SHOCKED 19TH CENTURY U.S.
BELLA ANDERSON, AKA CARRIE JONES
Bella Anderson, born in 1877 in Co Mayo, emigrated with her family to New Jersey when she was nine. She called herself Carrie Jones.
Bella found work for the Clarke family in New York, and in May 1899, took their baby daughter Marion to Central Park for a walk.
Neither Bella nor Marion returned home, and a note was brought to the Clarkes, promising their daughter would be returned if the case was not brought to the police.
It later transpired that Bella had been working with
George and Addie Barrow, who planned to hold Marion for ransom. Bella and
Addie took Marion from
Central Park to Brooklyn, where they spent a night, before leaving for the country. Detectives, journalists and sheriffs were involved in finding Marion, who, after 11 days, was eventually spotted by a postmistress. Bella Anderson was found in June in New Jersey, hiding in her aunt’s farmhouse. She made a full confession to the kidnapping. Bella, Addie and George were tried in New York. Bella admitted her guilt and testified against the Barrows, asking for mercy on the grounds of her age. She was found guilty of kidnapping and sentenced to four years in Auburn Prison,
INVESTIGATORS: Elaine McCormick and Leanne Farrell
the lightest of the three sentences. She served three years, and likely reverted to a pseudonym upon her release.
LIZZIE HALLIDAY, AKA ‘THE WORST WOMAN IN THE WORLD’ (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Halliday was born Elizabeth McNally in Belfast, around 1864. She emigrated to New York with her parents in 1867.
In September 1893, Lizzie was arrested for the murder of her husband Paul Halliday, as well as mother and teenage daughter Margaret and Sarah Jane McQuillan.
Police found the three bodies had been shot at close range. Paul was buried beneath the floorboards.
Lizzie had criminal convictions for insurance fraud and arson, and her past two husbands had died mysteriously shortly after marrying her. She had served time in Middletown State Hospital after being judged mentally ill.
In her trial for murder, Lizzy’s defence pleaded she was mentally ill. However, because her crimes had been so well planned, it was decided her mind was sound.
In June 1894, Lizzie was sentenced to death by electricity, the first woman to receive the sentence in the United States.
Lizzie’s defence council appealed and she was subsequently declared insane, and jailed for life in a criminal asylum. While there, Lizzie and another inmate attacked an attendant.
Ten years later, she stabbed her nurse Nellie Wicks 200 times with a pair of scissors. She stayed there until her death in 1918.
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