On this day, Feb. 3, in 1780, a 19-year-old Continental Army soldier commits what is believed to be America’s first mass murder. At just about midnight, in rural Connecticut, boarder Barnett Davenport bludgeoned grist mill owner Caleb Mallory, and his wife, Jane, looted the home then burned down the building with three children asleep inside. The senseless killings shocked the young country.
Davenport, who was at Valley Forge and Ticonderoga, later confessed after much soul-searching. He said he had felt the urge to murder since the age 14.
Davenport was sentenced to 40 lashes and hanging at Gallow’s Lane in Litchfield in May 1780.
The hideous crime changed the perception of murderers from being sinners gone astray to being considered inherently evil and different.
Scott McCabe
