DEATH OF THE BOGAN


“…when the condemned culprit is an acquaintance, a neighbor, perhaps a friend, or relative, it must convey anguish to the bosom too severe for description, and excite a pang of distress in the most insensible heart.”- The Report of the Trials of the Murderers of Richard jennings

Samuel Wilken sworn
By Atty. Gen. M.Van Buren:

Q. What inducement could the prisoner [Jack Hodges] have, to murder Mr. Jennings?
A.  He has stated to me he was bred a sailor, and had acquired habits of intemperance; after the wishes of Conklin and Teed had been known to him continually in a besotted state, for a considerable length of time previous to the event, he had been solicited and hired, and finally was overpersuaded to commit the deed, but did not consent till a short time previous to the murder.  

     At any time, a man or woman may want to kill another. It’s human nature—another one of those universals. Usually, it’s that person closest to the murderer; the neighbor over the fence, the man across the road, the family member sitting on the couch. I want to kill that person. I must kill him (or her). I can freely admit to that. Murder is intimate. But nine times out of ten the feeling passes, cooler heads prevail, and everybody goes home in one piece. It’s only when the small poisonous group gathers, apart from the community, amplifying the hatred, that events become so unwieldy. Minds keep changing, and in the course of time, changing minds change other’s. Add to that a lot of booze, jealousy, maybe just a pinch of sexual tension, and that warm kitchen can get downright torrid.
    In the morning, Jack found a second jug of whiskey waiting for him on the kitchen table. Hannah was already at church. Jack stretched out his legs, leaning back in James Teed’s favorite chair. The house was quiet. Through the window he could see Charlie bobbing up and down as the boy worked his way up the creek bed, waving his omnipresent stick. The Teed girls were still asleep in the other room. Jack sat by himself in the kitchen, tracing his finger nail absentmindedly across the table top. Sweet…. He thought, surveying the room, enjoying the stinging burn of the booze, bathing in the lingering smell of Hannah, ….sweet. But was it worth killing for?
    In the telling of the tale, Jack Hodges said he resisted the murder, over and over; tried to make Hannah see her way clear to spare old Dick—she being a pious woman of the faith. But Hannah held steadfast. “The old villain been the ruin of us!”  Hannah insisted. The miserable man had to go. Jack pleaded with Hannah to reconsider. “Pleaded….” he told the jury. Tempted by money, liquor, and the coercion of a promiscuous woman, whose opinion he so admired, Jack felt he had no choice but to comply. That’s one explanation.  
      James Teed knew he could conveniently get out of town, allowing the crime to unfold in-absentia. He prayed that his properly primed wife could be trusted to push Jack in the right direction. So when Jack showed up at the Teed house that Saturday morning, and found the man who’d promised him “400 or 500 or 1000 dollars,” to help kill old Dick, missing, Jack thought the whole thing had been called off. Instead, finding Hannah already half-drunk, alone, a warm fire in the stove, and breakfast on the table, with a full jug pushed in front of him, he wasn’t too disappointed. Maybe they would forget about it, let old Dick live, he thought, stashing Conklin’s loaded gun behind the front door, and hanging the powder horn and shot bag from a peg on the wall.

Jack Hodges sworn
By Atty. Gen. Martin Van Buren:

Q. Did you go to Teed’s house on Saturday?
A. I left home with Conklin’s gun, sun about an hour high, and arrived at Teed’s at about 8 o’clock. I was informed by Mrs. Teed that he had gone to NY and that she expected him back on Tues. I told her that I was sorry, as I wanted to see him. She said that Mr. Teed was sorry to go away, but that he had left a jug of spirits for me; that I must help myself to as much as I wanted, as he had got it on purpose for me. I took about a gill.
Q. Was it not understood that Teed should help you?
A. I understood it so. I asked Mrs. Teed if she knew what I had come for? She said that Mr. Teed had told her of it, and left the jug of whiskey there on purpose for me. I then asked Mrs. Teed if it was necessary that I should destroy Mr. Jennings? She answered it was; for the old villain had been the ruin of her and her family.
Q. Did Mrs. Teed say anything more concerning the murder of Mr. Jennings?
A. She did not that night.
Q. Where did you sleep?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EPILOGUE

COUNTING CHRISTIAN TEARS

THE DISSOLUTE SEAMAN