 1864 - 1890 (~ 26 years)
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| Name |
Arthur Hoyt Chamberlain Day |
| Born |
July 1864 |
Buffalo, Erie County, NY  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
18 Dec 1890 |
Welland, ON, Canada [1] |
| Cause: hanging |
| Person ID |
I442070 |
Day Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
13 Jul 2011 |
| Family |
Desire E. Chatterton, b. Abt 1863, Caledonia, Livingston County, NY , d. Aug 1890, Niagara Falls, Niagara County, NY (Age ~ 27 years) |
| Married |
11 May 1883 |
Rochester, Monroe County, NY [1] |
| Children |
| | 1. Genevieve (aka Minnie G. Wetherell) Day, b. Aug 1883, New York state |
| | 2. Ethel Day, b. Dec 1887, Rochester, Monroe County, NY , d. May 1889, Rochester, Monroe County, NY (Age ~ 1 years) |
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| Family ID |
F158828 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- Necessity is not the strongest foundation for a marriage, and the Day's union proved to have been built on sand. Desire left her husband several times. Arthur certainly bore some guilt himself as he was arrested more than once for non-support. Clearly unhappy is his marriage, in 1890 Arthur found an unusual escape from his misery. He was living in Rochester and made a good living as a hotel porter, carrying the sample cases for commercial travelers who visited the city. Handsome and stylishly dressed, he no doubt found it easy to charm Mary "Lizzie" Breen, a Canadian girl then living at 228 Plymouth Avenue. On July 12th the two eloped to Canadaigua where they were married. Since Arthur had neglected to divorce Desire, he married under the name "Arthur Hoyt". Mary quickly learned that Arthur had a wife and child living at 70 Stillson Street. She confronted Arthur with her suspicions, but he laughed them off. Arthur now had a problem on his hands; he could not juggle two wives in the same city indefinitely. Arthur's sister Mary offered a solution. On Sunday July 27th, Arthur and his sister Mary Quigley took Desire to Niagara Falls. The outing was planned in every detail. At the Falls, Mary and Desire went to dinner, and Mary plied with Desire with whiskey. They then went to the Canadian side to view the Whirlpool Rapids. There May gave Desire a glass of wine, which Desire complained had a bitter taste. The drinks seemed to have little affect on Mrs. Day, and Mary commended to Arthur: "She must have a constitution like a horse." The three stepped to the precipice, Mary pulled Desire's dress over her face, and the two of them pushed her over the 60 foot drop. They returned to Rochester separately agreeing that if they were asked about Desire's whereabouts, Arthur would claim that the two had quarreled.
In the meantime Mrs. Lizzie Day filed a charge of bigamy with the Rochester police. The police subsequently could find no trace of Desire other than she had gone to Niagara Falls with a man and a woman, and had not returned. Arthur's sister Mary eventually confessed and took the police to the exact spot where they had pushed her into the Falls. Desire's body was found mangled and badly decomposed at the bottom of the Falls on August 10th. Arthur was arrested on August 11th in Canada.
Arthur's trial at the Court of Criminal Assizes in Welland, Ontario began on October 7th of the same year. Arthur was represented by William M. Gorman, one of "the cleverest lawyers in the district". His sister Mary provided almost the whole of the testimony against him. Charged as an accessory before and after the fact, she proved eager to incriminate her brother and avoid jail time for herself. A jury conficted Arthur after only two and a half hours of deliberations. He was sentenced to be hanged.
Arthur went to the gallows shortly before 8:00 am on December 18th, 1890 at the prison in Welland, Ontario. Unfortunately the hanging went wrong and it took ten minutes for Arthur to die of strangulation.
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