Louis H. F. Wagner (also spelled Lewis Wagner; died June 25, 1875) was a German-born fisherman who arrived in the United States around 1865. Eight years later he was accused of the

axe murder An axe murder is a murder in which the victim was struck and killed by an axe or hatchet. List of axe murders The following are some notable cases. * Wenno von Rohrbach, the first Master of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, was killed by ...

s of two Norwegian women, Anethe Matea Christensen and Karen Christensen, on

Smuttynose Island Smuttynose Island (formerly "Smutty-nose") is a 27-acre island in the Isles of Shoals, a group of small islands and tidal ledges located off the coast of New Hampshire and off the coast of Maine in the United States. Smuttynose and some of the ...

in the

Isles of Shoals The Isles of Shoals are a group of small islands and tidal ledges situated approximately off the east coast of the United States, straddling the border of the states of Maine and New Hampshire. They have been occupied for more than 400 years, fi ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. Later convicted of the March 6, 1873, crime, he was sentenced to be hanged. After a failed escape attempt, Wagner became the fourth to last person to be executed by the

State of Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

. Despite an aggressively prosecuted case, so vehement was his denial that doubts still remain as to his guilt.

In popular culture

In 1875, poet

Celia Thaxter Celia Thaxter (née Laighton; June 29, 1835 – August 25, 1894) was an American writer of poetry and stories. For most of her life, she lived with her father on the Isles of Shoals at his Appledore Hotel. How she grew up to become a writer is d ...

wrote and published an account of the Smuttynose murders in ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. It was titled ''A Memorable Murder'' and remains a classic of American

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

writing. Author

Anita Shreve Anita Hale Shreve (1946 – March 29, 2018) was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, '' Past the Island, Drifting'' (published in 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976. Early years a ...

fictionalized the crime in her bestselling 1996 novel ''

The Weight of Water ''The Weight of Water'' is a 1997 bestselling novel by Anita Shreve. Half of the novel is historical fiction based on the Smuttynose Island murders, which took place in 1873. The book was adapted for a film of the same name, directed by Kathryn ...

'', which claims that Wagner was falsely convicted. In the 2000

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

, Wagner was portrayed onscreen by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds.

References

External links

Celia Thaxter: ''A Memorable Murder'' (The Library of America, Story of the Week, Reprinted from True Crime: An American Anthology (The Library of America, 2008), pages 131–155. Originally published in the May 1875 issue of Atlantic Monthly.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Louis H. F. 1875 deaths German emigrants to the United States German people executed abroad German people convicted of murder People executed for murder People executed by Maine by hanging People from Vorpommern-Greifswald Year of birth unknown

In popular culture

Further reading

References

External links