November 21, 2022 • 19 mins
This episode takes us to Long Point, Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie for a murder mystery that unraveled at the Long Point Cut Lighthouse.
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Website - www.greatlakestruecrime.net
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**Five-star reviews really help and are always appreciated**
All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Produced, written, edited, and hosted by Steve from Great Lakes True Crime.
SOURCES:
https://www.us-lighthouses.com/old-cut-lighthouse
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1078
Koile, W. (2021). Lake Erie: Murder & Mayhem. The History Press.
Murray, J. W. (1905). Memoirs of a Great Detective: Incidents in the Life of John Wilson Murray. United States: Baker & Taylor Company.
Streaming Review: “Lies and Deceit” on Netflix
Buy Me Coffee (please!) - https://paypal.me/greatlakestruecrime
Website - www.greatlakestruecrime.net
TwitterX - https://twitter.com/greatlakescrime
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/greatlakescrime
**Five-star reviews really help and are always appreciated**
All music by Kai Engel licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For more info, please visit https://www.kai-engel.com/.
Produced, written, edited, and hosted by Steve from Great Lakes True Crime.
SOURCES:
https://www.us-lighthouses.com/old-cut-lighthouse
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1078
Koile, W. (2021). Lake Erie: Murder & Mayhem. The History Press.
Murray, J. W. (1905). Memoirs of a Great Detective: Incidents in the Life of John Wilson Murray. United States: Baker & Taylor Company.
Streaming Review: “Lies and Deceit” on Netflix
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
By late December eighteen eighty four.William Dickinson was a seasoned lighthouse keeper at
the Long Point Cut Lighthouse on thenorth shore of Lake Erie in Ontario,
Canada. In December, on LakeErie, it's rare, although not unheard
of, to see a ship passingin the night. As the lake typically
freezes, locks are shut down andships go into drydock for repairs and upgrades.
(00:26):
That frigid December morning, William satby his fireplace in the light keeper's
residence, scanning the icy cold watersof Lake Erie. As expected, there
was nothing of note to see.That is until Williams saw something very unusual.
It was a large black object bobbingup and down in the waves,
(00:48):
slowly making its way to shore.The dutiful light keeper threw on his hat
and coat and made his way outto the beach, and there he realized
what the black object was. Itwas a body from the south shore of
Lake Erie. This is great Lake'strue crime. Long Point is a twenty
(01:52):
five mile or forty kilometer long sandspit that shuts out from mainland Ontario in
a southerly direction into Lake Erie.It's basically across the lake from Erie Pennsylvania.
For those of you familiar with thearea, The point was formed by
sand collecting on a glacial moraine atthe bottom of Lake Erie deposited around twelve
(02:15):
thousand years ago by the Wisconsin andGlacier. In the mid eighteen hundreds,
a natural channel began to form throughthe sand spit as a result of several
strong northeast storms. The channel provideda navigational path for smaller vessels to travel
(02:36):
along the northern area of Lake Eriewithout having to navigate all the way around
the twenty five miles sand spit.This channel became known as the Long Point
Cut, and it was determined bythe Canadian Parliament that a lighthouse should be
constructed to assist with navigation through thecut. Hence, the Long Point Cut
Lighthouse was born in October eighteen seventynine. The lighthouse is defeat high and
(03:00):
had a visible lantern of up totwelve miles on a clear night without going
down too much of a rabbit hole. Here, it should be noted that
being a lighthousekeeper on the Great Lakesin the eighteen hundreds was often a very
lonely existence, particularly in the wintermonths. In many cases, the only
(03:23):
people a lightkeeper would see on aregular basis if anyone was his wife and
kids if they had any, andoften when a male lightkeeper would die,
his wife would assume the lonely difficultjob without him. The long cut lightkeeper
job was no exception to this loneliness. In fact, if the long cut
(03:44):
keeper wanted to see another human,he would have to row a boat to
the town of Port Rowan, whichwas close to four miles or over six
kilometers away in a rowboat. Eventually, the long point cut was filled in
by the same forces of nature thatopened it up. The lighthouse was decommissioned
in nineteen sixteen, but it stillstands today. It's a private residence.
(04:09):
Now. Now back to that lateDecember day in eighteen eighty four. After
finding that the dark object he sawwas a body, William initially assumed it
may have been a sailor that hadbeen lost at sea, or perhaps died
on board and was buried at sea. He eventually grabbed the man's shirt and
(04:32):
dragged the body to shore, pullingit far enough inwards so the waves wouldn't
carry it back out. When Williamtook a good look at the remains,
he was astounded by what he found. First, the man's face was not
one that he recognized, and therewas no identifying information around the man.
(04:54):
More surprisingly, all four of thelimbs were tied up. He then notice
that the man's face was partially cavedin, as if having been bashed by
a heavy blunt object. The lightkeeper surmised that this young man had been
brutally murdered, rather than having succumbedto an accident. It truly saddened William
(05:19):
to see a young man's life cutshort like this. The next day,
William decided to give the deceased mana proper burial, at least as proper
as he could manage. On adesolate sand spit in the dead of winter.
He dragged the body even further inlandand placed it in a crude box
(05:39):
that he had fashioned. He buriedthe man towards the center of the peninsula,
further away from the water and waves. After saying a prayer, he
covered the body with sand and rocksand marked the grave with a large wooden
board. Next, he contacted theNorfolk County authoriti and alerted them to what
(06:00):
had happened. He provided the bestdescription he could and the county officials said
they would forward the details on toolocal newspapers in hopes that the man's identity
could be established. William waited forany news about the man's identity as he
tended to his light keeper duties overthe next few days, which turned into
(06:24):
weeks and then into months without hearinganything, all the while being haunted by
the grizzly nature of the man's death. Finally, on March tenth, eighteen
eighty five, he heard some news. That morning, Ontario detective John Murray
paid a visit to the lighthouse,accompanied by a man named John Piggott from
(06:47):
Bay City, Michigan. The twomen advised William that John's brother, Marshall
Piggott, had been missing since Novemberseventeenth, when he was seen walking towards
Lake Herey from his home in nearbyElgin County, Ontario, which was about
forty miles or sixty four kilometers fromthe lighthouse. John had been looking for
(07:10):
his brother ever since then, sothe three men walked to the grave site
and exhumed the body by hand.Digging away the cold sand and stones,
they found that the body was sobadly decomposed after three months that a visual
identity could not be established by lookingat the face. However, John ran
(07:34):
his fingers along the man's torso andfelt what he feared he would find.
It was a protrusion from the man'sclavical area, and John's brother, Marshall
had such a feature. It wasfrom a congenital condition commonly known as pigeon
chest, where an interaction of cartilagewith the ribs causes a person's breastbone to
(07:57):
protrude outward. The technical term forthis condition is pectus karnatum. Aside from
the protrusion in the chest area,John also recognized the boots as those of
his brother. They had originally beenhis own boots, but he later gave
them to Marshall. On top ofthese two details, John removed the boots
(08:20):
and identified a deformed toe that hisbrother had since birth. There was no
doubt this was the body of MarshallPicket. With the question of who now
being answered, the next questions werehow and why. The remains of Marshall
(08:41):
were transported to nearby Elgin County,where Marshall had lived, and Detective Murray
began an investigation into this likely homicide. Murray learned that Marshall was twenty nine
years old at the time of hisdeath, and he owned a fifty acre
farm that he inherited from his father. Marshall lived there with his wife,
(09:01):
Sarah Beecham, who was the daughterof another local farmer. The pair married
in eighteen eighty one, and ineighteen eighty three they had a son,
also named Marshall. At first glance, it would seem that the family should
have a happy, fulfilling life onthe farm, but Detective Murray learned that
(09:22):
Marshall had been relentlessly teased and bulliedbecause of his physical deformity and a slow
manner of speaking. He had beendescribed by some as simple and slow minded.
He trusted everyone he met, andunfortunately, a number of people took
advantage of him. After his weddingto Sarah, the family was hopeful that
(09:48):
she would keep an eye out forunscrupulous people like these. Sadly, however,
not long after little baby Marshall wasborn, Sarah died from a mystery
illness characterized by tense to wretching andvomiting. Detective Murray approached his supervisor with
the information he had come across andasked for permission to conduct a formal investigation
(10:11):
into Marshall's death. The approval wasgranted and the body was taken to the
corner for an autopsy to be conducted. Murray set out to interview family,
friends and neighbors of Marshall, withhis first visit being to John and Marshall
Piggott's mother, Levina, who livednearby. Levina had some interesting information to
(10:35):
share with Detective Murray. She recalledthat a few days after Marshall disappeared,
she as a visitor to her house. The visitor, named Havelock Smith,
claimed that Levina's son, Marshall hadborrowed thirteen hundred dollars from her and he
was hoping she could front the moneyuntil Marshall could pay her back. This
(10:56):
was a large sum of money,about fifty five thousand dollars in today's money.
She was immediately suspicious and Detective Murrayfollowed up on this to find out
more information. He learned that HavelockSmith lived on a neighboring farm with his
mother. At twenty eight years old, Smith was a year younger than Marshal,
(11:20):
and by all accounts, had beenan upstanding member of the community.
Some said, however, that hestarted acting rather odd around the time of
Marshall's disappearance. By one account,Havelock had rented a rowboat that mid November
in nearby Port Bruce to supposedly retrievesome fishing nets he had in the near
(11:41):
shore area of Lake Erie. Herented the boat alone and went out alone,
and didn't tell his mother or hisbrother that he was going out,
all of which was very unusual.He was said to have always gone fishing
with his brother. The man whothe rowboat to Havelock and Port Bruce said
(12:01):
that mid November was a highly unusualtime to rechieve fishing nets. They were
typically brought in much earlier in theautumn, so a number of details related
to this boat rentals seemed peculiar,including the fact that he was only supposed
to have the boat for a fewdays but didn't return it for more than
three weeks. In further looking intothis story, Detective Murray determined that Havlock
(12:28):
never lent the thirteen hundred dollars toMarshall, as he never had access to
that much money. In fact,Marshall's farm was valued at about thirteen hundred
dollars at the time, and itwas said to have been a prime farming
location, with very fertile soil anddirect access to Lake Erie. The farm
was so highly coveted locally, infact, that a rumor spread that when
(12:54):
Marshall's wife, Sarah died from amystery illness, it was thought that perhaps
someone poisoned Sarah and that would clearthe way for the person to more easily
manipulate Marshal into selling them the farm. As the murder investigation continued, Detective
Murray learned that Havelock had been seenat Marshall's farm on the morning of November
(13:18):
seventeenth, eighteen eighty four. Thetwo men were seen that morning walking together
from Marshall's farm to Havlock's farm.That is the last time anyone recalled seeing
Marshall piket. Later that afternoon,witnesses saw Marshall walking without Havelock and with
(13:41):
his pants soaking wet and carrying ashotgun. His explanation for the gun was
that he was chasing a fox onhis property, but there was no reason
given for the wet pants. Withall this information being uncovered through his investigation,
Detective Murray was convinced that Havelock Smithmurdered Marshall Piggott, and he felt
(14:03):
that he had enough evidence to backit up. So Halock was arrested on
March twenty fourth, eighteen eighty five, on a charge of premeditated murder.
He was locked up in the nearbySaint Thomas Jail. The murder trial of
Havelock Smith began on November twenty fourth, eighteen eighty five, just over a
(14:26):
year after Marshall's death. The prosecutioncalled one hundred and eight witnesses during the
trial, and theorized that Havelock lordMarshall to a secluded area, hit him
over the head with a blunt object, and then rowed his body out into
lake Erie. He then weighed downthe body in hopes that it would not
be found. In the area ofwhere the rowboat had been kept, authorities
(14:52):
found a one hundred pound metal barthat had gone missing from a neighboring property
for their The defense argued that thebody was so badly decomposed that it was
impossible to tell if it was eventhe remains of Marshall Pigott or someone maybe
completely different. After closing arguments weremade, the jury deliberated for a number
(15:13):
of hours. They ultimately alerted thejudge that they were deadlocked and a mistrial
was declared. The prosecutors did notgive up, however, Havelock Smith was
put on trial for a second time. The second trial had endured for four
long months. In September eighteen eightysix, the jury and the second trial
(15:37):
advised the judge that they too werehopelessly deadlocked, with seven of them voting
for conviction and five voting for acquittal. After the second mistrial was declared,
Havlock was released from jail and livedthe rest of his life in freedom.
No one else was ever tried fromMarshall's murder, as police and prosecutors were
(16:00):
certain that Havlack was guilty. DetectiveMurray advocated for a third trial, but
that never materialized. In his memoirswritten after his retirement, Murray wrote,
quote, my mind is undimmed bya doubt in this case. While justice
(16:22):
was never served in the murder MarshallPiggot, a silver lining to this case
is that his body was identified andhis remains returned to his family for a
proper burial near his farm. WilliamDickinson stayed on as the Long Point Cut
light keeper until nineteen oh one.In total, he spent twelve years in
that position. Havelock Smith stayed inthe area after the two trials ended.
(16:52):
And that's all for this case,but I did want to give you a
quick streaming review. I caught thesix part series Lies Deceit on Netflix.
It's a Spanish production that is aremake of an earlier British show called Liar,
which I can't remember if I've seenor not. The basic premise is
that a teacher goes on a datewith a surgeon who is also the single
(17:15):
father of one of her students.After the date, she asserts that the
surgeon drugged and raped her, andthe series follows her quest for justice.
It's dubbed into English, but Iwatched it in the original Spanish language with
the English subtitles, and yes,I still turned up the volume when I
couldn't hear it, even though Idon't yet know how to speak Spanish.
(17:37):
Anyway, I definitely recommend this one. Let's Lies in Deceit on Netflix.
And that's all for this episode ofGreat Lakes True Crime. You can follow
the show on Facebook and Twitter.Just search for Great Lakes True Crime.
You can also check out links inthe show notes for our social media handles,
the web address, and the showmerchandise page. And many thanks to
(18:00):
those who recently left five star reviewson their podcast app, including Ohio Water
Lover. If you have not lefta five star review, please take a
minute to do so. Among themillions of podcasts out there, positive reviews
help get the word out about theshow. For Great Lakes True Crime,
(18:21):
this has been Steve, your hostand producer. Thanks for listening, Guys
(19:00):
under of the Aman,
By late December eighteen eighty four.William Dickinson was a seasoned lighthouse keeper at
the Long Point Cut Lighthouse on thenorth shore of Lake Erie in Ontario,
Canada. In December, on LakeErie, it's rare, although not unheard
of, to see a ship passingin the night. As the lake typically
freezes, locks are shut down andships go into drydock for repairs and upgrades.
(00:26):
That frigid December morning, William satby his fireplace in the light keeper's
residence, scanning the icy cold watersof Lake Erie. As expected, there
was nothing of note to see.That is until Williams saw something very unusual.
It was a large black object bobbingup and down in the waves,
(00:48):
slowly making its way to shore.The dutiful light keeper threw on his hat
and coat and made his way outto the beach, and there he realized
what the black object was. Itwas a body from the south shore of
Lake Erie. This is great Lake'strue crime. Long Point is a twenty
(01:52):
five mile or forty kilometer long sandspit that shuts out from mainland Ontario in
a southerly direction into Lake Erie.It's basically across the lake from Erie Pennsylvania.
For those of you familiar with thearea, The point was formed by
sand collecting on a glacial moraine atthe bottom of Lake Erie deposited around twelve
(02:15):
thousand years ago by the Wisconsin andGlacier. In the mid eighteen hundreds,
a natural channel began to form throughthe sand spit as a result of several
strong northeast storms. The channel provideda navigational path for smaller vessels to travel
(02:36):
along the northern area of Lake Eriewithout having to navigate all the way around
the twenty five miles sand spit.This channel became known as the Long Point
Cut, and it was determined bythe Canadian Parliament that a lighthouse should be
constructed to assist with navigation through thecut. Hence, the Long Point Cut
Lighthouse was born in October eighteen seventynine. The lighthouse is defeat high and
(03:00):
had a visible lantern of up totwelve miles on a clear night without going
down too much of a rabbit hole. Here, it should be noted that
being a lighthousekeeper on the Great Lakesin the eighteen hundreds was often a very
lonely existence, particularly in the wintermonths. In many cases, the only
(03:23):
people a lightkeeper would see on aregular basis if anyone was his wife and
kids if they had any, andoften when a male lightkeeper would die,
his wife would assume the lonely difficultjob without him. The long cut lightkeeper
job was no exception to this loneliness. In fact, if the long cut
(03:44):
keeper wanted to see another human,he would have to row a boat to
the town of Port Rowan, whichwas close to four miles or over six
kilometers away in a rowboat. Eventually, the long point cut was filled in
by the same forces of nature thatopened it up. The lighthouse was decommissioned
in nineteen sixteen, but it stillstands today. It's a private residence.
(04:09):
Now. Now back to that lateDecember day in eighteen eighty four. After
finding that the dark object he sawwas a body, William initially assumed it
may have been a sailor that hadbeen lost at sea, or perhaps died
on board and was buried at sea. He eventually grabbed the man's shirt and
(04:32):
dragged the body to shore, pullingit far enough inwards so the waves wouldn't
carry it back out. When Williamtook a good look at the remains,
he was astounded by what he found. First, the man's face was not
one that he recognized, and therewas no identifying information around the man.
(04:54):
More surprisingly, all four of thelimbs were tied up. He then notice
that the man's face was partially cavedin, as if having been bashed by
a heavy blunt object. The lightkeeper surmised that this young man had been
brutally murdered, rather than having succumbedto an accident. It truly saddened William
(05:19):
to see a young man's life cutshort like this. The next day,
William decided to give the deceased mana proper burial, at least as proper
as he could manage. On adesolate sand spit in the dead of winter.
He dragged the body even further inlandand placed it in a crude box
(05:39):
that he had fashioned. He buriedthe man towards the center of the peninsula,
further away from the water and waves. After saying a prayer, he
covered the body with sand and rocksand marked the grave with a large wooden
board. Next, he contacted theNorfolk County authoriti and alerted them to what
(06:00):
had happened. He provided the bestdescription he could and the county officials said
they would forward the details on toolocal newspapers in hopes that the man's identity
could be established. William waited forany news about the man's identity as he
tended to his light keeper duties overthe next few days, which turned into
(06:24):
weeks and then into months without hearinganything, all the while being haunted by
the grizzly nature of the man's death. Finally, on March tenth, eighteen
eighty five, he heard some news. That morning, Ontario detective John Murray
paid a visit to the lighthouse,accompanied by a man named John Piggott from
(06:47):
Bay City, Michigan. The twomen advised William that John's brother, Marshall
Piggott, had been missing since Novemberseventeenth, when he was seen walking towards
Lake Herey from his home in nearbyElgin County, Ontario, which was about
forty miles or sixty four kilometers fromthe lighthouse. John had been looking for
(07:10):
his brother ever since then, sothe three men walked to the grave site
and exhumed the body by hand.Digging away the cold sand and stones,
they found that the body was sobadly decomposed after three months that a visual
identity could not be established by lookingat the face. However, John ran
(07:34):
his fingers along the man's torso andfelt what he feared he would find.
It was a protrusion from the man'sclavical area, and John's brother, Marshall
had such a feature. It wasfrom a congenital condition commonly known as pigeon
chest, where an interaction of cartilagewith the ribs causes a person's breastbone to
(07:57):
protrude outward. The technical term forthis condition is pectus karnatum. Aside from
the protrusion in the chest area,John also recognized the boots as those of
his brother. They had originally beenhis own boots, but he later gave
them to Marshall. On top ofthese two details, John removed the boots
(08:20):
and identified a deformed toe that hisbrother had since birth. There was no
doubt this was the body of MarshallPicket. With the question of who now
being answered, the next questions werehow and why. The remains of Marshall
(08:41):
were transported to nearby Elgin County,where Marshall had lived, and Detective Murray
began an investigation into this likely homicide. Murray learned that Marshall was twenty nine
years old at the time of hisdeath, and he owned a fifty acre
farm that he inherited from his father. Marshall lived there with his wife,
(09:01):
Sarah Beecham, who was the daughterof another local farmer. The pair married
in eighteen eighty one, and ineighteen eighty three they had a son,
also named Marshall. At first glance, it would seem that the family should
have a happy, fulfilling life onthe farm, but Detective Murray learned that
(09:22):
Marshall had been relentlessly teased and bulliedbecause of his physical deformity and a slow
manner of speaking. He had beendescribed by some as simple and slow minded.
He trusted everyone he met, andunfortunately, a number of people took
advantage of him. After his weddingto Sarah, the family was hopeful that
(09:48):
she would keep an eye out forunscrupulous people like these. Sadly, however,
not long after little baby Marshall wasborn, Sarah died from a mystery
illness characterized by tense to wretching andvomiting. Detective Murray approached his supervisor with
the information he had come across andasked for permission to conduct a formal investigation
(10:11):
into Marshall's death. The approval wasgranted and the body was taken to the
corner for an autopsy to be conducted. Murray set out to interview family,
friends and neighbors of Marshall, withhis first visit being to John and Marshall
Piggott's mother, Levina, who livednearby. Levina had some interesting information to
(10:35):
share with Detective Murray. She recalledthat a few days after Marshall disappeared,
she as a visitor to her house. The visitor, named Havelock Smith,
claimed that Levina's son, Marshall hadborrowed thirteen hundred dollars from her and he
was hoping she could front the moneyuntil Marshall could pay her back. This
(10:56):
was a large sum of money,about fifty five thousand dollars in today's money.
She was immediately suspicious and Detective Murrayfollowed up on this to find out
more information. He learned that HavelockSmith lived on a neighboring farm with his
mother. At twenty eight years old, Smith was a year younger than Marshal,
(11:20):
and by all accounts, had beenan upstanding member of the community.
Some said, however, that hestarted acting rather odd around the time of
Marshall's disappearance. By one account,Havelock had rented a rowboat that mid November
in nearby Port Bruce to supposedly retrievesome fishing nets he had in the near
(11:41):
shore area of Lake Erie. Herented the boat alone and went out alone,
and didn't tell his mother or hisbrother that he was going out,
all of which was very unusual.He was said to have always gone fishing
with his brother. The man whothe rowboat to Havelock and Port Bruce said
(12:01):
that mid November was a highly unusualtime to rechieve fishing nets. They were
typically brought in much earlier in theautumn, so a number of details related
to this boat rentals seemed peculiar,including the fact that he was only supposed
to have the boat for a fewdays but didn't return it for more than
three weeks. In further looking intothis story, Detective Murray determined that Havlock
(12:28):
never lent the thirteen hundred dollars toMarshall, as he never had access to
that much money. In fact,Marshall's farm was valued at about thirteen hundred
dollars at the time, and itwas said to have been a prime farming
location, with very fertile soil anddirect access to Lake Erie. The farm
was so highly coveted locally, infact, that a rumor spread that when
(12:54):
Marshall's wife, Sarah died from amystery illness, it was thought that perhaps
someone poisoned Sarah and that would clearthe way for the person to more easily
manipulate Marshal into selling them the farm. As the murder investigation continued, Detective
Murray learned that Havelock had been seenat Marshall's farm on the morning of November
(13:18):
seventeenth, eighteen eighty four. Thetwo men were seen that morning walking together
from Marshall's farm to Havlock's farm.That is the last time anyone recalled seeing
Marshall piket. Later that afternoon,witnesses saw Marshall walking without Havelock and with
(13:41):
his pants soaking wet and carrying ashotgun. His explanation for the gun was
that he was chasing a fox onhis property, but there was no reason
given for the wet pants. Withall this information being uncovered through his investigation,
Detective Murray was convinced that Havelock Smithmurdered Marshall Piggott, and he felt
(14:03):
that he had enough evidence to backit up. So Halock was arrested on
March twenty fourth, eighteen eighty five, on a charge of premeditated murder.
He was locked up in the nearbySaint Thomas Jail. The murder trial of
Havelock Smith began on November twenty fourth, eighteen eighty five, just over a
(14:26):
year after Marshall's death. The prosecutioncalled one hundred and eight witnesses during the
trial, and theorized that Havelock lordMarshall to a secluded area, hit him
over the head with a blunt object, and then rowed his body out into
lake Erie. He then weighed downthe body in hopes that it would not
be found. In the area ofwhere the rowboat had been kept, authorities
(14:52):
found a one hundred pound metal barthat had gone missing from a neighboring property
for their The defense argued that thebody was so badly decomposed that it was
impossible to tell if it was eventhe remains of Marshall Pigott or someone maybe
completely different. After closing arguments weremade, the jury deliberated for a number
(15:13):
of hours. They ultimately alerted thejudge that they were deadlocked and a mistrial
was declared. The prosecutors did notgive up, however, Havelock Smith was
put on trial for a second time. The second trial had endured for four
long months. In September eighteen eightysix, the jury and the second trial
(15:37):
advised the judge that they too werehopelessly deadlocked, with seven of them voting
for conviction and five voting for acquittal. After the second mistrial was declared,
Havlock was released from jail and livedthe rest of his life in freedom.
No one else was ever tried fromMarshall's murder, as police and prosecutors were
(16:00):
certain that Havlack was guilty. DetectiveMurray advocated for a third trial, but
that never materialized. In his memoirswritten after his retirement, Murray wrote,
quote, my mind is undimmed bya doubt in this case. While justice
(16:22):
was never served in the murder MarshallPiggot, a silver lining to this case
is that his body was identified andhis remains returned to his family for a
proper burial near his farm. WilliamDickinson stayed on as the Long Point Cut
light keeper until nineteen oh one.In total, he spent twelve years in
that position. Havelock Smith stayed inthe area after the two trials ended.
(16:52):
And that's all for this case,but I did want to give you a
quick streaming review. I caught thesix part series Lies Deceit on Netflix.
It's a Spanish production that is aremake of an earlier British show called Liar,
which I can't remember if I've seenor not. The basic premise is
that a teacher goes on a datewith a surgeon who is also the single
(17:15):
father of one of her students.After the date, she asserts that the
surgeon drugged and raped her, andthe series follows her quest for justice.
It's dubbed into English, but Iwatched it in the original Spanish language with
the English subtitles, and yes,I still turned up the volume when I
couldn't hear it, even though Idon't yet know how to speak Spanish.
(17:37):
Anyway, I definitely recommend this one. Let's Lies in Deceit on Netflix.
And that's all for this episode ofGreat Lakes True Crime. You can follow
the show on Facebook and Twitter.Just search for Great Lakes True Crime.
You can also check out links inthe show notes for our social media handles,
the web address, and the showmerchandise page. And many thanks to
(18:00):
those who recently left five star reviewson their podcast app, including Ohio Water
Lover. If you have not lefta five star review, please take a
minute to do so. Among themillions of podcasts out there, positive reviews
help get the word out about theshow. For Great Lakes True Crime,
(18:21):
this has been Steve, your hostand producer. Thanks for listening, Guys
(19:00):
under of the Aman,
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