Unpublished cabinet card portrait of Lillie Maud Wilcox Price, a beloved California music teacher who was tragically murdered by her jealous ex-fiancé, Charles Bawden, the last person to be hanged at the Humboldt County jail. On the verso, the card is warmly inscribed by Wilcox.

Lillie Price, a twenty-three year old music teacher, arrived in Eureka from Garden Valley, CA as Lillie Wilcox in 1889, accompanying her fiance John A. Price, and the two were married a few months later. Not long after, a mysterious inquiry was made to the county clerk’s office for confirmation of the marriage. Charles Bawden, Lillie Price’s ex-fiance, was the inquirer, though he did so under a fake name.
Bawden and Price had a tempestuous relationship, breaking off and renewing their engagement many times. Bawden was known to be possessive and accusatory, and Wilcox expressed not wanting to settle down at that point in her life. Eventually Bawden had caught wind that she had moved to Eureka, and after authenticating her marriage he traveled there, found where she lived, and confronted her at home with a pistol. Testimony from the trial indicates that he threatened to kill himself multiple times before shooting Wilcox and then shooting himself in the neck. John Price arrived at home just after the shots were fired, where his wife collapsed in his arms and exclaimed, “I’m shot, I’m killed.”

Lillie died at the scene, but Bawden recovered from his self-inflicted injuries and was later tried and found guilty of the murder. He was sentenced to death by hanging, though his execution was delayed by his lawyers with multiple requests for appeals and clemency. After three years, and changes in the law to where executions could take place, Bawden, who maintained his innocence until the end, was hanged on September 22, 1893, marking the last execution to take place in Humboldt County.