This was the site 1878 Eastern Express Company office robbery, where $4,000 was stolen from the safe just one month before the Barron murder. A local cabinetmaker named Arthur Annett, whose airtight alibi was that he was asleep in bed with his wife at the time of the burglary, was accused early on. Mr. Annett, with the very able assistance of prominent lawyer Josiah Crosby, was eventually discharged of any wrongdoing. One eloquent Crosby argument on Annett's behalf follows: "An attempt has been made to fasten this crime on a fellow citizen of our town, a man who has sustained an unquestionable character ... If a man in our town has been guilty of this crime, we want him ousted, but we don't want an innocent man of our town convicted of a crime of which he is not guilty. There are a good many others who could be brought here beside Mr. Annett, against whom suspicious circumstances could be brought to bear ... It has been claimed that no one could make the key with which the safe was opened lest he be a skilled mechanic. It is a very simple operation; there are hundreds in this house who could make one as good-could even do it myself. " No one was ever convicted for this robbery and it remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

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