Mary Cecilia Rogers, also known as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl," was a 19th-century murder victim whose story became a national sensation and was fictionalized most notably by Edgar Allan Poe as "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842).
Background
Mary Rogers was probably born in 1820 in Lyme, Connecticut, though her birth records have not survived.[1] Her father died in a steamboat explosion when she was 17 and she took a job as a clerk in a tobacco shop owned by John Anderson in New York City.[2] Anderson paid her a generous wage in part because her physical attractiveness brought in many customers. One customer wrote that he spent an entire afternoon at the store only to exchange "teasing glances" with her. Another admirer published a poem in the New York Herald referring to her heaven-like smile and her star-like eyes.[3] Some of her customers included notable literary figures James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, and Fitz-Greene Halleck.[4]
First disappearance
On October 5, 1838, the New York Sun reported that "Miss Mary Cecilia Rogers" had disappeared from her home.[2] Her mother Phoebe said she found a suicide note which the local coroner analyzed and said revealed a "fixed and unalterable determination to destroy herself".[5] The next day, however, the Times and Commercial Intelligence reported that the disappearance was a hoax and that Rogers only went to visit a friend in Brooklyn.[2] The Sun had previously run a story known as the Great Moon Hoax in 1835, causing a stir.[6] Some suggested this return was actually the hoax, evidenced by Rogers's failure to return to work immediately. When she finally resumed working at the tobacco shop, one newspaper suggested the whole event was a publicity stunt overseen by Anderson.[7]
Murder
On July 25, 1841, Rogers told her fiancé Daniel Payne that she would be visiting her aunt and other family members.[8] Three days later, on July 28, police found her body floating in the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.[9] Referred to as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl", the mystery of her death was sensationalized in newspapers and received national attention. The details surrounding the case suggested she was murdered. Months later, the inquest still ongoing, her fiancé was found dead, an act of suicide. By his side, a remorseful note and an empty bottle of poison were found.
The story, heavily covered by the press, also emphasized the ineptitude and corruption in the city's watchmen system of law enforcement.[10] At the time, New York City's population of 320,000 was served by an archaic force, consisting of one night watch, one hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables, and fifty-one police officers.[11]
The popular theory was that Rogers was a victim of gang violence.[12] In November 1842, Frederica Loss came forward and swore that Rogers's death was the result of a failed abortion attempt. Police refused to believe her story and the case remained unsolved.[8] Interest in the story waned nine weeks later when the press picked up on a different murder.[13]
In fiction
Rogers' story was fictionalized most notably by Edgar Allan Poe as "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842). The action of the story was relocated to Paris and the victim's body found in the Seine.[12] Poe presented the story as a sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), commonly considered the first modern detective story, and included its main character C. Auguste Dupin. As Poe wrote in a letter: "under the pretense of showing how Dupin... unravelled the mystery of Marie's assassination, I, in fact, enter into a very rigorous analysis of the real tragedy in New York."[14] In the story, Dupin suggests several possible solutions but never actually names the murderer.[15]
References
1.^ Stashower, Daniel (2006). The Beautiful Cigar Girl. New York: PenguinBooks. pp. 20. ISBN 052594981X.
2.^ Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z (Paperback ed. ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 212. ISBN 081604161X.
3.^ Stashower, Daniel (2006). The Beautiful Cigar Girl. New York: PenguinBooks. pp. 22. ISBN 052594981X.
4.^ McNamara, Joseph. The Justice Story: True Tales of Murder, Mystery, Mayhem. Sports Publishing LLC, 2000: 99. ISBN 1582612854
5.^ Stashower, Daniel (2006). The Beautiful Cigar Girl. New York: PenguinBooks. pp. 22–23. ISBN 052594981X.
6.^ Maliszewski, Paul. "Paper Moon", Wilson Quarterly. Winter 2005. p. 26
7.^ Stashower, Daniel (2006). The Beautiful Cigar Girl. New York: PenguinBooks. pp. 23. ISBN 052594981X.
8.^ Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z (Paperback ed. ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 213. ISBN 081604161X.
9.^ Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson (1987). The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. New York: G. K. Hall & Co. pp. 336–337. ISBN 0783814011.
10.^ Lardner, James, and Thomas Reppetto (2000). NYPD: A City and Its Police. Owl Books. pp. 18–21.
11.^ Lankevich, George L. (1998). American Metropolis: A History of New York City. NYU Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 0814751865.
12.^ Silverman, Kenneth (1991). Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance (Paperback ed. ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 205. ISBN 0060923318.
13.^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 183. ISBN 086576008X
14.^ Rosenheim, Shawn James (1997). The Cryptographic Imagination: Secret Writing from Edgar Poe to the Internet. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 68–69. ISBN 9780801853326.
15.^ Meyers, Jeffrey (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy (Paperback ed. ed.). New York: Cooper Square Press. pp. 135. ISBN 0815410387.
Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 13 December 1721) was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
Early life
The son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, Selkirk was born in 1676. In his youth he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition. Summoned on 27 August 1695 before the Kirk Session for his "undecent carriage" (indecent behaviour) in church, he "did not comper [appear], having gone away to þe [the] seas: this business is continued till his return"[sic].
At an early period he was engaged in buccaneer expeditions to the South Seas and in 1703 joined in with the expedition of famed privateer and explorer William Dampier. While Dampier was captain of the St. George, Selkirk served on the galley Cinque Ports, the St. George's companion, as a sailing master serving under Thomas Stradling.
Castaway
In October 1704, after the ships had parted ways because of a dispute between Stradling and Dampier, the Cinque Ports was brought by Stradling to the uninhabited archipelago of Juan Fernández off the coast of Chile for a mid-expedition restocking of supplies and fresh water. Selkirk had grave concerns by this time about the seaworthiness of this vessel (indeed, the Cinque Ports later foundered, losing most of its hands). He tried to convince some of his crewmates to desert with him, remaining on the island; he was counting on an impending visit by another ship. No one else agreed to come along with him. Stradling, who was tired of Selkirk's troublemaking, declared that he would grant him his wish and leave him alone on Juan Fernández. Selkirk promptly regretted his decision. He chased and called after the boat, to no avail. Selkirk lived the next four years and four months without any human company. All he had brought with him was a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible, some clothing and rope.
Life on the island
Hearing strange sounds from the inland, which he feared were dangerous beasts, Selkirk remained at first along the shoreline. During this time he ate shellfish and scanned the ocean daily for rescue, suffering all the while from loneliness, misery and remorse. Hordes of raucous sea lions, gathered on the beach for the mating season, eventually drove him to the island's interior. Once there, his way of life took a turn for the better. More foods were now available: feral goats – introduced by earlier sailors – provided him meat and milk, wild turnips, cabbage, and black pepper berries offered him variety and spice. Although rats would attack him at night, he was able, by domesticating and living near feral cats, to sleep soundly and in safety.
Selkirk proved resourceful in using equipment from the ship as well as materials that were native to the island. He built two huts[1] out of pimento trees. He used his musket to hunt goats and his knife to clean their carcasses. As his gunpowder dwindled, he had to chase prey on foot. During one such chase he was badly injured when he tumbled from a cliff, lying unconscious for about a day. (His prey had cushioned his fall, sparing him a broken back.)[2] He read from the Bible frequently, finding it a comfort to him in his condition and a mainstay for his English.
When Selkirk's clothes wore out, he made new garments from goatskin, using a nail for sewing. The lessons he had learned as a child from his father, a tanner, helped him greatly during his stay on the island. As his shoes became unusable, he had no need to make new ones, since his toughened, callused feet made protection unnecessary. He forged a new knife out of barrel rings left on the beach.
Two vessels had arrived and departed before his escape, but both of them were Spanish: as a Scotsman and privateer, he risked a terrible fate if captured. He hid himself from these crews at one point in a tree at the bottom of which some of the Spanish crews who were pursuing him urinated but did not discover him.[3]
His long-anticipated rescue occurred on 2 February 1709 by way of the Duke, a privateering ship piloted by the above-mentioned William Dampier. Selkirk was discovered by the Duke's captain, Woodes Rogers, who referred to him as Governor of the island. Now rescued, he was almost incoherent in his joy. The agile Selkirk, catching two or three goats a day, helped restore the health of Rogers' men. Rogers eventually made Selkirk his mate, giving him independent command of one of his ships. Rogers' A cruising voyage round the world: first to the South-Sea, thence to the East-Indies, and homewards by the Cape of Good Hope was published in 1712 and included an account of Selkirk's ordeal.
Journalist Richard Steele interviewed Selkirk about his adventures and wrote a much-read article about him in The Englishman.[4]
Early in 1717 Selkirk returned to Lower Largo but stayed only a few months. There he met Sophia Bruce, a sixteen-year-old dairymaid. They eloped to London but apparently did not marry. In March 1717 he again went off to sea. While on a visit to Plymouth, he married a widowed innkeeper. According to the ship's log, Selkirk died at 8 p.m. on 13 December 1721 while serving as a lieutenant on board the Royal ship Weymouth. He probably succumbed to the yellow fever which had devastated the voyage. He was buried at sea off the west coast of Africa.
Several people who spoke to Selkirk after his rescue (such as Captain Rogers and the journalist Steele) were impressed by the tranquillity of mind and vigour of the body that Selkirk had attained while on the island. Rogers stated that "one may see that Solitude and Retirement from the World is not such an unsufferable State of Life as most Men imagine, especially when People are fairly call'd or thrown into it unavoidably, as this Man was".[3] Steele noted that "This plain Man's Story is a memorable Example, that he is happiest who confines his Wants to natural Necessities; and he that goes further in his Desires, increases his Wants in Proportion to his Acquisitions."[4]
Commemoration
In 1863, the crew of HMS Topaze placed a bronze tablet on a spot called Selkirk's Lookout on a hill of the island in memory of his stay.[5] On 1 January 1966 Selkirk's island was officially renamed Robinson Crusoe Island. At the same time, the most western island of the Juan Fernández Islands was renamed Alejandro Selkirk Island although Selkirk probably never saw that island (97 miles west).
On 11 December 1885, after a speech by Lord Aberdeen, Lady Aberdeen unveiled a bronze statue and plaque of Alexander Selkirk outside a house on the site of Selkirk's original home on the Main Street of Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland. David Gillies of Cardy House, Lower Largo, a descendant of the Selkirks, donated the statue and T. Stuart Burnett ARAS designed it[6].
Archaeological finding of the camp of Selkirk
Around 2000, an expedition led by the Japanese Daisuke Takahashi, searching for Selkirk's camp on the island, found part of an early eighteenth (or late seventeenth) century nautical instrument that almost certainly belonged to Selkirk.[7]
Research by Dr. David Caldwell purports to have found his camp on the island.[8]
Selkirk in other literary works
William Cowper's The Solitude Of Alexander Selkirk is about the feelings of Alexander Selkirk as he lived all alone on the island. This poem gave rise to the common phrase "monarch of all I survey" via the verse:
I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
In Allan Cole and Chris Bunch's Sten science fiction series, Book Two, The Wolf Worlds, the Scottish character Alex bemoans their predicament after crash landing; 'A slackit way f'r a mon,' Alex mourned to himself. 'Ah dinnae ken Ah'd ever be Alex Selkirk.'
Selkirk is mentioned in Sailing Alone Around The World by Joshua Slocum. During his stay on the Juan Fernández Islands, Slocum runs across a marker commemorating Selkirk's stay.
Charles Dickens used Selkirk as a simile in Chapter Two of The Pickwick Papers: "Colonel Builder and Sir Thomas Clubber exchanged snuff–boxes, and looked very much like a pair of Alexander Selkirks — 'Monarchs of all they surveyed.'" This probably refers to William Cowper's poem.
In his poem "Inniskeen Road: July Evening", the poet Patrick Kavanagh likens his loneliness on the road to that of Selkirk:
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.
In Etiquette, one of W.S. Gilbert's Bab Ballads, Selkirk is used as a model for the English castaways:
These passengers, by reason of their clinging to a mast,
Upon a desert island were eventually cast.
They hunted for their meals, as Alexander Selkirk used,
But they couldn’t chat together – they had not been introduced.
Notes
1.^ Lloyd Parry, Richard (1 November 2008). "Dig finds camp of 'real Crusoe'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7703375.stm.
2.^ Rodgers, Woodes, Providence display’d, or a very surprising account of one, p. 6.
3.^ Rodgers, Woodes, A Cruising Voyage round the World Diary entry for Feb 2nd
4.^ Article, dated 1 December 1713.
5.^ Kraske (2005), p.100
6.^ Notable Dates in History by Scots Independent
7.^ "In an ill hour I went on board a ship bound for London". The Times (London). 17 September 2005. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1783811,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
8.^ Alleyne, Richard (30 October 2008). "Mystery of Alexander Selkirk, the real Robinson Crusoe, solved". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3286355/Mystery-of-Alexander-Selkirk-the-real-Robinson-Crusoe-solved.html. Retrieved 2008-10-30.
References
Selcraig, B. (July 2005). "The Real Robinson Crusoe". Smithsonian, p. 82-90.
Robert Kraske. (2005). Marooned: The Strange But True Adventures of Alexander Selkirk. Clarion Books. ISBN 0618568433.
Further reading
Diana Souhami, Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe, (2001) ISBN 0-15-100526-5
Daisuke Takahashi, In Search of Robinson Crusoe, (2002) ISBN 0-8154-1200-2
Evers, Marco (2009-02-06).
The Mary Celeste (often incorrectly referred to as Marie Celeste) was a brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered in December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned, despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time.
The fate of her crew has been the subject of much speculation. Theories range from alcoholic fumes, to underwater earthquakes, to waterspouts, to paranormal explanations involving extraterrestrial life, unidentified flying objects, sea monsters, and the phenomena of the Bermuda Triangle, although the Mary Celeste is not known to have sailed through the Bermuda Triangle area. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym in British culture for similar occurrences. It was discovered by David Morehouse
Later history and her end
James Winchester considered selling the Mary Celeste after the mysterious events for which she was now notable. His mind was made up when the vessel claimed the life of his father, Henry Winchester-Vinters, who drowned in an accident in Boston, Massachusetts when she was brought back to America. Winchester sold the Mary Celeste at an enormous loss. Over the next 13 years, the vessel changed hands 17 times. By then, the Mary Celeste was in very poor condition.
Her last captain and owner, identified as G. C. Parker, made no profit whatsoever and deliberately wrecked the Mary Celeste in an insurance fraud in the Caribbean Sea on January 3, 1885. She was loaded with an over-insured cargo of scrap, including boots and cat food. The plan did not work, as the ship failed to sink after having been run on Rochelais reef off the western coast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti and south of Gonâve Island,. Parker then tried to burn the wreck, but even after the fire the vessel remained intact, although the ship's log was destroyed along with Benjamin Briggs's prior entries in it.
Parker then filed an exorbitant insurance claim for a cargo that never existed; a subsequent insurance investigation revealed the fraud. Captain Parker was arrested, but died under unknown circumstances before his trial. The partially burnt hulk of the Mary Celeste was deemed beyond repair and she was left to eventually slip off the shoal and sink.
On August 9, 2001, an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis along with divers from the Nova Scotian company EcoNova announced that they had found the remains of the brigantine where Parker had wrecked her. Maritime archaeologist James P. Delgado identified the wreck as Mary Celeste based on a survey of the large bay and by analyzing vessel fastenings, ballast, timber, and evidence of the fire. This matched the wreck with historical accounts of Mary Celeste.
Other researchers have disputed Cussler's claim. The Caribbean is littered with thousands of wrecks, many similar to the Mary Celeste. Scott St. George of the Geological Survey of Canada and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona analyzed samples from wood fragments recovered from the site in an effort to reconstruct sufficient tree ring data for dating. Based on this, St. George believes the wood was cut from trees still living at least a decade after the Mary Celeste sank.
Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), more commonly known as "Leopold and Loeb," were two wealthy University of Chicago students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, and were sentenced to life imprisonment.[1]
The duo were motivated to murder Franks by their desire to commit a perfect crime. Once apprehended, Leopold and Loeb retained Clarence Darrow as counsel for the defense. Darrow’s summation in their trial is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment and retributive, as opposed to rehabilitative, penal systems.
Leopold and Loeb have been the inspiration for many works in film, theater and fiction, such as the 1929 play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film of the same name.
Motive
Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, believed themselves to be Nietzschean supermen who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder).[2] Before the murder, Leopold had written to Loeb: "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do."[3]
The two were exceptionally intelligent. Nathan Leopold was an intellectual prodigy who spoke his first words at the age of four months; he reportedly had an IQ of 200.[4] Leopold had already completed college, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and was attending law school at the University of Chicago.[2] He claimed to have studied 15 languages though he spoke only four,[5] and was an expert ornithologist. Loeb was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan, and planned to enter the University of Chicago Law School after taking some post-graduate courses.[2] Leopold planned to transfer to Harvard Law School in September, after taking a trip to Europe.
Leopold, Loeb and Franks lived in Kenwood, which was at the time a wealthy Jewish neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Loeb's father, Albert, began his career as a lawyer and became the vice president of Sears and Roebuck. Besides owning an impressive mansion in Kenwood, two blocks from the Leopold home, the Loeb family had a summer estate in Charlevoix, Michigan.
Leopold and Loeb met at the University of Chicago as teenagers. Leopold agreed to act as Loeb's accomplice.[6] Beginning with petty theft, the pair committed a series of more and more serious crimes, culminating in the murder.[2]
Timeline
Leopold and Loeb spent seven months planning the murder, working out a way to get ransom money with little or no risk of being caught.[7] On Wednesday, May 21, 1924, they put their plot into motion. The pair finally decided upon Bobby Franks (above with his father), a neighbor and extended relative of Loeb. They lured him into the passenger seat of their rented car, while one of them drove, and the other one, armed with the murder weapon, sat in the back. Either Loeb or Leopold first struck Franks with a chisel.[8] Leopold or Loeb then stuffed a sock into his mouth, and Franks died soon thereafter.
Contrary to the rumor that the victim had been sexually assaulted by his killers, Judge Caverly would later state in his judgment that conclusive evidence convinced him that no abuse of that nature had been committed.[9]
The killers covered the body and drove to a remote area near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana. They removed Franks' clothes and left them at the side of the road. Leopold and Loeb poured hydrochloric acid[10] on the body to make identification more difficult. They then had dinner at a hot dog stand. After finishing their meal, they concealed the body in a culvert at the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks near 118th street, north of Wolf Lake.
After returning to Chicago, they called Franks' mother and said her son had been kidnapped. They mailed the ransom note to the Frankses. The killers burned items of their own clothing that had been spotted with blood. They also attempted to clean blood stains from the upholstery of their rented automobile. The two then spent the rest of the evening playing cards.
Before the Frankses could pay the ransom, Tony Minke, a Polish immigrant, discovered the body.[7][8] When Leopold and Loeb learned that the body had been found, they destroyed the typewriter used to write the ransom note and burned the robe used to move the body.[7][8]
However, Detective Hugh Patrick Byrne while searching for evidence discovered a pair of eyeglasses found near the body, unremarkable except for a unique hinge mechanism. In Chicago, only three people had purchased glasses with such a mechanism, one of whom was Nathan Leopold.[11]
Upon being questioned, Leopold told police he had lost the glasses while birdwatching.[12] Loeb told the police that Leopold was with him the night of the murder. Leopold and Loeb claimed they had picked up two women in Leopold's car and had dropped them off near a golf course, never learning their last names. Unfortunately for Leopold and Loeb, Leopold's car was being repaired by his chauffeur that night. The chauffeur's wife also said the car was in the Leopold garage that night.
During police questioning, Leopold's and Loeb's alibis fell apart. Loeb confessed first, followed by Leopold.[13] Although their confessions corroborated most of the facts in the case, each blamed the other for the actual killing.[7][8] Most commentators believe that Loeb struck the blow that killed Franks.[6] However, which of the two actually wielded the weapon that killed Franks would never be known. Alienists at the trial, impressed by Leopold's genius, would agree that Loeb had struck the fatal blow. However, the circumstantial evidence in the case, including eye-witness testimony by Carl Ulvigh who saw Loeb driving with Leopold in the back seat minutes before the kidnapping, would indicate Leopold had been the killer.[14]
The ransom was not their primary motive; the young men's families provided them all the money that they needed. Both had admitted that they were driven by the thrill of the kill, and the desire to commit the "perfect crime."[2] While in jail, they basked in the public attention they received and regaled newspaper reporters with the crime's lurid details again and again.
Trial
The trial became a media spectacle. Held at Courthouse Place, it was one of the first cases in the U.S. to be dubbed the "Trial of the Century."[15] Loeb's family hired 67-year-old Clarence Darrow — a well-known opponent of capital punishment — to defend the men against the capital charges of murder and kidnapping.[16] While the media expected Leopold and Loeb to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, Darrow surprised everyone by having them both plead guilty. In this way, Darrow avoided a jury trial which he believed would most certainly have resulted in a conviction and perhaps even the death penalty.[16] Instead, he was able to make his case for his clients' lives before a single person, Cook County Circuit Court Judge John R. Caverly.
During the 12-hour hearing on the final day, Darrow gave a speech, which has been called the finest of his career. The speech included: "this terrible crime was inherent in his organism, and it came from some ancestor … Is any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? … it is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university."[17]
In the end, Darrow succeeded. The judge sentenced Leopold and Loeb each to life imprisonment (for the murder), plus 99 years each (for the kidnapping).[16] This was mainly on the grounds that, being under 21, Leopold and Loeb were legal minors.
The outcome of this trial has had repercussions to this day, as Darrow popularized the notion that a defendant might not be guilty of his crime because of his inherited traits — to use Darrow's term, Leopold and Loeb were "broken machines." [18]
Prison and later life
Initially held at Joliet Prison, they were later transferred to Stateville Penitentiary, where Leopold and Loeb used their educations to teach classes in the prison school.[19]
On January 28, 1936, Loeb (below) was attacked by fellow prisoner James E. Day with a straight razor in a shower room, and died from his wounds.[2][19] Day claimed afterward that Loeb had attempted to sexually assault him. Day emerged without a scratch, while Loeb sustained more than 50 wounds from the attack, including numerous self-defense wounds on his arms and hands. Loeb's throat had also been slashed from behind.[20] Nevertheless, an inquiry accepted Day's testimony. The prison authorities, embarrassed by publicity sensationalizing alleged decadent behavior in the prison[21], ruled that Day's attack on Loeb was in self-defense.[2][19] According to one widely reported account, newsman Ed Lahey wrote this lead for the Chicago Daily News: "Richard Loeb, despite his erudition, today ended his sentence with a proposition."[22][23]
Devil's Island (French: Île du Diable) is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) off the coast of French Guiana (South America). It has an area of 14 ha (34.6 acres). It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952.
Use as penal colony
The rocky, palm-covered island rises 40 m (130 ft) above sea level. The penitentiary was first opened by Emperor Napoleon III's government in 1852, and became one of the most infamous prisons in history. In addition to the prisons on all three islands, prison facilities were located on the mainland at Kourou. Over time, they became known collectively as "Devil's Island" in the English-speaking world, while they are known in France as the bagne de Cayenne, (French: Cayenne penal colony) Cayenne being the main city of French Guiana.
While the colony was in use (1852–1946), the inmates were everything from political prisoners (such as 239 republicans who opposed Napoleon III's coup d'état) to the most hardened of thieves and murderers. A great many of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the harsh conditions at disease-infested Devil's Island were never seen again. Other than by boat, the only way out was through a dense jungle; accordingly, very few convicts ever managed to escape.
On 30 May 1854, a new law provided that convicts would be forced to stay in French Guiana following their release for a time equal to their forced labour time, or, for sentences exceeding eight years, for the remainder of their lives. They were to be provided with land to settle on. In time, a variety of penal regimes emerged, convicts being divided into categories according to the severity of their crimes and their imprisonment or forced residence regime.[1]
In 1885, a further law accelerated the process, since repeat offenders for minor crimes could also be sent. A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana, with the intent that they marry the freed male inmates; however, the results were poor and the government discontinued the practice in 1907.[1]
The horrors of the penal settlement became notorious with the publicity surrounding the plight of the Jewish French army captain Alfred Dreyfus (below), who had been unjustly convicted of treason and sent there on 5 January 1895.[2]
Attempted escapes
Clément Duval
Devil's Island was used mainly for French prisoners from 1852 to 1946. Clément Duval, an anarchist, was sent to Devil's Island in 1886. He was sentenced to death but this sentence commuted to hard labor on Devil's Island. He contracted smallpox while on the island. He escaped in April 1901 and fled to New York City, where he remained for the rest of his life. He eventually wrote a book on his time of imprisonment called Revolte.
Henri Charrière and Sylvain
Henri Charrière's bestselling book Papillon describes a supposedly successful escape from Devil's Island, with a companion, Sylvain, using two sacks filled with coconuts. According to Charrière, the two men leapt into heavy seas from a cliff and drifted to the mainland over a period of three days. Sylvain died in quicksand a short distance from the shore.
Charrière's account aroused considerable controversy and was disputed by the French authorities, who released penal colony records that showed that much of the prisoner's book was untrue. Charrière, the records showed, had never been interned on Devil's Island and had made his escape from a prison camp on the mainland. Numerous other aspects of Charrière's account were challenged by French journalists or prison authorities, and it was claimed that a significant number of the incidents recounted in his book were invented or were experiences of other prisoners which Charrière had appropriated.[3]
Aftermath
In 1938 the French government stopped sending prisoners to Devil's Island, and in 1952 the prison was closed. Most of the prisoners returned to metropolitan France, although some chose to remain in French Guiana.
In 1965, the French government transferred the responsibility of most of the islands to the newly founded Guiana Space Centre. The islands are under the trajectory of the space rockets launched eastward, toward the sea, from the Centre (to geostationary orbit). They must be evacuated during each launch. The islands host a variety of measurement apparatus for space launches.[4]
The CNES space agency, in association with other agencies, has since had the historical monuments restored. Tourism facilities were added; the islands now welcome more than 50,000 tourists each year.[5]
Cultural references
Several movies, songs, a stage play, and a number of books feature Devil's Island. The most famous was Henri Charrière's autobiography, published under the title Papillon in 1970. The book, which became a bestseller, told of his numerous alleged escape attempts, and in 1973 it was made into the movie Papillon starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.
In the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom is an escapee from Devil's Island.
The infamous penal colony was mentioned in the French dramatist Jean Genet (1910 –– 1986)’s 1947 absurdist play The Maids
Likewise, the diary-like Danish novel Helvede Hinsides Havet (Hell beyond the Sea) from 1949 by an anonymous former inmate describes the life in the camp.
Humphrey Bogart and Joan Bennett starred in the 1955 film We're No Angels, which is set on Devil's Island.
Before the bestseller Papillon, Rene Belbenoit's book, titled Dry Guillotine and published in 1938, was instrumental in exposing the prison colony of Devil's Island.
In an episode of the 1968 TV series The Time Tunnel, time travelers Tony and Doug arrive on Devil's Island shortly before Captain Dreyfus arrives, and attempt to formulate an escape.
The song "Devil's Island" is on the album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, by heavy metal band Megadeth.
Devil's Island is referenced in Revenge of the Pink Panther where Clouseau is thought to be dead, however it was only someone wearing his clothes who had died. On his return home Clouseau discovers that his man-servant Cato has turned his flat into a brothel. On being confronted about this Cato tells Clouseau that it could turn a profit of 200-300K per year and "that ain't chickenfeed." Clouseau retorts with "and ten years on Devil's Island is not chicken feed either," even though by the time the movie was made (1978) Devil's Island had not been a working Penal Colony for over 30 years.
Much of Plan de evasión, translated as A Plan For Escape, published in 1945 by Adolfo Bioy Casares, takes place on and around Devil's Island.
References
1.^ Krakovitch, Odile (January 1985 date = 1985-01). "Les archives des bagnes de Cayenne et de Nouvelle-Calédonie : la sous-série colonies H aux archives nationales". Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle 1985-01. http://rh19.revues.org/document4.html. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
2.^ Begley, Louis. Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009, p. 67.
3.^ "Papillon alive and well in a Paris retirement home".Mail & Guardian. - June 26, 2005.
4.^ CNES, Dossier de presse Îles du Salut
5.^ CNES, Les Îles du Salut
Further reading
Belbenoit, René. 1940. Hell on Trial. Translated from the Original French Manuscript by Preston Rambo. E. P Dutton and Co. Reprint by Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 1941.
Belbenoit, René. 1938. Dry guillotine: Fifteen years among the living dead. Reprint: Berkley (1975). ISBN 0-425-02950-6. Reprint: Bantam Books, 1971.
Charrière, Henri. Papillon. Reprints: Hart-Davis Macgibbon Ltd. 1970. ISBN 0-246-63987-3 (hbk); Perennial, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093479-4 (sbk).
Godfroy Marion, Bagnards Tallandier, 2008.
Godfroy Marion, Bagnards édition du chêne, 2002 (Best coffee table book of the year by "Le Monde").
CNES, Dossier de presse Îles du Salut
Amelia Mary Earhart (pronounced /ˈɛərhɑrt/ AIR-hart); (born July 24, 1897; missing July 2, 1937; declared legally dead January 5, 1939) was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Earhart joined the faculty of the world-famous Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.
Amelia Earhart was a widely known international celebrity during her lifetime. Her shyly charismatic appeal, independence, persistence, coolness under pressure, courage and goal-oriented career along with the circumstances of her disappearance at a young age have driven her lasting fame in popular culture. Hundreds of articles and scores of books have been written about her life which is often cited as a motivational tale, especially for girls. Earhart is generally regarded as a feminist icon.
Amelia Earhart's accomplishments in aviation inspired a generation of female aviators, including the more than 1,000 women pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) who ferried military aircraft, towed gliders, flew target practice aircraft, and served as transport pilots during World War II.
The home where Earhart was born is now the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum and is maintained by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female pilots of whom Amelia was the first elected president.
