Arthur Potter's Playmates

[camgarsky4]

The hatchet found on the Crowe barn roof has been dismissed by many as too coincidental...since it was found during Lizzie's trial. I do find the exact timing (it was found almost the same day that the prosecution rested and the defense was initiating its case at trial) to be a bit unsettling. That said, if a hoax can be dismissed as an option, that would certainly increase the likelihood of the Crowe roof hatchet having true merit. I think all agree that the more people involved, the less likely it was a hoax. Complex hoaxes probably don't remain unrevealed, particularly when the cast of characters are so young. In this case, most of the individuals involved with the find were younger than 15 years old.

When 14-year-old, Arthur Potter, found the hatchet on the roof of Mr. Crowe's barn, he was playing a ball game (called bound) with some of the Third Street neighborhood lads. To my knowledge, these young men have not previously been identified. Using a June 15, 1893 Fall River Globe article (full article below) as the 'starting point', I believe I have identified the young men who were with Arthur when the hatchet was found. The key paragraph...."Young Potter is a bright little fellow. He was seen this morning by a GLOBE reporter and said he was playing “bound” with three Williston boys, and one named King."

After studying city maps, city directories, death and birth registers and U.S. Census data, I suggest the four young friends, 1892 ages in parenthesis, were Clarence (13), Arthur (11) and Lester Williston (8) and Clinton King (13). As the 1895 Fall River city map below shows, the Potters, Williston's and Kings were neighbors on Third St. in 1892.

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1892 Fall River City Directory listings for the Potter, Williston and King families in 1892.

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The 1900 U.S. Census provided the boys names and ages. Images of the U.S. Census info is not included in the spirit of managing post length. If anyone is curious, I can add the census screenshots.


Courtesy of "Find-A-Grave", here are some photos of the three Williston boys. Even though the photos are not from the time of the hatchet find, it is still pretty neat to put a face to a name.

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Source: Fall River Globe June 15, 1893
ANOTHER HATCHET
This Time It Is Found On Top Of John Crowe’s Barn.
There is another hatchet in the Borden case. Last night about 7:30, Arthur Potter, the 14-year-old son of Caleb Potter, went upon the roof of John Crowe’s barn, which stands back of the Borden yard, and found a hatchet. He carried it straight to his father.
Young Potter and other boys had been playing ball in the lot nearby and it was while on the hunt for the ball that he found the hatchet. The instrument is described as being covered with rust. It has a handle which is discolored from exposure.
The blade is new, and when the rust is scraped off, it shows the gilt paint which adorns all new hatchets. The police say that Mr. Potter refused to give the hatchet into their hands, and Mr. Potter refuses to talk about it.
It is likely that this find will make a big stir in New Bedford, but then it is of no consequence, as three men were at work within 20 feet of this barn on the day of the assassination of the Borden’s.
Young Potter is a bright little fellow. He was seen this morning by a GLOBE reporter and said he was playing “bound” with three Williston boys, and one named King. The play was to catch the ball and throw it against the barn before the other boys could wrest it from him.
Another caught the ball and threw it over the front part of the Third Street barn, and the bail lodged on the northwest corner of the main building. Potter says he went around and climbed up to the “high part” and found the axe. It is described as having a 3 ¾ inch blade, and apparently new. It has a handle a foot long, and an ordinary driving head.
Potter said that he had climbed in the barn once before but saw nothing then. That was “before the long vacation last summer.”
One of the Williston boys, who is a cripple, and who was in the party with Potter, said practically the same thing as Arthur.
Joseph Either, a Frenchman, who works for Crowe, said he had made repairs on the roof three years ago, but does not remember leaving any implements up there.
Caleb Potter showed the hatchet to Inspectors Medley and Mahoney this noon, in City Hall. Inspector Feeney is looking up the find.
The place where the hatchet was found was on the Chagnon yard side, and the head was lying toward the southeast.
Next to the Borden house, going east, is a flat roof building about nine feet high, a carriage shed some 12 feet high adjoins the main building or Crowe barn, which fronts on Third Street. End of article.

[Kat]

Yes that’s new info, thank you that’s cool I looked in JJ, Knowlton Papers, Spencer, Rebello and LBQ where Hoffman wrote about it. No one identifies the Willistons and King.

Lucy Collett should have been asked if she saw or heard these fellows playing, and so should the Crowe yard guys who were working.
If the hatchet was left there on the 4th of August, how can anyone know that, unless it was found much closer to the murder event? However, it’s claimed there was not a hatchet there before the summer of 1892?…
I guess the rust explains it was left there quite a while ago, but how long does it take to rust?
Since we have no date of deposit, it’s kind of an anti-climax. Would we still possibly consider it the weapon used in the murders if it was placed there on any other day than Aug 4th?
(Like the killer returning and throwing it up there a week later, for instance?- it’s a legitimate question…)

[camgarsky4]

By the way, I was unable to trace down Joseph Either, the roof repair guy mentioned in the article.

Also, didn't find any reference in the Williston research noting one of them being crippled. The pre-1900 U.S. Census's often asked if anyone had disabilities, but 1900 and onward census's did not.

We can't know definitely if that particular hatchet was involved in the crimes. However, if it was not part of a hoax or intentional deception, then the fact that the murder weapon was never found and a hatchet fitting the criteria to be the murder weapon is found in the immediate neighboring property and basically on the most logical escape route from the Borden house, translates to me as more than just a coincidence.

The Chagnon roof repairman who claimed it was his doesn't hold water for me since he wasn't working on the Crowe barn.

To your point Kat, someone who wanted to influence the trial/jury could have placed the hatchet on the roof as the trial was underway. However, as I mention above, that would imply that a handful of pre-teen boys were told to claim they found the hatchet and I have a hard time believing that that secret would hold together.

The three Fall River newspapers were extraordinarily competitive and the support for Lizzie was not uniform. If surfaced at the trial, finding this hatchet would have been beneficial for Lizzie's defense since it supported the idea of a outsider escaping the house and disposing of the weapon before getting to Third Street. If the hatchet find could have been refuted, I think the Fall River Globe would have enthusiastically gotten that information out to the public.

[Kat]

Well, we don’t really need a hatchet with gilt, anymore, at least. I do remember a police officer saying they searched the Borden house from the *lodge pole* (?) on the roof to the cellar for the weapon. I figured since one of them did get to the roof and look around, I was wondering if they could have seen the Crowe barn hatchet from the roof of the Borden’s… You’d think they would use that vantage point to take a gander around…I thought the statement was in Fleet’s notes, but can’t find it. I remember Harry posting about it, and we all then examined the roof pictures to figure out what a lodge pole* was.
*(I may be using the wrong term- does anyone remember that?)

[Kat]

We also have an item in Rebello:pgs 105-06

"It was McDonnell's Axe / Alibi Established for the Hatchet on Crowe's Barn," Fall River Daily Herald, Saturday, June 17, 1893: 8.

"The owner of the Potter-Borden hatchet has in all probability been found. Carl
McDonnell, a carpenter employed by William Smith of Second Street, did some work
for Dr. Chagnon about the time of the murder or a little later and lost a hatchet of a description similar to this one. There are so many hatchets of a similar make that it is almost impossible to identify anyone in particular unless marked for that purpose. The axe undoubtedly belongs to McDonnell."

Do we have more info on this claim? Or is the story planted? You are right that it is unfortunately so very close to the end of the trial.

[camgarsky4]

I couldn't find anything else on this gentlemen or his claim.

I'm sure Carl McDonell (spelling per the article) lost a hatchet working on the Chagnon property. But the Chagnon property is not the Crowe barn. He clearly didn't misplace it on the Crowe roof, so he must mean it was stolen. Why steal a tool and then not actually take/use/sell it?

Personally, I don't put much merit into the idea that McDonell's 'lost' hatchet is the hatchet found by the Potter boy.

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[Kat]

Thanks- and it sounds made up…but it’s the first news item to claim a hatchet lost around the time of Aug 4…but does seem spurious.