William Irving Broken Heart Letterbox
Johnson Cemetery
Bozrah, CT
New London County
Easy-15 minutes
Planted by the Bonnie and Clyde Gang, June 2002


STORY:
This letterbox marks a tragic event in Bozrah called the Legend of the Irving-Johnson Murder. The story goes that on February 5, 1872, Jane Maria Johnson was murdered by William Irving who then took his own life. Jane Maria was the daughter of the prominent Dr. Samuel Johnson and William Irving was a handsome Irishman who worked as handyman and gardener at the Johnson estate. It is said that Jane and William were mutually in love with each other but recognized that they could never be married because of her and his different social backgrounds. He killed her because he realized that their love was an impossible dream. Still others say that there was no mutual love and that William, in anger, killed Jane because she rejected his repeated, unwanted advances.

The murder took place at the Johnson house in the living room where Jane was shot and beaten. William then locked himself in Jane's bedroom and took his own life with a razor. It is said that Dr. Johnson had to climb a ladder to the bedroom window to get the murderer's body himself. Jane was buried with much ceremony in the front of the cemetery next to the impressive family stone, whereas Dr. Johnson had William's body placed far away in the back where it would be forgotten. Some say that his body was never buried there, that Dr. Johnson donated it for medical research. In any case, there were broken hearts over this tragedy, two young hearts, and that of a lonely father who lost his only daughter.

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