Beyond Doubt Page 1 CONTENTS
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By Len Hendershott 2014 Beyond Doubt Page 1 CONTENTS Research Note ........................................................................................ 5 Beyond Doubt ......................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 - Origins and Context ............................................................. 9 Roots ................................................................................................. 11 Hinneschied of Naumburger Hof .................................................. 12 Jacob Hendershott and Charity Horning ...................................... 14 Isaac Welter and Samantha Dingman .......................................... 15 Elgin County .................................................................................. 16 St. Thomas .................................................................................... 19 Middlemarch ................................................................................ 22 St. Thomas Police Department ..................................................... 25 Victim and Perpetrators ................................................................... 28 The Lamb - William Henry Hendershott ....................................... 28 The Wolf - William David Welter .................................................. 30 The Fox - John Aaron Hendershott ............................................... 31 Life Insurance in 1890 Ontario ......................................................... 36 Inspiration for Murder .................................................................. 41 Chapter 2 - The Death of Will Hendershott .......................................... 44 The Inquest ................................................................................... 47 The Accident ................................................................................. 49 There's A Hole in the Story. .......................................................... 52 OPP Detective John Wilson Murray.............................................. 54 John Aaron Hendershott is Implicated ......................................... 57 Preliminary Hearing .......................................................................... 61 Norman Macdonald ...................................................................... 64 Chapter 3 - Welter - Hendershott Trial................................................. 67 The Weight of Justice ....................................................................... 69 Beyond Doubt Page 2 Presumption of Innocence ........................................................... 71 Reasonable Doubt ........................................................................ 72 Circumstantial Evidence ............................................................... 73 Participants ....................................................................................... 75 “The Chief” - Justice William Ralph Meredith ............................. 75 Crown Attorney Britton Bath Osler .............................................. 79 Barristers Norman Macdonald & John A Robinson ...................... 82 Court Session - March 7 - 15, 1895................................................... 85 Cause of Death ............................................................................. 87 Wardell's Woods ........................................................................... 92 What Killed Will Hendershott ....................................................... 97 Where Did All the Axes Go?.......................................................... 98 Follow the Insurance .................................................................. 100 Watch the Watches .................................................................... 105 Will Hendershott's Trunk ............................................................ 108 John A Hendershott's Alibi......................................................... 109 Rendezvous at the Penwarden House ....................................... 113 Two Versions .................................................................................. 115 Dual Murderers .......................................................................... 115 St. Thomas Daily Times Version .................................................. 119 Notes From the Trials ..................................................................... 123 So Much Insurance ..................................................................... 123 Greed Runs in the Family ............................................................ 124 Charles Welter's Involvement .................................................... 128 They Protest Too Much - The Sweet Mary Lily ........................... 130 A Different Relationship ............................................................. 132 Possible Accomplices - After the Fact ......................................... 133 The Plan Comes Unravelled ............................................................ 135 Changing Sentiments .................................................................. 139 Beyond Doubt Page 3 Verdict ........................................................................................ 144 Chapter 4 - Trying to Escape the Gallows ........................................... 147 Welter's Confession .................................................................... 147 Lily Looses Her Appeal ................................................................ 150 Chapter 5 – Dead End ......................................................................... 152 John Robert Radclive - The Executioner ..................................... 153 The Hanging ................................................................................ 158 Confessions ................................................................................. 160 The Insurance Payouts ................................................................ 162 Chapter 6 - Epilogue ........................................................................... 164 Re-internment ................................................................................ 164 Mary Lily and Rosa Hendershott .................................................... 166 The Death of Norman Macdonald .................................................. 168 Impact of Hanging as a Form of Execution ..................................... 169 Appendices ......................................................................................... 171 Depositions ..................................................................................... 171 Deposition of William David Welter ........................................... 171 Deposition of John Aaron Hendershott ...................................... 179 The Middlemarch Mystery ............................................................. 184 Chronology of Events ...................................................................... 189 Cast ................................................................................................. 199 Crime .......................................................................................... 199 Investigation ............................................................................... 200 Inquest Jury List .......................................................................... 201 Trials - Witness List ..................................................................... 202 Ottawa intervention ................................................................... 219 Execution .................................................................................... 220 List of Names .................................................................................. 221 Beyond Doubt Page 4 RESEARCH NOTE There was a great deal of press coverage of the arrest, trial and execution of Hendershott and Welter. There are frequent references to these newspaper articles. Beyond these scattered items, there are four primary sources of material cited in this book. First, the Garton Scrapbook is a collection of news clippings at the St. Thomas Public Library covering the period bounding the murder and trial. There are about twenty-five pages devoted to the coverage. For more information see St Thomas Public Library. Second, the preliminary (magistrate's) trial manuscripts are held in the Elgin County Historical Board at their archives on Sunset Drive, south of St Thomas. They consist of over a thousand pages of testimony between January 4 and 11, 1895. Third, a synopsis of the murder and trial was written in 1945 by Edwin C. Guillett. It is titled "Famous Canadian Trials: Easy Money: a study of the evidence in the Queen versus John Hendershott and William David Welter for the murder of William Henry Hendershott, 1894-1895". The copy that I reviewed was located at the Toronto Reference Library, though there are copies also available at Osgoode Law Library and York University in Toronto. Fourth, John Wilson Murray provides an account of his involvement in the case in Memoirs of a Great Detective. The chapter titled "The Middlemarch Mystery" is devoted to the Hendershott-Welter case. Name References: In discussing the people involved the victim, William Henry Hendershott, is refered to as "Will", the name he was known by. The murderer, William David Welter, was also usually referred to as Will, though Guillet cited him as "Dave", his middle name. He will be called William to distinguish him from the victim. Lastly, the accomplice, or second murderer