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Horror on Smuttynose Island (Isle of Shoals)

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(page 5 of 5)

The next day Wagner was transferred from jail to the Boston depot for the trip to Portsmouth, followed by a jeering crowd of 500. At each depot along the route the train was met by outraged citizens demanding his immediate demise. It is reported a crowd of 10,000 filled the streets of Portsmouth and narrowly missed tearing him to pieces when he arrived.

Smuttynose was in the jurisdiction of the state of Maine and Wagner would have to be tried there. Three days later, when he was moved from the Portsmouth jail to the train, a lynch mob of over 200 fishermen from the islands and the coast was waiting. The police escort drew their revolvers and a company of bayonet-wielding Marines were called from the Navy base, but the mob was not easily subdued. The escort was showered with stones and bricks.

The trial of Louis Wagner commenced on June 9, 1873. After nine days of testimony and 55 minutes of deliberation, he was found guilty as charged. He broke out of jail within a week, but was recaptured in New Hampshire. On June 25, 1875, 27 months after the crime, Wagner was led into the yard of the state prison in Thomaston, Maine, and hanged.

Maren and John Hontvet were never to live in the Isles of Shoals again. They moved to Portsmouth, where John continued working as a fisherman.

Ivan, his spirit broken, could not bear to leave the neighborhood where he and Anethe spent so many happy times. He worked as a carpenter on Appledore for the rest of the summer of 1873, never out of sight of the cottage where he was robbed of his happiness. He never spoke unless spoken to, and never lifted his eyes from his work when speaking. At the end of the summer he returned alone to Norway and was never heard of again.

Want to explore the historic seacoast where this incident occurred?Read our story on theNew Hampshire seacoast and all of its 18-mile long adventures.