151: A "Massive" Defense Strategy & Ed Johnson

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Richard Henry Patterson was mortified. His girlfriend, Francisca Marquinez, was dead in his bed, and he knew exactly what was to blame. His sizable penis. He was certain she’d choked and died while performing oral sex. Richard was so embarrassed that he took a few days to call the police. At least… that’s the story he told them when they showed up.

Then Kristin tells us about the first and only criminal trial in the history of the United States Supreme Court. It all started in 1906 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A pretty white woman named Nevada Taylor was on her way home from work when a man attacked and raped her. She didn’t get a good look at her attacker. She knew he had a soft, gentle voice, strong arms, and… was maybe black? That was all Sheriff Joseph Shipp needed to hear. In fact, it was all that most white folks needed to hear. Soon after the reward money piled up, a sketchy man came forward with an incredible story. He was pretty sure he’d seen a black man who matched the attacker’s description near the scene of the crime, around the time of the crime, twirling the leather strap that the attacker had wrapped around Nevada’s neck. That man, apparently, was Ed Johnson.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Sheriff Shipp Trial,” by Douglas O. Linder for famous-trials.com
“Mrs. Daisy Hixon Divorced,” Chattanooga Daily Times, Sept. 28, 1907
“Miss Nevada Taylor Dies,” Chattanooga Daily Times, May 13, 1907
“Styles Linton Hutchins,” Tennessee State Government website
“Lynching of Ed Johnson,” entry on Wikipedia
“Lynching of Alfred Blount,” entry on Wikipedia
edjohnsonproject.com
“Ed Johnson Gravesite; Pleasant Garden Cemetery,” by Rob’s Randomness on YouTube

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Man accused of murder asks to show penis to jury in oral-sex choking defense” by Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
“Florida man who claimed girlfriend choked during oral sex because of his over-sized manhood, is found NOT guilty of her murder” by Abigail Miller and Snejana Farberov, The Daily Mail
“"It needs to be erect": Accused murderer's bizarre defense” by Jackie Salo, New York Post
“Defense rests in man’s oral sex choking trial” by Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
“Man who claimed girlfriend choked during oral sex acquitted in murder case” by Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
“Margate man acquitted in murder case after oral-sex defense”by Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
"Lawyer admits size never mattered in big-penis murder trial” by Jackie Salo, New York Post
“Man who murdered high-flying solicitor and claimed she choked to death while performing a sex act on him is jailed for life” The Daily Mail