No murder is pretty, but the annihilation of a mother and her two infants; the death three friends, including the girl hit by the apples while riding in the wagon of Jones, the man who fought to save them; and the image of the men who ran away is particularly ugly. Shattering the peace by attacking and murdering a father quietly gathering sap for syrup is unusually disturbing. Thankfully, 150 years would elapse before the next murder in Stockbridge.
It was Halloween, 1905. A large group of boys were out in Stockbridge cemetery. Milling between the headstones and the Children’s Chime Tower, they were pelting passersby with apples. Eighteen-year-old William Jones was driving a rig past the Children’s Chime Tower. He ignored the boys until one apple struck a girl riding with him.
Jones took out a handgun and shot. The shot killed 18-year-old Albert Webster. When arrested, Jones said he had not intended to hurt anyone. He fired only intending to scare the boys and disperse the crowd.
On November 1, 1905, The Valley Gleaner, a Lee newspaper, reported: “Albert Webster killed at Stockbridge Chimes by William Jones, Colored.” Anytime Williams Jones name was mentioned, it was immediately followed with the word (capital C) “Colored.”
The Valley Gleaner reporter continued, “[the victim lived] but a few minutes after being hit. Albert Webster was shot and killed by William Jones Colored.”
At 9 p.m. the Lee police force was told to be on the lookout for a “team” (horse-drawn wagon) with two men and two women in it. The parties had fired a revolver and shot and killed a young man in the village of Stockbridge. The officers from other towns were also notified so that all roads leading out of Stockbridge could be patrolled. However, the alleged perpetrators were not found, and no arrests were made.
They were not found because William Jones had already turned himself into Officer S. Albert Noble of the Stockbridge police. Jones admitted shooting the gun but denied that he intended to injure anyone.
Jones’ story went as follows: While driving by the cemetery, a large group of boys were out on a Halloween prank and pelted his party with apples. He claimed he did not intend to respond until one of the women in his wagon was struck. At that point, he drew his revolver “hastily and fired to scare away the crowd.”
Webster was with Wesley Mercer, Bidney Austin, James Coakley, and others. There was no dispute about them throwing apples at passersby. Sherriff Noble was among those hit by the apples.
Nonetheless, “[a]s the wagon containing the four Colored people came up, witnesses claim, Webster did not throw anything.” According to their testimony, the shot was unprovoked.
The three friends in Jones’ wagon, including the girl hit by the apple, could testify that they were pelted by apples. They could testify that Jones fired in fear, that he fired indiscriminately into the crowd of boys to disperse them. However, the three were all (capital C) Colored.
Following the revolver report, Webster cried, “I am shot.” The bullet lodged high in the body, and he died before Dr. Webster Miller, who was summoned, could reach the scene.
The body was assigned to the Medical Examiner, D. M. Wilcox. After he examined the remains, they were turned over to the undertaker.
Albert Webster was the eighteen-year-old son of David Webster. He was employed on the Butler estate (Linwood, part of Norman Rockwell Museum grounds today). He was survived by his parents and several brothers and sisters.
William Jones was also 18. He was taken to the district court in Great Barrington and held without bail. A week later, he was released on a $1,000 bond. On January 15, 1906, on advice of counsel, Jones pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced three days later. “The Court was very lenient,” his attorney, Charles Giddings of Great Barrington, said. Giddings expressed himself “satisfied.”
Because the Court felt there was “no malice but instead gross negligence,” Jones was sentenced to a minimum of nine months with good behavior or up to 5 years.
History is told by the victors. Even with the same set of facts, stories can be slanted differently. A single word, a shift in story line, a carefully placed emphasis—little things—can sway emotions and form the basis of decisions.
Sixty-four years later, murder was done again. In 1969, outside the Glen Pine Tavern (later Mundy’s), there was a beating that resulted in death. The proprietor, John Winn was convicted, but not of murder. He was convicted of manslaughter in the beating death of 41-year-old Edward Boutin.
Winn followed Boutin out of his bar and into the car park, where he beat him. At one point, Boutin fell and struck his head on the concrete step leading inside— the presumed cause of death.
The charge was reduced when it was found that Winn left Boutin alive outside the Tavern and went in to call for help. Moreover, it was learned that Winn believed Boutin had molested his five-year-old daughter. The trial followed when Boutin later died of his injuries complicated by his inebriated state.
Finally, 36 years later, there was the tragic death of Jan Stackhouse, killed in Stockbridge on May 1, 2005. Her death remains unsolved. That murder remains unsolved.
Imagine, in America, a hand full of violent deaths in almost 300 years. Here is a final statistic: Since Jones and Winn were convicted of manslaughter, the murders of Prospect Hill were committed during wartime by outsiders, and the murder of Jan Stackhouse remains unsolved, no resident of Stockbridge has been convicted of a murder ever in the whole of the town’s existence. What is Stockbridge’s secret?
Maybe we like each other. Or perhaps, a creed adopted at the founding of Stockbridge seeped permanently into our village DNA. Recorded by Electa Jones in “Stockbridge Past and Present” (1854), that founding creed is: “be honest in all your ways; invite any to your fire even the stranger; if you see any in distress, rush to help them, remember you will also be in distress one time or another; love all men and be kind.”
Stockbridge was settled by missionaries, but the creed quoted was not given by the Christian missionaries to the Indians, it was given by the Indians to the missionaries.
