Over the years, I’ve read many articles and books describing unique and, quite frankly, astounding methods of murder. But one in particular stands out to me. In 1935, Robert S. James committed murder via rattlesnake, earning him the nickname (and what he will be called from here on out) “Rattlesnake” James. Before we get to the nitty gritty, let’s go back and figure out just who this guy was.
Born Major Raymond Lisenba on March 6th, 1894, Rattlesnake didn’t have high hopes for himself. Born to an impoverished, abusive sharecropper in his home state of Alabama, he was expected to work the fields. However, he was sent to barber school by his brother-in-law (where is unspecified) and worked as a barber from there after.
Rattlesnake was described as “pasty, with a shock of slicked-back red hair, red-rimmed green eyes, and a high nasal voice”. He may not have been all that scholarly, but Rattlesnake had more than enough charm to spare. He was so charming, in fact, that he was married at least five times.
While specific dates are a little unsure (I found at least three different accounts), what is clear is that by the time Rattlesnake was 26 years old, he had married and divorced his first wife, Maud Duncan. She cited “kinky” and “sadistic” sex as the reasoning, as well as cruelty. (I stopped looking for information at this point – I really didn’t want to know the specific details. The implications are disturbing enough.)
Rattlesnake fled, moving to Kansas and changing his name to Robert S. James for reasons unknown. Here, he married his second wife, Vera May, in 1925. They divorced shortly after the father of a pregnant young woman ran him out of town. It was clear that everyone in town knew he’d gotten the woman pregnant. Rattlesnake definitely didn’t stick around long enough to neither confirm nor deny the accusation. He got the hell out of Kansas and high-tailed it to North Dakota, settling in Fargo in 1932.
Before he settled completely, an event in his life would ultimately lead Rattlesnake down quite the felonious path. He discovered that he was the sole beneficiary of an uncle’s $4,000 life insurance policy. It was a quick way to make some quick cash. And then he began making plans.
Rattlesnake opened a barbershop in Fargo and married his third wife, Winona Wallace. Almost immediately, he took out a pair of $5,000 life insurance policies on his wife, naming himself as the beneficiary (I think we can all see where this is going). On September 21st, they set out for Pike’s Peak, Colorado to embark on their honeymoon.
Winona was driving the car. Suddenly, it veered off the road. Rattlesnake told investigators that he had managed to jump free of the car, but his wife was still stuck in the vehicle. The car had fallen down a mountainside, stopped against a large boulder. It looked like a disaster.
When rescuers made their way over to the wreck, they found Winona lying outside of the car. She was alive! Though she sported a large head wound behind her ear, and a bloody hammer was found in the back of the car, she was found to be in relatively good shape. However, investigators said she did smell quite distinctly of liquor.
The “accident” seemed not to have done its job. Winona was released from hospital on October 8th. She intended to hunker down and recover in a cottage in Manitou Springs, still inclined to enjoy what was left of her honeymoon. And her husband was ever so accommodating.
A week later, Rattlesnake caught a ride back to the cottage with the local grocer after picking up some groceries. Rattlesnake and the grocer entered the cottage, and found Winona floating on her back in a half-filled bathtub.
The Coroner’s Inquest determined it was an accident. Medical Examiner George B. Gilmore testified that Rattlesnake had told him that his wife had merely ignored the physician’s orders not to wash her hair because of her head wound. That led to her drowning herself in the bathtub.
It wouldn’t be until much later that the entire episode would be viewed as suspicious. Rattlesnake received the life insurance pay out, as he expected he would, and decided to go back home to Alabama. His first scheme had been a success – though with a few twists and turns. He was willing to bet he could do it all over again.
Back in Alabama, he proceeded to marry his fourth wife, Ruth Thomas. He asked her to take out a life insurance policy on herself, and name him the beneficiary. She refused. She told him that strange things happened to people who got life insurance. Displeased, he proceeded to get the marriage annulled. He claimed he was unsure that he was actually married because he was inebriated at the time. His bid to have it annulled was successful. He couldn’t be bothered with anyone who refused to go along with his plans. And so, he went with an impromptu Plan B.
His nephew, Cornelius Wright, was a young sailor on leave. Rattlesnake asked him to pay him a visit. Rattlesnake took out a life insurance policy on his nephew. Then he loaned him his car, telling him it would be a great idea to go out for a nice drive. Cornelius agreed. The drive led Cornelius right off a cliff. When the mechanic brought the car back to Rattlesnake, he made note that something was wrong with the steering wheel. And somehow, no suspicion fell on Rattlesnake.
With the insurance money in his pocket, Rattlesnake headed west to California with his niece Lois in tow. She was apparently unaware of her uncle’s less than stellar activities. In 1935, he settled in La Cañada and opened a barbershop, hiring Lois on as a manicurist.
In March of that year, Rattlesnake also hired 26 year old Mary Emma Busch as a manicurist to assist Lois. Rattlesnake, now 38, married the young woman, making her his fifth (and final) wife. (I am still astounded that this man managed to trick five women into marrying him, but that’s neither here nor there.) It was with this marriage that his felonious activities come back to bite him in a big way.
Rattlesnake insured Mary Emma for $10,000. In June, he asked his friend, and loyal barbershop customer, Charles Hope what he knew about rattlesnakes. He had a friend, you see, who wanted to be rid of his wife in a bad way. There was a $100 payout in Hope’s name if he could provide the snakes. Hope agreed – a hundred bucks was a hundred bucks to an out-of-work sailor.
Hope first visited Mike Alman at the Reptile Gardens in Santa Monica. He bought three rattlesnakes. When presented with them, Rattlesnake found them to be too docile. They wouldn’t do what he wanted them to do, he said. Hope returned the snakes, and had another conversation with Alman.
Hope was told of a man who had a snake farm out in Pasadena. Joseph C. Houtenbrink, or Snake Joe, should have exactly what he was looking for. Hope visited the snake farm, and bought two desert diamondback rattlesnakes – Lethal and Lightning.
Later, at the trial, the men would recollect about how suspicious their time with Hope was. But that didn’t seem to stop them from selling him their snakes at the time.
And now, it was time for Rattlesnake to put his plan into action.
On August 4th, 1935, Rattlesnake convinced his pregnant wife to get an abortion. He knew a doctor, he said, who could take care of it right in their home. Her eyes had to be covered, though. The doctor’s privacy had to be protected. For whatever reason, she complied.
Rattlesnake plied her with whiskey and bromide, to “dull the pain”. Once unconscious, he placed her on top of the kitchen table and strapped her down. Hope walked in on the scene, seeing Mary, pregnant, tired down to the table with her eyes and mouth covered in tape. He watched as Rattlesnake put Mary’s foot in the box containing the snakes. They bit at her foot. Hope took the box, and took the snakes back to Snake Joe.
Upon returning to the house, Hope found Rattlesnake drunk as a skunk and completely enraged. The snakes hadn’t done the trick, he said. Mary wasn’t even sick! He had no other choice.
Hours after the snakes bit her, Mary succumbed when Rattlesnake drowned her in the bathtub. Hope helped Rattlesnake carry her body out to the fish pond in the garden. He left, informing Rattlesnake that he still expected to be paid.
The following evening, James and Viola Pemberton were driving out to visit their dear friends Rattlesnake (though they called him Robert) and Mary. They were looking forward to a nice dinner and a pleasant evening. When they arrived, they couldn’t find Mary anywhere. Rattlesnake suggested that they all set out and look for her. It didn’t take them long to find Mary in the fish pond. They noticed a “strange, discoloured puncture wound” on her foot.
Police were immediately called to the scene, declaring Mary’s death an accident. She’d been bitten, gotten dizzy, fell, and drowned, they concluded. Rattlesnake agreed.
He did not appear to be the grieving widower for all that long. As soon as he could, he tried to take the payout on Mary’s life insurance. The insurance investigator thought it all sounded, well, fishy.
He did some digging. He then uncovered Rattlesnake’s troubling patterns of behaviour – from the many marriages, to the death of his third wife, even to the death of his nephew. The investigator tipped off police.
Unbeknownst to Rattlesnake, the police began keeping watch on him and investigating his history in earnest. They also managed to bug his house, hoping to catch a confession or a bit of probable cause on tape. They caught something, alright. Just not quite what they thought they would.
On April 19th, 1936, Robert “Rattlesnake” S. James was arrested on morals charges – predominately incest for the illicit relationship he was carrying on with his niece. In the house, they found “marriage brochures”. To them, it was clear he was already on the hunt for his next victim.
He was brought to a safe-house and interrogated incessantly as investigator’s pieced together the entirety of his past and his future plans. Rattlesnake held strong. For a time.
On May 3rd, 1936, Rattlesnake cracked and confessed to murdering his wife for insurance fraud. By the 6th, both Rattlesnake and Hope were arraigned and charged for first-degree murder. Someone had had the bright idea to cuff them together. They screamed obscenities at each other. They were finally separated when Rattlesnake threatened Hope’s life.
On June 2nd, Rattlesnake was sentenced to 150 years on three morals charges. This acted as an insurance policy for the prosecution, should his murder trial go horribly wrong.
In an effort to save his own skin, Hope plead guilty to first-degree murder. Not only did he avoid a trial, but he also avoided the hangman’s noose. He was sentenced to life rather than death. He’d take it.
Rattlesnake’s trial began on June 22nd. On the 25th, Hope turned State’s witness (he really had nothing left to lose) and testified against him. On July 15th, Rattlesnake testified that his confession had been coerced and it was Hope who had done the drowning. He was the real killer, he said. This did not sway his jury.
On July 25th, Rattlesnake was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by hanging. For the rest of his life, Rattlesnake tried to appeal his case, to no avail.
On May 2nd, 1942, at San Quentin State Prison, Robert “Rattlesnake” S. James was the last man in the state of California to hang. Something had gone wrong with the rope. He died just as he killed his wives – unable to breathe. It took him 10 minutes to succumb to strangulation.
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Sources:
In One of L.A.’s Most Outrageous Murder Cases, a Rattlesnake Was the Weapon by Hadley Meares for Los Angeles Magazine