Virginia A. McConnell - The Adventuress. Murder, Blackmail, and Confidence Games in the Gilded Age

The Adventuress

TRUE CRIME HISTORY SERIES

Twilight of Innocence: The Disappearance of Beverly Potts

James Jessen Badal

Tracks to Murder

Jonathan Goodman

Terrorism for Self-Glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome

Albert Borowitz

Ripperology: A Study of the Worlds First Serial Killer and a Literary Phenomenon

Robin Odell

The Good-bye Door: The Incredible True Story of Americas First Female Serial Killer to Die in the Chair

Diana Britt Franklin

Murder on Several Occasions

Jonathan Goodman

The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories

Elizabeth A. De Wolfe

Lethal Witness: Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Honorary Pathologist

Andrew Rose

Murder of a Journalist: The True Story of the Death of Donald Ring Mellett

Thomas Crowl

Musical Mysteries: From Mozart to John Lennon

Albert Borowitz

The Adventuress: Murder, Blackmail, and Confidence Games in the Gilded Age

Virginia A. McConnell

Murder, Blackmail,
and Confidence Games
in the Gilded Age

Virginia A. McConnell

The Kent State University Press

Kent, Ohio

2010 by Virginia A. McConnell

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2009047060

ISBN 978-1-60635-034-8

Manufactured in the United States of America

Designed by Christine Brooks and set in Cycles.

Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McConnell, Virginia A.

The adventuress : murder, blackmail, and confidence games in the Gilded Age / Virginia A. McConnell

p. cm. (True crime history series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60635-034-8 (hardback : alk. paper)

1. Walkup, Minnie Wallace, 18691957. 2. Women murderersUnited StatesBiography. 3. HusbandsCrimes against. 4. MurderUnited StatesCase studies.

I. Title.

HV6248.W188M33 2010

364.1523092dc22 2009047060

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.

14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1

This one is for the girls: my sisters-in-law Patty McConnell, Victoria Beckner, and the late Jill McConnell; my niece Kristin McConnell; and my good friends Lisa Greenville and Laurie Austin.

Thanks to all those who provided me with information I could not have accessed otherwise: the family members of some of the people involved in this story for information and pictures; Robert Loerzel, author of Alchemy of Bones (on the Luetgert case), for the interview of Dethlef Hansen; and Cook County Archives for the Ketcham and Louderback probate files.

My sister, Martha Greer, and her lawyer friend, Sherry Chancellor, were loyal editors throughout, giving me feedback, encouragement, suggestions, and requests for clarification.

Barbara Blasey, Ph.D., provided this math-challenged author with the information on the size of a dose of twenty grains of arsenic so that readers (and I) could visualize it.

My student Steve Skinners early involvement with this case for an English research assignment was so thorough that he succeeded in piquing my interest.

Our college librarian, Jackson Vance Matthews, not only did yeoman service in ordering all that microfilm for me, but provided a patient (and kind) ear as I ranted, exulted, and sulked over triumphs and disappointments. She, along with my other friends, is no doubt glad to have an endfinallyto my numerous tales of Minnies antics.

The Lyon County Historical Society, Emporia, Kansas, graciously provided a copy of the picture of Minnie that she had taken after her trial, and also one of William Jay.

Robert Hodge of Emporia sent me some copies of his own research on the Walkup case, and his generosity is much appreciated.

Finally, a very large thank you to Joanna Hildebrand Craig, Joyce Harrison, Mary Young, and the folks at Kent State University Press for taking a chance on this very quirky project.

What started out as mild curiosity about a woman put on trial for the murder of her husband, the acting mayor of Emporia, Kansas, soon turned into a four-year obsession as the facts unfoldedthe most startling of which was that she was only sixteen at the time.

Each aspect of the search, each backgrounding of other characters in the drama revealed new scandals, new layers of venalityon the part not just of Minnie Wallace Walkup Ketcham Keating, but of those connected with her, as well. It was like pulling a loose thread from an old wool sweater: One thread led to another and another, and there was just no end to it. As an example, when I was writing the last chapter and tried once more to find the date of death for one of the characters, the avenue I took resulted in the discovery of yet another scam, this one by that characters husband and with her knowledge.

Scalawags, scoundrels, scamps, women of easy virtue preying on rich men, a carpetbagger governor, sleazy lawyers, lustful judges, partying rich boys, dueling politicians, wealthy womanizers, a classic robber baronall of these revolve around the central unifying figure of this black widow from New Orleans like a loosely knit band of Irish Travelers. If you saw these folks in a movie, you would scorn the director for presenting such improbable plot lines with characters right out of Central Casting. Yet they were real, and these events actually happened.

I began to realize that, while Minnie Walkup was the main character, the story went beyond her. To leave out some of those events would be to deprive the book of some very entertaining moments. Hence, The Adventuress is not just about Minnie, although it is mostly so. She is the fixed foot of the compass, to paraphrase John Donne, to which we always return no matter how far afield we roam.

For the most part, these were not nice people, not even those who were murdered. Although they certainly did not deserve to die, they cannot be considered completely innocent victims. And those who were schemed against for blackmail or confidence games all had a hand in their own destruction.

Another revealing aspect of this story is how we in the twenty-first century can learn about the mores and customs of the past. It is not the law that reflects this: Its the newspapers and the people in a courtroom. If you want to learn how people were expected to behave in an earlier era, read a newspaper account of a high-profile trial and it will tell you everything you need to know about what was considered humorous, what was considered shocking, and what was considered indecorous, inappropriate behaviornot just in the reporters commentaries, but in their descriptions of the observers reactions.

Even if its not legal proof, people will always feel that certain things must be done in a certain way. It is expected that a widow will grieve for her husband, and when she does not do so visiblywhatever she might feel insideshe is judged as lacking in wifely devotion and therefore possibly guilty of the crime imputed to her. It is expected that women are by nature retiring and modest, and when they boldly put themselves forward and stare back at those staring at them, they are no better than streetwalkers, whatever their station in life.