Murder at Cherry Hill
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2013) ) |
The Murder at Cherry Hill occurred in 1827 near
Known at the time as the Strang-Whipple case, the murder and subsequent trial revealed much about the society of the time. It touched upon important issues of the day such as women's roles and legal rights, social class, punishment and the law, and slavery in New York.
Background
Jesse Strang, of
Strang met Elsie Whipple in a bar in Albany. Elsie was the daughter of Abraham Lansing and Elsie Van Rensselaer and wife of John Whipple. Strang fell in love with Elsie and took a job as a
Murder
Elsie decided that the best thing for them to do was to kill John and run away. Elsie conspired with a reluctant Jesse to poison John's tea with arsenic so they could elope, but their attempt failed.
John Whipple became suspicious and kept a loaded gun. In May 1827, Elsie stole the bullet and gave it to Strang, and once more insisted that Strang kill her husband. Strang climbed onto the roof of the shed one night and used his $15 rifle to shoot and kill Whipple. Strang then immediately ran towards a local store to secure an alibi for the police. He then returned to Cherry Hill and helped a doctor remove the bullet from Whipple's body.
Later, however, the police ruled that he could have traveled the mile from Cherry Hill to the store and detained Whipple on suspicion of the murder. Upon capture, a fearful Strang, hoping for a lighter sentence, confessed and blamed Elsie for conception of the plan. This led to the incarceration of Elsie. Whenever they communicated in jail, Elsie reminded him that had he not confessed, the two might have gotten off scot-free in Montreal, as they had been planning to escape there.
Trial
Believing Elsie would be given a lighter sentence as she was a woman, Jesse asked his lawyer, Calvin Pepper, to plant documents at Cherry Hill incriminating Elsie as the mastermind behind the plan as he had burned the letters she sent him. Pepper refused and told him he would not receive a lighter sentence whatever he did.
As Jesse suspected, Elsie was said to be the victim. In truth, the rifle had been bought with her money, she removed the curtain in John's room so Jesse could shoot and she was the one who could poison John's tea.
At Strang's
Three days after Strang's trial, Elsie Whipple stood trial for
Execution
On August 24, 1827, Jesse Strang was hanged in the last public hanging in Albany. Most of the elite in Albany lauded this as justice served. Elsie continued to live at Cherry Hill.
The murder and the stir it caused, not only Albany, but also the entire nation, and the verdict, were highly debated.
Bibliography
Moore, Sean (2004). Husband Murder. Retrieved April 27, 2007, from Husband Murder, Seduction, and Female Violence Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20060908094723/http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/sean.moore/Chapter%204-Extract%20from%20dissertation.htm
Parker, E Retrieved May 3, 2007, Web site: http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9612c&L=aejmc&P=936
Jones, Louis (1980). Murder at Cherry Hill: The Strang-Whipple Case, 1827. Historic Cherry Hill.
Whodunnit teaches history. (1991, January 13). Sunday Union,
Selections from a Van Rensselaer family library. (1768).
Visited Cherry Hill, April 27, 2007.
Quote from Edward Livingston, District Attorney.
Quote from Judge Duer
Saw gravestone of John Whipple, Albany Rural Cemetery
(2005, July). Retrieved May 17, 2007, from Elsie Van Rensselaer Lansing Web site: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/vr/elvr5078.html