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  • 49 - Murder of Maria Ridulph.

    49 - Murder of Maria Ridulph.
    2026/07/12
    Murder of Maria Ridulph. Maria Elizabeth Ridulph (March 12, 1950 – c. December 1957) was a seven-year-old girl who disappeared from Sycamore, Illinois, United States, on December 3, 1957. Her remains were found almost five months later in a wooded area near Woodbine, Illinois, approximately 90 miles (140 km) from her home. Maria was last seen by her friend on her neighborhood corner of Center Cross Street and Archie Place with an unknown man in his early twenties who called himself "Johnny". The case, which was well known in the Chicago area, was one of the oldest cold case murders in the U.S. that was thought to have been solved. Jack McCullough, who under his former name John Tessier had been a neighbor of the Ridulph family, was wrongfully convicted of her murder in September 2012. McCullough was serving a life sentence when the DeKalb County State's Attorney completed a post-conviction review in March 2016. In particular, phone records from Illinois Bell showed that McCullough made a collect call to his mother from a payphone forty miles away in downtown Rockford, Illinois rather than from Sycamore as alleged at his trial, leading the State's Attorney to conclude McCullough could not have been in Sycamore at the time of Maria's abduction. McCullough was released from prison in April 2016 and declared innocent by the DeKalb County Circuit Court in April 2017. Background. Maria Ridulph was born on March 12, 1950, to Michael and Frances Ivy Ridulph in Sycamore, Illinois. She was the youngest of four children and had two sisters and a brother. Although many residents lived or worked on farms in the area, her father Michael worked at one of Sycamore's few factories and her mother Frances was a homemaker. At the time she was abducted, Maria was 7 years old, 44 inches tall, and weighed 53 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was an honor student in second grade. She also received awards for perfect Sunday school attendance at Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. John. According to her mother, Maria was high-strung. "My daughter was a nervous girl and if she got in any trouble would become hysterical," Frances said in a 1957 interview shortly after Maria disappeared. "Someone would probably have to kill her to keep her quiet. I am the only one who could calm her down." Maria was also described as a "screamer" and afraid of the dark. Her best friend was 8-year-old Kathy Sigman, who lived on the same street as the Ridulphs. Crime. On the evening of December 3, 1957, Maria begged to be allowed to go outside as it had started to snow. After finishing dinner, Maria and Kathy Sigman went outside in the dark near Maria's house and played a game they called "duck the cars", running back and forth trying to avoid the headlights of oncoming cars in the street. According to Kathy, they were approached by a man, whom Kathy later described to police as in his early 20s and tall with a slender chin, light hair, and a gap in his teeth, and wearing a colorful sweater. The man, who said his name was "Johnny", told the girls that he was 24 and not married. He asked if they liked dolls and if they liked piggyback rides. He gave Maria a piggyback ride, after which she went back to her house and got a doll to show him. After Maria returned, Kathy ran back to her house to get her mittens, leaving Maria alone with the man. When Kathy returned, Maria and the man were gone. Kathy went to the Ridulph house to tell them she couldn't find Maria. The family initially thought Maria was hiding, and sent Maria's 11-year-old brother to look for her. After he was unable to find her, the Ridulphs called the police, and within an hour, police and armed civilians began a search of the town, but failed to locate Maria or "Johnny", the man with whom she was last seen. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), presuming that Maria might have been abducted across state lines, arrived in Sycamore within two days to help the local and state police in the search. The FBI and police interviewed numerous witnesses who had seen the two girls playing without any other person present between 6:00 – 6:30 p.m., and also spoke to family members who had seen or spoken with Maria and Kathy in the course of Maria getting her doll, Kathy getting her mittens, and Kathy reporting Maria's disappearance to the Ridulphs. Based on these interviews, "Johnny" was thought to have approached the girls after 6:30 p.m., and the FBI concluded that Maria was abducted between 6:45 – 7:00 p.m. Kathy Sigman was the only witness who had seen "Johnny" and was placed in protective custody, as the police and FBI feared that the kidnapper would come back and harm her. The authorities had her look at photos of convicted felons or suspects who bore a resemblance to "Johnny". John Tessier, who was wrongfully convicted of the crime over 50 years later, lived in the girls' neighborhood and was on the original list of suspects based on a tip, but ...
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    29 分
  • 48 - Rosemarie Nitribitt.

    48 - Rosemarie Nitribitt.
    2026/07/12
    Rosemarie Nitribitt. Maria Rosalia Auguste Nitribitt (1 February 1933 – 29 October 1957), better known as Rosemarie Nitribitt, was a German luxury call girl whose violent death caused a scandal in West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder years. The case gave rise to a novel, three movies and a musical. On 1 November 1957, Nitribitt was found dead in her apartment in Frankfurt, Stiftstraße 36. Her death was alleged to have occurred three days earlier. Her body showed signs of strangulation and a head wound. Heinz Pohlmann, a businessman and friend of Nitribitt's, became the prime suspect. He had visited her on 29 October. A few days after the murder, Pohlmann was able to settle high debts and bought an expensive car, but could not explain the origins of the money; he provided contradictory information during questioning. He had embezzled money at his job. Pohlmann was charged with Nitribitt's murder but acquitted in July 1960 on grounds of reasonable doubt. Early life and career. Born in Düsseldorf, Rhine Province, Prussia, "Rosemarie" Nitribitt and her two younger half-sisters were raised in low-income conditions by their mother in Ratingen and Düsseldorf. The girls were placed in a juvenile home and after 1939 lived with foster parents. There Nitribitt was raped at the age of 11. Still in her teenage years, she began to work as a prostitute. She was later sent to juvenile correctional homes, from where she escaped on several occasions. She then moved to Frankfurt am Main, where, after a brief interlude as a waitress and model, she took up prostitution again and was arrested at the Frankfurt railway station in 1951. According to people who knew her at the time, Nitribitt tried hard to disguise her humble origins in order to be able to keep up conversation in polite society and to attract more sophisticated customers. For example, she started learning English and French. One of her regular clients gave her a car—a used Opel Kapitän—as a present. Others invited her to spend a Mediterranean holiday with them. Accordingly, she became very wealthy quite quickly, a fact which she demonstrated by buying a black Mercedes-Benz 190SL (a roadster which was to be colloquially referred to as the Nitribitt-Mercedes) with red leather upholstery in 1956; she would drive around Frankfurt in the car to solicit customers. Also in 1956, she moved into a luxurious apartment at Stiftstraße 36. The police later estimated that she had earned about 80,000 DM in 1956 (building a single-family house cost about 25,000 – 30,000 DM in Germany at the time). Death. On 1 November 1957, she was found dead in her apartment in Frankfurt, Stiftstraße 36. Her death was alleged to have occurred three days earlier. Her body showed signs of strangulation and a head wound. She was interred at the Nordfriedhof ("north cemetery") in Düsseldorf. Her head, however, was kept in police custody as evidence and later exhibited in the Kriminalmuseum ("criminal museum") in Frankfurt; it was eventually buried on 10 February 2008. Police investigations and the trial of Heinz Pohlmann. Police investigations into the case were conducted very sloppily, with much evidence being destroyed during the first days. Several prominent citizens were exposed as her personal acquaintances, including Gunter Sachs and her close friend and benefactor Harald von Bohlen und Halbach, brother of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, head of Krupp industries. Heinz Pohlmann, a businessman and friend of Nitribitt's, became the prime suspect. He had visited her on 29 October. A few days after the murder he was able to settle high debts and bought an expensive car, but could not explain the origins of the money; he provided contradictory information during questioning. He had embezzled money at his job. He was charged with her murder but acquitted in July 1960 on grounds of reasonable doubt. Pohlmann's lawyer had argued that the police had failed, on examining Nitribitt's apartment, to measure the precise temperature there, a fact which he claimed would have been essential in determining the exact time of her death. The prosecution did not appeal the acquittal. When it became clear that the police would not be able to find the murderer, it was insinuated in the media that high-ranking personalities were trying to thwart any attempts at solving the crime. Aftermath. There is no evidence for the claim that Pohlmann wrote a book about the Nitribitt case after having served his prison sentence for embezzlement. In 1958, before his imprisonment, Pohlmann published several articles in Quick magazine instead, giving an explanation about the last days with Rosemarie Nitribitt from his point of view. There was speculation that the 1959 unsolved murder of prostitute Blonde Dolly in the Netherlands was linked to Nitribitt's murder. Nine years after Nitribitt's murder, a very similar case occurred in Frankfurt. The high-class prostitute Helga ...
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    7 分
  • 47 - Albert Anastasia.

    47 - Albert Anastasia.
    2026/07/12
    Albert Anastasia. Umberto "Albert" Anastasia; né Anastasio [anaˈstaːzjo]; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, Anastasia eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became the boss of the family. Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him the nicknames The Earthquake, The One-Man Army, The Mad Hatter and The Lord High Executioner. Early life. Albert Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902, in Parghelia, Calabria, Italy, to Bartolomeo Anastasio and Marianna Polistena. Anastasia's father was a railway worker who died after World War I, leaving behind nine children. Anastasia had seven brothers: Raffaele; Frank; Anthony; Joseph; Gerardo; Luigi (who later moved to Australia), Salvatore Anastasio; and a sister, Maria. In 1919, Anastasia, with his brothers Joseph, Anthony and Gerardo, illegally entered the United States after they deserted a freighter they were working aboard in New York City. They soon started working as longshoremen on the Brooklyn waterfront. On March 17, 1921, Anastasia was convicted of murdering longshoreman George Turino as the result of a quarrel. He was sentenced to death and sent to Sing Sing State Prison in Ossining, New York, to await execution. Due to a legal technicality, however, Anastasia won a retrial in 1922, four of the original prosecution witnesses had since disappeared, and Anastasia was released from custody. During that time, he legally changed his surname from "Anastasio" to "Anastasia." On June 6, 1923, Anastasia was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1928, he was charged with a murder in Brooklyn, but the witnesses either disappeared or refused to testify in court. In 1937, Anastasia married Elsa Bargnesi and they had two sons, Umberto and Richard; and two daughters, Joyana and Gloriana. Rise to power. By the late 1920s, Anastasia had become a top leader of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), controlling six local chapters of the labor union in Brooklyn. He allied himself with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, a powerful Sicilian-born crime boss in Brooklyn. He soon became close associates with future Cosa Nostra bosses Joe Adonis, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Castellammarese War. In early 1931, the Castellammarese War broke out between Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in exchange for receiving Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command. On April 15, Luciano lured Masseria to a meeting at the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant on Coney Island, where he was murdered. While the two men played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom. Anastasia and other gunmen—reportedly Adonis, Genovese and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel—then shot Masseria to death. Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car; legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and Siegel had to shove him out of the driver's seat. Luciano took over Masseria's family, with Genovese as his underboss. In 1932, Anastasia was indicted on charges of murdering another man with an ice pick, but the case was dropped due to lack of witnesses. The following year, he was charged with killing a man who worked in a laundry; again, there were no witnesses willing to testify. Murder, Inc. To reward Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano placed him and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the leading labor racketeer in the country, in control of the National Crime Syndicate's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. The troop, also known as "The Brownsville Boys", was a group of Jewish and Italian contract killers that operated out of the back room of Midnight Rose's, a candy store owned by mobster Louis Capone in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. During its ten years of operation, it is estimated that Murder Inc. committed thousands of murders, many of which were never solved. For his leadership in Murder, Inc., Anastasia was nicknamed the "Mad Hatter" and the "Lord High Executioner". In 1935 the Commission, the governing body established by Luciano following Maranzano's murder in 1931, ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey out of fear for the law enforcement crackdown that would inevitably follow. An enraged Schultz refused and walked out of the meeting. Anastasia approached Luciano with ...
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    23 分
  • 46 - Murder of Joseph Augustus Zarelli.

    46 - Murder of Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
    2026/07/11
    Murder of Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Joseph Augustus Zarelli (January 13, 1953 – February 1957), previously known as the "Boy in the Box", the "Boy in a Box" or "America's Unknown Child", was an American four-year-old male whose nude, malnourished and beaten body was found on the side of Susquehanna Road, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1957. Zarelli appeared to have been cleaned and freshly groomed, with a recent haircut and trimmed fingernails, although he had suffered extensive physical attacks prior to his death, with multiple bruises on his body. He was also severely malnourished. His body was covered with scars, some of which were surgical (most notably on his ankle, groin and chin). Authorities believe that the cause of death was homicide by blunt force trauma. Despite the publicity and sporadic interest throughout the years, the boy's identity remained unknown for over half a century. On November 30, 2022, the Philadelphia Police Department announced that detectives had determined the boy's identity using DNA and genealogical databases. On December 8, 2022, more than sixty-five years after his body was found, Zarelli was publicly identified. Despite the identification, the exact circumstances leading to his death are uncertain and the case is still considered an open homicide investigation. Discovery of the body. On February 25, 1957, the body of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, wrapped in a plaid blanket, was found in the woods off Susquehanna Road in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia. The body was discovered by a young man who was checking his rabbit traps. Fearing that police would confiscate his traps, he did not report what he had found. A few days later, a college student spotted a rabbit running into the underbrush. Knowing that there were traps in the area, he stopped his car to investigate and discovered the body. He was also reluctant to have any contact with police, but he did report what he had found the following day, after hearing of the disappearance of Mary Jane Barker in Bellmawr, New Jersey. Zarelli's naked body had been placed inside a cardboard box that had once contained a bassinet of the kind sold by J. C. Penney. His hair had been recently cropped, possibly after death, as clumps of hair clung to the body. There were signs of severe malnourishment, as well as surgical scars on the ankle and groin, and an L-shaped scar under the chin. Investigation prior to identification. The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) opened an investigation on February 26, 1957. The dead boy's fingerprints were taken, and police at first were optimistic that he would soon be identified. However, no one ever came forward with any useful information. The case attracted considerable media attention in Philadelphia and the surrounding metropolitan area. The Philadelphia Inquirer printed 400,000 flyers depicting the boy's likeness, which were sent out and posted across the area, and were included with every gas bill in Philadelphia. The crime scene was combed repeatedly by 270 police academy recruits, who discovered a man's blue corduroy cap, a child's scarf and a man's white handkerchief with the letter "G" in the corner, all clues that led nowhere. Police also distributed a post-mortem photograph of the boy fully dressed and in a seated position, as he may have looked in life, in the hope it might lead to a clue. In 1998, the boy's body was exhumed for the purpose of extracting DNA, which was obtained from a tooth. On March 21, 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released a forensic facial reconstruction of the victim and added him into their database. The body was then exhumed yet again in 2019 to retrieve additional DNA samples. Identification. The child was an unidentified murder victim for decades. However, on November 30, 2022, the PPD announced that they had identified the child through the use of genetic testing and investigative genetic genealogy, and that they would provide a case update in the following week. Sources stated that he was the child of a prominent family in Delaware County. Authorities said that an investigation would use the new information to continue the search for suspects. On December 8, 2022, the child was publicly identified as four-year-old Joseph Augustus Zarelli, born on January 13, 1953. Genealogists had uncovered his name more than a year earlier, in October 2021. On January 19, 2023, the names of Zarelli's parents were reported. Investigators were finally able to identify Zarelli after a cousin uploaded DNA to a public database. Investigators subsequently encouraged that person's mother (a first cousin of Zarelli) to submit a genetic profile to GEDmatch, which she did, allowing investigators to identify his parents. A court order for the child's birth certificate was then made, which revealed the child's name and his parents' names, which were also subsequently verified by DNA. Theories prior to ...
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    12 分
  • 45 - Murder of the Grimes sisters.

    45 - Murder of the Grimes sisters.
    2026/07/11
    Murder of the Grimes sisters. The murder of the Grimes sisters is an unsolved double murder that occurred in Chicago, Illinois, on December 28, 1956, in which two sisters named Barbara and Patricia Grimes—aged 15 and 12 respectively—disappeared while traveling from a Brighton Park movie theater to their home in McKinley Park. Their disappearance initiated one of the largest missing persons investigations in the history of Chicago. The girls' nude bodies were discovered alongside a deserted road in Willow Springs on January 22, 1957. Although the sisters' autopsy reports concluded they had been murdered within five hours of their last confirmed sighting, and that both girls had died of secondary shock, numerous individuals attested to having seen the girls alive in the weeks between the night of December 28 and the subsequent discovery of their bodies. The murder of the Grimes sisters has been described by authors as a crime that "shattered the innocence" of Chicago. This case is also acknowledged as one of the most labor-intensive missing person and murder investigations in Cook County, and remains one of Chicago's most infamous cold cases. Disappearance. On December 28, 1956, two of the seven children born to Joseph Cornelius and Lorretta Marcela (née Hayes) Grimes—sisters Barbara, 15, and Patricia, 12—opted to view a screening of the Elvis Presley film Love Me Tender at a Brighton Park theater. Barbara and Patricia have been described as being inseparable sisters, and attentive students at the Thomas Kelly High School and St. Maurice's Catholic School which they, respectively, attended. They are also known to have been devoted fans of Presley, and both had recently joined his official fan club. This particular occasion was the eleventh time the girls had viewed this particular film, and the sisters are known to have left their residence at approximately 7:30 p.m., promising their mother they would be home before midnight. The Brighton Theater was located approximately one-and-a-half miles from the girls' McKinley Park home, and Barbara and Patricia are presumed to have had approximately $2.50 (the equivalent of about $29.80 as of 2026) when they departed, with Barbara instructed to keep fifty cents of this money in the zipper of her wallet should the two girls opt to view a second screening of this film scheduled to be shown at the theater that evening. It is unknown how the sisters traveled to the Brighton Theater on this particular date, although they had always walked or traveled by bus to this destination previously. A school friend of Patricia named Dorothy Weinert later informed investigators she was seated behind the girls with her own younger sister during the film, although Weinert and her sister left the theater at the intermission of the double feature, at approximately 9:30 p.m. While leaving, Dorothy saw the Grimes sisters queueing to purchase popcorn. The two seemed in good spirits, and neither Weinert sister noticed anything untoward in their demeanor. Both sisters stayed to view the second screening of Love Me Tender, thus meaning they would be expected to return home at approximately 11:45 p.m. When the girls had not arrived home by midnight, their mother, Lorretta, sent their older sister, Theresa (aged 17), and brother Joey (aged 14) to wait by the bus stop located closest to the family home for their arrival. After three successive buses had driven by without either girl arriving at the designated stop, both siblings returned home. Having by this stage already unsuccessfully contacted the girls' friends in the hope her daughters may be at one of these addresses, and upon seeing the return of Theresa and Joey to the family home without their sisters, Lorretta Grimes filed missing person reports on her daughters with the Chicago Police Department at 2:15 a.m. on December 29. Investigation. The disappearance of the Grimes sisters sparked one of the largest missing person cases in the history of Cook County. A citywide search for the girls was quickly initiated, to which hundreds of police officers were assigned full-time. Cook County officers were assisted by colleagues from surrounding suburbs, and a task force devoted solely to locating the sisters was formed, with the ground search initiated on December 29 being bolstered by hundreds of local volunteers. Police conducted door-to-door canvassing throughout Brighton Park, and numerous canals and rivers were dredged. In addition, more than 15,000 flyers were distributed to local homes, and parishioners of the sisters' church offered a $1,000 reward (the equivalent of about $11,900 as of 2026) for information leading to their whereabouts. As a result of this co-ordinated investigation, 300,000 people would be questioned, with some 2,000 individuals subjected to serious interrogation pertaining to their potential culpability, although the two arrests and charges brought against individuals who ...
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    35 分
  • 44 - Arthur Brennan.

    44 - Arthur Brennan.
    2026/07/10
    Arthur Brennan. Arthur Brennan (2 March 1881 – 12 September 1931) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also played for Richmond, Port Melbourne, and Footscray in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Personal life. The son of William Brennan, and Mary Brennan, née O'Farrell, Arthur Brennan was born in Abbotsford, Victoria on 2 March 1881. He came from a large family; William and Mary had eight daughters and three sons. Both of his brothers played football, most notably Owen Brennan, who was the first member of the family to play in the VFL, with 11 appearances for Collingwood in 1900. His other brother, William Jr, played in the VFA for Northcote and Port Melbourne. Football career. Brennan played his only senior game for St Kilda during the 1901 VFL season as a 20-year-old. In round 15, Brennan was a member of the St Kilda team which lost to Fitzroy at Junction Oval by 72 points. Although his VFL career was brief, Brennan played for a number of years in the VFA. He was regarded as being one of Richmond's finest players in their pre-VFL era, a club he played for from 1903 to 1905. In 1906 and 1907, Brennan played with his brother William at Port Melbourne, then midway through the 1908 VFA season, he crossed to Footscray. Bigamy trial. Arrested on 29 September 1914, Brennan was committed for trial on 7 October 1914, on a charge of having committed bigamy. At his trial, evidence was given that the Rev. Henry Heathershaw had married Arthur Brennan to his first wife, Catherine Prout, on 7 May 1902, and that Brennan had left her after two years. Further evidence was given by Alice Mary Patton, who appeared in court having been brought from Pentridge Women's Prison Gaol in order to do so, that, while Brennan was still married to Catherine (and while Catherine was still alive), the Rev. Albert James Abbott married her to Brennan on 23 January 1910, and that they had had a child together, which died in its infancy. Having initially pleaded "not guilty" to the charge, he later changed his plea to guilty, on the advice of his solicitor, Napthali Henry "Sonny" Sonenberg, and was consequently sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. Military service. 1915. Brennan enlisted in the First AIF on 3 September 1915. At this (initial) enlistment, he answered "no" to the question "Are you married?" He entered camp at Royal Park, Melbourne on 13 September 1915. "At Carlton court yesterday [viz., 20 October 1915], Arthur Brennan and Catherine Brennan, a married couple, were each fined 20/, in default seven days' imprisonment, for having unlawfully assaulted Ellen Steele. Complainant, a resident of Pelham-street, said accused assaulted her in the street on 19th [October], the male accused hitting her on the side with a policeman's baton. Brennan, who denied the charge, said he found the baton in Little Bourke-street. On a charge of wilfully damaging the property of William Steele, engineer's laborer, by breaking the panel of the door and breaking nine panes of glass, Arthur Brennan was also fined £3, in default one month's imprisonment; and on a charge of having used insulting words, Catherine Brennan was fined 20/, in default seven days in gaol."— The Age, 21 October 1915. Brennan was discovered to be absent without leave on 24 November 1915, and was "struck off strength of [the] Royal Park Camp as a deserter on 30/11/15 — a decision later confirmed by a Court of Inquiry — and a warrant was issued for his arrest." 1918. Although no further details are given, his service record indicates that the warrant for his arrest was withdrawn on 4 March 1918, and that he re-enlisted on 27 March, and that he resumed his military service on 29 April. At the time of his 1918 re-enlistment, the previous "no" answer to the "Are you married?" question was crossed out and replaced with "yes" — and "Catherine Brennan", of "30 Madeline Street, Carlton, Vic.", "Wife", was now given as his next of kin. He left Sydney, with the 2nd General (Victorian) Reinforcements, on 1 May 1918, aboard the HMAT Euripides A14,[24] to serve in Europe. In August 1918, whilst still in England, he was charged with being absent without leave and was imprisoned without pay for 28 days. In September 1918, soon after arriving in France, he was imprisoned for three days without pay for "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he discharged firearms in his hut on 23.9.18"; and in October 1918, he was imprisoned, again, for being absent without leave. He was absent without leave, once more, from 26 October 1918 until he was arrested on 18 November 1918. Court-martial. Brennan and a fellow soldier, Private Patrick McGrath (51412), were arrested in November 1918, and put on trial, in France, after they had forcibly entered an estaminet in Saint-Vaast, on the night of 29 October 1918. Both were found guilty of ...
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    17 分
  • 43 - Hubert Chevis.

    43 - Hubert Chevis.
    2026/07/10
    Hubert Chevis. Hubert George "Hugh" Chevis (21 September 1902 – 21 June 1931) was a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery of the British Army who died of strychnine poisoning in June 1931 after eating contaminated partridge. The youngest son of Sir William and Amy Florence, Lady Chevis, née Dannenberg, Hubert Chevis was born at Rawalpindi, India. The first years of his life were spent in India. He later attended Charterhouse School in Surrey. Chevis graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich as a second lieutenant on 29 August 1923. At the time of his death in 1931 Chevis was an instructor at the Aldershot Training Camp in Hampshire, and had been married for approximately six months to Frances (née Rollason), an extremely wealthy 29-year-old heiress. Chevis was her second husband, the first having been Major George Jackson, a veterinarian. Suspicious death. On the afternoon of 20 June 1931 the couple had friends over for cocktails at their Blackdown Camp bungalow. After their friends had left, the Chevises had a slightly earlier dinner than usual, as they wanted to attend the local military tattoo that night. Dinner was prepared by their cook, Ellen Yeomans, and served by their batman, Nicholas Bulger. Gunner Bulger served the Manchurian partridge, onto the sideboard in the dining room, where Mrs Chevis carved it. After Chevis had eaten a mouthful of the bird, he summoned Bulger, saying "Take this bird away. It is the most terrible thing I have tasted." His wife tasted the meat and agreed with him. The partridges were incinerated in the kitchen by Ellen Yeomans. Not long after ingesting the mouthful of partridge, Chevis started experiencing severe cramps and convulsions and a doctor was called. Later that evening, Mrs Chevis also fell ill. A second doctor was called and the couple was admitted to Frimley Cottage Hospital. Chevis died at 9.50 am the following morning after five doctors had administered artificial respiration over a period of several hours. Not long after having been admitted to hospital, both Hubert and Frances Chevis had been given powerful emetics. Two grains of strychnine were found in his stomach. Mrs Chevis subsequently recovered, as she had only tasted the meat. Announcement of Chevis's death was made in the press on Monday, 22 June (The Times). On 24 June, Hubert Chevis's father, Sir William Chevis, received a telegram on the day of his son's funeral that said "Hooray, hooray, hooray!". It was sent from the Irish capital, Dublin, and signed "J. Hartigan". On the back of the telegram was written "Hibernian", a well-known hotel in Dublin. The local police were notified, but nobody of that name was found at the hotel. Subsequent enquiries undertaken by the Irish police found that a south Dublin chemist had sold strychnine about four weeks earlier to a man who was similar in appearance to the man who had sent the telegram in the name of J. Hartigan. The Daily Sketch published a copy of the telegram, only to receive another telegram signed "J. Hartigan" that read, "Dear Sir, Why did you publish a picture of the Hooray telegram?" Chevis's father also received a postcard on 4 August 1931 from "J. Hartigan" that said, "It is a mystery they will never solve." Investigation. The shipment of Manchurian partridges from which the Chevis partridges had come was examined by experts, but they found no poisoned birds. Several people were interviewed, including Mrs Chevis and her former husband, G. T. T. Jackson of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. Jackson denied that he had anything to do with the death of Chevis, stating that he was "miles away at Northampton" at the time. He added that he considered J. Hartigan, the man who sent the telegram, "a cad and a blackguard". Mrs Chevis was unable to shed any light on her husband's death. Irish police later identified the author of the telegram towards the end of 1931 and determined that apart from being mentally unbalanced, he had no other involvement in Chevis's death. Police records identifying this person have not survived. Many theories were propounded about Chevis's death, but the investigation stalled because of a lack of evidence. After several weeks the coroner announced at the inquest, "There is no evidence on which you can find a definite verdict; therefore I direct you to find an open verdict." Chevis's case is often referred to as a murder case, but this is incorrect. As the coroner returned an open verdict, in a legal sense this meant that he was unable to confirm whether Chevis has died by accident or misadventure, suicide, murder or manslaughter. Legally, Chevis's death should be referred to as a suspicious death. Media. The case was the subject of a documentary on BBC Radio 4 on 3 September 2011, part of the Punt PI series presented by Steve Punt. Lack of evidence prevented the programme from reaching any firm conclusions, but it noted that none of the initial suspects had both the motive and ...
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    6 分
  • 42 - William Herbert Wallace.

    42 - William Herbert Wallace.
    2026/07/10
    William Herbert Wallace. William Herbert Wallace (29 August 1878 – 26 February 1933) was a British man convicted in 1931 of the murder of his wife, Julia, in their home in Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield district. Wallace's conviction was later overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal, the first instance in British legal history where an appeal had been allowed after re-examination of evidence. The case, with its strange background, has long been the subject of speculation and has generated many books, being regarded internationally as a classic murder mystery. Background. William Herbert Wallace was born in Millom, Cumberland, in 1878; he was the eldest of three children born to Benjamin and Margery Wallace, having a younger brother and sister. On leaving school at age 14 he began training as a draper's assistant in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, and on finishing his apprenticeship he obtained a position in Manchester with Messrs Whiteway Laidlaw and Company, outfitters to the British Armed Forces and the Colonial, Indian and Diplomatic Services. In 1903, after five years' service, Wallace obtained a transfer to the company's branch in Calcutta, India, where he remained for two years. On the suggestion of his brother Joseph, who lived in Shanghai, Wallace sought another transfer to Whiteway Laidlaw's branch of that city in 1905. A recurrent kidney complaint resulted in Wallace resigning his position and returning to England in 1907, where his left kidney was removed at Guy's Hospital. Little is recorded of his life after this time, until he obtained a position working for the Liberal Party in Harrogate, rising to the post of election agent in 1911. During his time in Harrogate, he met Julia Dennis (1861–1931), and they were married there in March 1914. All early sources suggested that Julia was approximately the same age as Wallace, but in 2001 James Murphy demonstrated from her original birth certificate that she was actually seventeen years older than he was. Julia's father was a destitute alcoholic farmer from near Northallerton, who had died in 1875, leaving her an orphan at the age of 13. In later life Julia exaggerated her antecedents, claiming her father had been a veterinary surgeon and her mother French. At the outbreak of the First World War, the position of Liberal election agent in Harrogate was discontinued, owing to the suspension of elections and a parliamentary truce, and Wallace once again found himself looking for a job. Through the help of his father, he obtained a position as a collections agent with the Prudential Assurance Company in Liverpool. The Wallaces moved there in 1915, settling at 29 Wolverton Street in the district of Anfield. During the 1920s, Wallace supplemented his comfortable but mundane existence as a collections agent, working exclusively in the neighbouring Clubmoor district, by lecturing part-time in chemistry at Liverpool Technical College. His hobbies included chemistry, botany and chess, and in 1928 he learned to play the violin to enable him to accompany Julia, who was an accomplished pianist, in "musical evenings" at their home at Wolverton Street. The crime. On the evening of Monday 19 January 1931, Wallace, aged 52, attended a meeting of the Liverpool Central Chess Club to play a scheduled chess game. While there he was handed a message, which had been received by telephone about twenty-five minutes before he arrived. It requested that he call at an address at 25 Menlove Gardens East, Liverpool, at 7.30 pm the following evening to discuss insurance with a man who had given his name as "R. M. Qualtrough". The following night, Wallace duly made his way by tramcar to the south of the city at the time requested, only to discover that while there were Menlove Gardens North, South and West, there was no East. He called at 25 Menlove Gardens West, and asked several passers-by in the neighbourhood for directions, but to no avail. Wallace also spoke to a policeman on his beat, and made inquiries in a nearby newsagent's, but nobody he asked was able to help him in his search for the address or the mysterious Qualtrough. After searching the district for about forty-five minutes, Wallace returned home. Neighbours John and Florence Johnston were heading out for the evening when they encountered Wallace in the back alleyway, complaining that he could not gain entry to his home at either the front or the back. While they watched, Wallace tried the back door again, which now opened. Inside he found his wife, Julia, had been brutally beaten to death in their sitting room. The investigation. Up to his arrest two weeks later, Wallace made four voluntary statements. While he was never intensively questioned by police, he was required to attend CID headquarters every day and was asked specific questions about whether the Wallaces had a maid, why he had subsequently asked the man who had taken the telephone message at the chess club to be ...
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