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On Thursday evening, August 17, 1905, the town of Readfield was shaken by the murder of 17-year-old Mattie Hackett, a student at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary & Female College at Kents Hill. Within a few days of the murder, law enforcement suspected Mrs. Elsie Raymond of the crime but was unable to secure an indictment. Six years later, a candidate for Kennebec County attorney promised that if elected, he would bring the perpetrator to justice. He was elected and the case was re-opened and reinvestigated, subsequently resulting in the indictment and trial of Raymond.In the Kennebec Historical Society’s lecture for November, “The Murder of Mattie Hackett and the Trial of Elsie Raymond,” speaker Peter M. Pettingill will review the timeline of the murder and trial, the Kennebec County characters involved, and the dynamics at work involving the press and the politics that drove a case to trial that many at the time considered politically motivated.
Pettingill, who credits his family with having instilled in him a love of Maine genealogy and history, is an amateur genealogist and historian from New Hampshire who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York. He retired in 2022 from a 36-year insurance career. Since then, he has written three historical novels, including two that take place in Kennebec County.
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Maine State Library, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. November 20 at the library’s temporary location, 242 State Street in Augusta. Donations are gladly accepted. For more information, call the society at (207) 622-7718.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
107 Winthrop St, Augusta, ME, United States, Maine 04330
