A Frost In Hell: The True Story of the Petersham Butcher of 1875

July 4th, 1875. While most people were planning celebrations, one man had another idea - murder. And this was no ordinary murder. What Samuel J. Frost did on July 4th was outrageous, and it was only the beginning. He would become a national sensation, but not so much because of his crime. Instead, it was what he did AFTER the murder that stunned the country. His became the trial of the year in Massachusetts, and it would not disappoint. It contained a first-of-its-kind appeal, and it resulted in a last-of-its-kind punishment. And in between, his wife would face a decision that would have been easy to make in 2018, but was anything but in 1875. She would be harshly criticized by some for what she decided. While the murder was outrageous and the trial was fascinating, it was the punishment that was the most shocking. It would lead many in Massachusetts to ask, what are we doing exactly? This book tells the story of a nondescript farmer from a ‘never-heard-of-it’ town who captivated Massachusetts for all of the wrong reasons. The story is as juicy today as it was in 1875, and it is told by an author who grew up in that ‘never-heard-of-it’ town.