On September 23, 1911, Frank Mullin and Arthur Knapp of Chaumont were hunting near the farm of William Arnold on Three Mile Point when they stumbled across a mummified corpse wedged in the branches of an elm tree. The body dangled by the neck, its head wedged in the crotch of two branches. The body was badly weathered, but was identifiable as that of a grown man.
On the previous July 9th five convicts had fashioned a key out of a spoon and escaped from the Jefferson County Jail on Massey Street in Watertown. Frank Allen and three others were soon captured near Depauville; Allen identified the body as that of Harry L. Newton, who was still at large. (Allen and Newton had been arrested for the robbery of a man in his room at the Woodruff Hotel on Public Square). The chief of police, the district attorney, and the coroner traveled from Watertown to observe the body. They concurred that it was Newton, based on the shape of the head, the forehead, the state of the teeth, and what seemed to be a scar on the chin. The body was held at Clark and Hayes Funeral home in Chaumont until it was buried at the Barnes Bay/McPherson Cemetery (next to the present day Chaumont Beach). However, on October 17th Harry Newton was captured alive and well in Erie, Pennsylvania (and returned to the county jail in Watertown). The body was exhumed and re-examined by Dr. Oliver LaFontaine of Chaumont. At that point Clara Hicks of Glen Park claimed that it must be the body of her husband, Leonard Hicks, who had disappeared in May of that year. Leonard Hicks was missing a toe on his right foot, and the corpse appeared to be missing the corresponding toe. Dr. LaFontaine was doubtful of the identification, saying that it was possible the toe had simply dropped off due to decay. In February 1913 the doctor was proven correct when Leonard Hicks was discovered living in Oswego (at which point his wife began divorce proceedings). On further reflection, Mr. Arnold recalled that sometime in August three men speaking limited English had stopped at his farm asking for food. When he turned them away, they had walked in the direction of the tree in which the body was later found. Jefferson County Sheriff John H. Bogart then began to investigate the possibility that the man had been a transient foreigner, or perhaps the victim of one. It was reported in the area newspapers that the placing of a dead body in the branches of a tree was believed to be a common method of disposal used by murderers in Italy, Hungary, and Rumania. By the end of 1911 the remains were still unidentified and were re-buried in its original grave at the Barnes Bay Cemetery in Chaumont. Sources:
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