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Oscar
J. COMERY
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Poisoner - Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
November 29, 1914
Date
of arrest: January 1, 1915
Date of birth: 1881
Victim profile: His
wife
Method of murder: Poisoning (strychnine)
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
Status: Executed by hanging at the
New Hampshire State Prison on February 18, 1916
Oscar J. Comery(1881 or 1882 – February 18, 1916) was executed in Concord, New Hampshire at 12:31 a.m. at the New
Hampshire State Prison. According to the Concord Evening Monitor,
February 18, 1916, Oscar J. Comery was convicted of murdering his
wife.
He confessed to
killing his wife by poisoning her with strychnine by replacing the
quinine his wife normally took with the poison. An autopsy was
performed and strychnine was determined to be the cause of death.
Mr. Comery killed
his wife on November 29, 1914, was arrested on January 1, 1915,
brought to trial on February 8, 1915, where he "pleaded guilty to
murder in the first degree with the expectation that the court would
sentence him to life imprisonment" (Concord Evening Monitor).
Oscar Comery was
one of only three people executed by the State of New Hampshire in
the 20th century. The other two were
Frederick Small in 1918 and Howard Long in 1939.
Wikipedia.org
February 18th 1916
Oscar Comery – USA
When baby dies suddenly and within days mother also
dies, mysteriously and in agony, and all this happens just as dad has
a new girl friend – well, there are at least grounds for suspicion.
Dad was Oscar Comery, 31, distinguished as one of
the first full-time car mechanics in the new motor age in Manchester,
New Hampshire. Sensing the future for automobiles, Comery had studied
the internal combustion engine as a teenager and as the 20th century
dawned he was making a good living from car repairs.
But despite his married status he was squandering
the profits on women. When his wife in her death agony confided
certain misgivings to the minister who was to conduct her funeral, the
clergyman went to the police. The body of Bertha Comery was exhumed
and found to be saturated with strychnine. Comery had bought the
poison from a local chemist ostensibly for the purpose of putting down
a dog.
He pleaded guilty to his wife’s murder in
anticipation of a custodial sentence, but then the court was told that
he had been sleeping with his latest girl friend since she was 12. The
jury decided that this was too much to stomach – and sentenced him to
die. He was hanged on Friday, February 18th, 1916, at New Hampshire
State Prison.
