I don’t recall there being much violence in Nassau. I am sure that it had its share of domestic violence and drunken brawls, but I know of three solved homicides that took place there or involving its residents, and one that was never solved.
Archie Mull – Melville L. Lord
The earliest solved murder that I know of is the 1899 murder of Melville L. Lord by Archie Mull (sometimes spelled “Mulle”). My father told me that when he was a young farmer in the 1920s, an older man approached him where he was working on his farm and told my father his name during the conversation. My father said that he told the man, who had identified himself as Archie Mull, that he knew that he had murdered Mr. Lord, who had been the owner of a nearby farm (which later became known to us as the "Canaday Farm", so-called for the family that later owned it).
According to newspaper reports, during September 1899, Archie Mull, originally from Nassau, but then living in North Adams, Massachusetts, came upon Mr. Lord, age 60, and Arthur Snyder, an orphan boy who lived with Mr. Lord, as they were building fences in the woods. According to Snyder's statement, Mull came behind Lord and struck him in the head with an ax, knocking his eye out, and smashing his skull. Mull then struck Snyder with the ax, but he eventually recovered and gave his account of the murder. Lord had been know to be a wealthy individual who usually carried large sums of money, but there was no money on his body and robbery was the prosecutor’s theory of Mull’s act.
Mull was arrested the next day in North Adams and returned to jail in Troy. According to newspaper reports, he denied the charge and was “…an inveterate smoker of cigarets, being supplied by friends who call on him…” After trial, Mull was convicted and sentenced to prison. Interestingly, his sentence was commuted on December 18, 1919, while he was confined to Great Meadow prison, and within an hour of his release, he married Stella Howe of Marlboro, Massachusetts, who had waited for him for years. The bride and groom planned to honeymoon in Nassau with his relatives. [Note: During the 1960s when I handled the estate of William Canaday, his widow gave me a copy of the trial transcript, which I later donated to the library in the Village of Nassau.]
Daniel Slivko – Dr. Boris Klasons
Boris Klasons, a physician, immigrated to the United States from Latvia about 1950, and later opened an office with his wife, Velta Klasons, who was also a medical doctor, at their home on Church Street in the Village of Nassau. They were the only physicians with an office in the village at that time, and they had a respected practice.
On June 2, 1956, Dr. Boris Klasons, age 43, received a telephone call from the mother of Daniel Slivko, age 36, asking him to come to their home in neighboring Schodack because Daniel had been upset for several days, and she felt that Dr. Klasons had previously helped him and would do so again. Dr. Klasons arrived at the Slivko home at about 10:00 a.m., but Daniel ordered him out of the house. Slivko reportedly believed that Dr. Klasons was a Communist, although he had fled communism with his wife in 1947. Dr. Klasons left the house and got into his car, but Daniel followed him out and from his porch, he fired an 8 mm. Mauser rifle at the car. The bullet entered the window and struck Dr. Klasons in the face, killing him instantly. Slivko’s mother and sister called the police and the Nassau ambulance. Dr. Klason’s wife, Velta, was told that someone had been shot, and she went to the Slivko home where she discovered that it was her husband who had been killed. Daniel Slivko was arrested and charged with 1st-degree murder but was found to be mentally incompetent. He was sent to the Matteawan State Hospital where mentally ill persons who were charged with crimes but not convicted, were housed. In 1955 the Superintendent of Matteawan State Hospital released Slivko back to Rensselaer County for trial. On May 12, 1966, he entered a plea of guilty to Manslaughter in the first degree and received a sentence of 8-1/2 to 20 years in prison. Under the terms of the plea, he was sent to Clinton Prison where he would be eligible for parole after one year of psychiatric observation and evaluation. Slivko was paroled and returned to the Nassau area. Dr. Klason’s wife eventually remarried, but died of cancer in 1963, survived by two children of her marriage to Boris Klason and her second husband.
During my summer internship at the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office in 1962, I read the Slivko file and saw the gruesome autopsy photos.
Patricia Hanson – Gary J. Whitney
During the evening of October 1, 1960, Patricia Ann Hanson of Old Chatham, then 18 years old, was on her second date with Gary Whitney of Nassau, also 18. They parked on Irish Hill Road in the neighboring town of Schodack and had consensual sex. Following their lovemaking, Patricia stabbed Gary to death. Although she reported the sex as rape, she was charged with murder. She had previous arrests for throwing stones at State Police Cars on the Thruway and for disorderly conduct and third-degree assault. She was also then on probation from Albany County where she had been charged with carrying a loaded revolver.
Patricia was initially sent to the New York State mental hospital at Matteawan following her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity but was returned to Rensselaer County for trial following her release. As students at Albany Law School, we were required to observe some trials, and a few of us watched part of her trial. There were dramatic moments, with District Attorney John T. Casey walking around stabbing the air with the hunting knife, and passing a used condom in a jar to the jury, most of who just passed it to the next juror without looking down at the evidence. We also took note, with amusement, that the then County Judge, DeForest Pitt, frequently appeared to be staring from his high bench down to look at the well-endowed court stenographer who sat next to his bench.
The jury was given the choice of not guilty by reason of insanity, murder in the second degree, and manslaughter. She was convicted on the murder charge and sentenced to a 7-1/2 year to a 20-year term in prison. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court affirmed the conviction on appeal.
The Unsolved Murder of Austin Phelps
Prior to the construction of a Mobil service station on the northwest corner of Elm Street and Albany Avenue in the Village of Nassau, there was a large white building I knew as “Kelly’s Hotel.” It had been built as a tavern and hotel by Jacob Whitbeck in the mid-1800s, and in the 1870s it was known as “The Kingsman House”. Later, it was known as “The Nassau House.” In 1880 the proprietor, Austin Phelps, was found murdered in his bedroom. His son, Truman Phelps, was indicted and tried on a murder charge, but was acquitted. The murder was never solved.
