Smuttynose Island Murders
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  • The Book
    • Mystery on the Isles of Shoals
    • Reviews
    • Media Coverage
    • The Author
    • Author Appearances
    • Smuttynose Archaeology & History
    • Book Club Questions
  • The Story
    • Background
    • Moonlight Murders
    • Capture
    • Wagner's Trial
    • On the Gallows
  • The People
    • The Victims
    • The Hontvets
    • The Killer
    • Celia Thaxter
    • Cops & Lawyers
    • Key witnesses
  • The Places
    • The Isles of Shoals
    • Smuttynose Island
    • The Hontvet House
    • The Oceanic Hotel
    • Appledore Hotel
    • Portsmouth, NH
    • Alfred, Maine
    • Thomaston Prison
  • Fact Vs Fiction
    • Weught of Water (Novel)
    • Weight of Water (Movie)
    • The Case Against Wagner
    • Conspiracy Theories
  • Blog
    • Why John Hontvet Had to Wait for the Bait
    • The Couch the Killer Did Not Sleep On
    • Smuttynose Murder House is No Longer Standing
    • I Rowed to the Isles of Shoals
    • The Karl Thaxter Theory is Hogwash

The Killer

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Jealous, desperate, and very likely a sociopath

Handsome and brawny, Louis Wagner was a 28-year old fisherman down on his luck when he arrived at the Isles of Shoals in 1872. He befriended John Hontvet, a Norwegian immigrant who, unlike most local fishermen, was "forehanded" and earning a profit aboard his trawl fishing schooner the Clara Bella. Wagner lodged with the Hontvet family in their duplex apartment on Smuttynose Island in summer. But that fall, when new members of the Hontvet family arrived from Norway, Wagner was forced to move to a cheap rooming house in Portsmouth, NH on the mainland nearby. BY March 1873 Wagner was penniless and reportedly told others that he knew where there was money, but that one might have to commit murder to get it.  His personality profile fits the classic elements of a sociopath and he denied his guilt right onto the gallows. 

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