On the morning of February 1, 1891, a young woman named Helen Potts died at Miss Comstock’s finishing school in New York City after complaining of strange dreams and telling her roommates she feared she might never wake up. Three doctors tried to save her, but their efforts failed. At first, her death was attributed to a weak heart. Within weeks, the press began asking a very different question: was she murdered?
Helen had been born in New Jersey in 1871, into a comfortable middle-class family. In the summer of 1889, at age 18, she met Carlisle Harris, a medical student two years her senior, whose family had taken a seaside property in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Carlisle came from a respectable but less privileged background and had worked from a young age while continuing his studies at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. The two quickly became close.
Helen’s mother, Cynthia Potts, was initially pleased with the young man studying to become a doctor, but she grew concerned as his visits continued. Helen had already been engaged once before, briefly, to a man named Harry Brown; the families disagreed over who had ended that engagement. Now her mother worried her daughter was again becoming too serious too quickly. On February 8, 1890, Helen told her mother she was going to the New York Stock Exchange with Carlisle and his younger brother.
Instead, she and Carlisle went to City Hall, where they were married in secret. They used false names in the register: Carlisle called himself Charles Harris, and Helen gave her name as Helen Nielsen, using her middle name. The marriage remained concealed from both families. Carlisle told Helen he wanted to improve his circumstances before revealing it.
In the summer of 1890, Carlisle borrowed $600 from his grandmother and opened a café in Asbury Park. He told Helen that if it succeeded, they could publicly acknowledge their marriage. The café attracted the attention of a local business called the Neptune Club, which agreed to rent the second floor of the building, promising to pay a good rental and guarantee that the café’s takings would rise by $100 a month. Carlisle accepted the deal.
But he had been visiting Helen far less often since their wedding, and his distance was not the only source of her distress. In June 1890, Helen discovered she was pregnant. She confided in her friend Mae Schofield and told her about the secret marriage. Terminations were illegal in nearly all of the country at the time.
Carlisle, her husband, persuaded her that terminating the pregnancy was for the best, and he performed the procedure himself even though he was not familiar with it. The fetus was killed but not removed, and Helen became seriously ill. She confided in her uncle, Dr. Trevorton, who lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He performed a second operation to remove the fetus and kept Helen under his care for a month, staying in contact with her mother. He demanded that Carlisle come and help care for her. While visiting, Carlisle was said to have boasted in a local tavern that he could seduce any young lady he desired, telling a teenager named Oliver that he would take women out, give them alcohol, and if that did not work, propose marriage. He was also quoted as saying Helen had not been the first young lady he had married.
When Dr. Trevorton learned of these statements, he was furious. He told Mrs. Potts about her daughter’s condition and the secret marriage.
He considered reporting Carlisle to the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons but decided not to, fearing the scandal would bring shame on the Potts family. Carlisle’s problems compounded when his arrangement with the Neptune Club backfired. The club began selling alcohol from the premises illegally, which led to Carlisle’s arrest. He spent a night in jail before his grandmother paid his bail.
Mrs. Potts, disappointed in both Carlisle and her daughter, nevertheless pressed for the couple to be married in a church and end the secrecy. Carlisle wanted to wait until he finished his studies. Eventually they agreed the couple would marry on February 8, 1891—exactly one year after their actual wedding in New York—to avoid scandal.
Carlisle suggested Helen attend Miss Comstock’s finishing school in New York City to keep her away from inquisitive neighbors and prepare her for society. Mrs. Potts agreed. Helen became a popular student, though she was still not well.
She suffered from headaches, trouble sleeping, and the effects of her ordeal. She asked Carlisle to prescribe something to help her sleep. Carlisle had a pharmacist at the medical college make up a mixture of 25 grains of sulfate of quinine and one grain of sulfate of morphine, divided into six capsules, meaning each capsule contained only one-sixth of a grain of morphine. He showed the capsules to Helen, gave her four of them, and kept the other two on his person.
She was to take one each night before bed. On Saturday, January 31, 1891, Helen spent the day with her mother, discussing the wedding planned for the following week. That night, she began to feel unwell. Her roommates had been at a concert; when they returned, Helen was making strange noises and told them about her dreams.
She said she was afraid that if she went to sleep, she might never wake up. The girls fetched the principal, who realized something was seriously wrong. Dr. Fowler and his assistant Dr.
Banner examined Helen, but her condition deteriorated, and a third doctor, Dr. Kerr, was called. At 11 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, February 1, Helen Potts died. Dr.
Fowler believed Helen had taken an excessive amount of morphine. Search of her belongings, he found a box with a label reading “one before retiring,” signed “C. W. H.
” Her roommates said the young man was Carlisle W. Harris, a medical student who had occasionally called on Helen. Dr. Fowler sent for him immediately.
When Carlisle arrived, his first reaction was to ask Dr. Fowler if he might be held responsible for the death. He explained that Helen had suffered from headaches and insomnia and that he had asked a pharmacist to prepare the capsules. He gave Dr.
Fowler the two capsules he still had. Both were found to contain exactly the amount of morphine Carlisle had claimed—not enough to kill a patient. Yet something seemed strange about the death. Mrs.
Potts, informed of her daughter’s passing, arrived in New York and refused the coroner’s request to perform an autopsy, saying her daughter had always suffered from a weakness of the heart and that she wanted to take the body home for burial. The press reported on the case, and some began to question whether the death was truly natural. Headlines asked: “Was this murder? ” On March 21, a newspaper published the story of the secret marriage between Helen Potts and Carlisle Harris.
Two days later, in an attempt to stop speculation, Helen’s body was exhumed and an autopsy performed. It found large amounts of morphine in Helen’s stomach. Carlisle Harris was arrested and charged with murder. The trial began on January 19, 1892.
Carlisle pleaded not guilty. He was represented by the eminent lawyer William Howe; the prosecution was led by Assistant District Attorney Charles Sims Jr. The public eagerly followed the case, and rumors spread that Carlisle was a womanizer who had married at least three times, each time to a decent young lady who had refused to be alone with him until they were married. He came to be seen as a devious and dangerous character.
The prosecution argued that of the six capsules Carlisle had made up at the college pharmacy, he had added up to five grains of morphine to one. He then gave Helen four of the capsules, knowing that one would prove fatal. The prosecution believed he expected Helen to take the lethal capsule on one of the first two nights; if the remaining capsules were later found, they would still show only one-sixth of a grain of morphine, making his explanation seem credible. It was for this reason, prosecutors argued, that Carlisle had kept two capsules on his person.
The prosecution also noted that days before giving Helen the capsules, Carlisle had attended a lecture on morphine and its effects, after which students had unsupervised access to a large bottle of the drug. If Carlisle had taken morphine from that bottle, no one would have known. Drs. Allan Hamilton and Rudolf Witthaus, who had performed the autopsy, testified that the results clearly showed Helen had died from ingesting a large amount of morphine.
Carlisle did not take the stand in his own defense, surprising journalists and disappointing a public eager to hear his version of events. The trial ended on February 2, 1892. The jury deliberated for one hour and twenty minutes before returning a guilty verdict. Carlisle Harris was sentenced to death.
The defense appealed, but the verdict was upheld. They then filed affidavits claiming new evidence, but this was denied. An application to the New York governor to commute the sentence was also refused. Carlisle Harris consistently protested his innocence.
He claimed Helen had taken morphine of her own volition and had unfortunately taken too much, leading to her death. He maintained that he was convicted by libel and innuendo in the press rather than by witnesses in court. On May 8, 1893, Carlisle Harris was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. His mother never believed her son was guilty.
On his tombstone, the words were inscribed: “Murdered by 12 men—if the jury had only known. ”