When we think of dangerous weapons, our minds usually leap to swords, pistols, or even a good old-fashioned cudgel.
But history? History has other ideas.
I never thought I’d say this, but the past is absolutely riddled with fork stabbings. Yes, forks. Those humble table utensils have been wielded in fits of rage, drunken disputes, desperate self-defense, and even family feuds.
Here are seven remarkable (and sometimes downright absurd) cases pulled straight from the newspaper archives.
1. A Very Disagreeable Man
Let’s begin with a report from out of Hawaii in 1894 about a very agitated man.
It states:
“A serious stabbing affray took place yesterday… A man named F. Naylor, a professional trainer of prizefighters, was stabbed several times with a table fork, by Tom Carpenter, a hard character [who] was well known to the police.
“Carpenter was having a midnight meal in a restaurant when Naylor entered and asked him for a match. In some way a dispute was started, and Carpenter being enraged, seized a fork and stabbed Naylor.
“Carpenter was arrested, charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and still remains at the station house. Naylor was taken to the hospital for treatment.”
Source: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. September 10, 1894.
2. The Violent Wife
A few months later, in 1895, it was reported out of Rhode Island that:
“Bartholomew Mulkerns is suffering from serious wounds inflicted, it is alleged, by his wife. Mulkerns and his wife became involved in a quarrel, in which the woman had decidedly the better of it. He claims that she stabbed him with a fork, which penetrated through the fleshy part of the left arm and inflicted an ugly wound. His head was also badly battered.”
Source: The Providence News. Providence, R.I. July 5, 1895.
3. The Pretty Brutal Daughter
Let’s jump into the 1900s where we will find the bulk of the fork stabbings. Here’s a bizarre case reported in 1906 out of Connecticut where a daughter kidnapped her mother for money.
“Mrs. James Edward Axtell, known on the stage as ‘Neston Nielson,’ … and who is the divorced wife of … the millionaire head of the Springfield Car Works, has been sued for $15 by her mother, Mrs. Annie D. Presby, who alleges that Mrs. Axtell visited her, got her drunk, kidnapped her and kept her drugged and in confinement for 6 months, during which time she stabbed her with a fork, locked her up with vicious bulldogs and generally beat and abused her, besides refusing her medical attention.
“Mrs. Presby alleges that while incarcerated at her daughter’s New York home, her daughter has taken from her property in Stamford, New York, Greenwich, and Johnsburg, Pa., besides her diamonds and jewels worth $2,000, and her household property. She signed these deeds while doped and forced by dire threats. She says that her daughter is a drug fiend; that she carouses all night, and never rises before midday.
“Mrs. Axtell is only 30 years old and is a very beautiful and accomplished woman. She denies that she uses drugs, or that she ever stabbed her mother with a fork. She says her mother gave her all her property to keep her in her old age, and that the suit and charges are the work of an older and unscrupulous sister named Alice Stetson Gomers, who resides in New York.”
Source: The Evening Statesman. Walla Walla, Wash. June 29, 1906.
4. Bad Table Manners
In 1908, at Mrs. Day’s boarding house, Joe Carter and a fellow boarder, Wilson, got into a drunken supper-time quarrel. Wilson grabbed a fork and drove it into Carter’s stomach three times before the other residents pulled him off.
“Joe Carter… was brought to Durham on the Norfolk and Western train Monday night and carried to the … hospital. He was in a serious condition, but it was not thought that his injuries would prove fatal.
“The two men were at the supper table at the boarding house of Mrs. Day… when they quarreled and Wilson seized a fork from the table and stabbed Carter in the stomach three times before he could be restrained by the other boarders.
“The cause of the trouble could not be learned, It seems that the whole bunch were drinking and the two men got into a discussion and the result was a stabbing for the Carter fellow.”
Source: The Durham Recorder. Durham, N.C. June 30, 1908.
5. Self Defense in Chicago
In 1912, Chicago, a burglar entered the home of Mrs. Grace Dyer. She saw him, stabbed him with a fork, and he turned tail. The burglar then had a gall to return shortly after, but she managed to lock the door before he could get back in and she called the police. The burglar was arrested.
Source: The Day Book. Chicago, Ill. November 11, 1912.
6. She Refused a Kiss
In 1916, a man stabbed his wife with a fork after she refused to give him a kiss.
According to the wife, she works in a factory, and when she returned home from a day of work, she prepared dinner for herself and her daughter. The dinner was a mere cup of coffee and bread. Her husband woke up and, according to the newspaper report:
“… he awoke and asked his wife for a kiss. She refused to give it to him because, she said, there is no reason why she should kiss him. Mrs. Tuskowski said her husband seemed deeply grieved, so he grabbed a long pronged fork and placed it against his breast as though he was about to attempt suicide. As she screamed, he suddenly changed his mind and made a lunge at her. He jabbed her once through the left arm, and then stabbed her in the head, inflicting an ugly wound on her forehead.”
The husband denied stabbing his wife with a fork and, instead, claimed that she stabbed herself.
Source: New Britain Herald. New Britain, Conn. June 29, 1916.
7. Woman Arrested in Fork Attack on Policeman
And finally, let’s jump to 1960 when a woman stabbed a Washington policeman with a fork. According to a newspaper report, there was a dispute over a parking ticket between the policeman and the man who owned the car. Strong words were said, and then the man went back into his house.
The policeman followed him to his door when suddenly the man’s 33-year-old wife appeared with a kitchen fork and stabbed the policeman in the arm.
The woman was charged for assaulting the police officer and the policeman was treated for his wounds and released.
Source: Evening Star. Washington, D.C. August 2, 1960.
