100 years ago in the Saratogian
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1918
One day after the U.S. declared war on Germany, an argument about the war led to the fatal shooting of a Mechanicville man. The shooter goes on trial today in a Ballston Spa courtroom.
Dennis H. Nolan, a former policeman, is charged with second-degree murder. His victim, Michael Haggerty, died on April 13 of a gunshot wound to the abdomen sustained during a scuffle on the bridge across Tenendaho Creek, near Jeremiah Lynch’s Saratoga Avenue saloon. Defense attorneys Moore & McGinnity represent the defendant.
Lynch is the only eyewitness to the shooting. On the witness stand today he tells district attorney Charles B. Andrus a different story from what was reported in The Saratogian and other papers last year.
According to Lynch, Haggerty and Nolan had been drinking together from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on April 7. After they went into a back room, Lynch heard a “row” break out. In the room, he found Nolan on the floor and Haggerty in a chair, though it’s unclear whether Nolan fell down or was knocked down. Either way, Lynch treated Nolan as the instigator and threw him out, telling him to “beat it and not come back.”
Nolan returned a short time later, telling Lynch, “You are harboring a German spy and I’m going to get him. I’ll shoot him through the window.” Lynch testifies that something “glittered” in Nolan’s hand.
According to initial reports, Lynch shooed Nolan away again and decided to escort Haggerty home, but Nolan intercepted them on the bridge. Today, Lynch testifies that he was conducting Nolan across the bridge to get him away from Haggerty when Haggerty suddenly ran at them, grabbing Nolan’s hand and punching him in the face.
“Nolan fell to his knees and Haggerty pushed him over against the guard rail of the bridge,” the testimony resumes, “Lynch seized at Nolan to keep him from going over the rail, and then he saw a flash and the bullet whizzed past him.”
Lynch recalls Haggerty saying, “You got me,” and Nolan responding, “You’re damn right I’ve got you.”
While Lynch is the trial’s star witness, other witnesses “were very indefinite as to what was said” by Nolan and Haggerty. Today’s testimony creates enough uncertainty to downgrade the charge against Nolan. After four hours of testimony and more than five hours of deliberations, the jury finds Nolan guilty of first-degree manslaughter.
Next up for county court is the manslaughter trial of Pearl Marcellus, the 17 year old Rock City Falls girl who fatally shot a would-be suitor on November 1.