The McCue murder :: :: University of Virginia Library

Norfolk Virginia-Pilot:. We are persuaded that the verdict is one
that will appeal to the common sense of every citizen who has followed
the evidence in the case.

Clifton Forge Review: J. Samuel McCue says: "I shall not be hanged
and I shall not commit suicide." He must have an idea of imitating
John Kennedy, the train-wrecker.

Petersburg Index-Appeal: Well, the McCue jury did the job with neatness
and dispatch, much to the discomfiture, if not the disgust, of the
fifty-year-old dame who had represented the Petersburg contingent and
Petersburg men generally as being a weak, nerveless, and bad lot.

Portsmouth Star: At present Samuel McCue lies convicted of the
foulest and most despicably cowardly crime which a man can commit.
There are few worst than that of killing a wife. No matter if he should
get new trials and delays and finally escape hanging, he still bears the
mark of the murderer. He cannot recover from the stain of his wife's
blood. He convicted himself. He could not avoid it; he's guilty.

Norfolk Landmark: While the prompt conviction of ex-Mayor McCue,
of Charlottesville, on the charge of murder in the first degree was expected
by a good many lawyers who had followed the case, it was a surprise,
we think, to most persons. The general belief is that McCue
killed his wife, but many do not feel satisfied that the evidence established
guilt. The jury, however, was composed of Virginians free from
the local bias, and the quick verdict is an indication that the circumstantial
evidence was very strong. It is proverbially hard to secure a
verdict of murder in the first degree.

Richmond Times-Dispatch: For our part, as a Virginia newspaper,
we deeply regret that McCue was not able to establish his innocence beyond
the peradventure of a doubt, for it is a blot upon the history of
Virginia that one of her citizens, a man of education and standing, a
man who had held public office, a man who was surrounded by the best
and most inspiring influences of home and church and refined society,
should have been convicted by a jury of twelve men, coming from different

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parts of the State, and who could not have been swayed by local
prejudices, of a crime so unnatural, so unmanly, so brutal, and so
cowardly.

Danville Register: It seems that the court is asked to set aside the
verdict in the McCue case because the jurors read newspapers and saw
the head-lines of the reports of the trial. So far as we have observed,
the press of the State has handled this case in a fair, conservative manner.
There has been no attempt on the part of the newspapers to convict
the accused, although now that a verdict has been rendered the
jury's finding is generally commended as righteous. This shows that
McCue has been regarded as a guilty man, deserving the fate which
seems to await him, but no attempt has been made to prejudice the case.

Fredericksburg Star: The crime of which he has been convicted is
so unspeakable in its horrible details, and is so seldom heard of within
the confines and borders of the South, where chivalry and reverence for
women, absence of divorce scandals and happy homes have been the
distinguishing traits of our people and the prevailing conditions in
our midst, that we stood appalled when the charge was made in this
case, and we bow our heads in sorrow that a fair minded and intelligent
jury, representing the citizenship of various sections of the State, should
have found the evidence against the accused man, in spite of all the presumptions
of innocence in his favor, so strong that they felt it their
bounden duty under their oath to find him guilty.

Richmond News Leader: Now that the man is doomed public feeling
has turned from fierce resentment and demand for vengeance for one
of the most cruel and shocking crimes in our annals to profound pity
for the man himself and sympathy for those who must suffer for him
and with him. There is no relenting. The feeling is that the man has
been convicted justly and should die for his crime but it is tempered by
that decorous awe with which the uncalloused mind always is impressed
in the presence of impending death. Virginians are the kindliest and
best behaved people in the world. From one end of the State to the
other men and women alike are inexorably stern in their demand that
this man shall die for the dreadful crime he has done, shall pay with
his life for his violation of the laws of God and man. But he has not
and will not be insulted and nowhere is there any tendency to gloating
or exultation.

Roanoke Times: Pity is the most catholic of human emotions. It
strains the realms of its vast jurisdiction to almost infinite and divine
proportions—but not far enough to cover a criminal so black in heart
as the man who killed Mistress Fannie McCue. It cannot enter his
cell without a feeling of repulsion. It cannot look upon the felon, and
keep a stranger with loathing. It cannot throw its heavenly angeis

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about him when knowing that he it is who, in the full plentitude of his
strength, permitted not one spark or ray or scintilla of mercy to enter
his murderous purpose, when like human devil and to the accompaniment
of most hideous brutality, he ushered the soul of a loving wife
from the home circle, from the care of her offspring, and from station
of earthly respect into the grim portals of eternity. Thoughts of this
man's children may bring the tear of unutterable sympathy to the eye of
the public, but it is in no way related to the individuality of Samuel
McCue, nor in any sense for him.

College Topics: And lastly, the State of Virginia has something to
be thankful for. It is not everywhere that such a tragedy could be
followed by such a restraint and respect for law; it is not everywhere
that a court could sit in such a session with no thought of violence, that
a community calling for justice could stop to feel and express its sympathy
for those whose hearts have been torn by the awful horror of it
all. Out of this turmoil of evidence and argument, of tears and crushed
heart, we emerge with a clearer view and a larger sense of the dignity
of the law and the sterness of justice.

Green County Register: The verdict, which puts J. Samuel McCue in
the death cell to await his death hanging for the murder of his wife,
throws a new light on the criminal proceedings of Virginia courts and
sets aside any apprehension that there may be in the minds of the
police as to the courts of our Commonwealth being biased in favor of
wealth or social position.

Suffolk Herald: That the horrible, dastardly deed was actually committed
by the prisoner the evidence strongly points and hardly admits
of a doubt, and whatever quibbling there may be as to the technical
differences of opinion as to the Commonwealth establishing a case
of sufficient merit as to warrant a verdict of murder in the first degree,
we are of the opinion that McCue is responsible for the death of Fannie
Crawford McCue—his wife—and ought to suffer the penalty of death,
as an expiation of his foul deed.

Culpeper Enterprise: This was one of the most sensational trials Virginia
has witnessed in many years—and a more brutal murder was never
perpetrated within the borders of the Commonwealth. The verdict met
with universal approval, as he is generally believed to be guilty, and
that justice demands that he pay the penalty of the heinous crime.
While there is but little sympathy expressed for him, the people of
Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and throughout the State shed tears
of sympathy for the sadly afflicted children, upon whom the sins of the
father rest so heavily.

Newport News Daily Press: McCue was given the benefit of all the
technicalities of the law. His counsel could not build up in the mind of

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a single one of the twelve jurors a doubt sufficient to make a second
ballot necessary. It is unfortunate for the children of the condemned
man, but he should have thought of the influence of his mad deed upon
them before committing it, instead of parading their innocence in the
court-room in a vain endeavor to escape the just punishment of a
heinous crime.

Staunton Dispatch-News: We have no doubt the statement of the
McCue juror to the effect that the jury had no idea whatever of the
strong local feeling against McCue until Mr. Lee, one of McCue's lawyers,
stated the fact and dwelt strongly on it in his speech, will bring
relief to the people of this State. There has been a feeling that the
earnest desire of the people of Charlottesville to see McCue convicted
may have its effect on the jury and if there is one thing above another
that characterizes the people of this State, it is their desire that every
accused man shall have a fair trial. There seems no room now for
the slightest doubt that McCue has had a fair trial, and that being the
case, there is a feeling that he ought to suffer the penalty.

Farmville Herald: When this heinous crime was first made known
to the public we gave the simple fact to our readers without comment
but now that a jury of the poor man's peers has pronounced him guilty
of murder in the first degree we are free to say that we do not know
how twelve honest and intelligent men could have reached any other
conclusion. The simple statement of the transactions of that fatal
evening in that, let us hope, once happy home carried conviction to
every honest mind. No one we have met with has reached any other
conclusion, and as the twelve jurors were nothing more nor less than
twelve citizens selected from the great mass of citizenship it would
have been monstrous if their verdict had been otherwise.

Alexandria Gazette: It is hard to understand how a man can be so
bloodthirsty as to deliberately plan to murder the mother of his four
children, and there is every reason to believe that McCue committed
the deed in a fit of frenzy and not as a result of deliberation. What
caused the setting on fire of the course of nature remains to be discovered.
These observations must in no sense be taken as any excuse
for or extenuation of McCue's terrible crime. He is wholly responsible
for his deed and will doubtless receive the full penalty of the law.
No matter what may have caused the foul deed, the unfortunate wife
had committed no offense to cause him to raise his hand against her.
The turning of the searchlight upon McCue's private life after he was
arraigned for uxoricide has placed him in a position to receive but little
sympathy from his fellow-creatures.