The Dean Murder

K-K village / tacktown

Jaffrey is not alone in having neighborhoods, often called villages, that became known by a name familiar to natives. In Jaffrey, Squantum, Cheshire and K-K are a puzzle to newcomers and visitors. To this day, Squantum remains a mystery to all. Cheshire, the village by the pond of the same name just north of town, retains the name of the Cheshire Manufacturing Company, chartered by the Legislature in 1823 for the manufacture of cotton goods in a factory that preceded the building standing there now. But what about K-K? A new industry was established in Jaffrey in 1897 when a mill by the bridge at the bottom of Cross Street ceased making cutlery to begin the manufacture of tacks. With a good market the business prospered until a fire in 1915 forced erecting a new

and larger building close to the railroad. In its new home the Granite State Tack Company continued to prosper, drawing new residents to town. In 1917 a group of successful, local businessmen formed the Jaffrey Development Company to find ways to assist the town. In 1920 the group purchased two tracts of wild land, totaling 20 acres, south of the new tack factory. The land was platted into 64 lots averaging 100 feet by 75 feet with 40 foot wide streets. The street names came from nature, such as Oak, Brook, Juniper and Pine. The new town water system served the area and some homes had electricity. A sewer system was added in 1935 with a grant from the Federal government.

The first resident to enter the development was Paul Toupin who moved his shack from another location. Local lore relates that early residents built little more than a shack, this being the depth of the Great Depression. The first house was a ready-cut bungalow and later styles ranged from little buildings to good sized ones. The original developers did not name the development but to locals it came to be called “Tacktown,” “Tackville” and “K-K Village” because many of the residents were employed by the nearby factory. During this period the Granite State Tack Company was manufacturing a product named “KLEAN-KUTT TACKS.” And the K-K remains a familiar appellation to the older population. ❦

the dean murder

The murder of William K. Dean toward the end of World War I was one of the most iconic events in Jaffrey’s history. The murder split the town into opposing camps divided by social, political and religious differences. The crime haunted Jaffrey’s citizens for decades and many of those who were alive at the time refused to even speak about it. Here is a timeline of the history of the Dean murder.

August 13, 1918

On a sweltering summer evening, William K. Dean rode his buggy from his hilltop home down to the village of East Jaffrey to run errands. He returned home and told his wife he was going to the barn to milk the cow. He never returned.

August 14, 1918

Mary Dean reported her husband missing. Among those called to look for him was Dean’s friend, banker Charles Rich, who showed up with a black eye and scratches on his face, which he claimed came from a kick from his horse. Dean’s body was found, hog-tied and dumped into a rainwater cistern near his summer house. The house had recently been vacated by Lawrence Colfelt, who was suspected by locals of being a German spy.

August 16, 1918

William Dean was buried in Conant Cemetery, though his body would not be allowed to rest for long.

August 28, 1918

At the request of “psychic detective” William de Kerlor—invited to join the case by Dean’s brother Frederick—Dean’s body was exhumed and found to have cuts on his forehead which De Kerlor claimed matched those on Charles Rich’s face.

September 19, 1918

Agents of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation—who had already been in the area investigating reports of signal lights from Mount Monadnock as possibly being German espionage—turn their attention to the murder of William Dean.

October 1918

The so-called “Spanish flu” epidemic hit Jaffrey hard and a number of witnesses to the Dean case died.

November 11, 1918

WWI ended, and with it any interest the federal government had in the Dean murder.

April 11, 1919

A grand jury was called to investigate the Dean murder. After eight days of deliberation, the jury arrived at the conclusion that Dean had been murdered “by person or persons unknown,” effectively drawing the case to a close. The records were sealed and locked away so that public had no idea what transpired there.

October 22, 1919

Boston reporter Bert Ford began a series of incendiary articles on the Dean murder that brought the case back to life. A year later, Ford compiled his articles into a book, The Dean Murder Mystery. The book outraged some Jaffrey residents and copies were collected and burned.

April 25, 1921

Charles Rich sued Jaffrey selectman Edward Boynton for slander, claiming that Boynton had implicated him in Dean’s murder. The trial brought out details of the murder that had never been revealed before, but in the end the jury dismissed the charges against Boynton, who had claimed that Rich knew more about the murder than he would tell; the jury, apparently, agreed.

January 1979

During the completion of a new addition to the Cheshire County Courthouse in Keene, the record of the grand jury hearing into the Dean murder, hidden away for decades, was discovered. The twenty notebooks, written in Pitman shorthand, came to the attention of Margaret Bean, whose husband Jack was the son of D.D. Bean, one of Charles Rich’s close associates.

April 1989

After years of work, Margaret Bean completed a transcription of the Hearing by the Grand Jury on