The Untold Story of the Infamous Emma LeDoux
Tags: Women, History, True Crime, Crime, Life

The Untold Story of the Infamous Emma LeDoux Rhiannon Follow Nov 28 · 23 min read

Emma LeDoux at age 29- Note I had to repair the image (3)

Time after time, historical sources paint a picture of a black widow, and modern audiences consuming the story with no question. Here, we objectively review the evidence and let her story tell itself.

The Early Life of Emma Theresa Cole (LeDoux)

Emma LeDoux, image degraded, editing took place for this article (67)

On September 10th, 1875, Emma Theresa Cole was the first-born out of eight children of Thomas Jefferson Cole and Mary Gardiner in Cold Springs, Oregon. She went to school at Pine Grove, completed a 7th grade education, and helped raise her many siblings (12). When she was eighteen years old, her mother married James Head. When her step father died, her mother was left property in which to care for her children and extended family (1). The Head Ranch, just outside of Sutter Creek, California was plenty (1). Emma, known as a tenderhearted well-behaved child, married at age 16 to Charles Barrett with whom she lived for four years before divorcing for unknown reasons (2). This was enough to cause a negative chain reaction of her reputation in the eyes of society (10, 12, 31, 44). She returned home to her mother, but married William S. Williams, a miner from Cornwall, England three years later.

Emma at age 17, note tht the image was degraded and I had to modify it (3)

Williams was a Cornish Miner who looked sickly, consumptive, and was not a strong man (10). Her step father, James Head, was also from Cornwall, so this similarity and their union probably brought much joy to the family. It was said that Williams had contracted miner’s consumption and went to Arizona for his health. He himself instated a life insurance policy against himself with Emma as the beneficiary (15).

Marriages and Fall from Grace

Albert McVicar and an unknown. girl (1

It is this time in Emma’s life where reports of thievery start emerging because she started defrauding acquaintances for money (12). She was in Arizona for six years with her husband Williams, who, from all accounts, she loved dearly (2). The timeline is not clear, but it is said that she went home to Jackson, but at some point after or before meeting Alfred McVicar, she entered a life of prostitution (11, 56) and became a morphine addict (15, 43), which it should be noted McVicar used morphine as well (3). Three months after Williams died, Emma married McVicar, and they used the $2000 life insurance policy to open a retail store in San Francisco, which went bust (15).

Death Ceritificate of William S. Williams

Emma’s Troubles

Despite their dysfunctional relationship, it is said that during her marriage to McVicar that she attended meetings with a psychologist at McVicar’s urging (10). When the McVicar retail business failed, it is said that he forced her into a life of shame in the red light district (3, 15, 56, 57) and left her to work in the Rawhide mine (15). Reports state that Emma had become pregnant, likely due to her activities with other men because she begged him to help with an “operation”. It is possible this was not true, and also possible she was trying to get extra money for her drug habit. It has been well established that McVicar lived off her earnings (3, 92), but still he refused to help her financially when she needed it, and eventually he filed for divorce. He then changed his life insurance policy from her name to his mother (1, 3, 11, 15, 44).

This is not McVicar, it is Eugene LeDoux. They looked very similar, sporting the same style of facial hair (64

Destitute, Emma returned to her mother with intentions of marrying her childhood sweetheart and playmate Eugene LeDoux (2), but carried with her new vices: known morphine addiction, money issues, a habit of theft, and a way with men (12). Her new husband, LeDoux, was much loved by Emma, but it is well established he himself went on drinking binges that lasted for days (1). Emma’s sister Lydia was married to LeDoux’s brother and they had known each other since childhood, so it would appear that Emma had much motive to make this marriage work (1). The pattern of an unbalanced woman had started to emerge, along with the unbalanced men she chose to associate with. It would appear that her marriage to LeDoux was her last hope at redemption in the eyes of society, as everywhere she went, she garnered a bad reputation (44).

McVicar Demands Her Return

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The story is that after 2 years apart, McVicar still found Emma very fondly in his heart, so he wrote to her and her mother for her return, but she had already married LeDoux. It is said he threatened her with Bigamy charges because of a technicallity with their divorce paperwork (2, 24, 43).

“My life isn’t worth living if she doesn’t come back to me” McVicar told Emma’s mother (43).

Emma’s favorite sister, Daisy Grandy (3).

Emma often left her drunkard husband LeDoux alone for days (12). Because of McVicar’s threats, she left her husband LeDoux unannounced, and met with McVicar in San Francisco, telling her mother that she went to visit her favorite sister, Daisy Grandy (1, 3). It was there that Emma and McVicar went on a drug and alcohol binge, invited unsavory friends, and eventually McVicar fell ill (10, 11). He believed it was due to food poisoning from an oyster meal, and for three days he was at death’s door (10, 36). During that time, it seemed McVicar and Emma were up to their old tricks again. Emma was shopping around for morphine, and McVicar was pursuing local women at drinking establishments. It is said that during such an escapade, McVicar woke up on Ellis street, face up, with all his belongings, and the sun shining down on his face. He remarked to a colleague he believed he was poisoned by the woman of his affections that night. Other witnesses later confirmed this story via their accounts of the night (10, 15, 43). It was around this time that Emma started shopping around for cyanide for use in “photography”; strangely enough at the Baldwin Pharmacy in San Francisco, as mentioned in another tragedy written about for this publication (10, 15). Emma had missed an appointment while in a city, and had phoned a friend to say, “Poor Mac was sick last night. He is not long for this world I fear, he is going like all miners do” (1).

I stayed in San Francisco longer than I expected because I came very near dying while I was in the city. My wife and I went to a restaurant I ate some oysters and they made me very sick. We went to a drug store and bought an emetic, where I was ill for three days”. — Albert N. McVicar (10)

The Events of March 26th, 1906

Room 97 at Stockton’s Califorina Lodging house Where McVicar died (99)

What is known is that Albert McVicar was confident that Emma was returning to him, enough for miserly McVicar to purchase furniture for their new life together to be shipped back home (1, 12). It was reported that he had around $800 on his person at that time (56). Early Saturday morning, March 24th, 1906, Emma traveled to the furniture store to change the address to that of her “brother”, Eugene LeDoux (1, 12). She also purchased Manilla hemp rope and went shopping for a very large trunk, which she hoped to find “6–7 feet wide”, but was only able to purchase at four feet long (4, 12).

Trunk McVicar’s body was found, note the blood stain found center, right (3)

Emma called for a carrier to transport the trunk to the train station, and the boy who arrived remarked on its weight so she tipped him 25 cents extra for his trouble (4, 12). It was noted that she seemed nervous when the boy remarked on trunk weight (4, 31). The trunk was dragged out of room 97 of the California House in Stockton, rolled down two flights of stairs. The carrier had to call for assistance because it was too heavy. The trunk was thrown into the wagon, rattled over cobblestones and sent to the train station, heading toward her childhood home (4).

Circumstances of Discovery

The inside of the trunk the body was found in (112)

As Emma travelled west on the train, her luggage and the trunk traveled east to San Francisco because of a baggage mixup (12). Emma was noted as extremely agitated when her luggage and the trunk did not arrive at its intended destination (31). It was nearly 12 hours later when the thud of a body in the trunk along with a “strong odor”, caused the trunk to be opened by Police Captain Walker (4, 57). The trunk was packed so tight with the body that it flew open when unlatched (57). Inside the trunk was the doubled, bruised and bloody body of Albert McVicar, dressed in a shirt, trousers, vest and socks, along with many personal items, such as two pairs of mens shoes, a broadcloth coat, neckties, trousers, overalls, some soiled napkins (3, 4, 31). McVicar’s legs were drawn up over the chest, and the head was forced down into one corner (57). The body rested on the back and presented a shocking sight. Only Initially, the only violence appeared to be a blow to the mouth with a tooth either broken off or had decayed (57). Two days later, Emma was found & arrested, but thrown in jail without charges, without being able to speak to an attorney (15, 88).

A Mother’s Love

“I believe my daughter is innocent, but guilty or innocent, I am with her and I’ll fight for her life to the last ditch.” — Mrs. Mary Head (3).

Mrs. Mary Head — Note the Image was very degraded and I had to repair it (3)

Mrs. Mary Ann Head, was poor, but also a member of the old pioneer families of the area (4, 12). Emma was Mary’s first born, followed by seven other living children (1). She loved her daughter with all her might, and it is noted throughout the trial that they had a very close relationship. Everytime Emma ran into trouble, she came to her mother in desperation for aid. Mary had owned some property, inherited by marriage, in which she made a nice living. She was willing to to lay it all on the line to hire the best attorney she knew, and involve family friends that had legal backgrounds.

Attorney Charles Fairall (51)

Mr Crocker, a well known attorney, was a childhood friend of Emma and District Attorney Mcnoble, heavily involved in the oversight of the case, also grew up nearby (1). Mary had but her ranch, and prominent connections to save her daughter, who was rumored destined for the gallows. She even mortgaged her farm to ensure she could pay the best attorney she could find, Charles Fairall, who had written several text books on criminal law (3). All of her land was mortgaged, and every saleable animal was then sold to pay for Emma’s defense (3).

“I know Emma is innocent [she]has too tender a heart to harm anybody or anything, and I know when the time comes, that she will explain it all”, said Mary (3).

Family Rallies the Troops

The public took immense interest in the case. People and reporters flooded the train station, and followed the police to the jail cell, the crowd almost crushing Emma (12). Such interest was the only indication that Emma had of any public scandal; she wasn’t allowed to see the newspapers, or remain informed about the investigation or progress of her case (10).

The “Hanging Judge”, Judge Nutter (99)

Regardless of the humiliation, Mary Head kept fighting for her beloved daughter. To give an example of the size of the cannons she brought to this fight, Attorney Fairall is still quoted to this day for his work known as Fairall’s Code of Criminal Procedure (105). To make matters worse, the judge assigned to the case, Judge Nutter, was known as the “hanging judge”. This did not scare Mary Head or her family. A family friend was saying, “If the girl committed the crime,she had good cause to [do it]”(4). Her sisters Charlotte Cole, Lydia LeDoux of Oregon and Daisy Grandy of San Francisco were beside themselves with worry; and her youngest sister, Ellen Cole, took work at a farmhouse at age 17 to send all her earnings to aid in Emma’s defense (3, 67). Outside of her immediate family, the support of her daughter, who used her married name in the red light district (Emma Head) came at a cost. Her stepsons published a brutal public notice that they have no relation or connection to her (1, 52). Though Emma kept quiet to authorities, when her mother arrived, she openly exclaimed as they embraced: “Mamma, I didn’t do it! (1)”

We the undersigned wish to preserve and protect our names, also to impress upon the readers of this paper that we are not connected, or related in any way, to Mrs Mary Head or her family. [or the] accused murderess, Mrs Emma Ledoux, first husband Barrett, second husband W. Williams. The San Francisco papers of the 26th, state that her maiden name was Miss Emma Head. We will endeavor to correct this, and state that her maiden name was Miss Emma Cole, she is the eldest daughter of Mrs Mary Head, formerly Mrs Mary A. Cole, who resides near Jackson.

Signed, C. J. Head and wife. R. J. Head. (52)

The Sensational Trial

The accompanying engraving is reproduced from a picture taken in Judge Nutter’s courtroom at the time Mrs LeDoux pleaded not guilty. Her chief counsel, C. H. Fairall, stands at her right. H. R. McNoble who his dropped out of the case, is at her left. (53)

The public interest was undeniable. Many had already believed her guilty and thought she would get a life sentence, similar to what men are given for similar crimes (45). The courtroom was packed, mostly with women who brought their sewing projects to court to view the most sensational trial the community had ever known (45) . Every available space was occupied, with many standing. Most of the spectators arrived at 8 am sharp, and the number of people arriving was increasing every day. The sheer amount of women spectators was noted, while courtroom attendants joked that the trial had become a knitting mill (49, 61, 64, 71). During trial, it was decided that Emma herself would not testify because of her past as a prostitute, which would have been considered vulgar (43) and addition to this, Emma was dressed flamboyantly, “as though she was on a shopping tour (43, 81).

Richard DeTreville of the Stockton Daily Evening Record took 3 photos of Mrs. LeDoux, this is one of them (1, 15)

For the spectators, the trial was pure entertainment. During his argument in the Ledoux case, district attorney Norton almost drank deadly carbolic acid on accident when reaching for his waterglass, but was stopped, midair, by attorney Fairall (45). Another account illustrates how out of touch Emma was, and how her vanity ran deep, demanding the jail to send cobblers to allow her to purchase the latest French heel shoes, insisting her shoe size was much smaller than it actually was for the benefit of the press (80). In fact, part of the reason it was expected that Emma would not testify is her wild behavior around the way she dressed. Facts came to light that Emma had spent lavishly on clothing and a broad hat in the time it took her to travel from her room in Stockton and the train which would likely only increase how guilty she looked (72, 88). Also, it was believed she would not make a good witness; she was providing conflicting statements, obviously lying, to even her attorneys (31, 47). Judge Nutter had also permitted A. N. Sullivan the uncle of McVicar and his brother, J. E. McVicar, to visit the woman at her cell for an interview (76). The atmosphere in this interview was tense, and she refused to answer any questions only asking that they withhold judgement of her (76). Her attorney, Charles Fairall declared this was unprofessional of Judge Nutter, and that it was unlawful (76). In addition to this unlawful pattern, Charles F. Murphy and W.H. Smith was fined $100 and two days in jail for trying to influence a juror to hang Emma which indicated the Jury was corrupt (42). In addition to her family ranch being mortgaged to pay for her defense, the stakes were high with a ferocious judge paired with her often unreasonable behavior.

Mother was Ill, Emma was Frail

The prosecution believed that Emma had rolled the body off the bed into the trunk by herself and then shipped the trunk by rail to her childhood home with the intent to drop the trunk down an abandoned mine shaft or that she had already gone home to dig the whole to bury the trunk whole because she was afraid of the “very real” bigamy charges (2, 11, 43, 86). If she were hanged for these crimes, even in the lenient courts of California, she would be the first woman to be hanged, and the second to be sentenced to hang in the state (2, 3, 5). Her coolness and silence held up evidence against her guilt, knowing what her family had to lose (3). Any information given about her prior life was investigated, and stacked up in a public display of assumed guilt (5). It was also believed, Mary Head would not survive her daughter’s trial if found guilty, she had collapsed twice, and several times unconscious with heart failure feared (75, 79). The first time Emma’s mother Mary fainted in court, Emma lost her steely composure and became hysterical (43). The stakes were high and all balancing on the ashes of the San Francisco Fire, which had damaged evidence and even delayed her trial (77). The defense prepared a strategy that explained McVicar’s death as suicide or accidenal overdose by his own hand, and this roused the suspcion of his family in Kansas, since he was so powerfully built. They believed that Emma would have required an accomplice (12, 19, 29). Emma, who was about 5'3'’ in height, weighed about 105 lbs, while McVicar was a little above six feet, and weighed around 200 lbs (1, 12, 31).

Emma LeDoux on the day of her arrest. Photo was damaged, editing required (3)

Accomplice Found

In time, the accomplice they were searching for came to light. The daughter of Officer Van Landing had witnessed a smaller man than McVicar come and go from their rooms all of the weekend (57). The Baggage crew that came to retrieve the trunks also saw the man, outside of her room, pacing with the woman’s hand satchel (57). Telegrams uncovered a request for a weekend visit of Joseph Healy, also known as Miller. Jos. Miller and Emma were once engaged to be married but broken off by his mother after they received an anonymous typewritten letter, warning of Emma’s reputation (11, 12). She had made a big production out of returning the $70 engagement ring (12). It came to light that Emma had told Miller that McVicar died at Sonora and she was shipping his body to Denver (11). Later she claimed that the murder was done by Miller while she was gone from the apartment (12). She also said that McVicar took poison while she was out after an argument about finances (47, 70).

The Body

At the time of the trial, hundreds of people had gone to the morgue to view McVicar’s body (44). In the newspapers, several sources had incorrectly cited that the body had been dismembered, in fact much of what was published was later proven to be false (48). A knife or cleaver found among her effects and that likely lead to this misreporting (10). It was proven the body was put in the trunk early Saturday morning, and that it was found by police late saturday evening because the body was still warm when taken out of the trunk shortly after midnight (4, 15, 31). The coroner, H. E. Southworth, harrowingly concluded McVicar was alive when put in the trunk and survived a long time after being strapped into “his living tomb” (15).

Coroner Southworth (1)

A bottle of carbolic acid, and an empty bottle of cyanide were found in Emma’s belongings and because of this, the Coroner immediately suspected cyanide poisoning, and determined via a chemist in San Francisco that the deceased had not perished from carbolic acid (1, 15). Samples of his internal organs, including the stomach were sent for analysis against opium, morphine, cyanide, knockout drops, strychnine (1). It was initially believed that there was cyanide present in his body, but it would likely never be proven since it was difficult to detect (10). The defense had also tested a whiskey bottle he had drank from, to find no evidence of poison (10). It was believed the baggage carriers caused bruises on the scalp and injury to the brain just after death (1).

Modern photo of the actual trunk with blood stains still present (ancestry.com).

The body itself had noticeable injury with some congestion with the inner lining of the skull, several contusions, which he deemed sufficient to cause death, but not occur after death (4, 31). Abrasions on the skull were matched to the inside of the trunk (44). There was no odor of alcohol present on the body (31). There were five bruises under the scalp on the surface of the skull (31). It was believed that packing the body so tightly in a trunk only four feet long cause hemorrhage from the face and mouth (12). His nose was “twisted out of shape” due to cramming in the trunk which resulted in blood streaming from left nostril and streaming down his face (4). Blood from his head wound was found in his lungs, which supports evidence that he inhaled (31). In addition to this there was “unimportant” inflammation of the stomach and the brain, lungs, liver and kidneys were found “slightly congested but healthy” (4, 11). There was no vomit present to support a concussion (4). There also was no evidence that the man was a regular morphine user (4). It was noted very little odor on the body, that not enough time had passed to aid in decomposition (12).

Cause of Death & Test Results

The Body of Albert McVicar (112)

Cause of death was given in multiples. It was reported that congestion of the inner lining of the skull, and several contusions, were “sufficient to cause death” (31). Dr Hull, one of the autopsy surgeons, believed at first that blows to the head caused his death and there is no evidence of poison (19). Later, it was believed he died of morphine poisoning (71). One doctor said he could prove that McVicar ``did not suffocate for want of air”, while others believe he did suffocate (15, 43). There were no traces of cyanide found in his body, but there was enough morphine in his stomach (ten grains) to kill a dozen men (3, 71). Metallic poisons were not found (71). Chemist R. R. Rogers proved a man could survive in the sealed trunk for some time by remaining in the trunk for 40 minutes, noting that enough light came in through the cracks to read the thermometer and accurately tell the time from a watch (64).

Proven and Unproven Motives