Murder of Mary Rose Matthews

In late 1883 couple, Micheal and Maggie Cuddigan took in Mary Matthews. They adopted her from Denvers Catholic Orphan's Home. Mary's mother had died and her father put her in the home so she could be taken care of. The couple would take Mary from Denver, Colorado to their home in Ouray, Colorado. It was known by neighbors they did not treat the girl well.

On January 12, 1884, 10-year-old Mary was found crouched beside a haystack near the Cuddigan's home. She was underdressed for the cold and snowy weather. The Cuddigan's were notified and they brought the girl home. She would die a few hours later and with some secrecy the buried in a distant part of the ranch. They told people that she had accidentally fallen down the cellar steps and had died. 

Neighbors of the family were suspicious of them. They knew that the family treated the girl cruelly and combined with her sudden death and hurried burial suspicions grew. Neighbors would notify the coroner that they suspected that the foster parent's murdered Mary and her body was dug back up.

The autopsy showed that  Mary's body was covered in wounds. It was obvious the little girl was abused and overworked. She had cut marks all over her body from a knife, her leg was broken, her skull was fractured, her limbs seemed to have been frozen, she also had evidence of sexual abuse. It was believed the couple forced the girl to stay out in the snow as punishment.

When the Cuddigan's and Maggie's brother John Caroll was arrested. At the time of their arrest, the couple was preparing to leave the country. They were arrested along with the wife's brother John Caroll. The three of them would be kept temporarily at the Delmonico Hotel between 4th and 5th Ave.

 On Jan. 18th a lynch mob come for the trio. Michael outside city limits. Even though Maggie was pregnant she and her husband were lynched. He was hung from a tree and she from a ridgepole. They were going to hang John also but he told them he wasn't even there when the girl died and they released him. 

 People from the town were not angry about the lynching and thought the couple was deserving of it. Though Michael's brothers were said to be at the hotel and refused to stop the lynching and watched as the crowd of people took the couple away.

Their bodies were displayed in public view of the town. The bed that Mary used was also on public display which was four gunnysacks stitched together. The Cuddigan's were refused to be allowed to buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery and the local Catholic priest also refused to officiate the funerals even though he was against the lynching. No one wanted anything to do with the funeral and the coroner buried the couple on their ranch with the $240 Michael had in his pocket when he died. not one attended. Their money was left to their infant son who was taken care of by relatives.

Not only did the Cuddigan's bodies get displayed, but Mary's was also displayed in Denver. She was presented before the public to show how the young girl suffered before her death. thousands of people viewed her before her burial at the Denver cemetery.

The death date for Mary is wrong on Find a Grave. There were articles from Friday, Jan. 18th, 1884 stating the girl was dug back up and an autopsy was done on her body. It stated that she had died the Saturday before which would make it the 12th. 

Maggie was the first known woman to be lynched in Colorado. 

SOURCES

Find a Grave

Colorado  Encyclopedia

Bismarck Tribune Jan. 18, 1884

The Tennessean Jan. 22, 1884

The Linwood Leader Jan 24, 1884

Valley Falls Register Feb 1, 1884

Delta Chief Feb 6, 1884

The Alton Empire Feb. 7, 1884

Murder of Margaret Kottke

In 1918 6-year-old Margaret Kottke was sent to live with the Zimmermans a family who intended to adopt the young girl in Granville, North Dakota. Her father was a transient and her mother had her out of wedlock. When her mother married Mr. Kottke and they had children together Margaret was unwanted in the home. She would be passed around to relatives before going to the Zimmerman home.

A friend of Margaret's would witness the starving girl try to eat some spoiled cheese. In reaction, Mrs. Zimmerman hit the girl. They were cruel to the girl and she was starved. This resulted in her trying to survive on raw wheat.

On October 23, 1919, Zimmerman's asked others to help search for the 7-year-old girl. They claimed that they had not seen her in at least 8 hours and had searched for her in the night, but was unsuccessful. She was supposed to have driven the cattle to be milked. When Zimmerman walked past a straw stack with other's search he was quoted saying "something tells me we will find her in that straw stack." On it was Margaret's body and after they found her he stated, "I know you will blame me for this, and everybody will blame me."

When looking at the body they found her to be more decomposed than she should have been. Looking at her stomach would only find evidence of raw wheat. She also had evidence of bruises, but it was believed she had starved to death. She also had to of been placed in the straw stack sometime after her death as she had been dead for a day or two. 

Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman was then taken to trial. After the jury deliberated 30 minutes. The two were then sentenced 5 years.

SOURCES:
Grand Forks Herald Oct. 27, 1919
The Ward County Independent  Oct. 30, 1919

Grand Forks Herald Dec. 2, 1919

Grand Forks Herald December 31, 1919

The Ward County Jan 1, 1920

The Bismarck Tribune Jan. 3, 1920

Grand Forks Herald Jan. 6, 1920

The Bismarck Tribune Jan. 6, 1920

The Ward County Independent Jan 8, 1920

The Bismarck Tribune Jan. 9, 1920

Women of the Northern Plains

Murder of Nathaniel Sewell

12/13-year-old Nathaniel Sewell was sent over from England to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1643. He was to be an apprentice to William Franklin. William Franklin was cruel to the young boy. He would beat, starve, and torture the young boy. He would be left outside wet during the winter and hanging him in the chimney.

When Nathaniel was dying William strapped him across a horse and would have him ride like that through five miles of winter weather. He would go in front of Magistrate saying the boy was a useless servant. It wouldn't state when, but Nathaniel would die in 1644.

He did not feel guilty about the boy's death and on the contrary, he felt enraged he was getting charged with it. His attitude towards the whole ordeal caused him to excommunicated from his church. He would go to trial in April of 1644. He would be convicted of wilful murder and sentenced to hang in June of 1644.


SOURCES;
Historic Ipswich 
The Daily News
Legal Execution in New England

Murder of Aurore Gagnon

On May 31, 1909 Aurore Gagnon was the second of five children farmer Télesphore Gagnon and his first wife Marie-Anne Caron. They were Roman Catholics living in Fortierville, Quebec, Canada. Marie-Anne was hospitalized in 1916 for tuberculosis. This would cause Télesphore's widowed cousin Marie-Anne Houde and her two sons to move into the home for help. On November 6, 1917, 2-year-old Joseph (the youngest) was found dead in his bed. This death was found to have been natural.

The children's mother soon followed suit on Jan. 23, 1918 and died of tuberculosis at the Beauport Asylum. In the following week, Marie-Anne Houde and Télesphore married. There was evidence of abuse against the children. At 10-years-old in September of 1919, Aurore had been hospitalized for more than a month with a severe leg infection caused by abuse.

The poor girl seemed to have been tortured by her stepmother. Her stepmother would then lie to her father and her father would also reprimand her. Her stepmother would torture the girl in various ways including being flogged, and at one point forced to eat toast with lye on it. She would also gag the girl, strip her down, tie her to a table and brand her with a hot iron poker. This would lead to the girl's death.

On Feb. 12, 1920, Andronique Lafond, a physician living in Saint-Jacques-de-Parisville (Parisville), who was called to the Gagnon home. Aurore was laying on the couch with a pillow on her head and a spread up over her neck. She was found to be in a coma state when he arrived. He noticed she was covered in wounds and she would then succumb to sepsis (blood poisoning) and exhaustion. Bloodstains were also said to have covered the room the child slept in. She had an autopsy and it was found that she had 54 wounds on her body and 50 of them from blunt instruments. 

The Couple was then put on trial. At the time Marie-Anne was also pregnant with twins There were numerous witnesses for the fatal abuse and this included Aurore's stepbrother and sister. 

Marie-Anne went to trial first on April 13 to 21. At trial, the fact that she was pregnant was used as a defense. They changed her plea to not guilty due to insanity. Claiming because her pregnancy caused her to act like this to the girl, Out of 8 physicians, only 2 agreed with the defense. Regardless she was found guilty and was sentenced to hang on October 1st. Her sentence was later changed to life in prison. In July of 1935, she was released, but on May 12 of the next year, she died from cancer in Montreal.

Télesphore Gagnon’s trial was also held at Quebec, April 23-28. He was found him guilty of involuntary homicide, or manslaughter, He was then sentenced life in prison, but after five years he was released and went back to his home village. In 1938 he would marry his third wife and die in 1961.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

The Gazzette 

The Gazzette

Dictionary of Canadian Biography