In Episode 373 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore a neighborhood in Concord, New Hampshire, to see what’s left of the original New Hampshire State Prison. It was on these grounds that Josiah Pike became the first person executed by the state for a capital crime. We’ll explore the heinous crime that led to his execution.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Guest Voice Actor: Marv Anderson
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
JEFF: So we’re going to make a left up here onto Beacon Street.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Okay, got it.
JEFF: And Our destination is coming up here on the right.
RAY: Okay, I see a large brick building that spans the width of Crosby Street right in front of the building. It looks like it might have been an old manufacturing company or something like that.
JEFF: It IS an historic building here in New Hampshire’s capital city of Concord. We can park in the parking lot in the front.
[CAR STOPS / DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
RAY: It looks like there’s various offices and businesses in there today.
JEFF: There are. But originally, this building was part of New Hampshire’s very first state prison.
RAY: Really? That’s hard to imagine today.
JEFF: There used to be many other buildings with cell blocks and wire fences, but this one was filled with workshops for prisoners. It’s the only part of the original prison still standing.
RAY: What brings us here today?
JEFF: We’ve come to these grounds to witness New Hampshire’s first state execution.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger and welcome to Episode 373 of the New England Legends podcast.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. If you’ve got a story lead for us, please contact us through our Web site. Our Website is also the place to see dates for Jeff’s Fright Before Christmas story tour, and to see my band The Pub Kings!
JEFF: We’ll explore the story behind New Hampshire’s first execution right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Okay, so we’re standing in this neighborhood located pretty close to where Interstate 93 and 393 intersect. Anyone who has ever been to Concord, New Hampshire, knows that though it’s a state capital, it’s not really a city with a bunch of high-rise buildings, it’s more of a town.
JEFF: That’s true.
RAY: So all around this two-story red-brick commercial building are neighborhoods with one-family houses and little yards and a few small businesses.
JEFF: This building located at 2 and a half Beacon Street was once known as the New Hampshire State Prison Warehouse. The state prison was constructed in 1860 and took up a lot more land than this building does today. And as I said earlier, this was the site of New Hampshire’s first state execution for a capital crime. We know it took place in the prison yard, which would be where those houses are today.
RAY: Yikes! Think any of them are haunted?
JEFF: I’m not sure. But to find out what happened, let’s head back to the year 1868.
[TRANSITION]
[WINTER WIND]
RAY: It’s early morning. Friday, May 8th, 1868 here in the town of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. Though it’s spring, you wouldn’t know it by the weather.
JEFF: No you wouldn’t!
RAY: There’s about four inches of snow on the ground right now. We’re currently standing outside the farm belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Brown. Thomas is 75 years old, his wife is 73.
[ROOSTER CROWS]
RAY: It’s about 5AM when the Brown’s farm hand, Timothy Leary walks from his bunkhouse on the property through the snow, and up to the front door of his employer’s home which is how he starts each of his workdays.
[KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK]
RAY: He knocks on the door, but no one answers.
JEFF: It’s unusual for the Browns not to be awake yet. Still, Leary shrugs, and makes his way to the barn.
[WALKING]
[HORSE NEIGH]
JEFF: Inside the barn Leary finds the Brown’s horse with his bridle on.
RAY: Now that IS strange… why would the horse be getting saddled up this early in the morning?
JEFF: Unless Mr. Brown had somewhere to be this early?
RAY: Maybe. But you’d think he would have said something to his farmhand about that yesterday. Leary believes something is wrong, so he’s walking back over to the house.
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK ON WINDOW]
RAY: He’s knocking on the living room window and looking around inside.
JEFF: I don’t see anyone in there.
RAY: Me neither. No Leary is heading to the back door of the house that leads into the kitchen.
[POUND POUND POUND]
RAY: He’s pounding on the door.
JEFF: I think I hear someone inside.
[DOOR UNLATCHES SLOWLY CREAKS OPEN]
JEFF/RAY (SHOCKED): Gasp! Oh my! What happened?!
JEFF: Mr. Brown is covered in blood! He’s got a huge gash in his head. He’s barely able to hold himself up!
RAY: Mr. Brown can’t seem to talk, but he’s making his way back to a bedroom to lie down.
JEFF: Look! On the floor of the kitchen!
RAY: This is awful. Mrs. Brown is lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her skull is crushed in.
JEFF: She’s not breathing or moving. Is that…
RAY: Yeah, I see it. That’s an axe covered in blood.
[RUNNING FOOTSTEPS]
RAY: Farmhand Leary is running out the door to get help.
JEFF: Within a few hours, Dr. William Perry from Exeter arrives, as does the Marshall from Portsmouth.
[GASP / LAST BREATH]
JEFF: Sadly, Mr. Brown’s wounds were too severe. He’d lost so much blood. He just drew his last breath.
RAY: Pretty soon, suspicion turns toward a young man named John Ross.
JEFF: Ross is a farm hand who worked here for the last eight months. He quit the job just a few days ago. And it’s not like he left on bad terms. Mrs. Brown had given him $4 dollars as a parting gift.
RAY: The Marshall is starting to piece together everything that happened. The Browns had recently sold a bunch of cattle and had over $500 cash in the house from the sale. This morning, their other farmhand, Mr. Leary had seen their horse had the bridle on, which makes the marshal suspect maybe the killer intended to steal their horse for his getaway.
JEFF: The Marshall is making his way back from the barn now. He’s look… wait a minute. What has he found?
RAY: Let’s take a look.
JEFF: Huh… look at that! Footprints in the snow!
RAY: They’ve been partially filled in by the snowfall, but yeah, you can clearly see the footprints moving off away from the house. The marshal is mounting his horse.
[HORSE GALLOPING]
RAY: And racing off to follow those footprints.
JEFF: Word spreads around Hampton Falls that the Brown’s old farmhand is wanted for murder. It doesn’t take long for the marshal to track down and arrest John Ross. And that’s when the house of cards falls down.
RAY: It turns out, John Ross, is NOT his real name. He’s really Josiah Pike who was originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts. Pike was married ten years ago, but his wife and his child died soon after the birth. He turned to alcohol, and took odd jobs to keep himself fed. When the Civil War began a few years ago, he signed up to fight. He was wounded in battle and discharged from the Union Army. Since the war ended, Pike had gotten himself in trouble multiple times for public drunkenness and stealing. He had just finished a two-year prison sentence in Ipswich, Massachusetts, when he came up to Hampton Falls, took the name John Ross, and began working for the Brown family.
JEFF: I guess his old ways caught up to him, but now you add in a brutal axe murder on top of the robbery.
[GAVEL BANGS THREE TIMES]
JEFF: When asked how he pleads to these heinous crimes. Pike answers.
PIKE: Guilty, your honor.
JEFF: The judges sentences Pike to hang.
(LONG PAUSE)
RAY: Pike has spent the past 17 months in the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord awaiting his execution. It’s now Tuesday, November 9th, 1869.
[WALKING UP WOODEN STAIRS]
RAY: The guards are walking Pike up to the gallows in the yard of the New Hampshire State Prison.
JEFF: Pike spent most of the night with the chaplain reading from the Bible, and asking God for forgiveness for what he’d done.
RAY: Pike appears shaky. I mean… who can blame him. But he isn’t putting up any resistance. When the Chaplain offers a prayer, Pike kneels before him to receive it.
JEFF: The Sheriff just offered Pike a chance to share any last words. It looks like the condemned man is going to address the crowd gathered here today.
PIKE: I don’t shrink from my fate. I do not dread to die. I know how worthless my life is, and I have hope in Christ for a better hereafter; but I wish to leave a warning in my last words to those who are inclined toward intemperance. It has decided my fate and ruined my soul, and I entreat those who deal in intoxicating drink to stop that dreadful work, and oh, I implore their victims to stop before it is too late. As I hope to be forgiven the sins of a misspent life, I forgive all severity and injustice toward myself, and willingly commit myself, wrecked and unworthy as I have been, to the merciful Savior. To my special friends who have been so kind, and who have given me sympathy, advice and encouragement during this prison life, I can only return the heartfelt thanks of a dying man. I can now feel what they have done for me, but cannot utter my feelings. I commend them to God for his blessings, and imploring mercy for myself, I give you all my last farewell.
JEFF: Pike is stepping up on the platform… the guard is tying his hands behind his back. (PAUSE) And now he’s lowering his hat to cover his face.
RAY: They’re placing the rope around his next as the Sherrif reads the sentence to him again.
[DOOR SLAM / THUMP]
RAY: Josiah Pike just fell about eight feet below the gallows with a single twitch from his body. The sentence has been carried out. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: Josiah Pike was the first person executed by the state for a capital crime. There would be 25 more up until 1939. Most of the New Hampshire State Prison buildings were torn down in the 1890s, but this lone building remains. It was a manufacturing company, and now it’s broken into offices. It’s a building that now sits on the National Register of Historic Places.
RAY: You can’t help but wonder if tenants and neighbors realize the gruesome history that would have taken place right outside.
JEFF: Most of what we know about the crimes were pulled from newspaper clips from the time. This story went out on the wire services and made it into a lot of papers. Pike blamed the booze, but also himself.
RAY: This guy had a rough life. I’m not saying it justifies theft and murder, but this is one of those stories that’s tragic all around.
JEFF: It is. Though the buildings are gone, and what’s left has changed its name and purpose, sometimes history is like a stain that can never be washed away. A man was hanged here. Punished. When you know the stories and hear his words right near where it all happened, you can’t help but get a chill.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: That you do. And that brings us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! This group of insiders is the backbone of everything we do. Bringing you two episodes each week takes a lot of time and money. Our patrons help us with our hosting and production costs, marketing, and everything else it takes to keep us going. They kick in just $3 bucks per month – like buying me and Ray a beer… that we have to split. And for that they get early ad-free access to new episodes, access to our entire show archive, discounts, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Please head over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends to sign up.
To see some pictures of the former prison building, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 373.
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We’d like to thank Marv Anderson for lending his voice acting talents this week. Thank you to our sponsors, thanks to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
