The Captain and the Killer: A Dispute at Mr. Randall’s Tavern

Murder Sheet

MurderSheet

True Crime, Murder, Unsolved Case, Killing, Murderer, Cold Case

3.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, the Murder Sheet will go back in time to the winter of 1788. In the town of New Durham, New Hampshire, a night out among friends starts with drinks at Mr. Randall's Tavern.

But a clash between two veterans who served in the American Revolution will end in a deadly confrontation. And the tragedy wouldn't stop there.

We cited this excerpt from Dover History by Robert Whitehouse on the Dover Public Library's website: https://www.dover.nh.gov/government/city-operations/library/history/dovers-first-hanging.html

Check out Dr. Laurel Daen's article "Revolutionary War Invalid Pensions and the Bureaucratic Language of Disability in the Early Republic" here: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/650777/summary

Dr. Daen also uploaded data sets around pension claims here: https://repository.upenn.edu/mead/47/

You can buy Dr. Sharon Salinger's book (Taverns and Drinking in Early America) here: https://www.amazon.com/Taverns-Drinking-America-Sharon-Salinger/dp/0801878993

And here's the article we cited from Foster's Daily Democrat: https://www.fosters.com/story/news/2014/05/17/old-city-gallows-near-modern/37332977007/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tired of ads interrupting your gripping investigations? Good news!
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0:28.0	Content warning. This episode contains descriptions of murder, violence, alcohol abuse,
0:35.8	and discrimination against people with disabilities.
0:42.8	Light shone through the hole in the chimney.
0:46.2	Elisha Thomas's soot-stung eyes must have blinked, taking in the dawn.
0:52.8	The sight of the spring sunshine meant that death was certain for Thomas.
0:58.4	Escape had still seemed possible the previous night, on April 30, 1788.
1:06.1	Under the guise of visiting the prisoner, Thomas's friends had smuggled him a sharp metal instrument,
1:13.4	a pair of pincers. Thomas used those to snap off his chains.
1:19.8	Then, he made a run at the jail's large fireplace.
1:25.4	Not so long ago, Thomas lost his home and most of his children in a fire.
1:32.8	Now he plunged himself into the smoky darkness.
1:37.2	The 42-year-old climbed and scraped of the narrow tunnel.
1:42.4	Once he'd reached a certain height, Thomas stabbed at the chimney with the pincers,
1:47.8	until he created a hole big enough to clamber through.
1:51.7	But it was too late. Thomas couldn't hope to flee in broad daylight.
1:57.7	One imagines he must have drank in the clear, chilly air,
2:02.3	felt the sun on his dirty face for a moment, before sinking back down the chimney to await his fate.
	...

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