The Lapine Murders and a Double Hanging

When Washington County sheriff John Clark trailed John Armstrong and Charles Jolly into neighboring Jefferson County in late November, 1870, after the two villains had slaughtered five people, including Louise and Mary Christopher, the lawman stopped near Hematite at the home of the young women’s mother to inform her of the tragedy. The officer was surprised, according to the Washington County Journal, by the mother’s stoical manner and indifferent reply: “Well, I knew they were bad girls, but I think the two men have done enough now; they ought to be taken up.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Tried and convicted of first degree murder, Armstrong and Jolly were sentenced to hang and were “taken up” at Potosi in late January of 1871, just two months after their heinous crime.
On Saturday, November 19, 1870, forty-year-old Armstrong and thirty-five-year-old Jolly, lead miners living north of Potosi, had gone into town to sell their mineral. Also with them was Jolly’s sixteen-year-old brother, Leon. The men, who were cousins, spent the day drinking and then started back home, still imbibing from a jug of whiskey they’d purchased in Potosi.
A mile and half north of Potosi, they stopped at the home of another cousin, fifty-year-old David Lapine. Living with Lapine as his wife was twenty-three-year-old Louisa “Fanny” Christopher, and the couple had small child together. Also living with the family was Fanny’s twenty-two-year-old sister, Mary Christopher, and her baby.
Lapine had worked the mines in the area for years and was considered an inoffensive old man. The women of the house, though, bore dubious reputations, and Armstrong and Jolly were considered dangerous and worthless characters.
Arriving at the Lapine place, Armstrong and Jolly went inside, while Jolly’s teenage brother stayed outside in the wagon. After a while, Leon Jolly got cold and started to go inside. Approaching the cabin, he was startled by loud curses coming from within.
He stepped closer and, peeking through a crack, saw Armstrong and Charles Jolly engaged in a heated argument with Mary Christopher. Lapine tried to intercede, and Jolly drew his revolver and shot him four times, killing him almost instantly. When Fanny Christopher rushed to her husband’s aid, Jolly knocked her down and then shot and killed her, too. In the meantime, Armstrong picked up an ax and hit Mary in the head with it. He then chopped her head off and also severed the heads of the previous two victims. The two children roused from their beds and made a dash for freedom but never reached the door. Armstrong struck one of them in the head with the ax, while Jolly hurled the other one against the stone hearth, dashing its brains out.
The monstrous villains then set fire to the cabin with the bodies inside. Meanwhile, Leon Jolly slipped back to the wagon and pretended to be asleep when his brother and John Armstrong returned from their deadly work.
The murderers drove to the nearby home of Jolly’s brother-in-law, where they stayed until early Monday morning, November 21. Then, leaving Leon Jolly behind, they started north into Jefferson County on foot.
Because Lapine’s cabin was in an isolated part of the country, the crime scene was not discovered until late Monday. An alarm was raised, and the entire community flocked to the scene. After Sheriff Clark arrived, Leon Jolly readily confessed that he had witnessed the crime.
After hearing young Jolly’s story, the sheriff and two deputies set out on horseback on the trail of the murderers Monday evening. The search took them into Jefferson County, where the fugitives were arrested late Tuesday afternoon.
They were brought back to Potosi on Wednesday the 23rd and lodged in the Washington County jail. Late on the night of November 26, a mob tried to take the prisoners from the jail, but Sheriff Clark offered a strong resistance. The crowd was finally dispersed after both sides opened fire and one of the vigilantes was shot and killed. The next day, a state militia detail took Armstrong and Jolly to St. Louis for safekeeping.
They were brought back to Potosi for trial in late December and convicted of first-degree murder on the 22nd. Judge J. H. Vail sentenced the prisoners to die by hanging on January 27, 1871, and they were again taken to St. Louis to await their date with death.
On the early morning of the appointed day, Armstrong and Jolly were brought to Potosi by train, arriving about noon. The condemned men were led from the railroad station to the courthouse grounds, where a gallows had been erected beside the jail. At approximately 1:00 p.m., Armstrong and Jolly were dropped into eternity before a crowd of about 3,000 curious spectators.
The story is condensed from a chapter in my book Yanked Into Eternity: Lynchings and Hangings in Missouri.