APPENDIX 2:
JEWETT CORRESPONDENCE

The Helen Jewett correspondence is a collection of eighty-eight letters written over a period of two years, from early 1834 until a few weeks before Jewett's murder in April 1836. Of the letters, 39 are by Jewett, 10 by other prostitutes and a female friend, and 39 by Jewett's clients.

The Jewett correspondence was documented at the time of her death. The trial folder in the District Attorney's papers, Court of General Sessions (NYMA), contains two documents itemizing the letters by senders and receivers. The first document appears to be the initial inventory of the correspondence, and the second is a receipt dated 1 June 1836, the day before the opening of the trial of her accused murderer, verifying that the letters, a diary, and a miniature were delivered to Judge Robert H. Morris by consent of Thomas Phoenix, the district attorney, to be used as evidence.^[1]

The collection of correspondence was taken from Jewett's bedroom the morning following her murder, and the existence of the letters immediately became well known to the New York public as well as to court officials. At the coroner's inquest held the day after the slaying, Rosina Townsend testified that about ten days prior to her death, Jewett had told Townsend that Frank Rivers (the brothel alias of Richard Robinson, the man charged in the slaying) had returned Jewett's letters and asked her either to return his or destroy them. Townsend said Robinson was planning to marry another woman. Caroline Paris (Elizabeth Salters) also testified at the inquest that Jewett had told her about

ten days before her death that she and Robinson had had a dispute about some correspondence, and, on the afternoon before the murder, Paris had accompanied Jewett on a walk to deliver letters and a book to a person in Pearl Street.^[2] At the grand jury hearing held a week after the coroner's inquest, two of the letters were read as evidence, and one of the witnesses, a porter, testified that on many occasions he had delivered correspondence for Jewett.^[3]

Nine different articles printed in the Sun and Herald during the period from the murder until the end of the June trial discuss Jewett's correspondence. The Herald noted that Jewett was well known to every pedestrian in Wall Street, and the preceding summer was famous for parading the thoroughfare, "generally with a letter in her hand." Jewett was said to have

carried on an extensive correspondence with every part of the Union. According to the Post Office, last summer she usually received from three to eight letters a day. Her postage bill exceeded that of several brokers in Wall Street. Her private correspondence is of a remarkable character, resembling that of the famous Abelard and Eloise. We are promised a choice selection from this correspondence which are [sic ] characterized by great talent, power and brilliancy.^[4]

The Herald also wrote an article entitled "Her Literary Correspondence," which was devoted exclusively to a description of the letters. It appears that the Herald's writer had been given the opportunity to study the impounded correspondence, which at that time was in the possession of Police Justice Lownds. The letters were said to be "written by her and to her by persons who admired or pretended to admire her talents and beauty." In the letters written by Jewett, there was not a "fulsome expression or unchaste word," and they contained "quotations from Italian, French, and English poets on love and friendship, satirizing playfully the little incidents of her life." Jewett's handwriting was said to be "uncommonly beautiful, something of the character of Bristow's style." The paper stated that some of the letters written to Jewett were from "respectable persons in the city and even married men." A few of the letters were signed with pseudonyms, such as Wandering Willie, Roderic Random, and Frank Rivers.^[5]

At the trial in June, several witnesses mentioned the letters, and the packets of correspondence were shown to the court as evidence. Rob-

inson's employer was asked to identify the accused's handwriting in some, and one letter was read into the trial transcript. After the trial ended in Robinson's acquittal, the letters appear to have been forgotten for a number of years.^[6]

In January 1849, thirteen years after the trial, the Police Gazette began a special series on the Jewett murder in a column called "Lives of Felons." The story ran from January through June. At the end of April, the paper included thirteen letters exchanged between Jewett and Robinson, which the paper explained had been obtained from the police. Given the loose organization of the police and judicial system at the time, it is not surprising that someone was able to obtain official evidence that had been used in a trial. The correspondence met with such interest by readers that the Police Gazette continued to publish additional letters in five more editions of the paper through mid-June. After the publication of the first issue containing the correspondence, the original copies of the letters were posted in the Police Gazette's Nassau Street office window. The Brooklyn Daily Advertiser reported "A New Excitement" over the letters on display, which had attracted crowds so large that the streets in the vicinity of the Police Gazette office were "almost blockaded by individuals anxious to get a view."^[7]

Because only the printed versions of the letters are available now, it is possible, though unlikely, that the original manuscripts have been altered by editorial changes. The creative embellishments of the newspaper staff appear to have been applied to the life-story narrative that preceded the publishing of the letters and to the editorial commentary that accompanied the correspondence, not to the letters themselves. At times, the emotional or dramatic conclusions drawn by the Police Gazette writer in the narrative and commentaries are not consistent with the information provided in the correspondence, which shows little of the sensationalism that was the Police Gazette's stock in trade.

Most likely, Jewett initiated much of the correspondence with friends and acquaintances. Many of the letters written to her begin with an acknowledgement of correspondence received: "I received your letter yesterday," or "I received your letter of the 26th."^[8] One customer, Charles C., began his letter to Jewett with a statement that a communication had been solicited from him: "I have just received a letter from my friend Harvey, stating that you would like to hear from me if it was convenient, & c."^[9] On learning that mail might not be getting through

to her or to those she was writing, Jewett wrote that the failed delivery had angered her:

I shall hope to learn to-night from you, that you have received my letter. I think it very strange indeed, do you not, that some of your letters should miscarry and others reach you? A gentleman told me last night, that he had written me twice, and neither of his letters have I received, and this morning I blew up at the post office without finding them.^[10]

The correspondence is telling not only about the life of Helen Jewett but also about the general situation of prostitutes at the time. There is a similarity in tone and content in both the notes Jewett wrote and those written to her by other prostitutes. The letters were prevented from being "lost," as most contemporaries' private correspondence was, only because they became public by rare chance circumstances. The letters obviously were private, written without any of the distortions that might come from a sense they might be made public, and though those who write and whose writings get saved are perhaps "atypical," they still speak in part for their group or class. Furthermore, the general patterns found in the correspondence are compatible with public evidence from newspapers and legal records concerning relations of other prostitutes at the time.

Of course, the letters in no way represent a statistically valid sampling of prostitutes' correspondence, nor do they encompass a long enough period of time to reveal much about patterns, cycles, or trends in the profession. There are obvious biases—Jewett exercised some element of selectivity in deciding to whom to write and which letters to keep. And, even though Jewett's position in prostitution was not peculiarly elevated, she was not representative of the majority of prostitutes, who were poor and practiced casual prostitution.

Inventory of the Correspondence

Letters delivered to Robert H. Morris, 1 June 1836, to be used as evidence in the trial of Richard Robinson for the murder of Helen (Ellen) Jewett:

Letters printed in the Police Gazette , 28 April through 9 June 1849:

The inventory for the district attorney does not report that all of the letters from the trunk were listed; the following may not have been part of the court evidence: