Courthouse Museum Provides Artifacts for WTVR CBS6 News Video

On Friday, February 13th WTVR, the CBS6 News affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, presented a video clip billed as “Friday the 13th: What happened 130 years ago dubbed Richmond’s crime of the century.” Thomas “Tommie” Cluverius, an ambitious, mild mannered, respected young lawyer from King and Queen County, was accused of murdering his cousin Lillian “Lillie” Madison of King William County when she became pregnant after their “secret, steamy” affair. The murder occurred in Richmond on Friday, March 13, 1885. At first, authorities thought she had committed suicide, but further investigation revealed that she had been murdered. Although the evidence was circumstantial and Tommie’s defense team was formidable, he was convicted and hanged in Richmond on January 14, 1887. He was buried at his aunt Jane Tunstall’s home, Cedar Lane, in Little Plymouth, King and Queen County, where he had grown up and where he lived when not in Richmond.

About 10 days before the video aired, Page McLemore, accessions administrator for the King and Queen Historical Society’s Courthouse Tavern Museum, received a phone call from the news team requesting assistance. The Tavern Museum is a treasure trove of local artifacts from the Nineteenth Century and information about old homes in King and Queen County. The Museum, an all volunteer organization, was closed for the winter, but Page met them there. Museum display rooms and artifacts were used in the video. A watch previously owned by Walkerton resident Wilbur White was shown with a picture of Tommie, portraying the image of a prominent young man. The pre-20th Century bedroom was the backdrop for the boots and valise that Tommie could have used in his travels between Richmond and Little Plymouth. During the narrator’s description of Lillie, a period desk and photograph album in the Tavern Parlor served as a backdrop and in another reference to Lillie, Lelia Dew’s “second day dress” (the day after her wedding to Mason Washington of Plain Dealing) served as the background. The book Old Houses of King and Queen County Virginia published in 1973 by the King and Queen County Historical Society provided background on Cedar Lane, the Tunstall family and a mention of the murder. One passage of note was, “Citizens of King and Queen County…thought that the accused was innocent…incapable of committing such a dastardly crime.”

In October 2011 author John Milliken Thompson reviewed his novel The Reservoir at the Museum. The novel is based on the actual information available on the murder and has been described as an exciting “did he do it story.” Even though Tommie paid the ultimate price, he went to his grave declaring his innocence. In the era of the murder, it captured front page headlines throughout the East for many weeks. The New York times printed 37 articles on the case. Page McLemore noted, “It does sound like fiction. He was lost to our history. But he has been brought back now. I think that was a story that did not (readily) get passed down through the generations.” View full video here.