On the morning of October 18, 1911, Allison MacFarland and his 6-year-old son returned to their home in Newark, New Jersey, after spending a night in New York City. Upon entering the house, they found MacFarland’s wife, Evelyn, dead in her bedroom, with their toddler daughter walking near her body. MacFarland called for Dr. William Gale, who confirmed that Evelyn was dead. A coroner performed an autopsy and determined that Evelyn’s cause of death was cyanide poisoning.
Police interviewed MacFarland, who said he kept potassium cyanide in a vial on a shelf in their home. This vial had previously held bromide, a medication used for headaches, and MacFarland said he had repurposed the vial to keep potassium cyanide, which the couple used for cleaning silver and developing photographs. MacFarland said Evelyn knew that he had started keeping cyanide in that vial. MacFarland told police he had labeled the vial as “Poison Cyanide Solution.”
MacFarland was soon arrested upon suspicion that he had murdered his wife. He was held in jail while police continued the investigation. Police quickly found recent letters sent to MacFarland from his former stenographer, Florence Bromley, who lived in Philadelphia. These letters revealed an ongoing love affair between MacFarland and Bromley. Learning of this affair, police were convinced that MacFarland had killed his wife so he could marry Bromley. MacFarland was charged with murder on October 21, 1911 and indicted the next month.
On January 29, 1912, MacFarland’s jury trial began in the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Essex County with Chief Justice William Gummere presiding and the state seeking the death penalty. (Until 1948, the Court of Oyer and Terminer had jurisdiction to hear cases for the most serious felonies, including those punishable by death). Wilbur Mott prosecuted the case, and attorney Frank McDermit represented MacFarland.
The state argued that MacFarland had secretly replaced Evelyn’s headache medication with cyanide with the intention that Evelyn would mistakenly ingest this poison and die, allowing MacFarland to marry Bromley. In the correspondence between MacFarland and Bromley, Bromley was often referred to as “Bunny,” causing the press to refer to these exchanges as the “Bunny letters.”
Albert Holle, the undertaker who took Evelyn’s body away from the house, testified that MacFarland told him he had neglected to tell Evelyn that he had replaced the bromide in the vial with cyanide. Mott argued that the difference in appearance between bromide, which was a black liquid, and potassium cyanide, which was a white liquid, would not have been apparent because the room was likely dark when Evelyn ingested it.
The two police officers who were in MacFarland’s home after Evelyn’s death testified that MacFarland did not appear grief-stricken. Detective Sergeant Walter Godfrey testified about the investigation and his interviews with MacFarland, in which MacFarland admitted to his affair.
Evelyn’s father, George Crockett, testified that he had always had a pleasant relationship with MacFarland, but that his opinion of MacFarland had changed when he talked with the couple’s neighbors after Evelyn’s death. Available records do not specify what the neighbors had said to change his mind.
MacFarland did not testify. Mott taunted the defense with claims that they were afraid to have MacFarland testify. The defense called only one witness, MacFarland’s uncle, Andrew MacFarland, who testified that he knew Evelyn and Allison MacFarland used potassium cyanide in the development of their amateur photographs.
After 12 hours of deliberation, the jury found MacFarland guilty of murder in the first degree on January 31, 1912.
On February 7, 1912, Chief Justice Gummere sentenced MacFarland to death, with his execution set for March 17, 1912.
In early March, McDermit filed assignments of error with the Court of Error and Appeals of New Jersey. This document said that Chief Justice Gummere had made several errors at trial, improperly admitting the love letters without requiring Bromley to testify, and excluding evidence offered by the defense. A writ of error was granted by the court, and New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson granted a 30-day stay of execution on March 13, 1912.
On March 19, 2012, MacFarland submitted his own 20-page typewritten brief, asserting his innocence and requesting a new trial. MacFarland said that McDermit had not allowed him to testify, but but if he had taken the stand, he would have testified that his wife’s death had been a suicide. He provided supporting evidence for this claim. MacFarland said in the brief that it been him—and not Evelyn—who had previously taken bromide for headaches; that the vial had been up on a shelf more than 6 feet high, along with other poisonous substances; that Evelyn knew the vial now contained cyanide and not bromide; and that he and Evelyn had been in the process of negotiating a divorce, which could be supported by witnesses and letters; and that Evelyn had likely discovered and read the Bunny letters before taking her life.
MacFarland also wrote that the judge erred in his selective admission of the love letters, because admitting only select letters did not allow the jury to have a full understanding of the situation.
On June 20, 1912, the Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey reversed MacFarland’s conviction and granted him a new trial. It said the love letters had been improperly admitted at trial as evidence that MacFarland had promised to murder Evelyn.
MacFarland’s second trial began on October 14, 1912, with Justice Gummere presiding again. Mott and McDermit each returned in their respective roles as prosecutor and defense attorney.
The state presented the same theory as the first trial – that MacFarland had murdered Evelyn by replacing her headache medication with poison so that he could marry Florence Bromley.
MacFarland took the stand and testified about many of the points that he had raised in his post-conviction brief. He said that he and his wife had been discussing divorce proceedings. He testified that contrary to the prosecution’s claims, the bromide medication that was previously kept in this bottle was his, and Evelyn had taken bromide on one occasion only, when he had given her some for a headache. He said neither he nor his wife found the bromide especially effective, so they had gotten rid of the remainder of it. Once the container was replaced with cyanide, it had been moved to a high shelf where bottles of other toxic and unspecified liquids were kept, some left there by the prior tenant. He testified that he had obtained the cyanide at his wife’s request. MacFarland testified for more than five hours.
Many of the love letters were admitted into evidence, including one in which Bromley wrote how much she appreciated MacFarland’s pursuit of a divorce from Evelyn so that they could be together. During cross-examination, MacFarland testified about his affair with Bromley and the collapse of his marriage. He said had not had intimate relations with Evelyn in two years and that he had offered to provide her with the statutory evidence needed for a divorce suit in their discussions of divorce.
Mott spent significant time focused on the immorality of the affair, telling the jury of Bromley: “She isn’t a woman; she’s a beast; a sow. Edging a man on to anything; stopping at nothing to secure the gratification of her own passions.” He went on to say that “of two women, the mother and the vampire, he chose the vampire.” Florence Bromley was present in the courtroom but did not testify.
The jury deliberated a short time before returning a not guilty verdict on October 18, 1912. The following year, the “Bunny letters” were back in the news, accompanying articles reporting that MacFarland and Bromley had married.
- Meghan Barrett Cousino
Posting Date: 10-06-2025
