Nelson, Eva Mason - gets off - murder
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 31 May 1895
For mulish obstinacy and highhanded usurpation of authority the special grand jury which adjourned Tuesday stands without a parallel in the history of Montgomery County—doubtless in the State of Indiana.
These men quibbled at nearly everything and finally capped the climax by flatly refusing to indict the self confessed murderess, Eva Mason Nelson.
Notwithstanding the woman had confessed the murder of her innocent child and still stuck to the bloody story—notwithstanding the fact that the post mortem examination of the victim bore out in every detail her terrible story, these men declared that they would not indict her. They refused to allow her to be brought up from the jail to repeat her story to them, and stated that they had no desire to listen to the admonitions of the court.
Be it said to the credit of two of them that they voted to indict. What the other four meant by their outrageous and surprising conduct is inexplicable. It is likely that a new grand jury with some sense of propriety and the eternal fitness of things will be called to act in accordance with the evidence. What are things coming to when, with all the similar crimes of the past confronting us, that a grand jury refuses to take cognizance of a so flagrant case, which stands self confessed by the perpetrator?
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 7 June 1895
Mrs. Eva Mason Nelson, the self confessed child murderess, was brought before Judge Harney Wednesday at 5 o’clock and having pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in the Woman’s Reformatory at Indianapolis. She was taken to that institution yesterday by Officer Brothers to begin her term.
It was decided that the charge of murder was too severe a one to be brought against the woman so she was convicted under the charge of involuntary manslaughter. It was maintained by her attorney, Mr. Brush, that she did not really mean to kill the child but merely to stifle its cries when she choked it. The sentence is not a severe one—in fact, it is very light—and it is to be hoped that Mrs. Nelson will profit by her imprisonment and return a better woman.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 24 May 1895
Mrs. Eva Mason Nelson, aged 21 years, is in jail charged with the murder of her child. She has confessed to the horrible crime. She is the daughter of George K. Mason, a respectable small farmer and a Scotchman, who resided seven miles north of the city in the Cherry Grove neighborhood.
The details of the crime are unfit for publication and only a general statement may be made. The woman’s husband left her some time ago and the father of the murdered child, she says, is Bob Lyon, who was not, however, implicated in the murder.
Mrs. Nelson lives in a log house with her father and rooms in the loft. There the child was born unknown to her father. Saturday morning, May 11, at 1 o’clock it began to cry, and fearing lest it should awaken her father she seized it by the throat and deliberately choked the innocent thing to death. She did not release her grip on the child’s throat for several minutes, and when she did it was quite dead. She wrapped the body in a comfort and there it lay on her bed until removed by Coroner Barcus last Friday. She occupied the room as usual. Last week she confessed the crime to Mrs. John Nolan and the other women of the neighborhood who notified Coroner Barcus. He with his clerk, C. M. Scott, went out Friday morning and took the girl’s statement she telling it in the coolest manner imaginable as she washed the dishes. “I ‘spose I’ll have to go to prison for this,” said she in conclusion, “and I don’t care except for my other child here. I’d like to take him along.”
Coroner Barcus returned to town and at once swore out an affidavit charging the girl with murder. She was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Brothers last Friday and is now in jail. Her crime is a capital offense and being committed in such a horrible and cold blooded manner it is likely that it will go hard with her. She is an ignorant girl, but seems to have good sense. She is a good example of total depravity.