Spring Gun in the Grape Vines

HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

This week we’ll explore the strange case of a 1907 shooting in Jamaica Plain. There was a gun, a gunshot, and a gunshot victim… a child, in fact. But there was no shooter, or at least no human shooter. If this was today, we might be talking about a terrifying robot machine gun, but 1907 was a little early for that. Instead, we’re talking about a deadly trap laid by a homeowner to protect his grape arbor. For setting this deadly trap, the homeowner would face criminal trial for assault, but pay only a trivial fine. As bizarre as the case sounds, it was part of a trend that was sweeping the nation at the time, with many spring gun cases arising in the Boston area, until the matter was finally settled in a state supreme court case that every first year law student still studies today.

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Spring Gun in the Grape Vines

• Globe articles about the Seiberlich case
  • Sept 23, 1907: First reporting on the case… on page 11
  • Sept 24, 1907: Front page, illustrations (see header and below)
  • Sept 30, 1907: Warrants issued for Seiberlich and Cantwell
  • Oct 3, 1907 (evening): Seiberlich fined $60
  • Oct 18, 1907 (evening): Cantwell and friends fined for trespass
  • Mar 8, 1910 (evening): Cantwell arrested for shooting craps
• Patents for spring gun mechanisms
  • New and useful improvements in trap guns
  • Trap gun on a stake
  • Rotating trap gun (sounds safe!)
  • Adjustable trap gun for different sized animals
  • A trap gun for burrows
  • The kit that transforms a revolver into both a trap gun and a rifle
  • Crossbow trap gun
  • Trap gun box with a catnip tray
  • My favorite, a better mousetrap
• Globe articles about other local spring gun cases
  • July 14, 1906: Spring gun shooting at a sportsman’s club in Canton
  • Nov 16, 1906: Hobo bleeds out in Bellingham basement
  • Nov 18, 1906: Photos of house and gun from Bellingham case
  • Dec 28, 1906: EO Woodbury tried for manslaughter in Bellingham case
  • Dec 20, 1911: Dedham man fined $300 for killing Italian immigrant with spring gun
  • Jun 14, 1923: North End teen dies from spring gun shot on Middle Brewster
  • Oct 27, 1923: Hjalmar Roos fined $750 for manslaughter in Middle Brewster case
• A 1923 survey of Virginia spring gun cases
• 1916 study of changing case law in spring gun cases
• The Yale Law Journal examines spring gun case law in 1922
• Seiberlich family history
• Location of the German Baptist Church, next to the Seiberlich house
• About the German Baptists
• Katko v Briney finally settled the status of spring guns in the US
• This blog post from the JP Historical Society tipped us off to the spring gun case

They built a better mouse trap!!!