Cape Cod Confidential

The Burning Body of 1898

By Evan J. Albright

As horrific as today's headlines are, they are not unique, even on Cape Cod. Witness the sad story of Thomas Powers of Sandwich ...

James Jennings of Sandwich was on his way to work in the early morning hours of April 13, 1898, when he was attracted by a flickering light in the stable of James Keenan. Like any good neighbor, he looked in and discovered the source of the light was the burning body of Thomas Powers.

Horrified, Jennings beat out the flames. Powers' clothes had been entirely consumed by the fire, his body in many places charred to the bone.

State Detective Sim Letteney was called, as was Sheriff Eugene Haines, who was a Sandwich man. At the dead man's feet, they found the metal hooks of Powers' suspenders, the metal tabs of his pocketbook, and a piece of tobacco. It appeared someone had tried to remove his trousers before he caught fire. Powers coat neatly hung on a nearby hook.

It didn't take long for Detective Letteney to find out who Powers had been with the night before. Witnesses had seen him in the company of Philip Smith and Eugene Allen of Sandwich, and Eben Battles and Allen Webster of Bournedale. When Letteney interviewed Allen, the man said the group had all been drinking in the Keenan stable, and that Battles and Webster had become so intoxicated that Allen had to walk them home. When they left, Powers was still in the stable. That left Smith unaccounted for.

DA Jennings reportedly told Detective Letteney that he could not be bothered

Detective Letteney interviewed Smith, who said that he had passed out in the stable from the drinking. He awoke to find a section fo the floor on fire, he said. Somehow he managed to toss water on the flames before passing out again, he told Letteney. When he awoke again, he called out for Powers, but received no answer. He then walked home, he said.

Smith's story did not jibe with the evidence. Clearly something else had transpired that night. If unsubstantiated accounts are to be believed, Letteney did discover the truth, and he took it District Attorney Andrew J. Jennings of Fall River.

Jennings, however, reportedly told Detective Letteney that he could not be bothered. He was in the midst of one of the biggest cases of his life. Alicia LeBau Berger, daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the richest man in the United States, was suing the estate of a Harwich woman, Isabelle K. Hoyt. Mrs. Berger claimed she had loaned Hoyt $50,000 in bonds and securities more than 10 years before, and now that woman was dead, Berger wanted the securities returned.

DAs worked part-time back then

In those days a century ago, many district attorneys only worked part-time. Usually they were practicing lawyers who retained their private practice on the side. Jennings apparently felt that his private practice was more important than prosecuting the murderer of a poor, Irish boy from Cape Cod. He asked Letteney to prepare the Powers murder case himself and to present it before the grand jury. Letteney, however, was not a trained lawyer, nor had he ever presented a case that was as complicated as this one. Much of the evidence was circumstantial, and required the testimony of numerous witnesses.

The people of Cape Cod got the chance to exact their revenge

Nonetheless, Detective Letteney gave it his best shot. He reportedly paraded 22 witnesses before the grand jury. Although it was never revealed who the suspect was, Philip Smith certainly had something to do with it.

When the grand jury reported, there was no indictment for Smith nor for anyone involved with the Powers death. If Powers had been murdered, his killer would never see a court of law.

The people of Sandwich were outraged. It appears they did not hold Detective Letteney responsible. Instead, they blamed the man whose failure to do his job had let a killer to go free, the man who tried cases on Cape Cod only when the Vanderbilts were paying his bills, not the taxpayer.

The people of Cape Cod got the chance to exact their revenge. A few days before the death of Thomas Powers, the Cape's representative to Congress, John Simpkins, died. A special election was held to replace him. District Attorney Jennings was the first to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination. The party caucus took place a few weeks after the grand jury report. Without the support of the Cape delegation, Jennings placed last of three nominees and was eliminated from the ballot.

Jennings did not run for district attorney again. Although he promised to run for Congress in the fall, he quietly withdrew his nomination before the Republican convention. As for the murder of Thomas Powers, it remains unsolved to this day.

There is one small footnote to this story. When the special election was held May 31 for Simpkins seat, District Attorney Jennings received one vote from Cape Cod. One wonders who took the trouble to write in his name. We know, however, that Jennings did have one fan in Barnstable County -- the killer of Thomas Powers.

(c) 2008 Mystery Lane Press