The Murder of Mr. Thompson: The Suspects

This is a contination of a previous post. 

THE FARMINGTON MURDER

The selectmen of Farmington were searching for a murderer based on very few clues and an incredibly general description.

The October 27 Times stated that a man “answering precisely to the description given by Mrs. Thompson” (we can only hope she gave a better description to the police than the newspaper!) had been seen in a shop in Farmington on that same day. He was, “short, hair cropped, had a low round topped hat, features haggard, eyes dull, appearing as if he had been on a spree. His voice was peculiar, a fact specially remarked by Mrs. Thompson and her daughter.”

A Mr. Steele, who lived on the road to Bloomfield said that on the night of the murder, he heard two or three people talking amongst themselves on the road near his home. He saw one man “muttering to himself in an incoherent manner” and that he heard the man say the words “Sorry I did it,” “I killed him,” and “blood, blood.” Another neighbor claimed to have heard similar murmurings. Other sightings were also reported, including one by a man in Berlin, who insisted that the murderer knocked on his door at 2 a.m. Saturday morning claiming he was lost and needed directions to Berlin.

On October 26, the Courant swapped their dramatic take on the event for a deeply sympathetic one in their next article on the murder. Earlier articles were rife with mystery and gore. Suddenly, the “mysteriously murdered” man was the son of a “widowed mother” who had “completely broken down” and “the house…where she expected to live out her few remaining years in peace and quietness… is darkened by a shadow… She cannot live there in the future without being continually reminded of the shocking events… and feeling unsafe beneath the shelter of that humble roof.” It continued that the murderer would not have killed Luther Thompson if only they understood the “misery he has occasioned.”  

The same article mentions Luther’s enemies and that he had “stood almost daily in fear” of being injured or killed by them. The Courant was informed by a “reliable authority” and assumed that someone who knew Luther must have known that he was going to be murdered in such a way. This contrasts directly with the Times, as they noted that he had not an enemy in the world and that he was “a quiet, peaceful citizen, of excellent character,” a fact which even the Courant had reported in earlier articles.

The motive of the murder remained a mystery, as Thompson had no money or watch on his person, and no money in the house. A neighbor had withdrawn a substantial amount of cash from the bank, and one source suggested that the murderer had mistaken Thompson for the neighbor.

Despite the conflicting reports, information, and suspects, the Farmington selectmen were trying their best to find the murderer of Luther G. Thompson. It seems that one possible suspect was a French-Canadian who had been seen near the house and in the vicinity. This was never confirmed, and a man fitting his description was seen leaving Hartford on a train soon after. They interviewed everyone who had been on the road or near the Thompson house on the night of October 20, 1866. The selectmen worked together and met often, comparing notes and discoveries. A reward for information was up to $5,000- no insignificant sum at the end of the Civil War.

John Connell, a man from Collinsville, was the first to be arrested for the crime. His description (short hair and a hat) and the fact that he had been seen in Farmington were enough to make him a suspect. His whereabouts on Saturday proved that he had nothing to do with the murder

In early November, a suspect was identified as Charles Osborne of East Windsor. The officer who visited his home found that he didn’t match the description of the murderer and that Mr. Osborne was a “quiet and inoffensive man.” He had also returned from a sea voyage after the murder and therefore couldn’t have been the man seen in Berlin or be the murderer.

A Charles Osgood of South Windsor was also a possible suspect. He was a 25-year-old convict who had spent time in jail for threatening his family. The article discussing Osgood is hard to read, so the details are literally fuzzy. It seems that while the detective had reason to follow up, this wasn’t the killer.

The trail went cold until late December when two arrests were finally made. The suspects, Theodore Moister (or as the Times said “Moisture”) and Henry A. Smith, both German men were living in Moister's house in West Hartford.  Henry was married to Moister's daughter at the time. While no mention of them was made in the newspapers until December 31, the Courant mentioned that they had been suspected the day after the murder, but neither Mrs. Thompson nor Mary had recognized either of them when the men were brought to their home. Moister and Smith were supposed to have had a disagreement with Thompson over the sale of a piece of property and their wagon had been seen in the vicinity on the night of the murder by Mr. Spring and his son.

To be continued...