I'd like to once again express my deep thanks to Ann Cardon, [email protected], of Houston, Texas for sharing Robert Wynkoop Lansing's tale of the "Whipple - Strang Tragedy" with me and her extreme patience with me while it sat on my desk, buried under the press of other commitments. She gave me another terrific transcription to work from, which vastly eased my already overburdened workload. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

    Finally, I'd like to thank her for her permission to post a copy of the "Whipple - Strang Tragedy" here for the rest of us to enjoy.

    This document only surfaced recently and was part of the material already posted as "The Autobiography of Robert Wynkoop Lansing". Like the earlier manuscript, it too is written in his own hand.

    If you have a family document that you'd like to share with the rest of us please contact me at [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you.

    In the meantime, enjoy!

    Chris

    This story was included with the Autobiography of Robert Wynkoop Lansing dated 1878. - A. C.

  
    Preliminary to a recital of this fatal event, I would make the following statement to a right understanding of the case.
    Abraham A, Lansing, was the guardian of Elsie D. Lansing, who was the daughter of his brother, (then deceased,) and his only prospective heir, leaving a large amount of real estate, to her mother and herself. Her Mother died some years before this murder, so, Elsie became sole heir of the Estate.
    At about the age of fifteen years, she had become a wild, frolicksome girl, loved to play and have fun with other girls and boys, and was not proficient in her studies, she being a scholar in the same select school with myself. She lived nearly opposite the school house, in what was then old Court street, (now South market Street) Albany, N.Y. and was so strictly under the surveillance of her guardian and the members of the family with whom he boarded, that she was seldom seen alone outside of their front door, in the street, Except when going to and returning from School. Her play ground

was the backyard and stable, where she invited her playmates, they entering through the backway. So strict were the family in their ill advised and merciless treatment of the truly beautiful and sportive Elsie, that they even nailed the windows and doors, at night, to keep her secure from flight, and denied her the least sociable intercourse with company of her own rank in life. Thus inhibited, it was not strange for a girl, like her, full of life and vivacity, and panting for the liberty, freeness and sociability, that others so lovingly Enjoyed, that she should become alienated in her affections for her relatives, and to form and foster the conception to leave her imprisonment, and to become lecherous, if that were the only means to her freedom; which lewdness soon followed in an awful and fearful degree, as the sequel will too plainly show.
    Mr Whipple, the final victim of her Engendered lust, was a gentleman, in all respects, an honest, upright, intelligent and laborious man, highly respected and admired by all who knew him, and boarded with his brother, a gentleman of like character, who lived the next door to the

residence of Elsie�s guardian; and here in the process of time, Mr Whipple, (the Strang victim) became amorously acquainted with Elsie, the then prisoner of hope, and adapted means for her escape and Elopement, which was peaceably Effected one night, they going to Troy, six miles north of Albany, where the knot between the lovers was effectually tied.
    The guardian and my father were familiar old cronies, and the next morning after the escapement of his prot�g�, and after breakfast time, the old gent came on horseback to my fathers house, and told him the sad story of Elsie�s Elopement. Upon consultation, they agreed to have my brother Cornelius, straddle the pony and go to Troy, and intercept the fugitives. Five minutes after he had started, they got me to run after my brother, and tell him to come back, as they rightfully concluded the thing was done, and the play ended. They then each took a nip of gin and sugar, lit their pipes, and puffed away severely, in their perplexity.

    Philip P. Van Rensselaer, who was related to the Lansing family, & who was the proprietor of the house where the guardian boarded, subsequent to the Elopement of Elsie, sold out, and bought & removed to a place called �Cherry Hill�, about two & a half miles from the centre of the City, south, on the west bank of the Hudson river. This was one of the most delightful locations about Albany. Here, the guardian also lived, and as Mr Whipple was a skipper (master & owner of a sloop) and plied his occupation between Albany and New York, was absent, in his voyages, many days at a time, Mrs Whipple boarded at Cherry Hill, as did Whipple on his return voyages. Here, after about one years residence of Mr Van Rensselaer, Strang, (the murderer) entered the family as a laborer under the feigned name of Joseph Orton. In this character seduced the affections of Mrs Whipple, and won her to his lusts. She had one boy, then about Eight years old. Strang bought a rifle in the City, with which he shot Whipple, one night, while Whipple was sitting at his desk, in an upper room, at

Cherry Hill, adjusting the accounts of his last voyage. Strang mounted the shed in rear of the house, and fired diagonally through a pane of glass, when Whipple arose, walked about six feet to the descending stairs, & when on the first step, fell backwards and died on the spot. Young Abraham Van Rensselaer was sitting beside him at the time. I afterwards saw the mark of his blood on the floor where he fell.
    One picture more and I have done. Mrs, Whipple was not more than 26 years of age, possessed of beauty and fortune, though without much education, and miserably defective in principle. Vain, weak, frivolous, wanton and inconstant in character, and in condu[c]t, imprudent, silly, lewd, presumptuous, treacherous and guilty, no doubt, to some Extent, for the murder of her husband, in the eye of the law, she was a fit instrument in Strang�s hands, an artful and designing villian [sic]. He was tried and convicted of this murder, Aug. 2, 1827, and was subsequently hung, near the jail.

    En passent, I will here remark that Strang was the son of a respectable farmer of Dutchess County, N.Y. was then about thirty years of age, and was a married man and had deserted his wife.
    I took a drawing of the glass, through which he fired, and in its shattered condition, and it was pronounced a fac similie of a side view of his face. He was a dastardly looking fellow, and did not belie his incentive for blood.
    On the 3^d day of August 1827, (the next day after Strang�s conviction) Elsie D. Whipple, was brought into Court, and was arraigned under a similar indictment as particeps criminus, or accessory before the murder. The District Attorney made a motion to have Strang sworn and Examined as a witness against Mrs, Whipple. This motion was opposed, and it being then argued, pro and con, Judge Duer, at a subsequent day, decided, against the motion, upon the ground, that Strang having been convicted of an infamous crime, was thereby incompetent as a witness; and that he could only be admitted from necessity or policy, and at the discretion of the Court. Both of these points were promptly decided against him.

Mrs Whipple then went scott free; but, the prevailing opinion was entertained, that she was Equally guilty, and ought to have suffered the severe penalty of the law. I was at the trial.
    Mrs, Whipple, afterwards went off, and got married again, but her second husband being dead, she lived miserably and died unhappy. This last account was given me by information.
    There are many other incidents connected with this infamous and bloody transaction, which might be given, showing the animus of the detestable parties; but, let this suffice.

R. W. Lansing,

       Keep the foregoing narration for future use, if need. It is imperfect I know, and has but little or no form or order. I wrote this at one sitting, and am weary.

Source:

Ann Cardon, ( [email protected])
Houston, Texas

    For those of you who would like to know more about this event I suggest you visit the following websites:

The Murder of John Whipple.

Centennial Update: The Albany Argus & City Gazette, Thursday Morning, July 25, 1827.

Ghosts in the Capital Region.

Lycoming Gazette, Williamsport, PA, 10 May 1826-31 Dec 1836.

    There have even been a couple of books published about the case:

Pepper, C., The Confession of Jesse Strang, who was Executed at Albany, August 24, 1827, for the Murder of John Whipple. Made to C. Pepper, Esq., One Of His Counsel, Albany, Printed by John B. Van Steenbergh, 1827, 35 page pamphlet

and:

Jones, Louis Clark, Murder at Cherry Hill: The Strang-Whipple Case, 1827, Albany, Published by Historic Cherry Hill, 1980

    Good hunting!

    Chris