Tarlton Law Library
Jamail Center for Legal Research

"The baby figure of the giant mass 
Of things to come." 
                    --Troilus and Cressida.

confronted me from the opposite wall. A sweet picture—sweet enough 
and poetic enough to have been conceived by the most idealistic of artists:
simple, too—-the vision of a young flaxen-haired, blue-eyed coquette, 
dressed in the costume of the First Empire, standing in a wood-path, 
looking back over her shoulder at some one following—yet with such a 
dash of something not altogether saint-like in the corners of her meek 
eyes and baby-like lips, that it impressed me with the individuality of 
life. Had it not been for the open dress, with its waist almost beneath 
the armpits, the hair cut short on the forehead, and the perfection of 
the neck and shoulders, I should have taken it for a literal portrait 
of one of the ladies of the house. As it was, I could not rid myself of 
the idea that one, if not both, of Mr. Leavenworth's nieces looked down 
upon me from the eyes of this entrancing blonde with the beckoning 
glance and forbidding hand. So vividly did this fancy impress me that I 
half shuddered as I looked, wondering if this sweet creature did not 
know what had occurred in this house since the happy yesterday; and if 
so, how she could stand there smiling so invitingly, — when suddenly I 
became aware that I had been watching the little crowd of men about me 
with as complete an absorption as if nothing else in the room had 
attracted my attention; that the face of the coroner, sternly 
intelligent and attentive, was as distinctly imprinted upon my mind as 
that of this lovely picture, or the clearer-cut and more noble features 
of the sculptured Psyche, shining in mellow beauty from the 
crimson-hung window at his right; yes, even that the various 
countenances of the jurymen clustered before me, commonplace and 
insignificant as most of them were; the trembling forms of the excited

servants crowded into a far corner; and the still more disagreeable 
aspect of the pale-faced, seedy reporter, seated at a small table and 
writing with a ghoul-like avidity that made my flesh creep, were each 
and all as fixed an element in the remarkable scene before me as the 
splendor of the surroundings which made their presence such a nightmare 
of discord and unreality. 
     I have spoken of the coroner. As fortune would have it, he was no 
stranger to me. I had not only seen him before, but had held frequent 
conversation with him; in fact, knew him. His name was Hammond, and
he was universally regarded as a man of more than ordinary acuteness,
fully capable of conducting an important examination, with the 
necessary skill and address. Interested as I was, or rather was likely 
to be, in this particular inquiry, I could not but congratulate myself 
upon our good fortune in having so intelligent a coroner. 
     As for his jurymen, they were, as I have intimated, very much like 
all other bodies of a similar character. Picked up at random from the 
streets, but from such streets as the Fifth and Sixth Avenues, they 
presented much the same appearance of average intelligence and 
refinement as might be seen in the chance occupants of one of our city 
stages. Indeed, I marked but one amongst them all who seemed to take 
any interest in the inquiry as an inquiry; all the rest appearing to be 
actuated in the fulfilment of their duty by the commoner instincts of 
pity and indignation. 
     Dr. Maynard, the well-known surgeon of Thirty-sixth Street, was the 
first witness called. His testimony concerned the nature of the wound 
found in the murdered man's head. As some of the facts presented by
him are likely to prove of importance to us in our narrative, I will 

proceed to give a synopsis of what he said. 
     Prefacing his remarks with some account of himself, and the manner 
in which he had been summoned to the house by one of the servants, he 
went on to state that, upon his arrival, he found the deceased lying on 
a bed in the second-story front room, with the blood clotted about a 
pistol-wound in the back of the head; having evidently been carried 
there from the adjoining apartment some hours after death. It was the 
only wound discovered on the body, and having probed it, he had found 
and extracted the bullet which he now handed to the jury. It was lying 
in the brain, having entered at the base of the skull, passed obliquely 
upward, and at once struck the medulla oblongata, causing 
instant death. The fact of the ball having entered the brain in this 
peculiar manner he deemed worthy of note, since it would produce not 
only instantaneous death, but an utterly motionless one. Further, from 
the position of the bullet-hole and the direction taken by the bullet, 
it was manifestly impossible that the shot should have been fired by 
the man himself, even if the condition of the hair about the wound did 
not completely demonstrate the fact that the shot was fired from a 
point some three or four feet distant. Still further, considering the 
angle at which the bullet had entered the skull, it was evident that 
the deceased must not only have been seated at the time, a fact about 
which there could be no dispute, but he must also have been engaged in 
some occupation which drew his head forward. For, in order that a ball 
should enter the head of a man sitting erect at the angle seen here, of 
45º, it would be necessary, not only for the pistol to be held 
very low down, but in a peculiar position; while if the head had been 

bent forward, as in the act of writing, a man holding a pistol naturally 
with the elbow bent, might very easily fire a ball into the brain at the 
angle observed. 
     Upon being questioned in regard to the bodily health of Mr. 
Leavenworth, he replied that the deceased appeared to have been in
good condition at the time of his death, but that, not being his attendant 
physician, he could not speak conclusively upon the subject without 
further examination; and, to the remark of a juryman, observed that he 
had not seen pistol or weapon lying upon the floor, or, indeed, 
anywhere else in either of the above-mentioned rooms. 
     I might as well add here what he afterwards stated, that from the 
position of the table, the chair, and the door behind it, the murderer, 
in order to satisfy all the conditions imposed by the situation, must 
have stood upon, or just within, the threshold of the passageway 
leading into the room beyond. Also, that as the ball was small, and 
from a rifled barrel, and thus especially liable to deflections while 
passing through bones and integuments, it seemed to him evident that 
the victim had made no effort to raise or turn his head when advanced 
upon by his destroyer; the fearful conclusion being that the footstep 
was an accustomed one, and the presence of its possessor in the room 
either known or expected. 
     The physician's testimony being ended, the coroner picked up the 
bullet which had been laid on the table before him, and for a moment 
rolled it contemplatively between his fingers; then, drawing a pencil 
from his pocket, hastily scrawled a line or two on a piece of paper 
and, calling an officer to his side, delivered some command in a low 
tone. The officer, taking up the slip, looked at it for an instant 

knowingly, then catching up his hat left the room. Another moment, and 
the front door closed on him, and a wild halloo from the crowd of 
urchins without told of his appearance in the street. Sitting where I 
did, I had a full view of the corner. Looking out, I saw the officer 
stop there, hail a cab, hastily enter it, and disappear in the 
direction of Broadway.