Alcoholism Cracks a Cold Case

 Parley L. Bennett

Tuesday, January 25, 1927 probably seemed a day like any other for LAPD Patrolman Parley L. "Pat" Bennett, who was working the traffic detail at 7th and Los Angeles Streets, except for the plans he'd made with his wife Elizabeth to take their two young children, Kenneth (aged 6) & Enid (aged 3), to the traveling circus later in the day. All of that changed when he was alerted to a burglary in progress half a block away from his post.

A young man had entered the Brodine Millinery Company at 724 South Los Angeles Street just as the employees were closing shop and getting ready to head home. He produced a revolver and demanded money. The bookkeeper, Mrs. Charlotte Johnson, initially refused but was told she'd be shot if she didn't comply. Mrs. Johnson backed away from the cash box containing $75.00.

Another employee, Miss Ruth Werner, was in the back of the shop and managed to sneak away unseen and inform one of the owners of the situation. Mr. A. Brodine made it out of the building and found Officer Bennett who was directing traffic.

Bennett ran to the location but barely had time to assess the situation and draw his service revolver before being gunned down. The burglar was on his way out and Bennett was on his way in. Bennett was shot multiple times and DOA when transported to the Central Receiving Hospital. He'd been on the force for 2 1/2 years.

The unknown man now possessed the stolen $75 and Bennett's revolver. He ran out of the building and boarded a passing streetcar. Witnesses described him as white, between 5 foot 4 inches and 5 foot 7 inches, weighing between 135 and 145 pounds and he looked to be about 24-years-old. He wore a grey suit and had a cap pulled down over his eyes.

A massive manhunt involving 70 detectives failed to produce the man responsible. Police Captain Herman Cline offered up $250 of his own money for information leading to a successful arrest and conviction. An additional $5,000 was added to the pot and although as many as 250 suspects were questioned, none of the men were positively identified by the witnesses. The killer eluded capture for 44 years.

Within a week of Bennett's murder, merchants on Los Angeles Street between 7th and 8th Streets raised $1,000 for the widow and her two children. An impressive amount of money back in 1927 (roughly $14,460.00 in today's money) but hardly fair compensation for what Elizabeth had already lost by the time she'd reached 34. Elizabeth had given birth to 4 children between 1920 and 1925 but their second child, a daughter named Alice and their fourth and final child, a son named George had both died in infancy. Now her husband was gone.

On October 14, 1971, LAPD police officers were responding to a "disturbing the peace" call and found a disheveled 67-year-old Matthew Kilgariff blocking traffic near Western Avenue and Romaine Street. Kilgariff told police he'd been on a bender but hadn't had a drink in two days and was suffering from the DT's. He said needed psychiatric care. To further convince them of his need to be taken in to custody, Kilgariff admitted to a string of unsolved burglaries and told them he'd also killed a police officer in 1927. That case had long gone cold but police threw him in a cell while they dug through the old files.

Sure enough, there was an unsolved killing of a police officer from January 25th 1927 but the only evidence they had linking Matthew Kilgariff to the crime was his somewhat sketchy confession. Kilgariff didn't have all the details correct, his recollection of the day in question was February 27th and he thought he'd robbed a paper store, but he had a rap sheet consistent with that crime, including burglary, robbery, vagrancy, drunkenness and a 15-year-stint in a Texas prison for robbery and assault with intent to commit murder. His physical appearance at the time of the crime matched their suspect but after 44 years nobody would be able to offer a valid identification that would hold up in court. All the same, they arrested him and hoped that a jury would believe his audiotaped confession which included his assertion that when robbed the safe and shot Officer Bennett he was broke and drunk. His recorded confession included the statement "Like I told you before I wasn't proud of what I did. It's been 44 years of hell." Poor you.

What else do we know about Matthew Francis Kilgariff other than he was an alcoholic and a career criminal?

Well, he entered the world on January 10, 1904, one of nine children born to Patrick and Cecelia Kilgraiff. When Cecelia died on November 18, 1920, her 16-year-old son Patrick was already living in the Connecticut (Reform) School for Boys located in Hartford. The 1920 Census for that location was taken on January 6th so we can't attribute his waywardness to the death of his mother. Cecelia still had another 10 months to live. The same census reveals there were 6 Kilgariff youths, ranging in age from 5 to 24-years-old, still living with Patrick and Cecelia on Goodman Place in 1920 so this isn't a case of a family being unable to provide for their children and being forced to commit them to an orphanage. It would seem that Matthew was the bad apple, the black sheep, the problem child.

Matthew's youngest sibling Bernard would die tragically on March 8, 1925 at the age of 10 when he rollerskated out into traffic and was struck by a speeding automobile. The driver, Louis Bianchi was arrested & Patrick Kilgariff sued him for $10,000 but a judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence and essentially held the child responsible for his own death although there was some belief that one of Bernard's rollerskates got caught in a trolley car track and he was unable to move.

Among the 100 individuals who testified at Matthew Kilgariff's long overdue trial in 1972 was Officer Bennett's widow Elizabeth. Now remarried and living in Idaho, she recalled that terrible afternoon as if it were yesterday. Elizabeth and her brother-in-law John Bennett, also a policeman, took the children to the circus that night despite the sad news "because Pat had promised and he was known as a man of his word."

The only eyewitness the prosecution could produce, so long after the crime, was 59-year-old Raymond Varela who had been on the scene that afternoon. Varela had taken a streetcar to the neighborhood that day to buy a pair of shoes. Raymond Varela had seen much that day but he didn't report any of it to the police at the time. Varela only came forward in 1971 after reading about Kilgariff's arrest and spontaneous confession. To his credit, despite seeing a police officer being gunned down in the line of duty, Raymond Varela had joined the LAPD and spent 10 years (1938-1948) on the force. Varela managed to describe in detail the events of that afternoon including seeing Officer Bennett run into the store, being shot in the doorway and the killer escaping.  "I was just 14 years old at the time but it made a deep impression on me." 

A eulogy for Parley L. Bennett printed in the Los Angeles Times on January 28, 1927 railed against "sob sisters and sentimentalists" who would "work up a false and outrageous pity for the deadly gunman" and "unscrupulous lawyers" who "take advantage of our lax and cumbrous legal procedure." The author hoped for a swift trial and that the criminal would "receive the just desserts of his foul deed."

How disappointed that author would have been that it took 44 years for Matthew Kilgariff to be brought to justice and that at his trial a psychiatrist, Dr. Magdalene Nemeth, would declare the audiotaped confessions to be false and mere hallucinations.

The jury believed his confession however and on April 28, 1972, after two days of deliberation, Matthew F. Kilgariff was found guilty of first degree murder. The mandatory sentence was life in prison.

In an unusual move, Kilgariff's competency was questioned only after the verdict was rendered. In July 1972, three court-appointed psychiatrists agreed unanimously that the defendant was unable to understand the proceedings and sentencing was postponed. Maybe they were right. Kilgariff offered no defense at the trial and simply sat there in court staring off into space. Kilgariff was committed to the Atascadero State Hospital for a year of treatment and observation. If there was no improvement, he was to remain there. If the opposite was true he'd be relocated to the state prison. The public defender argued that Kilgariff should be sent to either Camarillo State mental Hospital or Nowack State Hospital because "the conditions are more humane and the psychiatric treatment would be better."

In November 1972, the Judge presiding over the case reduced the charge to second degree murder "because of the defendant's age and physical condition." This change made Kilgariff eligible for parole in 2 years.

Matthew F. Kilgariff died on October 13, 1976 while still an inmate of the Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, California.

Cue the Crocodile Tears

It was August 8, 1939 and the newspaper photographers were waiting for Reverend Walter Dworecki to emerge from the Camden, NJ morgue. He'd been called there to identify a body. Police thought it might be his missing 18-year-old daughter Wanda. They were correct and Walter didn't disappoint his audience.

International News photo

This heart-wrenching image would come to symbolize every parent's nightmare .... until the truth was known.


Walter Dworecki was actually covering up his tears of joy. He'd been trying to have his daughter killed for months now and after one flat refusal and one botched attempt he'd finally managed it. And it only cost him 50 cents.

Wanda had become a liability to her father's reputation and position within the community. He was a minister at Camden's Polish Baptist Church and she was a bit of wild girl. She'd dropped out of school while still in the 5th grade. Wanda's desire for excitement threatened Walter's job. How would it look if the Reverend couldn't control his own daughter? The Church secretary called for Walter's resignation in light of rumors swirling around Wanda. Walter responded by calling the police on his daughter and asking them to intervene.

Soon Walter realized Wanda, his oldest of three children, was worth more dead than alive. So he took out several life insurance policies and shopped around for someone to commit the murder.

John Popolo, one of Walter's friends, would later testify against him court. Popolo claimed he'd been shown an insurance policy with a $2,000 payout. Walter offered John half of that if he'd kill Wanda. John Popolo refused. Or did he?

On April 3, 1939, two men abducted and severely beat Wanda before throwing her from a moving car then leaving her to die 25 miles outside of town. They'd clearly underestimated her will to live. When she regained consciousness Wanda managed to stagger to a farmhouse and was later transported to a hospital. She had a fractured skull and couldn't identify her attackers but author Jay Robert Nash, in his book "World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Crime," points the finger of guilt at both John Popolo and another area local, Alexander Franklin. According to Nash, Walter Dworecki paid the two men $50 in advance.

There were a total of five insurance policies on Wanda's life. The second one was taken out by her father on March 9, 1939 - only three weeks before this incident.

Wanda hadn't gone willingly with those two men. She'd learned her lesson the last time. On February 14, 1938 Wanda and younger gal pal had accepted a ride from a man who offered to give them a lift to the movies but instead drove them to a secluded spot and tried to force himself on Wanda's friend. Wanda put a stop to it and they were both unceremoniously tossed from the car. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the first attempt on Wanda's life? Make it look like she'd made another bad judgment call and gotten into a stranger's car.

But it wasn't a stranger who eventually took Wanda's life. Reverend Dworecki, or "Iron Mike" as he was known, had found the perfect dupe in Chester, PA's Peter Shewchuk.

Peter was 21-years-old, a bit simple and strong. At Peter's trial, it was shown that he had the intellect of a 12-year-old. Peter spent 5 semesters in the second grade before finally being placed in a class for "backward" children. Peter got into some trouble as a youth, thrice arrested for petty larceny, but once he was of age he drifted around and worked as a carnival roustabout before settling down in Camden, NJ. He'd been invited by Walter Dworecki to board at their house. Peter was the family's handyman and worked as a waiter. Peter was sweet on Wanda. He later claimed he felt sorry for Wanda because her family "treated her like a black dog." It was Peter who helped nurse Wanda back to health after the attack in April of 1939. The two had been intimate at some point and Walter was able to use that fact to his advantage.

Walter badgered and cajoled Peter for weeks. He bought the boy drinks at taprooms, offered him $50 if he'd kill Wanda then upped it to $100. Eventually, Walter fabricated a lie about Wanda being pregnant, telling Peter he was the father and claiming that this illegitimate birth would be a ruinous scandal. That was the tipping point. Peter finally agreed to kill Wanda.

On August 7, 1939, Peter took Wanda out on a date and used the 50 cents Walter had given him for expenses. The Reverend's instructions were firmly in Peter's mind throughout the evening. "Peter, when you do it this time, make sure it's done right. Choke her, hit her with a rock. Twist her neck, then listen to her heart to see if it is beating. Make sure she's done, because if she isn't, it will be just too bad. I had a hard enough time to keep her from talking the last time."

Peter bought Wanda a soda then walked with her to a Lovers' Lane behind the Camden High School athletic fields where he choked her until she stopped squirming and then bashed her head with a rock.

Failing to get any additional funds from Walter when he returned to the Dworecki home, Peter went on the run and became the subject of a multi-state manhunt.

While Peter was trying to avoid the police, Walter had been hard at work establishing an alibi for himself and aiding in the investigation.

On the night of the murder, Walter was out administering to an ailing parishioner and when he returned home around 10:30 PM he called police to report Wanda was missing. He said hadn't seen her since she'd gone to the drug store earlier in the day to buy "some ice cream and stockings."

The following morning, on August 8th, the missing person case became a homicide investigation when Fred Cimato found Wanda's body.

Actual Detective Stories magazine, Jan 1940 issue

Police located witnesses and tracked Wanda's final hours as best they could. She had been spotted around town, leaning against a wall and seemed to be waiting for someone. There was a corsage of red and white roses pinned to her coat that had not been there when she left the house and she had been seen in a the company of a young man matching Shewchuk's description. Police quickly considered him a person of interest.

Walter made a point of reminding police of the earlier attacks. He also claimed the family had been receiving threatening phone calls advising Wanda to "keep her mouth shut or somebody is gonna get bumped off." Walter handed over to police love letters found in Wanda's room and he sullied Wanda's reputation by telling police he'd heard his daughter was "an easy conquest."

Walter didn't try to hide the insurance policies from police. He readily produced them. The total payout would be $2,695. This doesn't include the one policy that paid $10,000 for an accidental death.

It wasn't just Wanda's reputation that was a source of concern but Walter's own checkered past. Maybe that's something he should have considered before placing all the blame on his daughter. At the time of Wanda's murder, Walter was on bail in connection to a recent charge of arson perpetrated in Chester, PA and on probation for passing a counterfeit $5 bill back in 1935. That same year (1935) a church member accused Walter of pocketed $90 of the $100 that had been donated to the church. In 1932, Walter had been charged with assaulting a boy and breaking a his nose with a broomstick. Once police started taking an in-depth look at Walter's past they discovered there was a good chance he wasn't even a legitimate man of the cloth. Newspapers put forth the theory that perhaps Wanda's murder was connected to a counterfeiting ring.

 On August 26, 1939, 18 days after killing Wanda, Peter Shewchuk surrendered himself to the police at the urging of his father. Peter didn't see Walter Dworecki again until they were both under arrest and he never received more than 50 cents to kill someone he claimed to have affection for - "I loved her like a sister."

Once in custody, Peter was relieved to be able to get this terrible burden off his own shoulders and on to Walter's. Peter was the chief witness against Walter Dworecki at his trial. Nearly 100 other witnesses were called to the stand during the 10 day trial. Some testified that they too had been approached by Walter with offers of cash to kill Wanda. Another testified that Wanda knew her father to be behind the near fatal kidnapping and assault but Wanda felt the police wouldn't believe her and she'd be institutionalized.

Philadelphia Inquirer photo, Sept 29, 1939

With Walter now suspected of arranging the death of his daughter some people thought Mrs. Dworecki's death should be looked at again but the police felt that decision was in the hands of the insurance company who had paid off on the policy. Theresa Dworecki died suddenly at the breakfast table one morning in July 1938 but it didn't seem overly suspicious at the time. Walter had collected $2,500 in insurance money. {Theresa's cause of death was listed as lobar pneumonia but a Feb 18, 1990 NY Daily News article recalling the crime hinted that it might have been arsenic poisoning.}

Walter Dworecki maintained his innocence before, during and after the trial despite numerous confessions that he later recanted claiming the police beat those out of him. Walter Dworecki was found guilty of first degree murder on October 6, 1939. He was put to death in the electric chair on March 28, 1940.

Peter Shewchuk was tried separately and lastly. On May 2, 1940, Peter was also found guilty of first degree murder but received a sentence of life in prison. His diminished intelligence influenced the jury and they asked that Peter not be put to death. Peter told the press "I got a big break and I'm damned glad of it." In 1951, Peter was nearly killed in a prison "scuffle" when another inmate crushed Shewchuk's skull with a wrench. After nearly 18 years in prison, Peter was paroled on March 10, 1958.

Confounding Celebrity Crimes #1 - Gail Fisher

Public Domain image

Gail Fisher was a real success story and I imagine the pride of Edison, New Jersey, especially during the years 1954-1978. She'd grown up in the Potters Crossing subdivision of Edison and most folks who lived there recognized it as a slum. They were poor but her mother Ona seemed to be doing her best. Ona became a widow on September 28, 1937 following the untimely death of her husband William, a carpenter by trade. Gail was the youngest of the couple's 5 children - she was only 2 years old when her father died. William's estate at the time of his death was valued at $208.00 (rounding up, that's roughly $2700.00 in today's money). A syndicated 1971 newspaper profile on Gail Fisher claims the family was left with only $8.45 when William died. Perhaps the lesser amount was the bank balance and the bulk of the holdings was in real estate or an automobile? Ona supported the family by operating her own catering business but still had time to be very active in the PTA and various local committees; she even helped organize an annual fashion show that raised money for college scholarships.

Gail knew from early on that she wanted to be an actress. Ona encouraged her to pursue something far more realistic but Gail wouldn't be discouraged. She performed in school plays, joined the cheerleading squad and entered beauty contests. It was Gail's success in the latter that paved her way. Gail took top prize in 5 competitions and won a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC for two years (1956-1958).



Photo from JET Magazine, 9-8-55, courtesy of Vieilles Annonces at Flickr.com



courtesy of Vieilles Annonces at Flickr.com



Gail struggled at first but ultimately found worked as a model and become the top Black Print Model. In 1957 she made her Off-Broadway debut in "Simply Heavenly."

Gail made her first television appearance in 1959 and she made history in 1963 by becoming the first Black Actresses to deliver lines in a national TV commercial when she was hired as a spokesperson for All Detergent.

There's a great 1960 informational short film, now in the public domain, about drama in the workplace as white folk panic when Gail as "The New Girl" is hired to work as an executive secretary. It's a win-win for me because the film also stars Ed Asner.

Gail appeared periodically on television and continued to work on the stage for nearly a decade until she answered a casting call for the TV detective series "Mannix" and her career really took off. Producers were changing things up for the show's 2nd season (1968). The title character was branching out on his own and he needed a secretary. Anyone who remembers the show easily recalls Gail's performance as Peggy Fair. She made a real impression on me when I was a young gal watching the show and I know I'm not alone. The show is currently airing on MeTV so you can still catch her in syndication or spring for the DVD boxset.

Ebony Magazine, Oct  1969

Ebony Magazine, Oct 1969

In 1970 Gail became the first black actress to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role in Drama. She would be nominated again each of the following 3 years but no win. Between 1971 and 1974, Gail received 4 Golden Globe nominations for "Mannix,", winning twice. But alas, as many accolades as she'd received during the show's run, when it went off the air in 1975 Gail had trouble finding work.

One could understand Gail having trouble finding work after her 1978 arrest (oh, have you forgotten this was a true crime blog?) but between 1975 and 1979 Gail's only acting job was a guest spot on "Medical Center" and it wasn't by choice.

On January 19, 1978 police knocked on the door of Gail Fisher's Benedict Canyon home. They had a warrant to search the premises and they found what they were looking for in her upstairs bedroom. The Pacific Telephone Company, which had just announced huge rate hikes, suspected Gail was using an illegal "blue box" to avoid paying full price for long-distance phone calls. Unfortunately for Gail, police also found 18 grams of marijuana and 0.1 gram of cocaine in her kitchen.


Here's the confounding part and it's not the drug possession charges as cocaine use was very prevalent in the 1970s, but the blue box. These gadgets sold for between $150 and $170, and while this was far less than Gail would spend calling her family back in NJ, you wouldn't think Gail needed to scam the phone company.

Blue Box in use, still image from a YouTube video uploaded by df9999999999

Gail Fisher, then a divorced 42-years-old mother of two girls, was arrested on the spot, booked at a West Los Angeles police station and released on $1500.00 bail. Gail pled innocent and a hearing was scheduled for March. The drug possession charges were deferred when Gail agreed to enter a 6 month drug diversion treatment program but they had her dead to rights on the blue box violation so she entered a "no contest" plea to that misdemeanor offense. Gail was placed on 12 months probation, fined $350.00 and ordered to pay the phone company $1,026. The felony drug charges were dropped once she successfully completed the program.


In January 1979, newspaper columnist Mary Mason quoted Gail as saying "I'm just too good for something not to happen." However, acting jobs for Gail following her arrest number only seven. Maybe she was being too particular. Again in Mary Mason's column, "Gail said she found that television had not only become very white but degrading, especially for women. Gail says she's learning to say that "She don't grin, she don't sing, she don't dance and she don't wash windows.""
When Mary asked the actress about the arrest, Gail confessed to using the blue box, "Who isn't trying to get over. But someone planted that cocaine. It was the most humiliating and embarrassing moment of my life." Gail said she was intending to spend the break in her career writing a book. Unfortunately, that never happened or it was never published.


Gail died December 2, 2000 at the age of 65. I've seen various causes listed on numerous websites but a JET Magazine obituary that appeared in their January 8, 2001 edition quotes Gail's oldest daughter Samara as saying "She had emphysema and was diabetic. The death certificate said cardiopulmonary arrest."

Taking the Fun out of Fundraising

I'm not sure if it's ironic, appropriate or just downright disappointing that Sheriff Philip F. Corso, who has graced this blog's homepage since the beginning, was himself removed from office after being accused of committing seven felonies and six misdemeanors. It's not as bad as it sounds but it was enough to have him removed from office after nearly 20 years of service.

In 1975, following a three month investigation by his office's anti-corruption bureau, Suffolk County, New York District Attorney Henry F. O'Brien announced the 13 count indictment against Sheriff Corso. The felony charges included grand larceny by extortion and/or coercion, attempted grand larceny by extortion and/or coercion, attempted coercion, second degree conspiracy. The misdemeanor charges included official misconduct and violation of the Civil Service law.

Basically, Sheriff Corso was being accused of pressuring his subordinates and the vendors who were doing business with the Suffolk County Jail to purchase tickets to an upcoming Republican Party Fundraising Dinner. Tickets cost $50 a piece and those who refused to buy found their jobs in jeopardy or their contracts canceled.

Sheriff Corso told the judge and the press that he was innocent and he declared the indictment to be a "weak, cheap attempt by a Democrat (the District Attorney) to destroy the Republican party in this county. I have no intention whatsoever of stepping down. I know I will be completely vindicated on all of these charges."

It was no secret that Corso, aged 54, was a life-long Republican and active in the party. It was also true that O'Brien was on a tear and that this indictment against Corso was just the tip of the iceburg in his office's investigation of both corruption within the county's police force and collusion between the Republican Party and the SCPD. O'Brien had ordered wire taps and was subpoenaing records.

In the end, Philip F. Corso took a plea bargain. In May 1976, Corso admitted he was guilty of violating the state's Civil Service laws by selling tickets while on County Property. He resigned his position and was banned from holding public office for a year.

Corso vowed that we hadn't "seen the last of him" and suggested he might even run for sheriff again once the year was up but I can't find a record of him holding any elected or appointed office again.

Although, Corso was all smiles at an Old Timers Awards Ceremony in 1987.



photo courtesy of Suffolk County News, Jan 22, 1987 edition

The man who assumed Corso's office and responsibilities after the scandal was Donald Dilworth, a Democrat, who didn't linger long as Suffolk County's sheriff. In 1977, he would become the Suffolk County Police Commissioner.

For the most part, Corso seemed to be doing a good job but his tenure wasn't without incident.


Prior to his removal from office, Sheriff Corso had been named in a 1971 lawsuit brought by 22 inmates of Suffolk County's Riverhead Jail. Corso and Warden Charles Cyrta were accused of murdering the prisoners' pet mouse whom they had named Morris. The prisoners claimed that Morris was tame and had been trained to keep other mice and vermin, of which there was plenty, off of their cell tier but when jail officials discovered Morris, he was flushed down a toilet. Two months later this suit was dismissed by the Suffolk County Supreme Court after Justice L. Barron Hill toured the prison and found it a "an antiseptic, scrubbed stone environment." Hill pronounced Morris to have been a disease-carrying pest like any other then recited Robert Burns' quote about how "best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry."


In 1973, a US District Court ruled against Sheriff Corso and Warden Cleary when they tried to refuse the prisoners access to newspapers. Corso and Cleary claimed news from the outside world was disruptive and the accumulation of newspapers in the jail was a fire hazard but the judge found this censorship to be a violation of the inmates' First Amendment Rights.


Corso was also one of six people named in a class action lawsuit filed in March 1975 by Dinah Micaleff. On March 6, 1974, she was arrested on a bench warrant, detained for several hours and subjected to a full body and cavity search. Her crime? She was guilty of being delinquent in paying a $15 speeding ticket she'd received on March 30, 1973. In December 1977, U.S. District Court Judge George Pratt called for a halt to such practices as "there was no reasonable or rationale basis" for them and ruled that they violated the indivduals' 4th and 14th Amendments.


Philip F. Corso died August 29, 1994 at the age of 74.


In an August 11, 2006 NY Times interview, Thomas J. Spota, then Suffolk County's District Attorney, remembered Philip Corso as "Mr. Republican back in the '70s." In recalling the conviction of Corso, Spota claimed Corso cried afterwards and told him there was no worse punishment than walking into a courtroom as a person of stature and then walking out in terminal disgrace.

The Death of David Kammerer

If you're like me, you .....
..... don't care for poetry.
..... possess only a somewhat cursory knowledge of the Beat Generation authors (Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg).
..... weren't interested in the movie "Kill Your Darlings" when it was released in 2013 because you thought it was basically about Allen Ginsberg.
..... have read and enjoyed one or more of Caleb Carr's best-selling novels in his "Alienist" series. Or maybe you've simply seen the recent TNT adaptation of book one?
..... didn't realize Caleb Carr's father Lucien Carr killed someone when he was 19-years-old. The victim was his friend and former scoutmaster.

The murder of David Kammerer on August 14, 1944 is not on par with the more obscure crimes I usually cover in this blog but since it came as news to me I figured there might be others who were unaware and would find it interesting.

Many versions of events surrounding the crime have been appeared in fictional works, posthumously published journals, biographies & autobiographies, magazine articles, etc and one could spend months reading everything there is on offer. Caleb Carr doesn't shy away from talking about sad chapter in his father's history but I somehow managed to miss reading any of those print interviews until recently.

Good luck though finding anything from Lucien Carr himself beyond his initial statements to police and the courts. Lucien Carr made a real effort afterwards to avoid talking about the crime, especially to reporters, and Carr implored his literary friends to ignore it as well. However, writers can't help but draw inspiration from their own lives. All of them eventually wrote about the crime, mostly in fictional works. There really never was a genuine tell-all true crime book from Burroughs, Kerouac or Ginsberg but Beat Generation devotees have been looking for clues in their fictional works for years.



I, as usual, will be relying on what the newspapers had to say at the time of the arrest and trial. However, at the end of this blog I'll make several recommendations for further reading. So, while this entry will not be chock-a-block with the kind of detail available elsewhere, I hope it'll be a decent enough summary so that you won't have to follow the links if you choose not to.

On August 16, 1944, 19-year-old Lucien Carr, accompanied by a lawyer, appeared at the office of  New York District Attorney Frank S. Hogan and admitted to killing his friend David Kammerer two days prior. They didn't believe him. Carr would have to lead police to the crime scene, show them 2 locations where he'd hidden evidence and wait for the body to be found floating down Hudson River. Carr calmly sat and read poetry while waiting for charges to be filed against him.

Carr, Kammerer & Kerouac

According to Carr, he and his long-time friend David Kammerer, aged 33, had been drinking heavily and ended up in Riverside Park around 3 AM where Kammerer made an unwelcome sexual advance. Carr defended himself with his Boy Scout knife. Carr stabbed Kammerer twice in the chest then he trussed Kammerer's body up with the victim's own belt, shoelaces and strips of cloth torn from the victim's shirt. Carr tried weighing the body down with some rocks and rolled him in to the Hudson River. Carr got undressed, entered the river and pushed the body under the water.

Carr almost immediately confessed his crime to good friend William S. Burroughs who advised him to go to the police. Burrough's reasoned that if represented as self-defense with a focus on Kammerer's sexuality that the penalty would be maybe 2 years.

Carr then sought the opinion of Jack Kerouac who helped Carr dispose of evidence (Kammerer's eye glasses and the murder weapon). The two spent the remainder of the day visiting the Museum of Art, had a few beers and saw the movie "The Four Feathers."

Ultimately, Carr confided in his mother Marion who called a lawyer and then Carr turned himself in.

Burroughs, Carr & Ginsberg

Both Burroughs and Kerouac would be arrested as accessories and held as material witnesses. Both would be bailed out. However, Kerouac was coerced into marrying his then girlfriend Edie Parker before her family would hand over the money. I suppose not much was made of these charges once Carr confessed in open court.

It didn't take long for newspapers to begin referring to the murder as an "honor killing."



On September 15, 1944, Carr pled guilty to first degree manslaughter. Three weeks later, on October 6, Carr was sentenced to a reformatory in Elmira, NY for an indefinite term. In handing down his verdict, Judge George L. Donnellan described this as "a difficult case." He cited Carr's high IQ and a desire to not have Carr "come in contact with hardened criminals" because "under the proper supervision, he may be restored to useful citizenship."

Burroughs was correct; Carr was released after serving 18 months. And the judge was right because although Carr did drink heavily for years and made some poor choices as result of alcohol, he quickly found employment with United Press and stayed there until he retired in 1993.

Lucien Carr, in 1986, photo by Allen Ginsberg

Details of the actual murder can only be known by Carr but this much we do know -

David Kammerer and Lucien Carr had a complicated friendship. Kerouac biographer Aaron Latham likens the dynamic to Leopold & Loeb. I see his point - Two men. One romantically and sexually attracted to the other but without a chance in hell of having those feelings reciprocated and in the end someone dies. But that's not really what's going on here. Leopold & Loeb, aged 19 and 18 respectively, abducted and murdered an innocent young boy to prove their superiority. Kammerer had been infatuated and obsessed with Carr, a boy 14 years his junior, since Carr joined his Boy Scout troop when he was 12-years-old.

Once, when Lucien's mother found a stash of letters written to her son by a desperate Kammerer, she tried to put some geographic distance between the two but wherever Carr went, Kammerer would follow. Kammerer seems like a stalker and hopeful pedophile.

By the time Carr was a young man and a Columbia University student he seemed adept at rebuffing Kammerer but still maintaining a friendship that he would benefit him. Kammerer picked up the tab and wrote Carr's college term papers. He was devoted to Carr. Carr's tight circle of friends at the time included Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg and also Kammerer who was not universally liked and often derided but most decidedly a member of the group.

There's testimony from many that support the belief that Kammerer's obsession showed no sign of easing up and that perhaps he feared Lucien might be slipping away from him. Kammerer already admitted to Burroughs that he would sometimes sneak into Carr's bedroom just to watch him sleep. Carr made known to Kammerer his plans to join the Merchant Marines and his intention to board the next available vessel. Perhaps Kammerer became increasingly unhinged and did try to force the issue?

Naturally, there are also associates and friends of Kammerer's, outside of the Beat Movement, who dispute this take on the relationship. I certainly don't know but I did have a little trouble with the way the film "Kill Your Darlings" chose to show Kammerer walking towards the knife.

Death Certificate for David Kammerer

For a pretty lengthy comment by Caleb Carr, Lucien's son, on both the crime and the film "Kill Your Darlings," visit -

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/24/son-of-famous-beat-murderer-lucien-carr-disputes-kill-your-darlings-films-version-of-events/

There's a relatively brief and inexpensive (about $3) ebook overview of the crime available for purchase called "The Beat Killer: A Biography of Beat Writer Lucien Carr and The Riverside Park Murder" written by James Fritz. Buy it wherever you buy ebooks.

One of the better articles about the crime and it's impact can be found here - http://magazine.columbia.edu/features/winter-2012-13/last-beat?page=0,0

I suggest seeing "Kill Your Darlings" but don't rely on it solely for facts regarding the crime or the participants.