CLEWS The Historic True Crime Blog

The Mysterious Death of Lieutenant Sutton

A new book that blends the genres of military history and true crime might sound vaguely familiar, for there have been so many cases like it. When military recruits mysteriously die, particularly when they do so on the grounds of one of the country's most prestigious military academies, people tend to take notice of it.

When a Marine Corps officer in training at Annapolis, James Nuttle Sutton Jr., turned up dead, the military at first tried to cover it up, declaring his death a suicide, ignoring evidence that it may have been one in a string of fatal hazing cases or a brawl over a girl.

But the handsome engineering student with a history of "melancholia" appeared to his mother and sister in dreams - "inexplicable visions." Strangely, by several accounts, these visions began before the military even notified the family of his death. In these curious dreams, the tragic lieutenant's figure insisted (to his devoutly Catholic family) that he did not commit suicide.  The family was able to raise enough questions to get his case reopened.

The investigation wound up on the front page of all the newspapers - a cover-up exposed. The article at right is from a 1909 edition of the Nebraska State Journal (copyright expired).

The new book out about this case is  A Soul on Trial: A Marine Corps Mystery at the Turn of the Twentieth Century [Amazon; B&N] by Robin R. Cutler. The author's devotion to the story is evident on every page, reflecting an uncommon depth of research. The book is filled with numerous photos. Near the end of the tale, the author reveals a personal connection that give the story an extra supernatural dimension.

Links in the Theme

CLEWS received an honorable mention in the "tabloid edition" of the latest History Carnival, which is chock full of so many interesting links that it's kept me busy for hours.

Robert Waters continues to post thoughful essays on his blog Kidnapping, Murder & Mayhem. (I've added the link in the column at right under "Interesting Sites & Blogs.") Lately he's been posting interesting book reviews and essays about murder ballads. One of these days I hope to run into Robert at a booksigning event at the Jesse James Farm in Missouri in the not-too-distant future when our books are side-by-side on the bookshelf there.

Meanwhile, I appreciated his take on The Executioner's Song (though I happen to have liked it very much): "I closed [it] long before the final page and never re-opened it. The simple fact is that Mailer hated Mormons and kept intruding into the story with asides and obvious references to the supposed vagaries of their religion. Had I wanted to read an expose’ of the Mormons, I would have bought a book on the subject."

Leopold & Loeb Redux A pair of theater productions - one of them a musical - about Chicago's infamous pair of thrill killers  inspired a long review in 'The Simon' that critic Matt Sigl filled with French, German, and obscure references, calling one play "a witch’s brew of thrill killing, homoeroticism, Nietzschean philosophy, and bourgeoisie excess." I love reviews of historic true crime productions that require several dictionaries to fully comprehend. Near the close is this insight: "After 84 years, perhaps it is time to close the book on the pair lest our own baser interests get the better of us. Curiosity about the abstruse but all-too comprehensible connection between genius and madness will never abate the species as long as the more mysterious workings of our minds remain so murky and inaccessible. The abiding fascination with the fictional Hannibal Lecter is testimony to that."

Links in the Theme

DNA Solves a Mystery from 1987 A co-ed was cruelly murdered near Bowling Green State University in Ohio 21 years ago. Now DNA has cracked the case - and exonerated a long-time suspect.

Orlando Crime Blog Orlando, Florida may be the tourism capital of the Sunshine State, but it is experiencing an alarming crime wave. The criminal justice reporter for the Orlando Sentinel has started an online Homicide Report. It includes a "Murder Map" with a shocking number of red dots scattered all over it. Reporter Willoughby Mariano remarks: "Since I started this blog, I've received a lot of messages from readers who want to get out of town because of the growing violence. At first, I had trouble taking most of them seriously.... Looking back, I was a fool...."

D.B. Cooper's Parachute? The New York Times has the skinny (though Steve Huff was there yesterday).

Inside BTK's Mind A cognitive-behavioral therapist who read Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer [Amazon; B&N] by John Douglas gave it an enthusiastic recommendation: "This book makes it quite clear that Dennis Lynn Rader was a self-made man." The review points out that a profiler wrote an eerily accurate analysis of BTK nine months before he was identified (and once again Steve Huff was there months before the arrest with his own spot-on take as well).

Truman Capote's Russian Fans enjoyed a piece I wrote in which I tried to bring him down a peg or two. The site is fun to navigate blind and translate; click on the links at left and you'll eventually find a nice photo gallery.

Lifetime's Green River Killer Movie The two-part dramatization airs at the end of this month (Sunday, 3/30 and Monday, 3/31). Meanwhile, photos and details are here. It's based on David Reichert's Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer [Amazon; B&N].

Postscript I finally subb'ed that photo of me in an ugly old sock cap for a more recent picture. The photographer offered to airbrush my face to get rid of my wrinkles! After scraping my self-esteem off the floor of his studio, I told him I rather like my wrinkles, thank you.

What I'm reading in the theme....

The description of crime is always interesting, no matter when it occurred. We still read about Cain and Abel. In fact, many recent crimes are too well known to us through newspapers.

- True Detective Mysteries, 1939

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Corey Mitchell has a new Blood of the Scribe column on true crime.

Steve Huff has a column on the Caffey Family Murders. Call me a contrarian, but it's cases like this that make me wonder whether the Jeffrey MacDonald case was correctly decided.

Smoote v. James Daniel Smoote's newly rediscovered 1870 civil lawsuit against Frank and Jesse James has been posted on the ABA Journal website. Imagine being the deputy assigned to serve a complaint at the James Farm! The Journal also posted an article on the suit:  The Lawyer Who Took on Jesse James... And Won. For more on the suit see this clew.

Wayne Williams - "A political prisoner" It's not hard to find someone who will call the conviction of Wayne Williams "a modern-day lynching." He is incarcerated for two of the thirty-one murders attributed to the Atlanta Child Killer. The DNA results that would conclusively state whether Wayne Williams was indeed the terror of Atlanta have been pending for nearly a year now. I wrote a note to a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution to ask what's up. Good question, came the reply.

Is He Getting Away With Parricide? Author / expert Dr. David Kirschner has made a study of adoptees who commit parricide. He wrote a recent column on the Crime Magazine website that corrects some bad journalism on the case of Martin Tankleff (Wikipedia), recently freed from prison. Tankleff was convicted of killing his adoptive parents. His sister thinks he's guilty; some have doubts. Kirschner relies on his experience to form a definite opinion on the question. How strange that Amy "Long Island Lolita" Fisher has weighed in with her opinion. One has to wonder why this would be thought helpful to the defense.

Controversy resolved: Napoleon wasn't poisoned

We can scratch one popular conspiracy theory. Napoleon wasn't murdered with arsenic.

Not that many historians thought he was, but it's fun to contemplate alternate endings, and once in a while one can find a Bonaparte biography that embraces the murder theory. Not any more.

As Reuters is reporting, Italian researchers can now demonstrate that arsenic poisoning did not end Napoleon's exile. He died of stomach cancer after all.

The Rock Lives

It hurts the historian in me to relay it. The most infamous prison in the history of the United States nearly fell to a wrecking ball. Fortunately 72 percent of the residents of San Francisco voted against a proposal to tear down Alcatraz and put up a global peace center. Apparently thousands of tourists every day aren't enough for some people.

Privately quips one of my favorite crime historians: "It was a crackpot idea anyway, the product of 'New Age' charlatan/wannabe 'shamans' and airhead yuppies. Destroying Alcatraz would be as stupid and destructive as demolishing the Alamo, turning Gettysburg into an amusement park, or fixing the crack in the Liberty Bell."

Methinks this proposal will forever die. Make history on your own island.

For more -

Reuters

Alcatraz History

At In Cold Blog...

... I've posted an essay today to address something that's bepestered me about the media coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy. It's Seung-Hui Cho's Collateral Damage.

A pair of prison diaries

I wish I had been a better brother and all that a brother means. You have been all that a sister could be and much more than I deserve. Tho I haven't always lived as I should, I shall at least try to die as I should.

- Chester Gillette's last letter to his sister on the eve of his execution

Once in a while a library or museum somewhere will announce the acquisition of a little gem of particular interest to true crime buffs. A favorite are previously unpublished diaries, and two prison diaries have recently surfaced.

One is by Mattie "Agate Eyes" Howard, a Kansas City Gun Girl who rammed the roads with bank robbers until she wound up being convicted of murder and spending her youth in the Big House, where she kept a diary. Eventually she became a Pentecostal evangelist. That diary popped up for sale on ebay last year, but at too high a price for takers. The diary is now at the University of Kansas.

Likewise Chester Gillette's diary was recently acquired by Hamilton College in upstate New York. For a century it was in the possession of his sister's family, who donated it last year. (The photo above is Chester's notebook.)

Author Craig Brandon, who has written two books about the case (Murder in the Adirondacks : An American Tragedy Revisited and Grace Brown's Love Letters), has already written The Prison Diary and Letters of Chester Gillette: September 18, 1907 through March 30, 1908 with Jack Sherman. Students of the case are expressing their admiration for the new book.

The diary alas contains no confession. Unfortunately it seems that Chester entirely avoided the one question uppermost on everyone's mind: did he do it? In avoiding the question, he seems to answer it. For more on the Chester Gillette case, see 'The murder will never die'.

Links

Miss America Interviews The Author of The Hillside Strangler....

Yes, it's a non-fiction story. Author Ted Schwarz recently wrote an essay on his most interesting interviews as a true crime writer - as interviewee on a book tour. He was quizzed on air many years ago by Phyllis George - that's a link to her Wikipedia entry; skip to the part about CBS Morning News; true crime reporting at its worst.

Author Schwarz's account of her interview with him is good for another "wow." He writes --

Phyllis walked in late, dressed in an obviously expensive yellow suit and seemingly more concerned with making an entrance than taping the show. Stopping in the middle of the set, she held out her arms and said, "Now don't tell me I look like a fresh breath of springtime!"

It gets better from there.

I Didn't Say It... But it's being said: "Capote, even in true-crime mode, could be awfully purple, and some of the dialogue he attributes to the townsfolk is undoubtedly his own...."

....more Clews coming soon....

D.B. and Links

D.B. Cooper, Latest Headlines The Independent explains why a hijacking in 1971 is back in the headlines, if you haven't already heard. D.B. Cooper again. If I didn't have two little ones, I'd already have my backpack stuffed with gear and I'd be relishing the crisp air and rugged terrain of Washington State's Cascade Mountains on the lookout for greenbacks and bones. Here are the official FBI files for all you other sleuths.

A Recent Favorite Time-Waster is Prairie Ghosts, a true crime / strange tales magazine. It tends toward the woo-woo effects, but I liked its summary of the Belle Gunness story. "Come prepared to stay forever" indeed.

Cold Leftover Stuffing Now that Court TV is defunct, so is the blog Court TV Informer. It looks like the staff got a little loopy at the end. One should not blog just after the office Christmas-slash-goodbye party.

Finally...

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