Murder Most Foul
Things got even steamier between William Pettit and Elma Whitehead when Hattie Pettit left town in June of 1889, for a month long visit to an old friend in South Bend. With his wife away, the Reverend moved into the Meharry residence, into a room across the hall from Elma’s. The maid, whom William Pettit had hounded before going after her mistress, heard them having sex at night. Others observed the duo acting intimately when they thought they were alone together. It was during this time that they reportedly hatched the plot to murder the Reverend’s wife.
On July 1st, 1889, shortly before his wife’s return, William tried to buy some strychnine from a merchant, but it was out of stock. When he asked that some be ordered for him, something about the Reverend’s manner made the merchant uneasy, and he declined. It was not a huge setback, as William had some leftover from the previous summer – he just was not sure whether it was still good. He tested on his daughter’s dog, and the pooch promptly keeled over. The plot was on.
Hattie Pettit returned on July 12th, and was dead within days, having been poisoned on at least three occasions. Only her husband and Elma Whitehead fed her during that period, and witnesses reported them feeding the victim shortly before she went into convulsions. A doctor friend of William, treated the victim. She actually suspected that she had strychnine poisoning, but thought she had ingested it accidentally while cleaning the cupboards a day earlier. Her husband dismissed that as womanly silliness, and convinced the doctor that she had malaria. Unsuspecting to the last, Hattie Pettit was grateful to Elma for nursing her, begging her at some point: “Don’t go away. I want you in the house“. She died on July 17th, 1889.
Reverend Pettit arranged a hurried funeral for his wife, after which her corpse was swiftly sent to her hometown for burial. Between that and the adulterous affair with Elma, suspicions sprouted that Hattie Pettit had been poisoned. Public pressure eventually convinced the authorities to act, and in November of 1889, Mrs. Pettit’s corpse was ordered exhumed and examined. Laboratory results revealed large amounts of strychnine in her body. Prosecutors immediately sent agents to arrest Pettit in Ohio. In the meantime, one of his fellow Freemasons and Methodist clergymen got Elma to tell him of her adulterous affair, and reveal that she had agreed to marry William Pettit three weeks before his wife’s death. However, she denied having played any role in her murder. Within days, he was testifying before a grand jury about all that Elma had told him.
In January of 1890, Elma Whitehead pled the 5th Amendment against self incrimination, and refused to answer grand jury questions. She specifically objected to the question: “State whether there was any talk or understanding of marriage, some time, had between you and said Pettit: said talk or agreement occurring prior to the 17th day of July, 1889“. She also refused to answer the question: “State whether or not there was any understanding or agreement between William F. Pettit and you as to marriage, after the 17th day of July, 1889“.