To an Asylum Goes the Murderess Julia Force (A Southern Family Secret Part IV)

Part IV of A Southern Family Secret, the saga of Julia Force.

Here are a few newspaper accounts of Julia Force's commitment to the State Insane Asylum at Milledgeville, Georgia:

Savannah Tribune, Georgia
8 July 1893
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

SUBTERFUGE was practiced in Atlanta by sending the woman Julia Force who murdered her sisters recently to Milledgeville as an insane person. It is said by many that she is not insane, but that this was done only to keep her family from being humiliated.

Kalamazoo Gazette, Michigan
19 July 1893
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

TO AN ASYLUM

Goes the Murderess Julia Force, a Former Leader in Atlanta Society.
Miss Julia Force, who slew her two sisters in Atlanta last February, was committed to the State insane asylum at Milledgeville last week. When Miss Force was introduced into the asylum parlor she greeted the superintendent, whom she had known previously. She told him that she was not and never had been insane; that she had been driven to desperation by the ill-treatment of her family, and that she had killed her sisters. She said the legal proceedings which held her back from conviction were acceptable to her family and she submitted, if that would do them any good. She explained that she would like occupation while in the asylum and as she was a trained nurse, graduated from a Protestant Episcopal convent in New York, she would do duty in that capacity. It is likely that her request will be complied with, as she seems to be perfectly sane...

Afro-American Advocate, Kansas
28 July 1893
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

JULIA FORCE of Atlanta has been acquitted of the charge of murdering her two sisters, the court deciding that while she was so crazy as to make the killing no crime, she is not crazy enough to be restrained of her liberty. As the gentle Julia has some more relatives that she doesn't like it behooves them to buckle on their armor or emigrate. [End]

Julia H. Force can be found in 1900 and 1910 federal census records as an inmate at the Georgia State Sanitarium in Baldwin County, Georgia. Ages listed as 51 and 61, respectively.

Tomorrow, the finale.

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Part II: Miss Julia Force's Story: Why She Murdered Her Two Sisters

Part III: Julia Force Will Not Be Hanged, to Be Placed in an Asylum