Woman meets grisly end

#MiddleburyCT #Murder #PetroniaSteponaitis #SandyHillRoad #Statue of Justfice

This “Statue of Justice” that once stood atop the Old State House in Hartford is on display inside. The wooden statue, painted gold, and with its symbols of justice — the sword, blindfold, and scales — is a familiar symbol on courthouses. (dga.ct.gov photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Part II – Forty-five-year-old Petronia Steponaitis was found bludgeoned to death in her barn on Sandy Hill Road; evidence pointed to a death date of February 2, 1920. A search of her house and barn found only a small amount of money in a purse. The doors were found open, but the house had not been ransacked. The state police were called in to work the case. It was reported that a farmhand was last seen shortly before the murder and state police were trying to find him.

Anthony and Petronia Steponaitis were estranged and living separately on their property. Petronia worked for the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury. Anthony was about four years older than she and worked as a teamster in Middlebury. He lived in a shack about 150 yards from the farmhouse and was “highly respected and all who know him (were) very certain he will not be involved in the murder case in any way,” the Hartford Courant reported.

Perhaps their separation was the result of a lawsuit, filed three years earlier, wherein Petronia sued Anthony for the entire farm property, and an additional $3,000 damages. She claimed that she alone had originally furnished the funds to purchase the farm, which consisted of an eight-acre plot on the west side of Sandy Hill Road, and a 30-acre plot across the road.

It was reported that two men had been seen driving Petronia’s horse in Middlebury on February 2. Three glasses from which hard cider had been drunk were discovered in the kitchen of her farmhouse, along with two barrels of cider in the basement. The Hartford Courant opined that “we may be certain that no other drink can rouse more devils within the drinker than can this common homemade beverage.”

On February 10, Anthony Ragouskas (or Ragousky), of North Riverside Street in Waterbury, was arrested. He had last worked at her farm in the fall. An employee of the American Brass Company, he had not been at work on Monday, February 2, which is when police believe the crime occurred. Soon, Anthony Kalosky, another man who had worked at her farm, was arrested. Deputy Coroner John T. Monzani was quoted as stating, “I have good reason to suspect that Anthony Kalosky was directly connected with the murder of Mrs. Petronia Steponaitis.” Police were searching for a third man said to be a friend of Mrs. Steponaitis.

On May 10, the coroner released both men. Kalosky was rearrested for the theft of tools belonging to the deceased found on his property. Soon, another man, Dominick Pocus, who had stabbed two policemen and attempted to stab a third in Southbury, was questioned concerning Ms. Steponaitis’s murder. He was subsequently sentenced for the stabbing of the policemen, but nothing else.

The Hartford Courant reported on February 26 that Deputy Coroner Monzani stated he had “good reason to suspect that Anthony Kalosky [sic]was directly connected with the murder of Mrs. Petronia Stepinitis [sic].” He had been taken into custody on February 11 and had been held since. A habeas corpus proceeding was brought to free him, but Judge Walter D. Makepeace dismissed the appeal in the district court. The coroner said another man was being looked at as a material witness, but would not name him. Progress was being made, police assured the public, “in view of the fact that they were working under two and three feet of snow, covering the ground at the scene of the crime in Middlebury” (Hartford Courant).

In an eerie coincidence, the Plew family had lived nearby on Sandy Hill Road. James Plew had been convicted, along with his girlfriend, Bessie (Webster) Wakefield, of murdering her husband, William Wakefield, in 1913. (I have previously written about this sensational case in this newspaper.) Plew was hanged in 1914, but his brother and family continued to live nearby for a time.

Curiously, the Steponaitis case was never solved. Ragouskas, Kalosky, the two local men suspected of the crime, were never tried, and no other person was ever charged with the murder of Petronia Steponaitis.

Bob Rafford is the Middlebury Historical Society president and Middlebury’s municipal historian. To contact the society, visit MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or contact him at president@middleburyhistoricalsociety.org. Your membership and support are welcome.