Murder and Mystery in 1934 New York

In the waning days of 1934, elderly ladies in the New York area—particularly ones who lived alone—were terrified over a series of odd and particularly brutal deaths.

"Hanover Sun," December 10, 1934, via Newspapers.com

On December 7, 1934, the body of 69-year old widow Winnie M. Burlingame, the wealthiest woman in Canisteo, NY, was found in her home.  A hatchet had delivered over 60 wounds to her face and head, some of them chipping her skull.  She had died of hemorrhage and shock.  Blood was splattered throughout the house, from the cellar—where it was believed the initial wounds were made—all the way up to the second floor, suggesting a long struggle.  The weapon was found in the cellar, bloody but lacking any fingerprints.  A half-full bottle of carbolic acid was found near her.  Her internal organs showed no traces of poison, but there were acid burns on her clothing and her skirt was singed, leading to speculation that her killer had tried to burn the body.

After Burlingame died, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. William Burlingame, told authorities that Winnie had confided to her that if “something should happen” to her (Winnie,) Mrs. William should look in a secret pocket Winnie wore on her corset.  When the body was discovered, this secret pocket was unbuttoned, and empty.  Nothing else in the house had been taken, including Winnie’s purse containing $300.  Investigators were curiously reluctant to believe they had a murder on their hands.  They insisted that it was at least as likely that Mrs. Burlingame had killed herself.

There were disturbing sequels to this case.  Ten days after Burlingame died, 70-year-old Mrs. Lydia Beekman Parker was found murdered in her home.  Her skull had been crushed with a metal tube that was later found along a river bank near her home.  She lived only twelve miles away from the Burlingame residence.

Lydia Parker, from the "Elmira Star-Gazette," December 18, 1934

There were many similarities to these deaths.  Both women were rich widows who lived alone.  They both died of head injuries.  Both bodies were found in their parlors.  Both front doors were unlocked.  In both cases, there were no signs of robbery, or any discernible motive to kill them.

On December 23, 79-year-old Victoria Muspratt, a recluse from an old and wealthy family, was found dead in her once-palatial, but now-decayed Brooklyn mansion.  (Not long before her death, she refused an offer of $200,000 for the estate.)  As was the case with Burlingame and Parker, her head had been bludgeoned, and her body lay in the parlor.  It was rumored that she had money hidden in the house, leading to the assumption that robbery was the motive.  However, bank books showing deposits of over $2,000 were untouched.

A couple of weeks after Mrs. Parker was killed, an acquaintance of hers, 44-year-old army veteran Joseph Lewandowski, was questioned by the police.  He initially claimed to know nothing about the Parker slaying, but after 24 hours of intense interrogation, he signed a confession to her murder.  He claimed there had been a romantic relationship between them, and when she cast him aside for a still younger man—a 29 year old organist--he slew her in an impulsive fit of jealousy.  Despite the suggestive similarities to the Burlingame death, Lewandowski was never linked to that case.

Lewandowski never went to trial.  In February 1935 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was quickly whisked off to a mental hospital.  No evidence of his guilt was ever publicly presented, other than his possibly coerced confession.  The abrupt end to the legal proceedings against him insured that many of the lingering questions about Parker’s death would go unresolved.

As peculiar as Burlingame’s end may have been, the coroner insisted it was suicide.  He based this theory on the fact that no poison was found in her stomach, and all the blows to her head were relatively light ones that faced in the same direction.  Although many onlookers were unconvinced she had killed herself, the jury at the inquest obediently gave suicide as their verdict, and her case was closed. Miss Muspratt’s murder was never solved.