Emma Cunningham - Sequelae

Sequelae

After Emma Cunningham's acquittal, she was permitted to return to the townhouse on 31 Bond Street, pending a hearing and decision of the Surrogate's Court to determine if in fact her marriage to Dr. Harvey Burdell was valid, and if that entitled her to his house and other property. At the time, marriage was conducted by a clergyman, and witnessed, but was not registered with any office of the State to make it legal and valid. The marriage certificate in question was signed by a clergyman, both parties and two witnesses. The clergyman recalled the event. The only way to invalidate the marriage was to prove that it was an imposter and not Dr. Burdell himself who appeared to be married. The Surrogate's decision on the matter of the marriage and the inheritance was scheduled for August 1857.

Prior to that decision in early August, a scandal erupted involving Emma Cunningham. It was purported by the District Attorney that Emma Cunningham had 'procured' a baby by paying $1000 to declare a false heir, with the father as Dr. Burdell. This would entitle her to all of Dr. Burdell's fortune, instead of just her widow's share. The prosecutor and chief of police raided her home, and removed Emma Cunningham who was delirious and under the influence of drugs. Also present was a doctor and a baby that had been marked under the arms with acid, as it had been prepared by the District Attorney prior to the sting. The 'baby scam' had been engineered by the District Attorney Oakey Hall, and the doctor who testified to the events was his close associate, Dr. de la Montagnie, also the godfather of the District Attorney's daughter. Emma Cunningham was briefly taken to the Tombs, the New York City jail, where she had already spent two months while awaiting the murder trial. Her defense attorney, Henry Clinton, had the charges swiftly dismissed based on lack of evidence of a crime, and due to entrapment. Emma Cunningham was again released. To this day it is unclear if the 'baby scam' was fabricated and engineered by the District Attorney, or if Emma Cunningham was delusional and engaged in the act of attempting to buy an heir. It would be an unlikely move for her to attempt to add an heir to the inheritance, when she was already in line to split a significant fortune with Burdell's relatives. All of the testimony and reportage of her claimed pregnancy was after-the-fact hearsay, and never verified as fact. However, the Judge in the Surrogate's case was negatively influenced by the incident, and ruled that Emma Cunningham, although acquitted of any wrongdoing, would not inherit any money or property from Dr. Burdell's estate.

From August 1857 onward, Emma Cunningham was a free woman; however her reputation was forever tainted, as she would always be suspected of being involved in the infamous murder. By the end of that year, she was penniless and eventually moved to the West Coast. She returned to New York City in 1887, where she died at the home of a cousin. Her death was reported in the New York Times on September 18, 1887. During the following century, many of the accounts of the murder repeated the disproved or uncorroborated hearsay that had, at the time of the trial, been eliminated from the court proceedings as hearsay or corrected in the press. Over time, there were several unverified confessions to the murder. The murder was never solved.