The Murders of Smuttynose Island

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Welcome back Hailey.

Are you enjoying being at the beach? I am so much. There's a lot of sand. There was sand in my seat earlier.

But it's fine. So we're in my son's playroom and he has a little sandbox that he plays with. It's an indoor one. It's teeny, tiny, right?

And he loves to play with it. It's really fun. Keeps him busy. And he decided that he wanted to play beach and he put it on the carpet and in Hailey's seat.

So we could really enjoy the beach. Yeah, I'm just curious now. Are you gonna have to buy more sand? You know what I do?

I just sweep it up back into the little box. I get off the carpet. Well, in this case, I'm gonna have to sweep it off the carpet. Okay, gotcha.

It's a real pain in the bun. Yeah, it's gonna be a great time. Yeah, there's beach sand on the carpet. There's also some of that plant over there.

I do know that. I watched him do that and he said that it's a palm plant and it needed sand. He's like, I get the beach. I mean, it does come on home.

It's fair. So it's slowly dying. I'm shocked to see that because I forget to water it. Well, you know, we can only keep so many things alive.

My kids are alive. You have a lot of plants in my house. You do. I was noticing it earlier when we were upstairs.

But there were lots of plants and they all look good. So far, so good. So far. Yeah.

I had a lot of plants outside in the winter too that we thank God for my son because he's like, Mom, should we water the plants? I'm like, Oh, the plants. You're right. He keeps me accountable.

So it's a good thing. Yeah. We just got some hanging baskets to put on our friend porch at my house. And by we, I mean myself and my dog and my mother came with me.

I pick them out. The dog picked them out too. Yes. Yeah.

My brother who lives with me, I guess came home that night and was like, Oh, there are plants on our porch. I like these. But now he's very excited to put a flower bed in front of our porch. Oh, he's like all into it and I'm like, great.

Who's gonna end up weeding that thing? Tell him rubber mulch. I just tell Haley, rubber mulch is my new jam because it keeps away all the bugs. Yeah.

It's a lot more expensive. And when I say a lot more, I mean, a lot more, but it's worth it. And you don't have to replace every single year like you do regular mulch. Yeah.

It's true. And I have black mulch in my landscaping, which I think looks really good, but it really fades over time. Yeah. Yeah.

This is your landscaping 101. It's the landscaping corner. So yeah, I don't know what other fun things I gotta push more recently. Oh, so I gotta do that tomorrow.

Like an old school one or an actual gas. Okay. Perf self-propelled kind of thing. But I like, so I live close enough to my parents that I can borrow their writing lawnmower.

I like that. Instead of loading it up on a trailer and driving it, I just drive it down the road like a country pumpkin that I am. I want up because it's literally as I'm driving on the road because I know all my neighbors and we all like it's a neighborhood with the close together. I'd like pass like, you know, 10, 12 houses between my parents and I would be right here.

I do not have a beer in hand. Don't drink and drive. No, that's true. I want up.

No, this is water. I wave at the neighbors as I pass by the cars. And they gave you the finger past me on the side. Yeah, of course it past me.

I are like, what are you doing? This is so redneck. I'm like, welcome to the country. Welcome to it.

Here we are. Why don't you drive that sucker over here? I wouldn't have to pay my lawn guy. I would take me days to drive that thing here.

At like Tom Myles an hour. Hayley was supposed to be here weeks ago. Was he still on the interstate? Just like I got pulled over because I was going to slow.

Yeah. So, um, I, we now, I don't drive the lawn more down the road anymore. You're supposed to go, I haven't gotten to use it yet. So I'm really excited about this tomorrow.

It's coming to my project. You know what it's going to be? You realize you have way more property than you thought. Oh, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up painting it, but I actually really like to push it.

I like to mow to you. I love mowing. And so I'm not upset about it. And the one I had before when I lived in the apartment I was living in because I still have to keep, I kept the backyard up.

There's a little basement apartment. That push mower did not have the propulsion. Yeah. So I just had to hold it full body weight behind it, get it up the bank and show it was so dangerous.

Where'd you get the sucker at? I was a gift. My, my parents for my brother's birthday and we're about a month apart. It's three years of a month apart.

But he, we've been talking about like, I really need a lawn mower and go look at those and kind of price them out and see what I'm thinking. And we're like, you know, what a weeder, like a, like a bigger weeder. And that was like our birthday gift from my parents. It was so sweet and very kind.

And my mom like called us, we were both, because we're never home at the same time, but we were both home on a Sunday. And she called us up and said, I have something to show you. So we came over and like went down underneath like the backside of their house and they pulled it out. We're so proud of it.

It was really sweet. That's so, it was really cool. So now we have a nice lawn mower and a mower. I love that.

And I don't do the weeding because I'm terrified of them. And I was like kind of like off or something. Yeah. So I will do the mowing all day long.

I don't mind the mow. But we did this not for a long time. I am. Oh, you're a guy who comes and he does all the mowing and he can knock out.

He's got the one that he stands on. Yeah, and he can knock that sucker out fast and we don't have, you don't have a lot to mow. I don't have a lot to mow, but it's hilly. It is very hilly.

I would be really scared to mow your property. Yeah, me too. And there's a lot of trees and sometimes we have sticks that fall down and I just worry about ruining the mower. And I would rather, Sarah will say I'd rather ruin his mower.

But I'm paying him for it. So he can do it. We can meet all the HOA standards. We can do all the things and I don't have to worry about it.

I do take care of my garden though. Yeah. That's like my big project. Yeah.

It's one of those. Like I'll go through because I'm where I live outside on double a lot. So I have more land than a lot of my neighbors. But I go around and pick up all the sticks and everything.

So I don't run them over with one more. It would. I have so many trees. So in the back end of our property, it's pretty much on a hill.

You have to eat the whole thing. So it's very overgrown right now. It's kind of a little jungle back there. So I think my brother's going to knock it down the weeder sometime in summer and then we'll do it again next summer.

Well, I have all these plans that I want to. Oh man, we're way past my. I have all these plans that I want to do a fire pit. Wouldn't that be nice?

Same. I want to do one in the front. We could like sit out there and have fun. I like that.

And have these conversations around the fire instead of on the podcast. Yeah. And people would prefer them. We wouldn't give you mail fire.

I'll just go ahead and cut some of this out. It's all good. It's all good. It's all good.

We're going to jump right in. We're going to go like we said to Maine this week. Going to Maine. It's a Maine.

We're going to go to Maine and we're going to go to Smudy Knows Island. Okay. They've heard of it. No.

It's very teeny tiny. Well, it's probably wife. Little island off of Maine, which I know we're little out of like the mountains, but this is a very like a rural story. Okay.

Like I just it's really it's a cool story. Other podcasts have done. They probably do it better than I'm going to right now, but it's just a really cool story. Okay.

All right. So John Hontibit and Marin arrived in Maine for Norway in 1868. Wow. Okay.

So we're taking it back. Yeah. They were the only people living on Smudy Knows Island in the lake or in the isles of Scholes. That's where this is part of Maine.

The owls of Scholes are just a little tiny island. Do they like discover it? No, they just were the only ones that lived there. Oh, there's like we like to place where we live here.

Around Don each day, John would navigate his schooner, which is like a little boat. Okay. The Clarabella to the fishing grounds. He would then draw in his lines, sail to market in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

He would sell the fish and buy bait. Then he would sail home late in the afternoon. And that's kind of what he did. Okay.

So he was nice day without your husband. Yeah. Right like that. But it just very much on his own.

Like they were just on their own. So there was, you know, neighbors and friends on other islands that surrounded them, but they're really the biggest of population ever got kind of in this isle of Scholes was like 50 people. Wow. So there's like nobody out there.

So business is really good for them. They had them in an happily with all this, you know, fish and things. They were doing fish and things. It's really, you know, prospered and lived very comfortably on their little island.

Sounds pretty lavish. Great lifestyle. Marin was a pretty small woman. Very gentle lady.

She was well liked by all of the quote unquote neighbors. She used a kind of had this artsy decorative side to her. So she used bright paint and painted their little cottage and all this, she was like trying to, you know, make it homey. You'd be by herself is really hard.

Yeah. You know, she kept a ton of plants all right in the windows and around the house. So, you know, they're really content with their new lives. Like they're, they're happy with this, but they do miss their family.

She has a pot that says plants are my soil mates. You're welcome. It's really cute. Thanks.

I have a planter that said that's adorable. Yeah. I'm sure she did. I bet.

I'm right. We colored. Yep. So they're content with their lives.

They're happy with this decision they made, but they missed their family in Norway. So Marin really was proud of their cottage. It really stood out from all the other kind of fishing sheds that scattered all these other islands around them. But you know, her only companion was John.

And so at some point, I don't know if they brought this dog from Norway or if they just got this dog, but they had a dog named Ringe, who was really, their companion while John was fishing. So they were like best friends. So he kind of ran wild over the island and lived his best dog life. Probably everybody knew them.

Yeah, it's Ringe. So the hontvit, I don't know if they last name, Hontvitz. It's sort of one with Hontvitz. They lived on Smetino's Island for about two years before Lewis Wagner came into their lives.

Wagner was a dark, muscular 28-year-old Prussian. Prussian. Prussian. Man, he had a very thick accent.

Seemed very friendly to the hontvitz. Others though were like kind of weird vibraman. He never spoke of his past. Some people, he gave the impression that he was kind of a lurker.

And that's creepy. Kind of lurking around, listening to people's conversations, but kind of pretending. Like a creepy-esque peep and tom or something. Probably, yeah.

So Wagner fished alone, and he would go from different islands, star the Malaga and Cedar Islands, which are all connected to Smetino's Island by sea walls. So that's like this interconnected island. So I'm out there. You have to look at a map to fully understand.

So everyone pause. Go ahead and jump. Go ahead and jump. Pull out your outlets.

It will help you. Get your maps. Get your globe immediately. I'm sure everyone has one in their home.

Yes. Hey, let me look at my globe. Oh, yes. No, it is.

Oh, there it is. Thank you so much for taking that time to explain it. Yes. Makes sense.

So they were kind of ended up being these, you know, close neighbors quote unquote. They were like half mile apart. Yeah, but it was our closest neighbor. Right.

And they all became really close friends over this two years of, you know, seeing each other. Yeah, seeing each other. There's the idea island. Well, you know, that's what he is.

But they, yeah, they became really good friends. They were all really close. In May of 1871, Marin was very excited because her sister, Karen Christensen, from Norway, was coming to live on the She Karen. I don't think so.

So unfortunately for Karen, fortunately for Marin, she's excited. She's coming. Maron and Karen. They weren't twins.

I don't think so. Okay, that's just a lot. So Marin was really happy Karen was coming, but Karen was coming because she had lost her lover. Of course, Norway, this is going.

Yeah, so she had lost her lover. So she I don't think he died. I think he like married somebody. Oh, that's terrible.

So it just was like a bad time for for Karen. So Marin, though, was convinced, you know, come live on this island with me, experience this beautiful life, you know, it'll cure your sadness. It'll be great. It'll be great.

So several weeks after Karen came to the island, she accepted a position as a living maid with a family on Apple Door Island, which is the largest island in that isles. One year past, John's business continued to grow. So he actually hired Wagner to work for him in June of 1872. Wagner was also given a room in their home and really seemed more like a part of their family than ever before.

So he was living with them working on the business. Everything's going well. In October of that year, John was kind of a slump business when the slump. So he then had more help than he really did.

So he'd taken on this guy forward and he's like, Oh gosh. So his brother had also come to Norway from Norway to live on somebody knows Matthew was the same. So he's got a full house. So now there's a whole lot of people.

So with Matthew, came Marin's brother Ivan and his wife, Anith could create. So now we've got all these people. Ivan is a super tall Norwegian dude. His wife was gorgeous blue eyes, blonde hair, super tall, just Norwegian pretty people.

And they had been married since Christmas. So new arrivals to the island. They're welcomed by John and Marin and now all five of them live together in this little village. Their entire family makes up a fifth of the population at this point.

Yes, that's crazy. I have a Matthew. Yeah, it's crazy. Ivan Matthew go to work for John and Anith helps Marin keep up the house.

Wagner stayed on with the hot vits for about five weeks after Matthew Ivan and Anith arrived. Then he booked passage as a hand on another fishing schooner called the Addison Gilbert. And he left somebody knows I want to know about it. So I'm sure he was kind of like now the awkward like six wheel in this weird family situation.

So he's like, you know, this has been great. Y'all got you got your family here. I'm gonna like this opportunity came up. I'm gonna take this and go like it's been pleasure.

I'm gonna move on with my life and do this thing. Y'all have a great time. So they felt they felt everybody felt good about this. So it wasn't like, oh, he's between us.

Like the family of the hot vits, they felt like, you know, they'd really helped him to get on his feet. And it was good timing. It was good timing. Everything worked out really well.

Unfortunately, Wagner's luck takes a turn for the worse. The boat he was on the Addison Gilbert was wrecked and Wagner was reduced to working along the Portsmouth wharf's. So that the wharf is like a where people bring in their fish to process it before it's it's sold. So there's a lot of and back now if you see wharf's a lot of times they're very nice.

Like they're yeah gentrified a little bit back in the day. This was not in the case back in the day. Like yeah, this was not a fun place to be. He earned very little money.

So he was barely able to pay board at the Johnson's, which was another family which he lived with now. It just really was not able to make ends meet. By March of 1873, he was pretty much destitute. The shoes were worn out, clothes were tattered, and he owed three weeks worth of rent.

So really, that was taking the turn. After a long, really bad winter, Spring is sprung. And John, Matthew and Ivan set sail on the morning of March 5th of 1873 to go out and fish and do the things they need to do. So they bring in their lines that they plan to sell and Portsmouth and they're going to buy bait.

So they arrive on the early train from when that bait comes in from Boston. Oh, bait from Boston. So while they're out on their boats, they met up with a neighbor and asked him to stop at Smitty Nose Island and tell the women that the winds had changed and they were going to sail on directly to the mainland. So they wouldn't have to be stopping and leaving one of them in on the island.

So they were like, you know what, we're just going to go. We're going to go and do this thing. They're going to come home later in the evening. So late afternoon when Karen and Mary and Anne get this message from the neighbor.

They had already prepared supper and decided to keep it hot until all the men came home later that evening. Karen now was on Smitty Nose Island again. She had decided to leave her position and take a job as a seamstress in Boston but had decided, you know, I'm going to stay on the island for a little bit before I make this big move to Boston. So it's been some time in the family.

Hang out before I go to Boston. When they're about Dr. Portsmouth earlier that early that evening, Wagner was there ready to help tie their vessel to the wharf because he's working at the wharf. So they meet back up with him.

He asked John the others if they would be returning to Smitty Nose that evening. That was kind of weird. I don't know what you're asking us about. Okay.

John explained that they would return home if the bait arrives on schedule. But if it was late, they would probably just stay in port that night then bait their draw lines and return home in the morning. So they're like, kind of depends on how the train situation is going down. He then asked Wagner to help bait the lines, which is something that could take the entire night.

Wagner agreed and he left the wharf with them to go bait the winds out in the water. It was 730 that evening when Wagner was last seen in Portsmouth. He apparently learned that the bait didn't arrive on the early train and knowing how profitable John's business was, he somehow concocted the scheme to get to Smitty Nose and burglarize their house. So much for repaying the folks that helped you.

So Wagner stole a Dory, which is like a it's a rowboat pretty much. Gotcha. And he rode past... Not a character in Bunny Nema.

It's okay. So he rose past all of these buildings into the harbor and goes out to sea. It's a 12 mile row to the Isle of Sholes. Wow.

It's a 12 mile. Talk about some jacked arms. Yeah. Wow.

But if you're skilled, you can do it. It's true. And if you want to go rob somebody, you can do it. Right.

And John Hauntvid had actually made the three hour trip by himself in a whaling boat like dozens of times. So he was like, you know, I got this. You could do it. Like if you have John could do it, I can do it.

I can do it. Yeah. Please. Yeah.

All right. About 10 p.m. The women that are on the island, they decided, you know what, we're not going to wait up any longer. So we're going to work one bit.

Change their night gowns, marriage fixed the bed for Karen in the kitchen, where it was warmer than the upstairs bedrooms. And she and Anna's retired to a joining bedroom. That was on the lower floor. So there was snow on the ground at this time of the year.

So we've come on a winter spring with some snow. So it's cold. Gotcha. Wagner rose to the island.

And he rose to the far side of the island. And disembarked on a rocky shore. Usually they would come to the other side where there's kind of a cove. But he's trying to be inconspicuous.

Yeah. So he watched the cottage for several hours after the light coming to the windows had disappeared. And he was confident that the women were asleep. He trudged up the slope with heavy rubber boots to the door of the house.

He tried the door, found it wasn't bolted. It's a long open, which you're the only people that live on the silent. Yeah, you're not really walking into our night. Yep.

In the darkness of the kitchen, he closed the door behind him and he jams a piece of wood into the latch of the bedroom door where Marin and Anne were sleeping. So he was like, I'm gonna make sure they can't come out. Okay, so they wake up. So they won't see me.

And he's gonna hurry and rob them. Hurry and rob them. And get out of there. So the dog starts working and wakes up Karen.

Karen seeing, you know, this person standing there thinks probably the dark shadow. It's the men coming back. So she says, John is at you. Marin sets up in bed, calls out, you know, Karen, you know, what's going on?

What's going on? So Karen still kind of has like, it's fine. John just scared me. You're coming in.

Wagner panics, though, reaches over, grabs a chair and hits Karen. Oh my gosh. So she's now screaming as he's continuing to hit her with a chair. I'm assuming this is a wooden chair.

Yes, wouldn't you? Yeah. So Marin's now screaming, like, you know, what's wrong? She jumps out of bed.

She's pulling on the door. She can't get out the door. Karen gets to her feet. Wagner continues hitting her hitting her.

She was thrown. He throws her against the bedroom door, which knocks the latch out. And she falls in right at Marin's feet. So Wagner rushes at her again, swinging the chair.

He hits both of the women. Marin somehow managed to drag Karen out of reach. And she closes and barricades the door. But that leaves the other lady vulnerable too.

She's yeah. So and they're now all three in the room. Oh, okay. Okay.

Because it was a joke. Yeah, Karen. Yeah. They're all there.

So Anith is watching this like in the this happen. So Marin is yelling at her like, you need to get out of here. Like you need to run and get out of here. So Anith climbs out the window, stands barefoot in the snow is like, what do I do?

freaking out. Marin's yelling at her to run. But Wagner has given up trying to come into the room as a left house. No, he approaches Anith.

And she's able to see him, who he really is in the moonlight. So they're all thinking this is John at this point. They don't know. They don't know.

They think this is the husband that's come back and beaten the crap out everybody. So they're like, what the heck is going on? So no, this is they finally figure out now that this is Wagner. So she starts screaming, you know, his name, you know, Lewis, what's going on?

What are you doing? So Marin looks out the window is shocked to see that it's, you know, they're old friends. Yeah. And so she's like, what's going on?

So Anith reaches out to him to be like, you know, what's going on? He reaches over to the woodpile, grabs an axe, and in one motion, swings the axe right into Anith. Kills her instantly. Oh, what?

Decapitates are basically pretty much. Yeah. It's like right in the mirror and watching this. Marin and Karen are both in the window.

Oh my gosh. So Marin is on the other side of the window. She's so close to this that she could reach out pretty much in touch in. So realizing that Anith can't be helped, Marin turns her attention to saving herself and her sister.

She rushes to where Karen is. Karen's beat up like pro real bad. Yeah. So she grabs Karen and she's like, we got to go, we got to go here.

But her sister is on the verge of fainting. She can't get up. She's like, I can't do this. So Wagner, he hasn't just left yet.

No, he's coming into the bedroom now. So Marin has to make this horrifying realization that if I say here, we're both dead. Like I have to decide if I'm going to save myself or not. Yeah.

So she makes that decision. And she wraps herself up in a heavy skirt that was on the floor. And she climbs through the window with the dog. The dog goes with her who was silent, not barking anymore, but a silent with her.

And they take off running. So she is running through ice. She's gotten bare feet. There's undergrowth everywhere.

She's in her right now. She's wrapped in the skirt. She runs to where she expects to find Wagner's boat in the cove so she can steal the boat and get off the island. It's not there because he's on the other side.

Her first impulse is to hide in the cellar of a vacant building that's close by. But then she's like, you know, he's probably going to think that that's the first place. Yeah. So she runs along the shore to the far side of the island.

As she passed the cottage, she hears Karen, like in your ear. Being attacked. Being attacked. So she's shivering.

She's freezing. She holds the dog close to her and crawls between two rocks near the water's edge. And you can hear the waves like crashing against these rocks. So she's protected from the waves.

She's sitting there holding the dog. At the house, Karen was trying to escape the window when Wagner came in with the axe. He missed her on the first wing and then gets her on the second and takes a handkerchief and... Why all this excess?

I mean, I don't understand. Yeah. So he left. Though this bloody trailer footprints in the snow, he searches every building.

Looking. Looking for Marin. He searches long as he could, but he decided that, you know, he's not going to be able to find her. So he goes back to the house, drags and spottie out into the kitchen.

He brews a pot of tea, leaves blood stains on the handle, ate some food that he had brought with him. He ransacks the house, finds about $15, gets in his boat and leaves. What else? I go back.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Does she see him leave or?

No, she doesn't. She has no idea. She just stays there. It's almost eight o'clock in the morning before she decides, you know, maybe it's an island I'm going to leave my spot.

So she's unable to gain the attention of workmen on a neighboring island. So she staggers across the breakwater, which connects Muddy Nosed to Malaga Islands, which so these islands are connected so she can kind of wait across and waves her arms. So the children of George, Inger Bridson, sure, sure. They're playing outside their home on Apple Door.

They see her, they go and they are like something happening. George then rose a quarter of a mile to get Marin. So he grabs her and the dog. He takes her home, is like, do his wife.

Oh, okay. So George takes her to his home to his wife and he's like, please take care of her. And she's like, oh my god, okay. So he gathered men that were on the island.

They get guns and they go to search somebody knows when they land on the island, they discover this horrific scene. Finding no one alive on Smitty Nosed, the men return to Apple Door and search there as well. A few hours later, the Clarabella was spotted on the horizon gliding in, you know, coming home. No idea.

No idea. No idea what's going on. So seeing a signal on the shore, so they'd set the signal. Matthew and Ivan rode to Apple Door and John went on to Smitty Nosed.

So when they land, they're told about there being some trouble on Smitty Nosed Island. So they rush to George's house where they find Marin. So Ivan's pleading with Marin, you know, where is Anna? Where's my wife?

And Marin just says, you know, she's at home. She can't like speak. She's like, so distraught. So Ivan and Matthew get to Smitty Nosed.

They land literally at the same time as John. So like they book it. They're gone. And they raise home.

Ivan pushes the door open and comes in the kitchen. They're on the floor. He finds his wife. He covers her face and just goes back out and collapses in the snow.

He's like, I can't do it. John and Matthew then go through the house. They find, you know, everything else. Karen, Karen.

And they then sail back to get Marin. So they take Marin to Portsmouth to tell authorities what's happened. So all this stuff is going on. So words spread quickly through these 50 people.

And the description of Wagner was telegraphed to police throughout the coastal states. And all the evening editions of the newspapers were filled with all the details that were going to happen. To men, both at New Wagner, and former police, they had seen Wagner in Newcastle about six o'clock that morning. They found the stolen Dory and in Newcastle near a place called Devil's Den.

It's appropriate. So after returning to the Johnsons, Wagner changed his clothes and he had caught the 9 a.m. trained to Boston. So he's fleeing there.

He purchased some new boots and a new new clothes. Then he somehow talked this woman into letting him say at a boarding house. Oh, that's asking for trouble. So John, not been told authorities, you know, kind of where Wagner usually was going, like where he would talk about going before, because they'd been friends for all his years.

So like he knew he had ties to Boston and he's like, okay, so he's probably in one of his places. So Boston police signed him. He's arrested wearing his new suit that he had bought over his old clothes that are bloody better. Offered up no resistance.

He just went with them. So the next day, he's transferred from jail to the Boston Depot for the train back to Portsmouth. There's a jeering crowd that follows them. There's about 500 people in this crowd.

Good. At each route, the train was met by outrage citizens demanding his immediate demise. He's reported their crowd of 10,000 people filled the streets of Portsmouth and pretty much they had to like keep him hold them back. Yeah, because they would have gone off on him.

Yeah. So Smelly knows in the jurisdiction of Maine and Wagner would have to be tried there. Three days later when he was moved from Portsmouth jail to the train, a lynch mob of over 200 fishermen from the islands and the coast were waiting. The police escort drew their revolvers and they had a company of bayonet wielding Marines.

Wow. That were called from the local Navy base. But the mob was not easily subdued. So they were able to get to him with stones and bricks and pretty much be the crap out of him.

They didn't kill him, so the trial happened on June 9th, 1873 after nine days of testimony and 55 minutes of deliberation, he was found guilty. He broke out of jail within a week, was recaptured in New Hampshire and on June 25th of 1875, this is 27 months after the crime, he was led into the yard of the state prison in Thompson, Maine and hanged. Good. Marin John never lived on Eilishills again.

They moved to Portsmouth where John continued to work as a fisherman. Ivan, he couldn't bear to leave the neighborhood where he and Ant spent so many, you know, happy times. He worked as a carpenter on Apple Door for the rest of the summer of 1873. He never moved out of sight from the cottage.

He wanted to be able to see it. He never spoke unless he was spoken to. And he never like engaged with anybody. He just worked and that's what he did for that whole summer.

At the end of summer, he returned alone to Norway and there's no record of him from that on. I bet he just stayed in Norway. I'm just, oh my gosh, the trauma. So I've read some other articles that were really interesting and they said that looking at the weather and the way that Marin was dressed up, the only reason she didn't freeze to death in the other person, she survived was because of the dog.

Having that body heat from the dog. It's amazing. It's amazing that she survived. It's crazy.

Like what a crazy like I survived. Yeah. I mean nowadays she would be on an episode of my survival. Hi, my name is Marin and I survived almost being murdered by my border.

Yeah. Crazy times. There's also some speculation that Wagner may have sexually assaulted both of the women as well. After.

During that time he spent making tea and eating and eating. But that's, you know, around that time it's not really something that's reported. So sometimes that stuff is, but they use wording like, you know, took advantage of his way, did unsavory things. That's kind of where we are.

Oh, crimes against humanity and everything. Inhumane behaviors. That's a good story. It's crazy.

And like I said, and I got a lot of my information from the really good article and I don't know the name of it. I'm trying to find it because it was just written really well. And I would like to give the person who wrote the actual article that got my information from credit, but I can't find it. So.

Okay, we'll put it in the notes if you want to read the article. It's really cool. It's really a really interesting story. And you know, this little tiny fishing community is rocked by it's a crazy murder, like triple murder, double murder.

That really was only supposed to be a robbery. Yeah, about a robbery going to be a crime. Yeah, about a rage there. Yeah.

So. Well, that's what a happy note to end on. Yeah. You know, all right.

If you want to email Haley, you can do so by sending an email to mountainmysteries.appletchen at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountainmysteries.appletchen.com at mountainmysteries.appletchen at mountainmysteries.appletchen and support our patreon, patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. Haley. Oh, if you're not meeting yourself against the microphone, it's exciting.

Come down. Do you have a shout out? Sure. Let's do katsaboo.

Alaska. Ooh. I don't know if that's how you say that, but so cool. So the one person who listened to us from their last episode, let us know.

Yeah. That'd be great. Alaska. Give us a shout out.

Never been. We'll love to go. Oh, let's do a cruise. Oh, yeah.

I'm afraid about so. I will probably need some drama. I mean, I don't do well with any kind of movement. I get real seasick.

I get car 66. Same. Land sick. Air sick.

Air sick. Sick in general. I mean, she's here on my couch and she's sick, but I think it's me. It's Holly sick.

It's all fine. That's a different. Well, join us next time for more fun. Yay.

See you next week. All right. Bye. Bye.