Arthur William Mudgett (1883 - 1951)

Question

Hi Wikitreers,

We have Arthur William Mudgett (1883 - 1951) He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 to 35 years in the Vermont State Prison. The story of his romantic relationship to Amy G Shonio (1901 - 1920) appears to have ended in tragedy. 

He needs connecting any collaboration is appreciated 

Thank you

Answer 1

I started reading the newspaper accounts from the time Amy's body was discovered through the trial. I don't think it's a clear cut case of a romantic tryst ending in tragedy. Unless the possible conviction of an innocent man were the tragedy.

Witness testimony for the prosecution is sketchy and Arthur appears to have had a solid alibi. And as an added twist, Arthur's brother-in-law, Homer Kneeland, 55, committed suicide August 19, 1920, by shooting himself in the head with a .38.

The medical examiner's determination of the manner of death is weak, granted it was 1920 and forensic examination was not as sophisticated at it is 100 years later.

And there was a problem with the timing of the trial. The trial was held during the Christmas holidays which may have influenced the jury to hasten their decision not taking all of the evidence into account.

Anyway, I'm going to keep reading the various accounts leading up to the trial, testimony, and inconsistancies. But the rule of law is the presumption of innocence and so far, the prosecution's case looks pretty weak. I'm just basing my opinion on my experience and I'm so far, I'm not seeing probable cause for the arrest of Arthur Mudgett.

Comments

I also noticed this observation. Interesting

Edit: added his siblings. It appears a possible other sibling birth record but no name possible a sibling who passed at birth in Familysearch. So maybe his mother has 12-13 children all said and done with child birthing

Answer 2

Hi Andrew!

I checked out the profile Arthur Mudgett!  I have not added anything yet.

What I did do was add a template to your Find a Grave source.     {{Find A Grave|42824272}}

When you cite Find a Grave, they are now asking us to change "Find a Grave Memorial ID 42824272" to {{Find A Grave|42824272}}  Add the {{, change the "a" to Capital A, remove the Memorial ID, add a bar |, then the end }}

 EditBot WikiTree edited the Biography  will automatically check the biography when you add the template

• Find a Grave Memorial ID 42824272

Comments

Thank you

It’s really a sad story but his genealogy is also interesting as his father served as a 9 months man in Company E of the 13th Vermont Infantry during the U.S. Civil war and participated in the “Battle of Gettysburg” visiting the battlefield 4 times after the war! Arthur apparently had 10 siblings as his parents had a total of 11 children. It’s interesting the whole romantic relationship with himself and Amy Shonio who was pregnant most believed was his child and the botched abortion then her death. The tragedy was obviously felt by both sides. Still researching and trying to connect his lineage into Vermont genealogy history

Edit: typos and to add more about the fathers civil war military duty