A 16-year-old poisoned his grandfather to stop him changing his will, and New York's highest court took the farm from him in 1889

On 13 August 1880 Francis B. Palmer, a widowed farmer, signed his will. He left small legacies to his daughters, Mrs Riggs and Mrs Preston. The rest of his farm and personal property went to his grandson, Elmer E. Palmer, subject to support for Elmer's mother, Susan. In March 1882 he married Mrs Bresee, under a contract giving her support from the farm for life. He had shown some intention of changing the will. In 1882 Elmer, 16, who lived with him and knew the will, poisoned his grandfather to keep the will in force and take the property sooner. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sent to the state reformatory. The will had been admitted to probate, and it still named him. The daughters sued. A referee and the General Term ruled for Elmer: the statute said a valid will takes effect. On 8 October 1889 the Court of Appeals reversed, 5 to 2. Judge Robert Earl wrote that the lawmakers never intended "that a donee who murdered the testator to make the will operative should have any benefit under it." The court declared the daughters the true owners, subject to support for Elmer's mother and the widow. Judge John Clinton Gray dissented: the court was adding a punishment the legislature had not written. The historian William B. Meyer argues in a 2024 book that the ruling was improvised against a killer thought to have been punished too lightly. The case is taught as the origin of the American slayer rule.