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| Frances Nesbitt |
On February 19, 1926 a man named Johnson West received a
frantic phone call from his neighbor, Jacob Nesbitt. Hysterical, Nesbitt barely
managed to get out the information that his wife, Francis, was in the bathtub,
and that she was dead.
When authorities arrived, Fran was indeed murdered, if the
blood that was covering the bathroom was anything to go by. It was a tragedy
amongst the community. The happy couple had only been married 13 months, their
lives together had barely started.
Fran was a saleswoman for the Hobart manufacturing company.
She was their top saleswoman, adept at selling kitchen appliances. She was a
graduate from Ohio state, and was athletic, playing tennis and swimming. The
town felt for Jacob’s loss.
Jacob told the authorities that he had been in Dayton for a
business meeting all day. That when he got home, the house was dark and
unlocked. When he called for her, she didn’t answer. He turned on a light and
saw a trail of blood leading to the bathroom.
What is the first rule of investigating violence against
women? If you’ve watched enough crime television, it’s to always suspect the
significant other. This particular case was no different. After other leads
failed to work out, Jacob eventually confessed to strangling Frances and
bashing her head with a log. This log was later burned by her brother to keep
the house warm, unknowingly destroying the murder weapon.
This case shocked a nation. But the response to the case is
personally more shocking. You see, at some point during Jacob’s testimony, word
got out that Frances smoked nightly before she went to bed. At the time, this
was a primarily masculine activity. Women simply did not smoke. At some point
during the investigation, word got out that the Huburt company had described
her as their best “salesman.” To many people, Fran’s assumed masculinity meant
that she deserved whatever violence she had coming. Unfortunately, this case,
with the murder victim being one to cast off society’s ideas of gender, has
strong ties to many instances of violence. To me, it is extremely appalling
that anyone would ever think that a murder victim deserves it. It sometimes
makes me wonder how our descendants will look at crimes that occur today.
sources: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/justice-story-article-1.213652
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19330905&id=zc1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=slQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2353,6732710&hl=en
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