Draft:Tom Nulty

Thomas Napoléon Nulty (December 24th 1876 - May 20th 1898) was a resident of the township of Rawdon, Quebec, Canada, convicted for the murder of four of his siblings, namely Elizabeth, Annie, Helen and Patrick. He was sentenced to the death penalty in 1897.

Early life
Tom Nulty, son of Michael Nulty and Émilie Ricard, was the 7th of 10 total children. The family lived in the backwoods of Rawdon, a town in the Lanaudière region, several kilometers from their nearest neighbors. Since childhood, Tom had been involved in the upkeep of his family's property, caring for animals, cultivating the land, chopping wood and looking after his siblings.

From a young age, while raising animals on the Nultys' land, Tom was in the habit of unleashing his violence on them. Animals in general seemed to haunt him, as he said he felt followed by dogs and birds when he walked through the woods to visit his friends. The children didn't go to school or church.

At 14 years old, Tom suffered an injury from accidentally falling on an axe. He was forced to stay in bed for multiple months, which his family would then state as having impacted his behaviour drastically. From this point on, Tom would demonstrate extreme mood swings, crying himself to sleep on some nights. He would also have difficulties in finding employment thereafter because of his leg injury, which also deteriorated his ambitions for a future career.

The Crime
The summer of 1897, while Tom still lived in his parent's house, Tom was said to frequently go out at night at the town to dance and play violin. That summer, he met Rosa Lespérence, who he started to frequently visit. He had also had interest in marrying other women in the past, including Élisabeth Lévesque, whom he proposed to when he was 15 and she was 11, and Marceline L'Heureux, who had moved to the United States a year prior.

On the afternoon of November 3rd, 1897, Tom visited his older sister, Marguerite. He asked her if she would welcome him into her house if he was to marry, to which she said no. He also told her how their father had also refused to welcome him and his future wife in their house, as the house would have been too small to welcome both their current family and Tom's future one. In addition, Patrick, the youngest child, was already set to eventually inherit the land.

On November 4th, 1897, Tom left his oldest sister's house early in the morning and made his way back to his father's land. That same morning, Tom's parents, Émilie and Michael, had left the house to visit one of their relatives. Once there, Tom started to chop wood. Eventually, his sister, Elisabeth, came outside and started to walk to their shed to continue her morning chores. Tom followed Elisabeth to the shed, carrying his axe with him, and walked right up to her back before slashing her neck. Soon after, Annie, another one of Tom's sisters, walked in on the crime scene and ran away while screaming. Tom started to run after her and eventually caught up with her, outside the shed, where he could strike his axe to her neck as well. Annie fell to the ground, lifeless. Tom then heard two additional screams coming from inside the house, where his youngest brother and sister, Patrick and Helen, had just seen the second axe strike. He ran up to the front door, which had just been barricaded by the siblings, and started to axe through the door to get inside. Once the door destroyed, Tom scoured through the small house to find Patrick and Helen. Once he found them near the closet, he proceeded to also strike them with his axe.

Interrogation, Trial and Sentencing
Once the crimes committed, Tom left his father's house and spent the day with his friends and visited Rosa Lespérence before coming back that same evening. Within that timespan, a neighbour had found the axed bodies and had reported them to the local authorities. At the announcement of his siblings' death, Tom seemed apathetic. The detective of the case, Detective McCaskill, inquired on different townspeople who could have committed such crimes, and Tom pointed out how he had seen a local vagabond in the area who seemed suspicious. It wasn't until the siblings' funeral that McCaskill started to suspect Tom, as he was seen laughing and making jokes during the ceremony.

During his interrogation, Tom gave different alibis than the ones he had previously given to the local authorities. McCaskill eventually asked Tom : "Tom, how could you ever meet your creator with a lie on your lips?" , to which Tom answered with the truth about his murders. With this confession, Tom was officially accused and sent to prison to await his trial.

With Tom's confession, the prosecutors had not found it necessary to bring in many other witnesses. However, the defendant's lawyers had brought in many witnesses themselves, namely Tom's family members and psychiatric experts. The objective of the defendant's were not to proclaim his innocence of the crime, but rather not criminally responsible due to mental alienation. Tom's family gave testimonials regarding his childhood, including his mood swings and violent tendencies. The clinical experts then diagnosed Tom with epilepsy, which was believed at the time to cause great lapses in judgement and moral reasoning. Finally, the town's priest at the time came as a witness to the family's absences in church and lack of knowledge about the Christian faith, which he believed was the reasoning behind Tom's lack of moral judgment.

The jury, however, did not find that these testimonials were enough to prove Tom as not criminally responsible for his crimes. For the quadruple murder, Tom was sentenced to the death penalty the upcoming year.

Death
Tom Nulty spent his last few weeks of life in prison awaiting his hanging. During this time, he was frequently visited by family members and priests. He also wrote a note addressing the reasoning behind his crimes the night before his execution. The note detailed that his love for Rosa Lespérence and the other women he had courted during his life had rendered him blind to the rest of his duties. As he didn't have the money to buy his own land, he had begged his family to let him move into theirs without success. As his father had explained to him, there simply wasn't enough space in the house for both families, thus he wanted to create space by eliminating those already occupying it.

Tom Nulty was hanged outside the Joliette prison in front of a cheering crowd on May 20th, 1898.