Southwick’s Ice Pick Killing
- A forgotten 1909 lakeside murder—and the hat that cracked the case.
A Grim Discovery at Congamond Lake
On the still morning of August 30, 1909, the peaceful surface of Congamond Lake in Southwick, Massachusetts, gave way to a dark secret—one that would unravel over the weeks to come.
While going about his morning routine, a man named White, employed by the Berkshire Ice Company, spotted something disturbing—a man’s head and shoulders floating in the lake. Alarmed, he called over Maloney, an employee of the nearby Lake House, an old hotel on Congamond Lake known more for its bootleg liquor than its lodging, along with another bystander. Together, the men towed the body to shore.
The deceased man appeared to be about 5 feet 10 inches tall and roughly 190 pounds. Though dressed in a dark brown suit, a mixed-fabric shirt, and size 7 shoes, his weathered appearance and empty pockets suggested he may have been a tramp. His body was still limp—he hadn’t been in the lake long.
Growing Suspicion
As the men stood with the body, they spotted someone in the distance walking along the nearby railroad tracks. It was Michael Bahan of neighboring Westfield, Massachusetts—a man they recognized as having been with the victim the day before.
Deputy Sheriff Timothy Malone of Southwick was quickly called to the scene. Malone contacted Westfield’s Medical Examiner, Dr. Janes, who performed a hasty lakeside examination of the body. There was a wound on the man’s head, likely inflicted by a large stone. He had a powerful build, but his smooth hands gave investigators pause—this was not a man accustomed to manual labor.
The body was taken to the undertaking rooms of the Lambson Furniture Company in Westfield. Official records listed the man as 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds. An autopsy revealed no water in the lungs—evidence that he had already died before entering the lake. There was no alcohol in his stomach, but a trace was found in his brain.
The fatal wound was a skull fracture near the left temple, an inch above the ear. The blow had caused brain tissue damage and immediate death. Investigators also found a bruise between the shoulder blades, along with an oval-shaped hole cut through the back of the man’s suit jacket. At first, this appeared to be a bullet wound, but no bullet was found. The examiner concluded that the man had been struck with a sharp object—possibly an ice pick, the sturdy tool ice harvesters used to chip and maneuver heavy ice cakes onto the conveyor leading into the icehouse.
Searching for the Victim’s Identity
A large number of residents went to Lambson’s to view the body. Several thought the man’s name was Belivier, a tinsmith who came from Northampton, Massachusetts, to work at the Pope Manufacturing Company’s new plant in Westfield. Others said he was a plumber who went by the name Frank Garvey. (Pope’s Westfield plant made automobiles, motorcycles, and its best-known product: Columbia bicycles.)
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| Pope Manufacturing, Westfield, Massachusetts |
Rumors spread quickly around the lake: the night before the body was discovered, a brawl had broken out at a camp where several cigarmakers were holding a carousal. Malone followed the lead and detained six cigarmakers from Springfield, Massachusetts: Benjamin Harrington, Frank McCorg, Thomas Welch, Joseph Brigiman, Thomas Kelley, and Harry Longnecker.
In a nearby icehouse, Malone found Michael Bahan bruised and sopping, as if he’d just crawled out of the lake. Bahan said he had fallen into the lake and spent the entire night inside the icehouse. He claimed he did not know how or when he got out of the lake or into the icehouse. Malone made a mental note of this. If he’d spent the night in the icehouse, wouldn’t his clothes have been dried by morning?
Malone also found it odd that Bahan was wearing a derby hat several sizes too small. Malone took the hat and gave Bahan a straw one instead. That detail would soon prove crucial.
After securing the men in the Westfield lockup, Malone returned to Congamond and thoroughly searched the grounds around the cigarmakers’ camp and the icehouse for clues. He questioned folks around the lake, looking for any information that might help identify the victim or his killer.
One witness, who saw the dead man and Bahan at the Lake House, told Malone that the men had no money and therefore tried to barter sandwiches for a boat ride to the camp. He added that neither man appeared to be intoxicated.
Unmasking Identities
Bahan, originally from Binghamton, New York, had been in Westfield for ten weeks, working as a cigarmaker for Murrin & Kirwan. All the detained men denied knowing the deceased but admitted seeing him the previous evening. They quickly hired prominent Westfield attorney R.J. Morrissey to represent them. On August 31, Morrissey petitioned to have them moved to better accommodations at the York Street Jail in Springfield, citing poor conditions in the Westfield lockup. But that request was deferred because Thomas Bligh, a detective with the Massachusetts State Police, arrived to interview the men.
Detective Bligh questioned the men individually. Their stories varied from what they originally told investigators, but one thing was certain: Bahan and the mystery man arrived at the camp late in the afternoon and left around 11:00 p.m., both men having been dropped off on the shore by the icehouse. One of the men said he heard shouting on the shore near the icehouse, but paid no attention to it. While Bligh was interviewing the men, Massachusetts State Detective McCay arrived to assist him. Following the interrogation, the detectives released three of the men as witnesses in the case.
The breakthrough came on September 1, 1909, when two local barbers came forward to identify the body as Frank Beleveau, a traveling plumber and steamfitter from Fall River, Massachusetts. They believed he had recently been staying at the Globe Hotel in Springfield. However, when authorities contacted the hotel, the staff claimed no one by that name—or his known alias, Garvey—had registered there in some time. Authorities contacted the Fall River Police in hopes of finding the next of kin. If no family was located, they planned to bury the man in Westfield the following day.
Clues and a Confession
Meanwhile, investigators were focused on Bahan, who had quickly become the prime suspect. After hours of intense questioning, Bahan confessed to the murder. What broke him was a key piece of evidence: the derby hat Deputy Sheriff Malone had confiscated at the time of his arrest. It was stained with blood and had a dent in the crown—perfectly matching the fatal head wound on Beleveau. Blood was also found inside the hat, directly over the fractured area of the victim’s skull.
Investigators had also recovered Bahan’s original hat, which they found on the lakeshore, along with Beleveau’s dry, neatly rolled-up jacket—likely left behind before the fatal confrontation.
In his confession, Bahan claimed that he and Beleveau had been drinking on the shores of Congamond Lake when a quarrel turned physical. He insisted that he struck Beleveau in self-defense and maintained that the other six Springfield men, who had been detained, played no role in the killing.
Following Bahan’s confession, the remaining three men were released on their own recognizance and ordered to appear in court on September 3. Bahan was formally charged with murder, though he pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney R.J. Morrissey argued self-defense. The judge ordered an inquest to determine the facts of the case.
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| Michael Bahan |
A Brother’s Tearful Recognition
Frank Beleveau was buried on September 6 at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Westfield. The barbers were nearly right. Two days later, on September 8, Frank’s brother, Walter Beleveau, came forward to positively identify him as Herménégilde Beleveau of Lawrence, Massachusetts—a tinsmith by trade and an itinerant plumber who often went by the more American-sounding name “Frank.” When shown a photograph of the deceased, Walter’s eyes filled with tears as he quietly confirmed it was indeed his brother. He explained that Frank had left home some time ago, taking his tool chest with him, and found it suspicious that his brother had no identifying papers on him when the body was found.
After informing his parents of Frank’s demise, Walter said they had decided to leave him buried in Westfield rather than relocate his remains.
The judge’s inquest soon concluded. Based on the evidence and testimony, the judge determined that during an altercation, Bahan struck Beleveau in the head with an ice pick, killing him, and then rolled the body into the lake. On September 10, the judge cited probable cause and ordered Bahan held without bail pending a decision from the grand jury.
On September 14, the grand jury returned an indictment for manslaughter, which the prosecution accepted, foregoing a charge of murder.
The Trial
The trial began on September 21 and lasted two days. During the proceedings, Bahan took the stand in his own defense and gave his account of the night in question. He testified that he had been walking to Southwick to visit the cigarmakers’ camp when he encountered Beleveau along the way. The two quickly became friends, and Bahan invited him to join the gathering. Having no money, they had great difficulty securing a boat ride to the camp, but eventually convinced a boy at the Lake House to row them across in exchange for some sandwiches. However, once they arrived, the cigarmakers—already hosting Bahan as a guest—were displeased that he had brought along an uninvited stranger.
Unwelcome, the two men were rowed from the camp back to the shore near the icehouse by a couple of the cigarmakers. Rather than walk back to Westfield, they planned to spend the night in a boxcar sitting on tracks beside the icehouse. Beleveau, younger and more agile, climbed in with ease, but Bahan struggled. When he asked for help, he claimed Beleveau kicked him in the head and then attacked. According to Bahan, Beleveau pursued him aggressively and made verbal threats, prompting Bahan to grab an ice pick and strike him in the head.
Realizing he had killed the man, Bahan said he rolled the body into the lake and broke into the icehouse to sleep. In his confusion, he unknowingly took the wrong hat—Beleveau’s derby—stained with blood and bearing a dent that perfectly matched the fatal wound. Under cross-examination, Bahan admitted that fear of the consequences had led him to dispose of the body.
On September 22, after just two hours of deliberation, the jury found Bahan guilty of manslaughter and recommended clemency. Eight days later, on September 30, Judge Robert F. Raymond of Springfield Superior Court sentenced him to three years in the House of Corrections. (While incarcerated, Bahan worked as an umbrella maker.)
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Edited Out/Author’s Additional Research Notes
1. William
White, an employee of the Berkshire Ice Company, is credited with
discovering the body. His brother Edward may also have assisted in
towing the body to shore.
2. Conflicting reports list the water where the body was found as 6, 10, or even 20 feet deep, depending on the source.
3. There are inconsistencies in the names and spellings of the six cigarmakers detained during the investigation.
4. Bahan met the Springfield cigarmakers approximately two weeks before the killing, at a local baseball game.
5. There are inconsistencies in the spelling of Beleveau. Beleveau is used as it appears on the death certificate.
6. The facility known as the House of Corrections—where Bahan served his sentence—later became known as the York Street Jail.
7. When Deputy Sheriff Malone returned to Congamond Lake to search for evidence, he was joined by the Westfield police chief. The two were later assisted by Massachusetts State Detectives Bligh and McCay.
8. Michael Bahan was about 53 years old at the time of the murder. He stood a few inches over 5 feet tall and had a stocky build.
9. Bahan began working as a cigarmaker at the age of 13. Apart from a brief stint with the railroad, he worked in the cigar trade for roughly 40 years, traveling between Minnesota, Connecticut, and possibly Florida.
10. After serving his sentence, Bahan appears to have relocated. Records suggest he lived in Hartford, Connecticut, for a time, but his whereabouts after leaving New England are unclear.
11. Frank Beleveau’s parents were Canadian, but he was born in Canaan, New Hampshire. However, Frank’s brother told investigators that he was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
12. Frank Beleveau was known to embellish stories about his life. Sometimes he would flat out lie.
13. Pope Manufacturing’s Westfield plant, where some believed the deceased was going to work, was originally owned by H.A. Lozier & Co., a bicycle company out of Cleveland, Ohio. After Columbia bicycle manufacturing was moved to a different factory (and automobile and motorcycle production was ceased), the massive Westfield plant primarily made classroom furniture under the Columbia name. Most of the Westfield facility was demolished in 2008. Today, Columbia operates a small plant in Westfield.