OLLI-HIST-2267 - Bloody Murder! Who Killed Jonas Parker?

Course Description

“On Thursday morning, March 27, 1845, the people of this town were thrown into the most intense excitement by the knowledge of the fact that Mr. Jonas L. Parker had been murdered the previous evening, in a thick grove of pines, just east of the village. This piece of woods was just the place in all the neighborhood for a deed of darkness.” So wrote historian C.E. Potter in his 1856 History of Manchester. In 1850, as judge of the local police court, Potter presided over the sensational trial of the murder suspects. The story of the Parker murder and its aftermath features a cast of Dickensian characters, including none other than future President Franklin Pierce as the star defense attorney. This presentation will reveal the evidence in this still-unsolved crime.