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| Minnie Cummings |
Minnie Cummings shot her husband, Dennis,
in the back of the head and killed him on Saturday, April 18, 1903.
They had been living apart for three
weeks, ever since Minnie filed charges against him for stealing her jewelry.
Minnie couldn’t understand. Judge Moore dismissed the case, ruling that a
husband couldn’t be found guilty of stealing from his wife, nor a wife guilty
of stealing from her husband. Not in Missouri, anyway.
Eleanor Duff, Minnie’s landlady, let Mr.
Cummings in the house around 5 p.m. on Saturday. A half-hour later, Minnie
knocked on her door.
“I have just shot my husband. He drew a
knife, and I had to shoot him or be killed myself.”
They sent for Dr. J. B. Rule. The body lay
on its back with a pocketknife and a pair of scissors nearby. When he finished
examining the body, Dr. Rule advised Minnie to surrender herself to the Four
Courts. But strangely, she stopped at Mrs. Harris’ diner on Locust Street for a
bite to eat before going to the police station.
The couple had been married for just under
a year. Minnie’s first husband, Edward Harris, died under mysterious
circumstances. Eventually, the police ruled it a homicide, but here was dead
husband number two with a bullet hole in his head, in the same spot as husband
number one.
She left and went to Dunn’s Pawn Shop at 912 Franklin Avenue and bought a pistol. When she got back home, Dennis demanded money. When she didn’t give him any, he tried to stab her with a pair of scissors. After a few minutes, her husband tossed the scissors aside. He yanked a knife out of his pocket, threatening to kill her.
“The back of his head was toward me, and I
fired,” said Minnie, “feeling that it was his life or mine.”
The other elephant in the room was Dennis
Cummings’s conversation with the police three days before he died. He told
Detective Harrington that he was afraid his wife would kill him. She was
jealous because of his affairs with other women. The police had letters from
her to her husband, confirming the threat.
Things got worse after Cummings broke into
her house at 2734 Lucas Avenue and stole her jewelry and $26 in cash. One time
she chased him down an alley waving a revolver, said Dennis. When she didn’t
get her property back, she filed charges against him on March 31.
During his time in prison for robbing
Minnie, Cummings told Detective Harrington, “That woman is going to kill me. I
know it.” Then he made a mysterious comment to Detective Keely, “She’s a devil
when she is started. One of these days, I’ll tell you something about that
woman that will open your eyes.”
The first thing detectives did after the killing of Dennis Cummings was to revisit Edward Harris’ suicide.
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| Minnine Cummings behind bars |
Minnie boasted she killed Edward Harris and robbed him, said Norah Behler. On the day he died, Harris withdrew $175 from the bank. When the detectives searched the body, he only had $10. What happened to the rest of the money?
Minnie told Mrs. Ridgely that Edward had tried
to kill himself. When she took the gun away, it accidentally went off.
Two other women—Menta Murray and Kate
Stage — said Minnie told them she accidentally shot him. Harris “was cleaning a
revolver to go hunting the next day. I asked him for it. In jest, I pointed it
at him, and it went off and hit him in the head.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified
Minnie Cummings as Marie Gebo. She was born in St.
Antoine, Canada, and had four husbands. Her first husband, James Durkee,
divorced her after a year and was living in Mooers, New York. Her second
husband, William Brown, died in an explosion at his employer’s place of
business. Her last two husbands, Edgar (Edward), Harris and Dennis Cummings,
met a violent end, most likely from the hand of Minnie Cummings.
A coroner’s inquest issued a guilty verdict charging Minnie Cummings with murder in the second degree.
During her trial, Minnie said her husband
often beat her and threatened to kill her. Several times, he fired a revolver
to emphasize the threat. In addition, Dennis Cummings never gave her any money
in the year they were together. Instead, she paid all the bills from her salary
as a dressmaker, where she earned ten dollars per week.
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| Minnie Cummings shot her hunband in the back of the head on April 18, 1903 |
Dennis’ temper had got the best of him before. He killed “Foxy” Reagan at Henley’s Saloon three years earlier. The jury acquitted him on a plea of self-defense, but it showed he was insane and violent when he was drinking.
Minnie was always on the move, trying to
stay one step ahead of him. She stayed in a new boardinghouse every week or
two. Dennis always found her and beat her, then took her money.
The night she shot him was the
worst.
“He came up close to me and cursed me,”
and said, “’I am going to kill you now.’
“Then he seized a pair of scissors and
tried to pull them apart. I just had time to grab the revolver, which was stuck
away at the foot of the bed. He was in the act of turning to attack me with a
knife, which he had taken from his pocket, having thrown away the scissors,
when I shot him.”
The jury returned a verdict of guilty of
murder in the second degree on July 14. Minnie was sentenced to ten years in
the penitentiary. She appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. They affirmed the
ruling of the lower court in June 1905.
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