Mystery in the River
by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 5, 2019.
A number of years ago, the Exeter Fire Department donated several boxes of photographs to the Exeter Historical Society. Among them, was a picture labeled, “looking for that other leg.” In the photo, which was dated 1955, there are two small boats floating in the Exeter River with four official looking men. On the bank there is a small crowd of people including a few children. This is not the type of photo that merely gets archived away and forgotten. So many questions.
Searching through the old editions of the Exeter News-Letter, the photo led to an Independence Day mystery that had the whole town’s ears up for days.
It began when John Soboczenski was bailing out his boat on July 3rd. On that quiet Sunday morning, he looked at the water and, to his horror, discovered a human leg. The Portsmouth Herald would later describe the leg as “blackened, water soaked” with “a string tied around it.” Worried that it may have been only part of a grisly murder, the Exeter police called in the state police. Soon, at ‘the scene’ were Dr. Wendell Clare, Rockingham County Medical Referee; Lindsey R. Brigham, county solicitor, and county Sheriff Simes Frank. “After a preliminary examination, Dr. Clare determined that the leg belonged to a woman and that the limb had been severed from the trunk in a professional manner.” It was decided to drag the river.
The Exeter News-Letter publishes only once a week, so we have no account of the work that went into the search. In spite of the absence of an official news story, the reason for all the activity quickly made its way through town. There was talk that perhaps the victim had been weighted down – hence the string – and was lying at the bottom of the river. For two days, the river was searched. No body appeared, but a set of window sash weights, with similar cords, were located – could these have been the weights holding the body down? Divers, Roy Stevens and Stephen Goldthwaite of Kingston, were called in to assist. It was decided to send the leg to Harvard Medical school for further examination.
Then, just as quickly as it began – it ended. The police received a call from Daniel Fowler of the Phillips Exeter Academy physical education department. He was out of town at a swimming clinic in New Jersey, but he agreed to return to Exeter to identify the leg. His explanation went something like this:
Fifteen years earlier, he’d purchased the leg from “a New York hospital,” reported the Exeter News-Letter. He used the leg as a laboratory specimen to study football knee injuries (which tells us that the leg must have been a whole leg and not simply a shin and foot. All the more gruesome to imagine 60 years later). The string was used “for the purpose of holding the leg together and had been on the limb ever since he had it.” He’d been keeping the leg in his garage for years and had decided earlier in the spring, that it was time for the leg to go. Naturally, he stashed it in a metal box and tossed it off the Hill Bridge into the Exeter River. Never gave it another thought. How did he know it had been found? His wife Dorothy, who was not traveling with him, heard the story buzzing around town.
Take a moment to imagine the exact point at which she realized she knew where the leg came from. Imagine her thoughts fifteen years earlier when it arrived in the mail from New York. Imagine the conversation that spring when she, perhaps, came across it again in the garage between the lawn chairs and camping gear. Pretend that, maybe, she didn’t fully know how he’d disposed of it. Now go back to that hot July day when she picked up the phone and let him know that she was not going to be the one to talk to the Exeter Police. Spare a thought for Dorothy, because this was probably her normal.
The leg was taken to a local mortician for proper disposal. The State said it was up to Exeter Police Chief Benton Hoitt to decide whether to bill Mr. Fowler for the cost of the search. According to the News-Letter: “Although describing the throwing of the leg into the river as imprudent and thoughtless, the police chief hastened to recall that Fowler has rendered many services to the community. He has been a school board member many years; helped start the Teen Canteen, and found the late Bert Moore, who was lost in the woods, and carried him out on his back. The rescue of Moore, according to Chief Hoitt, saved the town much more money than was expended on the leg episode.”
Up in Bucksport, Maine at the end of the eighteenth century, Judge Jonathan Buck condemned an innocent man for the murder of a woman who was dismembered. All body parts were found save for one leg. On the gallows, the convicted man’s last words were, “The leg, the leg. Mark my words, it will follow you to your grave.” After Jonathan Buck’s death years later a stain in the shape of a leg appeared on his gravestone and would not wash away. It can be seen there still. It’s good that Exeter’s mystery leg received a final burial and is no longer disturbing the town.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: In 1955, Exeter and county law enforcement officials believed they had a murder mystery on their hands when a human leg was found in the Exeter River. Futile dragging operations were carried out. Seen here, Wallace Moore and Leonard Novak, foreground, and Sergeant Edward Howard and Game Warden Russel Mason, rear.
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 5, 2019.
A number of years ago, the Exeter Fire Department donated several boxes of photographs to the Exeter Historical Society. Among them, was a picture labeled, “looking for that other leg.” In the photo, which was dated 1955, there are two small boats floating in the Exeter River with four official looking men. On the bank there is a small crowd of people including a few children. This is not the type of photo that merely gets archived away and forgotten. So many questions.
Searching through the old editions of the Exeter News-Letter, the photo led to an Independence Day mystery that had the whole town’s ears up for days.
It began when John Soboczenski was bailing out his boat on July 3rd. On that quiet Sunday morning, he looked at the water and, to his horror, discovered a human leg. The Portsmouth Herald would later describe the leg as “blackened, water soaked” with “a string tied around it.” Worried that it may have been only part of a grisly murder, the Exeter police called in the state police. Soon, at ‘the scene’ were Dr. Wendell Clare, Rockingham County Medical Referee; Lindsey R. Brigham, county solicitor, and county Sheriff Simes Frank. “After a preliminary examination, Dr. Clare determined that the leg belonged to a woman and that the limb had been severed from the trunk in a professional manner.” It was decided to drag the river.
Then, just as quickly as it began – it ended. The police received a call from Daniel Fowler of the Phillips Exeter Academy physical education department. He was out of town at a swimming clinic in New Jersey, but he agreed to return to Exeter to identify the leg. His explanation went something like this:
Fifteen years earlier, he’d purchased the leg from “a New York hospital,” reported the Exeter News-Letter. He used the leg as a laboratory specimen to study football knee injuries (which tells us that the leg must have been a whole leg and not simply a shin and foot. All the more gruesome to imagine 60 years later). The string was used “for the purpose of holding the leg together and had been on the limb ever since he had it.” He’d been keeping the leg in his garage for years and had decided earlier in the spring, that it was time for the leg to go. Naturally, he stashed it in a metal box and tossed it off the Hill Bridge into the Exeter River. Never gave it another thought. How did he know it had been found? His wife Dorothy, who was not traveling with him, heard the story buzzing around town.
Take a moment to imagine the exact point at which she realized she knew where the leg came from. Imagine her thoughts fifteen years earlier when it arrived in the mail from New York. Imagine the conversation that spring when she, perhaps, came across it again in the garage between the lawn chairs and camping gear. Pretend that, maybe, she didn’t fully know how he’d disposed of it. Now go back to that hot July day when she picked up the phone and let him know that she was not going to be the one to talk to the Exeter Police. Spare a thought for Dorothy, because this was probably her normal.
The leg was taken to a local mortician for proper disposal. The State said it was up to Exeter Police Chief Benton Hoitt to decide whether to bill Mr. Fowler for the cost of the search. According to the News-Letter: “Although describing the throwing of the leg into the river as imprudent and thoughtless, the police chief hastened to recall that Fowler has rendered many services to the community. He has been a school board member many years; helped start the Teen Canteen, and found the late Bert Moore, who was lost in the woods, and carried him out on his back. The rescue of Moore, according to Chief Hoitt, saved the town much more money than was expended on the leg episode.”
Up in Bucksport, Maine at the end of the eighteenth century, Judge Jonathan Buck condemned an innocent man for the murder of a woman who was dismembered. All body parts were found save for one leg. On the gallows, the convicted man’s last words were, “The leg, the leg. Mark my words, it will follow you to your grave.” After Jonathan Buck’s death years later a stain in the shape of a leg appeared on his gravestone and would not wash away. It can be seen there still. It’s good that Exeter’s mystery leg received a final burial and is no longer disturbing the town.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: In 1955, Exeter and county law enforcement officials believed they had a murder mystery on their hands when a human leg was found in the Exeter River. Futile dragging operations were carried out. Seen here, Wallace Moore and Leonard Novak, foreground, and Sergeant Edward Howard and Game Warden Russel Mason, rear.
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