1841: The Colt-Adams Murder Trial - Part Two

You are listening to one nation under crime, a historical chronological, true crime podcast. Each week we go through our nation's history and discuss one case from each year starting in 1800, but not this week. We are continuing our coverage on John C. Cole. I'm Kayla and I'm Leah. And if you are a patron welcome, we just saw you a few moments ago. Yes. So welcome. Welcome to your early episode. If not, you still have time to go be a patron so that you can get those great perks. 

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Just go to patrion.com and search for one nation under crime. You can also just scroll down on your feed right now, when you're looking at your podcast, you can scroll down and that's kind of where all of our sources are. And at the very bottom, there's a link that you can click that goes straight to our Patreon. So you can do that as well. Like I said, we are continuing our coverage on John C Colts and the murder of Samuel Adams. Not that one. And it's the same sources from last week. So I'm not going to go through those again, because we already did that. 

00:01:24

But like I said, I didn't, I didn't cover everything for last week, as far as our history for the year. So We got to know who was born in who farm Got a little bit left. So we have undated events Dated For 1841. And one of these, How are they undated live? What do they have in that year? We just know that they happened in the year. So some interesting one, actually, all of these, I found super interesting. One of them we have covered. Okay. So First up Stephen F Whitman opened a small retail, confectionary and fruit here in Philadelphia called Whitman's. 

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And that is the famous women's company that, you know, today that has the Whitman sampler. It's Going to say, I liked, they're saying they're Good. They are good. So our next, our, our next Sunday, this is the one that we have covered. So PT, Barnum, we heard him. We do. He's gonna come up again in a second too, which it's so unfortunate, but what it's related to is anyways. All right. It's so unfortunate. Yes. And you'll see why he purchased the scutters American museum in New York city. 

00:02:54

And that's eventually what he pushed forward and created everything with. And the same year, our last undated event, John Augustus developed the concept of probation in Boston, which also created bail for lesser offenders. And he created the entire system of like here's probation. Oh, also, if you have kind of like the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony, if you have a lesser charge than you can pay money for bail, even though like you've been convicted of your crime. 

00:03:38

So Thank you, sir. Yeah. I Thought that that was very interesting, especially. So then we get to our births in 1841, May 10th, James Gordon, Bennett, Jr. He is the son of the founder of the New York Herald. We have talked about James Gordon Bennett senior before in our previous episodes. We've actually talked about him in two previous episodes, the girl in green and the beautiful scar girl, we both, we talked about him and both of them, he's also going to come up in this case. So, well, I mean, if he's in charge of A big paper, then he's going To well, and he's very well known in, in kind of like the newspaper world. 

00:04:26

Like he's, he's very well-known but his son Bennett Jr. He organized the first polo and tennis matches in the United States. And he won the first trans Atlantic yacht race. Nothing like a yacht race to say he rich. I mean, Yeah. And, and don't Call it a Boat. No, it's a yacht, not a boat. And he is a Taurus. So October, well, yes. 

00:05:09

What happened There? Joseph O'Dwyer was born. He's an American physician who developed the system of intubation in dip theory cases. And he is known as the father of laryngeal intubation Incruse. So he created the system of intubation, which we should be very thankful for. I'm very thankful for, but still terrified of it happened. Terrified. Just like Laying it out there being for real, I mean, very, very thankful. And if I ever have to have it, I mean, it will be very beneficial, but Yeah. Not, not something. He is Libra. 

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And then our deaths in 1841, we talked about this one in the last episode and we'll talk about it here. April 4th, president William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia. He was the ninth president of the United States, maybe linked to his extremely long speech Should have, should, should have talked less. You know, who knows? And then October 6th, George Campbell Childress died. He was a lawyer and politician who was the principal author of the Texas declaration of independence. Yes. Very, very influential man. 

00:06:32

So we are going to hop over to our case for this week. And we're going to just continue on with where we were January 13th, 1842, the sensational Colt Adam's murder trial began. But to go forward, we got to go back and we will kind of go back to the end of last week's episode for those of you who forgot or haven't already heard it, cause you're a patron and he just jumped over here. So sorry if you're a patron, it, it won't be long. 

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September 17th, 1841, Samuel Adams went to meet John to collect a debt due for some textbooks that Samuel had printed for him. The two had a heated argument about the final amount John owed Samuel and a few sources. As we said before, said that it was about a dollar 35, Which is not equal to $500. Today May probably around 20. According to John, Samuel began choking him with his Ascot and pressing him hard against the wall and table. Then allegedly Legitly In self-defense. John reached for what he thought was a hammer to fend him off Because those just are lying around offices, But the weapon was not a hammer. 

00:07:59

Nope. But in fact, a hatchet, A little bit of a mistake. And that was where we ended last episode, Live hanger. So let's continue Now let's do This. It's not a great It's doesn't lead up to anything pretty. It doesn't sound like to me. No, it does not, but it's not super terrible if that's I like, like it's not good cause death, but like, because death I'm saying like the manner of everything, it's not like on the scale of how triggering you should Be. 

00:08:49

It's not that high. I mean, it's not good because death, You know, here we are. So John struck Samuel four or five times with the hatchet causing Samuel to drop to the floor. That is when John realized what happened. Well ha Ha. The blood kept pouring out of Samuel's head and began pooling on the floor. John was afraid that it would leak through the floorboards to the apothecary below. 

00:09:33

He began mopping up the blood with, he began mopping up the blood with a towel and a bucket of water that he kept in his office while he was cleaning. There were knocks on the office door, but John ignored them and kept going. He cleaned up what he could. And then this is where we left off with his brother. He cleaned up what he could. And then he ran to the city hotel to tell his brother and gun maker, Samuel Colt, what happened? Oh, John did see his brother Samuel there, but he saw that he was engaged in conversation with two men and he left without telling him what happened. 

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So he was like, I'm going to tell him, but keep in mind, Samuel Colt was there meeting with investors to invest into what becomes the cult manufacturing company. And so John runs in, sees him talking to people and just turns around and leaves. And so same. You'll seeing him run in is where we left off with Samuel. Oh my goodness. It was like, oh, I'm not going to bother him with this monitor. She is such a minor inconvenience. So, sorry. Oops. Sorry. I don't mean to bother you, but this could be, this could be bad. I don't know if it's bad, but it could be bad, but I'm, you know what, you know what? You're in a meeting on the go I'm again. 

00:11:02

I see that you are busy at the moment and I hate to interrupt. Wait till later, this can keep, it's not that important. It's fine. We'll stick a pin in it. I actually catch it. I actually have something I need to go take care of. So I'm going to go do that now and just gone. I mean, John then thought I'll go to the authorities and confess, but he decided he didn't want to submit his family to a scandal. He finally Gaber. He finally came up with a plan that he thought was full-proof, but He wasn't thinking clearly Put the seeing as we are covering this case, it was in fact not full-proof Correct. 

00:11:52

Correct. He disposed of anything that would identify Samuel and packed his corpse into a shipping crate with salt. He works late into the night, packing the crate and cleaning the floor in the walls of the office to get rid of any signs of what happened earlier. He addressed the crate to a non-existent address in new Orleans and he hired a car, man. It's one word, but it's their word for like a courier. 

00:12:33

Gotcha. But it is so, and I know it sounds weird to say karma, but it is one it's very weird. I had to make sure I was like, did they mean car man? Okay. Anyways. And his name was Barstow to deliver the crate to a ship. Leah's gonna like the name of the ship. The Kalamazoo do That is fun. And the Kalamazoo was scheduled to leave the next morning Is that while I can cartoons and stuff, they say, you're going to ship you to Kalamazoo. Is that why they say that now? 

00:13:14

Is it really? Yeah, that is one part of it. So Look At me, he then decided to go and dump the bloody water into the gutter outside. And then he left the office. He stopped at a bath house to clean himself and his clothes before returning home. And when he arrived, he told Caroline that he was late because he met a friend in town from Philadelphia. So after about a day or so Samuel Adams family began searching the city for him. 

00:13:58

They public and come home. I mean, where'd he go? They publish notices in several newspapers, such as the New York courier and inquire and the New York weekly Tribune notifying people that he was missing. And neighbor of John's at the shop named AYSO Wheeler told Samuel's father-in-law that he had heard noises in John's office. That sounded like a fight followed by a crash to the floor. Mm AYSO went and peered into the key hole where he saw someone quote, bending over something on the floor. 

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Hmm. ACE and knocked on the door several times. But John would not come to the door. So he was the one knocking AYSO later borrowed a key from the landlord and went into the office. He saw that a large packing crate was missing and that the floor had been recently cleaned. Honestly, He Ned that a packing crate was missing. I don't know. I don't know that. I couldn't tell you. I was Just Curious on September 22nd, which was five days later, John visited Samuel's print shop inquiring about the status of his books, but he also kind of wanted to know her, seeing him was that Samuel's book binder. 

00:15:38

Charles Wells told John that the last time Samuel had been seen was actually when he was on his way to visit John Weird. I put not sketchy at all. Samuel's father-in-law AYSO Wheeler and another employee of Samuel's examined the ledgers for any transactions involving John C Colt and then went to the mayor of New York city with what they had found. Other witnesses said that Samuel was last seen entering John's office on September 17th. 

00:16:24

And that John had a crate delivered by a car man the next day. So that's how I knew it was missing because it had been delivered. Then gone The mayor. No, No. Barstow the car man came to the office to pick up the crane to take it. The mayor asked the superintendent of carts, which is like who's over the car. Gotcha. Gotcha. Car people. I don't know. It would have been men. Men is likely. Yeah. 

00:17:04

But The superintendent of carts, William Godfrey to locate the car, man, in question and determine the location of the crate Godfrey found Barstow who told him that he delivered it to the freighter Kalamazoo that was set to leave. Well, It just so happened. Bully hit was, had not left yet That the Kalamazoo was still in port because it was delayed by a storm from sailing. 

00:17:44

Oh no. This crate had been in that ship five days. No, The New York police accompanied by the city's mayor and the car man boarded the ship and asked if the crate was still in the cargo hold, the decomposing body had already started emitting a strong odor, which the ship hands assumed was just poison, put out to kill rats. They opened the crate and revealed a half clothed male corpse wrapped in a shop awning bound with rope impact with salts, a scar on the man's leg and a single gold ring identified the body as Samuel Adams. 

00:18:35

Oh no. John made a full confession when he was approached by the police on September 23rd and was arrested for the murder of Samuel Adams and sent to the New York city jail known as the tombs. We talked about that I told y'all that we would cover John Colt and that he was there as well. So he was sent to the tombs. When authorities looked through John's possessions, they found Samuel's gold pocket watch with an image of the us Capitol engraved on it. 

00:19:16

Why they gave that The trial officially began on January 13th, 1842 in what came to be known as the Colt Adam's murder trial. And it essentially dominated newspaper headlines at the time. There was only one other event that received as much publicity. And that was the murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers. So these cases were going on at the same time. I Gotcha. So if it wasn't John Colt, it was Mary Rogers, like on the cover of the newspaper, there is something that is known as a trial by media. 

00:20:00

Yeah. And this is a very good example of that sentiment. So for those who do not know what a trial by media is, it is unfortunate that this occurs, but it's still, and there's actually a Netflix series that is called trial by media. That goes through famous cases that the media has been blamed almost inadvertently for the misinformation. And then the further like prosecution of the person, guess who was in that series who Richard Scrushy. 

00:20:45

Yeah. So for those of you don't know, he was like the owner, the founder of health, south and scammed a bunch of people out of money. Sister taught at my elementary school and taught me at our college. We have, we know someone whose parents, I think still own one of his old houses. Really? Yes. So it's very interesting, a true crime obsessed covered that series. And they started all of a sudden my ears perked up because they were like, we got to talk about this garbage Richard screwy. 

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And I was like, what? Like, It was just one. I had not heard that name. And so, and then two, I was like With this hotel here, like our county, that is not just our state, but our county. I know it was so crazy. But for those who don't know kind of what a trial by media is, is that essentially the entire case is tried in what is called. I'm doing all of this from memory guys. So if I get something wrong, I'm sorry, but everything is tried in what is known as the public court of opinion. And the public court of opinion is essentially, oh, this news is coming out and the public is deciding themselves whether this person is innocent or guilty, simply based off of the media that they are receiving, not necessarily by the trial. 

00:22:25

So that's what they kind of call it is a trial by media because the court of public opinion is kind of what sways one case one way or another. And especially if you have a closed courtroom, you don't have all of the information. Well, and the trial by media most commonly occurs before the trial. Yes. Yes. One very I'll say I can't think of the word right now. Controversial case that this happened in is the Scott. 

00:23:08

I thought About Guyton, Lacey Peterson. I thought about that and I thought about own. It just left my mind OJ. I thought of that one. And then Casey Anthony. Oh, Don't get me started C Yeah. Well, hers was, I mean, and her, Hers was, she had an attorney, Jose Baez garbage, who said some things to try and sway some things away from her anyways. But I mean, but yeah, those examples even before the trial, Right, well, and her trial was pushed off for a while. 

00:23:53

OJ was also one that the court of public opinion was very large on. And if you remember that jury was sequestered for like over a year, which guys being sequestered means you're in a hotel room with no access to TV, no access to family members. You can make phone calls, but you like, it's such a serious trial that you cannot be. You can't be subjected to the media. So you're sequestered, which is a theory as to why he was named not guilty was because they were tired of being sequestered and were ready to get out. But Scott and Lacey Peterson trial is a very, very good example of this one because the official having a dedicated 24 hour news networks started right at the time that this case came along. 

00:24:42

And it was also when Facebook came out. Yeah. So there were a lot of different things that were influencing this case. And so they could not, it was so hard for them to find a jury that had not heard about the case, that it basically came down to a, do you believe in the death penalty? And can you apply those principles to a case? Like that's what they had to come down to instead of like, have you heard of this case? They couldn't even do that. It has to be like, can you apply the law to this? That was what the jury came down to. 

00:25:23

But A lot of local cases everywhere that you can do that. But those are just some new National yeah. That a lot of people know about an international, like international people know no those cases, oh my gosh, what's her name? Amanda. It'll come to me in a minute. And if someone's screaming at me, Amanda Knox, who, her roommate in Italy like that, and she was from here, she actually has a podcast herself and is quite lovely because she's been like multiple times. 

00:26:04

Like she didn't do it. Yeah. She it's like by the court, she didn't think it. So anyways, but she is also one that was tried in the court of public opinion in Italy, not even here. So it happens everywhere. This was another place kind of where one of the first trial by media situations occurred, the press depicted John Colt as a former professional riverboat gambler who had public affairs with women, a common law wife and who committed perjury to enlist in and quit. The Marines told you that would come back. 

00:26:47

And they did figure out that he did lie because clearly they're like, you're, if Samuel Colt's your brother like, that's you, then your dad is Christopher Colt, not George Hamilton. So they ended up figuring all of that out and all of it came out. So as everyone can probably guess the other salacious news stories that came out were surrounding the fact that John was the brother of the famous Samuel Colt. The other stories talked about the fact that John cohabitated with a unmarried pregnant woman, Caroline Hinshaw Didn't know that she was with Child. 

00:27:35

I put in parentheses, gasp coverage appeared in New York papers, such as, as our old ways. Favorite bipedal tailless newspaper, the sun. And I told you, PT Barnum would be back the son incorrectly because they are Never incorrect in Their reportings. They incorrectly labeled a photo of PT Barnum that they purchased from the Albany evening, Atlas as a picture of Samuel Adams. 

00:28:19

Oh no, honestly, can we really expect that much out of the sun at this point That he was so Mad? Keep in mind too. The sign was the one that originally posted, like came out saying that Mary Rogers was missing and she wasn't missing. And so people were saying that the sun was in on it and that it was a fraud and yeah, so they don't have a good track. No, they don't. Then the religious magazines started such as the Catholic Herald, the evangelical magazine, the Episcopal recorder and gospel advocate. 

00:28:59

They all use the story to demonstrate such problems as the quote, lack of morality in the home, AKA living with someone when you weren't married to them. And I put double gasp and the woman being pregnant triple gasp, because, you know, because you know, someone's murdered, but we're going to shame a woman in the process of doing it because you know, why not people are, it's been a couple of episodes throughout the trial. John was repeatedly accused of being a cold blooded murderer, all in quotes by the New York press. 

00:29:46

Well, I mean, they had a lot of ammunition behind them. Oh, it wasn't good. The October 30th issue of the weekly Tribune quoted James Colt keep in mind. James was the one that mailed that letter for him. And he was the other brother. He's the brother who mailed the Marine letter. And he was also practicing law in St. Louis, Missouri at this time. And the weekly Tribune quoted the brother as saying, quote, insanity is hereditary in our family. Oh, well that, that was helping a lot of them Alluding to his sister. 

00:30:31

<em></em> like, and again, what garbage do you have to be to associate that with like your family having insanity? Like that's not, that's not what happened. I mean, I get it, but still like, whatever. So Not saying I agree with him, but Yeah, at that time I understand. But still like garbage James Gordon, Bennett, our friend and editor of the New York Herald, not junior, not junior. The dad, he wrote lengthy editorials about Colts, quote, confidence, assurance and arrogance. 

00:31:12

And that his quote limitless potential had been undermined by want of moral and religious culture. Okay. The major exception in all of this was the Knickerbocker in which Louis Gaylord Clark, not that one, not that Lewis Clark. He reported the murder as a quote, miss fortunate accident. Hmm. It was an accident. Okay. 

00:31:52

No, not really. He was still intent. A hammer would still do some, some heavy damage. I mean, not as much as the hatchet, but strangle get into it. Hold on. We'll talk more about it in a second, because we're about to get to the case. John's lawyers continually petitioned, judge Kent to forbid press coverage. But the judge refused them by saying the quote court had done everything to prevent the jury from being influenced from without. So essentially like, well, you know, we've told the jury that they can't pay attention to the press. So I don't know what more you want from us. We can't tell them that they can't like report on it. Sorry. 

00:32:33

Okay. Halfway through the trial chief prosecutor, James, our wedding alleged that Samuel Adams had been murdered with eight Colt Patterson revolver Course Rather than a hatchet Wedding came to this conclusion. After Dr. Gillum, he was, he examined the body with the coroner, but he was not the actual coroner after Dr. Gillam testified about a round hole in senior's skull that could not have been made by a hatchet. This is when the suggestion was made that John must have used a revolver in a premeditated act where he lured Samuel to his death. 

00:33:20

Keep in mind, no witnesses reported hearing any gunfire. There, there is not a silence or Well here's this nevertheless wedding's argument was that a revolver ball fired by the power of the percussion cap alone could propel the ball with enough force to kill a man without making the noise of the exploding black powder into the cylinder. Several Witnesses were called to testify against the idea, including an early Bala's station named . 

00:34:00

And they called Samuel Colt himself to the stand. How uncomfortable would that be? Samuel Colt demonstrated to the court by shooting his revolver in the courtroom and catching the fire balls in his hand, showing that such a shot could not penetrate the depth of the wound found in Samuel skull. That's a good brother. Well, and he also kind of created it. So he knows exactly how it works. Yeah, Exactly. But when he's like, let me show you. Yeah. So I was just Dancing. 

00:34:44

Well, Ben, of course somebody is going to say that because I mean, you're going to go after that, the big company that started to have success, and of course you're going to do that. And I told you all last episode that this part would come and this is the part She's going to make them a hand over my mouth. Okay. Despite several objections waiting had the coroner David L. Rogers bring Samuel's severed head and the hatchet into the courtroom to show the jury the direction. And number of strikes made John was reportedly covering his face during the demonstration. 

00:35:31

The cylindrical wound, which witting and Gillam thought was made by a ball fired from a revolver was actually caused by one of the nails used by Colt to seal the crate. I'm just saying, if I was on the jury, I would have covered my face. See this disgusting. You got to see it though, too. I mean, I get it. But anyways, so Gillum conceded that the wound was actually by a nail and admitted that no foreign objects such as a ball from a revolver was found in the victim's head. De John admitted that he killed Samuel and planned to confess before he was arrested. 

00:36:16

He attested the entire time that he acted in self-defense during his testimony, John said, quote, I then sat down for, I felt weak and sick after sitting a few minutes and seeing so much blood. I think I went and looked at poor Adams who breathed quiet loud for several minutes, then threw his arms out and was silent. I recollect at this time taking him by the hand, which seemed lifeless in a horrid thrill, came over me that I had killed him. I would not have used those words. No, I know what he means, but that, Yeah, Not, not a good thing. 

00:36:57

Thrill is Not a good word To use. John reported that his first thought was to burn down the building to destroy the evidence. But as a number of people lived in the building, he reconsidered it because quote, it would cause more carnage. He decided instead to dispose of the body and a large packing crate, wrapping the victim in an awning and bounding it with rope. After scrubbing the floor, he threw Samuel's clothing into a nearby outdoor privy and then stopped at the Washington bath house on Pearl street to wash the blood off of him. Closing arguments were made on January 23rd, 1842. 

00:37:41

The defense argued that John had acted in self-defense as Samuel had been choking him. And Colts only means to defend himself was to grab a nearby weapon. His defense for hiding the body was temporary insanity. The prosecution countered in a two hour long rebuttal that the killing was premeditated. He alluded to John's demeanor at the trial, which a lot of papers did. And a lot of people said a lot of things about how he was acting the taking of Samuel's gold pocket, watch leaving the hatchet apparently in plain view. 

00:38:21

And that John's method of disposing the body was evidence contradicting John's claims that his actions were that of an innocent man acting in self-defense. So essentially if he would've gone straight to the authorities, yes, it would have been self-defense but you tried to cover it up. That's kinda, that's kinda my thought Too. Judge can't dismiss the argument for self-defense based on John's attempted concealment and instructed the jury that since John had confessed to the murder, that they were to determine whether the charge should be murder or manslaughter, they did not really have a choice to say he was not guilty by reason of insanity. 

00:39:03

So judge Kent remarked on John's careless air that he demonstrated throughout the trial in the courtroom and said that his behavior was quote, not typical of an innocent man. Hm. The jury was disturbed by John's demeanor through the trial, agreeing with the judge that John appeared stoic unremarkable and callous when describing his disposal of Samuel's body, Perhaps that was just emotional detachment said that he could actually say the words. I mean, yeah. On January 24th, after deliberating for over 10 hours, the jury found John C Colt guilty of willful murder after exhausting. 

00:39:51

All of his appeals, John was sentenced to death by hanging to take place on November 14th, 1842. Now John asked that he be allowed to marry Caroline Hinshaw on the morning of his hanging while in prison. John was John lived luxuriously in his prison cell. He received daily visits from friends and family. He was smoking Cuban cigars. He slept in an actual bed instead of a mound of straw, like the other prisoners, why or silk dressing gowns inside a seal skin overcoat for his daily walks in the prison yard. 

00:40:33

His cell contains the latest novels and a bird cage with a Canary in it and fresh water. Nope. Not water. Fresh flowers were brought to him every day by Caroline Henshaw. He died on meals from local hotels, such as quail on toast game plates and read birds. Several attempts were made to remove him from the prison by dressing him in women's clothing. But all of these efforts were foiled. Why did he, I guess, because his brother had money and a lot of people were just kinda like, dude, I would have done the same thing. 

00:41:14

I don't know. But yeah, he was given many privileges and like, yeah. So anyways then a doctor was hired who claims that he could resuscitate John from the hanging, Providing the body did not remain suspended long. And he believed John's neck to be of such thickness. That strangulation would be nearly impossible. That's not how that works guys. John's friends. Yeah. John's friends lodged the doctor in the Shakespeare hotel on the morning of the scheduled hanging and plan to bring the body there from the tombs for resuscitation. 

00:42:00

I mean that doctor was like, Hey, y'all watch it. It's I'm again, I'm a second AC while some money On the morning of November 14th, 1842, John and Caroline were married in the prison at a small ceremony conducted by Reverend Henry Anthon and witnessed by Samuel Colt and their friend, John Howard Payne after the ceremony and a few hours before the scheduled execution. We talked about this in the episode before a fire broke out in the tombs prison. Mm. After the fire was extinguished, John's body was found in his cell, Sorry guys, but of a trigger. 

00:42:45

He stabbed himself in the heart with a class benign and it was believed that he had been smuggled the knife by a family member. Hm. His body was taken by Reverend Anthony who had just married him that morning. And John C Colt was buried in the church yard of St. Mark's church in the Bowery. So question, I didn't pay attention to months and such. Was she still pregnant and had not given birth yet? We're about to get there. Okay. It's no shock that John's death also received press just like his trial. And there were theories that suggested that John was actually still alive. 

00:43:27

Some said that John killed another prisoner and put the prisoner in his cell. And that he actually escaped during the fire. One paper said that John ran to California with his wife, and this was further encouraged by a book that came out by a former New York, chief of police, A man named Samuel M. Everett claimed that he met John Colt or a man who looked identical to him in the Santa Clara valley in California during 1852. And that account was published in Pearson's magazine. Harold Schechner a researcher and author of two books about John Colt dismisses all of this as quote, an outlandish tale and a product of folklore, not fact, an article in the New York times written during 1880 said that Caroline Hinshaw was watched by private detectives for years after John's death. 

00:44:27

And that no sign was ever seen of him alive. None of the speculations of John still being alive after November 14th, 1842 have proven to be true. There is however, a man who is a, yeah, he's made himself a bit of a historian specifically for the cult family. And his name is William Edwards. He wrote that Caroline Hinshaw actually did marry Samuel Colt in Scotland before they came back to the us and that the child she was pregnant with was actually, Samuel's not, John's A biography of Samuel Colt came out in 1953, which was based on mostly letters that went back and forth between the family and in his biography written by that historian Edwards. 

00:45:26

It was claimed that John's marriage to Caroline was only a way to legitimize her son, Phil. And I figured that. So question did, did Samuel, Mary Samuel Colt actually abandoned Caroline when they got back to the U S because he felt that she was not fit to be the wife of an industrialist and divorce was still a social stigma at the time. This is when John and Caroline met and lived together in New York city to further contribute to the idea that the child was Samuels. The child's name was Samuel Sammy Caldwell, Colt Samuel Colt cared for samey financially with large allowances and paid for his tuition in the finest private schools in correspondence with, and about his namesake, Samuel Colt only referred to CME as specifically his nephew, but nephew was always in quotes. 

00:46:35

Historians have said that this was Samuel Colt's way of letting the world know that the boy was actually his own son without saying so directly. Once Samuel Colt died on January 10th, 1862, he left Sammy the equivalent of $2.5 million. Still a little bit of money. Samuel Colt's widow, Elizabeth, Jarvis, Colt, Jarvis, And her brother, Richard Jarvis can tested the inheritance and in a probate court Caroline's son, Sammy produced a valid marriage license showing that Caroline and Samuel Colt were married in Scotland during 1838. 

00:47:26

And that this document made him a heir to part of the Colts estate. And most importantly, the air to the coal manufacturing company. Oh, I did have a wife. Her name was Elizabeth Jarvis and they did get married soon after he returned to the us. After he abandoned Caroline, did They have kids? I couldn't find much about it. Okay. I was just curious, But it wouldn't matter because CME would be the oldest. Well, and it wouldn't have been an actual marriage though, because a main Caroline would have been the actual wife. 

00:48:11

Hmm, Hmm. Hmm. I couldn't find anything that actually said that Sammy did take over the company at all though. I think this was kind of more of a threat than anything else of like, Hey, all I'm getting is this, all I'm getting is $2.5 million, Shut your face, where I'm going to be More, pretty much like I could go, you're coming after me for this amount of money. But based off of this piece of paper, one year marriage, wasn't legitimate, which also makes your children with Samuel Colt illegitimate. And I can also take everything. Yeah. So By the way, you have no claim. 

00:48:52

Yeah, exactly. And I think all of this, because interestingly enough, do you know who the third president of the Colt manufacturing company ended up being Sammy's son, Richard Jarvis, the brother of Samuel Colt's widow This same year, the Samuel Colt died. Her brother took over as the president of the coal in saying I only found that out because I went into the history of the Colt manufacturing company had to know well, because I was like, if he threatened it, why did he threaten it? 

00:49:33

And it didn't happen. So anyways, after Herman Melville made an allusion to the case in his short story, Bartleby and Scrivener in this story, the narrator restraints his anger toward Bartleby his unrelenting difficult employee by thinking upon quote, the tragedy of the unfortunate Adams in the still more unfortunate Colt and how poor Colt being dreadfully incensed by Adams was unaware, hurled into his fatal act. Herman Melville actually put that in his, his story regarding that Edgar Allen Poe's short story, the oblong box was published in 1844. 

00:50:22

And it tells of the shipboard transport of a corpse in a wooden box packed with salt. The story allegedly Allegedly Was inspired by John's method of disposing of Samuel's courts, which is famously referred to as quote, the single most McCobb element of the Colt case. I mean, it was clever. That is the Colt Adam's murder trial. Well, Now you see why this had to be two episodes. 

00:51:04

Yes. I mean, if he hadn't tried to cover it up, I don't think that things would have ended how they did. I don't think so either. I think that if he went there and he did that, but I mean, and for you, you want to say this, this child is not seeing mules. Amy, you would think that if you were the widow of a man, that the child would be named after your husband who died, But he's married after his brother Named after. So his name then is Samuel. 

00:51:45

Yeah. After your husband's brother, not your husband That his dad died, Right? Yeah. Oh, I'm with you. So why would that name? Why, why, why is he named Samuel Less? John had told him, you know, told her, Hey, you know what? I've wrote so much shame on the family. And Samuel has done so much for me, for us. I don't know. I don't deserve to have a legacy, but he does. But John would have already known that the child wasn't his. So I don't think that would have been a conversation at all. But what I'm, what I'm saying is like, he, if she was able to visit him and everything, even if, I mean, the kid was his inhaler and he told her, you know, Hey, you know, if it's a boy, Well, if it, by that thinking, then why even give him the last name of Colt? 

00:52:47

Cause he's still associated with it because he's has the same middle name as his dad, But he puts his brother up on such a Pedestal. I mean, I get it. I'm just saying that if you're trying to scoot it under the rug that this kid is not your husband's brothers, I would think that you would try and hide it a little bit better than literally naming the kid, Samuel. Well, you could have made it like a middle name. You could have done a lot of different things, but you're like, Nope, right after him Ma I'm am just, I'm just, I'm playing devil's advocate. I'm just saying maybe, maybe John like pushed for it. It like, I want you To, I don't think John cared. Yeah. 

00:53:27

I think he, I don't think he cared at all about it. There's not too much mint. There's more mention of Samuel and Caroline's relationship than there is John and Caroline's. And so I think that the entire premise of him living with Caroline was so that she was not a single unmarried pregnant woman. She was at least living with someone. And John was only doing this as a favor to his brother. And so I don't think John cared The, the Colt name and said the child had the Colt name. I see that. I don't, I don't know, but either way we have a website We did Where you can find any and all Owen, UC information you were looking for. 

00:54:15

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00:54:59

We will see you here. Same time, Different crime Next week. And remember there isn't always Liberty and justice for all. Nope. Especially if you're the actual window to say no Colt. Well, and if you're the victim and they bring your head into the court, That's true too. That's true. Goodbye.