WEBVTT - Charity's Crime 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.720 You are listening to History on Trial, a production of 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:12.200 iHeart Podcasts. Listener discretion advised. As he walked home on 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.680 May thirteenth, eighteen fifty four, Nathaniel Lamb was presented with 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:21.440 a vision of loveliness all around him. Spring was unfurling, 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.960 Dormant plants poked their heads from the soil to greet 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.640 the sun covering the world in green. Oregon winters can 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.160 be dreary, but all those gray, rainy days pay off. 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.800 Thirty four year old Nathaniel was returning from a hunt, 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.559 accompanied by two friends and his eldest son, thirteen year 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:45.040 old Abraham. They'd managed to get a bear, even split 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:47.760 three ways. This was a good haul of meat, and 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.239 Nathaniel had claimed one of the bear's paws too, as 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.320 a trophy. The paw would add some character to his 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.120 family's cabin, which, like most pioneer dwellings, was a barbones affair, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.200 but it was sturdy enough to have gotten the Lambs, Nathaniel, 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.640 his wife Charity, and their six children through the last 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.919 eighteen months since it arrived in the Oregon territory. Though 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.039 with only two rooms, quarters likely felt tight, especially since 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:19.320 the arrival of baby Presley. Reaching the cabin. Nathaniel unloaded 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.920 his share of meat from the wagon and carried it 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.960 into the back room, passing by Charity, who was cooking 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.000 at the fireplace. The table was set for supper, so 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.479 Nathaniel set the meat and the paw down and took 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.800 his seat. His sixteen year old daughter mary Anne went 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.720 to look at the bear paw, while her five younger brothers, 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.560 who ranged in age from thirteen year old Abraham to 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.480 baby Presley, sat down to eat. The perfect end to 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.920 the perfect day, it seemed. The family snug inside their cabin, 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.680 gathered around a warm meal as the sun sunk behind 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.440 the Douglas Firs and big leaf maples, its last rays 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.840 illuminating the Lamb's property, hundreds of acres of lush or 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.080 wagon land that, after only three more years of occupancy 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.120 and improvement, would belong to the Lamb family outright and 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.239 secure their future on this new frontier of the United States. 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:17.080 But that future would never come, because as Nathaniel Lamb 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.520 bent over his supper, his wife Charity rose from her seat, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.240 grabbed an axe, and slammed it into the back of 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:30.200 his head. Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.560 Mira Hayward this week the Territory of Oregon v. Charity Lamb. 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.600 To understand what happened that night in the Lamb cabin, 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.880 we need to travel back nearly twenty years and three 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.639 thousand miles to July fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, the day 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.919 that eighteen year old Charity Robins married sixteen year old 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.919 Nathaniel Lamb in Randolph County, North Carolina. Young marriages were 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.920 not uncommon in Charity and Nathaniel's world. Their parents had 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.000 all married in their teens. Nathaniel's mother, Susannah, was only 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.160 thirteen when Nathaniel was born in eighteen twenty. Nathaniel was 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.919 the first of eighteen children that Susannah would bear over 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.160 the next twenty seven years, before divorcing her husband in 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.919 eighteen fifty, blaming that he was an alcoholic who'd abandoned 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.679 the family and spent all their money. Her mother in 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.520 law's story might have served as a cautionary tale to 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.960 Charity Lamb, but by the time Susannah filed for divorce, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.160 Charity and Nathaniel were long gone from North Carolina. Their 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.360 first child, Mary Anne, had been born in North Carolina 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.680 in eighteen thirty seven, a year after their marriage, but 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.280 by eighteen forty, when their second child, Abraham arrived, the 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.600 family had moved to Illinois. Their next three children, Thomas, William, 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:50.280 and John, were all born even further west in Missouri, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.520 but even that frontier was not far enough for Nathaniel Lamb. 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.080 Not long after the birth of the Lamb's fifth child, John, 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.880 in eighteen fifty one, Nathaniel decided to take his family 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:06.280 to the Oregon Territory. The Donation Land Claim Act of 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.760 eighteen fifty allowed white married couples to claim three hundred 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.000 and twenty acres of land in the territory free of charge, 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.280 provided they arrived on the land before eighteen fifty four 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.159 and lived on and worked the land for four years. 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.720 The Lambs were some of the estimated three to four 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.919 hundred thousand Americans who traveled the Oregon Trail between eighteen 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.080 forty and eighteen sixty. It was an arduous, multi month 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.000 journey of more than two thousand miles, requiring settlers to 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.200 face a litany of dangers, from bad weather to wagon 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.760 accidents to disease. As anyone who's played the Oregon Trail 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.480 computer game nos dying from dysentery, all too easy. But 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.360 for Charity Lamb, the dangers of the trail came from 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:54.360 a more proximate source. Her husband, Nathaniel, had never been 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.560 a kind husband nor a law abiding one. Later, Charity 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.120 would recount how he'd stole and a horse and an 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.239 ox while they lived in Missouri and threatened his family 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.160 with death if they turned him in. Their son, Abraham, 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.240 described his parents as frequently quarreling. Their daughter Mary Anne, 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.880 said quote, my parents have quarreled all their lives. But 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.600 things got worse as they headed west on the plains. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.080 Mary Anne Lamb later testified he threatened her, and she 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.640 carried the gun all day ahead of the wagon train 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.000 through fear he would kill her with it. Miraculously, all 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.640 the Lamb survived the trail as far as we know. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.159 In the autumn of eighteen fifty two, the family arrived 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:40.479 in Oregon and staked their claim. The land they chose 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.679 was just north of the Clacamus River, southeast of present 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:49.400 day Portland. Though remote, the land was lovely. Frank branch Riley, 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.200 who later owned the plot, described it as quote a 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.960 picturesque high mountain meadow with far flung breath taking panoramas 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.640 of the valleys of the Clacamus River and Eagle Creek, 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.839 an environment of scenic, loveliness and tranquility, and an improbable 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.240 setting for a horrendous story of violent hate and assassination. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:13.200 Perhaps not so improbable for Charity Lamb. She later told 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.120 the family's hired hand, Dwight Muzzy, that she quote did 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.800 not like the land. It was very remote. The Lamb's 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.440 nearest neighbors, the Smiths, were half a mile away. After that, 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.000 there was no one for two miles in any direction. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.880 The nearest town, Oregon City, was nine miles away. Legal 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.359 historian Ronald Lansing describes Charity as quote snared in a 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:43.040 land far from friends, family, and familiar places, and Nathaniel's 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.400 abuse was intensifying. Not long after their arrival, in the 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.640 winter of eighteen fifty two, Charity fell ill and took 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.560 to her bed. When Nathaniel commanded her to get up, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.040 she said she could not, so he picked up a 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.200 stool and said he would move her by force. The 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.400 next spring, he threw a hammer at her head, striking 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.440 her in the forehead and leaving a scar. Charity was 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.000 likely pregnant with the couple's sixth child, Presley at the time. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.240 After Presley's birth, Charity believed Nathaniel tried to poison her. 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.880 Later that year, when Charity didn't help Nathaniel carry a 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.160 log into the house, he punched her. When she fell 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:24.440 into the snow. Stunned, he kicked her repeatedly. Their children 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.080 witnessed all of this, but worse was still to come. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.560 Sometime in late eighteen fifty three or early eighteen fifty four, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.080 a man named Collins came into the Lamb's life. Little 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.320 is known about Collins, including his first name, but his 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:45.000 reputation apparently was concerning. According to the Oregon Statesman, in 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.720 the summer of eighteen fifty three, Collins quote seduced a 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:52.920 man's wife and a divorce was obtained. Now, Collins had 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.280 his sights set on mary Anne Lamb, a round face 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.480 sixteen year old with lustrous dark hair. Charity, perhaps hoping 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.200 to get her daughter out of their violent home, supported 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:08.840 Collins's suit. Nathaniel did not. Eventually, he threatened to kill 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.160 Collins if the man kept showing up at their house. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.560 Later rumors and reports would claim that both Mary Anne 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.680 and Charity were in love with Collins, but we have 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.640 no evidence of this. The only thing we know is 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.800 that in the spring of eighteen fifty four, mary Anne, 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.040 with the help of her mother, tried to get back 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.600 into contact with Collins. Charity wrote the letter on her 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.760 daughter's behalf. Marianne then hid the letter in the front 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.079 of her dress, waiting for a chance to mail it. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.719 But on Saturday May sixth, before she could get the 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:45.319 letter off, her father discovered it. Nathaniel irrupted, furious at 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.040 his wife and daughter's betrayal of his commands. You will 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.640 not live at my expense longer than a week, he 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:55.239 bellowed at Charity. He would kill her the next Saturday, 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.000 he told her, and take their sons and leave. Nine 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.760 year old Thomas Lamb later explained that it was only 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.120 a matter of logistics that Nathaniel did not kill Charity 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.360 and leave that very day. Quote he said he was 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.559 going to take us boys along because he was not 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:12.760 going to let her raise us, but that he was 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.840 waiting for the cow to have a calf so that 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.080 he could take the baby along and have milk for it. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.560 That is what he waited so long for. For the 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.000 next week, Charity awoke each morning and wondered if it 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.640 would be the day she would die. At one point, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.760 Nathaniel seemed to relent. He told her to leave if 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.480 she wanted, But then he told her that if she left, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.080 he would follow her, and, in their thirteen year old 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.839 son Abraham's words, quote settle her when she didn't know it. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.560 Nine year old Thomas put it more plainly. She said 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:44.440 she didn't know what to do, for he was going 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.600 to kill her, and if she ran off, he would 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.760 follow her and kill her. Anyhow, Nathaniel toyed with Charity, 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.760 pretending to change his mind once more and telling her 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.200 to go. Charity snatched her bonnet and hurried out the door, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.760 but before she reached the gate, she heard her husband, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.720 I'll drop you before you get out of sight. Nathaniel 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.080 said his rifle was aimed straight at her. Charity came 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.920 back on Friday evening, with one day left in the week. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.720 Nathaniel had given Charity to live. Mary Anne and Thomas 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.840 saw their father point his gun once more at their mother. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.079 When he saw that they were watching him, Nathaniel turned 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:26.720 and shot his gun into a tree instead. The next morning, 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.280 the thirteenth, before Nathaniel and Abraham left on the hunt, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:35.680 Abraham noticed that his mother appeared quote, tolerably uneasy. She 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.640 pulled Abraham aside and told him that his father, quote, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.079 was going to kill her and mary Anne and take 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.880 us boys and go to California. The family's hired hand, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.480 thirty four year old Dwight Muzzy, was working near the 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.200 cabin that day and came in for breakfast and lunch. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.760 He said. Charity looked downcast and dejected. At lunch, she 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.600 pulled Muzzy aside and said she had something to tell him, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:02.400 something that must be kept a secret. She believed Lamb 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.040 was going to leave. She knew it because he was 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.240 making preparations. He had sold his mare, and she knew 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.640 he had got money for it. He was going to 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.960 California and would take the boys with him. Muzzy said 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.040 he hoped it wasn't true, but Charity insisted it was. 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.559 You think you have a friend in Lamb, she told him, 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.720 but you are very much deceived. Her husband was not 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.360 a good man. She told Muzzy about all the times 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.040 he had abused her, the hammer he'd thrown at her head, 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.800 the time he'd tried to poison her, all the threats 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.560 he'd made to her life. Now, Charity told Muzzy he 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.040 was going to kill her and Mary Anne Dwight. Muzzy 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.360 does not seem to have believed Charity Lamb. He never 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.520 said so outright, but his actions reveal his ambivalence. After 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.240 Charity poured out her fears to Muzzy, she asked if 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.120 he would return to the cabin later that night. He 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.720 said he would not. Charity pushed, but carefully, reminding Muzzy 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.240 that she'd done his laundry. Wouldn't he need to come 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.640 back for a clean shirt? I said not, Muzzy recalled, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:10.760 Then he left her alone. Several hours later, Nathaniel's hunting companions, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.240 William Cook and David Deardorf, dropped Nathaniel and Abraham off 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.400 at the cabin, then continued on towards the Smith's house. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.440 After stopping for a few minutes to chat with Benjamin Smith, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.120 the two men set off again. They made it only 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.400 a few hundred yards before they heard Benjamin Smith call 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:32.880 them back. Abraham Lamb stood at Smith's side, panting he 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.880 had just run there, carrying the news that his father 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.960 was dead. Smith and Cook and Deardorf and Abraham ran 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.120 back to the Lamb cabin, passing Charity and Mary Anne 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.320 Lamb who were running in the opposite direction. When Charity 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.400 saw Abraham, she paused and cried out to him take 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.400 care of the baby. Then she ran off. At the Lambs, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.480 the men found Nathaniel sprawled outside, his head a bloody mess. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.120 As they bent down to pick him up, they drew 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:08.520 back in shock. Nathaniel Lamb was still alive. Doctor Presley 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.840 Welch was quickly summoned to the Lamb cabin. What he 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.920 saw did not make him optimistic. The top of Nathaniel's 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.840 skull was split by a five inch long gash that 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.840 penetrated two inches into his brain. The bone was also 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.360 damaged in the back of the skull. Even though Nathaniel 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.360 was alive now, doctor Welch knew he would not remain 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.800 that way for long. Having done all he could for 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.240 the patient, doctor Welch set out towards the Smith's, the 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.960 direction Charity had last been seen heading. He found Charity 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.640 inside the Smith's cabin, sitting in a bed. She asked 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.880 about her husband. Welch told her his wounds were mortal. 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.760 Charity seemed surprised quote she said she did not mean 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.880 to kill the critter. Welch recalled that she only intended 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.440 to stun him until they could get away. Even despite 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.880 Welch's report, Charity did not seem convince that her husband 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.320 would die. When one of the Smith's sons returned home 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.360 from the Lamb cabin, he found Charity smoking her pipe. 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.280 Her first question for him was whether her husband would 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.400 be able to come find her and kill her. The 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.880 boy replied that he did not think so, and that 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.200 Nathaniel would not live long. Charity asked the same question 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.520 of everyone who came to the smith house that night, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.720 would her husband be able to come after her? After 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.720 hearing over and over again that he would not, she 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.840 finally went to sleep. The next morning, she told the 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.000 Smiths that she needed to go home and feed her 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.880 children breakfast. Nathaniel was still lying in the other room 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.320 alive when she arrived, but she did not go in 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.560 to see him. When told by doctor Welsh that Nathaniel 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.720 wanted to see her, Charity quote refused to go in 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.560 where he was, saying that he would certainly kill her. 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.800 Only after repeated assurances from doctor Welch that Nathaniel was 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.920 quote entirely helpless, did she agree. By now, infection was 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:04.040 setting in Nathaniel was delirious and mumbling to himself. But 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:07.720 when Charity said Nathaniel, I am here, he seemed to 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.040 become lucid and asked her, yes, dear, I see you are, 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.960 my dear. What did you kill me for? Charity began 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.640 listing all the ways Nathaniel had abused her. He denied 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.720 all of it. When doctor Welch later asked Charity why 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:27.760 she had done it, she told him about her son Abraham, saying, quote, 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.720 there is a boy thirteen years old who has never 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.840 been inside of a schoolhouse or meeting house. I could 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.280 not think of having my children raised by such a man. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:41.360 She described Nathaniel's criminal past and his violent actions. Doctor 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.640 Welch told her that the law would probably come for her. Nonetheless, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.800 Charity seemed surprised, but resigned, telling the doctor quote, the 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.240 worst they could do would be to hang me, and 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.640 I am willing to be hung in case he should die. 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.640 Nathaniel did die six days later, on May twentieth, eighteen 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.000 fifty four. By then, the story of the murder had 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:07.120 hit the papers. The Oregonian, who smugly wrote that Missus 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:11.320 lamb ought to be called Missus Tiger, claimed that quote 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.320 the domestic peace of the family had been invaded by 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.840 another man, and the husband had threatened an exposure of 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.760 his faithless wife. Philip Foster, a prominent local citizen who 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.520 was one of the first white settlers in Oregon, added 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.200 fuel to the fire when he told the Oregon Statesman 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.240 that Charity and Marianne had both been in love with 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.760 Collins and had killed Nathaniel when he foiled their plans 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.920 to run off with their lover. Foster, who had also 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.280 occasionally employed Nathaniel, called his neighbor quote an industrious and 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.920 quiet citizen. The Statesman concluded that Charity was a monster. 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.040 Charity's trial was initially scheduled for July, but due to 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.240 an issue with the grand jury, it was postponed until September. 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.200 Until then, Charity would be kept in the Oregon City Penitentiary, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:02.000 where she was the only female prison While Charity sat 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.840 in jail, the probate court decided what to do about 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.840 the Lamb children and estate. Joseph Church, the local Justice 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.640 of the Peace, had taken the Lamb children in temporarily 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.280 after the attack. On May twenty seventh, Church filed a 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.480 petition to be named administrator of Nathaniel Lamb's estate and 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.240 guardian of his minor children. His petition was granted on 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:27.520 June sixth, stripping Charity of her parental rights. Next, Church 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:29.960 petitioned the court to allow him to sell the Lamb's 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.199 personal property in order to pay back Nathaniel's creditors and 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.440 his estate expenses. The probate court once again approved the petition, 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.399 and Church sold all of the family's belongings and livestock. 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.280 Even if Charity managed to escape conviction, she would return 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.080 to an empty cabin, but not all hope was lost. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.560 The local court was treating offenders mercifully that summer. There 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.520 was the arsonist accused of burning down a barn, who 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.440 was convicted but deemed by Judge Cyrus only to be 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.359 quote more an object of pity than resentment, and given 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.320 the minimum sentence. There was the man who killed his 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.160 neighbor's ox, who the grand jury declined to indict, believing 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.280 him to be insane. And then there was mary Anne Lamb. 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.400 The day after the attack, doctor Welch had asked Charity 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.200 if mary Anne had known of her plans to kill Nathaniel. 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.639 Charity replied that mary Anne quote was going to do 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.840 it herself. But I told her I would do it. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.439 Mary Anne was subsequently indicted alongside Charity for Nathaniel's murder, 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.120 but at her trial on July eleventh, the first felony 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.040 trial of a woman in the Oregon Territory, the jury 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.120 quickly found her not guilty because, per the Oregon Statesman quote, 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:44.879 there was no evidence against her except the statements of 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.920 her mother, which were ruled out by the court. Though 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.240 a lack of evidence seems like a pretty good reason 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.320 to acquit to me. Not everyone was happy with mary 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:58.000 Anne's verdict. The Oregon Spectator wrote a scathing editorial on 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.360 July fourteenth, accusing Jeff Udge Only and Noah Huber, the prosecutor, 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.399 of taking it easy on mary Anne. If Cyrus Only 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:10.399 as judge and Noah Huber as prosecuting attorney composed the 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.800 head and tail of the September trial, the paper warned, 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.520 the old woman will be cleared too. Others weren't so certain. 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.680 A jury might be willing to look favorably on an 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.719 arsonist or an alleged accomplice, but what about a killer. 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.439 The opening of the Territory of Oregon v. Charity Lamb 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.800 on September eleventh, eighteen fifty four proved the Spectator right 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.200 on at least two counts. Judge Only and Prosecutor Huber 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.440 were back. This was not really a surprise. The territory 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.480 had only three judges, each of whom oversaw large districts. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.600 Cyrus only covered the district that included the Lamb's cabin. 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.800 Thirty eight years old Only was known as a quote 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:02.000 modest and unassuming gentleman. No Ya Huber's appearance was also 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:06.160 not shocking. He was the district attorney, after all. Elected 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.560 to the position earlier that summer. The thirty three year 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.680 old had been criticized by the Spectator for not prosecuting 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.560 Mary Ann Lamb aggressively enough. Huber would show no such 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.119 hesitation with Charity Lamb. Judge Only had appointed James K. 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.520 Kelly and Milton Elliott, the same lawyers who had defended 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.760 the arsonist, the ox Killer, and Mary Ann, to represent Charity. 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.560 Kelly and Elliott's successes that summer hadn't been Fluke's. Both 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:37.000 men were experienced attorneys. Elliott had once been a prosecutor, 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.840 while Kelly, who also served as a territorial legislator, had 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.119 played such a major role in drafting the territory's eighteen 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.000 fifty four Code of Laws that it was sometimes known 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.560 as the Kelly Code. Kelly and Elliott began the trial 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:56.639 by providing Charity's plea not guilty. At Elliott and Kelly's side, 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:02.119 Charity sat listless, holding her infant side. Presley, The Weekly 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.600 Oregonian wrote that she looked quote pale and sallow and 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:11.000 emaciated as a skeleton, apparently fifty years of age, though 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.399 probably a little younger. In reality, Charity was only thirty 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:20.119 six years of hard work, child bearing, and poverty, not 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.000 to mention the four months in jail had aged her. 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.359 The conditions in the penitentiary could not have been good. 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.400 The Oregonian further records that quote her clothing was thin 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:36.240 and scanty, and much worn and torn, and far from clean. Unfortunately, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.480 the opening statements have been lost to time, but from 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.600 the shape of Noah Huber's prosecution case, we can imagine 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.160 what he might have said. Charity Lamb was a cold blooded, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:50.200 remorseless killer who had planned her crime. Hubert began by 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.840 calling two doctors Forbes, Barkley and Presley Welch. Berkley had 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.800 performed the post warnem examination of Nathaniel and described the 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.840 man's wounds to the chair, saying that the deep slice 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.120 through his skull and into his brain was quote necessarily fatal, 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.040 while the secondary skull penetration was probably fatal in its 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.480 own right. Doctor Welch, who had tended to Nathaniel after 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.320 the attack, concurred with Berkeley. Hubert next introduced Nathaniel's hunting 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.560 companions that day, who described saying goodbye to him and 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.800 then coming back to find him dying. William Cook described 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.919 the graphic scene at the cabin, quote, he lay in 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.280 the front yard, bloody as a man could be. The 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.840 table was standing and seats around it as if they 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.080 had been eating supper. There was blood on a plate, 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.040 on a chair, and on the floor, and from there 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.760 out the door. Cook had also seen the murder weapon quote, 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.040 a narrow bit chopping axe with blood and hair on it. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.679 There was little doubt that Charity was the one who 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.560 had wielded this axe. Nathaniel himself had identified her as 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.040 his killer, and Charity had openly admitted to her actions. 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.119 According to cons See a canton Wine who had taken 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.439 Charity to jail, Charity had told him that quote, she 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:07.760 was sorry, She had not struck him a little harder 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.160 and prevented his giving evidence against her. The prosecution argued 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:15.040 that Charity's motive for killing Nathaniel was related to the 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:19.400 mysterious Collins and Charity's anger at Nathaniel for not allowing 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.000 Mary Anne to marry him. A neighbor, Joseph Jones, who 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.359 spoke to Charity on the Monday following the attack, testified 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.960 that Charity told him quote, she was afraid of Nathaniel 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:32.120 on account of that letter she had tried to write 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:34.919 for Maryanne to mister Collins, which was the reason she 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:37.359 did it. That he had been mad at her ever 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:40.760 since the letter, and she was afraid of him. Doctor 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.600 Welch said that Nathaniel and Charity had discussed the letter 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.439 while he lay dying, and that Nathaniel had admitted that 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:49.520 if Collins had quote continued to cut up about my 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:52.040 house as he had done, I would have shot him. 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.240 Constable canton Wine had asked Charity about Collins, telling her 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.600 he quote supposed that miserable Collins was the main cause 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.840 of the diffyfficulty, to which Charity had replied unconvincingly that 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:07.439 she quote knew nothing about him. Hubert also tried to 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:12.000 preempt any defense claims of insanity. Philip Foster, Yes, the 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:14.719 same neighbor who told newspapers that Charity was having an 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.520 affair with Collins, testified that he had visited Charity while 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.240 she was in jail. She appeared different. Foster said, she 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:25.760