Also on today’s menu:
Murderer Dies In Prison
Early Human Footprints
Caroline Cutter of Milford, who died in the mid-1800s has a tombstone crammed with an etched accusation of murder by the Baptist ministry:
Caroline H., Wife of Calvin Cutter, M.D. Murdered by the Baptist Ministry and Baptist Churches As follows: Sep’t. 28, 1838; aged 33 She was accused of lying in church meeting by the Rev. D. D. Pratt and Deacon Albert Adams. Was condemned by the church unheard. She was reduced to poverty by Deacon William Wallace. When an exparte council was asked of the Milford Baptist Church, by the advice of their committee, George Raymond, Calvin Averill, and Andrew Hutchinson They voted not to receive any communication on the subject. The Rev. Mark Carpenter said he thought as the good old Deacon said, “We’ve got Cutter down and it’s best to keep him down.” The intentional and malicious destruction of her character And happiness as above described destroyed her life. Her last words upon the subject were “Tell the Truth and The Iniquity will come out”
Her husband, Dr. Calvin Cutter, had the accusation etched into the stone. New Hampshire historian Fritz Wetherbee says the church had kicked the Cutters out because Calvin had been bullying members to pay for the construction of another church.
Murderer Dies In Prison
Gary Lee Sampson, 62, the man who was found guilty in a killing spree across New England and was facing the death penalty, died on December 24 at the medical center for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons database.
Sampson allegedly killed Robert “Eli” Whitney of Meredith, New Hampshire, and Phillip McCloskey and Jonathan Rizzo of Massachusetts during carjackings. He also attempted to kill a fourth victim, William Gregory, in Vermont.
The defense introduced mental health experts to testify that Sampson had dyslexia as a child, had bipolar disorder, and “suffered from a significant mental impairment” during the killings. A psychiatrist called by the government testified that Sampson did not suffer from any mitigating mental impairment and he was intelligent but violent and deeply antisocial, with antisocial personality disorder.
The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death in 2003, but because one of the jurors had lied during jury selection, Sampson was granted a retrial. He again was sentenced to death in 2017.
Early Human Footprints
There were a number of archaeological finds during 2021 that forced a re-evaluation of scientific assumptions. Research at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, for instance, uncovered the oldest known human footprints in North America. The discovery reveals evidence of human occupation in the Tularosa Basin at least 23,000 years ago — thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Seeds embedded in the footprints were radiocarbon dated and analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey to establish their age. The research demonstrates the coexistence of humans and Pleistocene (ice age) megafauna to confirm that humans were present in North America before the major glacial advances of the last ice age which closed migration routes from Asia. The findings are detailed in an article published in the journal Science.
White Sands National Park contains the world’s largest-known collection of Pleistocene age fossilized footprints in the world and has been recognized as a megatracksite since 2014. In addition to human footprints, tracks from the Columbian mammoth, saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, and other ice age animals have been discovered there.
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I absolutely loved the Caroline Cutter story! Not only was history inscribed on her gravestone, but a bit of a "screw you" to the parishioners of the church! Kind of made me chuckle 😊
Karey Caldwell