THE EAST ORANGE BATHTUB MYSTERY PART II Click on Anything in Color to View Image or Photo THE TRIAL Although things to this point had moved rather quickly for a case of this complexity, they soon began to bog down. In early April, Virginia Wardlaw became ill and the trial needed to be postponed. In May, Detective William O'Neill contracted scarlet fever and another postponement was ordered. In June, the three sisters' aged mother, Martha Eliza Wardlaw, and the infant son of Ocey Snead, both died, necessitating yet another postponement. In August, two events occurred which further delayed the trail. The vacationing prosecutor suffered sunstroke, and Virginia Wardlaw again took ill, this time much more seriously. The ill Virginia Wardlaw was weakening rapidly, and prison authorities suspected that she might be trying to commit suicide by starving herself. Careful observation by her guards seem to bear this out as she usually gave away her food to other prisoners or simply discarded it when she thought no one was looking. She was transferred to a more healthy and airy building on the prison grounds and given full time nursing care. Finally, force-feeding was resorted to. The youngest sister in the family, Mrs. Bessie Spindle, and a younger brother, the Reverend Albert G. Wardlaw arrived from South Carolina on August 11, and hurried to her bedside. Caroline Martin and Mary Snead, however, were not permitted to visit their ailing sister. Virginia Wardlaw died later that afternoon. The death of Virginia Wardlaw made an already difficult case even more arduous. The only person who had admitted to being in the house where Ocey Snead died was herself dead, and there was speculation that the prosecution might drop the charges against the two remaining sisters. The state, however, vowed to go on, and a new trial date was set for early September. Unbelievably, one of the defense lawyers was stricken ill, and another delay ensued. On September 24, Caroline Martin's 65th birthday, there was another strange twist in the case. An attorney hired by Bessie Spindle and the Reverend Albert G. Wardlaw began proceedings to have Mrs. Martin declared legally insane. The court ordered her to be examined by three physicians and set a hearing date for November. On November 2, Mrs. Martin appeared before the court, and her lawyer began his arguments. Day after day dozens of witnesses testified as to the mental instability of the defendant. They told of her strange and bizarre behavior over the years. How she collected newspaper clippings, obsessively fretted over money, hoarded old clothing, and most importantly, how she controlled and ultimately ruined her two sisters' lives. For her part, Caroline Martin agreed with the state; she was perfectly sane. When the judge pointed this out, one of her doctors said, "A common delusion of insane people. She says she in sane and the rest of the world is insane." To this Mrs. Martin quipped, "I do. I mean specifically in Essex County." On December 9, the judge issued his ruling. Although he felt the defendant was emotionally unbalanced, she was legally sane. Mrs. Martin had won. She and her sister could now be tried for murder. The long awaited trial began on January 9, 1912, a full 404 days after the death of Ocey Snead, and ended on the same day. Through her attorney, and possibly with little understanding, Caroline Martin accepted a deal with the prosecutor and pled guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter. The maximum sentence the judge could impose was ten years in the state prison, but most observers felt that in deference to her age and mental condition he would sentence her to a term in a state mental institution, or even release her in the care of her family so she could be placed in a private sanitarium. Instead, as with everything else in this bizarre case, the unexpected occurred. On January 23, the judge sentenced Caroline Martin to serve seven years at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. On February 8, the prisoner bade a tearful goodbye to her sister, Mary Snead, and began her journey to Trenton to begin serving her sentence. The next day Mrs. Snead appeared in court with her other son, Albert Snead, who had traveled from Colorado to be with her. Since her sister had pled guilty to manslaughter, and as a matter of law there could be no accessory to manslaughter, she could not be brought to trial, and was freed. She left the courtroom with her son, and returned with him to his Colorado ranch to finish her life in well sought after obscurity. AFTERMATH Caroline Martin never gave up hope of someday being rescued from her predicament. She hired new lawyers to search for a reason for an appeal of her case, and trying to keep herself in good spirits. However, as the days turned to weeks, and the weeks to months, she became more and more despondent, falling into periods of stupor, followed by periods of hysteria. Eventually she was transferred to the State Hospital for the Insane, where her weakened and aged body gave out on June 20, 1913. Her body was shipped home to the South for burial with barely a mention in the newspapers she had once dominated. With Caroline Martin's death, New Jersey closed the books on one of the most bizarre chapters in its legal history without ever discovering the true facts of the beautiful Ocey Snead's death. Very few people are aware of the case today, and there remains very little evidence of it. However, the bleak house still stands as a testament to Ocey's death while it awaits recognition as a monument to "Southern Pride", or as a monument to murder.   SOURCES: BOOKS Three Sisters in Black Norman Zierold Little, Brown and Company, 1968 NEWSPAPERS The New York Times New York, New York The New York World New York, New York The Newark Evening News Newark, New Jersey The Newark Star Newark, New Jersey