I'm attempting to trace my husband's family tree back further than the mid-1800s at the moment, and I may have stumbled onto some newspaper articles that indicate that his g-g-g-grandfather may have murdered a guy for some perceived impropriety with his wife. None of the stories actually come right out and say it, but one of the headlines indicates liquor may have been involved. The ancestor is Leonard Dalton (b. abt 1823 Ireland), wife Margaret (Doherty) Dalton (b. abt 1828 Ireland), and a gaggle of children. I'm able to find them on the 1860 Census, and then again on the 1870 Census living in a slightly different neighborhood. I can't find any later records for Leonard, and Margaret shows up next in her own death record in Boston in 1873, listed as widowed. Did Leonard do any time, or what even was the disposition of the case? Did he die of natural causes? Was he hunted down by the angry father of his victim, Matthew/Mathias Scanlan? Did he maybe die later, but Margaret considered him dead and listed herself as a widow?

Normally, I think this might be easier to track because of it taking place in Chicago, but I think the fact that it happened in Bridgeport, what was essentially an Irish shantytown neighborhood at the time, means that once the papers got past the sensationalism, they didn't care any longer and never concluded the story. I'm probably also being stymied by the fact that records may have been lost in the Chicago Fire in 1871.

I'm hoping that getting more information about this case will answer some of those questions above, and will let me conclude that this is indeed my husband's ancestor.

Here's one of the clippings for the curious. Thanks for any tips anyone can offer!