Nellie May Madison

I both love and hate doing cases prior to about the 1950's. The part I love is hearing about very old cases, many of which I simply come across in other research. But, the part I hate is the often inaccurate information that is found. Some of the inaccuracies are due to the passage of time, especially those prior to 1900. After that time we entered the era of “yellow journalism.” If you have never heard this term you really should research it a bit. The term itself is defined as journalism based on sensationalism and “crude exaggerations.” In the late 1890's two men, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst each started up rival newspapers in New York. Their goal obviously was to sell newspapers, but then it became to sell more than the other and they basically said and did whatever it took to sell them. Truth and research had no room in these newspapers. “Reporters” often followed police officers around to crime scenes and would even take things from the scenes and report their own take on things. This meant that the information that got out was rarely based on facts and many were persecuted in the public long before it ever reached a courtroom... and keep in mind there was little to nothing done to ensure that jurors were unbiased when they entered a courtroom.

One of the other issues with dealing with cases from this era is how fast things moved through the courts. Now, I am sure many would agree that there are cases today, in 2017, that seem to take forever to get into a courtroom and be settled, and even longer to go through appeals and follow through on sentences, especially when the death penalty is involved. However, during this era cases were rushed through at an amazing speed to the point that it is almost certain that not all the facts were in before there was a verdict, let alone a trial. This is often why you hear things such as if an innocent person has been executed “in modern times.” It has been proven on at least a few cases that there have been innocent people executed, some have involved African American's who had less rights than others. As a whole of course the Government does not necessarily want to look into these cases because it could place a mar on the system. There were many cases where the defendant was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted later. Many of those cases involved children who committed crimes and women. The case of Nellie May Madison is just such a case.

There are those that look at the Madison case as the early face of domestic violence. I am sure there are, and were, those who would argue that Madison got away with murdering her husband and that unlike she later claimed it was not a self defense case. The debate at some point in recent years became whether she would have been convicted at all if this case were a modern era case. Personally I suspect that she would have still been convicted, and possibly even still sentenced to death, but then again no one can know anything for sure. Now, whether Nellie May got what we would consider to be a fair trial today is something of another story. I have said many times in these blogs that I believed someone to be guilty but feel they still deserved another trial as the first one was unfair.

Nellie May Madison was not your average woman, especially in the 1930's. She had been born and raised in Montana by immigrants who had taken advantage of land being offered by the Government. She was the youngest of three children and it was said that she was taught in childhood how to be a survivalist in the mountains. Many recalled that she was a “crack shot” by the time she was a teenager. At the age of thirteen in 1908 she ran off and eloped with a twenty-four year old man but her parents apparently tracked her down and had the marriage annulled a short time later. She would marry and divorce three more times before would meet Eric Madison in 1933. She and her fourth husband, attorney William Brown would move to Palm Springs California in 1930 where they would divorce not long later but remained friends it seems. After their divorce she became the manager of a hotel called The Desert Inn that catered to celebrities. It was here that she met Eric Madison.

The couple would leave California, marry in July of 1933 and make their way to Utah and Montana before settling back in Burbank California. Many believe that Eric only decided to marry Nellie when he learned that she had an inheritance owed to her of $1,000. They had picked that up in their travels after the wedding and before moving back to California. The couple had an apartment across the street from Warner Brothers Studios and initially both worked at the commissary on the lot. It was said that Eric did not last long, as seemingly was not unusual when it came to his work record and was fired for a multitude of reasons.

On March 24, 1934 several residents of the apartment building heard gunfire late in the evening but had paid little attention to it because it was not unusual to hear so close to the studio when they were filming. The following morning several people saw Nellie May leave the apartment she shared with her husband. Later in the day the landlord of the building entered the apartment and found the body of Eric Madison inside. He had died after being hit by several bullets (some research says three, others say up to five). Investigators immediately began looking for Nellie. She was found two days later hiding in the closet of a mountain cabin some eighty miles north of Los Angeles.

Less than three months later Nellie May would be brought to trial for the murder of her husband. The day before the trial began the prosecutor announced he was seeking the death penalty, a rarity for a woman at the time. If you read the research you will often see information that she was “the first woman sentenced to death in California” but that is not true. There were at least two others, including Laura Fair, who I have blogged about here. The other women, as well as Nellie had their death sentences overturned obviously prior to execution. It appears that the first woman executed in California was Juanita Spinelli in 1941. As of 2015 the United States has only executed fifty-five women since 1900. I attempted to compare that to the number of men who have been executed in that time period but was unable to get reliable sources for that. But, back to Nellie. It has been argued over time that when the prosecutor announced the death penalty he did not have accurate facts of the case. However, I am unsure that given the time period, and given more time to investigate that the prosecutor would have received any other information to base his decision as even Nellie was not supposedly telling the truth.

At her trial the prosecution would argue that Nellie was, how do I say this, a “loose woman.” Evidence of her prior marriages were entered into the court and the prosecution made much of them. Keeping in mind of the times the public looked down her for her many marriages and her, what they thought, unlady like behavior. The prosecutor would point out that Eric Madison had been shot in the back several times. One of those bullets apparently entered the back of his skull and came out his left eye near his nose. Another bullet had gone through his back and pierced his aorta. It is unclear if the prosecution gave the jury any sort of motive beyond Nellie's character as a reason for the murder. But, I am unsure if it was their strategy or the story the defense told that would actually result in her conviction.

Nellie would later say that she told her lawyers the true story of what happened but that they decided that was not the story to be told and urged her to go with the story they planned to tell the jury. I will go into Nellie's story in more detail later but it involved being abused by Eric Madison. She would claim that her lawyers all but told her that was not a defense in which she would escape prison, or the death penalty for and instead not only would they attempt to lead the jury to believe Nellie was not present, but that the body found in the apartment did not even belong to Eric Madison. There were several problems with this. First, while the body was found the following day the coroner had determined that Eric had died at least twelve hours prior, if not more, meaning during the night or early morning. And yet several residents reported seeing Nellie leave the apartment that morning. The body was not hidden inside the apartment but quite clearly visible in the bedroom and Eric was only wearing underwear when found. There was no way for her to be able to say that she had not at the very least seen the body, which in essence was what she was saying. Secondly, the body had clearly been identified as Eric Madison and to believe otherwise would require that another man was in their apartment unclothed. If one were to believe this then they would be left to either a) believe Eric Madison had a homosexual relationship, which would have been fine had he been the defendant at that time, but again, being the victim it wouldn't bode well; or b) believe that the man was involved with Nellie, meaning either she had killed someone else or she was the “floozy” the prosecution said she was.

On June 23, 1934 the jury, not buying the defense theory convicted Nellie May in the murder of her husband. From my understanding they deferred the sentencing to the judge, who was known to be what they called a “hanging judge,” meaning he was very pro-death penalty. He did not disappoint and sentenced her to death.

From the time of her arrest and long past her conviction the newspapers had portrayed Nellie May as a vixen and of course a villain. Throughout her trial they had often commented on her demeanor and the fact that she was very stoic in court, never seeming to show any sort of emotion. Of course they also jumped on her past with her several marriages too. It does not appear that anyone, including reporters or even attorney's looked into or at least expressed any dismay or reported any past behaviors relating to Eric. Then again there is, and was especially then, the idea of not speaking ill of the dead or blaming the victim. It was said that Nellie's ex-husband, William Brown showed more emotion at her conviction and that it was he who would encourage Nellie to tell the story she tried to get her lawyers to tell.

The following year, in 1935, Nellie did tell her story at her appeal. She would claim that Eric Madison had been an abusive, unfaithful, and violent man. She would claim that near the time of his death Nellie had returned home and found him in bed with a teenage girl and that a fight had ensued. She claimed that this was not the first time that Eric had abused her. According to her story Eric proceeded to beat her over a period of days and at some point (whether it was this incident or another is unclear) had forced her to sign a statement stating she had been unfaithful to him although it was a false statement. She would say that she had taken the statement and burned it prior to being arrested. On the day before the murder Nellie had gone out and bought a gun that she claimed was for protection. On March 24, 1934 the argument had continued and she would say that she pulled the gun and pointed it at Eric only in an attempt to scare him and that she had no intention of firing. According to Nellie, Eric then reached down under the bed to grab a box he kept there with throwing knives. After throwing a few of them and missing Nellie claimed that he leaned back over to grab more and this was when she shot him. The appeals judge was the same judge from her trial and he reportedly dismissed the abuse allegations and was quoted as calling them “ridiculous.” He refused to commute her sentence in any way.

It is unclear if a journalist had already been looking into Nellie's case before she told her story publicly or if it was done after. But, at some point when the story broke of the abuse, a former wife of Eric Madison's came forward and apparently told very similar stories of abuse from Eric, including being forced to sign nearly the same statement that Nellie had been regarding being unfaithful. At this point the community, including the jurors her trial, and especially the newspapers had a different idea of Nellie. Now instead of the villain she was portrayed as a victim. A letter campaign began to the Governor and it was said that all the jurors petitioned him also to commute her sentence. In September 1935, some two weeks before her scheduled execution Governor Frank Merriam commuted her sentence to life. On March 27, 1943 (some reports say the 24^th but it seems untrue and only really stated because it was the anniversary of the murder) then Governor Culbert Olson released Nellie May Madison from prison.

The same year of her release Nellie would marry for the sixth time to a man named John Wagner and live in San Bernadino California. Nellie died on July 8 1953, still married to John. It was her longest marriage.

Nellie May Madison has since become the face of not just domestic violence but the modern day “Battered Woman's Defense.” Her ultimate defense was that she had murdered her husband to stop the abuse. But, then the new argument lies. In general self defense cases there is the “rule” that if you can get away you should without using violence. Now of course over the last several years there have been issues with what are called “The Castle Doctrines” or the “Stand Your Ground” defenses claiming you do not have to retreat and are entitled to still defend yourself. Many defendants who have claimed self defense or argued that the victim was coming towards them in a violent manner have lost in court because forensic evidence showed that the victim was actually moving away. That seemed to be the case here in Nellie's case. However, despite that often being the rule, many of those behind the Battered Woman's Defense have argued (and some have been successful) that the psychological trauma that an abused woman goes through contributes to the decision to kill. They simply want the beatings to stop.

A good example of this would be the case of Francine Hughes. Her case came to light in the 1980's when the book and then the television movie “The Burning Bed” came out. She was an abused woman who not only could not get away, but received little help from family, let alone authorities. She waited until he passed out in the bed one day and literally set his bed on fire. Her children had been in the car, waiting for her as she had asked them to, and she drove to the police station and confessed to the crime herself. Clearly Francine Hughes was not in immediate danger at the time that she had murdered him but had done so as she saw no other way out and away from the abuse. The police had even been at the home hours prior but had not arrested Mickey Hughes because he was not assaulting her at that moment. Although, one of the police officers at her trial would testify that Mickey had told Francine she would pay for calling the police, while they were present. Francine was ultimately found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity in what is called one of the first Battered Women Syndrome cases. With that all being said, Francine could clearly prove there had been abuse in that relationship. Police had been called multiple times to the home and there were credible witnesses, including some of her children, who testified to the abuse.

That being said, not all cases are as cut and dry as Francine's. Over the years we have often seen women who would claim abuse in a relationship that did not have the documentation and the witnesses that she had. Some can argue that is due to the secrecy behind domestic abuse. Many women did not then, nor do now, call authorities because just as in Francine's case, it could make things worse. This would have been especially true in Nellie's case due to the time period. However, while Nellie's attorney's discouraged her from speaking of the abuse at her trial, we see more and more cases where that is the complete basis for the defense. With that we have seen many cases where not only was the abuse not documented but often refuted by not just witnesses, but experts. The point here is that there is really no way of telling for sure that Nellie was abused or not for certain. If her trial was to take place today I am unsure even if she did use the Battered Woman's defense that she would escape jail. While it was said that evidence of the knives that Nellie claimed were being thrown at here were not collected in 1934 I have to feel as if today they would have been. That being said, the reality is that Eric Madison was clearly shot multiple times in the back, meaning he was not facing her (although in fairness she admits this). In my opinion she would have needed much more than her word, or even the word of Eric's ex-wife to escape a conviction.

However, that does bring us back to whether Nellie May received a fair trial in the first place. I am unsure if her case were in the courts today how much evidence of her prior marriages would be introduced. I would gander to guess that they would only be discussed if there was some sort of evidence that she showed some violent or “unstable” behavior in her prior relationships. I do not believe the simple fact she had been married several times would have the influence today that it did in 1934. In 1965 a woman named Alice Crimmins' children disappeared and later found murdered. She was tried and convicted, twice despite there being absolutely no evidence that she had committed the crime. Most believe she was simply convicted based on her lifestyle. With that in mind however one could argue that is all the evidence Florida officials had on Casey Anthony in the death of her daughter, although I completely disagree. This is partly why I am unsure that much of Nellie's past would have either made it into the courtroom, or if it did what the impact would have been.

To be clear I truly have no idea if Eric Madison was abusive or not. To be fair, despite supposedly being told by her attorney's to not mention the abuse, the fact that the allegations were not made until much later does seem suspicious to me. Her former attorney would later claim to be shocked when the abuse story came out but again it is unclear if that shock was true or if it was a case of him basically saving his own butt when public opinion began to gather. I do believe the story that was told by the defense at the trial was totally unbelievable and I understand the conviction based on that issue. Regardless, again to be fair, I heard of nothing that Nellie gained by committing cold blooded murder, at least financially. All that being said, whether she committed the murder in self defense or for other reasons, in my opinion the trial was not a fair one based on facts and evidence but more on scandal and innuendo. Her sentence was commuted maybe because people believed her story but it may have simply been used as an excuse because in that era death sentences for women, especially white women, were often overturned based on the idea that the government was not ready to execute a woman.