ITEM: The Trim Murders

Location: A little more south of Bangor, and little less north of Ellsworth. 

Date: October 13, 1876

This next cold case, is 3 times as disturbing and gruesome as the Sara Ware case, because it was 3 people that lost their lives. They convicted a man, this time around, purely on circumstantial evidence, but as I lay out the facts and the story, I’ll let you judge.

Mrs. Melissa Thayer had moved back to Bucksport after the death of her husband, with her 4 year old daughter. She had moved in with her 73 or 74 year old dad named Robert Trim. The year was 1876, so horse and wagon, or foot was the mode of travel of the day, it was a more peaceful time. She was in her early 30’s and intended to set up a modest school for her child and the neighborhood children in their large homestead.

It was a cool evening on October 13, 1876.  The on-coming night was still not for some time, so she had decided to walk to the nearby post office, and drop off or send a letter. When she walked towards the neighbors, the Harriman’s stepdaughter Ada Snow came out and said, since Captain Smith was visiting his sister-in-law, he had married her mother‘s sister, so it would be okay if she walked with Mrs. Thayer to the post office. As one account has it, another has Ada Snow being escorted by Captain Smith to a nearby neighbors the Phillips.  On the way they meet up with Mrs. Thayer, and then Ada decides to go with her to the Post Office, so they all return back to the Harrimans. 

Captain Smith, and his wife had stayed in the Trim Homestead helping, Mr. Trim with yard work and chores, while he waited for his next ship to leave. He was a well known and trusted Captain having sailed the seven seas. When they received word of Mr. Trim’s daughter moving back, they had moved back into the Bucksport village, but he always came by and visited.

Captain Smith had walked out earlier in the day, gunning what we call hunting rabbits, partridge and squirrels. He had helped Mr. Trim unload a wagon full of shingles, for the renovations and then walked up to visit his sister-in-law.

When the women returned from there walk, Ada said her goodnights, and that was the last anyone ever saw of Mrs. Thayer, alive again.

A little after midnight, or after 3 a.m. another neighbor woke up to a light, coming from the Trim house, when she looked out she saw the barn and carriage house were on fire. Raising the alarm, the neighbors from all directions converged to help and try and save the buildings. By the time they reached the barn, they could see who they guessed to be Mr. Trim, dead in the burnt carriage house.

They (leaving exact names out) managed to put the fire out enough, to retrieve his burnt body. His legs and arms had completely burned away.

The fire in both buildings had mostly burnt to the cellar, before they were put out. A skeleton, completely burnt of flesh, that of Mrs. Thayer could be seen in the floor of the barn. No trace of the daughter who's name I respectfully leave out, was ever found.

A strange and I guess you could say paranormal event occurred then. A nephew of Trim, had arrived and finding the group of neighbors standing over the charred ruins of the buildings. He was white lipped and obviously shaken. He blurted out a strange story of a vision that had come to him. In this vision his Uncle told him to go down to the lane, and find a pole leaning against the side of a fence.  I have only seen this mentioned in one more recent article, so it could have been a vision of a vision by the author of the article, if you get my drift. 

Skeptical but determined the unmentioned neighbors followed the directions and they found Melissa’s bloody cloud, what they called a scarf in those days. These are the quoted words from the neighbor. “I picked up the cloud and was horrified when blood dripped from it to the ground. “Drop the cloud,” said father. “This is a case of murder.” I dropped the cloud where I had found it, and we saw that there was a trail of blood leading toward the barn. We followed this trail and it took us back of the barn, which was now a smoking ruin.”

A Deputy Sheriff came from Bucksport village after telegraphing Ellsworth for the sheriff. They conducted an investigation. Finding that 2 neighbor teens had been the last to see Mr. Trim and his granddaughter alive. They had come calling, for what reason it isn’t pursued more then one to sign up for a singing class and the other to return tools, at night in the dark, and had left after visiting around 9 o’clock. They said the old man had asked them to see where Melissa was. They thinking she was visiting some neighbor, went to there homes.

Upon interview of other neighbors they heard mention of Captain Smith, one of the best deepwater men in the state, having been in the area. When they went to not interview but arrest him at his home, they noted drops of blood on his hat, a shirt, vest and pants and his heavy out coat, had been freshly dyed that morning, in what looked like an attempt to hide the blood stains.

When questioned about the blood on the hat and vest, the captain explained that he had been gunning or hunting several times over the past weeks. Having shot rabbits, and partridge.  He said the shirt he was wearing, had been the one he had on all week.  The detectives claimed it looked to clean, and unrumpled.  On the other hand, Mrs. Smith was a seamstress, so after mending the pants, she could have dry brushed and ironed the shirt, it's not like they had a laundryorama, next door.  A spot on his pants was said to be rust, from working in them. The coat was said to be faded and had been dyed that morning, in preparation for a temperance meeting later that day or the following day. A pocket of the coat, had blood in it.

The blood although only spots was said to be completely dried, and not even tacky, so soon after the killings. Upon further investigation, a knife and gun was found, again, to have blood droplets on them. When the knife was checked by experts, they claimed it to have 2 kinds of blood on it.  Also the coat did, according to the experts have, rabbit, sheep, deer and 2 kinds of human blood. So in other words the coat looked like the Partridge family bus, I'm sure they could tell, just what blood was what, the trial was 6 months later.  Plenty of time to sort every blood type out. 

The Captain was taken into custody, and it seems like no other avenues were pursued. While in custody at the Robinson House, a local hotel (Jed Prouty) he stayed in a room across the hall from the sheriff. The Sheriff was woken one night, to come and see the prisoner. The Captain had been put in irons, and his hands had swollen up, and cut off the circulation, and blood had run down his shirt from his wrists.

The Sheriff loosened the irons, and the next morning, the shirt was exchanged and put into evidence. They had investigated the scene of Mrs. Thayer’s murder, noting the cloud, a comb and rubbers, I’m guessing boots. A Rock covered with blood was also taken into evidence and thought to be the murder weapon. Or one of them anyway, don't forget the shot gun, the knife or the 3 foot string. 

It was thought that Smith, had waited for Mrs. Thayer, and then knocked her unconscious with the rock, and then slit her throat in an attempt to rob her. Then leaving her in a ditch, he waited for the youths to leave the Trim Homestead and went and killed the old man and his granddaughter . The money thought to be in the Trim possession from the Estate of Mr. Thayer, was never recovered.

The trial was set and even though Captain Smith maintained his innocence throughout, was found guilty on the blood evidence on the clothes and knife and gun, alone. With a motive of robbery. Since there was no confession, he was given life imprisonment, which turned out to be a rather long stay, he was struck with a iron pipe by another prisoner and died of his wounds, in 1908, some 30 years after his trial.

No trace of the granddaughter was ever found. If she had burned in the fire, she had so thoroughly that nothing was left of her.

Bucksport Man Investigates Ghost Stories, Old Murders

Written by Ashley Meeks

Thursday, April 06, 2006

BUCKSPORT — There’s something strange in the neighborhood.  ****** ********, local Ghostbuster, has got more paranormal activity and unsolved murders than you could shake a Ghost Trap at.  Most people know something about the supposed witch’s foot on Jonathan Buck’s tombstone — the vague shape of the fault in the granite is clearly visible.  ******'* Web site, Maine Supernatural, was envisioned last summer as a site to debunk the centuries-old legend that erroneously claimed Buck to be a judge cursed by a witch he had condemned to death.

"I put that page up to dispel those kinds of myths," ******* said. "I mean, they’re not real."  ******** says he’s always been interested in local legends and mysteries. Growing up in a haunted house might have something to do with it.  "People in the family, neighbors, visitors, would see a little girl," ******** said, as would people who owned the house later and took to blocking off the area of the upstairs where she appeared, the apparent ghost of a girl who had fallen down the stairs and died.  "Maine’s a good source of the supernatural and paranormal so far — I’ve been busy," ********* said, even without publicity.

He said locals invite him in to tour their houses. He’s spent winter weekends freezing his hands in search of EVPs — Electric Voice Phenomena — where he tries to get a spirit to say something on tape.  "I try to hit [a case] from every angle — word of mouth, maps, paranormal," ********* said. "I’m still pretty skeptical."  He’s heard things on tape — sometimes it’s just names and sometimes full sentences.  "You play them backwards and forwards and some of them are pretty strange," he said.

Most recently, though, ********* has been wrapped up in what at first appeared to be a triple homicide — the Trim murders — from 130 years ago at a house off Bucksmills Road.  The elderly Robert Trim, his widowed daughter Melissa Thayer and her 4-year-old daughter Josie were allegedly murdered and their home burned.  At the time, the homicides were blamed on a ship captain named Smith, who then stole Thayer’s savings of $750.  But ********* said that, after reading the accounts of the incident, he’s not sure what happened.  "I just don’t think he had a fair trial," ******** said. "He didn’t really need the money."  But he believes, like the "X Files" tagline goes, that the truth is out there.

******* has transcribed more than 20 pages of old Ellsworth American text from microfilm and examined scores of cemeteries in search of the truth in that case. He wants to make his research available at the **** ******* Library (named for the aforementioned man with the rumor-ridden grave), where he says plenty of people have come to research local legends and have gone away frustrated at the smudgy microfilm.  "They were really bad copies. You couldn’t make out the bottoms of paragraphs because as it transferred, it kind of blurred at the bottom," ******** said.

His time working on the research alone translates to a part-time job.  He says he’s still "on the fence" about belief in ghosts, describing himself as an "open-minded skeptic."  As for his investigation of the Trim murders, it’s more a straight unsolved mystery, ******** said.  "I haven’t gotten anything paranormal out of it, not for lack of trying," ******* said.

Right now, he thinks it might have been a case of accidental deaths — Melissa might have tripped, hit her head on a rock, bloodying and embedding it, leaving the trail of blood to her house, which her father might have accidentally burned down in trying to ready their wagon.  ******** is leaving no stone unturned — literally.  "There’s still so many, so many different theories that are going on," ********* said. But as far as he knows, he’s the only one investigating it.  This past weekend, he poked around what’s left of the burned house, which occupies a portion of someone’s backyard.

"You can’t see it from the road but the foundation is still right there off Bucksmills Road," ********* said. The old horse corral, the carriage house, "it’s all there in these people’s backyard."  "I bet they’d be surprised," ******* said, adding that there’s still hope for the Trim case. "Nobody knows for sure what took place."

He plans to compile his research and make binders available in the library and possibly self-publish his work in the future.  Work on the Trim case will go on for another few weeks, but ******** has plenty of other investigations he wants to undertake. Mostly, he says he just wants to get his reference material available to library-goers.  "People come in and they want stories. Hundreds of people come in for the [Jonathan] Buck stuff every year. This is just another town story."

Item:

Prescott Heath, on or about the night of the 11th sets fire to his wife's home, attempting to burn her and 3 others.  The house is burnt to the ground and the occupants barely make it out with their lives. 

You might ask, just what the heck does he have to do with the case?  Well Mr. Heath was the man that was hunting with Frank Saunders and saw Smith 2 days after he torched his own home.  He was out fox hunting in East Bucksport. 

Now if I had known an arsonist was on the loose, in East Bucksport, a man known as a hard case, and would be sent away for 20 years to Thomaston for the one fire, I might ask him his whereabouts on the night of the 13th. 

A man, who in 1898, at the advanced age of 78, several times attacked the administrator of the Poor Farm, located on the Town Farm road.  Once with a knife, threatening to kill the man.  Makes me wonder where he was on the night of September 17th. 

October 13

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7:00 A.M.--Frank Saunders goes hunting by A Harriman's for 3 hours

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10:30 A.M.--Frank Saunders returns home from Thomas Clay's fox hunting when he was going saw Smith

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12:00 P.M.--Snow stops at Trims, sees Thayer for 25, borrows screwdriver

l -- Smith at Harriman's working on cupboard

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1:00 P.M.--Snow went to school between 12 and 1

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3:00P.M.--Joseph Emerton sees Thayer

4:00 P.M.--Snow came home between 4 and 5

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5:00 P.M.--Nathan Emerton at home till 7

--Hiram E. Woodbridge leaves Bucksport village for home 7 miles out Bucks Mills road

--William Thompson accompanies Woodbridge

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5:45 P.M.--Harriman's, Snow and Smith Have supper till 6:15

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6:00 P.M.--Between 6 and 7 Rufus Moore went to Trim's to sign up for singing school

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--John W. Harriman gives Smith a piece of Tobacco in his yard, then goes to nearby brothers

--Shepherd Rideout returned home about 6 and overtook Thayer and Snow going to Charles Harriman's, he met Woodbridge and another man going North below Trim's 1/2 a mile

6:15 P.M.--Finished Supper, Smith offered to walk Snow to Sewall Phillips

6:30 P.M.--Lizzie Harriman says Snow and Thayer went to P.O.

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7:00 P.M.--Moore at Trim's sees Trim and Josie

--Hannah Emerton says son left home at 7 didn't return to 9:30

7:15 P.M.--Nathan Emerton arrives at Trim's finds Moore, Trim and Josie

--Snow tells Devereux she last sees Thayer at causeway in front of her house

7:30 P.M.--Woodbridge, back of Trim's Barn Thompson asks him if he heard groan

--William Thompson with Woodbridge when they heard groan, they both agree they heard a groan and went home

--Lizzie Harriman says Snow came back

--Last seen of Thayer alive (Oct 19 Paper)

--Smith at father's house between 7:30 and 8:00

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7:50 P.M.--John Harriman returns home from brothers, Smith gone, Snow home

8:00 P.M.--Snow parted with Thayer at her gate, upon returning from P.O.

--Smith at father's house did not go in, later then hoped goes on to home instead

--Otis Small passes Trim's House on way to home 3/4 mile past

--George Emerton started for home little out of Bucksport Village, doesn't see anyone on the road

--Hiram Woodbridge arrives home after hearing suppressed moan from Trim's place

8:30 P.M.--Smith's wife returns home

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9:00 P.M.--Moore and Nathan Emerton leave Trim's and go to Charles Harriman's to look for Thayer, at bequest of Mr. Trim, who they don't tell their plans, Charles and family all in bed

--Louise Eldridge, Smith's Wife and little girl go to bed

--Sarah M. Smith goes to bed

--Moore and Nathan Benner Emerton leave Trim's, thinking Melissa was in some neighbors house or had gone home, so they went back up past Trim's and home (Oct 19 Paper)

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9:15 P.M.-- Moore and Nathan Emerton walk back and see light on at Trim's, don't tell him of not finding Thayer

--Joseph Emerton states son came home at 9:15 did not say 9:30

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9:30 P.M.--Smith arrives at home

--Isaac McDonald testifies that both Rufus Moore and Nathan Emerton told him they left at this time.

9:35 P.M.--Moore arrives home

9:40 P.M.--Moore goes to bed

--A.G. Webster arrives home which he shares with Smith(May 10)

9:50 P.M.--Webster and Wife return home to Smith's house

10:00 P.M.--Louise G. Eldridge, sister of Smith, sees Smith in his wife's room

--Murderers spent time between 10 and 12 searching for money, murdering old man and girl, firing buildings, after already killing woman, and waiting for boys to leave, and the rest of East Bucksport to get off the road to Trim's, from behind Trim's Barn, out from behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll

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October 14

12:00 A.M.--Between 12 and 1 Joseph Emerton's wife wakes him up says buildings are on fire, when he gets there he finds all 3 wagons run out and hadn't been when he noticed at 3

12:30 A.M.--Fire first seen (Oct 19 Paper)

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1:00 A.M.--Nathan Emerton alarmed by Trim's Burning house

Mrs. Emerton was awakened by a bright light (Oct 19)

1:25 A.M.--Hannah Emerton comes home from fire, goes to bed and sleeps soundly

1:30 A.M.--Nathan Emerton leaves, father, mother, brother, James Trim and Mr. Harriman and goes home, nothing done to put fire out when there, goes to bed and sleeps soundly

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3:00 A.M.--Freeman Coombs arrives at burned ruins, found the remains of old man in the woodhouse near where the door was, close to the well

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5:00 A.M. --F. Saunders goes to fire, then went to Hampden

--Coroner Joshua A. Jordan arrives

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5:50 A.M.--Smith gets up

6:00 A.M.--Shepherd Rideout finds blood trail, rubbers, cotton batting, bloody cloud 5 or 6 rods(27to 32 Yards)from driveway on road leading to Harriman's between 6 and 7 also flat stone with blood and hair was partly imbedded in the ground.

--Freeman Coombs was with Rideout when items found

6:10 A.M.--Edward Smith wakes up

6:30 A.M.--Sarah Smith wakes up

7:00 A.M.--F. Saunders might have gone to fire from 6 to 7

--Lizzie Harriman walked blood trail

--Smith's have breakfast

--Lemuel T. Dorr heard of fire and started for it

7:30 A.M.--David E. Smith went to fire

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8:00 A.M.--Patterson hears of fire

--James Emery sees Smith between his store and Smith's lot, saw --George Eldridge talk with Smith and he went and got his revolver

--Robert Emery sees Smith in store, for cartridges while Eldridge waits

--Adelbert G. Webster spoke to Smith in street near Ryders block, he said go down there and you'll hear the news

--Smith talks with Webster

--Smith talks with Eldridge about tragedy

8:15 A.M.--Lemuel T. Dorr arrives at Trim's

--George A. Eldridge saw Smith at his home

8:30 A.M.--Patterson takes team and goes to fire at Trim's

--George A. Eldridge went to fire

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10:00 A.M.--George Moulton calls on Smith, who's not home

11:00 A.M.--George A. Eldridge returns from fire between 11-12

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12:00 P.M.--George Moulton talks with Smith a little before noon, about taking his son South with him

                  --500 citizens of Bucksport converge on crime scene, careful not to disturb any evidence, trample any footprints or pick up any mementos of the occasion

1:00 P.M. --Joseph Emerton arrives back from Bucksport with Casket for Trim, saw apparel about 5 rods from Trim's, from wagon

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3:55 P.M.--Devereux cross examined, says he arrived 5 minutes earlier

4:00 P.M.--Sheriff Devereux wonders in from Ellsworth arrives at ruins.

--F. Saunders returns home from Hampden

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5:00 P.M.--Walker, Bangor detective shows up at Trim's

--Joshua R. Jordan, Coroner arrives at Bucksport

--Devereux interrogates Snow, after telling Lizzie Harriman that her clock was slow, and adjust it for her, Snow mentions Smith was there the night before, but leaves out the 20 other men that was also there.  The Kerosene lamplight blinks on above Devereux's head, and instantly the flock of detectives is off and running for Bucksport, the heaviest of the bunch staggers back, out of breath and gets the wagon, and picks up the other detectives still on foot, running the 5 or 7 miles to town. 

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7:00 P.M.--Devereux arrives at Smith's, with Patterson, Weymouth

--Walker shows up soon after

--Smith arrested, interrogated and spends next 32 years in prison.  Then he, himself is murdered in prison on 1908.