Peter Conover Hains Jr. (January 9, 1872 – February 5, 1955) was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

convicted of killing his wife's lover. The case became a sensational

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

trial in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1908. He was the son of Major General

Peter Conover Hains Peter Conover Hains (July 6, 1840 – November 7, 1921) was a Major general (United States), major general in the United States Army, Military engineering of the United States#United States Army, military engineer, and veteran of the American C ...

and the father of

Peter C. Hains III Peter Conover Hains III (May 11, 1901 – July 3, 1998) was an American Army cavalry officer and major general who competed in the 1928 Olympic games in the modern pentathlon. Hains graduated from West Point in 1924, where he ranked 162nd out ...

. Hains attended the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

from 1889 to 1893, but did not graduate. He was commissioned into the United States Army in July 1898 with the rank of second lieutenant, serving with the artillery and achieving the rank of captain in December 1902. In 1908, abetted by his brother, the novelist Thornton Jenkins Hains, Peter Hains gunned down prominent magazine editor and

Harper's ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

contributor William Annis at a yacht club in

Bayside, Queens Bayside is a neighborhood located in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fr ...

. The crime, known as the Hains-Annis Case or the "Murder at the Regatta," played an important role in the development of criminal and matrimonial law. Peter Hains was convicted of manslaughter and received an eight-year sentence, but later received a pardon from the governor of New York. His brother pleaded temporary insanity and was acquitted of manslaughter. The murder, committed while Hains was still an active duty Army officer, did not disqualify him from military service; after he had been convicted and incarcerated, following the passage of a Congressional act which would have allowed the dismissal of convicted service members, Hains resigned from the United States Army in 1911. It was one of the last cases in which a defendant pleaded Dementia Americana, the psychiatric pathology that allegedly drove American men to kill the lovers of their unfaithful wives.

Harry Thaw Harry Kendall Thaw (February 12, 1871 – February 22, 1947) was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, he is most notable for having murdered the renowned architect Stanford W ...

used a similar defense during his trial for the murder of architect

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

. The trial was front-page news across the country at the time and ranks with the trials of Josephine Terranova and Richard Bruno Hauptmann as among the most widely watched and reported American criminal trials of the first half of the twentieth century.

References

1872 births 1955 deaths American people convicted of manslaughter United States Army officers Military personnel from Baltimore 19th-century United States Army personnel 20th-century United States Army personnel {{US-crime-bio-stub Recipients of gubernatorial pardons in New York (state)

See also

References