Asylum Patient Saw Platt Kill Tyree 1885

According to other newspaper articles, there was a close eyewitness to this 1885 murder. Yesterday I found it: another newspaper article about the murder of Jesse Tyree, my paternal 3rd great grandmother's brother, and it named the witness and told his story. Anyone who is, or knows an epileptic, knows they are not deranged in any way. Like the victim, this witness was an epileptic and considered a "lunatic", therefore his testimony could not be used in court. I have now accumulated over 30 newspaper articles concerning the murder of this man, Jesse Tyree, who was once a teacher and somehow ended up in the Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the Insane in Lexington, Kentucky.

Morning Herald: March 23, 1897

Morning Herald
March 23, 1897

                  AN ASYLUM PATIENT

WHO CLAIMS HE SAW PLATT KILL TYREE, DANGERIOUSLY ILL.

     Jason Reed, a patient at the asylum, who claims that he was present when Arthur Platt killed Jesse Tyree, is very ill and may die. He was sent to the asylum twenty-five years ago suffering from epilepsy.

     In his testimony before the Coroner's jury, Reed said that he knew Tyree and slept in the same room with him. He said he saw the shooting; that he was standing only a few feet from the victim when the shot was fired; that he saw Platt and Tyree coming from the dining room into the day room, Platt pushing Tyree and finally shoving him into a seat, that he heard Tyree beg for mercy, hear Platt say: "I'll kill you now," pull the pistol and fire; saw Tyree fall to the floor to his face, hear Mike McGlade tell Platt he was going to report the killing; saw Platt pack up his valise and leave hurriedly. His mental affliction will debar him from appearing in the witness stand against Platt.

You can read my original post on this intriguing story by clicking on this link: Jesse Tyree: Murder of a "Lunatic"

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Jesse Tyree: Murder of a "Lunatic"

JESSE TYREE 1847 - 1885

Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the Insane - Photo by Waller Overton Bullock, 1898

Jesse Tyree was the younger brother of my third great grandmother, Louisa Tyree Wallen. He was born in Scott Co., Virginia to William and Lucy Osborne Tyree and was 17 years younger than Louisa who married when he was about 2 years old. Jesse's mother died when he was about 4 and the family relocated to Rockcastle Co., Kentucky. When Jesse was about 18 he married Melinda V. Byrd, daughter of James A. and Margaret Kelly Byrd. Together they had three children: James, Florence and Willie.

It is not yet known exactly what happened to Jesse's father William Tyree. William married for the second time to the widow Martha Kilgore Francisco and had one daughter, Ellen, by her and when Martha died he married another widow in 1865, Margaret Castle Yanders. In 1870 Margaret is found living in Pulaski Co., Kentucky under her previous married name and with the children from her first marriage. Also in her household is her newest offspring, Nannie Tyree. At the same time Jesse is found living in Missouri with his wife, two children, his half sister Ellen and a young girl of some relation, Louisa Tyree, who had been living with the family as early as 1860.

Jesse and his family must have returned home from Missouri shortly after 1870 because half sister Ellen married John Watts in Rockcastle Co. in 1875, however, by 1880 Jesse shows up in the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum in Lexington, Kentucky, listed as an epileptic. They list his previous occupation as "Teacher". His wife and children (by now there was a third child) were all living in Tennessee, each in a separate household but within close proximity of each other.

Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum

In mid December 1885 Jesse was murdered at the asylum by an attendant, Arthur W. Platt, who was trying to force him to come to dinner. When Jesse refused these attempts Platt pulled a loaded gun from his pocket and shot Jesse through the heart. One version of the story says Jesse was pleading piteously for his life. According to one article, 40 inmates witnessed the killing (it is more likely they only heard the gunshot from another room) and apparently some of them came after Platt. Platt briefly alerted another attendant of the incident, packed a valise and fled. He managed to elude arrest for ten years and decided to return home to England where he had family. Platt changed his name to Edward R. Taylor and lived in England for three more years before he decided he liked it better in America. He committed a small crime in order to get arrested and after he was incarcerated he informed Scotland Yard of his warrant in America. Arrangements were made and Platt was finally brought back for trial and was given a light sentence of 4 years in prison. Platt insisted the whole incident was an accident and there were no witnesses still alive to contest his story and even if they had been alive it was doubtful their testimony could be used in court.

After 4 years Platt was given his freedom to resume a normal life. I found no less than 20 newspaper articles on this murder and trial in 6 different Newspapers: Hazelgreen Herald, Morning Herald, New York Times, Mt. Vernon Signal, Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital, and the Omaha World Herald. There is also a lengthy and detailed account entitled "Murder of Jesse Tyree" at kykinfolk.com, contributed by Pam Brinegar.

Jesse Tyree is buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery of what is now called the Eastern State Hospital.

The many names of Eastern State Hospital:

Fayette Hospital (1817-1822)

Lunatic Asylum (1822-1844)

The Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1844-1849)

Lunatic Asylum of Kentucky (1850-1852)

The Lunatic Asylum (1850-1852)

The Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1852-1855)

The Eastern Lunatic Asylum of Kentucky (1855-1858)

The Kentucky Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1858-1864)

Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1864-1867)

The Kentucky Eastern Lunatic Asylum (1867-1873)

The First Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1873-1876)

Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum (1876-1894)

Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the Insane (1894-1912)

Eastern State Hospital (since 1912)

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The Worst Kind of Murderer

Alice Martin Clark Bishop

Hanged October 4, 1648

I suppose Saturday is as good a day as any to air HANG my dirty laundry, err..."grungy genes" I should say...so I bring forth from the darkest corner of the closet my 8th great grandmother Alice Martin Bishop b. circa 1620. Alice Martin married George Clark on 22 Jan. 1628/29 in Plymouth Co., Massachusetts. They had two daughters, Abigail Clark b. 1642 and Martha Clark b. 1644. I do not know what became of George but on 5 Dec. 1644, in Scituate, New Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, Alice married her second husband, my ancestor Richard Bishop b. 1612. In 1646 Alice gave birth to my 7th great grandmother Damaris Bishop [who married William Sutton in 1666]. I suppose we can't know what happened in Alice's life to trigger the following event. Why does any mother kill her own child? 

"In July 1648 a coroners jury reported that "coming into the house of the said Richard Bishope, we saw at the foot of a ladder which leadeth into an upper chamber, much blood; and going up all of us into the chamber, wee found a woman child, of about foure yeares of age, lying in her shifte uppon her left cheeke, with her throut cut with divers gashed crose wayes, the wind pipe cut and stuke into the throat downward, and a bloody knife lying by the side of the child, with which knife all of us judge, and the said Allis hath confessed to five of us at one time, that shee murdered the child with the said knife" Rachel Ramsden testified that when she went to Richard Bishops's house on an errand, "the wife of the said Richard Bishope requested her to goe fetch her some buttermilke at Goodwife Winslows, and gave her a ketle for that purpose, and shee went and did it; and before shee went, shee saw the child lyinge abed asleepe ..., but when shee came shee found [Alice Bishop] sad and dumpish; shee asked her what blood was that shee saw at the ladders foot; shee pointed unto the chamber, and bid her looke, but shee perseived shee had killed her child, and being afraid, shee refused, and ran and tould her father and mother. Moreover, shee saith the reason that moved her to think shee had killed her child was that when shee saw the blood shee looked on the bedd, and the child was not there". The child was Alice (Martin) Clarke Bishop's daughter, Martha Clark, by Alice's first husband, George Clark. On 1 August, 1648, Alice Bishop confessed she had murdered her daughter and said she was sorry for it. And on 4 October 1648 she was sentenced to be hanged, which accordingly was executed".

Stratton, Eugene Aubrey. Plymouth Colony, Its History & People, 1620-1691. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Pub., 1986. Print. pp. 159/60.

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