The Murder of Maud Merrill - Part One

On December 10, 1872, in New York City, an unknown man shot and killed a young prostitute in her bedroom at a Neilson Place brothel. The victim was Mary Ann Foley (nee Smith) alias Maud Merrill, an Irish immigrant in her early twenties. Police quickly identified the killer as Robert P. Bleakley, a man known to have visited her at the brothel before and whom police later identified as the young girl’s uncle. Newspapers quickly reported the story, citing numerous motives for murder and providing a vast array of detail into the life and death of the young prostitute. Initial details of the event indicate that around four in the afternoon a man arrived at 10 Neilson Place asking for Maud. Shortly after arriving, the housekeeper, Mary Stephens, heard strange noises coming from Maud’s room. Upon ascending the stairs to ascertain the cause of the noise, the housekeeper ran into the man, whom she described as “cool and unconcerned,” at which point he informed her that he had just killed his niece.[1] The housekeeper found Maud laying face-first on the floor by the door with a pool of blood that was “slowly oozing from a bullet wound on the left side, about ten inches to the left of the median line, and about three inches below the nipple.”[2] The deputy coroner, Dr. Edward T.T. Marsh, found three bullet wounds in Maud’s body; one in her left shoulder, another in her right arm, and a third, fatal one, that passed through her heart.[3]

Shortly after the housekeeper discovered the body, the brothel owner, Emma Cozzens, dispatched a messenger to the Mercer Street police station. Police identified the murderer as Robert P. Bleakley, a man known to have visited her at the brothel before and who was later determined to be the young girl’s uncle. A description of the murderer soon circulated across New York. The following morning Bleakley walked into the Washington Street police department and announced that he wanted to give himself up. Two days later the coroner held an inquest into the death of Maud in which he interviewed several witnesses, including Maud’s sister Charlotte. Charlotte testified that Bleakley had threatened Maud and that she had warned her sister to stay away from him.[4] A prostitute named Annie Weaver said that when she and Maud resided at the brothel on 26th Street, Bleakley showed up looking for money and Merrill feared her uncle would mistreat her.[5] Another resident of the brothel on 26th Street verified this testimony. Of considerable importance were letters written by the deceased to her uncle and a friend. In the letter to Bleakley, Maud referenced her sister writing to him, “It looks as if you were wanting to cast suspicion on my sister Lottie. Perhaps you want to drive her to ruin too. She is a good, pure girl, and is proof against you.”[6] In a letter to a friend, Maud stated:

I really don't know what to say about this business with my uncle. He has plagued the life near out of me. . . . People here told him it was a shame for him to treat me so. He told them he never would speak to me again, so I have bid him good-bye for the last time. I have no one now that I care to live for, nor no one to care for me. But no matter; I am determined to take care of myself for the future, with the help of Him that cares for all.[7]

Maud Merrill was born Mary Ann Smith in approximately 1851 in Cork, Ireland. According to records from Saints Peter and Paul's Church in Cork, her parents had her baptized in the Catholic faith on July 29, 1851. The church, then known as Carey's Lane Chapel, had served the city of Cork since 1786. In 1866, a newly built and named Saints Peter and Paul's Church opened off St. Patrick's Street in the center of Cork city. The baptismal records list her name as Marian Smyth, her father as Richard Smyth, and her as mother Charlotte Blakely (aka Bleakley). Her sister, named after her mother Charlotte, was born approximately two years later and also baptized in the Catholic faith on June 19, 1853 at South Parish, currently known as St. Finbarr's South. Additional records list seven other children of Richard and Charlotte, including one named after the elder Charlotte's brother Robert, who also were baptized at South Parish, Maud appears to be the oldest and only child baptized at Saints Peter and Paul's Church, perhaps indicating the family switched parishes at some point between 1851 and 1853.[8] Although the records list seven children, Robert Bleakley stated at his arrest that Maud's parents had sixteen children, half of whom his sister and brother-in-law brought up in the Protestant faith and the other half whom they brought up in the Catholic faith, which likely explains why only seven children are listed as being baptized at Catholic parishes.[9]

On June 26, 1868 at the age of approximately seventeen, Maud was married to Jeremiah Foley at the South Parish Church. At the coroner's inquest, Charlotte stated that her sister was married four years earlier in Ireland, but was not married in this country. In addition, Captain Thomas Byrnes entered into evidence "a letter from [Maud's] husband Jeremiah Foley, a soldier it Fort Griffin, Texas written in the most affectionate terms, and a copy of an equally loving reply written by the unfortunate girl."[10] It is unclear what happened between Maud and her husband, but at some point, Jeremiah left Ireland to join the army and was stationed at in Texas at a cavalry fort. Baptismal records indicate the couple did have one child, Cornelius John Foley, baptized on June 13, 1869, almost a year after they were married. It is not clear what happened to the child or why she was no longer with her husband. Charlotte was the first sister to arrive in New York. Bleakley sent a ticket to Maud’s mother in an attempt to try to get her to move to New York, but she sent Maud in her place. This would set off a chain events that ultimately resulted in Maud’s death.

Coming up! More about Maud’s life in New York and the events leading up to her death.

Footnotes: [1] “Shocking Murder. A Fashionable Courtesan Killed by an Unknown Man,” New York Times, December 11, 1872, NYTAA. [2] “Maud Merrill’s Murder, the Fatal Shot in Neilson Place,” New York Sun, December 11, 1872, FH. [3] “The Maude Merrill Murder: Trial of Bleakley for Shooting His Niece – Testimony Yesterday,” New York Times, May 1, 1873, NYTAA. [4] “Maude’s Murder, Interesting and Important Developments Before the Coroner Yesterday,” New York Times, December 14, 1872, NYTAA. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] From a letter Maud wrote to a friend. "Maude's Murder," New York Times, December 14, 1872, NYT. [8]Baptismal records from churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie for Marian Smyth, Charlotte Smyth, Robert Smyth, Richard Joseph Smyth, Mary Jane Smyth, Ann Smyth, Margaret Smith, James Joseph Smyth and Eliza Smyth. [9] "The Latest Tragedy," New York Times, December 12, 1872, NYTAA. [10] "Maude's Murder."