The Portland daily press., 1875-06-26

number of citizens required by law to witness
what he terms ga most righteous but most
tardy retribution."
The Officers.
Too much credit cannot be awarded Sheriff
Torrey for the GOODNESS, decision and care with
which he carried into execution the orders to
perform this wretched business His deputies
were G. r. Morton, Union; Isaac Carzn, APP
pleton; Thos. B. Grose, Rockport; Joseph San
born, Vinalhaven The following were the
Sheriff's witnesses: Harley Mills, A. Watts,
John Rose, j. Peabody, Thomaston; w. D.
Carleton, Jos. Stetson, VIM. Stetson, Camden;
Armander Deggett, Cornelius MCGEE, E. 81.
Obetop, Rockland; Seth! Patterson, Wiscasset.
Among the physicians present in addition to
those named, were DR.. J. G. Parker, Lebanon;
Dr. E. A. Thompson, Dover; DIR. B. Porter,
Newport; DR.. Paine, Camden; DR.. Savage,
Wiscasset.
Conclusion.
Such is brief outline of the tragic and bru-
tai affair in this town to-day, all the more trag-
ic and brutal because demanded by the laws of
one of the most intelligent and conscientious
failed to give such an idea of it as will convey
any adequate conception of its hideousness.
For many days, even to their dying day, those
statutelike spectators of that breathless scene,
will shudder at memory picture of that frown-
ing gallows, of that half dead wretch borne to
death and the CHASTITY horror of the entire trag-
edy. S.
The Men Hung.
The following published yesterday, is ap.
pended to the above account of the execution
| at Thomaston, in order to give full view of
| the crime with which the men were charged
THE CRIME OF LOUIS H. f. WAGNER
was in many respects the most atrocious lex
| cepting the Gordon murder which followed
| some months later ever perpetrated in this
! state. The victims were inoffensive women
| in the same house with whom Wagner had
| lived for number of months and toward whom
| he had no reason to feel any sentiment but
| that of gratitude. The motive was the robbery
| of few dollars. On the 9th of March 1873
| there resided upon Smutty Nose Island, one OF
| the Isles of Shoals, John G. Hontvet, an hon.
| and industrious fisherman, with his family
consisting of his wife, Evan Christensen and
| his wife, sister Of Hotvet and Karen Chris
/ Jensen. line d0ntV6G QWelllDg was the only
| dwelling on the Island.
| In the family some time previously had resd-
| ed Louis I'll. +. Wagner, Prussian sailor who
was engaged with Hontvet in the fishing bust
| ness. For some time before the fatal night
| Wagner had been in destitute circumstances
| and to several persons had said that he must
| have some money even if he committed murde r
| to get it, Some days before the fifth he had
| been making inquiries in regard to the where
| abouts of Hontvet's household, and having
l. k1..AI
| be in Portsmouth on that night and the wo-
| men alone on the Island, he set out at night
| in an open boat and pulled to the Island on his
! mission of murder and robbery.
Entering the Hontvet cottage he fastened
| the door of the bedroom occupied by Mrs.
| Hontvet and Mrs. Christensen aud proceeded
| to ransack the house in search of plumber He
was sruprisen to find Karen asleep on lounge
| in the kitchen. instead of the room she usually
occupied. As she awoke and cried out he
| seized chair, sand inflicted repeated blows
| at which she stumbled and fell senseless at
| Mrs. HOntvets bedroom door. One of the
blows hurled the clio TX from the mantel, which
indicated l o'clock as the hour of murder.
Mrs. Hontvet had endeavoIed to get her door
open. She now foun it unfastened, and open
| ing it saw the assassin standing with uplifted
chair. She, however, succeeded in dragging
Karen into her room, though receiving several
blows, and closed and barrcaded the door.
She then directed Mrs. Christensen to lump
hope of bringing some of tie neigboring island
| ers to their assistance. Wagner was on the
outside as soon as Mrs Christensen, who recog-
nized him in the moonlight, exclaiming,
"Lous, Louis, Louisp' With an axe, which
he had seized at the front door, he struck her
down, following up his blows upon her pros
| trate form. He then started to go into the
house, and Mrs. Hontvet escaped from the
window in her night clothes, and with bare
| feet succeeded in eluding the murderous search
/ of WAGNER She took rpfuUa
rocks on the shore where she was found in the
morning severely chilled and with frost-bitten
| feet. Baffled in his pursuit of Mrs. Hontvet,
| the fiend returned to the house to finish his
butchery and murdered Karen, who had recov-
cred consciousness and was fleeing from the
house, her screams being heard by Mrs. Hout-
vet. He then dragged her body into the house
and placed it under the bed in which she usu.
Christenden, with the supposed design of
burning the house to conceal his crime-a
scheme which the escape of Mrs. Hontvet had
rendered unavailable. The house was thor
oughly ransacked, every trunk and drawer
| being opened, and all the money taken except
some pieces of Norwegian silver-the total
booty of this hard nights labor and butchery
being only $40. Wagner was back at Ports
mouth by o'clock in the morning, but in
| such plight as to excite EXPLANATIONS of sur
prise among the family where he had been
stopping His hands were blistered, his
clothing wet and icy, and his general appear
ance such that one said to him: "Why. Louis,
where have you been? You look like the Devil"
You have been on tramp. somewhere" He
gave strange aCt55ssnt of his whereabouts for
the night The dory which had carried him to
and from the scene of the murder was found
adrift with the new thole-pins worn quarter
of an inch. By the first train Wagner hurried
to Boston, where he purchased some clothes,
shaved his whiskers off, and to friend at the
boarding house where he had been accustomed
to stop in Boston, he said he had run away
from numbering two sailors in New York, and
was Disgusting himself to elude the police. He
was arrested at this house the same evening
and carried back to Portsmouth, where he was
great difficulty protected from the violence of
with the exasperated peoplei He was tried at Al
fred in June, and the circumstantial evidence
was SO strongly marshalled by Attorney-Gener-
al Plaisted as to secure verdict of guilty.
After conviction Wagner was placed in AL
fred Jail but at the close of week became tired
of confinement and walked out into the open
air, with several other prisoners, and for sever
al days was at liberty. Hunger finally drove
Pennington, N. II. Mrs. Tanner suspected
his identity and informed the neighbors Wag-
ner becoming alarmed fled to the woods where
he was speedily captured and lodged in Saco
Jail. From the time of his conviction to the
present Wagner has manifested apparent in
difference, stoutly protesting his innocence
His department has been quiet and he has new
er given the prison officers any tronble He
has persistently held to the idea that in some
way he would escape the galows ''God will
never permit Lonis Wagner to be hung has
been his favorite phrase for indicating his be.
lief that he would be saved. AS
one after another of expedents of
his counsel, Judge Tapley, has failed
he has never lost heart, and but few days
since was still protesting his innocence and his
confidence that he would never be hung. He
seems to have expected some miraculous inter-
position of Providence to save him. or else
has teigned such belief in hopes of giving
additional force to his assertion of innocence
Though convicted of but one murder there
were suspicious that Wagner was concerned in
the death of German fellow sailor by the
name of Ludwig. When they sailed from Bos.
ton Wagner prevailed upon him to take his
bank book with him, and when Wagner re-
turned Ludwig had been lost overheard with
the help of Wagner it was supposed, and the
latter had the cank book and attempted to
draw the money but without success.
Magners counsel, exJudge Tapley, with
whom was associated Max Fischacher of Bos-
ton has been most untiring in his efforts tosave
their Giants neck from the gallows. They first
fought the facts with untiring zeal; beaten
here they attempted to get the verdict set aside
on the ground that Smutty Nose Island was in
New Hampshire and not in Maine. Again de-
feated they still had hopes that the legislature
would abolish capital punishment. When these
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