Murder Mayhem on Staten Island by Patricia M. Salmon

Author:Patricia M. Salmon [Salmon, Patricia M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Murder, True Crime, History, Americas, United States
ISBN: 9781625847683
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2013-10-08T04:00:00+00:00

District Attorney John Kenney vowed that he would thoroughly investigate any alibi provided by John Bell. From A Memorial History of Staten Island, 1898.

In describing John Bell, District Attorney Kenney called him “a little cat of a man with all of a cat’s caution and cunning.” Owing to his size and skill, the “slight and wiry” Bell had made his way through the Townsend house with little notice. He had watched the sleeping doctor for some time and had even gone to the end of the hall and peered into one of the bedrooms, where an elderly woman lay sleeping. Relatives later said he contemplated whether he should proceed with the murder since the doctor had people who depended on him but that he then remembered Mamie and said to himself, “I’ll avenge Mamie. This man killed her.”38 But again, looking in another room, he saw two little girls sleeping, and for a brief moment, he reconsidered shooting Townsend. Again, his heart hardened so he entered the physician’s bedroom and struck the match.

After the shooting, Bell fled from the house and ran to the ferry terminal at Saint George. As he approached the building, he slowed his gait and acted as naturally as possible. Even so, a policeman approached and asked what he was doing about at that hour. Bell responded that he worked for a newspaper and had irregular hours. By 8:30 a.m., he was at his brother-in-law’s saloon on Rodney Street in Brooklyn. He asked if he had heard about the Townsend shooting, to which the brother-in-law said no. Bell responded, “I guess it’s about up with me now.” He then gave the barkeeper $2.50 to buy the boys a keg of beer on Thursday, as “he himself would be out of the world by then.”39

Bell’s family rallied around him, with his father being the first to say that it was not unusual for his son to stay out all night, as had happened the night Townsend was murdered. In addition, Samuel Bell said that he never overheard his son making threats against the doctor, adding, “My boy wouldn’t harm a cat. Why, he was even afraid of a firecracker.”40

Fearing incarceration if they continued to hide the true story of John Bell’s descent into madness and killing, the family finally cracked and told all. Inspector Schmittberger believed that John Bell was insane from cigarette smoking. In a thirteen-hour period, Bell reportedly smoked four packs of cigarettes and three cigars. Schmittberger maintained that Bell’s “fingers are stained with nicotine, as is the case with all ‘fiends.”41 One account actually had Bell smoking ten packs of cigarettes per day.

On January 29, Moses Silverman was released. Indignant over his unnecessary incarceration, he swore a lawsuit against the police for false arrest. That same afternoon, Dr. Townsend was finally laid to rest after a funeral at his home. Originally, the service was to be held at St. John’s Church in Clifton, but owing to the number of mourners, it was decided that his house was a better location.

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