THE CAPTURE OF GERALD CHAPMAN
Delaware County Historical Society Presentation by David Bailey, Saturday January 18, 2025 at 3:00pm
Join DCHS historian David Bailey at the DCHS Resource Center (120 East Washington Street) for a presentation and discussion: Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 3:00pm.
On January 18, 1925, Gerald Chapman was captured on the sidewalk between 312 and 322 East Charles Street in Muncie. This came as a great surprise because at that time Chapman was being sought all over the country by federal agents but was expected to be in some large city. He was a New York gangster with a national reputation and had been a fugitive since his escape from custody in Athens, Georgia, on April 6, 1923.
The next day hundreds of newspapers all over the country picked up the story and Muncie became famous. In 1925 Chapman was a very hot topic and his capture, trial and later the tragic death of Ben and Mary Hance, dominated the news throughout that year. Chapman and his criminal cohort, Dutch Anderson, stayed at the Hance farm near Eaton during the spring and summer of 1924 and Ben Hance was thought to have been responsible for Chapman’s capture. His death was viewed as revenge for having betrayed Chapman.
After Chapman was executed for the murder of a Connecticut policeman, James Skelly, his name gradually faded from the news. So, by 1930 he was basically forgotten.
About ten years ago Sinuard Castelo, a member of the Blackford County Historical Society was involved in writing a story about Charlie “One Arm” Wolf. Since Charlie had been a resident of Hartford City and Eaton, Sinuard was including Wolf’s association with Chapman and Anderson in a book about criminals in Blackford County. Charlie was convicted of being an accomplice of Dutch Anderson in the murders of Ben and Mary Hance.
Sinuard asked me to do some research on a book she wanted to use as a reference. The book is called The Count of Gramercy Park by Robert Hayden Alcorn. Robert Alcorn was the son of Hugh Alcorn, the prosecutor of Chapman in the 1925 Connecticut murder trial. This book was advertised as the “true story” of Gerald Chapman. It wasn’t, it contained some truth but much of it was sensationalized fiction. A second book about Chapman, Gentleman Gerald by Paul Jeffers, was comparable. Both men were good authors, but the subject of Gerald Chapman is complex and at the time these books were written the information needed to realistically portray this complexity was not readily available.
Because of the vast amount of information available on the Internet I’ve been able put together a clearer, more accurate version of Chapman’s life story. In this presentation I primarily focus on the last seven years of his abbreviated life. The time between March 20, 1919, when Chapman left Auburn Prison in New York and April 6, 1926, when he was executed in Connecticut.
What were the circumstances that brought Chapman to Muncie? How did the police force in Muncie find him when so many others couldn’t?
It took some time to answer these questions.
