The Horror at Bull Run, 1872
What follows is drawn from historical records and contains descriptions that, even by the standards of the day, shocked all who heard of it.
— A Southwick Time Machine Original | True Crime
A False Promise
In the spring of 1870, David Scott of the Feeding Hills section of Agawam, Massachusetts, began courting an Irish girl from Suffield, Connecticut. Townspeople later described the young woman as prepossessing in appearance and said that she had a good reputation.
The relationship soon turned serious. Before long, the pair became engaged.
Scott proposed that they travel to Springfield, Massachusetts, where a Catholic priest would solemnize the rites of marriage. The couple made the trip together, but after meeting with the priest, Scott informed the girl that the ceremony would have to be delayed by one day. He persuaded her that a single day would make no difference and suggested that they spend the night at a first-class hotel.
When they arrived, Scott registered the pair as husband and wife.
The following day, the young woman found herself abandoned without explanation. As word spread, her reputation suffered greatly. The scandal quickly became known throughout the region.
Later that year, Scott was arrested in the Long Yard section of Southwick, Massachusetts, and charged with adultery. The girl claimed that Scott had told her he was divorced, though in reality, his wife was still living in West Springfield after separating from him.
Scott was arraigned in Westfield District Court on September 8, 1870. Bail was set at $500, and he was bound over to the December sitting of the grand jury.
Yet even after all she had suffered, the young woman was overcome with sympathy for her betrayer at the time of his arrest. Witnesses reported that she burst into tears, forgave him for all injuries, and begged for his release.
Scott was later indicted by the grand jury. At his arraignment on December 12, 1870, he pleaded not guilty. His case went to trial in Superior Court on December 16.
The prosecution produced several witnesses, but after hearing the evidence, the judge instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
Though acquitted in the adultery case, Scott was no stranger to the police. He was said to be well known in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, mainly for robberies.
Inside the House, More Horror
On the evening of January 2, 1872, a man interrupted a Windsor Locks town meeting and stunned the crowd when he announced that a terrible tragedy had been committed at Bull Run, a notorious tavern that operated as a brothel at the lonely junction where the Granby and Windsor Locks road meets the Suffield and Poquonnock road. The meeting was immediately adjourned.
About twenty men quickly gathered lanterns and procured carriages before setting out for the tavern through the cold winter darkness. They arrived at about 9:00 and found the home entirely dark.
Bull Run had two entryways. The door on the east side opened directly into the barroom, while the door on the southwest corner opened into a back room.
The men divided into two groups and cautiously approached the separate entrances.
Finding the front door locked, they used a rail as a battering ram and forced their way inside.
The moment they entered, they smelled something burning.
Their lantern light soon fell upon the body of Timothy Billings, keeper of the house.
He lay stretched across a barstool, his head resting against the wall on a bag of oats that seemingly held his body in place. His arms hung down at his sides, while his legs extended from the stool toward the center of the room. A bound volume of Harper’s Magazine lay on the floor beside him.
The men attempted to lift him.
As they did, his head, which had been beaten in, fell off, and his brains leaked onto the oats bag beneath him.
Holding their lanterns toward the ceiling, they saw drops of blood, brains, and gore hanging overhead. Blood and brains were splattered across the walls.
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| The only known photograph of Bull Run, where horror unfolded in 1872. |
A Notorious Place
Violence and misery were no strangers to Bull Run. The area surrounding the isolated house was regarded as dangerous well before Timothy Billings purchased it in 1870. Travelers and drunks passing through were said to risk being robbed by the den of thieves who frequented the place.
In August 1871, the body of Charles Barker was found propped against an oak tree across the road from Bull Run, after he had spent several days inside the house with Julia Hayes. Authorities suspected he had been murdered inside, and his body was moved.
The house itself sat upon a sandy rise nearly three-quarters of a mile from its nearest neighbor and was surrounded by gloomy pine groves.
Inside, the layout formed a confusing arrangement of rooms. Between the back room and the barroom was a large apartment with a cooking stove and a living room. A smaller bedroom opened off the middle room, and another doorway connected that bedroom to the passage behind the bar. A separate door connected the barroom directly with the middle room. There were three additional rooms upstairs.
As the men stood in shock, the party at the back door gained access, but they couldn’t get the door to open completely. Looking closer, they realized it was hitting the head of a woman. It was the body of Julia Hayes, alias Julia Gowdy, lying on the floor with her head towards the door and a gaping hole cut out of her throat. Heavy smoke filled the air. Her body was blocking the entrance, so they moved it outside. To their surprise, her body was still a bit warm to the touch.
Inside the house, more horror.
Lying on a carpet and a jute mat in the middle room leading to the kitchen was the body of Delia Billings, Timothy’s common-law wife.
Her body was on fire.
Much of her clothing had already burned away. The men quickly threw water over her to extinguish the flames. One of her arms had nearly burned off.
When they moved her body, they discovered that the fire had burned several holes in the wooden floor.
Under her corpse lay a broken gun lock and a bread knife. The blade was stained with blood, while the handle had burned in two. The men in attendance believed it to be the weapon used to kill Julia Hayes.
The burned woman herself bore two wounds to the head, apparently inflicted by a blunt instrument. No knife wounds were found on her body.
Once the men determined that no additional persons remained inside the house, they put the bodies in coffins and began searching for evidence, which proved difficult due to the lanterns’ dim light, forcing them to postpone further investigation until daylight, but not before making several discoveries.
Behind the bar, they found approximately $500 in cash stored in a drawer and a double-barreled gun that was loaded, primed, and cocked.
Upstairs, they discovered a seven-shot revolver and a woman’s stocking stuffed with money amounting to about $225, bringing the total cash found in the house to more than $700.
They were still confused about the broken gun lock found earlier, as it did not belong to either of the found guns.
The brutality of the triple murder, combined with the tavern’s reputation as a haunt for thieves and desperate characters, quickly spread fear and fascination throughout the region. The discovery of the three bodies brought the death toll at Bull Run to five in the past eight months.
The next day, authorities and townfolk searched the house and premises for clues. Four men found two old guns in some brush of a pine grove northeast of the Bull Run house, roughly twelve feet east of the road. One of the guns was broken, and the barrel was bent.
Windsor Locks authorities had the bodies buried as they were found, without being cleaned or redressed.
Suspicion soon centered upon David Scott and his half-brother Mitchell Cherest, who had been employed in the vicinity as woodchoppers. Authorities feared that they would flee to Canada since Scott had formerly resided near Montreal and had friends there.
Selectmen in Windsor Locks offered a $300 reward for their arrest. The governor followed with an additional $1,000 reward. Handbills containing descriptions and photographs of the alleged murders were sent in all directions.
After the murders, the pair hopped a train and fled.
Neither could read nor write, so they had to have their letters dictated. A couple of their letters were intercepted by detectives, which aided in their capture.
The brothers were known to use different aliases, including George and Ed Davis of Washington, Massachusetts, and Joseph and Frank Scott of NewYork.
The Trial
The brothers were arrested in Van Wert, Ohio, and were brought back to Connecticut to answer to a charge of the murder of Timothy Billings. By law, a person could only be tried, at one time, for the killing of one person only. If they were found not guilty, they would then be tried for the murder of Delia Billings. Their trial took place in Superior Court in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 30, 1872. The courtroom was uncomfortably filled with lawyers and others interested in the trial.
Spectators in the gallery were surprised by the murderers’ youthful appearance. While it was said that David Scott had an agreeable-looking face, Mitchell Cherest, the younger one, had a treacherous, malicious-looking one, so much so that folks believed that he was the mastermind and enticed his brother into it.
Several witnesses were called. During the proceedings, the accused showed little to no emotion, instead acting as if they were listening to an adventure story.
With it getting late, the judge ordered a continuance, and the murderers were returned to prison. But this time, authorities put them in separate cells, which made a coward of Scott, who cried like a baby.
On the second day of the trial, the courtroom was not as crowded with spectators. More witnesses were called. One testified that he passed the Bull Run house twice on January 2. The first time, between half-past two and three o’clock, he saw a woman at one of the windows. On his return, he saw four people but noticed nothing unusual and saw no signs of trouble or disturbance.
The trial concluded on Saturday, May 11, 1872. The courtroom was packed when the jury found David Scott and Mitchell Cherest guilty of second-degree murder in the brutal killing of Timothy Billings. The judge sentenced the brothers to life in prison.
In the days following the trial, authorities, with the help of businessmen and wealthy citizens, purchased the Bull Run house and had it burned to the ground.
When Scott first arrived at the jail, he had frequent outbursts stemming from deep despondency at the thought of a life-long confinement. He protested his innocence and intimated to the warden that he should take his own life if he had no chance of being released.
However, Scott’s behavior changed, relaxing the warden’s fear that he would consummate the threat to harm himself. Scott eventually gained a reputation for being gentle and one of the most amiable men in the prison.
On June 14, 1873, David Scott’s body was discovered lying full length in his jail cell with his head about a foot or two from the floor, his neck in a noosed stout hemp cord, which was fastened to the grating of the door about halfway up. The cord was the kind used to lace boots. It was believed that Scott secured the cord while working in the prison’s shoe shop.
Mitchell Cherest applied for parole fifteen times. At a parole hearing in 1902, the warden testified that Cherest was the worst prisoner in the entire institution and should remain locked up.
On December 14, 1916, with tears streaming down his face, Mitchell Cherest walked through the prison doors a free man after the prison board pardoned him.
Cherest climbed into the warden's automobile and they rode to Hartford. It was Cherest's first time in an automobile. He reportedly stayed silent during the ride, in complete disbelief at how much the world had changed since he was incarcerated 44 years ago for the horror at Bull Run - a crime he still maintained that he did not commit.
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Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Mitchel Cherest: b. May 1852
The bodies were originally discovered when two German peddlers called at the Bull Run house. They knocked on the front door and heard a faint “Come in,” but they couldn’t get the door open, so they went around back and saw Julia Hayes' body on the floor. Before their shocking discovery, they had seen two men running from the house. The peddlers went to a field and told the two workers what they had seen. The four men went to the house, instead of seeking help, they got scared and left.
At 10:15 a.m., Sheriff Russell opened the court.
During the trial, lawyers painted the peddlers as cowards who left a poor, suffering woman to die.
One of the original four men testified that he smelled smoke, but didn’t see a fire (it was in the middle room).
The workers also saw two men running from the house, but one testified that they thought nothing was out of the ordinary, as they had seen men running from the house before.
One source said there was a butcher knife and the broken lock of a gun under Mrs. Billings.
Timothy Billings was born in New York. He was about 35 years old at the time of the murders.
Jury selection took some time, as many who were summoned wished to be excused. Those opposed to capital punishment were also excused.
A man testified that Timothy Billings' vest pockets were turned inside out.
A witness testified that 16 keys were found under Mrs. Billings.
When the murderers fled, one may have been wearing a butcher’s frock.
Violence and misery were already familiar to the house. One October, a female inmate of the establishment committed suicide by taking morphine.
Charles Barker was about 25 years old. He apparently left work with about $100 and went to Bull Run for a few days. After being with Julia Hayes and parting with his money, he became despondent and threatened suicide. After authorities viewed the body, the Selectman ordered it buried with little fanfare. The young man had reportedly been working in Poquonnock, but according to workers, he left there about a month earlier. His parents may have lived in Michigan.
Timothy Billings and his wife were arrested for Barker's murder, but were released for lack of evidence.
Part
of the Massasoit House was converted into the Paramount, a theater beautifully
designed by Paramount Pictures of Hollywood, California, for their new
talking motion pictures that replaced silent films in 1929. The Paramount in Springfield was the first of its kind in New
England. After the Paramount closed, it reopened as a nightclub called
the Hippodrome.
The guns found in the pine grove brush were traced back to the brothers. They had borrowed the guns from a man named Wright, using their Davis brothers' alias. They borrowed the guns under the guise of hunting squirrels. Wright confirmed they were his guns.
Mitchell Cherest held several jobs while in prison. In 1900, he was making cigars.
Theodore Roosevelt's father died the same year he met Alice Lee. The Massasoit House
Contemporary reports did not identify by name the “first-class hotel” mentioned in accounts of David Scott’s 1870 affair, but it was likely the Massasoit House, one of the nation’s finest hotels during that period.
Springfield was the region’s transportation hub, and the Massasoit House sat on Main Street next to the railroad depot, the most convenient railway junction in New England at the time, with trains running north, south, east, and west.
In its long history, the Massasoit House had witnessed far more honorable arrivals than David Scott’s.
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| Massasoit House |
According to the Springfield Museums, whose collection includes some of the hotel’s guest registries, notable visitors included Daniel Webster, Samuel Colt, P. T. Barnum, Charles Dickens, and three presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson.
A young Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice, spent their wedding night at the Massasoit House after getting married in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The Massasoit House opened in 1843. It was so popular and well-respected that by the time the Roosevelts arrived in 1880, it had already been enlarged twice, making it three times its original size. It was also thoroughly remodeled and refurnished.
The Roosevelts’ honeymoon was delayed until the following summer because of Theodore's acceptance into Columbia Law School. The Massasoit House wasn’t a romantic destination, and the newlyweds probably didn't choose Springfield for its romance, but instead chose the finest hotel at the most convenient railway junction in New England on their wedding night as they made their way back to New York City; the Massasoit House was a logical stop. It was where the best people stopped. This puts David Scott and Theodore Roosevelt at the same address for very different reasons.
After initially rejecting Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway Lee agreed to marry him. The couple's engagement was publicly announced on February 14, 1880 — the same date that would, four years later, mark the most devastating day of Roosevelt's life. They wed on October 27, 1880, which was Roosevelt’s twenty-second birthday.
Alice Hathaway Lee was said to be youthful, beautiful, loving, and universally loved. She was noted for the rare charms of person and mind that made her a marked favorite in metropolitan society. Her nickname was Sunshine.
When Roosevelt first met Alice, he wrote, “As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked, and how prettily she greeted me.”
On Valentine's Day, February 14, 1884, Alice died at age twenty-two, just two days after giving birth to their daughter. Theodore’s mother, Mittie, died of typhoid fever on the same day as Alice, eleven hours earlier, in the same house, the Roosevelt family mansion on West Fifty-Seventh Street in New York City. A double funeral was held.
In his diary on the day they died, Roosevelt simply drew an X and wrote a single sentence: "The light has gone out of my life."
Devastated, Theodore abandoned politics, left the infant Alice with his sister, and headed out for the Dakota territories, where he lived as a rancher for two years.
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