The Murder of Nell Cropsey
Episode 3: Charges Filed
As early as December after Nell Cropsey went missing, sentiments in Elizabeth City were running high against James Wilcox. Her family was prostrate with grief, as was that of Wilcox himself. The public did not like that he was not displaying the same grief. At one point the naval reserve patrolled the city, saloons were closed, and angry mobs milled around the jail. An article in The Morning Post of Raleigh admitted, “Public sentiment is strong against Wilcox, now that the coroner’s jury has decided that Miss Cropsey met her death by foul means and no stock is taken in the story of suicide. All point to the fact that Wilcox was with the girl when she was last seen alive, five weeks ago. This fact is the only real evidence at hand to connect Wilcox with the crime.”
According to testimony by Police Chief W. C. Dawson, Wilcox was arrested twice on the morning after Nell Cropsey’s disappearance. The third time he was arrested was on December 3, 1901 when he appeared before five magistrates. He was held under $1000 bond and the hearing lasted for about four hours. Many witnesses were subpoenaed but only four were called to testify, W. H. Cropsey, Miss Olive Cropsey, Alexander Brown and Fannie Mitchell. The latter two testified that they saw Wilcox enter his father’s house about midnight. Much of the discussion centered on the length of the time it should have taken the man to walk from the Cropsey home to his own and the amount of time that it actually took him.
On December 12, 1901, W. H. Cropsey, father of the missing girl, issued a letter publicly charging James Wilcox with responsibility for his daughter’s disappearance and the next day, Wilcox replied with a letter of his own denying all responsibility and knowledge. “If I knew anything of her whereabouts it would be a great pleasure to me to inform her mother, father and friends. I deny that I am the cause or in any way responsible for her disappearance. I regret her disappearance as much as any one else.” As former sheriff T. P. Wilcox, father of the accused said, “Jim has told all he knows, and he would go to hell before telling anything else.”
In March 1902, when the grand jury met, charges were officially filed on James Wilcox and he was indicted for the murder of Ella M. Cropsey.
~by Debbi Blake
Coming up next: Episode 4: Autopsy
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