Charles Betts, 1901: Up the Hudson and Down to Mexico

In February 1901, a hansom cab pulled up to the door of 40 New York Avenue, Brooklyn. This was the home of Mrs. Cordelia Carman, widow of oil merchant Benjamin T. Carman. Mrs. Carman's 25 year old grandson Charles rushed out to meet it. He brought out a huge amount of luggage - "steamer trunks, grips, dress suit boxes and hat boxes" - and piled them into the cab. Then he gave the driver the address he wishes to go to: 559 Bedford Avenue, the "magnificent home" of the Smiths: Millard Fillmore Smith, a clothing merchant, and his family - which included Louisa Smith, a girl that Charles had last seen at dancing class in the late 1880s, when they were both children. They had not had any contact since. But Charles, all of a sudden, had not been able to get the remembered image of her out of his mind.

Even before Charles pulled up to 559 Bedford with all those steamer trunks, I was feeling sorry and frightened for Louisa. One page into the Daily Eagle story (which runs to four pages), and the reader knows that it is not going to end well.

Consider this: his father - whom you know from previous posts - was, in 1901, in Matteawan State Hospital, having killed Charles' mother's probably lover ten years before. And two weeks before this - in mid-February - Charles was fired from his job at Bradstreet, for "queer actions." He had been agitated since the beginning of the year for about six weeks. And his thoughts had begun to turn to the first girl he ever loved: Louisa Smith. They had met at William Pitt Rivers' dancing academy, and had not been in contact for twelve years, since she was 10 and he 13.

Not until the night early in March 1901. He went up to the front door of "the magnificent home" of the Smiths, 550 Bedford, rang the bell and asked the butler to summon Miss Smith. She was not there. Charles told the butler that he had to see her and tell her goodbye before he went to Mexico. He said he would come back later on in the evening.

Instead, Charles returned the next morning, a Saturday, at eleven o'clock, in the same cab but without all the luggage. Louisa was at home and went down to see who was calling. She soon wished that she had not done so:

"Oh my darling, I have come to marry you and take you away," was among the first greetings of the ardent Mr. Betts. Miss Smith was surprised, quite naturally too, for she had not seen Betts in twelve years, and in that time he had changed form a little boy to a big man.

She showed that she did not know Betts, that did not deter him at all. He continued to address her in the most affectionate terms, calling her his dear, darling sweetheart and other endearing verbal sweetmeats.

"I am just on my way to Mexico," he explained, and I want to carry you with me. I have great schemes down there. I realize that your brilliant Spanish type of beauty will keep me busy fighting duels when once [sic] we arrive in Mexico, for those men adore such beauty as yours.

"But, what do I care for duels? I will fight one every week for you in Mexico. A duel is nothing. I used to fight them frequently when I was down South and always over pretty girls. I have been riddled with bullets."

Charles then started unbuttoning his shirt to show Louisa his bullet scars. All of this naturally frightened her terribly. Furthermore, she did not remember him from the dancing academy 12 years before. She finally managed to ease him out the door by pretending to humor him. He said he would go now but he would be back. Poor Louisa became "hysterical" as soon as she shut the door and called for her mother. Her mother went to fetch her father, who was in Manhattan on business.

During the time that Mrs. Smith was gone, Charles Betts came back to the house. The butler said that Louisa was not at home. Charles had the cab circle the block, then he stopped again. Got out of the cab again. Rang the front doorbell again. Edwin, Louisa's brother, answered the door now. His sister was not there, Edwin said.

Charles was sorry to hear that. He had some letters for her. He left these and went away. Then Edwin and Louisa read the letters and tried to make sense of them. One was eighteen pages long and mentioned Mr. Pitt Rivers' dancing academy many times.

The Smith parents returned home at midnight - I don't know why they took so long - and read the letters also. Mr. Smith decided that Pitt Rivers was somehow at the center of the mystery and went to call upon him - despite the fact that it was now well after midnight. Smith went to the Lee Avenue police station, collected a Detective Maxwell. Then they went to wake up the dancing master, the unfortunate Mr. Pitt Rivers.One can imagine his feelings upon being awakened in the middle of the night by Mr. Smith and a policeman. He "after waking up sufficiently to remember anything," vaguely recalled a student years ago called Betts. That was about all that he had to contribute.

After Pitt Rivers was allowed to go back to sleep, Smith and Maxwell decided that the best course of action was to arrest Betts on a charge of writing threats. This was based upon a sentence in one of the letters which read, "No one else shall have you. Before anyone else shall marry you, I will kill you." The Eagle story mentions this almost casually, but you can imagine how terrifying this must have been for Louisa and her family.

Charles Betts was arrested on the Sunday morning, just as he was going out to call upon Miss Smith again. Betts insisted on going to the police station on a trolley car with Maxwell. He did not like the "patrol wagon." Charles' grandmother, Mrs. Carman "who seemed to be a cultured and refined woman," said he had been acting "queerly" for six weeks. She hoped that there would be an insanity hearing rather than a trial. Mrs. Carman also said that Charles had been hiring cabs with her money and driving all over the city to hotels, which "ejected" him.

The Eagle reporter caught up with Charles at Lee Avenue station, where he was in the "prisoners' pen." Charles said that he was soon to be going down to Mexico "to arrange a transfer of the business of the Louisiana State Lottery for New Mexico...I have other big schemes on, too, but this is the biggest. I will be met on the steamer by a Mexican man-of-war, and on landing will be met by President Diaz and retinue."

He added that he was married to President Diaz' daughter, and showed a photograph "of a dark, Spanish-looking beauty." (This may have been a photo of Miss Smith - or perhaps not, as it is not clear how he would have obtained her picture). Then he added that they were not quite married, but they were engaged. And that Smith had "interfered in [his] plans and caused [him] a whole lot of trouble." He was suing Smith for $50,000.

The reporter then asked about Betts' father (who had been mentioned earlier in the family-background part of the article - this did not mention the murder, oddly enough, just that Henry was in an asylum).

"Oh," Charles replied,"my father is all right. He is up the Hudson, but that's another story."

[Postscript: Charles Betts married another woman, Victoria Lewis French, a little over a year later, in October 1902. I have not yet been able to find out whether Louisa Smith ever married.]

SOURCES

"Now In Raymond Street Jail," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar. 4, 1901, p. 20.

Millard F. Smith household, 1880 U.S. Census, Brooklyn, Kings, NY, FHL #1254847, T9-0847, p. 159C.

Cordelia Carman household, 1900 U.S. Census, Brooklyn Ward 23, Kings, NY, #206/406, Ref. #50, GSU #1241060.

IGI record [Batch #MOO5142] - marriage of Charles Carman Betts, s/o Lambert/Cordelia Ella Carman, to Victoria Lewis French d/o John Calvary and Charlotte E. (Lewis) French, in Manhattan on 8 Oct. 1902.

Photograph (ca 1902) of the intersection nearest to the Smith mansion - Bedford Avenue at Ross Street, Brooklyn, courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.