Louis H. F. Wagner
Drawing of Louis H. F. Wagner c. 1873
Born
Germany
Died(1875-06-25)June 25, 1875
Maine, New England, United States
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
NationalityGerman
OccupationFisherman
Years active1873
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)First degree murder
Criminal chargeAxe murder
PenaltyDeath

Louis H. F. Wagner[1] (also spelled Lewis Wagner;[2] died June 25, 1875) was a German-born fisherman who arrived in the United States around 1865. Eight years later he was accused of the axe murders of two Norwegian women, Anethe Matea Christensen and Karen Christensen, on Smuttynose Island in the Isles of Shoals of Maine and New Hampshire. Later convicted of the March 6, 1873, crime, he was sentenced to be hanged. After a failed escape attempt, Wagner became the fourth to last person to be executed by the State of Maine.

Despite an aggressively prosecuted case, so vehement was his denial that doubts still remain as to his guilt.[3]

In 1875, poet Celia Thaxter wrote and published an account of the Smuttynose murders in Atlantic Monthly. It was titled A Memorable Murder and remains a classic of American true crime writing.

Author Anita Shreve fictionalized the crime in her bestselling 1996 novel The Weight of Water, which claims that Wagner was falsely convicted. In the 2000 film adaptation, Wagner was portrayed onscreen by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds.

Further reading

  • Schechter, Harold, (2012), Psycho USA: Famous American Killers You Never Heard of, Ballantine Books.

References

  1. ↑ Maine. Supreme Judicial Court (1874). Report of the trial and conviction of Louis H. F. Wagner for the murder of Anethe H. Christenson, at a special setting of the Supreme Judicial Court, held at Alfred, Me., June 16. 1873. Saco, Me.: W. S. Noyes & Co.
  2. ↑ "Terrible Tragedy at the Isles of Shoals". Portsmouth Daily Evening Times. 1873-03-06.
  3. ↑ Robinson, J. Dennis. "Anatomy of an Ax Murder". Seacoast NH. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
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