Blame it on the booze
Aug 25th, 2015 by bachmann
“Touch not, taste not any intoxicating drink. Go not to a Grog Shop or Bar Room, as you would avoid the awful fate of Russell and Crockett!”
Simeon Crockett and Stephen Russell were convicted and executed in Boston on March 16, 1836 for the crime of arson. Capital punishment in Massachusetts, as was true for many states, was not limited to homicide. In the early 19th century, the scope of capital offenses in Massachusetts included arson, “if at night”; highway robbery; willful murder; burglary at night, and treason.
“Simeon L. Crockett and Stephen Russell were jointly
indicted for designedly, feloniously, maliciously, and
wickedly, setting fire to and burning the dwelling-house
of Joshua Benson, situated in South-street Place, on Haskins’
wharf, at or about twelve o’clock, on the night of
October 22, 1835. Mr. Benson was not himself an occupant
of the house, but it was inhabited by nineteen or
twenty Irish families, consisting of one hundred, or one
hundred and twenty persons-men, women, and children.”
– Supreme Judicial Court, Boston, Mass.
The two plead not guilty, but were convicted by a jury on Dec. 17th 1835 and sentenced to death by hanging in March of 1836. For his part in the crime, Crockett blamed the incident on alcohol. When asked by a journalist…
“How could you do so bad a thing?” his reply was, “we were all
half drunk, and did not know what we were about.”
Even in his final written statement before the execution, Crockett would not take personal responsibility for his actions. In fact, he implicated the sellers of alcohol as having equal culpability as those who actually imbibe the drink.
“I now under a deep sense of my situation, wright a few
lines to leave on earth, after I leave the world in memore
of me, while my spiret is gone into the world of spirots
… No wonder so many Crimes are Comited with
the drunkard when his brains is boiled in gin, rum
and brandy, when the natural man has fled and rum and
brandy has changed a man in to a beast, and destroys the
finest works of nature… The RETAILERS are
no more Guiltles than the men that drinks it. I feel to ‘
render the most tender and piteful feelings towards sutch
people.” (unedited transcription of Crockett’s final statement)
This crime was committed during the rapid growth of the temperance movement. Boston was an early advocate for reform, establishing The American Temperance Society in 1826. The movement used this incident as a way to advance their cause, providing sermons, pamphlets, and postings to expose the evils of alcohol to the public. Giving advice such as,
“Your safety depends on total abstinence from its polluting and destroying
touch. Its victims have all been those who once thought
they could drink and let it alone when they pleased. They temporized
with the destroyer until they were lost. They soon found
that, they could please to drink; but they could not please to let it
alone.”
booze leads to malfeasance
Recently identified and digitized, as part of a collaborative project between Harvard and the Mass. Archives, are petitions to the Massachusetts governor submitted by Crockett and Russell, as well as relatives, witnesses, and supporters, in February 1836. These petitions requested a reprieve or pardon for the death sentences, offering a combination of arguments such as extenuating circumstances, personal testimony, and Christian objections to capital punishment.
The original petition by Simeon Crockett to commute his sentence
Below are resources on the Crockett and Russell crime and execution.
- Description:
- Crockett, Simeon L. A voice from Leverett Street Prison, or, The life, trial and confession of Simeon L. Crockett, who was executed for arson, March 16, 1836. Boston : Printed for the Proprietors, [1836?]. 6th ed.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:3899542
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
- Description:
- Crockett, Simeon L. A voice from Leverett Street Prison, or, The life, trial and confession of Simeon L. Crockett, who was executed for arson, March 16, 1836. Boston : Printed for the Proprietors, [1836?]. 3rd ed.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:3899540
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
- Description:
- Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions; Council; Council Files February 20, 1836, Case of Stephen Russell and Simeon Crockett, GC3/series 378. Massachusetts Archives. Boston, Mass.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:12208712
- Repository:
- Massachusetts Archives, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- Institution:
- Harvard University & Massachusetts Archives, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- Description:
- Crockett, Simeon L. The true cause of crime. :Dying words of a criminal. Boston gail [sic], March 15, 1836. [Boston] : Cassady & March, printers, Boston, [1836].
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:3746719
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
