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Note: N8 Marriage record of Shepperd K Smith to Estelle L Townsend on 14 Sep 1899 in Kings, New York, USA. (NYC Dept of records).
Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA 28 Apr 1905 Fri, page 2
… in your present station of life. Is this not so?" (Louise) was asked. She answered,
"I am well educated, and, indeed, so is my husband. He went to good schools and to college. He was my social equal, but he always drank and would never work, so that my people did not want me to marry him. It has been said that Ralph was my stepson, but this is not so. He was my own son. He was five years old last October. My other boy is two years old.
"People are saying that your husband was with you on Wednesday night between 7 and 8 o'clock, when the boy died. Is this so?"
"No, it is not so." replied Mrs. Smith. I saw my husband last on Wednesday morning about 1 o'clock. I have not seen him since. He did not come back to the house."
"Do you think he will return to Richmond to help you?"
"I don't know. I can't tell you. I hope he will come. He has telegraphed that he will be here on Tuesday. Why should he not come?
Found Guilty
Richmond, Va, July 8.- Unless another trial shall be more favorable to her, Mrs Estelle Townsend Smith must spend five years in the Virginia penitentiary for having whipped to death her son Ralph, aged six years. A jury in the Manchester Hustings Court yesterday found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter and fixed her punishment….
Nothing could be more pitiable than the condition of the prisoner and her aged mother at the conclusion of the case. The former with difficulty walked to her seat in the courtroom and seemed in a comatose condition. Her mother fainted and had to be carried from the room. When the foreman of the jury announced the verdict, the convicted woman, who had been listening eagerly, fell forward in a faint, and almost at the same moment the Commonwealth's attorney swooned. It was a long time before either could be revived.
When the latter again became conscious he blamed himself bitterly for not having endeavored to argue the case. It was his belief that the sentence should have been much more severe…
The woman's husband, Shepherd K Smith, jointly indicted with her, will be tried shortly.
from Harrisonburg Rockingham Register, July 11 1905
In Mrs Smith's Defense
Evidence to Show that she did not deliberately kill her little boy.
yada yada yada
The main witnesses for the defense were Mr and Mrs Lionel Ashburner, an English couple, who the Smiths had known in Brooklyn, and with whom they boarded at Columbia, Virginia….
Mrs Smith is calm and quiet again. She has said to her friends that she believes she will secure a new trial, and that she will be acquitted.
At any rate, she now has everything in her favor, for under the law she cannot at any future trial be given any greater punishment that five years, while she has a chance of being acquitted or of securing a lighter sentenced.
from Harrisonburg Rockingham Register, Dec 8 1905
Mrs Estelle Townsend Smith Swooned When Told Supreme Court Had Refused New Trial.
A press dispatch states that Mrs. Estelle Townsend Smith, the Manchester woman who was convicted of whipping to death her six-year old son, fainted when informed by her husband Sheppard K Smith, that the Court of Appeals had refused to grant her a new trial.
Mrs Smith is confined in the Manchester jail ad since the highest tribunal has passed on her case, has overruled her petition, made through her attorneys, Messrs. H M Smith of Richmond, and E H Wells of Manchester, she is soon to be taken to the State penitentiary, to there serve a sentence of five years for the murder of her boy. Mrs. Smith's swoon, on being informed of her fate, lasted some time, and for an hour or more her condition was pitiful and serious. But in the afternoon she recovered, and will, it is believed, leave the jail for the penitentiary, wealing the same philosophical expression that has characterized her since her arrest for the murder of her child.
It is not believed that Mrs Smith will serve more than two years in the penitentiary. A conditional pardon, it is thought, will be recommended by that time, and then she will return to her husband, and very likely go to New York and there join her brother, the noted physician in that state.
New York, New York City Municipal Deaths
Name Louise Smith Event Type Death Event Date 15 Dec 1938 Event Place Manhattan, New York, New York, United States Address 1350 Amsterdam Ave. Residence Place Manhattan Gender Female Age 64 Marital Status Widowed Race White Occupation Housewife Birth Year (Estimated) 1874 Birthplace United States Burial Date 17 Dec 1938 Cemetery Green Wood Cemetery Father's Name <https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W2Q-C4F>Wisner H. Townsend Father's Birthplace United States Mother's Name <https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W2Q-C4N>Amely Kyle Mother's Birthplace United States Spouse's Name <https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W2Q-C4J>Shepard
Plot: Lot 1230, Section 120
Created by: T.V.F.T.H.
Record added: Aug 25, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 57677892
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