IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE


    “A man named Peter Yates in Pitts town, who on the night of December 4, 1781, murdered his wife and four children with an ax, the eldest six years of age and the youngest a suckling child. He likewise killed his two horses, his cow and his dog, which was all the living creatures he had about his house.”- Governor George Clinton Papers

     From the testimony of most of the witnesses Jack and Dunning might as well be referred to as Drunk and Stupid. Was Jack Hodges always drunk? Was Dunning more clever and cunning than anyone gives him credit for? Or was he actually mentally impaired? These broad strokes do little to hide the implied classism, and racism of the time. I don’t think Dunning was crazy or stupid, just poor, uneducated and definitely unlucky. And Jack? That’s still a mystery. 
     With Dunning, an insanity plea was a nonissue. He may have been illiterate, but not crazy. This was years before not guilty by reason of insanity had even been attempted at trial in the United States. Dunning’s lack of education and social status was used (as it always is), to disparage and marginalize.  Lawyer Jonas Storey tried his best to overcome these obstacles. The tenant farmer was portrayed in the press as ignorant white trash, Jack was a “drunken negro,” and Hannah Teed was looked on as a loose, promiscuous, and pregnant slut; while Conklin and James Teed were depicted as “upstanding citizens,” unfortunately gone astray. Just like the “rabble and negro,” they would also have to pay a heavy price for their sins. 
     These simplistic characterizations allowed the press, judiciary and pulpit to pass judgement on all five in the conspiracy, unencumbered by the compassion they would usually have shown to one of their own. Neither race, nor even class, seemed to factor into the sentencing. Putting aside Hannah Teed, there would be no mercy shown any of the men, regardless of social stature. David Dunning would also be found guilty of capital murder. The verdicts were across the board- Guilty! They all would hang. Democracy in action.
    
Edward Ely sworn
By Mr. Price:

Q. Was Jack Hodges ever convicted of stealing?
A. I find on my docket that Jack Hodges was convicted of stealing to the value of $2.50 and fined $15 in Oct. 1815.

   In anyone’s personal history you are the movable pin in the course of events.  Are you at the apex, the basal, or clinging onto the periphery? It’s in the telling of the narrative. In this regard, Jack was a master. He could be “Jack- nothing but a poor, ignorant, drunk negro….”, right here. Or the cooly direct, “I spoke the truth. My conscience is at ease on the subject,” over there. Or even the pandering flatterer, filling the pastors’ heads with just what they wanted to hear. Jack was convincing with any of these personas, as the sword swung from a single hair.  
    Confident he knew exactly how long he had to live, a calm descended on Jack Hodges. He became more at ease, even philosophical, regarding his fate. The “gory head” of Dick Jennings was fading deeper into the scenery. Revs. Fisk and Cadle were proud of their doomed novitiate. He seemed at peace, ambivalent to impending death. Jack, Dunning, Conklin, and Teed all belonged to that rarefied club of the condemned, vacillating between philosophical calm, and gut-wrenching terror.    
      Just in case Jack Hodges had been lying the whole time, or expecting intervention from some unknown quarter, Judge William W. Van Ness had one last piece of advice. 

    “Jack, you have been convicted of the murder of Richard Jennings,” the Judge warned, “and I wish you now explicitly to understand, that there is not the most remote probability of your escaping the punishment due to that crime. In the course of your examination you have implicated other persons, three of whom have already been tried and convicted….. If from any motive whatever, you have been induced to give a false statement of the transaction, or to implicate persons not concerned, your guilt will be awfully increased, and your prospect in the world to come will be infinitely worse than in the world you are about to leave.” Jack stood mute.

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