I always try to focus on the positive stories about Concord, but sometimes the dark side of the town emerges. Concord Massachusetts is no bastion of virtue. We had slavery here for over 100 years, and there were dark tales of depression and suicide going back to colonial times. Austin Riggs Fox drowned in 1951 in the Concord River after unsuccessfully attempting to save his younger brother who fell under the ice. It seems like every other year there is a death in one of the three rivers that flow through town or at Walden Pond.
It doesn't seem right to connect the horrible stories of murders and disappearances that happened in the past in rural Concord Wisconsin with the joyous day that my brother Bill and I spent at the annual town picnic.
I have found two lynchings that occurred in Concord South Carolina and Concord, Florida. Neither of these murders were listed amongst the 4400 victims remembered at Byran Stephson's Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace in Montgomery Alabama.
In the Port Chicago disaster in Concord California, 320 sailors and civilians were instantly killed on July 17, 1944, when the ships they were loading with ammunition and bombs exploded. I need to make a return visit to California in order to document this tragedy properly.
Murder in Concord, Wisconsin
Like so many other Concords in America, Concord Wisconsin’s history was not as peaceful as its name would imply A search of the history of the town leads to stories of The Concord House. According to 50 Wisconsin Crimes of the Century, The Concord House was the scene of two long unsolved disappearances.
It started on June 5th, 1974. Catherine Sjoberg, a seventeen year old Senior at Oconomowoc High School, was at the Concord House, celebrating prom. Dressed in a light blue prom dress, "Cathy" as she was known to her friends, was last seen exiting the building, to get a breath of fresh air. She would never be seen again. Despite countless searches, and countless suspects (At first, Cathy's boyfriend was a prime suspect, when it was discovered that the two had had a major argument on the day that Cathy disappeared. However, after passing a polygraph test, the boyfriend was ruled out as a suspect in Cathy's disapperance.), police hit a dead end, and 34 years later, the mystery of what happened to Catherine Sjoberg that June night in 1974, still remains unanswered.
Six years later, on August 9th, 1980, Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew were attending a wedding dance at the Concord House, when they disappeared. Witnesses claimed to have seen the two nineteen-year-olds, exit the building around 11pm. When Timothy failed to show up for church the next morning, his family knew right away, that something was wrong. When family members returned to the Concord House, they found Timothy's brown 77 Oldsmobile, still sitting in the parking lot. His wallet (containing $65.00), and checkbook, still inside. Early searches conducted by law enforcement, family members, and volunteers, found no evidence of the missing couple's whereabouts. A wave of fear hit Jefferson County. Terrified teenagers, afraid that someone was out targeting young couples, began dating in groups. It would only get worse.”
Two months later, two hunters found the bodies. The ”Sweetheart Murders” remained unsolved for 30 until DNA technology caught up with Edward Edwards who had been working as a handyman at The Concord House. Based on a tip from his daughter, Edwards was arrested in Florida. He was convicted and died in prison having confessed to numerous other murders.
See my blogs on Concord, South Carolina and Concord, Florida for the retelling of two horrific lynchings.
Old Concord PA was the site of a triple homicide, and Concord Texas had a shootout and multiple executions.