I have neither the desire to marry you nor the temperament to tolerate further your repeated importuning, declared 41-year-old Elizabeth Dowsette when Joseph Bergeron came knocking at her door for the umpteenth time. Small wonder she was cross. She knew Bergeron, a tinsmith, had abandoned his wife and five children to pursue her, and several times before this she had advised him to go back to his family.
A seething Bergeron, accompanied by his brother, spent that night in a hotel in New Haven, Connecticut. Next day, June 4th, 1913, he rose early and told his brother to expect some fun that day. Together they went to a pawnshop and bought a loaded handgun. After that, both repaired to the saloon, where they drank heavily. Then they set off for Mrs. Dowsettes house at number 53, Locke Street.
When they arrived Bergeron said to his brother: You wait at the corner of the street. Ill soon settle her hash. He pounded on Mrs. Dowsettes door, demanding admittance. When she opened it he forced his way in.
Ill give you one final chance to accept me as your husband, he said.
Mr. Dowsette replied angrily: Get off my property. Youre drunk!
At that Bergeron drew his gun and fired four times. Mrs. Dowsette, described in a chronicle of the times as a comely widow, fell dying. Bergeron stopped only long enough to gather up her two-year-old child and take him to a neighbours house for safe keeping, before he rejoined his brother on the street corner and calmly walked away.
He was still walking through the streets of New Haven when police arrested him. He was tried, sentenced to death, and hanged on Tuesday, August 11th, 1914, at Connecticut State Prison.