Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem
    Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem
    Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem
    Ebook193 pages2 hours

    Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem

    By Andrew K. Amelinckx

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Visit the long ago crime and dire deeds in the Hudson Valley of New York.


    The Hudson Valley is drenched in history, culture and blood. In the fall of 1893, Lizzie Halliday left a trail of bodies in her wake, slaughtering two strangers and her husband before stabbing a nurse to death at the asylum housing her. A Jazz Age politician, tired of fighting with his overbearing wife, murdered her and buried the body under the front porch. In 1882, a cantankerous old miner, dubbed the "Austerlitz Cannibal" by the press, chopped up his partner before he himself swung from the end of a rope. Author Andrew Amelinckx dredges up the Hudson Valley's dark past, from Prohibition-era shootouts to unsolved murders, in eleven heart-pounding true stories.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateJun 26, 2017
    ISBN9781439661024
    Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem
    Author

    Andrew K. Amelinckx

    Andrew K.F. Amelinckx is an award-winning crime reporter, freelance journalist and visual artist. He grew up in Louisiana and now lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, Kara, and dog, Bingo. After nearly a decade covering crime for various newspapers in the region, he is now a contributing editor for the magazine Modern Farmer and the cofounder (with his wife) of the men's accessory company Fellow Well Met. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master of fine arts degree in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

    Read more from Andrew K. Amelinckx

    Related to Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Office of Historical Corrections

      Oct 7, 2020

      The vision for the Institute of Public History that summoned me from my former job as a history professor at GW had been grandiose. An ambitious freshman congresswoman demanded funding to put a public historian in every zip code in the country, a cor

      1 min read

    • Article

      Paint the Towns

      Mar 18, 2024

      1| “People have been coming to Berea for craft for a hundred and twenty years,” says Michelle Weston, who for decades has been transforming 2,050-degree molten glass into captivating, often aquatic-themed sculptures—jellyfish, tide pools, seahorses—a

      6 min read

    • Article

      These 'Wanderers' Are Heading For The End Of The World

      Jul 6, 2019

      Chuck Wendig's massive new novel imagines a plague of sleepwalkers — unresponsive people endlessly walking to an unknown destination as a fearful, hate-ridden country tears itself apart around them.

      3 min read

    • Article

      People Are The Purpose Of Science

      Feb 11, 2019

      People Are The Purpose Of Science
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Best Memoirs And Biographies Of 2022

      Dec 3, 2022

      Celebrity memoirs often follow the same trajectory: a difficult childhood followed by early professional failure, then dazzling success and redemption. But this year has yielded a handful of autobiographies from famous types determined to mix things

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Chicago Seven Put Their Fate In Her Hands. One Juror's Rarely Seen Trial Journals Reveal How That Changed Her Forever

      Aug 19, 2018

      CHICAGO - In a brown spiral notebook, in neat cursive penmanship, Mrs. Jean Fritz begins chronicling her time as a juror in the trial that will change her life. She writes down the date, the room, the address, the judge, and then: "Case of 8 defendan

      15 min read

    • Article

      ‘I’ve Been Expecting Things To Fall Apart At Any Moment’: Dan Smith On 10 Years Of Body Dysmorphia, Burnout And Bastille

      Jan 11, 2022

      Dan Smith doesn’t know how to switch off. In the decade or so that he has been the creative heart, and frontman, of the band Bastille, he has thought about music constantly. There was a two-week period over Christmas and new year where he thought he

      7 min read

    • Article

      Kidnapped!

      Mar 8, 2023

      Kidnapped!
      5 min read

    • Article

      Promise Of Deep Brain Stimulation

      Mar 1, 2024

      Promise Of Deep Brain Stimulation
      13 min read

    • Article

      1626 Shipwreck Confirmed

      Aug 2, 2022

      In 1626, Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford recorded details of a shipwreck off Cape Cod that had occasioned the rescue of two English merchants and several indentured Irishmen who were passengers on the vessel. The likely location of the hulk

      1 min read

    • Article

      Loren Grush On Nasa’s First Female Astronauts: ‘People Thought They’d Be A Distraction To The Men In Space’

      Aug 26, 2023

      Your parents both worked on the space shuttle programme for decades, and you have gone on to write about Sally Ride, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik, Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon and Kathy Sullivan – the first six American female astronauts. Were you always i

      3 min read

    • Article

      Heart Of The Matter

      Jan 1, 2023

      On the morning of February 14, 2018, Polly Olsen, a paralegal student at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC), handed out handmade heart-shaped Valentines around the school campus. Each of her cutout hearts contained short messages such as, “

      2 min read

    • Article

      After the Storm

      Oct 22, 2019

      After the Storm
      9 min read

    • Article

      Killer's Instincts

      Jan 1, 2024

      Killer's Instincts
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem - Andrew K. Amelinckx

      past.

      INTRODUCTION

      The Hudson Valley has always been a culturally important region, inspiring the first truly American art movement—the Hudson River School—and literature from the likes of Washington Irving. The region has also played an important role in the nation’s founding and rise to global dominance, from early Dutch colonization to its role in the American Revolution to its importance as the country’s first superhighway following the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. Thanks to the canal, the Hudson River became the conduit between the agricultural Midwest and Great Lakes and New York City, helping to make America the granary for the world and turn New York City into an important economic, cultural and political center.

      But there is a dark side to the Hudson Valley as well, going back to the fateful 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing under the Dutch flag who explored the river that would bear his name. The journey of discovery included kidnappings of Native Americans, killings, drunkenness and the rumblings of a mutiny (Hudson died during a successful mutiny on a subsequent voyage in 1611). From there, it only got worse. The region’s history is littered with corpses, killers and crooks. The Hudson River itself was often the most convenient cemetery for cutthroats looking for a place to dispose of their victims’ remains.

      The river snakes from north to south for 315 miles, beginning as a mere trickle in the Adirondacks before widening to 3.5 miles across near Haverstraw, finally meeting the Upper Bay at New York City as a fast-moving and ship-filled estuary. Unusually, it’s a tidal river, meaning its waters flow both directions, as I can attest from many hours spent sitting on the river’s banks watching the water flow by, sometimes north to south, other times in the opposite direction.

      A map of the Hudson Valley from 1897. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, the New York Public Library. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

      This book is separated into three parts, representing the three main geographical areas into which the eleven Hudson Valley counties are typically gathered: the Upper Hudson Valley, which is also known as the Capital District, or Capital Region; the Mid-Hudson Valley; and the Lower Hudson Valley. The exact criteria of the various geographic areas and overlapping regional names are, like everything else in New York, a matter of opinion.

      A view of the Hudson River from 1820. Spencer Collection, the New York Public Library.

      Part one, From a Trickle to a Roar, includes Albany, Rensselaer, Greene and Columbia Counties. The second part, The Widening Maw, encompasses Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan and Orange Counties. Sullivan County, while not actually touching the Hudson River’s shore, is in no uncertain terms part of the Hudson Valley. The county was split off from Ulster County in 1809 and has played an important part in the region’s history and economy ever since. The third and final part of the book, Tides and Tribulations, includes Putnam, Rockland and Westchester Counties.

      Here are eleven true stories, one for each of the counties in the region I have called home for more than a decade. The stories span three hundred years and include a mix of crimes, some infamous and some all but forgotten until I uncovered them during my many hours of staring at tiny newspaper type on a microfilm machine. All of these tales have something to teach us, and the characters—once real, living, breathing humans—have been given a second chance to tell their side of the story from beyond the grave.

      PART I

      FROM A TRICKLE TO A ROAR

      The Greene County, New York Courthouse. Photo by author.

      1

      THE DEVINE MURDER (ALBANY COUNTY)

      CONFESSIONS

      On August 30, 1925, nineteen-year-old Albert Billy Devine Jr. was awakened by screaming in his family’s Central Avenue home in Albany.

      Billy, Billy, he’s murdering me, screamed Catherine Devine as she burst into her son’s room. Blood streamed from her head as she fell across the teen’s bed, again telling him that she was being murdered by his father, Albert. This wasn’t the first time his parents had gone at it. Their violent arguments and physical altercations over Catherine’s drinking and Albert’s dalliances were the talk of the neighborhood. Catherine had a thing for alcohol, and Albert had a thing for the ladies. He often left the house at odd hours of the night without explanation. At one point, Catherine hired private detectives to follow her husband and learned he was seen in the company of an attractive blonde. Albert had taken the woman to a number of roadhouses, where they drank and danced while Catherine sat at home. When Catherine learned what her husband was up to, she decided not to pursue a divorce, fearing it would be too hard on the children. But the fights began to escalate.

      Billy noticed that the latest fight was worse than usual. As Albert came charging into the room after Catherine, Billy jumped up and slammed his father into the wall. Albert wept bitterly as he told his son over and over that she had driven him to do it. Grace, the Devines’ twenty-one-year-old daughter (everyone called her Cuddles), also came into the room. She took her mother to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Billy and Grace drove their mother to the hospital and lied to the doctors, telling them that Catherine had been struck by a car.

      A newspaper photo montage including images of Albert Devine Sr., Catherine Devine and police digging up Catherine’s body. Image courtesy of the Albany Times-Union.

      A few days later, as Billy mowed the lawn, he noticed a mound of dirt under the front porch. He could clearly see it through the latticework and wondered what it was for. He mentioned it to his father when he drove Albert to work, but his father changed the subject. Billy left a short time later for Brooklyn to look for work, staying at his uncle’s house. It wasn’t just the need for a job, but rather the need to get away from his father, whom he feared, that pushed the teen to leave Albany. As he bid his mother goodbye, he didn’t know it would be the last time he would see her alive.

      Grace had a dark feeling about her father and the family home. On the night of September 6—the evening before Labor Day—she and two friends had come home to find the house locked, the lights out and a note from her father on the front door indicating that he and Catherine had gone to Kinderhook Lake, about twenty miles southeast, and wouldn’t be home until late. Grace stayed at a friend’s house that night and for a week more before leaving the city to visit relatives in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, where Albert was originally from.

      Billy returned home briefly in mid-September. Albert told Billy and Grace their mother had up and abandoned the family out of the blue because of their querulous relationship. Given the volatile marriage, the story seemed plausible. But then Billy noticed that the mound of dirt was gone.

      On September 28, Grace, who was still in Pennsylvania, received a phone call from her father.

      I have a telegram for you here, Albert told Grace.

      Albany police investigators at the Devines’ Central Avenue home. Image courtesy of the Albany Times-Union.

      Mug shots of Albert Devine Sr., following his arrest for the murder of his wife. Image courtesy of the Albany Times-Union.

      Who is it from? she replied. Open it up and read it to me.

      Her father obliged. It was from her mother, he told her. Albert read the short note aloud: I’m in Pittsburgh. Send my clothes to me here. Mother. Grace asked her father to forward the telegram to her in Dunmore. Suspicion began creeping into her mind. Why was her mother in Pittsburgh, and how could she send her mother anything without an address? She received the telegram the next day, but it made no difference to see the note in person—it remained as mysterious as when her father had read it to her over the phone.

      Billy returned home for the Thanksgiving holiday. The next morning, his father woke him.

      Billy, I’ve killed your mother, said Albert, tears streaming down his face. He begged Billy to stick with me and not tell the police what he’d done. Billy couldn’t believe what his father was telling him, but the more he thought about the strange goings-on at his family’s home, the more the truth seemed all too clear.

      Albert lied, telling his son he’d buried Catherine in the woods near Bennington, Vermont. In reality, Billy had been walking over his mother’s grave every time he went in or out the front door. Billy left that day and headed for Dunmore. He didn’t initially tell his sister the truth, but his father’s sickening secret, Billy’s terrible fear and the truth of what had happened to his poor mother were eating away at him with a paralyzing fierceness. Finally, Billy told his sister what happened to their mother. From there, the story was told to their relatives, including their paternal grandmother, with whom they were staying in Dunmore. Eventually, the Pennsylvania state police got wind of the news. Like a dam bursting from an unstoppable pressure, the story came pouring out of Billy when he was confronted by Pennsylvania detectives. It had been nearly three months since Albert had killed his wife.

      THE KILLING

      On the morning of Sunday, September 6, Albert and Catherine woke up around 9:00 a.m. and ate breakfast. Albert suggested they go for a ride that day. With nowhere in particular to go, they meandered for a while before Albert suggested they head to Bennington, Vermont, about forty miles to the east. They’d been there before and had enjoyed themselves. Catherine instead suggested Kinderhook where they had friends, but Albert nixed the idea, believing that if they went to Kinderhook, Catherine would only get drunk. They arrived in Bennington and had a lunch of fried chicken at the Alps Hotel. After lunch, they headed toward home, and that’s when the fight started. Catherine still wanted to go to Kinderhook, but her husband refused. Back home, they ate dinner in silence, metal scraping across china the only sound. After dinner, the fight started up again. But Albert was done with fighting.

      As Catherine sat in the dining room reading the newspaper, he calmly walked up behind her and repeatedly slammed a hammer into the back of her head. She stood, stumbled into the kitchen and slid down to the ground. He’d ended their years of bitter quarrels for good.

      After putting a note on the front door for Grace, Albert sat in the dining room with the lights out and listened to his daughter laughing with her friends as they came onto the porch. He sat very still, his breathing shallow, the tension nearly unbearable. The noise from outside stopped as Grace read the note. She and her friends left without coming into the house. Albert acted quickly then, dragging his wife’s body through the house and into the yard before removing the latticework on the side of the porch and rolling the body into the shallow grave he had dug the week before. He poured lime over the body to help the decomposition, tidied up and then returned to his life as if nothing had happened. He hired a handyman to repaint the inside of the house and slap on some new wallpaper. He hired another young man, Edward Allen, to stay at the house and cook and clean for him. There were reports of more than a few wild parties held at the residence in the days and weeks after the murder.

      A Times-Union reporter would later remark that it was up to the psychologists, psychiatrists, and the psychopathists to determine how a man could murder his wife and then carry the dread secret around with him, as one would carry a handkerchief. Albert Devine was able to go to work and act like nothing was wrong, at least until a telegram from his mother arrived.

      THE TRUTH REVEALED

      On Thursday, December 3, Albert received a telegram from his mother while he was at work.

      The state police are on their way, read the telegram. Your boy has been doing a lot of loose talking.

      Albert called her on the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1