George Tankard would meet an untimely death at the hands of a family member. His story recalls for me the OJ Simpson story. A brutal and unprovoked murder took place in Keeseville on September 26, 1894. The tragedy occurred in a small one-story frame house, on Port Kent Hill, about half a mile from the business portion of the village.
William also known as Pops Davis visited the Tankards. He lived with them for 2 or 3 weeks. Mrs. Tankard, a widow, had told Pops she could no longer support him and told him to leave. This upset him and he became angry. Mrs. Tankard went to work and returned home around 10:00 pm that evening and found her door locked. She was able to enter her home through a window. After lightening a lamp, she was horrified to see a large pool of blood on the floor. Mrs. Tankard called out to her son with no response. Unable to locate her son, she searched the main level of the house. Noticing some blood leaking from the ceiling, Mrs. Tankard went to the attic and found a bundle of carpet on the floor. Beneath the carpet was her son, George.
He was dead. A search of the house revealed the weapon, a hammer. It was bloody. George was only 19. He was a young man of good habits, honest and hardworking.
After murdering his nephew, Davis went to the railroad depot and tried to have the conductor pass him to Port Kent by saying he was a railroader. The conductor refused his request. He was able to get to the boat by begging a farmer to give him a ride. He paid his fare from Port Kent to Burlington with money that his victim’s mother had given him. Davis had served two terms in Windsor, VT state prison and one in the work house at Rutland. There may not have been a trial. The citizens would have strung him to the nearest tree. The grand jury found an indictment of murder in the first degree against Davis.