On a tragic afternoon in Belfast, Maine, the life of 65-year-old Herbert Elisha Ellis was abruptly ended. On September 8, 1933, a man named Adrian F. Jones, aged 66, approached Ellis on the corner of High and Main streets and fired a shotgun into his back, killing him almost instantly. This violent act was not random; Jones had harbored a grudge against Ellis for as long as two decades, stemming from a time when they were neighbors.
The tragic events of that day did not conclude with the
death of Ellis. After the initial shooting, Jones continued his rampage, walking to Washington Street. There, he opened fire on three more men who were standing in front of the Blazo Trucking Company office. The victims of this subsequent attack were 73-year-old William W. Blazo, the owner of the company, his 37-year-old son Raymond Blazo, and 57-year-old Dr. Reginald B. Stanhope, a local veterinarian.
Following the shootings, Jones barricaded himself inside a nearby blacksmith shop. As law enforcement surrounded the building, he took his own life with a revolver. Investigations following the incident revealed that Jones, who was known to be fond of firearms and had a history of mental instability, had also held a grudge against William Blazo and had expressed a desire to see his trucking company eliminated. Jones, a former farmhand who had also worked at insane asylums in other states, was unmarried and had no immediate family. The community was left to mourn the loss of four of its citizens in a senseless act of violence born from long-simmering resentment.
