Tuesday, July 10, 2012

A real conspiracy with a visit to Coney Island

Coney Island references bolded.

COURTS

[Reported for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.]

CITY COURT--FRIDAY--Before - Judge Greenwood, and Ald. Green and Evans.
FRIDAY, June 25
THE CONSPIRACY CASE CONTINUED.
Catharine Combs, the alleged wife of the plaintiff, George A. Scherff, sworn.--Must be between 28 and 32 years of age ; can't tell exactly ; became acquainted with George A. Scherff 15 or 16 years ago in New York ; he asked me and my sister to his home ; we did not go at that time, but promised we would another time ; he visited me in Madison street, he said his object was to get a wife if she pleased him ; I visited him at his room with my sister ; he told me I must come sometime alone and I did ; when he got me at his room he threw me on a bed and tried to do violence to me, but he did not succeed at that time ; he told me he would never marry a woman unless he knew her before he married her ; he persuaded me to leave home and promised to marry me ; there was intercourse between us before I left home about two years after he first became acquainted with me ; he came to my home one Sunday afternoon and we went to Brooklyn ; he took me to his store where he had a bed----he told me he would marry me if anything occurred; my family tho't we were going to Coney Island ; another time he took me to a house in East Broadway ; I knew where we were going. He told me he wanted me to take a black powder before I went home again ; he thought I was enciente. I remained there three or four weeks. I took the powder he gave me. I met my father one day, he had found out where I was and persuaded me to return. I did not go. Scherpf then took me to Coney Island, where he kept me two weeks. One night my sister came there and I went home. Scherpf told me to tell my family I was married ; we passed there as man and wife ; we next lived for ten weeks in the house of a Mrs. Payne, New York. For several years we lived as man and wife, and several times I made a proposition to be marred (sic), but he said it did not matter…

They outline a bit more of Scherff/Scherpf's exploits and conclude by explaining:

She denied any criminal connexion with Erler or Scadezkey, and some other witnesses being examined to show that they had merely lived at her house as a boarder, the Court adjourned.

--Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Monday, June 28, 1852

Couldn't find any more information on these folks on the Internet at large, but looking at other pages in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, it appears that Miss Combs, or Mrs. Scherff, was accused of adultery. Not sure what the conspiracy was, per se, but I don't know that things went very well for her.

City News & Gossip

Mrs. Scherpf, who attempted to commit suicide on Friday last by taking laudanum, continues in a precarious condition.

--Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tuesday, June 29, 1852

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