Heat

[Allen]

I would like to have weather reports for the time period of the trial to compare with the day of the murders. In reading accounts of the trial there are numerous references to the intolerable heat and humidity, and the toll it took on everyone.According to one reporter,"The heat tonight is something fearful, and if the court proceedings begin at 9 and continue until 5 I don't see but what a charge of manslaughter might be suggested against them in case the jurors melt in their seats or the prisoner goes mad."

[diana]

I don’t know how much help this is but the following, from the annals of the Harvard College Observatory, deals with weather conditions in 1893 in the New England area. These summaries were compiled from reports by voluntary observers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, R.I., and Connecticut. Of these, the majority of the reports were from Massachusetts.

The report for June, 1893 reads in part:
“June was warmer than usual in the north where in places it was the warmest June on record. . . . It was warm on June 5, 6, 14, 15, 20, and 21, the maximum being generally on the latter date in the south and ranging from 85 deg. to 96 deg. . . . “ (source: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/index.html)

[Allen]

Thank you diana for posting that. The newspaper account I referred to was actually dated "New Bedford. June 14". Interesting if the temp never went above 96,and was at the least only 85, yet they are talking aboutjurors melting in theirseats. The humidity is made reference to several times. Puts a little more perspective
on the reports of the temp on the day of the murders, in my opinion.