Sadistic Houseguest: Be Careful Who You Let in Your Front Door

By Lorie Castro

It was midnight on a cold Connecticut February night of 1780. With a wooden club in one hand and a candle in the other, nineteen-year-old Barnett Davenport crept quietly through the shadows and up the stairs to the second story. His breath formed vaporous clouds. He was eager, no, anxious, to carry out his plan. He hadn’t stopped thinking about murdering the Mallory family for five or six days. It had become an obsession. Once he had set his mind to the murder, the plans and details flooded his mind; the swells grew bigger until finally breaking into a twisted, nefarious plan to kill, rob, and burn the house down with everyone in it. Now, he finally had his opportunity.

Pushing the Mallory’s bedroom door open, he could make out two beds. Sixty-eight-year-old Caleb Mallory slept in one bed, his wife Jane and his seven-year-old granddaughter Anne lie in the other bed. Two younger granddaughters, Elizabeth and Rachel, slept together in another nearby room. In his confession, Davenport admitted that he had no provocation or prejudice against the family, he was just “haunted and possessed,” with the idea of murdering them (212). Caleb Mallory’s daughter and daughter-in-law, the girls’ mother, were away for the night, giving Barnett the perfect opportunity to accost the elderly couple. Intent on murder, he approached the elderly Mr. Mallory’s sleeping figure and raised his weapon over his head, ready to strike a blow. 

Barnett Davenport had spent a lifetime developing into a remorseless criminal. With each year, he indulged more freely in crime until he wasn’t satisfied with anything less than murder. He admits that by the time he was nine-years-old, he had become so habitual in the use of profanities that his father sent him away. At his new home, he became skilled at the craft of thievery. After a couple years, he ran away to live back at home. However, his father sent him away again. Over the next year, he was shuffled from home to home. Always stealing, then moving. He stole whatever he wished; fruit and vegetables from gardens, money, silk handkerchiefs, and horses from his host families. 

By the time Davenport was fifteen, he made a profit out of stealing. However, taking eggs, hens, potatoes and selling them wasn’t enough for the teenager any longer. He became enthralled with the idea of murder. That year, he devised a plan to kill his caretaker John Stillwell. While working in the field one day, he picked up his ax and readied himself to swing it into the head of his host. He disappointed himself when he didn’t follow through like he had planned. Instead, he stole the man’s horse and rode away to enlist in the army. There, he would learn the art of killing. There, he would kill, plunder, steal, and even set someone's home ablaze without remorse. After being punished for striking an officer, he deserted. 

On the run, and going by the alias Nicholas Davenport (the name of his younger brother), he found himself at the home of Mr. Caleb Mallory. When Mr. Mallory saw that Davenport was in need, he offered him clothing, a job, and a place to live. The unfortunate Mr. Mallory did not anticipate that in exchange for his compassion and kindness, his family would be cruelly bludgeoned and burned to death in America’s first documented mass murder. Barnett Davenport was a troubled, callous, and sadistic young man. His mind was fixated on murder; he was hungry for the kill. 

Raising the weapon over Mr. Mallory, Davenport viciously clubbed him over his head multiple times. Mr. Mallory tried to fight back, rising from the bed, knocking the candle from his assailant's hand, and pleading to ask Davenport why. Davenport, with unrestrained intensity, broke the swingle over Mr. Mallory’s head and had to carry on his assault with the butt of Mr. Mallory's own rifle. He continued to beat him until he was quiet. Mrs. Mallory was then brutally bludgeoned. Annie, who had been sleeping beside her grandmother, recognized the killer and called out to him by name, questioning and crying while Davenport continued his slaughter. Her shrieks and groans were not enough to possess Davenport to remit his attack on the child. 

Though probably mortally wounded at this time, the Mallory's were not yet dead. Covered in blood, and amidst their groans, Barnett Davenport pillaged the rooms, loading what valuables and miscellaneous things he could find into a makeshift knapsack. Fumbling around the room, he looked for the key to the chest. Growing impatient, he found a stone pestle and began to break the chest open. Annoyed, or irritated, by the groaning, Davenport ambled back to Mr. Mallory and, according to his confession, “mashed his head all to pieces with this instrument” (214). Court documents reveal that one head wound was two inches deep. Turning his attention to Mrs. Mallory, Davenport noted that her face was swollen and that she was a sight of utmost gore and blood. Nevertheless, he ended her life in the same brutal manner before casually changing into a set of Mr. Mallory’s clean clothes.

  The smaller children in the next room were awakened by the grisly sounds. They asked Davenport if they could get up, and questioned what the noises were they had heard and asked what was wrong with their grandmother. He calmly told them to go back to bed, for it wasn’t morning yet. With the small children lying in bed, terrified, Davenport coolly walked to the milk room and set it on fire. Then he walked to the outward room and set it on fire. He continued by lighting the upward chamber room on fire, as well. Finally content that the house was sufficiently ablaze, he fled on horseback into the darkness. Davenport was not troubled that the children were left to burn alive. By the time the Mallory's bodies were found, they were nothing more than five skeletons, buried under blackened soot and ash. 

Barnett Davenport was arrested several days later hiding in a cave. He confessed to the crimes of murder, robbery, and arson and was sentenced to 40 lashes and death by hanging. His brother Nicholas, for whom he had used his name as an alias, was also arrested. He was accused of aiding and abetting Barnett after he fled the crime scene. Nicholas spent time in prison, even though there was no evidence against him and Barnett said he acted alone. Barnett Davenport’s fourteen page confession was written, with help of a clergyman, shortly before he was executed. Afterward, Barnett Davenport's lifeless body was left to sway in the noose where he hung as a warning to others. Davenport, with his cruel and barbaric act, became America’s first mass murderer.

Copyright © 2025 by Lorie D. Castro

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