See
— Roger W. Smith
re the Pocasset murder – Falmouth Enterprise 5-22-1987
selected newspaper articles about the Pocasset murder – updated March 2021
See attached, downloadable Word documents (above).
Plus, see text below (which includes a summary/abstract).
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Abstract:
Five year old Edith Burgess Freeman (b. July 27, 1874) was murdered in 1879 by her father in their home on the town of Pocasset on Cape Cod in what has been described as a “ritual killing.”
In this article, I have attempted to uncover the facts about the case. It was well publicized at the time, but seems to have been largely forgotten.
See attached downloadable Word file (above).
I became interested in the case, which I had never heard of until recently, because some of my mother’s distant ancestors and their relatives were involved. The murderer was the son-in-law of my mother’s great-grandmother. And, my mother’s great-grandmother defended the actions of the son-in-law, Charles F. Freeman (the murderer); and of her daughter Hattie (Ellis) Freeman (my maternal grandfather’s aunt), who initially supported her husband, a religious fanatic, believing that his actions were justified on religious grounds.
–– Roger W. Smith
August 2016; updated March 2021
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Charles F. Freeman and his wife Harriet R. (Ellis) Freeman with granddaughter.
Harriet R. (Ellis) Freeman
The Freeman house in Pocasset
Below is a downloadable Word file which comprises a report on my Ellis ancestors from Cape Cod. They include the first immigrant, Lt. John Ellis of Sandwich, Massachusetts (b. ca. 1620); his wife Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis (b. 1625): Lt. Mordecai Ellis of Sandwich (1650/51-1709/10); and recent Ellis descendants to whom I am related to on my mother’s side through her ancestors Anson Burgess Ellis (1813-1853) of Plymouth, Massachusetts; Lydia Perkins (Ellis) Handy (1851-1930) of Sandwich, Massachusetts; and Ralph Ellis Handy (my maternal grandfather).
— posted by Roger W. Smith
August 2016