Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Hackettstown, New Jersey
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Tillie Smith murder case=== [[File:She Died in Defence of Her Honor.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The Tillie Smith monument to chastity, ''She Died In Defence of Her Honor'', April 8, 1886]] In 1886, Tillie Smith, a 19-year-old kitchen worker from a poverty-stricken family, was raped, murdered and left lying in an open field near the campus of the [[Centenary Collegiate Institute]], where she worked.<ref>Brock, Donna. [http://www.hackettstownhistory.com/narticle_tilliesmith.shtml "The Mystery of Tillie Smith"], Hackettstown Historical Society. Accessed July 6, 2012.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1886/04/12/archives/hunting-for-a-clue-students-turned-detectives-in-tracing-the.html|title=Hunting for a Clue.; Students Turned Detectives in Tracing the Murderers of Tillie Smith.|date=April 12, 1886|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=August 18, 2019|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> James Titus, a janitor at the school, was tried and convicted of the rape and murder, based on [[circumstantial evidence]] and public opinion shaped by [[yellow journalism]]. Titus was sentenced to hang, but he signed a confession to avoid the death penalty and served 19 years of hard labor. He lived from 1904 to 1952 in Hackettstown among many of the same residents who championed his conviction, the validity of which remains controversial.<ref>Sullivan, Denis. ''In Defence of Her Honor: The Tillie Smith Murder Case''. Flemington: D.H. Thoreau Books, 2000.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/express-times/2013/10/tillie_smith_centenary_college.html|title=Tillie Smith murder at Centenary College remains part of Hackettstown lore|last=O'Donnell|first=Chuck|date=October 6, 2013|website=lehighvalleylive.com|access-date=August 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1887/05/18/archives/in-memory-of-tillie-smith.html|title=In Memory of Tillie Smith.|date=May 18, 1887|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=August 18, 2019|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The killing remains a popular local legend, inspiring several books, [[Weird NJ]] magazine articles,<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 7, 2023 |title=Murdered Maid Haunts Centenary College {{!}} Weird NJ |url=https://weirdnj.com/stories/garden-state-ghosts/tillie-smith-centenary-college/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425023929/https://weirdnj.com/stories/garden-state-ghosts/tillie-smith-centenary-college/ |archive-date=April 25, 2019 |access-date=August 18, 2019 |website=weirdnj.com}}</ref> theatrical performances and [[dark tourism]] ghost tours.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.njherald.com/20171026/following-the-path-of-tillie-smith|title=Following the path of Tillie Smith|date=October 26, 2017|website=New Jersey Herald|access-date=August 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=January 24, 2020|title=Mondays with authors: Maryann McFadden's new novel explores1886 NJ murder|url=https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/how-we-live/2018/04/30/maryann-mcfaddens-novel-1886-new-jersey-murder/557177002/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124122114/https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/how-we-live/2018/04/30/maryann-mcfaddens-novel-1886-new-jersey-murder/557177002/|archive-date=January 24, 2020|access-date=January 24, 2020|website=my central jersey}}</ref>
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Hackettstown, New Jersey
(section)
Add topic