Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 25, No. 2, August 13, 1927

But in the cold calm eyes of almost a century later, there seems to have been some justification in the clamor of those who yearned to see Frank Robinson mount the gallows.

Helen Jewett was a very beautiful lily of the field. Of her early days — she was only twenty-three when she was murdered — rumor credited her with a series of affairs, more or less honorable, and more or less profitable.

A Column of Smoke

At the time of her murder she was an inmate of a house patronized by the dandies of New York. The house itself, located at 41 Thomas Street, was “large and elegant,” wrote the elder James Gordon Bennett who covered the story for his newly acquired Herald, and was painted yellow. It was also elegantly furnished with mirrors, splendid paintings, sofas, ottomans, and every variety of costly furniture.

On the night of the 9th of April, 1836, this story opens.

Rosina Townsend, the head of the house, was the first to testify at the inquest. At nine o’clock, she said, she had opened the door to Frank Robinson, had called Helen and had seen them go upstairs together.

About half past eleven she had taken a bottle of wine up to them. It was the last time she saw Helen Jewett alive.

In answer to questions, this witness said that Robinson had worn a cloth cap and a dark cloak. He had kept his face muffled in the cloak when she let him in, but he always did that. Anyway, she had seen him in the room with Helen when she took up the wine and so had no doubt that it was Robinson.

At a quarter past twelve, she had locked up the house and gone to bed. Some time later — it turned out to be three o’clock — the Townsend woman was awakened by a violent knocking on the front door. She went downstairs to see who it was.

To her surprise there was a lamp burning in the parlor. She thought it belonged to one of the girls, but when she called their names, got no reply.

Then the witness said she went back to her bed and was just falling asleep again when she thought she heard another noise at the front door. She went downstairs a second time, went close to the door and called out “who’s there?” But getting no answer, she turned back again. But she wasn’t through.

This time, however, she decided to see if all the girls were in. She knocked at the first door, found it locked, and could hear its occupant asleep. The second room was Helen Jewett’s.

When she tried this door, it opened. A column of smoke poured out and choked her. Rushing to the adjoining room, she beat on the door and told the girl Helen’s room was on fire.

The neighboring watchman had now been aroused by the cries of fire coming from 41 Thomas Street. He hurried to the house and up to the second floor. One of the girls had braved the smoke and made her way to Helen’s bed.

Reasons for the Murder

And as the smoke cleared, the officer, surrounded by the terror-stricken girls, saw the body of Helen Jewett, her skull battered in by hatchet blows, and her left side horribly burned. There was no doubt that the hatchet had killed her.

The discovery of the crime occurred between three and four in the morning. Within an hour the police had begun to hunt for clews to the murderer. Though mockingly dubbed Leatherheads in those days, they had rather keen wits and alert eyes, nevertheless.

One officer found a hatchet in the back yard adjoining Mrs. Townsend’s. Another found a cloak similar to the one, if not the same, worn by the man Robinson, and a third had arrested Robinson in his room at 42 Dey Street.

An inmate of the Townsend house, who slept across the hall from Helen’s room, testified that at 2 A. M. she heard groans coming from Helen’s room and that on peeping from her door, she saw Helen’s door slowly open and Robinson emerge and go softly downstairs. Then, she said, she heard him leave by a back door.

This testimony, in addition to Mrs. Townsend’s description of Robinson and her account that he was the last person in Helen’s company, sufficiently impressed the jury, and Frank Robinson was held for the murder.

Before the trial the newspapers gave much space to possible reasons for the murder. Some credited the report that Robinson was engaged to the daughter of his employer, Hoxie, and that when he told Helen, she threatened to break the match.

Over the Fence

Others spread the story that in a moment of relaxation, Robinson had told Helen Jewett of various mistakes of his youth. Mistakes that if repeated to the interested parties would bring him to jail. And that Helen for some real or fancied wrong had threatened to tell these stories. So, in order to silence her forever, Robinson had decided he must kill her.

Public opinion was divided. Enthusiastic meetings of sympathy were held in several of the churches, the Rev. Brownlee, of the Chatham Street Chapel, openly supporting the murder of Helen by Robinson as “a deed to be commended.”