Great American Crime Stories by Bill Bowers

Author:Bill Bowers [Bowers, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2017-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

12

The Beadle Family Murder-Suicide

William Beadle (ca. 1730–1782) was born in England, and had become a wealthy merchant in Wethersfield, Connecticut by the time of the American Revolution. He moved easily in the most elite social circles of his day, collected costly furniture and works of art, and lived in a splendid home in Wethersfield with his wife Lydia, son Ansel, and daughters Elizabeth, Lydia, and Mary. But the Revolution brought trouble for Beadle’s business, and his fortunes waned. He accepted the Revolutionary government’s Continental currency in payment for the goods he sold, but as the war dragged on the currency’s value fell, and Beadle did not raise the prices he charged. (It was illegal to do so, but many other merchants ignored the law.) Beadle went from being a man of great wealth to one of only “middling” (his term) riches, and this prospect apparently horrified him. He fell into despair, and began to plot the destruction of his family and himself. Finally, on the morning of December 11, 1782, using an ax and a knife, he murdered his thirty-two-year-old wife and his children, who ranged in age from twelve to six years. Then, tracking his family’s blood through the house, he made his way downstairs to his favorite Windsor chair, where he put two pistols to either side of his head and fired both simultaneously.

A LETTER from a Gentleman in Wethersfield, to his Friend, containing a Narrative of the Life of William Beadle (so far as it is known) and the particulars of the Massacre of himself and Family.

SIR,

‘TIS not strange that reports various and contradictory should have circulated on so interesting and terrible a subject as that of a man’s consigning to the grave himself and family in a moment of apparent ease and tranquility. The agitation of mind which must be the consequence of being near such a scene of horror, will sufficiently apologize for not answering your request for the particulars e’er this. Our ignorance of the history of this man at first precluded a possibility of giving you satisfaction on this head. Perhaps no one in this town had more favorable opportunities of obtaining the particulars of his history: yet, could never induce him to mention a single syllable relating to his age, parentage, or early occupation. To have asked him directly would have been rude when he evidently meant to be silent on these subjects. My conjecture was, that he was the natural son of some gentleman in England, and that he had been brought up in or near London, and had been about the Court. Since his decease I have been able to learn from undoubted authority, that he was born in the county of Essex, in a village not very far from London. As to his business in youth I am still left in the dark, but find he has once mentioned to a gentleman, some little incidents which happened to him while in company with his father, and that he

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