Weird Island

30. BARNABY CASTLE: First Murder by Mail

Episode Summary

Barnaby Castle, on Broadway in Providence, is this unusual looking building designed to suit its original owner, this larger-than-life personality and self-made millionaire named Jerothmul Bowers Barnaby. But while the story of J.B. Barnaby is interesting enough on its own, it’s actually his death that launches the most fascinating and odd part of this story - because his death set off a series of events that resulted in the very first murder committed via the mail. Don't just listen, see Barnaby Castle yourself at this years HALLOWEEN PARTY! Tickets at: http://www.kaitlyn-alyece-events.com/barnaby-castle

Episode Notes

Don't just listen, see Barnaby Castle yourself at this years HALLOWEEN PARTY! Tickets at: http://www.kaitlyn-alyece-events.com/barnaby-castle

Episode Source Material:

Episode Transcription

There’s something extra magical about a story that brings to life the places and things we pass by every day. Sometimes these places are nondescript. They fly under the radar or seem totally ordinary. Other times, a place might hint at the fact that it has a story to tell.
And today, I’m talking about one like that. A place that you could pass by every day and not think about. But, if you were to look closely, you might also say to yourself, “Hm, that place is actually kind of unusual…”
I’m Sara, and you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny, little state of Rhode Island. And this week, I’ll be telling you about Barnaby’s Castle - and the strange story of a murder that’s connected to this unusual looking home.
Have you ever been over on Broadway in Providence, getting a delicious coffee from The Nitro Bar or getting brunch at Nicks or Julians, and seen this strange looking Victorian house with a kind of eclectic design and a cute patterned slate roof? It’s got this weird little round sunroom in the front of the house, which has curved windows, a peeked roof and stained glass shields. And there’s an unusual 4-story octagonal tower, which also has a peek roof and this little, narrow balcony at the top. This is a home known as Barnaby Castle, and I love it. It’s so cute! But while it’s on Broadway, which is a fairly busy street, and it’s pretty well known by locals, I’m sure tons of people pass by it every day and don’t notice it at all.
The Broadway-Armory district is a historically rich area. It saw its most significant growth between the 1830s and 1910s, and according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the district, there are over 1,000 historically significant buildings in the area. And this specific one was built in 1875, and its unique design is typically attributed to its original owner, who was a man named Jerothmul Bowers Barnaby, who I’ll mostly refer to as J. B.
J.B. was born in Freetown, MA in 1830, and he got his start at age 16 working as a grocery clerk at a store owned by his brother-in-law. When he was 20, he took another job working at a clothing store near Fall River, and in just 2-years he became so confident in his ability to run a clothing business, that he moved to Providence and opened up a store of his own.
His store was a haberdashery (basically a store selling men’s clothing and accessories) called J.B. Barnaby & Co., and it became one of the largest in the state. J. B made his fortune and made a name for himself. And his wealth unlocked other opportunities for him - he dabbled in business, built buildings around Providence, he threw lavish parties and bred racing horses that he was incredibly proud of. You can actually still see the stable where he once kept his horses, directly behind the castle, off of Broadway. And it’s so beautiful that I used to think it was some sort of unusual looking church.
In 1864, he married a young socialite named Josephine Reynolds, whom he had met at a party, and the two of them had three daughters - one of whom died quite young. J.B. had a big personality, one that the RIHS described as “generous, passionate and unpredictable.” And he was also seen as a social climber and new money. So when he built his house on the West Side, he wanted to make it grand - to throw parties and entertain politicians and other people of note and also to display his wealth and thumb his nose at the rich living on the East Side.
You can imagine this larger-than-life character fitting in perfectly in his unusual home. All of this is interesting enough on its own - this story of an eccentric millionaire who’s said to have done things like throw free clothing off the roof of his store and race his horses down Broadway and spend lavishly on his parties and his mistresses. But it’s actually J.B. Barnaby’s death that launches the most fascinating and odd part of the story.
Because J.B. Barnaby’s death in 1889, at age 59, triggered a set of events that resulted in a murder. One that captured the entire nation’s attention and is still remembered today, because it was the first time someone was convicted of committing murder via the mail.
So where does it all start? Well, when J.B. died, he was survived by his widow, Josephine. The truth is, Josephine likely wasn’t very heartbroken over his death. She had spent much of her marriage to J.B. overwhelmed by his big personality, and this feeling wasn’t helped by the fact that she suffered from some nervous disorders - or the fact that she was aware of his mistresses. He was rumored to have given something like $100K of his $1.7M fortune to one mistress. But Josephine--well, in his will he only left her with $2,500 a year, claiming she was “too flighty to handle a substantial sum of money.”
This was more than enough to support the average person, but Josephine was used to a different quality of life. So her doctor and close friend, T. Thatcher Graves, recommended she hire a lawyer and sue her daughters, Mabel and Maude, for a larger share of his estate.
She hired a lawyer who had been a lifelong friend of the doctor’s, and her daughters settled, awarding her $105,000. But as you might guess, this seriously damaged her relationship with her daughters.
After the settlement, Josephine made T. Thatcher Graves the executor of her estate and gave him power of attorney, so he was now not only her doctor and her friend and confidante, but also her business agent.
With her new wealth, Josephine traveled. She visited different fashionable springs and resorts in an effort to alleviate her nervous disorders as well as a partial paralysis she suffered from.
In the summer of 1890, she traveled to the Adirondacks, were she stayed at a hotel owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Edward Bennett, who she was friendly with. And there were some rumors that she might have been more than friendly with the Mr. Edward Bennett.
While there, she talked about buying a property in the Adirondacks from the Bennetts. But when Graves found out, he wasn’t happy. He told her to reign in her spending, and outright forbid her to buy the property, saying that if she did it, he’d have her placed under guardianship - which would leave her unable to make any of her own decisions. Understandably, this strained their relationship, and Josephine left the Adirondacks to go west to California, where she and a friend named Mrs. Worrell visited various health resorts. From California, the two friends made their way to Denver, Colorado to stay with Mrs. Worrell’s son.
By the time they arrived in Denver, it was early April, 1891. Just days before Josephine’s arrival, on March 31, package had been delivered for her marked “Merchandise Only” and addressed to Mrs. J. B. Barnaby, care of E.S. Worrell, Jr. It was wrapped in light brown paper, and stickered with five 15-cent stamps and two 10-cent stamps, and postmarked from Boston. When she opened it, it was a strange-looking bottle, accompanied by a note that read, “Wish you a happy New Year. Please accept this fine old whiskey from your friend in the woods.” It didn’t say who had sent it, but Josephine read “your friend in the woods,” and exclaimed, “It must be from Bennett!”
A few days later, Josephine and Mrs. Worrell took a long carriage ride through some of Denver’s best neighborhoods, and when they got back to the Worrell residence, they cracked open the bottle of whiskey to make some hot toddies.
Mrs. Worrell testified that she drank down her glassful, but as soon as she did, she felt a puckering taste in her mouth and remarked that the drink didn’t taste like whiskey at all. But Josephine just kept sipping her liquor, until she had drank the whole glass. After a little while, she agreed that it wasn’t actually very good. Within the hour the two of them became violently ill, and a doctor was called for. The whiskey, it turns out, had been laced with arsenic. They had been poisoned. Mrs. Worrell recovered, but Josephine didn’t. She suffered for a week and died on Sunday, April 19th. As she lay suffering, she declared that the whiskey must not have been from the Bennetts after all.
The Worrells called for Josephine’s daughters and for her doctor. The thing is, Josephine had really damaged her relationship with her daughters, and her daughter Mabel’s husband, a man named John Conrad. Conrad was angry that Josephine, at the insistence of her doctor, had sued for J.B.’s estate. But despite this animosity, he swooped in and hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to investigate Josephine’s murder.
Right away, there were a number of suspects. It could have been the Worrells, who she was staying with, who were set to receive $10K from Josephine’s will, and were reportedly having some financial troubles. Or maybe it was the Bennetts, who were also set to receive $10K from her will. Or maybe Sallie Hanley, a recently dismissed personal maid who had been hired by Dr. Graves to keep an eye on Josephine. And then there was Dr. Graves, himself.
The doctor who had control of her finances, and essentially her decisions, and who frequently sent her medicine and treatments for her nerves via the mail.
It wasn’t long before Dr. Graves was isolated as the primary suspect and a grand jury indicted him on a murder charge.
The crime and the trial became a national sensation. The trial lasted six weeks, and was the longest murder trial in the US up to that point. It centered on a few key pieces of evidence. The whiskey had been mailed from Boston at a time when Dr. Graves was reportedly in Boston. But the package was sent with stamps that actually weren’t being sold in Boston at the time - however, they were being sold in Providence. There was a handwriting analysis done on the letter that had accompanied the bottle, and a toxicology report suggesting the arsenic laced whiskey had been mixed by a person practiced in chemicals or medicine. But the biggest piece of the trial was a reported confession, which John Conrad testified to. He stated that Dr. Graves had admitted to mailing a bottle of whiskey to Josephine.
The jury found Dr. Graves guilty of murder in the first degree, and he was sentenced to death by means of a new do-it-yourself hanging machine, which is a whole other weird story.
So it was looking pretty bad for Dr. Graves. But then his lawyers were able to secure a new trial. The New York Times reported that it was “without doubt” that certain “well-established rules of the law of evidence were neglected in the trial in the lower court. The evidence of guilt was entirely circumstantial.” This NY Times article points out that Josephine’s own suspicions of Dr. Grave, uttered as she died, were admitted as evidence. And her statements that the Bennetts did not send the bottle were admitted as evidence. And the provided incorrect instructions to the jury. When Graves received the telegram that his judgment was reversed, he reportedly shook hands with everyone around him and wept. But he wasn’t released on bond in the meantime. A judge announced they had decided against allowing permanent bond, but the prosecution was ordered to quickly determine when it would be ready for a new trial. This was NY Times article was published in February 1893.
By September of that year, he was still in jail. Then, the Indiana State Sentinel ran the following, “The famous murder case of Dr. T. Thatcher Graves, formerly of Providence, R.I., has at last been settled. The doctor was found dead in his cell at the county jail about 9 o’clock this morning.” His death was reported as a suicide.
And that brought this whole thing to an end.
Or at least, that’s how it seems. But maybe there’s more to the story. Years later, the grandson of Mabel Barnaby Conrad and John Conrad would uncover some family papers that cast doubt on the whole case.
What if John Conrad had actually pinned the murder on Dr. Graves to get back at him for the lawsuit Josephine had filed against him and her daughters? And what if there was evidence that Conrad had bribed detectives, bailiffs, reporters and other witnesses to make that happen?
At the time, people moved on from this trial to focus on another famous one that you’ve probably heard of. Just prior to Dr. Graves’ death, the Lizzie Borden trial became national news. During that trial, a newspaper reporter named Henry Trickey caused a stir when he published a story alleging Lizzie Borden had become pregnant and was disowned by her father, giving her a motive for the murder. It turns out this story wasn’t true. And Henry Trickey as well as a private detective named Edwin McHenry were exposed as having fabricated the story.
And wouldn’t you know it, but these two men had also testified in court during another highly covered murder case. That of Josephine Barnaby.
So, that’s where I’m going to end this story today. But join me next week for a part 2, where I’ll go a little deeper into the story and some of those alternate theories of what might have happened.
Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I’d love it if you could share it with your family and friends. Or you can email me or send me a recorded voice memo at weird rhode island @ gmail.com. See you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!