Amasa Sprague was co-founder of Rhode Island’s A&W Sprague textile firm, and represented the city of Cranston in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832, 1840, and 1841. On New Year’s Eve 1843, he was beaten and murdered outside of his mansion by a group of men. Three men – Nicholas, William, and John Gordon – were found and tried. John Gordon was the only one found guilty (researchers cite circumstantial evidence), and was hanged in February 1845. The trials and subsequent verdicts raised a lot of controversy, many citing unfair political influence and xenophobia that caused the affair and throughout the trials. Gordon’s case was used as an example to keep the death penalty abolished in the state of Rhode Island when discussed in the 1990s, and was posthumously pardoned in 2011.
Images courtesy of The Rhode Island Historical Society IMAGE LINK
The Ghastly Historian 