Wicked Conduct by Rory Raven

Author:Rory Raven [Raven, Rory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: True Crime, Historical, Murder, General, History, United States, State & Local, New England (CT; MA; ME; NH; RI; VT)
ISBN: 9781614234838
Google: wH92CQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2018-09-03T22:28:20+00:00

An 1890s photo of the Newport County Jail, little changed from the time Avery spent there. Courtesy Providence Public Library.

He found the minister hiding behind the door. Harnden thrust out a hand and asked, “Mr. Avery, how do you do?”

Avery choked and steadied himself against the wall. In the two weeks since Harnden had last seen him, Avery had grown a full beard, which substantially changed his appearance—just what might be expected from a man on the run.

“I suppose you cannot legally take me from this state without a warrant from the Governor,” the shaken Avery finally blurted out.

The cautious, by-the-book Harnden had diligently obtained the required paperwork every step of the way, and produced the appropriate documents. Avery surrendered himself to Harnden’s custody and was marched out of the house, straight past the now silent Captain Mayo. They started back for Rhode Island that night.

Reaching Boston, the exhausted Harnden and his prisoner were thronged with curious visitors. Perhaps motivated by caution and perhaps by a kind of compassion, Harnden refused admission to all but those who Avery himself wished to see. This would be repeated at every stop along their journey, as word spread and interest grew. Whenever they stopped to water the horses or eat a quick meal, the curious came to see. If they expected to see Avery in irons, and no doubt many of them did, they were disappointed, as Harnden felt such drastic and meretricious steps were unnecessary. As they pulled into Fall River, Avery perhaps justifiably feared that “in consequence of the very great excitement in that village, he would be taken by the populace and torn in pieces.”

But he was not, and on Friday, January 25, 1833, he was handed over to the authorities at Tiverton at ten o’clock in the morning. A brief hearing was held—records of which do not survive—and he was then sent to the Newport County Jail.

In 1833, murder was a capital offense. If found guilty, he would suffer the same fate as it seemed had befallen Sarah Cornell—death by hanging. The irony was probably lost on no one.

The Newport jail was built about 1772, replacing an earlier one on the same site, and it served more as a temporary place to hold inmates rather than a long-term prison. It was never especially secure and had seen some escapes over the years, but it was more than enough to confine Reverend Avery. He was locked into a cell with a narrow window, and the bed was merely a straw-stuffed sack and a couple of moth-eaten blankets. He got no sleep that first night, kept awake by the cold as “the grating sound of bars of iron and the turning of keys and the retiring footsteps of the jailor died away on my ear.”

He paced his cell all night, probably only pausing to pray, his mind racing back and forth between thoughts of the cross and the noose.

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