The monument on Union Cemetery's Crest Drive is dedicated to the memory of Tillie Smith, an 18 year old domestic who lived and worked at Centenary Collegiate Institute in the late 19th century, Smith was raped and strangled in the early hours of April 9, 1886, her body left in an open field in plain view.
A local Hackettstown resident and employee of CCI, James J. Titus was charged with Tillie's murder and in October 1866, was sentenced to hang for the crime. A book authored by Denis Sullivan, 'In Defence of Her Honor' provides compelling evidence that Titus was convicted on circumstantial evidence, sensational journalism and a Victorian society's emotional outcry for accountability.
Sullivan's book is on file in the Hackettstown Historical Society museum's research room. |
