9 Sep 1893 - Middletown Times-Press (Middletown, New York)
- The Excitement at Burlingham over the Triple Murder Somewhat Subsiding. -
- NO LYNCHING THERE -
- But There Were Many Threats Made Against the Foul Murderess -
- HER JOURNEY TO THE JAIL -
- Curious Crowds -
- She Continues Her Crazy Tantrums -
- Safe in Sheriff’s Beecher’s Custody -
- More Concerning the Life of the Wretched Halliday Woman -
- The “Times” Interviews Robert Halliday -
- The Woman Charged with Having Murdered a Former Husband -
- The Inquest on the Murdered Mrs. McQuillan and Daugther To-day -
The verdict.
THE INQUEST TO-DAY
The inquest of the McQuillans was continued at Burlingham this morning at 10 o’clock, by Coroner Roesch, assisted by District Attorney Hill. The hall was packed with a crowd of people all eager to see and hear what the witnesses who came from Newburgh had to say. They were members of the McQuillan family and others. The old man was among the number.
Their evidence was of such a nature that the identify of the two victims was fully established. They fully identified the articles of clothing and the watch and rings worn by the young woman. The old man broke down completely when his daughters things were shown him. They were also identified by Mrs. White, a dressmaker. He with the others from Newburgh were subpoenaed to appear at Monticello when the Grand Jury meets. The evidence was all in at 2 o’clock and the jury rendered the following verdict.
THE VERDICT: “We do say upon our oaths that Margaret McQuillan and Sarah Jane McQuillan came to their deaths from wounds inflicted by bullets fired from a pistol in the hands of Lizzie Halliday, which balls entered the hearts of Margaret McQuillan and Sarah Jane McQuillan, and was the immediate cause of their deaths. That Margaret McQuilan was killed about Aug. 30 and Sarah Jane McQuillan about Sept 2.” It was then signed by all the jurors.
ROBERT HALLIDAY INTERVIEWED - So many conflicting stories have been told as to the Hallidays that the Times sought an interview with the old man’s sons while in Middletown yesterday and the following was learned.
Mr. Robert Halliday, the oldest of the sons, stated that his father was born in County Ulster or Antrim, in the North of Ireland. Here Paul Halliday spent his boyhood days. His parents were strong Protestants - being Presbyterians - and the son was brought up very strictly. A the age of 20 he married and soon after sailed for America and located in Providence, RI, where his older brother, John, had preceded him. Here he prospered. Robert, John and Mary were all born at their eastern home. The old man had secured a good situation as engineer in the Providence Journal office. His son, Robert, when he became of sufficient age, entered the press room of the same office there for 14 years. His father became uneasy and wanted to make a change, hoping to better his condition. With his wife and family he came to Orange county and located in Middletown.
LOCATES IN MIDDLETOWN - This was several years before the war. He had saved up quite a little money and at once commenced the erection of a building on Monhagen brook, determining to start out in business for himself. This building still stands, and is known as the “barracks”, on the corner of Fulton and South streets. Here the old man carried on the distilling of wintergreens. He also employed himself in working in the match factory, then located on Canal street, near where is now located the gas factory. It was owned and run by Lewis Van Cleft, and afterwards by Mr. Selah M. Corwin.
ENLISTS IN THE ORANGE BLOSSOMS - When the war broke out, Paul Halliday was one of the first to respond to his adopted country’s call. He had traded his property on Fulton street (then Water street) for property at the Eight-and-a-half station, just west of this city, and being nicely located, went to war, leaving his farm in charge of his wife and family, which by this time had been increased by the addition of James and Paul Jr, and Robert, who was then working in Providence, RI, also went to war. The old man was gone three years.
REMOVES TO BURLINGHAM - On returning home he disposed of his property at Eight-and-a-half station and purchased the farm at Burlingham, where he was killed. At their mountain farm Maggie was born to them. Here the old man found it hard work to maintain his growing family. He became discouraged and determined to return east. His old place was given him in the Journal office. Then his brother John, who was foreman of the Journal, died and Paul had the promise of considerable money. He had saved enough to clear his Sullivan county farm of all indebtedness and learning that it was being run down by his tenants, he concluded it best to work it himself. He returned to his farm about ten years ago; built a grist mill and was getting along nicely when his wife died. For several years after he was assisted in his household affairs by his grand-daughter
HUNTING FOR ANOTHER WIFE - It was then that the old man felt the need of another companion. The young folks wanted to start out for themselves. It was then that the old man started out to look for a second wife. He went to New York and in some way formed the acquaintance of Hannah Flemming. He told her his story and she consented to go with him and become his housekeeper. The sons say they were married. At least the old man told them so. The meeting of this woman was the commencement of his downfall. She was one of the lowest of creatures and made his home a hell. He could not tolerate her and told her she must leave and never come back. This she did after living with him a year or so. She drifted back to her old haunts and finally died on Blackwell’s Island.
A THIRD VENTURE - Mary Murphy was the next one who went to live with him. She came from Middletown. They were never married. The Murphy woman, soon after becoming a member of the Halliday family contracted consumption, and the old man had her on his hands for a long time. As she was approaching death the old man went to Walker Valley and dug her grave to save as much of the funeral expenses as possible, as she had been a big expense to him. When she died her friends in this city claimed her remains and this saved the old man further expense.
A FOURTH TIME - HIs next venture was with “Dutch Mary”, a well-known character of this city, who is sometimes called “Little Butter” and “Soapy”. She did not suit him and was soon dismissed.
HIS LAST - He thought he would then try Newburgh and see what that place had in store for him. Our readers all know the result of this visit - how he met Lizzie Brown at the intelligence office of Mrs. Smith, and how she went to his mountain home. After a month as a housekeeper the old man was so well pleased with her that a proposition of marriage on his part was agreed upon. They came to Middletown and were joined as man and wife by Rev. B. H. Burch, then of St. Paul’s M. E. Church.
All went well for a time, when it was noticed that the old man’s wife was becoming despondent. When he asked what was the matter she said she did not like him any more, and that she would fix him, as she had another man in the old country. He asked her what she meant. At first she would not tell him, but at his earnest solicitation, and under promise never to reveal her secret, she told him of a horrible crime committed several years before. She had been married in Ireland, and not fancying her husband she determined to kill him. She said she never liked him, and one night while he was asleep she mutilated his body with a huge stone.
AN AWFUL REVELATION - It was such a fearful story that the old man determined to confide it to his son Robert, who advised her to leave him at once. This he thought of doing, but she soon after softened down and told him that she would not harm him for the world. She said she had never been found out because she was too sharp for the authorities and that she could fool the greatest doctor that ever wore shoe leather by pretending that she was insane.” She bragged to him constantly of her power and completely won the old man over and dispelled all his fears. At one time when driving by the Asylum in this city she told the old man that she had fooled all of the doctors there. This he believed and bragged of it to his children who were all the while trying to get him to leave her as they were afraid she would do him some harm. When the house was burned after she murdered his crippled son - and the children are all satisfied that she did kill their brother and then burn the house - they all tried to get the old man to leave. The letters mentioned in the old man’s book as being stolen from his pocket in Newburgh by his wife were from his daughter, Mary Gravlin, of Providence, RI, beseeching him to leave the woman. Notwithstanding all their entreaties the old man still believed implicitly in her. He said she had a double crown head like Napoleon and bragged of her power. He told Robert at one time that he would live with her if he knew she had killer her mother.
The legacy left the old man by his brother, John, who worked in the Journal office 27 years, amounted to only about $250.
HER CRIMINAL ACTS - When the old man remonstrated with his wife for burning the barn in 1891 she said she was tired of looking after it and wanted it out of the way. Two of his horsed burned in this fire. Then came the wild freak of her stealing the two horses in Newburgh and her becoming insane and being confined in the Matteawan asylum. The children all thought that he would not be bothered any more with her, but the old man was determined to have her back home again. The rest of her life is well known. The killing of her first husband in so strange a manner is verified by the fact that when Paul Halliday’s body was found it was mutilated in the same manner.
TAKEN TO MONTICELLO JAIL - At 9 o’clock yesterday morning Mrs. Halliday was taken to court. Lawyer Hart, of New York, acting for Abijah Bowen, who acted for the District Attorney, moved that she be committed to the county jail on the charge of murdering Mrs. McQuillan and her daughter. Justice Thayer signed the commitment. A summer boarder wagon had been drawn up at the court room door, and as the spectators filed out they crowded around it. Mrs. Halliday looked at it when she came down and was about to step in when somebody yelled, “Hist her in” - She let herself fall back into the arms of the guards. They “histed” her, while another man boosted, and she was tossed over the wheel onto the seat. Constable Nickerson from Bloomingburg jumped in beside her. D. B. S. Scott and Joseph Scott, the Burlingham constable, took the rear seat, and John Bennett, the Bloomingburg hotel keeper who had volunteered to act as driver, took the front seat. The crowd yelled and jeered as he whipped up the horses for the start.
At Bloomingburg the horses and wagon were changed. Two-thirds of the female population of the town had gathered on the upper balcony of Bennett’s hotel, and groups of men and women were standing about.
A ROPE AND SLIP NOOSE - While the fresh team was being hooked up, Hostler Joe appeared on the scene with a long rope. He stood in sight of Mrs. Halliday and deliberately made a hangman’s noose at once end of it. Then he slipped the noose up and down, and finally threw the other end up over a beam in the shed. “The rope is ready” he yelled - “Look, look!” exclaimed some women. The men in the crowd laughed. Hostler Joe then pulled the rope down and going to the back of the wagon in which Mrs. Halliday was sitting he threw the noose end of the rope so that is struck her. Then he pulled the noose in again and walked over under the beam. “I’ll pull the rope” he yelled “if any man will put it around her neck. Come, boys.” All this was probably done and said in a kind of boisterous humor. But that it was not all humor was evident by the remarks of the crowd. One man whispered to a woman at his side: “Oh, if there was only a leader!” Another said aloud: “The trouble is we haven’t got any leader” Up to this point the men in charge of the woman had made no objection. Now Constable Scott turned on Hostler Joe and said: “Put that rope up”
SHOWS GREAT NERVE - Joe did the rope in a coil and dropped it on the ground. It was during these incidents that Mrs. Halliday showed what wonderful nurse she possesses. Not once did she flinch. Even when the noose rope struck her shoulder she did not start. A moment after the rope was dropped she leered at the crowd, and then cuddled down on the should of Constable Nickerson. The crowd screamed with delight at this and guyed Nickerson. The women clapped their hands and danced up and down. The men tossed their hats into the air and yelled. When the party started again half a dozen stops were made before the outskirts of Bloomingburgh was reached. The alleged object was to ask directions, the real one to give every one a chance to see the prisoner. Everybody on the country roads seemed to be aware of the approach of the wagon, and at almost every farm house a stop was made.
TURNED OVER TO SHERIFF BEECHER - Monticello was reached about 3 o’clock, and Mrs. Halliday was turned over to Sheriff Beecher. The Sheriff began by ordering her to be searched. Thereupon she astonished her guardians by handing him an open face silver watch. “Take this turnip,” she said, “and burn it”. How the watch escaped discovery until then is not explained. It is thought to have belonged to her husband. It was made by the Rochester Watch Company of Illinois. Before being locked up she varied her old story of snakes and bugs by crying that she was covered with snow and that her hair was full of it.
The Circuit Court will be open at Monticello on Sept 18, when her case will be submitted to the Grand Jury.
SEARCHING FOR OTHER VICTIMS - After Mrs. Halliday was taken out of Burlingham people began to wonder if she had committed other murders besides the three that had been disclosed. To find out they determined to organize a searching party, raze the house and barn on the Halliday farm and dig up the ground under both. Twenty men joined the party. They reached the place just as eight members of Evans Post, 571, G.A.R., of Walker Valley, of which old Paul Halliday was a member, filed out bearing a pine box. The bearers had no undertaker, and had placed the body in the coffin themselves, and were carrying it to the Walker Valley cemetery, where the first of the old man’s three wives is buried.
A JUG OF WHISKEY FOUND - The searching party began on the barn, where they found nothing. Then they went to the house. They ripped up all the flooring and turned over all the dirt underneath. Then they sounded with their picks and crowbar. They did not find a soft spot. They gave it up then and searched every nook and corner of the house. First they found a demijohn of whiskey. One man pulled out the cork and smelled. “Drugged” he exclaimed. Another man smelled. He said: “It’s got chloroform in it” The jug was passed around the crowd and every body who smelled declared that the liquor was drugged. Under the influence of these declarations those who got their first whiff began complaining of feeling sick.
After a while a scoffer came among them. He was an aged man, who looked as if it would take more than poison to scare him where whiskey was involved. He lifted the demijohn to his lips and took a big swallow of the liquor. Then he said gratefully, “It didn’t kill me”. He was watched with considerable curiosity for five minutes. The a second man sampled the contents of the demijohn, and in a moment it was going the rounds clearly above suspicion. The search was continued and another bottle of whiskey was found. Under it was a small memorandum book already mentioned in the Times and from the entries in which we made quotations.
LANDED IN JAIL - Mrs. Halliday arrived at Monticello at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Sheriff Beecher is much concerned, as the jail is very insecure. A special force of watchers will be kept over her day and night until court convenes on Sept 18, when Judge Fursman, who will preside, will probably direct what shall be done with her. The prisoner gave Constable Scott and party but little trouble on the way to Monticello except by her crazy talk. Sheriff Beecher and other who heard her believe, however, that she is sane. When told by the Sheriff that Jamey wanted to see her, she said. “Jamey? Jamey? Where is Jamey?” “He was with you when you stole the horsed, you know, Lizzie,” said the Sheriff, “and this is he” pointing to a reporter. Walking up to the fictitious Jame, she said: “Why didn’t you leave me in heaven?” “Did you want to stay?” said the Sheriff. “You are John the Baptist” she answered.
Occasionally she would hesitate before making a reply, but more often she would blurt out an answer to the question directly opposite to that desired. She gave the Sheriff a silver watch that had been hidden on her person and had escaped the search of the officers. It had belong dot the old man. The key was found this afternoon at Burlingham. When handing it out she said “here’s a turnip for you to boil” She is very quiet in her cell, and has little of the appearance of an insane person.
MRS. HALLIDAY’s PARENTAGE - Mrs. Jane Leathem, of 99 Smith street, Newburgh, says she believes that Mrs. Paul Halliday, the murderess, is none other than Eliza Brown, and that she is a daughter of Mrs. Peggy Brown, of Moorfield, County Antrim, Ireland, the former home of Mrs. Leathem and family. Eliza Brown came to this country 18 years ago.
THE DOG HOWLED AND THE EFFECT - On Sunday night, while Cornelius Canfield and others were watching the Halliday house from a position behind a stone wall within a few yards of the entrance to the shanty, Mrs. Halliday appeared at the door with her Collie dog which she held by a chain. The animal began immediately to howl pitifully and the woman slammed too the door and did not appear again that night. It was believed by the watchers that her intent was to leave the vicinity at that time as she appeared to be dressed for traveling, and the dog’s howling, which is usual in the presence of death, she must have feared would be noticeable by the neighbors and remained.
INSUFFICIENT - Concerning the rumor connected with the finding of a four ounce bottle of chloroform, of which about one-sixth part had been used for the purpose of chloroforming her victims before shooting, it is utterly an impossibility, that amount of the drug being insufficient to even chloroform a cat.
SHE THREATENED REVENGE - Miss Louisa Halliday, of Providence, RI, grand daughter of murdered Paul Halliday, gave to the World representative yesterday in that city her impressions of the old man’s second wife, whom she last saw two years ago, a few days before the house on the Halliday farm was burned and her Uncle John was roasted alive.
Miss Halliday says that the women boasted then that she would yet have revenge for some wrongs which she talked about. “The most noticeable thing about this woman” said Miss Halliday, “is her tow crowned head. She used to display it to me and say it gave her great power over people. She said she could do about anything - kill, burn and murder - and that she had power to fool the people and the authorities afterwards. On account of this sort of talk I have never wanted to go back there. She had some connections in New England but no one could tell just where she came from. She is the cunningest woman I ever saw. She could act crazy, and I think she used to practice the awful writhings and doings of crazy people with a motive, for she would stop and then be as rational as the most sane. After her release from the lunatic asylum she said to various persons that the Hallidays were responsible for all her trouble”
NOTES Although the excitement is some-what subsiding hundreds of people are still visiting the scene of the murder. A number from this city were up there to-day. The Times desires to express its particular obligations to Mr. D. W. Bell, of Bloomingham, for telephone facilities so kindly rendered us, and to other who so obligingly interested themselves in sending us news messages concerning the recent murder. If Hoke Smith could have a few more such assistants as Mrs. Halliday he could soon reduce the pension list to his heart’s content, remarked an old vet yesterday. The proverb that “It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good” has been verified in the Burlingham murder excitement. It has been quite a harvest for the MIddletown liverymen, hotels, etc. Some of the New York city papers have seemed disposed to criticize the officials engaged in investigating the mysterious and horrible murders near Burlingham for bing stupified, dilatory and inefficient. We think this is altogether unjust. Upon the other hand we consider the proceedings of Coroner Rosche, District-Attorney Hill, Justice Thayer, Constable Scott, prompt, intelligent and commendably efficient. Intelligent jurors, too, empanelled by the Coroner, have patiently given their time to the ferreting out of the details of this atrocious and unparalleled crime in order that the responsibility may be fixed upon the proper persons. The skillful physicians called to the aid of the Coroner - Drs. Piper, Beakes and Woodruff, with the talented medical students, young Woodruff and Seagers - have successfully conducted the autopsies under most unfavorable and disagreeable conditions, and are entitled to commendation. In their way Justice Morrison, Squire Bowen and Lawyer Hart have, by their legal experience, facilitated the investigation.
AS TO MRS. HALLIDAY’S MOTIVE - She Was Not Acquainted With Her Women Victims and they Had no Money.
What was the motive which led Mrs. Halliday to murder the McQuillan women? Is the question which is puzzling people. It couldn’t have been money, for the McQuillans were poor and had no money to speak of. It couldn’t have been revenge, for the murderess had no acquaintance with her victims before she drove up to their house and lured them to their death. Mr. McQuillan says it was pure devilishness and nothing else. Mrs. J. B. Smith who keeps an employment bureau in Newburgh, tells this story:
“I have not seen Mrs. Halliday since the time she was here with her husband at the time of the horse stealing. Lizzie Brown, as she called herself, came to my house one night and said she had been in the country but a few days and wanted a place. She wore an old black dress, scoop hat, and an old Paisley shawl. I knew it would be useless to try to get her a place as she then looked, and, needing some work done I gave her an old dress, and while she washed my clothing I cleaned and altered her dress. I got her a place at Mrs. Vaughan’s and she gave entire satisfaction, although she went off twice during the month and remained each time a day and a night, telling Mrs. Vaughan that she was at my house. She wasn’t, though, and I now believe sh was in West Newburgh with the gypsy band. At the end of the month she gave up her place, and for two days boarded with me while a new place was being secured. “Paul Halliday came in one day. He said he was a widower with a wayward niece of 16 years, and wanted a good woman to keep house for him and look after the girl. Lizzie questioned him very business like, and it struck me that she was talking as though she wanted to catch him as a husband. Halliday told her he was a pensioner, and her eyes snapped and glistened.
When alone I said to her “Lizzie, if you get out of a place come back,” she said “I’ll never be out of a place after I get with him” Is aid “Don’t you get married to him; he is an old man and you are a young woman.” Lizzie said “That’s the best of it. He won’t live along and I’ll get the pension.” I couldn’t talk her out of the idea, and it was not surprising when she came to the house again and said she was married. That same time Halliday had drawn his pension and she stole it from him. It was the time she had the trouble about the horse and claimed to be about to leave him. She brought her effects with her, including an old Paisley shawl and her marriage certificate. She has not been in my place since. Halliday came over and I ordered him out, and he never bothered me again. Mrs. Halliday had a great eye for money. She was constantly talking of it, and it would not be surprising if she killed the old man to get his pension money.”
J. Van Allen Whitbeck, of Newburgh, form whom Mrs. Halliday stole a team two years ago, is decidedly of the opinion that she is not insane. When she went to him she said she was a poor Irish servant employed in Newburgh. She said her mother was ill two miles out in the country, and she wanted to hire a wagon to go to her. Mr. Whitbeck let her have a single buggy. This she paid for, and she engaged a surrey and team for the next day, saying she wanted to take two girls with her. She got old John Glynn, of West Newburgh, to accompany her as her husband, and they drove away and sold the turnout.
Mr. Whitbeck says that the moment she saw him after her capture she cried: “Young man, I never saw you before, and if you have me locked up you will burn your fingers”. She told him, he says, that she could deceive any person, owing to the peculiar formation of her head, and that Napoleon Bonaparte had a head just like hers. Mr. Whitbeck also met Halliday, of whom he formed a poor opinion.