Beach Haven Axe Murder
The Beach Haven Axe Murderer

This story comes to us from the New Jersey Courier on 2 Aug 1929
:

BEACH HAVEN AXE MURDERER FOUND INSANE BY JURY

Sam Conklin, Who Battered John Carlson's Head With Axe, Called Insane By Dr. Cotton
A jury of seven men and five women, taken from the regular petit jury panel of the December term, on Wednesday pronounced Samuel T. Conklin, Beach Haven, as insane and unfit to stand trial for the murder of John Carlson. Conklin had previously, since his arrest, admitted the killing of Carlson on his (Conklin's) houseboat near Beach Haven, on Sunday night, December 16 last in a drunken brawl. Carlson's body was found next morning along the main road to Beach Haven, his head smashed in with an axe, and his face battered. A wide trail showed that the body had been dragged from Conklin's houseboat on the bay shore. Conklin said that they had a quarrel over a sick dog and he had killed Carlson, or the other man would have killed him.

Conklin was indicted for murder. Before time for trial, he was said to be acting strangely in the county jail. Dr. Cotton was called in and the result was the jury action on Wednesday, before Judge Gallagher. At this time, Dr. Henry A. Cotton, head of the state hospital at Trenton, said that Conklin was mentally deficient; had hallucinations; saw things that did not exist; did not talk connectedly, and went barefoot in the county jail.

The jury brought in a verdict, after a twenty minute deliberation, that Conklin is insane and should be confined in a state institution till he recovers sufficiently to stand trial.

The jury consisted of :

  1. Mrs. Bertha Bogert
  2. Mrs. Anna Bryant
  3. Alice Adsit
  4. Mildred Rutter
  5. Elizabeth Gunther
  6. Howard Gaskill
  7. George Evernham
  8. Frank Sutton, Sr
  9. Frank Turner
  10. Walter Martin
  11. John Matthews
  12. William Jones

The only John Carlson who appears on the 1920 census was one John Carlson of Long Beach township, age 42. He was a Swedish immigrant, having arrived in 1900. He was employed as a fisherman. He was boarding in the home of Amos Crosta on Long Beach Island at the time. Whether or not this is the actual victim, we can't be sure. I was unable to locate a Samuel T. Conklin anywhere in Ocean County in 1920.