Wives with whips

 

Robert St. Estephe–Gonzo Historian–is dedicated to uncovering the forgotten past of marginalizing men. “Gonzo journalism” is characterized as tending “to favor style over fact to achieve accuracy.” Yet history – especially “social history” – is written by ideologues who distort and bury facts in order to achieve an agenda. “Gonzo” writing is seen as unorthodox and surprising. Yet, in the 21st century subjectivity, distortion and outright lying in non-fiction writing is the norm. Fraud is the new orthodoxy. Consequently, integrity is the new “transgressive.”

Welcome to the disruptive world of facts, the world of Gonzo History.

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Once upon a time there was an oppressive patriarchy. This nasty “archy” was, for members of the inherently non-violent sex, one huge day-in and day-out 24-hour living hell  In this Great Age of the Oppression women were thwacked by husbands wielding sticks no wider than your thumb-drive. Police and courts (because laws were made by men only for the purpose of benefiting men) looked the other way. This Dictatorship of Male Privilege did not take domestic violence seriously and arrests were just never made. Phallocrats of the court treated domestic violence as a “private matter,” and callously turned their black-robed backs on the victims (which of course were, by definition, women). Why? Because society found domestic violence to be socially acceptable behavior. On very rare occasions, in those  scary olden times, a battered wife might hit back, but only, of course,  as a last resort. Just like nowadays, these sorrowful, ill-clad, and over-worked damsels never ever would think of initiating violence (due to the self-evident fact they were members the non-violent sex).

Hey there, dear reader! — Do you realize how many billions of dollars, or pounds sterling, or francs (etc.) have been coerced from you in the form of taxes to pay the fraud purveyors who told you this lie — indoctrinating you from your infancy onwards and are still doing it? The financial cost as well as the social cost of fraudulent “gender studies” has been enormous and threatens to increase now that social engineering aims have replaced intellectual integrity. You are entitled to a big apology for the fraud and the slander and to a restoration of your stolen money and your stolen due process rights. Post-modernist jurisprudence — based on the principle of  “guilty as falsely accused” — must be thrown into the trash, where it belongs.

Here we present an intriguing little sheaf of newspaper clippings which offers a hint at what the true history of domestic violence contains when it is not censored by tax-payer supported fraudsters from the “gender studies” industry.  Among forgotten old news reports there are a lot of husband-beating cases to pick from, so what we offer here is a specialized selection — featuring stories of violence by wives whose weapon of choice was the whip, an implement always at hand in the days before the automobile.

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?• 1860 – Moriarty

FULL TEXT : An Amazonian woman, who is said to be the “weaker vessel” of Mike Moriarty’s household gods, was recently before the Recorder [judge] of Memphis, for whipping her husband, and fined $10. His Honor also very properly fined Mike $5 for permitting himself to be thrashed by a woman.

[“Original Decision Respecting Matrimonial Quarrels.” Cincinnati Daily Press (Oh.), Apr. 9, 1860, p. 1]

?• 1888 – Sterling

FULL TEXT:  Yesterday afternoon excitement was created South Fifth street caused by a wife whipping her husband. James C. Sterling, living at 139 South Fifth street, and two young women, intended to take Misses Mollie Warfel and Mame Hogentogler out for a ride. They were in the carriage when Mrs. Sterling saw the party and she jumped into the carriage. She admitted the girls and compelled her husband to get out of the carriage. The affair is the talk of the town.

[“Whipped Her Husband.” The Lancaster Intelligencer (Pa.), May 1, 1888, p. 4]

?• 1888 – Cochrane

FULL TEXT: James D. Cochrane, who has been on the staff of the Examiner and Chronicle, a religious publication, for many years, was severely horsewhipped at midnight on Friday by his wife. The assault took place in front of 100 Leonard-street, Brooklyn, Eastern District, in the presence of Miss Sadie Jacobs, a handsome young lady, who was the cause of the trouble. She resides at 100 Leonard-street and was on the way to her home with Mr. Cochrane on Friday night, when Mrs. Cochrane sprang from behind a tree and began to beat her husband about the head with a small whip. Miss Jacobs ran into the house, while Mr. Cochrane disappeared around the corner, and Mrs. Cochrane, overcome by excitement, went into hysterics. A gentleman who knew Mrs. Cochrane took her to her home, at 28 Broome-street.

Yesterday Mrs. Cochrane was very willing to talk to reporters. She said her husband had been too attentive to Miss Jacobs and for that reason she whipped him. He had not been home since the scene of Friday night, she said, and was not wanted there. Mrs. Cochrane declared that she would not apply for a divorce from her husband, with whom she had lived for 20 years.

Mr. Cochrane was found at Miss Jacobs’s home, but he would not talk. Miss Jacobs said he had been a friend of her family for 10 years, and called as much to see her father as herself. She denied that Mrs. Cochrane had any cause for jealousy.

[“Horsewhipped Her Husband.” New York Times (N.Y.), Jul. 24, 1888, p. ?]

?• 1903 – Cass

avfm-wives-with-whips-cass

FULL TEXT: Henderson Cass, Lexington, Ky., aged 76 years, a veteran of the civil war, was horsewhipped in public by his wife by the order of Police Judge Riley. The woman had lodged a complaint against her husband, claiming that he was squandering his pension money and was drunk a great deal of the time. He was brought into court and told Judge Riley that he wanted to have a good time. The Chicago Chronicle correspondent says the judge asked the abused wife why she did not whip him, and she said she could do it all right if he said she might. Judge Riley replied:

“Well, I will get you a whip and see that you do it.”

He told Patrol Driver Wallace to bring him a buggy whip, and, arming the woman with the whip, he told her to march her husband into the station-house lobby and lay it on him until she got tired. The woman did so.

The husband at first took the matter as a joke and laughed, but soon he began to realize, after the woman began laying on lick after lick with full force that she was in earnest and he begged her to stop. He promised to be sober and a good husband and she stopped.

[“Wife Whips Husband. – Police Judge in Lexington, Ky., Orders Matrimonial Thrashing for Civil War Veteran.” The Havre Plaindealer (Mt.), Sep. 5, 1903, p. 3]

?• 1906 – Bedot

avfm-wives-with-whips-bedot-rr

FULL TEXT: Oakland. Jan. 22. – “Of course I horsewhipped my husband and I will do it again whenever I meet him if the law refuses to supply a whipping post to punish men who ill-treat their wives, the women must take the law into their own hands.”

That was the startling manner in which Mrs. Emelie Bedot, her teeth clenched and her dark eyes snapping, admitted this afternoon that she had chastised her erring spouse in the public streets of Oakland. Mrs. Bedot thinks there is no disgrace attached to the publicity of the whipping, she is a wronged wife, she declares, and since the law will not avenge her wrongs she is privileged to seek her own method of punishment.

The whipping of Henri Bedot by his wife was the second instance of its kind in Oakland within twenty-four hours. Saturday night a woman supposed to be Mrs. Mallory horsewhipped a man who said his name was Schwartz in front of Fred Ohe’s saloon at Fortieth street and Ban Pablo avenue.

This was followed last night at Twenty-Fourth street and Broadway by the whipping of Bedot by his wife. When seen at the home of a friend on Sycamore street, where she is staying temporarily, Mrs. Bedot to-day said:

I came with my husband from our farm in Glenn County two weeks ago. We quarreled at the farm over a servant girl that I think my husband was paying too much attention to although he declared that I was neglecting his meals. We went to San Francisco and took rooms on Third street, between Mission and Howard.

It was our idea in going to San Francisco to sell our property interests and separate. But my husband was reluctant, about coming to a settlement and I learned that he was spending his money on a woman who lived in Oakland. I followed him over here last night and saw him go into a house in Piedmont.

I am not familiar with the streets and don’t know just where it was but I waited for him a couple of blocks away and when he alighted from a car to transfer at Twenty-fourth street and Broadway accented him. When he said it was none of my business what he was doing there I grabbed a whip from an express wagon and gave him a good thrashing.

I’ll repeat the chastisement every time I meet him until he makes a settlement of our property interests and we are legally separated.

Our farm is worth about $15,000 and he has several thousand dollars in a bank at Willows. All I want is justice. I have no fear of arrest, as my husband would not dare to have things I know told in court.

[“Will Horsewhip Husband Again – Mrs. Bedot Determined to Get ‘Justice,’” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Jan. 23, 1906, p. 6]

?• 1906 – Marsh

NOTE: The following article describes Mrs. Irene Marsh’s April 1906 attack on her husband, but Mrs. Marsh was a well-document violent woman. On August 13, 1902 she fired four shots at Alice Murray, and on January 29, 1907, again tried to kill her, firing three shots and wounded a male bystander, Hugo Carr.

FULL TEXT: San Francisco, Apr. 9 – A feature not down on the program occurred at the Orpheum Theater in this city last night. The performance had hardly started when a woman entered the theater and made her way down the center aisle, carrying a riding whip. Suddenly she produced the dainty lash, and without a word of warning brought it down vigorously on the shoulders and across the face of John W. Marsh. He fled with all the alacrity at his command, and the irate woman turned her attention to the young damsel who occupied the adjoining seat. The whip descended upon the latter and the angered madam followed the man up the aisle. At the door both were requested to step outside which they did. The woman with the whip was Mrs. Alice Murray, upon whom he has lavished his affections.

[“Woman Horsewhips Husband In Theater,” The Evening News (San Jose, Ca.), Apr. 9, 1906, p. 5]

(Note: spelling of “tisle” in original article has been corrected to “aisle”; “with ut” has been corrected to “without”)

?• 1908 – Christian

FULL TEXT:  Berkeley, March 3.—”You will steal my money, will you?” shouted Mrs. M. D. Christian, wife of a salesman for the Eilers music company, living at 2142 Sutter street, San Francisco, as she took a horsewhip from the folds of her skirts and showered blows on the head and shoulders of her husband, who, was standing talking with Otto Putzker, an automobile dealer, in front of the police station at 3 o’clock this afternoon. Christian, putting up his hands to protect his face, ran into Putzker’s store at Shattuck, avenue and Allston way, crying with pain. Bystanders, seized the whip from Mrs. Christian, and she and her husband were placed under arrest.

Christian, who has been a salesman for the Eilers company, recently was transferred to the Berkeley office. He was engaged in conversation with Putsker in front of the town hall at Shattuck avenue and Allston way at 3 o’clock, this afternoon trying to sell him a piano. He mentioned, in passing, that he was in financial difficulties and expected trouble with a woman.

“Without warning Mrs. Christian, who had come toward her husband from behind the two men, was seen by bystanders to take a small blacksnake from the folds of her skirts and belabor the shoulders of her husband.

“You will steal my money, will you?” she shouted at the top of her voice as she vigorously applied the whip on the head, shoulders and back of Christian.

She continued to strike him until Otto Putzker seized the whip and allowed Christian the opportunity to escape to the back of Putaker’s store, which is next to the town hall.

Aroused by the disturbance, Policeman J T. Jones rushed out of the police station and placed the couple under arrest and booked them on charges of disturbing the peace. They were released later on the payment of $10 bail each.

Neither would be interviewed at the police station, although Mrs. Christian volunteered the information that her husband was about to leave her and make her pay a number of bills which he had contracted. She admitted that they had frequently quarreled and that she came to Berkeley for the express purpose of horsewhipping him.

[“Irate Wife Whips Husband In Street – Piano Salesman Takes to His Heels as Strong Armed Spouse Plies Lash – Calls Him Thief Between Blows He Has No Time to Ward Away,” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Mar. 4, 1908, p. 4]

?• 1925 – d’Arpignac

FULL TEXT: Bordeaux, France – Madam Celestine d’Arpignac was sent to jail for lashing her husband with a horsewhip at court when he defeated her in a suit over property,

[“Whips Husband,” The Toledo News-Bee (Oh.), Apr. 25, 1925, p. 4]

?• 1927 – Eickenhorst

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): White Plains, N. Y., Sept. 20. – Mrs. Nellie Eickenhorst, 42 years old, of 145 West Lincoln Avenue, Mount Vernon, took the law into her own hands this morning, and horsewhipped her husband, Frank, 40 years old, in an effort, she said, to make him awaken to a sense of his responsibility toward her. The whipping occurred when she met him in front of Police Headquarters.

A charge of abandonment preferred against Eickenhorst by his wife was dismissed by City Judge Bernstein in Special Sessions Court this morning when Mrs. Eickenhorst admitted that their husband was living at her home. He would not work and support her, she said, and she had been compelled to work as a saleswoman.

Following the dismissal of the charge, Mrs. Eickenhorst went to a hardware store where she purchased a three-foot whip. With this she slashed her husband about the face and body when she met him in Valentine street. Policeman Charles Roehl ran from headquarters and warned the woman to stop. She continued to beat her husband, and finally struck him in the face partly blinding him.

By this time a crowd had gathered, by the sight and by the cries of Eickenhorst, who endeavored to protect himself from his wife’s blows by covering his head with his arms as he lay on the ground before her. Mrs. Eickenhorst was persuaded to stop and surrendered her whip, after which she was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. She was released in bonds of $250 for hearing tomorrow morning.

[“Whips Her Husband As Crowd Looks On – Wife Beats Man Near Police Headquarters in Mt. Vernon Till He Is Partly Blind. – Then Is Freed In $250 Bail – Abandonment Charge Brought by Her Had Just Been Dismissed – She Says He Will Not Support Her.” New York Times (N.Y.), Sep. 21, 1927, p. 30]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): White Plains, N. Y., Sept. 21 – City Judge Jacob Bernstein gave a suspended sentence this morning to Mrs. Nellie Eickenhorst, 42 years old, in front of Police Headquarters yesterday morning.

Mrs. Eickenhorst was warned by Judge Bernstein that her activity with a whip must cease.

The whipping followed the dismissal in court yesterday of a charge of abandonment brought by Mrs. Eickenhorst against her husband. she had admitted that he was living with her but asserted she was forced to support herself and that Eickenhorst sat around the house all day. When the case was dismissed she appeared upset and left the court room, going to a nearby store where she bought a very heavy dog whip.

Meeting her husband she warned him that although he might escape punishment in court he would suffer at her hands and lashed him about the face and body.

Mrs. Eickenhorst appeared penitent this morning in court. Eickenhorst said he was not anxious to press a charge against his wife.

[“Husband Whipper Freed. – Mount Vernon Wife Appears Penitent – Man Refuses to Press Charge.” New York Times (N.Y.), Sep. 22, 1927, p. 12]

?• 1937 – Seymour

avfm-wives-with-whips-seymour

In the following case there is no whip involved. By 1937, at least in New York City, whips were obsolete. But Mrs. Seymour was adaptive; she used a dog leash with which to attacker her husband instead.

FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 2): Mrs. Tuppie Seymour (above) whipped her husband with a dog leash when she saw a pretty blonde sitting near him in a fashionable New York restaurant. She was booked on a disorderly charge – and her husband posted bail for her. The café manager said a table was upset and expensive dishes broken. This picture was taken at Mrs. Seymour’s court hearing today. Her case was continued.

[“Whips Husband,” syndicated (AP), Spokane Weekly Chronicle (Wa.), May 27, 1937, p. 3]

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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 2): Spring being what it is, for “sentimental reasons” charges of disorderly conduct were withdrawn yesterday against Mrs. Tuppie Seymour, who achieved a certain fame by dog-whipping her husband in a fashionable restaurant.

The charges were withdrawn in Jefferson Market Court, where Mrs. Seymour, 37, of 75 E. 55th Street, was arraigned with her sisters, Mrs. Edith McNab, 55, of 320 E. 57th Street, and Mrs. Robert Adams, 47, of 435 Park Avenue. The elder sisters stood grimly by as Mrs. Seymour flogged her husband William R. Seymour Saturday night after finding him with a blonde in La Rue’s at 45 E. 58th Street.

“The case has been closed for sentimental reasons,” said Sanford H. Cohen, counsel for Peter Ogiletti, manager of the restaurant. “It might have interfered with the relations of husband and wife and caused friction.”

Said Mrs. Adams, “Finis la guerre. Everything is lovely at home.”

[“Free Wife Who Whipped Mate In Cafe Tryst,” Daily News (N.Y.), April 29, 1937, p. ?]

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