Electrocution of Baby Lawrence - by James E Overmyer (Hardcover)

About the Book

In September 1943, six-month old Lawrence Noxon, who had recently been diagnosed with Down syndrome died mysteriously while in his father's care. The case and following arrest, trial, and conviction of John Noxon, divided their small town Was it an accident? Was it a "mercy killing?" Was it murder?

Book Synopsis

In September 1943, six-month old Lawrence Noxon, who had recently been diagnosed with Down syndrome died mysteriously while in his father's care. The case and following arrest, trial, and conviction of John Noxon, divided their small town Was it an accident? Was it a "mercy killing?" Was it murder?

Review Quotes

An overlooked and sensational true-crime story from small town America in the 1940s. It is meticulously researched and masterfully told. A compelling and complex tale of a trial that combined crime, family, society and politics.

Armed with newspaper archives, court reports including the judge's papers and his own first-hand knowledge of the Berkshire, Massachusetts court system, Overmyer offers a full-bodied, deeply researched assessment of the trial and its five-year aftermath, sure to intrigue true crime fans.

Based on extensive research, James E. Overmyer has meticulously pieced together a fascinating account of a possible mercy killing and the subsequent arrest and trials of the father, a prominent lawyer, accused of murdering his infant son. Central to this riveting story are the archaic attitudes about developmental disabilities prevalent in the 1940s and complex moral questions the case raised that resonates to the present day.

In The Electrocution of Baby Lawrence, James E. Overmyer has crafted a well-told story that will have readers questioning if Noxon was guilty or innocent some 80 years after his trial. Overmyer's attention to detail is exquisite, especially since much of his research -- outside of that which was culled from newspaper clippings -- is taken from primary source documents that only existed in the hands of family members of the judges and lawyers involved with the case.

Jim Overmyer has successfully applied his outstanding reporting skills to the daunting task of writing the definitive history of a crime that horrified the small city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1943 and made headlines nationwide for years afterward. The case of a father accused of murdering his disabled infant son helped fuel a public debate that continues to the present day. In Overmyer's telling, the haunting story of the death of Baby Lawrence never could be described as 'old news'.

Overmyer revisits a 1943 murder case in this propulsive true crime account. Well-respected Pittsfield, Mass., attorney John F. Noxon Jr. claimed that his six-month-old son, Lawrence, who had Down syndrome, died by electrocution after accidentally becoming entangled in a poorly insulated extension cord. Authorities initially accepted Noxon's account, but grew suspicious when they discovered he burned evidence, including the cord and the clothes Lawrence was wearing, before it could be examined. That led to Noxon's arrest, and he hired former Massachusetts governor Joseph Ely to represent him. Noxon was initially convicted of first-degree murder in 1944 and sentenced to the electric chair. That sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment, which Noxon appealed, and he was released on parole after just four years. Overmyer supplements the case's gut-wrenching details with research about contemporaneous attitudes toward developmentally disabled people, including a chilling section on so-called 'mercy killings.' Excerpts from the judge's notebook and prosecutor's personal files add depth to the court transcripts, and Overmyer convincingly posits that Noxon killed Lawrence because of his Down syndrome. It adds up to an enlightening and discomfiting account of a horrific crime.

About the Author

James E. Overmyer was the public safety and criminal courts reporter from 1974-1979 for the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He regularly reported on felony cases in the Superior Court, included several murder trials. From 1979 through 1983, he was an administrator in the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office in charge of case preparation for both felony and misdemeanor cases. Until retiring from public service in 2010, he worked in both the Massachusetts and New York state governments in a series of positions associated with state court systems. He currently lives in Tucson, AZ.