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| THE STONE CRIES MURDERED. Despite speculation that Piermont's Alma Emerson's death may have been an accident, there is still suspicions that she was murdered in 1875 by Moses Sawyer. After two trials in Plymouth, Sawyer was freed. ( Courtesy photo Valley News) |
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| ORFORD'S UNSOLVED MURDERS. In November, 1922, John and Charles Davis were bludgeoned to death at their home in Orford. Despite an extensive investigation, authorities were never able to fine anyone responsible for their deaths. (Courtesy Orford Historical Society) |
“This is a chapter we would most gladly omit, but we should
not be deemed a faithful historian if we did not write it.” William Little,
“The History of Warren, New Hampshire.” 1870
Little’s introduction
to his chapter on two local murders begins each of the three columns covering
untimely local deaths prior to 1923. The first two parts were published in
March and April and are posted at larrycoffin.blogspot.com. As with the first
two, the following stories involve local homicides.
What makes these cases different from those covered
previously is that either no one was found guilty of the crime or that there
was not actually a crime committed. Sources for the column are locally printed
and online histories and newspaper archives.
There were two incidents that involved children. In July
1843, The Caledonian carried the story of a “serious and fatal occurrence” in
Topsham.
An 8-year old boy was
following two older lads on a hunting excursion. The older ones told the
youngster to go back, and when he refused, one of them deliberately aim his gun
and fired. “The whole charge entered the breast of the small boy, causing his
death.” The article reported, “It is said the lad who commuted the act made no
denial or excuse whatever.”
The following March, The Vermont Watchman reported “The
story of a murder in Topsham is put to rest. After a long examination, the
person implicated has been discharged.” As there was no other incident in
Topsham at that time, we can assume this referred to the boy who committed the
act the previous year.
In October 1914, the bodies of two boys were found in West
Fairlee. They were Gordon Bell, age 11, and Harold Whitney, age 12. The two
boys had been missing since the previous day. A search party was led to the
bodies in a nearby field by the barking of their dog. The bodies were found
side by side with Whitney’s arm resting on Bell’s body. Both had been shot in
the left breast. A revolver, taken from a local barn, was found nearby. This “puzzling tragedy” was never solved. Was
this a murder-suicide, and if so, which boy was the perpetrator? There was no
gunshot residue testing at the time, and no further investigation was undertaken.
As the prosecution in a criminal case has to prove the
accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, there have been homicides in which
the accused, and only suspect, was found not guilty. Where there was an actual murder these “cold
cases” remain unsolved.
An 1860 quarrel over debt led to the murder of Vanness Wyatt
of Warren. The other party in the quarrel was James Williams. Fearing a
physical confrontation with Wyatt, Williams had armed himself. On July 27, the two confronted each other.
Wyatt was shot and Williams was arrested.
The following
January, his trial was held in Plymouth. Witnesses from the deeply divided
village were called to testify. After deliberation, the jury deadlocked,
although they apparently agreed it was not a case of murder. The case was
continued for a year before it was dropped.
Quarrel also led to the death of Joseph Eggleston on June 1,
1896. Eggleston and John Evans were returning separately from the Wells River
Creamery. Evans stopped to talk with two men working roadside. Eggleston came along and demanded he move out
of the road.
The St. Johnsbury
Caledonian reported, “There had been trouble between the men. The wife of
Eggleston, a women of violent passions, had her full share of it.” That trouble
erupted that day into a “sad affair” with verbal threats, a battle of
horsewhips and finally a hand-to-hand “real fisticuffs.” Eggleston was thrown to the ground. Injured, he was taken to a neighboring house,
but died upon arrival.
It was first thought he had been kicked to death, but an
autopsy indicated he had died of a heart attack, perhaps “frightened to
death.” Evans turned himself in and was
incarcerated in Chelsea. After the
testimony of two doctors, the grand jury did not bring charges against Evans.
The newspaper account concluded, “This whole unfortunate affair seems to be a
case of accidental discharge of violent temper.”
In January 1906, George Baird shot and killed Samuel Howe of
Benton. Baird and his wife had recently moved to a remote section of Haverhill.
Baird told the authorities that Howe came to the house late at night and “upon
being refused admittance broke in a window and threatened to kill him.” Baird
picked up a revolver and shot Howe through the window.
At an inquest in Woodsville, Blaird was charged with the
death. In June, Blaird’s week-long trial was held in Plymouth. The jury
returned a verdict of not guilty. Baird’s lawyer, Robert Simonds, was “warmly
praised by the Manchester and Boston papers for his defense.”
The demise of Newbury’s Orville Gibson in 1957 was not the
first time the issues of suicide vs murder have been raised locally. In
September 1900, Burns Nelson was found dead in Wells River. Nelson had recently sold his failing grocery
store and had gone drinking with Charles Bostock. They had gone to Nelson’s father’s
house to spend the night. But later that night Nelson was found in his bedroom,
dead from a gunshot to the head.
Bostock was arrested and charged with manslaughter. At trial
in Chelsea in June 1901, Bostock testified that Nelson had gotten out a shotgun
that Bostock had wanted to purchase. He
went on to say that he had left the bedroom, but, upon hearing a gunshot,
returned and found Nelson dead. The
prosecution argued Bostock must have fired the gun after introducing evidence
that the gun was a distance away from the body. The defense claimed the gun was
defective and could discharge if dropped or hit.
In support of a
suicide theory, it was claimed that Nelson was in debt and despondent. Even
Nelson’s father testified that he thought Nelson had shot himself. The jury initially voted 6 to 6 for
manslaughter, but as the evidence was all circumstantial, eventually brought a
verdict of not guilty. It was concluded by the press that the deceased had been
“killed by Woodsville whiskey.”
There are murders in which no suspect was identified. One
example arose from a riot between Irish railroad workers in Newbury in
September 1847. The disturbance was between men from the Irish counties of Cork
and Connaught and was over the availability of work on the unfinished railroad.
Railroad overseer Michael Kelly and a deputy sheriff arrived
at the Irish workers’ shanties and attempted to arrest Patrick Gallagher, a
leader in the row. A group of Gallagher’s friends surrounded them and Kelly was
shot dead. The deputy barely escaped with his life. Gallagher and several others fled before
reinforcement could arrive.
Despite an offer of a $500 reward, none of the “inmates of
the shanties” provided information.
Later, one of the men being held identified Michael Welch as the person
who caused the death of Kelly. A court hearing was held in Wells River in
January 1848, and some of the rioters were sent to the state prison. As the actual shooter was never determined,
no one was found guilty of murder.
In Piermont’s Cedar Grove cemetery a headstone stands with
the inscription “Was Murdered.” This is the grave of Alma Emerson, who on
January 22, 1875 was killed with a blast from a shotgun as she sat sewing in
her home on River Road. A double-barrel shotgun was found nearby. The Bradford
Opinion carried a graphic description of the murder scene and reported “that
hundreds flocked to the scene of the tragedy.”
Moses Sawyer, a visitor to the home from Massachusetts, was
arrested and charged with the murder.
The victim’s husband, John Emerson, was never considered a suspect.
Sawyer’s trial was held in Plymouth in July. The court house
was filled to capacity. Sawyer testified that he had heard talk of lynching
him. His counsel indicated there was no possible motive for the crime.
As the jury could not
come to a unanimous decision a second trial was held in February 1876. That
jury deliberated for 20 hours and voted five for conviction and seven for
acquittal. Sawyer was freed under
$12,000 bail. No further action was taken against him.
Because of the interest in this “Piermont tragedy,” the
Bradford Opinion printed 500 extra copies of its weekly and carried a full
description of the trials. After the
trials were over, it was suggested the death might have been a tragic accident
caused by the gun falling over and discharging. The lonely grave marker still
cries out “Murdered.”
The last murder to be covered in this series was a double
murder. In November 1922, the bodies of brothers John and Charles Davis were
found at their Orfordville home.
Both had been killed by blunt force from an ax several days
earlier. They had been employed as lumbermen and were known to carry
considerable sums of money on their persons. They had reported that their home
had been broken into earlier.
The investigation team included the High Sheriff along with
a prominent Boston detective and a fingerprint expert from Dover, NH, The
Selectmen of Orford offered a reward of $500.
Robbery was considered the main motive although Charles’ body had not been
robbed. Some other money may have been missing, but other potentially valuable
items were left. A theory of possible revenge was short lived.
The bloody ax was found concealed in the nearby woodshed,
but no clear fingerprints were produced. Investigators tried unsuccessfully to
locate two young men seen recently with the two brothers. Evidence seem to
indicate that the murders had been carried out by someone familiar with the
brothers’ home and habits.
Within the month, Orford was further shocked when two other
men associated with the local lumber industry committed suicide.
On Nov. 15, lumberman Earl Hubbard committed suicide at an
Orford lumber camp. On Dec. 8, lumber
merchant Frederick Bedell took poison and then shot himself in the head. Both were clear cases of suicide. Hubbard had
left a suicide note that read “I am tired of life. Something ails my head.”
While speculators
wanted to create a connection between these suicides and the Davis murders,
there as none found. The Davis murders
remained unsolved.
The crimes covered by this series brings one characteristic
into sharp focus. That is the male dominance of the criminal system. Not only
were most of the defendants men, so were the law enforcement personnel, the
judges, lawyers and jurors. Women were thought to be too emotionally vulnerable
for involvement in such affairs.
The inclusion of
women in the judicial system was tied to the women suffrage movement. While the
first woman to become a lawyer in Vermont was in 1902, it was not until 1929
that the first female lawyer independently tried a murder case. In the 1940s
women were first allowed to serve on juries in New Hampshire and Vermont. The
first female trial judge was appointed in 1965 in Vermont and in 1970 in New
Hampshire. Women still make up a significant minority of law enforcement
officers at the local and state levels.
It seems reasonable for readers of this series to ask the
question, “What about murders in Bradford?” Bradford was one of the largest
communities in the area during this time and there were undoubted motives for
murder during the period. But I found none.
Had I found one, to paraphrase William Little, I should not
be deemed a faithful historian if I had avoided writing about it.
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