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Murder In The Mitten
A historical Michigan true crime podcast
Murder In The Mitten
A Fatal Night at Gaffney's Saloon - Orlando Mowry 1903
A wedding anniversary celebration turns into a family's worst nightmare in this Michigan murder case from 1903. When Orlando Mowry and his wife traveled from Ypsilanti to Detroit to celebrate their 20th anniversary, neither could have imagined it would be their final day together when Orlando's path took a deadly turn through the doors of Gaffney's saloon.
Welcome to Murder in the Mitten, a historical Michigan true crime podcast. I'm your host, laura, and in today's episode we have a sad story of a man killed in Detroit on his 20th wedding anniversary. On February November 13th 1903, mr and Mrs Orlando Mowry, who resided in Ypsilanti, went to Detroit to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary with friends. Orlando was 40 years old and the couple had seven children. Orlando cashed his salary check of $42 and gave the majority of it to his wife, only keeping $1.50. At this point the couple separated Mrs Mowry to finish some shopping and Mr Mowry to stop at his sister-in-law's Mrs Beauchamp's house. The plan was to meet back up at the majestic building that evening. However, this was the last time Mrs Mowry saw her husband alive. Mrs Mowry reported that Mr Mowry had no more than two glasses of beer when they parted ways.
Speaker 2:Mowry made it to Mrs Beauchamp's house around 3.30 o'clock and appeared to have been drinking a little. He remained for about an hour and jokingly said to her where's the nearest saloon? According to Jacob Kelly's statement, at around 8 o'clock that evening Mowry entered Jaffney's saloon and asked for a drink. However, he had no money to pay. He proceeded to the back of the bar, sat down and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Once Mowry woke up he returned to the bar and asked for a drink again. Mowry was boisterous and Kelly gave the order to have him thrown out.
Speaker 2:At this point there are some discrepancies as to what happened next. The police believed that Kelly, frank Cavanaugh, a porter, and John Brad, a patron of the saloon, threw him out into the alley A short time after he was discovered, but before he could be taken to the emergency hospital he was dead. Sadly it was Sunday morning before he was identified. I'm sure poor Miss Mowry was frantic for the day. She couldn't find her husband. It was clear that he had been beaten and had been severely kicked.
Speaker 2:The three men, kelly, kavanaugh and Brad, were picked up and held for the charge of murder. Captain McDonald, chief of detectives, interrogated the men. Kavanaugh stated that Kelly was most likely the one who struck the blow that killed Mowry, while insisting that he knew nothing about the death and he never hit or kicked him. Captain McDonald told the papers that Kavanaugh said him. Captain MacDonald told the papers that Kavanaugh said Kelly struck the man an awful punch in the ribs earlier in the evening and that Mowry remained in his seat in a dazed state for a long time. Then he roused himself and commenced to yell at the top of his voice, at which Kelly, kavanaugh and Brad threw him out. However, based on other statements, kavanaugh and Brad threw him out. However, based on other statements, captain McDonald believed that Kavanaugh was the one who murdered Mr Mowry.
Speaker 2:By Wednesday, the 18th, all three men were charged with murder. A Detroit Free Press reporter attempted to interview all three men in jail. Kelly refused to talk at length about the case on his lawyer's advice. However, he made a few statements. When asked how about Kavanaugh's story that you struck Mowry an awful blow in the stomach earlier in the evening, kelly smiled and replied that's false. I did not strike him. I told my story to Captain McDonald and I have told the truth to him. I led the way to the back door and at no time did I hit the unfortunate man. When the reporters approached Kavanaugh, he appeared quite defiant. He repeated his story that Kelly struck Mowry, saying he hit him a punch in the stomach and it wasn't a terrible blow. When Kelly told us to throw Mowry out, we simply took him through the passageway. I sat him down in the alley. I did not strike or kick him.
Speaker 2:The reporter noted that Brad, the third defendant, seemed to be a victim of circumstance. He was a lineman for the fire department and all who knew him said that he was always good-natured and cheery. According to his story, he had stopped into the saloon with a friend. He had only been there a few minutes before Mowry began to make a noise and the word was given to throw him out. As Kelly and Cavavanaugh walked down the narrow passageway, he met them and went with them as far as the door opening into the alley. He denied ever striking or kicking Mowry. He also stated that he never saw a blow struck inside the building. However, he stated, kavanaugh was the only one who went into the alley with Mowry and of course, I cannot state what happened there. I did not go outside the door at all.
Speaker 2:Charles Gaffney, a former firefighter and one of the owners of the bar, had some words to say as well. I have never before had one thing said about my reputation and I have always tried to do what is right. Everyone who knows me knows that I do not seek the association of crooks and bums, and since I have been in the business I have tried to keep the place in every way respectable. I am very sorry this affair happened, but I am sure that it was no fault of ours. It all happened so quickly and unexpectedly that none of us knew it had occurred until the officers came in. Kelly and Brad have always bore good reputations and Cavanaugh's only fault is his fondness for drink. When he is drunk he is sometimes ugly and quarrelsome, but when sober he is quiet and inoffensive. That night he had not been drinking, to my knowledge, and the officers say the same thing.
Speaker 2:On Friday, november 27th, the three men appeared before police justice cellars for a preliminary examination. Attorney William Van Dyke appeared for the defendants and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Webster appeared for the people. Additionally, attorney WJ Ingersoll was sent to represent Brad. Several of his friends from his home village who were confident in his innocence paid for and sent the attorney. The Detroit Free Press wrote. Practically nothing bearing directly upon the guilt or innocence of the defendants was brought out during the afternoon. Archie McMillan was the first witness. He was the man who found Maury's body on Friday night around 10.30 pm.
Speaker 2:County physician Phil G Sanderson shared that from his external exam at the emergency hospital he observed a deep indentation of the muscles of the right chest, with black and blue marks around a quarter of an inch in diameter spread about the chest but not immediately in the neighborhood of the indention. This can be caused by internal blood pooling. However, he also noted an abrasion on the top of the right shoulder that looked as if it had been made by a shoe heel. Based on his observations, that mark would have been made by a kick of considerable force. The defense did ask him if the mark could be made from a man running and stepping on the body, but the doctor was vehement that only a kick could cause it. I am not going to go into the internal injuries in detail, but they were severe, including broken ribs and a punctured lung. The doctor stated that it would have taken several blows to produce the injuries. Mrs Mowry testified that it was her husband and that she did not believe he had more than $2.50 in money that night.
Speaker 2:Mr Weisenstein, a patron of the saloon that evening, changed the statement he gave to police. The prosecutor asked whether, while at Jaffney's in the night in question, he had not heard someone call out from the back room don't hurt him, boys. He replied that while he had told the detective something of that sort, upon further thinking, he had come to the conclusion that he was talking through his hat. The severe lack of evidence was not the only issue they were dealing with. Captain McDonald had made statements to the press that he feared that there was not a very strong case against the men he said. Of course they may be bound over to the recorder's court for trial, but whether we can convict them is very doubtful. It has been a very hard case to handle and the only living persons who know what really happened in the saloon that night we have under arrest. I am sorry, but at present we do not seem to have much of a case against them. Prosecuting Attorney Hunt was quite upset with the statements he said. If you want my opinion, however, I must say that I was much incensed when I read that article. We have no detective force in the prosecuting attorney's office. This is not a grand jury case and what we get we obtain from the police. It seems to me a very strange proceeding for the chief of detectives to turn over a case to me and then practically tell the public that there is nothing in it to me and then practically tell the public that there is nothing in it. He should either have kept still or have asked to have the case thrown out of court.
Speaker 2:Justice Sellers did find that there was enough evidence to hold the men over for trial. The defense attempted to get the charge reduced from murder to manslaughter, but the higher charge stood. In early January James Munson came forward to the police. He stated he was an eyewitness to the events of that night. He supposedly was thrown out of the saloon after Mowry and he never saw a blow struck. He left the alley quickly after he was thrown out and ran to another saloon down the street. Police found his story suspicious, however, as it was known that he had close ties to the Gaffney family. In February the three men were taken in front of the court and officially pled not guilty. They were granted separate trials.
Speaker 2:Kavanaugh's trial began first in late February as the prosecuting attorneys believed they had more evidence against him. One witness did change his testimony during the trial. 18-year-old George Gardner testified that certain portions of his police court testimony were false. He stated that before he gave testimony the first time he had spoken to William Gaffney, who suggested that he was confused about the times he recalled that night. He originally stated that Mowry was kicked out closer to 9 pm, but in his new testimony he stated that Mowry was put out at about 9 20 pm. He did state that he never saw any physical attacks on Mowry At the time of the first testimony he was receiving free room and board from Gaffney and felt obligated to change his story. Gardner's testimony was important because it showed that Mowry might have still been killed by those who ejected him and still been alive when County physician Sanderson, who performed the post-mortem, did not think that Mowry could have lived more than four or five minutes after he was injured, kavanaugh was found guilty of manslaughter. After the jury deliberated for two hours and 40 minutes, he was sentenced to 15 years, which is a long sentence for manslaughter.
Speaker 2:Kavanaugh continued to proclaim his innocence, telling Judge Phelan I am innocent of the charge. I did not kick him or hit him or abuse him in any way. If that can kill a man, then I must have killed him. That is all. The judge said the following during sentencing the evidence in this case went to show that as cowardly and brutal a crime as has been committed in many a day in this city was committed in this case alley, sometime during the night, and from the testimony of the surgeon who made an examination of his body after death. As to the injuries which he must have died from, it shows that the man was left there to die alone, consciously or unconsciously perhaps, by those who administered the injuries.
Speaker 2:Some of the jury members did state that they did not believe the other two men were involved in the attack. In April a patrolman, john Reed, reported to Captain McDonald that he had received information from a man claiming to know the facts that Mowry was not killed by Kavanaugh but by Kelly, who still awaited trial, but by Kelly, who still awaited trial. Reed said that the man told him that Kelly struck Mowry with the butt end of an axe pick and that Kavanaugh and Brad simply helped to carry him out. The police had little credence in the story. In June Brad's trial began.
Speaker 2:Kavanaugh changed his testimony a bit from his own trial this time around. He stated that Kelly struck the deceased several blows before he was taken out of the saloon. He stated Mowry had been troublesome and Kelly went up to him With his right hand on Mowry's shoulder. He struck him four blows with his left hand. Mowry called out don't hit me in the stomach. And he was then pushed back in a chair. After sleeping about an hour, he began to sing and shout and Kelly decided to throw him out. Kelly took the key off the back door and I took hold of Mowry's right arm. As we were leading him out, brad came up and took the other side. Kelly opened the door and Brad and I went into the alley. I took about two steps into the alley and let Mowry down. He was sitting up when I went in. I stayed in the alley but a few seconds. I don't know what killed him. I am sure that the blows he received from Kelly never killed him.
Speaker 2:Brad testified on his own behalf and made a good impression. The judge sent the case to the jury on the reduced charge of manslaughter instead of the original charge of murder. The jury was out for 12 minutes before returning with a verdict of not guilty In July. Judge Failing entered an order to the prosecuting attorney commanding him to show cause why Kelly should not be allowed to have bail. The defense argued that since Kavanaugh was convicted of manslaughter, that Kelly could not be convicted of a greater offense.
Speaker 2:A defendant charged with manslaughter was typically eligible for bail offense. A defendant charged with manslaughter was typically eligible for bail. The defense won the motion and Kelly received bail and was released from jail in September. The charges were dropped a few months later, to the dismay of Mrs Mowry, who strongly believed Kelly was involved in the murder of her husband. Kelly did not stay out of trouble either. He started running a saloon of his own and had many issues there, including brawling and striking a police officer. We will never know what truly happened and Kelly's role in the murder. What we do know is this was a devastating blow for the Mowry family and a truly sad tragedy. Thank you for listening to Murder in the Mitten, a historical Michigan true crime podcast. I hope you all enjoyed this story and I look forward to learning more about our state's true crime history with you next time © transcript Emily Beynon.