WEBVTT - The Motion Picture Murder 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:16.400 Listener discretion advised. On May fourth, eighteen eighty a crowd 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:21.080 gathered at the Art Association on Pine Street in San Francisco. 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.479 They dutifully paid the fifty cent admission fee, filed into 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.960 the gallery room, and took their seats. They had been 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.320 drawn in by a newspaper advertisement that promised a show 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.240 unlike any other, and it was true. The viewers there 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:45.680 that night were about to witness history being made. At 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.559 the back of the room stood a man with a 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:55.120 long gray beard. He was Edward Moybridge, the noted photographer. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.000 People had always said Moybridge seemed older than his actual age, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.360 though he looked to be in his sixties. Now he 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.480 was only forty nine. Moybridge was bent over a device 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.080 three feet tall and three feet wide, a wood and 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.080 brass and glass contraption of his own invention. Once the 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.960 crowd was settled, Moybridge dimmed the gaslights. He ignited the 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.000 gas jet inside his device, directing the flame towards a 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.360 brick of lime, which generated a bright light. The light 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.920 illuminated a glass disc, projecting its images onto the screen. 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:40.399 As Moybridge spun the disc, and then the magic happened 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.440 on the screen in front of them. The crowd watched 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.040 in astonishment as the image of a horse appeared and 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:54.400 then miraculously began to run. For two seconds, the horse 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.760 galloped across the screen, then did it again. It looked, 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:04.880 said one reporter, like a living moving horse. Nothing was 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.840 wanting but the clatter of the hoofs upon the turf, 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.760 and an occasional breath of steam from the nostrils to 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:16.040 make the spectator believe that he had before him genuine 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.600 flesh and blood steeds. And the wonder did not end there. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.880 Moybridge switched the disc and now came a horse leaping 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.800 that a bull charging, a greyhound racing a bird's soaring 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:35.360 through the air. The audience was astonished. They had just 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.720 seen something that almost no one alive in eighteen eighty 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:47.200 had ever seen before, real living animals in motion, photographed 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:52.320 and projected in front of them. People were familiar with zootropes, 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.919 small toys with illustrated or photographic strips that you could spin, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.320 producing the illusion of motion, and they may have seen 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:06.040 magic lantern shows in which early projectors cast images onto 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.240 a screen But Edward Moybridge's machine, which he would come 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:15.519 to call the zoapraxoscope or life action view in Greek, 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:22.440 was something new. He had done something revolutionary. First, he 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.240 had figured out how to photograph animals in motion, using 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.920 an inventive series of trip wires and fast shutters. You 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.160 might be familiar with some of these photos. The most 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.560 famous is a black and white set of a man 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.560 riding a horse. Then he had worked out how to 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.160 transfer these images to a glass disc and project them 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.400 in sequence, playing back the moment in time he had captured, 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.760 preserving and replicating it. He had set into motion a 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:59.280 series of inventions and innovations that would lead soon enough 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.880 to the birth of the movie. But our story today 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.480 is not about what happened on that May night in 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.680 eighteen eighty It's about a crime that happened six years earlier, 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.680 in eighteen seventy four, a crime that led to a 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.080 dramatic trial that caught the nation's attention and sparked discussions 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.760 on the role of the law. It's an incredible tale, 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:29.360 one of love, betrayal, vengeance and justice in the still 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.120 somewhat wild West. And at the heart of it all 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.279 was the man you've just met, because Edward Moybridge was 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.080 not just the father of motion pictures. He was also 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:47.920 a murderer. Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host, 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:59.359 Mirah Hayward. This week California v. Edward Moybridge. Edward Moybridge 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:04.920 was not always Edward Moybridge. Born April ninth, eighteen thirty, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:10.760 Moybridge was christened Edward James Muggeridge, the second of four sons. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.120 Throughout his life, Moybridge changed his name several times. For 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.240 consistency's sake, I'll call him Edward Moybridge throughout, since this 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.359 was a name he was known by. At the time 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.479 of the trial. As a child, friends and family called 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.280 him Ted. A cousin described Ted as an eccentric boy, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.479 rather mischievous, always doing something or saying something unusual, or 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.679 inventing a new toy or a fresh trick. His family 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.839 was lower middle class, and life in Kingston upon Thames, 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.960 the small town fifteen miles southwest of London where Moybridge 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.919 grew up, did not offer many opportunities. In eighteen fifty, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:59.640 age twenty, Moybridge decided to seek his fortune in America. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.960 He arranged with a London publisher to become their sales 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:08.160 representative in New York and headed across the Atlantic. In Manhattan, 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.800 Moybridge got his first taste of the photography business after 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.679 befriending a man named Silas Selik, who worked in Matthew 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:21.240 Brady's photography studio. Selik and Moybridge became close, and when 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:25.679 Selik decided to move to California, Moybridge eventually followed him, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.960 heading west in the autumn of eighteen fifty five. On 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.919 arrival in San Francisco, Moybridge subtly changed his name, shortening 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.840 his birth name of Muggridge to Muggridge. Less than a 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.480 year later, he changed it again, this time to Moygridge. 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.520 It was under this name that he applied for U 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:51.520 s citizenship in November eighteen fifty six. Moybridge did well 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.960 for himself as a publisher in San Francisco. He had 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.320 a knack for knowing what would sell. He joined the 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.039 board of the Mercantile Library, an oasis of culture in 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.760 the rough and tumble town. He made social connections. He prospered, 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.960 but then in early eighteen fifty nine, Moybridge decided to 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.600 return to England. Why exactly he did so is unknown, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.400 but over the course of the year he sold off 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:24.280 his remaining inventory and wrapped up his business in San Francisco. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.920 On July second, eighteen sixty, he boarded the Butterfield Stage 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:36.000 bound for Saint Louis. Traveling by stagecoach was miserable. The 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.880 Butterfield Overland Mail Company and other companies like it contracted 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.760 with the Post Office to carry mail across the country. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.920 Passengers could hitch a ride along the way, and the 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.280 price was cheap for a reason. The small horse drawn 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.600 wagons took twenty five days to complete the twenty eight 0:07:55.680 --> 0:08:00.000 hundred mile route, three weeks of bone shaking travel across 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.600 rocky roads, breathing in dust and your fellow passenger's stench. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:10.600 The ride was also dangerous. The coaches were attacked by bandits, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:17.040 vulnerable to bad weather, accident prone. On July twenty second, 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.560 three weeks into the journey, Moybridge's coach was traveling near 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.640 what is now Fort Worth, Texas, when the horses panicked 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.720 and broke into a wild run. The driver could not 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.560 control the coach and it sped down the road, going 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.640 faster and faster until it hit a stump and sent 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:42.040 its passengers flying, Edward Moybridge was thrown from the coach 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:47.000 and landed on his head. He would not regain consciousness 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.760 for nine days. When Moybridge came to, he found that 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.839 both his vision and his hearing had been impacted by 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:59.840 the accident. After resting for several weeks in Arkansas, Moybridge 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.040 of eventually made his way to New York, where, after 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.760 filing a suit against the Butterfield Stage Company, he boarded 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:11.480 a ship for England. Upon his return to England, Moybridge 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.200 gave up the publishing business and tried his hand at inventing. 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.480 When he failed to make money from his inventions, he 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.679 turned to business, joining a relative in banking, but his 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:27.640 time as a banker was a disaster, his investments evaporated. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.960 The only souvenir that would remain from this time was 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:37.000 a new name, Edward Moigridge. Ney Muggridge had now become 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:44.600 Edward Moybridge, But it was not as Edward Moybridge that 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.520 he returned to San Francisco in eighteen sixty six. It 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:54.800 was as Helios. Helios was his new name and his 0:09:54.880 --> 0:10:00.360 new persona an artist, a photographer to be exact. During 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.240 his stint as an inventor, Moybridge had spent time in Paris, 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.640 where he crossed paths with three French brothers, the Berteaux, 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.640 who ran a photography studio called Maison AliOS. For a time, 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.680 Moybridge used Mason Elios as his nailing address in Paris. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.520 Edward Ball, in his book The Inventor in the Tycoon 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:27.559 feorizes that the Burteaus taught Moybridge their craft. The Englishman 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.640 borrowed more than just the brother's technique. He also borrowed 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:37.479 their name, using the English pronunciation of AliOS to become Helios. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.679 While working as a publisher, inventor, and banker, Moybridge had 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:47.480 always appeared like a conventional man. He wore suits, trimmed 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.360 his hair, and maintained a neat appearance. But now as 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:58.239 an artist, Moybridge changed. His beard, grew long and unkempt. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:03.480 His hair sprouted in unruly waves. He wore ragged clothes, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:08.840 floppy hats, a hostile expression. His appearance seemed to say 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.480 that he cared for only one thing, his art, and 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:18.040 his actions backed up this impression. Moybridge had become obsessed 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.040 with photography. He even designed a portable dark room in 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.640 a wagon so that he could develop prints whenever he wanted. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.480 His breakthrough as an artist came with pictures he took 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:34.600 of Yosemite. Moybridge's photos captured the splendor and the scale 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:39.439 of the valley, its awe inspiring rock formations and waterfalls, 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.240 and newspapers around the world printed the pictures. He also 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.880 gained recognition in San Francisco for his photographs of houses. 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:54.320 California's railbarons, including Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, built sprawling 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.760 mansions in the city and commissioned Moybridge to document their opulence. 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:03.880 Within three years of returning to California, Moybridge was likely 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.040 the best known photographer in the state. In April eighteen 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.560 sixty nine, he signed with one of San Francisco's most 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:16.440 prestigious galleries, run by the Nall Brothers. It was at 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:22.520 the Knall's gallery that Edward Moybridge met Flora Downs. Flora 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.200 worked as a photo retoucher for the brothers, a job 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.400 that in those days meant fixing scratches in photo negatives 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.400 or using wax and paint to apply color to photographs. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.760 Born in eighteen fifty one, Flora had had a difficult childhood, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.800 her mother had died young and her stepmother had been 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:47.560 uninterested in raising her. At twelve, Flora was sent to 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.120 live with her aunt and uncle in Kentucky. Two years later, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:57.000 the family moved to California. Upon the family's arrival in Marysville, California, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.880 Flora's aunt and uncle left the girl with another aunt 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:06.199 and traveled to Oregon. Flora Downs, only fourteen years old, 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.760 had now been left behind by two families. Some historians 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.800 have claimed that Downs was next sent to Mills Seminary, 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.360 a boarding school for girls, but there is no record 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.040 of her attending the school. There is, however, a record 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.560 of Downs getting a job as a sales clerk at 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.720 a store in San Francisco. She would not work there 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.800 for long. At some point, sixteen year old Flora met 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.880 twenty four year old Lucius Stone, scion of a wealthy 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:41.120 saddle making family. Flora married Stone in July eighteen sixty 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.079 seven and went to live in his family home, but 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.400 the marriage was not a happy one. Flora hated her 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.760 mother in law, who she called cruel and tyrannical, and 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.960 less than two years after the wedding, Flora moved out, 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.760 possibly using a small settlement from the Stone family to 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:05.240 pay for a rented room. With little formal education and 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:10.840 few family ties, Flora needed to learn to support herself. Somehow, 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:16.079 she discovered a talent for photo retouching. When Edward Moybridge 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.920 and Flora Downs met, he was thirty nine and she 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:25.200 was eighteen. She was petite and pretty, with wavy brown 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.400 hair and a doll's face. He was a committed artist 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:34.680 with little interest in personal grooming. She liked the theater, nights, dresses, 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.600 nights on the town. He preferred the wilderness, his work, 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.800 and solitude. We don't know what drew the unlikely pair together. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.600 Perhaps Flora was lonely. Her last family member in California 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.600 died in September eighteen seventy, and her divorce from Lucius 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.560 Stone was finalized three months later. Perhaps she was attracted 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.600 to Moybridge's success or perhaps she didn't have much say 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.280 in the matter. Flora would later claim that Moybridge paid 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.960 for her divorce from Stone and coerced her into marrying 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.920 him by threatening to get her fired from the gallery. 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:17.720 Or maybe, against all odds, this was a love story. Okay, 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:23.000 maybe not, but whatever the case. On May twentieth, eighteen 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.840 seventy one, twenty year old Flora Downs and forty one 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:35.760 year old Edward Moybridge were married. Two months after the wedding, 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:40.200 Moybridge began traveling for work. He was away from home 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.240 for more than half of the first year of their marriage. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:48.640 Flora grew increasingly lonely, a pain that only compounded when 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.400 she suffered two stillbirths in a row. In the spring 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.280 of eighteen seventy two, the Nall Brothers closed their gallery. 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:01.840 Moybridge moved to Bradley and Rulufsen, a gallery and photography 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:06.280 studio known for taking pictures of celebrities. Flora got a 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.880 job a retouching photos for the studio. She enjoyed the work. 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.760 She collected copies of the pictures of stage actors who 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:19.080 Bradley and Rulefsen photographed, and made her own album, pasting 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:23.640 the glamorous celebrity shots next to princes of Moybridge's nature pictures. 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.080 The moy Bridges may not have been a perfect couple, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:33.560 or even a particularly happy one, but things were fine. Fine, 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:39.240 that is until the arrival of Harry Larkins, and then 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:47.040 things would fall apart with deadly consequences. Harry Larkins was 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.840 well known in San Francisco, though few people knew his 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:55.120 true background. They knew he was handsome, with a charming 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.400 British accent and charisma to spare. They knew he dressed well, 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.840 if flashily, sometimes wearing a peacock feather in his hat. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.439 They knew he'd fought in some war somewhere, or at 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.320 least he told people to call him Major Larkins. But 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.160 just exactly who he was and what life he'd lived 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.040 before he arrived in San Francisco was a bit of 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:23.320 a mystery, and would remain a mystery until the present day. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.720 But we'll come back to that. In eighteen seventy three, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.960 there were only two things San Franciscans knew for sure 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.240 about Harry Larkins. He was excellent company, and he had 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:39.120 trouble staying on the right side of the law. In 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.080 March eighteen seventy three, Larkins was thrown in jail for 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:47.600 charges of obtaining money under false pretenses. The charges had 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:52.840 been brought by Larkins's former friend, one Arthur Neil. The 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.080 two men had first met in London and reconnected by 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.080 chance in Salt Lake City in mid eighteen seventy two. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.760 They then decided to travel to San Francisco together. For months, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:09.040 they'd lived it up, Larkins providing the entertainment and Neil 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.119 providing the funds. Neil said that Larkins claim to have 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.320 a wealthy family who would cover his expenses eventually, but 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:22.600 after five months without repayment, Neil grew impatient. He filed 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:26.040 a police report against Larkins and then took his story 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.119 to the newspaper. The San Francisco Chronicle jumped on the 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.600 juicy story, publishing Nil's tale of woe with the headline 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.840 financial genius the Prince of Confidence. Men in limbo Major 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.160 Harry Larkins arrested for swindling, and noted that Larkins had 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:49.160 racked up quote hotel bills that would make a millionaire shudder. 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.800 The two men eventually settled their case out of court 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.119 and the charges against Larkins were dismissed, but his reputation 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:01.760 was ruined and he was broke. He began moving freight 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.560 at the docks, hard labor, but at least it paid 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:10.440 soon though, his charm and intelligence earned him the opportunity 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.080 to become the theater critic for the San Francisco Evening Post. 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.200 It was likely because of this role that he ended 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:21.840 up at Bradley and Rulffson's gallery, where all the theater stars 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:26.000 got their pictures taken. This, in turn, is likely how 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:32.000 he met Flora and Edward Moybridge. Sometime in eighteen seventy three. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.800 Larkin started out as a friend of both Moybridges. He 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.040 got free theater tickets through his job and offered to 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.000 take the couple out one night. Flora enjoyed the outing, 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:52.400 Edward did not. Larkins invited them to another show. Edward declined, 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:58.080 but Flora said yes. Soon Flora and Larkins were spending 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.520 quite a bit of time together. The two found they 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.560 had much in common, similarly lonely childhood's a shared love 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:11.119 for theater. In May eighteen seventy three, Moybridge left on 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.359 a photography assignment for the U. S. Army. Upon his return, 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.600 he was troubled by reports of his wife's new friendship 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.480 and warned Larkins off I want you to let her alone, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.439 he recalled. He told Larkins, I do not request it 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.199 of you, but I command you to keep away from her. 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.080 You know my rights as a married man, so do I, 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:39.880 and I shall defend them. Larkins agreed to stop seeing Flora, 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.359 but the break didn't last long. In the summer of 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:49.320 eighteen seventy three, Flora learned she was pregnant again. The 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.600 Moybridges hired a woman named Susan Smith to serve as 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.640 Flora's midwife and baby nurse, but Smith would later allege 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:00.159 that she had another role, that of go between for 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:04.840 Flora and Larkins. Smith said she carried notes for the couple, 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.320 who saw each other whenever Moybridge was out of town working. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.040 In April eighteen seventy four, while Moybridge was yet again 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:18.040 got an assignment, Flora went into labor. Harry Larkins was 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.040 with her and summoned Smith. After a twelve hour labor, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:26.640 Flora gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Smith wrote 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.760 to Moybridge and he returned to town, though he only 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.399 stayed for a week or ten days before leaving to 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.120 work again. He does not seem to have particularly bonded 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.120 with his son. Smith would later say that Moybridge refused 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.800 to name the baby. Flora eventually named the boy George 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:49.800 Down's Moybridge. George was the name of Moybridge's deceased brother, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.479 but it also happened to be the name of Harry 0:21:53.560 --> 0:22:01.440 Larkins's deceased father. Larkins visited George and Flora frequently. In May, 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.920 Larkins lost his newspaper job, possibly because his colleagues were 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.639 tired of people showing up at the newsroom to demand 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.399 that he pay them back for various debts. Desperate for money, 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:16.320 Larkins took a job as a publicist for a traveling circus. 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.760 While he was away from Flora, he wrote her secret 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:25.119 messages in the paper using his middle initial Tea. In June, 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:29.600 he left a note in the chronicle, f do write 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:35.480 to me. I am utterly miserable without you, your devoted Tea. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.720 But by this time Flora was no longer in San 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.639 Francisco to see the message. In mid June, Moybridge had 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:46.040 sent her and George to Oregon to stay with relatives. 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:48.840 He said it was so she would have company while 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:51.879 he traveled on a multi month job, but some people 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.600 wondered whether it was an attempt to keep Flora and 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:59.960 Larkins apart. Absence, however, only made the heart grow fond. 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.959 Flora and Harry both wrote to Susan Smith and her 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.760 daughter Sarah about how they missed one another. There are 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.159 indications that Larkins and Flora were planning to start a 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.840 life together, but to do that, Larkins would need money. 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.639 He took a new job writing about mining for a newspaper. 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:23.000 His work took him into the mountains around California's Napa Valley, 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.880 where he reported on the area's silver mines. He had 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:30.720 high hopes for the future, but a dark cloud was looming. 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:36.520 In October eighteen seventy four, Edward Moybridge returned to San Francisco. 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.679 He was quickly confronted by Susan Smith, Flora's midwife and 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:43.760 baby nurse, who claimed that she had not received her pay. 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:47.760 On October thirteenth, Smith went to court over the matter, 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:52.080 and one a judgment of one hundred dollars against Moybridge. 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:54.919 Moybridge claimed that he had given Flora the money to 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.080 pay Smith, but Smith produced a letter from Flora that 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:01.840 claimed that Edward would pay the money. This letter, to 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:08.200 Moybridge's consternation, contained a mention of Harry Larkins. After the hearing, 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:12.160 Moybridge asked Smith if she had any other letters from Flora. 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:16.840 Smith apparently trying to secure her payment, said she would 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:20.119 give the letters to Moybridge. She gave him the letters 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:24.000 on October fifteenth. The next day, Moybridge showed up at 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:28.199 her house demanding more letters. The first batch of letters, 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:31.840 he said, only showed a flirtation between Flora and Harry. 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:35.760 He wanted letters that proved the affair that he was 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:41.240 certain existed. Smith gave him more letters. She also showed 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:44.760 him a picture of his baby's son, on which Flora 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:50.199 had written either little Harry or Little George Harry. The 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:55.040 next morning, October seventeenth, Moybridge went to the Arts Association, 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:58.840 a social club. People who saw him there reported that 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:03.480 he was quote perfectly cool and self possessed. He next 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:06.080 went to Bradley and Rulfson's, where he ran into an 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:11.199 acquaintance and the two men discussed bugs. Moybridge mentioned that 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:15.320 he quote had some business up country and intended to 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:18.639 leave by the afternoon. Boat Then he went upstairs and 0:25:18.680 --> 0:25:23.359 had a conversation with William Rulifson, the gallery owner. Moybridge 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:26.080 gave Rulifsen a set of documents, which he said would 0:25:26.160 --> 0:25:30.120 organize his business in case anything were to happen to him. 0:25:30.400 --> 0:25:32.800 When Moybridge said he was going to Napa to see 0:25:32.840 --> 0:25:37.399 Harry Larkins, rul Offsen tried to stop him, but Moybridge 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:41.920 would not be deterred. He left Rulufsen's office at three 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:46.160 fifty six pm and sprinted to the Ferry Docks, barely 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:49.840 making the four o'clock steamboat. He disembarked at Vallejoe at 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:54.440 six p m. Then boarded the northbound train. Three hours later. 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:58.359 He got off at the last stop, Calistoga. He stopped 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:01.520 in at a saloon, then went to a buggy. He 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:06.000 told the stableman he wanted to find Harry Larkins. Moybridge 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:09.560 thought Larkins was at Pine Flat mining camp. That's where 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:14.400 Larkins had written his last newspaper dispatch. From the stableman, however, 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:17.520 knew that Larkins was spending the night at a miner's 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:21.800 cottage by the Yellowjacket mine. The stableman tried to convince 0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:25.119 Moybridge to wait until morning, since Larkins would be traveling 0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:30.879 into Calistoga, but Moybridge refused. The stableman relented and told 0:26:30.920 --> 0:26:34.600 one of his drivers, George Wolf, to bring Moybridge up 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:38.399 to the Yellowjacket cottage. The drive of the slopes of 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:42.639 Mount Saint Helena took more than an hour. Moybridge, Wolf 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:46.439 would later say, appeared calm, though he did ask if 0:26:46.440 --> 0:26:50.360 he could fire his pistol two, he claimed scare off robbers. 0:26:51.040 --> 0:26:55.280 When Wolf asked what he wanted with Larkins, Moybridge said 0:26:55.400 --> 0:27:00.919 he wanted to quote give him an unexpected mesa. He 0:27:00.960 --> 0:27:09.080 would certainly do that. Around eleven PM, Moybridge arrived at 0:27:09.119 --> 0:27:12.679 the Yellowjacket Cottage, so named because of a nest of 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:17.239 yellowjackets that lived nearby. Inside, a group of men and 0:27:17.280 --> 0:27:21.280 women were playing cards and talking. Harry Larkins was playing 0:27:21.280 --> 0:27:25.280 cribbage with one of the miners. Edward Moybridge got down 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:28.320 from the buggy and greeted a group of men standing 0:27:28.320 --> 0:27:33.359 by the door. He asked for Harry Larkins. One of 0:27:33.400 --> 0:27:36.520 the men invited him into the house, but Moybridge said 0:27:36.560 --> 0:27:40.720 he wanted to see Larkins outside. The men leaned into 0:27:40.760 --> 0:27:44.720 the doorframe and called for Larkins, who excused himself from 0:27:44.720 --> 0:27:47.840 the card game and walked to the door. When he 0:27:47.920 --> 0:27:52.720 reached it, he peered out into the darkness. Edward Moybridge 0:27:53.080 --> 0:27:57.480 stared back, I have a message from my wife Moybridge said. 0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:04.080 Larkin stepped forward, Moybridge shot him in the chest. Larkins 0:28:04.119 --> 0:28:08.080 staggered and turned, stumbling back into the house, his hands 0:28:08.080 --> 0:28:12.200 clutched over his wound. Moybridge followed him, still holding the gun. 0:28:13.080 --> 0:28:16.600 Larkins went back out the front door and collapsed. Moybridge 0:28:16.640 --> 0:28:18.919 raised his arm as if to shoot again, but one 0:28:18.960 --> 0:28:22.600 of the other men stopped him. Two men carried Larkins 0:28:22.640 --> 0:28:27.360 back inside, where he lay groaning for several minutes. Then 0:28:28.480 --> 0:28:34.119 Harry Larkins tied. Moybridge offered no resistance when the miners 0:28:34.160 --> 0:28:38.560 surrounded him. He apologized for frightening the women present and 0:28:38.680 --> 0:28:44.120 explained that quote Larkins had destroyed his happiness. Then he 0:28:44.200 --> 0:28:46.960 asked for a glass of water and sat down to 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:50.640 read the newspaper. The miners decided to take him to 0:28:50.680 --> 0:28:55.120 the sheriff's office at Calistoga. Around one a m a 0:28:55.160 --> 0:29:00.000 local constable took Moybridge into custody. The constable found Moybridge 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:03.520 to be quote very cool for one who had just 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:07.520 killed a man. The photographer explained his placid mood to 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:11.840 the constable. Hiring a lawyer might cost a lot, Moybridge said, 0:29:12.400 --> 0:29:16.000 but quote, I won't have any trouble to get clear. 0:29:17.000 --> 0:29:22.400 In other words, Edward Moybridge believed he could get away 0:29:22.680 --> 0:29:29.880 with murder. Despite Moybridge's initial confidence about being acquitted, his 0:29:29.960 --> 0:29:32.800 assurance seems to have wavered in the months he spent 0:29:32.880 --> 0:29:37.200 in jail before his trial. In December, he agreed to 0:29:37.240 --> 0:29:41.440