Samuel Green: America's First Public Enemy Number One

By Arthur Johnson

Samuel Green: America's First Public Enemy Number One

Samuel Green (1796-1822) was a serial killer whose brutal criminal career across New England earned him the designation "public enemy number one" in 1820s America-one of the first uses of this term in U.S. history. Born in Meredith, New Hampshire, Green endured severe childhood abuse that his parents believed was exorcising demons. This trauma, combined with apparent psychopathic traits, produced a remorseless killer who murdered dozens across multiple states.

After escaping Canadian custody while under death sentence for robbery, Green continued his reign of terror until his final crime: the brutal murder of fellow prisoner Billy Williams in Massachusetts State Prison in November 1821. Green beat Williams with an iron rod, fracturing his skull and breaking bones throughout his body. Williams died seven days later.

Green's conviction and execution on April 25, 1822, created a profound historical anomaly: he became the first and only white person executed for murdering a Black victim in Massachusetts history. This statistical outlier-occurring against a backdrop where 533 Black people were executed for crimes against whites for every one white person executed for killing a Black victim-illuminates the pervasive racial injustice in antebellum American capital punishment while demonstrating that equal justice, though rare, was theoretically possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FWCWGRF7
• ISBN13: 9798269964683
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"