Last Sunday the close of our broadcast left Dr. Valorus P. Coolidge convicted\u00a0of murder, and sent to the state prison at Thomaston, there to await execution by\u00a0hanging a year later. The date of sentence was March 24, 1848; so that on some\u00a0date subsequent to March 24, 1849 the execution was expected.<\/p>\n
The case against Dr. Coolidge had been almost completely circumstantial, except\u00a0for the testimony of Flint. If Flint was telling the truth, ‘there could be\u00a0little doubt of the doctor’s guilt. As one reads the testimony a hundred years\u00a0afterward, one is struck by the poor case put up by the defense. They called few\u00a0witnesses, and some of those few turned out, under cross-examination, to be good\u00a0witnesses for the other side. Yet there was something about that trial something\u00a0not made clear in the newspaper accounts — which caused the jury to stay out\u00a0for 22, hours, and three times report to the judge that they saw no chance of coming\u00a0to a verdict. Something caused doubts in the minds of sever~l of those worthy\u00a0citizens of Kennebec County. Was it the appealing looks and polite manner of the\u00a0handsome prisoner for more than one reporter commented on Coolidge’s handsome\u00a0face? Were there attempts to tamper with the jury in the prisoner’s favor?<\/p>\n
After the verdict, out before sentence was pronounced, Mr. Blake, the Attorney\u00a0General, told the court that he had just had placed in his hands a note found near\u00a0the jury room, under such circumstances as to make it probable that it contained\u00a0highly improper matter intended to influence the jury. The judge, receiving the\u00a0letter, stated that it was addressed to the foreman of the jury, to whom it was\u00a0passed with directions to return it to the court if it were not on private business.<\/p>\n
After opening the letter the . foreman stated that it was not on private business,\u00a0but was addressed inside “To the Gentlemen of the Jury”, and was anonymous.<\/p>\n
The foreman did not read the letter, but returned it to the court. The judge\u00a0then delivered it to the Attorney General, with directions not to let it pass out\u00a0of his hands, but to take such measures regarding it as law and justice demand.<\/p>\n
The judge refused to declare a mistrial because he was convinced that the jury\u00a0did not see the contents of the letter.<\/p>\n
As for what was in the letter and how it got to the jury room, we have only\u00a0the statement of a newspaper reporter, who wrote to his paper: “The letter is in\u00a0a lady’s handwriting and contains an appeal to the sympathies of the jury in behalf\u00a0of the prisoner.”<\/p>\n
This was not the last time a lady was to figure in the Coolidge case.<\/p>\n
I had been told that the case was appealed, but that no record existed of\u00a0court action. Imagine my delight, therefore, when I found appended to the indictment\u00a0and its accompanying record the following statement, in the handwriting of the\u00a0same court scribe who wrote the indictment itself. Here are the words: “And now,\u00a0after verdict and before sentence is passed, the said Coolidge, against whom a verdict\u00a0of guilty of murder in the first degree has been rendered, comes and moves\u00a0the court, here, that the said verdict may be set aside, and a new trial upon the\u00a0indictment may be granted to him, for the following reasons, viz: that papers important\u00a0for his defense were, immediately upon the finding of the bill of indictment\u00a0against him, taken from his possession by order of the prosecuting officer on the\u00a0part of the Government, and have been ever since withheld from him and from his\u00a0counsel; that among those papers was a letter from one Doctor Potter of Cincinnati\u00a0in Ohio, the substance of which is stated in the affadavit of Samuel B. Norris,\u00a0thereto annexed; that among them also were other letters from Dr. Potter upon the\u00a0subject of land speculations, the exact contents of which are not recollected; that\u00a0these letters are withheld from the inspection of the prisoner and his counsel, so\u00a0that they are not able to state the contents of them; that upon a new trial the\u00a0said Coolidge will be able to produce the said letters and to prove that they were\u00a0written to him by said Potter, and that the remedy spoken of in one said letter\u00a0and referred to by said Norris was prussic acid.”<\/p>\n
So much for the official language. Exactly what had happened? Those unemotional,\u00a0factual newspaper accounts — so unlike the spectacular, detailed emotionalism\u00a0in which today’s press dresses up a murder trial — those accounts\u00a0make it clear that excitement prevailed and tempers were frayed when this plea\u00a0for a new trial was laid before the court.<\/p>\n
Mr. Evans, one of Coolidge’s attorneys, told the judge he wished to make\u00a0inquiry of the Attorney General concerning the missing letters. The judge\u00a0granted the request, and Mr. Evans said that, since the jury went out, he had\u00a0learned that among the Doctor’s private papers was a letter, in which the writer\u00a0speaks of the use of prussic acid for cataract of the eye — that the strongest\u00a0kind must be used and advising Dr. Coolidge to try experiments. The Attorney\u00a0General replied that he believed there were one or two letters in his possession\u00a0from a person named Potter, but he did not believe there was anything relating to\u00a0prussic acid in those letters.<\/p>\n
Then Mr. Evans said he was not satisfied with Mr. Blake’s reply, and would\u00a0prove to the court that such letters had certainly existed. The Attorney General\u00a0then showed his anger by saying that since Mr. Evans questioned his word and even\u00a0imputed to him the crime of concealing evidence, he would withdraw his previous,\u00a0courteous offer to let Mr. Evans inspect any and all letters taken from Coolidge’s\u00a0person and office.<\/p>\n
Mr. Evans then produced an affadavit signed by James B. Norris, one of the\u00a0arresting officers, that when he took Coolidge into custody, Norris had taken from\u00a0Coolidge’s person three letters, one of which was from Dr. Potter and mentioned a\u00a0new remedy for some disease of the eye, and advised Coolidge to try the remedy\u00a0first on the eye of a dog. Mr. Evans said Dr. Hill had seen this letter, but he\u00a0is now absent from town. The court decided to postpone sentence until the next\u00a0morning, in order to give Mr. Evans time to get a statement from Dr. Hill.<\/p>\n
The following morning Mr. Evans stated that he had nothing further to offer\u00a0in behalf of the motion for a new trial, that the recollection of Dr. Hill did\u00a0not support the information which Evans had previously received. The Attorney\u00a0General then said that the letters from Dr. Potter contain nothing of importance\u00a0to the prisoner, but do contain reflections on some of the most respectable citizens\u00a0of Waterville, which can do no one any good. Right there, the attempt for a\u00a0new trial collapsed. The judge denied the petition and proceeded to pronounce\u00a0sentence upon the unhappy Coolidge.<\/p>\n
Coolidge is said to have written many letters from his Thomaston cell, at\u00a0least one of which is preserved at the Waterville Historical Society. He had not\u00a0been long in prison before it was reported that he had conceived and nearly carried\u00a0out a diabolical attempt to murder Flint and fix the Mathews crime on him.<\/p>\n
A letter was forged, purporting to be from a man who claimed to have received\u00a0a confidential confession from Flint, just before the latter’s proposed suicide.<\/p>\n
The plan was to have this letter found in Flint’s pocket. This all came to light\u00a0through the alleged discovery of a letter by Coolidge to his accomplice, a released\u00a0Thomaston convict, arranging for the latter to murder Flint and make it\u00a0appear to be suicide.<\/p>\n
“Get him in Bath, if possible”, wrote Coolidge, “if not, in Anson. Ask him to\u00a0examine you for a disease, and when he is about it, stun him with a blow on the\u00a0back of the neck, then pour contents of the vial into his mouth. Lay him with back\u00a0of neck against round of a chair, as if he hit it when he fell, thus explaining the\u00a0neck bruise. Lay beside him the vial with a little acid left in it. Take the cars\u00a0the next morning and be off where no one can find you. After I am set at liberty,\u00a0you will write me a letter as I can pay you the $1,000. Sign your name John Howard\u00a0and direct your letter to me at North Livermore, Maine.”<\/p>\n
Did Coolidge actually write that letter? Many people thought he did, but\u00a0there is no direct evidence. In fact, there is no evidence that the so-called\u00a0“Flint Plot” letters ever existed at all, except in the imagination of someone\u00a0Who wanted to keep the case alive. Yet it is <\/em>possible — even plausible — that\u00a0the imprisoned doctor did plot against the life of the man whose testimony had\u00a0convicted him.<\/p>\n In October, 1848 the Governor and Council had commuted the sentence from\u00a0hanging to life imprisonment. When the plot to kill Flint came to light the next\u00a0spring, Coolidge was removed to a solitary cell, where two days later he was found\u00a0in convulsions and died after a few minutes. Medical examination revealed no\u00a0cause of death. So stated many Maine papers, including the Waterville Mail which,\u00a0on May 24, 1849, told the above story and said that the prison warden confirmed\u00a0Coolidge’s death as having occurred on May 18.<\/p>\n Now our story begins to assume the proportions of a full-fledged mystery.<\/p>\n Coolidge’s brother came to the prison from the family home in Canton and claimed\u00a0the body. In Canton it was buried in the family lot, but after a short time the\u00a0father became suspicious and ordered exhumation. He then discovered that the body\u00a0had ten whole fingers, whereas his son had lost a finger in boyhood. The father\u00a0declared the body to be not that of Valorus Coolidge and refused to have it returned\u00a0to the family lot. There is <\/em>not a word of evidence to support that story.<\/p>\n In all the thousands of words written about the trial, there is <\/em>not one which indicates\u00a0that Coolidge had a missing finger.<\/p>\n I told you a woman would again enter this case. Well, here she is. <\/em>Though no\u00a0proof can be found, the story persists to this day that a very attractive young\u00a0woman appeared at Thomaston with a sizeable amount of gold, that she offered WardenCarr the gold and her own hand in marriage if he would free Coolidge. The Lewiston\u00a0Journal said that the woman was Coolidge’s sister. It is a fact that Warden\u00a0Carr soon resigned and left the state, but it is <\/em>only rumor that h~ and the woman\u00a0were afterwards married.<\/p>\n For many years stories sprang up that Coolidge had been seen alive at places\u00a0far removed from Waterville or Thomaston. Remember this was the time when there\u00a0was great agitation against secret societies, and somebody started the rumor that\u00a0Coolidge had escaped through the influence of the Odd Fellows. He was reported\u00a0seen on a Mississippi steamboat, in <\/em>California, in China and in <\/em>Paris, France.<\/p>\n People living in <\/em>Winslow today recall the old people telling of a Winslow\u00a0man writing from California that he. had seen Coolidge in the gold fiel’ds. Then\u00a0they tell how, a few weeks after he wrote that letter, the Winslow man was found\u00a0drowned under suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n This sort of rumor is not unusual. It is the kind that keeps popping- up\u00a0about John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of Lincoln, in spite of the evidence that\u00a0Booth was certainly shot and killed by the pursuing posse. So far as these Coolidge\u00a0rumors appeared in print, their earliest mention seems to have been in Dr.\u00a0Mann’s Screamer, a newspaper published in Skowhegan to promote the practice of\u00a0Dr. Mann. The most complete printed statement of these various rumors, including\u00a0the last report of the death of a man alleged to be Coolidge in <\/em>Alameda\u00a0County, California, is contained in a 40-page pamphlet in the archives of the\u00a0Maine Historical Society in Portland.<\/p>\n Now we come to the strangest fact of all. Although there are no records at\u00a0Canton showing any burial of Coolidge there, and although no one now living recalls\u00a0anything about the case, even any stories handed down from their grandfathers,\u00a0one amazing fact has come to light. In Canton in the year 1854 there was\u00a0born a child named Valorus Coolidge. Six years after the doctor’s conviction for\u00a0murder, a child born in the community of the doctor’s own birth and where he had\u00a0lived until of voting age, had been given the doctor I s name of Valorl1s What\u00a0Canton Coolidge would name a child for a convicted murderer? There’s a fact to\u00a0give you murder mystery fans something to chew on.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n What really happened to Dr. Coolidge? Was he hanged? The warden was reported\u00a0to have told friends after his departure from the state that he had executed\u00a0Coolidge in spite of the commutation of sentence. Did Coolidge commit suicide\u00a0in Thomaston? Did he die a natural death there? Or did he escape?<\/p>\n There is very small chance that anyone will ever know the answer. The\u00a0state of Maine tried for fifty years to determine which one of those four possibilities\u00a0was true. The prison records, if they ever existed, could not be\u00a0found. Not one of the many rumors could be substantiated. What became of ValorUS\u00a0P. Coolidge, the convicted murderer of Edward Mathews, remains an unsolved\u00a0mystery.<\/p>\n Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #80, broadcast on October 22, 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}