FULL REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF SAMUEL M. ANDREWS, FOR THE MURDER OF CORNELIUS HOLMES.
Plymouth: Memorial and Rock Press, 1868. 52pp. Stitched in original printed wrappers, with wrapper title, as issued. Near Fine.
The case resonates among today's hot-button political-social issues. "The oldest plea of homosexual panic in America seems to have been made in Massachusetts in 1868. Accused of killing a longtime friend, a young man named Samuel M. Andrews claimed that he had been driven into 'transitory insanity' when the friend pushed him down, tore open his pantaloons, and said, 'Now I'm going to have some, this time.' The word 'homosexual' wouldn't debut in English for almost another two decades, but a fear of homosexuality was already being presented as a justification for killing a gay man" [New Yorker, THE THEORY THAT JUSTIFIED ANTI-GAY CRIME, 26 June 2019].
"Holmes was beaten to death with stones by Andrews, whom he had named as his heir in his will. The defendant pleaded insanity and self-defense, for he had had to fight off Holmes' attempted act of sodomy" [McDade]. The case "generated a great deal of interest from the psychiatric and legal communities, including articles published in the American Journal of Insanity (Jarvis, 1869, 1870), the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (Choate, 1869), and a book-length document titled, Report on the Trial of Samuel M. Andrews, Indicted for the Murder of Cornelius Holmes before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (Davis, 1869), which contained the judges' rulings, the attorneys' speeches, and witness testimony" [Margolin, MADMAN IN THE CLOSET. 'HOMOSEXUAL PANIC' IN NINETEENTH CENTURY NEW ENGLAND. Journal of Homosexuality, December 2019. Available at online Omnilogos web site].
This pamphlet recounts "the tragic event that wrought the quiet village of Kingston to the highest intensity of excitement and horror." The testimony and evidence against Andrews, reviewed here, "swept away all hope of innocence, all claim to sympathy." In this casebook trial on the effect of mental illness upon the criminal law, Andrews was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.
McDade12. Item #37609
Price: $1,500.00