One of the most sensational crime sprees to have taken place in New London County occurred in the mid to late 1880s when scores of thefts and burglaries were reported in Groton, Mystic, Ledyard, Stonington, and New London.

The astounding number of thefts and burglaries began in the late fall and early winter of 1885, when several summer cottages in the exclusive Harbor View Colony in the Eastern Point section of Groton were broken into and various valuable items stolen. The cottages were easy targets for such crimes as the vast majority of residential properties in the ar ea had been vacated for the winter and there was little to no one remaining to observe unusual or illegal activity.

It was said by investigators that the perpetrators seem to have a “magic key” to gain entry into the doubled locked doors and windows of the cottages. After gathering up their plunder, consisting of items such as furniture, carpets, home fittings, jewelry and various bric-a-brac, the intruders would securely fasten all of the windows and doors they had used to gain entry, thus leaving no obvious or visible signs of damage or entry.

Nothing was found at the crimes scenes to provide clues as to who may have been responsible or indications as to how the stolen items, especially large furniture and carpets, had been carried away.

Because the properties were occupied seasonally, in conjunction with the perpetrators ensuring that the doors and windows were secure when they departed, most of the break-ins and thefts were not reported until the spring months, when their owners would return to open them.

After burglarizing most of the cottages at Eastern Point and, finding that these dwellings were not only easy prey to break-ins but also rich in items to steal, the perpetrators decided to move their “operation” to similar resort areas in New London, including cottages on the shore of the Pequot settlement and dwellings along Harbor Road leading to Fort Trumbull.

Interestingly, as the number of burglaries in New London increased, and the local press began to bring attention to them, a new rash of another type of incident, involving the appearance of a “sheeted ghost” jumping out at and terrifying women in the Harbor Road area, took the attention away from the burglaries. It was suspected that perhaps the perpetrators of the burglaries, in an effort to divert police attention away from the area of the houses they were burglarizing, had cunningly concocted the “ghost” character.

It was shortly after the appearance of the “Ghost” that breaks and thefts from homes in New London suddenly ceased.

Contemporaneous with the cessation of burglaries in New London, farmers in Groton Bank, Mystic and Ledyard experienced a loss of poultry, including fat roosters and plump pullet chickens and mature turkeys, during the nighttime hours. There had been so many thefts of chickens and turkeys from coops in the Groton Bank area that farmers estimated that a third of all poultry they raised had been stolen.

One press report indicated that some local farmers had mobilized into quasi guard watches, “armed with shot-guns, loaded to kill with salt or slugs, and in some cases, buckshot.” Even with these extra surveillance measures in place, the thefts of the fowl continued, without seeing a glimpse of the thieves.

The next target area for the poultry thefts was Groton’s almshouse (commonly referred to as “poor-house” or “poor-farm”) located on the top of Fort Hill. Because the occupants of the facility raised a large number of chickens and turkeys for their own consumption, the thieves found the pickings to be extremely fruitful.

The isolated surroundings at the farm made this location so favorable for night-time raids that the thieves continued going back. Little did they realize that their undaunting concerns and comfortableness with targeting this location would lead to their demise.

As the story goes, the caretaker of the almshouse had been raising a prize turkey to serve to the facility’s occupants on Thanksgiving Day of 1887. The “gobbler” was reported to weigh not less than 28 to 30 pounds, and the caretaker was so proud of this bird he placed it on display at the farm for public viewing.

Having heard the reports of the poultry thefts in the area, the caretaker came into the habit of checking on his big gobbler on its roost at the farm’s coop each night before retiring to bed at the farmhouse. Likewise, each morning, his first chore was to return to the coop to assure himself that no one had made off with the prized bird overnight.

The perpetrators, having heard about this esteemed turkey, had made two carefully planned trips to the roost to snatch the bird; however, because of darkness, they had wrung the necks of the wrong birds, each of which weighed about 10 pounds less than the bird they had targeted.

On their third and final trip, two days before Thanksgiving, they captured the right gobbler.

After wringing its neck, they placed it into a canvas bag and quickly departed the area. It had been raining that night, and the dirt roads had turned slick with mud. As the crooks walked down the highway away from the farm, each took turns carrying the heavy load. The bag periodically bounced on the road and, little beknown to them, they were leaving an unmistakable trail of footprints as they walked homeward.

The next morning, the almshouse keeper discovered the theft and immediately observed the footprints in the area around the coop. He followed the prints to the road where they became even more distinct and easier to follow. After tracking the footwear impressions for about a half hour, the trail led him into the yards of resident farmers Peter Blifford and Francis Gerard, in the Mystic area.

By noon the following day, sheriffs had placed Blifford and Gerard under arrest for stealing the prized turkey. The pair were subsequently presented at the Superior Court in Mystic and released under a bond of $150 each, which was furnished by friends.

The arresting officers had no idea that Blifford and Gerard were also responsible for the multiple burglaries and thefts that had occurred in various communities of New London county over the past two years until they executed a search warrant at their residences to recover evidence related to the turkey theft.

To the shock of the officers, upon executing the search warrants, they found a treasure trove of plunder which had been stolen from many of the houses that they had burglarized. Both thieves were subsequently criminally charged with numerous counts of burglary and theft.

In January 1888, Gerard was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to serve eight years in state prison. Blifford, who had turned state’s evidence against Gerard, was sentenced to serve 18 months.

Several newspaper articles about the burglaries and thefts had tagged Gerard and Blifford with various nicknames, including: The Farmer Robbers, The Groton Thieves and The Nutmeg Burglars. I think a more appropriate name would be The Turkey Burglars.

Jim Streeter is the historian for the town of Groton.