Carlyle Harris

Murderer

1known / alleged victims

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Case Facts

Gender: male
Country: USA
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Date of birth: 1868
Age at first offence: 23
Characteristics: parricide, poisoner
Victim profile: Helen Potts, 18 (his wife )
Method of murder: Poisoning (overdose of morphine)
Date(s) of murder: January 31, 1891
Years active: 1891
Date of arrest: March 23, 1891
Status: Executed
Executed by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison on May 7, 1893

Case Summary

Case identification

Carlyle Harris was executed by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison on May 7, 1893.

Timeline

1892 — Harris was prosecuted for the first-degree murder of his young wife Helen Potts and was found guilty; the court sentenced him to death.
May 7, 1893 — Harris was executed by the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison.

Background

Carlyle Harris (1868-May 7, 1893) was a New York medical student at New York College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The offence

Carlyle Harris murdered his young wife Helen Potts in 1892 by overdosing her with morphine in the form of sleeping pills. Although Helen Potts’s death was first attributed to a stroke, the murder was discovered by physicians because she displayed severely contracted pupils, a characteristic symptom of morphine poisoning.

Harris reportedly divulged his method to a friend: “[He said he] could overcome any woman's scruples ... one method was to take a bottle of ginger ale and put in it a very large portion of whisky, the other was to marry her, but under an assumed name.”

Investigation

Physicians discovered that Helen Potts’s death involved morphine poisoning because she displayed severely contracted pupils.

Trial

During his trial in early 1892, Harris was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Charles E. Simms, Jr. The witnesses against him included noted physician Dr. Rudolph Witthaus.

Harris’s parents hired prominent defence attorney William F. Howe.

Harris was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Sentencing

The court sentenced Harris to death after his first-degree murder conviction.

Appeals

Despite request for an appeal, Harris was executed on May 7, 1893.

Outcome

Carlyle Harris was executed by the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on May 7, 1893.

Aftermath

The detective novel Max Hensig, Bacteriologist by Algernon Blackwood, who had been a police reporter for the New York Times during the murder trial, referenced the case. Journalist and author Bernard Barshay wrote the story “The Case of the Six Capsules” based on the events of the trial. This story was later recorded on the record Four American Murder Mysteries.

Other details

References listed included:

Wilkes, Roger. The Mammoth Book of Murder and Science. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2000. ISBN 0-7867-0789-5
Trager, James. The New York Chronology: A Compendium of Events, People, and Anecdotes from the Dutch to the Present. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-06-074062-0

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