Marion Ira Stout, or Ira as he went by, came from a criminal family and when still a young man he served a 5 year prison term in Pennsylvania for helping his father to commit robbery and arson. When Ira got out of prison he moved to Rochester, New York where the rest of his family lived. He tried to straighten out his life and attended college and got a respectable job.

Ira’s sister, Sarah, was married to Charles Littles. Charles was a lawyer and was known around the city as an abusive drunken lout who was obsessively jealous of his wife. Ira loved his sister dearly, perhaps literally as there were reports from family members that they occasionally shared the same bed and sometimes naked, and the abuse Sarah received at the hands of her husband upset Ira. Reportedly Ira was also worried that the drunken Littles would eventually let it slip to people that Ira had spent time in jail.

Whatever the reason, Ira and Sarah decided to do away with Charles Littles. On the evening of December 19, 1857, Sarah left the house and Ira told Charles she was going to meet her lover. An enraged Charles smashed a wooden chair and grabbed an arm from the chair as a weapon and Ira brought an iron mallet for his weapon. Ira told Charles that Sarah was headed for a rendezvous near the High Falls along the Genesee River. Ira knew about a man who had slipped off a nearby bridge and went over the high falls and died and Ira thought he could kill Charles near the falls and make it look like another accident.

Image via Wikipedia (High Falls where murder took place)

When the two men neared the bank by the High Falls, Ira struck Charles Littles with a sudden blow with the iron mallet, smashing the skull and killing him instantly. Ira then threw the body over the bank thinking it would fall into the river and be washed away downstream into Lake Ontario. But instead of hearing a splash, Ira heard a thud as the body landed on a ledge some 30 feet down. Cursing his luck, Ira began climbing down to the ledge but he slipped in the darkness and broke his left arm as he landed next to his victim on the ledge. Ira wore glasses and during his tumble lost them. He searched for them but with a broken arm he soon gave up and devoted his energy to pushing Charles Littles body over the edge into the river. With great effort he managed to push his victim over the ledge and then Ira collapsed and passed out for a few minutes. Upon awakening he called out to his sister above to come to his aid. As Sarah started climbing down the bush she was clinging to gave way and she tumbled onto the ledge breaking her left wrist as she landed. In great pain the two of them searched in vain for Ira’s glasses but could not find them. They then scrambled with great effort to the top and went home taking the iron mallet with them and then washed themselves and the mallet.

The next day some young boys were playing by the river and found the body of Charles Littles. After being pushed over the ledge by Ira Stout, the body had struck a flat rock and landed on the edge of the water too far away for the current to take it. Next to the body were the chair limb Charles had taken as a weapon, Ira’s glasses and one of Sarah’s scarves.

Ira Stout was charged with the murder and the case went to trial. During the trial it was revealed by family members that Sarah and Ira likely had an incestuous relationship as they sometimes shared a bed unclothed. It was also revealed that Sarah had been badly abused by Charles Littles. In the end, on April 24, 1858, Marion Ira Stout was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang in June. Ira’s lawyer gained a stay of execution as he argued for a retrial.

Image via Wikipedia

During this time Ira Stout became somewhat famous and both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass wrote to the Governor asking for Stout’s life to be spared since he rescued his sister from an abusive marriage.

Stout wrote letters to the local papers and also entertained a number of female visitors during this time and even had one of them attempt to sneak poison to him so he could commit suicide. The poor girl ended up ingesting the poison herself by accident and barely survived the ordeal. Ira also attempted to slash his own wrists when another woman smuggled a lancet in to him. But a prison guard saw the blood and Stout was saved. 

The appeal for a new trail was not allowed and on October 22, 1858, Marion Ira Stout was hung. But even the hanging was botched. Despite a plunge of 8 feet from the scaffolding door, Ira’s neck did not break. According to witnesses he struggled mightily for eight minutes doing a mad jig for life that forced many in the crowd to look away. The doctors on hand took his pulse after 8 minutes and reported it to be “as full as in life”. After 30 minutes Ira Stout was finally declared dead. But that still was not the end of this mad but true tale.

Source

The next day a newspaper reported a rumor that galvanic batteries had been used on Stout after the hanging to try and bring him back to life “like Frankenstein’s monster”. But Stout was dead and buried in Mount Hope Cemetery (as are Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass).

Source (Grave marker for Marion Ira Stout)

For another High Falls story see Sam Patch: America’s First Real Daredevil and Modern Celebrity. For more about Niagara Falls see Most Popular Suicide Sites.