“This notorious woman shed human blood as lavishly as if it had been water. She procured and held in subjection a desperate gang, whose sole business was to perpetrate robberies and murders she planned, in which she generally took the lead, and frequently perpetrated murders single handed in order to rob.” –Hereditary Descent, O.S. Fowler
He’s referring to Patty Cannon, whose crimes and murders were recounted in my last blog post. Although there are many unsubstantiated myths and legends surrounding this woman, the evidence discovered at her home confirmed that she kidnapped and sold black men and women into slavery, and that she was guilty of numerous murders, the remains of which were unearthed in her fields and garden.
Fowler writes, “Her destructiveness and also acquisitiveness, as well as nativeness, were enormous, as seen in the engravings of her skull.”
He’s referring to Patty Cannon, whose crimes and murders were recounted in my last blog post. Although there are many unsubstantiated myths and legends surrounding this woman, the evidence discovered at her home confirmed that she kidnapped and sold black men and women into slavery, and that she was guilty of numerous murders, the remains of which were unearthed in her fields and garden.
Fowler writes, “Her destructiveness and also acquisitiveness, as well as nativeness, were enormous, as seen in the engravings of her skull.”
Patty Cannon was convicted of murder and taken to the jail in Georgetown, Delaware. While there, either awaiting trial or execution—there is some dispute—she died of what some believe was self-ingested poison. Tradition claims that no one came to claim her body and she interred on the premises at the Sussex County Jail.
A letter written by Alfred W. Joseph relates that not long after the turn of the century, several bodies were exhumed to build a parking lot. His uncle by marriage, James Marsh, took the position of deputy sheriff and somehow came into possession of Patty Cannon’s skull. When he moved out of the area, he gave the skull to Alfred’s father, who for years kept it on a nail in his barn. After a time, to save it from damage or possible theft, he stored it in a box in his attic. In 1946, after his father’s death, Alfred inherited the artifact and in 1961, gave the skull on a loan to the Dover Library, where it was brought out for a Halloween display that also promoted reading about Cannon's disgraceful chapter of Delaware history.
A letter written by Alfred W. Joseph relates that not long after the turn of the century, several bodies were exhumed to build a parking lot. His uncle by marriage, James Marsh, took the position of deputy sheriff and somehow came into possession of Patty Cannon’s skull. When he moved out of the area, he gave the skull to Alfred’s father, who for years kept it on a nail in his barn. After a time, to save it from damage or possible theft, he stored it in a box in his attic. In 1946, after his father’s death, Alfred inherited the artifact and in 1961, gave the skull on a loan to the Dover Library, where it was brought out for a Halloween display that also promoted reading about Cannon's disgraceful chapter of Delaware history.
In 2010, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institute. Dr. Douglas Owsley, chief of the Division of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian, plans to examine and preserve the skull as part of a larger study of life in the Chesapeake from colonial times to the 19th century. Owsley said the skull is showing its age. The lower jaw is missing and some of the facial bones have separated from the cranium, which itself is starting to split along natural growth lines.
The grisly artifact's first examinations were performed by O.S. Fowler, a phrenologist in the early 1800’s, who was interested in Patty’s skull because of her dark family history. Phrenology is a process that involves observing and/or feeling the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. It was mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s and is today recognized as pseudoscience. Fowler, however, was interested in the possibility that evil traits could be passed down from the parents and evidenced in the shape of the skull.
The grisly artifact's first examinations were performed by O.S. Fowler, a phrenologist in the early 1800’s, who was interested in Patty’s skull because of her dark family history. Phrenology is a process that involves observing and/or feeling the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes. It was mostly discredited as a scientific theory by the 1840s and is today recognized as pseudoscience. Fowler, however, was interested in the possibility that evil traits could be passed down from the parents and evidenced in the shape of the skull.
According to The Narrative and Confessions of Lucretia P. Cannon, a penny dreadful published in 1841, Patty Cannon’s father, L. P. Hanly, was the son of an English nobleman who disowned him after L. P. took to drink and secretly married a prostitute. With nothing left for them in England, Hanly and his wife traveled to Montreal where they set up a smuggling operation between Montreal and towns in New York and Vermont. The Hanlys lived a double life, prospering on illegal activities while giving the appearance of a respectable family. All was well until an acquaintance named Alexander Payne uncovered their operation and threatened to turn them in. Hanly decided that it was necessary kill Payne, but he was only partially successful—he split Payne’s head with an axe but was captured before he could escape. He was hanged soon after.
Her brother, James Cannon, was also said to have lived a riotous and dissipated life, and was hung for horse stealing in Canada. Patty’s sister, Betsy (possibly Twiford) was also descripted as “depraved and prone to violence.”
Her brother, James Cannon, was also said to have lived a riotous and dissipated life, and was hung for horse stealing in Canada. Patty’s sister, Betsy (possibly Twiford) was also descripted as “depraved and prone to violence.”
Hal Roth, in his book, The Monster’s Handsome Face, interviewed George Figgs, a man who claimed to be a relation to Patty Cannon. Figgs claimed that his Aunt Midge Figgs Parkinson and her daughter, Sandy, did a lot of genealogical research in the 1970s and discovered that they were related to Patty Cannon. He said that his great-grandmother used to tell stories about Patty Cannon, claiming she was “so mean that she killed and ate one of her own children in front of her mob to quell a mutiny.” She was described as “a big-boned woman with Indian or Gypsy blood.”
Not surprisingly, he also said, “Her ghost and the ghosts of her band are supposedly roaming the swamps around the Pocomoke River; up in Nassawango Creek; down by Shad Landing. She had camps out there where she had slave pens. If anybody told on her, they would die, their children would die, and their animals would die. She was feared; that’s how she ran her regime.”
Not surprisingly, he also said, “Her ghost and the ghosts of her band are supposedly roaming the swamps around the Pocomoke River; up in Nassawango Creek; down by Shad Landing. She had camps out there where she had slave pens. If anybody told on her, they would die, their children would die, and their animals would die. She was feared; that’s how she ran her regime.”
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