Diversity Corner

A reward of $100 was offered for the arrest of the Flanagans. After an extensive search the Flanagan’s were caught and stood trial. The prosecution would claim that after drinking their fill and supposedly continuing onward to Ebensburg with their 19^th century version of bar hopping, they made a stop at Elizabeth Holder’s home and murdered her in cold blood. During the eleven-day trial, the prosecution presented lengthy testimony from those neighbors who were awoken by Elizabeth’s screams, and by Dr. Aristide Rodrigue who examined the body, among others.

After eleven days, a jury pronounced the brothers guilty of murder in the first degree, and a sentence of death was received that same month, but the Governor, David Porter, sent a timely reprieve. A significant bit of judicial drama ensued, as the Flanagan brothers tried desperately to appeal this ruling. The initial appeal had been refused by both the local judge and the district judge who were loath to overturn the verdict of the jury trial but was then appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, where a special counsel was appointed to oversee the notion of a retrial. There was a strong sense, especially among Irish immigrants and those sympathetic to them, that the initial trial was rushed, poorly run, and biased against Irishmen. Nevertheless, all appeals were declined, and it seemed all but certain that the order for the Flanagan’s executions would come swiftly.

Today, as in 1842, Americans are obsessed with the alluring mystery of murder. The events of Elizabeth Holder’s death so ingrained themselves into the local and state memories that, 40 years later, at the dedication of the newly built courthouse in Ebensburg, R. L. Johnston, Esq. recounted the murder, trial, and escape of the Flanagan brothers. The trial was so significant that being involved even merited a mention in your obituary. In the Ebensburg Cambria Freeman, on March 30, 1894, John Singer’s obituary identified him as “a juror and the last survivor in the celebrated murder trial of the Commonwealth vs. Bernard and Patrick Flanagan for the murder of Elizabeth Holder, which took place in October 1842, and which terminated in their conviction of murder in the first degree.” The case and its intricate and scandalous aftermath captured the attention and fascination of those living at the time, giving us a historical mirror of how Americans today are enraptured in the much more sophisticated major murder trials of today.

However, the disparity between criminal justice practices today and those of 1842 is extremely apparent. With modern technology and sensibilities, it is unfathomable that the sister of someone sentenced to death would somehow be able to charm away the keys, and successfully facilitate their escape. Criminal justice of the era had an extremely long way to go, and while still imperfect today, studying the practices of Betsy’s era shed a light on how much of justice we take for granted in our age.

This case also illustrates the anti-Irish sentiment existent at the time. The Flanagan brothers came to the United States before the Potato Famine, which would not hit Europe until 1845, yet the Irish still experienced enough discrimination that a major reason purported for re-trial was the alleged prejudices of the jurors. The Irish, like every group of immigrants to this country, would face an uphill climb on the road to cultural acceptance, and the actions of the Flanagan brothers was no great help to their compatriots who would soon flood Pennsylvania and the surrounding states.

As all three Flanagan siblings withdrew from the recorded pages of history, so did the lives of the residents of Ebensburg continue. The property owned by Betsy Holder was sold by her son in March 1854 and included the small log house in which she was killed. At one point, tavernkeeper William Wherry, the neighbor who found her body, owned the property. Though her house is long gone, if you wish to visit the site of one of Cambria County’s most interesting murders, the property where it stood is located at the end of the Ebensburg/Loretto exit of Route 22 West.