Death on Christmas Eve: The Keim Family Mystery

"Pottstown Mercury," July 11, 1967, via Newspapers.com

In 1963, 68-year-old widow Pearl Keim and her son Douglas (whom everyone called “Dougie”) were living a quiet, unremarkable existence in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.  Although Douglas was aged 42, mentally, he remained a child of seven.  However, he was fortunate enough to be a cheerful, affectionate, trusting soul who was well liked in the town.  Neighbors described Douglas as “a most happy child,” and “friendly as a puppy.”  He enjoyed spending his evenings in a local diner, with a newspaper spread out in front of him.  He was completely unable to read it, but pretending he could appeared to give him a sense of being part of the adult world he was destined to never enter.  Douglas had two great loves: his mother and fire engines.  He often visited the local firehouses, where he would spend hours gazing in wonder at the vivid red trucks with their startlingly loud bells, or browsing through stores, admiring the toy trucks on display.

The Keims spent Christmas Eve 1963 alone together.  As a result, we will never know for sure why it proved to be their last Yuletide.  Three days after Christmas, neighbors, who were concerned that no one had seen mother or son since December 24, phoned police to check on the pair.  Officers found the Keim home had all the doors locked, although they were the type which could be locked from the outside.  One window was open.  When the policemen got no response to their repeated knocks on the front door, they broke inside.

What they found was a bloodbath.  Mrs. Keim was found in her bedroom, dead of multiple stab wounds to her neck.  A knife blade was still embedded in her throat, but the handle was missing.  Douglas’ corpse was in the living room.  Lying near his body was his Christmas present--a brightly wrapped toy fire engine--and the handle from the knife which had killed his mother.  Douglas had died in a particularly bizarre fashion: a metal stove poker had been twisted tightly around his neck, strangling him.

This gruesome tragedy was one of those cases where investigators scarcely knew what to say.  The Keims did not have anything approaching an enemy, and they lived too modestly to be worth robbing.  There was no sign of anyone but the Keims having been in the home.  After a bit of floundering helplessly, the authorities announced their conclusion: murder/suicide.  Montgomery County DA Richard Lowe theorized that on Christmas Eve, Douglas had wanted to open his present early.  When his mother refused, he went into a fit of uncontrollable rage and stabbed Pearl to death.  Then, when he realized the enormity of what he had done, he broke down completely and wrapped the poker around his throat.

There were obvious problems with this scenario.  For one thing, Douglas was regarded as a gentle, sweet-natured man who had never shown any signs of violence.  He adored his mother, who was all he had in the world.  Also, Douglas was a small, slight man.  Would he even have the strength to kill himself in such a physically demanding fashion?   And what caused the several bruises found on his head?

Many people were uneasy about the “solution” to the mystery.  However, law enforcement had come up with a quick and easy way to get this troublesome case off their hands, and they stuck with it.  In my true-crime readings, I’ve come across many tragedies that defy any easy explanation, so investigators simply invent one, just to be able to say “case closed,” and move on.  I fear the deaths of Pearl and Douglas Keim may well be among them.

[Note: One would assume that dusting the knife and poker for fingerprints would most likely answer the question of whether Douglas was a murderer or a murder victim.  However, none of the newspaper stories I've found about the case state whether or not this was done.  Very strange.]