Frederick Demond

[RJNorton]

Yesterday I received an email from the grandson of Phillip Hanson Hiss. I wrote back and asked if I could have his permission to post his message. He kindly said yes. Many thanks to Richard O. Ames Brown for this contribution to the forum:

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Re: Phillip Hanson Hiss existed and was a bona fide serous journalist

Dear Mr Norton,

On a search on Lincoln I came across your website, and on it discussions of the article by Phillip Hanson Hiss.

The name Phillip Hanson was used (and is to this day) in successive generations in the Hiss family, and this must be born in mind when researching the name. However the grave In Greenmount Cemetery Baltimore identified by one of your corespondents is in fact that of the Phillip Hanson Hiss in question. I know the grave as it is among those of the Hiss and Ames families - my ancestors.

Phillip Hanson Hiss - the writer of the article on Lincoln - did exist, and was a lawyer by training (a graduate of Johns Hopkins). He and his brother had owned a manufacturing business, and after his family had lost its money in a lawsuit over a will, he worked as a writer and journalist.

There was at the time of his death much speculation about it, as he came from a very prominent Baltimore family. It had owned property in Cincinnati and I guess that could be why he was working there.

There were numerous lurid and contradictory accounts of his death (some mentioned on your website), but most cite no reliable sources.

Following his death, the account read as evidence in court was that he had left his office in the very early hours of the morning (in winter), and was found dead on the foreshore of the river. His hat and his coat were found at different places in the street along the route between his office and the river.

In court, the explanation given by the police was that he was trying a short-cut home and in the cold and without his coat he had died of a heart-attack.

At the time of his death he was working for the Cincinnati Enquirer. His colleagues there testified that he was working in his office late as he was near completion of his research exposing large-scale police corruption. They said that they were in no doubt that he was killed by the police.

The court found in favor of the police version and explanation.

I have researched the story very fully because I am his grandson, and my account comes from sources published at around the time of his death.

Richard O. Ames Brown