Isaac B. Desha

Isaac Bledsoe Desha (January 1, 1802 – August 13, 1828) was an American tanner who was convicted of murdering one man in Kentucky, and confessed to murdering another in Texas. He was notable as the son of the Kentucky Governor, Joseph Desha. Shortly after his father's election as governor in 1824, Desha was accused of robbing and killing a man named Francis Baker, who was passing through Kentucky. Circumstantial evidence implicated Desha, who denied the crime.

Given the heated political environment of the Old Court-New Court controversy, allies of his father claimed that the governor's political enemies had framed his son. The governor's legislative allies passed legislation providing for a favorable change of venue for the trial, and the governor used his appointment power to ensure that sympathetic judges would hear the case. Isaac Desha was twice convicted, but both times, the judge in the case set aside the verdict on procedural grounds. While awaiting a third trial, Desha attempted suicide by slitting his throat, but doctors saved his life, reconnecting his severed windpipe with a silver tube. Shortly after the suicide attempt, Governor Desha issued a pardon for his son.

Isaac Desha left Kentucky and assumed an alias. He went to New Orleans. From there, he traveled with a man named Thomas Early to San Antonio, Texas. When Early went missing during their travels, Desha fell under suspicion. A former Kentuckian living in Texas recognized Desha. Arrested soon after Early's body was found, Desha confessed to the murder after being recognized by a second man from Kentucky. A day before his trial was to start, Desha died of a fever. A legend soon arose that he had faked his death and fled to Hawaii, where he married a native woman and fathered several children. Later historians have debunked that myth.

Early life and education

Isaac Bledsoe Desha was born January 1, 1802; he was one of thirteen children of Margaret (Bledsoe) and Joseph Desha. He was named for his maternal grandfather. Educated mostly in the local (Maysville, Kentucky) schools, for a time Isaac attended a school run by Mr. Bailey and boarded with Bailey's father. In October 1817, he was apprenticed to Archibald Logan, a tanner. The state's voters split between those supporting laws favorable to debtors – called the Relief Party – and those supporting laws that protected creditors – called the Anti-Relief Party.

After Desha was elected, Relief legislators, who held majorities in both houses of the General Assembly, attempted to remove the offending judges from office. The original court continued to claim authority as the court of last resort in the state; during what became known as the Old Court-New Court controversy, both courts operated simultaneously, with both claiming legitimacy. It was a politically tumultuous time.

Murder of Francis Baker On the night of November 1, 1824, Desha attended a celebration at a neighbor's house. The next morning, he ate breakfast at the tavern, joined by eight other men, including Francis Baker. Editor of the Mississippian newspaper in Natchez, Baker was returning to his hometown of Trenton, New Jersey to marry a young woman there.

About 10 a.m., one of Desha's neighbors encountered the riderless gray mare, still rigged with saddle and bridle. He said that he had been kicked by a horse and severely cut his finger in separate incidents the previous day. The man wore a shirt, waistcoat, socks, and a single glove; a search of the area yielded pantaloons and a coat. Also located were several pieces of paper – one with the name "Baker" written on it – a hat, a pocketbook similar to the one Desha was known to carry, and lead and a cap from a riding whip, which Desha was also known to use. Relief Party partisans said that Desha was innocent and his arrest was fabricated by the Anti-Relief Party to embarrass his father Governor Desha and weaken him politically. Governor Desha appeared before the committee reviewing the bill to advocate its passage. Trimble personally selected Judge George Shannon of Lexington to preside in his stead. Rowan, who had just been elected to the U.S. Senate, was Desha's primary defense counsel, assisted by the governor's Secretary of State (and later U.S. Senator) William T. Barry, former Congressman William Brown, T. P. Taul, and James Crawford. It took two days to empanel a jury. The closing statements of Rowan and Barry, both known as outstanding orators, took several days, and Chambers spoke last.

The defense maintained that the evidence against Desha was largely circumstantial. The next day, Rowan filed a motion for a new trial, citing jury tampering, and Judge Shannon sustained Rowan's motion.

During the September term, a jury was finally selected, and the trial consumed the rest of the term. Much of the same evidence was presented, and the second jury also voted for a guilty verdict. The date for Desha's execution was set for July 14, 1826. He set aside the verdict, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove that the murder occurred in Fleming County, as charged in the indictment. The prosecution unsuccessfully argued that because a change of venue had already been granted, the place of the murder was immaterial. Governor Desha stood and produced a pardon for his son. It happened the skipper was a longtime acquaintance of Desha, named G. W. Crawford. Desha joined Early, traveling with him on a schooner dubbed the Rights of Man across the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston Bay.

Thomas Duke Marshall, a nephew of Chief Justice John Marshall and former resident of Washington County, Kentucky, was living in San Felipe. He noticed that the man called John Parker bore a strong resemblance to the Desha family of Kentucky and that he breathed through a silver tube like the one used by Isaac Desha. Andrew Forest Muir, writing in 1956 in the Filson Club History Quarterly, debunked this legend. He documented that the first Deshas in Hawaii did not arrive until nearly two decades after Isaac Desha's death. At the time of Baker's murder, the progenitor of the Hawaiian Desha family had been four years old. That progenitor was John R. Langherne Desha, a grandson of Governor Joseph Desha and nephew of Isaac Desha. In Honolulu, he helped establish Queen's Hospital and worked there until his death.