Crime, Tragedy, and Catastrophe in Montgomery County, Maryland 1860 to 1960

By Jack Toomey

Stories about murders, train wrecks, plane crashes, disappearances, peculiar events, and mysterious happenings in a once rural county near Washington, D.C.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350912746

Book preview

Fugitive

In April 1865 a sensational incident happened in Washington, D.C. The story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is well known. What is not widely known is how Montgomery County played a part in this important piece of history.

George Atzerodt was shocked. After a day of drinking in a city that was celebrating the end of the Civil War, he had been summoned to a hotel near Ford’s Theater to meet his friend John Wilkes Booth. For months he had been part of a loosely knit group that had planned to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and transport him to Richmond. Under the leadership of Booth, they had planned to kidnap Lincoln while he rode in his carriage out present-day Georgia Avenue on the way to his country home in the wooded area north of the city. When that plan fell through Atzerodt stayed around Washington until being summoned to meet with Lincoln. But now Booth announced that he intended to kill the president and ordered Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson.

George Atzerodt was born in Prussia in 1835. When he was eight years old his family immigrated to the United States and they settled in Germantown, Maryland. He was uneducated and worked at a series of odd jobs until he was sixteen when his family moved to southern Maryland. After the family moved some of his relatives stayed in the Germantown area and he visited occasionally. He took up residence in Port Tobacco and opened a carriage shop. He has been described as a seedy man, short and dumpy and a ne’er-do-well who spent his time working on carriages during the day and smuggling Confederate spies and messages across the Potomac by night. Booth had met Atzerodt through mutual friends and asked him to enter the plot to kidnap Lincoln because Atzerodt owned a boat and knew the river like no other man.

On the evening of April 14, 1865 Booth went to Ford’s Theater and assassinated President Lincoln. At about the same time another conspirator went to the home of Secretary of State William Seward and stabbed him repeatedly. Atzerodt had taken a room in the same hotel where Vice President Johnson lived. At the last minute he lost his nerve, did not carry out his orders, and left the hotel. He then visited a few taverns and eventually checked into another hotel and fell asleep.

The next morning Atzerodt realized that he was tied deeply into the conspiracy. He knew that he had to leave the city immediately so he walked to a hotel in the area of Wisconsin Avenue and P Street where a stagecoach to Rockville was schedule to depart. Atzerodt was the only passenger on the stage as it traveled up present-day Wisconsin Avenue to the area of Fort Reno where soldiers were under orders to stop all suspicious persons. He jumped off the stage and began talking to other travelers until he met a Montgomery County farmer, George Gaither, who had a wagon and was going to his farm north of Rockville. Atzerodt talked himself into a free ride past the checkpoint apparently because of his friendly demeanor and willingness to share some hard cider with the soldiers.

Atzerodt rode on the wagon about three miles past Rockville until Mr. Gaither turned off the Frederick Road to his own farm. Atzerodt got off and began walking until he reached the road that ran northwest towards Barnesville. This road closely followed present-day Fields Road and Clopper Road. About 11:00 p.m. he came to Clopper Mill. He knew the mill owner and asked to spend the night. When he awoke the next morning, he walked up Clopper Road to a lane that led to the farm of Hezekiah Metz. Today as you travel north on Clopper Road, after passing Metz Drive, there is a large oak tree on the left side of the road. It is said that this oak tree was one of two that marked the lane to the Metz farmhouse. Atzerodt went to the Metz home and was invited to eat Easter Sunday dinner with the family. After leaving there he reached the intersection of present-day Route 118 and Clopper Road. He headed west towards Darnestown and reached the lane that led to the farm of his cousin, Hartman Richter. His cousin allowed him to stay on the farm in exchange for doing chores having no idea that he was being sought by the military.

Early in the morning of April 20, 1865 a squad of cavalry soldiers entered the house and dragged Atzerodt from bed. They had tracked him to that place through informants and neighbors who had seen a suspicious man around the farm. After questioning they arrested him and took him to Ellicott City where he was placed on a military train and taken to Washington. Atzerodt eventually confessed to his part in the conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. He denied any knowledge of the plan to assassinate the president. On July 7, 1865 George Atzerodt, along with other conspirators, was hung in at the Washington Arsenal.

Today the remains of the Clopper Mill can still be seen along Clopper Road. The Metz farm has been replaced by a shopping center and townhouses and Metz Drive bears the family name. Hartman Richter’s farm has been replaced by a sprawling housing development and Richter Farm Drive is named after this family. The Richter family farmhouse where Atzerodt was arrested is believed to have stood near the site of Northwest High School.

Nowhere is there mention of George Atzerodt. He is buried at St Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore under a fictitious name.

Hung on Sugarloaf

Sergeant Harry Volkman was appointed to the police force in Washington, D.C. in 1861, just as the chaos of the Civil War engulfed the city. He had an eventful career that spanned almost forty years. Volkman suffered many broken bones and even lost an eye serving the city. Arresting horse thieves and quelling fights were a daily routine for Volkman. One night he was working the midnight shift when he heard the unmistakable sound of a dynamite blast. Volkman ran in the direction of the explosion and found that thieves had broken into the Georgetown post office and then dynamited the safe. In 1891 he and his men surrounded a house of prostitution and arrested fourteen people.

Volkman was respected by his men and one of his officers recalled a heavy snowstorm where the officer had taken refuge in a doorway instead of patrolling his beat. When the officer returned to the station house Volkman noticed that the man had no snow on his police hat like the rest of the men. Instead of taking severe disciplinary action the sergeant made light of it in front of the officers but later made the officer work an additional day. However, no criminal that he had arrested, no case that he had investigated, or administrative problem he faced, prepared him for the events of April 17, 1879.

Most of the residents of Point of Rocks, Maryland were at an Easter Ball on the evening of April 13, 1879. A young married woman living in Licksville, Frederick County, was ill and did not attend the ball. About 11 p.m. a man entered the house by a window and went to the woman’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her. James Carroll was apparently a man with a bad reputation in those parts and the woman had recognized him. Word of the crime quickly reached the dance hall and a posse was quickly organized and all roads leading out of Frederick County were scoured but the man was not found and somehow made his way to Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, the victim’s husband wrote a letter to the Frederick County State’s Attorney and said, I write to say that James Carroll committed an outrage on the person of my wife last night during my absence from home. Carroll had on when he left here an old slouch hat without a band, new pair of pantaloons, and a run-down pair of shoes. He is of medium size, and has a rather repulsive looking countenance. Use every effort in your power to have him arrested, for besides the outrage, he has left my wife in a very precarious condition from severe choking and fright.

Three days later Volkman, who was apparently acquainted with Carroll, saw him walking on the towpath of the C&O Canal under the old Aqueduct Bridge. Spotting Volkman, Carroll turned and ran but the officer chased after him and caught him. Volkman took the man to the Georgetown police station where the husband of the Frederick woman was summoned. He identified James Carroll as the man who frequently hung around Point of Rocks. Carroll then admitted his identity and was questioned by Volkman and another officer. Carroll soon confessed that he had attacked the woman. Carroll agreed to go to Frederick County to face the charges and Volkman and another officer were put in charge of transporting Carroll back to Frederick.

On the afternoon of April 17, 1879 Carroll was handcuffed and bound, hand and foot, and put on the 4:35 train bound for Frederick with Volkman and Officer Harper assigned to guard him. Their trip was uneventful as the train passed through Montgomery County but as the train passed through the rural countryside a large group was gathering in Point of Rocks. Just before the train reached Point of Rocks another train was heading towards Washington. Its passengers and crew saw a crowd of men loitering around the station and a number of horses hitched to the post.

As the train carrying Volkman and his prisoner neared the station the engineer had to bring the train to a halt because a large group of men were blocking the tracks. About fifteen men boarded the train and walked through the cars until they found Carroll. The men overpowered Volkman and Harper, some pointing pistols at the officers, and placed a rope around Carroll’s neck. They then flung the end of rope to the men standing outside and Carroll was dragged out of the train and into the custody of the mob. Volkman and Harper were guarded by a few of the armed men until the hapless Carroll was placed on a horse and the mob of men rode off in the direction of Montgomery County. The officers attempted to chase the group of men who had kidnapped Carroll but they were forced back at gunpoint. Volkman then continued on to Frederick where he made his report about the incident and returned to Washington on the next available train. He noted that most of the men had worn masks and that he did not recognize any of them.

The men on horseback rode onward as darkness fell over southern Frederick County. The throng spotted the outline of Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance and when they reached the bottom of the mountain, they rode up a trail until they reached a place called Snake Hollow which was a plateau that overlooked the farmland below. Someone threw the rope over the limb of a tree and Carroll was suspended from the tree until he died. Carroll’s body was cut down from the tree the next morning by Coroner Wallace and Constable Rine of Frederick and taken to a stable where it lay until the next morning.

A coroner’s jury was impaneled the next morning consisting of some of the leading men of the city. At the same time Carroll was being buried in the city’s potter’s field. The State’s Attorney was critical of the decision to transport Carroll by way of Point of Rocks and said that he should have been taken through Baltimore. The coroner’s jury heard evidence and eventually came to the conclusion that those responsible for the murder of James Carroll were unknown. Volkman and Harper returned to Washington and met with Chief Morgan. They told him what had happened and the chief held the officers blameless.

Strangely, a package was delivered to the Georgetown police station years later. Sgt. Volkman opened the package and realized that it contained his handcuffs. The same handcuffs that were on the wrists of James Carroll on the night that he was murdered. Volkman never used the handcuffs again and they hung on a notch in the station until he retired from the force.

Manhunt

At the turn of the century there was a small community at the corner of Old Baltimore Road and Slidell Road. It didn’t have more than a schoolhouse, a post office, a general store, and a few houses. In the early 1890’s Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rosenstein moved to this little place called Slidell and opened a small general store on the first floor of their house which stood on the northeast corner of that intersection. They rarely left Slidell and used hired men to bring them the provisions that were delivered by train to the depot at Boyds. Mr. Rosenstein had no use for banks and was believed to keep a large amount of cash around the house.

On May 13, 1899 Garret Linthicum, a farmer, was passing by the store about 5:00 am and saw a man standing out front. He recognized him as Armistead Taylor and thought he might be drunk and continued on. At about 7:00 a.m. Mrs. Carlin sent her daughter to the store to make a small purchase. She returned home and told her mother that no one was in the store. Shortly afterwards another customer came to the store and found Mr. Rosenstein lying behind the counter. An iron bar was lying next to his body. Other people came to the store and someone went upstairs and found Mrs. Rosenstein lying next to a bed in her bedroom. Both were in very critical condition. At least six hundred dollars was believed to have been stolen from the store.

Word spread quickly throughout the area and men organized a posse and began to search the woods. Found in the woods near the store were a pair of bloody shoes and a silver watch belonging to Mr. Rosenstein. Someone went to the Boyds railroad station and the ticket agent said that Armistead Taylor had boarded the 8:30 train bound for Washington. The conductor of the train was later interviewed and said that Taylor had put on new shoes on the train and had thrown his old ones out the window. He had purchased new shoes at Lewis’s general store near the Boyds station. Taylor then got off the train at Garrett Park. All roads leading out of Montgomery County were ordered closed and armed men searched every wagon attempting to leave the county.

Sheriff Thompson and his deputy went to the home of John Brown, who lived near the Rosenstein store, and found a bloody apron and a watch chain. Brown and Taylor were known to be acquaintances. Thompson then went to the farm of his employer and arrested Brown. Meanwhile Charles Kingsbury, searching on his own, found a new coat and shirt in the woods. They had been stolen from the store. Since there were no medical facilities of any kind in Montgomery County the family came to Slidell and took Mr. and Mrs. Rosenstein to the University of Maryland Hospital at Baltimore by wagon. They were not expected to survive and they died shortly after arriving in Baltimore.

In the meantime the police in Washington, D.C. had been alerted to look for Armistead Taylor. Suspicion had been aroused when a man had come into a pawnbrokers shop in Georgetown and had purchased new clothing and a revolver. A woman, knowing of the manhunt, became suspicious of a new neighbor who had just rented a room next door to her house on Fowlers Hill near Georgetown University. She had seen him sitting on the steps counting a large sum of money so she went to the police station in Georgetown and reported what she had seen. After hearing the description of the man the captain of the station ordered that all off duty and reserve officers be called from their homes. Messengers were sent to all quarters of the city and a small army of police officers assembled. So not to arouse suspicion the officers left the station in pairs and headed in the direction of Fowlers Hill. As the officers approached the house someone started firing shots from the second floor of the house. A few of the officers, including Sergeant Fritz Passau, ran up the stairway to the second floor. Taylor had crawled into the attic and he was ordered to surrender. Instead of giving up he fired shots through the trap door and one of the bullets struck Sgt. Passau, mortally wounding him. His body was carried to the street by his fellow officers and for two hours shots were exchanged by the officers and Taylor. Finally the police decided to burn down the house to force Taylor to surrender. When Taylor learned of this plan he decided to give up asking that he be protected from the huge crowd of citizens that had assembled to watch the gunfight. When the attic was searched after his removal a gold watch and one hundred ninety two dollars were found. Taylor was then hustled away to the Georgetown police station which was heavily guarded from the throng of over two thousand people who gathered out front.

Sheriff Thompson, his deputy Selby, and later State’s Attorney Kilgour, questioned Taylor at the police station. He admitted that he and Brown had left Brown’s home early in the morning of the crime. Taylor had stood outside while Brown robbed the store. After Brown had attacked Mr. Rosenstein Taylor came into the store and hit Mrs. Rosenstein over the head when she intervened. They then stole the money and several items and left the store.

Taylor’s trial was moved to Frederick and started on July 6, 1899. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Brown’s trial was held the following week and Taylor surprised the spectators by taking the witness stand, and even though under the sentence of death, told the jury that Brown had killed Mr. Rosenstein. A jailer testified that he heard frequent arguments between Taylor and Brown where they blamed each other for not disposing of the evidence. Brown was also convicted and sentenced to death.

On August 18, 1899 Taylor and Brown were scheduled to be hung. Sheriff Thompson delayed the execution because he believed that Governor Lowndes might intervene and issue a stay of execution. When the governor failed to send any word to Rockville, Taylor and Brown were led from their cells to the scaffold that had been constructed