This collection is made up of briefs, arguments, lists of precedents, manuscript form affidavits, and other documents related to the trial of William S. Bergin for the murder of barkeeper and proprietor of the Bergin House hotel in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on June 15, 1877. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (i.e. he was intoxicated when committing the murder), but the jury convicted him and he was sentenced to death. These papers appear to have been compiled by Bergin's defense counsel during the process of seeking a retrial in August 1877.
The collection includes two briefs; witnesses' statements about the language used in the confrontation, a 14-page document with statutes on first degree murder and evidence in the Bergin case; a 9-page argument; a list of points made by the plaintiff; and an organized list of precedent cases for drunkenness, homicidal impulse, homicidal mania, insanity with apparent sanity, hereditary insanity, sane today--insane tomorrow, murder in the 2nd degree, and the number of the insane in Ohio.
The collection's 18 affidavits appear to be manuscript forms for Bergin's defense to use in arguing for a retrial. They include several different handwritten forms produced by a clerk. With only three exceptions, the affidavits do not identify a particular individual, leaving blanks for their name and for the date of the sworn statement. Despite their incomplete state, some of these were still signed and stamped by a notary. The incomplete forms include duplicate text focused on different arguments for a retrial. For example, six of the affidavits discredit Sarah Rose as a witness; several of them are sworn statements by jurors that they had already formed their opinions of the case before the trial; and others claim the jurors were allowed to separate into their own boarding houses or mingle with crowds of people without police supervision.
Thomas J. McBride was born in 1842 to parents Thomas and Nancy Slaughter McBride. The family lived in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and, in 1870, they lived in a hotel where the U.S. census states Thomas J. McBride was a "landlord." Thomas J. McBride worked as a bartender at the Bergin House on the Southwest corner of Main and Front streets. On June 15, 1877, William S. Bergin (son of the owner), started a drunken argument with McBride over a satchel that Bergin claimed was at the hotel. McBride explained the process necessary for securing the satchel, but Bergin insisted the matter be resolved immediately because of the papers he needed in the satchel. McBride insisted and, infuriated, Bergin went to a nearby gun store, purchased a revolver, returned to the hotel, and shot McBride in the head.
William Bergin's trial was held in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas and he entered a plea of insanity, based on his intoxicated condition at the time of the murder. The jury ultimately did not agree with the defense, and they sentenced Bergin to death by hanging. The defense attempted to persuade the court to retry the case in August 1877, but on December 5, 1877, the State of Ohio executed William S. Bergin.
