T H E S I N S O F N E W Y O R K
                     As  "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
                            By:   Edward  Van  Emery

                                       P A R T   I
             THE ORIGINAL POLICE GAZETTE  (1845)

                                      Chapter  5
                         The Merry Yuletide Murder
  Thrice Tried, Once Convicted, Polly Bodine escapes Gallows


1)   WHAT THE VIOLENTLY MORAL GAZETTE COULD DO WITH A GRISLY MURDER STORY.

      What a paper so strident of expression as the violently moral Gazette
could do with a really grisly murder story can be imagined. The P.G. of its
early days saw that its pages were never without a horrific murder and if
the country at large did not come up to expectations in this respect then
Messrs. Wilkes and Camp would turn to the journals of England, France or
Germany to provide such entertainment for their readers. The murder of
Adeline M. Spencer over in Jersey City by her husband, and the murder of
Maria Ann Bickford up in Boston by some other lady's husband, each provided
ghastly perusal features in the late Forties.  However, we will take for our
subject a murder from earlier in the decade to which you are being carried,
and which, though it occurred almost two years before the Gazette came into
existence, still got plenty of attention from that paper as the accused,
Polly Bodine, was being tried for the third time as said Gazette started to
flourish. It was known as the "Staten Island Murder" and was harrowing and
mystifying in the extreme, the mystery being___how Polly Bodine came to
escape the gallows.

MURDER OF MRS. HOUSEMAN and CHILD, by POLLY BODINE
2)   THE  STATEN  ISLAND  MURDER

          A)  THREE  TIMES  TRIED

      This particular case had to do with the murder of Mrs. Emeline
Houseman and her infant child under conditions that brought many a shudder.
The alleged murderess was first tried on the 24th of June, 1844, in Richmond
County, Staten Island, where the crime was committed. Conviction failed when
one of the jurors stood out against the other eleven "because of his
personal opposition to capital punishment, though he subsequently confessed
to being convinced of her guilt." The second trial, held in New York, April,
1845, brought in a verdict of "guilty," but this conviction was rendered
void by adverse decision of the Supreme Court, which disputed the presiding
judge, John W. Edmonds, on a number of vital points. "When it was found
impossible to panel a full jury, since twelve men out of a community of
400,000 persons could not be found who had not already arrived in their own
mind as to the guilt of the prisoner, the venue was changed and the accused
stood trial for the third time in Poughkeepsie, in April, 1846."

         B)   THE  FACTS  IN  THE  CASE

      The facts in the case, as near as they were ever arrived at and as set
forth by the Gazette, were as follows:
          On Christmas Eve, 1843, while the tiny Staten island settlement
known as Granite Village was busy in its own modest and rural way of
spreading the spirit of "peace on earth, good will to man, the bodies of
Emeline Houseman and her babe were being butchered by an atrocious hand in
the little home on Staten Island." At Half-past nine the following evening
(Christmas night) the home of the Housemans was found to be on fire. The
merriment in the neighboring homes soon gave way to universal commotion as
the villagers hurriedly gathered to save the dwelling and its occupants. The
house was completely closed and ingress was had only with some difficulty,
and this was the sight, as pictured in the Gazette, that met the eye:

               Having extinguished the flames, they lifted the mass of ruins
formed by the smouldering bed, and there to their astonishment discovered
the charred remains of Mrs. Houseman and her infant. Every soul present
recoiled with a shudder of unmingled horror, and cause for the
non-appearance of the unfortunate woman during the day stood horribly
revealed. She had been murdered! There was a red mark around her neck;
around her wrists were the fragments of a handkerchief, which from the
position of her hands and knees, showed plainly that she had been bound to
her sacrifice. A part of her head had been burned away, and nearly all the
cranium of the child was consumed to its base; a fragment of the infant's
skull, with the scalp and hair attached, was found among the ruins, with the
blood on the inner side fresh, proving that the fire had been but the sequel
of the
               "Graceless action of some heavy hand."

          C)   THE  VICTIMS

      The victims of the tragedy were the wife and child of George W.
Houseman, a prosperous trader in oysters. His business had called him to
Virginia and it was early in December when he bade good-by to the loved ones
he was not to see in life again. For he did not return to Granite Village
until the day following the discovery of the murder. The finger of
suspicion, for various good reasons, never pointed to the husband. On the
way to his house of death, as he took passage from Pier 1, on the half-past
one boat for Staten Island, there came an accidental meeting that was
fraught with significance in the viewpoint of the Gazette.

           On this very boat, as accident would have it, the wifeless and
childless husband, met the woman (his sister, Polly Bodine) who was shortly
to be branded as the murderess. On seeing him she burst into a flood of
tears and touchingly bemoaned his sad misfortune; but Houseman, as if nature
instinctively refused the hollow offering, avoided her presence and sought a
refuge in solitude in the forward cabin.

          D)   VERDICT  OF  WILLFUL  MURDER  BY CORONER'S  JURY.

      Two days later, Thursday, the 28th, the Coroner's Jury brought in a
verdict of willful murder and a committee of investigation was appointed
from among  the inhabitants of the place. It was at first supposed that a
gang of murderers had descended upon the island, their cupidity incited by
the rumor that the sum of $1,000 was in the possession of Emeline Houseman.
This amount, which had been realized by Houseman just before the trip
referred to, came through the sale of a schooner, and it later turned out,
had been secretly placed in the safekeeping of his mother, who lived nearby.
So the only spoils that had come through this horrible deed was some jewelry
and personal effects of small value. This money, which had apparently cost
the bereaved husband the life of his wife and child, was offered by him as a
reward for the detection of the murderer, or murderers, and was accompanied
with a minute description of the stolen property.

          E)   SUSPICION  DIRECTED  TOWARD  POLLY  BODINE.

      It would seem only then that suspicion was first directed toward Polly
Bodine. She expressed herself in strange ways as being in opposition to the
offer of the reward, and she further attempted to pervert it by giving wrong
descriptions of the articles stolen until corrected by other members of the
family. How suspicion was still further fastened on Polly Bodine and how
these suspicions culminated in her arrest will be left to the Gazette to
relate. But first, for clearer understanding, a brief history of the alleged
murderess is in order.

3)   POLLY  BODINE

      Polly Bodine, at the time of the murder of her sister-in-law, was in
the middle thirties. At the age of fifteen she married one Andrew Bodine, by
whom she had two children, Eliza Ann, age fifteen, and Albert, slightly
older. The couple separated after about five years due to misconduct on the
part of the wife, and Bodine "became blunted in every moral sense and fell
in with a woman much of the same stamp as himself, named Simpson, whom he
married, despite the existing bonds with Polly." For this unlawful marriage
Bodine, one year before the Houseman murder, was sentenced to the State
Prison for two years. In the meanwhile, Polly, after some traveling about,
fell in with a man named Waite, an apothecary with a store at 252 Canal
Street, New York, and during this liaison, placed her son, Albert as a clerk
in the Waite store.

4)   ESTABLISHING  AN  ALIBI?

      On Friday, the reward was decided on, and the advertisement was sent
up to the city in time for the evening papers. From this moment Polly Bodine
seems to have lost the greatest portion of her self-command and in the
extremity of her uneasiness is known to have sent the following dispatch to
Waite, which was taken to the city by her son Albert.

          Mr. Waite, you can't imagine my troubles, as I slept with Emeline
last. I want you to get a soot of clothes and come to see me with Albert.
Close the store___you will be examined on my coming to New York on Monday.
You and Albert must say that Albert came to the ferry for me and I remained
with you all day, with the exception of going to Spring Street for about 10
or 15 minutes to get a basket mended, went out the next morning about the
same length of time, was going to stay some days, but her brother-in-law
came to let her know about accident. I and my son returned to the island
immediately, you will be treated well. We are all worn out with
examinations. Your store and all is going to be searched and other places.
Hide the things I left and put them where they cannot be found. If (writing
obliterated for half a line) should ask (another obliteration) your house,
say no.

5)   WHAT  TOOK  PLACE  ON  DECEMBER  24?

      Going back to Sunday, December 24, we find that Miss Matilda O'Rourke
visited the deceased at her house, left on 5 o'clock of that afternoon, when
Polly Bodine came in for the evening, and for the purpose of sleeping with
her sister-in-law, Houseman having arranged with his mother that his wife
should be left alone in the house at night as little as possible, Emeline
being of timid disposition. Miss O'Rourke testified that when she left the
house Mrs. Houseman put away the silver spoons, the sugar tongs, her gold
watch, and also observed around the child's neck, the coral beads and clasp,
which were afterwards pawned, with other things (and by one recognized as
Polly Bodine), on the very day the murder was discovered.
      After having gone over to Mrs. Houseman's house as above described,
Polly Bodine did not return home until six o'clock of the following morning
Monday, when she was let in by her mother. Early that morning, Christmas,
she journeyed to New York and went to Waite's store, where young Albert
Bodine was gotten rid of on some pretense for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Polly Bodine, after leaving the store on Canal Street two or three times,
departed with the announcement that she was going to sleep for the night at
the house of a Mrs. Strang.

6)   WHAT  OCCURRED DURING  POLLY'S  ABSENCES FROM  THE  WAITE  STORE?

      We must now go back for an hour or two for the purpose of inquiring
what took place during the periods of Polly's absences from the Waite store;
and the while the bodies of Emeline Houseman and her child lay butchered in
that silent noiseless house on Staten Island.

      A)   THE  MYSTERIOUS  WOMAN  AT THE  PAWN  SHOP.

          During the period of this absence a woman dressed in a cloak, hood
and veil, went to the pawnbroker's shop of A. Adolphus, at 332 William
Street, and offering a gold watch, wished to obtain a loan of $70. upon it.
Adolphus offered $35. and the woman agreed, received the money, and gave the
name of Henderson, of Bergen, N.J. It was the watch that had been given to
Emeline Houseman by her husband. We next find this same woman at the
pawnbroker's shop of John J. Levy, No. 32 East Broadway, where she pawned
the gold chain belonging to the same watch. She obtained a loan of $25, and
gave the name of Ellen Henderson, of Bergen, N.J.We find her also at the
pawnbroker's shop of Davis, in Chatham Street, where she pawned the silver
spoons which Miss O'Rourke had seen in the possession of the deceased; also
to Hart's, 27 Chatham Street, where more of the spoons were pawned and the
same name and address given. (Later, in three cases out of five, Polly
Bodine and Ellen Henderson were identified as one and the same person.) And
finally a woman visited the store of Thompson & Fisher, jewelers, No. 331
Broadway, and changed the earrings of the deceased, and the clasp of her
infant and a breast-pin, for a hair bracelet, and received 50 cents charge.

          B)   THE  DWELLING  OF  GEORGE  HOUSEMAN  ON  FIRE.

      Polly left Waite's on the eventful Christmas afternoon, to go as was
stated before to Mrs. Strang's, to sleep that night; but Mrs. Strang, who
lived at the time in Eighth Street testified that the accused did not sleep
there that night, and had not slept there in three or four years. Polly's
whereabouts, from the time of departure from Waite's house, on Christmas
afternoon, until the following morning, stands to this hour unaccounted for.
At half-past nine on that night the dwelling of George Houseman was
discovered to be on fire.

         C)   A  VIOLENT  DEATH  DISCOVERED.

      The fire was entirely confined to the corner in which the bed stood.
All of the witnesses who saw the fire swear that the fire appeared to be
under the bed. The post mortem examination by Drs. Harrison, Clarke and
Eadie proved conclusively that violence had been used previous to the fire.
The radius of the left arm was broken and the end of the fractured bone
charred, showing that the fire had been communicated subsequently through
the fracture. Near the fracture was a flesh wound an inch, or an inch and a
half in length, with extravasated blood, denoting that it must have been
inflicted previous to deth. The right wrist had a black silk handkerchief
bound tight around it, and was consumed to the knot. Other marks with the
position of the body, indicate a violent death. The front kitchen door was
found unfastened by the lock, bolt and bar which usually fastened it. As
John Thompson, a neighbor's boy, tried the door in the morning, and found it
fastened, it appears most certain, the person who fired the building entered
that way, and must have had the key.
         When was this horrid deed performed?
         Who did the deed?

7)   WHERE  WAS  POLLY  BODINE  WHEN  THIS  HORRIBLE  DEED  WAS  DONE?

      This question, from the circumstances which have been elicited,
connects itself with a further query____where was Polly Bodine when it was
done?  The last we have seen of her was on Christmas day afternoon about 4
o'clock. We next hear of her son on Tuesday morning between six and seven
o'clock after the fire at Staten Island, going on board of the boat to New
York (though she knew it did not start until eight). She then had something
to eat and took a seat in an obscure part of the cabin and never moved until
the boat reached New York. On the same boat was Mr. S.B. Freeman, on his way
to New York to find Polly Bodine and acquaint her with the murder. Neither
met the other during the trip and Freeman left his information at Waite's
store. A few minutes later Polly came in. She returned to Staten Island with
her son, Albert, on the half-past one o'clock boat. During the passage she
met her brother, George, under the circumstances already related.
      And it was during this passage that she turned over to Albert a newly
purchased hair bracelet with directions to give it to his sister, Eliza Ann.
But on arriving at Port Richmond Polly resumed possession of the hair
bracelet, and all trace of this damning piece of evidence was lost trace of
from then on.
      On the following Friday, the day on which the reward had been offered
for the discovery of the guilty, as she waited impatiently the coming of
Waite, Polly suddenly got up and departed from the house of her mother.
After she had been absent a short time, search was made for her high and
low. The house was ransacked, and even the well was looked into, on the
presumption that she had committed suicide, but the search was fruitless,
and the dreadful suspicion by her own family of her guilt stood half
confirmed.
      How and where she spent that dreadful night, no one but herself can
tell. She had on neither shawl nor hat when she left the room and her dress
was a thin one, and the night was freezing cold. But on the following
morning (Saturday, 30th) she again presented herself at the steamboat and
went by the first trip to the city.
      In the meanwhile Waite came out on the first boat that same morning in
company with the boy. After remaining on the island for a few hours and
evincing marked uneasiness at Polly's sudden disappearance, Waite set out to
return to his place of business, but was placed under arrest on board of the
boat and taken into custody. On searching him, the letter from Polly Bodine
was found. This letter changed every doubt of her guilt, and the cry was up
for Polly Bodine. The officers went first to Waite's house, arriving there
between six and seven o'clock that evening  and found the bird flown, though
the bed was still warm.

8)   THE  ARREST  OF  POLLY  BODINE.

      The following noon she was accosted on Spring Street near Hudson by a
Mr. Coddington, who recognized her, and called her attention to the fact
that he had read a notice in the Herald that her arrest was desired. She
told Coddington she had not eaten or had sleep for many hours, had walked
over the city from Harlem back. Doddington took her to the house of Alderman
Vandervoort, and after a short stay she was driven to the Tombs in a
carriage. The same day she was taken to Staten Island and consigned to
Richmond County Prison.

9)   HOW DID POLLY BODINE ESCAPE THE GALLOWS?

      In face of all this evidence, how did Polly Bodine escape the gallows?
Was this one more miscarriage of justice?
      The facts against her were certainly most damning in contrast to those
which saved her.
      Judge Barculo, who charged the jury in the final trial___the one in
which she gained her freedom___stressed this point: If the murder was
committed on Christmas, when Polly Bodine stayed in the Houseman dwelling,
then the presumption must be almost irresistible, that she was the one who
had committed the deed.
      Against this fact, three witnesses, who could observe the house of
murder from their own windows, testified that they saw some woman whom they
presumed to be Emeline Houseman at work on her porch during the afternoon of
Christmas Day.
      No stress seemed to be placed on the fact that the stolen jewelry and
silverware, which was being pawned that day in New York, would have been a
sufficient excuse for Emeline Houseman to raise an alarm if she was still
alive at the time, since she would almost surely have discovered the
disappearance of her valuables.
      The identification of Polly Bodine by the pawnbrokers as the one who
disposed of the stolen jewelry was deservedly a weak point against her. The
mode of identification adopted by the prosecution was irregular,
particularly in view of the fact that a reward of $1,000. was practically on
the head of the accused. The three witnesses who identified Polly Bodine as
one and the same person were taken to the prison room in which she was
confined alone, instead of having her picked out from among a number of
persons.
      No significance, in this trial where Polly Bodine fared best, was
seemingly attached to the disappearance of the hair bracelet which she
retook from her son on the boat trip from New York to Staten Island.

10)   WHAT  JUDGE  BARCULO'S  CHARGE  HAD  TO  SAY:

           The prisoner does not attempt to prove where she was on that
night. She told her son, Albert, that she was going to stay with an
acquaintance in the city, but it is proved she did not do so. Why she told
this falsehood does not appear, except that her counsel attempts to explain
it by saying she slept at Waite's that night and did not wish Albert to know
it. It is submitted to you, however, to say whether this explanation is
satisfactory, when Albert expressly swears he slept with Waite in the same
bed that night.

      Needless to say, the escape of Polly Bodine brought its meed of
vitriolic comment from the astounded Gazette. A two-column editorial paid
its respects to the "blockheads of a sheriff's panel and the drivelers of
the bench." It was inclined to take the case as another evidence of
increasing opposition to capital punishment and added with a note of
hopelessness:

          We must have a reform and that right speedily, or the community
must resign themselves to a state of things which will outhorror the darkest
ages of crime.....The verdict of NOT  GUILTY in this case, it is needless to
say, has been received with mingled sensations of horror and indignation but
little short of those excited on the first discovery of the crime. Every man
and woman feels it, and the cheeks which blanched at the original recital of
the barbarous deed, now kindle with indignation that the ghosts of the
butchered innocents must forever wander unavenged.


QUEENS OF THE LOBBY
Fascinating sirens who captivate susceptible statesmen by feminine 
blandishments and manipulate legislative jobs successfully for wealthy
corporations, where "bar'ls"of greenbacks prove unavailing - Curious
wire-pulling behind the scenes at Albany that explain the secrets of many
little operations that puzzle the tax-paying public of the Empire State.

Sins of New York
As "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
By Edward Van Every
Publisher:  Frederick A. Stokes Company--New York
Copyright: 1930  3 Printings  October 15, October 23 and October 30.

Prepared and Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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