Arthur Warren Waite was a young dentist from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who lived in New York City and who was convicted in 1916 of the first-degree murder of his father-in-law. A second death, that of his mother-in-law in January 1916, was part of the same case, but it was never put before a jury: Waite confessed to it, and he was not charged with it. The two deaths came about two months apart, in the household he shared with his wife and her parents. Waite was tried before a jury in New York County, convicted after a trial of about six days, sentenced to death, and executed at Sing Sing on May 24, 1917.
Waite came from Grand Rapids. According to a 2017 account in Hektoen International, a journal of medical history, he was caught stealing more than once while a student at the University of Michigan, but he graduated in 1909. The Michigan Daily, the student newspaper at Ann Arbor, reported in March 1916 that he had been disciplined at the university and made to apologize publicly before his class, and that he held a diploma from the university.
The same Hektoen account says he claimed to have completed a two-year course at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in two months, which it describes as the result of falsified records. It says he then practiced dentistry in Cape Town for a firm there and was dismissed in 1914 for theft.
By 1915 he was in New York. The Hektoen account says he presented himself there as a physician. In March 1916, when he was arrested, detectives were reported by The Michigan Daily to be trying to show that, although he held a university diploma, he had been practicing medicine in New York without a license. The paper also reported persistent rumors that he had been leading a double life.
Waite married the daughter of a well-off Grand Rapids couple. By the Hektoen account, the pair arrived at an apartment building in Manhattan in October 1915. His wife's parents, who were from Grand Rapids, joined them in New York. The motive stated at the trial, according to The Michigan Daily's report of the Court of Appeals decision, was to obtain the family fortune.
Waite's mother-in-law died in Manhattan in January 1916, less than a week after her arrival in the city, according to the Hektoen account. The exact day of her death is not on record, and no indictment for it is on record. Waite later confessed to being responsible for her death, and the Hektoen account states plainly that he was not charged with it.
Press reports at the time of the Court of Appeals decision differ on how far the confession went. The Michigan Daily of April 4, 1917 said he had confessed to the killing of his father-in-law and to "an attempt to kill his mother-in-law." The Hektoen account says he confessed to causing her death. Because the matter was never tried, no court has made a finding on it, and it remains a confession only.
His father-in-law died in the early hours of March 12, 1916, in Manhattan, according to the Hektoen account. This is the death for which Waite was tried and convicted. Waite was in custody by the afternoon of March 23, 1916: The Michigan Daily of March 24 reported that he was "under arrest in New York City pending investigation into the deaths of his wife's parents" and that he had been taken into custody the previous day.
By March 29 the inquiry had widened. The Michigan Daily reported on March 30, from New York, that the District Attorney, Swann, regarded Waite's guilt as established by a connected chain of circumstantial evidence and by confessions that had been added to that day, and that the investigation was now turning to "blackmail and conspiracy." The paper reported that detectives were seeking a second man, accused in the press of having been promised $9,000 in connection with an attempt to mislead the investigation. No charge against him, no trial and no outcome are on record, and no conviction of any person other than Waite is on record.
The date and wording of the indictment are not on record. The case was tried by a jury in New York County; a 1917 wire report from Ossining describes the verdict as returned by "a jury in the supreme court of New York county." The Hektoen account gives the length of the trial as six days and names Walter R. Deuel as Waite's counsel. It gives Waite's age at trial as 29.
The defense was insanity. The Hektoen account says two physicians called for the defense, Dr. Morris Karpas and Dr. Allen Diefendorf, testified that Waite suffered from what they called "moral imbecility" and recommended that he be committed to an asylum. Three experts for the State disagreed and testified that he understood the gravity of what he had done. The defense did not succeed: after about an hour of deliberation the jury returned a verdict of "guilty of first-degree murder."
The verdict came in the last days of May 1916; the exact day is not on record. Waite was sentenced to death, as the later report of the appeal confirms, but the date of sentencing is not on record.
The New York Court of Appeals decided People v. Waite on April 3, 1917, reported at 220 N.Y. 714. The entry reads: "Judgment of conviction affirmed; no opinion." Judges Chase, Collin, Hogan, Cardozo, McLaughlin, Crane and Andrews concurred. The Michigan Daily of April 4, 1917 reported the decision from Albany with the words "His conviction was affirmed without a dissenting vote," and added that Waite had opposed an appeal from the first, saying he was willing to take the consequences. It reported that he was then held at Sing Sing awaiting the death penalty. Because the court gave no opinion, its reasoning on the insanity defense is not on record.
Waite was executed at Sing Sing on May 24, 1917, according to the M. Watt Espy Papers held by the University at Albany, which list a summary of the execution under that date.
Proven by court record: the conviction for the first-degree murder of his father-in-law, affirmed without opinion on April 3, 1917.
Confessed, never tried: the death of his mother-in-law in January 1916. No court has made a finding on it. The press at the time of the appeal described the confession in two ways, as responsibility for her death and as an attempt on her life.
Alleged in March 1916 press reports: a conspiracy involving a second man, never charged. No charge or outcome is on record.
Not part of any court finding: the thefts at Michigan, the Edinburgh course and the 1914 dismissal in Cape Town, which are asserted in a medical-history article.
1909: Waite graduates from the University of Michigan.
1914: dismissed from a dentistry post in Cape Town, according to the Hektoen account.
October 1915: arrives in Manhattan with his wife.
January 1916: his mother-in-law dies in Manhattan; he later confesses to causing her death and is not charged.
March 12, 1916: his father-in-law dies in Manhattan.
March 23, 1916: Waite is in custody in New York City.
March 29, 1916: the District Attorney's inquiry turns to alleged conspiracy.
Late May 1916: jury in New York County finds him guilty of first-degree murder after a trial of about six days.
April 3, 1917: New York Court of Appeals affirms the conviction without opinion.
May 24, 1917: executed at Sing Sing.