It was October 6, 1856. It had been a long day and 62 year old Mary Knight was ready for bed. Her mother in law, Lydia lay in the bedroom just next to hers and 13 year old Anna was already fast asleep elsewhere in the house as well as 10 year old Ainslie. Her husband, George had taken advantage of the full moon and was on his way to the next town over with a cartload of shingles.
You may be asking yourself why not leave during the day when there is plenty of light? Well, my friends it is because George had concocted a plan to murder his wife. Not a very good plan, but a plan none-the-less.
Mary’s spidey-sense must have been tingling something fierce. Feeling that something terrible was brewing in the air she decided to take her pillow and move into the bedroom with her mother in law. (Great, now I have Phil Collins stuck in my head.) There, she nestled in quite nicely and tried to get some sleep. Mary had known her MIL and (hopefully) got along quite nicely with each other since before George and Mary were an item…more on that later.
Just after midnight, Anna was awoken by blood curdling screams. The poor girl ran throughout the house trying desperately to find a light. She managed to locate a candle stub out of sheer luck, lit that sucker and ran for Mary’s room. She found the bed empty and the window had been opened with the sash and casing removed. Bloody hand prints were later found around the open window.
Anna then ran for Lydia’s room, trying desperately to find a responsible adult somewhere in this hour of terror. Anna found 83 year old Lydia crying and screaming uncontrollably at the sight of Mary, dead in a pool of blood on her bed, murdered as they both slept side by side. Mary’s face was covered with a pillow; her nearly decapitated body lay still on the blood soaked bed as her mother in law became more and more overcome with the situation.
Anna, realizing she was going to have to be her own adult, woke the boy who was still in his bed and ordered him to run for a neighbor. Shortly thereafter, a messenger was dispatched to find George. Surely the news was going to be hard on her devoted husband. He would have to break the news delicately to him.
Instead of being overcome with grief, George insisted that he finish his delivery. It took some doing on the messengers’ part to drag him back home. The entire way back George discussed business affairs and current events with the messenger, not seeming worried or upset in the least. When George was presented with Mary’s butchered body, he showed no signs of grief. He simply looked at her then went into conversation on other matters altogether.
George decided to take a walk to ‘clear his head’ during the investigation. After all, the poor man must be in shock. However, there were suspicious eyes on George all the while he meandered thru the field and wouldn’t you know it, he was caught trying to dispose of a butcher knife covered in blood. Smooth move George….I’m no murderer but I feel like you should have taken care of that before now. Moron.
George even went to such lengths as to try bribing people into being his alibi. It seems as though the only one who didn’t know George had done it was George himself. I feel like he couldn’t have found his way out of a wet paper bag, quite honestly.
Just so you get the entire 360 view of George’s personality, here’s some more juicy morsels for ya.
Mary was born to Luther and Theodora Pratt in 1794 and was one of eight children. She grew up to marry Solomon Knight and had four beautiful children. Solomon passed away in 1840 leaving a mourning Mary alone. However, Mary married once more to a George Knight, who was, in fact, Solomon’s younger brother and more than two decades younger than her.
(Mary, you cougar).
She eventually fell ill with stomach problems, nausea, headaches and other ailments. Doctors who had been looking in on Mary all that time confessed they had been suspicious of poisoning but there was no evidence, and Mary being no spring chicken could have just been an ill elderly woman.
Also during the trial, one of Mary’s daughter’s testified that Mary had written her fears and suspicions of George trying to kill her via poisoning.
Turns out he hitched his team of oxen to a tree not long after leaving for his shingle delivery, ran back home, nearly decapitated her then ran back to his oxen and carried on with his errand.
George was also known to be quite the rascal with the ladies. He would flirt and carry on with the younger ladies and made it known that he was ready to ‘trade her in for a newer model’….so to speak. None of the ladies seemed so impressed with this, or at least none would admit to it anyway as George was very unnerving to be around…even in his pre-murdering days. He was described as a small framed, glitchy, nervous fellow who just screamed anxiety. Maybe because he was plotting his wife’s death, maybe because that was just the way he was…who knows.
He was taken into custody where the dumbass even tried to poison his Keeper. I mean, after years of trying unsuccessfully to poison Mary you would think he would give that bit up, but no. His highly devoted keeper who was likely going for a promotion even scared an angry mob away from George during the night…after the attempted murder of HIM! That man was DEDICATED.
Mary was buried with her first husband (George’s Bro) Solomon, and her children in a small cemetery not far from her home with George. You can feel how loved she was by the loving inscription on her stone. It even reads "wife of Solomon" in attempts to erase him from her being. It is now on the outer perimeter of a golf course, so if you go it may be a good idea to duck once in a while.
George however, spent the remainder of his days in the Thomaston Prison, far from home, until his passing in 1900. His body was then taken to a graveyard just a couple miles from Mary’s cemetery where he is buried alone and without any relatives. And let me tell you, I don’t know if they bought an extra large plot or what but there is NO ONE around him.
I will say too, that visiting Mary's stone, it was bright and sunny, beautiful and airy. Five minutes later we are at George's stone and it was immediately a dark and dismal, icky feeling. It's like the sun never existed. Take out of that what you will.
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