Murder at Cherry Hill

Murder At Cherry Hill

The Murder at Cherry Hill occurred in 1827 near Albany, New York, when John Whipple was shot and killed at the Cherry Hill farm, home of a prominent Albany family, the Van Rensselaers. John's wife, Elsie, and her lover, Jesse Strang, were tried for the murder. While Elsie was acquitted as an accomplice, Strang was found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime; his execution was the last public hanging in Albany.

Known at the time as the Strang-Whipple case, the murder and subsequent trial revealed much about the society of the time. It touched upon important issues of the day such as women's roles and legal rights, social class, punishment and the law, and slavery in New York.

Read more about Murder At Cherry Hill:  Background, Murder, Trial, Execution, Bibliography

Famous quotes containing the words murder, cherry and/or hill:

    Every murder turns on a bright hot light, and a lot of people ... have to walk out of the shadows.
    Mark Hellinger (1903–1947)

    Lay down, lay down the bigly bier,
    Lat me the dead look on;
    Wi’ cherry cheeks and ruby lips
    She lay an’ smil’d on him.

    O ae sheave o’ your bread, true-love,
    An’ ae glass o’ your wine,
    For I hae fasted for your sake
    These fully day [is] nine.
    Anna Gordon Brown (1747–1810)

    O happy, happy each
    man whom predestined fate
    leads to the holy rite
    of hill and mountain worship.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)