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[[Category:People convicted of murder by Minnesota]] |
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Minnesota]] |
Revision as of 00:18, 19 July 2013
Harry T. Hayward (c. 1865, Macoupin County, Illinois - December 12, 1895, Hennepin County Jail, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was a Victorian Era American socialite and criminal from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hayward is best known as the mastermind of the murder of dressmaker Catherine Ging on December 3, 1894. Due to his ability to manipulate others, the American press dubbed Hayward, "The Minneapolis Svengali."
Before his death, Hayward claimed to have committed four other murders. Jack El-Hai has stated that, if Harry Hayward's admissions are true, then he predates Dr. H. H. Holmes as America's first documented serial killer.[1]
Early life
Harry T. Hayward was born in Macoupin County, Illinois,[2] the son of William and Lodusky Hayward. He was brought to Minneapolis at the age of one year old. After attending Minneapolis public schools, he became a clerk before beginning to gamble at the age of twenty. Hayward later stated that even before this, "my god was always money."[3]
Ging murder
In January 1894, Hayward met Katherine "Kitty" Ging, a tenant of his parents at the Ozark Flats building on Hennepin Avenue and Thirteenth Street. He persuaded her to front him large sums of money, which he used gambling. When Ging demanded the return of her money, Hayward paid her with counterfeit currency. Privately, however, he described her as, "an easy mark."
On December 3, 1894, Ging's body was found, shot behind the ear, on a road near Lake Calhoun. It was later revealed that Hayward had persuaded her to purchase a $10,000 life insurance policy which named him as sole beneficiary.
Trial
After his brother Adry Hayward and triggerman Claus Blixt testified against him, Hayward was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death by hanging.
Interview
Prior to his execution, Hayward gave a detailed series of interviews to his cousin Edward H. Goodsell. During this conversation, he admitted to numerous acts of illegal gambling, arson and four other murders. His victims included a woman in Santa Monica, California, a tubercular patient in New Jersey, an African American man in Texas, and a Chinese gambling patron in Chinatown, Manhattan. Transcripts were taken down by a court stenographer. Hayward only admitted his involvement in Ging's murder, however, when it became clear that no reprieve was going to arrive from Minnesota Governor David Marston Clough.
At the end of the interview, Hayward quoted the poem, "Happy the man," by John Dryden, saying that it encompassed his philosophy of life.[4]
Execution
On December 12, 1895, Harry T. Hayward was hanged at Hennepin County Jail. Earlier that evening, he said, about members of the clergy, "I like these men and want to show them respectful consideration, but I do not care for religion. As a general thing, men in this sort of predicament get religious because they think it will brace them for the final ordeal. I do not need it. I am perfectly contented."[5]
Calm and unafraid, he arrived for his execution in formal evening attire. He gave a long and verbose speech which continued until the Sheriff cut in and ordered him to, "Die like a man." Hayward's last words were those of a gambler, "Pull her tight; I'll stand pat." The rope was mismeasured, however, and Hayward took more than thirteen minutes to slowly strangle.[6] Hayward's body was interred in a family plot at the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery.[7]
Further reading
- Trenerry, Walter N. (1962), Murder in Minnesota: A Collection of True Cases, Minnesota Historical Society Press.
External links
- Murder by Gaslight
- "Harry Hayward: Life, crimes, dying confession and execution of the celebrated Minneapolis criminal," by Edward H. Goodsell
- "The Killer who Haunts Me," by Jack El-Hai, Minnesota Monthly, February, 2010.
References
- ^ "The Killer who Haunts Me," by Jack El-Hai, Minnesota Monthly, February, 2010.
- ^ Goodsell (1896), pages 33-34.
- ^ Goodsell (1896), page 34.
- ^ Goodsell (1896), page 112.
- ^ Goodsell (1896), page 135.
- ^ Trenerry (1962), page153.
- ^ Findagrave's Entry on Harry Hayward