City's 20th Century Spawned Sensational Double Shooting

As early as 1921, Middletown had its own sensational homicide.

On the same day in 1921 that Emil Schutte was sentenced to hang for his murder of the , another murder occurred in the city that stirred up the press and the community.

On Oct. 25, 1921, Frederick Harrison shot and killed his wife at their boarding house on Hamlin Street and then attempted to commit suicide. According to the local papers, “the motive is said to have been jealousy.”

Frederick and Ellen (Hayes) Harrison had a rocky marriage throughout the 11 years of their union. Harrison was a trolley conductor in Middletown who emigrated from Germany in 1893. The couple had five daughters at the time of the murder, ranging in age from 8 to 2 years old.

It appears that the troubles in the marriage brought the police on several occasions and the couple was not living together at the time of the murder. The children had been taken away from Mrs. Harrison because “she had ceased to take care” of them.

As for Mr. Harrison, for a few years he was a “periodic patient” at Wildwood Sanitarium on New Britain Avenue in Hartford, a treatment facility for people with tuberculosis.

Located on Cedar Mountain, Wildwood was associated with Hartford Hospital and was considered quite exquisite. In 1906, when the facility was opened to the public for viewing, more than 3,000 people showed up to tour the place. “A more delightful place for convalescence could not be imagined,” wrote one report. “The scenery to the east is magnificent and to the north can be seen Trinity College and the Capitol’s upper structure and dome. A walk through the woods takes one to a point where the Meriden mountains are plainly visible.” 

The sanitarium provided quite a luxurious stay for tuberculosis patients. The facility had a farm, and all the meals were from fresh ingredients on the farm. Regular entertainment was provided for the residents, including visiting vaudeville acts and band concerts. 

The facility also served soldiers returning from the war after 1918. Today the site is occupied by the Mary Ogden Avery Convalescent Home. (For a detailed description of the sanitarium, see.

Back to our murder. 

Serious marital troubles began about six months before the murder. The two lived on Miles Avenue in April of 1921, and Mr. Harrison was at the sanitarium when Mrs. Harrison disappeared. She was arrested in Hartford and brought back to Middletown. She was released on probation and promised to be a better parent. It was only a week later she was sent to jail for deserting her family again. Three of the children were sent to the county orphanage and two were placed with families in town.

Meanwhile, Harrison was living at the sanitarium. He ran away a few times to see his wife and, on one of his jaunts he bought a pistol, but it was confiscated when he returned to the sanitarium.

On the evening of the murder, in October of 1921, Mr. Harrison was living out of town, but not at the sanitarium. He came for a visit to Middletown and tried to see his wife, but she refused. The boarding house owner, Mrs. Dunn, invited him to stay for supper.

He later returned to the boarding house on Hamlin Street at 3 o’clock in the morning, carrying a .32-caliber revolver he’d purchased in Hartford.  He “rapped on the window” and Mrs. Dunn let him in. Mrs. Harrison came down from her room and Mrs. Dunn left them talked in the kitchen.

She heard four shots and ran to the kitchen where she found Mrs. Harrison dead on the floor and Mr. Harrison alive with a “bullet in his head and another in his chest.“

Harrison confessed all when questioned by Chief Inglis at the Middlesex Hospital. He was in critical condition and there was little hope that he’d survive. He was eventually charged with the murder. A trial never took place because his death seemed imminent. However, he actually survived a few years before succumbing to his wounds.

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