Killed by the Hand of an Assassin

Gravestone of William B. Elliot located in South Branch
Cemetery, Levant, Maine. The misspelling of Elliot’s last
name, capital L's, and backward “b” in the abbreviation for
February, suggests the carver possessed a limited level of
literacy and was copying the letter shapes.  The epitaph reads: 
A Member of  Co. C. 11 Me. Regiment. Was Killed by the
hand of an assassin, Fed. [sic] 5, 1879. AE 36 yrs. 11 mos.

A couple years ago, I heard a story telling of a murderer who’d been hung and buried in a swamp behind South Branch Cemetery in Levant, Maine.  The legend of the swamp-mired murder’s grave originated in connection to the gravestone of William B. Elliot, a member of Company C of the 11th Maine (Civil War) Regiment who—as is inscribed on his gravestone— “was killed by the hand of an assassin, Feb. 5, 1879” at age 36 years, 11 months.  The chilling epitaph commemorates what may well be the state of Maine’s second oldest murder cold case.

The following account includes a summary of information about the murder published in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier in the year following the murder.

Bangor, Maine — February 5, 1879.

Night watchman, Amos Colson, walked along the Washington Street side of the Maine Central Railroad station between 7:30 and 7:40 p.m. the evening of Wednesday, February 5, 1879 when a stranger—a man about 5 feet 5 inches in height with dark whiskers and complexion—drove a sled drawn by a two-horse hitch, rapidly west down Washington Street from Exchange in Bangor, Maine.  The swarthy man, wearing a long dark coat and cloth cap, stopped the sled just short of the station. Jumping down, the stranger ran past Colson, telling him to watch the horses, “saying something about getting over before the train left,” Colson reported.

Unimpressed but sympathetic to the horses’ needs, Colson tended the animals that he reported were “wet from fast driving,” stabling them across the street from the station. At 9:45 p.m., the train having rolled out of the station approximately 7:45 p.m. and the man failing to return, Colson went back to the sheds to cover the horses for the night. Colson was pulling a horse blanket from under some bags of meal in the back of the sled when, by the light of his lantern, he discovered the blanket and bags were saturated with fresh blood.

Sensing foul play, Colson mounted the sled and drove toward the police station. En route, he crossed paths with Bangor Police Officers Thomas F. Allen and Patrick J. Dougherty.  After hearing Colson’s story, Officer Allen took the sled to the station where the three men used additional lanterns to more fully examine the vehicle. It was then that the group discovered an axe covered with clotted blood and clumps of human hair. Marshal Alvin Reed was summoned and arrived at the police station at 10 p.m., just as young William Graffam showed up to report the discovery of a murder on Valley Avenue, only a couple miles from where Colson met the stranger at the train station.

A short time earlier, Graffam and a friend were walking on Harlow Street toward Valley Avenue, near the establishment of Merrill & Stiles, and found a man lying on the side of the road. Thinking the man was passed out drunk, they stopped to roust him rather than leave him to freeze in the snow. That’s when they discovered the man’s head was “horribly mangled.”  

Arriving at the scene, police found the man—later identified as William B. Elliot of Glenburn—lying just off the road, his feet toward the road. He was partially rolled in a horse blanket and tracks in the drifted snow showed where he’d first fallen, staggered, and fallen again at the point where he was discovered. As police examined the body, William issued a small moan.

Shocked that, as badly injured as he was, William clung to life, the men loaded him into a pung and delivered him to the police station. The rescuers sent for doctors but the medical evaluation was that the man was “beyond aid” and at 11:40 p.m., “the last spark of vitality left” his body.

The Victim

Portrait of William B. Elliot, ca. 1863,
Company C, 11th Maine Regiment.
Photo courtesy of Wayne Hoar.

The son of Calvin Elliot and Susannah E. Barrett Elliot, William was the oldest of eight children. Blonde and blue-eyed with a strong chin but boyish good looks, William Elliot served in the Union Army between August 1863 and February 1866, surviving the Civil War. In 1868, he married his brother-in-law’s sister, Joanna B. Lake.

William was well-known and respected in Bangor having lived in town for a period of time, working in the office of Provost Marshal Low before taking a job driving a milk cart for S. F. Fuller. By 1870, the U. S. Federal Census, noted that William was a farmer living in Glenburn, with a value of $1,530 including 98 acres of land, 78 of which were wooded, and various livestock. Seven years later, William served a single year as Constable and Tax Collector for the town of Glenburn.

The Investigation

The doctors’ examination after his death revealed that William Elliot suffered four, massive head wounds.  He received two blows to the back of his head with the butt of the axe, crushing his skull; a gaping wound caused by the axe bit on the right forehead that cut through the skull; and a final blow with the flat side of the axe  to the right temple that did additional crushing damage.

William was dressed for outdoor labor, wearing two coats, denim overalls, white, wool mittens, a wool scarf, and moccasins. Though he was carrying a pocket book containing various paperwork and 16 3-cent stamps, the only money found was 12 cents on the body and 42 cents in change found in the sled. Aside from the two sacks of meal, police found two pounds of coffee, a box of savory, two lemons, and some peanuts in the bed of the sled.

When interviewed, William Elliot’s wife, Joanna, indicated that her husband and their hired hand, Tozier Sproul, a 19-year-old orphan from Montville, left the Glenburn home about 8 o’clock that morning. Elliot told Joanna that he and Sproul would be working at a woodlot in the morning and that, later in the day, he planned to go to Bangor to look for work hauling ice for a day or two. This being the case, she did not expect him home. Neither did she know how much money William carried with him.

Sometime after the men departed, Randall Goodwin pulled up to the house in a sled saying he wanted to buy a load of seasoned firewood. Joanna Elliot explained where her husband could be found and Goodwin followed the sled tracks to the wood lot.

At about noon, Sproul returned to the Elliot house on foot, explaining that Goodwin found them and purchased a load of firewood for his neighbor, the widow Jameson, paying William $1.50 in cash. Sproul remained at the home, tending to chores the rest of the day and evening. According to Sproul, William headed to Bangor alone to look for work hauling ice.

At Merrill & Stiles Provisions, Groceries and Ice House, located in the former Stetson Mill on Harlow Street, a short distance from the murder scene, investigators learned from Joseph R. Merrill that William Elliot and a young man—about 18 years old, dressed in dark clothes—stopped at the store around 7 p.m., purchasing the two bags of meal that were found in the sled, and some other small items. William counted out $2.81 to pay for the purchases but Merrill didn’t see any other money. William and his companion loaded the purchases into the sled and drove away together around 7:15 p.m.

During the Coroner’s inquest, witness reports varied. One witness living in the neighborhood reported seeing William stopped on Valley Avenue standing by the sled talking to one man while another man sat in the sled. A married couple also reported seeing William driving the sled as a man dressed in dark clothing was standing in the back of the box.

Newspaper accounts of the time did not indicate whether police interviewed anyone associated with ice merchants: Penobscot River Ice, Co. or J. H. Robinson & Co. both located on Harlow Street or John L. Triggs, on Valley Avenue. The Whig & Courier did, however, publish a second description of the suspect given by James Fickett, as being “about 25-years of age” with red chin whiskers, seeking to leave the team in the shelter of a shed.

Not mentioned during the Coroner’s inquest was the newspaper’s account of two children who allegedly attempted to jump aboard the Elliot sled being driven by a solitary man shortly after the murder was thought to occur. While it was common for children in the city to hop on and off sleds to catch ride or as part of their play, in this instance the driver reportedly swung a whip at the children, yelling that they could not ride with him.

One of the children was alleged to react by grabbing the fall of the whip as it swung toward him, and he yanked the whip handle from the man’s hand. The children, cited in one report to be two boys and cited in a second report to be girls, returned the whip to the police during the investigation, recounting the incident.

Although of dubious scale, this 1875 map illustrates the level of development along  Valley Avenue and Harlow Street around the time of William Elliot’s murder and shows the likely route of the perpetrator’s escape (marked by the author with red arrows), along Harlow Street through East Market Square and down Exchange Street where he turned onto Washington Street en route to the railroad depot.  By modern measurement, this distance is approximately two miles. Unimpeded by traffic, a two-horse team, driven fast,  could cover this distance in five to seven minutes.  Bird’s Eye View of the City of Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. 

Speculation about the Murder

While physical descriptions vary from witness to witness, William Elliot apparently picked up a stranger somewhere along his drive from Glenburn to Bangor. William stopped at Merrill & Stiles store and ice house to pick up provisions, leaving the establishment at approximately 7:15 p.m.  Around that same time, a witness reported seeing William stopped on Valley Avenue, speaking with another man. The final reported sighting on the Avenue—of a man standing in the back of the sled behind William as he drove—may have been only seconds before the murderer took his first swing with the axe.

The Whig & Courier reported that Officers Allen and Dougherty speculated the attack took place shortly after the pair left Merrill’s store. Due to the amount of blood in the back of the sled, police speculated the perpetrator stowed William in the back of the sled, covered with a horse blanket, to drive to a spot where he could dispose of the body. It is presumed this is why the driver “was so particular to prevent” the children from boarding the sled. Investigators surmised that after discarding of the body, the perpetrator turned the sled and headed toward town and his get-away.

One wonders at this theory, however. How would the perpetrator know of the axe in the bed of the sled? If his intention was robbery and murder, why would the perpetrator wait until after William Elliot made a purchase that reduced the value of his purse by nearly three dollars? Why would the murderer leave the body where it was so easily found, as well as take time to wrap it with a horse blanket? 

Being a snowy February night is it possible instead that, after leaving the store, William suggested his young passenger retrieve the horse blankets for the men to wrap themselves in, to help ward off the cold? Handing the first blanket to William, the stranger may have uncovered the axe and thinking to knock his driver out and stage a robbery, used the butt of the axe to club William twice on the back of the head, cracking open his skull and causing blood from a heavily bleeding wound to saturate the sacks of meal and the second horse blanket.

Injured, William fell from the sled into a snow drift but, at age 36 and in his prime, the former soldier was strong and determined to stand his ground. He managed to stand again. Still in the sled, the murderer swung the axe again, striking William in the forehead with the blade. Panicking, the stranger swung the axe a final time, hitting his victim in the right temple causing the fractured skull to crush inward as William finally collapsed, still wrapped in the horse blanket.

The murderer then secured Williams coin purse or wallet, spilling loose change as he stole the sled. Intent on his get-away, the stranger allegedly lashed out at the children who attempted to jump aboard the sled. Driving the horses hard for the less than two miles to the train station allowed the bewhiskered stranger only moments to abandon the sled and catch the last train out of Bangor for Boston, scheduled to depart at 7:40 p.m.

The Case Goes Cold

Police in Portland, Maine searched the night train when it arrived in that city at approximately 1:10 a.m. but no one matching Colson’s description of the suspect was found. Two days later, Fickett’s description of a red-whiskered suspect began to circulate.

On February 21, the Whig & Courier reported that a traveling agent stopping at the Smith Hotel in Oxford, New Hampshire recounted seeing a thin, 25-year-old man with a light, blotchy complexion and no whiskers who, according to the Whig & Courier, “answered the description” of the murder suspect. The description, however, constitutes the third version of the suspect’s appearance. 

Nonetheless, the young man who went by the name “Reed” was deemed suspicious for arriving at the Smith Hotel with no baggage and spending the following day attempting to beg a ride to Vershire, Vermont.  He was reported to have secured a ride as far as Orford, New Hampshire and upon arriving there, promptly set off on foot toward Vermont. Aside from the witness description, there is zero evidence the man called Reed had anything to do with William Elliot’s murder. Ultimately, the case went cold and remains unsolved to this day.

Resources

Bird’s Eye View of the City of Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine. Madison, Wisconsin: J. J. Stoner, 1875.

Bugbee, David, & Co. Greenough’s Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Manufacturing Establishments, Societies, Business Firms, Etc., Etc. in the City of Bangor for 1879-1880. Boston: Greenough & Co., 1879. Retrieved 21, January 2017 from Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

 “A Case for Sympathy.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Friday, February 14, 1879; Issue 39, 3.

Historical Data Systems, comp. U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

“A Horrible Murder.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Thursday, February 06, 1879, Issue 32, 3.

“It seems to us.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Thursday, February 07, 1879, Issue 33, 3.

“Local Matters:  The Elliot Murder.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Friday, February 21, 1879; Issue 45, 3.

“One Year Ago Tonight.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Thursday, February 5, 1880; Issue 32, 3.

“The Recent Murder.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Saturday, February 08, 1879; Issue 34, 3.

“The Recent Murder: Coroner’s Inquest—Several Witnesses Examined.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Tuesday, February 11, 1879; Issue 36, 3.

 “The Recent Murder. Great Excitement in the City.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Thursday, February 07, 1879, Issue 33, 3.

 “The Recent Murder: Still a Mystery.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Saturday, February 10, 1879; Issue 35, 3.

 “The Valley Avenue Murder.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Wednesday, February 12, 1879; Issue 37, 3.

U.S. Census Bureau. 1860 United States Federal Census. Levant, Penobscot, Maine; Roll: M653_446; Page: 994; Family History Library Film: 803446.

U.S. Census Bureau. 1870 United States Federal Census. Glenburn, Penobscot, Maine; Roll: M593_554; Page: 21A; Family History Library Film: 552053.

”Valley Avenue Tragedy.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Monday, February 17, 1879; Issue 41, 3.

 “The Valley Avenue Tragedy.” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Tuesday, March 4, 1879; Issue 54, 3.

Mt. Hope Virtual Tour: The Merchant of Bangor

Here lies the Remains of
Joseph H. Marie Junin
of La Rochelle in France
who departed this Life
the 18th Feby AD 1791,
In the 32d Year of his Age,
& the second Year of the
E'ra fo the French Liberty
Carrying with him
to the Grave
the sorrows of all
who knew him
May his soul rest in peace.

Friday night did not go well for Joseph H.M. Junin. No one truly knows what passed between the French fur trader and his nephew, Louis Paronneau, that evening. What is known is that the merchant--and suspected British spy--was found dead in his bed inside his small log cabin situated on one acre of land at the foot of Exchange Street in Bangor.

Junin purchased the parcel of land from Bangor settler, Jacob Dennett, on July 7, 1790 and established the cabin which served as both his trading post and home. His business “was what was called a trucking business; that is, an exchange traffic, where little or no money was used” (1882:538).

Despite rumors that Junin served as a British spy who used his influence with the Native population of the region to create trouble for American Revolutionaries in 1777, he was accepted into the young settlement on the shore of the Penobscot River, and welcomed as one of only three or four merchant/traders in the region.

Image: 1790 United States Federal Census Record for David Howe,
assistant to the Marshall of the District of Maine. Number of free
white persons in the house hold, 2.

When Junin arrived in the fledgling community, he was accompanied by his 16-year-old nephew, Louis Paronneau. On the evening of Feb. 18, 1791, just seven days before Bangor’s incorporation as a city, Paronneau, “in great excitement rushed into the house of Jacob Dennett” and declared his fear that “the Indians would kill his uncle.” Shortly after the boy left the Dennett house, the report of gun fire was heard by witnesses in the area.

Junin’s cabin was visited following the gun fire, where witnesses found a scatter of muskrat skins on the floor and the 32-year-old trader dead his bed, shot twice through the head as he lay sleeping. According to accounts written by Joseph Porter (1887), Paronneau insisted that three Indians broken in and shot his uncle.

Historians’ accounts agree that five men, including Jacob Dennett, searched the woods and roads, through deep snow to search for rogue members of the Penobscot tribe and found no evidence of other parties.

Jonah Eddy, Justice of the Peace, summonsed a jury of 13 reputable men to the home of Jacob Dennett to view the body of the murder victim and hear testimony of witnesses to the evening’s events. The panel found probable cause that Paronneau committed the murder in order to gain possession of his uncle’s holdings.

As a result of the inquest, an arrest warrant was issued for Paronneau who was found three days later on February 22, traveling south along the Penobscot and apprehended.

Paronneau was held for trial at Pownalboro Jail. While in jail, Paronneau was not idle. On April 8, 1791, he wrote to the French Consul at Boston, Phillippe Andre Joseph de Létombe. The letter, now held in the Archives Nationales, Paris, is mentioned in passing in French Consuls in the United States by Nasatir and Monnell, and would have been unavailable to early Maine historians, who declared it a mystery as to how such a powerful political figure became involved in the case on the boy’s behalf.

According to Nasatir and Monnell, Létombe communicated to Chancellor Fleurieu:

"A young man named Paronneau, 15-16 years old, called by his uncle, M. Junin to Penobscot a year or two ago in the fur trade with the Indians. Boy arrived last year; he went to College de Soregu-Languedoc. Boy met schoolmates here. Informed last Fall that Junin was killed by him. Jury of Inquest said it was willful murder. Louis Paronneau imprisoned; says he is innocent" (1967:56).

Enclosed with this communication, Nasatir and Monnell note, is the letter of Paronneau to the Consul of France dated April 8, 1791. The letter is briefly summarized as follows:

“Asks his aid. Says he is innocent. Is in debt” (1967:56).

The Chancellor was sent to Pownalboro to “make and inventory” and serve as a guardian to Paronneau. Létombe also retained the region’s most prominent attorneys to defend the boy: John Gardiner and General William Lithgow, Jr.

The desperate youth did not halt his pleas for assistance with the French Consulate of Boston, however. On April 14, 1791, before his letter was even able to reach Boston, Paronneau authored a telling letter to President George Washington, published in The Papers of George Washington Presidential Series Vol 8, March-September 1791.

The letter, in Paronneau’s words, follows:

"Oh! Glorious Deliverer of your Country; I most Humbly beg you to excuse my temerity in Daring to expose before your Highness a Picture of woes to which your mild Heart will be very sensible.

I have left my Country, at that prayer of a beloved uncle; The most Horrid murder has Deprived me of this Dear father, and (Could your Excellency believe the sad tale) black injustice with all its most Criminal Jury accuses me of being his murderer: I am Dragged in a Narrow Gaol where innocence ought Never to go: Nor my tears, nor my prayers, nor my innocence Can move the flinted Heart of inhumans who perhaps (oh Horror) are guilty of the Crime of which they accuse me.

be your Greatness Judge of my griefs in thinking of the Sorrow of a father and of a Mother that tenderly Cherish their son who pay's em with the same Love. I weep bitterly: not for myself, I weep, since I am innocent: but for the whole family of which I have always been the Delight.

In the name of your shining glory, in the name of Humanity, Design to interest yourself in the behalf of an unjustly accused youth; in the name of your greatness bear to the French Nation may your remedy the Dangerous sickness of one of her Limbs. with the most profound respect I implore all the succor, all the pity, all the tears that Justly Deserves of your Highness, the most unfortunate, the most thankful of the part you will take to his misfortunes, & most Humble Servt,

Louis Paronneau"

Though there is no evidence that Washington responded to the plea in any particular manner, it is interesting to note that Paronneau makes no mention of his uncle’s identity in his letter. Junin, whose actions during the Revolution and close relationship with the Penobscot Indians were tracked closely and reported by John Allan, superintendent of the Eastern Indians, Machias, would have been well-known to George Washington. Also of interest in Paronneau’s letter is his narcissistic tone and the suggestion that his accusers―rather than rogue Penobscot Indians―may be responsible for the murder and are framing him. In fact, the boy, while claiming innocence, makes no mention of the defense he emphasized to Dennett, Eddy, and the men of Bangor.

In July 1791, Consul Létombe traveled to Pownalboro to attend the trial. Under the representation of Gardner and Lithgow, Paroneau was acquitted of the charges and the balance of his uncle’s estate—minus costs for the search, inquest, several casks of rum for use by the Jury and gaoler, and 39 shillings for a gravestone—was turned over to John James Paronneau. In a communication to Chancellor Thevenard, Létombe flatly states, “I am sending him to his parents at La Rochelle.”

On August 3, 1791 Paronneau again wrote to President Washington, informing him of his release.

"My Lord, Pardon my Freedom if I dare flatter my Self that your generous Heart (if Nevertheless great objects interest themselves to small ones) hath heard with pleasure & joy the News of my Deliverance. yes: Justice hath taken place, & them who Seeked the News my Death have been Disappointed. you Highness hath, without Doubt, received the Letter I took the liberty of writing at the time of My Detention, Knowing your greatness was the father of Humanity, I have take the Leave of expounding my misfortunes: Misfortunes which I had not merited. the Love I bear to my parents too Strongly engages me to return to them; to make any Delay: therefore, I go: to Consolate a Desperate family, Mourning Brothers, & Sorrowful friends. if ever fortune favours me as much as to bring me to this Country again; please your excellency to give me the Leave of presenting my Self before"

Again, Paronneau’s personality shows in his letter as he makes no mention of the French Consul intervening on his behalf or that is it, indeed, the Consul who is sending him home to France. Though this was the Consul’s intent, there is evidence the boy eventually ended up in French colonial Region Grande Anse in Santo Domingo where his name is recorded in the Jérémie Papers, 1714-1896, currently held in the University of Florida in Gainesville archives. According to the Jérémie Papers, on April 20, 1796 a request was issued by M. Lefranc, trustee, to inventory the property of the late M. Louis Paronneau.

While events played out in the life of Louis Paronneau, his uncle, Joseph Junin was afforded burial by Bangor citizens in the cemetery at the corner of Oak and Washington Streets, a 39-shilling slate marker noting his grave. The French trader was later relocated to Old City Cemetery, adjacent to Mt. Hope Cemetery in 1835, along with other graves from the Oak Street cemetery, to clear the property for use by the railroad.

Note that the Tympanum of the slate stone is broken off. Though the overall style of this stone, as well as several of the older slate stones surrounding it, is in an earlier colonial design, with very narrow shoulders and no boarder design surrounding the tablet inscription, due to the date of the stone around 1791, the tympanum design could likely have been an very early Federalist urn motif which rose to popularity following the American Revolution, particularly after the death of George Washington in 1799.

Sources:

Filby, P. William, ed. (2010). Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research.

History of Penobscot County, Maine with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. (1882) Cleveland: Williams, Chase & Co.

Jérémie Papers, 1714-1896. MS Group 17 (8-20). University of Florida in Gainesville Archives.

Nasatir, Abraham P. & Gary Elwyn Monell. (1967). French Consuls in the United States: A calendar of their correspondence in the Archives Nationalles. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Porter, Joseph W., ed. (1887). The Bangor Historical Magazine, Vol. II. July 1886—June 1887

Porter, Joseph W. (1877). Memoir of Col. Jonathan Eddy, of Eddington, ME: with some account of the Eddy Family, and of the Early Settlers on Penobscot River. Augusta, ME: Sprague, Owen, & Nash.

Twohig, Dorothy,ed. (1999). The Papers of George Washington. Presidential Series: Vol 8. March-September 1791. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

United States Federal Census (1790) Record for David Howe, assistant to the Marshall of the District of Maine.

Submission Edited: 01/19/2012

© Kimberly J. Sawtelle, 2012

Visit the first installment of the Mount Hope Cemetery Virtual tour at:
http://onagravesubject.blogspot.com/2011/09/virtual-tour-of-mount-hope-cemetery.html