William Hooper Young
Encyclopedia
William Hooper Young was a convicted American
murder
er. In 1903, he was convicted of the "Pulitzer Murder" in New York City
and was sentenced to life imprisonment
.
. He was the son of John Willard Young
, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Hooper Young was a grandson of Brigham Young
, the president of the LDS Church and founder of Salt Lake City.
As a young adult, Hooper Young became an elder in the LDS Church, and in 1891 and 1892 he was a Mormon missionary
in the eastern United States. In 1893, Young left Salt Lake City and began moving from city to city and from job to job. During his travels, he lived in Seattle; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon
; Chicago
; New York City
; Washington, D.C.
; and Hoboken, New Jersey
. Young drifted away from the LDS Church and according to his relatives in Utah Territory, had become a morphine
addict. There were also rumors that he had left Salt Lake City because he had killed someone.
outside Jersey City, New Jersey
. Her abdomen had been stabbed and there was bruising on her head. Pulitzer was married but had been arrested a number of times for solicitation of prostitution
. A New York cabman was found who claimed that a few days previously he had taken Pulitzer and an unknown man to an apartment in New York City that was the home of Young's father, John Willard Young
. In the apartment, police found empty beer bottles, a bottle with chloral hydrate
crystals in it, a carving knife with blood on it, and blood on bedsheets, in a closet, under the kitchen sink, and on the floor and walls. The words "blood atonement
" were scrawled in a notebook, and underneath were several references to verses in the Bible
that discuss atonement for crime. It was determined that Pulitzer had died of a drug overdose from chloral poisoning and that the head brusing and abdomen stabbing occurred after her death.
when Pulitzer had disappeared, but that Young's son Hooper used the apartment when he was away. Hooper Young was arrested in Derby, Connecticut
, where he was found drunk and dressed like a hobo
. Initially, Young denied his identity, but eventually he admitted who he was. Young claimed that he, Pulitzer, and a third person named Charles Simpson Eiling had been in the apartment on the night of Pulitzer's death, and that when he had temporarily left the apartment to purchase whiskey, he returned to find Pulitzer dead. Young said that Eiling had murdered Pulitzer and that he had decided to help Eiling hide the body because he was afraid of disgracing his father when the matter became public. Young said he tried to cut Pulitzer's body up into small pieces, but that after he made a cut to the abdomen, he lost his nerve and was not able to do it. He did not admit to dumping Pulitzer's body in the canal, but he indicated that he was aware of what had happened to the body. A search was made for Charles Eiling, but no one of that name could be located.
, much speculation began about the motive for the murder. Because of references to blood atonement that had been found in the apartment, some speculated that Pulitzer was killed in accordance with the Mormon
principle of "blood atonement
", whereby a person atones for sinful behavior through the shedding of their own blood. Others suggested that Young and Pulitzer had had an illicit affair years earlier, when Young was a Mormon missionary in Perth Amboy, New Jersey
, which was Pulitzer's hometown. The actual motive for the murder was never determined.
. The judge stated that he was not willing to impose the death penalty because medical experts had suggested that Young was probably medically—though not legally—insane. Because a full trial was not completed, Young's motive or the truth behind his claims about another man being involved were never fully examined in court. Young served his sentence at Sing Sing
in Ossining
, New York.
The last recorded location of Hooper Young was that he was in Fair Oaks, California
in 1928 trying to locate one of his half-sisters. The date and place of Young's death are unknown.
's 2006 novel, The Open Curtain, the protagonist is a disaffected Mormon teenager who obsessively researches Young's involvement in Pulitzer's murder.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
er. In 1903, he was convicted of the "Pulitzer Murder" in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
.
Early life
Hooper Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah TerritoryUtah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
. He was the son of John Willard Young
John Willard Young
John Willard Young was a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He is one of the few individuals to have been an apostle of the LDS Church and a member of the First Presidency without ever having been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.-Early life and apostolic...
, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Hooper Young was a grandson of Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, the president of the LDS Church and founder of Salt Lake City.
As a young adult, Hooper Young became an elder in the LDS Church, and in 1891 and 1892 he was a Mormon missionary
Mormon missionary
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
in the eastern United States. In 1893, Young left Salt Lake City and began moving from city to city and from job to job. During his travels, he lived in Seattle; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
; Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
; New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
; and Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
. Young drifted away from the LDS Church and according to his relatives in Utah Territory, had become a morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
addict. There were also rumors that he had left Salt Lake City because he had killed someone.
Scene of the crime: the Young apartment
On September 19, 1902, the body of Anna Pulitzer was found in the Morris CanalMorris Canal
The Morris Canal was an anthracite-carrying canal that incorporated a series of water-driven inclined planes in its course across northern New Jersey in the United States. It was in use for about a century — from the late 1820s to the 1920s....
outside Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. Her abdomen had been stabbed and there was bruising on her head. Pulitzer was married but had been arrested a number of times for solicitation of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
. A New York cabman was found who claimed that a few days previously he had taken Pulitzer and an unknown man to an apartment in New York City that was the home of Young's father, John Willard Young
John Willard Young
John Willard Young was a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He is one of the few individuals to have been an apostle of the LDS Church and a member of the First Presidency without ever having been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.-Early life and apostolic...
. In the apartment, police found empty beer bottles, a bottle with chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....
crystals in it, a carving knife with blood on it, and blood on bedsheets, in a closet, under the kitchen sink, and on the floor and walls. The words "blood atonement
Blood atonement
In mormonism, blood atonement is a controversial doctrine that teaches that murder is so heinous that the atonement of Jesus does not apply. Thus, in order to atone for these sins, the perpetrators must have their blood shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering...
" were scrawled in a notebook, and underneath were several references to verses in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
that discuss atonement for crime. It was determined that Pulitzer had died of a drug overdose from chloral poisoning and that the head brusing and abdomen stabbing occurred after her death.
Hooper Young linked to death
It was discovered that John Willard Young had been in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
when Pulitzer had disappeared, but that Young's son Hooper used the apartment when he was away. Hooper Young was arrested in Derby, Connecticut
Derby, Connecticut
Derby is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 12,391 at the 2000 census. With of land area, Derby is Connecticut's smallest municipality.The city has a Metro-North railroad station called Derby – Shelton.-History:...
, where he was found drunk and dressed like a hobo
Hobo
A hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
. Initially, Young denied his identity, but eventually he admitted who he was. Young claimed that he, Pulitzer, and a third person named Charles Simpson Eiling had been in the apartment on the night of Pulitzer's death, and that when he had temporarily left the apartment to purchase whiskey, he returned to find Pulitzer dead. Young said that Eiling had murdered Pulitzer and that he had decided to help Eiling hide the body because he was afraid of disgracing his father when the matter became public. Young said he tried to cut Pulitzer's body up into small pieces, but that after he made a cut to the abdomen, he lost his nerve and was not able to do it. He did not admit to dumping Pulitzer's body in the canal, but he indicated that he was aware of what had happened to the body. A search was made for Charles Eiling, but no one of that name could be located.
Motive speculation
When the New York newspapers discovered that the prime suspect in Pulitzer's murder was the grandson of Brigham YoungBrigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, much speculation began about the motive for the murder. Because of references to blood atonement that had been found in the apartment, some speculated that Pulitzer was killed in accordance with the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
principle of "blood atonement
Blood atonement
In mormonism, blood atonement is a controversial doctrine that teaches that murder is so heinous that the atonement of Jesus does not apply. Thus, in order to atone for these sins, the perpetrators must have their blood shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering...
", whereby a person atones for sinful behavior through the shedding of their own blood. Others suggested that Young and Pulitzer had had an illicit affair years earlier, when Young was a Mormon missionary in Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 50,814. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to Raritan Bay.-Name:The Lenape...
, which was Pulitzer's hometown. The actual motive for the murder was never determined.
Murder trial and conviction
Young's murder trial began in New York City on February 4, 1903. Young pleaded not guilty. His trial commenced, but on February 10, Young told the court that he was willing to plead guilty to second degree murder. The judge accepted the plea and sentenced him to hard labor in state prison for the duration of his natural lifeLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. The judge stated that he was not willing to impose the death penalty because medical experts had suggested that Young was probably medically—though not legally—insane. Because a full trial was not completed, Young's motive or the truth behind his claims about another man being involved were never fully examined in court. Young served his sentence at Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
in Ossining
Ossining (town), New York
Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
, New York.
Parole and later life
In early 1924, Young was paroled. He was living with his father in New York City when his father died in February 1924.The last recorded location of Hooper Young was that he was in Fair Oaks, California
Fair Oaks, California
Fair Oaks is a census-designated place in Sacramento County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 30,912 at the 2010 census, up from 28,008 at the 2000 census. Fair Oaks's zip code is 95628...
in 1928 trying to locate one of his half-sisters. The date and place of Young's death are unknown.
In popular culture
In Brian EvensonBrian Evenson
Brian Evenson is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction. He has received degrees from Brigham Young University and the University of Washington . After leaving a teaching position at BYU, he held positions at Oklahoma State University, Syracuse University...
's 2006 novel, The Open Curtain, the protagonist is a disaffected Mormon teenager who obsessively researches Young's involvement in Pulitzer's murder.
Contemporary newspaper reports
- "Murdered Woman Found in Morris Canal", New York Times, 1902-09-19, p. 2
- "Pulitzer Murder Baffles the Detectives", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1902-09-19, p. 3
- "Slayer of Mrs. Anna Pulitzer is Known", New York Times, 1902-09-20, p. 1
- "Young's Trunk in Hands of the Chicago Police", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1902-09-20, p. 1
- "Young is Caught in Derby, Conn.", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1902-09-20, p. 1
- "Jewels of Murdered Anna Pulitzer Found", New York Times, 1902-09-21, p. 1
- "Prisoner at Derby May be Hooper Young", New York Times, 1902-09-22, p. 1
- "William Hooper Young Caught, Confesses", New York Times, 1902-09-23, p. 1
- "Will Waive Extradition", New York Times, 1902-09-23, p. 1
- "Young Says Another Did Actual Murder", 1902-09-24, p. 16
- "Found Place Where Young Bought Trunk", New York Times, 1902-09-25, p. 16
- "Hooper Young's Trial Today", New York Times, 1903-02-04, p. 16
- "Young Dragged to Court", New York Times, 1903-02-05, p. 16
- "Speed in Young's Trial", New York Times, 1903-02-07, p. 16
- "Young Admits His Guilt", New York Times, 1903-02-10, p. 5
- "Young Taken To Sing Sing", New York Times, 1903-02-14, p. 5
External links
- The Pulitzer Murder Case, The Virtual Dime Museum, 2008-05-29, accessed 2009-04-30
- Ardis E. ParshallArdis E. ParshallArdis E. Parshall is a historian, freelance researcher specializing in Mormon history, a blogger and a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune. Her history blog is Keepapitchinin. Parshall co-edited with Paul Reeve Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia, published in 2010 by ABC-CLIO.- External links :*...
, "Living history: From cowboy to killer: a Utah boy’s story", Salt Lake Tribune