Okay, so technically her name was no longer Boozer at the time of the crime but the surname "Still" was one syllable too short for the rhyme to work.
What would make Bertha Still, a 34-year-old devoted mother of seven children, kill her husband in such a brutal way?
When Vineland, NJ police responded to the call on the morning of January 5, 1971 (a Tuesday), Bertha told them that there had been a domestic dispute and prior to going to bed her husband Richard, aged 38, announced that when he woke up someone was going to die.
Not wanting to be a victim, Bertha grabbed a hatchet, entered a bedroom on the second floor of their home, delivered several deadly blows to Richard's head and groin then threw hot water on him. The water was hot enough to cause 2nd degree burns. FYI, that would mean the water was between 110 and 150 degrees.
Bertha finally called the police but nothing could be done to save Richard. He was DOA when the ambulance pulled up to Newcomb Hospital. Bertha's defense was that she beat him to the punch. One of their children was home on the first floor of the house at the time of the attack but the newspapers don't indicate which of them it was.
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| photo from The Daily Journal, Nov 23, 1951 |
As I researched this case, I became confused.
By all accounts both Bertha and Richard came from good families. They were active in the community and the church. Richard was gainfully employed and supporting his family. He had been a High School football star and served in the Air Force. Bertha's father was a minister and her mother was a well-respected, hard-working woman.
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| reprinted from The Daily Journal, Jan 5, 1972 |
Bertha's family was there in the courtroom to support her throughout the legal proceedings.
I'd found a loving tribute printed in the Vineland, NJ Daily Tribune one year after Richard's death from a family that still mourned him.
He certainly didn't seem like someone who needed killing and she didn't seem like an unstable individual.
Newspapers reporting on the murder could provide no more motive than "a domestic quarrel."
I dug deeper. There had to be more to this story.
Clearly nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Bertha Still was born Bertha Mallory in 1936. She'd made a poor choice for husband number one - Charles Boozer. I couldn't find the exact wedding day but Social Security records indicate a name change in August 1954.
Charles Boozer was a year or two younger than Bertha and a career criminal with convictions for (but not restricted to) being a lookout for a dice game, petty theft, passing bad checks, reckless driving, breaking and entering, larceny, non-support and atrocious assault. Police took a good look at Charles back in 1955 when he'd run over and killed his uncle, Thomas White. Charles was also cheating on Bertha and fathered three children with another woman, Nettie Ruth Gingham. I'm thinking, Bertha's parents couldn't have been more disappointed with their daughter's husband but they stood by her.
Nettie and Charles seem better suited to one another anyway as they were both arrested together on numerous occasions (in 1959 for disorderly conduct and withholding information from the police, in 1960 for disorderly conduct and again in 1963 for property damage). The 1960 arrest stemmed from a complaint filed by Bertha and her mother, Bertha Mallory. In 1964, Nettie also ended up suing Charles for non-support.
In September 1960, Bertha Boozer admitted to stealing $13 from her employer's home to pay for babysitters. The victims of this theft, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hoskins, asked the judge to be merciful so Bertha received a suspended $100 fine and was placed on 6 months probation.
On March 14, 1966, Bertha charged Charles Boozer with desertion and in June 1966 she obtained a divorce. The divorce was just so much paperwork though because it seems Bertha had moved on in her life. By the time she was legally separated from Charles Boozer, Bertha had started a family with Richard Still; they had three daughters, all born before 1966 (no judgment, just fact) and the relationship seemed solid. With her first marriage behind her, Bertha and Richard were free to marry. The next Social Security name change for Bertha is September 1966. Things were looking better all the time.
But wait - what's this? A 1968 arrest for a Richard Still involving carnal abuse and sodomy? And the victim is his 13-year-old stepdaughter? I won't be naming the victim but court documents sent to me by the NJ Superior Court leave no doubt that it is in fact the very same Richard F. Still, husband of Bertha. Now we have sufficient motive.
On December 2, 1968, Richard entered a plea of not guilty and waited a little over three months for his day in court. The trial lasted 4 days. On March 13, 1969, the verdict was read. Guilty on both counts.
I'll transcribe the sentencing directly from the paperwork: "1st count (rape), defendant committed to county jail for 6 months, suspended providing a fine of $500 is paid to Probation Dept. within 30 days. 2nd count (sodomy), defendant committed to County Jail for 6 months, suspended. This sentence to run concurrently with sentence of the 1st count of this indictment."
You may recall, Bertha had once received a 6 month suspended sentence ... for stealing $13.
My husband has theorized, perhaps correctly, that the reason Richard served no jail time is he might have been the major source of income for the family. Richard certainly didn't lose his job as a result of the conviction because when he was killed in 1971, Richard was still employed by Shieldalloy Corp as a forklift operator; a job, according to his obituary, he had held for the last 10 years.
Bertha Still was arrested on January 5, 1971 and held in prison until February 12, 1971 when she was freed on $10,000 bail. She had initially entered a plea of not guilty but changed that to "no defense" on May 28, 1971. The sentence that was handed down on June 18, 1971 was 12 to 13 months in Clinton Reformatory.
I'm not sure when Bertha was released but she was already applying for parole 2 months into her sentence and it was predicted she would not serve the entire 13 months. I see by August 10, 1973, Bertha was out of prison and working as the Committee Secretary for the Vineland Citizens Club.
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| photo from Lisa's obituary in The Daily Journal, June 15, 1974 |
More sadness awaited Bertha and her family though.
On June 13, 1974, Bertha and Richard's youngest daughter Lisa was killed by a passing automobile as she stepped off the school bus. She was only 11-years-old.
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| Lincoln Memorial Park, Mays Landing, NJ - photo uploaded to FindaGrave.com by Dennis Kolb, Jr |
Bertha Still died on April 5, 1995. She was not buried beside her husband.
