Frederick Lincoln Small (1866 – January 15, 1918) was an American

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

, convicted and hanged by the U.S. state of

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

for the murder of Florence Arlene Small (née Curry), his third wife.

Background

Small was married three times. His first wife, Nettie Davis of

Minot, Maine Minot is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,766 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of West Minot and Minot Center. It is part of both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan statistical ...

, died during childbirth on March 14, 1891. She was 22 years old. In 1909, Small sued

Arthur Soden Arthur H. Soden (April 23, 1843 – August 13, 1925) was an American executive in Major League Baseball who was the president/owner of the Boston Base Ball Club of the National League during the 1887–1906 seasons, president of the National Leag ...

, former president/owner of the

Boston Beaneaters Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

baseball team of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

, for $500,000 . Small claimed that Soden had "alienated the affections" of Small's second wife, Laura Patterson. At the time the damage amount of the lawsuit requested was the largest in United States history. In 1911, Soden was ordered to pay Small a judgment of $10,000 . Around 1893, Mr. Small was employed in Boston as a real estate agent, he also was a

. He was moderately successful in both ventures. Small and his third wife took out a joint life insurance policy of $20,000 on March 16, 1916, from the John Hancock Company of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The policy was written that the other spouse would collect if one spouse died. Mr. Small was 49 and Mrs. Small was 37 years old. One premium of $1,107.60 was paid before the incident. Mr. Small had two properties previously destroyed by mysterious fires before the one that claimed the life of his third wife, Florence.

Crime

Mrs. Small's body was found in the ruins of the couple's burnt two-story cottage in Ossipee, New Hampshire, near

Ossipee Lake Ossipee Lake is located in Carroll County in eastern New Hampshire, in the communities of Ossipee and Freedom. At , it is the sixth-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire. The lake is fed by the West Branch (entering from the north), th ...

following a fire that occurred during the evening of September 28, 1916. Mr. Small had been at the cottage that afternoon, but had left to travel to Boston via train. The fire was discovered about 10p.m., and responders found a body in the debris the next morning. Mrs. Small's skull was crushed and also had a cord wrapped around her neck. She had also been shot, and there was evidence she had been

chloroform Chloroform, or trichloromethane (often abbreviated as TCM), is an organochloride with the formula and a common solvent. It is a volatile, colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to refrigerants and po ...

ed. The body would likely have been destroyed by the fire; however, fire had compromised the floor of the cottage, and her body was found in the flooded basement. At first, the alibi of being in Boston was a good one for Mr. Small, until investigators discovered an alarm clock, spark plug, fire screen, clock spring and some hairpins had been used to make a timing device, indicating arson. Mr. Small was known to be a tinkerer who enjoyed mechanical projects. A local grocer reported that he delivered five gallons of kerosene to the Smalls' cottage just before the fire. Small was standing outside the remains of the cottage when the medical examiner asked what he wanted done with his wife's remains. All he said "What?, is there enough left of the body for a casket?" He later put down about $30 for the cheapest one he could find. This raised suspicion of Small's involvement. Mr. Small offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the murderer after he was taken into custody. The authorities were already making a case against him by that time.

Aftermath

Small went on trial at the newly built Carroll County Court House. At the time, the trial was very sensational. Many reporters from Boston covered the trial and there were quite a few spectators. On January 8, 1917, a jury found Frederick Small guilty of murder. The State of New Hampshire executed Small by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

on January 15, 1918. Small was the second of only three people executed by the state of New Hampshire in the 20th century. The other two were Oscar Comery in 1916 and Howard Long in 1939.

Background

Crime

Aftermath

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading