Murder of Mary Ellen Kearney

In 1866 19-year-old Mary Ellen Kearney and 21-year-old John Moran were seeing each other. Her father had learned of John's bad character and was refusing to let the two see each other. He forbid John from their home in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

It had turned out that Mary Ellen went to see John at his cottage the week before March 19, 1866. He wasn't home and while waiting for him she read a letter on the table. The letter was from a man named Mallory in Philadelphia who wrote to John telling him that the man they had garroted died from their injuries.

When he came home he asked her if she had read the letter. She admitted she did. She told him that she hoped he wasn't guilty of the crime and didn't get an answer. He snatched the letter from her hands and threw it into the fire. The two then went out on a walk. When they got to spot he threatened her with a revolver he had with him. He forced her to take an oath to not tell anyone of the letter's contents. She did and went home.

Fearing for her life and knowing that the oath was not binding she admitted of the contents of the letter and that John threatened to kill her on March 18th. At the time John was working at Grover and Baker's Machine Shop near her home.

On the 19th He came to Mary Ellen's home. John knocked on a window and called out to her to talk to him. She did so and when she opened the door he shot her. She staggered to the kitchen door and screamed "Oh Aunt I am Killed" as she fell to the floor. The ball came through her left side through her heart and out the right. It had killed her almost instantly.

John was already been gone by the time the physician came. On March 23rd he turned himself in to the police. He refused to answer questions. On May 24th the trial began. He was supposed to be hanged on Jan. 25, 1867, but his time was then commuted in early January to life in prison.

SOURCES:
The New England Farmer  March 14, 1866
The Daily Evening Express  March 23, 1866 (part 1)
The Daily Evening Express  March 23, 1866 (part 2)
Lewiston Gazzette March 28, 1866
The Pittsburgh Daily Post May 25, 1866
Harrisburg Telegraph- Jan 11, 1867
Intelligencer Journal -Jan 12, 1867