Name Jennie Bosschieter | Died 1900 | |
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Jennie Bosschieter (1882–1900) was raped and murdered in Paterson, New Jersey on October 19, 1900. She was an early victim of the date rape drug chloral hydrate which caused her death.
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Early life
Jennie was the daughter of Dina Bosschieter (born 1861) from the Netherlands. She lived with her parents at 155 East Fifth Street in the Riverside section, and worked at the Paterson Ribbon Company on Vreeland Avenue. She had an older sister Susan and younger brother, Joseph.
Murder
She left home on October 18, 1900 at 8:10 pm to go on an errand to the drug store where she met Walter C. McAlister and William A. Death (pronounced "Deeth"). She had previously dated Death but he married another woman. McAlister, Death and two others drank with her in a private party room in Saal's saloon at the corner of River Street and Bridge Street. Her first drink may have been a Manhattan, then she drank an absinthe frappe, and then she had two glasses of Great Western sparkling wine. She was given two or three doses of chloral hydrate in her sparkling wine by McAlister. They took her in a carriage to a secluded area, raped her, and she died from an overdose of the drug. They dumped the body on the ground and her head hit a rock.
Her body was found lying a short distance from the Wagaraw bridge (now known as the Lincoln Ave. Bridge) on the Bergen County, New Jersey side of the Passaic River in Columbia Heights section what is now Fair Lawn, between 5:30 and 6:15 am. The discovery was made by Marinus Gary on his way to work. Her head rested on a jagged rock, and there was a fracture of her skull near the base of her brain. The damage to her skull was postmortem. At the trial the defense attorneys tried to blame her death on the absinthe and not the overdose of chloral hydrate. The jury rejected that the death was from the absinthe and that the murder was premeditated.
Legacy
There was a possible copycat crime on March 12, 1901 with Mary Paige drugged, raped and found severely ill. Paige did recover. Three boys were convicted of assault and served brief sentences.