This collection is made up of eight partially printed postcards addressed to Governor of New York Roswell P. Flower, respecting the trial of convicted murderer Carlyle Harris (1868-1893). Harris secretly married Mary Helen Potts in 1890. After a traumatic termination of pregnancy and ensuing family issues, Helen took medication tainted with a lethal dose of morphine. These postcards are from citizens in New York, Chicago, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., offering their opinions on Harris' sentence. They suggest commuting his sentence to 10 years, examining him to find out if he suffered the effects of being "electro magnetised", endorsing capital punishment for the "devilish" crime, and believing that he was innocent.
Mary Helen Neilson Potts (known as Helen Nielson Potts) was born on May 3, 1871, in New Jersey, to parents George and Cynthia Potts. The family had access to significant resources as her father worked as a railroad builder and contractor. In her teens, Helen met medical student Carlyle Wentworth Harris. Harris was born in Glen Falls, New York, on September 25, 1869, and in 1888, he enrolled in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. His studies focused on gynecology and obstetrics. The following summer, Helen and Carlyle became romantically involved. The same year, Helen's parents rented an apartment in Manhattan to help facilitate her entrance into the Comstock School for Young Ladies.
Without her parents' permission, at the age of 18, she secretly married Harris on February 8, 1890. Helen became pregnant and Carlyle pressured her to have an abortion, which he personally attempted. The medical student caused significant trauma to Helen and he only succeeded with a portion of the procedure. Helen suffered immensely and she sought further treatment from her physician uncle. The Potts family then became aware of the elopement and pressed Harris to remarry Helen in a public wedding on the one-year anniversary of their secret ceremony. Helen suffered from chronic headaches and so around this time, Carlyle secured from an apothecary capsules supposed to contain 4 1/2 grains of quinine and 1/6 grain of morphine. He offered four of them to Helen. She took three capsules and felt significantly worse; her mother insisted that she take the final pill. Within 12 hours, she died, on February 1, 1891. Suspicious reporters and physicians believed that she died of a morphine overdose. Carlyle Harris was suspected of spiking at least one pill with a lethal dose of the drug. Nearly two months after Helen's death, she was uninterred and underwent a postmortem examination, which prosecutors believed proved the theory.
The New York City Court of General Sessions began Harris' trial in February 1892. The highly public proceedings ultimately led to a unanimous verdict of guilty on the third anniversary of the Harris-Potts secret marriage. The convicted man received a death sentence. Harris filed for an appeal, his lawyers arguing that the jury was prejudiced by character evidence related to other nefarious actions of the defendant. These included a string of sexual entanglements, a secret marriage to another woman, and other illicit affairs. The New York Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and Harris died in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on May 8, 1893.
