by Channing Gray of the Projo/Journal Art Writer
For the next six weeks, Cranston’s refurbished Park Cinema, now the Rhode Island Center for the Performing Arts, is hosting “The Murder Trial of John Gordon,” an original play by Newporter Ken Dooley, who grew up one block from the Park.
Dooley believes there’s no question Gordon was wrongly convicted in the 1845 trial that resulted in the 29-year-old being sent to the gallows.
Dooley, a former theater critic and the author of 38 books (his play about winning basketball coach Red Auerbach comes to the Park in the spring), said he’s always been fascinated by the Gordon case, ever since he was a lad listening to his grandmother sing a song about the trial in the beating death of influential mill owner Amasa Sprague on the last day of 1843. All 23 characters in the play are based on the historical record, save one, Ryan Murphy, whom Dooley created to set the stage by telling us what Irish immigrants encountered when they arrived in Rhode Island.
John Gordon had been in this country for only a few months before he was arrested for the murder of Sprague, who had used his political clout to have the Cranston City Council pull the liquor license of John’s brother, Nicholas Gordon. Sprague was upset that his employees, most of whom were Irish, were buying liquor at Gordon’s store and showing up at work drunk.
Now there was bad blood between Sprague and the Gordon clan. So when Sprague’s body was discovered, suspicion immediately fell on the three Gordon brothers: Nicholas, John and William. It was surmised that Nicholas brought his two brothers from Ireland to kill Sprague.
The evidence was circumstantial. And, Dooley says, there was strong anti-Irish sentiment at the time. Add to that the political influence of William Sprague, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat to devote himself to finding his brother’s killer, and, Dooley says, John Gordon didn’t stand much of a chance.
All three brothers were arrested and put on trial for murder. Brother William was found innocent. Nicholas’ trial ended in a hung jury. That left John, who was convicted of the crime.
The strongest evidence presented by the prosecution to convict John Gordon had to do with a broken gun found at the crime scene that was said to belong to Nicholas. The prosecution hammered home the fact that the Gordon brothers could not prove the weapon found at the scene didn’t in fact belong to Nicholas; the brothers were unable to produce the gun he owned.
But after John’s conviction, William Gordon admitted to the defense attorney that, after Sprague was found dead, he had hidden the gun away out of fear. William later produced the weapon and the defense lawyer filed an appeal to overturn the conviction. That appeal, however, was turned down.
The case then went before the General Assembly, which was asked to commute John Gordon’s sentence. That appeal was defeated by a narrow margin.
An appeal was then made to Gov. James Fenner for a stay of execution. But Fenner, a close friend of William Sprague, rejected the request. John Gordon was hanged.
His funeral was attended by Irish immigrants from as far away as New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is said it took all day for the line of mourners to pass the home where Gordon’s body had been taken.
Those who see the play can, of course, draw their own conclusions. But Dooley, who has worked with local historians Patrick Conley and Scott Malloy, the URI professor, thinks his play reveals the real killer, a hulking Irishman by the name of Peter Dolan, who was fired by Sprague a week before the murder for showing up drunk and busting up one of the looms in Sprague’s Cranston mill. Dolan had been heard issuing threats against Sprague. He disappeared the day of the murder and was never seen again.
Dooley, who also directs his play, cites a statement by Gordon’s priest that he maintains indicates Gordon’s innocence. The priest told Gordon just before he was sent to the gallows that he wouldn’t be the first Irish immigrant to become a martyr to bigotry. Why would the priest say that, asks Dooley, if Gordon had admitted the crime during his final Confession?
Sentiment is still strong surrounding the case. On St. Patrick’s Day, Newport state Rep. Peter Martin, vice president of the state board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish Catholic fraternal order, plans to introduce legislation that would exonerate Gordon.
“The Murder Trial of John Gordon” takes place Friday-Sunday through Feb. 27 at the Rhode Island Center for the Performing Arts, 848 Park Ave., Cranston. Tickets are $30, with a 15 percent discount for students and seniors. Call (401) 467-7275 or visit www.parktheatreri.com.
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