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Subject: [GM-L] Maria L. Crue Murdered 1880, Groton Part 9
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 18:21:39 EST
Part 9
Maria L. Crue Murdered, 1880 at Groton - Boston Herald Story
After Abbott was committed to jail, Mr. Reed went to work to systematically
arrange the case
which showed Abbott's doings as follows:
He left Nashua on Friday the 16th day of January and came through Hollis to
Pepperell and
from that place to Groton and Ayer.
A milkman was found who gave him a ride to Pepperell.
At 4 o'clock on the afternoon of Friday the day previous to the murder,
Abbott was seen
by Albert P. Ames of Groton opposite the Fuller place on the Groton road
about half way
between Groton and Ayer.
Calvin Blood, living on the same road, saw Abbott between 5 and 6 p.m. Had
a talk with
him about buying a farm.
At 7 o'clock Abbott called at the cabinet shop of E. B. Dolloff and requested
work and said
he was a wood turner.
Thomas McLaughlin saw Abbott at the chair shop about 7 o'clock.
Wallace Eaton, who boarded at Mrs. Sophie Demott's, slept with Abbott on this
Friday night.
He told Eaton that he came from Nashua and worked there for Eli Brothers wood
turners.
Mrs. Sophie Demott said that Abbott was the man, and that he went away
without payng his
board. Her son, Herbert Demott, identified Abbott also.
On the morning of the murder at 8 o'clock, Abbott was seen at the Ayer
station by Freeman
Hopkins and Colonel Artemas Wright. Colonel Wright had some talk with
Abbott, but the
subject matter of the conversation was not known until after the trial. He
claims that
Abbott asked him if he knew where a family named Crue lived on the Littleton
Road.
They saw Abbott walk down the track toward Betsey Mitchell's house.
The reader will find that the exact course of Abbott can be traced on the
map.
He was seen, as before stated, by Betsey Mitchell at 9 o'clock. Keeping on
the track,
Abbott walked on until he reached the road leading up to the house of Mrs.
Falconer by
Sandy Pond, where he was seen at 9:30 o'clock.
He was seen to pass the house of O.K. Pierce about that time, but they could
not identify
him as they paid no particular attention to him. He passed the house of Mrs.
Annie Vereste
about 10 o'clock. She was able to identify him. At the junction of three
roads, near the
school house, Abbott met Mr. Clark, who said he wore an overcoat like his,
and it may be
stated at this point, that, when the coats were put together, they could
hardly be dist-
inguished. He met Mr. Clark about 10 o'clock. Mrs. Emma E. Pierce, as
before stated,
saw Abbott about 11 o'clock, when he called at her house for a drink of water
and spoke
about buying a farm. From the house of Mrs. Pierce, he probably continued to
the junction
of the road leading to the house of Fuzzard, and then turned down by the
Bradley house,
North Litteton depot, to the junction of the road by the house of L. Martie
and then turned
to the left, continuing to the house of B. A. Hager, where he passed by at 12
o'clock. He
was seen by Stowe Hager. Mrs. Hager and Helen Hager, who identified him.
He attracted their attention by his peculiar looks and actions. He was seen
to pass by on
his way back. It is here, or a little below this place that the guide board
[road sign]
is situated to which Abbott referred in his conversation in the Bradley
house. Abbott was
next seen at the Bradley house, to reach which he was obliged to retrace his
steps on the
road leading to the Crue house.
What took place at the Bradley house has been stated. When he left he went
toward the Crue
house about 2 o'clock and was a little later seen by Henry Hewins. At 3
o'clock or there-
abouts, Jennie Carr called and the detailed circumstances took place. There
is no doubt
that she actually did call there because she was seen to drive up to the
door, by Dr. Miles
Spaulding of Groton. Augustus Stone and other people saw her on the road
going and coming.
At 4:15 o'clock Henry Moore and Augustus Stone went to the side door of the
Crue house to
return a blanket. The doors were found fastened, and the house was entirely
closed. After
leaving the house, Abbott probably went to the barn, for in the hay a nest
where somebody
had been lying down was found, in which was found a part of the piece of pie
which was
taken from the house. Examination of the barn showed that shingles had been
broken off on
two sides to afford a view of the house.
On leaving the barn at dark, it is supposed that Abbott started for Lowell,
where he was
shaved that night. Mr. Reed did not go to Lowell to investigate this point
until about two
months after the murder. He found the barber shop as described by Abbott to
Hopkins. The
boy who shaved him was found in the mills at work. He assisted his father
evenings. He re-
membered the circumstances of shaving Abbott from the fact that Mr. Stevens,
the lame
lawyer, had been to see him about it, and had told him not to say anything
about it. This
Mr. Stevens was Abbott's counsel. What Abbott did after being shaved, up to
the time he
turned up at Mrs. Hughes in Cambridgeport at 5 o'clock the following Monday
morning is not
known. His doings from that time are known but not in dispute. When the
pistol
which was found in Abbott's possession in the boarding house on Shawmut
Avenue came to the
hands of Detective Samuel Reed, it was found to be one of very cheap pattern
"the Defender"
It was a .22 caliber, and the cartridge shells found in the woodbox of the
Crue house exactly
fitted it. The pistol and shells were taken to an expert for examination.
He examined the
hammer of the pistol carefully, and by microscopic examination, demonstrated
that the
indentations in the shells found in the Crue house were made by that hammer
and could have
been made by no other. There was a nick in the hammer that left a mark in
the shell. It is
understood that those interested in Abbott's case state that these shells did
not fit the
pistol. That is untrue. At the trial, all this evidence and much more which
it is not
necessary to mention, was put in. Previous to the trial Mr. Reed had several
consultations
with Mr. Stevens, the counsel for the defense. By order of the attorney
general, the entire
case of the government was submitted to him previous to the trial, so that he
had all the
evidence in the possession of the government and knew what he had to meet.
During one of
these converstions, he told Mr. Reed that Abbott insisted on going on the
stand, but he
did not think it was best for him to do so. He opposed it strongly, but it
was useless -
Abbott insisted on testifying in his own behalf. Mr. Reed told Mr. Stevens
that if the
government had not sufficient evidence to convict Abbott, his own statements
would do so,
if he lied as he had in the past.
Next - The Trial - Part 10
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
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