“Horrible Tragedy”

On Christmas Eve, 1881, Eson Bolin was asleep in his bed in the small home in Bintonville, Arkansas that he, his wife, and their four young children had recently moved into. He and his boarder, an old man named Martin, had taken their supper as usual and both retired to their respective rooms at an early hour.

Just before midnight, Martin was awoken by the sound of a gunshot. He opened his eyes to see Bolin’s wife coming towards him, saying that someone had shot her husband.

That someone, was Mrs. Bolin.

She confessed, after being arrested, and led the police to where she had concealed the pistol she shot him with – once through the head, killing him instantly. Her husband, she told them, was a terrible man: a thief; an abusive husband who had threatened her life numerous times, drawing a knife on her on two occasions; and a killer himself, of two men. The newspapers reported that her confession was without emotion, “while the dead body of her husband was so near she could have touched it.” A jury found her guilty and she and her four young children were sent to Bentonville.

Once in Bentonville, the three older children were sent to the poorhouse. Mrs. Bolin was allowed to take her youngest child – a three-month old son – to live with her in jail, where she shared a cell with a Mrs. Arney, who had been indicted for murder.  As she entered the jail, she asked whether she was eligible for bail, as she had two brothers who would arrange it for her. Upon learning she was not, the seriousness of her situation seemed to sink in, and she wept bitterly. Mrs. Arney reported that Mrs. Bolin barely slept and was convinced she would end up the victim of an angry mob.

Two days after she arrived at the jail, Mrs. Bolen asked the jailor, Capt. Patton, to borrow his knife so she could cut up her dress to make some clothes for her baby. Patton, having lent her the knife on previously, passed it to her without hesitation and left. He returned a little while later, but Mrs. Bolin said she wasn’t yet finished with it. Patton eventually opened the door to the cell where he was met with a horrifying sight.

Mrs. Bolin was lying on the floor, struggling to breathe, while her blood flowed from a cut she had made across her throat, ear-to-ear, severing her jugular vein and windpipe. Doctors were quickly called, but there was nothing to be done – Mrs. Bolin was dead in minutes.

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 30 December 1881)