Today’s Moronic Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
With a name like Clinton Hollingsworth you would think that person would be an Oxford graduate of royal blood, who spends long weekends on the polo fields of Eton. The Clinton Hollingsworth in this story grew up middle-class in Springfield, Missouri, and was, as diagnosed by experts at the time, a moron.
His parents, John and May, once said that Clinton Hollingsworth was never quite right, even as an infant. On November 19, 1923, 17-year-old Clinton shot himself in the chest with a .25 caliber handgun. The bullet went into his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. His father found a suicide note that rambled about a black-haired teenager that he had a crush on.
It took a year before Clinton got out of the hospital. The doctors told John and May their son would never walk again, however Clinton managed to start walking on his own around the beginning of 1926. He also fell down a lot. Although it is not noted at the time, it is possible that Clinton was addicted to morphine and other opiates, and he may have relieved his anguish to the point where he did not feel any pain at all, allowing him to walk.
Clinton filed an insurance claim for disability, but the insurance company fought the claim, stating that the policy did not include self-inflicted disability. Depositions were taken where Clinton told the assembled attorneys that he could not remember what happened. The case slowly churned through the legal system.
On January 31, 1926, May and her ten-year-old daughter Dolly were spending the afternoon playing rolls on their recently purchased player piano. Clinton came into the living room and seemed to enjoy the tune. Allegedly, Clinton wanted to hear the song again, but was overruled by Dolly and May. Clinton retrieved a 35-30 Savage rifle that his father had recently purchased through a mail order company and walked into the living room. As fast as he walked in, Dolly and May walked out and hid out by their woodshed.
After a half hour, John came home from his job, and May ran up to tell him that Clinton had a gun. As John walked up the driveway to speak to his son, Clinton opened fire on his father, hitting him in the palm of his left hand. A man driving by gave the wounded man a ride to the hospital.
Neighbor Joseph Harjung heard the commotion and upon seeing the armed and crazed young man, the twenty-eight-year-old married father of two, turned to run away. He took a 35-30 round in the back of his neck, killing him instantly. When the police and an ambulance showed up, the twenty-year old Hollingsworth opened fire on the vehicle, wounding the driver and attendant and scattering the bystanders.
Springfield Police Detective Albert Franklin escaped the volley and took cover. When he motioned to the ambulance crew to run towards him, he unknowingly stepped into Holingsworth’s line of fire. The detective took a bullet in the chest fired from fifty yards away.
Neighbors grabbed their guns and joined the police who had surrounded the home and for the next three hours, hundreds of bullets were fired into the house by the police and private citizens. Hollingsworth, who was an expert shot, fired over a hundred rounds, going from window to window shooting accurately enough to make the assembled piecemeal posse keep their heads down.
Finally, after three hours, the police had had enough of the lone-shooter. The electric company cut the power to the neighborhood, and the night was lit by flares.
As a diversion, dynamite was thrown into an open crawl space blowing a hole in the home’s floor. At the same time, Constables Jim Cummings and Sam Herrick stormed the house, finding Hollingsworth standing next to the bullet-riddled player piano, holding his rifle. Constable Cummings shot Hollingsworth in the left thigh. He was taken into custody, driven to the hospital, where he was treated for his flesh wound, before police locked him up in the Greene County Jail.
Hollingsworth relaxed in his jail cell and enjoyed the attention that he was receiving from law enforcement, the prosecutor and the media. The Sheriff of Greene County allowed groups of curiosity seekers to stare at the prisoner as he lay on a cot in the sparse cell. Strange as it sounds, it was not out of the ordinary in 1926. The sightseers were brought in, in groups of thirty to forty people. This human zoo only lasted a few days, as the non-stop traffic of gawkers disrupted the jailhouse routine.
Hollingsworth relaxing on his jail cot. He was a cute moron, wasn’t he?
Police questioned Hollingsworth about the gun, where he got it and why it was not registered. He calmly told authorities that his father had bought it through a mail order gun shop. He told police that he had ordered three more guns, but he did not have the money to pay the C.O.D. cost. Police went to the post office and located the packages that were being returned. They contained semi-automatic pistols.
Because Hollingsworth was a known troubled soul, Dr. George A. Johns of Jefferson City and Dr. T. H. Romeiser of the state hospital at Saint Joseph were called in to examine the young killer. Both were considered expert Alienists, what is now the field of psychiatry or psychology.
The doctors interviewed Hollingsworth’s parents, who told them that Clinton was nutty since he was a toddler. They listened to the murderer talk about his morphine use and how he could not remember anything when he was under the influence. He told the doctors that he had taken twenty-five grains of morphine that day and had no memory of the three-hour gun battle. After giving Hollingsworth a battery of tests, and observing him for hours, they concluded that Hollingsworth was insane.
Dr. J.W. Williams, the Greene County health officer, told the media that he concluded that, “the defendant is mentally irresponsible, defective, and with the mind of a child of twelve or fourteen-year-old, or what is known as a moron. The prisoner cannot differentiate between right and wrong.” When asked if a person in the condition of Hollingsworth shot a man would he know what he was doing Williams replied, “He would know what he was doing, but would have no conception of the results.”
Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Harold Lincoln thought differently and made his opinion clear, “I do not accept the theory that he is crazy,” said Lincoln. “I believe he may have taken drugs and that his actions were due to the fact, but this does not relieve him of responsibility for his killing two men and wounding three others.”
On March 23, 1926, a jury acquitted Clinton Hollingsworth of first-degree murder on the grounds of insanity. He was ordered to a state mental hospital and ordered to never be at large again.
Culled from: 1926: Homicide in America
Sexual Criminal Du Jour!
The Sexual Criminal is a 1949 criminology textbook written by infamous Los Angeles County criminal psychiatrist J. Paul De River that is jam-packed with all the sexism and homophobia common to its era. I thought I’d share some of the case studies with you.
(FYI: I tried to track down the murderer in this case, but I struck out. If anyone figures it out, please let me know.)
This case will serve to illustrate rape and murder by strangulation committed by a raffiné (genteel) type of sadist. This subject was arrested for the strangulation and raping of two girls, murdering one and leaving the other apparently for dead. The body of the murdered girl had been left in the nearby woods. The other girl, 22 years of age, told the story of how she had been attacked and described this subject in detail. Upon his arrest and the taking of his fingerprints, it was found that this subject’s prints matched those found on the purse of the dead girl.
Position of victim’s body when found
Note the marks the sadistic strangler left on the throat of his victim.
Body turned over, showing the condition in which the victim was left by the murderer. Note the bruises about the arms and face.
J. – Sadistic Strangler and Murderer.
Q: Where were you the day this girl was murdered?
Q: Can you offer any explanation as to why this Brighton girl made this charge against you and said you did these things?
Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!
This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version for all entries up until now).
Here’s today’s entry:
July 11th. Another day of excitement. Seven hundred prisoners from Grant’s army came in. After noon a scaffold was brought into camp, and erected near the south gate. At three the rebel camps were in commotion: the entire guard came out under arms, and were placed in line of battle at different points around camp, and the batteries were all manned. At four o’clock six of the condemned raiders were brought in under a strong guard of Union prisoners. After they had ascended the scaffold, a Catholic priest attended to their spiritual wants individually: meal-bags were tied over their heads and the ropes adjusted, while very living soul inside and outside the stockade was looking on in silence. At a given signal the six dropped off: five went struggling into eternity, while the rope of the sixth broke, and falling to the earth he gave a bound and was away like a frightened deer, over tens, and smashing in shanties; in his race of despair he reached the swamp, and after floundering about a few moments was re-taken. After begging most piteously for his life, he was taken up to the scaffold, and the second time launched off, this time into eternity. One man was from New York, one from New Jersey, one from Pennsylvania, and two were sailors. There is now a feeling of greater security than there has been for a long time, but may I never witness another scene like that!
Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost
I submit that Clinton Hollingsworth was probably as nutty/moronic/simple as it suited him to be. I have to wonder at the intellect of his father who was buying guns for him even knowing he’d shot himself.
As for the case study, I struck out too. I assume it was a California case, but it doesn’t say straight out. Seems the surviving victim’s last name is Brighton, but that doesn’t help either.