Dedham Tales

Dedham Transcript/May 26, 1960

In the last week in May, 1960, Massachusetts Attorney General Edward McCormack oversaw the removal of an iron “cage” from the courtroom in the Norfolk County Superior courthouse. The cage was actually an enclosure where defendants sat during trial. It was the American version of the British prisoner’s dock, which is still in use in Britain and Canada. The unfortunate design and choice of materials for the prisoner’s dock in Massachusetts gave it the appearance of a cage, and this was frequently observed during the Sacco-Vanzetti trial and appeals in the 1920’s. The cage in the Dedham courthouse looked like an elaborate Victorian ski-lift. It was removed from storage and displayed last year during the 150th anniversary celebration of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

The first picture is a postcard from the early twentieth century; the cage can be seen on the left. The second picture shows Irving Millen, Murton Millen, and Abraham Faber in the cage during their 1934 trial for robbery and murder. The complete tale of their crime is documented in my book.

The hanging scene on the Common, from a broadside published shortly after the execution
Jason Fairbanks had been in jail awaiting execution for only 10 days after his conviction when he was liberated by a group which included his brother, several nephews and friends. Word spread quickly across the county and New England of the daring escape, and the town of Dedham was torn apart by the friction between Jason’s supporters and his detractors. A reward for his capture was offered, and it took only 10 days for three men with fast horses to catch up with Jason and one of his accomplices in a New York town on the shores of Lake Champlain. Jason was returned to Massachusetts and imprisoned in Boston until his execution date.

On the morning of September 10, he was transferred to the Dedham jail, and from there Jason Fairbanks walked the short distance to Dedham Common where a crowd of thousands waited. After signalling he was ready by dropping his handkerchief, Fairbanks was hanged. Dozens of articles, broadsides, books and poems were written and sold on the day of the execution and for months afterward. The following year a traveling wax museum began touring the country, featuring the tragic figures of both Jason and Elizabeth, along with other famous and infamous characters from history and literature.
For a more detailed account of the affair, visit the Fairbanks House website: http://www.fairbankshouse.org/
where you will find a paper written by Fairbanks descendant Dale Freeman as well as a reprint of two 1801 publications for sale in the on-line gift shop.

Ad from the Windsor, Vermont Federal Courier

May 18, 1801- Nehemiah Fales is startled by the sight of 20 year old Jason Fairbanks running toward the Fales home in the present day Cedar St./Turner St. area of town. Jason is bleeding profusely from various wounds and claiming that Elizabeth, Fales’ 18 year old daughter has killed herself in a nearby thicket of birch trees called Mason’s Pasture. Nehemiah and his brother Samuel run to the spot where they find Betsey lying on the ground, her life ebbing away from severe stab wounds to her chest, arm, back and hands. She dies shortly after her distraught mother arrives at the scene.

Jason Fairbanks is so severely wounded himself that he can not be removed from the Fales home until a few days later, when he is carried across town on a litter, past the family home on East St. to the Dedham Jail, where he is held for the murder of Betsey.

The trial of Jason Fairbanks began on August 4th of that year. Jason’s lawyers tried to prove that his weakened condition and withered arm made it impossible for him to have inflicted the numerous and violent wounds on Betsey, and that she had killed herself in a fit of romantic despair. The prosecution contended that these same wounds could not have been self-inflicted, and that Jason murdered Betsey in a rage when she spurned his attentions. Jason was found guilty on August 8th and sentenced to be hanged. But a group of his friends had other plans. TO BE CONTINUED…

Recently I saw a news story about bobcat sightings in Chelmsford.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO141060/

In its early days, Dedham offered a bounty for bobcats (as well as for wolves and rattlesnakes!). In 1957, Joseph Demling of Macomber Terrace not only spotted a bobcat out by 135 near the Needham line, but killed it and brought it to town hall to collect his bounty! After researching the ancient laws covering such situations, the astonished town treasurer Andrew Galvin, Jr. paid Demling a $10.00 bounty. Thankfully, the law also required that Dedham be reimbursed for the bounty by Norfolk County.

Transcript– November 8, 1957