Murder of Thomas Turbeville

On Friday, April 28, 1732, between 7 and 8 p.m. Thomas Turbeville was murdered in his Carpenter Shop in the County of Gloucester, England. He had been beaten to death upon the face with a broad Axe. At the time he was a widower and living alone he was not found till the next day. The Axe was found lying by his body.

A Weaver of the same town was last seen with Thomas. He had followed Thomas to his home and Thomas wasn't seen afterward. The Weaver was committed to Gloucester Castel and was later executed. His name was not mentioned in the article.

I could only find one article on this case.

SOURCES:
The Derby Mercury
The Pennsylvania Gazette 

Murder of Naomi Wise

Many don't realize that many Murder Ballads are based on actual murders. The Ballad of Omie Wise is based on the murder of a young woman in Randolph County, North Carolina.

Naomi was born in 1789 and was orphaned. When she was a child she was taken in by the family of William Adams. She had to earn her stay by working in the home for the family. Regardless the family treated her great and as if she was a part of the family.

She had grown up to become a dark-haired beauty. Soon enough a young man became infatuated with 18/19-year-old Naomi. His name was Johnathan Lewis and he was seemingly a nice man from a prominent family in the area.

It was believed that the two soon fell in love, but there were some complications.

Because he was from a prominent family his family was against the two being in a relationship. His mother wanted him to marry a girl from another prominent family in the area. The one she had in mind was young Hettie Elliot.

It was believed that Johnathan didn't love Hettie like he did Naomi. He seemed to have more love for that Hettie's money, status, and family connections. Not for who she was. He wanted to appease his parents and planned to marry Hettie.

Naomi believed that he was being forced to marry another. That he didn't want it as much as she did. This may have been true, but it was a more appealing lifestyle than to be with Naomi.

In 1808 Johnathan promised Naomi that they would instead run away with each other. Naomi may have been pregnant at the time and believed that they were going to raise a family together. He told her that he was going to defy his family's wishes and instead be happy with her.

Which was far from the truth.

The night they planned to run away Naomi felt uneasy after she arrived. She thought it was strange they were going to get married at night. They were supposed to go to Asheboro to get married, but instead, he leads her to the river.

Naomi afraid told him they were going the wrong way. He admitted to her his plans. He knew he couldn't bear to not have Naomi as a wife and it would be painful seeing her. He didn't want anything to ruin the intended marriage with Hettie.

Naomi begged him not to kill her. He struggled as he held her down in the river. He eventually pulled her dress over her head and drowned her.

A local woman had heard Naomi's screams and had her boys go and check it out. Johnathan was gone by the time they got to the river, and the boys didn't see Naomi in the water. The next day a search party was conducted. She was found in the water with bruises on her neck.

Johnathan was arrested for the crime, but not prosecuted. There wasn't enough evidence to definitively say it was him who killed her. He didn't marry Hettie and was free for many years. He ended up getting really ill and returned to his father's home to die.

It's said he made a deathbed confession to his father that he did, in fact, kill her. It's the only assumption that Johnathan Lewis killed Naomi. Most of what had happened that night had been theorized.

Naomi's tragic death will always be remembered through the song.

SOURCES:
https://archive.org/stream/storyofnaomiwise00rota/storyofnaomiwise00rota_djvu.txt
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15846775/naomi-wise
https://web.archive.org/web/20051027223818/http://www.itpi.dpi.state.nc.us/counties/Randol/Randlph/nwise.html
http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2009/09/naomi-wise_05.html

Murder of Vera Schneider

Late April 24, 1920, 21-year-old Anson Best and 19-year-old Vera Schneider would meet in Pontiac, Michigan. They would walk around downtown. They would go and sit on a porch to an empty house. In the early morning the next day. Anson would then strangle Vera with two handkerchiefs tied together. He had wiped the blood from her mouth and went to the river to wash his hands. 

He would then return to the scene. By this time police had already stumbled across her body. 

To the police was obvious that whoever had done it had tried to wipe away the blood coming from Vera's mouth and stepped on a splotch of blood. This would lead the police to use bloodhound to lead them to the river where Anson washed his hands. The man who saw him came washing his hands came forward with their information. The description match Anson who was at the scene.

Anson was soon identified as the man washing his hands and taken in by police. He would soon confess that he only killed her because she asked him to do it. 

He said that the night started with her talking to him. She had asked him to take a walk downtown. She seemed down about something and he told her not to worry about it. When they got to the empty house on the sidewalk she was killed at she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.  He states that she asked him to kill her. 

He said that she pulled out his handkerchiefs and tied them together. She then tied around her neck, but it wouldn't choke her. He sais that she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him and said goodbye. He said that she wanted to kill her so he pulled it tight around her neck. He said when he was strangling her she didn't kick at first, but towards the end, she kicked her feet a little.  

On May 7th the jury would find him guilty. He would be sentenced to life in prison. 

SOURCES:
The Boston Globe April 28, 1920
Fall River Daily News April 29, 1920
The Boston Globe May 8, 1920
The Sacramento Bee May 8, 1920
Virginia Chronicle May 23, 1920
The Logan County News July 8, 1920