Trickey/McHenry saga

[camgarsky4]

In the spirit of generating some posts, I'll be happy to work thru the Trickey/McHenry - Boston Globe/Fall River Police saga on the forum.

I reread the related witness statements and a variety of newspaper articles on the topic, and there is a lot to 'air out' on that situation than has been done previously.

If no interest by other forum 'viewers', I'd rather not burn calories composing posts on the topic.

Thanks!

[Steveads2004]

I always found it amazing that the Boston Globe survived this incident. it seems to me that Lizzie could have owned that rag in a heartbeat if she had sued. Makes me wonder why she did not sue, were there too many truthful or near truthful elements to the story?

[camgarsky4]

Hi Steve!

Below is an excerpt from Officer Harrington's witness statement of what he heard Trickey and McHenry saying to each other.....as he lie hiding under a bed (weird). The entire statement can be found on the LB Virtual Library website (primary source documents tab).

Trickey and the Boston Globe were the dominant (non-Fall River) newspaper covering the murders.
A search of newspapers.com for "Lizzie Borden", has the following # of articles in 1892. If an article jumps pages in the same edition, and her name is mentioned on both pages, that would count as two articles in this methodology.
Fall River Daily Evening News 229
Fall River Daily Herald 185
Boston Globe 176
Fall River Globe 144
Buffalo News 140

Buffalo News coming in fifth is interesting.

In my opinion, Trickey had a writing style that was easy to read and was livened up with a stylistic flair. In addition to being a gifted writer and based on his conversation with McHenry, he appears to have developed a remarkable stable of inside sources (see witness statement below). You may have read Kat's and my 'chat' about the Globes report that Lizzie whispered in Bridget's ear, as Bridget was leaving the house to go to the Day 1 of the inquest. Kat was curious who provided this observation to Trickey. Well, Officer Doherty is the policeman who went to get Bridget and, again, based on below, Doherty was one of Trickey's indirect sources. If Trickey is shooting it straight to McHenry, one of Doherty's police comrades was passing along information Doherty had shared at the station. Going back thru previous Globe articles, you can see how Medley, Coughlin, etc. were often the centerpiece of Trickey's deeper insights into the case. Certainly adds credence to Trickey's claims to McHenry. Fascinating stuff.

The October 10th debacle seems to be a clear case of the top dog (aka Boston Globe) being so desperate to 'stay on top', that they forgot the terms.....'journalistic integrity' and 'quality control'.

It is a curious thing how and when Trickey died trying to board that train in Ontario.

Witness Statements – Officer Harrington
Page 23.
(McHenry) “Trickey, you must have a step on Seaver, getting information in this case while you were in Fall River.” (Trickey) “No, Mr. Seaver only gave me the ground work every day to go do. For instance, he would say, today the ax is the principal subject. The next day, the tip would be the bottle of acid, and so on. It is true he gave me such tips every day I saw him, but he did not give me everything; that is, he would not give me the whole subject. He would merely hint at the subject and then I would go to work. I get the most of my information indirectly from Harrington and Doherty. The prussic acid story I got indirectly from them through a friend of theirs to whom I gave $25. The party to whom I gave up the $25. is a policeman on the inside.”
Page 24.
(McHenry) “How about Medley?”
(Trickey) “Oh, pshaw, he is cheap. I got him anytime for a couple of beers. He is the cheapest chump of them all.” (McHenry) “Well, how about the Mayor?”
(Trickey) “He was one of my best friends. I got a great deal from him. He is a dandy for staying up nights. I tell you he gave me lots of good news.

[Kat]

You have good ideas and really interesting opinions, but I cringe around this topic.
That debacle was pretty bad, but as serious students or researchers of this crime, I suppose, we are owed an explanation. Then when we come across these really weird headlines we'll know whence they came. [Lizzie Pregnant? Name the Man!- unbelievable and salacious! ]

There is a book that we have, called 100 Years of the Boston Globe, and straight from the organization’s mouthpiece we have a many-paged history included in the tome that covers the subject. And Yes, it is indeed amazing they survived as a business!

Here is a part of the section I had typed for the Forum we had back in 2001. I checked our archive here, but Stef only saved from 2002. Luckily I saved a bit of the Forum from earlier. I am about to inundate you all with many pages, but it’s a good resource for future.
This is their official story and they’re stickin’ to it!

BTW: please remember, even Lizzie’s Lawyer Jenning’s sidekick Arthur Phillips, got Borden case bits wrong in his retelling and he was there, and Louis Lyons wasn’t, and was writing in 1971.["Erma" ="Abby" for instance]

100 Years of the Boston Globe"

By kat on Sunday, 11/18/2001 - 06:23 am [Edit] [Reply] [Msg Link]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWSPAPER STORY, One Hundred Years of the Boston Globe, by Louis M. Lyons, Cambridge, Mass,. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
Section II - A Different Newspaper,
"The Globe and Lizzie Borden", pgs. 86- 97.

"The Globe celebrated it's twentieth anniversary year in 1892 with a special issue on May 1 that carried the largest volume of advertising, 183 columns, ever until then in a Boston newspaper. It exulted in the biggest circulation in New England. It had arrived.

But a few months later the Globe was lucky to escape ruination. The paper fell for a false story that purported to disclose the state's complete murder case against Lizzie Borden. It wrapped the double murder of her mother and father right around her neck. The "inside story," exploded by the Globe before Lizzie had been tried or even indicted, was exposed as false as soon as it was printed; it must have been the harried condition of the Borden lawyers, desperately seeking to contrive any plausible defense for Lizzie, that led them to settle for a complete retraction and apology.

But six weeks later the grand jury, in the same presentment that charged Lizzie with murder, indicted Globe reporter Henry Trickey for tampering with a witness. Trickey left town and was killed by a train in Canada two days later. This personal tragedy that resulted from the paper's appetite for solving murder mysteries makes the Lizzie Borden case a dramatic chapter of Globe history.

The Borden family lawyers had not yet in their extremity brought in the noted Boston trial lawyer George Robinson, former governor. Robinson's bill for the three-week trial the following June was $ 25,000. As governor, Robinson had appointed the trial judge who proved compliant to such vital defense motions as that all that part of the inquest testimony recording the several variants of Lizzie's story should be excluded, on the ground that Lizzie had not been formally arrested until after the inquest. Robinson also led the jury also to doubt the existence of the murder weapon. He won Lizzie's acquittal, though the verdict of colloquial history ran otherwise, as in childhood's rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

If the state could have proved that axe, it might have been a different story. …

… The double murder August 4 became of course a great sensation, then a deep mystery. Lizzie was the sole source of pertinent information. Her questioning, at first apologetic, then curious, gradually turned incredulous and then suspicious. The family lawyer, Andrew J. Jennings, had come over promptly out of sympathy. Police were stationed at the house at night. Neighbors and friends stayed with Lizzie in her room. It was only on the seventh day after the crimes that the mayor and district attorney agreed they would have to act. They informed lawyer Jennings and went to Lizzie, the mayor explaining that she was not under arrest but that they must formally take her testimony. This went on some days, privately, lawyer Jennings shown the transcript each day. Only on September 1 was Lizzie formally arrested and held for the Grand Jury, which didn't come in until November 15. She was indicted December 2 and trial was set for the following June.

The September 14 [sic, misprint or typo] arrest did not solve anything. Reporters continued to prowl about the mystery. Henry Trickey, whose meat was murder mysteries and who had to his credit a number of exploits in solving them, stayed on the case for the Globe. Like other reporters, he worked closely with the police and shrewdly gave them credit and publicity for their work. One of his police associates on the Borden case was a private detective, E. G. McHenry, who had been employed by the local authorities early in the case but not retained after Lizzie's arrest. One day Detective McHenry asked Trickey if he'd like to have the whole government case against Lizzie--for $ 1,000 ? McHenry said the city marshal had assigned him to make copies of affidavits of 25 witnesses who had been turned up since the inquest. He had copies and they made an airtight case.

Trickey gave McHenry the $ 30 he had on him and went back to Boston to get authority and funds to proceed. But when he returned McHenry had disappeared; he played cat-and-mouse with the reporter for a week, but then did produce a sheaf of papers, received $ 400, and got Trickey to agree to give him 24 hours' notice, so as to have a chance to cover his tracks, before publishing. But Trickey didn't trust the detective to protect his expensive scoop, and he must have rushed the story to print, for he failed to take elementary precautions to check names and addresses of McHenry's "witnesses" (who didn't exist)-- or even their street numbers, as lawyer Jenning's was quick to point out as soon as the Globe story appeared.

On Monday morning, October 10, the whole center of the Globe's front page was occupied with Trickey's great scoop.

"Lizzie Borden's Secret
Mr. Borden Discovered it and Hot Words Followed
Startling Testimony from 25 New Witnesses
Erma [sic-Abby] Was Killed During That Quarrel
Family Discord and Murder"

The story [that was written] was explicit:

'”The Globe is enabled to lay before it's readers not only every fact of importance now in the government's possession, but as well to describe how and by whom the information was secured by the patient and unceasing toil of the police... The evidence is forthcoming from 25 people, all of whom stand high in the community... and who have no motive of speaking maliciously about the defendant. Every statement of importance in the 20-odd affidavits now held by the government, which the Globe today publishes substantially in detail, is corroborated in a most convincing manner...”

The affidavits occupied a whole inside page. One neighbor was quoted as saying he saw Mr. Borden enter the house and at the same time saw a blind cautiously opened by a young woman in the bedroom where Mrs. Borden's body was later found. “The window was so situated that she must have been standing over the mutilated remains of her mother at the very time her father was about to enter the house.”

Other's “heard a scream” and saw Lizzie at the window, identifiable by a particular headdress familiar to her. A neighboring couple were quoted as having visited the Borden's the night before and overheard the father tell Lizzie he would give her one day to “name the man who got you in trouble or take the door on Saturday.”

The maid Bridget was quoted as saying that Lizzie told her she could have all the money she wanted if she didn't talk to the police. Other's told of Mr. Borden telling them of Lizzie's “secret.”A lawyer (a real lawyer) was quoted as saying Lizzie had consulted him about property rights under a will; this bit was probably true. Another testified the father had told him he was cutting Lizzie off in his will.

The story hadn't collapsed before a big play in the evening edition.

"Astounded
All New England Read the Story
Globes Were Bought By Thousands
Lizzie Borden Appears In New Light
Belief in her Innocence Shaken
Excitement Runs High In Fall River
Police Think the Scoop a Corker
Lawyer Jennings Says Lies Have Been Told
Doesn't Believe There is any Secret
Opinions on Spying by Detective McHenry"

But it was fraying around the edges. Even in that edition there was a small item, a telegram from police inspector H. C. Harrington: “Statement in today's Globe regarding what I said is false.”

Defense attorney Andrew J. Jennings gave the Associated Press a statement: “The matter published in a Boston paper relating to the Borden murders is a tissue of lies...” Jennings noted that “as to the purported witnesses, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Chase of 198 4th Street, there is no such number or any within 50 of it.” Of another witness he “can't find him in the directory nor anyone who ever heard of him.” The lawyer quoted, a Mr. Morse, said the whole thing was false.

Henry Trickey, back in Fall River, was discovering how dreadfully he had been had. He got hold of Detective McHenry, who claimed that he had used fictitious names but that all else was true.

But back at the Globe it was evident that McHenry's concoction wouldn't stand up. The Borden family doctor stated that Lizzie had no “secret.”

Tuesday morning the Globe was backtracking hard. They laid it onto McHenry and printed on the front page ”Henry Trickey's Statement” that related all his affair with the detective.

“Detective McHenry Talks
He furnished the Globe with the Borden Story
It has been proved wrong in some particulars
Globe Secures Best Detective Talent Available to Find the Murderer”

In this story McHenry was quoted as still asserting that the facts he had given were true but that “the names of witnesses were given wrong for obvious reasons.”

However, the Globe reported that the statement of Dr. Bowen as to Lizzie's physical condition convinced them that “in this respect at least, McHenry was wrong. The story may be wrong in some other minor particulars, but the weight of the evidence favors the main facts to be true.”

But this wouldn't stand up either. Lesser headlines told:
“Mr. Morse is Very Angry / He has commanded his lawyers to take steps at once to secure legal redress.”
Another headline was “Can't Find Witnesses / So Jennings is Not Convinced” and another “I Can't Believe It/ What Rev. A. E. Buck of Fall River Has To Say of the Case.”
What the family minister had to say was what everybody was saying by that time.

The Globe said it next edition. The center of the Tuesday evening front page retracted in bold face type under a top headline:

The Lizzie Borden Case

“...The Globe feels it its duty as an honest newspaper to state that it has been grievously misled in the Lizzie Borden case. It published on Monday a communication that it believed to be true evidence. Some of this remarkably ingenious and cunningly contrived story undoubtedly was based on true facts... The Globe believes however that much of it is false and never should have been published. The Globe being thus misled has innocently added to the terrible burdens of Miss Lizzie Borden...We hereby tender our heartfelt apology for the inhuman reflection on her honor as a woman and for any injustice the publication reflected on her... The same sincere apology applies to Mr. John V. Morse and any other persons to whom the publication did an injustice...”

This, incredibly enough, seems to have been enough to hold off any damage suits. Next day the Globe had a headline:

'
“Honest Amend / Globe Apology Pleased Its Readers / Regrets Spread Broadcast at Fall River / McHenry's Act Condemned by Fair-Minded Citizens.”
Its leading editorial repeated the apology and alibi.

The Globe of course was lucky to escape ruin from such a witches' broth. Why no suit was brought was perhaps explained by the obvious fact that the Borden attorneys had their hands more than full with the grand jury about to come in and the prospect of trial after that. They would have had their own reasons for not choosing to risk the further exposure of a libel case. And the whole area was full of sensational stories-- none such a whopper as the Globe's, but enough to keep defense counsel on edge.

The Globe suffered no setback. Within three weeks of its retraction of the Borden story it published the largest edition ever put out by an American newspaper, 627,270 copies the morning after the November election.

But three weeks after that the second blow fell. On December 2 Trickey was indicted for tampering with a witness, presumably Bridget, who may have testified concerning the concoction McHenry had sold Trickey that she had been approached to agree not to deny the story. But this is conjecture, for the case against Trickey for any crime greater than carelessness remains an even more impenetrable mystery than the case against Lizzie. The Trickey indictment was secret, and the Borden influence caused not only the inquest record but the grand jury record to disappear. Lawyer Jennings took all the defense records home with him after the trial and would never allow them to be seen.

The evening Globe December 2 recorded:

Lizzie Borden Indicted by Grand Jury
Second Indictment Found Was Kept Secret

“There is a second indictment which was kept a secret as the party indicted is not in custody... District Attorney Knowlton will neither admit nor deny that it relates to Mr. Trickey, but that is the impression at the courthouse.” The indictment story in the Globe next morning , Saturday, December 3, said:

“It is reported, on what seems indisputable authority, that Henry G. Trickey was the person named and that he is accused of tampering with a government witness.
Detective McHenry and his wife were heard by the Grand Jury on the conversation between Trickey and McHenry over the purchase of McHenry's story by Trickey. It is reported that another important witness was approached by Mr. Trickey, and that this witness was offered inducements to leave the country.
It was the aim of the State to show by pressing the case against Mr. Trickey, that the defense was the promoter and originator of the scheme to get at the evidence in McHenry's possession...”

That was Saturday. On Monday morning, December 5, the lead story in the Globe was:

Henry G. Trickey Dead
Tried to Board a Moving Train and Fell
Although Only 24 Years Old, His Life Was Most Eventful
The Globe Loses a Most Loyal and Devoted Member of its Staff

The Globe story was a combination report and obituary that eulogized Trickey, without mentioning the indictment. He was killed at Hamilton, Ontario, on Saturday, December 3, “on a business trip in the interests of the Globe. Being late, he attempted to board a western-bound train when he stumbled and fell under the wheels.” He was described as a generous nature with an impulsive spirit of tremendous loyalty-- “loyalty sometimes overran his caution but he was young and ambitious, enterprising... one of the hardest workers on assignment, with tireless energy and a keen appreciation of the values of news... No wonder that caution sometimes halted and the man erred. In this line (of crime investigation) he of course made mistakes and was sometimes the victim of those whose only purpose it was to mislead...”

Trickey's death opened the grand jury door enough for another story from Fall River next day, December 6:

“With the news of the death of Trickey several facts have come to the surface which put a different aspect on the circumstances surrounding the unreported indictment... Members of the grand jury admit that although he was nominally the person named as having been guilty of a breach of the law, he was not the central figure in this chapter of the Borden case. Government officials now admit that he was the victim of circumstances and that a trap that was set for him was intended to catch bigger game.

The district attorney has been anxious to have all the facts related to Trickey's indictment kept from the public since the news of his death... But they are known... The local papers devote considerable space to Trickey's connection with the case and his death... The Fall River Globe this evening states editorally that 'all who knew him ask that the public suspend judgement... He had his faults, but his mistakes were generally those of his judgement, not of the heart. They were the errors of one over zealous to do his entire duty. It is more than likely time will vindicate him. He proved himself to be impetuous to a fault, but while his methods of work may not have been wholly commendable, his cheery disposition and his fund of good nature made him generally popular with his fellow workers...'”

The Globe's blooper was one of the few stories hostile to Lizzie published at the time. The Fall River establishment quickly closed ranks to support the banker's daughter. Their influence was pervasive with the police and authorities, in the jail, at the court house, with the local newspapers. Lizzie was portrayed as a tragic victim of circumstances. Her arrest was resented. Women's orginizations all over the country expressed sentiments of consolation for her ordeal. Ministers prayed over her sad predicament. The prosecution became so unpopular that Attorney General Albert E. Pillsbury backed out of his role to lead in prosecution of a notable capital case. He assigned the Borden case to his assistant, William Moody, later U.S. attorney general and a Supreme Court justice. Most reporters appear to have been either pro-Lizzie or skeptical of the state's evidence. Joseph Howard, whose national syndicated column naturally moved to Fall River for the trial, was so partisan to Lizzie that she thanked him personally at her reception for the press when the trial ended. The Globe assigned a staff man, John Carberry, to the trial but of course featured Howard's articles.

The Lizzie Borden trial in 1893 must have been a bonanza to newspapers, as it became to whodunit writers ever after. It opened June 5 to the Globe headline
Life and Honor at Stake
Trial of Lizzie Borden for Double Murder Begins at New Bedford Today
“Demoniac Deed” was the front page head on Joseph Howard's opener while the jury was being selected.

On some days the testimony occupied seven pages of a 12-page Globe. It repeatedly took over the entire front page. Sketches sometimes eight columns wide portrayed the coutroom drama and identified all the personnel. One day a four-column sketch of Lizzie leaving the court took half the top of the front page; the paper then had seven columns to a page. One day the trial took 35 columns, another day 33.

The vertical headlines in those days were so detailed in their narrative as may well have saved all with weak eyes from the vast bulk of the minuscule type of the trial report.

June 7:
Bridget Tells
Her Doings on Day of Murder

June 8:
Under Fire
Bridget Sullivan on Stand
Her Story Occupies Several Hours

June 8, evening:
Lizzie's Mind Clouded
By Dosing with Morphine Before the Inquest
Alice Russell Tells of the Dress Burning
No Blood Stains Seen on Her

June 9:
Even Fight
Lizzie Borden is not Cast Down
Marshall Fleet and His Tale of a Hatchet
Found it in Tool Chest in Cellar
Thirty-six columns that day, on Lizzie's change of clothing, later burning of a dress, the police detective's finding of 'the murder weapon' hidden inside the locked house, and the controversy over it. That's a continuing story.

June 9:
Snarls in their Yarns
Police Contradict Former Sayings
One Didn't Think the Borden Hatchet Important
Officer Admits Inspection of the House was Careless

The defense clouded the issue of the hatchet enough so that the June 11 headline tells:
Defense in Good Humor
Contradictions by Officers Brighten Lizzie Borden's Chances

A new week opened Monday, June 12:
Day of Days
Mighty Questions to be Decided
Shall Inquest Testimony be Admitted?

The answer came next day:
Her Testimony Shut Out
Lizzie's Statements at the Inquest Cannot Be Used
Immensely Important Ruling
Prosecution is Finally Baffled in Attempt to Introduce the Record
Court's Reason That Defendant Spoke as One in Custody
Therefore Her Statement Was not Considered Voluntary
Damaging Statements Are Thus Excluded
There was hardly any other news in the 12-page paper that day.

June 14:
No Blood
Experts Yield No Clue to Crime
Spots on Axes Were Rust
Lizzie's Garments Pass the Ordeal
Joe Howard's story that day indicates the way things were going: “Howard Convinced that Guilt is Not Established.”

But there was still damaging testimony to come even after Lizzie's own contradictions of the inquest had been kept out.

June 14:
'You've Given Me Away'
Lizzie's Strange Words to her Sister in Police Station--Matron Testifies
For Two Hours Lizzie Would Not Talk Any More to Emma

June 15:
Even So
What if Lizzie Did Ask for Acid?
Defense Claims That Proves Nothing
State Says it Shows Murderous Intent
A druggist was prepared to testify that Lizzie had tried to buy prussic acid the day before the murders. But the defense persuaded the court to exclude this from the jury as irrelevant. The afternoon headline ended that move:
Prussic Acid Shut Out
Prosecutor Ends Case
Lawyer Jennings Opens Defense
Her Life History is Answer to Charge
Mysterious Stranger Now Recalled

Next day:
Borden Defense Rests
Emma Testifies She Advised Lizzie to Burn Dress
Paint-Soiled--Was Too Tight

June 17:
Hopeful
Lizzie's Counsel Sustained
Arguments Probably be Heard Monday

Sunday was a between day:
Guilty or Not?
Fate of Lizzie Borden in the Balance
Wherein Case Against Her is Weak

Tuesday, June 20, brought:
Last Words in the Great Trial
Ex-Gov. Robinson's Denial of Lizzie's Guilt Answered by Dist. Atty. Knowlton's Able Argument
The last words took 35 columns. But the end was near.

Wednesday, June 21:
Not Guilty
Decision Reached on First Ballot
Last Scene in the Great Borden Trial
Only some fringe advertising shared eight pages with the finale.

That afternoon the anti-climax:
Jurors Say
The Borden Case
Broke Down of Itself
Evidence of Defense Wasn't Needed

Next morning's paper concluded:
Her Old Home
Lizzie Borden Returns to it's Refuge
Her Future Uncertain
Church and Charity May Claim Her
Loyal Friends Firm in their Support
Search for the Guilty Will be Resumed

It never was.

Globe circulation averaged 198,000 for that year.
(end-p.97)

[Kat]

When Lyons’ script mentioned a September 14 arrest, I wasn’t sure so I checked the timeline- I believe the date to be September 1, and a possible numerical typo by moi, but she was not “arrested” Sept 1 (or 14th) as he notes, but rather bound over to the grand jury on that date at closing of the Preliminary Hearing.

Here is the Legal Chronology from LABVM/L:

AUG. 4, 1892 Murders of Andrew and Abby Borden

AUG. 6 Graveside Service

AUG. 6 Accusation Made By Mayor- Lizzie “suspect”

AUG. 8 Warrant Issued- not served

AUG. 9-11 INQUEST

AUG. 11 Lizzie Borden Arrested

AUG. 12 Arraigned- “probable cause”- pleaded “not guilty” – sent to Taunton

AUG. 25-SEPT. 1 PRELIMINARY HEARING

NOV. 7-21 GRAND JURY- Taunton (also heard other cases)

DEC. 1 GRAND JURY- reconvened (Alice Russell testimony)

DEC. 2 INDICTED

MAY 8, 1893 Arraigned- Superior Court- New Bedford

JUNE 5-20 TRIAL- acquittal

Link
https://lizzieandrewborden.com/chronolo ... nology.htm