Help Find Jessica Heeringa

On Friday night, between 10:55 P.M. and 11:15 P.M., Jessica Heeringa vanished from the Exxon Mobil gas station at 1196 E. Sternberg Road in Norton Shores, Michigan.  Police investigators have announced that her disappearance is being treated as an abduction.

That Friday, the station was scheduled to close at 11:30. 

At 10:55, Heeringa made a transaction.

Twenty minutes later, a customer called 911 to report that no clerk was in the store.  Police reported nothing had been stolen, ruling out a robbery.

The fact that there are no surveillance cameras in the store is hampering the investigation.

Heeringa is five feet one inch tall, and weighs approximately 110 pounds.  She has blond hair and blue eyes.  She sometimes wears wire-rim glasses.  At the time of her disappearance, she may have been wearing a blue-collared shirt with a “Sternberg Exxon” logo on it.

Police wish to speak to a white male seen driving a silver mini-van, possibly a Chrysler Town & Country, near the store in the time-frame in which Heeringa disappeared.

Anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity near the Exxon Mobil gas station is asked to contact Silent Observer at 231-722-7463.

 

Four Miles High and Falling

 American airman survives free-fall
by Robert A. Waters

High above Saint Nazaire, France, Sergeant Alan Magee, a ball-turret gunner from New Jersey, began his fall out of the sky.  On January 3, 1944, while engaged on a bombing mission, his plane took a direct hit from enemy flak.  Magee later described the hectic scene: “We were hit by anti-aircraft guns, but what knocked us out of the sky was a [German] Focke-Wulf FW 190 shooting our wing off.  The last thing I remember was that I was at 20-some thousand feet trying to get out of a burning plane.”

During the dogfight, exploding shrapnel shredded Magee's body.  Worse, flying metal tore a large hole in his parachute, making it inoperable.  

“Snap! Crackle! Pop!” began to spin. (The B-17’s nickname was a tribute to Captain Jacob W. Fredericks of the 360th Bomb Squadron, who’d worked at Kellogg’s Cereal before the war.)  The wounded plane, now out of control, suddenly erupted in flames.  Seven of its ten crew members died instantly. 

Magee had a choice.  He could be roasted alive, or he could dive out of the plane.  22,000 feet up, he jumped.

All around him, gunfire and explosions rocked the sky.  “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” had been one of 17 American bombers sent to destroy a major U-boat port at Saint Nazaire.  Two dozen German planes met them head-on.  During the battle, seven B-17s were shot down, and 85 American airmen killed.

Magee stated that as he fell from the sky, he asked God for divine intervention.  He remembered telling his Maker, “I don’t wish to die because I know nothing of life.”  Shortly after his prayer drifted toward the heavens, he lost consciousness. 

Falling at 120 miles per hour, Magee’s chances of survival seemed non-existent.

But after two minutes of freefalling, the airman plummeted onto a skylight at the Saint Nazaire train station.  The glass shattered, somehow cushioning his landing.  He ended up in the rafters, alive but severely injured.

Magee woke up in the Hermitage Hotel.  Afterwards, the airman always stated that when he awoke, he thanked God for being alive.  A German doctor, amazed that he’d survived, examined him and found 28 shrapnel wounds, a punctured lung and kidney, a nearly severed arm, and a broken leg and ankle.  He also had massive facial injuries.

The doctor said, “We are enemies, but I am first a doctor and I will do my best to save your arm.” True to his word, the doctor provided excellent care, and did indeed salvage the American’s arm.

After spending two and a half months in a German hospital, Magee ended up as a prisoner of war.  He was liberated in May, 1945, and later received a Purple Heart and an Air Medal for meritorious conduct. 

Magee worked in the airline industry until he retired.

In 1995, the old soldier and his wife flew back to France, this time to be honored by the citizens of Saint Nazaire.  The railroad station still stood, and Magee got to see the skylight that miraculously saved him.

He died at age 84, in San Angelo, Texas, the recipient of one of the most unfathomable feats in World War II.

NOTE: Two of Sgt. Magee’s fellow-crewmen survived the crash.  Lt. Glen M. Herrington, navigator, lost his leg in the dogfight, but parachuted to earth.  Upon landing, he was captured by the Germans.  He later became one of the first USAAF men to be repatriated.  He died in 1987.  S/Sgt. J. I. Gordon also bailed out and was captured.  He disappeared somewhere in the brutal German concentration camps—he is still missing.
 

Who Knows Why?

Krystle Campbell

On the trail of Boston bombers
by Robert A. Waters

Just look at the dead: Krystle Campbell, 29, the hard-working manager of a steak house; Lu Lingzi, a Chinese graduate student majoring in finance; and Martin Richard, an eight-year-old boy.  Place them in a mall, or on a beach, or inside a church, and they would have fit in.  But with a blast of shrapnel, three vibrant lives drained onto a Boston street.  

If the FBI is right, two smarmy-looking college students launched a grisly assault on the Boston Marathon, and on the country that took them in, gave them freedom, and a chance. 

So why did Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, choose to attack the United States?

Their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, has a theory.  “They’re losers,” he said.  They were not “able to settle themselves and hating everyone else who did.”

He may be onto something there.  So many perpetrators who commit mass murders are loners, unable to relate to others.  Foul spirits lost in the shadows, they have few if any meaningful relationships.  Led by resentments, they can easily careen off the tracks of sanity. 

But I don’t really care about the creeps who commit these mass killings.  Many millions of people have trouble relating to others and never harm anyone.  And anyway, Dzhokhar, at least, smoked pot with other students and listened to rap music.  He had a girlfriend, and friends in the college he attended.  He wasn’t a lone-wolf.

He and his brother came from Chechnya.  For decades, Russia has attempted to exterminate the Chechens, leaving their cities rubble-strewn and uninhabitable.  These bloody wars have left many Chechens scarred, but Tamerlan, Dzhokhar, and their families had the good fortune to gain political asylum in America.

Speaking of his nephews, Tsarni said, “They don't deserve to even exist on this Earth, that is what I think.  I just wish they never existed.  I'm wordless.  I'm shocked.”

Now Tamerlan is dead, wounded in a shootout with police, killed after his brother drove over him in a desperate attempt to escape.  Few Americans will grieve his passing.

Dzhokhar, wounded by police, gave up after hiding out for nearly twenty-four hours.  In typical American fashion, he was taken to the hospital instead of the gallows.

And I’m glad.  We need to determine why he and his brother turned on the country that gave them respite, even if it makes little difference to the wounded souls and grieving families. 

But when it’s all said and done, Dzhokhar, if he’s found guilty, should be executed.  It’s shameful that Massachusetts has no death penalty for crimes such as these, but at least the Feds occasionally execute terrorists.  Ten or twenty years from now, maybe Dzhokhar will get the needle, a ridiculously small price to pay for the pain and suffering he’s caused.

Whatever the case, let’s pray for the dead and for the survivors.  And let’s pray for our country.
    

Are These the Boston Bombers?

Today the FBI released these photographs of suspects in the Boston bombings.  If you have information concerning either of these suspects, call the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.

 

 

Two Unsolved Murders in the Florida Keys

25 years and still counting

NOTE: The following information comes directly from the website of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

Patty Lanza, 4 years old, murdered on Little Torch Key in 1988

Patricia Lanza was just four years old on July 2, 1988 when she was murdered. Patty had attended a fourth of July party with her mother at a home on Gato Road, Little Torch Key. She was last seen by her mother at 10 p.m. Her body was found nearby the following afternoon. She had been raped and hit in the head, then her body was thrown in some bushes off the side of the road.

Several hundred people have since been interviewed in relation to the case. A man who was at the party admitted to being with Patty, but said she was alive when he last saw her. He was arrested shortly after the crime on charges of false imprisonment, but the charges were later dropped for lack of sufficient evidence. He died the following year of natural causes. His DNA was later tested and he was excluded as a suspect in the crime.

No one has ever been arrested for her murder. Anyone with information about this case should contact Major Crimes Detective Geni Hernandez at 305-809-3040 or 305-797-0046.

Lisa Sanders, 20 years old, murdered in 1988 on No Name Key

Lisa Sanders was just 20 years old when she was brutally murdered on No Name Key December 16th, 1988. Lisa lived on Big Pine Key. She was a small woman, just 4’10 inches tall, 106 pounds when she died.

That night, she attended a party with friends at the end of No Name Road on No Name Key. Her friends last saw her leaving on foot about 9:30 p.m.

Her parents reported her missing the following day and a short time later, her body was found lying beside a dirt road near a gravel pit on No Name Key. She had been beaten, stabbed and dragged behind a car by a rope tied around her neck.

Since that time, hundreds of people have been interviewed by detectives and her case continues to be investigated but no one has yet been charged with the crime. Major Crimes Sgt. Linda Mixon has been assigned to this case. Anyone with information about it can contact her at 305-797-0089.
 

Ill-Fated Robbery of the Apache Limited

 

Wannabe outlaws subdued by passengers
by Robert A. Waters

In 1937, Wisconsin-born Henry Lorenz Loftus, 22, and Canadian Harry Dwyer Donaldson, 27, longed to see the Wild West they’d read about in the pulp magazines.  Slaving away in a Brooklyn, New York factory, the friends dreamed of riding the range, gunfights, and rescuing fair damsels in distress.  After saving nearly $200, they quit their jobs and boarded a train for the border town of El Paso.

Rattling along the tracks, Loftus and Donaldson fantasized about adventures to come.  But when they disembarked, the friends found El Paso not so much different than Brooklyn.  The wannabe cowboys were disappointed to find paved roads, automobiles, telephone wires, and thriving neon-lit businesses.  Undeterred, they spent $140 on horses, saddles, pistols, and hand-tooled leather holsters.  Traveling across the border to Juarez, Mexico, Loftus and Donaldson purchased black sombreros and fancy Mexican boots.  Now, dressed like dime-novel cowboys, the friends paraded around El Paso, much to the amusement of local residents.

While townspeople laughed at the northern “drugstore cowboys,” the Southern Pacific passenger train, nicknamed the Apache Limited, made its daily run through the city.

On November 24, 1937, at 11:20 p.m., the Limited headed out of El Paso, bound for Los Angeles.  Jim Velsir, a brakeman on the train, described what happened next: “These two fellows got on the train at El Paso with tickets for Hermanos, N. M.,” he said. “They were in the first day coach.  We were about 40 miles out when they pulled out their guns and ordered everyone to put up their hands. Everyone did.”

While Loftus covered conductor W. M. Holloway, Donaldson began moving down the aisle collecting valuables from passengers, including cash, watches, and jewelry.  Loftus then moved to the engine room and ordered brakeman Velsir to stop the train. 

Back in the passenger coach, Jose A. Rodriguez of El Paso “made a sudden move,” and Donaldson took a shot at him.  The bullet hit Rodriguez’ pocket watch, saving his life.  However, the shot caused other passengers and crew to react. 

Roger Moon, Southern Pacific yardman, swung from the hip and knocked the gunman down.  As Donaldson was being beaten senseless by about twenty passengers and crew, Loftus rushed back to help his partner.  He, too, was tackled by W. L. Smith, a Southern Pacific employee traveling as a passenger.  Struggling on the floor of the coach, Loftus shot Smith.  Several passengers, including two sisters, Margaret and Beatrice Breton, disarmed Loftus and beat him until he stopped struggling.

The enraged crew and passengers lashed the robbers to seats, and tended to the mortally wounded Smith.  The train continued to Deming, New Mexico, where Loftus and Donaldson were arrested.  Donaldson had been beaten so badly he could hardly speak.  The El Paso Herald-Post reported that “a bloody bandage draped his forehead.  His jaw was swollen twice its size and his mouth was bruised out of shape.”  Loftus had a broken nose.

They quickly confessed to their crimes, and both provided written details corroborating accounts of the crew and passengers.

Deputy Sheriff Jack Robertson decided to have a little fun with the city dudes.  “So you thought you'd come out here and get tough, huh?” he said.

Loftus responded: “Well, we just decided on this stunt after our money got low.  We wanted to go on west to California.”

Describing the area where the attempted holdup occurred as “sandy wastes” near the Mexican border, Robertson asked, “How do you think you could have gotten away in that sand with your high-heel boots?”

“We hadn't thought of that,” Loftus said.

W. L. Smith’s distraught wife explained to reporters that her husband had taken the Apache Limited to California so he could visit his seventeen-year-old daughter, who was ill.  “I hadn't thought of his bravery until early this morning,” Mrs. Smith said. “It's wonderful to think that he would ‘go after’ those criminals to save others’ lives and protect property.”

On February 21, 1938, Loftus and Donaldson pleaded guilty to second degree murder.  Each expressed remorse for killing Smith.  After the judge sentenced each man to 50-75 years in prison, they were transported by automobile to the New Mexico Penitentiary in Santa Fe.  There the robbers served out their time, ending the sad yet comedic saga of the “drugstore cowboys.”

 

Connecticut’s “Mad Dog” Killer

Joseph Taborsky

Sentenced to death and set free to kill again
by Robert A. Waters

Joseph Taborksy could never quite get it right. A hardened criminal with a cocky attitude, he even got a second chance after being sentenced to death.  Walking out of prison on a technicality, “Mad Dog” Taborsky informed the press that he was done with crime. 

Even as a youngster, Joe was an incorrigible little brat. His first recorded crime was the theft of a bicycle.  Released with no time served, he pilfered another bike.  He eventually served a few months in a reform school for theft, but it didn’t help.  Throughout his teens, Taborsky, a part-time boxer, learned to bob and weave through the justice system, escaping punishment time and again.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1926, Joe came from a middle-class family.  His father, a door-to-door salesman, worked hard to keep his family afloat while Joe’s mother kept house.  In addition to Juvie Joe, there was Albert, dull of intellect and certifiably insane.

At 18, while serving a short sentence in the local jail, Joe escaped.  After being re-captured, he finally did hard time—three years in the state penitentiary.  Upon his release, he fled to Seattle, Washington.  True to his nature, Joe began burgling houses and, in 1947, served a short sentence for his crimes.  Returning to Connecticut, the career criminal did a six-month stint in the Hartford City Jail for carrying an illegal weapon.  In the next few years, he racked up arrests for burglary, robbery, and other offenses.  In most of those cases, he avoided prison.

Then, according to the North Adams Transcript, Joe hit the big time.  “In January 1951, [Joseph] Taborsky arrived on the public scene with a spectacular burst of notoriety. His mother, Mrs. Esther M. Taborsky, called police and said her son Albert would like to talk to officers. Albert said he and Joe parked near a liquor store one day and Joe got out with a gun. When he returned, Joe said: ‘The guy jumped me and I had to shoot him.’ The store operator turned out to be Louis I. Wolfson, whose murder police had been trying to solve for months. A month later, Joe was found guilty of first degree murder and his execution was set for Nov. 7, 1951.” Albert pleaded guilty, testified against his brother, and drew a life sentence. 

In 1955, Joe received a stroke of luck that might have turned his life around.  During his incarceration, Albert had been committed to an insane asylum.  Because of this, Joe’s attorneys appealed his death sentence, alleging that a crazy man’s testimony couldn’t be used in court.  The justices agreed.  Suddenly, the prison doors swung open and a grinning Joseph Taborsky was released once again to prey on society.

On December 15, 1956, cops found Edward J. Jurpiewski and Daniel J. Janowski murdered in their rural service station. Then Samuel H. Cohn was killed in his liquor store.  Next, Bernard J. Speyer and his wife, Ruth, died.  They happened to walk into a shoe store as it was being robbed.  Finally, the bandits stuck up a pharmacy and killed John M. Rosenthal.  Most of Taborsky’s victims were forced to kneel on the floor, then shot in the head.

With the bodies piling up, cops finally got a break.  The shoe store owner had been beaten but survived—he told detectives that the killer had pretended to be a customer and asked for size 12 shoes.  Investigators looked through their crime files and came up with the name of only one offender who wore that size shoe.  Joseph Taborsky.    

“Mad Dog” and his partner, Arthur “Meatball” Culombe, confessed to murdering six people.  In total, their deadly heists netted only a few hundred dollars.  At trial, Culombe, called a “mental defective” and “moron,” got life in prison.  Taborsky was once again sentenced to death.

This time the sentence would be carried out. On May 17, 1960, Taborsky was strapped into Connecticut’s electric chair.  As the switch was thrown, his body snapped back, then he went limp.

He donated his remains to Yale Medical School and his eyes to a New York eye bank.  If he hoped to make up for the number of ruined lives that followed in his murderous wake, he failed.  Nothing could atone for the innocent victims he killed.
 

Outlaws Killed by Citizens

Vintage stories of robbers shot by armed citizens
Compiled by Robert A. Waters

Almost from the beginning of this country, armed citizens have successfully fought back when attacked.  Until the advent of the Internet, these stories were just blurbs in some local newspaper, and therefore, unknown to the general public.  Because of this, anti-gun politicians got away with disparaging those who claimed there were many cases of armed self-defense.  Now it’s easy to locate numerous cases online.  In today’s blog, I’ll publish a few of the older stories that never made national news—you’ll notice that many are just two- or three-sentence write-ups.

BURNED FINGERS CLOUD IDENTITY OF SLAIN BANDIT

Miami Daily News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma

HOBART, Okla., Nov. 13, 1934—UP—Acid-burned fingertips on the body of a little tattooed robber killed here last night in the course of an attempted filling station holdup impeded efforts of officers to establish identification today. George Allen, attendant at the station, told officers the stranger entered the building alone last night and ordered him to open the money till. When Allen refused, the robber attempted to pry open the drawer himself. Allen said he drew a pistol and shot the intruder five times as the robber tried to draw a .45 automatic from inside his shirt. In the car in which the man drove up to the station was found a submachine gun. There were no papers or other means of identification on his person. The robber was described as from 27 to 35 years of age; 5 feet 7; weight 130 pounds; black hair; sallow complexion; with two tattoo marks on his body.

BANK ROBBER KILLED

The Daily Northwestern

Eiland, N. C., November 13, 1930—(AP)—One robber was killed and another escaped after an unsuccessful attempt to rob the bank of Eiland here Saturday. The dead man was identified as Frank Carpenter, of Durham. He was shot down by F. Carl Forrest, a merchant, as he left the bank with several thousand dollars in his pocket. As Forrest's shot rang out, another bandit, who had been waiting in an automobile in front of the bank, sped away.

ATTEMPTED BANK ROBBERY IS FOILED; ROBBER IS KILLED

Bradford Era (Bradford, PA)

Westville, Oklahoma, Oct. 14, 1930—(UPI)—An attempted bank robbery was frustrated here today, a robber was killed, a bank president was wounded, but a posse failed to capture the second of the two holdup men. A man giving the name of Tom Haworth was killed when bank officials first grappled with the bandits and then obtained guns and fired at the fleeing robbers. Before he died he said his companion was named Elmer Jones.  F. S. Howard, president of the bank, was wounded in the hand when he rushed outside the bank to continue firing at the robbers, who sped away in a motor car. Haworth, fatally wounded, left the car about a mile from Westville, and was captured.

ALBUQUERQUE MAN KILLED ON COAST

Clovis News-Journal (New Mexico)

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26, 1940—UP— Police announced today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had identified a gunman killed during a holdup Monday night as William Anderson, 23, of Albuquerque. The FBI said the victim's fingerprints tallied with those of Anderson, taken when he enlisted in the army at Ft Lewis, Wash., a year ago. He was the second robber killed in two months by Mike Bossio, liquor store owner.

ROBBER KILLED BY POSTMASTER

Muscogee Times-Democrat (Oklahoma)

TROY, New York, Oct. 7, 1913—Frank Stumpf, postmaster at Stillwater, Saratoga county, aroused at 3 o'clock this morning by the sound of an explosion in the post office about 100 feet east of his residence, took his rifle and fired at random through a window by the side of the safe, instantly killing an unidentified man who was attempting to rob the safe. One of the burglars stationed outside the post office was armed with a repeating rifle and fired three shots at Stumpf. Two men then ran from the building and made their escape. The third was found dead by the safe, the bullet having entered just behind the left ear.

TRAIN ROBBER SHOT BY AN EXPRESS MESSENGER WHO BRAVELY DEFENDS HIS CAR FROM ATTACK—ANOTHER ROBBER WOUNDED

The Other Desperadoes Escape on Horse-back—A Sheriff's Posse in Hot Pursuit— Supposed to be the Dalton Gang

The Ohio Democrat (Cincinnati)

WICHITA, Kan., April 11, 1894—The Daltons or other train robbers attempted Monday night to hold up the Rock Island train No. 1, four miles below Pond Creek, in the Oklahoma Territory. They met an unexpected resistance at the hands of Jake Harmon, the Wells-Fargo express messenger, who shot the first man who tried to break in the express car by the use of dynamite. The other men in the gang tried to escape, but the trainmen succeeded in wounding and capturing another of the men and two horses. The other bandits succeeded in getting away, but without any booty.

The train went through Pond Creek, which is a new town in the strip, about 11 o'clock. It was evidently at this point that two men mounted the front platform of the express car next to the locomotive. The train had gone about four miles from the town when one of the men with a revolver in each hand climbed on the tender and compelled the engineer to stop. No sooner had the train come to a standstill than three or four men suddenly appeared out of the darkness. The men on the locomotive kept the engineer and fireman from giving the alarm while the rest of the gang went back to the baggage and express car.

They tried to open the door, but the messenger had become alarmed and had the door securely fastened. The bandits then fired through the car and brought out a stick of dynamite with which they blew out the end of the car. They then tried to enter the car, but Messenger Harmon was ready for them. He shot and killed the first man to put his head in sight. This was more than the other members of the gang had expected and they attempted to beat a hasty retreat.

By this time other trainmen had come to Harmon's relief and another desperado was wounded. The other masked men ran to their horses which were waiting, hastily mounted and rode away in the darkness, leaving their wounded companion on the ground. He was picked up by the trainmen, put in one of the cars and his wounds cared for as well as could be under the circumstances.

Two horses which had been left for the victims were also captured. The train then backed up to Pond Creek, from which point the alarm was sent out and arrangements made for the pursuit of the bandits. Telegrams were sent to all the sheriffs in this part of the country and every effort will be made to bring the robbers to justice. The robbery was well planned.

The region is a wild one, in which the bandits, who are well acquainted with the lay of the land, would have a great advantage over any posse that would attempt to follow them. One of the masked men had his specific duty assigned him in true bandit style, and the horses were ready for the escape and for carrying off the booty. Had it not been for the unexpected bravery of Jack Harmon the hold-up would have been a success. The amount of money on the car is unknown, but it is supposed to be large.

Will Larry Eugene Mann Actually Die for his Crimes?

Elisa Nelson

The Long Wait

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that he has signed a death warrant for child-killer Larry Eugene Mann.  The murderer is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 10th at Florida State Prison in Starke.

The following description of the crime and its aftermath is taken from court documents.  WARNING: The details are gruesome.

“Elisa Nelson was 10 years old and attended Palm Harbor Middle School, which was seven or eight blocks from her home. On November 4, 1980 Elisa had a dental appointment to have braces put on her teeth, and so she went to school late after her visit to the dentist. Elisa left home for school on her bicycle between 10:15 and 10:30. She had an excuse note her mother had written for her to explain her tardiness. Elisa Nelson was seen riding her bicycle on Nebraska Avenue toward 15th Street, the street on which her school was located, at around 10:30 that morning. Around 4:00 on the afternoon of November 4, 1980, Wendy Nelson called the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and reported her daughter missing. A deputy was dispatched to take a report, following which a search was begun. Elisa's bicycle was found that day, lying on its side in a ditch or ravine area a little bit north of the middle school. The search continued around the area where the bicycle was found until midnight, when it was called off. 

“The search began again the next morning, and Elisa's body was found around 8:00 or 9:00 lying face down in a wooded area next to an orange grove. She was fully clothed except for her sneakers, which were off to the side of the body. Her jeans were closed. There were several areas of blood within a few feet of her head, which was in a shallow depression. Her left arm was behind her back, and there was a piece of vine around it. The cause of her death was a skull fracture, inflicted by some type of blunt object. There was a lamp post or pole with concrete on the bottom of it about six feet from the body that weighed 45 to 50 pounds, had blood on it of the same type as Elisa Nelson's blood, and was consistent with having inflicted the injury Elisa suffered. Hairs consistent with Elisa's hairs were found on the pole, and on concrete chips recovered at the scene. It would have taken a great deal of force, similar to an auto accident, to have caused the injury to the skull. The associate medical examiner, Dr. Corcoran, opined that Elisa was still alive and breathing at the time her skull was crushed. In addition to the skull fracture, there were five wounds to the neck that would have been inflicted with a sharp instrument, and which Dr. Corcoran believed were inflicted first. These included a cut on the left side of the neck that was about four and one half inches long, and a cut on the right side of the neck that was about three and one quarter inches long. These would have cut the external jugular veins and gone into the muscle, but not to any significant distance. The other three wounds to the neck consisted of two smaller cuts and a tiny puncture wound.

“If left untreated, the wounds to the neck probably would have ultimately resulted in death; they may or may not have actually contributed to Elisa's death. One would remain conscious for a matter of minutes up to roughly half an hour after receiving the wounds to the neck, however, the blunt trauma to the head would have caused immediate unconsciousness. Elisa also had a recent bruise on her chin, which would have been caused while she was still alive, and which was consistent either with a blow or a hand over the mouth. Finally, there were four bruises on each of her legs, all of them less than an inch in diameter, some of which were recent, and some of which were several days old.

“On November 8, 1980 deputies of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office received a radio call to go to [Larry Eugene Mann’s] residence in Dunedin, where they were given a note by Appellant's wife, Donna, that she had found under a shirt on the front seat of Appellant's pickup truck. It was the note Wendy Nelson had written for her daughter to take to school on November 4. The investigation intensified at that point. The sheriff's deputies proceeded to Mease Hospital to question Appellant, who was being treated there as a result of his attempted suicide on November 4, but "there was no statements given.'' The deputies also secured a search warrant for the Mann residence and Appellant's truck. Appellant was arrested on the basis of probable cause on November 10. Two fingerprints found on Elisa Nelson's bicycle were identified as matching Appellant's known prints. A hair found in vacuum sweepings taken from the floor of Appellant's truck and hair from auto floor insulation removed from Appellant's garage matched the hair of Elisa Nelson. 

“Tires on Appellant's truck were similar to tire impressions the sheriff's deputies found in the area where Elisa Nelson's body was found. Foam rubber seized at Appellant's house was similar to foam secured from Elisa's body.”

Mann was sentenced to death on March 26, 1981, and later resentenced on January 14, 1983, and March 2, 1990.

Courts and lawyers have a way of subverting justice, so it remains to be seen whether Larry Eugene Mann will actually go to sleep on a state gurney.

Colorado's Most Notorious Unsolved Murder

Emily Griffith

Who Killed the Retired School-marm?

A recent Denver Post article by Kirk Mitchell alerted me to this unusual case.  Unfortunately, after 67 years, there’s little hope of determining who murdered Emily and Florence Griffith.

On June 18, 1947, an assailant forced two elderly women to kneel on the floor of their mountain cabin.  Then the killer dispatched each with a shot to the back of the head.  Two months later, the man suspected of the murders was found dead.  But did he really do it?

A lifelong educator, Emily Griffith, 67, had positively impacted the lives of many children.  But she’d done much more.  In 1916, she established the Opportunity School in Denver.  According to Kirk Mitchell, “it was a free school within the public Denver school system [that] offered trade education for barbers, bakers and plumbers.  Many of her students had come from foreign countries and couldn’t speak English. Parents learned English, math and the basics of American government.”

Now called the Emily Griffith Technical College, the school has helped more than 1.5 million people, including a high percentage of immigrants, to learn viable skills necessary for success in this country.  Opportunity School was one of the first of its kind, and started a trend across America.

After retiring, Griffith built a rustic cabin near Pinecliffe.  There she cared for her invalid sister, Florence.  The two lived comfortably on a pension that Emily received from the Denver Public School System.  A friend and neighbor, Fred Wright Lundy, helped care for the sisters.  Almost every evening, Lundy, also a former teacher, had supper with Emily and Florence. 

About twenty-four hours after the murders, Ethelyn Gurtner (a sister of the dead women) and her husband, Evans, found the bodies.  Time magazine reported that “the dining table, near the window overlooking a creek, was set for three. On the living room floor lay Florence Griffith, in a puddle of blood. On the bedroom floor lay Emily. Each had been shot through the head with a .38-calibre revolver.”

Lundy quickly became the immediate (and only) suspect.  About a mile up the canyon, searchers discovered his 1941 Nash.  Inside, a note read: “If and when I die, please ship my body to Roscoe, Il. No autopsy. Correspond with Roy Cummings, Roscoe, a cousin. No funeral here. Money in the brief case can be used for immediate expenses. Thank you. P.S. Embalm in Boulder, Colo. Fredy Lundy.”  Investigators opened the briefcase and found an envelope containing $350.00.

Lundy’s body, however, was nowhere to be found.

Rural mountain homes, called “outlaw cabins” by the news media, were searched.  For several days, lawmen and “mountain men” scoured the area, including the creek that ran near Emily’s home.  No body was found.  As the search for the alleged killer continued, Undersheriff Don Moore of the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department informed the press that he didn’t think Lundy had committed suicide.  Photos of the suspect were published in newspapers all over America, but still he eluded capture.

Then, on August 17, the Associated Press reported that “the severely-decomposed body of a man was found wedged against a large rock in South Boulder creek Saturday and coroner George Howe said he was certain it was that of Fred Wright Lundy, 65, missing key figure in the Griffith sisters slaying case.”  Lundy had indeed committed suicide, jumping from a railroad bridge about a mile from the Griffith home.

Police told reporters that the killer of the sisters had been found, and effectively closed the case.

Not everyone agreed, and over the years questions arose.

By all accounts, Lundy had no motive to want his friends dead.  Neighbors said he occasionally groused that the area around Pinecliffe was a “prison,” and it was rumored that he would have liked to have moved to a city, such as Chicago.  In fact, he asked Emily to go with him to the Windy City for a visit.  She politely informed him that she couldn’t leave her homebound sister.

Was this a motive for murder?

Cops insisted the crime was a “mercy killing.”  Lundy, they claimed, had expressed displeasure over his friend Emily having to be the perpetual caregiver for her sister.  He had allegedly told friends that he’d “rather see them dead than the way they are living.”

Did Lundy obsess on these seemingly minor difficulties to the point that he would murder his two friends?

Another theory emerged when author Debra Faulkner published her book, Touching Tomorrow: The Emily Griffith Story.  She concluded that if Lundy had intended to kill the women, he would have chosen a “gentler” method.  In addition, he had nothing to gain by their deaths.

Faulkner looked for other suspects, and speculated that, in order to inherit Emily’s estate, Ethelyn and Evans Gurtner may have slain the sisters.  The husband and wife soon began traveling the world, using funds they would never have had without the inheritance.  But while the Gurtners may have had motive, there was no evidence that they committed the crime.

So the question remains: who killed Emily and Florence Griffith?