Edwin Littlefield and Laura Allard of NH had a daughter Bessie Lillian Littlefield. Bessie was found guilty in Sept 1913 of murdering her husband, Edwin Augusta Shackford. This couple had two or three children at the time: Ernest, Perley, and Leslie. Does anyone know what happened to the children while their mother was in jail?

Regarding the Littlefield girl in the murder case, your best bet is to read all the area newspapers for that time frame, including not just the town/city it occurred in, but the countyseat, next-town-over's, etc's newspapers. They always give different insights and info as reporters differed opinions.
I'm a huge fan of the old newspapers! Sometimes they are goldmines!!!

Thanks for the advice - plan to do that when I return to the US. Presently am stationed in Japan with the USAF and am headed to Korea in two months. Will be back in Jun 2001 so was looking for anyone else interested in this Littlefield family history.

Hi, you are certainly a bit far away from the local library! Where does this murder take place in 1913, what state? Maybe I can find out something for you (free). We descend from Charity Littlefield b1767 who married Paul Niles, Jr, m1787, R.I. She is from Nathaniel Mitchell LittlefieldPamela

Murder took place in Freedom, NH in 1913. I learned about it in an article called Hickory, Dickory, Dead that sounds like it was actually printed in a british magazine. Someone sent to a genealogy friend of mine who sent it to me. The story was written by the investigator, Curt Norris who solved the crime by finding Edwin Shackford's money hidden in the house clock. I'm real curious as to how many children they had at the time of the murder and with whom the children went to live. Am in coorespondance with some of the descendents who are also very curious but didn't know much about this part of their history.

The little girls name was Bernice. She was my grandmother.