372: Rhode Island's Last Execution w/ Paul F. Caranci

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2024

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On a frigid day in 1843, Amasa Sprague, a wealthy Yankee mill owner, left his mansion to check on his cattle. On the way, he was accosted and beaten beyond recognition, and his body was left facedown in the snow. What followed was a trial marked by judicial bias, witness perjury and societal bigotry that resulted in the conviction of twenty-nine-year-old Irish-Catholic John Gordon. He was sentenced to hang. Despite overwhelming evidence that the trial was flawed and newly discovered evidence that clearly exonerated him, an anti-Irish Catholic establishment refused him a new trial. On February 14, 1845, John Gordon became the last victim of capital punishment in Rhode Island. My guest is Paul F. Caranci, author of "The Hanging and Redemption of John Gordon: The True Story of Rhode Island's Last Execution." He walks us through the murder, investigation, trial and execution, and also shares some of the theories regarding who might have killed Amasa Sprague and why. More about the author and his books: https://www.paulcaranci.com/ The podcast "Terror In Wichita" can be heard here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4oNsjI7FzlZ2z9k6aK1IGs?si=mY-xavJISBK2egMHTlsT2Q iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-terror-in-wichita-248480833/ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/90ce0921-037e-4e6a-ad62-25f08a4b9b33/terror-in-wichita Support the show and ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile’s deal and get 3 months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month! https://www.mintmobile.com/notorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.4	Is crypto perfect? Nope. But neither was email when it was invented in 1972. And yet today, we send 347 billion emails every single day.
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1:33.1	My guest this week is Paul Carrancy. He, along with his wife Margie, founded the Municipal Heritage Group
1:41.4	and was formerly on the board of directors of the Heritage Harbor Museum and the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
1:49.9	He is currently on the board of the Rhode Island Publication Society.
1:54.9	He has written 16 books, including Wired, a shocking true story of political corruption in the FBI informant who risked
2:03.9	everything to expose it. And the book he is here to talk about today. It's all about a murder case
2:09.9	from the 1840s called The Hanging and Redemption of John Gordon, the true story of Rhode Island's last execution.
2:19.7	Thanks for joining me today. Great to have you.
2:22.8	That's my pleasure, Eric.
2:24.5	So is this a well-known murder case in Rhode Island?
	...

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