Sorry, Schenectady, but it’s still your turn for True Crime Fortnight.
Just about 99 years ago, the region was gripped with the discovery of a gruesome murder. On Friday, June 19, “fishermen brought to the surface of the Mohawk River the torso of a well proportioned woman, wrapped in a burlap bag, which had been weighted and sunk to the bottom of the river about thirty feet off shore near the Vedder farm just north of the city line, opposite the D. and H. Glenville coal transfer shed” [just north of Freeman’s Bridge].
Hoxsie will spare you the gruesome details of the state of the corpse, other than to say that when found, “it was not removed from the burlap, the police being satisfied with their first glimpse to assure them they had a mystery on their hands.” Sharp ones, they were.
Theorizing began immediately. “It is believed the murder took place near the river, in either a camp or a house. This opinion is strengthened by the fact two table oilcloths were used to wrap the torso in.” Sherlock Holmes would roll his eyes.
At that time, the Mohawk riverfront just downstream of the city was still lined with shacks and camps. “The location of the torso at the time of the finding leads to the belief the bundle had been thrown overboard from a rowboat or launch. This gives rise to the feeling the crime may have been committed in some camp or shack along the river, and the dismembered parts distributed over a considerable area.”
Then, as now, there was hardly a crime so horrible that we couldn’t instantly ascribe it to immigrants. “The boat theory is given credence in police circles. This, however, does not eliminate the theory the crime was committed in a foreign speaking community. The cheap oil cloth and the inexpensive pieces of garments limit the field of speculation considerably and must be seriously considered.”
And journalistic standards were as stringent then as they are today: “About 10 days ago two persons passed through Van Vranken avenue by Vedder’s crossing, early one morning. One of the two was a young woman. She is described by persons who either saw or heard her as having been very much under the influence of liquor. Nothing more definite concerning the mysterious couple could be learned. It is not seriously believed that the girl was the victim of the murder.” But we’ll mention it anyway.