Villains, Scoundrels, and Rogues

by Paul Martin

  2. The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage: Africans in America [television series], PBS/WGBH Interactive, 1998, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html (accessed November 28, 2011). See also Jay Coughtry, The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700–1807 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), p. 284.

  3. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, p. 284.

  4. Ibid., p. 6. See also Paul Davis, “The DeWolf Family Burden,” Providence Journal, February 3, 2008, http://www.c3.ucla.edu/newsstand/history-1/the-dewolf-family-burden (accessed October 31, 2011); Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A13; and “The DeWolf Family of Bristol, Rhode Island,” Rhode Island Historical Society Postal History Collection, 2008, http://thesaltysailor.com/rhodeisland-philatelic/rhodeisland/stampless66.htm (accessed December 1, 2011).

  5. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, pp. 5–7. See also “DeWolf Family of Bristol,” and “A Walking Tour through Bristol’s African-American History,” OnlineBristol.com, http://www.onlinebristol.com/walking-tours-of-bristol/a-walking-tour-through-bristols-african-american-history.html (accessed December 3, 2011).

  6. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, pp. 5–6. See also Davis, “DeWolf Family Burden”; “DeWolf Family of Bristol”; Thomas Norman DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008), p. xii; Douglas Harper, “Northern Profits from Slavery,” Slavery in the North, 2003, http://www.slavenorth.com/profits.htm (accessed October 30, 2011); and “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Background,” PBS POV, June 24, 2008, http://www.pbs.org/pov/tracesofthetrade/background.php (accessed October 31, 2011).

  7. “DeWolf Family of Bristol.”

  8. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, p. 47. See also Davis, “DeWolf Family Burden”; Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12; and “DeWolf Family of Bristol.”

  9. “Brown University Committee Examines Historical Ties to Slavery,” Associated Press, March 5, 2004. See also, Harper, “Northern Profits from Slavery.”

  10. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, p. 264. See also Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12.

  11. Coughtry, Notorious Triangle, p. 145. See also Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12; and “DeWolf Family of Bristol.”

  12. Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12. See also “DeWolf Family of Bristol,” and Howe, Bristol, Rhode Island, p. 93.

  13. Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12.

  14. Ibid. See also DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade, p. 45, and “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Background.”

  15. Davis, “Unrighteous Traffick,” p. A12. See also DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade, p. 45, and “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Background.”

  16. Katrina Browne, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North [film], PBS POV, 2008. See also Davis, “DeWolf Family Burden”; Paul Davis, “Slave Traders in the Family: Probing a Dark Past,” Providence Journal, March 17, 2006, p. A13; and DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade, p. 52.

  17. Davis, “DeWolf Family Burden.” See also DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade, pp. 250–51.

  18. Perry, “Descendants of Anthony De Wolf.”

  19. Howe, Bristol, Rhode Island, pp. 94–95.

  20. DeWolf, Inheriting the Trade, pp. 55–56.

  CHAPTER 2. THE CUTTHROAT CAPTAIN OF CAVE-IN-ROCK—SAMUEL MASON

  1. Marilyn Davis, “River Pirates,” Perspectives, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Fall 2006, http://perspect.siuc.edu/06_fall/river_pirates.html (accessed October 27, 2011). See also Edward L. Lach Jr., “Mason, Samuel,” American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/20/20-00644.html (accessed November 22, 2011); Otto A. Rothert, The Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), pp. 43–44, 175; and Russell K. Skowronek and Charles R. Ewen, eds., X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006), pp. 233, 237, 244–45.

  2. Davis, “River Pirates.” See also Lach, “Mason, Samuel,” and Skowronek and Ewen, X Marks the Spot, pp. 230–34, 237.

  3. Raymond M. Bell, “Samuel Mason,” The Raymond M. Bell Anthology, August 1998, http://www.chartiers.com/raybell/1995-mason.html (accessed December 20, 2011). See also Lach, “Mason, Samuel.”

  4. Bell, “Samuel Mason.”

  5. Lach, “Mason, Samuel.” See also Bell, “Samuel Mason,” and Skowronek and Ewen, X Marks the Spot, p. 230.

  6. Rothert, Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, p. 164. See also Skowronek and Ewen, X Marks the Spot, p. 230.

  7. Davis, “River Pirates.” See also Skowronek and Ewen, X Marks the Spot, pp. 234, 243.

  8. “River Pirates [television program],” In Search of History, Gary Foreman Productions, History Channel, 1999. See also Lach, “Mason, Samuel,” and Rothert, Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, pp. 47, 175.

  9. James Hall, “Hall on Frontier Outlaws,” Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the West, 1835, reprinted by Hardin Co., Illinois: Folklore, Genealogy, and History Site, 2000, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilhardi2/hallonoutlaws.html (accessed December 20, 2011). See also Jon Musgrave, “Frontier Serial Killers: The Harpes,” American Weekend, October 23, 1998, reprinted by Jon’s Southern Illinois History Page, 1998, http://www.illinoishistory.com/harpes.html (accessed December 20, 2011); Frank Richard Prassel, The Great American Outlaw (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), pp. 65–66; and Rothert, Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, pp. 55–61, 87, 90.

  10. Robert M. Coates, The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace (New York: Macaulay Co., 1930), pp. 23–25. See also Prassel, Great American Outlaw, pp. 65–66, and Rothert, Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, p. 61.

  11. “Historic Earthquakes,” US Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program, May 24, 2011, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php (accessed January 4, 2012).

  12. Coates, Outlaw Years, p. 144. See also Prassel, Great American Outlaw, p. 65.

  13. Davis, “River Pirates.” See also Skowronek and Ewen, X Marks the Spot, pp. 234, 243.

  14. Davis, “River Pirates.” See also “River Pirates [television program].”

  CHAPTER 3. ARCHITECT OF A TRAGEDY—JOHN CHIVINGTON

  1. Bob Scott, Blood at Sand Creek: The Massacre Revisited (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1994), pp. 40, 63, 128, 168. See also Irving Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963), pp. 18–19, 121.

  2. William J. Convery, “John M. Chivington,” in Soldiers West: Biographies from the Military Frontier, ed. Paul Andrew Hutton and Durwood Ball (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009), p. 162. See also Patrick M. Mendoza, Song of Sorrow: Massacre at Sand Creek (Denver: Willow Wind Publishing Co., 1993), p. 90; Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, p. 139; and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 19–20.

  3. Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 29, 106, 112.

  4. Convery, Soldiers West, pp. 150, 152. See also Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 31–32, and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 115, 124–25.

  5. “John M. Chivington,” New Perspectives on the West, PBS, 2001, http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chivington.htm (accessed April 14, 2011).

  6. Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, p. 127. See also Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 32–33.

  7. Convery, Soldiers West, p. 162. See also Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, p. 167, and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 45–47.

  8. “John M. Chivington.” See also Mendoza, Song of Sorrow, p. 99; Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 180–81; and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 52–53, 58–60.

  9. Convery, Soldiers West, p. 163. See also Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 151–53, and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 71, 128.

  10. Convery, Soldiers West, p. 163. See also Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 151–53, and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, p. 88.

  11. Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, p. 89.

  12. Deborah Frazier, “S
ins of Sand Creek,” Denver Rocky Mountain News, September 15, 2000, pp. 7A–8A. See also Louis Kraft, “Major Ned Wynkoop Listened to His Heart and Attempted to Bring Peace to Colorado Territory,” Wild West, December 2003, p. 70, and “The Sand Creek Massacre—Captain Silas S. Soule Letter to Major Edward Wynkoop regarding the Massacre [December 14, 1864],” KcLonewolf.com, 2005, http://www.kclonewolf.com/History/SandCreek/sc-documents/sc-soule-to-wynkoop-12-14-64.html (accessed March 30, 2011).

  13. Frazier, “Sins of Sand Creek,” p. 7A. See also Kraft, “Major Ned Wynkoop Listened to His Heart,” p. 70.

  14. “John M. Chivington.” See also Mendoza, Song of Sorrow, p. 99; Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 156–57; and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, p. 111.

  15. Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 78–79.

  16. Mendoza, Song of Sorrow, pp. 110–11. See also Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 155–56, and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 88–89.

  17. Kraft, “Major Ned Wynkoop Listened to His Heart,” pp. 18, 20, 70.

  18. Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 130–31.

  19. Ibid., p. 156.

  20. Convery, Soldiers West, p. 165. See also Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 158–59.

  21. Mendoza, Song of Sorrow, p. 123. See also Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, p. 164.

  22. Convery, Soldiers West, p. 167. See also Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 168, 173.

  23. Gregory F. Michno, “The Real Villains of Sand Creek,” Wild West, December 2003, pp. 22–29, 71.

  24. Convery, Soldiers West, pp. 149, 164, 168. See also “John M. Chivington”; Mendoza, Song of Sorrow, p. 127; Scott, Blood at Sand Creek, pp. 31, 180–83; and Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek, pp. 38–39.

  CHAPTER 4. THE LATE, UNLAMENTED LITTLE PETE—FONG CHING

  1. “The Queue Order in Early Qing Dynasty,” Cultural China, http://history.cultural-china.com/en/34History5603.html (accessed October 1, 2011).

  2. Richard H. Dillon, The Hatchet Men: The Story of the Tong Wars in San Francisco’s Chinatown (New York: Coward-McCann, 1962), pp. 21, 314. See also Thomas S. Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (San Francisco: James H. Barry Co., 1910), pp. 107, 109–10; William B. Secrest, California Feuds: Vengeance, Vendettas & Violence on the Old West Coast (Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Books/World Dancer Press, 2005), pp. 192, 195–96; and “Story of Little Pete’s Life,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1897, p. 27.

  3. Secrest, California Feuds, p. 175.

  4. “The Chinese Experience: Timeline,” PBS, 2003, http://www.pbs.org/becoming american/ce_timeline2.html (accessed October 13, 2011). See also Dillon, Hatchet Men, p. 80; Secrest, California Feuds, p. 175; and “Workers of the Central Pacific Railroad,” American Experience, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-cprr (accessed May 15, 2013).

  5. Secrest, California Feuds, pp. 186, 192.

  6. Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 306–307. See also Secrest, California Feuds, p. 192.

  7. “Chinese Highbinders,” Harper’s Weekly, February 13, 1886, http://immigrants.harpweek.com/chineseamericans/Items/Item129.htm (accessed September 30, 2011). See also Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 74–76, and Secrest, California Feuds, p. 176.

  8. “Chinese Highbinders.” See also Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 177–78, and Secrest, California Feuds, p. 176.

  9. Secrest, California Feuds, pp. 177–81.

  10. “Chinese Highbinders.” See also Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 177–78, 182–83, 192–93.

  11. “Chinese Highbinders.” See also Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 17–18, 243–45; Ko-lin Chin, Chinatown Gangs: Extortion, Enterprise, and Ethnicity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 5–6; and Secrest, California Feuds, p. 193.

  12. “Story of Little Pete’s Life,” p. 27.

  13. Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 199–200, 308–309, 314–16. See also Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, pp. 108–109, and Secrest, California Feuds, pp.194–95.

  14. Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 326, 328–32. See also Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, pp. 111–12, and Secrest, California Feuds, p.198.

  15. Dillon, Hatchet Men, p. 337.

  16. “Barbaric Pomp for Little Pete,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 1897, p. 9.

  17. Dillon, Hatchet Men, p. 337. See also Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, p. 112, and Secrest, California Feuds, p.199.

  18. Dillon, Hatchet Men, pp. 337–39.

  19. Ibid., p. 339.

  20. “‘Most Notorious Highbinder in America’ Loses His Long Fight against Deportation,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 1915, p. 1.

  21. C. N. Le, “Asian American Gangs,” Asian-Nation, October 13, 2011, http://www.asian-nation.org/gangs.shtml (accessed October 28, 2011).

  CHAPTER 5. THE KILLER THEY CALLED HELL’S BELLE—BELLE SORENSEN GUNNESS

  1. Edward Baumann and John O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, March 1, 1987, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-03-01/features/8701170475_1_light-sleeper-aged-three-children (accessed September 15, 2010). See also Edward Baumann and John O’Brien, Murder Next Door: How Police Tracked Down 18 Brutal Killers (Chicago: Bonus Books, 1991), pp. 293–313, and Joseph Geringer, “Belle Gunness,” truTV, 2010, http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/gunness/index_1.html (accessed September 30, 2010).

  2. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, pp. 293–313; Jay Robert Nash, ed., World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder (New York: Paragon House, 1992), pp. 255–61; “Scenes at the Indiana Murder Farm,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 1, 1908, p. 3; and Kerry Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers: A Worldwide Reference, 1580 through 1990 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1992), pp. 155–61.

  3. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, pp. 293–313; Geringer, “Belle Gunness”; Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, pp. 255–61; and Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, pp. 155–61.

  4. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, p. 300; “The Legend of Belle Gunness,” La Porte County Public Library, May 15, 2003, http://www.alco.org/libraries/lcpl/belle.html (accessed September 23, 2010); and Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, p. 156.

  5. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, p. 300; “The Legend of Belle Gunness”; and Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, p. 156.

  6. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, p. 298, and Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 255.

  7. “The Legend of Belle Gunness.”

  8. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Geringer, “Belle Gunness,” and Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 255.

  9. Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 255.

  10. “Scenes at the Indiana Murder Farm,” p. 3.

  11. “Mrs. Gunness Alive,” New York Tribune, May 10, 1908, p. 8.

  12. Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, p. 297. See also Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 256.

  13. Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 256.

  14. Baumann and O’Brien, Murder Next Door, p. 307. See also Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 260.

  15. Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, p. 159.

  16. Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 258.

  17. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, pp. 258, 260

  18. “Mrs. Gunness Alive,” p. 8. See also “Scenes around La Porte’s ‘House of Horrors,’” Washington Times, May 9, 1908, p. 2, and “Scenes at the Indiana Murder Farm,” p. 3.

  19. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also “The Legend of Belle Gunness.”

  20. “The Legend of Belle Gu
nness.” See also Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 260.

  21. “Mrs. Gunness Alive,” p. 8.

  22. Lillian De La Torre, The Truth about Belle Gunness (New York: Gold Medal Books, 1955), cover. See also “Gold Medal Books 487,” flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/5301109044 (accessed July 9, 2011).

  23. Janet L. Langlois, Belle Gunness: The Lady Bluebeard (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985), p. 147.

  24. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also “Scenes at the Indiana Murder Farm,” p. 3.

  25. Baumann and O’Brien, “Hell’s Belle.” See also Nash, World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, p. 260.

  26. “The Legend of Belle Gunness.” See also Segrave, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, p. 156.

  CHAPTER 6. PARTNERS IN PERFIDY—ISAAC HARRIS AND MAX BLANCK

  1. “Biography: Harris and Blanck,” American Experience, PBS, 2011, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/triangle-harris-blanck (accessed July 22, 2011).

  2. “Introduction: Triangle Fire,” American Experience, PBS, 2011, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/triangle-intro (accessed July 22, 2011). See also “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building,” National Park Service, March 30, 1998, http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm (accessed July 15, 2011).

  3. “Biography: Harris and Blanck.” See also “Introduction: Triangle Fire,” and Doug Linder, “The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial,” University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2002, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/triangleaccount.html (accessed July 3, 2011).

  4. “Introduction: Triangle Fire.” See also “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building.”

  5. “Introduction: Triangle Fire.” See also Leon Stein, The Triangle Fire (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1962), p. 25, and David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003), p. 164.