Swedish Nanny Murder

Since I am visiting Massachusetts this week I thought it to be only fitting that I choose a crime story from here. Today I am going to be talking about the murder of Swedish Au Pair Karina Holmer. Another frustrating unsolved murder from over 20 years ago. 

Karina was from a small village named Alaryd in Sweden, and after winning the lottery with about $1,500 in U.S Dollars she decided to use her winnings to move to America for a summer. She had big dreams and was excited for a new atmosphere, to meet new people, explore new places and live the city life.

She decided she would go to Boston. There she worked as an Au Pair for Frank Rapp and Susan Nichter who had two young children, they were in the suburb of Dover right outside of Boston. Karina not too long after being in the US started writing letters home stating this trip wasn’t what she had in mind and she was tired of cleaning all the time. Which to me is interesting because she had a pretty sweet setup.  Her employer Frank Rapp allowed her to stay at his studio in Boston on the weekends when she was off. It was right in the middle of where she wanted to be, it was close to all the sights and the night life she dreamed of. 

In the weeks leading up to her death her friends claimed to receive letters from her stating “something terrible had happened and that she would reveal more when she returned home.” She didn’t disclose an idea of what she was talking about. 

On June 21st, 1996 Karina was set to go out with friends that evening. Karina and three of her friends met up in the Boston studio and then made their way to Zanzibar, a popular club on Boylston Place. Karina was about 19 at the time, but despite being underage she had no issues getting into the clubs with her Fake idea and charming looks.

It was an evening filled with lots of drinking and dancing, she eventually split up from her friends. After that the story gets crazy. 

There are witnesses that state she was in the bar until she passed out in the bathroom and was kicked out at 3am, Karina found herself wandering, drunk and alone, but still in the mood to party, she came across a homeless man, whom she danced with for a while. 

There were quite a few supposed sightings of Karina by different witnesses after she left the club. People claimed to have seen her getting into (or being forced into) a grey Mitsubishi with a group of men. Some say they saw her getting into a taxi. Others say they saw her walking along different streets near the club.

Several witnesses stated they saw Karina talking to a man named Herb Whitten. All of them said he was large and would frequently dress up his dog and self in Superman T-shirts, supposedly as a way of attracting the ladies. 

What we do know for sure is that she was found in a dumpster by a homeless man that was looking for bottles in the Fenway neighborhood. He went and reported what he found to the police. 

When the police arrived they were horrified by what they found. It was definitely Karina, but only the upper half of her. From her waist down was missing and no where to be found. 

The part of her body that was discovered was in pristine condition; there was no dirt or anything of the sort found on her body. The makeup she had been wearing was completely scrubbed off. 

They were able to determine that Karina’s cause of death was strangulation, by the markings she had on her neck. There was some redness on her wrists in which suggested she may have been tied up. they were hoping to find more on her that would help find her killer, but there were no signs she had fought her killer off. 

There were few suspects for investigators to really focus on. 

Herb Whitten (Superman) was briefly considered as a suspect, but he had a pretty strong alibi. On his way driving back home after talking with Karina he received a speeding ticket and it wouldn’t have fit the timeline. A year later he committed suicide. 

Police also looked into Karina’s employers, Frank Rapp and Susan Nichter. Other nannies had word out that Frank was creepy. Neither one of them an alibi for the night Karina was murdered. The Monday following there was a fire that started in a dumpster on their property. The police were called out and they tested the ashes for any trace of human remains, but it came back negative. They were ruled out. 

Detective Tommy O’Leary, who lead the case in 1996 says that he still to this day will look into new leads in search of her murderer/murderers. He told The Boston Globe, “I don’t want to say it would take a miracle, but it would take an extraordinary piece of evidence to charge someone, let alone prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Here’s to hoping that one day that piece of evidence is discovered and Karina can get her justice. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/cryptidantiquarian.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/the-unsolved-murder-of-karina-holmer/amp/

https://www.talkmurderwithme.com/blog/2018/11/18/the-murder-of-karina-holmer

https://m.ranker.com/list/karina-holmer-murder-facts/jacob-shelton?page=2

37 Witnesses

When thinking about this week’s blog, this one randomly popped into my head so I decided to go with it. Some of you may have heard about a phenomenon known as the Bystander effect, it’s known as a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when others are present. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help. Observers are more likely to take action if there are few to no other witnesses. The construction of this psychological phenomenon was formed after the murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese.

First let me give you a little back story on who Kitty Genovese was. She was born on July 7^th, 1935 in Brooklyn New York to her Italian-American parents, along with her four siblings. She was known as a being popular in school and a social butterfly. After high school her family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, but Kitty decided to stay in New York, she loved it there. After working some odd jobs she eventually became a bar manager at Ev’s 11^th Hour in Hollis, she did very well and was a reliable hard working employee. The money she earned she had dreamed of saving up to own her own Italian Restaurant.

On March 13^th, 1963 Kitty met a woman named Mary Ann Zielonko at an underground lesbian bar in Greenwich Village. The two quickly fell in love and decided to move in together. Next to the Long Island Rail Road station in Kew Garden they found an apartment. It was one of fourteen similar units in the two story building; theirs was on the second floor.

One year after meeting Mary Ann, March 13^th, 1964 she was leaving her shift at work around 3am and was very excited to get home to celebrate their anniversary. Little did she know how her night would truly end.

Kitty parked her car by the rail station and began walking to her nearby apartment, unaware that a man by the name of Winston Moseley was on the lookout for a victim. He left his sleeping wife, two sons and five German Shepherds around 1am to start his search. When he saw Kitty get into her car he made a U-turn and followed her, when she parked her car he parked his. The area was very desolate at 3am, all businesses were closed and the majority of residents were asleep.

Kitty heard Moseley's footsteps following behind her and noticed she was being followed; startled she began to run while screaming "Help! Help! Help!" He was able to catch up to her, first thing he did was stab her, she yelled "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me! Somebody please help me!" One of her neighbors saw the struggle and yelled out to "Leave that girl alone." This startled Moseley and he ran off and back into his car 100 yards away. Kitty got up, turned and made her way up the direction she'd come from, eventually entering the first apartment building, where she collapsed at the foot of the stairs. Lying on the floor of the hallway, she called for help, but no one came.

Moseley sat in his car, some say he even drove away and came back about ten minutes later when he soon realized the police weren’t coming like he initially thought was going to happen. He was then determined to finish what he had started. He got out of his car and went on a search for Kitty, he found her laying there bleeding and terrified. He at that point stabbed her around 14 times, brutally raped her and when he was done he took $49 dollars from her wallet and left. She was alive, but barely breathing.

Sophie Farr heard the commotion and came running over to Kitty's aid, holding her in her arms and comforting her. More than 30 minutes after the initial attack another neighbor named Karl Ross finally phoned the police and they quickly arrived on scene, sadly Kitty died on the way to the hospital. A few witnesses claimed they had called the police, but their calls weren't given priority. Others claimed to have called, but didn't report the severity of the crime. Others stated they simply thought about calling the police, but assumed someone else would or already did.

The murder of Kitty Genovese gained worldwide attention when The New York Times published an article “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police; Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector.” The article was published with photographs of the scene and its main focus point were on three things: the time between when Kitty was first attacked and when police received the first call; the number of persons who saw or heard the attacks but did not help; and the excuses given by witnesses as to why they did not help Kitty, the most infamous of these being the chilling phrase, “I didn’t want to get involved.” Some say this article was exaggerated while others say it’s factual.

Winston Moseley

Winston Moseley was arrested 6 days after Kitty’s murder and police suspected this wasn’t his first attack, but on June 11^th, 1964 he was convicted of first degree murder in only the Kitty Genovese case. 4 days later he was given a death sentence by electric chair. The death sentence was later reduced to a life in prison sentence when New York abolished most capitol punishments.  While in prison he escaped while on a hospital visit, raped a woman and held hostages at gunpoint before being recaptured. He was denied parole 18 times.  He died March 28^th, 2016 at the age of 81.

The murder of Kitty not only helped in the research that led to “The Bystander Effect’ her death is also credited as one of the factors that pushed the emergency 911 system into place, it became the national emergency number in 1968. Prior you had to dial “0” to reach the operator and hope that they were not too busy to transfer your call.

Moral of the story if you see something say something, if somebody would have done this for Kitty she may have been able to have a long happy life instead of the tragic events that occurred.

Resources:

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/kitty-genovese

https://itotd.com/articles/7879/kitty-genovese-syndrome/

https://www.kittygenovesebook.com/the-murder-of-kitty-genovese/

Black Dahlia

Today I have chosen to discuss one of California’s most notorious unsolved murders that occurred in January of 1947. The victim Elizabeth Short, but you all may know her as The Black Dahlia.

 It was a cold morning in Los Angeles the day of January 15^th, 1947. Betty Bersinger was out for a walk with her three year old daughter. When approaching the corner of Norton and 39^th, she spotted something white amongst the weeds in a vacant lot just a few feet from the side walk. At first she thought it to be a store mannequin, upon further inspection she discovered it was not a mannequin separated into halves like she thought, but rather a woman’s body that had been severed in half. Betty ran with daughter to a nearby house to call the police.  

 *Warning this next paragraph is a bit graphic

Officers Frank Perkins and Will Fitzgerald arrived within minutes and they immediately called for backup. The LAPD made note that the body has been displayed in a twisted display of seductiveness, she was lying on her back with her arms raised over her shoulders and her legs were spread. Investigators believed due to the rope marks on her wrists, ankles and neck that she had been tied down and tortured for days. She had several cuts and abrasions on her body, her body had been cleanly sliced in half above the waist and her mouth had been sliced from ear to ear. Numerous cuts were in a crisscross pattern above her pubic area, and her pubic hair had been removed by hand. The strange part was that there was no blood present on the body and none around the body either, it was suspected that she was killed somewhere else and that her body was cleaned and dumped.

Her body was taken to the Los Angeles County Morgue. There an assisting managing editor for The Herald-Express named Warden Woolard was willing to assist the LAPD. He had just purchased a “Soundphoto” machine and he believed this would help in sending the woman’s fingerprints to the FBI. Captain Jack Donahoe liked the idea and promptly set it into motion. Soon after the victim was identified as 22 year old Elizabeth Smart who last resided in Santa Barbara, California.  

So, who was Elizabeth Smart?


She was born July 29^th of 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts to Cleo and Phoebe Short. At the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 Cleo left his wife and five daughters, ultimately faking his suicide by leaving his empty car near a bridge which left authorities to believe that he had jumped to his death into the river below. Phoebe was left to raise her daughters on her own, working multiple jobs. Phoebe received a letter from Cleo one day apologizing saying he was in California, but wanted to come home to her. She refused to see him.

Elizabeth known also as “Betty,” “Bette,” “Beth,” grew up to be a beautiful girl. She had the reputation of always acting more mature for her age and looking older than she was. Elizabeth loved movies, the theater allowed an escape from her everyday boring life. When Elizabeth was older her father Cleo offered for her to live with him, she knew she wanted to be a star so she packed up and headed for California.

Elizabeth and her father eventually had a falling out and he kicked her out mid 1943. On September 23, 1943 she had a run in with law enforcement for the first and only time (this later helped identify her body with her prints on record) Elizabeth was underage at the time when she and a group of friends became rowdy at a restaurant, the cops were called, and she was booked, but never charged. The arresting officer felt sorry for her and arranged for her return back to Massachusetts, but Elizabeth didn’t stay there long and found her way back to Hollywood, California.

Over the next couple years Elizabeth worked miscellaneous modeling jobs, but felt discouraged. She wanted to get married, and had a few serious suitors that were in the military. Unfortunately they didn’t work out as one was deported and the other was killed in action.

Elizabeth ended up in San Diego, California and there she became friends with a woman named Dorothy French. Dorothy had found Elizabeth sleeping in one of the seats where she worked at the Aztec Theater. After she found Elizabeth, Elizabeth had told her that she left Hollywood because it was too difficult to get a job due to the actor’s strikes happening. Dorothy offered her to stay at her mom’s home for a few days, which ended up being more than a month long stay.

Elizabeth continued her late-night partying and dating habits. She became interested in Robert “Red” Manley, a salesman from LA that at the time had a wife who was pregnant at home. Red admitted that he was attracted to Elizabeth, but nothing ever happened between the two of them. They saw each other on-and-off for a few weeks. One day Elizabeth asked him for a ride back to Hollywood, in which he agreed to take her. On January 8^th, 1947 he picked her up from the French household, he paid for a room that night and the two partied together. When the two of them returned to the hotel, he claims that he slept on the bed while Elizabeth slept in a chair.

Red had an appointment the next morning, when he returned to the hotel to pick Elizabeth up around noon she informed him that she was going to return to Massachusetts, but needed to meet her sister at the Biltmore Hotel in Hollywood. Manley drove her there but didn’t stick around. He had an appointment at 6:30 P.M. and did not wait for Elizabeth’s sister to arrive. When Red saw Elizabeth last, she was in the hotel lobby making phone calls.

Red and the employees at the hotel were that last people to see Elizabeth alive. As far as the LAPD could tell her killer was the only one to see her after January 9^th. She was missing for six days before her body was found the dreary morning of January 15^th.

After her body was identified and her body was examined at the coroner’s office the official cause of death was hemorrhage and shock due to concussion of the brain and lacerations of the face.

Coming back to the Herald Express, the owner William Hearst was very wealthy and had reporters who discovered leads and valuable evidence in the case. He was willing to share this information with the LAPD, but for a price. That the paper would continue investigating clues and would be granted exclusive access and the LAPD would have all the information that they uncovered. While not happy about it Captain Donahoe was desperate for information and so he took the offer.

January 17th, 1947 a photo of Elizabeth was on the front page, the paper referred to her as "The Black Dahlia" a name still around over 70 years later. Soon the paper was getting a ton of anonymous tips and reports which were then handed down to the LAPD. Most of these tips seemed to be hoaxes, there were many letters received, and some seemed to be from the murderer who was trying to taunt the detectives. They spent many hours trying to decipher the confusing letters, but most seemed to give false information.

Due to the complexity of this case detectives treated every person who knew Elizabeth as a suspect. By June of 1947 they had processed and eliminated 75 suspects and by December they had considered 192 in total. 60 people confessed to her murder, only 20 of those seemed to be viable suspects by the Los Angeles District Attorney.

Because of the list of suspects and possible police corruption that took place, we could go down a rabbit hole in discussing it all. One that I find to be the most interesting is suspect George Hodel who was a successful doctor. In 2003 George Hodel's Son Steven Hodel a former LAPD homicide detective published a book called "Black Dahlia Avenger: A genius for Murder" In the book he claims that his father is the Black Dahlia murderer as well as being tied to other unsolved murders. After his fathers passing in 1999 he started his investigation. While going through his fathers belongings he came across two photographs in his fathers photo album in which one resembled Elizabeth. However her family insists its not her, he later learned it was a former friend of his fathers in one photo while the other is still not identified.

George Hodel

In 1949 George Hodel was accused/acquitted of molesting his 14 year old daughter, which led to him being a suspect in the Black Dahlia case due to her injuries and it most likely being done by someone who had surgical experience. He was put under surveillance in early 1950. At that time two microphones were placed in his home to see if he would say anything about the murder. Most of the transcripts at the beginning only included him talking about money problems, belittling his secretary and having sex, but one day there was a recording of a woman screaming multiple times that wasn't heard before hand other than her screams. Later that same day he was recorded saying to a confidant "Realize there was nothing I could do, put a pillow over her head and cover her with a blanket. Get a taxi. Expired 12:59. They thought there was something fishy. Anyway now they may have figured it out. Killed her." Another day he was recorded saying "Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia. They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary any more because she's dead."

The secretary referred to was Ruth Spaulding who died from a drug overdose, he was present when she died and even burnt some of her belongings before calling the police. He was a suspect in her death, but it was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

Lieutenant Frank Jemison of the LA District attorneys office wrote a report to the Grand Jury February 20th, 1951. He noted that a woman who had lived with George Hodel identified Elizabeth as one of his girlfriends and also said that he spent sometime at the Bitmore hotel where Elizabeth had been seen last. Some other things that tie him to the case is his black 1936 Packard was very similar to the descriptions of a black car that had been seen near the empty lot that same morning Elizabeth was discovered. He also had cement bags sent to his house for a remodel the day she went missing, similar bags were found near her body. Three years after Elizabeth's death he left the country to live in the Philippines where he remained until 1990.

There are so many theories involved with the Elizabeth Short "Black Dahlia" murder, with hundreds of articles about her and all that has gone on. Because of the many decades that have passed since her murder it makes the chances slim in ever solving her case or collecting any further evidence. Who knows if her murder will ever be truly solved.

Resources-

http://blackdahlia.web.unc.edu

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/the-black-dahlia