Criminal Musings

John Ten Eyck

JV’s subject today is John Ten Eyck, a black farm laborer who was blamed in 1877 for their murder shortly thereafter. Today we ask: Was he the real murderer or just an easy scapegoat the authorities pinned the crimes on? Episode based heavily on “Gilded Age Murder and Mayhem in the Berkshires” by Andrew Amelinckx.

Sources:

https://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/blood-on-the-farm-the-double-murder-that-shocked-the-nation/

Song referenced:

Walls Are Closing In/HangMan – The Pretty Reckless

Music for Criminal Musings provided by We Talk Of Dreams. Thanks, Nico!

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This week, during our Berkshire/Western Massachusetts Crime Miniseries, we’re going wayyy way back because some of my favorite True crime deep dives, involving people of color, are not actually recent, they are super old. I want to give a shout out to Andrew Amelinckx, as most of this information came from his book: “Gilded Age Murder and Mayhem in the Berkshires.” It’s an interesting read to say the least, and insanely informative. I daresay we’ll be coming back to it in later episodes.

I don’t know how many of you have wondered this, but imagine: what was your hometown like from 100-200 years ago? Who was there, what was the fashion? What was the economy like? Was everyone rich? Was everyone poor? Did the street you live on right now even exist back then? What family names might you recognize in the area? One crucial question though, that I’m suspecting you probably didn’t ask about your area, especially if you live in the North, is this: before slavery was abolished throughout America, where were the slave-owners in your town? Where are the graves of the enslaved men and women? And when slavery was abolished, what happened to the black population?

My hometown’s history with race and slavery is… well, it’s complicated, as most northerners would tell you. We know for a FACT that there were slave owners here, because we actually celebrate and recognize Elizabeth Freeman, who.. Well, you can listen to that entire episode. We are the birthplace of W.E.B. Du Bois, but we’re also the kind of place that would rather have named our elementary school “Muddy Brook” than “Du Bois Elementary”. Yeah, seriously. Don’t know if you could hear my eyes rolling there, but trust me, they rolled HARD just now. The Berkshires are in general known for being fucking gorgeous and having a quaint “rural charm”. So, it took people by surprise when, in the late fall of 1877, there was a double murder of an elderly couple on Thanksgiving Day at their farm near Sheffield. Our subject today, is John Ten Eyck, the black farm laborer who was blamed for their murder shortly thereafter. But was he the real murderer or just an easy scapegoat the authorities pinned the crimes on?

 

On the evening of Nov. 29, 1877, just after 5 p.m., as a light snow began falling, Ten Eyck stopped 15-year-old John Carey Jr., on the road that led to the farm. Carey worked for David Stillman and his wife, Sarah, doing farm chores, including milking the cows. Ten Eyck inquired whether the Stillmans sold butter and if they had any guests that night. The boy told him that they did indeed sell butter, but was unaware if they had any company that evening. Ten Eyck thanked him for the information and headed south towards the Stillmans’ farm.

 

Carey was the last to see the elderly couple alive, besides the killer, obviously. He was also the person who found their bodies the next morning. The scene he found was “bloody beyond comprehension”. One newspaper would describe the crime as “one of the most brutal human butcheries ever committed in New England.” While this could totally have been hyperbolic AF, it wasn’t necessarily wholly off the mark. It was real bad, y’all.

That morning, Carey went to

Asiyanna Jones was a young woman in Pittsfield, Massachusetts who was tragically lost in October of 2017. Join JV as they talk a little bit about her life, how she died, and who she left behind. To donate to her family, please click here, or follow this link. https://www.gofundme.com/ripasiyanna Welcome to Season 2 of Criminal Musings.

(Asiyanna and her 2 friends mentioned in the story.)

Sources:

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/pittsfield-woman-dies-after-dewey-avenue-shooting,520995?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/investigation-continues-in-shooting-death-of-pittsfield-woman,521132?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/lifelong-friends-of-asiyanna-jones-there-will-literally-never-be-another-yanna-ever,521807?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/pittsfield-police-plead-for-answers-in-fatal-shooting-of-city-woman,521426?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/gun-is-found-in-suv-tied-to-scene-of-asiyanna-jones-killing,521761?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/police-arrest-man-believed-to-be-involved-in-shooting-incident-that-killed-a-pittsfield-woman,522077?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/letter-thanks-to-story-yannais-more-than-a-statistic,522237?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/two-arraigned-in-jones-murder-case,543858?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/3rd-suspect-formally-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-asiyanna-jones,544033?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/two-arraigned-in-jones-murder-case,543857?

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/3-indicted-on-first-degree-murder-charges-in-shooting-of-asiyanna-jones,543601?

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/berkshire/obituary.aspx?n=asiyanna-s-jones-eurquhart&pid=186873488&fhid=14015

-Music for Criminal Musings provided by We Talk Of Dreams. Thanks, Nico!

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JV talks about recent happenings in the True Crime Podcasting world. And boy, do they have some feelings about it…

TShirt: https://www.etsy.com/listing/611240729/mens-feminist-tee?ref=shop_home_active_22

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Transcript currently unavailable  for this episode.

Marcelo Costa de Andrade, aka the Vampire of Niteroi, is a Brazilian serial killer. He is a monster who was convicted of raping and murdering 14 boys. He was a pedophile, a necrophile, and in some ways, a cannibal, in so far as he drank his victim’s blood on occasion.

Sources:

Murderpedia

Nothing Rhymes With Murder, episode 21

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It is rare that we have murderous duos. There is a reason we have an image of these people in our minds being lone wolves. But every once in awhile, evil finds its’ mate and the consequences are disastrous. Today we will cover one such duo. Today, we will cover Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas.

Want to learn more about these killers? Check out these shows:

Serial Killers

Last Podcast On The Left

All Killa No Filla

Sources:

Biography.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottis_Toole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_Lucas

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Ronald Dominique is an American serial killer, who confessed to murdering 23 men over a nine year span and dumping their bodies in sugarcane fields, ditches and small bayous in various southeast Louisiana parishes. His reason he gave for killing? He did not want to return to jail after raping the men.

Sources:

Murderpedia

Telegraph Article

Crime Documentary

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Wayne Williams is a Black-American convicted murderer responsible for the killings of 2 adults, and potentially responsible for the murder of more than 20 black youths from 1979 to 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. Those murders are known as the Atlanta Child Murders. The ultimate question is, did he actually do it?

Special Shout out to It’s About Damn Crime who just covered this case as well. Find their coverage here.

Sources:

Slate Article about Atlanta Monster hosted by Payne Lindsey

Biography.Com

FBI Files

Homosexuality And the State: What the Atlanta Murders Reveal

Wayne Williams – Murderpedia

Wikipedia – Wayne Williams

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Vaughn Greenwood is a serial killer. He was convicted for the murder of 12 people. The question is: Is he a satanist? Listen in as JV unpacks the story of this madman.

Sources:

http://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/greenwood-vaughn.htm

http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Greenwood,%20Vaughn%20-%20fall,%202006.pdf

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Kwauhuru Govan allegedly killed a teenage girl and a young gay man in New York City in 2004 and 2005. Join JV as they discuss the case and rage about homophobia, transphobia, and the toxic masculinity that keeps us all in chains.

Sources:

http://people.com/crime/brooklyn-man-serial-killer-2005-beheading-2004-murder/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennisha-morgan/the-emasculation-of-black_b_3141651.html

https://www.aaihs.org/men-without-pants-masculinity-and-the-enslaved/

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/history.html

https://thegrio.com/2012/05/21/the-historic-roots-of-homophobia-in-black-america/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4279966/Beheading-suspect-says-love-victim-s-mother.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/nyregion/kwauhuru-govan-brooklyn-murders.html

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Peter Moore

Peter Moore, the Welsh Serial Killer, the Man in Black, was a murderer, a serial rapist, a sadist, and a respected community figure. Join JV as they cover The Man in Black.

Notes

Links:

Sexual Racism: negotiating the ethnosexual market

Man In Black Peter Moore video

UK TRUE CRIME WEEKLY Coverage of Peter Moore

UK TRUE CRIME WEEKLY Blogpost

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