Samuel Frost (murderer)
{{Short description|American murderer (1765–1793)}}
{{Infobox Serial Killer
| name = Samuel Frost
| birth_date = January 14, 1765
| death_date = October 31, 1793 (aged 28)
| years_active = 1783 – 1793
| victims = 2
| criminal_penalty = Death
| country = United States
| states = Massachusetts
| image = File:SamuelFrost.jpg
| image_size = size: 100
| image_upright = 1.15
| caption = Drawing of Samuel Frost at his execution
| birth_place = Princeton, Massachusetts, Great Britain
| conviction = Murder
| conviction_status = Executed
| death_cause = Execution by hanging
| death_place = Massachusetts, United States
}}
Samuel Frost (January 14, 1765 – October 31, 1793){{Cite book |last=Nutt |first=Charles |title=History of Worcester and Its People, Volume 1 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |year=1919 |location=Massachusetts |pages=384 |language=en}} was an American murderer who was acquitted of murdering his father, and later convicted of murdering a man named Captain Elisha Allen. He was then hanged at his highly publicized execution on October 31, 1793.{{Cite book |last=Halttunen |first=Karen |title=Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780674038172 |edition=revised |pages=48–49 |language=en}}
Early life
Samuel Frost was born on January 14, 1765, in Princeton, a town in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1779, when Frost, one of three children, was 14 years old, his mother died after falling ill.{{Cite news |date=1793-10-31 |title=The Confession and Dying Words of Samuel Frost, Who is to be Executed this Day, October 31, 1793, for the Horrid Crime of Murder |url=https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BRM4063-Confessions-Samuel-Frost-1793_lowres-scaled.jpg |access-date=2022-07-27}} Frost thought that his father's abuse towards his mother was what caused her death.
Murders
On September 23, 1783, at the age of 18, Frost murdered his father. While they were digging a ditch, Frost knocked his father over, and repeatedly stabbed him in the head with a handspike until his brains were exposed. Frost did this in retaliation for the death of his mother four years earlier. Frost was quickly apprehended and charged with murder. However, he was acquitted by reason of insanity during his trial in April of the same year.{{Cite book |last=Faugno |first=Rachel |title=Murder & Mayhem in Central Massachusetts |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=9781625856722 |language=en}}
After his acquittal, Frost was homeless. He would frequently do work for people in exchange for a temporary place to live. When he couldn't find anywhere to stay, Frost would live in the woods, surviving on apples and berries he found. One person he worked for was a man named Captain Elisha Allen. Allen would reportedly treat Frost like a slave. Frost ran away from Allen's estate several times, and was whipped by Allen as punishment.
On July 16, 1793, Samuel Frost murdered Elisha Allen.{{Cite book |last=Fox |first=Richard |title=The Power of Culture: Critical Essays in American History |last2=T.J |first2=Lears |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1993 |isbn=9780226259543 |edition=illustrated |pages=77 |language=en}} That afternoon, Allen ordered Frost to help him with his cabbage patch. While Allen kneeled to fix a plant in the garden, Frost hit him in the head with a hoe. After Frost hit him with the hoe two more times, Allen said "Forbear Sam, you done enough." Frost ignored Allen's pleas, and hit him at least thirteen more times, killing him. At his second trial, Samuel Frost pleaded guilty to the murder of Captain Elisha Allen and was sentenced to death.{{Cite book |last=LaFleur |first=Greta |title=The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America |publisher=JHU Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781421438849 |edition=illustrated |pages=131 |language=en}}
Execution
Before his execution, Frost frequently read the bible. He also banged his head against the walls of his prison cell to feel how his victims felt. When asked what he would do if he was free, Frost responded that there was one more person that he wanted to kill.{{Cite news |date=1793-10-31 |title=Account of Samuel Frost |url=https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BRM4063-Confessions-Samuel-Frost-1793_lowres-scaled.jpg |access-date=2022-07-28}}
Samuel Frost's execution happened on October 31, 1793, on a hill in Worcester, Massachusetts. After confessing to his murders in front of an audience of 2,000 people, he was blind-folded and his hands were tied behind his back. He was then hanged. His last words were "I declare that I ever had a great aversion to stealing and telling lies, and think them to be great crimes. I always meant to tell the truth, and never stole, except taking a few apples from orchards may be called so."{{Cite book |last=Elder |first=Robert |title=Last Words of the Executed |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2010 |isbn=9780226202693 |pages=25 |language=en}}
The hill that Frost was executed on became known as "Frost Hill" after his death.{{Cite book |last=Wall |first=Caleb |title=Reminiscences of Worcester from the Earliest Period, Historical and Genealogical... |publisher=Tyler & Seagrave |year=1877 |location=University of Virginia |pages=50 |language=en}}