Tonight, I bring you a case with several odd features!

On December 27, 1907 at a few minutes before 8 a.m., Jake Sunfield was hanged in Ontario for the murder of Andrew Radzyk.

According to the Windsor Star, the path that led Jake Sunfield to commit the crime began in the summer of 1906, when Jake Tamillo deserted his wife and children in Chicago. From the time he arrived in Ontario, he called himself Jake Sunfield.

Sunfield boarded with the Radzyks, a couple who rented out rooms in their Sherman Avenue home in Hamilton. For about a year, Sunfield paid “marked attention to Mrs. Radzyk.” He was a bully when he was drinking, and he was often drinking.

He frequently quarreled with Radzyk and others when he was drunk. Sunfield finally quit his job and announced his intention of going back to Chicago, where he belonged. But Mrs. Radzyk persuaded him to stay.

Disaster struck on July 12, 1907. Radzyk, his wife, and Sunfield were all drinking, and at some point, Mr. Radzyk went to bed and passed out early in the afternoon. Mrs. Radzyk followed Sunfield into the yard.

According to Mrs. Radzyk, when she attempted to go inside a little later, Sunfield informed her: “I’m going to shoot you.”

“Are you crazy?” Mrs. Radzyk demanded.

Sunfield drew a revolver and shot her in the breast. Mrs. Radzyk ran out of the yard, screaming for help. A man named Swartz was passing and she showed him where she’d been shot. Sunfield rounded the corner of the house and called after his landlady, “making a kissing noise.”

Mrs. Radzyk ran away but Swartz and a few others followed Sunfield back into the house. They found Mr. Radzyk shot in the head. He murmured a few words in Polish.

Sunfield went into the dining room and sat at the table with his head on his arms. When the police came, he stood up and said, “I’m your man. Arrest me. I did it.” A revolver was in his pocket.

At the trial, a young man named Walsh swore he’d heard Mr. Radzyk say that Sunfield had shot him. No one else heard this. Mrs. Radzyk testified that Sunfield was an argumentative drunk. She described an incident when Sunfield came in late at night a few days before the murder and demanded supper. The Radzyks were already in bed. The drunken boarder entered their bedroom and punched her husband. Radzyk ordered him to leave. Sunfield said he would leave but he was going to kill everybody in the house first. Eventually, he left.

Sunfield was declared guilty and sentenced to hang on November 29^th.

Sunfield occasionally received letters from his wife, though they were not affectionate. The Montreal Star printed Sunfield’s wife’s last letter to him:

Dear Jake,

I am very sorry that you must leave this world and go to the other all for a woman’s sake. It would have been better if you had lived with your family.

If you have any money that you can spare you should give it to the children, for I have to pay $12 a month and get their clothes.

Besides, I think you should do something for your children. Answer as soon as you can.

I go to see the children every Sunday afternoon. I have one letter from you that you sent to me at the shop. I will send it back to you, and now you read it over and think it over again. I am not glad that this turned out, but I think the Lord wanted it to be so.

I am very glad that the Lord took good care of me and protected me from all harm. I will send you a picture of mine and you can look at me once more and for the last. So goodbye forever.”

Your true wife, Mary Tamillo.

P.S. Take good care of yourself and be good to yourself. I am working every day.

 

The court of appeals granted a respite until December 27th so Sunfield could appeal, but a new trial was refused.

Therefore, a bored-looking Jake Sunfield walked to the gallows on December 27.

Sunfield was smoking a cigar as he climbed on the platform of the gallows. He turned to the men present to witness his execution and remarked; “Goodbye gentlemen, I’ve been told not to say anything.” These must be the strangest last words any condemned man has ever uttered. Why couldn’t he say anything? Was it going to hurt his case?

The hangman adjusted the noose and Rev. Dean Mahoney recited the Lord’s Prayer. Then the trap was sprung and Sunfield’s neck was broken by the fall.

According to the Weekly British Whig,  Rev. Mahoney then handed out a statement the dead man wrote, dated Christmas Day:

“In the name the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

I, Jacob Sunfield, about to be hanged on the charge of murder of Andrew Radzyk, hereby solemnly declare, in the presence of that God by Whom 1 am soon to be judged, that I am innocent of the crime. I did not kill Andrew Radzyk. I protest, moreover, that I have not had a fair trial. I am done to death on the evidence of one man and no heed has been given by the minister of justice to the voluntarily sworn statements of six respectable citizens who contradicted my accuser. Although my death is a judicial murder, I pardon those who are guilty of it, and I hope that God will have mercy on them when their day of reckoning comes. I thank all those who have been kind to me while in jail. I ask pardon of all whom I have injured and I pray God to have mercy on my soul.

Jake Sunfield

What do you think of Mary Tamillo’s letter? Is it possible Jake was innocent? Was Mrs. Radzyk truthful?