The latest episode of Crossroads of Rockland History revisited one of the most tragic events in Rockland County history.
On July 23, 1914, in the village of Haverstraw, 20 miles north of New York City, local political leader William V. Cleary shot and killed his 18-year-old son-in-law Eugene M. Newman, the son of a local newspaper publisher.
In a dramatic trial five months later, Cleary was acquitted by a jury packed with his political supporters. This trial immediately became the subject of an intensive inquiry by a special New York State commission. The commission uncovered gross irregularities in the handling of this case, but took virtually no corrective action.
Cleary’s defense was temporary insanity, brought on, he claimed, by the fact that Newman had impregnated, then secretly married, Cleary’s daughter Anna. Anna testified in her father’s defense, that Cleary had known about the pregnancy but not about the wedding.
This, along with Cleary’s dramatic embrace of Anna as she was called to the stand, was said to have had an inordinate emotional impact upon the jury.
Host Clare Sheridan interviews the grand-nephew of the murder victim, now living in Chicago, Illinois, Gene Newman. Newman shared the details of the crime and trial event and the which has been described as a major scandal involving political and legal corruption in New York State.
You can listen to the podcast online here.
For a full list of New York Almanack podcasts announcements click HERE.
Illustration: William V. Cleary.
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