Walter L. Hixson - Murder, Culture, and Injustice: Four Sensational Cases in American History

MURDER, CULTURE, AND INJUSTICE

SERIES ON LAW, POLITICS AND SOCIETY

FOUR SENSATIONAL CASES IN AMERICAN HISTORY

WALTER L. HIXSON

Copyright 2001 by Walter L. Hixson

All rights reserved

All inquires and permissions requests should be addressed to the publisher,

The University of Akron Press, Akron, OH 44325-1703

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition 2001

11 10 09 5 4 3

Designed and produced by Kachergis Book Design, Pittsboro, NC

Cover front illustration by Bud Hixson

Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this book as follows:

Hixson, Walter L.

Murder, culture, and injustice : four sensational cases in American

history / by Walter L. Hixson. 1st. ed.

p. cm. (Series on law, politics, and society)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-884836-67-1

ePDF 978-1-935603-22-1 ePub 978-1-935603-23-8

1. MurderUnited StatesCase studies. 2. MurderersUnited StatesCase studies. 3. Murder victimsUnited StatesCase studies. 4. CelebritiesUnited StatesCase studies. 5. Trials (Murder)United StatesCase studies. 6. Mass media and cultureUnited States.

I. Title. II. Series.

HV 6529 . H 59 2000

364.15'23'0973dc21

00-010635

ISBN 978-1-931968-54-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National

Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,

ANSI Z39.48-1984

T he four murder cases and the subsequent criminal trials analyzed in this book are among the most sensational in American history. As primordial dramas involving murder within or against a socially prominent family, the Lizzie Borden, Lindbergh baby, Sam Sheppard, and O. J. Simpson cases riveted the public.

These murder cases, scattered across a century, were not merely sensational but highly revealing as well. While historians have long recognized the significance of famous political trials, such as the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the Scottsboro boys, or the Chicago Seven, they have paid less attention to sensational murder cases. In fact, however, such cases have a great deal to teach us about American history, culture, and jurisprudence.

These dramas converge at an intersection of crime, law, journalism, and culture. All four cases spurred feverish public interest and saturated media coverage. Each representedin varying degreesa miscarriage of justice.

All four cases offer insight into the evolution of the American criminal justice system, the role of the media, and the larger cultural milieu. The four case studies demonstrate how deeply issues such as gender, ethnicity, class, and race influence high-profile judicial proceedings. They underscore the prevalence and implications of police and judicial incompetence. They show us, in short, just how fragile American justice can be, especially in high-profile cases.

The Lizzie Borden case reveals the extent to which patriarchal culture influenced criminal justice in late-Victorian America. In the Lindbergh case, New Jersey officials denied Bruno Richard Hauptmann legal protections and access to the evidence against himlegal rights of criminal defendants that are taken for granted today. The Sheppard case, conducted in a McCarthy-era witch-hunt atmosphere, became a trial by newspaper, ultimately spurring a landmark 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The O. J. Simpson case became a referendum on American race relations, while at the same time calling into question for many the very legitimacy of the U.S. criminal justice system.

The Simpson case, perceived by millions of (mostly white) Americans as an outrageous perversion of justice, was not nearly as anomalous as contemporary observers seemed to believe. The comparative historical analysis offered in this study reveals that the Simpson case was rather typical of celebrity trials. In the Simpson investigation and trial, as in the other three cases analyzed in this book, pressures flowing from overwhelming public attention upset the delicate processes of justice. The actors in the criminal justice systempolice, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juriessuccumbed in varying degrees to the external pressures that roiled the administration of justice.

Publicity played an enormous role, heightening both the hype and the controversy surrounding all four cases. Sensational media coverage inundated the courtroom proceedings, requiring each trial to be conducted in a carnival-like atmosphere. Popular trials such as the four studied here contain all the features that captivate the public: drama, narrative, rhetoric, and advocacy. Such cases tend to obscure the criminal or legal issues in question, as they provide an opportunity to advance other causes before, during, and after the courtroom proceedings. As Robert Harriman has pointed out in Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law (1990), Trials function in this way as forums for debate, as symbols of larger constellations of belief and action, and as social dramas used to manage emotional responses to troubling situations.

These cases became mesmerizing national dramas because they brought to the surface cultural tensions that transcended the courtroom. The Lizzie Borden case cannot be understood absent consideration of class and gender roles in Victorian America. Similarly, nativism and xenophobia served to condemn Bruno Richard Hauptmann well before his trial began. Dr. Sheppards fate stemmed from class anxieties and disgraceful journalism in Cleveland. Finally, a long history of arbitrary authority, police violence, and discrimination under the law against African-Americans enabled Simpsons defense team to win his freedom by exploiting popular black perceptions of racial injustice.

Although the verdicts in these cases were issued in a hall of justice, in reality they were decided in the proverbial court of public opinion. In each case community sentimentAmerican culture writ largeoverwhelmed the judicial process. As a result, all four cases represented (to one degree or another) a perversion of the processes of criminal justice. If the history of these murder cases offers any guide, we may conclude that sensational trials almost invariably invoke broad cultural issues that threaten the administration of justice on its own merits.

While these cases offer insight into the history of American culture and jurisprudence, at the same time they tap into the natural human fascination with mystery and evil that lies at the core of public interest in murder narratives. Moreover, these cases are fascinating whodunitseven if, as is usually the case, the answer to that question is clear. One of my purposes is to put to rest some of the alternative theories that proliferate about these four sensational crimes. A few years back, while writing a biography of Charles A. Lindbergh, I thumbed through some of the popular literature on the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. I was appalled at the prospect that large numbers of people might actually believe some of the fatuous theories about the Lindbergh crime that had found their way into print.