A Secret Life_ The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland - Charles Lachman [115]
Maria and Frederick’s affidavits were published to great fanfare in the Republican papers—and completely ignored or dismissed as forgeries in the Democratic publications. After a day of thinking things through, Maria decided that the affidavit did not go far enough. She sent a message to Charles Banks requesting that he come to her house once again. When Banks arrived, he was surprised to see that Maria had written out a supplemental affidavit that gave more chilling details about the night she says Cleveland raped her. It contained perhaps the most graphic accusations ever to be leveled against an American presidential candidate of a major party:
State of New York, County of Westchester, Maria B. Halpin, being duly sworn, says: In addition and supplemental to the statement made by me yesterday, I further state that on the evening of December 15, 1873 while on my way to call upon an acquaintance by the name of Mrs. Johnson at the Tiff House in the city of Buffalo, I met Grover Cleveland whose acquaintance I had formed months previous to that time. The said Cleveland asked me to go with him to take dinner—which invitation I declined because of my prior engagement but by persistent requests and urging he induced me to accompany him to the restaurant of the Ocean House where we dined.
After dinner he accompanied me to my rooms at Randall’s boarding house on Swan Street as he had quite frequently done from other times and where my son lived with me. While in my rooms he accomplished my ruin by the use of force and violence and without my consent. After he had accomplished his purpose he told me that he was determined to ruin me if it cost him ten thousand dollars, if he was hanged by the neck for it. I then and there told him that I never wanted to see him again and would never see him and commanded him to leave my rooms which he did. I never saw him after this until my condition became such that it was necessary for me to send for him some six weeks later to inform him of the consequences of his actions. He came to my rooms in response to my note which I sent him and when I told him of my condition and despair by reason of it, he pretended to make light of it and told me that he would do everything which was honorable and right towards me and promised that he would marry me which promises he has never kept.
Charles Banks’s law partner, Henry C. Henderson, notarized the affidavit. Frederick Halpin was the witness.
Now Maria and her uncle really had it out. James Seacord was livid at Maria for going behind his back and told her she had to “leave his house.” Seacord was fed up with the attention the scandal was bringing to his household. Angry words were exchanged, and Seacord said he hoped he would never see Maria or Frederick again. A few days later, Seacord went to the village of Mount Vernon for a carpentry job, saying he would be out of town the entire day. Maria used the occasion to call in a reporter from the Chicago Tribune. The first question he asked was why she had decided to come forward and make her affidavits public.
“Well,” Maria said, “I did not intend to say anything about the affair, for I have suffered enough already. But my father, who is aged and blind, and my two unmarried sisters, who live in Williamsburg, have urged me to do so since Mr. Cleveland and the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher had attempted to pile up mud upon me. My uncle, Mr. Seacord, is at Mount Vernon, and when he hears of these statements, he will surely send me away.”
Maria suddenly burst into tears. “But I don’t care, because the excitement of the last three months has broken my health and spirits, and today I am ill. I do not expect any reward from any political