David Simon (The Wire) thinks the James Titus story is "good."

Arguably the most respected name in Crime Television, David Simon, put out a call for "boneyard stories":

https://x.com/AoDespair/status/1159834763525382146

Thank You for Your Interest

Thank you for your interest in the Free James Titus Project!

This page is dedicated to Freeing James Titus, a Janitor at a Methodist Seminary in Hackettstown, New Jersey, when an 18 year old kitchen worker named Tillie Smith was raped and murdered on April 8, 1886. The Prosecutor and the Pinkerton Detectives ran out of leads after only a week, but the Yellow Journalists decided that the Janitor did it.

James Titus, an industrious janitor, beloved husband and father to a baby girl, served 19 years for a crime he did not commit because James Creelman and Joseph Pulitzer wanted to sell newspapers.

Even today, publications like "Weird NJ" and groups like TAPS encourage people to come to Hackettstown and hunt for the ghost of Tillie Smith. The townspeople of Hackettstown today are reminded of this year round, but especially in October. The historic society sells "Got Ghosts?" T-shirts to raise funs.

Janitor Titus's family has been wiped out. His wife died a month before he got out of prison. His last remaining descendant, a granddaughter, died in 1997. Tillie's murderer was never caught.

The Free James Project is dedicated to obtaining the first posthumous pardon in state history for old Janitor Titus.

We need all the help we can get. Please join.

"The Shortest Man in Hackettstown" - Oct. 8, 1886

Jessie Bilby

We Are Fan of the Week

@myhist Your podcast is great. http://t.co/QDzE83fgsy
— Free James Titus (@freejamestitus) January 23, 2014

@freejamestitus. Thanks. Fan of the week
— Bruce Carlson (@myhist) January 25, 2014

Recommended:
My History Can Beat Up Your Politics Podcast

Mostly major stories, not local ones, but definitely recommend.

"Hard to tell the difference between facts and folklore..."

"Evilness sells...that's the name of the game."



"In order to study the laws of history we must change the subject completely, forget all about kings, ministers and generals, and turn to the homogeneous, infinitesimal elements that move the masses to action. No one can say how far it is within man's grasp to arrive at the laws of history in this way, but it is obvious that this is the only possible way of discovering any historical laws, and human intelligence has hitherto not devoted to this way of thinking a millionth part of the effort that historians have put into describing the doings of various kings, ministers and generals, and expounding their own opinions of these doings."
-Leo Tolstoy, "War & Peace" Volume III, Part III, Chapter 1

Free James Titus Radio Interview

Original Broadcast Date: 11/15/09
WRNJ Radio

Mead/Meade

Influential sociologist George Herbert Mead entered Harvard in 1887. I wonder if he could have been a relation to "Student Meade", who testified against James Titus and tried to collect the $10,000 reward before disappearing.¹ We may never know.


¹Sullivan, Denis. In Defence of Her Honor: The Tillie Smith Murder Case. Flemington: D.H. Moreau Books, 2000.

What is a show trial?

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial. The term was first recorded in the 1930s. There is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant and that the actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an impressive example and as a warning. Show trials tend to be retributive rather than correctional justice.


Such trials can exhibit scant regard for the principles of jurisprudence and even for the letter of the law. Defendants have little real opportunity to justify themselves: they have often signed statements under duress and/or suffered torture prior to appearing in the court-room.

Example...

More at Wikipedia...

War & Peace - Volume III, Part I, Chapter I

 Although on a conscious level a man lives for himself, he is actually being used as an unconscious instrument for the attainment of humanity's historical aims. A deed once done becomes irrevocable, and any action comes together over time with millions of actions performed by other people to create historical significance. The higher a man stands on the social scale, the more contact he has with other men and the greater his impact on them, the more obvious are the inevitability and the element of predestination involved in everything he does.<sup>1

1</sup>Leo Tolstoy

The Innocence Project Can't Help James Titus - UPDATED

I got a letter from the Innocence Project addressed to "James Titus c/o Erik Anderson" yesterday.

Unfortunately, it says that the Innocence Project will not be able to help me unless I can find DNA evidence from the crime, which happened on April 8, 1886.

According to records, there was more DNA than one man was capable of producing inside Tillie's body. Unfortunately, I don't think that the public is going to approve exhuming Tillie's body in an attempt to find it now. I'm no expert, but I think it's safe to say that the DNA has been destroyed by natural decay over the years. 

That's the update for today.

Stay tuned! We are going to Free James Titus!

UPDATE - here's the letter:


Click Here to Read the Letter

The Ethics of the Historian

It is true that, whether he is labeling a museum exhibit or writing a biography, the historian that lets himself be carried away by the hope that he is describing a "first", "oldest," "largest," or whatever, may be in for some embarassment. But there is nothing especially ethical about a desire to avoid embarassment; even burglars take care to avoid discovery. Embarassment is not the penalty to be feared. The historian who knowingly lets the truth be covered up or stretched out of shape may never be contradicted. His authority may be accepted in good faith. Those who doubt him may shrug their shoulders and say nothing, not wishing to upset him with inconvenient facts or arguments. The ethics of the historian are important precisely because he can so often expoect his sins to go unexposed. This is even truer of the local historian than of the professional academic. ¹

¹Felt, Thomas E. Researching, Writing and Publishing Local HistoryNashville: American Association of State and Local History, 1981. ISBN-0-910050-53-8

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The Free James Titus Movement

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Innocence Project Event - The Wrongfully Convicted

Wish James Titus could have spoken at this event.

An "untimely death casts a gloom over the entire community."

Click on picture to read article.

9/30/1886: JANITOR TITUS HAS AN ATTACK OF NERVOUS PROSTRATION

TILLIE SMIITH'S MURDER.; JANITOR TITUS HAS AN ATTACK OF NERVOUS PROSTRATION.
New York Times - September 30, 1886, Wednesday

Page 2, 1028 words

BELVIDERE, N.J., Sept. 29.--This was the second day of the trail of James J. Titus for the outrage and murder of Tillie Smith at the Centenary Collegiate Institute, at Hackettstown. The morning opened bright and clear, and visitors were early on the street seeking relief from the close, stifling air of the overcrowded hotels.

Read the entire article...

And remember:

Where a defendant demonstrates a history of psychiatric problems and a current thought disorder, creating a reasonable basis to question his or her competency to stand trial or to raise a defense centering on mental condition, the court is obligated to conduct a further inquiry either by appointing counsel or directing that a psychiatric examination be conducted.
State v. Ehrenberg, 284 N.J. Super. 309 (1994)

WNTI Studios - 4/27/2010

WNTI 91.9 FM - Public Radio From Centenary College- Where Great Music Lives

 

William Randolph Hearst on Crushing Men

My father once asked him, he said: "Mr. Hearst, why don't you concentrate more of your energy on motion pictures, which has a worldwide audience, instead of journalism which appeals to one city or one nation." He thought a minute, and he said: "Well, Douglas, I'll tell you. I thought of it, but I decided against it because I realized you can crush a man with journalism, and you can't with motion picture." That was his answer.

-Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - The American Experience (PBS Documentary)

New Press Release

The following press release has been sent to over a dozen media outlets serving New Jersey and the nation:

PRESS RELEASE

From The Desk of:
Erik B. Anderson – Founder: The Free James Titus Movement
Contact: Erik - freejamestitus@myspace.com

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR NOT READY FOR POSTHUMOUS PARDONS

April 2, 2010 – Last November, a letter written by Erik B. Anderson of Independence Township, New Jersey, was sent to Governor Corzine, asking for a posthumous pardon on behalf of a Hackettstown Janitor named James Titus, 29, husband and father, convicted of an 1886 rape and murder. Titus was the night watchman on April 8, 1886. A kitchen worker named Tillie Smith had asked him to let her in after 10 o’clock that night, a deliberate violation of the strict rules of the Victorian Methodist Seminary. Titus refused. Tillie’s body was found “outraged” and strangled the next morning.

Smith was seen in the company of a man named Munnich that night. They and their friends had been followed and harassed by Frank Weeder and five other members of the town gang on their way back to the college. Inexplicably, detectives abandoned the case within a week. Outraged journalists from Joseph Pulitzer’s The World and The New York Times led an aggressive campaign to prosecute someone for outraging the pure, innocent Tillie.

According to an anecdote by “Old Newspaperman” published in a 1940’s-era Dear Lou column found in the files of the Hackettstown Historical Society (source unknown), the famous yellow journalist James Creelman, (“just out of the cub stage”) laid in wait in the belfry for a Janitor known as Mr. T to ring the bell. At the appointed time, Creelman jumped out at the Janitor, shouting “You killed Tillie Smith! You killed Tillie Smith!” The janitor subsequently went stark raving mad and was soon brought in on suspicion.

A LOCAL LEGEND

Tillie’s Ghost has been said to haunt Centenary College for more than a century. Hackettstown is a popular place for paranormal researchers of all ages, readers of Weird NJ Magazine and Ghost Hunters on Cable Television. It is no coincidence that the whole thing was started by a journalist. The story of Tillie Smith is a publishing phenomenon.

The most authoritative book on the subject is In Defence of Her Honor: The Tillie Smith Murder Case (2000) by Denis Sullivan, a friend of Erik B. Anderson’s family. Many other books mix fact and fiction, but Sullivan’s book thoroughly examines the transcript, the original newspaper stories, the death certificate, etc..

His conclusion:

A careful reading of the trial transcript supports the argument that Titus' guilt was never established beyond reasonable doubt. The state never proved that rape had been committed at the time and place alleged, let alone that Titus had committed it. (Chapter 8, p124)

* * * * * * * *

Erik B. Anderson sent an application for Executive Clemency to the State Parole Board in December 2009. Susan Meyer, the Governor’s Counsel’s Aide in charge of Executive Clemency, suggested he do it even though the Governor’s office does not have a policy for posthumous pardons. As it stands, the NJ Parole Board requires applications for pardons to be filled out personally. James Titus died in 1952. A posthumous pardon now would be the first posthumous pardon in state history!

Mr. Anderson is seeking publicity for his campaign to Free James Titus!

Erik has already done interviews for The Warren Reporter (Newspaper) and WRNJ-AM Oldies 1510 Radio News.

Please call for more information, or email freejamestitus@myspace.com.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

freejamestitus.blogspot.com           myspace.com/freejamestitus           twitter.com/freejamestitus

# # #

New Postcard

Click here to read larger version.

Click here to read more about James Baldwin!

The FJTM Has Enemies

The Free James Titus Movement Has Enemies
Originally uploaded by Erik B. Anderson

Someone was very naughty at the Stiger St. Quick Chek in Hackettstown this week.

It has always been difficult keeping postcards promoting the Free James Titus Movement there. Many days over the past months have been spent in frustration because I could put a postcard on the public bulletin board, and within as little as four hours, it is gone.

Now someone has boldly ripped the latest postcard in half and stuck it back up there.

This one has a quote from James Baldwin on it:

Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.

Then I wrote:

Remember Tillie Smith!
Free James Titus!

and finally

He didn't kill anyone in 1886!.

This doesn't surprise me at all. It shouldn't surprise anyone who has read the book that the James Baldwin quote comes from, Notes of a Native Son.

Ah well...

If I'm able to post fingerprints, I will.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
Established 1782