Holy Rollers: Murder and Madness in Oregon's Love Cult

by

T. McCracken and Robert B. Blodgett

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Part 3

"It was nearly three weeks before I was sufficiently recovered to be able to get out of my bed and walk," Evelyn Nesbit said.

"One day my maid was in my room taking things out of the drawers and packing them away. I found a little silver box, oblong in shape, and about two and a half inches long, containing a hypodermic syringe and some other small utensils. . . . I realized then for the first time, that the said Thaw was addicted to the cocaine habit. . . .

"During this entire period, while I was in this condition of non-resistance the said Thaw entered my bed and, without any consent, repeatedly wronged me. I reproved the said Thaw for his conduct, but he compelled me to submit thereto, threatening to beat and kill me if I did not do so."

Evelyn Nesbit may have looked like an innocent--much like [Miss XXX]--a young girl who was taken advantage of by unscrupulous men, but Evelyn wasn't a complete innocent. After having the affidavit drawn, Evelyn, at the suggestion of Stanford White, coerced Harry into marrying her by threatening to show the document to the authorities and have him charged him with "corrupting a minor."

Why did she want to marry "the said Thaw," a man she knew was a paranoid sadist? For one of the oldest reasons: greed. She wanted wealth and a position in society. "This is a case where a woman lay like a tigress between two men, egging them on," said New York's district attorney, William Travers Jerome.

If [Mr. XXX's] jury now found out that a third young man in as many months had publicly murdered someone, it would be very hard for them in good conscience to acquit [Mr. XXX].

"A desperate effort may be made tomorrow by the prosecution to get some inkling of the murder . . . before the jury," the Oregonian commented. "Some chance remark, some slight intimation or else a bald reference to the tragedy may be given. It is a subterfuge and a trick, and one likely to result in punishment for contempt of court, but the attorneys representing the state may attempt to influence the jury by letting the arbiters of [Mr. XXX's] fate know that another man has been shot down . . . by a youth who will plead insanity."

The prosecution promised they would make no such attempt, and Judge Frater did his best to prevent the jurors from hearing about the latest murder from other sources. . . .

That settled, the trial proceeded--until the cholera epidemic broke out among the jurors.

***

Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Acts 2:40

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