Maritime Murder (20 page)

Young Jane had also recovered from the attack, but the court felt it unnecessary to bring such a young child into court to testify against Doyle.

Chief Justice Halliburton sent the jury to their final deliberation with these words: “The night before the murder, the property
is in Clem's house, and at ten o'clock that same night the prisoner is seen within half a mile of the murder house. On Friday morning, he is 120 miles away, with the property on him. In the name of God, if he is not the person who committed this deed, how came he by the property?” It took the jury about twelve minutes to reach their decision.

On the morning of October
8
,
1838
, Maurice Doyle walked to the gallows. He maintained his innocence as he walked up the freshly cut wooden steps. “I didn't do it,” he said. “You are making a great mistake.” According to Elizabeth Pipes, he went through the trap door with a grin on his face, as if he thought he was getting away with something.

Maurice Doyle was reputedly buried in an old French burial ground outside the town of Minudie. The burial was seen to by old King Seaman himself—or so the legend goes. It has been said that Seaman later sold the body to a group of Boston medical doctors who were deeply interested in the physiology of the criminal brain.

For a fee, King Seaman was said to have dug up Doyle's body and allowed the body's head to be amputated. Some say that Seaman decapitated Doyle's remains himself with the very axe that Doyle used to murder John Clem. He did it for money, some say, while others claim that King Seaman was merely being practical. But people say a lot of things.

They also say that the headless ghost of Maurice Doyle still walks that graveyard, searching for his missing head. The head that King Seaman is said to have sold for thirty-two shillings.