Murder on Long Island: A Nineteenth-Century Tale of Tragedy & Revenge

In the mid-nineteenth century, James Wickham was a wealthy farmer with alarge estate in Cutchogue, Long Island. His extensive property included amansion and eighty acres of farmland that were maintained by a staff ofservants. In 1854, Wickham got into an argument with one of his workers,Nicholas Behan, after Behan harassed another employee who refused to marry him.Several days after Behan’s dismissal, he crept back into the house in the deadof night. With an axe, he butchered Wickham and his wife, Frances, and fled toa nearby swamp. Behan was captured, tried, convicted and, on December 15, becameone of the last people to be hanged in Suffolk County. Local historiansGeoffrey Fleming and Amy Folk uncover this gruesome story of revenge and murder.