Case Closed on the 1873 Smuttynose Ax Murders

10/27/22

BHS Museum

“Case Closed on the 1873 Smuttynose Ax Murders”

Presented by local historian and longtime summer steward of
Smuttynose Island, J. Dennis Robinson.

For almost 150 years the moonlight ax murder of two Norwegian women on the rocky Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire has haunted New England. Mr. Robinson cuts through the hoaxes, lies, rumors, and fiction surrounding the arrest, trial and execution of 28-year old Louis Wagner, who claimed his innocence to the end.

If you read the bestselling novel Weight of Water or saw the Hollywood film — that’s not what happened. Mr. Robinson lays out the facts based on his book-length study, “Mystery on the Isles of Shoals.”

This is a New Hampshire Humanities Program and is free and open to the public.