Murder of John "Henry" Bernard Nurre

The image has a typo it's supposed to be 1814 not 1914

In 1890, 76-year-old John "Henry" Nurre and his third wife 57-year-old Elizabeth. The couple had been married for 20 years and lived in rural Clinton County near Brown’s Station, Iowa. The area that the couple were living in was mostly Catholic including them. They would seldom miss any meetings at the church.

Henry was also one of the richest men in their area of the state and was highly esteemed by many. He had more real estate mortgages in Jackson County than anyone else. For the last 4 years, he was a member of the Board of Supervisors of Clinton County. It was estimated that he was worth $250,000.

On March 12, 1890, Henry and Elizabeth did not show up to the 13-hour church meeting. This was concerning, however, it wasn't until they didn't show up to the Thursday meeting people got worried. Elizabeth's son-in-law Theo Hullman, and the Priest were worried because the two never showed up to the meeting. This was unusual for them. The two would go home and investigate to see why the two didn't show up.

When they went inside the house they would go into either the kitchen and find Henry dead near the table. He was in a large pool of blood and had a large gash on the back of his head and another which hit his jugular vein in his neck.

Elizabeth was found unconscious in their bedroom in the attic above the kitchen. She had been attacked with a hammer and she had nine deep scalp wounds. She would stay unconscious for several more weeks before regaining consciousness. However, she could not provide any information on what had happened.

It's believed that the attack happened on the evening of March 11th. Henry was sitting in the sitting room responding to a letter from his son. The letter was received on the 10th and the letter Henry was writing was dated the 11th. It seemed Henry was nearly finished with the letter when he was killed.

The murderer or murderers tried to clean up the pool of blood. There were clothes stained with the blood found on the teakettle. They then dragged Henry into the kitchen. It's unknown why they had done this, but maybe they were thinking of destroying the scene and never got to do it for some reason.


Elizabeth must have witnessed the murder as it seemed that she had run to their bedroom in the attic. She had tried to barricade the door, but they had broken it open with a poker. They would then attack her with the poker and then the hammer when they found it. The room was left a mess with the bestead broken to pieces, the bedding scattered and blood covered almost everything in the room. It was a miracle that she survived.

In another bedroom, a safe was found. It was unknown if the killer or killers were able to get it open, but the dial had been broken off. In the same room, there was a little satchel that Henry was known to carry money and papers. One of Elizabeth's skirts was lying over it and it wasn't seen by the killers. Inside was $1,105 and some papers indicating he was planning to go to Preston that night. Likely after he was done writing his letter and eating dinner.

Theo stated that it was not normal for Henry to have that much cash on him at once and usually only carried around $100 to $150. However, he himself had recently paid him the $1,000 on Sunday so it must have been that money in his satchel.

SOURCES:
Iowa Cold Cases

Find a Grave

The Message Mary Eleanor (Wheeler) Pearcey Put in The Paper Before Her Execution

Wax sculpture of Mary Pearcey

Mary Eleanor (Wheeler) Pearcey was hung for killing her lover's wife and baby in North London, England. Upon learning her fate she requested an ad to be placed in the newspaper.

"MECP Last wish of MEW. Have not betrayed. MEW"

She would not elaborate what the message had meant, but it could be assumed that MEW was referencing to herself. As her birth name was Mary Eleanor Wheeler. That would mean MECP may also be a person, but who the message was for and what it meant is unknown.

Some believe that she was possibly a Jack the Ripper suspect for the brutal way Mary had slit Pheobe's throat and ditched her in a public place. Some believe Jack The Ripper had killed in private. This though contradicts the information of the crimes which took place at the place the bodies were found.

There is little known about Mary's childhood. She was born in 1866. At the time of the murders she was 24 years old and was described as 5'6" and had a 'lovely russet of hair and fine blue eyes," she was also described as having a normal build and shapely hands. She wasn't the prettiest of women but had no problem attracting men.

 In her late teens, she was in a relationship with a carpenter named Jahn Charles Pearcey. She took his name though they weren't married. She continued to use it even after their relationship was over, Mary never really had to work as she associated herself with better off men. She had several admirers who paid for things for her including her rented room.

Mary suffered from depression and would drink heavily. She only had her mother and sisters as her only living relatives. She had other suitors and in addition to Charles Creighton who paid for her room, she fell for Frank Hoggs. He was a furniture remover and impressed Mary with his printed cards.

She would put a light in her window to let Frank know she was free and he would let himself in with his copy of a key. Frank and Mary were somewhat together but had affairs with other people. Frank had gotten another girl pregnant and was to marry her. Mary was slightly upset but asked if they could still have an affair and she'll treat his soon to be wife as a friend. They agreed to this.

Phoebe Styles thus married Frank Hogg in November of 1888. At the time she was three months pregnant and gave birth to their daughter Phoebe in the summer of 1889. The affair between Frank and Mary continued like planned.

On October 24, 1890, Mary allegedly asked young Willie Holmes to run an errand for her. She asked him to deliver a note to Pheobe Hoggs for a penny. He delivered the note and inside it was Mary inviting Phoebe over for tea.

Around 4 p.m. Charlotte Priddington, a neighbor of Mary heard the sound of breaking glass coming from Mary's. Worried she called over the fence asking if Mary was alright. She got no response. Sometime between 4 and 7, a neighbor saw Mary walking with a baby pram with a heavy object inside it.

At 7.p.m A man was returning back home from work. He found Phoebe's body was found lying on a pavement in Crossfield Road. Her head was wrapped in a cardigan which he removed and saw her bloodstained face.

Phoebe's skull had been fractured and her throat had been slit. Her throat had been nearly decapitated from the slit. There were bruises on her head and arms showing she was trying to defend herself. It was found she was murdered elsewhere and left there. She wasn't identified at the time and her baby wasn't with her.

The next morning a constable found a bloody pram in Hamilton Terrace a mile away from Phoebe. The body of baby Phoebe was found the next day. She had been suffocated to death. It was unknown whether or not it was intentional. She was either killed during or after the murder of her mother. She could have possibly been killed in the pram from her mother's body being placed upon her.

Frank had sent his sister Clara to go ask Mary if they had seen Phoebe and the baby. Mary denied seeing her and went with Clara to see if the bodies in the morgue were Phoebe and the baby. Mary's behavior became strange at the morgue. It was like Mary was trying to prevent Clara from identifying them. Clara went and identified them.

When Frank heard the news that they were dead he admitted to having an affair with Mary. Police went to her home on Priory St. and found the kitchen bloodstained and the windows were broken. It was obvious that this was a crime scene. A rug with bloodstains was attempted to be cleaned with paraffin. as a bloodstained poker and knife had also been found. When asked about it Mary responded with "Killing mice, killing mice, killing mice." Police searched the house with her there and she played popular songs on her piano.

Mary was arrested, and when Mary was searched there were bloodstains on her clothes, scratches on her hands, and two wedding rings. One of which was Phoebe's.

While waiting in police court awaiting the committal hearing Mary started to talk to Sarah Sawhill, a woman looking after her. She told her that Phoebe did come over for tea. Phoebe had said something that offended Mary and they argued. Mary went silent as soon as she realized she was incriminating herself.

Mary had entered a plea of not guilty. She was hanged on December 23, 1890. It was noted that Mary seemed to have been calm and accepted her fate.



SOURCES:
Casebook
Historic Mysteries
Capital Punishment UK
Find a Grave