Chris Fordney: Murder lurks in the attic

Like This? Click Here to Recommend

By Chris Fordney -- cfordney@nvdaily.com

It will soon be Halloween, a time to venture into the attic of the old house, preferably late at night when there are no sounds except perhaps the scraping of a branch against the roof or the low moan of the wind in the trees outside.

By the flickering light of a candle, we find, tucked into a pile of books in a dusty box, a yellowed newspaper clipping more than 150 years old, from the Republican Courier of Gettysburg, Pa., which carried a story from the nearby town of Lancaster under the headline, "Horrid Tragedy," and we read:

"On Saturday morning last, between the hours of 8 and 9, our city was thrown into a terrible state of excitement, by the commission of one of the most brutal, cold blooded murders that ever gave to man the deserving name of 'fiend.'

"The foul deed was committed by a desperate villain named Haggerty, upon the persons of Melchoir Fordney, wife and child."

Fordney, an ancestor, was a noted gunsmith in Lancaster and one of his rifles can still fetch tens of thousands of dollars on eBay. His shop was at 508 Queen St., near the home of his killer, John Haggerty, who had a troubled past and whose behavior had become increasingly bizarre in the days leading up to the tragedy.

Haggerty believed his horse had been possessed by a demon and claimed he had seen it climb a tree, according to reports from his trial. Then his goats fell under the evil spell and also began to climb trees.

On the morning of the murders, Haggerty "gave indication of the hellish passions that were inciting him to bloodshed, by aiming a gun at several persons, first at a lady and then at a countryman passing by with his team [of horses]," according to the newspaper. Both times the gun failed to fire.

Around 9 a.m. that morning, Haggerty entered Fordney's shop and demanded that the gunsmith shoot his horse. Fordney refused, whereupon Haggerty grabbed one of Fordney's guns, ran outside and shot the animal. Haggerty had wanted to shoot the horse with silver bullets to kill the demon, and silver coins were later extracted from the carcass.

Fordney and his common-law wife, Catherine Tripple, ran outside and ordered Haggerty to give up the gun. Haggerty handed the gun to Tripple, but then seized an ax and swung it, cleaving open Fordney's head and killing him. Then he killed Tripple and critically injured a daughter as Fordney's son scooped up another daughter and ran down the street, yelling, "murder!"

A crowd quickly gathered outside Fordney's house and could see Haggerty through the window "standing over the body of Fordney, deliberately hacking it to pieces with an ax." Then he ran into the street "flourishing his bloody ax, determined to cut down all who would oppose him" before he was subdued.

Haggerty was hanged July 24, 1847, after a trial that may have featured the first use of the insanity defense. His remains were examined for clues to his behavior, and the American Phrenological Journal described him as having "a desperate, dangerously shaped head, poorly balanced, with a powerful body to stimulate a powerful animal, selfish mind."

As I clicked off the old newspaper clipping, which I actually found on the Internet, I noticed something: It was published Monday, Oct. 26. This column is being published Monday, Oct. 26.

Surely a coincidence, but I think I'll stay home today and keep the doors locked.