Killing of the Yates family

In late December 1781, James Yates, a resident of West-Chester County, New York, and a member of the Society of Shakers, killed his wife and their four children at the family home. According to contemporaneous newspaper accounts, three of the children were killed inside the house, while Yates's wife, with the youngest child on top of her, was found on a nearby road, apparently having tried to escape. A club was recovered at the scene, and the victims had head wounds consistent with that weapon. Several of the family's animals, including cattle, a dog, and two horses, were also killed that night.

The following morning, Yates went to his parents' house in a nude state, according to neighbors, and told them what he had done. They did not believe him until they went to the home and saw the bodies themselves. Yates reportedly appeared confused and in a disturbed state, at first denying the bodies were his family and claiming his wife was an Indian woman. He expressed little remorse for his actions. His brother, who was present, was able to restrain the situation without physically restraining Yates. Yates was later imprisoned in Albany.

News of the killings appeared briefly in a small number of newspapers in late December 1781 and the early months of 1782, most providing only a few lines of information. A much more detailed account, titled "An Account of a Murder Committed by Mr. J---- Y----, upon His Family, in December, A.D. 1781," was published fifteen years later, in two parts, in the New-York Weekly Magazine on July 20 and July 27, 1796. This account was submitted by a writer identified as "ANNA," who said she obtained the story from a woman who knew James Yates. It offers a detailed first-person-style narrative, including claims that Yates heard a voice instructing him to rid himself of "idols," leading him to destroy family property and animals before killing his children and pursuing his wife, who was struck as she fled toward her parents' home. The account states Yates later confessed to his sister and to others, including a religious counselor referred to as "Mr. W" and a woman referred to as "Mrs. B," but continued to believe he had followed a legitimate spiritual instruction. The authenticity and precise details of this later account have been questioned due to the fifteen-year gap and the level of narrative detail. Yates was reported to have escaped custody at Albany on two occasions.

The case is historically notable for its believed connection to Charles Brockden Brown's 1798 gothic novel "Wieland," whose protagonist Theodore Wieland similarly hears voices instructing him to kill his family. Brown's preface to the novel refers to "an authentic case, remarkably similar," which has been linked by later commentators to the Yates case, as it had been referenced in publications including the New York Weekly Magazine, Philadelphia Minerva, and the Salem Gazette.