When Mrs. Jones’ arrest seemed inevitable, something strange happened. The residents of Berwick, many of whom had received cruel letters, intervened “out of sympathy for the husband.” They pleaded with the authorities not to prosecute Harriet Jones but instead to deliver an ultimatum.

If Mrs. Jones would meet the following conditions, no action would be taken against her:

• Leave the state in ten days and never return
• Write and sign a statement admitting she had written the poison pen letters
• Agree to having the statement published in the two town newspapers

Surprisingly, the authorities agreed to this unique arrangement and Harriet was given ten days to decide whether to accept this proposition. Mrs. Jones scornfully ignored the offer. A few days later, John Creasy, whose wife and daughter had received obscene letters, made an official complaint against her. Harriet was arrested on a charge of criminal libel, and her bond was fixed at $1000.

Only when confronted with the tremendous evidence against her would Harriet admit her guilt.

Upon learning of his wife’s arrest, John Jones went to the jail to pay her bail and bring her home. It was said that he was “tenderness itself.” When Harriet saw him, she cried, “Take me out and shoot me!” Jones said nothing but went to her, kissed her cheek, and stroked her brow.

The Joneses went home and Harriet did not emerge for several days, seemingly too ill to get out of bed. “She is either feigning insanity or suffering from nervous collapse,” the newspapers reported. “She tosses from side to side, flinging her head about, and wildly crying: ‘My God, have mercy on my soul!'”

John Jones eventually spoke to reporters. “She admitted to the lawyer that she wrote some of these anonymous letters. She admitted writing the recent ones. I do not think she knew what she was doing. She said she did not want to write them, but something made her do it. There was always a voice urging her and she had to obey it. That is how she explained her actions. I am very sorry. She is so nervous, and has been for a year and a half, that I do not think she was responsible for what she did. Some of her own family have been wrong in their minds.”

John Jones was all compassion but not everyone accepted his charitable explanation of the torment Harriet had inflicted. “The woman spared no one. Among her victims were the best-known people of the town, against whom there had been no suggestion of wrongdoing until her evil work created it…The common belief is that she was acting on a feeling of anger and chagrin because she did not receive the social attention she thought she merited.”

The newspapers speculated that Mrs. Jones would probably be tried for criminal libel, but it never happened. “Mrs. Harriet Jones, of Berwick, the confessed writer of anonymous scurrilous letters, for which she was arrested, has been sent to the State Hospital for the Insane at Danville,” the Altoona Tribune reported on January 18.

In May of 1901, we get our last look at Harriet Jones, through the Danville News. “Probably the closing scene in Berwick’s much-aired libel case was enacted Tuesday, when the case of the Commonwealth vs. Mrs. Harriet Jones was continued, as Mrs. Jones is now an inmate of the Danville Hospital for the insane. The case is never likely to come to trial.”

A couple of months ago, I shared the story of Lillian Hawkins, a young woman in Ashtabula, Ohio who was inexplicably the target of multiple murder attempts.  Before, during, and after the attacks, Lillian received many threatening poison pen messages, and her family, friends, and acquaintances also received anonymous letters which made terrible accusations against the girl. And one evening, a mysterious and vengeful attacker threw vitriolic acid in Lillian’s face, which disfigured her and shocked the community. The letters Harriet was sending also threatened to throw acid in women’s faces, if they were out after nightfall. A strange and novel threat! Though the perpetrator was never apprehended, Lillian always insisted it was a married woman.

Is there a link? Alas, I don’t think so. Ashtabula is a small town about 300 miles east of Berwick. How would Harriet know Lillian, let alone travel to Ashtabula to make multiple murder attempts? She never attempted violence on anyone, as far as I know. Also the timing doesn’t work.  The attacks on Lillian began in April of 1900 when Mrs. Jones was still operating with impunity in Berwick. But the final murder attempt occurred in September 1901, and by then Harriet was housed in the insane asylum.

There are many famous cases of anonymous letter writing but none as successful at wreaking havoc as Harriet Jones. In researching my book Cold Heart, I learned the police received taunting unsigned letters from people purporting to be the murderer of Ed Burdick but they were treated as (and probably were) tasteless jokes. There is a famous unsolved-depending-on-who-you-ask case centering around anonymous letters from Circleville, Ohio. It began in the 1970s and went on for decades. It led to all kinds of misery but even it pales in comparison to the wickedness Harriet wrought in her six-year poison pen campaign.

 

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