Captain Joseph White was an East India merchant who lived in the Gardner-Pingree House in Salem, Massachusetts.
On April 6, 1830, Captain White was brutally murdered in his bed at the age of 83. The murder was orchestrated by White’s nephews-in-law, Francis Knapp and Captain Joseph Knapp Jr., in an attempt to inherit his wealth.
The two Knapp brothers hired Richard and George Crowninshield to kill Captain White after Joseph Knapp Jr had already managed to steal White’s will from his safe a few days earlier.
The brothers believed that if Captain White died without a will, his estate would pass down to White’s niece, Mary Beckford, who was the wife of Captain Joseph Knapp.
On the night of April 6, Richard Crowninshield snuck into the Gardner-Pingree house, while the Knapp brothers waited outside, and bludgeoned him to death and stabbed him repeatedly in the heart with a long dirk (a type of dagger) while he lay asleep in his bed. He then exited the house and fled with the help of the Knapp brothers.
For months, it was unknown who committed the murder or why. Worried that a serial killer or a madman was on the loose, the residents of Salem created the Committee of Vigilance, which consisted of 27 members who operated as a neighborhood watch. The committee was even allowed to search houses without a warrant.
On May 2, the Crowninshield brothers were arrested, but they kept quiet about the murder plot because they couldn’t implicate the Knapps in the crime without incriminating themselves.
On May 5, a jury indicted Richard Crowninshield for murder, and his brother was charged with abetting the crime.
The investigation then took a turn on May 14, when a letter sent to Captain Joseph Knapp Jr. was instead received by his father, Captain Joseph Knapp Sr. The letter was from a man named Charles Grant, and it demanded $350 to prevent certain information from getting out.
The elder Knapp asked Joseph Knapp Jr. about the letter, but he insisted he didn’t know anything about it and jokingly suggested he take it to the Committee of Vigilance, which he did.
The Committee of Vigilance decided to send Charles Grant $50, care of the post office, to see who showed up to collect the money.
When a man named John Palmer came to retrieve the money, he was arrested and interrogated. He told the committee that he knew who killed Captain White and why they did it.
Palmer explained that the Crowninshield brothers told him that they had been offered one thousand dollars by the Knapp brothers to kill Captain White and they wanted him to help out for a small cut, but when he refused, they told him it was just a joke.
When Palmer later heard about the murder, he wrote to Joseph Knapp Jr. to blackmail him but said he instead accidentally addressed the letter to his father, Joseph Knapp Sr.
The Knapp brothers were arrested and charged with being accessories to murder.
At the end of May, Joseph Knapp’s pastor, Reverend Colman, visited him in jail and got Knapp to provide a written, nine-page confession to the crime in exchange for immunity.
Legally, a confession induced by a promise of reward is not admissible in court because it is deemed not voluntary since the confessor will usually say whatever is required to get the reward.
Before Richard Crowninshield could testify against the Knapp brothers, he hanged himself in his cell at the Salem Jail on June 15, using two silk handkerchiefs tied together to the grating of the window in his cell.
Crowninshield left two farewell letters in the cell, one addressed to his father and one to his brother George, in which he acknowledged that he led a wicked life and said he felt hopeless about his predicament and he wanted to warn all young people to be admonished by his fate, according to articles in the Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald and the Boston Courier.
His death created a legal problem for the prosecution. Under Massachusetts Common Law at the time, accessories to murder can’t be convicted unless the murderer testifies about their role in the crime or if they were present for the crime. In addition, Joseph Knapp Jr. also refused to testify and uphold his confession.
Frustrated by the recent turn of events, the Massachusetts attorney general hired the distinguished Daniel Webster to prosecute the Knapps, and Franklin Dexter served as the Knapp’s lawyer.
To get around the issue of Richard Crowninshield’s death and absence of his testimony, Webster argued that Francis Knapp was at the crime scene the night of the murder to give direct aid to the Crowninshield and was, therefore, the principal to the crime, and Joseph was the accessory.
To get around the legal issues with Joseph Knapp’s confession, Webster also argued that it was the pastor who offered the reward of immunity to Knapp, not the state, so it did not technically qualify as inducement. The court agreed and allowed the confession to be admitted as evidence.
Francis Knapp’s trial began on August 3, 1830, but it ended in a hung jury. His second trial began on August 14. On August 20, 1830, Francis Knapp was found guilty, and the following day he was sentenced to death.
On the Saturday night before Francis’ execution, the two brothers were allowed to meet in the prison to say their goodbyes, according to a news report in the Salem Gazette:
“The two brothers J.F. Knapp and J.J. Knapp Jr. had an interview on Saturday evening. They both requested it of the gaoler and were indulged; he conducted Joseph from his cell (in the third story of the prison) to the condemned cell of Frank on the lower floor. They spent some time together. It was the first time they had met since they were carried into court together to be arraigned – about two months ago. Frank was calm and firm; Joseph is wasted and feeble in body, and appears miserable and broken down in body and spirit, having little appetite for food enjoying little rest, and with difficulty uttering articulate words. To the question from Joseph, whether Frank was really as well as he appeared, Frank replied ‘Yes, I can sleep as sound now on the soft side of a plank as I ever could.’”
The brothers were allowed to see each other again the day before Frank’s execution so they could say goodbye one last time.
On Tuesday, September 28, 1830, Francis Knapp was hanged in front of the Salem Jail in front of a crowd of 3,000 to 5,000 people.
After the execution, the body was brought into the prison, and his brother Joseph was granted permission to see it, according to a news report in the Massachusetts Spy:
“The scene was a distressing one. The wretched survivor kneeled to embrace the lifeless features of his brother, and the agony of his feelings were so intense, that he fainted as soon as he returned to his cell.”
On November 9, 1830, Joseph Knapp Jr. was tried, and, after four days, he was found guilty. He was sentenced to death on November 16 and hanged in front of the Salem jail in front of a crowd of about 4,000 to 5,000 on Friday, December 31, 1830. Newspaper reports state that he appeared “haggard and dejected” at his execution and that he declined to give any last words.
George Crowninshield was tried twice for his role in the murder but was acquitted of all charges due to a lack of evidence against him.
Some sources say that the Knapp brothers were buried in unmarked graves in the Howard Street Cemetery, the same cemetery where their victim, Captain White, is reportedly also buried.
Yet, according to various newspaper articles from 1830, Francis was reportedly buried next to his mother, Abigail P. Knapp, in a cemetery called the Branch Burial Ground. It is not clear where exactly this cemetery is located but Abigail P. Knapp is currently buried in the Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem next to her husband Joseph Jenkins Knapp.
Since Harmony Grove wasn’t established until 1840, it is possible she was reinterred there when her husband was buried there in 1847.
A news report from the Salem Gazette says that Joseph Knapp was indeed buried in the Howard Street Cemetery, on the evening of his execution. It is possible that Joseph or perhaps both brothers were buried in the Howard Street Cemetery at least temporarily, until they could be reinterred elsewhere, but it is not clear.
On January 4, 1831, while reporting on Joseph’s execution, the Salem Gazette published a letter from one of the three accused murderers, which is believed to be Richard Crowninshield because the author was identified as someone who “perished by their own hands.” The letter warned others not to fall into a life of crime:
“May it be the means of reforming many to virtue; Albeit they may meet with success at the commencement of vice, it is short lived, and sooner or later, if they persist in it, they will meet with a similar fate to mine.”
Sources:
“Execution of Joseph Jenkins Knapp Jr.” Salem Gazette, 4 Jan. 1831, p.2.
“Execution.” The Boston Courier, 3 Jan. 1830, p. 1.
“Execution of Knapp.” The Massachusetts Spy, 6 Oct. 1830, p. 2.
“The Execution.” The Boston Patriot, 30 Sept. 1830, p. 2.
“Execution of Knapp.” Salem Gazette, 28 Sept. 1830, p.2.
“Execution of John Francis Knapp.” Norfolk County Republican, 1 Oct. 1830, p.3.
“The Law Cheated of Its Victim.” Boston Courier, 17 June. 1830, p. 1.
“From the Boston Courier.” Norfolk & Portsmouth Herald, 25 June. 1830, p. 2.
“State Laws. Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” Boston Advertiser, 16 June. 1830, p.2.
Lewis, Walker. “The Murder of Captain Joseph White: Salem, Massachusetts, 1830.” American Bar Association Journal, vol. 54, no. 5, 1968, pp. 460–66. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/25724406.
Wagner, E.J. “A Murder in Salem.” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2010, smithsonianmag.com/history/a-murder-in-salem-64885035/
Curtis, Charles P. “The Young Devils And Dan’l Webster.” American Heritage, June 1960, americanheritage.com/young-devils-and-danl-webster
“Public Notice.” The Boston Advertiser, 14 Apr. 1830, p. 3.
“John Francis Knapp, 1830.” National Library of Medicine, nlm.nih.gov/hmd/topics/murder-pamphlets/knapp-4_101463057-sm.html?imgid=11
“Murderous Joseph Knapp Inspires Poe, Hawthorne.” New England Historical Society, newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/murderous-joseph-knapp-inspires-poe-hawthorne/
“Captain Joseph White.” Salem.org, salem.org/notable-locals/captain-joseph-white/