The Armstrong Murders

Diagram of the murders. From the Daily State Gazette, Nov. 25, 1910.

This is the tale of a man who murdered a prominent preacher and his wife in old West Windsor, rocking the community and making national news. It is also story of racial tensions and power dynamics of various sorts.

The Murder

It is November 23, 1910 - Thanksgiving Eve. The sun has set, and in the quiet farming community of West Windsor, population 1,300, the evening is still. That is, until 8 or 9PM, when multiple gunshots ring out through the night.[1] For at least the next several hours, the sleepy community is unaware that a murder has just occurred.

Out of all the pastors of the Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church, Reverend Amzi Armstrong was one of the most memorable. He served as Pastor from 1857-1900,[2] overseeing countless sermons, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and more. However, despite all of his years of service, his life was ultimately overshadowed by the grim nature of his and his wife's death.

Around 1AM on November 24, 1910, a distraught 33-year-old John Sears woke up neighbors, claiming he had come home from New Brunswick to find the 83-year-old Amzi and his second wife, the much-younger 44-year-old "Annie" Rue, shot to death.[3],[4],[5] They had lived at the Tindall-Rue homestead at 7 Finch Court - surrounded by nothing but endless expanses of farmland back then.[6],[7] His biological mother, Rachel Sears - a servant for the Rue family since John was a toddler - was upstairs at the time of the murder.[8],[9]

George Denison, a neighbor at the Wicoff-Hooper-Grover Farm,[10] called the police. Acting Sergeant Fitzpatrick notified the authorities around 2AM and Prosecutor Crossley, Assistant Prosecutor Piper, Detective Kirkham, and Coroners Boers and Grove arrived at the crime scene shortly thereafter. Following an off-site autopsy, Physician Scammel concluded that both Armstrongs had been shot with a 12-gauge gun.[11]

From the Daily State Gazette, Nov. 25, 1910.

The Investigation

John's friend, Rudolph Nordhaus of New Brunswick, also arrived that morning. He had been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Sears at the Armstrong home. However, upon departure from a Trenton-New Brunswick "Fast Line" trolley car, he was intercepted by Prosecutor Crossley and thoroughly interrogated. Although he was eventually released, his testimony proved instrumental in uncovering the murder.[12]

It was soon apparent that there were holes in John Sears' alibi. He had claimed that he was visiting Nordhaush in New Brunswick at the time of the murder, but Nordhaus told the police that John had never showed up.[13] Shortly before the murder, neighbors witnessed John borrowing a shotgun like the one used in the killings.[14] Eventually, after more interrogation, John Sears confessed to the murder.[15]

Investigators at the Armstrong house, 7 Finch Ct.

The Motive

Some newspapers claimed that Sears had previously told some friends that he thought some day he would be one of the heirs of the Armstrongs.[16] However, Sears asserted that he had a different motive: racism, verbal and physical abuse, and revenge. John was mixed-race - his mother, Rachel, was Black and his father, who left when he was born, was reputedly a White Civil War veteran and prosperous farmer named Thomas Duncan. According to newspapers at the time, Thomas was married to another woman, who divorced him shortly after John was born. Rachel also initiated proceedings to compel Thomas to pay child support, but he left the community and never returned.[17]

According to John's testimony, on the day of the murder, he implored Amzi Armstrong to let him go to New Brunswick to talk to Nordhaus about a lucrative chicken-raising business idea, but was denied. Armstrong insisted he go to the local mill for some feed instead. An argument ensued and Armstrong struck Sears on the head with his cane. Mrs. Armstrong then threatened to kick him out of the house if he did not comply. Later that evening, according to Sears’ confession, (also published in the New York Times on Nov. 27) when he asked for a dollar to attend a gathering in New Brunswick by a military company to which he belonged, “she called me a n*****. And that made me mad, for I am not a n*****. I am a white man.” Sears himself cited this as a primary motivation for the killing.[18],[19] It's unknown if this was part of a pattern of abuse by the Armstrongs.

Shortly afterwards, Sears went to the mill, concluding to kill the couple by the time he returned.[20] As he walked back into the house, the New York Times reported, he “walked by Mrs. Armstrong, and shot her husband to death. Then he turned to flee and found Mrs. Armstrong about to hurl a large glass vase at him. With that he leveled the weapon at her and fired and she fell dying to the floor.”[21]

Although Sears attempted an alibi by traveling to New Brunswick to meet Nordhaus, he could not find him, so he left word for Nordhaus to come to Dutch Neck the following day and went back home. His mother, thrust into a horrendous dilemma over which she had little control, agreed to tell the police that it was a robbery gone bad.[21]

Office in which Sears bought his trolley tickets. From the Daily State Gazette, Nov. 25, 1910.

Trial & Execution

John Sears was charged with murdering the Armstrongs shortly thereafter.[22] As the investigation and subsequent trial unfolded, the story was reported not just in Mercer County but also across the country - as far as Washington State[23] and in hundreds of independent newspapers from at least November to March.[24],[25] This was largely due to the intimate and inflammatory details of the family and murder in an otherwise sleepy farming community. With almost no exception, newspapers deliberately emphasized Sears’ race, calling him slurs like "half-breed,"[26] "mulatto,"[27] and worse. They also highlighted Armstrong’s popularity in the community.[28]

Sears confessed to the murder after several days of interrogation. He led the police on a walkthrough of the house, explaining how he committed the crime.[29] On December 3, a “Coroner’s jury” indicted Sears of murder.[30] When a subsequent trial began on January 30, the New Brunswick Times reported that “the (Mercer County Courthouse) could not accommodate half the crowd…and about five hundred persons were unable to gain admission.”[31] Prosecutor Crossley asked for a first-degree murder conviction and following a hasty trial (the verdict was returned in about an hour), on February 1, Sears was sentenced to death.[32]

John Sears died in the electric chair on March 15, 1911.[33] His death followed his mother’s passing on February 19, from heart failure and heartbreak.[34]

Even at the time of this writing (September 2024), the house in which this tragedy unfolded still stands at 7 Finch Court, a centuries-old memorial to one of West Windsor’s most depressing episodes.

Rachel Sears, from Nov. 25, 1910 Daily State Gazette.

Bibliography

"John Sears Charged with Murder of Old Pastor and his Wife." Daily State Gazette. November 25, 1910.
Sesquicentennial History: 1816-1966. West Windsor, New Jersey: First Presbyterian Church of Dutch Neck, 1966.
"John Sears Charged with Murder of Old Pastor and his Wife." Daily State Gazette. November 25, 1910.
United States Census, 1900 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1900. Shows ages of Amzi Armstrong and Anna Rue.
United States Census, 1880 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1880. Shows Amzi Armstrong married to a "Catherine N.," indicating that Anna Rue was Amzi's second wife. It's unknown when Catherine N. died or divorced Amzi.
"John Sears Charged with Murder of Old Pastor and his Wife." Daily State Gazette. November 25, 1910. Shows the location of the murder and has a photo of the house at 7 Finch Court.
“West Windsor Aerial Photography Composite Map, 1959.” Map. Historical Society of West Windsor - Map Archives. West Windsor, NJ, 1959.
United States Census, 1880 - West Windsor Township.” West Windsor Township, 1880. Shows Rachel Sears serving as a servant for Elwood Rue. Also shows a 2-year-old John Sears.
"John Sears Charged with Murder of Old Pastor and his Wife." Daily State Gazette. November 25, 1910.
Denison, George, Hooper, Amy, Hooper, Anna M., Hooper, Enoch W., Hooper, George E., Hooper, John W., Hooper, Sarah E., Smith, Cornelia, Smith, Elias W., Updike, Adaline, Updike, Ann B., Updike, Charles H., Updike, Levi, West, Clark H., West, Henrietta. “Indenture.” West Windsor, 1898. Located in the Mercer County Clerk's Office, Mercer County Deed Book 221 Page 333. Everyone but George Denison was an heir to Thomas Hooper.
"John Sears Charged with Murder of Old Pastor and his Wife." Daily State Gazette. November 25, 1910.
Ibid.
"Colored Lad Confessed to Killing Minister and Wife." Camden Daily Courier. November 25, 1910.
"Minister and His Wife are Slain." The Call. November 25, 1910.
"Aged Clergyman and His Wife Murdered." The New York Tribune. November 25, 1910.
"Double Murder at Dutch Neck." The Freehold Transcript. November 25, 1910.
"Doubts About Sears' Paternity Removed." The Allentown Morning Call. November 28, 1910.
"Murdered Minister and Wife Buried." The New York Times. November 27, 1910.
"Sears Confesses to Double Murder." The Freehold Transcript. December 2, 1910.
"Murdered Minister and Wife Buried." The New York Times. November 27, 1910.
Ibid.
"Doubts About Sears' Paternity Removed." The Allentown Morning Call. November 28, 1910.
"Arrest Negro for Crime." The Wenatchee Daily World. November 25, 1910.
"Colored Lad Confessed to Killing Minister and Wife." Camden Daily Courier. November 25, 1910.
"Sears Confesses in Sight of Death." Camden Post-Telegram. March 16, 1911.
"Minister and His Wife are Slain." The Call. November 25, 1910.
"Confesses to Murder of Pastor and Wife." The New York Daily Tribune. November 26, 1910.
"Sears Confesses to Double Murder." The Freehold Transcript. December 2, 1910.
"Confesses to Murder of Pastor and Wife." The New York Daily Tribune. November 26, 1910.
"Jack Sears a Murderer, Says Jury." The New Brunswick Times. December 3, 1910.
"Sears on Trial for Murder." The New Brunswick Times. January 30, 1911.
"Guilty of Murder." The New York Times. February 2, 1911.
"Confesses to Murder of Pastor and Wife." The New York Daily Tribune. November 26, 1910.
"Grey Hairs in Sorrow to Grave." The Morning Call. February 20, 1911.