Crimes in Herstory (Blog Series) -- Murder, Media, and Mercy: The Enigmatic Case of Maggie Tiller

WC Blogpost by: Gina and Bianca  

Murder, Media, and Mercy: The Enigmatic Case of Maggie Tiller

Maggie Tiller (San Francisco Examiner, 27 Mar 1895, pg. 8) 

Maggie Tiller in a Post-War Nation 

Open Wilmington, North Carolina—year 1875. The great Civil War was still fresh on the national mind, but now ten years later, proceedings in the reunified Union had begun to tentatively move on. The air of the former Confederate state must have felt renewed, newly invigorated, everybody swept by and into the general bustle of communal movement. Wilmington, North Carolina would come to boast a fifty-five percent black population by 1890, a population explosion resultant of the city’s productive preceding decades undertaken by its newly freed black community.1 By the turn of the century, Wilmington’s black community was well-known for its sturdy and still-growing middle class: black councilmen, magistrates, and policemen governed sixty-five of the Union’s earliest black doctors, lawyers, and educators.2  Looking around, it would’ve been clear that Wilmington’s black community had begun to dream of a black future, and that things looked optimistic.

Maggie Tiller was born on July 27th, 1875 in this bustling city that felt both of resurgence and emergence, burdened by the deep mourning of the war but also ignited by that tenuously new hope of possibility. Being of mixed race, a mulatto, Maggie surely faced an abundance of racial struggles while living in such a mixed community. The city that Maggie Tiller found herself in was a split city of black and white, still painstakingly shedding its Confederate skin. Occupying a stretch of land bending the Atlantic Ocean into the narrow thread of the Cape Fear River, Wilmington had been a key Southern port city integral to Confederate supply lines and fiercely defended during the War. A little over thirty years later—1898—Wilmington would be the home to the only known successful violent coup d’etat in U.S. history, domestic terror wrangled legal by official endorsements of white supremacy. Under the brazen manifesto of the “White Declaration of Independence,” white supremacist militias descended on the city: gun-touting white mobs marched the streets, set fire to black newspaper offices, evicted black councilmen from their elected seats and escorted them to the trainyard by gunpoint. Unknown numbers of black individuals were massacred, and no one was punished or prosecuted for the coup.3 4

For Maggie, her origins in Wilmington would have prepared her for the disappointing racial realities of the post-War nation. She would come to leave Wilmington in her adolescence, but her whereabouts between Wilmington and Chicago go unknown, or rather, unverifiable. Most newspapers would go on to widely report that Maggie went from Wilmington to briefly live in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she attended the North Carolina Normal Institute and did not graduate.5 6  After Greensboro, newspapers then generally agree that Maggie would come to join a burlesque company that changed the course of her life: the job introduced her to Frieda Huntington, with whom she became extremely close, and brought her to Chicago, the city where she would later draw great infamy.7  The two women formed a performing duo—the “Tiller Sisters”—by 1893, staging sketch and burlesque performances in various performing halls around Chicago for two years.8 9. It’s greatly conceivable that Maggie found great solace in her friendship with Frieda. There is an interesting likelihood that the two women would have shared a romance; individuals who claimed to have known them say that they were “inseparable.”10  Although reports never reveal Frieda's age, the two women were evidently close enough in age to be called "sisters," which is a term that also reflects the deep intimacy of their relationship. They were to each other both performing partners and friendly roommates, and to combine their professional and personal time would have resulted in their being together nearly all day, every day, for the duration of over two years. Papers would later publish reports of Maggie’s “unnatural affections” for Frieda, and that the relationship between the two women were such that it left “little doubt as to the Tiller woman’s motives” in the circumstances that would leave a man dead, his torso dangling from beyond his own window.11 12 13

The Mystery and its First Trial 

The reports on what happened that night—December 14, 1894—vary widely. Some cite robbery, that Frieda had packed up Maggie’s possessions from their formally shared residence and fled to the company of the soon-to-be dead man and alleged lover, Charles Miller. In this scenario, Maggie vengefully hunts Frieda down to Miller’s building on 2115 State Street, climbs up the stairs to its second story, and the resulting confrontation between the three leads to Miller’s death midway through the infamous window.14 15 Most claim that Maggie’s jealousy caused her to enact her revenge on Miller, depicting a contentious crime of passion undertaken by a jilted lover that resulted in the unfortunate death of the third party.16 Others modify the details to explain that Maggie was, in fact, Miller’s former lover, and that the man’s murder was Maggie’s revenge for having taken on a mistress.17  Still other accounts combine the two stories of pillage and passion: that Maggie cited robbery for her motivations for murder, but that Frieda claimed Maggie’s jealousy had gotten the best of her.18

What is definitely known is that a man lay suspended, head-down, dangling from the side of his residence building as he slowly bled out from an open bullet wound in his chest, the darkening remains of his life collecting on the sidewalk as a watching crowd gathered, blocking the street and troubling the ongoing traffic.19 20 

The police arrived and retrieved the dying man from his window before arresting Maggie Tiller on site.21  The wounds were fatal, and upon being transported to a hospital, Miller succumbed to his injuries. The immediacy of the need to claim justice for such a spectacled crime thus pressed in on the city of Chicago.

Although arrested in early December, Maggie wouldn’t be tried until late March of the following year.22 From the onset, the court’s stance on the seemingly conflicting questions of gender and murder was made clear: there would be no room, literally, for women to decide which questions the court would deliberate upon. The judge overseeing Maggie’s case, Judge Clifford, began the trial by refusing entry to all women except Maggie into the courtroom.23 The state then made its case quickly, with Maggie’s defense beginning their opening statements in the afternoon of the first day.24 Maggie pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and though more specific and varied details on trial proceedings went largely unreported, many papers nevertheless found rich material in Maggie’s defense alone. In a reversal of logic, Maggie’s plea of insanity found false support among newspapers that nevertheless fortified her claims. One paper, in accordance with the story that Maggie had killed Miller due to jealousy of Frieda, asserted that such relations (read: lesbianism) were reasonable grounds to claim insanity.25 Others contended that Maggie’s attorneys had argued in court that mixed-race children such as Maggie were predisposed to be of unsound mind.26  The swift proceedings of the trial only spanned the length of the weekend, but come Monday, the jury deliberated on its verdict for a painstaking eight hours.27 Then on March 26, 1895, Maggie Tiller was sentenced to her death. Upon hearing this verdict, Maggie broke down in hysterics. Maggie was led screaming, crying, and fainting to what would be her penultimate destination.

The Retrial and Reflections

Newspapers all over the country flocked to the story of the first female to be sentenced to death in Illinois. Columns written by Chicago papers were quickly reprinted in papers from California to New York. Papers that wanted to contribute their own two-cents found a wealth of case material that attracted public intrigue. One newspaper speculated on the nature of intimate female relations, citing a resemblance to other cases in which “women conceive an unnatural love for other women.”28 Another interviewed prominent figures of various women’s clubs in Chicago, and gathered opinions on whether Maggie represented the unfortunate consequences of the equality demanded by the emergent “New Woman.”29. Another paper published a striking op-ed meditating on both the racial and gendered implications of Maggie’s trial and subsequent verdict.30  In a special column dedicated to the peculiar event of female execution, one Chicago paper even printed a reader submission that claimed that Maggie was not in fact the first woman sentenced to capital punishment in Illinois.31

While the optics of the case left plenty of room for speculation by various newspapers across the country, such sensationalization also instigated a public push for a retrial. Within three weeks of the verdict, Maggie's defense presented Judge Clifford with three separate affidavits—one highlighting alleged errors of the court, and the other two addressing Maggie's deteriorated mental state—to which Clifford responded that a retrial would only be considered if Maggie changed her plea to guilty.32 Meanwhile, public petitions appealing to the injustice of female execution circulated in Chicago, and the black community in Wilmington gathered to pool their funds in support of one of their own.33 34 Public interest in the case and its pushback against the verdict worked, and a retrial was granted. In said retrial, Judge Clifford suddenly turned merciful. After reflecting on the prior sentence and receiving a letter of appeal from Maggie herself, Clifford came to the conclusion that Maggie and her disposition resonated with him in such a way that would result in him reducing her sentence to twenty years in the state penitentiary. In her letter of appeal, Maggie explains that the newspapers have been painting a false image of her character and that while she is a black woman that made a life-altering mistake, she is also a young woman just emerging into her twenties and that is deserving of a second chance at life. Reading this plea for mercy touched Judge Clifford, so much so that he stated that “her poverty, her dependence, her color” all beseeched the court and that she had more appeal to him as she is than if she were a rich, white woman. The new sentencing sent the courtroom and those in favor of Maggie’s death into a frenzy. How could a mulatto woman commit murder and receive such a lenient punishment? This is a question that begs asking and is one that will never have a simple answer. Something that is certain, however, is that Judge Clifford saw something in Maggie that the press and her peers did not; a lost young woman that was struggling to navigate life in a big, new city. 

Maggie took this sentencing with a humble, but sorrowful temperament. In this moment, it is debated whether she instead displayed her emotions through what she wore or presented herself as. A straw sailor hat and a lace trimmed corset adorned with two carnations was Maggie’s outfit of choice for the retrial, which presented her in femme, soft light to spectators around. While there may have been push back regarding Judge Clifford’s decision, those that were in the courtroom to support Maggie rallied around her as the Judge left the room and quit his bench.35 The story of a young Maggie Tiller and her mission to requite friendship (or romance) is one that has been forgotten, but has many implications. One being the white paternalist complex imposed on Maggie and those that find themselves in Maggie’s position. Judge Clifford “saving” Maggie from her impending death is an example of this due to the rather lenient verdict that resulted from the retrial. While Maggie’s letter of appeal humanized her, Judge Clifford most likely also felt a need to protect her from the finality of the death penalty. However, while a twenty-year sentence seems to be slight, life after being released would be another punishment in and of itself. There are no accounts of Maggie’s life after release, how many years served, or if she even managed to leave penitentiary walls. Another implication of this case is realizing how drastically someone’s life changes after being convicted of a crime, especially if their case ends up in the press. Financial struggles, impairments in social life, and the public scrutiny of being seen as a murder are some examples of the things Maggie Tiller would have had to endure upon release. Being unable to navigate life as every other citizen creates a schema of ridicule based on judgment of that person’s character and capabilities, both law abiding and not. This makes life after detention very difficult and arguably worse than receiving a life or death sentence. This subjectivity of heavy versus light sentencing in the context of convictions makes it difficult for there to be an equal expectation of justice for the victims of those that do commit crimes such as murder. This, then, results in a visible disconnect between crime and lawful punishment, which is an issue that we not only see in Maggie Tiller’s case but in cases extending back decades and well into present day. The role that race plays in the justice system is intertwined with this judicial shortcoming. 

Maggie, being black passing while being ridiculed by a jury of white men, was subjected to the unfortunate racial biases of the time. It was not uncommon for black women and men to undergo unfair sentencing in comparison to their white peers during the 19th century. The drastic shift in Maggie’s sentencing is evidence of this as Judge Clifford, initially, most likely saw Maggie through a prejudiced lens and was willing to seal her fate without knowing or considering her unique circumstances. Maggie Tiller is not the only forgotten woman that has committed a crime. There are files upon files of archives depicting women in similar situations that have gone untold and unnoticed, so it is up to us to find and tell their stories in attempts to better understand not only the female mind, but the operations of the judicial system that existed before any of us.

ENDNOTES

1. Angela Mack, “Over a Century Later, Facts of 1898 Race Riots Released,” StarNews Online, December 16, 2005, https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2005/12/16/over-a-century-later-facts-of-1898-race-riots-released/3028 2842007/.

2. David Zucchino, “The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Is an Essential Lesson in How State Violence Has Targeted Black Americans,” Time, July 1, 2020, https://time.com/5861644/1898-wilmington-massacre-essential-lesson-state-violence/.

3. Ibid.

4. Mack, “Over a Century Later.”

5. “The Hanging of a Woman,” Sterling Daily Gazette, 29 June, 1895, pg. 7

6. In an allegedly exclusive interview with Buffalo Weekly Express on April 15, 1895, Maggie Tiller details that in Greensboro, she was under the care of a certain “Professor Willard,” who subjected her to “nightly experiments” that caused symptoms of weakness, headaches, and temporary blindness; nowhere in this interview does she discuss schooling or her other aspects of life in Greensboro. It should be noted, however, that this alleged interview took place following the ruling of Maggie’s first trial in which she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity—there is reason to believe that the story in Express was devised as part of an early attempt to double down on her insanity plea for the possible retrial. Indeed, in the same interview, Maggie stated that she would continue to refuse to plead guilty in the case of a retrial, regardless if the trial’s outcomes would be changed by her choice. In later reports surrounding her retrial, however, Maggie recants such claims, accusing newspapers of falsifying her statements as she pleads guilty to the charge and accepts the subsequently modified sentence (see “ESCAPED THE GALLOWS,” Wilmington Morning Star). It is for these conflicting statements that Maggie’s alleged Express interview has been disregarded for the purposes of this short essay.

7. “A WILMINGTON MURDERESS: She Killed Charles Miller in Chicago—Said to Have Been Born in Wilmington Twenty Years Ago,” Wilmington Morning Star, 10 April, 1895, pg. 1.

8. Ibid.

9. “MAGGIE TILLER MUST DIE: She Will Be the First Woman to Be Hanged in Chicago,” San Francisco Examiner, 27 March, 1895, pg. 8.

10. “A WOMAN, BUT MUST HANG. Strange Infatuation That Will Cost Maggie Tiller Her Life,” Knoxville Sentinel, 17 April, 1895, pg. 3.

11. “GOES TO GALLOWS: A Chicago Jury Decides that Maggie Tiller, Colored, Should Be Well Hanged,” Weekly Pantagraph, 29 March, 1895, pg.6.

12. “Freda Hunnington Testifies,” Inter Ocean, 23 March, 1895, pg. 7.

13. “Fatally Shot,” The Daily Journal, 14 December, 1894, pg. 1.

14. “Claims She Shot in Self Defense,” Washington Gazette, 20 December, 1894, pg. 2.

15. “MAGGIE TILLER MUST DIE,” San Francisco Examiner.

16. “WIADOMOSCI MIEJSCOWE: Straszne widowisko.” Dziennik Chicagoski, 15 December, 1894, pg. 1.

17. “Miller’s Revolver Found,” Muscatine News-Tribune, 28 April, 1895, pg. 8.

18. “HUNG BLEEDING FROM A WINDOW: Charles Miller’s Ineffectual Attempt to Escape from a Woman, Shot by a Female Who Followed Him from Milwaukee,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 15 December, 1894, pg. 3.

19. “Fatally Shot,” Daily Journal

20. “Claims She Shot,” Washington Gazette.

21. “WIADOMOSCI MIEJSCOWE: Straszne widowisko.” Dziennik Chicagoski, 15 December, 1894, pg. 1

22. “A WILMINGTON MURDERESS,” Wilmington Morning Star.

23. [Short blurb on trial proceedings], Chicago Tribune, 22 March, 1895, pg. 8.

24. “Freda Hunnington Testifies,” Inter Ocean

25. [Short blurb on Maggie’s insanity plea], Wichita Beacon, 27 March, 1895, pg. 4.

26. “RATHER DIE. Woman Murderer Doesn’t Want a Life Sentence. Maggie Tiller’s Career. She Will be the First Woman to be Hanged in Illinois.” Buf alo Courier Express, 16, April, 1895, pg. 1.

27. “DEATH PENALTY FOR A WOMAN. Maggie Tiller Found Guilty of Murdering Charles Miller,” Inter Ocean, 27 March, 1895, pg. 8.

28. “MAGGIE TILLER MUST HANG. Murderess of Charles Miller is Given a Death Sentence.” South Bend Tribune, 26 March, 1895, pg. 1.

29. “EQUALITY, EVEN TO THE GALLOWS. Women Leaders of Chicago Refuse to Plead for One of Their Sex. Maggie Tiller Must Pay the Penalty of a Revolting Murder by Hanging. ONE LAW TO SUFFICE FOR ALL. Their Only Protest Is That Women Did Not Compose the Jury That Convicted Her,” San Francisco Examiner, 8 April, 1895, pg. 1.

30. “What Will Be the Effect?” Inter Ocean, 28 March, 1895, pg. 6.

31. The submission claimed that a certain Mrs. Reed, charged with poisoning her husband, had been executed in Lawrenceville, Illinois in the 1840s—preceding Maggie by over fifty years. (see: “Mrs. Reed Hanged in Illinois.” Inter Ocean, 8 April, 1895, pg. 7.)

32. “Maggie Tiller May Get a New Trial,” Inter Ocean, 14 April, 1895, pg. 8.

33. Ibid., pg. 36.

34. “The Maggie Tiller Case,” Wilmington Morning Star, 16 April, 1895, pg. 1.

35. “ESCAPED THE GALLOWS.” Wilmington Morning Star

36. This blogpost found inspiration from Kerry Seagrave's book, Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899: Death Sentences and Executions in the United States and Canada (McFarland & Inc Publishers, 2008), particularly the chapter on Maggie Tiller case, p 176.

* * * * *

bibliography —

“A WILMINGTON MURDERESS: She Killed Charles Miller in Chicago—Said to Have Been Born in Wilmington Twenty Years Ago.” Wilmington Morning Star, 10 April, 1895, pg. 1

“A WOMAN, BUT MUST HANG. Strange Infatuation That Will Cost Maggie Tiller Her Life,” Knoxville Sentinel, 17 April, 1895, pg. 3.

“Claims She Shot in Self Defense. Washington Gazette, 20 December, 1894, pg. 2.

“DEATH PENALTY FOR A WOMAN. Maggie Tiller Found Guilty of Murdering Charles Miller,” Inter Ocean, 27 March, 1895, pg. 8.

“EQUALITY, EVEN TO THE GALLOWS. Women Leaders of Chicago Refuse to Plead for One of Their Sex. Maggie Tiller Must Pay the Penalty of a Revolting Murder by Hanging. ONE LAW TO SUFFICE FOR ALL. Their Only Protest Is That Women Did Not Compose the Jury That Convicted Her.” San Francisco Examiner, 8 April, 1895, pg. 1.

“ESCAPED THE GALLOWS. Maggie Tiller Goes to the Penitentiary for Twenty Years.” Wilmington Morning Star, 8 May, 1895, pg. 1.

“FAINTS IN A COURTROOM. Maggie Tiller Condemned To Be Hanged For Murder.” Daily Inter Ocean, 27 March 1895

“Fatally Shot.” Daily Journal, 14 December, 1894, pg. 1.

“Freda Hunnington Testifies.” Inter Ocean, 23 March, 1895, pg. 7.

“GOES TO GALLOWS: A Chicago Jury Decides that Maggie Tiller, Colored, Should Be Well Hanged.” Weekly Pantagraph, 29 March, 1895, pg.6.

“HUNG BLEEDING FROM A WINDOW: Charles Miller’s Ineffectual Attempt to Escape from a Woman, Shot by a Female Who Followed Him from Milwaukee.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 15 December, 1894, pg. 3.

Mack, Angela. “Over a Century Later, Facts of 1898 Race Riots Released.” StarNews Online, December 16, 2005.

“Maggie Tiller May Get a New Trial.” Inter Ocean, 14 April, 1895.

“MAGGIE TILLER MUST DIE: She Will Be the First Woman to Be Hanged in Chicago.” San Francisco Examiner, 27 March, 1895, pg. 8.

“MAGGIE TILLER MUST HANG. Murderess of Charles Miller is Given a Death Sentence.” South Bend Tribune (South Bend, IN), 26 March, 1895, pg. 1.

“Miller’s Revolver Found.” Muscatine News-Tribune (Muscatine, IA), 28 April, 1895, pg. 8.

“Mrs. Reed Hanged in Illinois.” Inter Ocean, 8 April, 1895, pg. 7.

“RATHER DIE. Woman Murderer Doesn’t Want a Life Sentence. Maggie Tiller’s Career. She Will be the First Woman to be Hanged in Illinois.” Buffalo Courier Express, 16, April, 1895, pg. 1.

[Short blurb on Maggie’s insanity plea], Wichita Beacon, 27 March, 1895, pg. 4.

[Short blurb on trial proceedings], Chicago Tribune, 22 March, 1895, pg. 8

“The Hanging of a Woman: The Case of Maggie Tiller Interests the New Women of Chicago.” Sterling Daily Gazette (Sterling, IL), 29 June, 1895, pg. 7.

“The Maggie Tiller Case.” Wilmington Morning Star, 16 April, 1895, pg. 1.

“WIADOMOSCI MIEJSCOWE: Straszne widowisko.” Dziennik Chicagoski, 15 December, 1894, pg. 1.

Zucchino, David. “The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Is an Essential Lesson in How State Violence Has Targeted Black Americans.” Time, July 1, 2020.

Kerry Seagrave, Women and Capital Punishment in America, 1840-1899: Death Sentences and Executions in the United States and Canada (McFarland & Inc Publishers, 2008)