The Buckfoot Gang
Part 3: The Inquest
Note: The surname Boatright is loosely spelled either Boatright or Boatwright, even up to when my father was born when his own name on his birth certificate was spelled differently than his father’s. Historical documents contain both spellings, sometimes within the same document. In this installment, I will use the version with the ‘w’ as it is the most often used in the inquest reporting.
Friday, March 19, 1875. Dr. George F. Dudley, Physician and Coroner, had completed the autopsy on Charles Woodson at the Four Courts Morgue.
Dr. Dudley sat at the head of a long table around which six jurors were seated. The jurors had previously been taken to view the body. Also present in the room were the accused, Robert P.W. Boatwright, and Charles Woodson’s father, Edward Silas Woodson, looking “worn and haggard.” The general public was not admitted to the inquest.
Robert P. was said to wear a faint smile. He was endlessly running his gaze around the room, floor to ceiling, across the interior, but never focusing on anyone.
The murder weapon lay on the table. I can imagine the jurors trying to look at anything else but continually being drawn back to the knife that ended Charles’s life.
The first witness called was Mary Mitchell, who was in the courtroom the day of the murder. She testified she had seen Boatwright walk down the aisle, lay his left hand on Charley’s shoulder, raise his right arm, then stab downward. She said she did not get a good look at the knife, but saw a flash of light with his movement. She had promptly been herded out of the courtroom with the other members of the audience.
Judge Jones then entered the room, having just adjourned court in order to testify. He explained he had known Charles Woodson (probably from a previous appearance, as well as from that week’s trial). He described the scene in the courtroom. Charles had been seated in a chair immediately in front of Clerk Clabby’s desk. Mr. Robert M. Boatwright was on the witness stand (father of Oscar, previously killed by Charles, and of Robert P., killer of Charles). Attorneys Seymour Voullaire, Charles Johnson, and John Johnson, as well as Edward Woodson were located near the steps leading to the witness stand and the bench.
The judge describes what occurred during the pause in proceedings while the court waited for Robert P. to return with a doctor to verify Oscar Boatwright’s condition after the attack. During this time, Judge Jones says he was leaning on the rail to his right side to converse with the witness (Robert M.) while waiting. Thus, Judge Jones was in conversation when Robert P. returned to the court, when he confidently walked up the aisle and into the well of the court. The Judge concluded his interaction with Robert M. and turned his attention to the courtroom in time to see Robert P. Boatwright’s arm descend upon Charles Woodson.
Boatwright then took a step back and again raised the knife above his head. The judge demonstrated what he saw by using the weapon on the table. He said Boatwright addressed Charles, ‘D — you,’ or ‘GD— you. You killed my brother and now I’ve killed you.’ He positively identified Robert P. Boatwright as the man he saw stab Charles Woodson.
Contrary to the newspaper account, Judge Jones's testimony says it was Attorney Voullaire who pried the knife out of Boatwright’s hand, which makes more sense than the judge leaving the bench to do so.
Judge Jones says he called to Deputy Marshall Thomas Horan, who was out of the courtroom at the moment and did not see the attack. Horan stepped back in and the judge told him to arrest Boatwright. For some reason, whether Horan misunderstood or interpreted the command differently, he did not proceed to arrest Boatwright but instead tried to shoo him out of the court room, audibly telling him to “Get out. Go on now.” The judge shouted at Horan, “Don’t let him go! Arrest him!” Horan proceeded to deliver young Robert to an officer who locked him up.
I won’t include it here, but the judge gave a description of the wound from his perspective. As noted in Part 2, a Dr. O’Brien came to the courtroom to do a cursory examination of Woodson.
The inquest account then moves on to testimony given by Dr. Henry H. Mudd. He says he was called upon to visit Charles at his home, where he was taken after the attack. Dr. Mudd described three cuts to the peritoneal cavity and stated he continued to attend Charles until he passed.
Note: I can’t help but wonder if Dr. Henry Mudd was any relation to Dr. Samuel Mudd, the Civil War-time physician who made the phrase, “My name is mud,” famous after he was arrested for allegedly conspiring with John Wilkes Booth, killer of Abraham Lincoln, only ten years before. Dr. Mudd claimed he had known nothing about the assassination when Booth showed up at his home with a broken leg (from jumping from the loge down to the stage at Ford’s Theater) and he had set it. He was pardoned in 1869 by President Andrew Johnson. Another side project.
Next witness was defense attorney Charles Johnson. This Attorney Johnson had just completed a term as Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, from 1873-1875. He and his brother were defending Charles Woodson.
His view of the incident was at a range of only a few feet. He says he saw Boatwright reach out with his left hand and grab Charles’s coat collar then use the knife with his right hand. While Voullaire wrested the knife away from Boatwright, Johnson says Charles collapsed onto him. Johnson moved him to another chair, away from the struggle, near a window and had a look at the wound. He said nothing further than, “My God, have mercy!”
Next on the stand was Edward Silas Woodson, father of Charles. He said his son, Charles Francis Woodson was born in 1864. If that is accurate, and I would imagine it is, Charles would have been 11 years old at the time, which is what one of the first newspaper articles said. Later articles gave his age as 13.
Edward said he was present in the courtroom, but had not seen the stabbing himself. He saw only that Boatwright was standing near his son. He said Charles survived from approximately 2:00 p.m. Monday until 10:45 p.m. the following night, Tuesday, March 16. The pain and fear Charles endured for nearly 33 hours is difficult to think about.
Andrew J. Clabby, Clerk of the Criminal Court, was next to testify. He was writing when the attack happened, but looked up when the commotion drew his attention. He saw Voullaire in a skirmish with Boatwright before the attorney handed the knife to Clabby who then put it into evidence. Mr. Clabby identified the knife on the table as the one he was given at the time of the attack.
Three women were called in succession to testify: Mrs. Spicy Tuck, Mrs. Lucinda McFarland, and Miss Georgiana Bradford. All had been present and gave the same testimony that they had seen Boatwright walk up the aisle of the courtroom with his right hand inside his shirt. They saw him withdraw the knife and assault Charles.
Testimony took two hours. The six jurors retired to deliberate, which took only twenty minutes. Most of that was probably receiving instruction and writing out the verdict in the required format. They returned the inquest verdict as: “Charles Woodson came to his death from the effects of peritonitis on the evening of March 16, 1875, at No. 722 North Sixteenth street, and further find that the peritonitis was the result of a cut or stab in the abdominal cavity of the same Woodson, inflicted by a large carving-knife in the hands of one Robert P.W. Boatwright, in the Criminal Court-room of St. Louis [City], on the afternoon of March 15, 1875.”
The events of that Monday ended the Woodson murder trial and began the preparations for Boatwright’s. The world shifted on its axis once again for two families.
After reading the documentation I have been able to find, I can’t help but wonder if anyone asked Charles what happened? His attorneys most certainly would have talked to him about it. Discussions between clients and attorneys are privileged and therefore aren’t readily available, if they were even noted down at the time. No whisper of Charles’s side of the story has been printed in any of the articles I’ve found.
Did he deny hitting Oscar? Did he admit hitting him but that it was an accident? Did he hit Oscar once, twice, or more? Did he intend to do it? We may never know what his side of his story was.
Charles Woodson is gone, but Robert P.W. Boatwright remains and is next in line to be tried for his actions.
Fascinating history Cynthia. Thank you for sharing this story.