Jefferson County, located in New York’s beautiful North Country, has a dark and violent past. During the long winter months, it was not the cold that was feared, but the killers. In 1828, Henry Evans committed a crime so brutal that the location in Brownsville is still called “Slaughter Hill.” A real-life “Little Red Riding Hood,” eleven-year-old Sarah Conklin met someone far worse than a wolf on her way home from school in 1875. And in 1908, Mary Farmer, a beautiful young mother hacked her neighbor to death and was sent to the electric chair. Author Cheri L. Farnsworth has compiled the stories of the most notorious criminal minds of Jefferson County’s early history.

Written like a school report, the narrative is speckled with exclamation marks, wiki references and spelling errors. I don’t think anyone spellchecked it before going out to print. Here’s a small sample from just the intro of the book:

Our ancestors […] were cooped up inside for extended periods in the winter months with nothing to do; and if one person wasn’t happy, I guarantee nobody was—they wanted out. That’s cabin fever. The expression is synonymous with winter blues, as is SAD, and it’s also analogous to going “stir crazy.” According to Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia), it occurs with symptoms of excessive sleep or restlessness, forgetfulness, irritability, “irrational frustration with everyday objects” and “distrust of anyone they are with.” That couldn’t be good for families crammed together in tiny, cold log cabins in the days long before electricity and the automobile. Does it justify killing each other off? Of course not. (If they thought they were going “stir crazy” stuck at home with their families, imagine what serving a life sentence in the state prison system felt like!) I only mention cabin fever and SAD here in reference to the coincidental timing of the vast majority of the county’s most sensational, historical murder cases. 

1. The Axe Murders on Slaughter Hill: Brownville, 1828
2. Man Below the Ice: The Wenham Murder: Great Bend, 1873
3. Dying to Be Good: Antwerp, 1873
4. The Brutal Slaying of Little Sarah Conklin: Rutland, 1875
5. George Powell’s Problem with Women: Sterlingville, 1876
6. The Spineless Shooting of Mary Ward: LeRay, 1893
7. The Mary Crouch–Mary Daly Double Homicide: Sackets Harbor, 1897
8. The Suspicious Passing of Mary Ockwood: Henderson, 1897
9. The Gruesome “Watertown Trunk Murder”: Hounsfield, 1908
10. The Burlingame Murder-Suicide: Chaumont, 1922

The cases were OK, somewhat sensationalist of nature and the black and white pictures which peppered the book gave it somewhat a magazine look. Would not recommend.