The Grand Jury on the Edward Dame case met on September 3 and issued an indictment charging him with murder in that he did “with a certain pistol, then and there, charged with gun-powder and a lethal bullet…in his right hand then and there had and held…” caused the death of Walter S. Sterling.

The actual trial began on Jan. 13, 1909. A jury was chosen, and by odd happenstance, the first person chosen (all men in those days) was a Frank Sterling who, although a Dover resident, was no relation to the deceased. The case was prosecuted by Edward Eastman from the Attorney General’s office, assisted by the Strafford, County Solicitor, Dwight Hall. Dame was represented by local attorneys, John Kivel and George Hughes. It was reported that the courtroom was “well filled with spectators…among whom were many of the fair sex.”

The trial was not a long one. Dame had already admitted to the shooting. The only questions for the jury were why and how this happened. There were two possibilities. One, a claim of family turmoil. There was a rumor that Sterling had plans to remarry, but his daughter and Dame were strongly opposed to the match. (It was said by some that not long after the final resolution of the criminal case, the lady in question and her family moved from Dover to some unknown location.) The other explanation became part of the fabric of Dame’s claim of self-defense, something perhaps not quite expected to be raised in a public setting.

To begin, the prosecution offered the testimony of a civil engineer, William Ames of South Berwick, Maine. In lieu of what might be an anticipated jury view of the scene, he offered a drawing/diagram of the premises where the shooting took place. Next, the medical examiner, Dr. Forest Keay, described the results of the autopsy, as did a local Dover physician, George A. Tolman, who had assisted in the post-mortem. The two neighbors, previously mentioned, testified as to being awakened by what one described as a “rumpus”, followed by two gunshots. Officer Fody then related his conversation with Dame and his examination of the murder scene.

But here, let’s take a break for a bit of historical perspective on some of the characters involved. For example: Officer Fody. He was born in Ireland, came to the US in 1862 and arrived in Dover a year or so later. He became a Dover police officer in his early 30s and served for over 30 years until his retirement in 1913. There was a good-sized family of Fodys living on Payne Street (now Henry Law Avenue), in those years one of the centers of the Irish population in town. Fody died in 1930, and his uniform was later donated to the Woodman Museum, where it is available for viewing.

Two other names are important players in the Sterling trial. They will appear often in any tales of criminal cases in Strafford County. These would be Dwight Hall and John Kivel, being on opposite sides in the Dame case, Hall for the prosecution, Kivel for the defense. We have previously met Attorney Hall as the attorney for Martin Glass, but his long legal career involved more than criminal cases. He was the son of Joshua Hall, who, in the early 1870s, built the very fine house at 117 Silver St. Dwight followed in his father’s footsteps in many ways. Both were attorneys. Both served as County Solicitor. Both were elected Mayor of Dover, Joshua in 1866-67, Dwight in 1911-12. Both ended their careers representing local banks, Joshua being counsel for the Dover National Bank, Dwight as a major player for the Strafford Bank well into the 1940s. He also lived at 117 Silver St. following his father’s death. (His sister, Gertrude, kept up the family standing by marrying William Sawyer, son of Charles, a leading member of the Sawyer Mills, and elected Governor of New Hampshire in 1887.)

But back to the trial.

One witness for the defense was Frank Rhodes, the neighbor Mrs. Dame tried to rouse on the morning of the murder. He was a downstairs tenant who testified that, in fact, he did overhear the confrontation and Sterling making threats. Several other friends or acquaintances of the deceased testified that Sterling had seemed extremely agitated days shortly before the incident, including a statement that he would “kill them both” about the family’s opposition to his possible remarriage. Finally, there was some quite remarkable testimony from Dr. John R. Patee, who lived not far from the Sterling home and who had been Sterling’s family physician for a number of years. According to the doctor, Sterling was “suffering from a constitutional disease, it had been produced by a vice…” — at which point the newspaper report explains: “Here the evidence was of such a nature that it is unfit for publication.”

Dr. Patee continued: “This disease was a frequent cause for insanity”, and this was later supported by the testimony of another highly regarded Dover physician, Miah Sullivan, who stated that he had attended the entirety of the trial, heard all of the evidence, and agreed that the disease in question “could produce insanity”. Both John Dame and his wife testified and spoke of erratic behavior on Sterling’s part in the days prior to the shooting. Dame described the confrontation in detail and his feelings of being physically threatened.

The trial ended on the morning of the 14th with final arguments by Attorney Kivel for the defendant and Attorney Eastman for the State. After final instructions from the judge, the jury was taken to the Kimball Hotel on Third Street for what was still called “dinner” and returned to the courthouse for deliberations. It’s possible the jurors gave some consideration to the question of why Dame was armed with a loaded revolver in his home at 4 a.m. The evidence indicated that following the initial face-off with his father-in-law, he actually stepped away, went to his living area, and returned, now fully armed. However, this may have affected any claim of self-defense; the jury returned a verdict within approximately two and a half hours, and it was “not guilty”. A local reporter described “a great burst of applause by spectators”.

Grace Sterling Dame died at age 47 on Nov. 28, 1917. John Edward Dame survived until August of 1945, at the age of 75.