Chapter 14: Killing for Union
Supplement to Endnotes
​
Endnote 1) Many of Hiscock’s friends, including his brother Frank, were directors of the new company. Before Cole decided to take the job as superintendent at Empire Windmill, he seriously considered trying his hand again at owning a pharmacy. Cole, one associate reported, “was waiting for some drug store to fail or burst up, and watching an opportunity to buy one out and resume the old business.”
Endnote 13) Newspaper accounts varied slightly from the trial transcript that was later published. Generally, the papers included more detail. Keywords, and Important grammatical details, like the placement of commas, varies in these reports. The newspapers, for example, printed Mary’s confession as saying “my house” instead of “our house.” Newspapers refused to print the part about “standing” during the supposed assaults. But eventually, likely because of reader demand, the papers caved and reported the confession notes in full. For example, compare: Remarkable Trials, p. 289, and Syracuse Journal, April 30, 1868.
​
Endnote 18) This revolver was likely a Colt from the early years of the war. I am guessing that Cole sent it home to his daughter as a sort of war memento. In the Union army, it became one of the most heavily used sidearms, mostly because of its interchangeable parts. It was increasingly replaced by other models by the end of the war, however.
Endnote 20) This letter could have been written just after the murder as it reveals intent by Cole to simply make Hiscock get on his knees and beg for mercy, not to murder him. If the note was written by George before the murder, Mary Cuyler did not do as she was told and have it published. Evidence suggests that it could have been written before or right after the killing. The note speaks of force, rape, “obscene attacks.” Not long after the murder, Cole and his attorneys learned that relying on a narrative of rape or attacks would be a legal weakness. There were laws and punishments for rape, and so an outraged Cole could have appealed to legal processes for justice. Instead, they soon concluded, Mary and Luther’s connection needed to be painted as seduction, or even just adultery. The prosecutors caught this flaw in the earliest justifications; if the veteran originally thought it was rape which is harshly punished by law, they asked, then why was he forced to take matters into his own hands? See: Syracuse Journal, May 7, 1868.
​
Endnote 26) According to John Cuyler’s testimony, Cole first took an interview with Barto at the Delavan House. Unsatisfied, he took another. If Cuyler was not hiding that Cole had first went to the Constitutional Convention (which would have suggested his true intentions for going to Albany), then perhaps Cole learned of Hiscock’s whereabouts while talking to Barto. See Cuyler’s testimony, Remarkable Trials, pp. 283-284.
Another tension between Cole and Barto is that they both seemed to be vying for Mary’s inheritance. The papers did not say anything about this, but it is clear in the prisoner’s letters from his cell that Barto had schemes to control Mary's fortune. Cole never called Barto to the stand, likely because of this bad blood, or to spare Mary’s family. See: Remarkable Trials, p.350.