Two boys out hiking in the Beaver Swamp area of New Haven, Connecticut, in November 1904 were astonished to see the bones of a pair of human feet sticking out of the ground. The police were called and a skeleton was unearthed.
It was the remains of Peter Lucasavitch, a Polish immigrant farm worker who had been missing for a year. He was last seen in a fight with another immigrant farm worker, John Washelesky, 18, in New Haven on December 3rd, 1903. The dispute began when Washelesky accused Lucasavitch of slashing his bicycle tyres. After the fight, in which Lucasavitch mysteriously disappeared, Washelesky slipped out of the country.
A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he would have got away scot free had he not decided, three years after the crime, to reappear in the US seeking a job from his former employer. The farmer, knowing his old hand was wanted for the murder, turned him over to the police.
Washeleskys insistence on his innocence was in vain. He was hanged on Wednesday, July 1st, 1908, at Connecticut State Prison.