Was Justice Served? You decide.

Sunday 8 November, please join us at 2pm at the Stoneridge Retirement Community auditorium in Mystic for a special Second Sunday program.

Judith duPont has written an historical account that reads like murder-mystery fiction. But the facts are these: in the evening hours of 19 April, 1874, 17 year-old Irvin Langworthy was murdered in his home on Darling Hill in Stonington (near where present Route 1 ascends what is now know as Lord’s Hill). An attempt was also made to kill his older brother Courtland who was found in his bed in a pool of blood. Suspicion almost immediately fell upon hired farm-hand Bill Libby, but there were some who suspected the Langworthy family.

The brutal murder led to sensational newspaper coverage in the New London Evening Telegram, the Mystic Press and the New York Times. The case was tried in New London County Courthouse and Libby was given a life sentence. But was he guilty? Join us as we look more deeply into this case and we learn more about the community as we see how they reacted to the ongoing saga.

Please read Murder at Darling Hill before duPont’s presentation. She will review the evidence, newspaper accounts, and trial transcripts, but she doesn’t tell us in her book if she believed that Libby was rightfully convicted. We are sure you’ll have an opinion too.

Stoneridge Retirement Community is located at 186 Jerry Brown Road in Mystic; there is ample parking. Refreshments will be served after the presentation.

Event is free for NLCHS Members and Stoneridge residents and their guests. There is a $5 fee for all others.

Please read the book before the presentation. Murder at Darling Hill is available for sale at the Shaw Mansion, at the Stonington Historical Society, and at Bank Square Books in Mystic. Stoneridge residents can obtain copies of the book from Jack Kurrus, apt. 4508.