Adams died.
If jurors believed that version completely, the killing could be seen very differently from deliberate murder.
The defense therefore needed to separate two events.
The killing.
And the cover-up.
Yes, Colt concealed the body.
Yes, he packed it into a box.
Yes, he tried to ship it away.
But terrible conduct after a death did not automatically prove that the death itself had been planned.
That distinction became one of the central problems of the trial.
A person can panic after an accidental or defensive killing.
A person can do irrational things.
A person can fear scandal.
Colt came from a prominent family.
Perhaps, the defense suggested, he was terrified of what the death would do to his reputation.
The prosecution saw the same conduct differently.
Not panic.
Consciousness of guilt.
The Prosecutor's Question
If this was legitimate self-defense, why behave like a murderer?
Why not report it?
Why take the victim's possessions?
Why strip the body?
Why hide identifying items?
Why scrub the floor?
Why invent a recipient in New Orleans?
Why send the corpse hundreds of miles away?
Why visit the victim's business days later pretending to wonder where he was?
The prosecution did not need every act to prove premeditation before the fight.
It needed to convince jurors that Colt's story should not be trusted.
And every act of concealment made that easier.
His post-killing behavior was exceptionally organized.
He did not simply run from the room.
He stayed with the problem.
Cleaned.
Packed.
Planned transportation.
Found a ship.
Hired a cartman.
Created a false destination.
To prosecutors, these were not the actions of a man whose only concern had been survival.
They were the actions of a man determined to ensure that Samuel Adams would never be found.
New York Becomes Obsessed
The case exploded in the press.
Nineteenth-century New York newspapers were already discovering the commercial value of sensational crime.
The city loved scandal.
Murder trials filled columns.
Reporters competed for details.
Pamphlets appeared.
Crowds gathered.
And the Colt case contained everything a sensational press could want.
A professional defendant.
A recognizable family.
A businessman victim.
A mysterious disappearance.
A body in a crate.
A ship.
A fake address.
A gruesome crime scene.
A claim of self-defense.
And a famous younger brother associated with a new kind of firearm.
Contemporary accounts described intense public excitement surrounding the case.
The name Colt now carried two very different stories.
Samuel Colt wanted people to think of technological invention.
John Colt was giving New York something else to remember.
The Famous Brother Enters the Courtroom
The trial became bizarre enough that Samuel Colt himself appeared.
One issue concerned suggestions about the type of weapon involved and speculation that one of Samuel Colt's firearms might somehow have been connected to the murder.
At one point Samuel demonstrated his revolver in connection with the proceedings.
A murder trial had effectively produced a firearms demonstration in court.
That was only one of the strange spectacles associated with the proceeding.
The prosecution and defense fought over wounds.
Angles.
The nature of the struggle.
Could Colt's description of being attacked match the injuries found on Adams?
Could the fatal blows have been inflicted while the men were grappling?
Medical testimony mattered because the dead man could no longer describe the fight.
His body became the witness.
And nineteenth-century courtroom practice could be startlingly direct.
Historical accounts describe Adams's remains being exhumed during the proceedings and the head being used during medical testimony before the jury.
To a modern courtroom audience, such a display would be shocking.
To the jury, it was presented as evidence.
The trial had become part legal proceeding, part public spectacle.
But beneath all the sensationalism remained a very simple question.
Did John Colt kill Samuel Adams because he had to defend himself?
Or had he committed murder?
The Verdict
The jury rejected Colt's defense.
He was found guilty of murder.
The verdict carried the death penalty.
Hanging.
Colt's legal team fought on.
There were appeals.
Efforts to obtain a new trial.
Arguments about the evidence.
Later medical analysis was presented in an effort to make the self-defense theory more plausible.
Supporters petitioned Governor William H. Seward for clemency.
Colt had influential people advocating for him.
The case had become so famous that any decision by the governor would attract enormous attention.
Seward refused to save him.
One of the issues weighing heavily against Colt was the cover-up.
Whatever had happened in the original confrontation, Colt had treated Adams's remains with calculated concealment.
The New Orleans box followed him all the way to the death sentence.
The date was set.
November 18, 1842.
John C. Colt would hang.
More than a year after Samuel Adams walked into his office, Colt would be taken from his cell at New York's notorious Tombs prison and executed.
But even that did not happen according to plan.
Nothing in the Colt-Adams case seemed capable of ending normally.
The Tombs
The Tombs was one of New York's most infamous prisons.
Dark.
Heavy.
Monumental.
A place whose very nickname carried dread.
John Colt waited there for execution.
By then the murder had made him nationally notorious.
The public knew about the box.
The courtroom.
The appeals.
The governor.
Newspapers prepared to cover his final hours.
Crowds expected the execution.
Yet Colt's own experience inside the prison was reportedly more comfortable than that of many inmates.
His family had resources.
His visitors included people of influence.
And one person remained especially important.
Caroline Henshaw.
Caroline had been Colt's companion.
Before he died, Colt wanted their relationship formally recognized.
So an extraordinary arrangement was made.
He would marry her.
In prison.
On the day he was supposed to be executed.
Wedding Day and Execution Day
November 18, 1842.
For most condemned prisoners, the date of execution contains only one ceremony.
John Colt had two scheduled.
First a wedding.
Then a hanging.
Caroline arrived at the Tombs.
Contemporary accounts describe her carefully dressed for the occasion.
Inside the condemned man's cell, the ceremony was performed.
Witnesses included prominent individuals.
Samuel Colt was there.
John Howard Payne, associated with the famous song "Home, Sweet Home," was reportedly among those present.
John and Caroline became husband and wife.
Then they were allowed time together.
For a brief period, the condemned cell became a wedding chamber.
Outside, preparations for death continued.
The contrast was almost too strange for fiction.
Wedding.
Execution.
Love.
Death.
All within hours.
Then another event erupted.
A fire broke out at the prison.
Smoke and confusion spread.
People outside noticed activity.
The situation created instant rumors.
Was the fire accidental?