Historic Pelham

Presenting the rich history of Pelham, NY in Westchester County: current historical research, descriptions of how to research Pelham history online and genealogy discussions of Pelham families.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Revolutionary War Patriot David Jones Pell Served as Westchester County Coroner After the War


John Ryer was drunk.  He was really, really drunk.  He also was a ne'er-do-well who came from a respected and affluent cattle family.  He was, however, a black sheep of the family.

 Ryer was in Hunt's Inn (also known as Hunt Inn), a tavern and stagecoach stop in the Hunt's Point area of Westchester County (now the Bronx).  It was the evening of May 17, 1792.  Ryer, who already had had frequent run-ins with the law, was making trouble in the tavern; so much trouble that he had attracted the attention of a local Constable who found it nearly impossible to deal with the drunken rascal.  The Constable asked for local Westchester County Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith to help him subdue Ryer.  

 Deputy Sheriff Smith burst into the tavern that night and encountered Ryer who held a loaded flintlock pistol in each hand.  Smith courageously told Ryer he was under arrest.  Ryer raised the pistol in his left hand and fired a bullet deep into the chest of the law enforcement officer.  

 As Deputy Sheriff Smith lay dying on the tavern floor, Ryer ran outside, took Smith's horse, and fled.  Smith, a Revolutionary War veteran, farmer, and doctor who served as the first Supervisor of the Town of New Castle in Westchester County, died that evening.


Hunt's Inn.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.
During the Revolutionary War, Tory James DeLancey
frequented Hunt's Inn with other like-minded Tories
during the British occupation of New York City.

 In contrast to American Patriot Isaac Smith, his murderer fought with the British during the Revolution.  After murdering Smith, John Ryer fled to Canada.

 The next day, one of the Westchester County Coroners from Pelham, David Jones Pell, held a coroner's inquiry into Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith's death.  David Jones Pell was a son of Philip Pell II and Gloriana Tredwell Pell.  He was an officer during the closing days of the Revolution and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 3rd New York Militia.  Pell was born in the Manor of Pelham on January 13, 1761.  On March 7, 1790 he married Hester ("Hetty") Sneden.  David J. Pell inherited the farmhouse built by his father that now forms a portion of the home known as Pelhamdale that still stands at 45 Iden Avenue and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The couple had at least ten children whom they raised in the Pell farmhouse that, at the time, overlooked Old Boston Post Road (today's Colonial Avenue) and a valley that swept down to the Hutchinson River.  

 After the Revolutionary War, David Jones Pell served in a number of local capacities including, for a time, as one of the coroners of Westchester County.  The day after the murder, on May 18, 1792, Pell's inquest concluded that Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith was "inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office."  Despite fleeing the jurisdiction, Ryer was charged with the murder of the peace officer.  

 Within a week, New York Governor George Clinton issued a proclamation offering a $500 reward "to any person or persons who shall apprehend and deliver the said John Ryer to the keeper of the common Gaol of the said county, so that he may be brought to justice."  The proclamation specifically noted that David Pell had conducted a coroner's inquest.  The proclamation stated, in part, as follows:

 "WHEREAS by an inquisition taken before DAVID I. [sic] PELL, Esquire, one of the Coroners of the county of Westchester, on the eighteenth day of May, instant, it appears that ISAAC SMITH, deputy Sheriff of the said county, was on the seventeenth day of the said month, inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office; and that a certain JOHN RYER, late of the town of Westchester, in the county of Westchester aforesaid, stands charged with the commission of the said horrid crime".

 Apparent bounty hunters from Westchester County took off for the Canadian frontier to track down John Ryer.  John Hutchens and two others found Ryer in New Brunswick and took him into custody.  

 Ryer was returned to the "gaol" (i.e., jail) in White Plains.  After a one-day trial held in September, 1793, Ryer was found guilty of the murder of Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith.  

 Thereafter Ryer confessed to the crime and published it with an account of his life.  See Ryer, John & Ryer, Margret, Narrative of the Life, and Dying Speech, of John Ryer:  Who Was Executed at White-Plains, in the County of Westchester, State of New-York, on the Second Day of October, 1793, for the Murder of Dr. Isaac Smith, Deputy-Sheriff of that County (Danbury, CT:  Printed by Nathan Douglas for the Publisher, 1793).

 As the title of the book indicates, on October 2, 1793, Ryer was marched to a tree behind the old Westchester County Courthouse where a kerchief was tied over his face.  After he prayed next to his waiting coffin and thanked jailers and family for their help in his travails, he was hanged from a limb of the tree until dead.  See Liebson, Richard, Crime Scene:  Deputy Sheriff Was Felled by Flintlock, LoHud.com (Mar. 24, 2015) (visited Oct. 12, 2019).

 At about the turn of this century, Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith's name was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.  See Forgotten No Longer, Law Enforcement News, Jun. 30, 2000, Vol. XXVI, No. 536, p. 4, col. 4.  

 Pelham's David Jones Pell, a Westchester County Coroner, played a role in bringing the rascal John Ryer to justice -- another brief chapter in Pell's long life of service in a host of public roles.

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Proclamation by New York Governor George Clinton
Offering Reward After Westchester County Coroner's Inquisition by
Coroner David Jones Pell Concluded a Local Deputy Sheriff Was
Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
American Memory Collection.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *
"Proclamation
BY His Excellency GEORGE CLINTON, Esquire, Governor of the State of New-York, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the same.
WHEREAS by an inquisition taken before DAVID I. [sic] PELL, Esquire, one of the Coroners of the county of Westchester, on the eighteenth day of May, instant, it appears that ISAAC SMITH, deputy Sheriff of the said county, was on the seventeenth day of the said month, inhumanly murdered, while in the due execution of his said office; and that a certain JOHN RYER, late of the town of Westchester, in the county of Westchester aforesaid, stands charged with the commission of the said horrid crime; and whereas it is represented to me, that the said JOHN RYER hath fled from justice:
NOW THEREFORE, I have issued this my proclamation, hereby offering a reward of FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, to any person or persons who shall apprehend and deliver the said John Ryer to the keeper of the common Gaol of the said county, so that he may be brought to justice. And I do by these presents strictly enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, and all other the good citizens of this State, to be aiding and assisting in the premises to the utmost of their power.
And I do further hereby enjoin and require the Magistrates of the said county, to cause to be apprehended (if that is not already done) every person who may have been in any wise accessory to the said offence, who may have aided the said John Ryer in his escape, or who may have with-held that assistance which was required of them by the said deputy-sheriff in the execution of his said office, and which, by law and their duty as good citizens, they ought to have rendered, in order that they may be held to answer for the same.
GIVEN under my hand and the privy Seal at the City of New-York, this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year 1792, and in the sixteenth year of the Independence of the said State.
GEO. CLINTON."

 Source:  Proclamation by His Excellency George Clinton, Esquire, Governor of the State of New York, May 24, 1792, From Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress American Memory Collection.

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I have written about David J. Pell on numerous occasions.  For a few of many other examples, see, e.g.:


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posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:44 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

The Only Pelham Criminal Ever to Die in the Electric Chair


At 9:32 a.m. on July 29, 1940 Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, Florida, threw the switch.  For 55 seconds, 2,000 volts of electricity surged through the body of Herbert W. Goddard, Jr., former Pelham Heights resident, killing the murderer.  The life of the depraved kidnapper and killer thus ended.

Goddard was a son of Maj. Herbert W. Goddard of Parkway Drive in the Village of Pelham Heights, an Army officer, and spent a portion of his youth in Pelham.  Maj. Goddard and his wife divorced when Herbert Goddard Jr. was young, a fact that killer tried to assert as a partial excuse for his depraved life during a jailhouse interview on the eve of his execution.  Major Goddard and his son lived on Parkway Drive, a short one-block street in Pelham Heights that runs parallel the Hutchinson River Parkway and to Carol Avenue and that connects Hillside Avenue and Brookside Avenue in today's Village of Pelham.

Herbert W. Goddard, Jr. was arrested for the first time, for an unknown offense, at the tender age of 16.  He seems to have gravitated between a life of crime and a life, described as one of "brilliance," in the theater arts.  Perhaps due to this fact, he used a host of aliases in his life of crime.

During the 1930s, after he left his father and Pelham, he joined the Depression-era federal theatre project where he became a successful director of a variety of productions.  That New Deal program to fund theatre, live artistic performances, and entertainment lasted from 1935 until 1939.  At its conclusion in 1939, Herbert W. Goddard, Jr. left for Miami, Florida.

Among those he met in Miami were two high school age girls:  17-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn and her friend, Jean Bolton.  Goddard told the girls tall tales of his involvement in the arts and led them to believe he could secure movie roles for the young girls in Hollywood.

In August, 1939, the heartless killer lured the two girls on a "motor trip."  On August 8, he drove them onto a lonely road between Palm Beach and Boca Raton, Florida.  There he stopped and enticed the girls to a palmetto thicket where he attacked them.  He carried with him a hammer, a knife, and a gun.  He struck Frances Dunn with a hammer to knock her down.  He then shot and stabbed her, killing her.  

Jean Bolton escaped the scene, running for her life.  She eventually made it it to a telephone and called relatives in Miami who found her wandering on a highway north of Miami and took her safely home.

Goddard was captured and tried for first degree murder.  On Wednesday, September 27, 1939, a Circuit Court Jury in West Palm Beach, Florida convicted the murderer.  The penalty was death in the electric chair.  

That sentence was carried out on Monday, July 29, 1940.  As he sat strapped in the electric chair, Herbert Goddard addressed the parents of his victim seated in the witness chamber and said "I very humbly ask their forgiveness and the forgiveness of my God.  I want to say I am morally responsible.  I killed Francis Dunn. . . ."  Source:  Elder, Robert K., Last Words of the Executed, p. 149 (Chicago, IL:  The University of Chicago Press, 2010).  Shortly before Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County threw the switch, the last audible words the killer uttered were "Goodbye Jean."

Though unsatisified, the family believed justice was served.  The man who is the only Pelhamite ever executed in the electric chair was dead.

"Herbert Goddard, above in a death-cell pose, paid yesterday
with his life for the kidnap-murder of Frances Ruth Dunn in
Florida.  Goddard, son of an Army officer, was first arrested at
16, 'reformed' and earned as high as $1,000 a week in radio work
before luring the Miami girl from her home."  Source:  MURDERER
DIES ASKING MERCY -- Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs
Forgiveness in Florida's Chair, The Morning Herald [Gloversville
and Johnstown, NY], Jul. 30, 1940, Vol. XLIV, No. 106, p. 1, col. 2.
NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"GODDARD GUILTY OF MURDER; DEATH WILL BE PENALTY
-----

Herbert Goddard, former Pelham youth, was found guilty of a first degree murder charge by a Circuit Court Jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday night.  Goddard was charged with slaying 17-year-old Frances Dunn, whom he had lured into a palmetto thicket near Boca Raton on August 8.  The first degree murder conviction carries a penalty of death in the electric chair."

Source:   GODDARD GUILTY OF MURDER; DEATH WILL BE PENALTY, The Pelham Sun, Sep. 29, 1939, Vol. 29, No. 26, p. 1, col. 4. 


"Goddard Electrocuted In Florida Prison
-----

Herbert W. Goddard, Jr., former Pelham resident, who was convicted of the murder of a 17 year old girl near Palm Beach, Fla., was electrocuted at the Florida State Prison on Monday.  Goddard, who was the son of the late Maj. Herbert Goddard of Parkway Drive, lived in Pelham with his father in 1930."

Source:   Goddard Electrocuted In Florida Prison, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 2, 1940, Vol. 30, No. 18, p. 1, col. 7.

 "Movie-Struck Girl's Slayer Dies In Chair
-----
Man Who Denied Part in Larchmont Case Was Ready for Death
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RAIFORD, Fla., (AP) -- Herbert Goddard, who lured seventeen-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn of Miami to her death by promising to get her into the movies, was executed in Florida's electric chair at State Prison here this morning.

Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, threw the switch.

The condemned man's last words were:  'Goodbye Jean.'

Jean Bolton, of Miami, a friend of Miss Dunn, also was lured on the motor trip in which Miss Dunn was attacked and killed.  Miss Bolton later was able to telephone relatives in Miami and was found on the highway north of Miami.

Glad To Die, He Says

When the death warrant was read yesterday to the twenty-nine-year-old man of many aliases and a career strangely mixed with artistic brilliance and crime, Palm Beach County Sheriff Lawrence quoted him as saying:

'Thank you, sheriff.'

A little later, the officer said, Goddard told him calmly, 'I have already suffered enough and I will be glad to see tomorrow come.'

Godard was sentenced to die for luring Miss Dunn from Miami to death on a lonely road near Palm Beach.  He had promised her and Miss Bolton careers in the movies.

Admits Shooting Girl

Instead, he testified at his trial, he attacked them, struck Miss Dunn with a hammer, knocked her down, then shot and stabbed her.  The other girl escaped. 

Going to Miami in 1939, Goddard had over-awed the girls with a reputation he had established as director of a federal theater project.  He told tall tales of his ability and renown in the theatrical business.

He was born in New York the son of an Army officer.  In an interview on the eve of his execution date, he blamed his life of crime on his parents' divorce early in his life and his lack of a normal childhood."

Source:   Movie-Struck Girl's Slayer Dies In Chair -- Man Who Denied Part in Larchmont Case Was Ready for Death, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jul. 29, 1940, p. 3, cols. 5-6.

"MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY
-----
Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs Forgiveness in Florida's Chair
-----

RAIFORD, Fla. -- (AP) -- Praying for "the forgiveness of my God,' Herbert Goddard, killer of 17-year-old Frances Ruth Dunn, died in the state prison electric chair yesterday.

Goddard asked also for forgiveness from the parents of the Miami school girl, and, in his last minute of life, declared that he did not violate her honor before the slaying in a secluded beach section near Palm Beach.

The girl had been enticed from home with a companion, Jean Bolton, on promises of movie careers for both.

Goddard's last audible words before 2,000 volts of electricity smashed into his body were 'Goodbye Jean.'

Sheriff W. H. Lawrence of Palm Beach County, in which the crime was committed, threw the switch at 9:32 A.M., and the current coursed through Goddard's body for 55 seconds.

Miss Bolton, of Miami, a friend of Miss Dunn, also was lured on the motor trip during which Miss Dunn was attacked and killed.  Miss 
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Continued on Page 5

MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY
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Continued from Page 1.
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Bolton later was able to telephone relatives in Miami and was found on the highway north of Miami in Palm Beach County.

In a three-minute statement before the current was applied, Goddard said that 'throughout this whole affair Frances (Miss Dunn) kept her honesty.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunn do not know this.  
'I very humbly ask their forgiveness and the forgiveness of my God.'

Source:  MURDERER DIES ASKING MERCY -- Goddard, Kidnap Slayer of Girl, Begs Forgiveness in Florida's Chair, The Morning Herald [Gloversville and Johnstown, NY], Jul. 30, 1940, Vol. XLIV, No. 106, p. 1, col. 2 & p. 5, col. 6.

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posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:34 AM 0 comments