––––––––
The trial began on the clear, bright, and frigidly cold morning of January 5th, 1889, presided over by Judge Hilton. Most of the town was expected to attend the trial, so they'd closed the saloon, because it was about the largest space to use that could be heated—to some extent—to use as a courtroom. There were also rooms upstairs that could be used to sequester witnesses until they were called to testify.
One of the first things that became a bone of contention between the prosecution and defense was Mr. Lee's ledger. Harding's attorney wanted it declared inadmissible as evidence. Mr. Lynchburg however wanted it included. He also wanted the defense attorney to stipulate that the ledger existed and was, in fact, a fair and accurate account of the brothel's day-to-day business. If the evidence was stipulated to, it would not need to be presented as evidence, and the jury would not be able to examine it. Everyone felt that the general knowledge of who patronized the brothel and when, opened up the chance of too many domestic problems.
And, surprisingly, Mr. Clarence agreed to the stipulation that it was what Mr. Lee, at least, believed to be an accurate account, and that the jury would not be allowed to look through it. At least, this way—the actual information in it would be kept private. After all, he couldn't hope to keep anything as salacious quiet. In Clarence's mind, if any specific information leaked out—which of course, it would, if the jury had access to the journal—it would only hurt his defense.
*****
The first witness the prosecution called was Dr. Thorne. And, once she testified to her name, where she was from, and that she was, in fact a licensed physician, the real questioning began.
"Dr. Thorne," Mr. Lynchburg began, "I'm going to ask you to go through the events concerning this matter since you arrived in Manchester."
"Certainly. I arrived in town at the end of May, and I couldn't have been here for more than about two or three weeks when my young assistant, Kit, came to the hotel restaurant and fetched me to the surgery."
"And what did you find when you arrived there?"
"I found a young girl of about fourteen or fifteen years of age who had been beaten to death. Her arm had been twisted so badly, it was broken in at least two places. She also had three or four old sets of bruises on her body, in various stages of healing, so this was not the first, or even the second pummeling she'd endured. Her belly was black and blue and swollen, which led me to conclude she died from internal injuries."
"Is there anything else you noticed when you examined her?"
"Yes, first she was not a virgin."
"But couldn't that be because she had a lover? Young though she was, those kinds of things do happen?"
"Yes, of course they do. But, no, sir. Sheriff Dunkirk suggested the same thing."
"So, how were you able to determine that this hadn't been the case?"
"Because she had fought back, or tried to. She had not willingly participated in relations, which resulted in internal bruising."
"I see. And, did you notice anything else?"
"Well, her pupils were tiny, like pin-pricks which indicates she had a high dose of morphine in her body. And, she was clutching a bottle of 'Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup' in her hand."
"And what did you do?"
"I sent Kit for the sheriff and, after discussing it, he contacted a photographer in town, to take pictures of the girl's face. Then we arranged for her to be buried. I hired the undertaker, and authorized him to do whatever needed doing, including purchasing her a nice dress.
"Both the sheriff and I tried to make sure as many people as possible either went to the viewing or looked at her picture, in an attempt to find someone who recognized the poor child. But, no one came forward with any information and, in the end, we buried her under the name of Laurie. Which, we have since learned was misspelled. She spelled her name 'Lori', that is l-o-r-i. We found out this from her younger sister, Lynn, when we eventually rescued her."
"Well now, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, Dr. Thorne, do we? So why don't you continue from the time after the girl was buried?"
"Of course. After a week, with no information about the girl, we returned to all our normal routines. I mean, we knew nothing more, and had no idea where else to look."
"And what happened next?"
"Nothing, for a month or more. As I said, no one even admitted to ever having seen her.
"The next girl was discovered the morning of August first by the young man who delivers milk and eggs, and things from Mr. Gunderson's place, to the residence behind the workshop where Meg and Eva lived. He found the girl, lying on the ground, a few feet away from the porch steps. She had been dead for a time because her body was quite cold."
"And, could you tell what she died from?"
"Initially, no, we couldn't tell. She didn't appear to have any wounds. However, Meg knelt beside the child's body and, when she stood up, the bottom of her nightdress was saturated in blood.
"The first thing I did after I arrived was turn her over, and as soon as I did, it was evident she had bled to death. The ground where she was found was literally wet with her blood.
"At first glance, I thought she died from a miscarriage. However, soon after the sheriff got there, he found a blanket and a knitting needle in the bushes a few hundred feet behind the house. It was then I concluded she'd died from a botched self-induced abortion."
There were a number of groans from both the jury and the people attending. After waiting for things to quiet down, Mr. Lynchburg asked the question that was on everyone’s minds, "Are you sure, Dr. Thorne? Is it common for a young woman to resort to performing an abortion on herself?"
"I wouldn't say 'common', but it's not unheard of. And..."
"What?"
"It's just that anything I add will be my opinion and not fact."
"Well, suppose you continue. I'm sure that Mr. Clarence will object if you wander too far afield."
"All right. She was a very young woman, only a girl, held captive and forced to work as a prostitute. We can't know if Harding, or anyone else, realized she was pregnant.
"And it might be that she felt a pregnancy was something that would not be tolerated. After all, I don't suppose sickly or pregnant girls are very popular in brothels."
"Ah... no. I don't suppose they would be."
"She might even have feared they would 'dispose' of her, if they discovered her condition. After all, Lori had already mysteriously disappeared."
"Your Honor," Mr. Clarence said, jumping to his feet, "we really aren't interested in the doctor's suppositions."
"Yes, Mr. Clarence. Yes, let's get back to substantiated facts, if you please, Mr. Lynchburg."
"Yes, sir. Of course. Perhaps, you could tell us what you did after you found the girl?"
"Certainly. The thing is, I didn't get there until my assistant, Kit, fetched me. By that time, Davy had been sent to inform Mr. Gunderson of the situation. And he, in turn went to the sheriff.
"After I arrived and found Meg in apparent shock, I sent Kit to drive out to the Hendriksen place, and ask Mrs. Hendriksen to come to the workshop to care for Meg, since I was unable to rouse her from her... distress."
"You couldn't help her, doctor?"
"Well, perhaps I misspoke. What I should have said was that I felt I'd be busy with the sheriff, and unable to give Meg my full attention. So I decided it would be better to ask Mrs. Hendriksen to look after Meg."
"All right. So, let's jump forward to a time when Mrs. Hendriksen, Mr. Gunderson, the sheriff, and any or everyone else called for, had gathered. What happened then?"
"Once we'd all gathered, we sat around the dining table discussing the situation. Everyone there agreed that the two girls were related. Their resemblance made that much evident. And, we did consider having the photographer come again, to take pictures.
"However, we had already decided we needed to keep the girl's death, her very existence, a secret. And neither Mr. Gunderson nor the sheriff who'd been members of the community the longest believed that the man could be entirely trusted, to remain silent that is.
"I don't mean to suggest he was dishonest, just that he might succumb to the temptation of telling someone. After all, even if he only told one person, he was increasing the chances of more people finding out.
"So, I drew several sketches of the child, of her face from various angles, as well as how we'd found her.
"Eventually, those drawings were placed in the crate, along with the blanket, the knitting needle, and her dress."
"Can you think of anything else you all placed in the box?"
Dr. Thorne remained mute for several seconds, before she added, "Yes. Sheriff Dunkirk found a scrap of paper on or under the blanket. It had blood on it, but there was also a bit of writing, as well."
"And, were you able to read it?"
"There were only a few letters. As I said, it was a mere scrap. However, it appeared to read a capitol 'B', followed by a small 'r'. There might have been part of another letter, but it couldn't be read."
"And, did any of you perceive anything from the scrap?"
"Well, the obvious choice was that it was the beginnings of 'Brumble'. After all, he is a most unpleasant man, which resulted in a lot of speculation concerning him. I also believe he received a lot of attention from the sheriff and his deputies, since the saloon was the most obvious place for a brothel to be housed."
"Your Honor," Mr. Clarence said, standing up, "this is just more hearsay."
"Yes, perhaps. Please, Mr. Lynchburg, try to keep your witness on track."
"I apologize, sir. Now, Dr. Thorne, to recap, you examined the girl and determined her cause of death; and carefully preserved the things found with her, including the sketches you made of her; decided her very existence needed to remain a secret; and arranged to have her surreptitiously buried. Correct?"
"Well, to be fair, the sheriff wanted to tell the mayor, at the very least. However, the rest of us agreed that we needed to keep this death a secret. And, it was I who insisted we bury the body."
"And, why was that?"
"Well, it was the first of August."
"Ah, yes... I see."
"The sheriff agreed that since we had no idea who might be involved, we couldn't risk telling anyone, even the mayor. The sheriff then wanted to wait until Judge Preston arrived in town later in the week. However, I felt that leaving her unembalmed body above ground was a potential health hazard."
"So, it was because of that, you'd insisted the girl be buried?"
"Yes. I forced the issue. Perhaps, if we'd found her later in the year, I might have yielded to Sheriff Dunkirk's recommendation to wait and put everything in the judge's hands. But, as I previously stated, it was August first."
"And..."
"Once we'd agreed that the child needed to be buried, we asked Mr. Stratton to 'discreetly' build a coffin for her and he and Mr. Gunderson buried her on a vacant corner of Mr. Gunderson’s place later that evening."
"Did you—No... had you done anything else?"
"Yes. We also asked for Mr. Stratton to construct a box or crate, in which to place everything we'd collected, to keep it safe until the judge arrived."
"And, would you remind us what was placed in this box? I believe I meant to ask you something, and at the moment, it escapes me."
"Well, there were several copies of the photographs of Lori, and several drawings I'd made of this second girl. And then the blanket and knitting needle, the scrap of paper, and her dress."
"Her dress—that was it. You considered that important. Why was that?"
"Yes. Because, after we discovered the second girl, I immediately regretted several things. The first was that I had not performed an autopsy on the first child, because she, too, might have been pregnant; and that I had not thought to keep the dress she'd been wearing."
"And why did you think this was important?"
"Because I believed that the dresses they were both wearing were similar, if not matching."
"And, was that particularly important?"
"As it turned out, yes."
"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just continue telling us what you witnessed in the correct order."
"Yes, sir. So, I suppose the next thing was that the sheriff passed the crate of evidence to the judge, so he could examine the contents. And, then he came to meet with us at Meg's and we discussed everything over dinner."
"I believe I'll wait and ask Judge Preston directly, what he said about everything you all told him. But, is there anything else you want to testify to concerning this second young woman?"
"No, nothing I remember right now."
"Mr. Lynchburg, are you planning on keeping Dr. Thorne on the stand much longer?"
"Yes, Your Honor. In fact, since the doctor was the one who actually captured Mr. Harding, I'll be questioning her for some time."
"Then I think we'll stop here for today."