Charity's Crime

In 1854, a gruesome murder rocked the Oregon Territory. Charity Lamb stood accused of killing her husband, Nathaniel, with an axe. Newspapers called Charity a monster and speculated on her marriage. But there was more to the story. Would Nathaniel's history of physically abusing Charity convince jurors that she had acted in self-defense?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to History on Trial, a production of
iHeart Podcasts. Listener discretion advised. As he walked home on
May thirteenth, eighteen fifty four, Nathaniel Lamb was presented with
a vision of loveliness all around him. Spring was unfurling,

(00:22):
Dormant plants poked their heads from the soil to greet
the sun covering the world in green. Oregon winters can
be dreary, but all those gray, rainy days pay off.
Thirty four year old Nathaniel was returning from a hunt,
accompanied by two friends and his eldest son, thirteen year
old Abraham. They'd managed to get a bear, even split

(00:45):
three ways. This was a good haul of meat, and
Nathaniel had claimed one of the bear's paws too, as
a trophy. The paw would add some character to his
family's cabin, which, like most pioneer dwellings, was a barbones affair,
but it was sturdy enough to have gotten the Lambs, Nathaniel,
his wife Charity, and their six children through the last

(01:06):
eighteen months since it arrived in the Oregon territory. Though
with only two rooms, quarters likely felt tight, especially since
the arrival of baby Presley. Reaching the cabin. Nathaniel unloaded
his share of meat from the wagon and carried it
into the back room, passing by Charity, who was cooking
at the fireplace. The table was set for supper, so

(01:28):
Nathaniel set the meat and the paw down and took
his seat. His sixteen year old daughter mary Anne went
to look at the bear paw, while her five younger brothers,
who ranged in age from thirteen year old Abraham to
baby Presley, sat down to eat. The perfect end to
the perfect day, it seemed. The family snug inside their cabin,

(01:48):
gathered around a warm meal as the sun sunk behind
the Douglas Firs and big leaf maples, its last rays
illuminating the Lamb's property, hundreds of acres of lush or
wagon land that, after only three more years of occupancy
and improvement, would belong to the Lamb family outright and
secure their future on this new frontier of the United States.

(02:12):
But that future would never come, because as Nathaniel Lamb
bent over his supper, his wife Charity rose from her seat,
grabbed an axe, and slammed it into the back of
his head. Welcome to history on trial. I'm your host,
Mira Hayward this week the Territory of Oregon v. Charity Lamb.

(02:37):
To understand what happened that night in the Lamb cabin,
we need to travel back nearly twenty years and three
thousand miles to July fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, the day
that eighteen year old Charity Robins married sixteen year old
Nathaniel Lamb in Randolph County, North Carolina. Young marriages were
not uncommon in Charity and Nathaniel's world. Their parents had

(03:00):
all married in their teens. Nathaniel's mother, Susannah, was only
thirteen when Nathaniel was born in eighteen twenty. Nathaniel was
the first of eighteen children that Susannah would bear over
the next twenty seven years, before divorcing her husband in
eighteen fifty, blaming that he was an alcoholic who'd abandoned
the family and spent all their money. Her mother in

(03:21):
law's story might have served as a cautionary tale to
Charity Lamb, but by the time Susannah filed for divorce,
Charity and Nathaniel were long gone from North Carolina. Their
first child, Mary Anne, had been born in North Carolina
in eighteen thirty seven, a year after their marriage, but
by eighteen forty, when their second child, Abraham arrived, the

(03:42):
family had moved to Illinois. Their next three children, Thomas, William,
and John, were all born even further west in Missouri,
but even that frontier was not far enough for Nathaniel Lamb.
Not long after the birth of the Lamb's fifth child, John,
in eighteen fifty one, Nathaniel decided to take his family
to the Oregon Territory. The Donation Land Claim Act of

(04:06):
eighteen fifty allowed white married couples to claim three hundred
and twenty acres of land in the territory free of charge,
provided they arrived on the land before eighteen fifty four
and lived on and worked the land for four years.
The Lambs were some of the estimated three to four
hundred thousand Americans who traveled the Oregon Trail between eighteen

(04:27):
forty and eighteen sixty. It was an arduous, multi month
journey of more than two thousand miles, requiring settlers to
face a litany of dangers, from bad weather to wagon
accidents to disease. As anyone who's played the Oregon Trail
computer game nos dying from dysentery, all too easy. But
for Charity Lamb, the dangers of the trail came from

(04:49):
a more proximate source. Her husband, Nathaniel, had never been
a kind husband nor a law abiding one. Later, Charity
would recount how he'd stole and a horse and an
ox while they lived in Missouri and threatened his family
with death if they turned him in. Their son, Abraham,
described his parents as frequently quarreling. Their daughter Mary Anne,

(05:12):
said quote, my parents have quarreled all their lives. But
things got worse as they headed west on the plains.
Mary Anne Lamb later testified he threatened her, and she
carried the gun all day ahead of the wagon train
through fear he would kill her with it. Miraculously, all
the Lamb survived the trail as far as we know.

(05:34):
In the autumn of eighteen fifty two, the family arrived
in Oregon and staked their claim. The land they chose
was just north of the Clacamus River, southeast of present
day Portland. Though remote, the land was lovely. Frank branch Riley,
who later owned the plot, described it as quote a
picturesque high mountain meadow with far flung breath taking panoramas

(05:57):
of the valleys of the Clacamus River and Eagle Creek,
an environment of scenic, loveliness and tranquility, and an improbable
setting for a horrendous story of violent hate and assassination.
Perhaps not so improbable for Charity Lamb. She later told
the family's hired hand, Dwight Muzzy, that she quote did

(06:17):
not like the land. It was very remote. The Lamb's
nearest neighbors, the Smiths, were half a mile away. After that,
there was no one for two miles in any direction.
The nearest town, Oregon City, was nine miles away. Legal
historian Ronald Lansing describes Charity as quote snared in a

(06:37):
land far from friends, family, and familiar places, and Nathaniel's
abuse was intensifying. Not long after their arrival, in the
winter of eighteen fifty two, Charity fell ill and took
to her bed. When Nathaniel commanded her to get up,
she said she could not, so he picked up a
stool and said he would move her by force. The

(06:59):
next spring, he threw a hammer at her head, striking
her in the forehead and leaving a scar. Charity was
likely pregnant with the couple's sixth child, Presley at the time.
After Presley's birth, Charity believed Nathaniel tried to poison her.
Later that year, when Charity didn't help Nathaniel carry a
log into the house, he punched her. When she fell

(07:20):
into the snow. Stunned, he kicked her repeatedly. Their children
witnessed all of this, but worse was still to come.
Sometime in late eighteen fifty three or early eighteen fifty four,
a man named Collins came into the Lamb's life. Little
is known about Collins, including his first name, but his

(07:40):
reputation apparently was concerning. According to the Oregon Statesman, in
the summer of eighteen fifty three, Collins quote seduced a
man's wife and a divorce was obtained. Now, Collins had
his sights set on mary Anne Lamb, a round face
sixteen year old with lustrous dark hair. Charity, perhaps hoping

(08:00):
to get her daughter out of their violent home, supported
Collins's suit. Nathaniel did not. Eventually, he threatened to kill
Collins if the man kept showing up at their house.
Later rumors and reports would claim that both Mary Anne
and Charity were in love with Collins, but we have
no evidence of this. The only thing we know is

(08:21):
that in the spring of eighteen fifty four, mary Anne,
with the help of her mother, tried to get back
into contact with Collins. Charity wrote the letter on her
daughter's behalf. Marianne then hid the letter in the front
of her dress, waiting for a chance to mail it.
But on Saturday May sixth, before she could get the
letter off, her father discovered it. Nathaniel irrupted, furious at

(08:45):
his wife and daughter's betrayal of his commands. You will
not live at my expense longer than a week, he
bellowed at Charity. He would kill her the next Saturday,
he told her, and take their sons and leave. Nine
year old Thomas Lamb later explained that it was only
a matter of logistics that Nathaniel did not kill Charity
and leave that very day. Quote he said he was

(09:08):
going to take us boys along because he was not
going to let her raise us, but that he was
waiting for the cow to have a calf so that
he could take the baby along and have milk for it.
That is what he waited so long for. For the
next week, Charity awoke each morning and wondered if it
would be the day she would die. At one point,
Nathaniel seemed to relent. He told her to leave if

(09:29):
she wanted, But then he told her that if she left,
he would follow her, and, in their thirteen year old
son Abraham's words, quote settle her when she didn't know it.
Nine year old Thomas put it more plainly. She said
she didn't know what to do, for he was going
to kill her, and if she ran off, he would
follow her and kill her. Anyhow, Nathaniel toyed with Charity,

(09:51):
pretending to change his mind once more and telling her
to go. Charity snatched her bonnet and hurried out the door,
but before she reached the gate, she heard her husband,
I'll drop you before you get out of sight. Nathaniel
said his rifle was aimed straight at her. Charity came
back on Friday evening, with one day left in the week.

(10:12):
Nathaniel had given Charity to live. Mary Anne and Thomas
saw their father point his gun once more at their mother.
When he saw that they were watching him, Nathaniel turned
and shot his gun into a tree instead. The next morning,
the thirteenth, before Nathaniel and Abraham left on the hunt,
Abraham noticed that his mother appeared quote, tolerably uneasy. She

(10:35):
pulled Abraham aside and told him that his father, quote,
was going to kill her and mary Anne and take
us boys and go to California. The family's hired hand,
thirty four year old Dwight Muzzy, was working near the
cabin that day and came in for breakfast and lunch.
He said. Charity looked downcast and dejected. At lunch, she
pulled Muzzy aside and said she had something to tell him,

(10:58):
something that must be kept a secret. She believed Lamb
was going to leave. She knew it because he was
making preparations. He had sold his mare, and she knew
he had got money for it. He was going to
California and would take the boys with him. Muzzy said
he hoped it wasn't true, but Charity insisted it was.
You think you have a friend in Lamb, she told him,

(11:21):
but you are very much deceived. Her husband was not
a good man. She told Muzzy about all the times
he had abused her, the hammer he'd thrown at her head,
the time he'd tried to poison her, all the threats
he'd made to her life. Now, Charity told Muzzy he
was going to kill her and Mary Anne Dwight. Muzzy

(11:41):
does not seem to have believed Charity Lamb. He never
said so outright, but his actions reveal his ambivalence. After
Charity poured out her fears to Muzzy, she asked if
he would return to the cabin later that night. He
said he would not. Charity pushed, but carefully, reminding Muzzy
that she'd done his laundry. Wouldn't he need to come

(12:01):
back for a clean shirt? I said not, Muzzy recalled,
Then he left her alone. Several hours later, Nathaniel's hunting companions,
William Cook and David Deardorf, dropped Nathaniel and Abraham off
at the cabin, then continued on towards the Smith's house.
After stopping for a few minutes to chat with Benjamin Smith,

(12:21):
the two men set off again. They made it only
a few hundred yards before they heard Benjamin Smith call
them back. Abraham Lamb stood at Smith's side, panting he
had just run there, carrying the news that his father
was dead. Smith and Cook and Deardorf and Abraham ran
back to the Lamb cabin, passing Charity and Mary Anne

(12:43):
Lamb who were running in the opposite direction. When Charity
saw Abraham, she paused and cried out to him take
care of the baby. Then she ran off. At the Lambs,
the men found Nathaniel sprawled outside, his head a bloody mess.
As they bent down to pick him up, they drew
back in shock. Nathaniel Lamb was still alive. Doctor Presley

(13:08):
Welch was quickly summoned to the Lamb cabin. What he
saw did not make him optimistic. The top of Nathaniel's
skull was split by a five inch long gash that
penetrated two inches into his brain. The bone was also
damaged in the back of the skull. Even though Nathaniel
was alive now, doctor Welch knew he would not remain

(13:29):
that way for long. Having done all he could for
the patient, doctor Welch set out towards the Smith's, the
direction Charity had last been seen heading. He found Charity
inside the Smith's cabin, sitting in a bed. She asked
about her husband. Welch told her his wounds were mortal.
Charity seemed surprised quote she said she did not mean

(13:50):
to kill the critter. Welch recalled that she only intended
to stun him until they could get away. Even despite
Welch's report, Charity did not seem convince that her husband
would die. When one of the Smith's sons returned home
from the Lamb cabin, he found Charity smoking her pipe.
Her first question for him was whether her husband would
be able to come find her and kill her. The

(14:12):
boy replied that he did not think so, and that
Nathaniel would not live long. Charity asked the same question
of everyone who came to the smith house that night,
would her husband be able to come after her? After
hearing over and over again that he would not, she
finally went to sleep. The next morning, she told the
Smiths that she needed to go home and feed her

(14:33):
children breakfast. Nathaniel was still lying in the other room
alive when she arrived, but she did not go in
to see him. When told by doctor Welsh that Nathaniel
wanted to see her, Charity quote refused to go in
where he was, saying that he would certainly kill her.
Only after repeated assurances from doctor Welch that Nathaniel was

(14:53):
quote entirely helpless, did she agree. By now, infection was
setting in Nathaniel was delirious and mumbling to himself. But
when Charity said Nathaniel, I am here, he seemed to
become lucid and asked her, yes, dear, I see you are,
my dear. What did you kill me for? Charity began

(15:16):
listing all the ways Nathaniel had abused her. He denied
all of it. When doctor Welch later asked Charity why
she had done it, she told him about her son Abraham, saying, quote,
there is a boy thirteen years old who has never
been inside of a schoolhouse or meeting house. I could
not think of having my children raised by such a man.

(15:36):
She described Nathaniel's criminal past and his violent actions. Doctor
Welch told her that the law would probably come for her. Nonetheless,
Charity seemed surprised, but resigned, telling the doctor quote, the
worst they could do would be to hang me, and
I am willing to be hung in case he should die.
Nathaniel did die six days later, on May twentieth, eighteen

(15:59):
fifty four. By then, the story of the murder had
hit the papers. The Oregonian, who smugly wrote that Missus
lamb ought to be called Missus Tiger, claimed that quote
the domestic peace of the family had been invaded by
another man, and the husband had threatened an exposure of
his faithless wife. Philip Foster, a prominent local citizen who

(16:21):
was one of the first white settlers in Oregon, added
fuel to the fire when he told the Oregon Statesman
that Charity and Marianne had both been in love with
Collins and had killed Nathaniel when he foiled their plans
to run off with their lover. Foster, who had also
occasionally employed Nathaniel, called his neighbor quote an industrious and
quiet citizen. The Statesman concluded that Charity was a monster.

(16:47):
Charity's trial was initially scheduled for July, but due to
an issue with the grand jury, it was postponed until September.
Until then, Charity would be kept in the Oregon City Penitentiary,
where she was the only female prison While Charity sat
in jail, the probate court decided what to do about
the Lamb children and estate. Joseph Church, the local Justice

(17:08):
of the Peace, had taken the Lamb children in temporarily
after the attack. On May twenty seventh, Church filed a
petition to be named administrator of Nathaniel Lamb's estate and
guardian of his minor children. His petition was granted on
June sixth, stripping Charity of her parental rights. Next, Church
petitioned the court to allow him to sell the Lamb's

(17:29):
personal property in order to pay back Nathaniel's creditors and
his estate expenses. The probate court once again approved the petition,
and Church sold all of the family's belongings and livestock.
Even if Charity managed to escape conviction, she would return
to an empty cabin, but not all hope was lost.
The local court was treating offenders mercifully that summer. There

(17:53):
was the arsonist accused of burning down a barn, who
was convicted but deemed by Judge Cyrus only to be
quote more an object of pity than resentment, and given
the minimum sentence. There was the man who killed his
neighbor's ox, who the grand jury declined to indict, believing
him to be insane. And then there was mary Anne Lamb.

(18:15):
The day after the attack, doctor Welch had asked Charity
if mary Anne had known of her plans to kill Nathaniel.
Charity replied that mary Anne quote was going to do
it herself. But I told her I would do it.
Mary Anne was subsequently indicted alongside Charity for Nathaniel's murder,
but at her trial on July eleventh, the first felony
trial of a woman in the Oregon Territory, the jury

(18:38):
quickly found her not guilty because, per the Oregon Statesman quote,
there was no evidence against her except the statements of
her mother, which were ruled out by the court. Though
a lack of evidence seems like a pretty good reason
to acquit to me. Not everyone was happy with mary
Anne's verdict. The Oregon Spectator wrote a scathing editorial on
July fourteenth, accusing Jeff Udge Only and Noah Huber, the prosecutor,

(19:02):
of taking it easy on mary Anne. If Cyrus Only
as judge and Noah Huber as prosecuting attorney composed the
head and tail of the September trial, the paper warned,
the old woman will be cleared too. Others weren't so certain.
A jury might be willing to look favorably on an
arsonist or an alleged accomplice, but what about a killer.

(19:27):
The opening of the Territory of Oregon v. Charity Lamb
on September eleventh, eighteen fifty four proved the Spectator right
on at least two counts. Judge Only and Prosecutor Huber
were back. This was not really a surprise. The territory
had only three judges, each of whom oversaw large districts.

(19:49):
Cyrus only covered the district that included the Lamb's cabin.
Thirty eight years old Only was known as a quote
modest and unassuming gentleman. No Ya Huber's appearance was also
not shocking. He was the district attorney, after all. Elected
to the position earlier that summer. The thirty three year
old had been criticized by the Spectator for not prosecuting

(20:11):
Mary Ann Lamb aggressively enough. Huber would show no such
hesitation with Charity Lamb. Judge Only had appointed James K.
Kelly and Milton Elliott, the same lawyers who had defended
the arsonist, the ox Killer, and Mary Ann, to represent Charity.
Kelly and Elliott's successes that summer hadn't been Fluke's. Both

(20:32):
men were experienced attorneys. Elliott had once been a prosecutor,
while Kelly, who also served as a territorial legislator, had
played such a major role in drafting the territory's eighteen
fifty four Code of Laws that it was sometimes known
as the Kelly Code. Kelly and Elliott began the trial
by providing Charity's plea not guilty. At Elliott and Kelly's side,

(20:56):
Charity sat listless, holding her infant side. Presley, The Weekly
Oregonian wrote that she looked quote pale and sallow and
emaciated as a skeleton, apparently fifty years of age, though
probably a little younger. In reality, Charity was only thirty
six years of hard work, child bearing, and poverty, not

(21:20):
to mention the four months in jail had aged her.
The conditions in the penitentiary could not have been good.
The Oregonian further records that quote her clothing was thin
and scanty, and much worn and torn, and far from clean. Unfortunately,
the opening statements have been lost to time, but from
the shape of Noah Huber's prosecution case, we can imagine

(21:42):
what he might have said. Charity Lamb was a cold blooded,
remorseless killer who had planned her crime. Hubert began by
calling two doctors Forbes, Barkley and Presley Welch. Berkley had
performed the post warnem examination of Nathaniel and described the
man's wounds to the chair, saying that the deep slice
through his skull and into his brain was quote necessarily fatal,

(22:06):
while the secondary skull penetration was probably fatal in its
own right. Doctor Welch, who had tended to Nathaniel after
the attack, concurred with Berkeley. Hubert next introduced Nathaniel's hunting
companions that day, who described saying goodbye to him and
then coming back to find him dying. William Cook described
the graphic scene at the cabin, quote, he lay in

(22:28):
the front yard, bloody as a man could be. The
table was standing and seats around it as if they
had been eating supper. There was blood on a plate,
on a chair, and on the floor, and from there
out the door. Cook had also seen the murder weapon quote,
a narrow bit chopping axe with blood and hair on it.

(22:49):
There was little doubt that Charity was the one who
had wielded this axe. Nathaniel himself had identified her as
his killer, and Charity had openly admitted to her actions.
According to cons See a canton Wine who had taken
Charity to jail, Charity had told him that quote, she
was sorry, She had not struck him a little harder
and prevented his giving evidence against her. The prosecution argued

(23:12):
that Charity's motive for killing Nathaniel was related to the
mysterious Collins and Charity's anger at Nathaniel for not allowing
Mary Anne to marry him. A neighbor, Joseph Jones, who
spoke to Charity on the Monday following the attack, testified
that Charity told him quote, she was afraid of Nathaniel
on account of that letter she had tried to write
for Maryanne to mister Collins, which was the reason she

(23:35):
did it. That he had been mad at her ever
since the letter, and she was afraid of him. Doctor
Welch said that Nathaniel and Charity had discussed the letter
while he lay dying, and that Nathaniel had admitted that
if Collins had quote continued to cut up about my
house as he had done, I would have shot him.
Constable canton Wine had asked Charity about Collins, telling her

(23:56):
he quote supposed that miserable Collins was the main cause
of the diffyfficulty, to which Charity had replied unconvincingly that
she quote knew nothing about him. Hubert also tried to
preempt any defense claims of insanity. Philip Foster, Yes, the
same neighbor who told newspapers that Charity was having an
affair with Collins, testified that he had visited Charity while

(24:18):
she was in jail. She appeared different. Foster said, she
pretended not to know anything. I thought it feigned. At
all other times she had appeared rational. Thank you, Philip Foster,
Your completely unqualified opinion on insanity is noted. More concerning
for an insanity defense was the testimony from the two doctors.

(24:39):
Doctor Forbes Barkley, who had done Nathaniel's post mortem, had
also treated Charity for unnamed issues while she was in jail.
According to him, when he first visited her, she behaved strangely. Quote,
she made no reply to my questions, appeared to take
offense that I should talk to her, was very much excited,
looked wild, appeared to have a slight fever. I thought

(25:00):
she was pretending. She kept moving her feet and her
hands to make a little noise. The jailer told her
to be quiet, and she obeyed. I think she was sane.
Doctor Welch concurred, saying, quote, I thought her a nice woman,
but ignorant below mediocrity, but if she was insane, I
did not perceive it. On cross examination, defense lawyers Milton

(25:21):
Elliott and James Kelly tried to introduce some nuance to
these men's claims. Was it possible for someone to be
rational in most cases but insane in certain circumstances. Doctor
Berkley admitted that it was, saying quote, A person may
be insane on a particular subject as that there is
some danger impending over him, and be sane in all

(25:41):
other respects, but qualified his statement saying there would be
premonitory symptoms and other means of detecting it. Doctor Welch
acknowledged quote, I never thought about that. I thought it
strange she could do such an act and be so
indifferent to it. One may be insane on a particular
subject and rational on all others. Insanity was the first

(26:02):
prong of the defense's strategy. The second was self defense.
Abuse had come up during the prosecution's case, such as
when Constable canton Wine said Charity had told him of
Nathaniel's cruelties to her and said she did it for
fear of her life, that if she had not done it,
he would have killed her, that she did it to
save her life. Now, the defense introduced eyewitnesses to the

(26:25):
abuse the Lamb children. The three eldest children, Mary Anne, Abraham,
and Thomas, all testified to Nathaniel's cruelty, physical violence, and
threats to their mother's life. They spoke of the hammer
and the scar it left on Charity's forehead, of the
stool Nathaniel had brandished at his sick wife of the
time he had knocked her down and beaten her as

(26:47):
she lay in the snow. Of how according to nine
year old Thomas, he threatened the day before to kill her.
He had threatened it before. Dwight Muzzy testified that Charity
had told him of this abuse on the day of
the attack, and doctor Welch recounted Charity's answer when he
asked why she and Marianne hadn't simply run away while
Nathaniel was out hunting. Quote, we might have, but we

(27:10):
did not know where he was, and we might meet
him and he would kill us. On September fourteenth, the
defense rested and closing arguments began. Noah Huber's closing like
his case, was to the point it is undeniable. He
told the jury that the deceased received his death from
blows on the head inflicted by her with an axe.

(27:30):
The only question was whether that killing was murder. Huber
said that it was. No provocation was given at the time,
he argued, But on the contrary, the act was unprovoked, deliberate,
and premeditated. As to the claim of insanity, Huber said
that quote, the testimony of the physicians ought to settle
that question. Milton Elliott delivered the first defense closing argument.

(27:54):
He began by discussing the death penalty, which he believed
was wrong. But even if one supported the death penalty,
he continued, it could not be administered hastily. Our legislature
has thrown around the life of the citizen a wall
of protection, Elliott told jurors, which must be overcome in
every prosecution for murder in the first degree. This wall

(28:16):
of protection was the requirement of premeditation, and in this case,
Elliot said, he had not quote discovered an item of
evidence of such a previous design. Charity had acted impulsively
out of fear. The only design that Elliot saw in
this story was Nathaniel Lamb's plot to destroy his wife.

(28:37):
Tyranny is odious and insufferable, Eliot said, but none so
much as domestic tyranny, whose victims are weak and helpless.
His threats and even attempts against her life show not
fancied but real danger. This danger, Elliot believed, might have
driven Charity to the point of temporary madness, and Quote,

(29:00):
in the irregular and unguided action of a disordered intellect,
without malice or an intelligent purpose, she struck the fatal blows.
If the jurors had any doubt about the premeditation of
the act, Elliott concluded, which he trusted they did, He
urged them to find Charity not guilty of first degree murder.

(29:20):
James Kelly's closing argument focused on insanity. Charity Lamb, Kelly said,
may have been sane in all other aspects of her life,
but when it came to her husband, her mind was irrational.
She thought obsessively incessantly about how nath Daniel Lamb might
kill her. It consumed her mind. On May thirteenth, she

(29:42):
was convinced that Quote the very time had arrived when
he was to terminate her life, and so unbalanced by
fear and anxiety, Charity took action, but that action had
not been murder. According to Kelly, no, Charity had only
intended to his ass escape. Following Nathaniel's threats to follow

(30:03):
and kill her if she left, Kelly said, quote, there
was but one safety, and that was to disable him
and prevent pursuit until she could reach a place of security.
That the axe had buried deeper than Charity expected was
due to the fact that she quote did not, in
her terror and trepidation, judge accurately how to use the

(30:24):
instrument and how hard to strike in order to stun
without killing. As evidence of the theory, Kelly cited the
conversation's Charity had had with people after the attack when
she had believed that Nathaniel might still follow her. If
she had planned to kill him, how could she still
believe him alive? Kelly finished by echoing Elliott's arguments about premeditation.

(30:45):
There was quote no such proof, no lying in wait,
no preparing and arranging beforehand the means of death, no
evidence whatever that murder was in her mind before the
time of its execution. Thus, he concluded, quote, her life
cannot be taken. Noah Huber gave a rebuttal argument but

(31:05):
unfortunately the details have been lost. The Oregon Statesman writes, quote,
the prosecution replied at length, but we have not been
able to condense his argument within our limits. He combated
the position taken on the other side and claimed a
conviction of the highest degree classic strategy. With closing arguments finished,
Judge Cyrus only instructed the jury focusing on self defense.

(31:28):
He told the jurors that quote, it is claimed that
she entertained the belief that the deceased was about to
take her life. If the evidence convinces you that this
belief existed in her mind and was the motive of
the act, she must be acquitted. Though only acknowledged that
the prosecution quote claimed this motive to have been insincere
and a mere pretense to cover deliberate murder. He followed

(31:51):
that up by arguing that quote, the evidence does not
even tend to prove, much less establish any other motive
for the act. That she has signed it at the
time as her reason and has never deviated from it,
That her actions have been uniformly consistent with that idea,
that she manifested it not only to her family, but

(32:11):
to Muzzy and even to the deceased upon his deathbed,
that it reconciles all the evidence, clears up all mysteries,
and places the whole case upon the only rational footing
of which it is susceptible. The defense must have been
cheering by the end of this statement. After then urging
the jurors to make their own conclusions and providing them

(32:32):
with a list of possible verdicts, he dismissed them. The
jury was out for several hours before returning with a
question for the judge the relevant statute in the Oregon
Code of eighteen fifty four. The Code that James Kelly
had helped craft, stated that homicide could be justified quote
when committed in the lawful defense of such person, when

(32:53):
there shall be a reasonable ground to apprehend a design
to do some great personal injury, and there shall be
imminent danger of such design being accomplished. The jurors wanted
to know what imminent danger meant. Judge only explained that
it meant danger. That quote appeared to be unavoidable if

(33:14):
the prisoner believed the decease was then about to kill her,
and that she could not flee without equal danger of
being killed. The danger to her mind was imminent, but
despite his evident sympathy for Charity, he clarified further, saying, quote,
if she saw that danger before he returned home, it
was her duty to have gone away and to have

(33:35):
had measures taken to save her life without taking his.
That would be the duty of a sane person. And
if you think she was sufficiently possessed of her mental
faculties to be under the guidance of reason, she was
not justified in remaining, or at least not justified in
killing until some demonstration was made against her. The jury

(33:56):
left again, but returned only minutes later with a for
the death of Nathaniel Lamb. The jury found Charity Lamb
guilty of murder in the second degree, with a recommendation
for mercy. The next morning, Charity appeared in front of
Judge Only for sentencing. When Only asked her if she

(34:19):
had anything she wished to say, Charity defended herself, saying, quote,
I knew he was going to kill me. The jury
think you ought to have gone away in his absence,
The judge replied, Well, Charity said, he told me not
to go, and then if I went, he would follow
me and find me somewhere, and he was a mighty
good shot. He once gave me a chance to go,

(34:42):
and I consented. I even gave up my baby and started.
He told me to come back or he would drop
me in my tracks, and I had to come back.
He threatened me very often. It had come to be
a common thing. I did it to save my life.
Judge only acknowledged her situation and told her that the
jury had recommended mercy in sentencing, but he continued, quote,

(35:06):
the law gives the court no discretion. The mandatory sentence
for second degree murder was life with hard labor. At this,
the Oregonian Records quote missus Lamb commenced weeping and her
babe crying as the officer removed her from the bar.
Two days later, Charity was delivered to the penitentiary in Portland. Again,

(35:30):
she would be the only female prisoner. The male prisoners
did construction and manufacturing jobs. Charity's assignment was doing their
laundry and the laundry of the warden and his family.
The next record we have of Charity comes in eighteen
fifty nine, when two visiting Quaker missionaries encountered her. When
the missionaries quote extended words of encouragement Charity responded that

(35:53):
she had quote not done anything wrong. She was not
the only one to think so. In the summer of
eighteen sixty the Portland Advertiser newspaper advocated for Charity's pardon
and release, but this campaign went nowhere. Though the jury
in her case had recommended mercy, and though Judge Oulney
had told her that their recommendation would quote be put

(36:16):
upon record and preserved for any future use that may
be found to be proper, no mercy was worthcoming. Even
if Charity had been pardoned, she would have come back
to nothing. All her children were now in the custody
of other families. In eighteen fifty nine, Joseph Church, the
Justice of the Peace, who had already auctioned off most

(36:37):
of the Lamb's belongings, had also sold the Lamb's land.
To proceed with the sale of this land, which legally
was owned by Charity and her children, Church claimed that
he was Charity and her children's guardian, ignoring the fact
that Church had never been Charity's guardian and that Mary
Anne Lamb was not a miner probate. Judge Robert Caulfield

(36:59):
allowed this On Christmas Eve, eighteen fifty nine, the Lamb's
three hundred and twenty acres sold for one hundred and
ninety five dollars, less than half It's a praise value.
Charity's land and her family were gone. In December eighteen
sixty two, Charity, now the longest tenured prisoner at the penitentiary,

(37:21):
was transferred to the Hawthorne Asylum later called the Oregon
Hospital for the Insane. In eighteen sixty five, asylum investigators
described seeing her quote knitting as the visiting party went
through the hall, face imperturbably fixed in half, smiling contentment,
apparently as satisfied with her lot as the happiest of
sane people with theirs. The inspectors do not seem to

(37:45):
have spoken to her before forming this generous conclusion. Fourteen
years later, in September eighteen seventy nine, Charity Lamb, aged
sixty one, died of apoplexy, probably a stroke in the asylum.
Is likely buried in an unmarked grave in Portland's loan
For Cemetery. Today, nearly two centuries later, the legal system

(38:09):
still wrestles with many of the issues that arose at
Charity Lamb's trial for a battered woman who kills in
non confrontational circumstances, writes law professor Joan H. Kraus, the
chief obstacles to proving self defense are the requirements that
she reasonably believed the threatened harm to be imminent, as
the killing occurs in the absence of any ongoing physical attack.

(38:33):
In the Lamb trial, the jurors seemed sympathetic to the
idea that Charity feared for her life, but they could
not get past the timing of the attack. Was danger
really imminent? While Nathaniel Lamb ate his dinner. When they
asked Judge only to clarify, he told them that Charity
was quote not justified in killing until some demonstration was
made against her. As Ronald Lansing writes, quote, the instruction

(38:57):
was a correct statement of common law, as for set
down by judges and as codified by Oregon's territorial legislators.
To kill in response to threat of distant harm, no
matter how probable the threat, and no matter how useless
the protective alternatives, was not self defense. But he continues, quote,
what if the threat of future harm is certain, an

(39:19):
escape is hopeless. Trapped by matrimony, parentage, vast wilderness, and culture.
What was Charity to do? Understanding the situation of defendants
who have killed their abusers in non confrontational situations, writes
legal scholar Marina Angel, requires a quote reinterpretation of time,

(39:40):
equal force and the duty to retreat in light of
the realities of abuse. At Charity Lamb's trial, the only
witnesses who tried to depict the reality's Charity faced were
her children. When Charity herself got a chance to explain
her fears, it was too late. The jury had already
pronounced herself butons. In nineteen eighty five, a North Carolina

(40:03):
woman named Judy Laws Norman, after enduring twenty years of
relentless physical violence and psychological torture at the hands of
her husband J. T. Norman, shot him in the head
while he slept. State v. Norman is one of the
most frequently debated cases involving self defense and intimate partner violence.
There are a number of parallels between Judy Norman and

(40:26):
Charity Lamb. In both cases, the abuse the women suffered
escalated in the days before the killing. Both women's partners
threatened to kill them. On the day in question, both
women attempted to leave, but were stopped by threats of
violence and concern over leaving their children. In both cases,
the legal system rejected the women's claims of self defense.

(40:47):
The jurors in Charity's case did not believe she met
the requirement for imminent danger, while the judge in Judy's
case did not allow her jury to consider self defense,
and both women were convicted, Charity of second degree murder
and Judy of manslaughter. But here their stories diverged. Judy
Norman appealed her case. Ultimately, however, the North Carolina Supreme

(41:10):
Court affirmed her conviction, but in nineteen eighty nine, Judy's
defense attorneys circulated a petition for clemency in her home county.
Thousands of people signed that July, Governor James Martin commuted
her sentence to time served. Judy Norman was free. In
an interview after her release, Judy said that she knew

(41:31):
killing was wrong, but that people needed to quote understand
the situation. Then she said that she hoped to help
other women avoid that situation. Despite our focus this week
on women who have killed their abusers, these cases are
relatively rare. Far more often the reverse is true. But
for both parties, intimate partner violence can be deadly. A

(41:55):
two thousand and three study by Jacqueline Campbell at al.
Found that quote the majority sixty seven to eighty percent
of intimate partner homicides in heterosexual relationships involve physical abuse
of the female by the male before the murder, no
matter which partner is killed. Therefore, the study continues, quote,

(42:17):
one of the major ways to decrease intimate partner homicide
is to identify and intervene with battered women at risk, or,
as Judy Norman put it, help women avoid the situation.
In nineteen seventy eight, Laurel Paulson wrote an account of
Charity's life and trial for frying Pan Magazine, which she

(42:38):
ended with a rallying cry to action, quote, there can
be no free charity, Lamb Committee, it's too late. Charity
has been in her grave for almost a century. But
there are other charity lambs. It's not too late to
do something for them. Thank you for listening to History

(42:59):
on Try. To see images of the people and places
in this episode, check out our instagram at History on Trial.
My main sources for this episode were Ronald B. Lansing's
article The Tragedy of Charity Lamb, Oregon's first convicted murderess,
newspaper coverage of the case, and the Oregon Historical Societies
project the Oregon Encyclopedia. Special thanks to the Oregon Historical

(43:22):
Society's executive Director, Carrie Timchuck, who first brought Charity's story
to my attention, and to the Historical Society's Reference Services
Manager Scott Daniels, who led me through the archives for
a phobibliography as well as a transcript of this episode
with citations. Please visit our website History on Trial podcast
dot com, where you can also subscribe to our newsletter.

(43:45):
History on Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward.
The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
supervising producer Trevor Yung and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams,
Matt Frederick, and Hayward. Learn more about the show at
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(44:06):
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