
(By Associated Press)

Fall River, May 31.- At 8 o'clock this morning the murderer of Bertha Manchester had not been discovered...[The muder occured on Tuesday, May 30, 1893]

...On the piazza were two large dogs, one a mastiff, chained to a kennel near the cellar entrance to the main house, and the other an old and large black dog, with a ferocious bark, the terror of all well-meaning people who had occaision to visit the place.  This dog was at large.  The neighbors report they heard loud barking by the dogs about 10 o'clock, but 'as the dogs are always barking,' thought little of the circumstances.

Stephen C. Manchester, father of the murdered girl, is a farmer and milkman.  His farm consists of about 40 acres of land, and on it are 20 head of cattle and three horses.  He is 63 years of age, and his disposition is such that he has great difficulty in keeping help.  The girl lay close beside the stove in the kitchen of the house, her head about on a line with the front of the hearth.  Her face was not really straight downward, but a little turned to the right, so that the features could be discerned.  Her long brown hair was extended and matted with blood.  The head rested upon her right arm, and her right hand tightly and convulsively clutched the hair near its roots.  The left arm was doubled under the body.  The right leg was also doubled beneath her, bended back against her hip from the knee joint.  The left leg was extended and exposed from the knee, the foot resting top down, upon an old red and black check shawl.  The bleeding had been profuse.  It extended from her head in a strip about a foot wide without dimishing until it was lost under her body.  It was still bright at 6 o'clock, but coagulation had taken place to a considerable extent.  The top was of thick blood, but by putting one's finger into it the lower part was watery, and left no stain on the finger.  The stream had appreciable depth, and was apparently an eighth of an inch or more through.  Behind the body ran a stream about an inch in width, prevented from spreading by the coal hod that stood behind and in line with the north side of the stove.  In a semicircle behind the foot of the girl were smooches of blood three feet in diameter that looked as if they might have been made by the girl's dragging herself on the floor. 

As yet the police have no decidedly strong opinions as to who could have committed the murder.  In the Borden case it was argued that none but a woman would have so hacked her victim, yet the appearance of Miss Manchester, due largely to the great flow of blood, was fully as revolting as the appearance of either victim in the Borden tragedy, while the hacking was repeated with the back of the axe a number of times, and at least five blows were struck with the edge.

On the other hand it has been claimed by friends of Miss Borden that a murderer always has a horror of being connected to the crime by means of finding the instrument and will take it with him to avoid all risk.  This they think is why no hatchet has been found by the police.  Yet in this fresh tragedy the bloody axe is left exposed upon the wood pile near the house.

Naturally knowing the disposition of Mr. Manchester, his difficulty in getting and keeping help,  the police have sought for information of recent employees.  One of them, a Portuguese, is wanted for a robbery committed at Charles Frank's clothing store in April, for whom a warrant has been out for some time, and whose associate is now serving sentence.  He was at Manchester's for two days about two weeks ago and has been there for one night since.  Mr. Manchester says he saw this man in the city Tuesday on the Crab pond bridge about 11 o'clock.  Another man who will probably be locked up and made to account for his time is well known to the police and worked for Manchester a few days ago:  he can't remember just when.  Two others are French, the last he had.  They hailed from Lowell, and one claimed to be a mason, but said he could not get work because he did not belong to a union.  They were pleasant and well intentioned fellows, Mr. Manchester thinks, but knew nothing of farm work and could not talk much English.  He paid them so as to satisfy them and there was no trouble when they were there or when they left.

'I can't think of a person who would have done such a deed,' said Manchester to a reporter.  'I wish to God it had been me instead of her.  This girl was everything to me, and since my wife left me has done what few men or women would.  In addition to doing all the work of the house, looking after the milk, making butter,  and its regular duties, even when we could get no woman to help, she has assisted me and the boy.  She has done a man's work as well as a woman's, and has often fed the stock when I was in the city, and there is 20 head of it.'
(to be con.'t)

The above transcription comes from the over-sized paperback book, DID SHE or DIDN'T SHE?
Anyone may complete the transcription that has the book if they wish.

Also, please be free to post here any other information to share on the muder of Bertha Manchester, on this Memorial Day anniversary, and it's aftermath....

Continued from The Evening Standard, May 31, 1893, Did She or Didn't She?

" 'My first wife was a daughter of Benjamin Davis, and we lived together 18 years.  We had four children, the oldest, Harry E., resides in Chelsea, and has been away from home 12 years.  The second was my daughter Jennie, she is 26 years old, and is the wife of W.W. Coolige.  Bertha was the third, and Fred, who is 12, the other.  My second wife was a Whittle, and I have one child by her, Alexander, 8 years old.  This child resides with his mother.  She has not lived with me for five years.  It was when she went that Bertha left the High school, and has had charge of the house since.'

The second Mrs. Manchester is a sister of the late Samuel Whittle, who was drowned with 6 others while crossing North Watuppa pond three years ago.  The marriage was an unhappy one, and both have recently had counter-trials for divorce, which libels are now pending, Mrs. Manchester being decreed a monthly allowance, which Manchester is paying.  He is a man of considerable property, both acquired and inherited.  The latter may be said to be in a sense prospective, as there have been constant wranglings over the estates by the different heirs.  In court he had testified that he had braved the deep, and had been on angry seas, heard the thunders of war and seen vivid lightening, but never anything like that woman.  His daughter Bertha accompanied him at the court hearing.  (Between her and her father there is said to have existed the pleasantest of relations.)

The girl herself is spoken of by her neighbors and all along the road as a fine woman.  The Reeds did not like the old man, but the daughter was a noble girl.  She is not known to have any lover or regular callers.  All speak of her as modest, retiring, self-sacrificing.  She would seldom take any outing or attend church services, and even except at repeated urging, and then rather to please others than to gratify her own wishes.  She possessed a good figure, and face, and was attractive and loveable.

If the motive was robbery the thief probably gained access to the house in some way as yet unknown.His rifling of her room called her from the closet, where she was mixing ginger bread , and persuing her to the kitchen he struck her and secured the axe with which the murder was committed.

It is reported that some bruises were found upon her.

One story is that certain neighbors heard shrieks from the Manchester house about 11 o'clock, but that they were not accustomed to pay much attention to noises at the Manchesters. 

Medical Examiner Dolan states that in his opinion the girl had been dead six or seven hours when he first saw the body not far from half-past three o'clock.  If the shorter time, this would make the hour of the murder at 9:30 a.m., not far from 'the about 10 o'clock' that the neighbors heard the dogs barking. 

A woman is reported to have seen Mr. Manchester near Orange street about 8 o'clock yesterday. 

About 6 o'clock last night, the medical examiner having completed his work preliminary to the removal of the body, word was communicated to the father and aunt of Miss Manchester, who were in the room next the kitchen, that the body was to be removed.  An undertaker had been summoned an hour or more before, but was very late in appearing.  When this word was given, both relatives protested to the medical examiner against removing the remains, showing both a sense of shock and indignation at the proposal....the medical examiner ordered the family to leave the house and would close it up, taking full possession.

...The reporters who were in the kitchen at this time continued their work and it was about 7:30 when the room was cleared of all but the family....the strike of 8, D.D. Sullivan & Sons wagon arrived...the body was carried away.

Officers Ferguson and Wilson were detailed for guard duty at the house during the night, and the family were ordered to provide themselves quarters elsewhere.

Joseph Corri, the Portuguese for whom the police are looking, is 19 or 20 years of age, but looks to be 22, and has a smooth face...."

(Message last edited May-31st-02  6:40 PM.)

In this newspaper article, they dwelled on the fact that the father and aunt Did Not want Bertha's body taken away by the medical examiner (for autopsy).  They did not want her head cut off.  They implied that's something Dolan *does*.  Talk about macabre!

BUT it also seems suspicious.
Also , Manchester was a wealthy man, embroiled in family disputes;  two wives with two different families;  inheritence questions;  one wife worse than being in a storm at sea...so that they could not live together.  Bertha has to CHOOSE...

Sounds like a LOT of scope for murder in this family, and NOT by a stranger, or short-term employee!

Wonder if the immigrant was *set up*?

All I know of this was what AR Brown had written. Bertha was killed in the same manner as Abby! I forgot how many whacks.
Did any of the other writers tell about this coincidence? Or explain why Jose was pardoned and shipped out of the country after 20 years? It seems strange that he didn't hang for this crime. Or were there many bleeding heart liberals then in Massachusetts?

I recall reading about this incident happening while Lizzie was in Taunton and someone had made a comment to the press(perhaps Mr. Jennings?)that they will probably blame her(Lizzie)for this one too.  It sounds like a very Lincoln-esque story, I looked there and could not find, maybe it was another book? 

The article said something about at least "five" wounds.

There certainly was A LOT MORE BLOOD!  How is THIS explained?

This family seems every bit as dysfunctional as the Bordens.  Enough scope to find a murderer in their own ranks!

Odd that the neighbors commented that they didn't pay much attention to the Loud Noises coming from the Manchester's farm, like they were used to loud and odd noises...(even screams?)

Well, this IS a newspaper report...

Kat, do you think that maybe people were used to hearing all sorts of noises coming from the Manchester farm because people viewed them as trash?  You know, poor white trash.  Thats what I get from the newspaper article, that they were loud people and no one payed them much mind(didn't want to get involved)? 

Since Mr Manchester ran a diary, and had a number of hired hands, and was known to be ornery, any yelling would just be ignored. "We heard that before". So how isolated was that farm?

I thought that "poor white trash" refers to people who are POOR and have criminal records (or something). Else not trashy.
If they are rich, then they are "eccentric" (as they said in those days?).

I was using the term in that possibly the Manchesters were looked upon as being ignorant, but, you are probably right, Rays, as to your usage of the term. 

I think you hit the nail on the head in your post #9, that Mr. Manchester was ornery and yelled alot, so no one probably payed yelling or screaming coming from their farm, much attention.