Thornton Jenkins Hains (1866-1953) was an American sea novelist best known today for his role in the murder of William Annis. Hains later used the pen name Mayn Clew Garnett. Hains' father was General

Peter Conover Hains Peter Conover Hains (July 6, 1840 – November 7, 1921) was a major general in the United States Army, and a veteran of the American Civil War, Spanish–American War, and the First World War. He is best known for his engineering efforts, such a ...

, a prestigious engineering officer who participated in the draining of the Washington Tidal Basin and the construction of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

. Hains' maternal grandfather, Admiral Thornton A. Jenkins, served in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. The Admiral's logbooks served as the inspiration for Hains' novel, ''The Cruise of the Petrel'' (1901). The Hains-Annis Case, or the "Regatta Murder", concerned the killing of William Annis by Hains' brother, Peter C. Hains, in

Bayside, Queens Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meadows ...

on August 15, 1908. Peter Hains was a friend of Annis, who was advertising manager for '' The Burr McIntosh Monthly'' T.J. Hains informed Peter that Peter's wife was having an affair with Annis, and he later accompanied Peter to the victim's yacht club on the afternoon of the ladies' regatta. As Annis finished a race he had won, Peter emptied a pistol magazine of eight shots into Annis' body, in front of Annis' wife and two sons, while T.J. stood guard, his own pistol drawn. The defense of the Hains brothers was funded by their father. T.J. was tried as an accomplice (December 1908 to January 1909), pleaded temporary insanity, and acquitted of manslaughter, but the case tarnished his reputation. (Peter was tried in April–May 1909 and convicted of manslaughter. He was pardoned by the governor of New York in 1911.) The crime played an important role in the development of criminal and matrimonial law.Appel, Jacob M. "Murder at the Regatta" in The New York Times, August 10, 2008 The case became front-page news across the nation at the time and ranks with the trials of

Josephine Terranova Josephine Pullare Terranova (April 21, 1889, in San Stefano, Sicily, Italy – July 16, 1981, in Marin County, California) was the defendant in a sensational murder trial in New York City in 1906. After years of alleged sexual abuse at the han ...

Harry Kendall Thaw Harry Kendall Thaw (February 12, 1871 – February 22, 1947) was the son of American coal and railroad baron William Thaw Sr.. Heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune, the younger Thaw is most notable for murdering the renowned architect Sta ...

, and Richard Bruno Hauptmann as among the most widely watched and reported American criminal trials of the first half of the twentieth century. Hains published twelve books under his own name from 1894 to 1908. "The White Ghost of Disaster" was published in a collection under the name Captain Mayn Clew Garnett in 1912. Hains was a frequent contributor to the 1920s

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

'' Sea Stories'', primarily under his real name, but also under Garnett. His writing career seems to end about 1930. After the trials, Hains' work no longer appeared in the higher-class magazines, and he wrote under the pen name "Mayn Clew Garnett". He achieved pseudonymous fame when his short story "The White Ghost of Disaster" (''

The Popular Magazine ''The Popular Magazine'' was an early American literary magazine that ran for 612 issues from November 1903 to October 1931. It featured short fiction, novellas, serialized larger works, and even entire short novels. The magazine's subject matter ...

'', May 1, 1912), about an ocean liner that strikes an iceberg in the Atlantic and sinks, was on the newsstands when the

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

sank. Many people attributed to him the gift of foresight, while being unaware of his true identity. His uncle Frank Thornton Jenkins was the husband of Florence Foster Jenkins. Thornton Jenkins Hains died August 19, 1953.

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* * * * * (previous page of browse report, as 'Hains ... 1866–' without year of death '1953') {{DEFAULTSORT:Hains, Thornton 1866 births 1953 deaths 19th-century American novelists American male novelists People acquitted by reason of insanity 20th-century American novelists American male short story writers 19th-century American short story writers 19th-century male writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers