1/Austin, Texas, 1884-1885 (Servant Girl Annihilator)
This is one of my favourite unsolved cases of all time. Similar to the “Jack The Ripper” murders in London but they occurred three years before he even started. The Servant Girl Annihilator is a bit misleading name, as some of his victims weren’t even servants, but they were all killed with an axe in Austin, Texas. He killed eight in total, five black women and two white also included was the murder of one black man. The modus operandi was one of creeping into their rooms while they slept, attacking them and then hauled them outside and raped, then mutilated them. The victims were:
Mollie Smith aged 25, murdered on 30 December 1884
Eliza Shelley aged 30, killed on May 7th,1885
Irene Cross aged 33 years old, was attacked by a man with a knife, not an axe as was the norm, murdered 22nd May 1885.
Mary Ramey aged 11, killed on 30 August 1885, with her mother, Rebecca, who was badly wounded.
Gracie Vance killed on 28th September 1885
Orange Washington was the only male victim, but this was thought to be an accident, as his girlfriend Gracie Vance was also killed on the same night, the 28th September 1885.
41-year-old Susan Hancock was murdered on 24th December 1885.
Eula Phillips killed on the 24th December 1885.
2/ Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1890 (The Suicide Club)
Wendell Baum was the secretary of the infamous “Suicide Club” of Bridgeport in Connecticut. In 1886, five men of German descent met in a bar. As they were in low-spirits, some unemployed, they jokingly agreed to form a “Suicide Club”, where one member of the club would kill himself every year. They decided that lots would be drawn and when they got around the table for the first time and a bloke named Schwartzenheim was the first to go. Then after another killed himself within the allotted year. Then the next slit his own throat and then Wendell Baum shot himself. The weird part of the story is that nobody backed out or tried legging it when their lot was drawn. As time went on the “Suicide Club” branched out to New York, Hawaii, Vienna and San Francisco. They even had a young girls suicide club as well. Totally bizarre, but interesting all the same.
3/ Aiken Lynchings, South Carolina, April 1877
4/ Nevada Desert (Thirty Bodies) February 1904
A group of railway surveyors in Nevada accidentally came upon the corpses of around thirty men, all in different stages of decomposition. They were discovered near a place called Dead Man’s Well and it is thought that they became delirious through lack of water. (What the hell happened here?)
5/ Chicago, Illinois, December 1894 (Body in Container)
A shipping container was opened in Chicago and the mutilated corpse of a man dropped out. It looked as though he had been hacked to death with a meat cleaver or butcher’s knife. The case had a French stamp on it. The man was around forty-years-old, balding, with a fair moustache and dressed smartly. The plot thickens! (Who was he?)
6/ Livingston Sextuple Murder, Montana, August 1890
A man residing near Livingston in Montana, in a case of homicidal mania, went and killed his missus and five kids. They tried to capture the clearly insane individual, but he resisted all efforts and during the struggle, he was killed. (Names?)
7/Bruceport, Washington, (Abandoned Child) March 1885
8/ Virginia, August 1889 (Double Suicide)
Anita and Miriam Boggs were not blessed with sexy names. That has nothing to do with why these two young lasses killed themselves, but it wasn’t far off the mark. They didn’t want to become wizened old maids and they couldn’t find a boyfriend at that time, so they wrote a letter saying they would kill themselves.
9/ Lake Shore near St Paul, Minnesota November 1889 (Who was it?)
A shocking discovery was made at Lake Shore near St Paul, Minnesota. A mangled corpse was found in the soil and this was encased in a barrel, on which was inscribed “A.Traitor”. Police are investigating the matter but as yet there are no leads.
10/ Saratoga, California, (Suicide over Kitten) November 1848
An elderly lady named Lois P.Smith, hanged herself at Saratoga, California. Was she ill? Was she penniless? No, it was the fact that her kitten had died. The letter she left, it read:
“Oh dear! Bury my poor little kitten with me, as it is to as an angel from above. O, grant me my wishes. Bury me in my backyard until the time expires that I have paid for the house. Lay my little angel by my right side on my right arm. Don’t deny my wishes.”
It is believed that the death of her feline companion brought on temporary insanity, then the suicide.
11/Alabama/Georgia Cyclone, November 1885
A destructive cyclone passed over the counties of Dallas and Perry in Georgia and Alabama. Thirteen persons were killed and dozens more injured. A great deal of property was destroyed.
12/Gainestown Lynching, Alabama, December 1885
13/White Haven, Pennsylvania, July 1893 (Buried Alive)
Mrs Charles Bozer was married nine months ago to a prominent merchant of the town, but died suddenly a week ago. The husband then got word from a close friend that she prone to fainting fits and couldn’t get the idea out her mind, that she was buried alive. (Catalepsy? Narcolepsy?) He passed it off in the beginning, but as he thought about more and more, he too convinced himself that she was still alive, but underground. He ordered the coffin to be exhumed and amazingly there she was face down, with bruising and lacerations on her skin and pieces of hair in her hands. Apparently, it was true and she was buried alive. In despair, the husband tried to kill himself, but was stopped just in time.
14/Denison Murders, Texas, May 1892
A serial killer was loose in Denison, Texas, with reports that a fifth attempted victim, was hit by a bullet and received only minor wounds. Soldiers are patrolling the entire area, 24/7 and there is a curfew in place, that anybody seen on the streets at night is immediately arrested. There is a large reward for anybody with any information. (Who the hell was it?)
15/Keasbey, New Jersey, January 1904 (Dynamite under Dance-Hall)
Dozens of men and women were severely injured, some so badly that it is feared that lives will be lost, when an explosion occurred at a dance-hall at Keasbey, New Jersey. It is not believed to be accidental but a deliberate act by a maniac. The estimated four hundred crowd was engaged in a party, who incidentally, was an enemy of the proprietor of the place. (Two birds with one stone-insurance money and get rid of your worst nightmare!) In the basement of the building was a gas tank and it is believed that a large amount of dynamite was put there on purpose. (Was it the proprietor or an accident?)
16/Saguache, Colorado, October 1885 (Murders and Lynching)
17/Nashville Slave Girl Suicide, Kentucky, June 1849
The wording of this story just about sums up the era in question. A negro girl, BELONGING (?) to Mr Louis C.Lisby hanged herself last week. Her mother had escaped and the young negress was threatened with severe punishment if she didn’t tell her owner where she had gone. The pressure proved too much. The article goes on to say that if she had been a white slave, her conduct would have been considered heroic. As she was just a “n****r” in Republican America, it was just put down to the stupidity of the African race. Unbelievable! I’m sure there are thousands of stories just like this one.
18/Coney Island Sword Murder, New York, July 1899
New York’s favourite place of entertainment was the scene of a horrific murder when an Asian man became violent towards a young lady attendant. He lost control and armed with a sword (Where did he hide that?), he rushed towards her and began hacking away at her body. There were an estimated two hundred on-lookers and before they could react, the girl was cut to shreds and very dead. Police managed to get the truncheons out and batter him into submission. As to the reason why he did this grisly act, nobody is quite sure. (Names of the victim/perpetrator?)
19/Cole City Lynching, Tennessee, October 1895
An awful lynching has taken place at Cole City, Tennessee when an unruly mob took a negro lad from the gaol. The negro was supposed to have assaulted a white girl. The father of the girl, who was part of the mob, mutilated the lad by cutting off his ears. When he confessed to raping her they smashed his fingers with a hammer, so that hardly any bones were left unbroken, then to finish him off they shot him in various parts of his body. They buried him straight after torturing him.
20/Exeter near Reading, Pennsylvania, (Train Crash) May 1899
21/Asheville Haunted Prison, North Carolina, April 1908
The county gaol at Asheville was due to be abandoned, due to the fact that it may be haunted. The prison population of two hundred, handed in a petition to the authorities explaining the noises that they hear along with paranormal experiences they have encountered. The trap door from which a negro was recently hanged from, would open with a loud crash. Then at midnight the spirit would manifest itself and go along the cell grating, grinning at inmates, but never uttering a word. (Is it still there?)
22/ Seymour, Indiana, November 1893 (Quadruple Murder/Suicide)
Clinton Jordan and his wife had split up the previous week and now he had hunted her down again. It was an acrimonious separation and he found her at her mother’s house in Seymour. He entered the place, shot his wife, the mother-in-law, the father-in-law and his sister-in-law, then popped the muzzle in his mouth and blew his brains out. There were no survivors.
23/ North Dakota Train Crash, October 1885
24/ Mount Vernon Mystery, New York, October 1889 (Starved to Death in Church)
The Church of the Sacred Heart in Mount Vernon, was haunted by a ghostly figure. Father Coles heard moaning coming from the cellar, then ordered a search as a result. The body of an Irish looking girl was discovered, dressed in plain clothes and having some small change next to her. She was wearing a scapular, which meant she was true Catholic. It appeared that she had starved herself to death. She was seen about the place for two months previous to her death but no-one said anything to her, nor did they give her any food. None of the church officials thought of looking on the premises for her. A quick chat with the locals, who also said that she never bought anything in town, nor did she speak. The whole affair is a complete mystery.
25/ Barbourville Lynching, Kentucky, March 1894 (Lynch Mob Skin Man Alive)
Another in the long list of 19th Century lynchings in the U.S.A. This lad was a negro named Tye who was accused of assaulting an eight-year-old girl. He was stripped naked, then skinned alive in front of the lynch mob who were baying for blood. Then they tied him to a stake and burned him. Authorities are outraged by the occurrence and Federal Government is keeping an eye on matters. It thought that severe action will be forthcoming.
26/ Silver Cliff Explosion, Colorado, November 1885
A fire occurred at Bull Domingo Mines at Silver Cliff in Colorado, owing to an explosion of gunpowder. The shaft was burnt and ten miners were killed.
27/ Cherokee Gulch Avalanche, Colorado, February 1899 (Twenty-eight Dead)
28/ No 231, West 22nd Street, New York, May 1910 (Servants Murdered)
The house of a well-known physician, Dr Cannon of 231, West 22nd Street, was the scene of a double murder. The butler and the house-keeper disturbed burglars while they were ransacking the joint and in a bid not to be identified, they murdered the unlucky pair. They shot them first and then clubbed them to death. The robbers escaped with $200 worth of loot. The doctor was out at the time and it was police who found the bodies, but police have a very good idea who committed the murders.
(Who killed them both?) 231, West 22nd Street is between 7th and 8th Avenues and is still there!
29/ St Louis, Missouri, December 1889 (Suicide on a Saw)
Edward Kerittner aged nineteen, who worked in a box factory, decided to kill himself. Well, you would normally jump off a building, shoot yourself or go for poisoning? Nope! Edward thought it would be painless and swift self-destruction if he put his head under the upright saw in the factory. He did this and it cut the scalp and skull on the right hand side of his head, with the blade penetrating the brain. The shock, which must have been intense, threw him on his back away from the blade. Miraculously, he got up and put the other side of his skull on it, injuring himself in the same way. He again rose from the saw and put his wrist under the saw, which hacked through it with consummate ease. Eventually, he dropped to the ground having accomplished his goal.
30/ Wardner, Idaho, (Rioting, murder) May 1899
31/ Chicago, Illinois, March 1890 (Robbers Wild Rampage)
32/ Oakland Murders, near Manchester, Connecticut, August 1865
The murders were committed on the 31st of July at Oakland, Connecticut, on a woman named Starkweather and her fourteen-year-old daughter, Ella. The mother had been savagely attacked with an axe, with injuries that included a deep gash in the face, sinking into her brain, the nose was divided in two and with severe marks on the temple and the rear of the skull. Then the murderer had got a butcher’s knife and stabbed her in the chin and throat, along with knife wounds in each of her breasts. Ella had her right eye missing, with gashes over her eyes and cheeks. The axe wound in the skull was so deep that brain matter had seeped out. She too was stabbed in the breasts with the butcher’s knife. The son Albert Starkweather, found the corpses then rushed to Mr Whites’s next door, but he breathlessly exclaimed “Get up! I don’t know but I think our folks are all killed and the house is on fire!”
Indeed the bed was on fire and Mr White threw the mattress out of the window. Albert stayed downstairs crying and Mr White found Ella still clinging to life, although badly mutilated. As he lifted Ella up, an axe fell onto the ground, so he cleverly used it to prop up the window to let out the smoke. Ella only lasted a few more minutes and it was the son who was taken into custody.
33/ Alta Avalanche, Utah, February 1885
34/ Archie Murder, Missouri, April 1891
A man by the name of Soper, left Archie but never came back. Police became suspicious and forced entry into his residence. To their horror, they discovered the dead bodies of Mrs Soper and their two kids, with all of them having been dreadfully axed to death. The murder weapon was left nearby and was covered in blood and hair. He left a note behind explaining to the police why he had committed this grisly deed. It appears that rather than leave his wife and kids, he’d butchered them instead and he also didn’t want them to be destitute, as he couldn’t earn a living. Well, that makes sense! NOT!
35/ Middletown Quadruple Murder, New York State, October 1905
Three people were killed with one in a precarious condition, at a lonely farmhouse near Middletown, New York State. When his wife passed away, Willis Olney aged sixty-two, hired Mrs Ingerick to be house-keeper to him and his brother. She was happy to get the job and came with her two daughters, Lulu aged thirteen and nine-year-old Alice. It was Lulu who returned home one evening and found the place deserted. Further searching came up with the bodies of her sister in the cellar, with her head pounded to a pulp and her mother in a barn unconscious. The two Olney brothers were discovered half a mile away in a woods with their watches missing and pockets inside out. It is feared that Mrs Ingerick will not recover. (Who did this quadruple murder?)
36/ Oak City, Texas, January 1888 (Family of Murderers Lynched)
anything he had to say would be heard. The old man commenced talking in an almost inaudible voice and made a brief statement. Preparations were at once made to hang him. In a few minutes, his body was swinging in the air. He was then let down and asked to confess to the crime. This he did. He and all the members of his family were equally guilty. He said they had killed and robbed nine men and two women. He told where the money was hidden that had been taken and gave up what he had on his person, but professed not to know where the murdered persons came from. He was again swung up. The accident to his wife ended fatally and made her execution unnecessary.
37/ Wilson Murders, North Carolina, July 1907
A resident of Wilson in North Carolina named Rexford, found out that his wife and his brother were seeing each other behind his back. He found the couple kissing and cuddling each other, so he burst in and pulled out his revolver and shot them both in the blink of an eye.He was arrested for the murders, but the “unwritten law” will probably be enough to get an acquittal.
38/ McDowell County Triple Murder, West Virginia, August 1889
The Hollis brothers were suspected of the murders and a posse went after them. They were hunted down and discovered near Pikeville, Kentucky. They were hung upside down from a tree and shot by the vigilance committee. (Was it them that committed the murders?)
39/ Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, (Eight Drowned) February 1899
A group of male and female students were rowing on a pond, when the occupants changed boats, the boats capsized and all of them were precipitated into the water. The death toll was six girls and two boys drowned.
40/ Linden, Ohio, Level-Crossing Horror) February 1895
A group of settlers whilst on their way to church at Linden, were struck by a freight train on a level crossing. The vehicle was smashed to atoms and two of the passengers were killed outright. Two young ladies were injured but later died of those injuries. The driver came out of the accident virtually unscathed. (What level crossing?)
41/ Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, December 1910 (Explosion at a Dance)
A Christmas dance was in full swing at the house of a local miner, when all of a sudden a massive explosion ripped through the building. Three guests were killed on the spot and eight others were taken from the rubble, in a dangerous condition. The whole thing was caused by someone dropping a cigarette among some blasting powder under the staircase.
42/ Nashville, Tennessee, (Murderer Burnt Alive) October 1882
43/ Carlisle Murder Spree, near St Paul, Minnesota, January 1891
An atrocious crime was committed in Carlisle, Minnesota, by a local shoemaker named Carl Reher. He lived in Carlisle with his wife, son and three daughters, when a few weeks ago things changed. He and his wife had a quarrel and Carl left the home and went to the next village and opened a shop there. He came back one night with some sweets for the kids and a bottle of whisky. He handed the sweets out and poured a couple of measures of whisky, then whipped out a pair of revolvers and started indiscriminately shooting his own kith and kin. He was drunk at the time and most of his shots missed the mark, but he brought a knife along just in case he missed. He stabbed his son, then his wife whom he cut to shreds. One daughter was injured, but died later. Reher then hanged himself and shot himself just as the noose tightened around his neck. The other two daughters managed to run free from the scene of the horror and informed the police.
44/ Murfreesborough Lynching, Arkansas, September 1885
45/ Murfreesboro’ Lynching, Tennessee, September 1875
The alleged murderer of Mrs Jarratt, a certain Jesse Woodson, was dragged from the gaol at night by a lynch mob of around a hundred men. They took him to Salem turnpike and hanged him from the “hanging tree” where two others met the same fate a number of years ago. The mob consisted of the most prominent men in Rutherford County and they believed that the courts were taking far too long in passing the death sentence on him, so they decided to speed up the process. Woodson confessed to the murder of Mrs Jarratt and when he was tied up, they fired seventeen bullet wounds in his corpse. They then hung his dead body from the tree where Joe Woods, a black man who raped a woman and Copeland, a horse thief, met the same fate.
46/ On 14th Street, New York, January 1910 (Bank Robbery Tunnel Collapsed)
A carpenter went missing in the area of 14th Street in New York and had now been gone for a couple of days. Searching the area police came upon a secret tunnel in his backyard and this had been constructed for the sole purpose of gaining access to the 14th Street Bank, which held £300,000 in cash. Just a bit short of his goal lay the body of the carpenter, under tons of rubble and earth. He had planned to carve his way into the bank, via his house nearby, but the structure had collapsed and buried him under it, suffocating him to death.
47/ Near Atlanta, Georgia, December 1885 (Railway Horror)
48/ Fire Island, New York, (Fireman Suicide) November 1893
Michael Fit was an eighty-seven-year-old fireman who worked at the fish factory on Fire Island. When staff walked into work one day they saw Michael swinging from a noose. He killed himself because he could not speak English and could not chat to anyone. Back in England (where they speak English!) he had sixteen children to his name. (Eighty-seven-year-old fireman?/ Sixteen kids?)
49/ Columbus, Ohio ? (Prison Suicide) 1894
Charles Murray was a black man in prison for burglary and serving a twelve-year sentence. He tried to kill himself by thrusting a poker down his throat and bashing his head against a brick wall at the same time. He thought that he didn’t have long left on this earth and he had also admitted to killing a farmer and his wife at Xenia in Ohio back in 1887.
50/ Pittsburgh Music Hall, Pennsylvania, April 1907 (Music-Hall Suicide)
Whilst Miss Ethel Levey was singing “Unrequited Love” on stage at the Pittsburgh Music-Hall, Robert Crow stood up in one of the boxes and shot himself in the temple with a handgun. Apparently, Crow suffered from hallucinations (Schizophrenia?) and despite being only twenty-two-years-old, he thought he was a failure, as he hadn’t got as much money as Mr Carnegie. He lies in hospital in a dangerous condition and there is little hope of him pulling through.
51/ Forks of the Kennebec, Maine, (Mass Fight) October 1885
52/ Chicago, Illinois, July 1895 (H.H. Holmes)
Police are now digging in a cellar at a house in Chicago, which was rented by a man named Holmes, who is now in custody on a charge of murder. They found two vaults, both six feet by three feet, filled with quicklime. Human hair was discovered and this is thought to be the last resting place of Minnie Williams and her sister. Police were also handed the skeleton of a female, by a person who deals in them. He was given it by Holmes to be buried or cremated, but as Holmes didn’t pay him for the work, he kept it. Holmes is said to be connected with the disappearance of thirteen people.
53/ Long Island, New York, August 1910 (Level-Crossing Tragedy)
A horrific accident at a level-crossing at Springfield on Long Island, resulted in multiple fatalities. The motor-car in which were two ladies and two children, with the chauffeur who was driving, collided with a train. The two children and the chauffeur were killed on impact and the two women lie in a precarious state in hospital, with their chances of survival virtually nil. The chap who was supposed to be in charge of the level-crossing was arrested, pending inquiries.
54/ Jacksonville, Florida, February 1885 (Train-Wreckers)
55/ Wytheville Lynching, Virginia, February 1885
Twenty-five disguised men broke down the door of the gaol at Bland County after twelve o’clock and took out Ivy Jackson (a coloured man) and carried him 150 yards, tied him hand and foot to a fence, then riddled him with bullets, shooting him 15-20 times in the face and body. He had murdered a tramp for the sake of the clothes he was wearing.
56/ Shaw’s Island, West Kentucky, (Sheriffs Burn House of Suspect) February 1885
57/ “Haunted Oak” Murder, Bronx, New York, September 1905
A gorgeous young woman was found strangled in an area that most New Yorkers consider to be haunted and is known locally as “Haunted Hollow”. Close by is an oak tree that was supposedly the place where several British spies were hung from during the Revolutionary War. Police believe that she was murdered in New York and transported here by a motor-car, to this lonely spot. Any clue to her identity was carefully removed, even the initials on her linen. Jewellery had been removed and she was covered in bruises, but death was from suffocation caused by strangling her. She had been dragged through the thicket from the road, where tyre marks of a vehicle were left. The body was later identified as that of a Miss Pfeiffer, the daughter of a New York businessman of German birth. An arrest warrant was issued for Joseph Girard, a driver, charging him with Miss Augusta (Gussie) Pfeiffer’s murder at the “Haunted Oak” on Pelham Road near the Bronx. Also arrested in connection with this dreadful act is a Mrs McMahon, who lives nearby on Pelham Road and was thought to be involved with Girard. The bloody clothing that Girard wore when he killed Gussie was found at her residence.
September 25th,1905
Police have cornered the accused murderer, Joseph Girard, in woods on Spitzenberg Mountain near New York. They have closed off all possible escape routes and campfires are lit at night to help police find the killer. He is also believed to be involved in two other murders. (What happened in the end?)
58/ Gates County Hangings, North Carolina, December 1885
59/ Bloomington Matricide/Suicide, Indiana, April 1891
Ward Demaree aged twenty-five, used to be a hard-working, quiet sort of bloke, who lived with widowed Mum and his little sister. What got into him to one day, when he cut her to bits with a carving knife, is a mystery. He then slit his throat, which was such a deep cut that it nearly decapitated him. All this occurred while his sister looked on in horror and disbelief, but she had managed to flee the scene despite being in shock. The child is far too young to be a credible witness and can barely speak. The neighbours found the bloodbath when they hadn’t seen either Ward or his mother for a while.
60/ Fall River Explosion, Massachusetts, June 1895 (Twenty-nine Feared Dead)
61/ New York, July 1895 (Victorian Transvestite)
This would have produced a certain amount of outrage in Victorian times. The American steamer “New York” arrived at her home port, a passenger named Nystrom who had travelled as a man, was discovered to be a woman instead. When it was time for the vaccination jabs she refused to let the doctor do it and this aroused a bit of suspicion. When she allowed medical staff to inject her, they found that her arm, for a bloke, was unusually soft and sleek. Then she spilled the beans and said she boarded at Southampton as a man, to escape from her violent husband. The story spread among the passengers and they all chipped in to help her, raising over £20. A handsome sum in those days!
62/ Leesburg Lynching, Georgia, February 1899
A message received at midnight from Leesburg, Georgia, stated that a mob there had taken out of gaol and lynched six negroes. Three of them were concerned in the murder of a white woman.
63/ Wallingford Church Fatality, Connecticut, December 1885
64/ Yankton Insane Asylum Deaths, South Dakota, February 1899
Also added later on was the fact that the asylum was only a small one, no more than the size of a cottage, but it took less than an hour to burn down to the ground.
65/ Dover, Delaware, January 1873 (Weird Insurance Murder)
Professor West of Dover in Delaware, had been doing some experiments with a type of gas that he thought would be a cure for consumption. It was during this tinkering about in his laboratory, that an explosion occurred and what was believed to be the remains of West, lying on the ground. His skin was burned off and his hands, feet and head were missing. Weird, eh! The wife identified the body as that of her husband, due to the shreds of a lab coat he was wearing. The post-mortem examination, however, revealed, that the corpse wasn’t Professor West at all. No sh*t Sherlock! The hands and feet were sliced off with a scalpel and the skin had been peeled off. Delving deeper into the Professor’s life, they found he’d just taken out life insurance, to the tune of $25,000 and that a negro lad that had been hired some days ago, had simply vanished. This being the U.S. in the 1870’s, the local population thought that the black lad had killed West, not the other way around. Police captured West and he admitted to skinning and dismembering the body of the coloured lad, then blowing it up, probably for the money.
66/ Kirksville/Lancaster Cyclone, Missouri, April 29th, 1899
67/ Kirksville/Lancaster Tornado, Missouri May 1st,1899
68/ New York, February 1895 (Suicide in a Confessional)
Two women were in a church in New York when they heard a dull thud coming from one of the confessional’s. The assistant sexton was asked to examine what it was and he opened the door, only to find the body of a woman with her wrists and throat slashed. Next to her was a cut-throat razor, the suicide weapon. The lady was alive for approximately twenty minutes after being found but then expired. On her person was an envelope and written on it was the following:
“I am Catherine Morrison of 179, East 108th Street”. When police asked at that address, she was described as a religious enthusiast and extremely well off. Miss Morrison had resided there for the past six years. (What church was this?)
69/ New York Execution, March 1899
Mrs Place was executed at New York by electricity at a quarter past eleven yesterday morning, for the murder of her step-daughter in Brooklyn about a year ago. She made no scene, but went calmly to the electrocution chair, leaning on Warder Sage’s arm.
70/ Brooklyn, New York, March 1899 (Pyromaniac Teenager)
A boy named Irving Taylor aged fifteen years, who has been arrested at Brooklyn, has confessed to starting at least a dozen fires there. The police expect to trace responsibility for at least forty mysterious fires to Taylor, including one at a flat in which the prisoner’s own family live.
71/ Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 4th,1899 (Attacks on Chinese)
72/ Rock Springs, Wyoming, September 14th, 1899 (Attacks on Chinese)
73/ San Antonio Lynching, Texas, March 1894 (Overkill!)
A horrendous lynching took place in San Antonio, Texas, of a negro woman who was the supposed murderer of a white child, in the city. A lynch mob grabbed her and as the baying mob howled and hooted about revenge, she simply and with dignity, told of her innocence. It fell on deaf ears and she was dragged to an open lot, leading to a steep incline, nearly a quarter of a mile. The accused woman was then made to look as they drove large nails into an empty barrel, so they pointed up inside it. Then she was tossed into the barrel and the ends were shut tight and she was then rolled down the hill. At the bottom the barrel was opened and barely clinging to life, the bloodied remnants expired shortly after. Just to make sure and as a deterrent to any other blacks, they hanged her up to a tree and fired dozens of rounds at her lifeless corpse. Apparently, there was some doubt as to whether she had indeed committed the crime at all. (Name?)
74/ Poughkeepsie Suicide, September 1874
A bizarre suicide near the Hudson River happened near here. The deceased, James Cramsey, was on a rock about eighty feet high, drunk as a skunk. He then got tired, so he put his head down for an hour and fell asleep. When he woke up he said to the chap who was with him,”I’ll give you a lesson boys and show you how to leap”, then he walked to the edge and trying to ascertain the best place in the water to land, then took a run up as though he was going to precipitate himself off. Two others stopped him and then again he tried it and again was pulled back. Cramsey was p****d off and began scuffling with them, shouting out “If you don’t let go, I’ll take you with me”. After five minutes he calmed down and rested for a while. All of a sudden he sprang up and hollered “Now I’m off” and jumped the eighty feet into the Hudson.
75/ Atwater Cyclone, Minnesota, July 1882
Intelligence received at Atwater in Minnesota, reports that a violent cyclone has passed over that town doing great damage to property. Twenty carriages were blown off the rails and eleven persons were killed. Many were injured. A cyclone has also ripped through the town of Emettsburg in Iowa, causing huge destruction and loss of property.
76/ Chicago Murder? March 1885
77/ Hotel Windsor Fire, New York, March 24th, 1899
Forty-eight persons who are believed to have been in the Hotel Windsor at the time of the fire, are still missing. Mrs G.E. Williams and her daughter of London, who were guests in the hotel, sailed for England on Saturday. They lost all their personal effects.
March 27th, 1899
Four more bodies and a number of bones have been discovered in the debris of the Hotel Windsor. The number of missing is now reduced to fifty-three. During last night, a quantity of valuable jewellery was found in the ruins and taken to the police station.
April 3rd, 1899
Several more bodies have been recovered from among the ruins of the Hotel Windsor, bringing the total number of victims to forty-three. Of these thirty-two have not yet been identified.
78/ Chestnut Street Fire, Philadelphia, February 1885
The great fire in Chestnut Street in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has finally been put under control. The estimated damage to the property is approximately a quarter of a million dollars.
79/ St Paul Train Crash, Minnesota, October 1885
A serious railway collision has occurred near St Paul in Minnesota, by which five persons were killed and many injured. The victims are principally members of a circus company.
80/ Okolona, Mississippi, May 1899 (Four Killings)
A terrible affair is reported from Okolona, Mississippi. Two leading members of the community named Charles and Walter Clarke, brothers, quarrelled with their next-door neighbour Dr Marfee, about a bill for medical attendance which he had sent in. The dispute was renewed in the street and then Dr Marfee’s son joined his father. After violent words, pistols and knives were drawn and all four gentlemen were killed.
81/ Connecticut’s Big Baby, April 1885
82/ Tyler Lynching, Texas, October 1895
A lynching outrage has occurred in the little town of Tyler in Texas. Not unsurprisingly, it involves the murder of a white woman, Mrs Bell, who was shown to have savagely raped and then mutilated after the crime. The sheriff hunted the suspect down, a Henry Hilliard, with a pack of dogs and some locals. On getting into Tyler a mob greeted them and they took the prisoner away. What happened next defies human logic, as they dragged him to the murder scene, then lit a fire and roasted the guy for about an hour. A large crowd was there to witness the torture. Hilliard was burned in the public square and there were around seven thousand people watching this. He wasn’t put on a spit and roasted, but stuck on a huge bonfire which the husband of the victim lit. Hilliard managed to scrawl a note to his wife, it read: “I have been arrested by Wig Smith. You know what they will do to me. If you don’t see me any more, goodbye.”
83/ Johnstown Opera House, Pennsylvania, (Twelve Dead) December 1889
A disaster struck at the Opera House in Johnstown in Pennsylvania, culminating in the deaths of twelve people and injuring scores of others. A false alarm went up during a performance of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the audience of six hundred rushed for the exits. Some of the people were just coming into the building and the mass panic of those already in there was amplified. They trampled over the others and were squashed to death in the melee. Apparently, the theatre was always regarded as a bit of a death-trap and was condemned in 1877, but reopened recently to replace the one destroyed by flooding last year.
84/ Springfield, Minnesota, March 1892 (Five Kids Burn to Death)
85/ Cando Massacre, North Dakota, July 1893
Miss Anna Krieder crawled into Cando in North Dakota half demented and with her clothes torn from her body. She gave the alarm to get to the farmhouse of her father, David Krieder. A posse was assembled and they discovered a scene of total carnage. Krieder, his wife and their three daughters aged thirteen, eleven and nine years, along with their nine-year-old son, who all lay dead. Miss Krieder explained that a nephew of her father, a young man named Baumberger who worked on the farm, went on a mad rampage slaying anybody who got in his way. He calmly let three other brothers go and told Miss Krieder to make him some breakfast, which he consumed, then attacked her, hence the ripped clothing. He tied her up and then got on a horse and rode northwards. Virtually the entire town and district is on the hunt for Baumberger. (Was he captured?)
86/ Waycross Lynching, Georgia, July 1908
Two negro men, Albert Baker and Walter Wilkins, were charged with assaulting a white woman. They were on their way to gaol, whereupon a mob of white men who were seeking vengeance, grappled hold of them, tied them up and then rode off with them. The sheriff had shackled them together for transportation purposes, but the mob tore them off and hanged Baker to a telegraph pole, with the chain, then hung Wilkin’s to Baker’s feet. The local population turned out to witness their form of retribution and children witnessed the grisly spectacle, while women fainted at the hideous sight. Then to top it all, they fired round after round of bullets into the already dead corpses. A third man was implicated in the crime who was captured at Hickox and the same was done to him.
87/ Owatonna, Minnesota, (Five Kids Burn to Death) May 1885
88/ Eureka, Nevada, (Great Fire) August 1880
A fire alarm was sounded at Eureka in Nevada, when a plume of smoke was seen coming from a fruit and veg store on Main Street. The flames took hold of the premises next door and they enveloped another pair of buildings, and so on and so on. The flames were fanned by a healthy breeze and the fire spread to Gold Street, crossing Buel, then carrying on to Paul Street and Spring Street. Approximately three hundred houses and businesses are now reduced to ashes and the centre of town, around fifty acres of land, was swept away. A handful of buildings are left standing, the “Leader” offices, Oddfellows Hall, Theatre, International Hotel and the Methodist church. The Jackson Hotel is standing but is just a charred shell. Hundreds of citizens fled the area carrying possessions and other valuables. The losses are estimated at three-quarters of a million dollars.
89/ Nashville Slave Suicide, Tennessee, May 1857
An Asian named Levi and a black man named Allen, ran away from Nashville and were heading to the Chattanooga train, but were just too late. They worked as servants for Mr Jones who was the proprietor of the Union Hall in Nashville. The escapee’s walked down the train tracks and got to Antioch, where Levi bought two tickets, one for himself, the other for his slave. This little ruse worked and Levi managed to get away with posing as a white guy, but was detected by Charles Fox, a merchant on his way to New York. They were both apprehended. Levi managed to draw a gun from his person and instead of firing on the crowd, he shoved the muzzle in his stomach and fired. The passengers screamed in horror as they thought he was shooting at them, but when Fox spun around, he saw Levi finishing the job and slitting his throat with a bowie-knife.
90/ Grant, Kentucky, (Two Murders) March 1885
91/ New York Fire, May 4th, 1885
A fire broke out in a tenement house in this city last night and resulted in the death of nine persons through suffocation, or from injuries sustained in the panic which ensued on the fire alarm being raised. A number of other persons were also hurt.
May 6th, 1885. New York Fire
92/ Fort Smith, Arkansas, (Slays Family Then Commits Suicide) December 1890
A terrible tragedy occurred at Fort Smith, Arkansas, when William Joplin arrived there in order to marry a local farmer’s daughter named Miss Miller. The father wasn’t too keen on the union and grabbed his daughter and whisked her off home. Something clicked in Joplin and he went ballistic, swiping a shotgun and heading for the farmhouse. It was a long way, so he asked a farmer named Dell if he could borrow a horse, but he was refused. Joplin blew his head off, then pinched his horse and rode off towards Old Jenny Lind, where the Miller’s lived. On arriving he entered the chemist’s shop and promptly shot him, then went to find his bride-to-be. Weirdly, he met her first and shot her, killing her where she lay. The old man was next, he quickly fired off a couple of shots, taking him out.The total tally was five dead and one fatally wounded.
93/ Maine Shipwreck, February 1885
94/ No.643, Sixth Avenue, New York, (Family Massacre) August 1898
A family massacre, then the suicide of the perpetrator occurred at No.643, Sixth Avenue in New York City. Henry Hawley was a policeman and he had been out on a pub crawl, which in turn had sent his mind a bit mushy. He wasn’t thinking clearly when he got home and shot his mother, his wife and the two children. (The daughter who was five and his son, barely three years of age). A couple of policemen on the beat heard the volley of shots, knocked at his door and asked him what was going on. The pale looking murderer simply cackled at them and yelled “I’m only cleaning my pistol”, then slammed the door in their face. Within five seconds another gunshot was heard. As they broke down the door, they were greeted with the sight of Hawley laid on the floor with the top of his head missing and the brains decorating his walls. The mother may survive.
95/ Tennessee Tunnel Collapse, June 1885
The new river tunnel on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad in Tennessee, about a hundred miles from Chattanooga, fell in on Thursday night owing to the vibrations caused by a train which was passing through. The tunnel fell upon the cars, six persons being killed outright and twenty severely injured.
96/ Memphis, Tennessee Murder Trial, August 1892 (Lesbianism)
Alice Mitchell slit her lover’s throat on January 25th,1892. She brought lesbianism into the public domain. Died on March 31st,1898, aged twenty-five, in Tennessee State Insane Asylum at Bolivar, Tennessee.
97/ Flatbush Suicide (Brooklyn) March 1881
Philip Truschel had a very novel method of committing suicide and that was to roast himself alive, in a furnace. He was a German national, only eighteen and he had only been in the U.S. for a year or so. He was working as a labourer, when his uncle Louis Schmutz, found him a job at his greenhouses in Clarkson Street. Truschel was more of a book-worm than a manual labourer, but he was true to his job and never asked to leave. Also a bit of a loner, his English skills were at a minimum due to him not mingling or talking to anybody else. A fellow work colleague, Alfred Demensy, stayed with Truschel in a greenhouse and went to sleep in a chair for an hour. He woke to find Truschel gone, so he went to see if the furnace was burning well. When he peered in, he observed the lower part of his body and the legs jutting out of a narrow opening, with the top section of the head, shoulders, arms, etc. in the fire. A note was left by the teenager, saying: “Flatbush, March 1st,1881 – Goodbye all. If anyone is tired of life, he need only do as I am about to do- Philip Truschel.” The uncle said he often mentioned about shooting himself, but he thought he was messing about.
98/ North 9th Street, St Louis, Missouri, March 1885 (Murder/Suicide)
99/ Illinois Suicides (Elgin/Joliet) September 1884
Kitty Roddy, a young girl of fifteen, killed herself at the residence of W.H.Warden in Joliet, by taking a large dose of arsenic. She was brought here from the Home of the Friendless in Chicago, about three years ago, with her mother still residing in the city.
Elgin, Illinois,
A young lass barely in her twenties named Mrs Frank E.Dietsch, whose husband was the proprietor of the South Elgin Tannery, was found by her husband with her head blown away by shotgun fire. The infant child she had recently given birth to was next to her. She had been married a year and was previously known as Ida Miles from Westchester County in New York. The reason for her suicide, was one of homesickness and depression.
100/ Philadelphia Asylum Fire, February 1885
101/ No.224, East 75th Street, New York, March 1910 (Serial Killer?)
The charred and cut up remains of the sixteen-year-old Ruth Wheeler, who had been missing since last week, was found on a fire-escape next to the room occupied by the man arrested for her abduction, Albert Wolter. Miss Wheeler had just graduated from a business college, to which Wolter applied by postcard for a stenographer. The postcard was given to Miss Wheeler, who was last seen when she started to apply for the place. She had never been out after six o’clock and her family, her mother and two sisters, became worried when she had vanished for an entire evening. Her sisters who are stenographers and who work in local businesses, traced her to Wolter’s room and caused him to be arrested. Fifteen girls have vanished since Wolter started advertising for girls.(Was he a mass murderer?)
102/ Janesville, Wisconsin, (Marrys Witness) March 1885
103/ Seeley’s Crossing Fatal Crash, June 1905
Richard Sayer, a rich resident of New York, was with his wife and two sons in his chauffeur-driven car on his way to his brother-in-law’s, in order to spend the night there. While crossing the Erie Railway, a goods train rattling along at full speed and smashed into the vehicle. Mr and Mrs Sayer were killed on the spot and one of his sons died in hospital, with the other in a life-threatening condition. It is not likely he will make it through. The negro chauffeur was thrown clear on impact, suffering only minor injuries. He tells of how Mr Sayer knew the train was coming but told the chauffeur to speed up and try to make it across, resulting in the two impacting at that same millisecond.
104/ Audubon Co. Lynching, Iowa, February 1885
105/ Boston, Massachusetts, (Human Remains) November 1872
Two barrels were discovered floating along the Charles River at the beginning of November, when opened they were found to contain human body parts, identified as that of Ebijah Ellis of 19, Dover Street in Boston. There was no doubt that he had been murdered, with robbery the prime objective. He was a pedlar who had several teams working for him, making him some serious cash, but now he was into real estate and a money lender. It was widely known that he carried a great wad of cash around with him, so anybody could have smashed him over the head and pinched his money. He was a non-drinker, extremely kind and a bit odd in his ways. A sort of Ebeneezer Scrooge after his visitations. He was last seen in Washington Street, South End. (Were his murderers ever caught?)
106/ Virginia Train Crash, November 1906
107/ San Antonio, Texas, (The Well Murders) August 1877
A horrendous discovery was made near San Antonio in Texas. About fifteen miles from the city lies an old well. This has been causing a rancid odour to emanate from it, which caused the surrounding properties and neighbours to complain about the smell to local authorities. The well, to everybody’s horror, was found to be filled with the rotting corpses of men, women and children. Various methods have been used to kill these persons, including slitting of the throats, stabbing in the chest and also of gunshots wounds to the head. A house nearby was searched and found to contain $15,000 in cash, jewellery etc. The only person living there was an old woman, who said her boys had saved it up. (Who were the boys?)
108/ Lawrence Murder, Massachusetts, September 1885
109/ West Grove Child Murder (Pennsylvania) June 1907
Mary Newlin’s body was found with bruises and various torture marks, as her body was dug up in West Grove in Pennsylvania. Apparently, a lovely looking child, blonde hair, brown eyes and fair skinned, would really point to some kind of paedophile abducting her. Mary was the illegitimate child of her mother and the young husband, who was just a farmer, loved her with a passion saying he didn’t care about her past and would she marry him now. The police were suspicious right from the beginning and searched the farm, house, ditches, barns and haystacks. They eventually found her little body in a shallow grave, a hundred yards from the back door. Explain that! The girl had a rope tied around her neck and a bag over her head and was discovered face downwards, in the foetal position. The step-father was arrested and imprisoned, where a brutal mob is outside waiting to lynch the fellow. Post-mortem results show that she was punched numerous times in the face. To top it all the girl was still breathing when the rogue buried her, with death occurring from suffocation. (Hope this t*at was hanged?)
110/ East 67th Street Fire, New York, April 1899
111/ Lester, Minnesota, (Buried Alive) August 1894
William Ludwig from Lester near Northfield, Minnesota, was struck down with typhoid two years ago and was pronounced dead by medical men, two weeks later. Within thirty-two hours, the man was being buried in the local graveyard near to his house. A few weeks ago the church organization decided to revamp the Cemetery and this entailed several corpses having to be dug up in order for the improvements to be made. One of them would be Mr Ludwig. When he was dug up, the glass over the face on the coffin, accidentally smashed, revealing that Ludwig was still alive when interred. The interior was covered in blood stains and he had clumps of hair torn from his head. In his bid to escape he had scraped at the lid and drawn his legs up, to try and force the lid open.
112/ Thirteen Club, New York, April 1885
113/ St Louis Theatre Tragedy, October 1886 (Murder/Suicide)
The place where this murder and suicide occurred was Esher’s Variety Theatre in St Charles Street, St Louis. Initially, screams could be heard coming from a dressing-room, then there was silence. A watchman on duty went to find the cause and discovered the body of Josie Martel lying on the floor, with blood oozing from her chest. The murderer Frank Sandemeyer, stood over her with the murder weapon in his hand. He quickly realised that he’d prefer to die, rather than suffer the death penalty, he plunged the knife into his stomach and chest several times, then dropped down dead. Martel had been horribly mutilated with knife wounds in her breast, arms and sides, with her left arm broken by the force of the blow. Sandemeyer was a waiter at the theatre and although she was called Josie Martel, she was in fact, Mrs Sandemeyer. He had been drinking heavily all day and jealousy had kicked in, culminating in the frenzied attack.
114/ Johnson City Murders, Texas, September 1885
115/ New York Tragedy, June 1874
A young man named Austin, from a respectable family in Leeds in England, fell in love with a young lady and requested her hand in marriage, but was refused permission by her parents. The solution was simple, let’s elope to America. They arrived in New York a couple of years ago and soon became destitute as they spent all of their money, as he was unable to get a job. Austin decided that highway robbery was the answer to his problems, but he was caught and was put in the slammer for five years. The wife visited him regularly and on one occasion brought him a fruitcake, which she handed over to him. The officer stuck his hand in to check it out and found a saw blade, knife blade and keys to the handcuffs; she was arrested and put inside for six months. On serving her term, she again visited her husband and told him that she would be faithful and wait for him to come out of prison. It turned out she was seeing another bloke while he was inside and he found out about this, then slit his throat with a knife. Mrs Austin was beside herself and in November 1873, some female remains were found next to the Pennsylvania railroad. A card on the body bore the name “Maria Elizabeth Austin”. Just after she was buried, a letter was received from her parents asking the full details of what happened to their lost daughter.
116/ Lititz Tragedy, Pennsylvania, May 1885
117/ Bar Harbor, Maine, (The Caged Baby) August 1910
An eight-month-old child of Mr Edward McLean, which is heir to $20 million fortune, gets fresh air at Bar Harbor, Maine, in a steel cage on wheels. The cage had an eiderdown lining and complicated locks. The strange device is thought to be a sort of deterrent, as a few weeks ago there was thought to be an attempt to kidnap the infant, then hold it for ramsom. The child was sleeping in Mrs McLean’s room when they tried to snatch the infant, with a burglar alarm ringing out, which scared the would-be kidnapper. The man was spotted by Mr McLean on the balcony and he fired three shots at the criminal but failed to hit the target. (Emily Beale McLean and John McLean-their only son, Ned, (Edward Beale) spent twelve summers at Bar Harbor. Ned would take over the Washington Post from 1916-1933. Married Evelyn Walsh McLean in 1908, bought Briarcliffe on Shore Path in 1910, Ned bought the Hope Diamond for Evelyn in 1911.
118/ Kirksville Tornado, Missouri, April 1899
119/ “Suicide Hall”, New York, March 1899
A Bowery dancing saloon in New York has been given the monicker,”Suicide Hall”, where erring girls have been holding sessions of a “Suicide Club”. Four girls in six days, have committed suicide, with the proprietor, a man named McGurk, a Tammany politician. It must be noted that police refuse to arrest him.
October 1899
In the centre of New York, with the arrival of bad weather and influenza, crime has shot through the roof. Four murders in the Italian Quarter and two girls killed themselves in McGurk’s Bowery dancing saloon, nicknamed “Suicide Hall”.
December 1901
“Suicide Hall” owned by John H.McGurk in the Bowery district of New York, has lost so much money since the election that it was sold to a gentleman who planned to turn it into a family resort, based on German ideas.
120/ McKenzie Murder, Tennessee, December 1885
