CSI: New England series finishes up with Portsmouth author

J. Dennis Robinson, the author of over a dozen popular books and 3,000 published articles, lays out the facts on the Smuttynose Ax Murders based on his book-length study, “Mystery on the Isles of Shoals.” (COURTESY PHOTO)

BERLIN — Closing out the Great North Woods Libraries CSI: New England series is another Humanities program, “Case Closed on the 1873 Smuttynose Ax Murders,” on Wednesday, May 7, at 6 p.m., with J. Dennis Robinson, the author of over a dozen popular books and 3,000 published articles, mostly about local history and culture. He lives in Portsmouth, by the swirling Piscataqua River.

For almost 150 years the moonlight ax murder of two Norwegian women on the rocky Isles of Shoals has haunted New England. As a popular historian and lecturer, Robinson cuts through the hoaxes, lies, rumors and fiction surrounding the arrest, trial and execution of 28-year-old Louis Wagner, who claimed his innocence to the end.

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