In the autumn of 1896, swimmers in the Stillwater River near Dayton, Ohio, were a common sight, but no one was prepared for what E. L. Harper spotted floating toward him on the afternoon of the third of September. The body of a young woman drifted past him in the water.
Harper alerted the police, and the corpse was recovered and taken to the local mortuary, but nothing on the remains could establish who she was. The coroner found no sign of violence and concluded the unnamed girl had either taken her own life or fallen into the river and drowned. The body had been in the water long enough to bloat and begin to decompose, making identification nearly impossible. Since no one had reported a young lady missing, those in authority decided the unfortunate girl should be buried as an unknown person.
The story of the body in the river spread quickly through the city, and the public began to question why the death had not been investigated more thoroughly. Dayton’s police chief, Thomas Farrell, shared their concern. He was not satisfied with the explanation of suicide or accidental drowning and wondered whether something far more sinister lay behind the young woman’s death. He ordered the body exhumed, and during a second autopsy a bullet was discovered just under the right ear.
By now, police learned that a twenty-three-year-old woman named Bessie Little had not been seen for more than a week. Chief Farrell visited her adoptive parents, where he spoke with her mother, Elizabeth Little. She told him that Bessie had left home on the nineteenth of July after an argument with her father, and although she returned a few days later, she soon left again and took a room at the Cooper Hotel. Mrs.
Little said her husband had occasionally found their daughter in the company of a young gentleman named Albert France, and she regretted to say that Bessie had been conducting herself in a manner not befitting a young lady. The room at the hotel had been paid for by France. On the twentieth of August, Bessie left the hotel because France said it was too expensive, and she moved to a boarding house run by a woman named Mrs. Fries.
France continued to pay for her accommodation, though Mrs. Little stressed that the young man was only paying, not staying there. She added that Bessie had pleaded with Albert to marry her, but he was only twenty years old, and the law required a young man to be twenty-one before marrying without his parents’ consent. Albert’s father had refused to grant permission.
When police chief Farrell asked whether the reason Bessie was so anxious to marry was that she was with child, Mrs. Little nodded awkwardly and looked at the floor. When Farrell spoke to Albert France, the young man denied any knowledge of Bessie Little’s death and said he did not believe she was dead. He was taken to view the body but claimed it was not her.
He was held in a cell at the police station while further investigation continued. A dentist named Dr. Custer was contacted, and he confirmed the teeth of the deceased matched those of Bessie Little. With her identity confirmed, the body was reburied.
Police chief Farrell and another officer visited the boarding house where Bessie had been staying. The owner, Mrs. Fries, spoke warmly of her, calling her a pleasant, polite, and respectful young lady. On the evening of the twenty-seventh of August, Bessie had been in very good spirits because she was going to meet Albert France, who planned to take her out in his horse and buggy.
The next day, France arrived at the boarding house asking to see Bessie. When Mrs. Fries told him Bessie had not returned, he insisted she must be mistaken, claiming he had made no such arrangement and had not seen Bessie for days. He paid the weekly rent and left.
Gossip about Bessie Little spread through Dayton. Rumors circulated that she had been with child at the time of her death and that her father had told her she could not continue living in the house unless she married. Another rumor claimed she had terminated the pregnancy. While searching her room, police found a letter Bessie had addressed to Albert’s father, Jacob France.
In it she wrote of her predicament and asked him to make his son do the honorable thing and marry her. In the late nineteenth century, the prospects for a single mother were limited. Bessie would have brought shame to her adoptive parents’ home, become the subject of gossip, and faced economic hardship. She was aware that marriage to Albert was the only way to maintain a degree of respectability.
But while Albert had enjoyed her company, he apparently had no intention of marrying her. She was not wealthy, had little education, and worked in domestic service. Albert planned to marry into a family of higher social status, or at least a young lady whose parents shared his own economic standing. His father was a professional man who had given all five of his children an education.
Albert, the youngest, had been spoiled as a child. His mother had died when he was thirteen, and he had been brought up by his father with the help of his older sisters. Many who knew him considered him cruel and devious, but poor Bessie had been taken by him. Police questioned as many people as they could find who had been out on the night of the twenty-seventh of August, but no one had seen Bessie Little with Albert France.
On the fifth of September, two boys fishing in the river discovered drops of blood in a comb. They followed the trail to a larger dried pool of blood and found another comb. Both combs were later identified as belonging to Bessie. There were also tire tracks from a buggy.
Chief Farrell believed this was where Miss Little had died, about a mile from where her body had been found floating. He ordered the body exhumed for a second time, and the coroner discovered a second gunshot wound very close to the first. It was agreed that the head would be severed from the body and preserved in a large jar, and the rest of the remains were reburied. When word spread that the site had been discovered, people rushed to it, finding a macabre pleasure in standing close to where the poor girl had died.
Chief Farrell went to the property of Jacob France to compare the tire marks to the buggy used by his son. On his arrival, he was told the stable where the buggy had been kept had burned to the ground the previous week. The stable and everything inside had been completely destroyed. Albert, however, had confided in a relative, a preacher named Reverend Tita.
He told the reverend he had been with Bessie that evening, that she had produced a gun and shot herself, and that he had panicked and thrown her body into the river. The reverend told him this was a serious error and sought the advice of Judge Kreitzer, who said Albert should have informed the police immediately instead of disposing of the body, and told them to keep the information between them. Somehow the story reached the newspapers, and when Chief Farrell learned of it, Albert was arrested again. This time he admitted meeting Bessie that evening.
She asked if she could drive the buggy, and since she seemed sad, he agreed. She insisted on going over the new bridge. When they arrived, she told him to look down the river while she looked up, because she had heard a capsized boat was floating near the bank. Albert said he heard a gunshot, then another, but the horses bolted and he struggled to control them.
When he returned to the bridge, he realized Bessie had shot herself. Not knowing what to do and fearing he would be blamed, he threw her body and the gun into the river. The gun had not been found, so Chief Farrell searched the area. He had magnets attached to ropes and dragged along the riverbed, but without success.
He then hired a professional diver, who also failed to find the weapon, though the effort drew a large crowd. A gentleman came forward and told police that Albert France had purchased a gun at Dodd’s gun shop three weeks before Bessie Little disappeared. It was also discovered that Albert was engaged to a pretty young lady who lived a few miles outside the city, named Molly Karts. Police recovered letters he had sent to his fiancée; his intentions toward her were clear, but she had no idea he was courting another young lady pregnant with his child.
Chief Farrell believed Albert wanted Bessie out of the way in order to continue his relationship with Molly Karts. Albert France was arrested and charged with the murder of Bessie Little. The trial began at the Montgomery County courthouse on the fourteenth of December 1896. Large crowds gathered outside the court building and on the roads leading to it.
Albert pleaded not guilty, maintaining that Bessie Little had died by her own hand. The circumstantial evidence was substantial. Bessie had two bullet wounds in her head; if she had committed suicide, surely there would have been only one. Albert was engaged to another young lady, but since Bessie was carrying his child, he would not have been able to marry her.
He had purchased a gun just weeks before the body was found, and his buggy had been mysteriously burned in a fire the night Bessie went missing. Witnesses gave conflicting testimony about the night the stable burned. Some said Albert tried to put out the fire, while others claimed he obstructed efforts to save the contents. The prosecution paraded the jar containing Bessie Little’s head before the jurors, pointing out the two bullet wounds, and argued it would not have been possible for her to shoot herself a second time.
The defense produced medical experts who claimed such a thing was indeed possible. They also brought witnesses who described Bessie Little’s state of mind in the weeks before her death. A lady named Mrs. Bell, who ran the Cooper Hotel, told the court that Bessie had said that while crossing the bridge over the river in a streetcar, she had considered getting off and jumping into the water.
Mrs. Bell added that Bessie’s mother had visited her twice and asked her to return home. Albert’s father, Jacob France, told the court he had received a letter from Bessie asking him to allow his son to marry her, and that she wrote that if he did not, she would commit suicide. When the prosecution asked where the letter was now, he replied that his daughter had destroyed it.
The defense portrayed Albert as an honest and forthright young gentleman who wanted to marry Bessie but was prevented only by his age and his father’s refusal. There had been cases of insanity in Albert’s family; several members on his mother’s side had been institutionalized, including one of her brothers, her twin sister, and many cousins. The defense made the jury aware of this but did not claim Albert was insane. More than a hundred witnesses testified.
Every day the courtroom was packed, with people pushing and shoving to get the best view of the proceedings. When the trial ended, the jury deliberated for just two hours before returning a verdict of guilty of murder. The judge sentenced Albert France to death. His appeals were upheld, and he was executed in the electric chair on the nineteenth of November 1897.
His family later took his body to be buried. Albert always claimed he was innocent, and his father, two brothers, and two sisters shared that opinion. The bridge where the event took place has long since been replaced and is officially called Ridge Avenue Bridge, but it is still known locally as Bessie Little Bridge.