A Murdering Rogue in My Family Tree

August 5, 1895 in Buffalo, New York was a typically hot summer day. George Greenless, my 1st cousin 3 times removed, was estranged at this time from his wife, Ella 'Nellie' Misener. Hoping to find her at home with her parents, he entered their home and a shouting match ensued.

George then pulled a pistol and shot and killed his mother-in-law. Next he shot and wounded his sister-in-law's fiance Walter Flewell. Flewell later died of his injuries.

George's story is a convoluted one. He was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder in 1898 and sent to Auburn Prison in New York.

During his trial he became friendly with the warden of the jail where he was held. Later George's Canadian relatives came to New York to testify, and more lurid stories of George's erratic behaviour and mistreatment of his wife came out. A family witness stated that there was a great deal of insanity in the Greenlees family.

In 1909 he was sent to Sing-Sing Prison but was released on parole and married Rachel Roach in 1918 in Buffalo. In 1924 the courts granted George a pardon. He and Rachel had six children before his death in 1928.

His widow Rachel married another Sing-Sing inmate in 1932. William Leonard, her new husband, was sent to prison in 1903, served a short term before release but was back in Sing-Sing in 1904. Another short term resulted but once again he returned to Sing-Sing in 1908 sentenced to 2 to 4 years. I cannot read his crime in the records as the writing is challenging.

Newspapers are amazing, full of genealogy gold! You can try a 14 day free trial at Ancestry to search newspaper records.

M is for Murderer

 Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail
Saturday 09 July 1842

Olive Tree Genealogy is continuing a new Alphabet Genealogy series of blog posts. I'm not following the usual way of going A-Z surnames. Instead I will create a one word "tag". Then I will share an ancestor (mine, my husband's, an inlaw's or one of my children's) who fits the tag

Today's letter is M for Murderer. I don't have any murderers or ancestors who were murdered, in my family tree. But my husband does.

In September 1813, my husband's 5th great grandparents William and Mary Massey were murdered in their beds in Temple Carrick, Wicklow Ireland.

The burial registers have this note with their entry of burial on September 9th:

"Murdered in their bed, 8 children thus left orphans." 

Their murderer was never found, but rumours persisted that their son Edward (my husband's 4th great-grandfather) had killed them.

In 1842 Edward sued a man who continued to spread the gossip and accuse Edward of being a murderer. The courts found in Edward's favour. The mystery was never solved and to this day no one knows who murdered William and Mary.

Murder Most Foul - George Greenlees

August 5, 1895 in Buffalo, New York was a typically hot summer day. George Greenless, my 1st cousin 3 times removed, was estranged at this time from his wife, Ella 'Nellie' Misener. Hoping to find her at home with her parents, he entered their home and a shouting match ensued.

George then pulled a pistol and shot and killed his mother-in-law. Next he shot and wounded his sister-in-law's fiance Walter Flewell. Flewell later died of his injuries.

George's story is a convoluted one. He was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder in 1898 and sent to Auburn Prison in New York.

During his trial he became friendly with the warden of the jail where he was held. Later George's Canadian relatives came to New York to testify, and more lurid stories of George's erratic behaviour and mis-treatment of his wife came out. At one point a witness stated that there was a great deal of insanity in the Greenlees family.

In 1909 he was sent to Sing-Sing Prison but was released on parole and married Rachel Roach in 1918 in Buffalo. In 1924 the courts granted George a parden. He and Rachel had six children before his death in 1928.

His widow Rachel married another Sing-Sing inmate in 1932. William Leonard, her new husband, was sent to prison in 1903, served a short term before release but was back in Sing-Sing in 1904. Another short term resulted but once again he returned to Sing-Sing in 1908 sentenced to 2 to 4 years. I cannot read his crime in the records as the writing is challenging.

Newspapers are amazing, full of genealogy gold! I found dozens of newspaper articles about George on a Free Trial Newspaper Site

47 Year Old Mystery Solves Murder Victim's Identity

No. 537 grave marker in a potter’s field in Middletown, New York have held unidentified remains for 47 years. An article by Michael Wilson, states "A murdered drug dealer dressed as a man, had lovers of different genders and used several aliases, successfully concealing her identity even well past her death."

Who was the victim and how was her identity revealed? Her burial took place November 7, 1970, her body having been found two weeks earlier. She had no ID and was buried as an unknown person. Many years later, her fingerprints were run through a new database and were matched to a woman arrested several times in the 1960s in Harlem.

I won' t spoil the fascinating tale of how the New York Times solved the mystery using census records, police records and more.  Read the full story in Solved: The 47-Year Mystery of a Murder Victim’s Many Identities

Skull Reunited With Body of Girl Murdered in 1887

Not Mary's actual skull

Almost 130 years after Mary Tuplin was murdered, a ceremony has been held to reunite her head with her body. As bizarre as this sounds, the skull of the pregnant 17 year old Prince Edward Island woman had been separated from her skeleton body for forensic examination and was never reunited. It remained in the coroner's office over the years and eventually a local family took it home where it remained.

The murdered girl's body was discovered in the Southwest River on July 4, 1887, just a short distance from where she lived with her parents in Margate. She had been shot twice in the head and dumped in the river, her body weighted down with a heavy stone.
 
William Millman, 20, was convicted of the murder and hanged, despite the jury’s recommendation for mercy. Many local islanders believe he was innocent and the story is still told on the island.

A service was held on August 21 at the United Church cemetery in Margate, P.E.I., where Mary's skull was buried with the rest of her remains.

Read more at  Skull of murdered P.E.I. teen finally reunited with her body after 129 years 
and Mary Pickering Tuplin, 1887 murder victim, properly laid to rest

You can also read the full text of "Verbatim report of the Millman-Tuplin murder trial [microform] : Supreme Court, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 1888"

Irish Immigrant Murdered in USA 1832, Goes Back to Ireland for Reburial

In 1832 the widowed 29-year old Catharine Burns left Tyrone Ireland for America. 

A few weeks after her arrival she was murdered along with  other Irish Catholics at Duffy's Cut in Pennsylvania. 

Many of the dead died of cholera but evidence suggests that some were murdered. Blunt force trauma and axe wounds were determined to be the murder victims cause of death.

Prejudice against the Irish may have been the cause of the attacks.

Catharine's bones were recently discovered and she will be flown back to Ireland for reburial. Sadly her relatives have not been found and all that is known of her is that her father-in-law was John Burns, born circa 1758. He was on the ship with Catharine heading for America in 1832.

Read more on BBC News at Duffy's Cut: Irish emigrants' plight highlighted as murder victim returned home

What's Black and White and "RED" All Over?

What's Black and White and "RED" All Over? A Newspaper! 

Of course you knew the answer but did you know how much fun historic newspapers are and what great stories you can find about an ancestor? Sometimes you find an obituary or a bankruptcy notice. Other times you find a lurid story of death and deceit. 

Leamington Spa Courier - Friday 17 March 1905

 As genealogists we love those exciting bits of news, so much so that I often think we lose sight of the humanity attached to the story. I try hard not to forget about the sorrow, the pain and yes the joy experienced by the ancestors I read about in newspapers. But it is easy to forget they were just like us and felt the same emotions we do. 

Yesterday I found a newspaper article from 1905 about the death of a friend's ancestor. I was pretty excited because the headline was "FATAL FALL" and the very first sentence began with  

"Richard Booker was indicted for feloniously killing and slaying Frederick Mustin...."

Leamington Spa Courier - Friday 17 March 1905

A murder! Wow. Who doesn't want an ancestor who was murdered? Or better yet, was a murderer? As I read on, my initial reaction of excitement changed to  disappointment. It turns out that Frederick, 84 years old, was arguing with Richard, a much younger man. When Frederick raised his crutch to threaten Richard, Richard pushed him away and Frederick fell. And that was it. The verdict was that Frederick died of a heart attack, no doubt brought on by the excitement and commotion of the argument. After a trial Richard was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter. 
And thus what I hoped was a lurid story was simply a story of two men arguing and a sad accident leading to the death of one of them. I hadn't given one thought to Frederick's daughter who was in the house at the time. What would her reaction have been to the sounds of the argument and the sight of her father lying dead on the sofa? And what about Richard Booker? How did he feel? According to the newspaper story he was quite distraught over what had happened.

What other family did Frederick leave behind? How were they affected by his death? These are the questions I try to ask myself when I find a newspaper story about an ancestor. It is too easy to get caught up in the "the more lurid the better!" mentality of genealogy research.

I suspect that our fascination with the lurid, the dramatic and the unusual is due to the very nature of genealogy research. It's essentially a dry study - full of names and dates and a few essential facts but with no real substance.  Rarely do we get a sense of the person behind the name attached to birth, marriage and death dates. Were they a good person or a nasty bit of goods? Would we like them? It's not easy to learn the character and personality of an ancestor from the ordinary events of life. So finding a newspaper article with something exciting and out of the ordinary is a way of not only putting meat on those bones but also of perking us up and bringing some excitement to what otherwise can feel at times like drudgery. 

Don't get me wrong - I love researching my ancestors! I have been hooked since I was 14 years old. I love the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the chase and the joy at finding one tiny little tidbit of information. But let's face it, it can get tedious looking at frame after frame or page after page or hunting for days, weeks, months and years for one fact. 

But I do think we need to remember that our ancestors lived, laughed, cried and loved just as we do. So the next time you find an exciting and dramatic event in your ancestor's life, take a minute to reflect on how it affected that person and everyone who loved them. 

And if you aren't subscribed to any historic Newspaper sites you might want to think about asking for a subscription to one for Christmas. You never know what you might find.