Emma Augusta Hempstead Cunningham (1818–1887) was a young woman from New York City who was embroiled in a scandalous relationship that ended in a crime of murder.
As an attractive widow, she met Dr. Harvey Burdell, a prosperous dentist and rented a suite of rooms in his mansion as did other tenants, such as John J. Eckel (later to be accused as an accessory).
[1] On the morning of January 31, 1857, Dr. Burdell's servants discovered his body in his office, at 31 Bond Street, covered with blood, brutally stabbed multiple times and strangled.
All the members of the household, including servants and Emma Cunningham and her family were placed under house arrest by Coroner Edward Connery, as was custom at the time.
After a fourteen-day coroner's investigation, which took place in the parlor of 31 Bond Street, the case was delivered to a grand jury, where Emma Cunningham was indicted for the murder of Dr. Burdell.
A man named John Eckels, a boarder at the home of Dr. Burdell, was labeled an accessory to the murder, but testimony to his actions was not heard during Cunningham's trial.
[3] After Emma Cunningham's acquittal, she was permitted to return to the townhouse on 31 Bond Street, pending a hearing and decision of the Surrogate's Court to determine if in fact her marriage to Dr. Harvey Burdell was valid, and if that entitled her to his house and other property.
It was purported by District Attorney Oakey Hall that Cunningham had "procured" a baby by paying $1000 to declare a false heir, with the father as Dr. Burdell.
The "baby scam" had been engineered by the district attorney, and the doctor who testified to the events was his close associate, Dr. de la Montagnie, who was also the godfather of Hall's daughter.
To this day it is unclear if the 'baby scam' was fabricated and engineered by the district attorney or if Emma Cunningham was delusional and engaged in the act of attempting to buy an heir.
However, the judge in the Surrogate's case was negatively influenced by the incident, and ruled that Emma Cunningham, although acquitted of any wrongdoing, would not inherit any money or property from Burdell's estate.
In contrast to the trial of Judith Catchpole in 1636 in which an all-female jury was empaneled to inspect her body and determine if she had been pregnant and given birth, Victorian morality prevented such a direct approach.
Her gray-granite tombstone reads, Emma Augusta Hempstead Cunningham 1818–1887 – "May God Rest Her Troubled Soul" and depicts a beautiful tree etched into the stone.