On Dec. 20, 1900, then-Illinois Gov. John Tanner granted clemency to seven prisoners. Five were boys; four had stolen chickens and one had “attempted criminal assault.” Two were adult male murderers. One was a cop who killed a colleague while arguing about the Spanish-American War over after-work drinks. The other was a laborer who admitted to shooting his wife in front of their 3-year-old daughter.
Charles and Augusta Nelson were Swedish immigrants living in Chicago with their daughter, Grace, and a male boarder in 1896.
According to documents from Charles Nelson’s murder trial (stored at the Illinois State Archives), Augusta and the boarder had a relationship and flaunted it. A married couple who worked for the Nelsons testified that Augusta let the boarder put his hand up her skirt in front of them, talked to him “coarsely about love” and said “she loved the boarder a good deal more than she did her own husband, that she wished her husband would kill himself or die.”
Charles’ brother testified that in front of him, Augusta told Charles she wanted a divorce, to which Charles replied he’d kill himself if she left him. Augusta said: “All right, go and kill yourself. I’ll pay for the (coffin), that would be the cheapest way out of it.”
On Aug. 16, 1896, Charles told the boarder to get out of their home. Augusta took Grace and left with him. Upon their return that evening, she and Charles “quarreled all night.” He rose early to get whiskey. When he got home, Augusta said she was leaving him.
“As she got to the bottom of the stairs, (Charles), being crazed from grief and whiskey, fired and killed her… (then) he took his little daughter on his knee and sat there until people came and the police. When asked why he did it, he said she kept company with (the boarder) and wanted to live with him,” wrote Charles’ attorney.
There is no record of testimony on Augusta’s behalf.
The grand jury found Charles guilty for shooting Augusta twice in the back “unlawfully, feloniously, willfully and of his malice aforethought.” Charles pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in jail. The judge told him: “Had you killed (the boarder) who invaded the sanctity of your home and wrecked your peace of mind, I would have felt inclined to deal more leniently with you,” reported the Nov. 14, 1896, Chicago Record newspaper.
After he’d been in the Joliet penitentiary about three and a half years, Nelson wanted out. He petitioned the governor for clemency, pleading that before the murder he’d never committed a crime and had been “industrious and his associations had always been with good and honorable people.”
Charles had surprising support, which included the prosecuting attorney and his victim’s brother. Both wrote that Charles should be released as well as pardoned. The murder victim’s brother said the victim’s friends agreed. The Board of Pardons couldn’t support pardoning a confessed murderer but concurred with releasing Charles for time served.
Gov. Tanner did just that, saying Charles should be able to parent his only child. The subtext in his and others’ statements is clear. At minimum, the murder was justifiable; at worst, it was his wife’s fault. The governor wrote that Nelson acted “in a frenzy caused by jealousy and the belief that his wife was about to leave him.” The Board of Pardons wrote: “(Charles) protested time and again to his wife… but his protests seem to have met only with derisive taunts. He seems to have used every peaceful means to get the boarder out of the house but failed because of the actions of his wife.”
Nelson was home in time for Christmas, 1900.
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This article appears in Winter Guide 2024.
