An unsolved murder of a young woman in a small New Jersey town, a sensational, closely followed trial covered by New York City's leading newspapers, an innocent man barely escaping the gallows and sightings of the ghost of the victim–all are the elements of a murder mystery based on fact and the subject of a new play by Jeanne Walker, professor of English.

The 1886 murder of Tillie Smith, a kitchen maid who worked at Centenary College in Hackettstown, N.J., is the basis of Walker's play, Tillie, commissioned by the Centenary Theatre. The play, which involves 27 characters, has had two readings by the theatre and will be produced next March.

"Tillie was found murdered behind the college, and the building supervisor, James Titus, who had a room in the basement of the building, was accused and found guilty of her murder. After he was convicted of the crime, he then confessed to second degree murder so that he managed to avoid being hanged even as the gallows were being built. But he was in prison for 17 years for a crime many people felt he did not commit," Walker said.

"Reporters from New York papers, especially Pultizer's New York World, covered the murder, and the pressure was on the local police to find someone who had committed the crime, The New York papers made Tillie a poor but virtuous woman. The defense made the error of trying to make Tillie out to be a harlot and it backfired. James Titus was essentially tried by the newspapers; the evidence against him was circumstantial. His last descendant died a few years ago, and until then the murder was never discussed by the townspeople," Walker said.

Walker has another theory about Tillie's murderer. Frank Weeder, a rough hod carrier whom Tillie had rejected, may have been the jealous perpetrator, she said.

Tiillie was buried in a pauper's grave in Union Cemetery, Walker said, but after the trial she was reburied in a grave marked by a large, elaborate monument, where even today college students and others leave small offerings. "Erected by an appreciative public," the monument features a bas relief of a young woman, clad in a toga, with a wreath in her hand, turning away from a serpent with the inscription, "She died in defense of her honor, April 8, 1886, aged 18 years."

Walker carried out extensive research for the play–reading the local and national newspaper articles about the case and the 1,500 pages of the transcript of the trial. Denis Sullivan, who has written a book about Tillie, In Defense of Her Honor, assisted Walker in locating sources.

In addition to the upcoming production, the Centenary Theatre has sponsored Tillie Walks, featuring actors and actresses in different roles and following her trail through town the night she was murdered–leaving the college dressed up with white leather gloves and carrying a red purse, going to where she stopped to buy thread for a new dress she was making, then to an "entertainment," where she left with a shoe salesman who escorted her back to the college where she was last seen alive.

"We expected about 25 people," Walker said, "but hundreds showed up for the walks."

Adding to the interest are sightings of Tillie's ghost by students and staff at the college.

"This has been one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I've ever done," Walker said, "and it's convinced me how powerful theatre can be when it arises out of a community and its stories."

Walker has other ongoing dramatic projects as well. The Queen's Two Bodies: The Double Life of Elizabeth I, is based on the relationship between the queen and the Earl of Essex, following his ascent and then his fall from grace and power to his execution, In May, the play was read at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival in Florida, where it may be produced next year. It also was produced by Lipscomb University in Tennessee this spring and most recently, was featured in the National New Play Network Showcase, held in Philadelphia, where directors and others involved in the theatre gather to "shop" for new plays.

For the Germantown Theatre Center, Walker also is working on a play about a son's search for his father in the Amazon jungle. She is familiar with the area and the heat and harsh living conditions, as after graduating from college, she spent a summer in the Peruvian jungle.

In addition to being an award-winning playwright, Walker has received kudos for her poetry, which has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, and she was
the recipient of a prestigious Pew Fellowship in poetry in 1998. This summer, she taught poetry writing at Oxford and Cambridge universities, sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Summer Institute.

SUE MONCURE

Photo by Kathy Flickinger