Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Harold Miller, 4 Years in Jail on Fictional Rape Charge – Chicago, 1956


FULL TEXT: (Chicago, Illinois) – Life for Harold Miller this week took on all the sweetness of the candy he used to mix before he spent four years in prison for a a crime of which he was falsely accused and convicted – a crime which in all likelihood was only the figment of a tortured mind.

Before his four-year nightmare began, Miller, who is now 31, was a chocolate mixer at a candy company. Quiet and unassuming, he lived with his mother, relaxed after work with his friends and engaged in the usual activities of any normal Chicagoan.

~ RIDING A BUS ~

One fall night in 1951, Miller was riding on a bus, unaware that a woman passenger was pointing him out to her husband as the man who had raped her four nights before. When he left the bus he was trailed by the husband of Mrs. Barbara Latimore, while she rushed to call the police.

Arrested, Miller was accused of having accosted Mrs. Latimore in a vacant lot, dragging her to the rear porch of a house at 3429 S. Indiana ave., and attacking her.

The testimony of free friends – who took lie detector tests – that the accused man had been with them at the time of the alleged rape bore little weight with the police.

Miller was brought to trial, and on May 2, 1952 was sent to prison.

~ HAD FAITH IN HIM ~

But there were people who believed in his innocence. Jim McGuire, Sun-Times Reporter; Roy Woods, Miller’s stepfather, Charles Lieman, his attorney; and Ken Doughty of the Civil Liberties committee worked tirelessly to clear him.

McGuire died, but the others persevered. They found that Mrs. Latimore was a chronic schizophrenic, who was capable making even the most fantastic lies sound plausible. Two years after the after the alleged attack she was committed to Manento [State Hospital] for a series of shock treatments.

She was released conditionally in Feb. 1954, and her discharge became permanent one year later.

~ NEW TRIAL PLEA ~

On November 10, armed the information about Mrs. Latimore’s mental condition, and with the fact that a medical examination had failed to substantiate the claim of rape, Liebman asked Judge A. Sbarbaro, who had sentenced Miller, for a new trial.

Judge A. Sbarbaro refused the request and Liebman appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial.

Last week, three psychiatrists and a psychologist explained to Judge Sharboro the mental delusions under which Mrs. Latimore was suffering at the time of the accusation and pointed out that Miller had been convicted on her testimony alone.

~ AN INJUSTICE ~

Judge Sbarbaro said he would hold a new trial and declared that the conviction had been “an injustice to the individual and to the community.”

Miller would not have to endure the ordeal of the new trial, because Assistant States Prosecutor Francis Riley said the state will not re-open the case.

With tears in his eyes, Miller thanked the people who had worked to free him – all that is, except Jim McGuire. But Mrs. McGuire knew how her husband would have felt. She said:

~  JIM NOT PRESENT ~

“It is wonderful. I am sad to think that Jim was not present, but I feel that he won from the grave. This is the third man he had gotten out of prison.”

As for Miller, he has no ill-feeling toward anybody. He summoned up his ordeal this way:

“I believe that God and trusted Him all the way. At times, when everything seemed hopeless, I lost faith, but each time it was quickly restored.”

Harold Miller was the unfortunate victim of a sad miscarriage of justice. Back home with his mother at 7325 South Parkway, he is adjusting himself to the fact that the future holds more for him than the prospect of life in prison.

He does not know if he will go back to making candy, but of one thing he is certain – life itself had never been so sweet.

[“Free At Last – Man Wrongly Jailed Four Years Starts Life Anew,” Chicago Defender (Il.), Apr. 7, 1956, p. 8 (?)]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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[295-4/23/21]
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Edna Hancock, False Rape Accuser Indicted for Perjury – New York, 1944


FULL TEXT: (New York, N. Y.) – Mrs. Edna Hancock, thirty-one-year-old former hospital attendant, who is charged with having falsely accused Murray Goldman, salesman, of attempted rape, was indicted yesterday for first-degree perjury.

The indictment against Mr. Goldman, who was convicted last fall on Mrs. Hancock’s charges and as a result faced a possible ten years in Sing Sing, was dismissed last Tuesday,  by Judge Samuel S. Leibowitz, of Kings County Court, who at the same time ordered Mrs. Hancock held in $25,000 on a perjury charge.

Mr. Goldman was freed by Judge Leibowitz after a lie detector test given two months after his conviction because new evidence uncovered during the trial raised doubts about his guilt in the minds of both his guilt in the minds of both Judge Leibowitz and the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney John E. Cone.

The indictment handed up yesterday by the grand jury said that Mrs. Hancock stated under oath at the trial that “while the attempted attack took place she screamed and hollered for twenty minutes, while in fact she did not.” The indictment added that Mrs. Hancock stated under oath at the trial that “while the attempted attack took place she screamed and hollered for twenty minutes, while in fact she did not.” The indictment added that Mrs. Hancock also stated under oath that she did not know Murray Goldman until the day of the alleged attempt, July 1, 1943, while she actually met him in May and at the time rode about town with him in the subway and in an automobile.

According to Mrs. Hancock the attempted attack took place at the nurses’ home in the Brooklyn Hospital, 681 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, where she was employed.

Mrs. Hancock, who is being held in the Women’s House of Detention in Manhattan, was in court yesterday to hear the indictment read. Her lawyer, Vincent O’Connor, asked that pleading be postponed until Monday. Judge Leibowitz again fixed bail at $25,000.

Mr. O’Connor later told reporters that Mrs. Hancock had sent a telegram to her husband, William Clark Hancock, a Seabee, stationed in Dansfield, R. I., asking him to try to get leave to come to New York for the trial.

A perjury conviction could bring five years in prison on a $25,000 fine.

[“Indict Woman For Perjury in Goldman Case – Jurors Find Discrepancies in
Mrs. Hancock’s Story of His Alleged Attack,” New York Herald-Tribune (N.Y.), Feb. 18, 1944, p. 16]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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[576-10/25/21]
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Mary Gillen’s Passed-Out-Drunk Rape Fantasy – New York, 1954


FULL TEXT: An assistant District Attorney conscientiously switched from public prosecutor to public defender and won vindication yesterday for two teen-age boys falsely accused of attempted rape. They had been released from jail ten days ago after five months imprisonment awaiting trial.

Peter D. Andreoli, of District Attorney Frank S. Hogan’s staff, was scheduled to prosecute Enerio Santo, sixteen, and Victor Caban, seventeen, on a four-count indictment charging rape, assault and violation of the Sullivan law.

In studying the case against them, based solely on the testimony of the alleged victim – a fifty-one-year-old woman – the prosecutor came to the conclusion that parts of her story “did not fit.”

After thorough investigation. Mr. Andreoli came into General Sessions with new evidence yesterday showing that the woman, Mrs. Mary Gillen, of 44 W. 86th St., had been intoxicated and “had imagined it all happened.”

As a result, Judge Harold A. Stevens dismissed the charges against the boys, praised Mr. Andreoli for “excellent work in the highest tradition of the District Attorney’s office” and tongue-lashed Mrs. Gillen for “one of the most reprehensible things that the court has experienced.”

The boys, both unemployed restaurant workers, were arrested at 2:10 a. m., June 25 in Central Park near W. 88th St., when police found Mrs. Gillen “almost naked” lying on a path near them. Mrs. Gillen charged that they accosted her, forced her into the park at knife-point, tore off her clothes and attempted to rape her.

~ Lodged in the Tombs ~

The boys were locked up in default of $10,000 bail each and were lodged in the Tombs waiting trial, scheduled for next week. Mr. Andreoli began working on the case and questioned all concerned.

He obtained from police records the name of a man who had been strolling on Central Park West at the time of the alleged rape. He was John J. Brady, of 58 North Lansing St., Albany.

With the co-operation of Albany police, Mr. Andreoli had Mr. Brady returned to the city. He questioned him and later had the witness confront Mrs. Gillen. Mr. Brady, the prosecutor said, told him that he was helping a crippled woman that morning when Mr. Gillen, whom he described as being drunk, approached him and tried to kiss him. Mr. Brady said he pushed the woman away and watched her “stagger toward the two kids.”

~ Admits Visiting Bars ~

Mr. Adreoli said he then questioned Mrs. Gillen, who admitted she had visited several bars that night and that “her recollection was not too good.” She admitted that Mr. Brady looked “familiar” and then, according to Mr. Andreoli, “admitted that the story she told police was what she imagined had happened as she could not see why she should be in the park with these two boys.”

As a result of his findings, Mr. Andreoli moved on Nov. 30 for parole of the two boys pending of the two boys pending completion of his investigation. Judge Stevens acceded and asserted he did not wish the youths to “spend another minute injail” if they were innocent.

Judge Stevens dismissed the indictment on Mr. Andreoli’s recommendation and told him:

“When we find an official who not only accept the allegations but, when some occasions arise which create a doubt in his mind he uses all the facilities and resources at his command to ascertain the truth, we feel that he is deserving of the highest commendation, and we do so commend you.”

[“Prosecutor Clears 2 Boys Held 5 Months in Rape Case,” New York Herald Tribune (N.Y.), Dec. 10, 1954, p. 25]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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[1162-10/25/21]
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Mom-Daughter Fake-Rape Team – 1958


FULL TEXT: Mineola – A woman and her pregnant daughter yesterday admitted plotting to frame a youth on a phony rape charge after he had refused to marry the girl.

Police said the two hatched the plan after an argument with the 19-year-old East Meadow truck driver and his parents on Sunday. The girl, 20-year-[old] Joan A. Carvella and her mother, Catherine, then drove to a police station and filed a charge of first-degree rape – a charge later denied by the youth, Police uncovered the plot when the women’s stories failed to check out.

“I guess we didn’t think about what were doing. We acted too fast,” Mrs. Carvella, 39, said yesterday after she and the girl pleaded guilty to filing a false report and entering into a conspiracy. Both charges are misdemeanors.

The intended victim of the mother-daughter conspiracy, William Porter of 1852 Cole Dr., East Meadow, was unaware that the women had gone to police until informed last night by Newsday. “I’m shocked. I don’t know what to think,” he said. “I met her about four months ago and went out with her a few times. My friends said they heard she liked me. and then she used to follow me around. Nut I wasn’t interested. I haven’t seen her in the past 10 weeks.”

Porter denied being the father of the girl’s unborn child. “Out of the blue, the gal came to my home Sunday morning and told me she was pregnant. She spoke to me and my father and wanted to know what we were going to do about it. I said I had nothing to so with it and after about 15 minutes she left. On Sunday night, the girl, her mother and some relatives came over and started all over again,” he said. But, he said, he resisted all demands to marry Jean.

The mother and the daughter, who live at 32 George Ave., Hicksville, cooked up a plan as they drove home from the Porter house. After making up their story, they drove to the Second Precinct at about 10:30 PM and saw Det. Andrew Heberer. They told him that Porter had taken John out on their first date Saturday night. On the way home, the Carvellas said, he stopped along Division Ave., Levittown, and forced Joan to submit to him.

Heberer said the women’s statements appeared to contain inconsistencies. Among other things, the girl said she had not threatened with any weapon. She said she did not scream and suffered no bruises. After about three hours, Heberer said, the mother and the daughter broke down and admitted they had decided to file the rape charge to get even with the youth and his family.

Both women stood stiffly in First District Court yesterday and each spoke bthe word “no” when asked if she wanted an attorney and the word “guilty” when asked for a plea. Judge Edwin R. Lynde released both in $500 bail to await a probation report and sentencing Sept. 22.

[Leo Seligsohn, “Girl, Mother Admit Frame-Up of Youth,” Newsday (Long Island, N. Y.), Sep. 9, 1958, p. 7]

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More historical cases of False Rape Accusations

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[517-3/6/21]
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Many Patriarchs: Much Oppression - The Sufferings of Sarah Prather - 1904


FULL TEXT: Pueblo, Col., Mar. 1. – The suit of Mrs. Sarah Prather against Frank Prather for absolute divorce was thrown out of court this morning when it was found that contrary to the laws she had married Prather only three months after obtaining a divorce from her previous husband.

Up to this time the suit had developed considerable warmth and interest. Mrs. Prather had secured her husband under false pretense. She had not told him that she had been married three times previously and that therefore he was only No. 4. The couple were made one Aug. 3, 1901. Husband no. 3, whose name was T. Crudgington had been dropped only three months earlier, unknown to Prather. What the dates of the previous marriages and divorces were he has not yet discovered.

~ Thrashed Husbands. ~

The story of the conjugal bliss previous to the filing of the suit is a sad one. Prather says that his wife was tyrannical and cruel. He is physically a small man and has never enjoyed good health. The wife is, on the other hand, big, handsome and strong. She has also two daughters of good physique. Singly and together he claims, that they would beat him. Sometimes they did it because he had no money to give them, at other times just for the mere pleasure of it. Two months ago they put him out of doors after midnight and he had to seek shelter to keep from freezing. He claims to have been always patient, to have never lost his temper, and after getting the worst possible thrashing he would only gently remonstrate. Last summer Mrs. Prather opened a restaurant. This was the beginning of the end.  She soon fell into the habit, says the husband, of bringing the male waiters home with her, right into the home he had himself bought, and to show them preference. In his own presence she made love to them.* when he remonstrated, and he always did so gently, she alleges, she would forcibly eject him.

~ Spent Night Elsewhere. ~

But one night when she returned after midnight with a man the long-suffering worm turned. Prather lost his temper and became violent. He insisted that she would have to give up the company of other men entirely. The wife, still accompanied by the waiter, thereupon left the house and spent the night elsewhere. The following morning she swore out a complaint against her husband for creating a row and had him brought before the police court, where he was fined because he would not expose his shame and defend himself.

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* Note: The phase “make love,” at this time, referred to flirting and other verbally or physically affectionate behavior, to intercourse.

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[439-4/3/21]
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Luella Stuart Beat Her Husband With His Wooden Leg - 1924


FULL TEXT: Los Angeles, Oct. 22. – For twenty-eight years of married life of William and Luella Stuart was tranquil. Then they began to quarrel, according to a divorce suit filed here by Stuart, their troubles culminating them, according to Stuart, his wife ran off with his artificial leg.

Stuart gave chase, but when he caught up with his wife, she beat him on the head with the wooden limb and then tried to garrote him with a cord.

After that, Stuart said, he left his wife forever.

[“Quits Wife Who Beat Him With His Wooden Leg,” syndicated (INS), Rochester Journal And The Post Express (N.Y.), Oct. 22, 1924, p. 3]

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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Early Men's Rights Activists: 1926-1960

Links to “Unknown History of Misandry” Blog Posts:

click name to link to article
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Mrs. Bessie Cooley – 1927
click name to link to article
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Dr. Vernon P. Cooley – 1927
click name to link to article
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John Gasteiger – 1927
click name to link to article
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Robert Ecob – 1927
click name to link to article
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Dr. Alexander Dallek – 1930
click name to link to article
(also this link)
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click name to link to article
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click name to link to article
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Mrs. Rose Fox - 1934
click name to link to article
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Theodore Apstein – 1935
click name to link to article
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click name to link to article

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Alimony Racket, Anti-Misandry, Debtor's Prison, Divorce Racket, Extortion, Family Court Reform, Fraud, Gender Oppression, Gender Studies, Male Studies, Men's Rights, Misandry, Patriarchy, Political Activism, Radical Feminism, Social Engineering, True Crime