3

“A mania for real estate”

The sleepy village of Watertown is the county seat of Jefferson County, New York. Located some 72 miles northeast of Syracuse, and just 31 miles south of the Canadian border, it is part of what is known as “Black River Country,” having a waterway that both defined its borders and aided in its development as a farming and mill region. In 1908, Watertown was a bucolic, quiet town, under which bubbled the intrigue of the families of the Brennans and the Farmers.¹

Just exactly when intrigue evolved into the planning of a murder is unknown—the criminals behind it never explained the hows and whys of what led them down this path. James D. and Mary Farmer rented a home on the land of Patrick, known as “Paddy,” and Sarah Brennan. Ironically, the Brennan home was located on a patch of land known as “Paddy’s Hill.” It was apparently a nice home, and the land was able to support an additional residence, known as the Barton house, where the Farmers moved in as tenants some time in 1907. From all outward appearances, the arrangement looked to be working out—the Farmers paid the Brennans approximately $2 a week for rent. The Brennans were good landlords, and the Farmers were good tenants. The two couples were also friends. We find evidence that the Farmers spent some time at the Brennan house, eating and drinking.

Then, sometime in 1907—it was never determined exactly when—Mrs. Farmer went to the offices of the county clerk in Watertown. She handed the clerk a deed, and told him, “I am Sarah Brennan.” She then transferred ownership of the Brennan property to her and her husband, demonstrating that she, “Sarah Brennan,” had been paid by Mary Farmer a total of $2,100 for the house and the land it sat on. The clerk, having no reason to doubt the woman’s story, certified the land as sold, gave “Mrs. Brennan” a new deed showing the new owners to be James and Mary Farmer, and the deal was completed.

The clerk, a woman, took little notice of the deed holder identifying herself as “Sarah Brennan,” except that she had an infant with her. On 31 October, she had taken the deed to an attorney, Francis Burns, and had him certify it with a notary public. Realizing that questions would eventually be raised, the Farmers deeded their “newly-purchased” property to their infant son in early 1908.

On 23 April 1908, the Farmers put their plan into action. We do not know the exact details of the crime, save for what Mrs. Farmer later said in differing interviews. We can speculate that sometime on that day Mrs. Farmer lured Mrs. Brennan over to her own residence. Mrs. Brennan was never seen alive again.

Sometime later that afternoon, Mr. Brennan came home from his work at the Remington mill—he was planning to take down the front porch storm door but found the front door to the house locked. He looked for the key that his wife always left behind a front shutter, but it was nowhere to be found. His wife had said she wanted to go into town that day, so he decided to wait for her. Fetching some tools from the barn, he proceeded to take down the storm door. Shortly, James Farmer came out from the Brennan home and waved him off.

“Don’t take that down,” Farmer said. “Don’t you know that I own this place now?”

Patrick Brennan stood there, astounded. This was his home!

James Farmer saw his reaction. “Yes, the place is mine, all right. I bought it last October, and you can see the deed at the county clerk’s office.”

Patrick Brennan was at a loss for words. His wife never mentioned any sale of their home or their land! This had to be some kind of mistake.

Brennan stood in what had been his front yard for some time, waiting for his wife to come home and explain herself. She never arrived, and he became frantic. His distress soon turned to anger, when James Farmer told him that Mrs. Brennan had agreed to pay the Farmers $2 a week for rent, and that she had not done so. She was in arrears, James Farmer said.

The following day, Brennan went into town to find out what became of his wife. He knew that she had an appointment at some office, possibly a dentist, so he went there. He was told that she never showed up. Now believing that something had gone horribly wrong, Brennan went to the police. Nothing could be done if Mrs. Brennan wanted to leave, he was told. Frantic, he spent the next few days looking for his missing wife. No trace of her could be found.

As the days passed, people told Patrick Brennan that it was possible that his wife had left him and run away with another man. Patrick, who trusted that his wife loved him and would never do anything of the sort, did not believe it. He continued to look.

Finally, on 27 April, he went to the office of District Attorney Fred B. Pitcher, and told him what had occurred. Pitcher, concerned, referred him to Sheriff Ezra D. Bellinger. Initially, Bellinger thought it was a simple matter of a woman who just up and left her husband for some unknown reason, but he decided nevertheless to look into it himself. He went to the notary public, who told him that the previous October a woman named Sarah Brennan had come to an attorney’s office, where she registered a deed for the transfer of a house and property to James and Mary Farmer.

As Bellinger was prepared to leave, the notary told him that Mrs. Brennan was 28 years old. Bellinger knew, from Sarah’s husband, that she was 55.

Detective E.J. Singleton and attorney Floyd L. Carlisle accompanied Sheriff Bellinger to the house that had belonged to the Brennans. He knocked, and found that James and Mary Farmer had almost completed their move into their new home. Bellinger asked to look inside the house; James Farmer told him that he could not come in. Through Carlisle, Bellinger had secured a search warrant, which he showed to the Farmers. Unable to deny the sheriff entry, they reluctantly allowed the small party, which now included Patrick Brennan, in. The men began to search the house, going from room to room, looking for evidence of a crime. They found nothing. The Farmers stood by, watching with great indifference.

When the men moved from the ground floor to the cellar, they again found nothing out of the ordinary. Patrick Brennan must have been becoming more and more frantic. Where was his wife? It was as if she has stepped into a void.

The men moved to the upstairs bedrooms. There, Bellinger found a trunk covered with rope. He called out to Brennan, “Is this your trunk?” Brennan came to the sheriff’s side, and said, “I never saw it before.” By this time, Mary Farmer had joined them, and she waved her hand. “That’s just an old trunk full of rags. We’ve even forgotten what’s in it; the lock is rusted and we’ve lost the key.”

Bellinger asked for a hammer to break the lock. When he finished, he opened the lid and found a horrific sight—the bloody and mangled body of Sarah Brennan. Her skull had been crushed with some blunt instrument and wounds covered her body. When Bellinger moved the trunk, an ax was allegedly found behind it. (This part of the story may not be true, as authorities later looked for a “lath hatchet” which had been used in the crime.) He immediately took both James and Mary Farmer into custody.

Dr. Charles E. Pierce, coroner of Jefferson County, took possession of the trunk with the grisly remains in it and transported it to the Box-Donaldson undertakers in Watertown. Drs. H.H. Deane and F.R. Calkins conducted a post-mortem on the body, with Dr. C.C. Kimball and Detective E.J. Singleton in attendance.

*  *  *

Patrick Brennan was born in New York in March 1854 (his tombstone, however, reports the date as 1853), the son of Irish immigrants. His wife, Sarah Connor Brennan, was born in Ireland in February 1855, and came to America in 1871, eventually becoming a naturalized American citizen. The couple were married in 1883, and that November had a daughter, Mamie, who died in 1901, aged 16 or 17.² Eventually, all three would be laid to rest together, under one gravestone, in the Brownville Cemetery. There are no surviving photos of Sarah Brennan, and very little information on any aspect of her life save for her murder.³

Little is known about either of the two perpetrators in this crime, James D. Farmer, or his wife, Mary (née O’Brien) Farmer, although, through a study of public records and contemporary sources, we can ascertain a little more about James Farmer. He was born in Watertown on 26 July 1864, and worked on a farm in his youth. He then learned the paper mill trade, and worked for most of his life in mills in the area of Watertown. He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He married twice: his first wife, Anna Warren, whom he married in 1887, died, probably before the start of the 20th century. He then became a sailor, then met an Irish domestic, Mary O’Brien, in Buffalo and they were married in 1904. They would have one son, Peter J. Farmer. Mary Farmer was born in Ireland, probably in 1890, making her 28 at the time of the murder. She suffered from some facial paralysis, of which the cause is not known.⁴

From the few sources that still exist on Mary Farmer, it seems she was possibly mentally challenged. At her trial, an alienist, or psychiatrist, testified as to a history of potential insanity in Mrs. Farmer’s family: one newspaper reported, “[There is no] record of [insanity in her] father’s mother or mother’s father, but her grandfather and grandmother died at an advanced age. None of her relatives had insanity, according to the record. Mrs. Farmer had never had any nervous diseases.”⁵

The Farmers were taken to the police station and booked for first-degree murder. While James Farmer remained silent, his wife could not wait to tell the world about what she had done: “She came to my house for a visit. Somebody was passing by and she went to the window to look out. While she had her back turned I got the axe and I raised it and brought it down on her head as hard as I could. It was the only way to get such a nice house. I had wanted it for years.” She said that her husband James had helped her with the fake deed, the clean-up, and the move into the Brennan home.

Amazingly, the story did not at first make the front pages of the nation’s newspapers, as most sensational crimes of the day did. It was not until the trial of one of the conspirators concluded that the media took notice, when the details of what one paper called a “particularly fiendish crime” were laid out in court.⁶

As the case against the Farmers came together, these most unlikely murderers sat in the Jefferson County jail under the strictest of security, allegedly having committed, “the highest crime known to the law, the killing of a human being.” The crime they were accused of shocked everyone who heard of the grisly details. “How many sleepless nights they experienced in concocting this devilish deed may never be known to the public; what other schemes they had in mind for the taking of the life of Mrs. Brennan, whose little property they sought, before they hit on the idea of striking her with an ax and placing her body in a trunk may go down into the history of the case as unknown.”⁷

Mary Farmer continued to confess, although her admissions changed over time, and she delivered two or three different stories to the police—at least, she told them a story of what she claimed had happened, as one paper related:

In the first, she stated that it was she who struck the blows with the axe while Mrs. Brennan was looking out of the window with her back turned. She had the trunk in readiness for the body, she said. When confronted with the body of the victim, she made the alleged confession, and said:

“I may as well tell the truth: Jim did it. I found him leaning over her body in the sitting room. He had the axe in his hand, and said to me, with an oath, ‘That’s the end of her.’”

Sarah Brennan’s head had been crushed in by a blow on the left side that severed her ear, and her face was a network of cuts, where blows had been rained upon her after she had fallen.⁸

The Farmers’ innocence was not in question; the only dispute was why they had done it. The couple was portrayed as the lowest of humanity, a scourge that needed to be gotten rid of. One newspaper wrote, “The story of the lives of Jas. and Mary Farmer is a story of poverty and black futility. Their dull eyes, their misshapen lips, the very creases of their faces, speak of sin-sick souls. To pity them one must be tolerant of human error, considerate of environment and hold sympathy for the weaknesses of their kind.”⁹

The Saratogian of New York noted in June 1908, “Farmer … spent a miserable day yesterday in her cell of solitary confinement in the womans [sic] prison. With but a newspaper, a magazine and her own conscience as companions, she paced back and forth for the greater part of the night and day, stopping now and then to read a paragraph or to take a bite of food from the plentiful supply of edibles which were furnished [to] her.” And, yet, Farmer did not look like the monster or the fiend that everyone found her to be: “Mary Farmer little looked the part of the fiendish act of chopping to pieces the body of her who had befriended her. Slight of frame and with pleasing features, little of the devilishness inner nature seems to have been delineated on the woman’s physical makeup, and yet these very deceiving qualifies are what enabled her to gain the confidence of Sarah Brennan.”¹⁰

On the morning of 1 May 1908, warrants were issued for James D. Farmer and Mary Farmer, who had been held in the Jefferson County jail since Monday, 27 April, as suspects in the murder of Sarah Brennan. The two accused persons were then taken into court, and arraigned that afternoon in front of Judge George W. Reeves. The defendants had separate attorneys. Through his, Brayton A. Field, James Farmer pled not guilty. Mrs. Farmer’s lawyer, E. Robert Wilcox, also pled his client not guilty. Police continued to gather evidence, searching for additional corroboration of the Farmers’ duplicity in the crime as well as their motive. Some believed that the couple used chloroform to subdue Mrs. Brennan, and were looking to see if they could find any of that chemical in their belongings. This belief apparently came from the testimony of a Mrs. Agnes Brown, who told police that on 19 April, four days before the murder, of a futile attempt made by Mrs. Farmer to chloroform Mrs. Brennan in her bedroom. Brown was staying with the Brennans that night when she heard a noise, then smelled a strong odor of chloroform. She got up and went to the window, and saw a stick being shoved into the room from outside. On the end of the stick was a cloth, on which she could detect the smell of chloroform. Brown was a trained nurse and recognized the distinct smell.¹¹

On 5 May, the Watertown Daily Times reported that on the second day of Coroner Pierce’s inquest, “considerable new evidence” in the Brennan murder was uncovered, with Pierce doing all of the questioning of the witnesses himself at the Brownville Hotel —all were neighbors of both couples.¹²

Ann Collier told the inquest that Mary Farmer possessed a small hatchet the size of a hammer, which she used in her home. Mrs. Frank Blake said that Farmer came to her home at 6:30 a.m. on 28 April, returning later that day. She said that Mrs. Farmer dropped her son off at her home the following day, so that the couple could go into town; Mrs. Farmer said she had to see a dentist to get her teeth filled.

Edith Blake, the 13-year old daughter of Frank Blake and his wife, stayed at the Farmer home on Thursday, 28 April, to watch their child.

Mrs. Albert Baker, who was involved in a slander lawsuit against Sarah Brennan, told the jury that she did not consult an attorney until 15 December 1907, long after Mrs. Farmer had gotten the deed on the Brennan land changed, so her testimony was deemed as irrelevant.

Another woman, Mabel Blake (it is not known if she was related to the other Blakes) said that Mrs. Farmer had told her the previous winter that she had bought the Brennan home and land for $1,200.

Phillip Smith, William Tierney, and James Callahan all told of moving the Farmers into the Brennan home on Saturday, 25 April. Smith said that Mary Farmer requested that he tie a trunk—the one that Sarah Brennan’s body was later found in— with strong rope. He then moved it with the aid of Mr. Tierney. Smith said that he first saw the trunk sitting near a window in the east room of the former Farmer home; he said that Mrs. Farmer told him that it contained “valuable articles” which she did not want broken, and cautioned them not to drop it or turn it on its ends. She watched them carefully as they moved it into the Brennan home. Mrs. Ethel Smith (unknown if she was related to Phillip Smith) and Mrs. Baker both reported seeing Brennan go into the Farmers’ yard on the morning she vanished; they did not see her thereafter. It was reported that attorneys for Mr. and Mrs. Farmer were present for the testimony, but no one representing the district attorney’s office was in attendance.

Through this testimony, Pierce sent investigators to look for a lath hatchet—a hammer found in the possession of the Farmers did not have any blood on it. The crime scene was puzzling to authorities. Through her confession, Mary Farmer told police that the murder was committed in certain rooms in her home, but they found only some tobacco stains on the walls and a little blood, but not in amounts consistent with such a bloody crime. A stain of what appeared to be “a spurt of blood” was found on the doorframe of the “dark bedroom,” but the analysis of Dr. Isabelle Meader proved that the bloodstains were not those of Mrs. Brennan. Another room, where the walls were covered with wrapping paper, was then investigated for possible bloodstains there.¹³

*  *  *

On 6 May, a grand jury was empaneled against the Farmers. Judge George W. Reeves ordered that both defendants stand before the jury to listen to the charges that could be brought against them.

John Lawyer of Brownville testified that on the supposed day after the murder, James Farmer came to him in search of the town constable and that “he wanted to give himself up.” He was “neatly dressed in a black suit, a white wing collar and gray four-in-hand tie. He had enjoyed the luxury of a shave and looked quite respectable. Throughout the examination he showed his usual equanimity.”

Patrick Brennan took the stand and was handed the deed that his wife allegedly signed in October 1907, selling the home to the Farmers. He looked at it carefully, and said that it was not written in his wife’s handwriting.

Flora M. Payne then took the stand; she was employed as a stenographer, and was also a notary public. She confirmed that the deed—signed by James D. and Mary Farmer, granting the Brennan property to their son, Peter—bore her signature.

Several witnesses who saw Sarah Brennan on the day that she vanished testified. Patrick Brennan was then recalled, and gave some testimony on the home that he lived in with his wife: they had lived there for about 25 years; the property was worth about $2,500 when the crime was committed; the Farmers had moved into the other house on the property, which he referred to as “Barton house,” about a year earlier.

Pitcher then asked him a series of questions about the day of the murder:

“When did you last see your wife alive?”

“About 6 on the Thursday morning when I left for my work.”

“When did you return home?”

“About 3:45 that afternoon.”

“On arriving home what did you discover?”

“I brought a man with me to help me take down [a] storm porch. I went to where the key [to the front door] is usually kept, and could not find it. The back door and barn were locked. I got a hammer and broke into [the] barn and got a ladder and took down the storm porch. The nephew of [Mr.] Farmer came and said that Farmer wanted to see me. I told him [that] I was too busy to see him. Shortly before 4 [pm] Farmer came along and said he owned the house. I said, ‘When did you buy it?’ ‘Last October,’ he replied. I asked him why he had not occupied the house before. He said that my wife had been paying him $2 a week rent, but he wanted to occupy the house now. Farmer asked me if I saw the record in the county clerk’s office would I believe it. I said [that] I would not. He then said [that] he would have to get an order to make me vacate and I said go ahead. He also said, ‘If your wife is not home by 4 o’clock don’t look for her tonight.’ I got into the house through a window and found my wife’s things where she left them. I slept in the house that night. [I] [w]ent to work Friday morning and returned Friday night, where I stayed that night. Saturday I started to go to work, but some advised me not to, and I came up to Watertown.”

Pitcher then showed Brennan exhibit 4, an order for him and his wife—who he did not know at the time was dead—to vacate the home. He said he had never seen the document before. But some paper had been given to him, he said, served by a constable at Hounsfield. He said he could not swear to the exact time he returned from Watertown that Saturday. He did not go back into the house until Monday, when he went in with the sheriff and attorney Floyd Carlisle. He said he spoke with James Farmer on Sunday morning; that Farmer asked him if he knew where Mrs. Brennan had gone, but he said that he did not. He then told him that his wife had left some money for him in the Jefferson County Savings Bank.

Brennan was then asked about the Monday he went with the sheriff and Floyd Carlisle to his “former” home to find out what was going on. He recalled seeing the strange furniture in the house and large boxes on the porch. When he went into the house he found Mr. and Mrs. Farmer and their baby. He described how when the trunk was found, he instantly identified the body as his wife. He concluded by stating that he had insured the property that February at his wife’s direction. On cross-examination, he said that James Farmer initially told him that his wife might be in Watertown. He could not swear if he told Farmer that he would not “go one foot toward[s] bringing his wife back” or not.

Asa Sherman, the constable at Hounsfield, said that he had indeed served the order to vacate on Mr. Brennan at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, 24 April.

Sheriff Ezra Bellinger testified that he was alerted to Sarah Brennan’s absence, and arrived at their home at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Monday, 29 April. He described his search of the Brennan home, and finding the trunk with Mrs. Brennan’s body inside. The prosecution then rested. James D. Farmer’s attorney, Brayton A. Field, moved to have the charges against his client dismissed on the grounds that no evidence had been presented that showed in any way that his client was connected with the crime, or that he had knowledge of it. The motion was denied.¹⁴

The following day, the grand jury heard evidence against Mary Farmer. Daniel Churchill testified that he saw Mrs. Farmer “superintending” the moving of the trunk on the Saturday following the Thursday that Mrs. Brennan went missing. One witness for the prosecution who elicited much sympathy was Peter Farmer, the elderly father of James Farmer. The Watertown Daily Times reported, “The elder Mr. Farmer is a fine-looking old gentleman and won the sympathy of nearly all. Several times his voice broke as he told different parts of his story. He said that he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Alice Doran, near the ‘Barton house.’ He testified that on the night of the fatal Thursday, Mrs. Farmer came to his house with a long black pocket book which she concealed under the cushion of the Morris chair.”¹⁵

With this testimony, Patrick Brennan was recalled. Shown a long black pocketbook, which the elder Farmer had identified as the one he had seen his daughter-in-law with, Brennan said it resembled one his wife owned.

Following some additional testimony, the people rested. Mary Farmer’s attorney, Robert Wilcox, moved to have the charges against his client dismissed because there was no proof showing that Mrs. Brennan died of her wounds, or that Mrs. Farmer caused those wounds. The motion was denied, and Mrs. Farmer, like her husband, was held over for trial.

*  *  *

On 7 May, the coroner’s inquest formed by Jefferson County Coroner Charles E. Pierce concluded their work, reaching a verdict that Sarah Brennan was murdered by Mary Farmer, who then took over her home.¹⁶

Pierce had heard from numerous witnesses who might give testimony regarding the Brennan murder. He then concluded, according to one account, “that the murder was committed in a back room of the house in which Mrs. Farmer formerly lived, into which the deceased was last seen to go…. It is known that the coroner, who has had several conversations with Mrs. Farmer … believes [that] she is irresponsible.”¹⁷ Pierce, however, made no statement as to the complicity of James Farmer in the crime.¹⁸

On Thursday, 14 May, the grand jury handed down indictments charging both James and Mary Farmer with one count each of murder in the first degree. There were additional comments made by the jurors, charging the Farmers with counts of illegally stealing the property of the Brennans. When informed of the indictments in their cells, Mary Farmer gasped, while her husband remained silent.

The crime had occurred on 23 April, and had been discovered on 27 April; by the second week in June, Mary Farmer was prepared to stand trial. The prosecution was armed with a slew of damning evidence against the couple, including Mrs. Farmer’s confessions. As the trial began, the Syracuse Herald reported, “The only motive that the prosecution could uncover was one involving pure, unadulterated greed by the couple.¹⁹

Mary Farmer’s trial began in the Jefferson County Courthouse on Monday, 8 June 1908. (Most sources report that it began on 16 June, but, as we shall see, this is wholly in error.²⁰)

On the bench was Justice Watson M. Rogers. Born in 1846 in Cape Vincent, New York, near the Canadian border, he taught school at an early age, graduating from Albany Law School in 1868. A 1911 report noted that “by his integrity, ability and industry,” Rogers had “become the acknowledged leader of the Jefferson County bar.” Among the notable cases that came before him was the trial of Albert T. Patrick, who was convicted of murdering businessman William Marsh Rice, founder of Rice University.²¹

The prosecution of both Farmers was led by Jefferson County District Attorney Fred B. Pitcher, assisted by Attorney Floyd L. Carlisle, who had helped to find Mrs. Brennan’s body. Not much is known about Pitcher; he was born in the village of Adams, in Jefferson County, in 1867 and graduated from Cornell in 1888. He served as district attorney of Jefferson County from 1904 to 1910 and served in the New York State Senate, representing the 37th District, from 1919 to 1922.²²

Carlisle was born in 1881 in Watertown, graduated from Cornell in 1903 and became an attorney. Ironically, in 1906 he defended an alleged rapist, opposed in court by his later co-counsel in the Farmer cases, Fred B. Pitcher.²³ He eventually gave up the law and became the president of the St. Regis Paper Company. In later life, he was known as the “power baron” of northeast New York State,²⁴ when he rose to become the chairman of the Niagara-Hudson Power Corporation, as well as the chairman of New York’s Consolidated Edison Co., the largest utility firm in the United States at that time.

Mary Farmer was defended by attorneys John B. Coughlin and Edmund Robert Wilcox. Almost nothing is known of Coughlin, who may have been born in either 1866 or 1867. It appears that he was defending Mary Farmer from the beginnings of her legal troubles, and worked vociferously to save her from the electric chair. Wilcox conducted much of the defense of both James and Mary Farmer. Born in 1863, he earned his law degree from Hamilton College and became known as a tough defense attorney, especially in the famed Frank Fiori murder case.²⁵ His career took on added luster when he became involved in the Farmer case.

On Wednesday, 10 June, a jury to hear the case against Mary Farmer was selected. A Watertown newspaper noted, “Farmer, the accused, raised her eyes from the carpet which she had studied so intently for the three days previous [and] … scanned the faces of the 12 who had her life in their keeping. Patrick Brennan … was the most disinterested appearing person in the room.”

Just 12 minutes after the jury was seated, Carlisle began his opening statement, laying out how the Farmers had plotted to fake the purchase of the Brennan property and then reregistered the deed in the name of their infant son. The couple did not, however, take possession of the property. Instead, said Carlisle, they waited until the end of April to set their violent plan into motion.²⁶

Court then broke for the day, with testimony to begin the following day. Patrick Brennan was the first prosecution witness. He repeated the same story that he had told at the coroner’s inquest, with newspapers noting that he “brought out few new facts.” He began by telling the jury that the Farmers had moved into the Barton house on his property about a year before the murder. He had known James Farmer for nearly his entire life, but had only known his wife for a year or two prior to that time. After the Farmers moved into the Barton house, Mary Farmer called regularly at the Brennan home, beginning about four or five months after they moved in.

Brennan said that his wife kept all of their important papers in a tin lockbox in the southeast bedroom in the house. He identified an oilcloth pocketbook as looking like the one in which she kept the papers in, and spoke about some of the papers he knew to be in the box, including a passbook from the Jefferson County Savings Bank, where the couple had a joint account, which, in April 1908 had a balance of $540.10.²⁷

On 12 June, the prosecution put on the stand Claude O. Failing, a clerk in Brownville; he identified a mortgage given on 1 May 1907 by Mrs. Mary Farmer to the law firm of Wilcox & Sullivan of Brownville for groceries and provisions totaling $51.99. Pitcher then offered into evidence a transcript of a judgment in favor of Mrs. Louisa F. Reinwald against Mary Farmer for $312.01, on which an execution was returned as uncollectable in May 1907. These were intended to show that the Farmers had debts, and could not have “purchased” the Brennan property. However, the defense objected and the court ruled it inadmissible.

Mrs. Mabel Blake then testified that she had moved into the Barton house the previous fall, and remained there until March 1908. Mary Farmer had told her that the Farmers had purchased the Brennan house, paying cash for it.

Fred Waddingham, a clerk from the bank, then took the stand, but when a document showing deposits and withdrawals from the Brennan account was introduced, the defense objected, and the court sustained the objection. Waddingham did say that there was a balance in the account of $540.10. He identified a card that Mrs. Brennan had signed in his presence, although on cross he said that he could not remember when Mrs. Brennan signed it.

John F. Reinwald then told the jury about a home that the defendant had purchased in Brownville in April 1906. At that time, he said, Mary Farmer claimed she had $50 in the bank, and that an uncle in Buffalo she had loaned $1,000 had refused to pay her back. On cross, attorney Coughlin got Reinwald to admit that Farmer had told him that she expected the uncle to leave her $2,500, a horse and carriage, and other properties. On re-direct, the witness identified a letter that Farmer sent to him in which she wrote that she was unable to raise $500 that she said she would use to purchase the home in 1906.

Angela Baker lived directly across the road from the Brennan home. On the morning of 23 April, she was working in her front yard when she saw Mrs. Brennan, attired in a black dress, walk from her house to the Farmer residence. Pitcher asked, “Did you ever see Mrs. Brennan again after you saw her enter the Farmer house?” Baker responded, “I never did.” On cross, Baker admitted that she and Brennan had been good friends until the previous September, when, for some reason, Brennan ceased speaking with her.

William Kennedy, another neighbor, described how he saw Sarah Brennan at 9:35 a.m. on 23 April, as she left her home and went to the Farmer house, but never saw her come out.

The prosecution called Francis. P. Burns, the attorney Mary Farmer had used to transfer the deed from the Brennans to herself and her husband. When Pitcher asked if he had acknowledged the transfer on 31 October 1907, Wilcox objected on the grounds that this was a privileged communication between an attorney and his client. The court allowed Wilcox to question the witness on this specific point. Burns said that he drew up the deed and that he was paid for the work. The court then ruled that Burns could only testify on what he did, not what was said.

Pitcher continued: “By whom was the signature, ‘Sarah Brennan,’ written?”

“By Mary Farmer.” Wilcox objected, but was overruled.

“Did she come to your office alone?”

“She did.”

“From what document, if any, did you obtain the description in exhibit four [the deed]?”

“From an old deed, running to Sarah Brennan.”

“Did you also on that occasion prepare or cause to be prepared exhibit five [the bill of sale]?”

“I had it prepared.”

“On whose request did you have it prepared?”

Wilcox objected, and the objection was sustained.

“After having it prepared to whom did you deliver it?”

“To the defendant in court.”

Brayton A. Field, an attorney with Field & Swan and counsel for James D. Farmer, was called as a witness. He said that he had known Mr. and Mrs. Farmer for years.

“Did Mary Farmer come to your office on January 17 [1908]?” Pitcher asked.

“Yes.”

“Did you see her sign her name to exhibit 14 [the deed conveying the property to the Farmers’ infant son]?”

“Yes.”

“And [did] James D. Farmer sign his name?”

“Yes.”

Alice Doran, James Farmer’s sister, testified that on 9 November 1907, she came to Watertown with a deed given to her by Mary Farmer, along with $2, which she was told to file at the county’s clerk office. On cross, Doran said that she did not observe the words “Notary Public” on the document. She added, “Mrs. Farmer told me [that] she had bought the Brennan home for $1,200.

John J. Sullivan, who ran a general store in Brownville, told the court about visiting the Farmer home. “For what purpose?” Pitcher asked.

“To inquire about her paying her [food] account.”

“What occurred at that time?”

“She placed in my hands what she said was a deed of the Brennan property, which she said she had bought. She also said [that] Mrs. Brennan was going away with someone connected with the Standard Oil Co.”

“At that time did you have a chattel mortgage?”

“I did.”

On cross, Wilcox asked him, “Since Mrs. Farmer was incarcerated, you have foreclosed the mortgage, have you not?”

“Yes, sir.”²⁸

*  *  *

The prosecution, having shown that Mary Farmer had indeed used what we now call identity theft to gain possession of the Brennan property, and that Sarah Brennan had been last seen entering the Farmer home, moved on 12 June to offer additional information regarding Mrs. Farmer’s actions leading up to and after the murder.

Charles F. Peck, of the insurance firm of Seaver & Peck, testified that on 23 February 1908 he issued an insurance policy on the Brennan property in Brownville. On 24 April, the policy was brought to his office by Mrs. Farmer, who asked to have the title changed from her and her husband to their son, Peter. On cross, Peck admitted that he had not initially been able to identify Mary Farmer, but now that he saw her in court he agreed that this was the person.

Attorney Brayton Field was recalled. He said that on 24 April he had prepared a notice to Patrick Brennan to vacate his home and land; this notice was prepared at the request of the defendant, who was present in his office when it was drawn up. Flora Payne, the stenographer, testified that she transferred the deed to the Brennan property on the demand of Mrs. Farmer; she did not see Mr. Farmer. Justice Rogers asked her how she came to know Mrs. Farmer, and she said that Mr. Field had introduced them.

It was, however, the testimony of witnesses Phillip Smith, William Tierney, and James Callahan that captivated the courtroom. Each recalled that James Farmer carried a revolver on his person on 25 April, the day that he and his wife moved into the Brennan home. They told how they were directed to move the trunk from one house to another, reiterating their testimony before the coroner’s inquest.

Smith said that Tierney and Callahan were helping Mr. Farmer move a refrigerator when he, Smith, came along, and they asked him to help. He did, but then Mr. Farmer asked him to move some boxes, which he described as packing boxes, and being very heavy.

“Did you have anything to drink on that occasion?” Pitcher asked.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“They called it ale.” Smith said that Mary Farmer gave Tierney money to get the ale, and they he had gone and refilled a jug three times during the move.

After the boxes were transported to the Brennan home, Smith helped to move a trunk from the east room of the Barton house to the back room of the Brennan house. Mary Farmer asked him to take down a clothesline to tie around the trunk to make it easier to move. She got Tierney, and he and Smith to carry the trunk out the front door, along the road and inside the Brennan home. They laid it down near the outside door in a corner of the summer kitchen. Smith said that Mrs. Farmer walked alongside the men, going into the Brennan home before them. When they got to the place where Mrs. Farmer wanted to put the trunk down, she said that she wanted them to hold it while she swept the area.

The kitchen floor where the trunk was set down was painted yellow.

Pitcher asked, “How many times did you tie the rope around it?”

Smith said that he had wrapped it around two times, and was about to tie it, when Mary Farmer told him to wrap it around again.

Smith said that he later saw Mrs. Farmer doing some washing outside in the rear of the Brennan home. On cross, he admitted that he did not see the color of the water, or if there were clothes in the tub.

William Tierney confirmed Smith’s testimony when he took the stand, added that the side of the trunk that he carried had a broken handle on it. He said that Mrs. Farmer told him that something delicate was in the case, but Tierney said that he believed that there were newspapers or wrapping paper on the floor under the trunk. There was no discoloration on the paper.

James Callahan, the third “mover,” was also called, and while he also verified some of the story of the other men, he admitted that he drank the “ale” and became quite intoxicated. He did not move the trunk, and left soon after the boxes were moved. On cross, he said that he had two whiskeys at a hotel prior to going over to the Farmer house.

Daniel Church, the father of Mrs. Smith, who lived east of the Brennan home, said that he was at his daughter’s residence when Patrick Brennan tried to take down the storm door, and saw him in conversation with James Farmer. On the day of the move, Mary Farmer came over to the Smith home to ask for a box to repack some of Sarah Brennan’s things. Church brought the box over, and found Mary Farmer repacking these items; she complained that she wished that “Mrs. Brennan would pack her own things.” James Farmer said, “Yes. Pack them up and send them away.” Church asked them, “Where is the old lady?” Farmer responded, “I don’t know, but she will never come back to live with Patsy.”²⁹

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reported, “[t]hat the defense will make a strong point of the fact that neither Mary nor James Farmer took pains to hide the purported acquirement of the Brennan property weeks before the crime was committed was evident at the conclusion of to-day’s session.”³⁰

*  *  *

On Monday, 15 June, the prosecution put on evidence from the officers who discovered Sarah Brennan’s body in the trunk. In his cross-examinations of these men, defense attorney Wilcox tried to intimate that “something” had been taken from the trunk before it had been turned over to the coroner. Sheriff Bellinger, one of these witnesses, angrily denied this.

Wilcox suggested that the Brennans’ bankbook and other papers, were “removed” by the police in an effort to frame Mary Farmer. He also asked if the hatchet had been cleaned by the police, or if Mary Farmer’s hair had been found in Sarah Brennan’s hands, to show that his client had in fact been attacked by the dead woman, and that she merely defended herself. To this end, he questioned Constable Peter A. Ward, who had been at the Brennan home on 25 April to make simple inquiries on the fate of the missing Sarah Brennan, about scratches that he may have seen on Mrs. Farmer just two days after the murder. Ward, who had gone to the Brennan house at the initiative of Patrick Brennan, arrived at about 2 pm, and knocked on the door. He said that a little girl answered; he asked her to get the lady of the house.

“Are you Mrs. Brennan?” Ward asked.

“No,” replied the woman, now identified as Mary Farmer.

“Doesn’t Mrs. Brennan live here any more?”

“No.”

“What is your name?”

“Mrs. Farmer.” Ward said that she told him that she had purchased the property and just moved in.

“Where is Mrs. Brennan?”

“I don’t know. She went to Watertown. She has bought a house on either Academy or Cadwell Street.”

Ward said that when he asked why Mrs. Brennan would get rid of her furniture as well, Farmer told him, strangely, to speak with her attorney, Brayton A. Field. She said that she didn’t want to talk about the subject anymore, saying only, “She won’t live with Patsy any more.”

The witness then saw Mrs. Farmer cleaning some clothes in a tub in the back room; the clothes had a “reddish tinge.”

On cross, Ward said that Mrs. Farmer’s eyes were “quite colorless,” and that her face was pallid and flushed.

“Did you notice on her cheek a scratch?”

“No. sir.”

“Did you notice how she walked?”

“Yes … She walked in quick jerks.”

“Did she carry her head high?”

“Yes.”

“How did she talk?”

“She would talk of certain things very nice and low and of other things in a higher key.”³¹

Two physicians testified that Sarah Brennan was murdered by blows to her head. One of these, Dr. Isabelle Meader, a criminalist whom we had met previously after she testified at the coroner’s inquest, had examined some 100 articles from the crime. Both doctors oversaw the autopsy of Brennan, and said that blows were inflicted with a blunt instrument. Two photographs of the deceased victim were presented, shocking the courtroom with their brutality. Meader said that blood, and a piece of flesh, adhered to garments belonging to Mrs. Farmer, and the rear middle room of the Barton house, the probable scene of the murder, was spotted with blood.

The defense objected to the introduction of these articles. One newspaper related, “Dr. Meader testified that she found blood spots on a door casing from the Farmer house, a strip of oilcloth taken from beneath the trunk in the Brennan house, on scrapings from [the] walls and floor of the rear middle room in the Farmer house, on two waists (upon one of which a piece of human flesh was found on the underside of the sleeve). Mr. Wilcox objected to the waists being submitted on the grounds that there was no proof that they were worn by the defendant or that they comprised a part of the washing done by Mrs. Farmer on April 25. The court held that the waists should be properly identified. The introduction of a skirt upon which the witness found traces of blood raised a similar objection from the defense.” Meader did not find any blood on the hatchet believed to be the murder weapon, but she said that it had been thoroughly cleaned off.³²

The prosecution then rested.

*  *  *

The defense began with attorney Wilcox’s opening statement that Mary Farmer was insane, but that the murder was justifiable because Sarah Brennan had attacked her and she had to defend herself. He argued that Brennan had indeed sold her property to the Farmers because she feared some sort of slander suit, but on objection from the prosecution the court held that such evidence was hearsay and could not be admitted.³³

The defense of Mary Farmer lasted one day—from the opening statement of her attorney, John B. Coughlin, to the closing from E. Robert Wilcox.

The defense, through their remarks to the jury and in their questioning of witnesses, sought to convince the jurors that their client was insane. To this end, Coughlin began in his opening by promising to prove three things: that the deed of the Brennan property given to Mrs. Farmer had in fact been given by Sarah Brennan; that Sarah Brennan’s death came during a fight in which Mary Farmer had to use force in self-defense; and, that if the jurors believed that this was a murder, that their client was insane and could not be responsible for her actions. If the defense could get the jury to accept any of these arguments, they could reduce the criminal liability from first degree to second degree murder, or perhaps manslaughter, or, even better, not guilty by reason of insanity.

Through one of the prosecution witnesses, Ray Farmer, a nephew of James, they tried to prove the insanity defense when the witness claimed that he saw, on a regular basis, Mary Farmer staring ahead, with a strange expression in her eyes, which were “milkish white with a black spot in the center.” Mary McDermott, a former boarder of the Farmers, told of how Mary Farmer abused a chicken by cutting off its head with a pair of scissors, then dared it to live.

John Farmer, another nephew of James, testified that in 1905 Farmer denied having met him, and refused to believe that he was, in fact, John Farmer, even though she had known him for several years. On cross, prosecuting attorney Floyd L. Carlisle got the witness to admit that at the time, Mary Farmer owed him money, and by not “admitting” who he was, she could avoid paying him back. When he asked her what was wrong with the account that she owed him, he said, she told him that she did not know him at all. Anna Farmer, the wife of John Farmer, then testified that Mary Farmer once accused her of possibly having an affair with James D. Farmer, which she denied. She said that Mary “spoke very rapidly, her face was flushed and her eyes were large and staring.” She also called Mrs. Farmer “irrational.”

The defense completed their witness testimony, and called Dr. Robert Gates, of Brownville, the Farmer family physician. After her son was born, he said, she was so excitable that she could not sleep, and he had to prescribe some medicine to calm her down. She later told him that she could not sleep at night because she was very nervous and often heard noises; she also said that she might not live through the “confinement” of being at home constantly with the child. Gates said that Farmer kept a tidy house, but after the birth of her son he saw a marked change in both her appearance and that of her home, which became untidy. Gates visited Farmer in jail after the murder; she told him that she had an aunt and cousins on her mother’s side who had “fits” and were in asylums. She also said that she herself had fits since the age of 13. She said she had had a priest come to bless the Brennan home after she moved in because she was afraid that Protestants would come and burn it down. When asked if the defendant could have killed Brennan during a fight, the prosecution objected that there was no evidence of a fight, and the objection was sustained.

On cross, Carlisle asked about his visits to Mrs. Farmer in jail:

“If it should appear that there was no insanity in her family, would it affect your judgment?”

“It would not.”

“If it appeared that she had lied to you?”

“No.”³⁴

The final witness for the defense was Dr. Royal Amidon, of Chaumont, a town in Jefferson County, who was brought in to examine Mrs. Farmer and declare her insane. The defense attorneys, most notably E. Robert Wilcox, must have realized that they could not stop a guilty verdict, and that their only hope was to try to save their client from the electric chair.³⁵

Dr. Amidon, an expert in nervous diseases, also told of visiting Farmer in jail on 23 May. She offered to him a history of her family, stating that her grandmother was a habitual criminal, and had compelled her grandchildren to steal; she also said for the first time that both her mother and her father were insane. Amidon also visited and examined her on 2 June and 13 June, taking notice of a small but deformed head, the right eye wider than the left, and the right side of the face “flatter” than the left. The field of her vision was much contracted; she confused blue and light green, and appeared to be colorblind. Her eyes did not move on the same horizontal plane—the left eye moved upward while the right one did not. Her ears were also defective. She could not raise her eyebrows or frown properly. From all of this, Amidon concluded that Mary Farmer was laboring under a hereditary, degenerative insanity, caused by a family history of crime, insanity and fits which went back several generations.

Wilcox asked if Farmer was insane when she killed Sarah Brennan. In his opinion, Amidon said, the patient was insane, now and then.

On cross-examination, Carlisle got Amidon to admit that the killing of a human being for an obvious motive indicated sanity.

Amidon explained that the concealing of the body and the washing of her clothes seemed to be a rational act, as did the theft of the Brennan property and the seizing of possessions on that property. But Mary Farmer’s confession, and her laying fault for the crime on her husband, did indicate irrationality.

“You would expect her to confess to the crime?” Carlisle asked.

“No—quite the contrary,” Amidon answered.

On re-direct, the doctor said that insane people were known to act with great cunning; he considered the keeping of the body in the trunk, and Mrs. Farmer’s statement to the police as being indicative of insanity. In his opinion, the doctor concluded, the defendant did not think that the murder of Sarah Brennan was wrong. Wilcox asked him about lies she told; he said, “I am convinced of her insanity now.” Wilcox asked, “In your opinion, is the prisoner feigning insanity?” The doctor answered, “No.”³⁶

Dr. R.W. Witt, of Brownville, had examined Mary Farmer for an insurance policy in March 1906. He explained that after the examination, Farmer wrote on the questionnaire that she never had a disease of the brain, fits, or convulsions, headaches, or insanity. Wilcox asked on cross, “Is it not a fact that an insane person never admits he is insane?” The doctor answered in the negative.

“Then it is your opinion that an insane person can discriminate between sanity and insanity in themselves?”

“I assume that they can.”

“An insane person never knows that he is insane, does he?”

“I cannot say that.”

Witt said that Farmer asked for $500 in insurance, to be paid on her death to her husband.

At 11:30 am on 18 June, attorney Carlisle stood and said, “The people rest.” Court broke for lunch. At the afternoon session, E. Robert Wilcox stood and gave his closing argument, followed by District Attorney Pitcher. In total, these arguments lasted more than seven hours. Court then adjourned for the day, reassembling the next morning.³⁷

On 19 June, Justice Watson charged the jury, after which they were sent out to deliberate. Three hours later, they returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The Oswego Daily Times reported, “Mary Farmer appeared to be unmoved by the announcement.”³⁸

Rogers quickly sentenced Mary Farmer to death in the electric chair at Auburn Prison, setting the date for the action on 2 August.³⁹

On the day after her sentencing, Mary Farmer was taken into the custody of Deputy Sheriff Charles C. Hosmer of Jefferson County, and was brought to the death house at Auburn Prison on 20 June. One paper reported that, “owing to the fact that there are no vacant cells in the condemned row, Mrs. Farmer will be held in solitary confinement in the women’s prison until additions are made to the number of cells in the condemned ward.”⁴⁰

The reporting on Mary Farmer, from the time of the crime onwards, demonstrated a total disbelief in her lack of empathy. As she was taken to Auburn to await execution, it was noted: “The only sign of feeling displayed by her from the time she left Watertown until her incarceration was when the big gate at the prison swung open to permit the party to pass. On the threshold she shuddered and took a last hasty look outside.”⁴¹

By July, it was reported that “Mrs. Farmer has settled down to the routine of prison life. Four women guards have watched her day and night since her incarceration in the special cell in the women’s prison. She is neither demonstrative nor reserved, but conducts herself much in the manner of a woman who has no great concern for her future.”⁴²

On 13 July, Farmer’s attorneys announced they would appeal her case to the courts if Governor Charles Evans Hughes denied the application to commute her sentence to life imprisonment.⁴³

*  *  *

While Mary Farmer sat on death row awaiting either salvation or execution, James Farmer was placed on trial for his alleged role in the murder of Sarah Brennan. He would be tried before Judge Pascal C.J. DeAngelis, who later served on the New York State Supreme Court from 1906 to 1920.

From the time of his arrest, Farmer was represented by attorney Brayton Allen Field. Born in Hounsfield, New York, in 1853, he was a distant cousin of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field. Admitted to the New York bar in 1886, Brayton Field would form a law partnership with Edgar C. Emerson, who was also deeply involved with the Farmer murder trials.⁴⁴

The chief attorney in defense of James Farmer was Virgil Kenyon Kellogg. Born in 1854, he had been elected district attorney of Jefferson County in 1892, and later became one of the county’s leading attorneys.⁴⁵

The murder trial of James Farmer opened in the same courtroom as that of his wife. The local newspaper called it “[t]he final act of the tragedy which had its prologue in a little house at Brownville one stormy day in April….⁠”⁴⁶ Jury selection began on 19 October 1908, and took the better part of two full days to find twelve veniremen to hear the case.⁴⁷

On 21 October, the opening statement by Floyd L. Carlisle began the proceedings, describing the defendant as “a lake sailor, who returned to Brownville some two years [earlier]. He said Mr. Farmer was addicted to the use of intoxicants, and that he and his wife owned no property, their household goods being covered by a mortgage…. The attorney next took up the links in the chain of evidence. First, he said that it would be showed that last fall Mr. Farmer had the deed filed at the county clerk’s office purporting to come from Mrs. Brennan and transferring the Brennan property to the Farmers. No step was taken under this deed to gain possession of the property…. Mrs. Doran, [the] defendant’s sister, mistrusted the signature of the deed and declined to file it herself when Farmer had requested her to. She advised him to see the Brennans about it.”⁴⁸

Carlisle continued, stating that on 23 April both Mr. and Mrs. Farmer were at home when Mrs. Brennan was murdered. When Patrick Brennan came home, it was Mr. Farmer, and not his wife, who told him that Sarah Brennan had left. Over the next few days, James Farmer helped his wife to clean the obvious bloodstains on the walls, and to move furniture and tie a rope around the trunk. The notice to Patrick Brennan to vacate was signed not by Mary Farmer, but by James Farmer. The wounds on the deceased’s body demonstrated that they were done by a man—in short, the defendant.

Patrick Brennan took the stand to repeat the story he gave at the coroner’s inquest and at Mary Farmer’s trial, adding that his sister, Mrs. Mary A. Winagar, had deeded the home where they lived to his wife in 1885. He said that she had never left the home for any extended period save for a visit to Kingston, Ontario, and a two-month visit to her homeland of Ireland.

James Farmer sat quietly in court, listening to the evidence of his and his wife’s involvement in the Sarah Brennan murder. In the six months since the crime, his family’s entire world had collapsed around them—his wife was on death row, he was on trial for his life, and his son had been placed in the care of John Conboy, a family member, and sent to the Ogdensburg orphanage in St. Lawrence County. Patrick Brennan had had the fake deed that Mary Farmer had taken out on his land declared void.

Farmer, once a drunk, had had six months to dry out. One newspaper noted, “James D. Farmer has been in the county jail since his arrest on April 25. In court, dressed neatly and soberly, clean and sober, and much lighter in weight after six months imprisonment…. In that respect his is a great disappointment to the crowd of morbid sensation seekers who pack the court room every day, many of whom would be much better employed doing their housework and taking care of their families.”⁴⁹

The remainder of the trial, which lasted for several days, followed that of the evidence shown in the trial of Mary Farmer, with the exception that James Farmer’s attorneys consistently argued that he had had nothing to do with the crime. Virgil Kellogg attempted to argue that Sarah Brennan knew all about the deed transfer, so no crime could have been committed.

On Monday, 26 October, after the prosecution rested, Brayton Field delivered the defense’s opening statement, arguing that the defendant was at the Doran home for the entire day when Sarah Brennan was killed. He also said that Sarah Brennan had in fact asked Mary Farmer to change the land deed, to save her property from an alleged slander suit. James D. Farmer had had no knowledge of what had occurred between his wife and Brennan, and thus was not guilty.⁵⁰

James Farmer took the stand in his own defense. He told of his life, and meeting and marrying Mary Farmer in Buffalo. He said that he worked and gave his wages to his wife. She took in boarders and looked after the finances of the family, even buying his clothes. He then got to the point where his wife brought up the deed: she showed it to him the day after she went into Watertown. He looked at the deed and realized that something was wrong with it. He admitted that he asked his sister to record the deed, because his wife was ill, and he did not want to miss any time from work. He then spoke about how his sister called him on the deed.

“Did you think that the signature to the deed was the true one of Mrs. Brennan?” asked Field.

“I did.”

“Why did you not speak to the Brennans about the deed?”

“I didn’t think it was necessary, having both deeds and knowing as I supposed the property was bought all right.”

“Did you believe your wife had paid for the property?”

“I certainly did.”

On 23 April, the day that Sarah Brennan went missing, Farmer said he rose at 6:30 a.m., had breakfast, then went over to the Doran home. He changed his clothes and worked at that house for the rest of the day.

There is no record of the cross-examination of James Farmer, but he was emphatic that he did not help to murder Sarah Brennan or cover up the crime. His sister, Alice Doran, supported him in her testimony.

Virgil Kellogg gave the closing argument for the defense, followed by District Attorney Pitcher for the people. Judge DeAngelis then charged the jury. After three hours of deliberations, they found Farmer guilty of first-degree murder. DeAngelis then sentenced Farmer to die in the electric chair, during the week of 13 December, pending an appeal. On 2 November, Farmer was taken to Auburn Prison, where his wife was incarcerated.⁵¹

*  *  *

Farmer’s lawyers asked for a new trial, but the motion was denied.⁵²

For the next 53 weeks, James Farmer sat on death row, awaiting his fate. The media now dwelt on the fact that a married couple, the parents of an infant child, were destined to die together in New York’s electric chair. The Spokane Press lamented, “a pretty baby, whose eyes have been opened to the bright world a little less than two years, will be orphaned by the lightning of the law. In an asylum which the state provides, the terrible story of the crime of this baby boy’s parents and society’s vengeance will be kept from him until the truth creeps into his heart. Kindly disposed attendants at this asylum, who have learned to love this child, hope that some childless husband and wife will come to claim him, change his name and forever keep dark his unconscious shame.”⁵³

While the Farmers’ appeals went through the courts, news was made when Patrick Brennan remarried right before Christmas 1908, to Mrs. Emma Snyder of Brownsville, just under nine months after Sarah Brennan’s body was found. The couple went to live in the home that Mary Farmer had stolen from the Brennans.⁵⁴

On 19 January 1909, the New York State Court of Appeals heard Mary Farmer’s appeal. The Auburn Citizen reported, “It is stated on pretty good authority that both [Auburn Prison] Warden [George W.] Benham and Superintendent [Cornelius V.] Collins consider the woman insane.”⁵⁵

Nevertheless, on 9 February, the Court of Appeals denied Mrs. Farmer’s appeal unanimously. Justice Emory A. Chase wrote that Mrs. Farmer’s confession, whether or not it implicated her husband, was legally allowed into evidence. Regarding Farmer’s potential insanity he concluded, “The alleged strange, peculiar and unnatural acts and words of the defendant and the opinions of the experts called in her behalf did not require a different verdict by the jury.”⁵⁶

The decision of the court upholding the death sentence for a woman was shocking but not unexpected; after all, Farmer had confessed to murdering Brennan. Her attorney, Robert Wilcox, gathering additional materials, including letters from a prominent physician and an alienist who had examined Farmer and believed her to be insane, was immediately prepared to present the file to Governor Hughes so that Farmer’s life might be spared.⁵⁷

On 15 February, Auburn Warden George W. Benham visited Mary Farmer in her cell and read to her the death warrant signed by Governor Hughes, setting her date with the electric chair for 30 March. The Oswego Palladium reported that “Mrs. Farmer received her death sentence with blank indifference, soon recovering with a slight start as the Warden and others left. She sat on the edge of her bed and efforts of the officers to learn her wishes regarding the offer of strangers for the adoption of her infant were fruitless.”⁵⁸ Farmer’s attorney, Robert Wilcox, then asked New York Governor Hughes to appoint a special commission to examine Mrs. Farmer and her mental condition, and whether she was fit to be put to death.⁵⁹

Whether or not Hughes would allow Farmer’s execution to go forward was the subject of public scrutiny. From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Unless Governor Hughes shall interfere, Mrs. Mary Farmer will die in the electric chair. Her husband, alleged to be equally guilty with her in the murder of a Mrs. Brennan, had little hope of escape from similar punishment. But many voices are raised in pity for the woman, while not a word of sympathy for the man is heard. He may die like a dog, for all that the public appears to care! This would appear to be unfair, because the woman in the Farmer family was its head. She exercised complete control over her husband, and the murder of the neighbor woman appeared to be inspired by sordid motives, namely, the acquirement of her property. Murders by women have become very frequent. If capital punishment be valuable as a deterrent to murder and arson, why should discrimination be made as to sex? When Theodore Roosevelt was Chief Executive of this state, he refused to commute the sentence of Martha Place, convicted of a hideous murder, and she was duly executed in Sing Sing Prison. When Mary Farmer meets her doom, we would suggest that the necessary jury be composed entirely of women. At a time when women are so vehemently clamoring for “rights,” their sincerity should be tested by the selection of a score of them to witness the next execution of a condemned murderess.⁶⁰

There were attempts by Mary Farmer’s supporters to collect affidavits from those who knew, to try to show that she was indeed insane, and save her from the electric chair.⁶¹

All of these attempts were in vain, however: on 22 March 1909, Governor Hughes announced that he had denied executive clemency for Mrs. Farmer: “As the prisoner is a woman, there are those who urge that capital punishment in such a case is revolting, and that the sentence should be commuted on the ground of sex. The law of the state regarding murder makes no distinction between the sexes, and a woman who is found guilty of this crime is subject to the same penalty as a man.”⁶²

Nothing could save Mary Farmer from the electric chair—this was a time before the U.S. Supreme Court heard death penalty appeals. She began to prepare for her execution. Even until the end, she showed a lack of remorse or any feelings at all for the crime she committed, for her husband, or for her infant son.

In her last hours, Warden Benham informed Farmer that she could be visited by her spiritual adviser, the Rev. Hickey. It was reported that “when Father Hickey made his daily visit to … she received him without any show of emotion, although for some time previous to his arrival she had been apparently engrossed in a Prayer Book.” When Hickey told her that she could see her husband before being put to death, she apparently “brightened a trifle” and said, “I would like to see Jim.” It was reported that “prison officials expect that the last talk between convicted husband and wife will be protracted, but hardly look for any display of real feeling on the part of either. Thus far neither has said anything about their infant son….”⁶³

On the day before the execution, Mary Farmer was described as calm and facing her doom with an iron will. She met with the Rev. Hickey, who counseled her that if she could make a statement before her execution that would exonerate her husband that she should do so. She did not wish to confess to anything, she told him, but she would make a simple statement, and a notary public was called to hear this declaration. She gave it in confidence, with orders that it not be released until after her death. She also left an additional statement, addressed to her attorney, Robert Wilcox, with the proviso that he keep it until it could be read to her son when he became old enough to fully understand its meaning. Said one newspaper, “It is said to be full of endearing terms, good advice to the boy to live as he should live, and prayerful words that he may be spared through all his life from any consequences of her rash act.”⁶⁴

The New-York Tribune reported, “Facing death at dawn, the wretched woman showed no evidences to-night of collapse, though the last words between herself and [her] husband, separated in their parting interview by heavy bars and an impenetrable screen, were affecting to the two women attendants and the captain of the guard. As the law does not permit it, there was no farewell embrace to-night when the time came for separation. When the steel door of Mrs. Farmer’s cell was closed, and James Farmer, weeping, had been led away, the woman fell on her cot and wept for a few moments and then began to pray. Her attendants did not tell her of the death chair in the next room.”⁶⁵

As 6 a.m. on 30 March 1909 approached, noted one newspaper, “Father Hickey joined the watchers at Mrs. Farmer’s cell door. In the pale ochre light of the corridor the woman and priest prayed together, the last sacrament was administered, and Mrs. Farmer said [that] she was not afraid to die. [She] was dressed in a plain black waist and skirt. Her hair was brushed back from her forehead and fell in two braids. Two or three locks were cut from the scalp so that the head electrodes might be properly adjusted and the women attendants slit the left side of the skirt as far as the knee and cut the stocking.”⁶⁶

When the time came, Hickey, along with the matrons assigned to Farmer—identified as Mrs. John Dunnigan and Miss Mary Gorman—stood by her cell. Capt. William C. Patterson, a guard who had been at Auburn in 1890 when William Kemmler, the first man put to death in the electric chair, had escorted him to his death, went to her cell, opened the door, and escorted Mary Farmer to the room next door. He tapped on the door to the condemned room four times with a stick. It opened.

Father Hickey was beside her for the march from Cell 7 to the chair—approximately ten steps. One paper noted, “A ghostlike color overspread Mrs. Farmer’s face. She had chosen a neat fitting black dress for her death. She wore new shews [sic]…. Her eyes were closed. Her lips moved constantly in prayer, her voice subdued. In her right hand was a prayer book, in her left a rosary. She seemed devoid of consciousness and only for a second raised her eyes in part token of gratitude to Father Hickey as his hand touched hers. She seemed to divine his intentions, and after a slight fervent clasp released her grasp on the crucifix and rosary.” As the guards tied her to the chair, Farmer kept murmuring, over and over, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have mercy on my soul.” The preparations complete, Warden Benham stepped from the chair and motioned to the state electrician, Edwin Davis, who turned on the power. Mary Farmer convulsed against the straps as the force of the electric shock passed through her body for a full minute. Dr. John Gerin, the prison physician, declared her deceased at 6:15. He later told reporters that she was dead after the first shock, but that since some of her muscles continued to twitch, Davis gave her an additional two shocks of 1,840 volts.⁶⁷

During the post-mortem, physicians removed her clothes and, to their horror, found a photograph of her two-year old son under her dress. The now-deceased murderer had told Father Hickey that she had no blood relatives in the United States, and no one to receive her remains over for burial.⁶⁸

Mary Farmer was put to death almost 10 years to the day after the first woman ever executed in the electric chair, Martha Place.⁶⁹

After Farmer had been put to death, the statement she had given the previous day was released to the media by the Rev. Hickey:

My husband, James D. Farmer, never had any hand in Sarah Brennan’s death, nor never knew anything about it till the trunk was opened. I never told him anything what had happened. I feel he has been terribly wronged. James D. Farmer was not at home the day the affair happened, neither did James D. Farmer ever put a hand on Sarah Brennan after her death. Again, I wish to say as strongly as I can that my husband, James D. Farmer, is entirely innocent of the death of Sarah Brennan, that he knowingly had no part in any plans that led to it, and that he knew nothing whatever about it.⁷⁰

She was buried, with little fanfare, in the Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Auburn, New York, in Section 22, Lot 3, Grave 14. Arrangements for her interment had been made by James Farmer through the Rev. Hickey. There were no services at the burial. The photograph of her infant son was placed into her clasped hands.

While Mary Farmer sat on death row, it was discovered that she may have tried her land-fraud scheme earlier in Binghamton:

Following the arrest of the Farmer woman and her husband, [a search] of the woman’s record was made by officials of Jefferson County and the investigation brought the officers to this city…. It is claimed that the woman now awaiting her execution in murderer’s row at Auburn had a mania for real estate deals and that it was her hobby to obtain property through trickery. The statement is made that one of these transactions was nearly successfully carried out while she was employed at the Binghamton City Hospital and that information obtained by the authorities just before the deal was closed, caused her to leave the city suddenly. Attempts made before the trial to learn the particulars of this transaction were unsuccessful. It is known, however, that the woman secured a deed for some Main street property of considerable value: the deed was never recorded and no claim was made to the title after her sudden departure from the city.⁷¹

There does not appear to have been a follow-up of this story, or any conclusion that Mary Farmer may have committed similar crimes elsewhere.

*  *  *

Mary Farmer was put to death eleven months after the crime was committed—it’s hard to imagine a murder case even going to trial in eleven months today. For several months after her execution, it was anticipated that James Farmer’s conviction would be upheld, and he would suffer the same fate.

On 18 June 1909, it was announced that the New York State Court of Appeals would adjourn until October, not having taken up Farmer’s appeal. It was expected that they would make their decision when they reconvened.⁷² When the court reconvened on 4 October 1909, there was great speculation that the Farmer decision would come down on that day, but the court released a statement that no decision would be released until the following day, at the earliest.⁷³

There would be no decision until 19 October. On that date, the court struck down Farmer’s murder conviction. Justice Albert Haight, writing for the majority of the court, “declare[d] that upon the trial of the defendant the confession of his wife at the time of the discovery of the body was ruled out, thus leaving the jury without any information as to what took place in Farmer’s house after Mrs. Brennan entered [it].”⁷⁴ The court declared that the record did not contain enough evidence that would justify a conviction against James Farmer, showing that he was at home when the homicide took place.⁷⁵

On 6 December 1909, Pitcher went before Justice W.S. Andrews and asked that the indictment against James D. Farmer for murder in the first degree be quashed, which was ordered. At the same time, Pitcher disclosed a new indictment against Farmer, charging him with accessory to murder, as well as forgery. The defendant immediately pleaded not guilty, and his case was remanded for trial. Justice Andrews asked Farmer if he desired an attorney, and Farmer said that he wished for Virgil K. Kellogg, to represent him. Although he was already represented by Brayton A. Field, Andrews also ordered that Field represent the defendant.⁷⁶

James Farmer was naturally, and rightfully, afraid of what a second trial might do to him and his family, and he was indignant over it, claiming that he had done nothing wrong. A local paper, giving his side of the story, stated, “After passing through the humiliation of arrest and the exhaustive suspense of a modern inquisition; after 20 months in jail and prison, with 53 weeks in the death row at Auburn, for a crime of which the highest court in the state declares him innocent, James D. Farmer will on Monday face a Jefferson County jury for the second time, now on an accusation of accessory after the commitment of a felony.”⁷⁷

Farmer’s second trial opened on 22 February 1910, in the same courtroom where he and his wife had first been convicted in 1908—this time before Judge Edgar C. Emerson. As jury selection began, Farmer’s attorneys included his original counsel, Brayton Field, his trial attorney Virgil Kellogg, as well as Mary Farmer’s lawyer, E. Robert Wilcox. As with the original trials, the prosecution was represented by District Attorney Fred B. Pitcher, and Floyd L. Carlisle.⁷⁸

The jury was impaneled Monday, 21 February, and the hearing of evidence began the next morning in earnest. Attorney Carlisle told the jury in his opening that Farmer “had reason to believe that a crime had been committed by his wife, Mary J. Farmer, on April 23, 1908, and that he shielded or attempted to shield her from the authorities.” He gave a brief explanation of the case against Mary Farmer, and how she had committed the murder.

When Carlisle mentioned that James Farmer knew of the deed being transferred from the Brennans to the Farmers, Farmer’s counsel, Virgil Kellogg, stood and objected, saying that such evidence was for an action before the murder. Judge Emerson overruled him, stating that Farmer’s statements and actions relative to the deed were allowed as bearing on the defendant’s knowledge. Kellogg made an exception to the ruling. After 45 minutes, the prosecution began to call witnesses.

Andrew A. Leyare, a surveyor, was the first witness: he showed maps of the two residences, and was asked where a body could be hidden. On cross, Wilcox asked if a body could be thrown into the river. Patrick Brennan, was the second witness, telling much the same story that he had told in the two previous murder trials. On cross, Wilcox tried to ask about Brennan’s second marriage the previous year, but Pitcher objected and was sustained.⁷⁹

The second day of the trial, Mrs. Angeline Premo, who lived near the Farmers’ home, said on 27 April she saw James Farmer doing some work outside the Brennan house, and heard his wife come over to him and say, “Jim, I want you to give them some papers.” Virgil Kellogg asked her on cross whether she had told a priest that she might have been mistaken about the conversation, but she denied this.

Constable Asa C. Sherman, who served the notice to vacate to Patrick Brennan, identified the notice. He said that the notification said that the Farmers had bought the property directly from Sarah Brennan, and that she “had delivered unto him the keys to the house.” This, the prosecution said, directly tied James Farmer to the crime. The bill of sale of the Brennan property and the deed from James and Mary Farmer to their son Peter were also placed into evidence. John W. Lawyer of Brownville said that John Farmer met him on 24 April and asked if he could see a constable; he asked Farmer if he “wanted the law,” and Farmer replied that he “wanted to give himself up.” When asked on cross if he thought that the comment was a joke, the prosecution objected and was sustained.⁸⁰

Alice Doran, the defendant’s sister, told of the day that she was asked to file the fake deed; she called her brother and told him that it was “not right,” but he came to her, took the deed, and filed it himself. On cross, attorney Kellogg showed Mrs. Doran photographs of properties that the Farmers had owned, and stated that it was not incredible for the couple to purchase property. On re-direct, District Attorney Pitcher took Mrs. Doran through the defendant’s financial history, and the work that he did. Most of these questions were objected to, and the objections were largely sustained.⁸¹

The remainder of the prosecution case followed that of the two original trials, except that James Farmer was pointed out as being an accessory, rather than the actual killer, of Sarah Brennan. On Thursday, 24 February, the prosecution rested.

The two sides wrapped up their presentations on 28 February; the morning session in court on 1 March was dedicated entirely to the closing argument of defense counsel Kellogg. He spoke for five hours, “pleading most convincingly for the defendant. He did not ask leniency; he made no attempt to work upon the jurors’ sentiments. He took the testimony bit by bit, comparing that of the prosecution with that of the defense and unjointing the links in the people’s chain of evidence against his client. At 11:30 he was followed by District Attorney Pitcher for the people, who showed the case from the other side. Mr. Pitcher gave a very eloquent address, to which the jury listened with attention.”⁸²

Pitcher told the jury that the mere fact that James Farmer knew of his family’s extreme poverty, only to hear from his wife that they had “purchased” the Brennan’s land for $1,200, should have made him realize that such a transaction was monetarily impossible. That his wife could have so brutally murdered Mrs. Brennan, with such viciousness and savagery, without him being aware or not involved, said Pitcher, was simply unreasonable to believe.

The jury went out at 5 p.m. on 1 March, and returned at 9:15 p.m. to announce a verdict of not guilty. The Watertown Daily Times reported, “Thereupon began such a demonstration from the hundred people gathered in the room as the old court house has seldom seen. Men and women stood up to cheer, the hand clapping drowning the whacking of the gavels in the hands of the court and of the clerk. Deputies called for order and as the din subsided the voice of the judge rang out. Instantly, the room was as quiet as a vacant house. ‘Officers, if you have seen anyone applaud, bring him before the court,’ Judge Emerson directed. ‘We will see if this demonstration can’t be stopped.’”⁸³

James Farmer had now avoided a death sentence for murder, and he had been acquitted of the charge of being an accessory of the murder. With the decision of the jury, prosecutor Pitcher saw the handwriting on the wall—he could not get a conviction against the second of the two defendants. Thus, on 4 March, he went before Judge Emerson, and asked that the indictment against James Farmer for forgery be quashed. Emerson went along with the prosecutor’s motion, and ordered that the defendant’s bail bond of $4,000 be discharged. James Farmer was a free man.⁸⁴

For many years, the murder of Sarah Brennan haunted the area of upstate New York where it occurred. In 1913, when the old courthouse where the three trials had taken place was under renovation, carpenters found a number of trial exhibits in the basement, most notably the bloody trunk in which Mary Farmer interred the remains of Sarah Brennan, still stained with the blood and gore of the victim.⁸⁵

It does not appear that James D. Farmer ever lived down the stigma of being tied to one of the worst murders in New York history. He apparently raised his son, Peter J. Farmer, quietly and out of the spotlight, and little was ever written about him during the remainder of his life.

In June 1934, James Farmer suffered a heart attack, and was taken to a local hospital where he died, aged 69. He was laid to rest in the Glenwood Cemetery in Watertown. His obituary stated, “Mr. Farmer was held in high esteem by residents of the Brownville section. They believed him innocent of the charge from the first, and it was his friends that enabled the case to be carried to the court of appeals.”⁸⁶