Minimal MARC record to be updated: b47625089
The George Thompson Murder Trial Documents are arranged in chronological order, beginning in May 1842.
Purchase, 1997.
[identification of item], George Thompson Murder Trial Documents, SPEC.RARE.CMS.0335, Rare Books and Manuscripts Libary, Ohio State University
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Processed by Anna Arays, Ashleigh Minor, and Karen Glenn, 2016 January
George Thompson was an Englishman born around 1819. On May 30th, 1842, he shot and killed Catherine Hamler at the Exchange Hotel in Bellevue, Ohio. Catherine, an 18-year-old Pennsylvania native, worked in the hotel with George and had repeatedly refused his marriage proposals. George was arrested and tried by a grand jury of Sandusky County, Ohio, in September 1842. He escaped from prison twice between 1842 and 1844 and was arrested the final time in Ottowa, Illinois, in March of 1844 by Sheriff John Strohl. On June 20th, 1844, he was again tried in court and defended by Brice J. Bartlett and Cooper K. Watson. The defense was temporary insanity. The jury found George Thompson guilty of murder and a death warrant was issued July 9th. George was executed by hanging July 12th, 1844.
The George Thompson Murder Trial Documents include legal documents related to the arrest, trial, and execution of George Thompson for the murder of Catherine Hamler in Sandusky County, Ohio. In this collection are warrants for the arrest of George Thompson, jury summons, subpoenas, affidavits, a motion to appeal the murder trial conviction by Thompson's lawyers, recognizance of witnesses, a reward poster for the capture of Thompson, and the death warrant issued for George Thompson's execution. These legal documents were issued in Sandusky County, Ohio between May 1842, where the murder took place, and July 1844, when George Thompson was executed.