MISSING: Mary Jane Vangilder

Mary Jane Vangilder was born and raised in West Virginia. She married her ex-husband at 17 in 1929. The couple would go on and have 5 children before their separation in 1943. She moved to Plymouth, Ohio the same year. She would then take a job as a forklift operator at the Wilkins Army Force Depot. She would get to work by riding with coworkers.

She did not move with her children. She maintained contact through the mail and would send them letters, clothes, and war bonds. In 1945 the 33-year-old wrote the children asking for the war bonds back. The children sent her the war bonds. A few weeks later she would mail them her last war bond. She stopped all contact with them after that.

It isn't known when she disappeared in 1945, but she had filed for divorce on Feb. 14, 1945, and she was missing by November of 1945 when the divorce was finalized. She had quit her job in March.

She's a White female and was 33/34 at the time of her disappearance. She was 5around 4'11" to 5'5" and 150 lbs. Caucasian female. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was described as having freckles across her nose. She was struck on the shoulder by an airplane propeller and may have scars. She may have started using her maiden name, Croft.

SOURCES:
NamUs
Mansfield News Journal
Charley Project

INFANTICIDE: March 30, 1881 Camden, Iowa Newborn Girl

In Camden, Iowa, a woman had a package sent to the county treasurer, John Addison Pierson in Centerville, Iowa. The package was pasteboard. The package arrived on March 30, 1881, by train and at the time John Addison Pierson went to see if there was any official mail for the county and if there was anything for him. He paid for the package not knowing what was inside.

He brought the mail to his office. He opened the package and what was inside was horrifying. There was a newborn baby girl wrapped in an old skirt. It was obvious that the infant was murdered. There was concentrated lye or acid poured down her throat and splattered on one side of her face and body.

There were suspicions about who the mother was, but nothing was proved. It's unknown why the infant was killed because it seems likely the baby was sent to get a proper and paid for the funeral.

I could not find any sources that said this case was solved. According to Iowa Unsolved Murders, it was not solved.

SOURCES:

Iowa Unsolved Murders 

Centerville Times

Centerville Times 

UNIDENTIFIED: March 29, 1927 San Bernardino, California

On March 29, 1927, the body of a man was found on Little Mountain around 100 yards west of Kendall Drive cut in San Bernardino, California. He died from gunshot wounds days before and it isn't said it was homicide or suicide. He was described as a white male around 35 to 45 years old. He was 6 ft and 175 lbs. He had brown hair and brown eyes with a fair complexion. 

SOURCES:
NamUs
Doe Network
Redlands Daily Facts

MISSING: Lora Skaggs

Sometime between 1948 to 1950 Lora Skaggs went hitchhiking in Charleston, West Virginia. She was either on her way to Ohio for work or was on her way to pay bills. Little information is known in this case.

Lora was a white female around 27-years-old when she disappeared. She was 5'0" to 5'4" and 115 to 130 lbs. She has red/auburn hair and her family believes she has brown eyes but weren't positive. She had an appendectomy scar.

SOURCES:
NamUs

Fictional Murders: Skinned Tom

It was the 1920's and even though times were tough Tom had enough charm and good looks to go around. When he had dated every girl in his hometown in Tennessee he'd decided to move on to the neighboring town. This was when he met sweet Eleanor.

Eleanor was different than all the other girls he'd dated. Of course, he was physically attracted to her she was gorgeous, but something about Eleanor made Tom want to stick around. It wasn't known if Tom knew, but Elanor was married. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, because he was smitten with her.

Her husband did not want to believe the rumor going around town. That his beloved Eleanor was cheating on him. In order to either catch her in the act or prove the town wrong he told her he was going on a weekend trip. He never did leave town, but instead hid in the woods to keep an eye on her. When he saw Tom pull up and she got in the car her husband became enraged.

He carefully followed the two in his car. When they pulled into a Lover's Lane and everything got hot and heavy. Tom was suddenly pulled out of the car. Her husband had a knife up against him.

"So you're the man who's been with my wife!" He screamed at poor Tom.

"Please, she never told me she was married. I'd never take another man's girl!" Tom was begging for his life, but he was unsuccessful.

Eleanor sat in the car terrified watching as her husband dragged poor Tom into the woods. She sat waiting for her fate as she hears Tom's screams. She didn't know what to do but was too terrified to do anything. Eventually, Tom's screams stopped and her husband came out bloodied without his knife.

Her husband sat in the car and drove both of them to the police station. He had turned himself in. When the police arrived to get Tom's body they arrived to see the skin of a man hanging in a tree. The body it belonged was nowhere around. The knife that was used on him could not be found either.

It's said that Tom now haunts the Lovers Lanes in Tennessee. He was going to give people committing adultery the terrible fate he suffered.

SOURCES:
Scary For Kids
Thought Co. 
Only in Your State
Kobold Press

Murder of Mary Ellen Kearney

In 1866 19-year-old Mary Ellen Kearney and 21-year-old John Moran were seeing each other. Her father had learned of John's bad character and was refusing to let the two see each other. He forbid John from their home in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

It had turned out that Mary Ellen went to see John at his cottage the week before March 19, 1866. He wasn't home and while waiting for him she read a letter on the table. The letter was from a man named Mallory in Philadelphia who wrote to John telling him that the man they had garroted died from their injuries.

When he came home he asked her if she had read the letter. She admitted she did. She told him that she hoped he wasn't guilty of the crime and didn't get an answer. He snatched the letter from her hands and threw it into the fire. The two then went out on a walk. When they got to spot he threatened her with a revolver he had with him. He forced her to take an oath to not tell anyone of the letter's contents. She did and went home.

Fearing for her life and knowing that the oath was not binding she admitted of the contents of the letter and that John threatened to kill her on March 18th. At the time John was working at Grover and Baker's Machine Shop near her home.

On the 19th He came to Mary Ellen's home. John knocked on a window and called out to her to talk to him. She did so and when she opened the door he shot her. She staggered to the kitchen door and screamed "Oh Aunt I am Killed" as she fell to the floor. The ball came through her left side through her heart and out the right. It had killed her almost instantly.

John was already been gone by the time the physician came. On March 23rd he turned himself in to the police. He refused to answer questions. On May 24th the trial began. He was supposed to be hanged on Jan. 25, 1867, but his time was then commuted in early January to life in prison.

SOURCES:
The New England Farmer  March 14, 1866
The Daily Evening Express  March 23, 1866 (part 1)
The Daily Evening Express  March 23, 1866 (part 2)
Lewiston Gazzette March 28, 1866
The Pittsburgh Daily Post May 25, 1866
Harrisburg Telegraph- Jan 11, 1867
Intelligencer Journal -Jan 12, 1867

Murder of Thomas Hogan

On March 16, 1870, around 50-year-old Thomas Hogan (white) stopped by the home of either Edward Darnell Young or Bill Loper (both black). Thomas was from Philidephia and it wasn't stated on why he was visiting the home.

They discovered that Thomas was carrying a large amount of money with him. This was when they lured him to an isolated place near Kersey's Mill Dam in Kent County Delaware.  They bludgeoned him in the back of the head with a fence rail. This did not kill him. Edward claimed he was scared of William and they brought Thomas to the pond where he may have drowned.

On March 26  some men were fishing in Kersey's Mill Dam located on the road from Canterberry to Fredrica. They discovered Thomas's body caught in their net. Soon the two men were suspected of the murder.  Edward confessed to the deed and they were taken to trial. It was believed that William was the instigator, but he was acquitted in court. Edward was convicted and hanged in Dover on June 24, 1870.

SOURCES:
Middletown Transcript April 2, 1870
Middletown Transcript June 25, 1870
Deleware Tribune July 14, 1870
Legal Executions in Delaware, The District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia page 7

Murder of William Robinson

Canadian Mysteries 

William Robinson had immigrated from New Jersey in the United States to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Canada. He lived alone in an isolated cabin and had planned to have his wife and kids join him in 1868. He lived in a black community on the island. He was considered an inoffensive and harmless man. He was last seen on Sunday, March 15, 1868, at church.

A man who would help out William had goods for him. For almost a week he tried a few times to get in contact with William. On Saturday the man then peeped into the home by removing some of the packings between logs, because the home had no window. He saw a pair of boots near where he was peeping through and tried to touch them with a stick, there was no response and this alarmed him. Other settlers were notified and came, but it wasn't until Monday that the resident constable came. 

As the door had been locked they removed a log near the door. This was when William's body could be seen, He was laying on his back, with a box between his knees. He had a knife in his hand.

He had been shot in the back with the exit wound being through his chest. His clothes were burned from gun powder. It was likely he was eating and his killer was sitting at the hearth with a double-barrel shotgun. He was then killed and several things were taken from the home including account books, and some clothes. 

A local man named John Norton was told by an anonymous Indian fishing near his home that a Chemanius Indian named Tom and that an Indian of Plumpers Pass was with him. Tom had killed William. Soon a local Chemanius Indian named Tshuanahusset (Tom)  and Sue Tas was the other Indian.

Sue Tas claimed that the two had gone to William's cabin in Salt Spring Lake. Sue Tas stayed in the canoe as Tshuanahusset went to William's home. He had started getting cold and came to the cabin. When he entered William was cooking food. Tshuanahusset was sitting by the fire with a gun. He said that Tshuanahusset told him along the lines of "if I shoot the black man I was to look for all the good things"

Sue Tas claimed this scared him. William had already sat down with his food by this time. Sue Tas decided to leave the cabin. He wasn't very far out when a gunshot rang and Tshuanahusset called out to him to come back inside. He saw William lying on the ground with blood coming out of his nose and back. 

Sue Tas refused to help him. Tshuanahusset then took a saw, an auger, a box, a cart and then brought the items to the canoe. He also found a key and locked the door before throwing the key into the water. The two then rode the canoe back to Chemainus. Sue Tas watched as Tshuanahusset placed the things in his home. Sue Tas stayed in Chemainus for 5 days before returning to Plumpers Pass. He was scared of him but still told his friends at Plumpers Pass of what had happened at the cabin.

Tshianahusset was charged with the murder and Sue Tas was not charged. He was quickly put on trial. He was found guilty and was given the death penalty in June of 1869. On July 24th he was executed by hanging. He had suffered little to no pain when he died. 

Historians have questioned whether or not. Tshuanahusset was actually responsible for the murder. There was certainly evidence that did point towards him being the murderer, but the holes in the case were questionable like for example the auger found in Tshuanahusset's home was supposedly dropped into the water by accident from the Constable's Canoe.

Much of the evidence found against Tshuanahusset probably wouldn't have been useable in today's standards. The trial was also done in an irregular way. He was also one of the only focuses on this crime, even though there were better suspects to be found. 

William was also not the only African American murdered in the small community in the mid to late 1860s. Several other African American's had been killed.

SOURCES:

Canadian's Mysteries

Wikipedia

Albany

Revolvy

Catharine Higgs Murdered Her Daughter Mary

The date of the Murder of  Mary could not be found. Her mother, Catharine Higgs had drowned her in a pool near the Bell-Inn in Belbroughton, England. Mary was about 2-years-old when she was murdered. Catharine was found guilty of Willful Murder. She was executed on March 14 of 1782.

SOURCES:
The Derby Mercury
The Bath Chronical 
Capital Punishment UK

The Lynching of Amy Spain

The Hanging of Amy Spain - contemporary engraving from Harper's Bazaar

17-year-old Amy Spain became a martyr for freedom in 1865. She was biracial of a white and a black parent. She was a slave and owned by Major Albertus C. Spain, a Mexican-American War veteran who owned a large property in Darlington, South Carolina.

In early 1865 a detachment of the Union Army arrived in Darlington as a part of the Carolinas Campaign. She expressed her excitement for her future freedom by exclaiming "Bless the Lord, the Yankees have come!". This was what sealed her fate.

At that time the town, many of the white residents (mostly men) deserted the town. It had turned out that her and others took what they wanted from empty homes and warehouses. Amy took things from her master. The Union was only there for a short time and the Confederate army re-occupied the town.

Amy was called a "ringleader" of the looting and accused her of guiding Union troops to places where valuables were hidden. She was arrested for treason and conduct unbecoming a slave by the Confederate Military. She would go to trial and Major Albertus C. Spain defended her.

Behind bars, Amy heroically heard her sentence to death and she declared she was prepared to die. On March 10, 1865 She defied her persecutors, and as she walked the scaffold towards her death she declared she was "going to a place where she would receive a crown of glory". She was interrupted by an oath by one of her executioners.

She was then hung from the sycamore tree in the Darlington town square.

SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Capital Punishment UK
Black History
Executed Today

Murder of Harriet Bell

37-year-old Harriet Bell was a widow by 1882 and worked as a seamstress to support her and her daughter. On morning of March 7, 1882, Harriet left her home of Kirkland Street in Boston, Massachusetts.13-year-old daughter stayed at home as she headed out to do errands.

The witness saw a man following behind Harriet and she was unaware until she got home around 8 a.m. When she got to her doorway the man attacked her, but not before the witness heard her say "I don't know you." He then took her arm and shoved her inside. The witness then heard her scream and the man leave the home. What he didn't know is in that short time he had stabbed her to death.

They quickly found two police officers nad stated the man just attacked a woman. They did nothing and let him go. They didn't stop the man nor did they do anything about it at the time saying it was a family matter. They had not known that she had been murdered and that they let the killer walk free.

Later the witness asked another officer to check on the woman. This was when the officer found her body. Several people were suspected, but none were charged in this case.

He was described as a white man around 45 or 50-years-old. He was 6'1" and 165 lbs. He had very broad shoulders and sandy side-whiskers, and mustache with a grey tinge. He was wearing a dark blue smooth overcoat with a velvet collar, a black worn high round derby hat, and dark pantaloons.

10 years later in late 1892, a man came forward with some information. The morning of the murder he and a woman who looked similar to Harriet had robbed a drunk sailor. They kicked him out in the street and he slept in a doorway near where the woman lived and where he was kicked out. It was believed that the doorways were similar and when he saw Harriet he believed her to be this other woman and killed her in revenge.

I couldn't find if this sailor was identified and arrested, but it could be possible the case was never solved.

SOURCES:
The Boston Globe March 11, 1882
Chicago Tribune March 9, 1882
The Boston Globe May 16, 1892
Democrat and Chronicle December 24, 1892
The Cape Girardeau Democrat December 31, 1892
The Anaconda Standard Jan. 3, 1893