Abe Rothschild: Accused Murderer of Diamond Bessie and 19th Century Con Man
by Laura Stolk, updated January 2021
Updated January 2021
I was in Jefferson, Texas recently and learned of an infamous Cincinnatian by the name of Abraham (Abe) Rothschild who was said to have murdered a woman there on New Year’s Eve in 1876. The murder was sensational and the life of the accused can be surmised as scandalous, to say the least. One unique distinction of this case is that it was the one to set the precedent for the double jeopardy rule, which prevents a person from being tried more than once for the same crime.
Upon starting my research, I found that there were several varied and sensationalized versions of this story. So, I went directly to the original newspaper articles and records for sourcing. They can all be viewed first-hand below.
Abraham Rothschild
Abe was the eldest of five children belonging to Meyer and Rose Rothschild, wealthy immigrants from Baden, which was located in the Black Forest region of modern Germany. The family lived at 264 W. 5th Street in the heart of Cincinnati. His father was a jeweler.
Abe likely had brown eyes, dark hair that was wavy and thick, which he kept parted just left of center, full lips, and a rounded nose. He was charismatic and as you can tell from the rendition on the left had laughing eyes with a spark for mischief.
Diamond Bessie
Annie, the murdered woman, is now commonly known as “Diamond Bessie”. She was by all accounts a very beautiful young woman who had dark, shining hair and porcelain skin. Annie left New York and moved west, some say after a failed relationship with an older man, turning to prostitution to maintain her livelihood. 2
She started using the name Bessie around this time and became well-known in that syndicate. Bessie traveled along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, stopping at various port towns and popular destination towns to work at the brothels.
Abe and Bessie met in Cincinnati, Ohio, while she was working in a House of Ill Repute located on Fourth Street. She had run into trouble and was picked up by the law, along with her Madame, Jennie Williams, and various other women of “ill-fame” several times around 1876. These transgressions were listed in the newspaper and usually consisted of disorderly conduct and such.
After meeting, Abe and Bessie began spending time together in Cincinnati, and also in Little Rock, Arkansas or whenever their travelling paths crossed, which seemed to be along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. They perhaps travelled by steamboat.
Bessie possessed a fair amount of jewelry and, though she told the house Madame in Cincinnati that he planned to marry her, she and other cohorts feared he was after her jewelry.
Perhaps Bessie convinced Abe or Abe convinced Bessie, or maybe they actually were very much in love, at any rate, they were married in January of 1876 in Danville, Illinois, by the city magistrate. They visited New Orleans, Terre Haute, and Chicago during that first year before heading to Jefferson, Texas.
She was no doubt ecstatic over her acquisition of a husband with such affluent ties. Abe’s family, though, would not be so enthusiastic, considering her profession. Therefore, Abe’s familial inheritance would naturally become jeopardized. This is likely what came to Abe’s realization as the honeymoon was wearing off.
The Murder Setting and Gruesome New Year
The town of Jefferson was situated on the Big Cypress Bayou. Being the last spot big enough to turn a steamboat, it was a bustling port city. There were several hotels and boarding houses, restaurants, and shops catering to the tradespeople. The riverboat operation was critical to the livelihood of the city. As the railroad had not yet become a factor, in order for Texans to export their goods, they had to go through Jefferson.
Upon stepping off of the train in town, the couple was easily noticed because of their expensive clothes and fine jewelry. They were staying at a hotel down river, where they did not use the name Rothschild, instead choosing the alias surname “Monroe.”
As they were very well dressed and she wore a lot of jewelry, the townspeople of Jefferson dubbed her with the nickname. On the last day of 1877 they went out together for a stroll down the river path. When he returned to the town alone people noticed her absence. He stated to those that inquired that he had left Bessie to visit with relatives. He then left town abruptly.
Bessie’s body was found next to the river twenty-five days later. Her jewelry was missing and one of her fingers had been broken when a ring was removed. (The spot where they found her body, alongside the Big Cypress Bayou, is one stop on the town’s present-day historical ghost tour.)
After the Murder
A week after leaving Jefferson, back in Cincinnati, Abe attempted suicide by gunshot while at Jake Aug’s Clubhouse, a well-known gambling hall. It was thought he would surely die. However, he miraculously recovered and then tried to explain the episode away by first saying he was shot by an unnamed assailant. Later he changed his story and said he accidentally self-inflicted the gun shot wound. Obviously he was distraught during this period after her death, yet before the discovery of her body. He would wear a glass eye after this incident.
He was found out as the husband of the victim, Diamond Bessie, when her trunk was discovered at a train depot. He had sent it from the hotel himself. On the trunk was the identification “A. Moore”, which became an essential piece in trying to determine her true identity. They were able to use handwriting analysis to compare his signature with the one from the hotel in Jefferson. This also helped them to discover that he had pawned Bessie’s jewelry.
He was arrested and escorted back to Texas. The newspapers reported a “ghastly” wound upon his head, which caused some delay in the trial. Once he could withstand it, he wore a bandanna to cover the hideous sight while in the courtroom.
During the subsequent court proceedings, attempts were made to bring into question the identity of both the victim and the accused. It eventually came out that Abe and Bessie had been legally married in Danville, Illinois and their true identities were verified, despite the alias that had been used.
There was also some speculation that Diamond Bessie was a woman called Annie Stone, who was from the same area and whom was also a woman of ill-repute. However, this turned out to be incorrect, as Annie Stone had died in 1872. Also, people from Bessie’s hometown recognized her as Annie Moore and came forward. To this day, her exact identity is a matter of debate. However, the newspaper article above was written a month after her death and has first-hand accounts from people who knew her as Annie Moore, therefore it should be considered the most reliable source in determining her true identity.
The sensational trial wavered for a couple of years. Abe was represented by a Texas Senator by the name of Culberson, who was a family friend. The trial was postponed several times. Abe wrote letters to the newspaper proclaiming his innocence. In the opinion of the Texas Grand Jury, though, he killed Bessie. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.
However, he was able to secure an unheard of second trial with the help of Culberson. There was much back and forth regarding habeas corpus, but in the end Abe Rothschild won out. Rothschild, himself, later said that he was able to avoid the gallows since he provided an alibi for the date the court listed as date of death. The body was found twenty five days after that given date. So, it is perhaps on a technical error that he was acquitted and set free, this after his father paid “a small fortune” in legal fees.
Life After the Trial
Abe went on with his colorful career, which involved using alias names, bribing officers with counterfeit money, jewel theft, forgery, and mail fraud. One article opens by describing him as “the celebrated diamond worker”. Aliases included: Henry Smythe, Joseph Jaeger, Joseph Baum, Jackman, Coleman
Under these names, he ran a diamond theft operation and was pursued over a year while running cons in places that included Havana, Chicago, St. Louis, Toronto, Kirksville, Little Rock, Tushkahoma, Houston, Dallas, Tampico, South America, San Francisco, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Swanesboro.
He operated various escapades and ran with notorious gangster-types. He hoisted diamonds from beautiful women, he ran gambling rings, and frequented the race tracks of Europe, until he returned to avoid pursuit by authorities there. He escaped justice time and again.
During his initial capture in the U.S, he alluded authorities briefly, yet again, when he jumped from the train that was transporting him to federal court. This escape attempt was short-lived, though, as he was caught after a blacksmith refused to help him cut off his handcuffs.
In the end, he spent very little time behind bars in relation to his crimes. When he did, he used the name Henry Smythe.
A New Wife
After serving his time, Abe moved to St. Louis where he married Mabel, who was twenty-seven years his junior, and had two children. His children were named for his parents, Rosa and Meyer (Maier). Perhaps this was his way of repaying his family for the embarrassment and financial burden he created for them.
Even so, his mother eventually cut him from her will. So, if he did murder Bessie, in the end it did not save him the family fortune, not that it stopped Abe from amassing ill-gotten gains in other ways.
By 1910, Abe had situated his family in New York at 8 Fanbrook Street in Yonkers. Abe’s first name was listed as “Major” that year on the census. This could have been a transcription error – perhaps he had given his father’s name “Meier”. Both Abe and Mabel worked in a loan office and they employed a Finnish servant named Martila Reverina.
Abe and Mable ran various loan operations and were closely associated with the horse racing syndicate. Sometimes their operations took them to Baltimore, where they made the papers for various incidents.
Their primary residence remained in New York. In 1920, when Abe was sixty-five, he lived with Mabel and their two children in New York City, Central Park West. He was not employed and Mabel was an insurance bookkeeper.
Simultaneously, he was known in Baltimore as a publisher of gaming tips. The con here, it appears, was to convince the public that his gaming tips were so on target that he became wealthy enough to donate large sums of money to local charities. An article in the paper described that he inquired about making such donations, and even made a few donations in the amount of $25 each, however whether he actually made any larger contributions is doubtful.
Abe died sometime between 1920-1930. In 1923, there was a questionable occurrence involving the suspected drowning of a Mr. Rothschild in Baltimore, with the only witness being his wife. Curiously, the article indicates that Mr. Murat A. Rothschild (70) lived and worked as a “wealthy” publisher in Baltimore. He was vacationing at the beach with his wife, Mable, and two children when the incident supposedly occurred. Considering Mabel worked for an insurance company, this was likely another con job. At any rate, the courts refused Mabel’s claim.
Simultaneously, Mabel was being sued for fraud. Evidently, she also used many alias names.
At this time it is not known where Abe is buried. His parents are buried at the United Jewish Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. 3
After Abe
By 1930, Abe was no longer listed in the census report with his family. Mabel lived in Manhattan with her two children. She was listed as single as opposed to divorced or widowed. They lived at 540 W. 124th Street. Her daughter, Rosa, worked as a secretary to a clergyman. Mabel, who was now using her middle name, Gertrude, was not employed. Her place of birth was listed as Massachusetts and her parents birthplaces were Illinois and Massachusetts. On her previous census record, it was indicated that she had been born in Canada and then migrated in 1900, naturalized in 1904. On the 1910 census, her place of birth was listed as New York with parents that were born in Germany.
Whether Mable turned to a straighter path after Abe, or if she was just more elusive is not known. Her children likely never knew the whole story of their infamous father and it’s highly likely that Mable, herself, never knew about Diamond Bessie.
In Jefferson, Texas they will tell you that through the years Diamond Bessie’s grave was cared for anonymously and that at times she would receive a quiet visitor. Maybe Abe is buried nearby under an alias…A final con?
Proofs
Sun, Apr 16, 1899 – Page 21 · The Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com
1. [Photos of Abe Rothschild: center picture was taken from a photograph of a Dallas Morning News article hanging in the Historical Society museum in Jefferson, TX. The photograph on the left is common when you complete an online image search. The photograph on the right is from a newspaper some years later when he was much older. None are actual photographs, but rather renditions. The newspapers of the time gave good physical descriptions, as well. 1]
2. [It is difficult to validate her beginnings. She was born in 1854 and left home by the age of 15. Therefore, we get one chance at verifying her birth family with a census record – 1860. By some accounts she was not actually married to her first suitor, but was rather his mistress. So, a marriage record will not be of help. She probably assumed the surname “Moore” from this first suitor. She also seemed to arbitrarily change her first name to “Bessie”. So, the only verifiable record is the article(above) about a telegram, which verified her marriage as Bessie Moore to Abe Rothschild in Danville, Illinois. She died by 1877, so the only other information we have is from subsequent news articles, mostly pertaining to Abe Rothschild, and town lore.2]”
3. [Multiple online sites state that the Rothschild family is buried at Walnut Hills Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, I verified with that cemetery that they are not buried there, but rather at the National Jewish Cemetery in Ohio.This is their website: https://www.jcemcin.org/genealogy-2/. Even in this search it states that the family is buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery. However, it is not the case. Apparently it is a common error. I beleive this is because the burials are located in the Walnut Hills Garden of the Jewish Cemetery, which is different than the Walnut Hills Cemetery. 3]