Poisoning the Pecks of Grand Rapids

The Scandalous 1916 Murder Plot

Tobin T. Buhk

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781626196971
• eBook ISBN: 9781625852250
• Subtopic: North American History

"Traces the footsteps of poisoner Arthur Waite from his marriage to Clara Peck . . . in 1915 to his death by electrocution at Sing Sing Prison in 1917" (MLive.com).
 
With his boyish good looks, Arthur Warren Waite charmed into marriage the daughter of wealthy Grand Rapids business tycoon John E. Peck in 1916. He then wasted no time executing what he believed to be a flawless scheme to hijack his wife's inheritance. The plot went awry when a mysterious telegram set off a sequence of events that ultimately exposed his immoral ambition to poison all other Peck heirs. Follow Waite's fingerprints of indiscretion around Grand Rapids and New York City as author Tobin T. Buhk details this audacious plan of staggering complexity.
 
Includes photos!
 
"Follow Waite's trail around Grand Rapids and New York City as the author, Tobin Buhk details his complex plan meant to make him a rich man." — Holland Sentinel

PART I

TWISTED FAIRY TALE

1

THE PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

Thursday, September 9, 1915

Friends, family and even a few reporters crammed the pews of the Fountain Street Baptist Church to witness the social event of the year. To Grand Rapids high society, the marriage of Arthur Warren Waite to Clara Louise Peck was the last chapter in a fairy-tale romance between a debutante and a debonair suitor from the other side of the tracks.

The son of fruit and vegetable wholesaler Warren Winfield Waite, Arthur grew up in a modestly sized house on the north side of the city. A decade earlier, his parents had moved from Cannonsburg Township to Grand Rapids so their three boys—Clyde, Frank and Arthur—could receive a proper education at Grand Rapids High School.³ Warren did his best to provide for his family, but money was never plentiful, so Arthur delivered papers for the Herald as he attended primary school. In 1905, Arthur—a star athlete, a member of the school’s literary society and the all-American boy—graduated from high school and went to the University of Michigan, where he began his study of dentistry.

Clara grew up in a mansion on a hill overlooking the city. Her father, business tycoon John Edward Peck, had come to Grand Rapids forty years earlier and worked his way from a pharmacy proprietor to a wealthy entrepreneur.

The son of New York physician Elias Peck, John learned the pharmacy business by helping his father run his family’s drugstore alongside his brother Thomas. In 1865, Thomas Peck briefly left the business. A few years later, John married Hannah Carpenter, and the couple relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where John and Thomas opened a drug business that later evolved into Peck Brothers.⁴

An advertising card for Hoyt’s German Cologne, circa 1900—one of the many products available from Peck Bros. From the author’s collection.

Peck Bros. distributed these cards to customers. From the author’s collection.

Grand Rapids Chair Company, circa 1905–1920. John and Thomas Peck—founders of Peck Bros.—opened for business in 1875, just about the time Grand Rapids began to evolve into a metropolis. Over the next few decades, it would become the nation’s Furniture City, and John Peck would become one of the city’s most influential businessmen. From the Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress.

Monroe Street scene, Grand Rapids, circa 1900–1910. As a successful entrepreneur, John E. Peck’s business activities ranged from investor to executive, culminating in holdings worth seven figures in 1916. Among his many roles, he served as president of the National City Bank, seen here at the far left. From the Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress.

Postcard showing Canal Street in 1914. From the author’s collection.

Postcard showing Monroe Street in 1914. By this time, Grand Rapids had evolved from a small river town to a bustling metropolis. Peck’s drugstore stood at the corner of Division and Monroe, a spot where two of the city’s major arteries intersected. From the author’s collection.

Despite keen competition, the Peck enterprise flourished as the lumbering boom transformed Grand Rapids into a metropolis. John’s fortune snowballed when he invested in other enterprises. He acquired real estate, served as president of the National City Bank, founded the Alabastine Company and invested in the Widdicomb Furniture Company. By 1916, his portfolio’s value eclipsed seven figures.⁵

Clara enjoyed all of the privileges available to a young heiress. She drank tea served in the finest china, and her playmates included the daughters of lumber barons, industrialists and bankers. As a teenager, she left Grand Rapids to attend Chevy Chase Finishing School for young society ladies in Washington, D.C. Following graduation, she attended Columbia University in New York.

Her romance with Waite began with a waltz in 1906, when nineteen-year-old Arthur got up enough nerve to ask sixteen-year-old Clara for a dance. He had just finished his freshman year in college; she was home from finishing school for summer break. Neither partner realized, as they whirled around the parquet floor, that their dance would one day lead to an epic climax at the altar of the Fountain Street Baptist Church.

Over the next few years, Arthur and Clara would occasionally bump into each other at society soirees. Clara found Waite’s charm alluring, and she was flattered by the attention of such a handsome man. She felt drawn to him; his drive to succeed reminded her of her father.

Upon graduation, Arthur traveled to Scotland, where he completed a special course for dental surgery before taking a job in South Africa. As an employee of Wellman & Bridgeman—a well-known British dental firm—he made an excellent salary that he invested in real estate, eventually acquiring two farms. This vision of Arthur Warren Waite—the local boy raised on stew but who had earned a seat eating caviar at the society table—was celebrated throughout Grand Rapids as a living, breathing example of the American dream.

Despite being half a world away, Waite never forgot about that dance with Clara Peck. Determined to stay in touch, he sent her a letter. Thrilled to have received a letter from an exotic locale like Durban, Clara responded, which led to an on-again, off-again correspondence.

Then, in late 1914, Clara heard through the society grapevine that Waite had returned from Africa and had established a dental practice in New York City. Curious about his African adventures, she sent him an invitation to a reception her mother was hosting.⁶ Waite came knocking on the door of the Peck residence with a South African accent, a trove of stories and an infatuation for one of the city’s most eligible bachelorettes.

Dr. Arthur Warren Waite in 1916. From the Bain News Service, Library of Congress.

Throughout the winter of 1915, Waite wooed Clara. Reluctant to tie the knot, she didn’t say “yes” when Waite first proposed. Undaunted, he followed the Peck family to Miami, where they went to escape the harsh Michigan winter. Eventually, Clara could no longer resist, and she accepted his offer of a diamond ring. They agreed to a September wedding.

Reverend Dr. Alfred Wesley Wishart, Bible in hand, stood by the altar next to Arthur. Sunshine flooded through the stained-glass windows, casting white beams across the pews of the sanctuary as ushers struggled to find seats for the stragglers who had arrived just in time to see the nuptials.

Clara Waite’s older brother, Percy Peck, circa 1916. From the Bain News Service, Library of Congress.

Percy Peck glared at the groom as he waited for the marriage ceremony to begin. Waite was too good to be true, and Percy knew it. He just couldn’t convince his sister Clara to dump Waite and instead turn her attention to her childhood sweetheart, John Caulfield. Percy glanced at Caulfield, one of the ushers, and then looked back at Waite, who was standing at the altar waiting for his bride-to-be to make her entrance. His ear-to-ear grin and the smug way he tilted his head back made Percy cringe.

Percy didn’t trust the Johnny-come-lately. He knew some of Arthur’s classmates at the University of Michigan who described several incidents of theft that ranged from petit larceny to outright fraud.

Waite, apparently, also had a problem keeping his fly closed.

Just a few weeks before the wedding, Waite went to visit Clara’s friend Margaret Fisher. While there, he became smitten with Catherine Hubbs, a society deb from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Waite tried to sweet-talk Ms. Hubbs out of her dress for a night of torrid lovemaking. Overcome with rapture, he proposed to her, but Hubbs knew of his engagement to Clara.

“You are engaged to Clara Peck,” she scolded him. “You have no right to propose to me.”

Waite denied everything, so Hubbs whipped off a letter to Grand Rapids. Clara sent a reply, confirming the engagement. Both Fisher and Hubbs responded, pleading with her, “Don’t marry him, please.”⁷ Upon hearing about the letters, Percy joined the chorus trying to dissuade Clara, but she retorted that she would marry Waite if it killed her.

Then, on the eve of the wedding, Percy received an anonymous telegram with an ominous warning: “Don’t let Clara marry Arthur Waite. If you do, you will be sorry.”⁸ When Percy showed the letter to Clara, she gave a slight chuckle. Percy recognized it as the same small laugh she often used when she confronted an uncomfortable question. With degrees in law and pharmacy, Percy was an educated man with a keen insight into human nature, and he saw Waite as a poseur, but Clara seemed blinded by her devotion.⁹

Percy understood how Clara could fall for someone like Waite. As a child, Waite was skinny, gangly and awkward, but years on high school sports teams had transformed him into a trim, athletic specimen. He also had an irresistible charm to go along with the boyish good looks. When he returned to Grand Rapids in 1914, his smile sent shock waves throughout the city’s female population. Wherever he went, Arthur Warren Waite enjoyed gangs of swooning admirers.

Percy looked at his mother, Hannah, who was sitting in the front pew. She was another victim of Waite’s considerable charm. Hannah Carpenter Peck cherished the time she spent sipping tea with Arthur in the front parlor. Like her, Arthur had an appreciation for language and music, and she delighted in the tales he told of his adventures in Africa. His stories of treating Africa’s underprivileged appealed to the strong sense of brotherly love she learned as the child of a prominent New York Quaker. It was a legacy she carried to Grand Rapids, where, alongside John, she gave back to the city through several philanthropic endeavors.

Hannah Peck, who died mysteriously while visiting the Waites’ Coliseum Apartment in January 1916. From the Bain News Service, Library of Congress.

Waite knew exactly how to handle the Peck matriarch. Whenever they met, Arthur grasped her hand, holding it for a few seconds and gently caressing her palm with his thumb. It always brought her comfort. John used to do that after they lost their fifteen-year-old daughter, Bessie.¹⁰

Hannah became Waite’s staunchest ally at the Peck residence. She knew that Clara had some doubts about marrying Waite. In the days leading up to the wedding, the Pecks held several family discussions about the match. Percy and John urged Clara to learn more about Waite’s past before she said “I do,” but Hannah always took Waite’s side.

She even referred to Arthur as “my l...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Twisted Fairy Tale
• Part II: Trial and Aftermath
• Notes
• Bibliography
• About the Author