Photograph was edited for publication purposes. Nellie Madison was a rebel from the time she was a little girl. She was married for the first time in 1908 at age 13 to a man 11 years her senior. Her parents had the marriage annulled but that didn't slow her down. By 1934 she was on her fifth marriage. Spouse number five was Eric Madison, an abusive schemer. He proposed to Madison as soon as he discovered that she had inherited $1,000. He was unable to hold on to a job and he was unfaithful. Madison came home one day and found him in bed with a 16-year-old girl. Eric wasn't contrite, he mocked her and confessed that he had only married her for her money and then he beat her. His rage continued for nearly a week. Madison was so afraid for her life that she bought a gun. On March 24, 1934, the couple began arguing. It was about midnight and Eric was in bed and Nellie was standing at its foot. She pulled out her gun, but Eric continued to curse at her and from underneath the bed he pulled out a box of butcher knives. He threw a couple of them at Nellie. When he turned to reach for another one Nellie shot him five times in the back, and then she ran. She was found two days later and indicted for Eric's murder. District Attorney Buron Fitts vowed to seek the death penalty. Historically women who refuse to conform to the norms of society pay a price, and Nellie was a lifelong non-conformist. During the trial her multiple marriages, childlessness, and unconventional life style weighed heavily against her; perhaps even more than the evidence. The public and the jurors were confounded by the fact that she never dissolved into tears or begged for mercy. The newspapers called her "Sphinx Woman" and "Iron Woman." No one was surprised when she was sentenced to death by hanging, but her life was spared in 1935 by California's governor, Frank Merriam, after a long and very public sympathy campaign in which Aggie Underwood played a pivotal role. Underwood publicized the case and revealed that Nellie had suffered terrible abuse at Eric's hands. It was not until 1942 that Nellie's life sentence was commuted to a sentence of fifteen years, making her eligible for parole. Upon her release from Tehachapi she thanked Underwood profusely saying, "You did it! You did it! I owe it all to you!" Photograph caption dated September 18, 1935 reads, "Fourteen months in a tiny 'cell' in preparation for death, each minute ticking her closer to the gallows--then suddenly Nellie Madison's world is filled with sunshine, the almost-forgotten smell of the out-of-doors and the thrilling beauty of growing flowers. With her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Mrs. Madison is shown out int he garden midst the flowers of the women's prison at Tehachapi for the first time since she entered prison 14 months ago."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;36 x 29 cm. Photographic prints
California Institution for Women (Tehachapi, Calif.) Trials (Murder)--California--Tehachapi Female offenders--California--Tehachapi Criminals--California--Tehachapi Murderers--California--Tehachapi Women--California--Tehachapi Jails--California--Tehachapi Reformatories for women--California--Tehachapi Hollyhock--California--Tehachapi Gardens--California--Tehachapi Tehachapi (Calif.) Portrait photographs Night photographs Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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