00:00:00
Steve Wendl: We all would like to have things
kind of packaged up in a nice, neat package
00:00:07
for us to be able to understand. There was a moment at 3 a.m. one morning when
he viciously butchered the two people closest
00:00:20
to him in life. Now, why he did that, I don't know. [Music.] Phoebe Judge: John and Hattie Elkins were
murdered in their bed in the middle of the
00:00:33
night on July 17th, 1889. John was 45, a Civil War veteran. Hattie, his third wife, was 23.
00:00:42
They lived in rural Iowa. Steve Wendl: The only survivors to the whole
thing was a young boy and a young baby.
00:00:50
Phoebe Judge: Steve Wendl is a retired counselor
who used to work at Anamosa State Penitentiary
00:00:55
in Iowa. He and University of North Carolina Law Professor
Patricia Bryan have been working for years
00:01:02
to sort out the details of this story, which,
for everyone involved, has always been hard
00:01:08
to make sense of. Patricia Bryan: It was early on a morning
of July 1889, and a neighbor saw this young
00:01:16
11-year-old boy in a buggy coming down this
very small dirt road. He asked him where he was going and he said,
really without much reluctance, that his parents
00:01:30
had been killed in the night. He said it was an intruder. He had been sleeping in the barn, didn't know
who had done it.
00:01:38
Steve Wendl: And when the scene was investigated,
they found the very, very much mutilated corpses
00:01:44
of the pair. The father had been shot in the head, and
then the mother, her head had been bludgeoned
00:01:53
almost into an unrecognizable state. And then when the father started to groan,
apparently not quite dead, the perpetrator
00:02:01
did the same thing to him, as far as with
the club. The heads were almost unrecognizable.
00:02:07
Phoebe Judge: A reporter followed the police
around the scene. He called it "the worst crime in the history
of Clayton County."
00:02:15
The house was half a mile from the road and
half a mile from the nearest neighbor.
00:02:20
Outside the house, they found the club that
had been used lying in the bushes, still covered
00:02:25
in blood. But there were no suspects. Patricia Bryan: They investigated and they
really couldn't find much evidence.
00:02:31
The only person who could have known anything,
I suppose, was Wesley, the 11-year-old boy,
00:02:39
but he claimed he had been sleeping in the
barn. He knew nothing. Phoebe Judge: When he talked to the police,
11-year-old Wesley Elkins said he'd woken
00:02:47
up around 2 a.m. when he'd heard a gunshot
and his stepmother scream. He'd been out in the barn because it was summer
and it was cooler up in the hayloft than in
00:02:56
his bedroom. After hearing the scream, he said he was scared
and stayed hidden in the barn for about an
00:03:02
hour before going into the house to see what
had happened. He said he picked up the baby from between
the two bodies, changed it out of its bloody
00:03:11
clothes, and that was that. He hopped on the family buggy to go tell someone. Eric Mennel has today's story about the search
for the killer and for an explanation.
00:03:22
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. [Music.] Eric Mennel: That next week was a strange
one for Clayton County.
00:03:33
News of the murder was spreading across the
country and the town was consumed by it.
00:03:37
The governor offered a $500 reward for the
killer, nearly $12,000 in today's money.
00:03:43
But there were still no obvious suspects. Except, you know, there was something a little
off with that kid who had been sleeping in
00:03:50
the barn. Steve Wendl: The fact that the young boy,
this Elkins, this young Elkins, John Wesley,
00:03:56
was so cool and so seemingly unperturbed by
this horrific event that he had just been
00:04:02
in such close proximity to was considered
very suspicious. Why was he not more emotional?
00:04:08
Eric Mennel: So people started investigating
on their own, watching Wesley's every move,
00:04:13
floating their own theories. Steve Wendl: They would literally lift him
up off the ground, testing his weight, in
00:04:21
some sense, I suppose, testing in their own
minds whether this slight little youth was
00:04:26
capable of such a horrific crime. Eric Mennel: They would pick him up. Steve Wendl: They would pick him up, exactly.
00:04:35
Is the magnitude of the crime related to a
person's size? They had to grapple with a lot of different
things that didn't make sense to them.
00:04:42
Patricia Bryan: But the thought that an 11-year-old
boy could commit such violence was really
00:04:48
unimaginable. Eric Mennel: That is, until he confessed. Patricia Bryan: "My name is John Wesley Elkins.
00:04:58
Two or three days before the murders, I began
planning to kill my parents. And when I came home from milking that night,
I went into the old grainery and got the club
00:05:07
and placed it on a chair in my room." Eric Mennel: He wrote up this incredibly eloquent
letter, and it was published all over.
00:05:13
In the confession, Wesley says he had tried
to run away, but his dad wouldn't let him.
00:05:18
Wesley also said he had to do too much work
around the house. Steve Wendl: One would like to think that
it would take something much more serious
00:05:29
than chores to butcher one's parents, but
then again, who knows. Eric Mennel: With the confession in hand and
no other suspects, in 1890, the state of Iowa
00:05:40
convicted Wesley Elkins of first degree murder. At 4'7", 73 pounds, he was sentenced to life
in prison.
00:05:50
[Music.] Just to be upfront about this, it seems pretty
clear to everyone, even now, that Elkins did
00:05:59
murder his father and stepmother. So if you, you true crime podcast-loving audience,
were hoping for a story about a wrongful conviction
00:06:06
of a child, sorry, he almost certainly did
it. But it's this certainty
that actually makes the story all that more
00:06:14
perplexing. How could something like this happen? Now, a lot of people reacted the way you might
expect when a kid goes off the rails: blame
00:06:21
the parents. Steve Wendl: Many folks thought that he had
the mark of Cain on him.
00:06:26
Eric Mennel: Which has to be the most 19th-century
insult I've ever heard. Steve Wendl and Patricia Bryan say that back
in the 1800s, the prevailing theory of criminality
00:06:35
was that some people are innately evil, that
bad behavior is a result of heredity.
00:06:40
It gets passed down through the bloodline. People around town knew Wesley's father, John,
pretty well.
00:06:46
So they looked to the parent they didn't know
so well: his birth mother, Matilda.
00:06:49
Steve Wendl: She apparently was a rather bad
actor. She had tried to kill her husband on more
than one occasion, including once when she
00:07:00
was pregnant with John Wesley. Eric Mennel: Lots of theories circulated about
Matilda's character.
00:07:06
She had tried to kill her husband, John, three
times, once with poison, once with a gun,
00:07:11
and once by positioning some heavy logs in
such a way that they might fall on him.
00:07:15
Now, to a lot of people, it actually seemed
like a great explanation. Patricia Bryan: That she had tried to kill
her husband when she was pregnant and that
00:07:26
that had somehow come through to the fetus. Eric Mennel: Wesley had lived with Matilda
until he was seven years old, that's when
00:07:34
she died. But even if the heredity was a little too
far-fetched an explanation, there were other
00:07:40
ways to show Wesley's criminal instincts. People could actually measure them. Steve Wendl: You know, at the time the "science"
of phrenology was in vogue, where they thought
00:07:51
they could divine a person's criminal tendencies
by the shape of their skull. They'd say, "Well, just look at his skull.
00:08:00
He's got the bumps in all the right places." Everybody was looking for reasons. Why did this happen?
00:08:07
How could such a thing happen? Eric Mennel: When Wesley Elkins got to Anamosa
State Penitentiary, he was mixed in with other
00:08:13
criminals: murderers, chicken thieves, all
sorts. The New York Times said he was the youngest
child ever put in a maximum security prison
00:08:20
for life. So people watched him, closely. They were trying to pick up on clues that
would show his true nature.
00:08:28
But what's clear from all official accounts
is Wesley Elkins was actually a model prisoner.
00:08:32
Steve Wendl: He made very, very good use of
his time. He was a bright boy, clever.
00:08:37
He was smart, he was very capable. Eric Mennel: He worked as the warden's assistant
and eventually in the library.
00:08:45
While he was there, he discovered he'd been
given one of the harshest sentences in the
00:08:48
state's history, and he argued that because
he was so young, there's no way he could have
00:08:53
really comprehended what he had done. There was even a legal precedent here. So after seven years in prison,
Wesley Elkins applied for a pardon.
00:09:01
He wanted out. Needless to say, some people had no interest
in that idea. Patricia Bryan: There was a terrible letter
about him that was printed in the Daily Republican.
00:09:11
Eric Mennel: The letter was written anonymously
by someone who claimed to have inside knowledge
00:09:15
of Elkins' thinking about the crime. He called Elkins a "fiend with murder in his
heart".
00:09:21
Elkins, who's 18 at this point, fired back
in a letter to the local newspaper. It was the first time people had heard from
him since his grisly confession, seven years
00:09:30
earlier. Reader: In reading an article in your paper
this morning, I was surprised at the mistakes
00:09:35
and misrepresentations in it. I have been all my lifetime, I might say,
in prison.
00:09:40
Eric Mennel: It was eloquent and impressive,
caught a lot of people off guard. Elkins sent his pardon request to the governor,
but it wasn't enough.
00:09:50
The request was denied. [Music.] While the pardon was a failure, the attention
it drew was a huge benefit to Elkins.
00:10:06
The letter he wrote to the newspaper was so
shockingly well-composed, many people began
00:10:11
to question their impressions of the boy lifer,
as he'd come to be known. Patricia Bryan: It sort of showed him as a
very emotional, vulnerable young man who had
00:10:24
hopes and dreams, like other men. Eric Mennel: And what arises is essentially
a coordinated PR campaign, because around
00:10:35
this time, people are starting to think maybe
criminality is not inherent. Maybe people can be reformed or cured even
of their criminal tendencies.
00:10:45
And Wesley Elkins might be the perfect example
of this. Reader: I'm not looked upon as a dangerous
character, and instead of being the most closely,
00:10:53
I am the least-watched of any man in the prison. Eric Mennel: Elkins started writing more letters,
showing the public how much he had taught
00:11:00
himself, how much he had changed since his
childhood crime. He wrote to supporters in academia and to
the governor.
00:11:06
Reader: In the years I've been confined, I
have devoted my time to study and I've done
00:11:12
all in my power to improve my mind and fit
myself for a different position in life.
00:11:17
I committed a terrible crime, that I know,
but has not my punishment been severe?
00:11:23
To spend my boyhood behind prisons walls. I was so young when the crime was committed
that the question of punishment is removed
00:11:29
entirely from your consideration. The question to be decided by you is: am I
capable of becoming a safe and useful member
00:11:37
of society? Patricia Bryan: But Clayton County residents
said, "It's a mask. He's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
00:11:45
He can put on this educated appearance, but
beneath that, he has an impulse to kill.
00:11:55
Wesley Elkins could not be let out or he would
kill again." Eric Mennel: He was in a tough spot, a sort
of poster child for whatever argument you
00:12:03
wanted to believe about criminal nature. Either, he was a good young man guilty of
a horrible crime but who had atoned for his
00:12:11
sins, or he was a psychopath using his intelligence
to mask his actual corruption, a wolf in sheep's
00:12:18
clothes. And the fact is, nobody really knew what he
was or what he was capable of.
00:12:33
[Music.] Elkins went through the pardon process again
and again, and he kept getting rejected.
00:12:47
It took five years for him to gain any real
traction. When Iowa's General Assembly finally did debate
his parole on the floor of the legislature,
00:12:55
one guy actually pulled out the club he claimed
Elkins had used to butcher his parents.
00:13:00
He waved it around to remind everybody just
how violent the crime had been. Elkins had been in prison for 12 years at
this point, more than half his life, when
00:13:08
it finally came down to a vote. Patricia Bryan: 47 to 46 — one vote separated
the opponents from the supporters.
00:13:17
Eric Mennel: One vote. Patricia Bryan: One single vote, right. Eric Mennel: That he was not going to be pardoned.
00:13:22
Patricia Bryan: That he was not going to be
pardoned, exactly right. Eric Mennel: The people afraid of Elkins had
won, but ...
00:13:29
Patricia Bryan: There is, then, one legislator
who calls for a revote. Eric Mennel: In a good old-fashioned political
flip-flop, one legislator stands up and says,
00:13:42
"I had promised my vote to the people of Clayton
County who wanted to keep Elkins in jail.
00:13:47
I gave them my vote once. Now, I'd like to change it." So, they called a revote.
00:13:54
And it passed by a handful of votes. Wesley Elkins was set free at age 23. [Music.]
00:14:04
For all intents and purposes, Wesley Elkins
went silent after he got out. He spent some time in Minnesota and then in
Hawaii, where he met a girl and they got married.
00:14:13
They moved to California, where he became
an accountant. She died 37 years later and then he died two
years after that, in 1961.
00:14:21
They never had any kids, and it's actually
not clear if she even knew about his crime.
00:14:27
Whatever people thought they saw in Elkins
as a kid, he managed to either escape it or
00:14:31
conceal it in the end. His obituary made no mention of the crime,
it made no mention of his time in prison,
00:14:38
and it made no mention of the night that he
pulled a baby from between his dead parents,
00:14:42
changed its clothes, and rode into town on
a buggy. [Music.] Phoebe Judge: Eric Mennel.
00:15:01
Criminal is produced by Eric, Lauren Spohrer,
and me. Our episode artwork is by Julienne Alexander.
00:15:08
You can find out more about our show at thisiscriminal.com. We're on Facebook and Twitter, @CriminalShow.
00:15:15
One of the other Radiotopia shows you might
like is The Truth by Jonathan Mitchell.
00:15:19
Their latest episode is about a house that's
not haunted by ghosts, but by memories.
00:15:26
[Excerpt from The Truth.] Speaker 1: All right, you ready? Scare away the rats. Hello?
00:15:34
Speaker 2: Oh my God, the smell. Speaker 1: Oh! That's rotten food or rotting meat.
00:15:43
[Excerpt ends.] Phoebe Judge: That's the latest episode of
The Truth. Radiotopia from PRX is made possible with
support from the Knight Foundation and MailChimp,
00:15:50
celebrating creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
00:15:59
Jingle: Radiotopia. From PRX.