Edward J. Stevens as Seen Through His Letters
If the newspapers had not published several letters which Stevens wrote in connection with this incident, we would know nothing about him. He was born in Sunderland, Massachusetts about 1849, which means that he was nearly a decade younger than Rosa. Although Sunderland then was primarily agrarian, his father was a civil engineer. As for Edward's title... it seemed unlikely that a true M.D. would work selling a clairvoyant's patent medicine; indeed, one newspaper claimed that "Doctor" Edward J. Stevens had recently worked as a lowly nursing attendant in a mental hospital.
We already have seen the note which he sent to de Languillette as his challenge. The recipient immediately took it to Justice of the Peace Titus, and a warrant was sworn for Stevens's arrest. Thus, Constable William Cole went to the summer home of Madame Rosa to make the arrest, where he found Stevens sunbathing in the yard. Through politeness, Cole blundered - he permitted Stevens to enter the house alone so as to don proper clothing. While the constable waited outside, his quarry slid down a clothes line from a window on the opposite side of the house, and ran off.
De Languillette soon received a threatening letter from the fugitive:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 14, 1875
Quite the retort, no? Not long afterward, Constable Cole received an even more abusive letter from Stevens:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 14, 1875
Stevens was in Manhattan, and brazenly unafraid.
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William Cole traveled to Manhattan, where with the help of a State Assemblyman he gained the cooperation of local police. They helped him complete the arrest on the evening of September 15th. Curiously, although the Daily Tribune reported that the doctor was arrested only "after considerable searching," he was found in the most obvious of places: 472 Canal Street, Madame Rosa's workplace and usual home.
Edward Stevens then was taken to the Queens County Jail at North Hempstead. He asked to be represented by the same attorney who had defended Mrs. Merrigan. Arranging that would take time, and as he had been a fugitive, he was denied bail. He was jailed.
A week later, a Grand Jury was convened to investigate the matter. News coverage was spotty; it suggests that Stevens first went before the Grand Jury as early as September 23rd, and that the jury reached its conclusion a month later. During that month, he had remained in jail. The Eagle reported that his wife had neither provided bail, nor hired the defense attorney whom he had requested. On October 18th the Grand Jury returned a "true bill," meaning that prosecution would follow.
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With no evident help from his wife, and a trial now definite, Stevens lost hope. He began to falsely complain about bedbugs, and continued until he was handed a container of poison sufficient to treat his bedding. He drank the poison, but prompt medical attention - the elected Assistant Sheriff on duty was a pharmacist - saved his life.
An unsent letter to his wife was found in his cell. The sneering, adolescent bravado of his earlier letters now had been replaced by a pitiful and morbid despair. This is an excerpt (note that the headings were added by the newspaper's typesetter), which offers more insight into why he attempted suicide:
On November 22nd, newspapers reported that the case was to have come to trial, the court having appointed a public defender, but that after conferring with Edward Stevens, his attorney initiated proceedings to assess his client's fitness for trial. This development was reported in the Eagle under the heading AN INSANE QUACK, a reference to the defendant's having called himself a Doctor while selling Madame Rosa's patent medicine. County judge Armstrong then appointed "a commission de lunatico inquirendo" to assess Stevens.
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From this point on, there is little mention of the fate of Edward J. Stevens. In December 1875, the Eagle published a letter from Madame Rosa, in which she defended her perceived inaction with regard to her husband. She claimed that, contrary to public rumor, she had visited him in jail a number of times, but that she did not furnish him bail because he was insane, and thus neither he nor she could be responsible for what he might do if he were free on bail.
The final news item I have found for his case, and for him, was published on March 9, 1876. It makes reference neither to the findings of the sanity inquiry nor to any trial that occurred. It simply states that after spending a number of months in custody while awaiting trial, Edward Stevens "was discharged from custody." No reason was given, but his self-induced ordeal was over.
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