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Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Listener discretion advised. On May fourth, eighteen eighty a crowd

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Speaker 1: gathered at the Art Association on Pine Street in San Francisco.

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Speaker 1: They dutifully paid the fifty cent admission fee, filed into

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Speaker 1: the gallery room, and took their seats. They had been

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Speaker 1: drawn in by a newspaper advertisement that promised a show

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Speaker 1: unlike any other, and it was true. The viewers there

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Speaker 1: that night were about to witness history being made. At

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Speaker 1: the back of the room stood a man with a

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Speaker 1: long gray beard. He was Edward Moybridge, the noted photographer.

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Speaker 1: People had always said Moybridge seemed older than his actual age,

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Speaker 1: though he looked to be in his sixties. Now he

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Speaker 1: was only forty nine. Moybridge was bent over a device

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Speaker 1: three feet tall and three feet wide, a wood and

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Speaker 1: brass and glass contraption of his own invention. Once the

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Speaker 1: crowd was settled, Moybridge dimmed the gaslights. He ignited the

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Speaker 1: gas jet inside his device, directing the flame towards a

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Speaker 1: brick of lime, which generated a bright light. The light

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Speaker 1: illuminated a glass disc, projecting its images onto the screen.

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Speaker 1: As Moybridge spun the disc, and then the magic happened

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Speaker 1: on the screen in front of them. The crowd watched

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Speaker 1: in astonishment as the image of a horse appeared and

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Speaker 1: then miraculously began to run. For two seconds, the horse

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Speaker 1: galloped across the screen, then did it again. It looked,

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Speaker 1: said one reporter, like a living moving horse. Nothing was

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Speaker 1: wanting but the clatter of the hoofs upon the turf,

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Speaker 1: and an occasional breath of steam from the nostrils to

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Speaker 1: make the spectator believe that he had before him genuine

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Speaker 1: flesh and blood steeds. And the wonder did not end there.

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Speaker 1: Moybridge switched the disc and now came a horse leaping

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Speaker 1: that a bull charging, a greyhound racing a bird's soaring

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Speaker 1: through the air. The audience was astonished. They had just

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Speaker 1: seen something that almost no one alive in eighteen eighty

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Speaker 1: had ever seen before, real living animals in motion, photographed

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Speaker 1: and projected in front of them. People were familiar with zootropes,

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Speaker 1: small toys with illustrated or photographic strips that you could spin,

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Speaker 1: producing the illusion of motion, and they may have seen

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Speaker 1: magic lantern shows in which early projectors cast images onto

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Speaker 1: a screen But Edward Moybridge's machine, which he would come

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Speaker 1: to call the zoapraxoscope or life action view in Greek,

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Speaker 1: was something new. He had done something revolutionary. First, he

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Speaker 1: had figured out how to photograph animals in motion, using

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Speaker 1: an inventive series of trip wires and fast shutters. You

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Speaker 1: might be familiar with some of these photos. The most

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Speaker 1: famous is a black and white set of a man

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Speaker 1: riding a horse. Then he had worked out how to

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Speaker 1: transfer these images to a glass disc and project them

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Speaker 1: in sequence, playing back the moment in time he had captured,

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Speaker 1: preserving and replicating it. He had set into motion a

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Speaker 1: series of inventions and innovations that would lead soon enough

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Speaker 1: to the birth of the movie. But our story today

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Speaker 1: is not about what happened on that May night in

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty It's about a crime that happened six years earlier,

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Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four, a crime that led to a

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Speaker 1: dramatic trial that caught the nation's attention and sparked discussions

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Speaker 1: on the role of the law. It's an incredible tale,

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Speaker 1: one of love, betrayal, vengeance and justice in the still

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Speaker 1: somewhat wild West. And at the heart of it all

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Speaker 1: was the man you've just met, because Edward Moybridge was

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Speaker 1: not just the father of motion pictures. He was also

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Speaker 1: a murderer. Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Mirah Hayward. This week California v. Edward Moybridge. Edward Moybridge

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Speaker 1: was not always Edward Moybridge. Born April ninth, eighteen thirty,

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Speaker 1: Moybridge was christened Edward James Muggeridge, the second of four sons.

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Speaker 1: Throughout his life, Moybridge changed his name several times. For

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Speaker 1: consistency's sake, I'll call him Edward Moybridge throughout, since this

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Speaker 1: was a name he was known by. At the time

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Speaker 1: of the trial. As a child, friends and family called

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Speaker 1: him Ted. A cousin described Ted as an eccentric boy,

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Speaker 1: rather mischievous, always doing something or saying something unusual, or

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Speaker 1: inventing a new toy or a fresh trick. His family

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Speaker 1: was lower middle class, and life in Kingston upon Thames,

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Speaker 1: the small town fifteen miles southwest of London where Moybridge

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Speaker 1: grew up, did not offer many opportunities. In eighteen fifty,

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Speaker 1: age twenty, Moybridge decided to seek his fortune in America.

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Speaker 1: He arranged with a London publisher to become their sales

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Speaker 1: representative in New York and headed across the Atlantic. In Manhattan,

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Speaker 1: Moybridge got his first taste of the photography business after

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Speaker 1: befriending a man named Silas Selik, who worked in Matthew

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Speaker 1: Brady's photography studio. Selik and Moybridge became close, and when

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Speaker 1: Selik decided to move to California, Moybridge eventually followed him,

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Speaker 1: heading west in the autumn of eighteen fifty five. On

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Speaker 1: arrival in San Francisco, Moybridge subtly changed his name, shortening

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Speaker 1: his birth name of Muggridge to Muggridge. Less than a

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Speaker 1: year later, he changed it again, this time to Moygridge.

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Speaker 1: It was under this name that he applied for U

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Speaker 1: s citizenship in November eighteen fifty six. Moybridge did well

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Speaker 1: for himself as a publisher in San Francisco. He had

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Speaker 1: a knack for knowing what would sell. He joined the

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Speaker 1: board of the Mercantile Library, an oasis of culture in

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Speaker 1: the rough and tumble town. He made social connections. He prospered,

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Speaker 1: but then in early eighteen fifty nine, Moybridge decided to

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Speaker 1: return to England. Why exactly he did so is unknown,

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Speaker 1: but over the course of the year he sold off

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Speaker 1: his remaining inventory and wrapped up his business in San Francisco.

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Speaker 1: On July second, eighteen sixty, he boarded the Butterfield Stage

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Speaker 1: bound for Saint Louis. Traveling by stagecoach was miserable. The

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Speaker 1: Butterfield Overland Mail Company and other companies like it contracted

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Speaker 1: with the Post Office to carry mail across the country.

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Speaker 1: Passengers could hitch a ride along the way, and the

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Speaker 1: price was cheap for a reason. The small horse drawn

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Speaker 1: wagons took twenty five days to complete the twenty eight

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Speaker 1: hundred mile route, three weeks of bone shaking travel across

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Speaker 1: rocky roads, breathing in dust and your fellow passenger's stench.

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Speaker 1: The ride was also dangerous. The coaches were attacked by bandits,

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Speaker 1: vulnerable to bad weather, accident prone. On July twenty second,

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Speaker 1: three weeks into the journey, Moybridge's coach was traveling near

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Speaker 1: what is now Fort Worth, Texas, when the horses panicked

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Speaker 1: and broke into a wild run. The driver could not

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Speaker 1: control the coach and it sped down the road, going

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Speaker 1: faster and faster until it hit a stump and sent

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Speaker 1: its passengers flying, Edward Moybridge was thrown from the coach

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Speaker 1: and landed on his head. He would not regain consciousness

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Speaker 1: for nine days. When Moybridge came to, he found that

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Speaker 1: both his vision and his hearing had been impacted by

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Speaker 1: the accident. After resting for several weeks in Arkansas, Moybridge

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Speaker 1: of eventually made his way to New York, where, after

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Speaker 1: filing a suit against the Butterfield Stage Company, he boarded

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Speaker 1: a ship for England. Upon his return to England, Moybridge

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Speaker 1: gave up the publishing business and tried his hand at inventing.

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Speaker 1: When he failed to make money from his inventions, he

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Speaker 1: turned to business, joining a relative in banking, but his

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Speaker 1: time as a banker was a disaster, his investments evaporated.

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Speaker 1: The only souvenir that would remain from this time was

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Speaker 1: a new name, Edward Moigridge. Ney Muggridge had now become

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Speaker 1: Edward Moybridge, But it was not as Edward Moybridge that

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Speaker 1: he returned to San Francisco in eighteen sixty six. It

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Speaker 1: was as Helios. Helios was his new name and his

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Speaker 1: new persona an artist, a photographer to be exact. During

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Speaker 1: his stint as an inventor, Moybridge had spent time in Paris,

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Speaker 1: where he crossed paths with three French brothers, the Berteaux,

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Speaker 1: who ran a photography studio called Maison AliOS. For a time,

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Speaker 1: Moybridge used Mason Elios as his nailing address in Paris.

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Speaker 1: Edward Ball, in his book The Inventor in the Tycoon

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Speaker 1: feorizes that the Burteaus taught Moybridge their craft. The Englishman

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Speaker 1: borrowed more than just the brother's technique. He also borrowed

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Speaker 1: their name, using the English pronunciation of AliOS to become Helios.

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Speaker 1: While working as a publisher, inventor, and banker, Moybridge had

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Speaker 1: always appeared like a conventional man. He wore suits, trimmed

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Speaker 1: his hair, and maintained a neat appearance. But now as

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Speaker 1: an artist, Moybridge changed. His beard, grew long and unkempt.

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Speaker 1: His hair sprouted in unruly waves. He wore ragged clothes,

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Speaker 1: floppy hats, a hostile expression. His appearance seemed to say

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Speaker 1: that he cared for only one thing, his art, and

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Speaker 1: his actions backed up this impression. Moybridge had become obsessed

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Speaker 1: with photography. He even designed a portable dark room in

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Speaker 1: a wagon so that he could develop prints whenever he wanted.

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Speaker 1: His breakthrough as an artist came with pictures he took

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Speaker 1: of Yosemite. Moybridge's photos captured the splendor and the scale

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Speaker 1: of the valley, its awe inspiring rock formations and waterfalls,

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Speaker 1: and newspapers around the world printed the pictures. He also

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Speaker 1: gained recognition in San Francisco for his photographs of houses.

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Speaker 1: California's railbarons, including Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, built sprawling

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Speaker 1: mansions in the city and commissioned Moybridge to document their opulence.

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Speaker 1: Within three years of returning to California, Moybridge was likely

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Speaker 1: the best known photographer in the state. In April eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, he signed with one of San Francisco's most

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Speaker 1: prestigious galleries, run by the Nall Brothers. It was at

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Speaker 1: the Knall's gallery that Edward Moybridge met Flora Downs. Flora

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Speaker 1: worked as a photo retoucher for the brothers, a job

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Speaker 1: that in those days meant fixing scratches in photo negatives

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Speaker 1: or using wax and paint to apply color to photographs.

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Speaker 1: Born in eighteen fifty one, Flora had had a difficult childhood,

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Speaker 1: her mother had died young and her stepmother had been

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Speaker 1: uninterested in raising her. At twelve, Flora was sent to

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Speaker 1: live with her aunt and uncle in Kentucky. Two years later,

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Speaker 1: the family moved to California. Upon the family's arrival in Marysville, California,

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Speaker 1: Flora's aunt and uncle left the girl with another aunt

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Speaker 1: and traveled to Oregon. Flora Downs, only fourteen years old,

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Speaker 1: had now been left behind by two families. Some historians

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Speaker 1: have claimed that Downs was next sent to Mills Seminary,

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Speaker 1: a boarding school for girls, but there is no record

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Speaker 1: of her attending the school. There is, however, a record

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Speaker 1: of Downs getting a job as a sales clerk at

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Speaker 1: a store in San Francisco. She would not work there

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Speaker 1: for long. At some point, sixteen year old Flora met

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Speaker 1: twenty four year old Lucius Stone, scion of a wealthy

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Speaker 1: saddle making family. Flora married Stone in July eighteen sixty

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Speaker 1: seven and went to live in his family home, but

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Speaker 1: the marriage was not a happy one. Flora hated her

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Speaker 1: mother in law, who she called cruel and tyrannical, and

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Speaker 1: less than two years after the wedding, Flora moved out,

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Speaker 1: possibly using a small settlement from the Stone family to

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Speaker 1: pay for a rented room. With little formal education and

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Speaker 1: few family ties, Flora needed to learn to support herself. Somehow,

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Speaker 1: she discovered a talent for photo retouching. When Edward Moybridge

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Speaker 1: and Flora Downs met, he was thirty nine and she

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Speaker 1: was eighteen. She was petite and pretty, with wavy brown

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Speaker 1: hair and a doll's face. He was a committed artist

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Speaker 1: with little interest in personal grooming. She liked the theater, nights, dresses,

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Speaker 1: nights on the town. He preferred the wilderness, his work,

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Speaker 1: and solitude. We don't know what drew the unlikely pair together.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps Flora was lonely. Her last family member in California

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Speaker 1: died in September eighteen seventy, and her divorce from Lucius

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Speaker 1: Stone was finalized three months later. Perhaps she was attracted

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Speaker 1: to Moybridge's success or perhaps she didn't have much say

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Speaker 1: in the matter. Flora would later claim that Moybridge paid

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Speaker 1: for her divorce from Stone and coerced her into marrying

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Speaker 1: him by threatening to get her fired from the gallery.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe, against all odds, this was a love story. Okay,

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Speaker 1: maybe not, but whatever the case. On May twentieth, eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy one, twenty year old Flora Downs and forty one

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Speaker 1: year old Edward Moybridge were married. Two months after the wedding,

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Speaker 1: Moybridge began traveling for work. He was away from home

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Speaker 1: for more than half of the first year of their marriage.

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Speaker 1: Flora grew increasingly lonely, a pain that only compounded when

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Speaker 1: she suffered two stillbirths in a row. In the spring

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Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy two, the Nall Brothers closed their gallery.

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Speaker 1: Moybridge moved to Bradley and Rulufsen, a gallery and photography

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Speaker 1: studio known for taking pictures of celebrities. Flora got a

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Speaker 1: job a retouching photos for the studio. She enjoyed the work.

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00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,760
Speaker 1: She collected copies of the pictures of stage actors who

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00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:19,080
Speaker 1: Bradley and Rulefsen photographed, and made her own album, pasting

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Speaker 1: the glamorous celebrity shots next to princes of Moybridge's nature pictures.

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Speaker 1: The moy Bridges may not have been a perfect couple,

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00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:33,560
Speaker 1: or even a particularly happy one, but things were fine. Fine,

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00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:39,240
Speaker 1: that is until the arrival of Harry Larkins, and then

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00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 1: things would fall apart with deadly consequences. Harry Larkins was

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00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:50,840
Speaker 1: well known in San Francisco, though few people knew his

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00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:55,120
Speaker 1: true background. They knew he was handsome, with a charming

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00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:59,400
Speaker 1: British accent and charisma to spare. They knew he dressed well,

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Speaker 1: if flashily, sometimes wearing a peacock feather in his hat.

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Speaker 1: They knew he'd fought in some war somewhere, or at

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Speaker 1: least he told people to call him Major Larkins. But

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Speaker 1: just exactly who he was and what life he'd lived

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00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:19,040
Speaker 1: before he arrived in San Francisco was a bit of

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Speaker 1: a mystery, and would remain a mystery until the present day.

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Speaker 1: But we'll come back to that. In eighteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: there were only two things San Franciscans knew for sure

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Speaker 1: about Harry Larkins. He was excellent company, and he had

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00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:39,120
Speaker 1: trouble staying on the right side of the law. In

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Speaker 1: March eighteen seventy three, Larkins was thrown in jail for

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Speaker 1: charges of obtaining money under false pretenses. The charges had

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Speaker 1: been brought by Larkins's former friend, one Arthur Neil. The

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Speaker 1: two men had first met in London and reconnected by

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Speaker 1: chance in Salt Lake City in mid eighteen seventy two.

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Speaker 1: They then decided to travel to San Francisco together. For months,

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Speaker 1: they'd lived it up, Larkins providing the entertainment and Neil

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00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,119
Speaker 1: providing the funds. Neil said that Larkins claim to have

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00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:17,320
Speaker 1: a wealthy family who would cover his expenses eventually, but

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00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:22,600
Speaker 1: after five months without repayment, Neil grew impatient. He filed

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00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,040
Speaker 1: a police report against Larkins and then took his story

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00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:30,119
Speaker 1: to the newspaper. The San Francisco Chronicle jumped on the

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Speaker 1: juicy story, publishing Nil's tale of woe with the headline

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Speaker 1: financial genius the Prince of Confidence. Men in limbo Major

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00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:44,160
Speaker 1: Harry Larkins arrested for swindling, and noted that Larkins had

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Speaker 1: racked up quote hotel bills that would make a millionaire shudder.

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00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:52,800
Speaker 1: The two men eventually settled their case out of court

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Speaker 1: and the charges against Larkins were dismissed, but his reputation

250
00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 1: was ruined and he was broke. He began moving freight

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00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,560
Speaker 1: at the docks, hard labor, but at least it paid

252
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:10,440
Speaker 1: soon though, his charm and intelligence earned him the opportunity

253
00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:14,080
Speaker 1: to become the theater critic for the San Francisco Evening Post.

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00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,200
Speaker 1: It was likely because of this role that he ended

255
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:21,840
Speaker 1: up at Bradley and Rulffson's gallery, where all the theater stars

256
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 1: got their pictures taken. This, in turn, is likely how

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00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:32,000
Speaker 1: he met Flora and Edward Moybridge. Sometime in eighteen seventy three.

258
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:38,800
Speaker 1: Larkin started out as a friend of both Moybridges. He

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00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,040
Speaker 1: got free theater tickets through his job and offered to

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00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:46,000
Speaker 1: take the couple out one night. Flora enjoyed the outing,

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00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:52,400
Speaker 1: Edward did not. Larkins invited them to another show. Edward declined,

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00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:58,080
Speaker 1: but Flora said yes. Soon Flora and Larkins were spending

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00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,520
Speaker 1: quite a bit of time together. The two found they

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00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:06,560
Speaker 1: had much in common, similarly lonely childhood's a shared love

265
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,119
Speaker 1: for theater. In May eighteen seventy three, Moybridge left on

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00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:15,359
Speaker 1: a photography assignment for the U. S. Army. Upon his return,

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00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,600
Speaker 1: he was troubled by reports of his wife's new friendship

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00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:23,480
Speaker 1: and warned Larkins off I want you to let her alone,

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00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,439
Speaker 1: he recalled. He told Larkins, I do not request it

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Speaker 1: of you, but I command you to keep away from her.

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Speaker 1: You know my rights as a married man, so do I,

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Speaker 1: and I shall defend them. Larkins agreed to stop seeing Flora,

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00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,359
Speaker 1: but the break didn't last long. In the summer of

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00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three, Flora learned she was pregnant again. The

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00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 1: Moybridges hired a woman named Susan Smith to serve as

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00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:56,640
Speaker 1: Flora's midwife and baby nurse, but Smith would later allege

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00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,159
Speaker 1: that she had another role, that of go between for

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00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:04,840
Speaker 1: Flora and Larkins. Smith said she carried notes for the couple,

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00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 1: who saw each other whenever Moybridge was out of town working.

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00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:13,040
Speaker 1: In April eighteen seventy four, while Moybridge was yet again

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00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:18,040
Speaker 1: got an assignment, Flora went into labor. Harry Larkins was

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00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 1: with her and summoned Smith. After a twelve hour labor,

283
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,640
Speaker 1: Flora gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Smith wrote

284
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 1: to Moybridge and he returned to town, though he only

285
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,399
Speaker 1: stayed for a week or ten days before leaving to

286
00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:36,120
Speaker 1: work again. He does not seem to have particularly bonded

287
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:40,120
Speaker 1: with his son. Smith would later say that Moybridge refused

288
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:44,800
Speaker 1: to name the baby. Flora eventually named the boy George

289
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 1: Down's Moybridge. George was the name of Moybridge's deceased brother,

290
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,479
Speaker 1: but it also happened to be the name of Harry

291
00:21:53,560 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 1: Larkins's deceased father. Larkins visited George and Flora frequently. In May,

292
00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,920
Speaker 1: Larkins lost his newspaper job, possibly because his colleagues were

293
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,639
Speaker 1: tired of people showing up at the newsroom to demand

294
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,399
Speaker 1: that he pay them back for various debts. Desperate for money,

295
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 1: Larkins took a job as a publicist for a traveling circus.

296
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: While he was away from Flora, he wrote her secret

297
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 1: messages in the paper using his middle initial Tea. In June,

298
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: he left a note in the chronicle, f do write

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00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:35,480
Speaker 1: to me. I am utterly miserable without you, your devoted Tea.

300
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 1: But by this time Flora was no longer in San

301
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,639
Speaker 1: Francisco to see the message. In mid June, Moybridge had

302
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 1: sent her and George to Oregon to stay with relatives.

303
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 1: He said it was so she would have company while

304
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,879
Speaker 1: he traveled on a multi month job, but some people

305
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 1: wondered whether it was an attempt to keep Flora and

306
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: Larkins apart. Absence, however, only made the heart grow fond.

307
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,959
Speaker 1: Flora and Harry both wrote to Susan Smith and her

308
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 1: daughter Sarah about how they missed one another. There are

309
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:11,159
Speaker 1: indications that Larkins and Flora were planning to start a

310
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: life together, but to do that, Larkins would need money.

311
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 1: He took a new job writing about mining for a newspaper.

312
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,000
Speaker 1: His work took him into the mountains around California's Napa Valley,

313
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,880
Speaker 1: where he reported on the area's silver mines. He had

314
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 1: high hopes for the future, but a dark cloud was looming.

315
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:36,520
Speaker 1: In October eighteen seventy four, Edward Moybridge returned to San Francisco.

316
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,679
Speaker 1: He was quickly confronted by Susan Smith, Flora's midwife and

317
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: baby nurse, who claimed that she had not received her pay.

318
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: On October thirteenth, Smith went to court over the matter,

319
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: and one a judgment of one hundred dollars against Moybridge.

320
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:54,919
Speaker 1: Moybridge claimed that he had given Flora the money to

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00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,080
Speaker 1: pay Smith, but Smith produced a letter from Flora that

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00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: claimed that Edward would pay the money. This letter, to

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00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 1: Moybridge's consternation, contained a mention of Harry Larkins. After the hearing,

324
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 1: Moybridge asked Smith if she had any other letters from Flora.

325
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: Smith apparently trying to secure her payment, said she would

326
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 1: give the letters to Moybridge. She gave him the letters

327
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 1: on October fifteenth. The next day, Moybridge showed up at

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00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,199
Speaker 1: her house demanding more letters. The first batch of letters,

329
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 1: he said, only showed a flirtation between Flora and Harry.

330
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 1: He wanted letters that proved the affair that he was

331
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: certain existed. Smith gave him more letters. She also showed

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00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: him a picture of his baby's son, on which Flora

333
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: had written either little Harry or Little George Harry. The

334
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: next morning, October seventeenth, Moybridge went to the Arts Association,

335
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: a social club. People who saw him there reported that

336
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: he was quote perfectly cool and self possessed. He next

337
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: went to Bradley and Rulfson's, where he ran into an

338
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: acquaintance and the two men discussed bugs. Moybridge mentioned that

339
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,320
Speaker 1: he quote had some business up country and intended to

340
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,639
Speaker 1: leave by the afternoon. Boat Then he went upstairs and

341
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: had a conversation with William Rulifson, the gallery owner. Moybridge

342
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: gave Rulifsen a set of documents, which he said would

343
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,120
Speaker 1: organize his business in case anything were to happen to him.

344
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: When Moybridge said he was going to Napa to see

345
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 1: Harry Larkins, rul Offsen tried to stop him, but Moybridge

346
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 1: would not be deterred. He left Rulufsen's office at three

347
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:46,160
Speaker 1: fifty six pm and sprinted to the Ferry Docks, barely

348
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: making the four o'clock steamboat. He disembarked at Vallejoe at

349
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: six p m. Then boarded the northbound train. Three hours later.

350
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 1: He got off at the last stop, Calistoga. He stopped

351
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 1: in at a saloon, then went to a buggy. He

352
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: told the stableman he wanted to find Harry Larkins. Moybridge

353
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: thought Larkins was at Pine Flat mining camp. That's where

354
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:14,400
Speaker 1: Larkins had written his last newspaper dispatch. From the stableman, however,

355
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: knew that Larkins was spending the night at a miner's

356
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: cottage by the Yellowjacket mine. The stableman tried to convince

357
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: Moybridge to wait until morning, since Larkins would be traveling

358
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: into Calistoga, but Moybridge refused. The stableman relented and told

359
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: one of his drivers, George Wolf, to bring Moybridge up

360
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:38,399
Speaker 1: to the Yellowjacket cottage. The drive of the slopes of

361
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 1: Mount Saint Helena took more than an hour. Moybridge, Wolf

362
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,439
Speaker 1: would later say, appeared calm, though he did ask if

363
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:50,360
Speaker 1: he could fire his pistol two, he claimed scare off robbers.

364
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: When Wolf asked what he wanted with Larkins, Moybridge said

365
00:26:55,400 --> 00:27:00,919
Speaker 1: he wanted to quote give him an unexpected mesa. He

366
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: would certainly do that. Around eleven PM, Moybridge arrived at

367
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 1: the Yellowjacket Cottage, so named because of a nest of

368
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,239
Speaker 1: yellowjackets that lived nearby. Inside, a group of men and

369
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 1: women were playing cards and talking. Harry Larkins was playing

370
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: cribbage with one of the miners. Edward Moybridge got down

371
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: from the buggy and greeted a group of men standing

372
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: by the door. He asked for Harry Larkins. One of

373
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 1: the men invited him into the house, but Moybridge said

374
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: he wanted to see Larkins outside. The men leaned into

375
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 1: the doorframe and called for Larkins, who excused himself from

376
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: the card game and walked to the door. When he

377
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:52,720
Speaker 1: reached it, he peered out into the darkness. Edward Moybridge

378
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 1: stared back, I have a message from my wife Moybridge said.

379
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: Larkin stepped forward, Moybridge shot him in the chest. Larkins

380
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: staggered and turned, stumbling back into the house, his hands

381
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 1: clutched over his wound. Moybridge followed him, still holding the gun.

382
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: Larkins went back out the front door and collapsed. Moybridge

383
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,919
Speaker 1: raised his arm as if to shoot again, but one

384
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 1: of the other men stopped him. Two men carried Larkins

385
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:27,360
Speaker 1: back inside, where he lay groaning for several minutes. Then

386
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: Harry Larkins tied. Moybridge offered no resistance when the miners

387
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 1: surrounded him. He apologized for frightening the women present and

388
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: explained that quote Larkins had destroyed his happiness. Then he

389
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,960
Speaker 1: asked for a glass of water and sat down to

390
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 1: read the newspaper. The miners decided to take him to

391
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: the sheriff's office at Calistoga. Around one a m a

392
00:28:55,160 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: local constable took Moybridge into custody. The constable found Moybridge

393
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: to be quote very cool for one who had just

394
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: killed a man. The photographer explained his placid mood to

395
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: the constable. Hiring a lawyer might cost a lot, Moybridge said,

396
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: but quote, I won't have any trouble to get clear.

397
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: In other words, Edward Moybridge believed he could get away

398
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: with murder. Despite Moybridge's initial confidence about being acquitted, his

399
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: assurance seems to have wavered in the months he spent

400
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: in jail before his trial. In December, he agreed to

401
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 1: an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. In the interview,

402
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: Moybridge presented a new version of the murder, facing criticism

403
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 1: for having shot a man who had no chance to

404
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 1: defend himself. Moybridge now claimed that Larkins had tried to run.

405
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: I did not intend to shoot him so quickly, but

406
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,040
Speaker 1: thought to talk to him and hear what he had

407
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: to say an excuse. But he turned to run like

408
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: a guilty craven when I pronounced my name, so I

409
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: had to shoot him or let him go unpunished. No

410
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 1: other witness account of the murder had Larkins running from Moybridge.

411
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: Despite his attempt to reframe his actions, Moybridge still expressed

412
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,479
Speaker 1: no remorse. The only thing I am sorry for in

413
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: connection with the affair is that he died so quickly.

414
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: I would have wished that he could have lived long enough,

415
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: at least to acknowledge the wrong he had done me,

416
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: that his punishment was deserved, and that my act was

417
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: a justifiable defense of my marital rights. This last line

418
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: was an especially important point for Moybridge to make. The

419
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: idea that killing Larkins was a justifiable defense of his

420
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: marital rights would be central to his legal defense. In

421
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: this defense, Moybridge would be assisted by able lawyers. Leading

422
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: his defense was William Wirt Pendegast, a man in his

423
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:05,480
Speaker 1: thirties known for his luxuriant hair and his magnificent courtroom speeches,

424
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: and Cameron H. King, a young, ambitious lawyer whose uncle

425
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 1: had been Governor of California. Pendigast and King each had

426
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: an assistant attorney as well. The prosecution was led by

427
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: Dennis Spencer, district attorney for NAPA. The thirty year old

428
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: Spencer had trained under Pendigast, but was much less experienced.

429
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 1: Spencer was deeply concerned about prosecuting such a high profile case.

430
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 1: He begged the county Board of Supervisors to provide him

431
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: with an associate council, but they refused until the day

432
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: before the trial, that is, on February second, eighteen seventy five,

433
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: the board agreed to bring on Thomas P. Stoney, Pendigast's

434
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: former law partner and a current county judge, to assist Spencer.

435
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: Stoney had only hours to prepare for the case. That afternoon,

436
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: Moybridge pled not guilty to the charge of murder. After

437
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: his plea, a reporter noted Moybridge laughed quietly and muttered

438
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,040
Speaker 1: to kill a man and yet plead not guilty. The

439
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: now offended reporter described Moybridge as carrying himself quote with

440
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: the air of a man who had done a noble action.

441
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 1: The next day, February third, jury selection began. In choosing jurors,

442
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 1: the defense mainly looked for married men who might be

443
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 1: sympathetic to their argument that Moybridge was defending his so

444
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: called marital rights. The prosecution looked for men who would

445
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 1: be comfortable sentencing someone to death. Selection didn't take long.

446
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 1: Twelve men, all either farmers and carpenters, all but one married,

447
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: were soon seated. Stoney gave the opening statement for the

448
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: defense that afternoon. He laid out the facts of the

449
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: case quote, there is no doubt that on the seventeenth

450
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 1: day of October, Harry Larkins, who was unarmed, was shot

451
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: down and murdered. Stony reminded jurors that it did not

452
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: matter what Harry Larkins had done. It mattered what Edward

453
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: Moybridge had done. There is no question of the rights

454
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: or wrongs of the two men with regard to their

455
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: relations with one another. The question is this, Has the

456
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: defendant violated the law in this question? Stoney said, the

457
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: answer was clear, Quote the defendant is as guilty as possible.

458
00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: He ended by telling jurors that, in the eyes of

459
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 1: the law, quote, nothing but actual self defense authorizes a

460
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: man to take the life of another. No other provocation

461
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 1: justifies such an act. The prosecution's witnesses, including the doctor

462
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: who attended to Larkin's body, the man who had driven

463
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 1: Moybridge to the Yellow Jacket, and the miners who had

464
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: seen the shooting, laid out a clear and consistent story

465
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 1: of Moybridge's actions on the day of the murder. The

466
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:08,160
Speaker 1: witnesses from the Yellowjacket cottage all described the same scene,

467
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: Moybridge's arrival, the summoning of Harry Larkin's the shot. They

468
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: only differed on one aspect. Right before shooting, Moybridge had

469
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 1: either said I have brought you a message from my wife,

470
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: or I have brought you a message about my wife.

471
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: James MacArthur, the man who had disarmed Moybridge, described Moybridge's

472
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 1: calm attitude following the murder. Moybridge, MacArthur testified, had said

473
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 1: that quote, he intended to kill Larkins, and that since quote,

474
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 1: miners were a pretty rough lot and he did not

475
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,759
Speaker 1: know what the consequences would be, he had ensured that

476
00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: all his business affairs were settled should he be killed

477
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: after killing Larkins. Moybridge had also, MacArthur, continued, described firing

478
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,400
Speaker 1: off his gun during the buggy ride up to the

479
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:04,239
Speaker 1: mine because the pistol quote had been laying a long time, unused,

480
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 1: and he wanted to test that it worked well. It

481
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: was a pretty picture of premeditation. On cross examination, the

482
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: defense lawyers began to raise the specter of justifiable homicide.

483
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,399
Speaker 1: Did he say, as one of his excuses, this man

484
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 1: has seduced my wife, Pendigast asked MacArthur. MacArthur said that

485
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: this was what he understood Moybridge to mean. Justifiable homicide

486
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 1: was not a legal defense. No law permitted killing a

487
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: man because he had slept with your wife, But it

488
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: was a powerful emotional one. After the prosecution rested, Cameron

489
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: King delivered the defense's opening statement and doubled down on

490
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: the justifiable homicide argument. Harry Larkins, in King's depiction, had

491
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:54,240
Speaker 1: practically asked to be killed. We will prove that Harry

492
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: Larkins was a man of bad character, King said, before

493
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 1: detailing how Larkins had quote slowly undermined Flora's heart and

494
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:09,160
Speaker 1: attacked her citadel of virtue. Stony and Spencer kept objecting

495
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 1: to King's speech. He was making claims that would not

496
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: be allowed as evidence. Judge Wallace kept up holding their objections,

497
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: but King would not be contained, relentlessly attacking Larkins. Eventually

498
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:28,280
Speaker 1: moving on, King said, we will also prove insanity. Edward

499
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 1: Moybridge had initially been resistant to the insanity defense. He

500
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: did not believe himself insane and he did not want

501
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 1: to end up in an asylum if he were found

502
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 1: insane in court, But as the trial approached and his

503
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 1: confidence in his acquittal seemed to falter, he agreed to

504
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: allow his lawyers to pursue the insanity defense. King's explanation

505
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: of Moybridge's insanity was twofold. First, the lawyer said Moybridge

506
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,040
Speaker 1: had been sent into a kind of insane frenzy by

507
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 1: the news of his wife's infidelity. In this state, Moybridge

508
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 1: was quote not himself slung up to the pitch of insanity.

509
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 1: The defendant made up his mind that he must slay

510
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 1: the destroyer of his happiness, the man who had debauched

511
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 1: his home. But Moybridge's insanity went back further. King argued,

512
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,360
Speaker 1: Remember that stagecoach accident that Moybridge had suffered in eighteen sixty,

513
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 1: the one that had left him comatose for nine days.

514
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 1: That accident, King now claimed, had fundamentally changed Moybridge, perhaps

515
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: making him more susceptible to the killing mania that had

516
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:41,839
Speaker 1: led to his crime. Having heard a day's worth of testimony,

517
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 1: it may have been hard for jurors to reconcile the

518
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:49,239
Speaker 1: idea of mania with the prosecution witnesses description of Moybridge's

519
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: level headed premeditation. But even if the jury did not

520
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: believe Moybridge insane, King concluded, the jurors should understand his actions.

521
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:04,560
Speaker 1: Who is the man, King asked, even though he be

522
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: of the soundest mind, that can say he would have

523
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 1: acted differently, I assert that he who would not shoot

524
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: the seducer of his wife, even if he were to

525
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:20,840
Speaker 1: suffer ten thousand deaths, is a coward. In other words,

526
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:25,400
Speaker 1: the real crime would have been not murdering Larkins. With that,

527
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: the defense called their first witness, Susan Smith. Smith is

528
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:33,720
Speaker 1: one of the most intriguing and ambiguous people in this story.

529
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 1: She had begun as a perhaps unwilling accomplice of Flora's,

530
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:43,200
Speaker 1: helping facilitate her affair with Larkins. Then she had seemingly

531
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 1: betrayed the pair by revealing the affair to Moybridge, maybe

532
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: in order to get money. After the murder, The press

533
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: had strongly criticized Smith, saying that she had doomed Terry

534
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 1: Larkins out of her own greed. At the trial, Smith,

535
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: perhaps to rehability her reputation, now claimed that a deranged

536
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 1: Moybridge had scared her into handing over the letters. His

537
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,760
Speaker 1: appearance was that of a madman. He was haggard and pale,

538
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 1: his eyes glassy. He trembled from head to foot. Smith described,

539
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: I thought he was insane and would kill me or

540
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,760
Speaker 1: himself if I did not tell him all I knew.

541
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 1: Whereas Smith had previously told the press that she had

542
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,640
Speaker 1: last seen Moybridge on Friday night. She now alleged that

543
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,879
Speaker 1: he had also come by on Saturday morning, the day

544
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: of the killing, and it was at this meeting that

545
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: she had shown him the worst of the letters. Smith's testimony,

546
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:46,800
Speaker 1: which contained both lurid descriptions of Flora and Larkins's affair

547
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 1: and shocking depictions of an unhinged Moybridge, went a long

548
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 1: way towards supporting the defense's case. On cross examination, Dennis

549
00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:00,440
Speaker 1: Spencer could not shake Smith from her story. He also

550
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 1: was unsuccessful in trying to attack Smith's character. Judge Walter

551
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: prohibited him from introducing evidence that Smith herself was engaged

552
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 1: in an adulterous affair. The next defense witness was Smith's

553
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: daughter Sarah, whose testimony aligned with her mother's. She was

554
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,760
Speaker 1: followed by William Rulifson, partner at Bradley and Rulofson's gallery,

555
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 1: who had met with Moybridge on the day of the murder.

556
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 1: Ruloffson described Moybridge as eccentric, saying that the photographer was

557
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 1: difficult to work with, forgetful, and prone to quote strange freaks.

558
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,760
Speaker 1: On the day of the murder, Ruloffson said Moybridge seemed

559
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:47,280
Speaker 1: to be in a frenzy, leaving Rulofson quote really afraid.

560
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:51,400
Speaker 1: After Rulufsen, the defense introduced witnesses who could testify to

561
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: Moybridge's changed behavior after his stagecoach accident. These witnesses said

562
00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 1: that whereas Moybridge had once been quote a genial, pleasure

563
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: and quick businessman, after the accident, he had become quote

564
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 1: very eccentric, not as good a businessman, and sometimes very

565
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:14,439
Speaker 1: violent and excited in an uncalled for manner. It should

566
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: be noted that many of these witnesses did not see

567
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: Moybridge immediately after his stagecoach accident. They had all known

568
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 1: him in San Francisco in the late eighteen fifties and

569
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 1: had only seen him again six years after the accident,

570
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 1: so they could not truly say whether it was only

571
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:33,759
Speaker 1: the stagecoach accident or the intervening years, or some combination

572
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 1: that had changed Moybridge. On Friday, February fifth, Moybridge himself

573
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: took the stand. He did not discuss anything about the

574
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: killing or even about the affair. He talked only about

575
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: the stage coach accident and its effects on him. In

576
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: response to all of this testimony, about insanity. The prosecution

577
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: called doctor G. A. Shirtliffe as a rebuttal witness. Shirtliffe

578
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: was the superintendent of the Stockton Insane Asylum. He had

579
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 1: been allowed to review the testimony of the murder witnesses.

580
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 1: Shirtliff contested the idea that the stagecoach accident had caused

581
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: Moybridge's actions. He also testified that given that it was

582
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 1: testified by the common observer that Moybridge was calm after

583
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 1: the homicide, it would lead to the opinion that he

584
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: was not insane. The prosecution now recalled several of the

585
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 1: murder witnesses, who reiterated that Moybridge had indeed been calm

586
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: both before and after the homicide. They also called the

587
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 1: Chronicle reporter George W. Smith, who had interviewed Moybridge in jail.

588
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 1: Smith stated that Moybridge had told him he opposed the

589
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: insanity defense. In response to this testimony, the defense brought

590
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:49,960
Speaker 1: back William Rulifsen, who had visited Moybridge in jail and

591
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:52,600
Speaker 1: now said that the photographer had not been calm, but

592
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: had been excited and distraught. The prosecution then recalled doctor Shirtliffe,

593
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 1: who reiterated his earlier conclusions, it would seem to me

594
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: that the act was premeditated. He understood the nature of

595
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: the act and the consequences. He was not irresistibly impelled,

596
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 1: but was moved by passion and had a motive which

597
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:17,280
Speaker 1: goes against the idea of madness. In conclusion, Shirtliffe said

598
00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:21,279
Speaker 1: he was quote of the opinion that Moybridge was a

599
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: sane man when he committed the act. With that testimony

600
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: in the trial concluded. Thomas Stoney delivered the first closing

601
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 1: argument for the prosecution. He responded to the defense's argument

602
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 1: of justifiable homicide, saying that while he himself had sympathy

603
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: for the prisoner, that did not negate the fact that

604
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,920
Speaker 1: Moybridge had broken the law, though Harry Larkins had done wrong.

605
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 1: Sony concluded, quote an adulterer does not forfeit his life.

606
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 1: Moybridge could not be allowed to be quote the judge,

607
00:43:56,080 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: the jury, and the executioner. Instead, Sony finished, the jury

608
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:05,080
Speaker 1: must decide upon the law and upon the evidence, even

609
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: if it makes their hearts bleed to do it. Cameron

610
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:13,800
Speaker 1: King provided the first defense closing in dramatic, flowery language.

611
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,720
Speaker 1: He acknowledged that though adultery was not technically a legal

612
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 1: justification for homicide, it might be a moral one. After

613
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:27,400
Speaker 1: discussing Moybridge's insanity and for some reason insulting prosecutor Dennis

614
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:32,320
Speaker 1: Spencer for kneading Stoney's assistance, King asked the jury to quote,

615
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:36,719
Speaker 1: consider all the circumstances surrounding this terrible case in the

616
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:45,360
Speaker 1: light of merciful consideration. William Wirt Pendigast elucidated those circumstances

617
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 1: further in the final defense closing. Edward Moybridge, he said,

618
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: had loved Flora quote deeply, madly, with all the strong

619
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:59,760
Speaker 1: love of a strong, self constrained man, And all at once,

620
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,319
Speaker 1: like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, came

621
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: upon him the revelation that his whole life had been

622
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:11,240
Speaker 1: blasted in such a situation. How could anyone expect Moybridge

623
00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:15,920
Speaker 1: to act responsibly? Pendigast asked the jurors to put themselves

624
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:21,080
Speaker 1: in Moybridge's position. You gentlemen of the jury, you who

625
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 1: have wives whom you love, daughters whom you cherish, and

626
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:30,880
Speaker 1: mother's whom you reverence, will not condone Larkins's crime. I

627
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:33,400
Speaker 1: cannot ask you to send this man back to his

628
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:38,439
Speaker 1: happy home. The destroyer has been there, His wife's name

629
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 1: has been smirched, his child bastardized, and his earthly happiness

630
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: so utterly destroyed, that no hope exists of its reconstruction.

631
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: But let him go forth from here again. Let him

632
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 1: go once more among the wild and grand beauties of

633
00:45:56,640 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: nature in the pursuit of his loved profession. Let him

634
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 1: go where he may perhaps pick up again a few

635
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 1: of the broken threads of his life, and attains such

636
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 1: comparative peace as may be attained by one so cruelly

637
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 1: stricken through the very excess of his love for his wife.

638
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: On this dramatic note, Pendegast sat down. Dennis Spencer rose

639
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:28,439
Speaker 1: to give the final prosecution closing argument. He pushed back

640
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: on the insanity argument, saying, quote, there is no form

641
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 1: of insanity that strikes a man like a flash of lightning,

642
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 1: compelling him to commit an awful crime, and then passes

643
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:44,279
Speaker 1: away as in a dream, leaving no trace behind. The

644
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 1: only witnesses who had testified to Moybridge's insanity, he continued,

645
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:53,000
Speaker 1: were Susan Smith and William Rulifson, two people who had

646
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 1: business relationships with Moybridge and vested interests in seeing him acquitted.

647
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 1: Spencer concluded by rebutting the logic of the justifiable homicide argument.

648
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 1: If Harry Larkins could be killed with no trial, why

649
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 1: was Edward Moybridge entitled to one the very prisoner? Spencer finished,

650
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:16,879
Speaker 1: after his act comes here and avails himself of all

651
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,360
Speaker 1: the legal safeguards which he denied his victim. He told

652
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:25,360
Speaker 1: the jurors that they should find Moybridge guilty of deliberate murder.

653
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: With that the case was finished. Judge Wallace now instructed

654
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: the jury. He explicitly disallowed them from rendering a verdict

655
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,880
Speaker 1: of not guilty with justifiable homicide, but told them they

656
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: could choose from four other verdicts, guilty with a sentence

657
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: of death, guilty with a sentence of life imprisonment, not guilty,

658
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: or not guilty by reason of insanity. At nine thirty pm,

659
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: the jury left to deliberate. Many people expected a quick

660
00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 1: verdict and hung around the courthouse waiting, but by three

661
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,840
Speaker 1: a m. The jurors had still not reached an answer.

662
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 1: They decided to sleep on the matter and resumed deliberations

663
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:12,280
Speaker 1: after breakfast the next morning. By noon, they had a verdict.

664
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: Moybridge was brought back from his cell, though the public

665
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 1: were kept out for the reading of the verdict. In

666
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:23,920
Speaker 1: the still silent courtroom, the court clerk rose on the

667
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 1: charges of murdering Harry Larkins. He said the jury had

668
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:37,759
Speaker 1: found the defendant, Edward Moybridge, not guilty. Edward Moybridge had

669
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: a strange reaction to the verdict. He collapsed and began

670
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 1: to shake, seeming almost to seize. He moaned and wept.

671
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,800
Speaker 1: His lawyer, Pendegast, tried to rein him in, telling Moybridge

672
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,560
Speaker 1: to get himself together and think the jury. Moybridge could

673
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 1: not compose himself and was carried out of the courtroom

674
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes. The fit seemed to rack his body

675
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:06,359
Speaker 1: and mind, but finally, when one of Pendigast's partners told

676
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: him to stop, Moybridge fell silent. He walked unaided into

677
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:15,280
Speaker 1: the courtroom and the judge officially released him. He walked

678
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 1: into the street, where the waiting crowd erupted in cheers.

679
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:25,640
Speaker 1: Back in San Francisco, Flora must have been shocked. She

680
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,799
Speaker 1: had filed for divorce from Moybridge six weeks before the

681
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:33,440
Speaker 1: trial and asked for alimony and child support. A judge

682
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: had initially ruled in her favor, and then dismissed his

683
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 1: order and postponed the case after pressure from William Pendigast.

684
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:45,640
Speaker 1: After Moybridge's acquittal, Flora filed again. She claimed that she

685
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:48,960
Speaker 1: had been coerced into the marriage, that Moybridge had been

686
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,440
Speaker 1: neglectful and even adulteress himself, and that she now feared

687
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 1: he would kill her. The judge ruled that Moybridge had

688
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:00,560
Speaker 1: to pay Flora fifty dollars a month in alimony, but

689
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 1: by the time this ruling came down, Moybridge was long gone.

690
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,239
Speaker 1: Two weeks after the trial, he had boarded a ship

691
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:11,719
Speaker 1: for Central America to take publicity photographs for the Pacific

692
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: Mail Company. He stayed in Central America for eight months,

693
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: now going by the name of Eduardo Santiago Moybridge. Flora

694
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,879
Speaker 1: meanwhile was living in a boarding house with her son,

695
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 1: barely scraping by. Her divorce lawyer had been providing her

696
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:33,439
Speaker 1: with money until the alimony arrived from Moybridge. It would

697
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:39,360
Speaker 1: never come. In July, Flora fell ill. Her condition worsened quickly,

698
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:42,680
Speaker 1: and she was admitted to Saint Mary's Hospital, where she

699
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 1: died on July eighteenth, eighteen seventy five, nine months and

700
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,840
Speaker 1: a day after the murder of Harry Larkins. She was

701
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 1: twenty four years old. Before the trial, the press had

702
00:50:56,560 --> 00:51:01,239
Speaker 1: excoriated her as a disgusting, promiscuous woman, and even death

703
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 1: could not grant Flora of reprieve from the public's criticism.

704
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:09,680
Speaker 1: Death relieves Missus Flora Moybridge from a life of sin

705
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 1: and shame, read one headline. With Flora dead, Baby George

706
00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:19,080
Speaker 1: was placed with a neighbor's family. In eighteen seventy six, however,

707
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,399
Speaker 1: Edward Moybridge arrived back in the child's life, but did

708
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:25,520
Speaker 1: not take him in. He instead had the toddler moved

709
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:31,080
Speaker 1: to the Hayte Street Protestant Orphan asylum. Moybridge also renamed George,

710
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 1: giving him the unusual name Florado Helios Moybridge. Besides bestowing

711
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:41,520
Speaker 1: the boy with his artist's moniker, Moybridge also had the

712
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,719
Speaker 1: orphanage record Florado as a half orphan, meaning that he

713
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:49,320
Speaker 1: had one living parent. These both seemed to be signs

714
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:52,439
Speaker 1: that Moybridge now believed that he was indeed the boy's father,

715
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:54,920
Speaker 1: but that did not mean that he wished to be

716
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:59,439
Speaker 1: involved in Florado's life. The two would rarely see each other.

717
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:03,400
Speaker 1: When Florado was nine and a half, he left the

718
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,799
Speaker 1: orphanage in search of work. He spent the rest of

719
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:10,560
Speaker 1: his life as a farm laborer, gardener, and delivery man.

720
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:14,640
Speaker 1: The mystery of his actual paternity was never solved, and

721
00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:18,239
Speaker 1: though we know that his mother was Flora Moybridge, Florado

722
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 1: himself apparently did not thanks to a mix up with

723
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,799
Speaker 1: the orphanage records. Florado spent his entire life believing that

724
00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:29,840
Speaker 1: his mother was a frenchwoman. He died in February nineteen

725
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,080
Speaker 1: forty four after being hit by a car in Sacramento.

726
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:38,400
Speaker 1: Edward Moybridge's outcome was much better than Flora or Florado's.

727
00:52:39,239 --> 00:52:41,960
Speaker 1: In fact, for the most part, he was celebrated by

728
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:46,240
Speaker 1: the public. After the trial, Some reporters had criticized the verdict,

729
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 1: with one local paper writing that the jury had outraged

730
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 1: the law and the facts, and violated their oaths to

731
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,640
Speaker 1: set the assassin free, but the public largely seemed to

732
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:03,000
Speaker 1: be on Moybridge's sad This position might make more sense

733
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: if we consider the relative frequency of men in this

734
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:11,800
Speaker 1: period murdering their wives, lovers, and being acquitted by juries

735
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:16,640
Speaker 1: who found their actions justified. In his book Homicide, Race,

736
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:20,280
Speaker 1: and Justice in the American West eighteen eighty to nineteen twenty,

737
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:24,400
Speaker 1: Claire V. McKenna records love triangles as being the cause

738
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:28,440
Speaker 1: of nearly twenty percent of all murders in three Western counties,

739
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 1: and in many of these cases, the killers were acquitted.

740
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:36,080
Speaker 1: It's a stereotype of the Wild West that the law

741
00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 1: was often taken into individuals hands, but studies of Western

742
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:44,000
Speaker 1: murder trials during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

743
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,840
Speaker 1: show that juries regularly acquitted murderers if they believed that

744
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:52,760
Speaker 1: the crime was justified. In eighteen ninety, the historian Hubert

745
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:57,719
Speaker 1: Bancroft recorded that quote an average of twenty five homicides

746
00:53:57,719 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 1: have taken place yearly in San Francisco for the last decade,

747
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 1: and that out of two hundred and fifty or more

748
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 1: homicidal crimes, only four have been punished capitally and seventy

749
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:13,760
Speaker 1: seven by imprisonment. In all other cases, the juries probably

750
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:18,279
Speaker 1: agreed that the victim deserved to be killed. This attitude

751
00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 1: seems to have been a Western phenomenon, though not exclusively.

752
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:26,840
Speaker 1: The New York Times had sneeringly predicted Moybridge's acquittal, saying

753
00:54:26,840 --> 00:54:30,520
Speaker 1: that Moybridge quote now appeals to the fine sense of

754
00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 1: justice and chivalry, which a California public has never been

755
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,759
Speaker 1: found to lack on such occasions. But this wasn't just

756
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:41,600
Speaker 1: an easterner's stereotype of the West. A study by the

757
00:54:41,719 --> 00:54:45,840
Speaker 1: historian Roger Lane found that conviction rates for murder increased

758
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:49,960
Speaker 1: over the course of the twentieth century in Philadelphia. In response,

759
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 1: the historian Robert Tillman studied murder conviction rates in Sacramento

760
00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,400
Speaker 1: County over the same period and determined that the conviction

761
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:01,600
Speaker 1: rate did not increase, lead being Tillman to conclude that

762
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:06,320
Speaker 1: quote the social reaction to murder, at least as expressed

763
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:09,839
Speaker 1: in the actions of the courts, did not change significantly.

764
00:55:10,440 --> 00:55:14,439
Speaker 1: The quote lower threshold for the tolerance of violence, found

765
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: elsewhere across the country toward the turn of the century,

766
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 1: was not in evidence in Sacramento County. One Nevada newspaper,

767
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:26,000
Speaker 1: reflecting on both the Moybridge trial and the Beecher Tilton case,

768
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:28,600
Speaker 1: which happened at the same time and which was covered

769
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,840
Speaker 1: in episode two of History on Trial, said that Beecher

770
00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 1: could have used a taste of Western justice. Quote. It

771
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 1: would have been much better for the world had Tilton

772
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:42,359
Speaker 1: a year ago blown out Beecher's brains and then his own.

773
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:46,480
Speaker 1: That isn't to say that all Westerners were so comfortable

774
00:55:46,520 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 1: with violence, of course. In eighteen eighty, the Sacramento Daily

775
00:55:50,760 --> 00:55:55,280
Speaker 1: Union published a scathing editorial on what they called sentimental murder,

776
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 1: saying that the regular acquittal of murderers of this type

777
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:03,080
Speaker 1: was a sign of social backwardness, and hoping that California

778
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: would soon reach the point at which quote the kind

779
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 1: of crimes which have heretofore stained the annals of the

780
00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:14,680
Speaker 1: state will cease, and no one will venture to scandalize

781
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:18,800
Speaker 1: society and outrage the law in that way with any

782
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 1: expectation or hope of being acquitted through the aid of

783
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:26,719
Speaker 1: popular sympathy. On the very same day that this editorial

784
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:31,680
Speaker 1: was published, Edward Moybridge displayed his zoa praxyscope in San Francisco.

785
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:37,799
Speaker 1: His presentation received national attention, and none of the articles

786
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:42,200
Speaker 1: mentioned the murder. In the years following the verdict, Moybridge

787
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:45,279
Speaker 1: had resumed his work as a photographer. He had had

788
00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:50,200
Speaker 1: a particularly fruitful collaboration with Leland Stanford, the Railroad magnet.

789
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: Former California governor and future Stanford University founder Stanford, who

790
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:59,839
Speaker 1: was obsessed with horses, had wanted to solve the age

791
00:56:59,800 --> 00:57:03,360
Speaker 1: old question of whether all four of a horse's legs

792
00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:06,760
Speaker 1: left the ground at once when it ran. The answer,

793
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:10,000
Speaker 1: by the way we now know, is yes. This was

794
00:57:10,040 --> 00:57:14,000
Speaker 1: a technical challenge. No photographer had figured out how to

795
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 1: capture a horse in motion without getting a blurry blob,

796
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:22,200
Speaker 1: but Moybridge proved just the man for the job. Using

797
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,600
Speaker 1: a series of trip lines and modified shutters, he did

798
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:30,640
Speaker 1: the formerly impossible. In eighteen seventy three, before the murder,

799
00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:34,880
Speaker 1: Moybridge had captured one of Stanford's horses, mid trot. By

800
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:38,840
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, he had refined his method and managed

801
00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:42,720
Speaker 1: to take twelve consecutive photos of a horse running. These

802
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:46,800
Speaker 1: photos made international news and formed the basis for Moybridge's

803
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 1: zoa Proxyscope show. He had an artist paint his photographs

804
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:53,960
Speaker 1: on a glass disc and then inserted a shutter between

805
00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:56,560
Speaker 1: each frame so that the images did not blur together

806
00:57:56,600 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 1: when he spun the disc. After his successful first day

807
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:03,560
Speaker 1: demonstruations in eighteen eighty, Moybridge took his show on the

808
00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:07,840
Speaker 1: road he traveled first to France. It was there, in

809
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two that Edward Moybridge changed his name for

810
00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 1: a final time, modifying the spelling of his first name

811
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: from the stand Edward to the archaic Anglo saxon Edward

812
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 1: sounds the same, but spelt ea d w ea r D.

813
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:28,280
Speaker 1: This is the name he is best known by today.

814
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:31,800
Speaker 1: In this same year, he fell out with Leland Stanford,

815
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:34,800
Speaker 1: who published a book of Moybridge's motion photos and took

816
00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:39,280
Speaker 1: credit for the photographer's invention. Moybridge sued Stanford, but a

817
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:43,480
Speaker 1: judge dismissed the case. In eighteen eighty four, Moybridge was

818
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 1: hired by the University of Pennsylvania to take more motion pictures.

819
00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:51,960
Speaker 1: At penn he transitioned from photographing animals to photographing people,

820
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: and then to photographing naked people. He gained a reputation

821
00:58:56,040 --> 00:58:59,920
Speaker 1: for eccentricity at the university, eating lemons by the dozen,

822
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:04,600
Speaker 1: as well as the maggots that spawned in cheese. After

823
00:59:04,640 --> 00:59:06,880
Speaker 1: he failed to sell the photos he'd taken at penn

824
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:10,560
Speaker 1: and in need of money, he took his zoa praxyscope

825
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:15,040
Speaker 1: back on the road. In February eighteen eighty eight, Moybridge

826
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:18,600
Speaker 1: to a motion picture show in New Jersey. Two days later,

827
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:21,400
Speaker 1: he went to nearby Menlo Park to visit the famous

828
00:59:21,480 --> 00:59:26,040
Speaker 1: laboratory of Thomas Edison. The two men discussed Moybridge's invention.

829
00:59:26,920 --> 00:59:30,240
Speaker 1: Edison would go on to refine Moybridge's work and create

830
00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:35,040
Speaker 1: the kinetoscope box, which would in turn inspire the Loumier Brothers,

831
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:39,280
Speaker 1: some of history's first filmmakers. By the time the Lumiers

832
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:42,960
Speaker 1: projected their first motion pictures for an enraptured crowd in

833
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 1: Paris in December eighteen ninety five, Moybridge was old news.

834
00:59:48,360 --> 00:59:51,880
Speaker 1: He had stopped taking photographs in eighteen eighty six, and

835
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:55,120
Speaker 1: a zoa praxyscope show at the Chicago's World Fair in

836
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:59,959
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three had been poorly attended. In eighteen ninety five,

837
01:00:00,400 --> 01:00:03,800
Speaker 1: Moybridge moved back to Kingston, England, where he had been born.

838
01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:08,200
Speaker 1: He died there in nineteen o four, aged seventy four,

839
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:11,080
Speaker 1: while trying to dig a hole in his backyard in

840
01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:19,120
Speaker 1: the shape of the Great Lakes very normal today. Edward

841
01:00:19,160 --> 01:00:25,280
Speaker 1: Moybridge is best remembered for his photographic exploits and technological innovations.

842
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:29,920
Speaker 1: These should not be discounted. His work is beautiful, transformative,

843
01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:35,560
Speaker 1: and revolutionary. He also killed a man. The justice system

844
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:39,120
Speaker 1: allowed Moybridge to go free, and the social mores of

845
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:42,040
Speaker 1: the time meant that Moybridge did not suffer professional or

846
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: personal consequences either. Today, the murder is largely a footnote

847
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:50,680
Speaker 1: in his biography. Even his own son seems not to

848
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:54,760
Speaker 1: have held the crime against him if he knew about it. Florado,

849
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:57,760
Speaker 1: who seems not to have known his own mother's name

850
01:00:58,040 --> 01:01:01,120
Speaker 1: and believed her to be French, apparently loved to tell

851
01:01:01,160 --> 01:01:06,840
Speaker 1: new acquaintances that his father was a famous photographer. That's

852
01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: the story of California v. Edward Moybridge. Stay with me

853
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:14,360
Speaker 1: after the Break for a fascinating story of historical research

854
01:01:14,520 --> 01:01:17,800
Speaker 1: and discovery that illuminated the life of one of the

855
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:24,440
Speaker 1: trial's less well known figures. History has not been kind

856
01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:29,080
Speaker 1: to Harry Larkins. He's been called a confidence man, a rogue,

857
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 1: and a scoundrel. Up until recently, historians writing about the

858
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:38,440
Speaker 1: Moybridge case have relied on the judgments of Larkins's American contemporaries,

859
01:01:38,760 --> 01:01:40,640
Speaker 1: who all seemed to agree that the man was a

860
01:01:40,680 --> 01:01:46,040
Speaker 1: lovable rogue, who exaggerated his achievements and connections. His claims

861
01:01:46,040 --> 01:01:49,880
Speaker 1: of being an army major and winning military awards seemed

862
01:01:49,960 --> 01:01:53,760
Speaker 1: especially doubtful, but all of that changed thanks to the

863
01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:57,840
Speaker 1: work of British author Rebecca Gowers. Gowers is the great

864
01:01:57,960 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 1: great great granddaughter of Emma Larks, author of a famous

865
01:02:01,960 --> 01:02:05,800
Speaker 1: letter written during the Indian Mutiny of eighteen fifty seven.

866
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:09,040
Speaker 1: While trying to track down the original copy of this letter,

867
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:12,720
Speaker 1: Gowers stumbled upon a theory that one of Emma's children,

868
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:16,560
Speaker 1: a boy named Harry Larkins Larkins spelled with an eye,

869
01:02:17,360 --> 01:02:21,120
Speaker 1: was the same man as Harry Larkins Larkins with a y,

870
01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:25,880
Speaker 1: who was murdered by Edward Moybridge. Digging into the archives,

871
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:30,760
Speaker 1: Gowers was able to prove the theory true. This discovery

872
01:02:31,280 --> 01:02:35,360
Speaker 1: led her to uncover the true biography of Harry Larkins.

873
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 1: Her twenty twenty book, The Scoundrel Harry Larkins and His

874
01:02:39,720 --> 01:02:44,320
Speaker 1: Pitiless Killing by the photographer Edward Moybridge allows us for

875
01:02:44,360 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 1: the first time to flesh out the life of a

876
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:51,280
Speaker 1: man who has for so long been defined by his death.

877
01:02:52,320 --> 01:03:01,920
Speaker 1: This is his story. Henry Thomas Larkins was born on

878
01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:07,880
Speaker 1: October eighteenth, eighteen forty three in Merritt, India, a town

879
01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:12,000
Speaker 1: northwest of modern day New Delhi. The city, like much

880
01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:15,120
Speaker 1: of India at this time, was controlled by the British

881
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 1: East India Company, an enormous corporation with its own private

882
01:03:19,520 --> 01:03:23,760
Speaker 1: army in which Harry's father was an officer. Four months

883
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,200
Speaker 1: after Harry's birth, his family returned to England due to

884
01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:30,880
Speaker 1: his father's ill health. The Larkinses stayed for two years,

885
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:35,400
Speaker 1: but eventually Harry's parents returned to India, leaving Harry and

886
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:39,160
Speaker 1: his two sisters to be raised by relatives. The Larkinses

887
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 1: would send their next daughter back to England too, but

888
01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:46,600
Speaker 1: kept Harry's three youngest siblings with them in India. Not

889
01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:51,000
Speaker 1: much is known about Harry's earliest years. His sisters ended

890
01:03:51,080 --> 01:03:54,440
Speaker 1: up with their wealthy aunt, Henrietta, but Harry did not,

891
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:58,120
Speaker 1: at least not yet. We aren't sure where he was

892
01:03:58,200 --> 01:04:02,240
Speaker 1: between the ages of three and thirteen. Though the four

893
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:06,920
Speaker 1: elder Larkins children did not live with their parents, their parents'

894
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:11,880
Speaker 1: influence was certainly felt, especially that of their mother, Emma,

895
01:04:12,360 --> 01:04:16,480
Speaker 1: who monitored their behavior via letter, using a point system

896
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:21,080
Speaker 1: to weigh their moral worth. Harry does not seem to

897
01:04:21,120 --> 01:04:25,200
Speaker 1: have fared well in Emma's assessments. In the summer of

898
01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:29,000
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, rebellion broke out amongst the Native Indian

899
01:04:29,040 --> 01:04:33,240
Speaker 1: troops of the British East India Company. The Larkinses, now

900
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 1: stationed in Conport, found themselves at the epicenter of the fighting.

901
01:04:38,520 --> 01:04:42,360
Speaker 1: They and other company families ended up besieged in the barracks.

902
01:04:43,160 --> 01:04:46,720
Speaker 1: Death seems certain, so Emma managed to write a final letter,

903
01:04:47,000 --> 01:04:51,080
Speaker 1: which she had a servant smuggle out. In this extraordinary letter,

904
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:55,200
Speaker 1: she writes movingly to her daughter's telling them of her love.

905
01:04:56,120 --> 01:04:59,320
Speaker 1: Her note to Harry is very different. She seems to

906
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:03,600
Speaker 1: blame him for his family's imminent death. Henry, dear boy,

907
01:05:03,720 --> 01:05:08,200
Speaker 1: Emma writes, My heart yearns over you, Oh dear boy,

908
01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:10,880
Speaker 1: If you saw the position your little brother and sisters

909
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:14,240
Speaker 1: are in at this moment, you would weep over ever,

910
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 1: having pleased your own desires, seek your God and serve him.

911
01:05:20,040 --> 01:05:22,959
Speaker 1: It was the last letter Harry would ever have from

912
01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:26,840
Speaker 1: his mother. Sometime that summer, along with nearly all the

913
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:30,680
Speaker 1: British families in conpor, Emma and George Larkins and their

914
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:34,920
Speaker 1: three young children were killed. Thirteen year old Harry was

915
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:39,160
Speaker 1: now an orphan. His aunt, Henrietta, who was raising his sisters,

916
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:42,480
Speaker 1: took charge of his care. She sent him to boarding school,

917
01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:46,640
Speaker 1: first in Brussels and then in England. In eighteen fifty nine,

918
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:50,200
Speaker 1: Henrietta secured Harry a position as a cadet in the army.

919
01:05:50,840 --> 01:05:54,200
Speaker 1: He sailed to India to join up in January eighteen sixty.

920
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:59,480
Speaker 1: He bounced from position to position, alternately charming and infuriating

921
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:02,440
Speaker 1: those around him. By the end of his second year

922
01:06:02,480 --> 01:06:06,120
Speaker 1: in India, Harry had somehow managed to wrap up two

923
01:06:06,280 --> 01:06:11,240
Speaker 1: thousand pounds in debts. His commanding officer wrote to Henrietta

924
01:06:11,400 --> 01:06:13,680
Speaker 1: that if she did not pay off his debts, he

925
01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:17,640
Speaker 1: would be sent to prison. His sister Alice wrote that quote,

926
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:20,439
Speaker 1: as Harry has been in the habit of stealing all

927
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:23,560
Speaker 1: his life, prison appears to be the best place for him.

928
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:27,680
Speaker 1: Poor fellow. Henrietta managed to pay the enormous sum and

929
01:06:27,760 --> 01:06:30,680
Speaker 1: Harry kept his place, but was eventually forced to leave

930
01:06:30,720 --> 01:06:34,800
Speaker 1: the army five years later for disciplinary problems. In eighteen

931
01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:39,440
Speaker 1: sixty seven, aged twenty three, Harry returned to England. He

932
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:43,280
Speaker 1: did not lose his habit of spending. A cousin describing

933
01:06:43,360 --> 01:06:47,640
Speaker 1: him at this time, said extravagance was evidently his weak point.

934
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:51,800
Speaker 1: Endowed by nature with an excellent physique, good looks, and

935
01:06:51,880 --> 01:06:56,560
Speaker 1: a ready wit, he was nevertheless generally in debt, exhausting

936
01:06:56,600 --> 01:07:00,480
Speaker 1: the generosity of his friends and family in England, Harry

937
01:07:00,520 --> 01:07:03,280
Speaker 1: traveled to Paris, where he fell in love with a

938
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:08,000
Speaker 1: famous courtisan. Wanting to impress the woman, Harry scammed a

939
01:07:08,040 --> 01:07:11,240
Speaker 1: jeweler into giving him diamonds, saying that he would pay

940
01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:14,560
Speaker 1: the man back later. When he didn't, he was arrested

941
01:07:14,600 --> 01:07:19,120
Speaker 1: for fraud. On the stand, Harry lied smoothly, promising it

942
01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:23,080
Speaker 1: was all the misunderstanding his wealthy friends in Paris, For

943
01:07:23,160 --> 01:07:26,360
Speaker 1: Harry always managed to make wealthy friends who loved his

944
01:07:26,480 --> 01:07:30,160
Speaker 1: stories and sense of fun, paid the jeweler back and

945
01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:34,760
Speaker 1: Harry was acquitted. Returning to England, Harry once again ran

946
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:38,520
Speaker 1: out debts and got into legal trouble, but as usual,

947
01:07:38,720 --> 01:07:41,960
Speaker 1: he managed to charm everyone around him and evade punishment.

948
01:07:43,040 --> 01:07:47,400
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy, perhaps searching for a greater purpose, Harry

949
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 1: signed up to fight for France in the Franco Prussian War.

950
01:07:51,280 --> 01:07:54,600
Speaker 1: For some reason, he enlisted as Harry Larkins with a

951
01:07:54,800 --> 01:07:57,840
Speaker 1: y instead of an eye, which is the name he

952
01:07:57,960 --> 01:08:02,160
Speaker 1: is now best known by. Harry fought valiantly for France,

953
01:08:02,680 --> 01:08:06,560
Speaker 1: using his facility for languages he spoke good French and German,

954
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:11,680
Speaker 1: and his charisma to execute daring spy missions. He was

955
01:08:11,680 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 1: promoted to Squadron Leader, the equivalent rank of a major

956
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:19,120
Speaker 1: in the British Army, and though historians have long doubted

957
01:08:19,120 --> 01:08:22,880
Speaker 1: his military credentials, calling his desire to be called Major

958
01:08:22,960 --> 01:08:27,559
Speaker 1: Larkins a vanity, he earned the title. He also earned

959
01:08:27,560 --> 01:08:31,160
Speaker 1: the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit,

960
01:08:31,360 --> 01:08:35,439
Speaker 1: which he was awarded in April eighteen seventy one. After

961
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:38,880
Speaker 1: the war, Harry traveled to America, going first to New

962
01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:42,599
Speaker 1: York before heading west to Nevada. After Nevada, he went

963
01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:44,599
Speaker 1: to Salt Lake City, where he met up with Arthur

964
01:08:44,680 --> 01:08:49,000
Speaker 1: Neil and traveled to San Francisco. Months later, he wound

965
01:08:49,080 --> 01:08:51,679
Speaker 1: up as the theater critic for the San Francisco Evening

966
01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:56,599
Speaker 1: Post and walked into Bradley and Rulufsen's gallery, met Flora

967
01:08:56,680 --> 01:09:02,040
Speaker 1: and Edward Moybridge and sealed his fate. Harry Larkins was

968
01:09:02,080 --> 01:09:06,599
Speaker 1: a rogue yes, and even a scoundrel. He scammed people,

969
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:10,960
Speaker 1: he lived beyond his means. He got by on charm

970
01:09:11,200 --> 01:09:16,439
Speaker 1: and false promises and pretenses of sophistication. But despite his flaws,

971
01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:19,760
Speaker 1: he did not lie about everything. He did come from

972
01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:24,120
Speaker 1: a wealthy family, he was a military hero, and he

973
01:09:24,160 --> 01:09:29,759
Speaker 1: did truly love Flora Weybridge. None of that stopped Edward

974
01:09:29,800 --> 01:09:33,680
Speaker 1: Moybridge from killing him, or a jury from acquitting Moybridge,

975
01:09:34,080 --> 01:09:37,240
Speaker 1: and none of that stopped the historical record from disparaging

976
01:09:37,240 --> 01:09:41,640
Speaker 1: his character for decades until a persistent and determined researcher

977
01:09:42,200 --> 01:09:47,240
Speaker 1: unearthed the truth. Thank you for listening to History on Trial.

978
01:09:47,800 --> 01:09:50,880
Speaker 1: The main sources for this episode were Rebecca Gowers's book

979
01:09:51,040 --> 01:09:53,960
Speaker 1: The Scoundrel Harry Larkins and his Pitiless Killing by the

980
01:09:53,960 --> 01:09:58,320
Speaker 1: photographer Edward Moybridge, and Edward Ball's book The Inventor and

981
01:09:58,360 --> 01:10:01,439
Speaker 1: the Tycoon, A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of

982
01:10:01,479 --> 01:10:05,479
Speaker 1: Moving Pictures. I am grateful to Rebecca Gowers for her

983
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:08,639
Speaker 1: help in resolving several questions I had about the case,

984
01:10:09,240 --> 01:10:12,400
Speaker 1: and would highly recommend her book to learn more about

985
01:10:12,400 --> 01:10:17,560
Speaker 1: the lives of both Harry and Flora. For a full bibliography,

986
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:20,600
Speaker 1: as well as a transcript of this episode with citations,

987
01:10:21,080 --> 01:10:26,760
Speaker 1: please visit our website History on Trial podcast dot com.

988
01:10:27,080 --> 01:10:30,960
Speaker 1: History on Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward.

989
01:10:31,560 --> 01:10:34,640
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with

990
01:10:34,760 --> 01:10:40,440
Speaker 1: supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,

991
01:10:40,760 --> 01:10:44,439
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show

992
01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:48,479
Speaker 1: at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us

993
01:10:48,520 --> 01:10:52,799
Speaker 1: on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at

994
01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:58,240
Speaker 1: Underscore History on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by

995
01:10:58,320 --> 01:11:02,599
Speaker 1: visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

996
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:05,120
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.