Susan Riley was 23 years old living in Red Oak, Arkansas in 1895. Before leaving her home for Red Oak, she fell in love a with John Hall/Hill and he begged her for her affections and promised to marry her. After a time she gave in and became in a delicate matter and filled with shame went to live with Charles Vanachen to care for his sick wife.
in June of 1895 she gave birth to a baby girl weighing about 8 to 9 pounds, during the night. Charles was awoken to one cry. He got up to check on things and went back to bed, in the morning his wife found a knife in the kitchen with mud on it and blood on the floor, she followed the trail to the fence outside and found a baby girl laying on the ground with its throat cut and called for her husband who called the doctor. Susan had not yet passed the afterbirth so the doctor helped her and examined the baby. The sheriff was for.
These are the court records of Susan's case, she was charged with murder.
The above was the only newspaper article I found. I also didn't find any genealogy information on Susan. I made her a tree on Ancestry attached everything. The main reason I wanted to write her story was to show what kinds of criminal records can be found. These are Fort Smith, Arkansas Criminal Cases on Ancestry from 1866-1900, some do have mugshots. (Many criminal records are not online). The other reason was because these things happened just as often then as they do now, the times were different and it was socially unacceptable then. So very sad situation for her and this little baby. I tried looking for the baby's memorial on Find A Grave but no luck.
in June of 1895 she gave birth to a baby girl weighing about 8 to 9 pounds, during the night. Charles was awoken to one cry. He got up to check on things and went back to bed, in the morning his wife found a knife in the kitchen with mud on it and blood on the floor, she followed the trail to the fence outside and found a baby girl laying on the ground with its throat cut and called for her husband who called the doctor. Susan had not yet passed the afterbirth so the doctor helped her and examined the baby. The sheriff was for.
These are the court records of Susan's case, she was charged with murder.
The above was the only newspaper article I found. I also didn't find any genealogy information on Susan. I made her a tree on Ancestry attached everything. The main reason I wanted to write her story was to show what kinds of criminal records can be found. These are Fort Smith, Arkansas Criminal Cases on Ancestry from 1866-1900, some do have mugshots. (Many criminal records are not online). The other reason was because these things happened just as often then as they do now, the times were different and it was socially unacceptable then. So very sad situation for her and this little baby. I tried looking for the baby's memorial on Find A Grave but no luck.
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