HISTORICAL MURDER MYSTERIES PAGE 2: SARAH WARE

When you delve in to the unknown, and tap (no pun intended) into the paranormal. There’s a low lying vibe that you get. You start to think is this leading to something paranormal? But I have been avoiding the 2 historical murder mysteries that have happened in my hometown. Especially, since this one happened literally in my backyard. When you cross the line of homicide, it tends to become more real, then lurking around cemeteries and recording ghost voices. When you do a report on murders that have gone unsolved for over a hundred years, it adds a morbid fascination, that the townspeople of the time dealt with first hand.

Long before TV dulled our perception of violent crimes and murder. A brutal decapitation murder took place, in my sleepy rural hometown. The year was 1898, and the September 17^th night would be the last for a local woman. Her decapitated decomposed body would be found almost 2 weeks later, on October 2.

Sarah Ware had gone missing, and finally been reported missing, by Mrs. Miles who was for the most part ignored or dismissed. The last person who saw her alive, was Mrs. Fogg, that ran the small store. Of which Mrs. Ware had stopped briefly to make a purchase before walking home for the night, after working hard all day, at house cleaning and caring for Mrs. Miles.

When the alarm was raised and search parties were formed and sent out. They searched for a little over a day, to no avail. Crossing several times, close to or near the spot where she would eventually be found.

The town atmosphere must have been very tense during this period. A woman in a small town, just doesn’t go missing. When a search party finally did smell a fowl odor on the wind, and having no trouble following the rancid smell to the source, found Mrs. Ware’s earthly remains. In an alder swamp just of Miles Lane, where if not for the smell, she might have gone unfound, for all eternity.

The coroner was called in from a nearby town, and he along with several on-looking townspeople, examined the body and the area. After he made his full examination, they picked the body up, to move to a tomb, and her head fell to the ground, having been crushed or smashed from the body.

A detective from Bangor had been called in to investigate the murder and search for evidence. Witnesses were questioned and what few clues the evidence left, were followed.

A simple local man, by the name of Joseph Fogg, was questioned by the detectives and made a statement that he helped a local man, William Treworgy move a body, in a horse and wagon from behind a stone wall, to the nearby alder swamp where she would eventually be found. The man also testified that he was told if he said anything he would end up the same way.

Fogg later recanted and said he was forced to perjure himself by a town selectman and members of the Citizen's Comittee. The testimony and later recant of the testimony, helped more than anything to confuse the case. Was the man telling the truth the first time, and then threatened to retract? Either way after a bloody hammer and canvas was found in the cushion of a wagon owned by Treworgy in the back of Treworgy’s store. The law felt they had enough to arrest Treworgy in April 1899, and eventually would go to trial.

Treworgy was released on 500 dollars bail, and the last murder trial took place 4 years after the fact, in 1902 During the time, Mrs. Ware body had been buried in a paupers section of a town cemetery, and later dug up for further examination. The head either stayed in the possession of the detective the entire time, or was buried at some point with the body, and then later removed. Her head, ended up being found almost a hundred years later, in a evidence box in the evidence lockup at the Ellsworth Court house, after being forgotten or lost for most of a century and the burning of most of the courthouse in 1933.

The trial which lasted from July 15 to July 26 was held. Over 70 witnesses were called, and what little evidence was given. Treworgy, was reported to act smugly and make jokes during the entire trial. Winking at the jury, and acting like he was assured of a positive outcome.

With the lack of actual witnesses and the recanting confusion of Fogg, Treworgy was found innocent of the murder and released. No other person was arrested for the Murder.

Sara Ware had been buried and dug up, unknown times, and finally removed from the pauper burial, due to the building of a damn and flooding of that section. She was placed in a grave next to some of her husbands family members. On September 11, 1998, 100 years later, her head was buried with her body.

A woman who was alive during the Sarah Ware disappearance and then Murder Trial, was interviewed on the matter, and recorded. The details were then transcribed word for word including the “ha, ha….:” and other such breaks in speech that a person does, while retelling a long past story or memory. I chose to omit most of those, because they do tend to be confusing more then anything else. The rest is how it was transcribed. It gives a good insight to the feeling of dread that was present, during the time period. As well as tying in facts of the case from another persons perspective.

It goes:

Well, I don’t remember very much; but as I just remember that my mother wouldn’t go across the street over to my grandfather’s house at night without my grandfather standing in the front door with a lamp and then until she got across the field which wasn’t very far; and then when she came home, why one of the aunts had to stay in the doorway until she got back over home.

I wouldn’t want to say it; but the people who were mixed up in that were some of the, what we call, the upper crust! And she had I think that was kind of a drunken row, among the men, about that it if one of them had hit one of those men with the hammer that the would have found out who did that and perhaps killed her … she wasn’t she wasn’t dead. I don’t know how many… how long it was, but they took her down to Mrs. Miles…. Miles Lane… over in the other part of town, and they had a doctor come over and he unfortunately had come down with a quick case of TB and had to go to the west.

People were weary , they were well… it was crazy. It was I mean, I don’t suppose they thought the man was kinda crazy, not like we have them today. Then they took her…the Treworgy….and she died there at Mrs. Miles. They took her up the lane and they put her…There was the lane and my father had a field over there a hay field and ….I don’t think it was very far up the lane they put her out. I don’t know what they did, but she took to smellin and they. So that I guess she want taken by Mr. Treworgy then, but when she did, because she had been missing for quite a while and they, he took her way up the lane. I don’t know whether they just left her there. I don’t know ‘bout that but people were awfully scared.

I do know that my mother went to the man that was with Mr. Treworgy and said, ah mother was going to find out about it. She said, “what did…why did you change your story?” I won’t put in to many names but she asked, “why did you change your story?” “Well” he said, “The sheriff”, I’ll say that; I’ll say, but won’t say the name of the person, “the sheriff told me….took me into his office and told me that if I didn’t change that story, that ah, I would have to go to prison,” and he said, “that’s why Mrs……. Why I changed my story.”

A few follow-up comments on the account. First let me point out that some of the words and names were not included in the account, so as to protect most of the upper crust, and their families I expect. Which didn't help me in figuring out just what the point was. It's kind of a first hand account from a person that lived the happenings, and it does closely corroborate the facts from the above story. Fogg was the man that helped Treworgy and told the storyteller's mother that he had been threatened with prison, if he didn't recant. He was also the man, that stumbled and hit one of the other men, lifting up the body for the first time, thus having her head fall and hit the ground.

Treworgy was also overheard by the detectives as saying, "they'll be plenty of white shirts going to Thomaston if this goes to trial" Also being known, to somehow being indebt to Mrs. Ware, Treworgy was said to be overheard claiming, "I'll produce the murderer within 24 hours, if a sum of 250$ is placed in his bank account."

Conclusions:

I'll keep my smarmy comments to a minimum. First off CSI would have a field day with this case. Hell, even Sherlock checked fingerprints. Most of the town seems to know who did it. That or how could they ever sleep at night knowing that a brutal murderer was still on the loose, running around foaming at the mouth, and baying at the moon. If it was Treworgy then he was a functioning sociopath, or even psychopath. The kind of guy, that could tell a joke at the expense of the woman, he just bludgeoned to death with a hammer. If Treworgy didn't do it, and I for the most part I think he did, he knew who did. I have a feeling we would all know who did, if Treworgy had been convicted, because he would have taken everybody involved down with him, or we would know what he had on the concerned citizens. The defense knew it, and so did the founding father's at the card game. Last off, at least they mentioned that they moved the bodies from the pauper's cemetery, before they flooded the area, for the dam. It's not like they just moved the stones, or if the paupers even had stones. It's not like it's the town's water supply or anything....... Wait a second, it is. Thank, whoever, for bottled water. Then again, I've even seen cemetery maple trees, tapped for maple syrup.

Smoking Gun Update:

Item: Sarah Ware Murder House Identified

A extremely reliable source confided in me that his father-in-law lives in the house that Sarah Ware was murdered. The man’s father passed down to him the story that a weekly poker game was held at this house by the upper crust of the town. Mrs. Ware had made a visit to the game that night. It was unheard of that a lady, played cards or gambled. If it was done, it was done behind closed doors. Through investigating, there are always light bulbs that get turned on over ones head. ( A year later, I found out that she didn't have to be playing cards. All she had to do was return home. The Miles house is directly next door, to the above house. She could have just as easily walked into a skirmish, that had spilled out of the one house, stepped between 2 men fighting, reported to be Fred Ginn, and a Woodbridge, and taken a whisky bottle to the face.)

As the night wore on, things began to get out of hand, and before the night was over Sarah was mortally injured, or murdered outright in the home. She was then dumped where she lay for the 2 weeks before she was later moved and found on Miles Lane.

These facts fit perfectly with the eyewitness account and the court transcripts of the murder and the following trial.

Another piece of the puzzle, which I have yet to confirm, but am investigating. When she was injured, and while she lay dying, she was taken to her home, where she stayed with Mrs. Miles and a doctor was called to see if he could do anything for her. As in the eyewitness account, she said the doctor got a sudden case of TB and had to go to the west.

Doctor Towle, I verified, moved to California in 1899. A Doctor Snow did drown in Branch Lake, the next lake over at the age of 73 in 1933, which was 35 years later. Snow I might add, was also seen to be walking straight through a house that a eyewitness confided in me, she saw as a little girl. He was irrational, murmuring to himself and holding a hammer. Walked in the back door, and out through the front door without acknowledging the household. A hammer, I might add sounds suspicously like a certain missing hammer, with the initials W.T.T. on the handle.

It has long been reported and thought, that the place where she was murdered closer to the center of town, and then she was hauled up to the lane, and dumped. With this new information, it puts her being murdered and then thrown right in the backyard. Which goes a long way to being more conclusive. (8 months later, and dozens of personal eyewitness accounts passed downed from generation to generation, has the murder happening in dozens of houses in town, including most of those built before 1950 even though the murder took place in 1898.)

SMOKING GUN UPDATE:

In investigating a history, such as this, word of mouth gets out. Word of mouth that reaches the ears of people descended from people in the know. 1898 was not that long ago, historically speaking. Grandfathers of people in there 30's and 40's could have been that old in 1898. It's not that much of a stretch it was 108 years ago.

Information has been restrictedly made available. that can't be verified or used on my site. So even though permission wasn't obtained, there's always ways around, passing along information, without verifying, or naming names, or hopefully breaching my gag order.

So here goes, If I'm found beaten to death, and decapitated with a hammer, you'll know it wasn't acceptable: A person who's father was involved with the murder trial, was told under no uncertain terms that Treworgy did not commit the murder. He may have been involved with the cover-up, and the disposal of her remains. This person's father knew who did and it wasn't Mr. Treworgy. They all might have been present at the card game, of which I am quickly filling the chairs around the table, with. This all fits with the rest of my eyewitness accounts, and adds another piece to the long unsolved puzzle. (Unless of course, this new story was passed down from one of the key members involved in the cover-up or smoke screen of the case.)

POWDER KEG UPDATE:

Sure if you obsess about a case long enough you're going to lose all of your marbles, or pieces of the puzzle are going to start to fit together. Once you get the prelims done, you branch out on the tree of known information. Sure George Eldridge was involved with Eddy Smith, he was his brother-in-law, and he had something to do with the Ware case. Okay, 22 years later, I'll buy that. I have already pointed out similar coincedences, between both cases.

In my ongoing search for the facts, I've been scanning, all of the local papers, from the past 100 years. One article, mentions briefly a letter received from a man in Lawrence Mass, who was told by his relative, who was told by her relative, of what happened on the night that Sarah lost her life.

Sure this person had most of the names, locations and facts, just a little bit off. Like Miles didn't live on Mt. Olive, the card game was actually next door, to her house. That sort of thing.

Well this letter, went on to say, that a fight had broken out, between a Fred Ginn, and Hiram Woodbridge. Sarah could have walked in on this, going to her home, next door. Ginn had a bottle and he swung it at Woodbridge. Sarah got between them in an effort to break up the fight. The bottle crushed the side of her face.

Sure this account, can be easily swiss cheesed. Besides the broken jaw, she also had a skull fracture, and hammer sized hole in her head. But we'll leave that be for the time being.

I did have mention of the same kind of story, in other accounts with different names, and locations. Through all the swirl of information and miss-information, how would or could you verify anything, 109 years later.

You can't really, but you can work around the problem, and add more accounts together, sort of piecing together, different parts of the puzzle.

The name Hiram Woodbridge stuck in my craw. I knew the name, hell if you read any of my rants on the Trim case, you recognize, ol' Hiram, was in fact the fella out behind the barn doing the Abbot and Costello routine with Thompson about hearing a groan. Did they hear a groan? I'm not sure did you hear a groan?

Okay, so that puts Hiram as a key witness in a murder triple homicide barn burner, that could have possible been averted, if they could have decided that yes, they had heard a groan, and yes somebody might be bleeding to death in the barn.

This said, rantedly, so now we have the second murder case 22 years later, and again Hiram, this time on the other end of a murderous bottle, aimed to kill him.

Sure you really can't take the 3rd hand knowledge of a out of state witness, on that point alone. But see here's the thing. Good Ol' Hiram, civil war vet of the company D, 31st Maine Infantry, wasn't around for any of the trials, into the murder of Sarah Ware.

The newspaper article I found, was a years ago snippet from 1898, Sept 30, 1898. It read "Hiram E.Woodbridge, a well known resident, died at his home on Pond St. Monday morning from the result of a paralytic shock suffered Saturday night."

Now this said, Paralytic shock, I'm told is kind of like the scared to death bunny syndrome. A stroke brought on by fright, or some other reason that causes the individual to lose any movement and die.

So the man, supposedly in a fight on the night Sarah Dies, himself dies, before she is even found, and wouldn't be found until 3 days later. Coincedence? Hell no. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a 9 day difference between the night of the 17th and the morning of Monday the 26th. With the paralytic shock happening a week after the murder. What I am saying is either, he after being beaten nearly to a pulp, being a man in his late 60's or early 70's, lingered for a week and died of a stroke causing blood clot, from one of the many bruises or he was a loose end that needed to be tied up, before word of Sarah's Murder broke out on the 3rd. At least one of the doctors we suspect was in on if from the start (cough, Towle, cough) it would have been easy enough to claim paralytic shock, leaving out the part about being brought on by fists and bottles rained upon his body. We won't mention the other man supposedly that died on that night, of the 17 who we haven't a name on, and better not be Ginn. So that's 3 deaths in a 2 week period, are there more? Time will tell. (Want more? I know I do. Expanded and added a Woodbridge page.)

A Recent article on the Ware Murder Case Expertly written, and printed in the Ellsworth American. Boy, I wish this reporter was available for the Trim Murder Story, Wait a minute...... Maybe he'll be around for my Biography. The photo that accompanied the article was tastefully omitted, from what I could make out, It looked like the love child of Hobbit and Baboon. After all, this is a site of the supernatural, not a horror site.

Written by Nick Gosling

Thursday, February 01, 2007

BUCKSPORT--For a few years, from 1898 to the very early 20^th century, Miles Lane was the most infamous lane in New England.

The site of a grisly murder of a Bucksport woman, newspapers from near and away, including the Boston Globe, told the saga of the arrest, trial and acquittal of the man many believe was Sarah Ware’s murderer.

Nowadays, few people outside this part of Maine know the name Sarah Ware.

Bucksport librarian ****** ******* is trying to change that by presenting only the facts, gleaned from his months of thorough research.

****** invites the public to act as judge and jury and sift through his thick binder full of testimonies, evidence and timelines of the Ware murder case, then give him a verdict: Was William T. Treworgy guilty or not?

The story goes that on Sept. 17, 1898, Sarah Ware was walking home from a friend’s house when she disappeared. She wasn’t reported missing until the next week.

Search parties had little luck finding her until Oct. 2, when they “smelled her before they saw her” near Miles Lane, said ******.

An almost entirely decapitated and very decomposed Ware was found in a pasture near her home — about where the High School parking lot is now.

Several local doctors and the county coroner did an autopsy on Ware’s body and determined the cause of death was a fractured skull caused by a blow to the head — death by violence, they agreed upon.

Detectives came in from all over to help with the case, said *******.

On Nov. 27, Treworgy, a stovemaker and tinmaker in town, was implicated in the murder of Sarah Ware. The next day, the town abandoned the investigations for a week because of a lack of funds. Eventually, $500 was pooled together from community members and detectives continued their search for Ware’s murderer.

Not until spring of the following year was Treworgy arrested based on the testimony of a local boy, Joseph Fogg Jr., who said he had helped the tinmaker move a body the day of Ware’s death.

For three years, the case was kicked to higher and higher courts until, in July of 1902, it went to the Hancock County Supreme Court in Ellsworth. A good portion of the research ******* has done involves Treworgy’s Supreme Court trial.

By July of 1902, many of the people involved in the case, including deputies and a coroner, had died, been fired or quit and Fogg had retracted and reretracted his testimony, said *******.

The evidence in the murder case, including a hammer covered in blood with Treworgy’s initials on it that had been found in the tinmaker’s wagon, had also disappeared. The shape of the hammer’s head had matched the wound in Ware’s head.

Much of the case involved suspicious circumstances, said *******, who thinks many people in town secretly wanted Treworgy cleared of the crime.

******* doesn’t make any conclusions in the pages of his own research. He stays focused on the facts, the information he read in old newspapers and town records.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t have his own opinion about who killed Ware.

“I think he did it,” said *******, referring to Treworgy. “He was one of those guys that knew a lot of other people’s business. If he was [convicted] he was going to take someone down with him.”

******* spent eight months compiling coroners’ reports, witness testimonies and other information on the murder, walking the route that Ware was supposedly last seen on and visiting the grave of the woman, who was 52 years old when she was murdered.

******* said he hopes to have his 240-page binder on Ware published, though he’s having problems finding a book publisher who doesn’t think the Ware murder is too local for print.

“If you mention [Ware] in Bucksport, everybody knows. If you mention [Ware] in Augusta, half the people would know,” he said. “The further you get away from Bucksport, the less people have heard of it.”

But that hasn’t stopped the Travel Channel from running an episode on the Ware murder or other writers, who employ more fiction than fact, said *******, from having books about the Ware murder printed.

Over the last century, the Ware case has gained a bit of mythology, said *******. One theory he’s heard is that Sarah Ware was the witch Col. Jonathan Buck, founder of Bucksport, killed. But Buck and Ware lived about 100 years apart. (A good deal of lore surrounds the Buck Tomb.)

Other theories that emerged around the time of Ware’s murder, include her committing suicide by drinking poison and a cow stepping on her in the field. Or there’s the theory that a gang of young men accosted Ware on her way home.

“Today they would have got, on DNA alone, who did it,” said *******. “Even after the two weeks of her laying out in the elements.”

Unfortunately, the time has passed for DNA testing and though Sarah Ware’s murderer may never be revealed, ****** ******* is making sure people know all the facts, and nothing but the facts, about it.

****** *******’s Web site can be viewed at http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqnk8x/.