The Portland daily press., 1893-02-14
GRUEsoME RELICS.
A New Hampshire Lawyers Collection of
Murderous Weapons
Especial correspondence


in its way perhaps as any to be found in
New England, is that possessed by Hon.
James A. Edgerly, of Great Falls, the
prominent New Hampshire attorney. In
corner of that gentleman's private Of
flee may be seen a capacious glass-pan-
eled cabinet, within which are variety
of MISUNDERSTANDING implements appar-
emily arranged with great care. II have
been fifteen years." said Mr.. Edgerly in
answer to the inquiry, making my col
lection of curiosities. Nearly every ar
ticle in this cabinet was associated in
some way with some crime committed
either in this State or in Maine, and fig
ured in the trials of the various Grimm
ais. In many of the cases l was counsel
for the defence, or associate counsel,
and secured these implements as memen-
tos"
An ordinary looking woodman's axe.
from which portion Of the handle is
missing, is the one with which Louis
Fl. F. Wagner murdered Annette NJ. Chris
Jensen and Karen Christensen at Smutty
Nose Island, one of the Isle of Shoals, in
March, 1878. The details of that double
tragedy are well remembered. The soli-
.tary habitation on the island was that of
j ohm Honvet, an honest Norwegian fish
erman, the family at that time consist
ing of Honvet and his wife. Evan Chris
Jensen and his wife Annette Christensen,
"a sister of Honvet and Karen Christen-
TVo 1xy
ployed by Honvet and had resided in the
family for seven OF eight months, and
was familiar with the house and sur
roundings. On the night of March 5th,
in the absence of Honvet and Evan Chris
ten, he put off to the island in row
boat, and entered the cottage at mid
night for the purpose of robbery. He
fastened the door of the bedroom occu-
pied by Mrs. Honvet and Mrs. Christen-
sen, and proceeded to search the house.
He found Karen asleep on a lounge in the
kitched instead of occupying the room
she usually occupied. His movements
awol1e Karen, when he seized chair and
dealt her repeated blows until she fell
senseless at the door of Mrs. Honvet.
Mrs. Eonvet succeeded in opening the
door of her room and dragging the body
of Karen within, not, however, without
receiving several murderous blows from
the chair in the hands of Wagner. She
then barricaded the door and directed
Mrs. Christensen to jump from the win
dow and endeavor to call some of the
neighboring islanders to their assistance.
Wagner discovered this movement and
was outside as soon as Mrs. Christensen,
and, Selling this axe at the front door,
he pursued her and struck her down, fol-
lowing up his blows upon her PROSTATE
body. Mrs. Honvet, in the meantime
had escaped through the window in her
night clothes. She was also pursued by
Wagner, but succeeded in eluding him
and concealed herself among the rocks
on the shore of the island. Failing in
his search for Mrs. Honvet, the muir
dere1N then returned to the house and
with the axe struck down Karen, who
had recovered consciousness and was en-
deavoring to escape. He then ransacked
the house, securing only about 500, as
the result of his search. He split the
handle from the axe with which he COM
mitted his terrible crime and threw it
into an unfrequented place, where it was
subsequently found. He also dragged
the bodies of the Christensen women
into the sleeping room and placed them
under the bed, with the supposed inten-
ton of burning the house to conceal the
evidences of his crime, but, if such was
his design, for some reason he failed to
carry it into execution. His subsequent
movements and certain statements which
he had previously made led to his arrest.
He was tried at Alfred, found guilty of
murder in the first degree and sentenced
to be hanged. A week after his convic-
ton and sentence he escaped from the
jail at Alfred, but was recaptured at
Pennington, N. Ell. two days later and re-
turned to the jail. He was soon after
wards removed to the State prison at
Thomaston, where he was executed June
25, 1876, two years after his conviction.
/, A carpenters Ratchet and a half pint
liquor flask are relics of the Abbott muir
der, which occurred at Ossipee in 1876
1t was with the Ratchet that SamuelT
Abbott murdered his wife in October of
that year. Abbott was tried the follow
ing April and convicted of manslaughter
and sentenced to the State prison at Con-
cord for thirty years, where he died
few years his incarceration. He was IN
toxicated at the time of the commission
of the crime, and the bottle, which was
taken from his pocket at the time of his
arrest contains the small quantity of
liquor found in it at that time.
The two guns which are here pre-
served were the instruments employed
for the commission of two of the most
terrible crimes ever committed in New
Hampshire. With one, an antiquated,
single barreled shot gun, SylvesterW.
Cone shot young Paul Williams at Tam
worth, N. H., in August, 1876 At the
time of the shooting Cone narrowly es-
capped lynching at the hands of his towns
men. 1t was claimed in his behalf at his
trial that he had been subjected to long
series of insults and annoyances by
party of boys, of which Williams was
one, and that, in a quarrel in which Viii
liams attempted to strike Cone with a
whip the latter, who was subject to vio-
lent fits of passion, ran to his house and
Selling his gun, fired the fatal shot, the
charge taking effect in Williams's neck
and head, causing almost death. Cone
was tried for murder, convicted of man
slaughter in the first degree and SEN
fenced to the State prison for a term of
thirty years. Cone was forty-five years
old at the time of the commission of this |
crime. His previous life had been an
eventful one. He was with John Brown |
during the troublous times in Kansas |