The Cantor Dimension (11 page)

"Donald."

"Donald what?"

The boy hesitated for just a moment. "Duckley." The boy burst into tears. Chief Hunsinger looked askance at the woman. She nodded affirmatively. He raised the boy's chin until they were eye to eye.

"What do you prefer to be called? Donald? Don? Donny?"

"Don. I like Don the best," the boy sniffed.

"Don's a good, strong name. I've got a nephew named Don. He's the star quarterback on his high school football team."

"Really?"

"Yup! Really!"

Donny's tears faded and the hint of a smile took their place. "I wanna play baseball but Mom won't let me." His smile turned into a frown.

Chief Hunsinger raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And why do you suppose that is? You wouldn't be bustin' out windows with a baseball now, would you?"

"Uh uh! No way! I never broke anybody's window! I swear!"

"So how come you're here visiting me?"

Donny looked down at the floor.

"Tell him, Donny! Tell him right now or you'll be answering to your father tonight!" His mother's cross voice ricocheted around the small room like an angry bullet seeking a target.

Donny sighed, looking much older than his years. "They were picking on me, the other kids. They were flapping their arms up and down and calling me a chicken. I'm not a chicken!"

Chief Hunsinger smiled reassuringly. "No, I bet you're not! You look pretty tough to me! Let me see that arm..." he squeezed Donny's minuscule muscle in admiration. "Yup, just what I thought. A tough guy."

"Yeah," Donny smiled proudly. "I really showed them, too!"

"What did you show them?"

"I went into the haunted house all by myself! I even got proof! I found a cigarette lighter with the initials N.A.D on it."

"You're not talking about the old Starnes' farm are you?"

"Yeah, that's the one. They dared me, only when I came out they was all gone. They ran away. The ghost chased 'em away. They left me all alone with the ghost!" Donny's lower lip quivered.

"I've been to the Starnes' farm, Don," Chief Hunsinger offered, "and it's a pretty spooky place but there's no real ghosts there."

"There is too! I seen it!"

Mrs. Duckley could no longer contain herself. "There! You see? Little boys who lie are in for a big whoopin'. God says it's one of the ten worst sins, lying. The policeman might even throw you in jail for it and well he ought to!"

Chief Hunsinger glowered at the woman, effectively silencing her. "Why don't you go outside, Mrs. Duckley, and let me talk to the boy in private." It wasn't a question - it was a command. Mrs. Duckley left the room. "Okay now, Don. Tell me about this ghost."

"He was big! He was huge! Bigger even than you. He was all white with big black eyes and he didn't have any arms or legs. Just like a big, white blob. And he chased me! He almost caught me, too! He made me drop the lighter so now my friends won't believe I went in there. My arm got stuck on a nail when I was trying to crawl back out the window and I could hear him right behind me. It was awful! He was gonna kill me, I just know it!" Donny wailed, tears spilling down his chubby red cheeks.

"Hey Don, it's okay," Chief Hunsinger said, handing the boy his own handkerchief. Donny wiped his face and blew his nose loudly, handing the handkerchief back. Chief Hunsinger grimaced inwardly taking it gingerly by one corner and laid it on the far corner of his desk. He was determined to help this kid, remembering all too clearly his own bullied youth. "Don't worry, Don, the ghost can't get you here. You're safe now. You know, ghosts can't leave their houses. He can't come after you. As long as you don't go back there, you're safe."

"Really?" Donny sniveled, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "How do you know?"

"I'm the Chief of Police, Don. It's my job to know these things."

"He can't get me now?"

"No, he can't get you now. But I'll tell you who
can
get you now... your mother and father. Sounds to me like you're in for quite a whoopin'."

"Yeah! And my Dad uses a big old belt, too!"

"Well, I'll tell you what..." and Chief Hunsinger instructed Donny on how to get out of the whoopin' that awaited him later that night. He called Mrs. Duckley back into his office, sending Donny down the hall for a candy bar. "Mrs. Duckley, may I make a suggestion?"

"What?" she asked, somewhat suspiciously. Too many well-wishers had offered advice on how to rear Donny, her only son. The advice was not welcomed.

"Have you ever thought of enrolling Don in karate classes or something? I think it would do him a world of good."

"His name is Donny and that's the most ridiculous suggestion I've ever heard! Don't you think teaching him how to beat up on other kids would get him into even more trouble?"

"No, Mrs. Duckley, I don't believe it would."

She went on as though he hadn't spoken. "A boy can get hurt taking up a sport like that."

A boy like Donny could get hurt anyway, more so without any means to defend himself, but obviously Mrs. Duckley wasn't about to be swayed. No sooner had the Duckleys left when Ed Stokes barged in.

"Well boss? A baseball through a window? That woman sure did look mean standing out in the hallway all by herself."

"No Ed, just another Starnes' ghost story. Mrs. Duckley was mad about the kid making up stories. Seems that she was madder about the story he told than the fact that he was playing at an abandoned house where he could have been hurt, not to mention wondering how he even got to the house in the first place."

"Huh, women! Figures!" Ed scoffed. "Say boss, speaking of ghosts, any luck finding Ann Weissmuller yet?"

Chief Hunsinger shot a crumpled wad of paper at him. "Get outta here Ed, before I sick the Starnes' ghost on you!"

Officer Ed Stokes left the room laughing.

Table of Contents

Max had become obsessed with the murder of Edmond Halley and the compass he invented. Where Einstein, Newton, Cantor, and the Kent legends had taken up the first box of notes, Halley dominated the second. Brody had shared the story of the Black Widow and Max's fascination with the compass with Cindy. He didn't know why the compass was important, but apparently Max had a fixation with it beyond simply being a collectible. Cindy had become fascinated with Max's mysteries and had thus agreed to take the Cantor papers for safekeeping.

The Black Widow was the first in a number of theories regarding who killed Edmond Halley, and it involved a number of public records. In the printed register of the parish of St. Margaret in Westminster, England, there occurred a marriage on September 9, 1656, between Edmund Halley
¹¹
, salter, and Anne Robinson, spinster, "both of this parish."

Edmond Halley, the murdered soap-boiler and salter, was the father of astronomer Edmond Halley. The senior Halley was a prosperous businessman and landlord who married Anne Robinson in a church ceremony only seven weeks before the birth of their astronomer son. The most likely explanation was that there had been an earlier civil ceremony of which no record has survived, and that the imminent arrival of their first child encouraged the couple to exchange religious vows as well. Having a civil ceremony followed by a church ceremony was common practice and some couples forwent the latter.

Sixteen years prior to the Halley marriage, a marriage took place in Middlesex County which was adjacent to Kent County. Halley must have owned property in Middlesex as he filed a Middlesex tax return in addition to his London tax return. Perhaps his dealings in Middlesex were what put him on the Black Widow's radar.

In Middlesex County in the year 1640, William Baker married the widow Joane Dawes, making it at the least her second marriage. Several months earlier a Joane Dawes had married George Wright in central England. A month after Baker's marriage, Joane Baker, which would have been her new name, married Henrie Gibbins in Wiltshire County west of Kent.

The entire country of England is smaller than the U.S. state of Arkansas so the many marriages of Joane were not all that far apart, especially considering how many took place in and around London. If the marriages were connected, it did shed light on the odd set of facts which surrounded the Joane who married Edmond Halley in 1682, and another man three years later. Is it possible that Joane was a Black Widow roaming the bachelors and widowers of England in the 1600s?

The name Joane Jones appeared in the will of yeoman William Henry in 1664, the same will that mentioned Sible Parry and Jane Watkins. The name Watkins appears in the genealogy of astronomer Edmond Halley. His stepdaughter, Mary Freeman, married John Parry, who then married Anne Watkins after Mary died. The name Sybilla Parry, also spelled Sibella and Sibble in the various Halley wills, also appears in Edmond Halley's genealogy. Thus the senior Edmond Halley, murdered father of the astronomer Edmond Halley and a man of great wealth, may well have known Joane Jones.

In 1621, there was a marriage record of a Joane Jones, widow of victualler Edward Jones, marrying a William Jones at All Hallows, Honey Lane in London. William may have been the brother of Joane's deceased husband. Two years later in 1623, Joane Jones married Bartholomewe Hopkins in Clerkenwell, London. In 1680, a Joane Hopkins married David Fleming in Bishopsgate, London. Earlier in 1666, Joane Hopkins of Bread Street, London, married Edward Dyer. We do not always know when the bride is a widow but it has been marked when known as follows in the various marriages of women named Joane:

1621: Joane Jones (widow) - William Jones
1623: Joane Jones - Bartholomewe Hopkins
1640: Joane Dawes - George Wright
1640: Joane Dawes (widow) - William Baker
1640: Joane Baker - Henrie Gibbins
1646: Joane Warburton - ??? Jones
1648: Joane Warburton - Thomas Mercer
1626: Joane Mercer - William Whitchurch
1666: Joane Hopkins - Edward Dyer
1674: Joane Dyer - Walter Stayner
1693: Joane Stayner - Moyes Edwards
1683: Joane Dyer - Thomas Griffith
1680: Joane Hopkins - David Fleming
1682: Joane ??? - Edmond Halley
1685: Joane Halley - Robert Cleeter

We know without a doubt that Edmond Halley's Joane and Robert Cleeter's Joane are one in the same, and that Halley's Joane had a lust for greed.

In 1674, Joane Dyer married Walter Stayner in Hampshire, London. In 1683, Joane Dyer of All Hallows, Honey Lane in London married Thomas Griffith. Note that All Hallows, Honey Lane appeared in the earlier record of Joane Jones. In 1693, Joane Stayner married Moyes Edwards in Hampshire, London.

All of these Joanes were married in and around London within a 72 year span, with a previous last name carrying forward to the next marriage. If Joane started her marriage career at twenty years old or younger, she could conceivably have been ALL of the Joanes.

In 1646, we find a Joane Jones mixed up in an accusation of fornication with James Parkinson, a church elder. Joane Jones testified on Parkinson's behalf and according to the written account, Joane Jones was previously Joane Warburton. In 1648, we find a marriage record for Joane Warburton to Thomas Mercer of Overtown. There is a town of Overton in Hampshire County. Also in Hampshire County, which is one county removed from Kent, Joane Mercer married William Whitchurch in 1626.

We know that dates were sometimes erroneously written and we cannot know if any of these Joanes were one in the same person, or if some were perhaps daughters of the previous Joane. However, if even half of the Joanes were one in the same it would mark her as a Black Widow, a woman who marries for money and then leaves or disposes of her husbands.

If so, Joane would not have been the only Black Widow roaming Kent at that time. There was a woman by the name of Mary Carleton who was charged with the crime of bigamy. She was the daughter of a musician but told her prospective husbands that she was a German Princess. She went by many aliases, most of which used her real first name of Mary, and one husband caught on and charged her with bigamy. The charge, however, could not be proven as the records of the previous marriages could not be found.

The case drew much public interest and the lurid tales of her exploits and fortunes became well known just nine years before Joane married Edmond Halley. The story of Mary-the-bigamist and her subsequent acquittal would have been well known to Joane.

The 1600s brought an era of strange laws to England, not the least of which involved witchcraft and sorcery. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1670 prohibiting the use of beauty aids to lure a man into marriage. Prohibited beauty aids included cosmetics, scents, paints, washes, artificial teeth, false hair, hoops, Spanish wool, iron stays, and high-heeled shoes.

Using such wiles on a man incurred the full penalty of witchcraft and sorcery and the marriage itself would thus become null and void. A woman marrying a man with ulterior motives had to be careful lest she lose the money and status that she intended to marry into. Killing off the husband would be one way to ensure that he didn't change his mind and turn her in as a witch.

Astronomer Edmond Halley's mother, Anne Robinson Halley, died in 1672. Ten years later in 1682, the wealthy widower Edmond Halley the soap-boiler married Joane. We do not know what her last name was prior to the marriage or anything about her family. Marriage records often included the name of the wife's father or previous husband but in the case of Joane, we don't even find a marriage record. It was as if she came out of nowhere to marry Halley and two years after their marriage, he was dead.

Allegedly Halley left no will which plunged his estate into a bitter battle between his second wife Joane and his son by his first wife, astronomer Edmond. It was odd for a man of his status not to have a will and in those days, the well-to-do were usually pretty detailed in their wills which almost always included siblings, nieces and nephews along with their own children.

Edmond the soap-boiler had two brothers and a sister: William Halley, Humfrey Halley and Elizabeth Cawthorne. His brother William Halley of Peterborough, being the same city where the Bishop Sexwulf of Mercia built his monastery, left a will that mentions his wife, son, and his two brothers. Humfrey Halley named six different people in his will including his brother Edmond. A will by Edmond would surely have named his two brothers and son in addition to his wife. Or perhaps, as they'd only been married a short period, he may not have updated his will to include Joane.