The Peekskill Murder, Part Three: A Ruined Home

The Eagle Hotel was built in 1835 and had been a beautiful fixture of Peekskill's Main Street for Decades. President Martin Van Buren had stayed at the Eagle in 1839. Peekskill itself was a charming town on the Hudson, summer home to Henry Ward Beecher and other New Yorkers who longed for an airy and bucolic respite from the city. Yet it was also home to several small foundries and plenty of commercial activity courtesy of steamboats travelling up and down the river from New York.

Almost as soon as Charles Frederick Blish bought the Eagle Hotel in 1890, Delia Betts began to come and visit him, accompanied by at least some of her children. Blish, with his "big diamond stud, his ample shirt front and his sleek and smooth shaven personality," took Delia out driving every day. Mrs. Betts was not pleased with the hotel as it was, and decided to give the Eagle a makeover. She had a great deal of furniture sent up from New York and fancied the place up. One witness said that

About a week after Blish and his diamond stud began to illuminate the cosy office of the hotel Mrs. Betts arrived with numerous trunks and her two youngest children...Mrs. Betts occupied the largest apartments in the hotel...Though Peekskill is not a gossipy town in the accepted sense, the respectable element at once took notice of the intimacy which seemed to exist between the new proprietor of the hotel and his star boarder...even the women among the regular boarders of the hotel began to avoid the couple...[A short time later] an immense load of furniture was landed at the Peekskill wharf. It took several big wagons to carry the furniture on to the hotel. These were Mrs. Betts' household goods.

A reporter described Delia's makeover of the hotel parlor: yellow silk draped over the mantelpiece, a yellow satin banner over the door, blue and red plush chairs, an ebony cabinet and much more:."Taken altogether, it is over furnished," he adds.

It is not clear how long Henry Betts had been aware what was going on between Delia and Charles Blish, but what is clear is the depth of his unhappiness and agitation. On the afternoon of November 2, 1891, Betts took the train to Tarrytown. He made his way from there to Peekskill (about miles) and walked into the Eagle. Blish was standing behind the front desk, about four feet from Betts. Betts took out a revolver and fired twice, striking him in the shoulder and directly in the heart.. Blish staggered into the hotel dining room and collapsed, dying almost immediately.

Betts walked outside and made no attempt to escape; he was arrested shortly thereafter. He never denied what he had done. He said that Blish had "ruined his home and led his wife astray." Betts was described as "deserted, penniless, his money lavished upon another man, and his wife away at last seeking a legal separation." When one adds to this equation Betts' tendency for melancholia and violence, it is not hard to imagine him travelling to Peekskill and committing murder.

Betts had three lawyers appointed for him: "David Barnett of [Brooklyn] is the counsel for Betts and with him are associated Martin J. Keogh of New Rochelle and D. Travis of Peekskill. Barnett appears to have been the senior counsel. He was certainly the most prominent of the three lawyers, Vice President of the Brooklyn Bar Association and Secretary of the Brooklyn Law Library (whose Librarian, Stephen C. Betts, may have been a relative of Henry's; I have not yet been able to conform this, but it is quite possible).

In March 1892 Henry received a visit from Delia, back in Brooklyn after her sojourn in South Dakota. It was not made clear whether she had obtained a divorce there, but she was reported to have hugged and kissed Henry and declared that she would do all she could to free him. Henry declined to see his eldest son Charles, however.

In April 1892 Judge Dykman, in White Plains, ordered an inquiry into Betts' mental condition. Betts' doctors at McLean's "insane asylum" (now McLean's Hospital) in Somerville, Massachusetts, testified about his confinement there in 1876. Dr. Barstow of the Flushing, Queens asylum that Betts was at in 1873 also spoke, as did friends and acquaintances of the family. Some recalled amusing times concerning Betts' odd business schemes, but others told of Henry's violent side. One witness recalled Henry attacking his brother with a carving knife, and having to be held down. Others spoke of "[Henry's] famous water cure, and his collection of paintings by the old masters, which was a chrome collection worth about 25 cents each." [see Note below]

Betts did have to stand trial because Judge Dykman discovered that one of the physicians suggested by Betts' counsel was the Betts family doctor. Dykman was "quite angry" and ordered Betts to stand trial, revoking the commission order. I am sorry to say that it is likely to have been 3rd great uncle David, who knew the family in Brooklyn, who enraged the judge by trying to get away with this. But in the end, Henry Betts' fate lay not in jail, but in the Matteawan State Hospital in Dutchess County, New York (not far from Westchester), where I found him in the 1900 census.

Henry's eldest son Charles was to have problems of his own in 1901. They belong in a separate post, so the story of Charles Betts and Miss Smith will conclude the Peekskill series, later on this week.

NOTE: Henry's father, Charles C. Betts, had also been the subject of a "Commission in Lunacy" in April 1882. He was age 71,"very wealthy" and no longer able to work or attend to his affiars, some of his family said, because he was "subject to fits of melancholia." Other family members disagreed, and said that it "was an outrage to drag him into court." He died in November of that year, so was not incarcerated long, if ever.

Image of the Eagle Hotel in Peekskill, Westchester County, New York, courtesy of the Westchester Historical Society. I thank them for the permission to use this image.

SOURCES

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES


New York Times:

"Brooklyn," Apr. 2, 1882, p. 7.
"The Peekskill Murder," Nov. 4, 1891, p.8.
"Mrs. Betts Visits Her Husband," Mar. 9, 1892, p. 5.
"Mr. Betts Must Stand Trial," Mar. 15, 1892, p. 2.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

"Married," Sept. 23, 1873, p. 3.
"The Late Charles C. Betts," Sept. 21, 1882, p. 4.
"Betts' Crime," Nov. 3, 1891, p. 6.
"He Was Ruined," Nov. 4, 1891, p. 6.
"Carman's Side," Nov. 5, 1891, p. 6.
"Betts' Advice," Dec. 11, 1891, p. 1.
"Blish's Life," Nov. 6, 1891, p. 6.
"The Betts Insanity Inquiry," Apr. 5, 1892, p. 6.
"Say He Is Crazy," Apr. 5, 1892, p. 1.
"William H. Johnston's Will," Dec. 27, 1898, p. 7.

BOOKS

Bordman, Gerald Martin, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama (Oxford UP, 1994), p. 355 [mentions 1893 play "Signal Lights" by W.J. Thompson which played in Brooklyn in October 1893, and had "a long successful tour" that was "based on a famous Peekskill murder" concerning "a mysterious killing, a hounded heroine, and an ambitious lawyer."]

Curran, John J. Peekskill (Arcadia Press: Peekskill, NY, 2005), p. 9.

CENSUS RECORDS

Charles D. Blish household, 1880 U.S. Census, Manhattan, New York, NY, p. 74B, #27/102, FHL #1254874, T9-0874.

Harry Betts household, 1880 U.S. Census, Brooklyn, Kings, NY, p. 310C, FHL #1254855, T9-0855.

1900 U.S. Census, Fishkill Twp., Matteawan, Dutchess, NY, Matteawan State Hospital, Ref. # 36, GSU #1241022, ED 155. [Henry L. Betts, Patient, 48y, b Feb 1852, married 26y, b NY, father b MA, mother b NY]

WEBSITES

The Westchester County Historical Society