It is something for the whole country to hide its head in shame over—that mob of men who stripped a woman’s clothes off her and held her while a mob of women in men’s clothes and with blackened faces applied tar and feathers to her naked body.  (Potsdam Courier & Freeman,  August 14, 1895)

The friendly, relaxed ambiance of the North Country belies a dark and sordid history, filled with criminal mischief, depravity, and scandal. In my latest piece, I take you far back to a time when it seemed that every city had its red-light district and every hamlet its brothel; a time of horse thieves, body snatchers, and mysterious abductions. Revisit an enigmatic period fraught with lawless gypsies, pistol duels, and “tramp camps;” hermits on the run, “wild man” sightings, white slavery, and reports of black witchcraft…right in your own backyard. For Wicked Northern New York, I carefully researched and compiled the most wicked stories of all, like the Potsdam man who literally scared his wife to death, the woman who was won in a game of cards, and the little girl who was taken by gypsies, sold for fifty cents to a man of disrepute, and traded to another for a half a dozen chickens. (See a preview of that chapter below.)

The Table of Contents is as follows:

1. The Day Mrs. Miller Was Snatched from Her Bed: Parishville, 1812
2. The Last Laugh: Fall Island, Potsdam, 1817
3. The Woman Who Was Won in a Game of Cards: Evans Mills, 1841
4. Treasure Island and the Fabled Money Hole: Wilson Hill, Louisville, 1842
5. The Day Daniel Murdock Rose from the Grave: Stockholm, 1850s
6. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Northern New  York, 1800s
7. Mystery Hermit, Eccentric Recluse or Hunted Assassin?: Maple Island, Clayton, 1865
8. Wild Men of Northern New York (the Hairy, Scary Kind): 1874-1948
9. Hip to Be Hobo: Clinton County, 1880-1925
10. The Man Who Stole a Hundred Horses: Franklin County, 1890-1906
11. The Tarring and Feathering of Mrs. Covey: Jayville/Fine, 1895
12. The Taking (and Return…Seventeen Years Later) of Little Freddie Brosseau: Potsdam, 1896
13. Beware of Brothels (and Maidens with Blond Tresses): Northern New York, early 1900s
14. The Man Who Scared His Wife to Death: Sissonville/Potsdam, 1902
15. The North Country Gypsy Invasion: 1890s-1920s
16. The Election Day Massacre in a Town Dubbed “Bloodville”: Saranac Lake, 1902
17. The Girl Who Was Traded for Chickens: Schuyler Falls, 1908
18. By the Promise of Pretty Clothes: Northern New York, 1901-1909
19. Girl with the Evil Eye: Hogansburg, 1912
20. So the Devil Would Leave Him Alone: Westport/North Hudson, 1975

 “The Girl Who Was Traded for Chickens” – Schuyler Falls, 1908

    Late one chilly afternoon in November 1908, a young girl—barefoot, filthy, and scantily dressed—showed up at the Lavalley residence in Cadyville seeking shelter. She said her name was Annie and that her parents, Abraham and Mary Terrier of Schuyler Falls, had “put her out.” How do you kick a ten-year-old child out? From the condition of the girl, the eviction from her so-called home was apparently a blessing in disguise. One glance at their diminutive visitor, and the Lavalleys knew that Humane Officer Hennessy was needed. While modern humane officers specialize in animal cruelty, in the early 1900s, it was, as one paper called it, the “noble work of preventing cruelty to [both] children and animals.” It was the humane officer’s job to enforce anti-cruelty laws within his jurisdiction. In those days, there were no government agencies to oversee the welfare of children, so Hennessy acted as a forerunner of today’s caseworker for the New York State Department of Social Services - Child Protective Services division. He had undoubtedly seen his share of shocking situations, due to the nature of his work, but this was one case he would never forget.

Hennessy questioned the child and the neighbors of her previous caretakers but was unable to speak with her real parents, because her biological father had left several years earlier, after an argument with her real mother. Then, shortly thereafter, Annie’s mother died, and Annie became an orphan—and a vulnerable target for predators, like (in her case) gypsies, pimps, or child abusers, in that order. Thus, the girl’s actual name, the Humane Officer soon learned, was Annie Ashline of Keeseville, not Annie Terrier of Schuyler Falls. She had somehow fallen in with a band of gypsies passing through the area at the time of her mother’s death; and, although they provided the basic necessities for the short time that she was with them, they did her no favors. In fact, they did the unthinkable, selling her to a “man of alleged ill repute near Redford” for fifty cents—fifty cents—the equivalent of twelve dollars today. When he was finished with her, he took her to the Terrier home and traded her for a half dozen chickens. So far, the only society she knew had been cruel to her, placing her value at next to nothing; and things were about to get worse for her.

   While in the care of the Terriers, neighbors told Hennessy that the child was regularly beaten, which they called “flogging” back then, provided with but little clothing, and sent through the snow to the woods, barefooted, to fetch wood for the family. The Ticonderoga Sentinel of December 3, 1908, said she had been “buffeted from pillar to post and [had] been frightfully abused,” until the day the Terriers kicked her out, and the Lavalleys contacted Humane Officer Hennessy on the girl’s behalf. Annie was committed to the St. Vincent’s orphan asylum in Troy. The Sentinel said that at least the investigation “resulted in putting the unfortunate waif in a place where she will receive the care and education which has thus far in her life been lacking.”

   Warrants were then issued for the arrest of both Mr. and Mrs. Terrier, “on a charge of endangering the morals of the child, under section 289,”according to the Press Republican. Mary Terrier was “under $100 bail, to appear before Justice Emery,” and Abraham Terrier, while he could not initially be found, did manage to show up in time for his and his wife’s arraignment a few days later. Incredibly, Justice R. H. Emery released the contemptible couple, saying the charge brought against them by Humane Officer Hennessy was lacking in evidence to support it. They were free to go.

Perhaps if the good justice had walked a mile in the child’s shoes, he might have reached a different conclusion. But he hadn’t been subjected to the deeds of a man of ill repute against a frail little body; he hadn’t felt the familiar sting of a whip or been chained to a porch like a dog; and he hadn’t experienced the shame of being sold for a mere fifty cents before being traded for six lousy chickens. If none of that is endangering a child’s morals, then what is?

Alphabet Killer: The True Story of the Double Initial Murders

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UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW ONLINE AT AMCTV.COM.  CLICK HERE. 

Along with several investigators, I was recently interviewed by phone for a new, short-form documentary series called “The Unsolved” for AMC (www.amctv.com), for their upcoming episode on the Alphabet Murders. The five-minute mini-doc will air on Friday, April 1, partway through the 8 p.m. (ET) showing of the movie, “Deliverance” on the AMC channel. (The last two nights, the Unsolved documentaries appeared around 9:30  p.m., so it will likely be the same with the Alphabet episode.)   The six documentaries in The Unsolved series are a prelude to AMC’s new original drama, “The Killing,” which premiers Sunday, April 3.

Besides the Alphabet Murders, other true-life unsolved crimes to be featured include Jon Benet Ramsey, the Black Dahlia, Marilyn Sheppard, the Zodiac Killer, and Natalee Holloway. Dan Abrams is the host, and eight-time Emmy Award nominee, Jeff Roe, of Outlaw Laboratories, is the producer and director. The series aims to provide the public with a better understanding of the crimes, while delving into the ramifications on the many individuals touched by them: the family, friends, media, investigators, first-responders, authors, and politicians.