ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – She admitted to murder in Central Florida, then walked free. The chilling evidence in the case of Lena Clarke was discovered at a local museum, preserved for more than 100 years.
Bullets and casings, toothache drops, a safety pin, a tool nut and a single dime. The eclectic assortment of items were found in the satchel of then 35-year-old Lena Clarke when she was taken into custody over 100 years ago.
“At first it gave me the chills when I opened the box, but it doesn’t anymore because the case is so old,” said Collections Manager Emily Coughlan. “The mystique that’s still there is interesting.”
Coughlan discovered the items, along with records from the trial, well-preserved at the Orange County Regional History Center. The History Center is home to the Historical Society of Central Florida’s collection of more than 35,000 artifacts, photographs, and archival materials. Coughlan learned about Clarke while listening to a ‘True Crime’-themed podcast and found out the case is local to Central Florida, so she decided to check the archived collections at the Orange County Regional History Center where she works.
“We found Lena’s purse. Next thing you know, we stumble upon the records, a ledger and paperwork from her trial. It’s like putting the pieces together. It gives us a more in depth history and allows us to tell the story in greater detail,” said Coughlan.
The West Palm Beach postmistress and minister’s daughter was arrested for the murder of Fred Miltimore after he was found shot to death in a room of Orlando’s San Juan Hotel on August 1st, 1921.
“It was really big, because it was a female murderer and in 1920, the juries were men, the lawyers were men. Nobody thought that a woman could be capable of shooting and killing a man,” said Coughlan.
Clarke initially admitted to shooting her former assistant and lover.
She reportedly confronted Miltimore at the hotel after he refused to take the fall for the tens of thousands of dollars Clarke embezzled from the post office.
The headlines spread far beyond Florida papers, Lena Clarke becoming the most infamous woman in America at the time.
She would spend a few months in jail before the trial.
“They let her paint her cell because she didn’t like the walls. She decorated it with fan letters and she was only in jail from the beginning of August until December. She even wrote poems and an autobiography and sold it to newspapers. She was in prison living her best life and they let her do what she wanted... that wouldn’t fly today,” said Coughlan.
Clarke was acquitted on the grounds of insanity and spent about two years at the Florida State Mental Hospital before walking free.
“[During the trial] she pulled out a crystal ball, talked for hours about the 12 lives she lived before this one. It just was such a rarity at the time and to even get away with it is mind boggling,” said Coughlan.
Clarke ended up working for the Red Cross and continued writing poetry, living with family members before passing away in 1967 in West Palm Beach at the age of eighty-one years old.
The bizarre story and piece of history told through the contents of a purse.
