Dr. Isaac Collins West was a teacher in Dover, Delaware. He had tried several business ventures and all had failed. As an act of desperation. he decided to fake his death and collect the insurance money.

The major obstacle was to find a corpse that he could claim was him and get a death certificate. He settled on a Black man by the name of Henry “Cooch” Turner, who was a known drunk in the community. He invited “Cooch” into his house my offering him something to drink and then killed him. The next problem that Professor West had, was “Cooch” was a Black man. To fix that problem Professor West skinned “Cooch” Turner and then set his body on fire.

The plot quickly broke down and Professor West was arrested and put on trial.

The result of the trial was that Professor West was declared innocent based on a plea of self-defense.

This story is tough to believe, but is worth leaning more about to understand how in 1873, a white man could go free for killing a Black man.

Lecturer and Historian, Syl Woolford, is a native Delawarean. His interest in history began with the researching of his own family history in 2008. He traced his mother’s family back 210 years in the city of Newark, Delaware.

This program will be conducted via Zoom.  Registration is required with an email address.  Participants will receive instructions for joining the meeting after registration and via email one hour before lecture begins.     

If you have any questions, please contact jennifer.atwood@newcastlede.gov