Murder at Cherry Hill
Encyclopedia
The Murder at Cherry Hill occurred in 1827 near Albany, New York
, when John Whipple was shot and killed at the Cherry Hill farm
, home of a prominent Albany family, the Van Rensselaers. John's wife, Elsie, and her lover, Jesse Strang, were tried for the murder
. While Elsie was acquitted as an accomplice
, Strang was found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime; his execution
was the last public hanging
in Albany.
Known at the time as the Strang-Whipple case, the murder and subsequent trial revealed much about the society of the time. It touched upon important issues of the day such as women's roles and legal rights
, social class
, punishment
and the law, and slavery
in New York.
, deserted his wife and children fearing that his wife was unfaithful. He became a drifter and went to Ohio
but shortly after returned to New York
in 1826. The scandalous nature of his separation might have stopped then if there had not been a baggage problem that caused him to seek a job in Albany
.
Later on, in an Albany bar, he met another accomplice
in the crime, Elsie Whipple, who was none other than the daughter of Abraham Lansing and Elsie Van Rensselaer. She was also the wife of John Whipple. He fell in love with Elsie and took a job as a handyman under the name of Joseph Orton in Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaers’ residence. A gullible Elsie in turn fell in love with him. Elsie, grumpy and irksome, was not a model of perfection. She was said to be prone to hysterics
and violent shouting fits and felt domineered and controlled by her husband. It was no wonder Jesse and Elsie got along well. The lovers kept in touch with the help of the members of the house who passed letters between them.
Elsie then decided that the best thing for the lovers to do would be to kill John and then run away. Elsie then conspired with a reluctant Jesse to poison John’s tea with arsenic
so the lovers could elope, but their attempt failed.
At 9 o’clock on a night in May, 1827, Jesse Strang, on further insistence from Elsie that he murder John Whipple, climbed onto the roof of the shed and used his $15 rifle
to shoot and kill Whipple. The bullet
he shot Whipple with was the very bullet that John, getting wise about his wife’s affair and fearing his death, had loaded into his gun, which the wicked Elsie had stolen and given to Jesse.
Strang then immediately ran towards a local store and was given an alibi
by the police. He then returned to Cherry Hill and helped a doctor remove the bullet from Whipple’s body.
Later, however, the police ruled that he could have traveled the mile from Cherry Hill to the store and detained Whipple on suspicion of the murder. Upon capture, a fearful Strang, hoping for a lighter sentence, confessed and blamed Elsie for the conception of the plan. This led to the incarceration of Elsie. Whenever they communicated in jail, Elsie reminded him that had he not confessed, the two might have gotten off scot-free in Montreal
, as they had been planning to escape there.
Believing Elsie would be given a lighter sentence as she was a woman, Jesse asked his lawyer, Calvin Pepper, to plant documents at Cherry Hill incriminating Elsie as the mastermind behind the plan as he had burned the letters she sent him. Pepper refused and told him he would not receive a lighter sentence whatever he did.
As Jesse suspected, Elsie was said to be the victim. In truth, the rifle had been bought with her money, she removed the curtain in John’s room so Jesse could shoot and she was the one who could poison John’s tea.
At Strang’s trial
, The district attorney
was Edward Livingston, a relative of the Van Rensselaers and Lansings’ who told Jesse to his face, “You are guilty, you must be convicted, you must die!” and Judge
Duer called him a “serpent” and a “fiend”. When the judge asked the jury
for a verdict
, the jury deliberated for less than 15 minutes before pronouncing him guilty of murder.
Three days after Strang’s trial, Elsie Whipple stood trial for aiding and abetting
the murder of her husband. In four days, a clearly guilty Elsie was pronounced not guilty and cleared of charges. After Strang finished being a witness
on the stand at Elsie’s trial, he was sentenced to death
by hanging
.
On August 24, 1827, Jesse Strang was hanged in what was the last public hanging in Albany. Most of the elite in Albany lauded this as justice served. Elsie got away and lived in Cherry Hill.
The murder, the stir it caused in not only Albany, but also the entire nation, and the verdict has been in hot debate and will probably continue to be for its highly controversial decision regarding the involvement of Elsie in the crime.
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, when John Whipple was shot and killed at the Cherry Hill farm
Cherry Hill (Albany, New York)
Cherry Hill, also known as Historic Cherry Hill, is a historic home and museum located at Albany, Albany County, New York. It was built in 1768 and is a -story, rectangular wood-frame dwelling sheathed in clapboard. It features a gambrel roof with dormers and wooden porches with turned...
, home of a prominent Albany family, the Van Rensselaers. John's wife, Elsie, and her lover, Jesse Strang, were tried for the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. While Elsie was acquitted as an accomplice
Accomplice
At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery...
, Strang was found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime; his execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
was the last public hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in Albany.
Known at the time as the Strang-Whipple case, the murder and subsequent trial revealed much about the society of the time. It touched upon important issues of the day such as women's roles and legal rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, punishment
Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
and the law, and slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in New York.
The case
Jesse Strang, a New Yorker from Putnam CountyPutnam County, New York
Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the lower Hudson River Valley. Putnam county formed in 1812, when it detached from Dutchess County. , the population was 99,710. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. The county seat is the hamlet of Carmel...
, deserted his wife and children fearing that his wife was unfaithful. He became a drifter and went to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
but shortly after returned to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1826. The scandalous nature of his separation might have stopped then if there had not been a baggage problem that caused him to seek a job in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
.
Later on, in an Albany bar, he met another accomplice
Accomplice
At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery...
in the crime, Elsie Whipple, who was none other than the daughter of Abraham Lansing and Elsie Van Rensselaer. She was also the wife of John Whipple. He fell in love with Elsie and took a job as a handyman under the name of Joseph Orton in Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaers’ residence. A gullible Elsie in turn fell in love with him. Elsie, grumpy and irksome, was not a model of perfection. She was said to be prone to hysterics
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
and violent shouting fits and felt domineered and controlled by her husband. It was no wonder Jesse and Elsie got along well. The lovers kept in touch with the help of the members of the house who passed letters between them.
Elsie then decided that the best thing for the lovers to do would be to kill John and then run away. Elsie then conspired with a reluctant Jesse to poison John’s tea with arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
so the lovers could elope, but their attempt failed.
At 9 o’clock on a night in May, 1827, Jesse Strang, on further insistence from Elsie that he murder John Whipple, climbed onto the roof of the shed and used his $15 rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
to shoot and kill Whipple. The bullet
Bullet
A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...
he shot Whipple with was the very bullet that John, getting wise about his wife’s affair and fearing his death, had loaded into his gun, which the wicked Elsie had stolen and given to Jesse.
Strang then immediately ran towards a local store and was given an alibi
Alibi
Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C...
by the police. He then returned to Cherry Hill and helped a doctor remove the bullet from Whipple’s body.
Later, however, the police ruled that he could have traveled the mile from Cherry Hill to the store and detained Whipple on suspicion of the murder. Upon capture, a fearful Strang, hoping for a lighter sentence, confessed and blamed Elsie for the conception of the plan. This led to the incarceration of Elsie. Whenever they communicated in jail, Elsie reminded him that had he not confessed, the two might have gotten off scot-free in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, as they had been planning to escape there.
Believing Elsie would be given a lighter sentence as she was a woman, Jesse asked his lawyer, Calvin Pepper, to plant documents at Cherry Hill incriminating Elsie as the mastermind behind the plan as he had burned the letters she sent him. Pepper refused and told him he would not receive a lighter sentence whatever he did.
As Jesse suspected, Elsie was said to be the victim. In truth, the rifle had been bought with her money, she removed the curtain in John’s room so Jesse could shoot and she was the one who could poison John’s tea.
At Strang’s trial
Trial (law)
In law, a trial is when parties to a dispute come together to present information in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court...
, The district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
was Edward Livingston, a relative of the Van Rensselaers and Lansings’ who told Jesse to his face, “You are guilty, you must be convicted, you must die!” and Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Duer called him a “serpent” and a “fiend”. When the judge asked the jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
for a verdict
Verdict
In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...
, the jury deliberated for less than 15 minutes before pronouncing him guilty of murder.
Three days after Strang’s trial, Elsie Whipple stood trial for aiding and abetting
Accomplice
At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery...
the murder of her husband. In four days, a clearly guilty Elsie was pronounced not guilty and cleared of charges. After Strang finished being a witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
on the stand at Elsie’s trial, he was sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
.
On August 24, 1827, Jesse Strang was hanged in what was the last public hanging in Albany. Most of the elite in Albany lauded this as justice served. Elsie got away and lived in Cherry Hill.
The murder, the stir it caused in not only Albany, but also the entire nation, and the verdict has been in hot debate and will probably continue to be for its highly controversial decision regarding the involvement of Elsie in the crime.