Slaughter on a Snowy Morn: A Tale of Murder, Corruption and the Death Penalty Case That Revolutionised the American Courtroom

by Colin Evans

Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction.

"With a cast of characters brought to life in superb style by Evans, Slaughter on a Snowy Morn cannot fail to keep you gripped until the very last page."—History Books Review

The dramatic tale of the illiterate New York farmhand condemned to death in 1916 who became first convicted murderer ever to be freed by forensic science.

Colin Evans is the author of The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes and Father of Forensics (Icon Books, 2008).

Genres: True Crime, History, Nonfiction, Crime

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

Colin Evans is the author of 17 books dealing with forensics and true crime. His fascination with the murkier side of human nature began while he was still in school. Hours spent in library archives researching contemporary newspaper accounts about "Jack the Ripper" (no, he doesn't have any clues to the killer's identity, and he seriously doubts that anyone else does, either) got him started and it's really never stopped since then.

He was living in America when his first book was published in 1993, and since that time he's gone on to become one of the foremost writers dealing with the history and development of forensic science.

Reviews

[Linda]

I grew up in Orleans County so this was an especially fascinating book for me to read. I am sure my grandparents followed this story in the "Medina Daily Journal" or through the local gosssip mill or may have even known some or many of the parties involved. I felt like I was stepping back into their era. I grew up hearing several of the last names mentioned in the book from their descendents that still live in the area, but I never heard any mention of this case nor did I ever hear the name Charlie Stielow. Interesting since this case directly led to the study of firearms identification and ballistics by Charles Waite, one of the attorneys involved in saving Stielow from the electric chair. I also found it interesting that the book was published in 2011 and distributed in the U.K., Asia, Europe, South Africa and Australia but not the U.S. (or at least it is not mentioned in the book's publishing/copyright page). Is it because we are one of the few or only western country that still has capital punishment? Aside from any sentimental attachment to the area or journey into my ancestors' era, this book was really well written, held my attention and I simply could not put it down. There was no judgement passed on capital punishment that I could discern,only that Charlie Stielow and his family suffered horribly at the hands of a corrupt local political machine. This book should be on a Best Seller list in this country.

[Deanne]

Fascinating story of an innocent man who ends up on death row and the fight for his release. What beggars belief is the attitude of some of those in the position of being able to free him. Instead of looking at the evidence and saying yes it's obvious they instead do what they can to keep him behind bars and headed toward the electric chair. If there is justice I only hope all the bad karma paid off in the end.

[Brenda]

Interesting story about a grievous miscarriage of justice in Western NY. Found it a little slow at times like our legal system. There were many people involved ,thankful for the list of characters at the beginning of the book. As one other reviewer I am an Orleans County native so many places and sir names were familiar.

[Anna Christine Asztalos]

Pretty interesting

I gave this 4 stars because it was disturbing. Sad. Horrible way to treat someone. A person was framed for a murder. Good book. Good read. So criminal..

[Jen]

Well written. Nelson Greene was my great uncle, so the story was riveting for me. It's amazing to think that modern forensics was, in part, born out of my family's tragedy.

[Brian S]

I was skeptical throughout that Charles Stielow was actually an innocent man. As it is told, he was the victim of a private investigator (back then there were often no official police investigators) who stood to claim a large reward for tracking down the killer and a paid ballistics “expert” who supposedly never performed any tests on the gun in question before opining under oath that the gun was indeed the murder weapon. I figured the motives of the other side, a group of anti-death penalty activists, was at least as strong to concoct contrary evidence. What’s a little lie in order to save a life? However, as the story unfolded it became pretty clear that Charles Stielow and his “accomplice” were actually innocent. Pretty breathtaking that Charlie was actually only 40 minutes away from being electrocuted only to be thereafter completely exonerated and freed from prison. Although the author places the blame wholly on the law enforcement officials and supposed expert, the thing that brought suspicion so heavily onto Stielow to begin with was the fact that he initially lied to the police saying he did not own a gun, repeatedly, and even under oath, when in fact he owned a pistol of the same caliber as the murder weapon. Other members of his family also repeated that lie. And then there is the fact that a woman literally died while clawing and scratching at his door, and was found lying dead on the ground outside his window, but he claimed that he didn't know she was there. This is a fact that the author never offers a satisfactory explanation for. Who can blame an investigator for having a strong suspicion that Stielow was the murderer? Nevertheless, once the authorities decided Stielow was their man, they made sure everything else fit, and that is where the sin arose. A pretty amazing story, and well written too.

[Jason Mills]

Charlie Stielow was a German immigrant farmhand in New York State. 1915 saw him move his family into a small house across the road from his new employer, Phelps the farmer. Soon afterwards Phelps and his housekeeper were killed, and, desperate to find the killer, the authorities first alighted on, and then fixed on, Charlie and his brother-in-law. The book describes the trials, shenanigans and death-row tribulations of Charlie, and the three-year struggle to save him.

The case was significant because it relied on expert firearms testimony (far from 'expert' as it transpired), and thus triggered the birth of forensic ballistics. It relied even more on bullying the suspect into confession and placing career interests before justice, though it probably had less positive influence on those matters... And it was unusual too in drawing huge public concern for the predicament of a poor and unknown man.

However, it is not only the legal milestones that hold the reader to the page; it is the gripping blow-by-blow account of the process and the close study of the many people involved. The author studiously avoids commentary on the story, even when there is ample cause to decry the abuses on display; instead he allows the facts to speak for themselves. Charlie himself stares glumly out from the photograph section, silently demanding justice. It's a great picture of a time and place, and a cautionary tale of how far we have, and haven't, come.

Apparatus includes 8 photographs, 2 maps, 3 appendices of 'confessions', a timeline, a 'cast of characters' and citations - though no index.

[Penny]

This book is about the biggest miscarriage of justice in American history! It brings shame to some of the legal profession and politicians of the time and was the harbinger of ballistics and forensic science in America. Based of historical fact it tells the story of a somewhat slow witted farm hand , Goerge Stielow of German descent, who is accused and found guilty of the murder of his boss and his housekeeper in 1915, a difficult time as war with Germany was in full swing!
He was coerced into making a confession, by officials of the county, keen for a quick conviction to enhance their own political careers, evidence was hopelessly incorrect, witnesses were offered incentives to stretch the truth, and supposedly expert witnesses were absolutely useless at giving clear and accurate evidence.
The case went on for 3 long years, with Steilow, at risk of the electric chair for most of that time. He was reprieved 4 times! It cost Orleans County thousands of dollars and brought shame to many connected to the case.
A really fascinating read, which takes your breath away sometimes with the injustices brought to the fore. Although having said that there are a few heroes in the telling of the story who refused to give up and allow an innocent man to go to the electric chair, and who realized that a new system of forensic science was what was needed to stop this happening again.
I can highly recommend this to anyone interested in not only history, but the legal profession and who enjoys a story of the little man winning in the end!!

[Samantha]

The riveting story of Charles Stielow and Nelson Green, farmhands in the rural area of Orleans County, western New York who were accused of the double murder of their employer Charles Phelps and housekeeper Margaret Wolcott in 1915 and set in motion a criminal case which made history.

I'd never heard of Charles Stielow before so it was fascinating and a real page turner. It just shows that real life can be just as fascinating as anything fiction can come up with. I can't attest to the accuracy of the historical facts so have to rely on Colin Evans' painstaking research, but he certainly fills in all the background details of the criminal and legal investigations but also encompasses the conditions in Sing Sing, Charles Stielow's fellow prisoners and the desperate fight to prevent his execution in the electric chair. Colin Evans sets the scene and the atmosphere of the period and pulls into the story many of the larger than life characters that fought valiantly to save Charles including Thomas Osborne (Warden at Sing Sing) and Grace Humiston (lawyer) and those who were "convinced" of his guilt and relentlessly argued to ensure that Charles Stielow met his fate using any methods at their disposal both legal and illegal to achieve that goal. Special mention should go to David White, Charles Stielow's first lawyer who never gave up on his client despite insurmountable odds.

A reading a book like this is both heartbreaking, infuriating and absorbing at the same time. It makes you angry at injustice. Highly recommended.

[Gretchen]

I want to send this book to Netflix as its next original series.

Perhaps I'm a bit biased since this is a relatively local story (my hometown gets name-dropped a couple times, what what), but I really enjoyed this book and Charles Stielow's story really should be more in the modern public's consciousness. It would be *SO* popular as a true crime show, honestly. The costumes! (vaguely Downton Abbey-ish given the time period) The drama! The feminism! It's so topical, too: immigrant whose plight is exacerbated by the US being at war with his home country! Some of the people in it seem too over-the-top to be believed but this is a true story! Evans' next projects need to be the biographies of Grace Humiston and Inez Milholland, because WOW would those be great stories just on their own.

I will say though it was a *little* weird at how British the writing was considering the story takes place in WNY, but that's fairly forgivable, it was just incredibly noticeable. I very rarely read non-fiction stories because they're often written too cut and dry, but I breezed through this like any other murder mystery.

[Karen]

This book is a compelling, straight forward account of a double murder in 1915 in which two illiterate German immigrants were railroaded in being convicted for them - one (Charles Stielow) almost dying in the electric chair - before their innocence was proven and they were released from jail. This book was very interesting to me as I lived for almost 20 years (most in the 1980's) not too far from where this crime happened, although I did not know of it until recently when I found out about this book. It is weird reading about places where one was born, grew up & eventually lived near which where featured in a famous crime. This Stielow murder case marked a milestone in American jurisprudence because for the first time scientific testimony helped to overturn a murder conviction. It forever changed the face of forensic science and gave law enforcement agencies around the globe access to a system of accurate firearms analysis. The whole book was fascinating. Even though one does not have a local connection like I did, I think other readers will find this book fascinating too.

[Monica]

This book deals with a miscarriage of justice in the American criminal system, a frightfully exact rendition of the facts of Making a Murderer, the troubling factor being that these two real life criminal cases are set almost 100 years part and very little seems to have changed in between. A frightening reminder of the devastating power of human prejudice, corruption, small town mentality and sheer bully tactics on behalf of the system against the vulnerable in our societies. A 3.5 star read.

[Diane Kennicker]

Excellent book! Interesting story of police corruption, intimidation and bullying an innocent man into a false confession. This man is ultimately sentenced to die in the electric chair in Sing Sing. There are many twists and turns in this true story. It is because of this case that ballistics evolved into a tool police take for granted these days. Incredible story! I recommend this book.

[Sharyn]

Based on fact, the story of the beginnings of forensics and scene of crime protection. And the end of fitting a suspect to a crime (still a way to go on that one!). Really enjoyed this. Unusual gift that was much appreciated.

[Lisal]

A very interesting read. Tragic ending!