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A CLOUDED LIFE
INTERVIEW WITH MRS. CUNNINGHAM-BURDELL
- The Night Before the Murder of Dr. Burdell
- Coroner Connery and Oakley Hall
- Twenty Years of Persecution
- The Wife of Four Husbands.
In New York, one morning in January, twenty years ago, Dr. Harvey Burdell, a well-to-do, stout, handsome, middle-aged dentist, who lived in his own house, No. 31 Bond street, failed to present himself, as was his habit, at the early breakfast table. Two pretty young daughters of Mrs. Cunningham, the comely widow who rented the house, and a number of boarders, were in their usual places, but the chairs usually occupied by the handsome owner of the mansion and the attractive landlady were vacant. Suddenly there ensued a commotion, a wild excitement, and with one accord the inmates of the house rushed to the room of Dr. Burdell. The dashing dentist was there – dead. And the crimson stains on the rich carpet, the spurts of blood on the chamber walls, the disordered condition of the furniture, and the robust form of the partially clothed lifeless body
PIERCED WITH INNUMERABLE WOUNDS
Told a tale of midnight death struggle with a desperate assassin. One of the first to fly to the scene from her room was the land-lady, and her shrieks of horror drowned the ejaculations of all the others. The Coroner was quickly summoned, and a squad of the Metropolitan Police took possession of the premises. A thorough search of the room where the tragedy occurred and of the whole house was instituted. One of the first secrets revealed was a certificate setting forth that a short time before Dr. Harvey Burdell and Mrs. Cunningham had been united in marriage. In a grate in an unoccupied room in the attic was found some ashes having the appearance of being recently burned. Neighbors were found who noticed a small as of burning clothes on the night of the assassination. No murder ever perpetrated in New York before or since produced so profound a sensation as this. The public mind was at fever heat and the journals of the day fanned the excitement. Notwithstanding the fact that there was
A TRAIL OF BLOOD
From the chamber where the murder occurred to the hall door and on the jamb, there was a general belief that the crime had been committed by some one within the house, and the course pursued by Coroner Connery in a long investigation showed that his hypothesis was that the slayers of Burdell were Mrs. Cunningham and one John J. Eckel, a boarder. The verdict of the Coroner’s jury was that effect, and the trials of the accused, which were conducted seperately speedily followed. A. Oakland Hall, then District Attorney, prosecuting. They were both acquitted, and to this day the mystery of the murder of Dr. Burdell is unsolved. Many, however, who were convinced by the testimony elicited at the trial that Mrs. Cunningham was innocent, changed their minds subsequently owing to
A NEW ACCUSATION
Being brought against her. It was charged that pending her trial she feigned to be enceinte and offered one Dr. Uhl a large sum of money to assist her in a fictitious birth, the object being to produce a child that would be Dr. Burdell’s heir-at-law, the validity of her marriage to him being established. She was arrested for this offense, but never tried. However, the circumstances attending the accusation were such that it is probably a majority of the people of New York believed she might have had something to do with the greater crime. After the trial she left New York and came to the coast, where she has since been residing. Recent paragraphs in New York papers have again brought her prominently before the public.
MRS. CUNNINGHAM IN SAN FRANCISCO
On Wednesday a CHRONICLE reporter was detailed to find Mrs. Cunningham, and learn from her what truth there was, if any, in the recent statements emanating from New York, and to hear what theory she had to advance on the subject of the Burdell murder.
The reporter found the lady on the third floor of a lodging-house on Mission street, between Third and Fourth. His rap at the door was answered by a substantial-looking, middle-aged, red-faced gentleman with mutton-chop whiskers, arrayed in a showy dressing-gown and slippers. In reply to inquiries, this gentleman informed the reporter that he was Mr. Williams, the husband of a the lady whose name was a household word a few years ago, and that his wife would see the man of the quill with pleasure, at the same time throwing open the door and ushering him into the room, where he was greeted with a profound bow by a pleasant-looking, stout, matronly lady of apparently 50 or 55 years of age. This was Mrs. Mary Caroline Williams, formerly
MRS. EMILY AUGUSTA CUNNINGHAM
Despite the fearful ordeal through which Mrs. Cunningham passed in New York twenty years ago, and the wearing life she has since led, time has dealt very kindly with her; and while planting the inexorable furrow upon her cheek has left a very light imprint; while he has not dimmed the brightness of her gray eye nor silvered her thick, dark hair, there is nothing whatever in her appearance to show that she has endured sufferings greater than those of other women. No signs of remorse – if she be guilty of the horrible butchery with which she was charged – are visible in her countenance, nor have the agonies of a terrible, persistent persecution – if she be innocent – left any traces in her face. She simply presents the appearance of a well-preserved, well-dressed, quiet, ladylike middle-aged woman, in whose arms a grandchild would not look out of place. The reporter being given a seat in the plain but comfortably furnished room, briefly stated the object of his visit, to which Mrs. Williams replied “I am very glad to see you, for I am tired of this relentless persecution, and the baseless slanders which the press of the country are giving publicity to” and her eyes filled with tears, and her voice tremble with emotion, she continued, “excuse me sir, for crying, but I am completely unnerved by these continual attacks, and now even a little thing upsets me.”
INCORRECT STATEMENTS
Reporter – What particular charges of the press do you allude to?
Mrs. Williams – The last was an article from the New York Sun of January 23d, republished in the CHRONICLE this morning. Why, sir, there never were so many infamous falsehoods published in an article of that length. In all that story there is but one item of truth, and that is that I was the wife of William Hyde. It is said that he was an early love, and that when we again met after years of separation, after I came to this coast, the old love revived and led to our marriage. Now the truth is I never met Mr. Hyde until in 1861, the year after I come to the Pacific coast. I married him in September, 1861, and was divorced from him in 1868 by the Fifteenth District Court of this State upon my application, the ground being his habitual drunkenness. In his answer to my petition he set up that I too was given to the use of liquor. It was a monstrous charge, for I cannot bear liquor of any kind, and never drank any. However, while the divorce suit was pending he voluntarily wrote a retraction of the charge. (To her husband) Mr. Williams, will you show it to this gentleman?
Mr. Williams here produced a document signed Wm. Hyde, retracting the charges made against his wife.
TWO MYSTERIOUS DEATHS
Reporter – Then it is not true that Hyde ran away from you because of the mysterious death of his two children?
Mrs. Williams (excitedly, and bursting into tears, as did her husband) – Oh, sir, that is one of the most baseless lies of all. He was a miserable, drunken wretch. He had no money when I married him, and he squandered, gave away, and spent on women more than $16,000 which I gave him in one year. I have gone into saloons in this city at night, and found him literally throwing my money away.
Mrs. Williams here specified numerous instances of his profligacy and brutality, and continued: “He contested my application for a divorce with all his might, and after it was decreed he asked me for money.”
What do you understand is the foundation for the charge that you had something to do with the death of his two children?
Mrs. Williams – While our divorce suit was pending, his daughter by a former wife was a Molije [Mulegé?], and while she was there, and I was in the city, she was accidentally burned to death. The natives of Lower California dress generally in very scanty and light clothing, and Hyde’s daughter happened to have on a dress I had sent her when she sat down upon a pearl shell in which was a coal for the flighting of cigaritos. Her dress ignited, and she was so severely burned she died in a short time. Her husband was accidentally shot in that same neighborhood the very day before. Until I saw this paragraph from the Sun in the CHRONICLE this morning I never dreamed that the deaths of this unfortunate pair were laid at my door. However, I should be surprised at nothing.
UTTER MISERY AND PERSECUTION
Have been my lot ever since the death of my first husband – Mr. Cunningham. Him I married when I was but fifteen years old, just from school, yet they say that Hyde was my first love.
Reporter – Hyde is dead, I believe.
Mrs. Williams – Yes; he died at Purissima in November, 1874. I wish he was alive, for even such a man as he would have come forward to answer these slanders against me. Oh, sir, was there ever woman suffered as I have? Never have I been let alone since the murder of Dr. Burdell, and not me alone, but my poor children have been dragged before the public and slandered. Look at this paragraph,
“Her son supports himself and sister through working on a ranch near Loreta, in which village the latter dwells with her child, although unmarried, a haggard woman of thirty-five, from whose face all trace of her former beauty has flown”.
My God, but this is hard to hear. My daughter, who lives with her brother at the ranch, has no child, and never had any, and this is the first time that she has ever been
BROUGHT BEFORE THE PUBLIC
For any other offense than being the daughter of Mrs. Cunningham. She is in delicate health, and has been for years, but it is not true that she is a “haggard woman” from whose face all traces of her former beauty has fled. (To Mr. Williams) My dear, will you bring me her picture?
The portrait of a delicate looking lady of apparently twenty-eight or thirty years of age was shown the reporter. The face possessed a decided fragile beauty.
Reporter – Are there any other corrections you desire to make?
Mrs. Williams – Let me look at this article. Why, it is all false. After my trial for the murder of Dr. Burdell, I did not go to Loreto, and I did not meet Captain Hyde there. I came to California in the same ship with Rev. T. Starr King, and landed in San Francisco in 1860, with two sons and two daughters, leaving one daughter in New York. I met Hyde in San Francisco. He was not working a copper mine at Loreto, nor had he ever done so. After I married Hyde I purchased a half interest in the copper mine at Loreto with my own money, and afterwards secured the whole. Hyde never owned a dollar’s interest in it. Shortly after marrying Hyde I went to Loreto with my family and remained there until July, 1863, when I returned to this city, leaving my family on the ranch. Here I remained until 1867, when I sued for a divorce.
HYDE NEVER FLED
From the copper mine, but returned to this city and lived with me until I got the divorce. He never had two children who died suddenly. I have explained the death of his daughter and son-in-law. No Mexican superintendent ever had charge of the copper mine, nor did I ever “bolt with a Mexican” or any other superintendent. I never sold my mine for an immense sum” or for any sum, but own it still. It is not true that I had no son at the time of the Burdell tragedy. I had then two sons and three daughters. Nor is it true that my daughter Augusta is living in Jersey City, the wife of a dentist. The only truth in the whole article is that my son and daughter are living on the ranch at Loreto.
THE SAUCE RANCHE
Reporter – What is the name of your ranch, madam?
Mrs. Williams – It is the Sauce Ranche, and is located about midway between the towns of Loreto and Contondu [?] in Lower California. It consisted of 320 acres, and upon it are two valuable copper mines, the Giantess and the Sauce. And I believe that it is because there are some parties in this city who want to get these mines that these reports have been sent to New York papers. You see, if such outrageous statements had been made to the CHRONICLE, you would have investigated the matter before publishing. This, the parties who want to drive me to desperation and force me to sell the mines at a sacrifice well knew, and so they sent the information to New York, believing that the papers of this coast would copy the article, as it possesses a local significance, and that by this means I would be.
DRIVEN FROM THE CITY
I believe these mines to be worth from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000, and I do not intend to sacrifice them, but will keep them for the use of my surviving children, the whole of whose lives have been clouded and darkened by that horrible New York tragedy. I have, at last, thank God, a good, kind disinterested husband in Mr. Williams. No one can charge him with marrying me for my wealth, for before we were united he persuaded me to make over to my children all my property, and for their sakes I shall not allow myself to be driven to destruction.
THE FOUR HUSBANDS
Reporter – Mr. Williams is your fourth husband?
Mrs. Williams – Yes; that is I have been married four times, though in reality I have had but two husbands worthy of the name – Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Williams. I have told you what Hyde was; and as for Dr. Burdell – but I would rather not speak about him at all. It was my marriage with him that has blasted my life and made the name of Mrs. Cunningham familiar to the world. Now for twenty years, every little while, paragraphs concerning the Burdell murder, my name always mentioned in connection with it, go the rounds of the press, and one would suppose from the tone of them that the world believed me guilty of his assassination, notwithstanding the verdict of acquittal by the jury. Oh, it is hard to bear, and I wonder that I have not been crushed. As it is I am nervous and weak, as you see by the way I cry, but I have an abiding faith that my life will be spared until the whole truth of that dreadful murder comes to light.
DR. BURDELL’S MURDER
Reporter – The CHRONICLE, Mrs. Williams, would be glad to have your theory of that tragedy, if you have one.
Mrs. Williams – I can scarcely say that I have a theory, though I have always had some suspicions and knew some facts which, if they had been acted upon at the time, might have led to the discovery of the murder. But the authorities had made up their mind that he had fallen by my hand, and treated with scorn what I had to say. Indeed, they paid no attention whatever to my utterances, but from the day that Coroner Connery took charge of the house and kept me and my family prisoners in a room, they regarded me as the murderess, and only sought to provoke expressions from me that could be twisted and distorted into evidences of some guilty knowledge on my part. And they did not rest here. When, after a trial conducted on the part of the prosecution with all the energy that A. Oakley Hall, who was then Prosecuting Attorney, possessed, I was declared innocent by an unprejudiced jury. They suborned a Dr. Uhl, one of the vilest wretches that ever cursed New York, to bring up another charge against me, which, however, they never dared to bring to a trial.
THE “BOGUS BABY” CHARGE
Reporter – You allude now to the charge that you had falsely pretended to give birth to a child, and heir of Dr. Burdell?
Mrs. Williams – Yes, and that scheme to drive me from the house, No. 31 Bond street, to which I repaired as the widow of Dr. Burdell, after my release from prison, was most cunningly and elaborately concocted. The best evidence, however, that there was no foundation for the accusation against me is that they never brought the case to trial.
Reporter – Who were interested to have this charge made against you?
Mrs. Williams – The relatives of Dr. Burdell, who would, in the absence of a legitimate child, inherit his property.
Reporter – What was his estate worth?
Mrs. Williams – Dr. Burdell was not at all a rich man. The only property was this house, 31 Bond street, and that only cost him $16,000. I myself loaned him $8,000 at one time, which made him. I was in very good circumstances myself, having inherited fortunes from my father and first husband.
THE NIGHT OF THE MURDER
Reporter – Did you see Burdell on the night of the murder?
Mrs. Williams – I had been very busy all that day, preparing for a party for my second daughter Georgina, who was going to the boarding-school from which Augusta had just returned. What, with making preparations for the party, which was intended to be a large one, for both Augusta and Georgie had a large circle of friends, and marking Georgie’s clothes, my whole time was occupied that day, and I only saw Dr. Burdell once, and that was in the evening as he was about leaving the house. I was going through the hall, when he came down stairs, wearing a gray shawl, as was his custom. He spoke to me saying that he expected Blaisdell to call soon, and he did not care about his seeing me. These were his last words. I never again saw him in life.
BURDELL’S LAST GUESTS
Reporter – Who was the Blaisdell referred to?
Mrs. Williams – He was a man of notoriously bad character, who has since died in prison, where he was sent on a charge of smuggling, I believe. He had been at the house several times to meet Dr. Cox, who was trying to get a Divorce from his wife. Cox had tried once to procure a divorce and had failed, and he, Blaisdell and Burdell were engaged in getting up testimony upon which Cox could base another suit. I do not know whether Blaisdell came that night or not, for I did not see him, but Dr. Cox did come, and when I went to bed I left him waiting for Dr. Burdell. Upon my trial, however, Blaisdell swore that he was there that evening, and when he inquired at the door for Burdell, he saw me and avoided me. Now, why did he avoid me? When I retired that night Cox was waiting for the Doctor, and the latter said he was expecting Blaisdell. I cannot say that I have a theory of the murder; but Burdell was a gambler, and he may have came home that night with some heavy winnings, and Cox and Blaisdell, or one of them, may have been there.
CORONER CONNERY’S CONDUCT
Reporter – When were you first charged with the murder?
Mrs. Williams – I was awakened the next morning by a servant, who told me – I do not recollect what they did tell me, or what I did. I only distinctly remember going into the doctor’s room and seeing him lying there dead, cut almost to pieces, and the whole room apparently dyed with his blood. Soon after, the Coroner came (Coroner Connery), and among the first discoveries he made was a certificate of my marriage to Dr. Burdell. It seems, from his subsequent conduct, that he made up his mind at that moment that I was the assassin, and he thereafter bent every energy, not to ascertain who killed Burdell, but to prove to the jury that I did it, I and Mr. Eckel, who was charged with being my paramour. Connery even shut my little boys up in a room, and bribed them with applies to lie. If they had let me alone the murderer would have been found. Why, I wanted to over $10,000 reward for his discovery, but Connery assured me it had been done, which was false. The result of the trial you know, but no one knows what my sufferings have been since. I have been
TRACKED FROM PLACE TO PLACE
By the press, and my every movement and utterance watched and published to the world. I have been at hotel tables where the subject of discussion has been “Mrs. Cunningham,” and have heard myself denounced as the most infamous murderess on the face of the earth. My poor daughter, Augusta, a lively and accomplished girl, who could converse readily in four languages, was murdered by Coroner Connery and Oakley Hall. She was dragged before the Court, and not only had to see her mother on trial for murder but she was herself bullied and insulted by the lawyers because she would not perjure herself to hang me. She never got over it; from that time she was subject to nervous spasm until she died,
CRUSHED AND BROKEN-HEARTED
By our trials, five years ago. Oakey Hall killed her and ruined me. I hope to see him before I die. I see that he was compelled to try the stage to keep the wolf from his door, and failing there has returned to the bar, while I am to-day a rich woman. In my trial he pointed his finger at me and said I was a second Lady Macbeth, and described in vivid language Dr. Burdell struggling under the blows of my knife. I then weighed 105 pounds, while the Doctor was over 200. To-day Oakey Hall is the jest of the world, and I am not yet crushed. Providence seems to have avenged my wrongs to some extent – Connery is dead, and except from his connection with my case, forgotten. Blaisdell died in prison, and Dr. Uhl died of yellow fever in South America, with no friend near him to close his eyes.
A REPORTED CONFESSION
Reporter – Is there any other matter connected with this murder that you would like to make public?
Mrs. Williams – There is nothing else, except that I have been informed that a man named Simons, who was executed for murder in New Jersey a few years ago, confessed to a jailer that it was he who had killed Dr. Burdell. I have never been able to investigate this thoroughly yet, but I intend to. As I said before, I hope to live to see the whole truth revealed.
Reporter – What became of Eckel?
Mrs. Williams – I never saw him after my trial, but I have learned from the papers that he died in prison a few years ago.
THE CHANGED NAME
Reporter – During your trial you were known as Emily August Cunningham, while now your Christian name is given as Mary Caroline. Will you please explain this change?
Mrs. Williams – Before I married Captain Hyde I joined the Catholic Church, and when I was baptized I took this new name. I wanted to get rid of everything that could possibly connect me with that horrible New York tragedy. But it has followed me everywhere. Even when I first came to California from New York, T. Starr King, who was on board, informed the passengers who I was. And he, too, is dead.
During all of this conversation Mrs. Williams wept very freely, particularly when speaking of the sufferings of her children, and her husband, while affectionately attempting to soothe her, was likewise much affected. The reporter, after spending a couple of hours in the society of Mrs. Williams, and receiving a cordial invitation to call again, withdrew.
