Rogues & Scoundrels

THE A20 KILLER // Part 2: Following the Trail

Mame Petrzywalski, the 79yo mother of the victim, identified the clothes found on the body as those of her 47yo daughter, Dagmar Petrzywalski, who went by Peters. Dagmar had been unmarried and moved out of 5 years before after her home was destroyed during the in 1941. She lived in one-room hut on land next to her mother’s cottage in West Kingsdown and had worked as a telephone operator for the Post Office until she retired due to her poor health. Dagmar was quiet and had few friends, but she was also resourceful and independent. She hitched rides with passing commercial delivery drivers, still offering to pay the going fare, rather than use public transportation or riding in private cars, which she believed were unsafe.

Dagmar had set out before sunrise on the morning of 31st October to visit her brother and sister-in-law who lived in Woking, about 55 miles (89 km) away. She carried with her a brown purse, small suitcase, a yellow crocheted market bag that her sister-in-law had made for her. She also carried a Jack Russell named Hedy, which Dagmar intended to give to her brother and sister-in-law. Notably, Dagmar also wore a white wool scarf that she had made from a second-hand vest she’d found while shopping. Police believed that this could have been the item the murder had used to strangle the woman. Sadly, the puppy’s body was found several hundred meters from the site.

The lead detective on the case, the famed Robert Fabian of Scotland Yard, knew that Dagmar’s killer was likely a delivery driver, and had police officers across the country make inquiries about drivers whose routes had taken them along the A20 early on 31st Oct. Fabian also asked Dagmar’s sister-in-law to crochet a yellow market back identical to that which she’d made for Dagmar, which he then photographed and published in newspapers around the country, hoping that someone may have seen it. As it turned out, someone had. The police finally had a lead.

NEXT: Part 3: The Suspect

DATE: Oct/Nov 1946
LOCATION: Kent, England
SOURCES: , , S&F History Society

THE A20 KILLER // Part 1: A Gruesome Discovery

In the early hours of Thurs. 31st Oct. 1946, a motorist passing through Wrotham, Kent, on the A20, a road connecting London and Dover, saw what looked to be a blue leather shoe, a woman’s, laying on the side of the road. Though WWII had ended the previous year, economic resources were still strapped, and shoes were precious to be thrown on the side of the road. The driver stopped, thinking he could find the other shoe and give the pair to his wife. He looked among the bushes along the road and spotted the second blue shoe peeking out of the shrubbery. However, when he leaned down to pick it up, he made a horrifying discovery: the shoe was still attached to a foot. He bushed the foliage aside and found a woman, dead and partly covered in fallen leaves.

The woman was fully clothed, though her jacket and stockings were torn, and had dark bruising around her neck and deep lacerations on her legs. Kent quickly called a from and a from Scotland Yard to the scene. With no identification on the woman’s person or amongst her strewn possessions, a description was published in the newspaper in hopes that someone would recognize her and come forward.

She was 5’3” tall (160cm), in her late 40s with light brown hair, grey-blue eyes, an overbite, and an old scar on the side of her nose. The placement of the bruising on her neck indicated that she had been strangled from behind. Blood had settled around her buttocks, which meant she had been sitting upright for a time after she had died. If she had been laying down, blood would have settled along the entire underside of her body, meaning that she had been killed elsewhere and was later dumped where the motorist found her. The pathologist also noted that no sexual assault had taken place, and the woman was still a virgin.

It didn’t take long for someone to come forward. That someone was the murdered woman’s mother, Mame Petrzywalski.

NEXT: Part 2: Following the Trail

DATE: Oct/Nov 1946
LOCATION: Kent, England
SOURCES: , ,

THREE BRIDES CASE // Sentencing & Ex*****on

, . 2 July 1915

“The jury returned into court after an absence of [23] minutes with a verdict of “Guilty”. Assuming the black cap, the Judge said: “They have found you guilty of cold-blooded and heartless murder. I do not believe there is another man in England who needed to be warned against the commission of such a crime and to exhort you to repentance would be a waste of time.” The death sentence was then passed.”

. 19 August 1915, Day of Ex*****on

[Smith] was visited early in the day by the Church of England chaplain, the Rev. J. Stotts, who is doing duty at the prison during the absence of the regular chaplain, who is serving at the [WWI battle] front. Smith was in a shattered condition, having passed a restless night.

Shortly before 8 a.m. the executioner…entered the cell and pinioned Smith’s arms. Smith was limp and quiet. In the procession from the cell to the gallows, he had to be supported on either side by wardens. The last short walk to the cringing frightened wretch across a portion of the open prison yard, into which the brilliant sunshine of a glorious summer morning was pouring.

Hundreds of people assembled to be present, though unseeing witnesses, at the death of the murderer. Just before 8 o’clock, a black cat strolled up to the prison doors and sat down in front of them. It stayed there until driven off by the arrival of the doctor and the undersheriff.

The chaplain, who led the way, recited the service for the dead, but Smith was mute. The chaplain’s voice could not drown the hubbub of the great crowd outside the prison walls in the street. The distance was only 30 yards. Once on the scaffold the bolt was promptly drawn, and the murderer disappeared. All was over in less than 3 minutes.

Smith’s last letter was written to Miss Pegler: “I have not asked for a reprieve, nor made a petition, and do not intend doing so… May an old age, serene and bright…lead thee to thy grave. Now, my true love, good-bye, until we meet again. —Yours, with immortal love, George.’”

SOURCES: IPN, BNA, Vanity Fair

THREE BRIDES CASE // The Forensics

, . 20 May 1915

“One of the most important witnesses was Dr. Spilsbury, the well-known . He gave to the details of his examination of the bodies exhumed.

“On Feb. 4,” said Dr. Spilsbury, “I went to the mortuary at Finchley and saw a bearing the words, ‘Margaret Elizabeth Lloyd, died Dec. 18, 1914, aged 38 yrs.’ I found a small recent bruise at the back of the left elbow, and two other similar bruises under the skin just above the first one. They might have been inflicted at the time of death. I think they were the result of separate forces. The cavities of the heart appeared to be slightly dilated. The organs were otherwise healthy.”

Mr. Bodkin: How would you describe that woman from the point of view of healthiness?
DS: She appeared to be a healthy woman…
MB: If a woman of the stature of Miss Mundy were in that bath the first result of an epileptic fit would be to stiffen and extend the body, legs, trunk, and neck?
DS: Yes…
MB: If the feet were against the narrow end of the bath when the body was rigid, what effect would that have on the head and body?
DS: It would tend to press the head up out of the bath.

Dr. Spilsbury could not explain how a woman could by herself get into the position in which Dr. French said he found Miss Mundy—the legs straight out from the hips, and the feet out of the water at the bottom of the bath. “If a person were sitting in a bath with her back to the top end,” he added, “the lifting of the legs might enable the trunk to slide down sufficiently to immerse the head”

MB: Can you say what the result of sudden immersion might be?
DS: It might give rise to shock, even perhaps unconsciousness from the rush of water into the nose.
MB: How soon after immersion would unconsciousness supervene?
DS: It might in some cases…immediately; in some cases, it might be longer, perhaps after a minute.
MB: In the case of a longer period, would the person be able to move and struggle?
DS: Yes.
MB: Would [they] make any sound?
DS: Not if submerged.

NEXT: Part 4: Sentencing & Ex*****on

SOURCES: IPN, BNA, Vanity Fair

THREE BRIDES CASE // Part 2: The Appointment

, . 22 April 1915

“Mr. Bodkin handed witness a letter written by prisoner [to the wife’s uncle in March 1912] … “At the end of the letter,” added Mr. Bodkin, “you will find in your niece’s handwriting this note: “Everything is, after all, happening for the best, and I am perfectly happy with my husband. I hope you will soon forget the past. I know my husband now.’”

On July 13, 1912, he received the following telegram: “Bessie died in a fit this morning. Letter follows.” Witness next received the following letter: “Word’s cannot describe the great shock I am suffering at the loss of my wife. The doctor said she had a fit in the bath. I can assure you everything was done that was possible on her behalf. I can say no more. Believe me, yours faithfully, Henry Williams.”

He went on to explain that his wife had two fits during the week, and he supposed that she must have had another while he was out, and when he returned, he found her dead in the bath. After a time, he remarked, “Wasn’t it a jolly good thing I got her to make her will?”.

Dr. Frank Austin French… who was called to see prisoner’s wife just after her death, recognized prisoner, whom he knew as Mr. Williams.

Mr. Bodkin: When did you first see Mrs. Williams as a patient?
Dr. French: On the Tues. before her death—that was July 9, 1912.
MB: Who came to you?
DF: Mr. and Mrs. Williams.
MB: What did he say?
DF: He said that his wife had not been well lately and suffered from headache. From what he said to me, he led me to think it was epilepsy… [Mrs. Williams] told [me] she did not remember having lost consciousness. I examined her heart and found it normal. I also examined her tongue for evidence of scars through biting it.
MB: Did you find any scars?
DF: No. Although I found very slight symptoms to favour epilepsy, I gave her bromide mixture as a sedative… The [Saturday after], while I was dressing, a note was handed to me. It read: ‘Can you please come at once. I am afraid my wife is dead.’ … I went upstairs… and saw the body in the bath.”

NEXT: Part 3: The Forensics

SOURCES: IPN, ,

THE BRIDES IN THE BATH // Part 1: The Facts

, . 22 April 1915

“[George Joseph] Smith, it is alleged, had in all six “wives,” and he is now answering the charge of killing three of them: Beatrice Mundy, Jul. 1912; Alice Burnham, Dec. 1913; Margaret Lofty, Dec. 18, 1914.

Every available place in Bow Street was occupied when George Smith again faced the magistrate, Sir John Dickinson, to answer for the terrible charges brought against him…Morose and huddled up in the dock sat Smith, at times occupying himself with writing. Particularly was this the case when the bath in which Miss Mundy expired was produced in court…Occasionally he gave vent to vehement outbursts, calling forth rebukes from the Bench.

After the East Kent coroner had told the story of the inquest on Miss Mundy, and how prisoner, giving evidence, described the discovery of the tragedy, the dead woman’s uncle was called.

He was Herbert Mundy, and Trowbridge auctioneer, who said that his brother, George Bailey Mundy, died in Dec. 1904, leaving a son, George Howard Mundy, and a daughter, Bessie Constance. There was a will, of which witness was one of the executors. The daughter’s portion of the estate amounted to nearly £2,500 [£80k today], which was in investments...For some time, she went as a paying guest at the house of a friend. Before witness heard of any marriage his niece lived at Bristol.

Mr. Bodkin [Barrister]: Just before the marriage do you remember getting a postcard from her post-marked “Weymouth Aug. 26”?
Uncle: Yes.
MB: Was that postcard in her usual handwriting?
Uncle: The address was not, I think. The body of it was.

On Aug. 29, 1910, witness received a letter signed “H. Williams,” asking him to forward his niece’s allowance in postal orders and not by cheque and saying that his wife and himself would be glad if Mr. Mundy would send as much money as he could. The letter stated that the couple were both in good health and were looking forward to a bright and happy future.”

NEXT: Part 2 (Tomorrow!): The Appointment

SOURCES: IPN, ,

ETCHED IN SOIL // The Nazca Lines

Located about 375km (225mi) south of , the capitol of , lie a group of enormous lines etched into 500 sq. km (190 sq. mi) of the Pampa Colorada desert, an arid place that receives less than 2.5cm (1in) of rain per year. These lines, called the Nazca Lines were created by the , which occupied the region for centuries between roughly 100 BC and 700 AD.

So far, 800 straight lines, 300 geometric shapes and 70 ‘biomorph’ designs have been identified, ranging in size between 5m (16 ft) and 100m (330ft) and include a spider, hummingbird, monkey, fish, and pelican, as well as humanoid forms known as "the astronaut" and "the whale." The lines were formed by removing reddish-brown iron oxide-coated pebbles that cover the desert's surface to reveal the lighter-colored earth underneath in a process called "paleo-petroglyphs," and created high-contrast designs that are best viewed from the air.

There are several theories about the purpose of the Nazca Lines. Some believe they had astronomical or calendrical significance, serving as an ancient observatory. Others suggest they were ritual paths for religious ceremonies or irrigation-related symbols reflecting the Nazca civilization’s advanced irrigation systems and pottery.

The first academic to study the Nazca Lines was Toribio Mejia Xesspe in 1926, but the lines remained relatively obscure until the development of aviation in the 1930s. Commercial pilots noticed the enormous drawings and interest in these mysterious figures grew, attracting archaeologists from around the world.

The astronomy-calendar theory remained widely accepted until the 1970s when interest in the lines was renewed, and new theories about the lines’ relation to water and irrigation were explored further. With such limited rainfall, about 20 minutes per year, it’s understandable that water was extremely important for the survival of the Nazca people and was venerated accordingly.

The Nazca Lines were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

Location: Peru
Sources: Britannica, , Live Science, Nova

NATHAN LEOPOLD // In His Own Words

1.) "El siguiente problema fue conseguir la víctima para matar. esto quedó Indeciso hasta el día que decidimos para tomar la mirada más probable tema que se nos presentó... Richard conocía a Robert y le pidió que viniera a nuestro auto por un momento. Esto ocurrió cerca de la 49 y la avenida Ellis. Robert se acercó. al auto, me fue presentado, y Richard le preguntó si
[Quería] que lo llevaran a casa".

2.) "Intentaría copiar deliberadamente sus [Loeb] gestos, ser conscientemente encantador. No podía acercarme... Pero Dick no tuvo que intentarlo. Parecía capaz de presionar un botón imaginario y activar el hechizo. Y podría ser extremadamente generoso. Pero luego estaba ese otro lado de él. En el crimen, por ejemplo, no tuvo ningún escrúpulo de ningún tipo. No era inmoral; solo era un plan amoral... El bien y el mal no existían."

3.) "Mi motivo, en la medida en que se puede decir que lo tuve, fue complacer a Dick. Sólo eso, por increíble que parezca. Pensé tanto en el tipo que estaba dispuesta a hacer cualquier cosa, incluso cometer un as*****to, si él lo deseaba con todas sus fuerzas. Y tenía muchas ganas de hacer esto... realmente. No tenía ningún entusiasmo por la comisión del crimen en sí. En cambio, tenía un sentimiento de profunda repugnancia".

4.) "Mi motivo, en la medida en que se puede decir que lo tuve, fue complacer a Dick. Sólo eso, por increíble que parezca. Pensé tanto en el tipo que estaba dispuesta a hacer cualquier cosa, incluso cometer un as*****to, si él lo deseaba con todas sus fuerzas. Y tenía muchas ganas de hacer esto... realmente. No tenía ningún entusiasmo por la comisión del crimen en sí. En cambio, tenía un sentimiento de profunda repugnancia".

SOURCES: , , ,

“A PERFECT CRIME” // The Murder of Bobby Franks, Pt. 4

The prosecution and the p***c were eager to see Leopold and Loeb hang for their crime. Their families, however, were desperate to spare them, and hired well known and successful attorney, Clarence Darrow. Under his direction, the boys plead guilty to the murder of Bobby Franks. This move dismayed the prosecution who had been preparing to fight a plea of innocence. Now they had to prove that the boys were sane, a much more difficult task given the brazen, shocking, and perverse nature of the crime.

Darrow enlisted the help of psychologist Dr. Bernard Glueck to evaluate the boys before their trial with the hope of finding mitigating psychological factors. Dr. Glueck, wrote:

[Loeb] “Taking into consideration the early history of his physical weakness, the effeminizing influence of [a nurse], his later increasing conviction of sexual impotence, it becomes absolutely clear […] that the impelling motive in the defendant’s criminal career was the motive of compensating through criminal prowess for his feeling of inferiority.”

[Leopold] “The great facility for intellectual achievement, coupled with the extremely ready phantasy play which has always characterized his mental functions, made it possible for him to ignore and escape reality whenever reality offered unpleasant or difficult situations which had to be faced.”

He concluded that the boys’ complementary personalities drove them to pursue more extreme and perverse actions over the course of their friendship and that their privileged upbringings, while giving them a comfortable life, contributed to their warped psychologies. They were, essentially, “suffering” from what we now call “affluenza”.

The trial lasted nearly two months, and in the end, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were spared the death penalty. They each received a life sentence plus 99 years. In 1936, Loeb was murdered by a fellow inmate after allegedly making sexual advances. Leopold was paroled in 1958 after serving 34 years.

DATE: May 1924
LOCATION: ,
SOURCES: , ,

“A PERFECT CRIME” // The Murder of Bobby Franks, Pt. 1

On the morning of 22 May 1924, a factory worker walking home from his overnight shift made a gruesome discovery in a culvert under the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks near 118th in the south side of Chicago: the naked body of a child. Police discovered that the body was that of an adolescent boy who had been stabbed in the head and whose face and ge****ls were obliterated by acid.

About 10 miles (16km) north in the affluent neighborhood of Hyde Park, Chicago, a letter was delivered to the Franks family: a ransom note threatening the death of their 14yo son, Bobby Franks, if they didn’t leave $10k (about $170k today) in old bills in a specified location. They were warned against contacting the authorities and instructed to wait for further communication. However, that evening, before they could fulfill the ransom’s demands, they received the horrifying news from that their son Bobby had been found, murdered. Jacob Franks, Bobby’s father, who was a wealthy capitalist and property owner, offered a $5k reward ($85k today) for any information leading to the discovery of the killer.

While investigating the site where the body had been found, police discovered a pair of seemingly ordinary, round glasses. Assuming the glasses to be that of the boy’s they were taken to the morgue with the body and placed on Bobby’s face during the funeral services. However, Bobby didn’t wear glasses. Could they have belonged to the killer?

Upon closer inspection police discovered that the glasses had an unusual style of hinge, one that was only present on three pairs sold in Chicago. The owners of two pairs were quickly ruled out as suspects, leaving one unlikely suspect: 19 yo “child prodigy” law student, Nathan Leopold, the son of a prominent and wealthy immigrant parents. When confronted with his glasses, claimed that he was a well-known and avid bird watcher, often leading groups through the area where the body had been found. They must have simply fallen out of his pocket.

NEXT: Part 2

DATE: 21 May 1924
LOCATION: ,
SOURCES: , ,

THE WEREWOLF OF BEDBURG // Peter Stumpp

“Thus continuing his devilish and damnable deeds within the compass of a few years, he had murdered[…] two goodly young women big with child, tearing the children out of their wombs in the most bloody and savage sort, and after eating their hearts panting hot and raw[…]” — A true discourse. Declaring the damnable life and death of one Stubbe Peeter. Born around 1530 in a small village , Germany, Peter Stumpp (Stumpf in German; possibly so named later in life due to his left hand being cut off, leaving a stump) was a wealthy farmer and widower with 2 children.

In 1589, Stumpp was accused of being a werewolf and “insatiable bloodsucker” who fed on humans and animals. After being tortured, Stumpp confessed to making a pact with the Devil who then gave him a belt that would allow him to transform from man to wolf. While in his beastly form, Stumpp would hunt down innocents, “plucking out their throats and tearing their joints asunder”, eating their hearts and brains. He is believed to have murdered as many as 18 people, 13 of whom were children, including his own son, and committed a series of rapes and acts of in**st with his daughter.

Stories of werewolves, witches, and other child-eating devil-worshipping monsters were popular in 16th cen. Europe. The Inquisition was at its height and James IV’s obsession with witch-hunting reached a fever pitch in , both further fueled by the increasing dissemination of gruesome broadsheet illustrations that both terrified and intrigued. Infanticide was also made illegal in 1532, so convictions of the skyrocketed, heightening the already widespread fear of violence against children.

Stumpp was found guilty and brutally executed: “He was tied to a wheel where “flesh was torn from his body“, in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Further, his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axe head to prevent him from returning from the grave, before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre.”

DATE: 1589
LOCATION:
SOURCES: ,

ANCIENT OPTICS // The Nimrud Lens

The circular object is 1.5” (38mm) across and 0.9” (23mm) thick. It’s made of ground, relatively clear rock crystal, and one side is flat while the other has a slight convex bulge. This object is the oldest lens ever found, believed to be over 3,000 years old. Called the Nimrud Lens, it was discovered by English anthropologist, psychologist, and amateur archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1850 while excavating the palace of Nimrud, located 30km (20mi) southwest of modern-day Mosul, Iraq. Sadly, Nimrud was deemed ‘idolatrous’ by the Islamic State and destroyed in 2015.

Nimrud was founded by the Assyrians in the mid-1200s BC, and after the Bronze Age collapse between 1200 and 1150 BC, was revitalized by Ashurnasirpal II in the 9th century BC who built a palace, temples, and an 8km (5mi) defensive wall around the city. At its peak, it is said to have had a massive population of 80,000.

The purpose of the lens isn’t known, though it’s agreed that it was used as an optical device. Scientists speculate that it could have been a magnifying glass (useful for intricate engraving), a burning-glass to start fires (supported by the anecdotal evidence of Pliny the Elder and Aristophanes), a monocle-type vision aide (it’s small size fits within the eye socket, or, because the Assyrians knew so much about , as part of a . On its own, the lens only offers about 3x magnification, but combined with other lenses, could have created a powerful telescope for the time. The British Museum, write on their website that “[The Nimrud Lens] has been regarded as an optical lens but would have been of little or no practical use” and that its optical properties were ‘accidental’, but many academics and scientists disagree.

What do you think?

DATE: c. 750 BC
LOCATION: ,
SOURCES: , AncientOrigins, WorldArchaeology, TimelessMyth