Lessons
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Of the estimated 4,970 female victims of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in 2021, data reported by law enforcement agencies indicate 34% were killed by an intimate partner. By comparison, about 6% of the 17,970 males murdered that year were victims of intimate partner homicide. Overall, 76% of female murders and 56% of male murders were perpetrated by someone known to the victim.”
Ben had forced Elsie to come back into the house with him alone, and once he was inside, he immediately went for his gun. Putting it together a little over a century later, it’s entirely possible the actions of the Browning men saved her life that day.
Was Ben just shooting his mouth off? Consider that he said in a state of rage, “I’ll kill the whole bunch.” Only a fool would ignore threats to kill or not take them seriously.
Ballantyne’s earlier threat to kill himself had meaning, too. Suicide is, after all, inner-directed homicide, and that means a person expressing suicidal ideation is, therefore, by definition, homicidal. In the presence of men he hated and envied who had now finally thwarted him, feeling himself kicked off the Browning family gravy train, it’s entirely possible he did, in fact, intend to kill them all, perhaps finishing with suicide.
When marriages or other relationships break up in ugly ways, it is common for relatives and friends to come and help the person who is leaving to move out. In the circumstances we saw above, arming themselves when they did so seems extremely wise. You are entering a highly emotionally charged situation. The dangers are real.
Lesson One: Take these dangers seriously.
Lesson Two: If there are as many red flags as there were in this case, get law enforcement involved. In many jurisdictions, when one party has to be removed from a home or remove their things during a breakup, and trouble is feared, call your local sheriff’s department. If there is a warrant or court order involved, the agency will often simply send a deputy or two. If not, some departments will allow you to hire an officer or deputy as an off-duty job (usually with a minimum number of hours) to stand by for security while you remove your possessions or have the individual escorted out. Can that be expensive? It’s a lot less expensive than a shooting and a subsequent murder trial. If that had been done in this case a century ago, the shooting would very likely have been avoided.
Lesson Three: Understand the value of the “paper trail.” In the case above, all the police knew was someone shot someone else, and the guy who was shot claimed to be an innocent victim before he expired. Dying declarations have always carried weight on the not-always-correct theory that someone who knows he’s about to meet his maker won’t lie. It becomes he said/she said, and the other party is no longer alive to be cross-examined by your lawyer. No one knew of Ballantyne’s escalating potential to be dangerous except for the closest members of Elsie’s family.
It was a time when spousal abuse and even divorce were seen as scandalous, particularly among the wealthier class. We can understand why they didn’t involve the police. But if there had been reports on file of, say, the incident where Ben tore Elsie’s dress, it would have helped cops and prosecutors alike in determining who were the good guys and who was the bad guy. It might also have prevented the great cost and great stress on the families involved. Matthew Browning, the shooter’s father, dropped dead of a heart-related ailment not long after the trial.
Final lesson: Don’t confront the Other Guy on his turf. You know you’re the good guy, and he’s the bad guy, but the rest of the world doesn’t know that. In entering Ballantyne’s home to order him to do something they knew he wouldn’t want to do and carrying guns while doing so, the Brownings created the impression they were the initial aggressors. A wiser attorney would have had them wait until Ben was out to go there and safely extract Elsie and the kids and had Ben served with legal papers later. I’m sure this was a big part of the prosecution’s decision to charge them with murder.
And finally, if you view this article as a long review of Nathan Gorenstein’s excellent book, you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s strongly recommended reading.
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