Kills Her Nephew, Who Was Also Her Paramour

On October 22, 1883, Ella Straub, 27-year-old housewife and mother of four or five children, killed her 21-year-old nephew by marriage, Louis L. During, at the Straub home near Clifton Hill in western Randolph County, Missouri, by beating him to death with a hammer. She proceeded promptly to the county seat at Huntsville and turned herself in. However, she would not say much about During's death except that she'd killed him during a quarrel.

Officers went straightway to the Straub residence and found blood everywhere, attesting to a violent incident, but particulars as to what caused the confrontation were few and far between in the days immediately after it happened. Newspaper reports suggested only that "Family troubles led to the tragedy."

Investigators wondered how a small woman like Ella could have overpowered a strapping young man like During, even with a hammer in her hand, and they also thought it strange that she had no blood or scratches on her when she turned herself in. Under the theory that she might have been shielding her husband, officers arrested 37-year-old William Straub as an accomplice about a week after the killing.

More specifics about the case came out as the investigation continued.

Ella and her husband had gotten married in 1872 when Straub was 26 years old and Ella was only 15. Sometime around 1879, young During, William Straub's nephew, came to live with the couple and work on their farm. Before long, a romance developed between During and Ella, who was described as "small in stature, black hair and eyes, with a rather attractive face and figure."

Ella's illicit intimacy with Straub's nephew "caused trouble between husband and wife," and the trouble came to a head in August or early September 1883, when Straub "slapped his wife severely," leaving her considerably bruised. Ella left home and went to Boonville, taking her kids with her. Straub came after her and brought her back to Randolph County, but she gave him the slip again and took off for Kansas. She wrote to During, who was supposed to meet her and elope with her, but he failed to show up, and she went on without him. While she was gone, During got married and started living with his new bride on a farm not far from the Straub place. When Ella came back to Randolph County in early October, she was reportedly jealous of During and his new wife, and many people thought her jealousy contributed to the murder.

However, that wasn't the story Ella told in mid-November when a joint preliminary hearing was held for her and her husband. While admitting that During was always very attentive to her and that a certain intimacy existed between them, she claimed she never yielded to his "improper proposals." She had been back from Kansas for about two weeks when During showed up at her house on October 22, 1883. When he asked where his uncle was and Ella told him that he was at work in the fields, During said it wasn't Straub he'd come to see anyway--it was her. Ella rose and went into the parlor to get some clothes for her baby but picked up a hammer as she passed through one of the rooms. While she was still in the parlor, During came into the room and "with an oath, demanded that she submit to his fiendish desires." When she refused, he struck at her, and she responded by using the hammer with "frightful effect."

At the close of the preliminary hearing, William Straub was released for lack of evidence, while his wife was held in lieu of $3,000 bond.

At Ella's trial in March of 1884, spectators packed the courtroom in Huntsville to view and hear the sensational proceedings. Ella repeated essentially the same story of self-defense that she'd told at the preliminary. Whether her version of events was true is not known, but since there was no one to refute it, the jury found her not guilty by virtue of justifiable homicide.