Suicide or Murder? Tragic Death of Essex Elam Leads to Speculation and Accusations
Essex Mason Elam: 1873 or 74-1909 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
Essex Elam shared his father’s name, and his father’s short
life. Like his father, he also made headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.
Essex Mason Elam was born following his father’s unexpected
death in August 1873. He was the baby of the family, and grew up in a household
headed by his mother, Lorene Smith’s cousin Mary Vanlandingham Elam, and his
older brothers, William Day Elam and James O. Elam, who were over a decade
older than Essex.
In 1897, Essex married Eugenie Labadie. He was 23, while she
was 19. By the 1900 census, he was working as an insurance agent, and the
couple had a son, James Essex Elam, who was born August 18, 1898.
Just after little James’ ninth birthday in 1907, Eugenie
died, leaving Essex a 33-year-old widower. Since he was working full-time at
his insurance business, James went to live with Essex’s mother.
Essex began seeing a widow living in the area, a Mrs.
Marguerite Landry. On October 8, 1909, he married Marguerite. Unfortunately,
his family members did not approve of his new wife. We can get hints as to the
family’s objections from the manner in which the newspapers described her. One
reporter called her “a dashing young widow”. Another one wrote:
“Mrs. Elam is a handsome young woman. She is of the Spanish
brunette type, with beautiful black hair and brown eyes…She came to Baton Rouge
eight or nine years ago, but up to within a little over a year ago had not
lived here. She was originally from New Orleans.”
An article in a New Orlean’s paper noted that she was the
“niece and adopted daughter of the late Severin Sanchez of this city and is a
beautiful woman of the Spanish type.”
The newspaper went on to describe Essex, subtly contrasting
his background with the wild widow’s:
“Mr. Elam came from one of the best families in Baton Rouge.
A little over a year ago his first wife died.” Another article noted, “Elam had
been in the insurance business, was regarded as a model of sobriety, and almost
as a ‘working machine’.”
Obviously the family suspected Marguerite was a fortune
hunter, leaving the wilder city of New Orleans and turning up in Baton Rouge
just after Eugenie’s death to entice the lonely widower. “Dashing” is probably
a euphemism for sexy and provocative. In addition, in post-war Baton Rouge,
marrying a woman with dark hair and eyes and possibly a “Spanish” complexion
would have been considered quite risqué. Marrying someone of a different skin
tone and culture was “beyond the pale”, so to speak. Essex had taken his new
bride over to his mother’s house after the ceremony, apparently intent on
introducing her to his son and making arrangements to move the boy to the
rented rooms where they planned to live. An argument apparently ensued. The
newspaper describes the situation as follows:
“Mr. Elam was married shortly after 6 o’clock yesterday
evening by Father Solignac. After the marriage he went to the home of his
family. They declined to receive in their home the woman whom he had married.
Mr. Elam wanted to take his boy home with him, but the little fellow cried to
stay with his grandmother.”
It is all too easy to imagine this ugly scene. Mary
Vanlandingham Elam had once been at the top of the social ladder in Baton
Rouge, wife of the mayor and friends with the richest and most influential
people in the state. And here was her son, married to an upstart of dubious
origins. Even though Mary’s social standing and wealth had diminished following
her husband’s death, she probably still considered herself superior to the
average Baton Rouge resident. She must have been livid.
Essex apparently took the rejection poorly. The headline the
following morning read “Twelve Hour Groom Suicides—No Cause Given for Rash
Act”.
According to the new Mrs. Elam, Essex woke fretting over not
being able to see his son. He asked her to make him coffee, and while she was
in the kitchen he shot himself with a handgun.
Sounds straightforward, right?
The family pointed out some curious elements of Marguerite’s
story, which were backed up by evidence at the inquest.
“No pistol was found by Mr. Elam’s side when neighbors came
over to render assistance. L. S. Harrell, who was the first outside party
called in, said the body was nearly cold when he got in the room and that the
man had no pulse at all.”
The new wife had an interesting explanation for the missing
gun. She testified, “Mr. Elam had always said that he was going to kill himself
and that he would take me with him. It was for this reason that I took the
pistol away from him and put it in the armour. ..As I got near the room (after
hearing the shot) I saw Mr. Elam falling, with a pistol in his hand. He had
always said that we would die together. I thought that after shooting himself
he was going to try to shoot me, and I attempted to take the ‘gun’ away from
him.”
She was asked where the gun had come from, and she claimed,
“It belonged to the house. I had it in the top of the wardrobe. I don’t know
how he ever found it.”
I certainly understand why his family was suspicious. Why in
the world would you hide the gun? Her excuse is pathetic. She claimed to have
gone for help immediately, within five minutes of the shot, so how was the body
already cold when the help arrived? She claimed that Essex spoke to her before
she sought help, yet he had no pulse and seemed to have been dead for a while
when neighbors arrived. And why would the rented rooms come with a gun? And why
was she in charge of it?
And the biggest question of all: why had she married a man
who repeatedly threatened to kill both her and himself? It makes no sense
whatsoever.
The Elam family also told the press the angle of the shot
made the suicide claim shaky. “The fact that he was shot in the stomach, and
that the bullet ranged upward toward the left shoulder, is regarded as the most
suspicious. It is claimed that a suicide would never shoot himself in the
position that Elam did, and if he did it would be almost a physical
impossibility for him to fire a shot himself that would range upward to the
heart.”
Brought before a grand jury, the widow stated that “Mr. Elam
had threatened often to take his own life, and had told his family that he was
going to kill himself.” The news report stated “there are a number of persons
who say that they have heard him declared that he intended to commit suicide.”
However, there was also some suspicion cast against the
rental home’s owners, a Mr. and Mrs. Turnley. According to Mrs. Turnley, “her
husband had come home at midnight, but had left shortly afterward on a hunt,
and she declared that he was not at the house at the time of the tragedy…The
pistol with which Elam is supposed to have killed himself did not belong to
him, but belonged to ‘the house’. “ To further complicate things, Mr. Turnley
abandoned his wife following the Elam suicide. Is it possible the two men
fought and Elam was shot in the struggle?
Despite all the red flags, the grand jury agreed with the
authorities and returned a verdict of suicide. Perhaps they were as taken with
the young widow as poor Essex had been.
The widow took out her anger at the Elam family by initially
refusing to release Essex’s body to them for burial. However, she eventually
relented, probably because she didn’t want to pay for a funeral herself.
This tale leaves me with so many questions. Did Essex really
tell his mother and family that he was going to kill himself if they wouldn’t
let him see his son? If poor little James heard him make such a threat, no
wonder he was crying and refused to leave his grandmother’s house. Did
Marguerite decide to use Essex’s suicide threats to her advantage and murder
him? What was really going on with the Turnleys, the home’s owners? What was
the true nature of Essex’s emotional state—was he really a sober “working
machine” or a wild, erratic depressive? What happened to his estate? Did
Marguerite ever get any money? Where did she go after this horrible incident?
Back to New Orleans?
Essex’s family was obviously ashamed of his tragic death and
the adverse publicity that swirled around it. This was not how they wanted the
family to be “in the news”. They buried him in an unmarked grave in Magnolia
Cemetery in Baton Rouge.
Little James Essex came to be known as “Essex” in memory of
his father. He attended boarding school in Pineville, and lived with his
grandmother during school breaks. As an adult, he moved to Oklahoma where he
worked as an engineer. He married an Oklahoma woman and had a daughter, and lived until 1972.
Sources:
“Twelve Hour Groom Suicides” The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Saturday, October 09, 1909 https://www.newspapers.com/
“Funeral of Essex Elam” The
Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Tuesday, October 12, 1909
“Elam’s Relatives Not Convinced” Weekly Town Talk, 23 Oct 1909, Sat · Page 4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/212972446/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1
“Tragic End of a Newly Wed Husband” St. Landry Clarion, Opelousas, Louisiana · Saturday, October 16,
1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/174380518/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1
“Story of the Suicide: Full Account of Sad Death of Essex
Elam.” Weekly Town Talk, Alexandria,
Louisiana · Saturday, October 16, 1909 https://www.newspapers.com/image/212972431/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1
“Did Not Change Verdict”, The Town Talk, Alexandria, Louisiana · Friday, November 12, 1909. https://www.newspapers.com/image/213475233/?terms=essex%20elam&match=1
“Affidavit of Non-Support against T.B.Turnley” The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana. 04 Nov
1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116350880/turnley
“Bullet in His Heart: Sensational Suicide in Baton Rouge.” The Times Democrat, New Orleans La,
Sunday October 10, 1909
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