Mark Twain – MURDERER!





Mark Twain may be the most famous American ever to be accused of murder (albeit briefly); all over an umbrella.





On May 18, 1875 in Hartford, Connecticut, Mark Twain, and a record crowd of 10,000 fans, watched their undefeated Hartford Dark Blues (12-0) lose to the undefeated Boston Red Stockings (16-0) by a convincing score of 10-5.





Mark Twain lost an umbrella at the game; stolen, he said, by a small boy. He wanted it back - badly; he offered $5 for return of the umbrella and $200 for the boy - dead, not alive:





TWO HUNDRED AND

FIVE DOLLARS REWARD





At the great base ball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk UMBRELLA belonging to me, and forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for the return of that umbrella in good condition to my home on Farmington avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains. SAMUEL L. CLEMENS [i]





As a well-known humorist, few readers would have taken his call for blood seriously – that is, until a corpse turned up in his home:





Some medical student left a “case” – the corpse of a boy – at his house, and Mark was thought to have been his murderer until the janitor of the medical college claimed the “subject.” Mark Twain’s joking advertisement for the body of the boy who stole his umbrella at a base ball match recoiled rather heavily upon him.Some medical student left a “case” – the corpse of a boy – at his house, and Mark was thought to have been his murderer until the janitor of the medical college claimed the “subject.” [ii]



