Alfred Knapp was convicted in 1903 of the first-degree murder of his wife, Hannah G. Knapp, in Hamilton, Ohio. The conviction was set aside by a circuit court in January 1904, restored by the Supreme Court of Ohio in June 1904, and carried out in September of that year, when he was executed at the age of 41. He also confessed to other killings. Those deaths were never the subject of a trial, and no court found him guilty of any killing other than that of his wife.
Knapp had lived in Hamilton, the seat of Butler County, and had been married more than once. Hannah, who had been Hannah Goddard, was his third wife, and he married a fourth woman afterward. He had served eight years in the penitentiary at some earlier time. The details of his birth, upbringing and early work are not on record.
Hannah Knapp died on December 22, 1902. He married again in the weeks that followed.
Knapp was taken into custody in Indianapolis, Indiana, in late February 1903 on a murder charge. By February 28 he had given one confession and was expected to give another. Prosecutors planned to try him in Hamilton first, though Cincinnati and Indianapolis were also mentioned as possible places of trial. His family regarded him as insane, and an insanity defense was expected.
His written confession was given to the mayor and the chief of police of Hamilton. It described the killing of his wife. It also referred to other killings, and he confessed to several. Their number, names and years are not on record, and none of them led to a verdict.
The case was tried in the Butler County Court of Common Pleas before Judge Belden. A jury deliberated overnight and returned a verdict on July 16 of guilty of murder in the first degree. Ten jurors had first voted for conviction without mercy and two for conviction with a recommendation of mercy; the verdict was unanimous in finding guilt, and because no mercy was recommended the sentence was death. Few spectators were in the courtroom, and Knapp showed no emotion when the verdict was read. His mother and sister were distressed. His counsel moved for a new trial. Judge Belden denied it and a date in December was set for the execution.
Knapp took the case to the Butler Circuit Court, which reviewed the common pleas judgment in Knapp v. State and, on January 5, 1904, ordered a new trial. The indictment had charged a particular manner of death. The circuit court held that Knapp's confession alone could not establish the corpus delicti, meaning the fact that the offense had been committed, in that manner, because no independent evidence showed death by that means. It also found error in the admission of the whole confession, with its references to other killings, and in letting the jury take it into deliberations. Two parts of the judge's instructions drew objection as well: one on the presumption of innocence where evidence is doubtful, and one stating that innocent, sane men do not confess.
The State appealed. On June 28, 1904, the Supreme Court of Ohio decided State v. Knapp in an opinion by Judge Davis, with Chief Justice Spear and Judges Shauck, Crew and Summers concurring. The court reversed the judgment of the circuit court and affirmed that of the court of common pleas, so the conviction stood.
The court rejected the circuit court's reasoning on each point. The corpus delicti of murder, it held, is the killing itself and not the manner of it, and neither the statute nor the common law makes the manner of killing an essential element. Where the death is proved and the surrounding facts strongly support a confession, the confession may be considered to connect the defendant with the crime, and direct, positive proof of the corpus delicti is not required before it is admitted. A defendant, the court added, has the right to have the whole of a confession admitted, whether it helps or harms him; the trial court had limited the jury's use of the statements about other killings, and the evidence on the charged offense was enough without them. Read in context, the two disputed instructions were neither misleading nor improper, and the court found both more favorable to Knapp than to the State.
Knapp was executed in Ohio on September 19, 1904. He was 41, and the case was that of Butler County, for the murder of his wife.
The other deaths Knapp confessed to were never tried, and no court found him guilty of them. Their number, names and years are not on record. The Supreme Court of Ohio held that the statements about other killings did not prejudice the trial on the charged offense.
December 22, 1902: Hannah G. Knapp dies in Hamilton, Ohio.
February 1903: Knapp is taken into custody in Indianapolis, Indiana, and confesses in writing.
July 16: A Butler County jury finds him guilty of murder in the first degree, without a recommendation of mercy.
January 5, 1904: The Butler Circuit Court orders a new trial.
June 28, 1904: The Supreme Court of Ohio reinstates the conviction in State v. Knapp.
September 19, 1904: Knapp is executed in Ohio.