Murders of Ben Smart & Olivia Hope

 

Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, two young New Zealanders, disappeared in the early hours of the morning on New Year's Day, 1 January 1998. The two friends had been celebrating New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds with other partygoers. The pair accepted an offer from a stranger to stay aboard his yacht in the early hours of the morning, and it was the last time they were seen alive. The disappearance of the duo sparked one of the most publicized and controversial investigations in New Zealand's history.

After a five-month investigation, the police arrested Scott Watson, a resident of Picton. At trial, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of seventeen years.

The police investigation and subsequent trial generated considerable media attention and public debate. Watson has maintained he is innocent and has filed several unsuccessful appeals. In June 2024, the Court of Appeal held a hearing at which new evidence was considered, but said it would be months before their decision was released. The case remains the subject of ongoing speculation in New Zealand as a possible wrongful conviction and has been the subject of several books and documentaries.

Disappearance of Smart and Hope

In December 1997, friends Ben Smart (aged 21) and Olivia Hope (17) celebrated New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge, located in the Endeavour Inlet of the Marlborough Sounds, with 1500–2000 other partygoers. Hope had travelled to the lodge with a group on a chartered yacht, Tamarack, while Smart had arrived separately. At around 4 a.m., as the celebrations wound down, the duo returned to the Tamarack, where they intended to sleep.  When Hope and Smart found others had taken their booked place on the boat berths, they boarded a passing water taxi driven by bartender Guy Wallace. At the time, Wallace had three other passengers on board: Hayden Morresey, Sarah Dyer, and an unidentified man who would become crucial to the police investigation. The unidentified man offered the pair a place to sleep on what he said was his yacht. Wallace let Smart and Hope off with this man at the yacht, and then dropped off the two other passengers at their bach. This was the last time Smart and Hope were seen alive.

Police investigation

Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were reported missing on 2 January 1998. Initially the Blenheim police treated the investigation as a missing-persons case, but it soon became apparent that the disappearance was suspicious and out of character for the duo. Detective Inspector Rob Pope was appointed to take charge of the investigation on the 5th January and a mix of police staff from across the country joined the investigation, which became a homicide case code-named "Operation Tam" (short for Tamarack).

The investigation featured requests for information from the public, significant numbers of interviews across the country and months of extensive searches of the waters surrounding the Endeavor Inlet. Despite this, no bodies were ever found.

The focus on Guy Wallace

In his police statements on the third and fifth of January, Guy Wallace (the driver of the water taxi) described the unknown man with whom Hope and Smart left his water-taxi as having two days growth on his face, possibly arm tattoos, wiry build, 5'9", short dark wavy hair, being scruffy and wearing a Levi shirt with jeans. Wallace maintained that the man on his taxi was the same man he and other staff had served in the lounge bar earlier in the evening.

Wallace was subsequently shown two photographs of Watson in montages when he was interviewed by police on 9 January 1998 but he said he did not recognize anyone in the photographs. Police then changed the photo of Watson in the montage using a different one in which he had his eyes half closed. This became known as the 'blink photo'. On 20 April 1998, Wallace was shown a new montage, known as montage B, containing the blink photo. Not realizing this was Watson, Wallace said this could be the 'mystery' man on the boat - but said that while "the eyes were the same as the man he had seen on the night, the hair of the man in photograph 3 was too short and his appearance was generally too 'tidy'."

After the trial, Wallace was adamant the police misled him over the photo and said he believed Watson was innocent and he had inadvertently contributed to the incarceration of an innocent man. He maintained this position in multiple interviews and in an affidavit until his death in March 2021. Roslyn (Roz) McNeilly, who was bar manager at Furneaux Lodge on New Year's Eve, also identified Watson from the blink photo in montage B. Once she saw a picture of Watson taken that night showing him to be clean shaven, she also recanted, and signed an affidavit stating she had made a mistake identifying him.

Wallace said he felt tremendous pressure from police and the media during the investigation. He was interrogated by the detectives from Christchurch CIB who initially suggested he was somehow responsible for the disappearance of the teenagers. As a result of accusations against him by the police, some locals began treating him with suspicion. People he knew began to think he was guilty and shunned him. He said that in the initial stages of the investigation, the police were desperate to arrest someone, and it could easily have been him: "I know in my heart of hearts, if he [Scott] wasn't in there, I'd be doing time. It's just that simple."

The mystery ketch

Wallace told police and the media that he had dropped Smart and Hope off at a wooden ketch (a boat with two masts). On 3 January 1998, Wallace drew a sketch for police of what he thought the boat he dropped the duo onto looked like. He drew a yacht with two masts and wrote "38-40 foot ketch?" on the drawing, underlining the word "ketch?" twice. He described the ketch as well-maintained, built of timber, with a thick blue stripe on the hull, and several round portholes with brass surrounds. He also said it was rafted in a group of between three and five other vessels.

Police seized Watson's sloop, Blade, on 12 January to the surprise of many following the case. Compared to descriptions of the mystery ketch, Blade was small, had a steel (not timber) hull, no portholes, no blue strip, and had only one mast. Police analyzed thousands of photos taken on New Year's Eve and interviewed all of the boat skippers, but were unable to corroborate Wallace's reports of a ketch in the Endeavour Inlet that night, or find any of the "three to five" vessels it was rafted to. The prosecution at Watson's trial would later argue that Wallace had simply been mistaken about the second mast; Blade had been moored next to other boats, and the prosecution suggested that, from certain angles in the dark, the mast on one of these boats could have appeared to Wallace to be a second mast.

However, in the following weeks there were a number of sightings of a two-masted ketch in the Marlborough Sounds area reported to the police, including one account from a former police officer with 40 years' experience. A number of witnesses who came forward with sightings of a ketch were either told their information was not wanted, or their statements were not followed up. Former detective Mike Chappell, who worked on the case, later, claimed officers were told not to follow up sightings of two-masted ketches.

The focus on Scott Watson

Later in the investigation, lead investigator Rob Pope would say that Watson "stood out like dog's balls" and "had the right sort of agenda and pedigree", apparently referring to his criminal record. Watson had 48 criminal convictions at the time, mainly from when he was a teenager for burglary, theft, cannabis offences, two counts of possessing an offensive weapon and one for assault when he was 16. Watson had been imprisoned for two short periods in 1989 and 1990, but had seemingly cleaned up his act in his 20's, having just one conviction in the eight years leading up to 1998.

Watson was being interviewed by Detective Tom Fitzgerald on 12 January when Police seized Blade and executed search warrants on the homes of his parents and sister. During the interview, one week into the investigation, Fitzgerald made it clear that police considered Watson their main suspect.

Rumors about the Watson family began to swirl in the small town of Picton, as well as in national media. Later, Watson would accuse police of influencing media coverage of the case, suggesting they leaked rumours to reporters that his family was criminals, that he was a guilty man and that he had an incestuous relationship with his sister. Gerald Hope, Olivia's father, also asserted that the police deliberately leaked details of Watson's criminal history and were responsible for the unsubstantiated suggestions of incest.

Watson also alleged that the police followed and intimidated members of his family. Police obtained warrants to tap the phone lines of Watson and his family from February until his arrest, in an investigation known as "Operation Celt". Police recorded 70-plus hours of conversations and during that time they regularly fed Watson’s former girlfriend questions to ask hoping he would incriminate himself. Watson was described by a police representative as "smug" during these conversations, but never said anything to indicate he was involved.

Publicity during the investigation

Prior to his arrest, the media were free to report police comments and actions which demonstrated that Watson was the prime suspect without fear of jeopardizing a fair trial. Watson was arrested on 15 June 1998; six months after his yacht had been pulled from the water in full view of bystanders and media. According to journalist Mike White, during this six month period, police allowed unsubstantiated gossip about Watson's family to circulate, including rumours was that Watson was sleeping with his sister. In an interview with Paul Henry, Mike White agreed that the media were manipulated and said: "I don't think the media asked enough questions. We were thinking that we had to support the police and we were doing the right thing by doing that."

Police denied starting these rumors, but Gerald Hope (Olivia's father), says the police constantly told him and his family how bad the Watsons were. Watson was advised by his lawyer not to speak publicly, so the media relied entirely on one-sided comments from the police and the victims' families. When interviewed by Mike White 18 years later, Watson said: "Every comment he'd made was reinterpreted to sound sinister, every action he'd taken was twisted to seem suspicious".

Trial

The 11 week trial, which attracted considerable media attention, commenced on 10 June 1999 and concluded when the verdicts were delivered on 11 September 1999. The Crown called approximately 488 witnesses and the defence called 26.

The main plank of the Crown's case was that Watson invited Smart and Hope to sleep on his yacht in the early hours of 1 January 1998 – and that this was the last time they were seen. Another water-taxi driver, Don Anderson, testified that he dropped Watson at the Blade sometime between 2–4 a.m. Some of the occupants of the neighboring boats, Mina Cornelia and Bianco, testified they were woken up by Watson in the early hours of the morning as he wanted to continue partying. Both the Crown and the defence agreed that this trip took place.

The Crown argued late in the trial that Watson returned to shore after Anderson dropped him off at the Blade, but could not say how. This became known as the "two-trip theory". The Crown argued it did not matter that the prosecution could not prove how Watson got back to shore, but said he must have done so because witnesses said he was involved in an altercation on shore, probably between 3–3.30 a.m.

The prosecution claimed the Blade left its mooring at Endeavour Inlet probably before 6 a.m. on New Year's Day with Ben and Olivia's bodies; that Watson dumped them into Cook Strait, returned to Erie Bay and lied about the time he arrived. A number of witnesses testified that they saw the boat at different times during the day. Another witness said the Blade arrived in Erie Bay shortly after 5 p.m. and that when it arrived, Watson was the only occupant.

Much of the Crown's case was circumstantial and largely relied on testimony from two prison informants, one of whom later admitted he lied, and the identification of Watson by Guy Wallace and Roz McNeilly – both of whom subsequently presented affidavits claiming the police had misled them. No fingerprints of the victims were found on Watson's boat. The only physical evidence produced at the trial related to some human hair found on Watson's boat, which was subject to DNA testing. The most damning testimony came from the two prison informants, described as Witness A & B.

The hair analysis

The crown claimed that during the police's forensic investigation of Blade, they found a blanket from which a number of human hairs were later recovered. Susan Vintiner, a forensic biologist, testified in court that one hair was matched to Olivia Hope through DNA testing. Mitochondrial DNA analysis on the hairs was conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom. Police never received the level of validation they were seeking from these tests that the hairs belonged to Olivia, but still presented the results as evidence at Watson's trial.

Watson's counsel questioned the chain of custody regarding the hair, suggesting Vintiner may have mixed up the hair samples by examining known hair from Olivia on the same table and day as she examined the samples taken from Blade. They also pointed out there was a 1 cm hole in the evidence bag containing Olivia's hair which could add to the risk of contamination. Vintiner testified at the trial that cross-contamination is an explanation that "needs to be considered". The accuracy of the hair testing has been questioned by other experts during appeals in the years following Watson's trial.

Prison witnesses A & B

A crucial aspect of the prosecution case came from two prisoners whose names were suppressed and were referred to as Witnesses A & B. They both claimed they met Watson in prison when he was on remand and said he told them he was responsible for Ben and Olivia's disappearance.

Despite his damning testimony, witness A subsequently admitted to several lawyers, and the NZ Herald, that he laid in court. At the time he was receiving death threats from a gang member and was coming up for parole. Police visited him at least 10 times over a 12 month period leading up to the trial and pressured him into making false accusations in his testimony. Witness A said he "chose to help the police in the hope they would be able to save him".

Witness B said he and Watson interacted on numerous occasions and became good friends in Addington Prison. In fact, witness B was never in the same cell as Watson and "had little opportunity to develop any close relationship with Watson such that a confession might be made". It was later revealed that on his release from prison, this witness was granted the use of a car and cellphone for his testimony by the police.

Author John Goulter described the evidence of Witnesses A and B as a "bombshell" and said it had a dramatic impact on everyone in court.

Verdict

Watson was convicted of the murders in September 1999 after an eleven-week trial and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of seventeen years. Watson told the jury "You're wrong" when the verdict was read out in court and has continued to insist he is innocent since conviction.

Gerald Hope's perspective

In the years following the trial, Olivia Hope's father, Gerald Hope expressed concerns over the investigation and trial, telling journalist Mike White that he felt "very uncomfortable about the way the Crown ran the case". Olivia's sister, Amelia was called to testify at the trial about friendship rings she and Olivia had exchanged. The prosecutor continued questioning her until she broke down in tears. Gerald Hope said "It was pure theatre and the whole thing must have had a huge emotional effect on the jurors".

In December 2016, Mike White facilitated two meetings between Scott Watson and Gerald Hope in Rolleston Prison. The meetings were opposed by the Corrections Department and only took place after Watson requested a judicial review of the Corrections refusal. Each meeting lasted approximately three hours. During the interview, the pair discussed concerns they had over the investigation and trial, with Hope saying "We never got the truth. We haven't got the truth yet".

Hope said that when he confronted Watson over the pressing questions he had about his circumstances on January 1, he said Watson went silent or he found his answers unconvincing. However, Mike White who was present during the interview said: "I don't think there was anything that Scott Watson evaded, or didn't want to answer. He was very open." White added that Hope has had doubts about the case for a long time and that Hope rejects crucial evidence that led to Watson's conviction.

Appeals

Early appeals

Watson appealed his conviction in the Court of Appeal in April and May 2000. Three Appeal Court judges heard submissions from both the defence and the prosecution, but decided there was no new evidence to recommend a second trial. They disregarded the defense’s submission that the prosecution's so-called two-trip theory had appeared "out of the blue" late in the trial, stating "To prohibit the Crown from promoting a rational theory, for which there was supporting evidence, consistent with the whole nature and thrust of its case, would be a drastic step, and one to be taken only where the interests of justice would otherwise be in jeopardy.”

In 2009, Watson applied to the Governor-General for a Royal Prerogative of Mercy. He sent a 22-page letter and enclosed a copy of Keith Hunter's book Trial by Trickery and documentary Murder on the Blade?  The Ministry of Justice appointed Kristy McDonald, QC, to provide advice on the application. She produced two reports on the case in 2011 and 2013. In summary, McDonald said: “nearly all of the ‘threads’ of the Crown’s circumstantial case has been undermined post-trial” and therefore "there is no reasonable prospect that the Court of Appeal would uphold an appeal”.

Complaint to the IPCA

In 2010 journalist Keith Hunter and Scott's father, Chris Watson, made a complaint to the Independent Police Conduct Authority about police conduct in the case. The complaint alleged that the head of the inquiry, Inspector Rob Pope, ignored relevant evidence, spread rumours about Scott Watson and his family, swore false affidavits to obtain search warrants; and that the police 'bought' or pressured two prisoners into telling lies in court and that they deliberately or accidentally contaminated the hair samples found in Watson's boat.

The report was highly critical of aspects of the investigation, led by present Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope. It states that the photograph montages used by police breached so many rules it "exposed the integrity of the investigation to justifiable criticism and to the drawing of inferences about intention and motivation". It also states that the police failed to pursue leads to find the "mystery ketch" seen by many witnesses — including some witnesses who believe they saw a woman who could be Olivia Hope aboard. The head of the IPCA, Justice Lowell Goddard said it was a difficult inquiry and "some actions of police fell short of best practice, and had the potential to influence witnesses".

Subsequent appeals

In November 2017, a second application for a Royal Prerogative of Mercy was filed on Watson's behalf by an Auckland man and ex-convict who had taken an interest in the Watson case. The application concerned the reliability of the evidence relating to two blonde hairs found on a blanket on Watson's boat. It included a report by forensic scientist Sean Doyle which questioned whether the hairs were really Hope's, and criticised the way the hair samples were handled at the time of the original trial. The application was denied.

In June 2020, it was reported that Watson's case would be referred back to the Court of Appeal because of continuing concern about the reliability of the forensic testing used to show the two hairs found on a blanket belonged to Olivia. In May 2022, the Court also agreed that when the hearing goes ahead, Watson would be allowed to challenge whether the controversial eyewitness evidence (related to the 'blink photo') was properly obtained and should have been heard by the jury at his trial.

Court of Appeal 2024

Watson's hearing at the Court of Appeal was delayed until June 2024. On 10 June, the defense argued that the "plastering" of Watson's face in the news media prior to his arrest for the murders may have influenced eyewitness descriptions of the suspect. Eyewitness identification experts, Dr. Gary Wells and Dr. Adele Quigley-McBride, were asked to evaluate the reliability of Guy Wallace's eyewitness identification evidence. Their opinion centered how Wallace's memory would have been affected by seeing Watson multiple times in the media and in police procedures, and how this would increase eyewitness errors. Dr. Wells said Wallace only "pointed the finger at Watson" after he was exposed to his photograph in the media. The only person Wallace actually remembered was someone with long, scraggly hair.

Crown lawyer Stuart Baker questioned Dr Wells about another water taxi passenger, Hayden Morrissey, who did not recognize Watson in the lineup shown to him, but also reported only seeing the mystery yacht owner from behind. Morrissey also said the man had long hair, whereas photographs of Watson on that night showed he had short hair.

On 11 June, forensic scientists Paige McElhinney and Sean Doyle were questioned about the two blonde hairs linked to Olivia Hope that was found on a blanket on Watson's yacht. McElhinney said the hairs could have been taken on board the Blade by police by accident. Forensic scientist Susan Vintiner, was questioned about the testimony she gave in Watson's 1999 trial. She did not know how the bag containing the hair was perforated, and agreed it was not possible to say how the hairs came to be transferred to Watson’s boat.

On 12 June 2024, Watson's lawyers argued that the two pieces of evidence which supposedly linked Watson to the murdered pair - Olivia Hope's two hairs and the eye witness identification procedure - were so flawed; they should never have been put to the jury. They called for Watson's convictions to be overturned without a retrial. Crown lawyer Madeleine Laracy said the case did not rest on the two hairs and was aware there were significant challenges with Wallace's identification. She told the court the "totality and interlinking" of circumstantial evidence provided "overwhelming" evidence of Watson’s guilt.

Justice Christine French said that the Court of Appeal would take several months to reach a decision.

Books, documentaries, and media

In 2000, author John Goulter published a book about the investigation called Silent Evidence. The book included a foreword by lead investigator Rob Pope.

In 2001, Mike Kalaugher published The Marlborough Mystery in which he focused on purported mistakes in the police case concerning the location of the boat where the couple disembarked from the water taxi with the mystery man.

In 2003, journalist Keith Hunter produced a documentary called Murder on the Blade? About the case and questioning Watson's conviction. In a 2006, he published a follow-up book about the case, Trial by Trickery.

In a television documentary Doubt: The Scott Watson Case broadcast in 2016, Massey University law professor Chris Gallavin questioned whether Watson was proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Journalist Ian Wishart wrote three books about the case. Ben and Olivia – What Really Happened? Elementary and Elementary 2.0, in which he examines the investigation, questioning the actions of police and Watson's innocence respectively.

Parole hearings

In June 2015, Watson attended parole for the first time. He has now appeared before the board four times and been declined parole on each occasion. When declining parole in 2016, the Board made it clear that it "does not determine questions of guilt or innocence. Nor do we act as some sort of Court of Appeal from decisions of the criminal justice system".

On this basis, the Board will not release Watson until he has had psychological treatment to address his risk of reoffending, which based on his murder convictions, has been assessed as high. In 2016, the Board noted that he still denies committing the murders, has refused to engage with Corrections Department psychologists, and so his risk of re-offending could not be treated.

Watson's fourth hearing was via video in May 2024. At that hearing, Board Chairman, Sir Ron Young, noted that each of three recent psychological reports available to the Board differed considerably when describing Watson’s risk of reoffending. A report from November 2021 said he was at high to very high risk; a report done by a Corrections psychologist in September 2023 assessed him at medium risk. A more recent private psychological report assessed him as low risk of reoffending.

On 12 March 2025, Watson appeared before the Parole Board for a fifth time. The Board questioned four psychologists who had all provided different conclusions about his risk of reoffending. The hearing took longer than expected such that the board was unable to hear from Watson, his family and supporters, or final submissions from his lawyer, so the Board decided to abandon the hearing entirely. Instead, it will hold a two-day hearing at some point in the future.

Other events

Watson married Coral Branch in Paremoremo Prison in 2004. They separated in 2007. At his parole hearing in 2020, the Board noted that he was supported by his partner of 16 years.

In 2007, Watson was found guilty by a magistrate of assaulting another inmate in Paparua Prison. In 2008, his appeal against that conviction failed.

Further reading

Jayson Rhodes and Ian Wishart, Ben and Olivia – What Really Happened? (Auckland: Howling At The Moon Publishing, 1999) ISBN 0-9582054-4-2

John Goulter, Silent Evidence (Auckland: Random House, 2000), ISBN 1-86941-386-5

Mike Kalaugher, The Marlborough Mystery (Auckland: Tandem Press, 2001) ISBN 1-877178-91-8

Keith Hunter, Murder on the Blade? Television documentary, 2003

Keith Hunter, Trial by Trickery: Scott Watson, the Sounds Murders and the Game of Law (Auckland: Hunter Productions, 2006) ISBN 0-473-11721-5

Hubbard, Anthony (31 January 2009). "Who killed Ben and Olivia?". Stuff. Fairfax NZ Ltd. Retrieved 27 November 2017.

Ian Wishart, Elementary: The Explosive File on Scott Watson and the Disappearance of Ben and Olivia (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106469

Ian Wishart, Elementary 2.0: The Unreleased Police Evidence on the Scott Watson Case (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106476

Doubt: The Scott Watson Case, television documentary, 2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Ben_Smart_and_Olivia_Hope

Terry Nichols

 

Terry Lynn Nichols (born April 1, 1955) is an American terrorist who was convicted of conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot. Before his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand. He met Timothy McVeigh during a brief stint in the U.S. Army, which ended in 1989 when he requested a hardship discharge after less than one year of service. In 1994 and 1995, he conspired with McVeigh in the planning and preparation of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people.

In a federal trial in 1997, Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for killing federal law enforcement personnel. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty. He was also tried in Oklahoma on state charges of murder in connection with the bombing. In 2004, he was convicted of 161 counts of first-degree murder, including one count of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy. As in the federal trial, the state jury deadlocked on imposing the death penalty. In the longest prison sentence ever given to an individual, he was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is incarcerated at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shared a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bomber's Row" with Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph, as well as Ted Kaczynski, until his transfer in 2021.

Early life

Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan. He was raised on a farm, the third of four children of Joyce and Robert Nichols. Growing up, he helped his parents on the farm, learning to operate and maintain the equipment. According to the Denver Post, he also cared for injured birds and animals.

Adulthood

Nichols attended Lapeer High School, where he took elective classes in crafts and business law. Throughout school, friends characterized him as shy. While in high school he played junior varsity football, wrestled, and was a member of the ski club. His brother James, who self-published a 400-page book about the bombing, has stated that Terry was book smart and good at artwork. He graduated from high school in 1973 with a 3.6 grade point average, with ambitions of becoming a physician.

Nichols enrolled at Central Michigan University. He completed one term of 13 credit hours with a B grade average. He had Cs in biology, chemistry, and trigonometry, a B in literature, and an A in archery. In 1974, after another brother, Leslie, was badly burned in a fuel tank explosion on the farm, he offered to give him skin for grafts. He tried farming with his brother James for a while, but they did not get along; he felt his brother was too bossy. Later, he moved to Colorado and obtained a license to sell real estate in 1976. Soon after he closed on his first big sale, his mother told him she needed his help on the farm, so he returned to Michigan.

In 1980, Nichols met real estate agent Lana Walsh, a twice-divorced mother of two who was five years his senior. They married and had a son in 1982. During the marriage, Nichols engaged in a succession of part-time and short-term jobs: carpentry work, managing a grain elevator, and selling life insurance and real estate. According to Lana, she was the one with a career; Nichols was a house husband, who spent most of his time at home with the children, cooking and gardening.

Nichols had never liked farm life, and in 1988, at the age of 33, he tried to escape it by enlisting in the United States Army. He was sent to Fort Benning next to Columbus, Georgia, for basic training. As the oldest man in his platoon, he had difficulty with the physical aspect of the training and was sometimes called "grandpa" by the other men. However, he was soon made the platoon guide because of his age. Timothy McVeigh was in his platoon, and they quickly became close friends. They had a common background: both men grew up in white rural areas. Both had tried college for a while and had parents who were divorced. They shared political views and interests in gun collecting and the survivalist movement. The two were later stationed together at Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, where they met and became friends with their future accomplice, Michael Fortier.

Nichols's wife filed for divorce soon after he joined the Army. Due to a conflict over childcare, he requested and was given a hardship discharge in May 1989 to return home to take care of his son, who was seven years old at the time. As he departed, he told a fellow soldier that he would be starting his military organization soon and would have an unlimited supply of weapons.

In 1990, Nichols, 35, married 17-year-old Marife Torres from the Philippines, whom he met through a mail-order bride agency. When she arrived in Michigan several months later, she was pregnant with another man's child. The child died at age two when he suffocated after getting tangled up with a plastic bag from a banana box that was left overnight in his bedroom. Marife initially suspected foul play from either Nichols or McVeigh, but there were no bruises or signs of trauma to the child. The death was ruled accidental. Nichols and Marife had two more children during their marriage. Nichols and Torres frequently visited the Philippines, where she was attending a local college, working on a degree in physical therapy. He sometimes traveled to the Philippines alone, while she remained in Kansas.

Nichols left a cryptic note and a package of documents with his ex-wife, Lana (Walsh) Padilla, before one of his many visits to the Philippines. Upon returning from the visit to learn that she had prematurely opened a letter instructing her what to do in the event of his death, he made a series of telephone calls to a Cebu City boarding house. Nichols and Torres divorced after his arrest. Marife returned to the Philippines with the children.

Anti-government views

Nichols' anti-government views developed and grew over the years. Nichols spent most of his adult life in the Lapeer and Sanilac County areas of Michigan, where mistrust and resentment of the federal government were common, especially after bank foreclosures of many farms during the 1980s farm crisis. Neighbors said he attended meetings of anti-government groups, experimented with explosives, and got more radical as time went on.

Nichols began to adhere to sovereign citizen ideology. In February 1992, he attempted to renounce his US citizenship by writing to the local county clerk in Michigan, stating that the political system was corrupt, and declaring himself a "non-resident alien". Several months later, he appeared in court and tried to avoid responsibility for some of his credit card bills (he owed approximately $40,000 altogether), refusing to come before the bench and shouting at the judge that the government had no jurisdiction over him. On October 19, 1992, he signed another document renouncing his US citizenship. In May 1993, Nichols appeared before a county judge regarding an $8,421 unpaid credit card debt. He also renounced his driver’s license.

McVeigh and Nichols grew closer after McVeigh's discharge from the Army. In December 1991, Nichols invited McVeigh to join him in Michigan and help him out selling military surplus at gun shows. For the next three years, McVeigh stayed with Nichols off and on. On April 19, 1993, Nichols was watching TV with McVeigh at the Nichols' farmhouse in Michigan during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. When the compound went up in flames, McVeigh and Nichols were enraged and began to plot revenge on the federal government. In the fall of 1993, Nichols and McVeigh, who were living at the farm, became business partners, selling weapons and military surplus at gun shows. For a while, they lived an itinerant life, following the gun shows from town to town.

Nichols then went to Las Vegas to try working in construction, but failed. Next, he went to central Kansas and was hired in March 1994 as a ranch hand in Marion, Kansas. In March 1994, he sent a letter to the clerk of Marion County, Kansas, saying he was not subject to the laws of the U.S. government and asked his employer not to withhold any federal taxes from his check. His employer said Nichols was hard-working but had unusual political views. In the fall of 1994, Nichols quit his job, telling his employer he was going into business with McVeigh.

The bombing

On September 22, 1994, Nichols and McVeigh rented a storage shed and began gathering supplies for the truck bomb. In late September or early October, Nichols and McVeigh stole dynamite and blasting caps from a nearby quarry. Nichols began purchasing large quantities of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and storing it in three rental storage units. Nichols also robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who had befriended him and McVeigh at various gun shows.

In February 1995, Nichols bought a small house in Herington, Kansas, with a cash down payment. In March 1995, he bought diesel fuel. On April 14, Nichols gave McVeigh some cash, according to McVeigh. On April 16, Easter Sunday, Nichols and McVeigh drove to Oklahoma City to drop off the getaway car. On April 18, the day before the bombing, Nichols helped McVeigh prepare the truck bomb at a lake near Herington. McVeigh remarked about Nichols's and Fortier's partial withdrawal from the plot, saying they "were men who liked to talk tough, but in the end their bitches and kids ruled.” Nichols was at home in Kansas with his family when the bomb went off.

On April 21, 1995, Nichols learned he was wanted for questioning, turned himself in, and consented to a search of his home. The search turned up blasting caps, detonating cords, ground ammonium nitrate, barrels made of plastic similar to fragments found at the bombing site, 33 firearms, anti-government warfare literature, a receipt for ammonium nitrate fertilizer with McVeigh's fingerprints on it, a telephone credit card that McVeigh had used when he was shopping for bomb-making equipment, and a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City. Nichols was held as a material witness to the bombing until he was charged on May 10.

Investigators also combed the Decker, Michigan, farm of James Nichols, where Terry Nichols and McVeigh had stayed intermittently in the months preceding the bombing. James was held in custody on charges that he had made small bombs on the farm, but was released without charges on May 24, with the judge saying there was no evidence he was a danger to others.

Prosecutions

Federal case

McVeigh was tried before Nichols and sentenced to death. Former Army soldier and friend of Nichols, Michael Fortier, testified against both McVeigh and Nichols. Fortier had entered into a federal plea agreement for reduced charges in return for his agreement to testify. He was charged with failing to notify authorities in advance of the crime and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Fortier testified that Nichols and McVeigh had expressed anti-government feelings and conspired to blow up the Murrah federal building. He said he helped McVeigh survey the building before the attack. He also testified that Nichols had robbed an Arkansas gun dealer to finance the cost of the bombing. Fortier provided "solid bricks of evidence" for the cases against McVeigh and Nichols, according to the prosecutor.

Nichols' wife, Marife, testified as a defense witness, but her story may have helped the prosecution's case. She said her husband had been living a double life before the bombing, using aliases, renting storage lockers, and lying that he had broken off his relationship with McVeigh. She also testified that Nichols traveled to Oklahoma City three days before the bombing, supporting the prosecution's contention that Nichols helped McVeigh station a getaway car near the Murrah building. Marife also failed to give Nichols an alibi for April 18, 1995, the day the prosecution said Nichols helped McVeigh assemble the truck bomb.

Nichols was represented by criminal defense attorney Michael Tigar. The trial lasted nine weeks, with the prosecution calling 100 witnesses tying Nichols to McVeigh and the bombing plot. The prosecution argued that Nichols helped McVeigh purchase and steal bomb ingredients, park the getaway car near the Murrah building, and assemble the bomb. The defense attempted to cast doubt on the case against Nichols by calling witnesses who said they saw other men with McVeigh before the bombing and by claiming the government had manipulated the evidence against Nichols.

The jury deliberated for 41 hours over six days, acquitting Nichols on December 24, 1997, of actually detonating the bomb, but convicting him of conspiring with McVeigh to use a weapon of mass destruction, a capital offense. They acquitted Nichols on the charges of first-degree (premeditated) murder, but convicted him on the lesser charge of involuntary (unintentional) manslaughter in the deaths of the federal law enforcement officers.

In assessing why Nichols was not convicted of first-degree murder, The Washington Post noted:

There was no evidence that Nichols had rented the Ryder truck used to carry the bomb to Oklahoma City, and there was no one who could positively identify him as the purchaser of the two tons of ammonium nitrate, the major component in the bomb. Most problematic for the government was the compelling fact that Nichols was at home in Kansas when McVeigh detonated the truck.

Another theory is that some members of the jury believed Nichols' attorneys' arguments that he had withdrawn from the conspiracy before the bombing. His apparent remorse, as shown by his crying several times during the testimony, could also have swayed the jury.

After the penalty hearing concluded, the jury deliberated for 13 hours over two days on whether to give Nichols a death sentence, but deadlocked. U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch then had the option of giving Nichols a sentence of life imprisonment or a lesser term. On June 4, 1998, he sentenced Nichols to life in prison without parole on the conspiracy conviction, calling Nichols "an enemy of the Constitution" who had conspired to destroy everything the Constitution protects. Nichols also received a concurrent 48-year sentence for his eight involuntary manslaughter convictions, six for each victim. Nichols showed no emotion. He was sent to the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado. On February 26, 1999, a federal appeals court affirmed Nichols's conviction and sentence.

Oklahoma state case

After the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty, which resulted in a life sentence, citizens of Oklahoma petitioned to empanel a state court grand jury to investigate the bombing. State Representative Charles Key led a citizens' group that circulated the petitions. It was hoped that evidence implicating other conspirators would be uncovered. A grand jury heard testimony for 18 months about allegations of other accomplices but returned only the indictments against Nichols in March 1999. Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane denied that the state prosecution was conducted solely to have Nichols executed, saying it was important that Nichols be convicted of killing all the victims. "This case has always been about 161 men, women, and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers", Lane said.

Nichols was brought from the prison in Colorado to Oklahoma in January 2000 to face the state trial on 160 capital counts of first-degree murder and one count each of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy. The prosecutor's goal was to get the death penalty.

During the two-month trial, the prosecution presented a "mountain of circumstantial evidence", calling 151 witnesses. Their star witness was Fortier, who said Nichols was intimately involved in the conspiracy and had helped obtain bomb ingredients, including fertilizer that was mixed with high-octane fuel. Fortier also testified that McVeigh and Nichols stole cord and blasting caps from a rock quarry, and that Nichols robbed Roger E. Moore, a gun collector, to obtain money for the plot. Nichols' lawyers said he was the "fall guy" and that others, Moore included, had conspired with McVeigh. They wanted to introduce evidence that a group of white supremacists had been McVeigh's accomplices. However, the judge did not allow them to do so, saying that the defense had not shown that any of these people committed acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. In their concluding argument, the defense said, "People who are still unknown assisted Timothy McVeigh." On May 26, 2004, the six-man, six-woman jury took five hours to reach guilty verdicts on all charges. When the verdict was read, Nichols showed no emotion, staring straight ahead.

The penalty phase of the trial started on June 1, 2004. The same jury that determined Nichols's guilt would also determine whether he would be put to death. During the five-day hearing, 87 witnesses were called, including victims and family members of Nichols. Nichols's relatives testified that he was a loving family man. During the closing arguments, the prosecutor argued for the death penalty, stating that 168 people had died so that Nichols and McVeigh "could make a political statement". The defense argued that Nichols had been controlled by a "dominant, manipulative" McVeigh and urged jurors not to be persuaded by the "flood of tears" of the victims who testified. The defense also said that Nichols had "sincerely" converted to Christianity. After 19½ hours of deliberation over three days, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty. With the death penalty no longer an option, Nichols spoke publicly for the first time in the proceedings, making a lengthy statement laced with religious references to Judge Steven W. Taylor. Nichols also apologized for the murders and offered to write to survivors to "assist in their healing process". Darlene Welch, whose niece was killed in the explosion, said she "didn't appreciate being preached to" by Nichols and that she regretted that "he won't stand before God sooner." Judge Taylor called Nichols a terrorist and said "No American citizen has ever brought this kind of devastation; you are in U.S. history the No. 1 mass murderer -- in all of U.S. history" and sentenced Nichols to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Nichols was returned to the federal prison in Colorado.

Post-conviction

Additional explosives

Acting on a tip from reputed mobster Greg Scarpa Jr. (son of mobster Greg Scarpa Sr.), a fellow inmate of Nichols, the FBI searched the crawl space of Nichols's former home in Kansas ten years after the bombing. They found explosives in boxes, wrapped in plastic, buried under a foot of rock. The tipster had indicated that the explosives were buried before the attack.

Allegations by Nichols

McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier were the only defendants indicted in the bombing. Nichols denied his involvement in the plot until 2004. Nichols's mother claimed that her son had Asperger syndrome, was manipulated by McVeigh, and didn't know what the bomb was for. In a May 2005 letter that he wrote to a relative of two of the victims, Nichols claimed that an Arkansas gun dealer also conspired in the 1995 bombing plot by donating some of the explosives that were used. In a 2006 letter requesting that a judge give his son a light sentence for assault with a deadly weapon, battery of a police officer, and possession of a stolen vehicle, Nichols admitted his participation in the Oklahoma City bombing but said that McVeigh had forced and intimidated him into cooperating.

In a 2007 affidavit, Nichols claimed that in 1992, McVeigh claimed to have been recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military. Nichols also said that in 1995, McVeigh told him that FBI official Larry Potts, who had supervised the Ruby Ridge and Waco operations, had directed McVeigh to blow up a government building. Nichols claimed that he and McVeigh had learned how to make the bomb from individuals they met while attending gun shows. In the same affidavit, Nichols admitted that he and McVeigh stole eight cases of the gel-type explosive Tovex from a Marion, Kansas quarry, some of which was later used in the Oklahoma City truck bomb. Nichols, who had been employed in Marion County as a ranch hand, was familiar with numerous quarries there. He admitted that he had helped McVeigh mix the bomb ingredients in the truck the day before the attack, but he denied that he knew the exact target of the bomb. Nichols wanted to testify in more detail in a videotaped deposition, but a federal appeals court ruled against it in 2009.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Nichols

Emperor Petronicus Maximus

 

Petronius Maximus (c. 397 – 31 May 455) was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III.

After the assassination of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the subsequent death of the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III, Maximus secured the support of the Senate and utilized bribery to gain the favor of palace officials, enabling him to ascend to power. He strengthened his position by forcing Licinia Eudoxia, Valentinian's widow, to marry him and forcing her daughter Eudocia to marry his son, cancelling her betrothal to the son of the Vandal king Genseric. This infuriated both Eudocia and Genseric, who sent a fleet to Rome. Maximus failed to obtain troops from the Visigoths, and he fled as the Vandals arrived, became detached from his retinue and bodyguard in the confusion, and was killed by fellow Romans. The Vandals thoroughly sacked Rome in their retaliatory invasion.

The reign of Petronius Maximus marked a significant period of instability and decline for the Western Roman Empire. His brief and controversial rule reflected the political fragmentation and lack of centralized authority that plagued the empire during its final years. The invasion and sacking of Rome by the Vandals underlined the growing vulnerability of the Western Roman Empire, which would ultimately culminate in its collapse in 476.

Early career

Petronius Maximus was born about 397. Although he was of obscure origin, it is believed that he belonged to the Anicius and Petronius families. Related to the later Emperor Olybrius, Maximus was the son of Anicius Probinus, and the grandson of Anicia Faltonia Proba and Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus, who was prefect of Illyricum in 364, prefect of Gaul in 366, prefect of Italy from 368 to 375 and again in 383, and consul in 371. Procopius claimed that he was a descendant of Emperor Magnus Maximus, but historians such as J. B. Bury consider this account "untrustworthy and improbable".

Maximus had a remarkable early career. His earliest known office was praetor, held in about 411; around 415, he served as a tribunus et notarius, which was an entry position to the imperial bureaucracy and led to his serving as comes sacrarum largitionum (count of the sacred largess) between 416 and 419. Maximus spent 4,000 gold librae on public games in 412 or 415. From January or February 420 to August or September 421, he served as praefectus urbi of Rome, granting him executive authority for much of the municipal administration of Rome; he held the office again sometime before 439. During his tenure as praefectus, he undertook the restoration of the Old St. Peter's Basilica. Additionally, He was also appointed praetorian prefect, a leading military and judicial position, sometime between 421 and 439. It was either while holding this post or during his second urban prefecture that he was appointed consul for the year 433. Attaining the position of consul was considered the highest honor in the Roman state.

From 28 August 439 to 14 March 441, Maximus held the praetorian prefecture of Italy, the most important administrative and judicial non-imperial position in the Western Empire, and succeeded in that office by Anicius Acilius Glabrio Faustus. He was awarded a second consulship in 443. In 445, he was granted the title of patrician, the empire's senior honorific title, which was limited to a very small number of holders. During this year, he was briefly the most honoured of all non-imperial Romans until the third consulate of Flavius Aëtius, generalissimo, or magister militum, of the Western Empire, the following year. Between 443 and 445, Maximus built a forum, the Forum Petronii Maximi, in Rome, on the Caelian Hill between the via Labicana and the Basilica di San Clemente.

Murder of Valentinian III and accession of Maximus

According to the historian John of Antioch, Maximus poisoned the mind of the Emperor against Aëtius, resulting in the murder of his rival at the hands of Valentinian III. John's account has it that Valentinian and Maximus placed a wager on a game that Maximus ended up losing. As he did not have the money available, Maximus left his ring as a guarantee of his debt. Valentinian then used the ring to summon to court Lucina, the chaste and beautiful wife of Maximus, whom Valentinian had long lusted after. Lucina went to the court, believing she had been summoned by her husband, but instead found herself at dinner with Valentinian. Although she initially resisted his advances, the Emperor managed to wear her down and succeeded in raping her. Returning home and meeting Maximus, she accused him of betrayal, believing that he had handed her over to the Emperor. Although Maximus swore revenge, he was equally motivated by ambition to supplant "a detested and despicable rival", so he decided to move against Valentinian.

According to John of Antioch, Maximus was acutely aware that while Aëtius was alive, he could not exact vengeance on Valentinian, so Aëtius had to be removed. He therefore allied himself with a eunuch of Valentinian's, the primicerius sacri cubiculi Heraclius, who had long opposed the general, with the hope of exercising more power over the emperor. The two of them convinced Valentinian that Aëtius was planning to assassinate him and urged him to kill his magister militum during a meeting, which Valentinian did with his own hands, with the help of Heraclius, on 21 September 454.

Once Aëtius was dead, Maximus asked Valentinian for Aëtius's now-vacant position, but the Emperor refused. Moreover, Heraclius had advised the Emperor not to allow anyone to possess the power that Aëtius had wielded. According to John of Antioch, Maximus was so irritated by Valentinian's refusal to appoint him as his magister militum that he decided to have Valentinian assassinated as well. He chose as accomplices Optilia and Thraustila, two Scythians who had fought under the command of Aetius and who, after the death of their general, had been appointed as Valentinian's escort.

Maximus easily convinced them that Valentinian was the only one responsible for the death of Aetius, and that the two soldiers must avenge their old commander, while at the same time also promising them a reward for the betrayal of the Emperor. On 16 March 455, Valentinian, who was in Rome, went to Campus Martius with some guards, accompanied by Optilia, Thraustila, and their men. As soon as the Emperor dismounted to practice with the bow, Optilia came up with his men and stabbed him in the temple. As Valentinian turned to look at his attacker, Optila finished him off with another thrust of his blade. At the same moment, Thraustila killed Heraclius. The two Scythians took the imperial diadem and robe and brought them to Maximus.

The sudden and violent death of Valentinian III left the Western Roman Empire without an obvious successor to the throne. Several candidates were supported by various groups of the imperial bureaucracy and the military. In particular, the army's support was split among three main candidates: Maximianus, the former domesticus (bodyguard) of Aëtius, who was the son of an Egyptian merchant named Domninus who had become rich in Italy; the future emperor Majorian, who commanded the army after the death of Aetius and who had the backing of the Empress Licinia Eudoxia; and Maximus himself, who had the support of the Roman Senate and who secured the throne on 17 March by distributing money to the officials of the imperial palace.

Reign and death

After gaining control of the royal palace, Maximus consolidated his hold on power by immediately marrying Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian. She married him reluctantly, suspecting that he had been involved in the murder of her late husband, and indeed Maximus treated Valentinian III's assassins with considerable favour. The eastern court at Constantinople refused to recognize his accession. To further secure his position, Maximus quickly appointed Avitus as magister militum and sent him on a mission to Toulouse to gain the support of the Visigoths. He also proceeded to cancel the betrothal of Licinia's daughter, Eudocia, to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Geiseric, and married her to his son. Again, he anticipated that this would further his and his family's imperial credentials. This repudiation infuriated the Vandal king, who only needed the excuse of Licinia's despairing appeal to the Vandal court to begin preparations for the invasion of Italy.

By May, within two months of Maximus gaining the throne, news reached Rome that Geiseric was sailing for Italy. As the news spread, panic gripped the city, and many of its inhabitants took to flight. The Emperor, aware that Avitus had not yet returned with the expected Visigothic aid, decided that it was fruitless to mount a defence against the Vandals. So he attempted to organize his escape, urging the Senate to accompany him. However, in the panic, Petronius Maximus was abandoned by his bodyguard and entourage and left to fend for himself.

As Maximus rode out of the city on his own on 31 May 455, he was set upon by an angry mob, which stoned him to death (another account has it that he was killed by "a certain Roman soldier named Ursus"). His body was mutilated and flung into the Tiber. He had reigned for only 75 days. His son from his first marriage, Palladius, who had held the title of Caesar between 17 March and 31 May, and who had married his stepsister Eudocia, was probably executed.

Aftermath

On 2 June 455, three days after Maximus' death, Geiseric captured the city of Rome and sacked it for two weeks. Amidst the pillaging and looting of the city, and in response to the pleas of Pope Leo I, the Vandals are said to have refrained from arson, torture, and murder. Some modern historians assert that temples, public buildings, private houses, and even the emperor's palace were destroyed. The Vandals also shipped many boatloads of Romans to North Africa as slaves, destroyed works of art, and killed several citizens. The Vandals' activities during the sack gave rise to the modern term vandalism. Geiseric also carried away the empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters Placidia and Eudocia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronius_Maximus

Charles Dickinson: Attorney/Duelist

 

Charles Dickinson (December 20, 1780 – May 30, 1806) was an American attorney and slave trader who was killed by Andrew Jackson in a duel. An expert marksman, Dickinson was shot in the chest by the future president due to a protracted disagreement that originated in an incident involving a horse that Jackson owned. Jackson himself was also wounded in the duel, but recovered.

Early life

Dickinson was born at Wiltshire Manor in Caroline County, Maryland, the son of Elizabeth Walker and Henry Dickinson, the grandson of Sophia Richardson and Charles Dickinson (1695–1795), and the great-grandson of Rebecca Wynne (daughter of Thomas Wynne) and John Dickinson. Dickinson's father was the Treasurer of the Eastern Shore in 1777–78. He studied law under U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, who wrote formal letters of introduction and recommendation for his student. Dickinson owned a house in Maryland for three years before moving to Tennessee, where he became a successful horse breeder and plantation owner.

A history of Caroline County published in 1920 describes Dickinson as "brave and reckless, a trader in blacks and blooded horses, and reputed to be the best shot in the country." According to a blurb in a New Castle, Pennsylvania newspaper in 1883, Dickinson had a place in Preston, Caroline County, Maryland, but "he sold it to embark in Negro trading. The old mansion is greatly dilapidated, and the farm is unproductive." The paper also claimed, most likely erroneously, that Dickinson had been buried in the family cemetery there. An 1882 description of the farm, published in a Denton, Maryland paper, reads, "The dwelling, which is quite large and contains many rooms, is much decayed and badly in need of repairs. The old barn, built and used for a temporary jail in which slaves were confined before being sold south, is a picture of desolation, but still retains in its massive timbers the staples and ringbolts to which many a hapless mother was chained after bidding a last sad farewell to her children before leaving them forever."

Within two years of his arrival in Tennessee, he courted and married the daughter of Captain Joseph Erwin. Unfortunately for Dickinson, he also ran afoul of fellow plantation owner and horse breeder Andrew Jackson.

According to Plantation Life on the Mississippi (1961), "It is probable that [Dickinson] went to Nashville on the invitation of Andrew Jackson. In Maryland's Colonial Eastern Shore, edited by Swepson Earle (1916), it is stated: 'Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, attending the sessions at Philadelphia of the Fourth Congress as a Representative, and of the Fifth as a Senator, is said to have visited Caroline County, Maryland and to have been a guest at the Daffin home, as well as at others on the Eastern bank of the Chesapeake. Here he made the acquaintance of young Charles Dickinson, whom he successfully urged to move to Tennessee. The sequel to their one-time friendship and business relations, which did not survive the exigencies of Tennessee politics and social life, was the duel on the Red River in Kentucky in which Dickinson fell." The history of Caroline County, published in 1920, states, "Daffin House in Tuckahoe Neck, built by Thomas Daffin in 1783, was the scene of many social gatherings in its early days. It is said that Andrew Jackson, while visiting there, met Charles Dickinson, a brother of his hostess, whom he later killed in a duel in Kentucky."

An acquaintance of 10 or more years, then, may be the basis of claims made by Jackson in a letter written after the duel: "...for the present it will only be observed that the deceased, could not be called a Citizen of this state—that he was engaged in the humane persuit of purchasing Negroes in Maryland and carrying them to Natchez & Louisa and thus making a fortune of speculating on human flesh—can it be that because he was engaged in this human trafic, he commands this unusual respect from his honour the Judge, the two Doctors, and the petyfoging lawyer..." Jackson was an interstate slave trader himself, although he always denied it publicly, but with apparently unabashed hypocrisy, he repeatedly accused his enemies of participating in the trade using the moral argument as a bludgeon when it was convenient for him.

Horse race dispute

In 1805, a friend of Jackson's deprecated how Captain Erwin had handled a bet with Jackson over a horse race. Erwin's horse, Ploughboy, was scheduled to race Jackson's horse, Truxton; however, Erwin's horse had to drop out of the race. According to the pre-race agreement, if a horse was unable to race, a forfeit fee of $800 would be paid to the injured party, in this case, Jackson. However, Jackson and Erwin disagreed on how this was to be paid, and a nasty quarrel ensued. Erwin's son-in-law, Charles Dickinson, became enraged and started quarreling with Jackson's friend, which led to Jackson becoming involved. Dickinson wrote to Jackson, calling him a "coward and an equivocator". The affair continued, with more insults and misunderstandings, until Dickinson published a statement in the Nashville Review in May 1806, calling Jackson a "worthless scoundrel ... a poltroon and a coward".

The political atmosphere in Nashville was heated by ambition. John Coffee, a friend of Jackson's, had fought a duel earlier in the year with one of Dickinson's associates, and there were larger political and sporting interests involved. The Jackson–Dickinson duel, like that between Aaron Burr—a political friend of Jackson's at the time—and Alexander Hamilton had been developing over some time.

Although the actual issue that led to the duel was a horse race between Jackson and Dickinson's father-in-law, Joseph Erwin, Jackson had confronted Dickinson over a report that he had insulted his wife, Rachel Jackson. Dickinson said if he had, he was drunk at the time and apologized. Jackson accepted his apology. Jackson and Erwin had scheduled their horse race in 1805. The stakes specified a winning pot of $2,000 paid by the loser, with an $800 forfeit if a horse could not run. Erwin's horse went lame, and after a minor disagreement about the type of forfeit payment, Erwin paid. The minor disagreement, according to the Caroline County history, was related to "notes," a form of payment: "The bet was accepted, and a list of notes made out; but when the time for running arrived, Erwin and Dickinson chose to pay the forfeit. Erwin offered sundry notes not due, withholding the list which was in the hands of Dickinson. Jackson refused to receive them and demanded the list, claiming the right to select from the notes described upon it. The list was produced, a selection made, and the affair satisfactorily adjusted. Afterwards, a rumor reached Dickinson that General Jackson charged Erwin with producing a list of notes different from the true ones. In an interview between Jackson and Dickinson, the former denied the statement, and the latter gave his author. Jackson instantly proposed to call him in, but Dickinson declined. Meeting with the author shortly after, Jackson had an altercation with him, which ended in blows. Here, the affair ought to have ended. But some desired to produce a duel between Jackson and Dickinson..."

As told by Jackson biographer Robert V. Remini, one of Jackson's friends, while sitting in a Nashville store, shared what was probably a more lurid story about Erwin's disputed payment. When Dickinson heard the story, he sent a friend, Thomas Swann, to act as a go-between to inquire about what Jackson said about his father-in-law. Whether the friend misinterpreted or even misrepresented what was said by the two men, this minor misunderstanding flamed into full controversy.

In a confrontation at Winn's Tavern, Jackson struck Swann with his cane and called him a stupid meddler. Dickinson sent Jackson a letter calling him a coward at about the same time that Swann wrote a column in a local newspaper calling Jackson a coward. Jackson responded in the same newspaper, claiming that Swann was a "lying valet for a worthless, drunken, blackguard", meaning Dickinson. 

This was the last straw for Dickinson, who, after he returned from New Orleans in May 1806, published an attack on Jackson in the local newspaper, calling him "a poltroon and a coward". After reading the article, Jackson sent Dickinson a letter requesting "satisfaction due me for the insults offered".

Death

Kentucky Department of Highways historical marker on the town square in Adairville, Kentucky, recalling the duel between Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson that took place nearby in 1806

Dueling was illegal in Tennessee. However, under the United States' early 1800s criminal law, it was very difficult to be extradited across state lines. As a result, the two men met near Adairville, Kentucky, adjacent to the Tennessee border, on May 30, 1806. Dickinson left Nashville the day before the duel with his second and a group of friends, confident, even demonstrating his shooting skills at various stops along the way. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson and his friend, Thomas Overton, determined it would be best to let Dickinson fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness. The obvious weakness of this tactic was, of course, that Jackson might not be alive to take aim.

Jackson and Overton also devised a strategy that, if Overton should win the coin toss to give the word to fire, he would ask Dickinson the question "Gentleman, are you ready?" purposefully after asking Jackson, and then would immediately say "Fire" in an attempt to cause Dickinson to fire impulsively. Overton did indeed win the coin toss and subsequently used this strategy.

Dickinson fired first, hitting Jackson in the chest. Incredibly, Jackson not only survived, merely wounded, but also aimed his pistol and returned fire. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took his shot. Jackson's pistol stopped at half cock, so he drew back the hammer and aimed again, this time hitting Dickinson in the chest. Dickinson bled to death as a result of his wound. 

The expert Dickinson had aimed at Jackson's heart, though the bullet had been slightly deflected by Jackson's brass button on his coat, which some claim was due to him deliberately wearing loose clothing over his lean frame. It has also been suggested that Jackson adopted a careful sideways stance to ensure that his heart was not obstructed. The bullet broke some of Jackson's ribs and ended up lodged inches from his heart. While Jackson could easily have been incapacitated by such a wound, an unconfirmed account later claimed that while conversing with a friend on his deathbed, he stated, "If he had shot me through the brain, sir, I should still have killed him."

Doctors determined that the bullet lodged in Jackson's chest was too close to his heart to operate, so Jackson carried it for the rest of his life, suffering much pain from the wound. Locals were outraged that Dickinson had to stand defenseless while Jackson re-cocked and shot him. This was a confusing application of the rules of dueling, as snaps were considered as good as a shot. A snap implies that the hammer fell completely and failed to cause a shot, but a half cock is not a snap. Dickinson's second nervously permitted Jackson to re-cock his pistol. Some might claim that Jackson could have shot into the air or shot only to injure Dickinson; this would have been considered sufficient satisfaction under dueling rules. Jackson replied that Dickinson had meant to "kill the gent," so Jackson had also shot to kill. Jackson's reputation suffered greatly from the duel.

Dickinson's son's slaves built Live Oak Plantation (Iberville Parish, Louisiana) ("Traditional Opulence of South Reached Peak at Live Oak Plantation" by Albert Procter, The American Progress, Hammond, Louisiana, January 6, 1939)

Burial places

According to a history of Nashville published in 1912, "His remains were brought back to Nashville and interred upon one of the highest points of his father-in-law's extensive estate, his funeral, according to the custom of the time, taking place some weeks after his death. At the time of his duel, Dickinson's family consisted of a young wife and an infant child. The latter, grown to manhood two generations ago, placed around the lonely grave in the woodland a cedar fence, which over time was supplanted by the box tomb now covering the grave." He was reinterred in the Old City Cemetery in Nashville after his grave was rediscovered in 2010. By that time, the original grave site had become unmarked, and claims had been made that his remains were buried elsewhere.

Caroline County, Maryland has a historical marker asserting that Dickinson is buried there: "Body returned here by Truxton faithful Negro servant. Lead casket found 500 yards east of this spot Dec. 1, 1965." A man named Huyett Truxton claimed that his grandfather had escorted Dickinson's body back to Maryland for burial, as per Dickinson's express wish, "sealed in a lead casket and 'sloshing' in alcohol all the way."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickinson_(attorney_and_duelist)