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- NEWS NORFOLK & REGION
Murderer's upbringing couldn't save him
CHERYL MACDONALD
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
In May 1915, Emerson Shelley killed Christian Shoup while he worked on his South Walsingham farm.
Shoup was 57, a prosperous miller and farmer. A kind-hearted individual, he did not drink, and was well-liked in the community. His murderer had nothing against him either. Emerson Shelley's sole motive for shooting Christian Shoup was robbery.
Shelley was still in his teens but had been in trouble most of his life. He stole chickens, bicycles, produce, and a gun, and set fire to a barn. In 1909 he was suspected of shooting an elderly farmer but was acquitted. At the time of the murder, he was wanted in Woodstock for the seduction of a young girl.
Shelley was apparently planning to leave Norfolk County for a while and needed money to do so. He decided the best way to get what he needed was to steal it. He targeted Christian Shoup because it was well known that Shoup usually had a quantity of cash in the house and often carried large sums on his person.
He accosted Shoup as the farmer was bent down in his field, telling him to hand over his money or he would shoot him. Instead of cooperating, Shoup charged at Shelley, who shot him in the right cheek with a nickel-plated .32 revolver. The bullet severed two arteries, scraped his spine and entered his lung. Within minutes, Christian Shoup was dead and Emerson Shelley was walking away from the crime scene with his cash.
The police soon turned up stories of how Shelley had tried to get some of his cronies to rob Shoup with him. He had also boasted that he would just as soon kill a man as a dog. It did not take long to build a case against him.
In September, Emerson Shelley was tried for the murder of Christian Shoup. It took the jury just one hour and 20 minutes to convict him. And, in spite of his youth, there was no recommendation for mercy. He was sentenced to hang.
While Shelley awaited trial there had been considerable discussion of his criminal record and the unwholesome atmosphere in which he was brought up. Despite the horror of a premeditated murder that had ended the life of a respectable citizen, there was a certain amount of sympathy for Shelley.
On Sept. 30, soon after the trial ended, the Reformer discussed the issue in an editorial. "If the hanging of Shelley would restore inoffensive Christian Shoup to his family there could not remain a lingering doubt in the mind of anyone that to the gallows he should go," it began, then pointed out that Shelley was certainly guilty and had been given a fair trial. In addition, the editor was normally in favour of capital punishment.
However, he argued, there were other considerations. "What has society to say to its share in his guilt? Who largely made him what he has become? Will his execution wipe out the responsibility of Norfolk County for the appalling environment in which he has been reared? To whose door is to be laid the blame for his utter lack of moral and educational training? ... The Reformer is of the opinion that the ends of justice would be better served if a death sentence upon Emerson Shelley were commuted to one of imprisonment in Kingston penitentiary for life."
The Reformer was not alone in its opinion. There were others who supported commutation, but the authorities did not. Shortly after 8 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1915, Emerson Shelley was executed in the Norfolk County Jail.
Cheryl MacDonald is an author and historian. Her column appears each week in the Times-Reformer. She can be reached at heronwood@execulink.com or www.heronwoodent.ca
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Rainham Builders
1858 - 1915 (57 years)