Episode 28. The Isles of Shoals Murders.
“Horror on Smuttynose” from Yankee Magazine, 1980 | The 1873 Smuttynose Murders
This case was suggested by Tim Nichols.
Smuttynose Island is one of the Isles of Shoals in the United States. It was named by fishermen, who upon seeing the island, noticed that the seaweed collected at one end gave it the look of a great sea animal with a “smutty nose”. The island is best known for its association with a tragic double murder, the case we will be looking into today.
In 1860, couple John and Maren Honvet moved to Smuttynose Island. For a while, they were the only two living there. John was a fisherman and would sail out to fish daily, before traveling to New Hampshire to sell his catch, and coming back home. Maren had a small dog, Ringe, who lived in the home with her and her family and friends. She was said to keep a bright and happy home, decorating with plants and bright wallpapers, though she missed her life in Norway, prior to moving to the Isle of Shoals.
Two years after moving to the island, they met newcomer, Louis Wagner. Louis was 28, a well built man who kept quiet about his past. Though the Honvet’s would come to enjoy his company, the same couldn’t be said for others who had interacted with him. The couple noticed that Louis was down on his luck. He was struggling to make ends meet and was wanting for company, food, clothing and income, and so the couple took him under their wing, so to speak. The three became friends and before long and it would come to be that John would include Louis in his successful fishing business. It was reported that Maren and Louis and John would become as close as siblings in their time together.
In May 1871, Maren’s sister, Karen, came to the Isle of Shoals and was employed as a live in maid on a neighboring island. Maren was concerned for her sister who had suffered a heartache in Norway before coming to the Isle of Shoals. However, being in close proximity, the sisters were able to visit and keep in touch, which reassured Maren that she could help lift her sister’s spirits once again.
By 1972, the Island would be met with more family members and friends. Louis Wagner moved into the Honvet’s home, and John’s brother Matthew, Maren’s brother Ivan and Ivan’s wife Anethe, came to live in the Honvet home, as well. Anethe and Ivan had been married since Christmas and were very much in love. It was a crowded but a happy home, by all accounts. It was in 1972 that John invited Louis to join his lucrative fishing crew.
Louis stayed with the Hotvet’s for five weeks after the family and friends moved into the home, and ten went on to join a fishing crew on the schooner the Addison Gilbert. By November, he had left Smuttynose altogether. Fate had it in for Louis, it seemed. The Addison Gilbert wrecked and Louis found himself working along the Portsmouth wharves, earning less than a living wage. Within months, he was destitute, his clothes were worn through, and he owed three weeks rent to the Jonsens’ whom he was living with.
On March 5, 1873, Matthew, John and Ivan left to fish, per their usual routine. Karen, by this point, had ended her position as a live in maid and was now living with Maren and Anethe at their home. The men docked at Portsmouth and asked someone to send a message to the women on the island that they would not make it back home that night due to the strong winds. The women would be the only people on the island that night, and this would prove fatal for two of them. It was here at the docks that the men met Louis, who asked them if they would be returning to the island that night. They told him that it was likely they would not be able to return until morning, as they were awaiting the arrival of bait.
It was 7.30pm when Louis was last seen at the port. He was apparently aware that the bait had not arrived and so the men would not be home. He then is said to have concocted a plan to burglarise the Honvet home. Louis Wagner reportedly stole a boat and returned to Smuttynose Island that night, making the journey alone, which would be come up in his defense at trial. It was a 12 mile journey, a lot for one man, but Louis was a skilled oarsman and had made the trip previously many times in a whaling boat.
Having received a message earlier that afternoon that their husbands may not return home that night, it was around 10pm when the women prepared for bed, having decided not to wait up any longer.
Wagner reportedly watched from afar, waiting until the women retired for the night, before entering the home when all was still and dark. The curtains had been left open that night as the weather was reasonably clear.
According to Maren’s testimony, which is ultimately what convicted Louis, it was Karen who woke first. Since coming to stay on Smuttynose Island with her sister, Karen had been sleeping in the kitchen on a lounge. The lock to the front door was broken and had been for some time, so the intruder was able to enter quietly. Upon waking, Karen was startled to see a man standing in the home. She called out to her sister and Anethe that John had scared her. This roused Maren and Anethe who were sleeping in the bedroom they shared nearby. It was around this time that the clock in the kitchen fell to the floor and stopped at exactly 1.07am, recording the time of the murders.
Louis, mistaken for John, picked up a chair from beside him and struck Karen with it. She began to call out to Maren and Anethe that John had killed her, her injuries proving life threatening. Maren attempted to open her bedroom door but found it was latched shut. She struggled with it while on the other side, Karen was being attacked. Maren managed to get the door open in time to see her sister slumped under the kitchen table.
Maren took her sister by the arm and told her to hold the door while she opened the window for the three women to escape. Karen, however, gravely injured, told her sister that she couldn’t run, she couldn’t so much as get to the window, she was too tired. While pulling her sister into the bedroom, Maren had her back to the attacker and was struck twice with the same chair. When she couldn’t urge her sister to leave via the window, she called to Anethe to escape, to run and call for help.
Anethe made it just outside the window, but frozen with fear, she was unable to run or call out. That is, until she saw the attacker approaching. It was then, under the light of the moon, that she hollered his name. Louis. He was within arms reach from the window and Maren was able to see him here, as well. Louis approached Anethe with an axe that had been kept at the home, and struck her in the head.
Again, Maren tried to urge Karen to escape with her and run, but Karen was unable. Maren felt they may have more chance of survival if the two went separate ways, and so when Louis headed back toward the house, she fled through the open window, past the hen house, and out toward the dock. She had hoped to find Louis’s boat there so that she could escape, but came across none. Her dog, Ringe, stayed close, but she was afraid he would bark and alert Louis to her presence and so she ran and hit among rocks for the remainder of the night.
It is at this point that Louis is thought to have dragged Anethe’s body back inside the house, where he turned on the lights in the home, made tea and a meal and eventually left with $15 more than he had arrived with.
Maren did not leave her hiding place until just after sunrise. She flagged down children on a neighbouring island in the morning and Jorge, a man living on the island, sailed over to meet Maren and with her, discovered the murders.
Ivan, John and Matthew, were alerted to the crime and were told to come home. The island was searched but there was no suspect to be found. It appeared Louis had escaped. John, Ivan and Matthew conveyed the story to authorities as relayed by Maren.
Wagner’s description and whereabouts was given to police and he was found quickly. He was in new clothes and was headed to Boston. He was arrested. After his arrest, he was transferred from a local jail to Boston, among a crowd of hundreds who had heard of his terrible crime, and by the time he reached Portsmouth, it is said that a mob of thousands had gathered.
Trial took place on the 9th of June, 1872. There was a total of 9 days of testimony and the jury took only 55 minutes of deliberation to find Wagner guilty, as charged. Maren gave her testimony at trial which is ultimately what convicted Wagner of the double murder. Though, he would proclaim his innocence until his end.
Within the week of being sentenced, Wagner broke out of prison but was quickly recaptured.
During the trial, Wagner’s only defense seemed to be that it would be too difficult for one man to row from the docks back to Smuttynose Island, though it was found by the prosecution and the jury that while this would have been difficult, it could be done. Especially by a man familiar with the trip, who had sailing experience, like he had, and who had made the trip several times previously in a whaling boat.
It is said that Maren once confronted Louis in his cell before his trial. She was weak, and so she laid on a couch placed by the cell for her and simply stared at him.
Wagner reportedly told her, “I am glad Jesus loves me.”, to which her husband John replied, “The Devil loves you.”
On June 25, 1875, Louis Wagner was hanged.
The aftermath of his crime was devastating and would leave many broken in its wake. Maren and John moved to Portsmouth shortly after the crimes, no longer having a reason to stay on the island, nor any desire. Ivan, devastated at the loss of his new wife and greatest love, was described as a broken man. He remained on Smuttynose Island until the end of summer, before moving home to Norway where he faded into obscurity. It is said that he never recovered.
Good Nightmare 