Crime Classics 53-06-15 001 Crime of Bathsheba Spooner

Summary

Crime Classics Episode Summary: "Crime of Bathsheba Spooner"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Harold's Old Time Radio
• Host: Harold's Old Time Radio
• Episode: Crime Classics 53-06-15 001 - Crime of Bathsheba Spooner
• Release Date: January 30, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Crime Classics, host Thomas Hyland delves into the gripping true crime story of Bathsheba Spooner, reputed to be the first woman tried and executed for murder in the United States. Set against the backdrop of 1778 Brookfield, Massachusetts during the tumultuous times of the Revolutionary War, the narrative intertwines personal vendettas, military deserters, and deceit to unveil a riveting tale of betrayal and justice.

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Setting and Background

Brookfield, Massachusetts, 1778

The story unfolds in a respectable two-story dwelling belonging to Joshua and Bathsheba Spooner. The household resides near stately elms and a deep well, pivotal to the unfolding events. Bathsheba hails from an illustrious family; her father, General Ruggles, was a loyalist who forfeited his estate and left the country at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This loyalist background breeds suspicion and alarm among the local townspeople, setting the stage for Bathsheba's precarious position within the community.

Thomas Hyland narrates at [05:00]:

"But keep this in mind. Bathsheba Spooner is going to murder her husband. How? Well, let's see how time and motive and circumstance conspire to get a man violently dead."

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Characters

• Bathsheba Spooner: The central figure, depicted as a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, seeking freedom through drastic measures.

• Joshua Spooner: Bathsheba's husband, portrayed as a drunkard and a tyrannical figure whose neglect and abusive behavior fuel Bathsheba's resentment.

• Ezra Ross: Bathsheba's lover, a young man with military experience but lacking the courage to act upon Bathsheba's murderous intentions.

• James Buchanan & William Brooks: Deserters from General Burgoyne's army, employed by Bathsheba to carry out the murder plan.

• Thomas Hyland: The host and narrator, guiding listeners through the intricate details of the crime.

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Plot Summary

The Brewing Plot

The episode opens with Bathsheba and her lover, Ezra Ross, discussing the dire state of her marriage and plotting the demise of Joshua Spooner. Bathsheba's dissatisfaction stems from her husband's drunkenness and the stifling domestic life they share.

At [03:04], Joshua confronts Bathsheba:

"What manner of woman are you, Bathsheba? There's no content in you and no happiness."

Bathsheba retaliates, revealing her desire for liberation and hinting at her growing animosity:

"And what happiness have you given me? A life that dies quickly, cooking and sewing and from you drunken sleep." ([03:08])

Despite Ezra's initial hesitation and lack of courage to act, Bathsheba coerces him into seeking the assistance of deserters James Buchanan and William Brooks to murder her husband.

The Murder Execution

Bathsheba employs James and William, offering them £500 to eliminate Joshua. The plan involves using a well to dispose of Joshua's body discreetly.

At [13:38], Bathsheba chillingly instructs:

"Kill my husband."

Under Bathsheba's manipulative influence, the deserters carry out the murder, striking Joshua and ultimately disposing of his body in the well.

Discovery and Trial

Joshua's disappearance sparks concern among the community, leading to a search that ultimately reveals his lifeless body in the well. Suspicion quickly falls on Bathsheba, especially given her known grievances against Joshua.

During the trial, the evidence and testimonies, including Bathsheba's own admission under duress, lead to a swift conviction. The four conspirators—James Buchanan, William Brooks, Ezra Ross, and Bathsheba Spooner—are sentenced to death.

In the courtroom at [23:24], Bathsheba appeals:

"I am the wife of the deceased. If what you accuse me of be true what end could the death of my husband serve?" ([23:32])

Despite her defense, the court remains unmoved, resulting in their impending execution.

Execution and Aftermath

On June 4th, amidst a fierce thunderstorm, the four are led to their execution. The dramatic weather mirrors the gravity of the moment, adding a somber tone to the public spectacle.

Thomas Hyland vividly describes at [26:39]:

"The fierce coruscations of the lightning athwart the darkened horizon, quickly followed by loud peals of thunder, conspired together and produced a dreadful scene of horror."

Bathsheba, in her final moments, maintains her composure, expressing a haunting farewell as she accepts her fate.

At [27:16], Bathsheba states:

"My dear sir, I am ready. In a little time I expect to be in bliss, and but a few years must elapse when I hope I shall see you and my other friends again."

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Trial and Verdict

The trial is portrayed as swift and influenced by Bathsheba's social standing and the community's existing suspicions. The absence of a robust defense and the overwhelming evidence against the conspirators result in a unanimous guilty verdict.

At [23:24], the court formally sentences them:

"We command you that on Thursday, the 4th day of June next, ... to be hanged by the neck until their bodies be dead." ([24:28])

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Conclusion

Thomas Hyland concludes the episode by highlighting the tragic culmination of Bathsheba Spooner's actions—her transformation from a dissatisfied wife to a convicted murderer. The story serves as a historical account of early American justice and the societal dynamics of the time.

Hyland reflects at [28:15]:

"This has been my report of the crime of Bashy Ba. Spooner, the first woman tried and executed for murder in the United States."

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Notable Quotes

• Thomas Hyland:

  "Money? Yes. All of it. Ezra." ([18:11])

• Bathsheba Spooner:

  "Kill my husband." ([13:38])

• Ezra Ross:

  "I swear it to you, Bathsheba. He'll die." ([04:27])

• Joshua Spooner:

  "I am your husband. And I'm your lover. And that's the way things are." ([03:33])

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Production Notes

• Adaptation: The episode is adapted from original court reports and newspaper accounts by Morton Fine and David Friedkin.
• Music: Composed and conducted by Bernard Herman.
• Production: Directed by Elliot Lewis.
• Cast:
  • Thomas Hyland: Lou Merrill
  • Bathsheba Spooner: Mary Jane Croft
  • Supporting Roles: Herb Butterfield, Sam Edwards, William Johnstone, Georgia Ellis, Tudor, Owen, Van Wright, Bob Lamond.

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Closing Remarks

The episode not only recounts a historical crime but also paints a vivid picture of the societal and personal factors contributing to Bathsheba Spooner's downfall. Through meticulous narration and immersive storytelling, Crime Classics offers listeners a compelling glimpse into a bygone era of American history and justice.

Stay tuned for next week's episode, where Hyland explores the peaceful passing of Thomas Edwin Bartlett, greengrocer, in Pimlico, England, 1879.

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Transcript

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[Thomas Hyland]

Good evening. This is Crime Classics. I am Thomas Highland. Listen. The man in nondescript uniform dropping stones into that well is a mercenary soldier, more recently a deserter. He's testing the depth of the well, the only way he knows, since a length of rope is not immediately available and more complicated machines are as yet undiscovered. This is the year 1778, and the deserter is named James Buchanan. Next to him is his friend, another deserter, whose name is William Brooks. These men are in the employ of Mrs. Bathsheba Spooner of Brookfield, Massachusetts, whose well it is. Mrs. Spooner will pay these men immediately. They deposit the body of her murdered husband right down there. And tonight, my report to you on the crime of Bashe Ba Spooner, the first woman to be tried for murder in the United States.

Crime Classics, a new series of true crime stories taken from the records and newspapers of every land, from every time. Your Host each week, Mr. Thomas Hyland, connoisseur of crime, student of violence and teller of murders. Now, once again, Thomas Hyland.

The place is Brookfield, Massachusetts. The year 1778. Scene the home of Joshua and Bashy Bespooner. A large and respectable dwelling two stories in height, situated on the north side of the road from Brookfield to Worcester. In the front of it, and nearly opposite, on the south side of the road, are stately elms and a well. And in the living room, there's this.

[Joshua Spooner]

What manner of woman are you, Bathsheba? There's no content in you and no happiness.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And what happiness have you given me? A life that dies quickly, cooking and sewing and from you drunken sleep.

[Joshua Spooner]

And you've not answered me. You would like to see me dead.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Would you not listen to me, Joshua? When you returned this morning from Worcester, my heart sank in me. I'd hoped you wouldn't come back.

[Joshua Spooner]

That I would have an accident. That in some way I would be killed. That you would be free then to walk the town newly widowed with a wandering eye.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Yes.

[Joshua Spooner]

And you. Listen, shrew. I am your husband. And I'm your lover. And that's the way things are.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Old man. Old man. Ezra. Ezra.

[Ezra Ross]

I've been waiting, Bathsheba.

[Thomas Hyland]

Wait.

[Ezra Ross]

No more waiting, Bathsheba. The time I was away from you with your husband in Worcester, the thinking about you.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And there'll be more waiting until it's done. Until you kill him.

[Ezra Ross]

I tried, but I could not.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

He asked me a question. My husband did. What manner of woman are you? He asked. Now I wonder, what manner of woman am I to love such as you? A youth. A boy who pretends to manhood. You.

[Ezra Ross]

Without the courage to the poison you gave me, there was no opportunity, Bathsheba.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And a boy who lies. Opportunity. When it becomes nighttime, my husband becomes a drunkard. You know that. To empty the poison in the cup when you were with him, a simple thing like that, you couldn't do.

[Ezra Ross]

I swear it to you, Bathsheba. He'll die.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

When? Go to him now. To the tavern where he is. Empty the poison.

[Joshua Spooner]

Right.

[Ezra Ross]

I threw the poison away.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

With no courage, Bathsheba. Speak my name and bedevil yourself with it.

[Ezra Ross]

Just kiss me, Bathsheba.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

No kisses, no secret whisperings. None of that. No more, until my husband is dead. Laugh, then. You'll see. I mean it.

[Ezra Ross]

There's a wench back Bathsheba at the other end of town. And she watches me when I walk by.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Then go to her.

[Thomas Hyland]

All right.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Wait. Don't leave me.

[Ezra Ross]

You almost let me go.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Boy.

[James Buchanan]

Boy.

[Ezra Ross]

You, Bathsheba.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Kill him.

[Thomas Hyland]

Kill my husband later. And that was Bathsheba Spooner. You've come to know her pretty well. You've seen her hating. You've seen her loving. There's more you should know. She was the sixth child of an illustrious man, General Ruggles. The general was a man of great wealth and lived in a style of unusual luxury. For that day, he kept 30 horses and had a park of 20 acres for deer and a pack of hounds for the amusement of numerous visitors. He was a man intensely loyal to the British Crown and never hid his loyalties. And so, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was forced to give up his estate and to leave the country. His married life was also pretty bad, and he and his wife did not set a good example to his children in their conjugal relationship. Bathsheba sprang from that kind of a household. Her loyalist background in time of war and the very fact of the name she had, Bathsheba, were sufficient cause for the town in which she lived to view her with alarm. But keep this in mind. Bathsheba Spooner is going to murder her husband. How? Well, let's see how time and motive and circumstance conspire to get a man violently dead. The man, Joshua Spooner. Let's pick him up and see what he's doing. It's the same evening, and since it's after dark, he's drinking. And in Brookfield there's only one public house in which to drink. Cooley's Tavern. And that's where he is.

[Joshua Spooner]

Oh, no, no, no, Doctor. Then what would you do to trap General Burgoyne? Very simple. Hand me your tanker. Dr. King.

[William Brooks]

Mayor.

[Joshua Spooner]

Now, in here, this spoon. The line of march of Begot. And your tankard and mine. Two sections of the troops of General Washington now watch. And that's how we take care of General Burgoyne. Yeah, yeah. Barkeep. More.

[Thomas Hyland]

Joshua Spooner talks of strategies and drinks his ale. But mark this. Near the bar, another table. Two men. Men in nondescript uniforms. Deserters from the army of General Burgoyne. Their names? James Buchanan and William Brooks. They've made known the fact that they've deserted the enemy. So their drinks are on the house and the appreciative customers. They're having a fine time.

[William Brooks]

Drink. Drink your ale, Will. Make me a toast and I'll drink with you.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

And a toast. You forget, Burgoyne is a scurv.

[William Brooks]

Louder, Will, louder. Else we'll pay for our own ale.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Ay, a toast.

[William Brooks]

Aye, I'll give you a toast to that scurvy plump bellied Burgoyne.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

May he rot in the wilderness.

[William Brooks]

That is, if he don't drown coming across the St. Lawrence. Gentlemen, and a merry evening to you.

[Joshua Spooner]

Joshua Spooner is my name and it would do me proud. If you would permit me.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Ale is what we're drinking, sir.

[William Brooks]

Ale for the patriarchs and patriots. We are indeed. Goodness.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Oh yes. We join General Washington, sir, and his colonials. You should know that. And from here we go to Worcester, where a column of Washington's parties. Oh, ayo to you, sir, and thanks to you.

[Joshua Spooner]

My pleasure.

[William Brooks]

Willy Bach. Your tankard is dry and so is mine.

[Joshua Spooner]

If you will permit me, gentlemen. It would be my pleasure. My pleasure indeed.

[Thomas Hyland]

It would be, Mr. Spooner's. Pleasure indeed to buy the lads more ale, as was the custom. True, it was 1778, but the etiquette was the same. Nothing too good for our boys. And the deserters in Cooley's Bar were off to join our boys. As a matter of fact, it was Mr. Spooner's pleasure to direct James Buchanan and William Brooks to Worcester to become soldiers in Washington's army. It just happened that one of the landmarks that Mr. Spooner gave the lads went something like this.

[Joshua Spooner]

Now, mark you a file of elms and a well. And across the road from it, my house. When you pass there, you'll be leaving Brookfield and you will know you're on your way. We'll have another ale before you leave.

[William Brooks]

You're a gentleman if I ever met one.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Oh, a true one. James, my lad. A real gent.

[Thomas Hyland]

So they touched tankards, the deserters and Joshua Spooner. And they made tearful farewell. And the deserters left and walked the road toward where the elms were and the house and a. Well, let's go on ahead of them. Let's get back to the lady. Bathsheba is home. Bathsheba is fixing her hair. And the youth, Ezra, he's tying into it. Night ribbons. A lover's tender gesture. Their talk, however, is shocking.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Perhaps you're right. Perhaps the best way is not to poison him.

[Ezra Ross]

I say shoot him.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Perhaps in such a way as to make it appear as an accident. Will you shoot him, Ezra? Tightly with the riband ear, Ezra.

[Ezra Ross]

I. I have not the courage for it.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

But you know of guns and shooting. You were in the army For a year.

[Ezra Ross]

I marched. I shot no one. I marched upon an ambush and was wounded myself. I never pulled a trigger.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

If not you to kill him, Ezra, then someone.

[Thomas Hyland]

Yes.

[Ezra Ross]

Turn from your mirror, Bathsheba, and look at me.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Oh, listen. Do you hear?

[Ezra Ross]

Yes. Drunkards.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Someone go to the window.

[Ezra Ross]

Drunkards. Two of them, by the moon. British deserters. I've seen them in town.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Call to them, Bathsheba. Call to them.

[Joshua Spooner]

Hello.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

You there.

[William Brooks]

What do you want?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

I'll talk to them.

[Ezra Ross]

A lady wants to talk to you.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

A lady at a lady's service anytime.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Let them in, Ezra.

[Thomas Hyland]

The Bathsheba Spooner who greeted the deserters must have been quite a sight. Tall, long hair and blue ribbons. There must have been a fire in the fireplace, and in all probability, she was standing in front of it. Her manner was gracious and she was smiling. Ezra served the liquor. All in all, it was the nicest thing that could possibly have happened to Two fellows who had deserted General Burgoyne.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And now, gentlemen, a question.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

We bow. Bow. James. My lady. Say on, my lady.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

How would you gentlemen like £500 to see you on your long journey?

[William Brooks]

Mere Renault would warm the cockles, wouldn't it, Will?

[Thomas Hyland]

Twould.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Does that answer you, my lady?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And what would you do for it?

[William Brooks]

There is nothing that Will and I have not done. And for less handsome payment from less handsome women, far less.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Kill my husband.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

This lad, the one you call Ezra.

[William Brooks]

Come here, lad. The next skinny ones don't take long for twisting.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Not him. Not Ezra.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Not him.

[Thomas Hyland]

James.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

They knew my husband will return from his drinking. Will you wait for him? Kill him when he returns. Meet him outside at the door and greet him, will you?

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Not only for the money, dear lady, but for the pleasure of your presence. To two tired soldiers. Right, Jane.

[William Brooks]

It's the truth.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

You be the master of this house.

[Joshua Spooner]

Yeah. And you are the tool that we begin.

[William Brooks]

This one was a struggler, eh, Will?

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Get the woman, the one she calls Ezra.

[William Brooks]

Hi, Mrs. Spooner. Come see it is done. And a tidy job if I say so myself, Mrs. Spooner.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

And now he's dead.

[Ezra Ross]

What will you do with him?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

There's a well across the road.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Ah, give us hand, James. And you, Ezra.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Yeah, I'll walk with you.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Ah, it's a deep well.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Poor little man.

[Thomas Hyland]

And that's how Joshua Spooner died. And that's how Bathsheba Spooner killed him.

You are listening to Crime Classics and your host, Thomas Hyland. Later this evening, the Lux Summer theater stars Fred McMurray in a full hour adaptation of the romantic mystery comedy the lady and the Tumblers. An odd triangle composed of a beautiful girl, a suitcase full of explosive letters and a murdered man will make the lady and the Tumblers most unusual dramatic fair. Listen to it on most of these same stations later this evening when CBS Radio presents the Lux Summer Theater. And now once again, Thomas Hyland and the second act of Crime Classics and his report to you on the crime of Bathsheba Spooner.

Listen to this. It's awful. And dread this tale that I tell. Joshua Spooner lies dead in a well in brookfield town in 78. From six stout wacks across the pate. Small poem by an anonymous contributor to the Worcester Spy, the local newspaper of the day. A change of scene. Now across the road from a cold well is into a warm living room tableau. Four people.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Mr. Spooner was such an elegant man. What will become of his clothes in his closet and his horse?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

You may have them come away from the window.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Bathsheba.

[Thomas Hyland]

Here to me close.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

The stars are dancing.

[Ezra Ross]

You're shivering. Are you cold?

[Thomas Hyland]

No.

[William Brooks]

Will is very weary. Widow Spooner. We'll not go on to Worcester tonight.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Then wait till morning. You can make a place for yourselves in the barn.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

But the money we'll have now and the clothes. And yours?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Yes, all of it. Ezra.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Yes.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

In the morning you will go to Cooley's tavern. Inquire of Joshua. Tell them he's not been home. Tell them I'm frantic for his welfare.

[Ezra Ross]

Yes.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Good night, gentlemen. A very good night.

[Ezra Ross]

Mr. Cooley.

[Thomas Hyland]

Aye.

[Joshua Spooner]

Hot grog on a nippy morning. Mr. Ross.

[Ezra Ross]

I've been sent to inquire of Joshua Spooner.

[Joshua Spooner]

Who sent you?

[Ezra Ross]

The wife of him, Bathsheba.

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Did she now?

[Ezra Ross]

Why, last night he did not return home. And Mrs. Spooner is frantic for his welfare.

[Joshua Spooner]

Not home? Well, he's not here. Last night he sat right there, my lad, and discussed military strategies with the doctor. Then, to the best of my knowledge, he went home.

[Ezra Ross]

Dr. King.

[William Brooks]

Doctor. Doctor.

[Ezra Ross]

Wake.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Wake up.

[Ezra Ross]

Please, doctor, wake up. It's important.

[Thomas Hyland]

What is it?

[Ezra Ross]

Where is Joshua Spooner?

[Joshua Spooner]

Where is he?

[Ezra Ross]

Mr. Cooley says he sat with you last night.

[Joshua Spooner]

As indeed he did, and left me.

[Ezra Ross]

He's not home. Mrs. Buna sent me to fetch him. She's troubled that he's not returned.

[Joshua Spooner]

But where else could he have gone.

[Thomas Hyland]

If not to his wife?

[Ezra Ross]

We must find him, Doctor.

[Joshua Spooner]

Yes, yes, by all means.

[Thomas Hyland]

Ezra did that very well. With the precise shading of alarm in his voice, the concern. A man on an errand for a troubled lady. Everybody was impressed. Mr. Cooley closed his bar. Dr. King appealed to the neighborliness of the other customers. And everybody went looking for Joshua Spooner. Immediately they called on Mrs. Spooner, whom they found in the greatest apparent distress. Upon an examination of the premises in the neighborhood of the doorstep, they observed the tracks of several persons on the snow. And on further search they found Mr. Spooner. You know where? In the well. So far, only horror and suspicions. But now let's pick up Willie and James. They haven't left Brookfield. Stupid of them, isn't it? But then you've got to examine it from their point of view. Why become soldiers in Washington's army, especially in the winter, and suffer the privations of the military when they could be warm and rich as a civilian? So imagine it. Two tattered a million deserters suddenly elegant in Mr. Spooner's clothes, which were somewhat tight fitting. But elegance and tight fitting are somehow akin. Now There lived in Brookfield a certain wench whose name is lost in history. This much is known about her. She had an eye for tight elegance. This much is known about her too that she went riding with Willie and James on their newly acquired horse.

[William Brooks]

I left you down.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Now, Jane.

[Thomas Hyland]

No, no.

[William Brooks]

Give us a bus, dearie. That's a dearie.

[Thomas Hyland]

Well, how is it we are riding Mr. Spooner's horse?

[Cooley's Tavern Patron]

Why, dearie, we don't know a Mr. Spooner.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Aren't these Mr. Spooner's silver buckles?

[Joshua Spooner]

No.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

Aren't you wearing his clothes?

[William Brooks]

These are our clothes, dearie. Come, let's ride some more. It brings the pink to your pretty cheeks.

[Thomas Hyland]

But the cat was out of the bag. The girl told her mother and her mother her father. And it so happened that her father was at that moment on his way to look for the murderers of Joshua Spooner. So the father told some neighbors and they located James and Willie brought them all together, the two deserters, Ezra and Bathsheba. And this is what happened.

[James Buchanan]

The jurors for the government and people of Massachusetts Bay in New England upon their oath present that William Brooks and James Buchanan and Ezra Ross in the county of Essex not having God before their eyes an assault did make upon Joshua Spooner feloniously, willfully and of their malice aforethought on the first day of March last past with force and arms also by striking, beating and kicking aforesaid Joshua Spooner so as to inflict several mortal bruises of which Joshua Spooner died. And that Bathsheba Spooner, widow and late wife of Joshua Spooner being seduced by the instigation of the devil did incite, move, abet, counsel and procure the murder of aforesaid Joshua Spooner. How do you plead?

[Ezra Ross]

Not guilty.

[William Brooks]

Not guilty.

[Joshua Spooner]

Not guilty.

[James Buchanan]

What statement have you, Bathsheba Spooner?

[Bathsheba Spooner]

I am the wife of the deceased. If what you accuse me of be true what end could the death of my husband serve? Were there any reasons persuading, hopes, inviting or advantages arising from the death of my husband? By depriving myself of husband, I would subject myself to the burdens of a widow. If I hated my husband, as such has been said could I not have separated from him, gone to my father or to my brothers? What foolishness is this to say I've loved Ezra Ross when one of my station might have any gallant. I pleads, gentlemen, if I be guilty I was not of sound mind.

[James Buchanan]

To the sheriff of our county of Essex, greetings. We command you that on Thursday, the 4th day of June next, between the hours of 12 and 4 of the clock in the afternoon, you cause William Brooks, James Buchanan, Ezra Ross and Bathsheba Spooner to be conveyed from our jail, where they are now in your custody, to the usual place of execution and there to be hanged by the neck until their bodies be dead.

[Thomas Hyland]

The motive, the crime and the sentence. Justice was simple and quickly, too quickly for the four prisoners. The the fourth day of June. This is a copy of the Worcester Spy, dated that day that I have here. I'd like to read from. Was about half past two of the clock in the afternoon when the four criminals were brought out of prison and conducted to the place of execution. Under a guard of 100 men, the three men went on foot. Mrs. Spooner was carried in a chaise, being then, as she had been for several days, exceedingly feeble. The procession was regular and solemn. Just before they reached the place of execution, one of the most terrific thunderstorms that had incurred within the memory of the oldest inhabitant darkened the heavens. There followed an awful the loud shouts of the officers amidst the crowd of 5,000 people, the horses pressing upon those in front, the shrieks of the women in the tumult and confusion, the malefactors slowly advancing to the fatal creed, preceded by the dismal coffins, the fierce coruscations of the lightning athwart the darkened horizon, quickly followed by loud peals of thunder, conspired together and produced a dreadful scene of horror. It seemed as if the author of Nature had added such terrors to the punishment of the criminals as might soften the stoutest heart of the most obdurate. And abandoned at length the place of execution having been reached, Ross, Buchanan and Brooks ascended the latter to the stage.

[Ezra Ross]

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[Thomas Hyland]

Ross made an audible prayer. The other two were engaged in silent devotions until they faced the noose. Mrs. Spooner, as she approached the tree, was seen to bow gracefully to many of the spectators with whom she had been acquainted. Then she crept up the ladder on her hands and knees. When the eyes of the malefactors were covered and all was ready, Mrs. Spooner took the sheriff by the hand and for the first time, Bathsheba Spooner accepted the verdict of justice.

[Bathsheba Spooner]

My dear sir, I am ready. In a little time I expect to be in bliss, and but a few years must elapse when I hope I shall see you and my other friends again.

[Thomas Hyland]

And that's the way the newspaper recorded it. This has been my report of the crime of Bashy Ba. Spooner, the first woman tried and executed for murder in the United States.

In just a moment, Thomas Hyland will tell you about next week's crime classic. The National Blood Program has been made part of the Department of Defense. That's how vital a continuing growing stockpile is against emergencies of war or peace. In the warm weather months, donations fall off. In the first week of June alone, donations drop 20%. This must be offset immediately. Before you go away, please phone the Red Cross for an appointment to give a pint of blood. You will enjoy your vacation more for having done it. And here again is Thomas Hyland.

Next week we'll be with you at the same time. Although geography and year will change the place. Pimlico, England. The year 1879. My report on the shockingly peaceful passing of Thomas Edwin Bartlett, greengrocer. Thank you. Good night.

Bathsheba Spooner. Tonight's crime classic was adapted from the original court reports and newspaper accounts by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. The music was composed and conducted by Bernard Herman. And the program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis. Thomas Highland is portrayed on radio by Lou Merrill. Bathsheba Spooner was played by Mary Jane Croft. The cast included Herb Butterfield, Sam Edwards, William Johnstone, Georgia Ellis, Tudor, Owen and Van Wright. Bob Lamond speaking. Stay tuned now for Gary Moore with Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, which follows immediately over most of these same stations. And remember, for mystery mixed with merriment, join Mr. And Mrs. North Tuesday evenings on the CBS Radio Network.

SA.