Historic Roseville slaying offers insights to ‘cursed’ family

 

Los Angeles Herald

26 Feb 1876

Do you believe that death and tragedy seem to follow certain people?

In the case of David Turley, they indeed seemed to follow him, leading him straight to the gallows. The question for modern history lovers is, why?  It was April 1, 1875, and a group of men were headed back to Roseville on horseback, returning from a race at a ranch several miles beyond the city limits. 

Among the group was William H. Shaw and David Turley. Several newspapers reported both men, who worked in Roseville as Sheepshearers, were intoxicated when they started to quarrel nearby the 12 Mile House, once located at South Cirby and Old Auburn Road. Other newspapers claimed the incident took place on Old Marysville Road, 12 miles from Roseville. Today, it is hard to be certain of the exact location.

What words were exchanged still remains a mystery. Some accounts even suggested that it was an April Fools’ joke gone wrong. Whatever was said, it prompted Turley to challenge Shaw to a duel — a threat designed to make the other take back whatever negative remark was said. Shaw refused to duel Turley and tried to get away from him. Turley pulled his pistol out and fired two shots in Shaw’s direction, hitting and killing him.  

The trial was held in Sacramento and became highly publicized, making headlines in papers all the way to Los Angeles. One of the witnesses, Creed Haymond, stated for the defense that Turley was too intoxicated to have known what he was doing, therefore he believed it wasn’t his fault. The other four witnesses together confirmed that Turley did in fact shoot Shaw as he was attempting to leave.

Turley insisted that his actions were caused by an inherited mental illness. He also claimed that this inherited psychosis contributed to many deaths in his family; however, Judge Ramage did not allow this information in the trial. When all was said and done the jury found Turley guilty of murdering Shaw. The defendant eventually took his appeal to the Supreme Court, alleging errors were made during his trial. The Supreme Court came back unanimously on November 16, 1875, deciding that the initial court ruling was correct, and that Turley’s conviction would remain the same.

So was the story Turley claimed about his family true, or just a desperate attempt to spare his own life?

Extensive research into the matter reveals that David Turley’s tragic family background was stranger than most would imagine. His father, Jesse Turley, was a wealthy and well respected farmer. According to Missouri historian Rhonda Chalfant, Jesse Turley was the first landowner in the Pettis County to free his slaves due to his support for the Union during the Civil War, prompting his own neighbors to engage in two attempts to murder him. Both times he was shot and survived. Sadly though, Jesse Turley’s life ended at his own hand, after his own gun discharged by accident while he was mounting his horse during a stint in the Missouri State Militia. He was hit in the abdomen and died shortly thereafter. 

David Turley’s mother, Lucy, was also killed by an accidental bullet — shot by one of her other sons, William, while he was sleepwalking with his gun. Like David Turley, William Turley was also in the state militia, and was never the same after killing their mother. William was later done in during a raid in the Civil War involving Confederate General Joseph Shelby. One of David Turley’s sisters had a stroke, rendering her brain damaged for life, while his other sister couldn’t handle the bizarre death of their mother, and literally went insane. She also died in a relatively short period. A third brother, John Turley, was killed in Kansas around 1875, while a fourth brother, Thomas, was shot in Texas the same year.

 David Turley had left Missouri to California in 1857 after getting into some sort of “trouble.” Following his father’s death, he inherited a large amount of money and so he moved back to Missouri. He opened a saloon in Georgetown and moved in with a well-known woman of ill-repute. David’s surviving brother, James, had tried to convince a doctor to have him committed to an asylum at Fulton due to erratic behavior. The Sedalia Bazoo Newspaper stated that besides being his own best customer at his saloon, David Turley was known to get into fights at the drop of a hat and quick to draw his blade or his gun — often times shooting at people for “imaginary offenses.”

It was after getting into too much trouble in Georgetown that David decided to head back to California. 

James Turley, a.k.a. “Sedalia Jim,”  was a former policeman who ultimately spent his entire savings, an estimated $2000, to help with David’s defense for killing Shaw. James tried to prove that his brother was mentally ill.  It was James who wrote Colonel John F. Phillips, asking him to help gather affidavits to prove David was insane, a danger to himself or others, and that he needed to be committed rather than executed.

Even after a petition was sent to California Governor William Irwin with numerous signatures begging for a reprieve, nothing was done to explore if David Turley suffered from mental illness. By 8 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1876, David Turley was given notice that Irwin was not going to grant him clemency.

The Daily Alta California newspaper chronicled the last hours of David Turley’s life in detail, including his request to meet with Father Patrick Scanlon to be baptized as a Christian and be read his last rites. It was noted that people were lined up outside the building in hopes of catching sight of the hanging. At 2 p.m. Turley was marched up to the scaffold, a large shroud was placed over his clothes and a hood over his head. After a short prayer, it was documented that Turley shouted, “Mother, mother I am coming!”  as the rope dropped.  Although his neck was broken instantly, his pulse continued for another fifteen minutes until the doctor pronounced him dead. 

In the end, although Turley was not given a chance to prove his mental state to the courts, we now know that he obviously suffered from something that made him very violent. Whether the Turley family as a whole suffered from inherited bad tempers, some sort of psychosis or chemical imbalances, they all seemed to have been affected by it. Most of David’s brothers were shot in the same way that Turley shot Shaw: Death didn’t just follow the Turley Family, it seems to have chased after them with a vengeance. Yet, by the lifestyles that they chose, the male members of the Turleys died the very way in which they lived. As the saying goes, “live by the sword, die by the sword,” so all men are responsible to face the consequences of their own actions, just as David Turley did on that day in 1876.

 By: J'aime Rubio --

Originally published on March 27, 2015 in the Roseville Press-Tribune.  Reposted with permissions Courtesy of Gold Country Media.

 

 

Roseville killer’s vanishing in 1921 a troubling mystery

By: J'aime Rubio

The “Good Samaritan” parable is as familiar as ever, and it still comes to mind when people discuss the choice of getting involved in someone else’s ongoing domestic strife. On a September afternoon in 1921, a Roseville woman faced that very dilemma when she heard blood curdling screams coming from her neighbor’s home.

The woman, whom newspaper accounts referred to as Mrs. Kruse, knew there was a reoccurring issue at the nearby Catalano home. Kruse decided to call the Roseville city clerk and demand to know what she needed to do to stop a man from continually abusing his wife. Kruse made it clear the screams suggested Joseph Catalano may end up killing his spouse. The city clerk was reportedly not too worried, simply relaying a few technicalities to the caller. Frustrated with the runaround, Kruse phoned police directly a number of times.

  A law enforcement officer eventually paid the Catalano home a visit – setting off a chain of events that lead to discovering a bloody, gruesome mess. Investigators would come to realize that Louise Catalano had been viciously murdered by her husband during the interim that Kruse was trying to bring help to the property. 

Joseph Catalano was an Italian immigrant from New York. Journalism of the era indicates he had a long history of abusing his wife. The couple had four daughters: Mary, Josephine, Carrie and Rosa. In February of 1921, the family relocated to Roseville after Joseph was offered a new job at the Pacific Fruit Express Company. The Catalanos had not even been in Placer County for 8 months when the slaying took place.

Investigators soon learned that, before law enforcement arrived, Kruse had been watching out her own window and noticed 7-year-old Mary Catalano run outside with “a look of unspeakable horror on her face.”  Kruse also mentioned hearing the girls’ cries to her father, asking him not to hurt her mother.

After the killing, Joseph Catalano thoroughly cleaned the home and then refused to come to the door when the officer knocked. At first the lawman assumed no one was home and left. Again Kruse found herself calling to convince police to return to the scene. When an officer made a second visit, Catalano and his four children were long gone.

At that point, investigators began searching the property and found a suspicious trunk. Opening it unveiled a ghastly sight: Louise Catalano’s badly mutilated body was stuffed inside. According to the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, Joseph Catalano had severely broken his wife’s body, slashing, hacking and choking her in “one of the most gruesome murders in criminal annals.”

Louise Catalano

Even Placer County Deputy Coroner West claimed that the crime was “most revolting in its cruelty.”  Placer County coroner deputies found an axe in the kitchen, which they believed was one of the weapons used in Louise’s murder. They also found love letters between the deceased woman and a man named Mateo Manreal, who had been a boarder in the Catalano household.

Manreal worked with Joseph Catalano at the Pacific Fruit Express Company. The revelation of a love triangle gone wrong elevated the murder into the pages of newspapers across California. Four of the letters were published in the Sacramento Daily Union, outlining an affair that had reached a point where Manreal was trying to take Louise away from her violent marriage. The letters also hinted at Louise’s own jealous, insecure and volatile personality, including the married woman threatening to kill Manreal if he should be unfaithful to her.

It appeared that the many years of emotional and physical abuse Louise received at the hands of her husband created her own dysfunctional mindset. Newspapers soon had another development to report when Roseville attorney A.H. Broyer came forward to say that on the morning of the murder Louise Catalano visited him to request help in filing for divorce. 

Meanwhile, the search for Joseph Catalano continued. After fleeing Roseville with his four daughters, Joseph abandoned the children at a storefront in downtown Sacramento. An eyewitness later told police of seeing the wanted man turn to walk away from the girls, only to rush back to kiss and hug them before trying to leave again.

The scene reportedly went on for several minutes before Catalano finally disappeared. A concerned family on the street took the girls in for the evening without knowing they were connected to the slaying in Roseville. When news broke, authorities arrived to interview the children. Mary, the oldest daughter, refused to speak and was likely traumatized.

The heinous nature of Joseph Catalano’s crime quickly made him one of the most wanted men in the state. Trains, hotels and ports were actively searched in hopes of finding him. Media accounts of the day indicate that many assumed Catalano had jumped on a ship to Italy or possibly headed back to friends and family in the Italian boroughs of New York. Records indicate he was never seen again.

After speaking to members of the Catalano family in 2017, it is believed that Joseph evaded capture with help from friends and family in the area, who kept him hidden until he could move elsewhere. Allegedly he hid out on a farm in Weed, California and remained in the United States, living as a wanted man for the rest of his life.

Although Mrs. Kruse’s attempts to save Louise Catalano on that violent day in 1921 were unsuccessful, her efforts did shed light on the crime for police, as well as force newspapers, local authorities and California officials to see how serious – and sometimes fatal – domestic disturbances can be.

(Originally published on December 19, 2015 in the Roseville Press-Tribune.)

Updated information: October 21, 2017.

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

A more in-depth take on this case can also be found in the book, “Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered,” by J’aime Rubio.

Photo: Sac Daily Union, September 11, 1921

1916 ‘La Mano Nera’ murder mystery shook Roseville

Not known for the kind of frequent scandals and murders that made San Francisco, Chicago and New York infamous, Roseville’s small railroad town appeared for much of the century to be far away from “the riffraff” that inhabited the larger cities. Or was it?  In the fall of 1916, Roseville became infiltrated by fear, terror and shock when the news broke of a double-murder involving a young mother and her child.

According archival reports from the Roseville Register, the story began Sept. 26 of that year, when Italian immigrant Musco Paolini claimed he'd left his home north of Roseville Union High School and headed down to the local butcher shop. Paolini made a meat order to be delivered to his doorstep, but when the butcher’s delivery boy showed up no one was home. Paolini himself later arrived home to find the dwelling empty. He originally assumed his wife, Clotide, and his two-year-old son Marino, had gone on a walk. After hours passed Paolini began to worry.

Getting in touch with his brother, Paolini also notified Roseville Constable Lou Hoke to aid in the search for his family. Newspapers recount that they canvassed the surrounding areas well into the night. Around 10 p.m., Hoke announced he was finished searching for the evening, though the Paolini brothers continued on. 

Around 2 a.m., the lifeless bodies of Clotide and Marino were found at a creek bottom in the ravine. Placer County Sheriff George McAuley was called to the scene to investigate. McAuley quickly noted that both of the victims had been shot in the head. It appeared there were no signs of a struggle, and that the two had been brought to the creek and dumped. Their faces also had powder burns, which McAuley knew meant their killer shot them at close range.

When the story made newspaper headlines, it immediately instilled panic in the surrounding neighborhoods. It is clear from existing records that the people of Roseville wanted to know who could have done this heinous act, and more importantly, why?

When the sheriff began questioning Paolini, he insisted he had no idea who would want to hurt his family. Neighbors reported that they saw no one visit the home, nor did they glimpse anyone leave it. It was as if Clotide and Marino had simply vanished prior to their killings. However, the backyard offered a slight clue in the form of a pile of dirt, indicating Clotide may have been interrupted while sweeping around the time she disappeared.  

McAuley, his deputies and Placer County District Attorney John Landis continued to be confronted by questions that were increasingly hard to answer. At one point the sheriff mentioned to reporters that he believed the murder could be connected to La Mano Nera or “The Black Hand.” There were many Italian immigrants in Roseville at the time, and it wasn’t too far from San Francisco, a place widely known for mafia-related connections. 

McAuley never elaborated on why he suspected the Black Hand, though his mention of the group was enough to make rumors swirl in Roseville: Could someone have been extorting Paolini? Did the Italian have unknown ties to the mafia? Did the immigrant know more about his wife and son’s deaths than he led on to?

After further research into this ninety-nine year old cold case, I have found that there was a prime suspect in the murders and his name was Anthony Avina (aka Antonio Avania). According to archived accounts in the Sac Daily Union, Avina’s statements to authorities were conflicting. He was also caught in a lie when questioned about his whereabouts at the time of the murder. After interrogating him, Sheriff McCauley and District Attorney Landis were convinced that he had committed the murders but didn't have enough evidence to convict. It appears that no more was done and that Avina was not charged or convicted for the murders. 

Roseville city records show that Clotide and Marino were buried together at the Roseville Cemetery, which was very close to their home. Now the only reminder of their existence — and the cold, calculated act that ended them — is the small block of stone with their names and dates etched into it. It sits quietly in the cemetery, unable to tell us what really happened on that day in 1916.  

(Originally published on December 4, 2014 in the Roseville Press Tribune, updated information added on April 26, 2017)  COPYRIGHT ---

Photo: J’aime Rubio

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

A Murder Unremembered

A Murder Unremembered

By: J’aime Rubio

Situated under a large oak tree in the Rocklin cemetery sits the Chateau family plot. The little obelisk which marks the spot where many of the Chateaus are buried does not have any marker or engraving other than their last name, leaving no trace of the terrible scandal that rocked many of the communities in Placer County the Spring of 1910.

John M. Chateau, an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad, met a tragic ending on May 19, 1910 after he was unable to recover from a gunshot wound inflicted nine days earlier. As it turned out, Chateau’s wife, Mary Ann, had reportedly been carrying on an improper relationship with one of her husband’s co-workers — a brakeman known as Michael Leahy — who became infatuated to the point of begging Mary Anne to run away with him and elope. Although there is no way to know how far Mary Ann allowed the affair to go, it seemed to go far enough to morph into a dangerous fatal attraction. After Mary Ann refused Leahy’s proposal, the jilted man threatened to kill her, giving her one more day to change her mind.

MaryAnn went to her husband to admit the affair and Leahy’s threats, prompting John Chateau to turn to the police. Records indicate a warrant was sworn out for Leahy’s arrest on charges of disturbing the peace. It was believed that Leahy left Roseville and that would be the end of it.

This was not to be.

In the early hours of May 10, Leahy sneaked onto the Chateau property and hid in the woodshed outside. When John Chateau strolled out in the morning to retrieve firewood, Leahy took aim and shot him. While John Chateau lay there bleeding, Leahy went over and picked up an axe, intending to finish the job. Yet several neighbors had heard the shot and quickly got involved — tackling Leahy to the ground and holding him until authorities arrived.

Leahy remained jailed in Roseville for several days until the news came that John Chateau passed away from his injuries. The San Francisco Call newspaper mentioned that anger towards Leahy in the Roseville community was so intense that a lynching was feared. Sheriff McAuley moved Leahy to Placer County’s seat in Auburn and announced that he would “use every possible means to protect his prisoner.”

When the charge of murder was added to Leahy’s case, the suspect was quoted as saying, “I blame the woman for this trouble. I asked her to elope with me and when she refused I found it necessary to kill her husband. I would have killed any other man just the same.”

Such words didn’t help his case.  Leahy tried to claim self-defense, saying that John Chateau shot first at him when he saw Leahy stooping down in the back of the woodshed. Witnesses to the event claimed the only shot that was fired was the fatal one that ended Chateau’s life.

The expeditious murder trial was held in Auburn, lasting only about six hours. It took less than 30 minutes of deliberations before the jury came back with a verdict. On November 23, 1910, Michael Leahy was convicted for the murder of Chateau. In court, before he was sentenced to die at Folsom prison, Leahy declared, “If I am hung, I’ll come back after I am dead and get even with some of these people who have been prosecuting me.”

In the book, “Folsom’s 93,” author and historian April Moore sheds light on Leahy’s story and his last days leading up to his execution. Moore’s book delves deep into Leahy’s saga.  Moore writes in “Folsom’s 93” that during the time Leahy was awaiting trial, he refused to sleep or eat, paced in his cell and cried himself into exhaustion, leading others to believe that he was insane. However, by the time the moment came for his execution on Feb. 8, 1911, Leahy’s attitude had changed significantly. It appeared he had accepted his fate.

“He spent his last evening telling stories to the evening watchmen about his time as a brakeman for the railroad,” explained Moore. “The papers even mentioned that he woke in good spirits and even joked with the Warden for a while.”

The San Francisco Call said that when it came time to take his long walk to the gallows Leahy met it with a “cool indifference that had marked his actions since his arrest.” He did not wish to speak to the reporters, nor did he have anything last words to say or requests to make to the staff at Folsom Prison.

At exactly 10:30 p.m., the trap was sprung and nine minutes later Leahy was dead. According to records, it was the quickest execution on the gallows at Folsom during Warden John Reilly’s term. After Leahy’s body was released to his family, it was brought to the cemetery in Rocklin and interred in the Leahy family plot.

In an ironic twist of fate, just as Leahy had vowed to haunt those who prosecuted him when he was alive, it turned out that Leahy’s final resting place is within eyes view of his victim John Chateau’s grave.  In the end, Leahy didn’t get the last laugh, in life or the afterlife. Instead he’s been doomed to spend eternity buried next to the man he murdered — an eternal reminder of why he lost his own life.

Previously published in the Roseville Press-Tribune in 2014, written by: J'aime Rubio


(Copyright 2014- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

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Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

Roy Gardner -The Last of the Western Train Robbers

Roy Gardner -The Last of the Western Train Robbers

Not since the infamous ‘gentleman bandit’ Black Bart, had the west coast seen anyone quite like Roy Gardner. Although most people may not recognize his name today, in the early 1920’s, Roy Gardner was a household name, and one of the most sought after fugitives of his time. Known for robbing mail trucks and mail trains all over the southwest and his crafty escapes from the law on every turn, Roy Gardner’s nefarious adventures made headlines across the country and entertained millions along the way.

In 1910, after serving time in San Quentin for a jewelry store robbery, he was released early on account of saving the life of one of the corrections officers during a riot. After his release, he became a welder, working in a shipyard in South San Francisco. Not long after he moved his family down to Southern California to look for work, Gardner lost all his money gambling in Tijuana, Mexico. It was then that he had the idea to make a quick buck. After an ill-conceived robbery of a San Diego mail truck for $78,000, Gardner was soon after arrested. Convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years, he was put on a northbound train headed for Washington to serve his sentence at McNeil Island Corrections Center.


Swearing that he would never serve a day of that sentence, Gardner managed to steal one of the
Marshall’s guns right from under his nose. After forcing them to remove his chains, Gardner handcuffed the Marshalls together and robbed them. He then jumped the train and ran off into the night headed for Canada. After being on the lam for almost a year Gardner made his way back to California. “Roy Gardner’s story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie,” states Roseville Historical Society’s Vice-President, Ken Fisher. “It’s just a disappointment that his story has faded with time.” As someone who has been truly dedicated to documenting this unique story in Roseville’s history, Ken was kind enough to offer the details of Roy’s infamous stay here in 1921.


Although Roy’s criminal history did not start and end here in Roseville, it did set the stage for his biggest heist, on May 21, 1921. For days, Roy scoped out the train that headed up to New Castle, even riding the top of the rail cars to get an idea of the twists and turns on the track. He noticed that in the sharper turns that the hard rubber connections between cars would pull apart on a curve, which would allow him to slip in and make his way to the mail cart. After casing the train, he hopped off and made his way back to Roseville.

Porter House Hotel, Roseville, California

That next night, at 10:15 p.m. Roy snuck onto the Pacific Limited (No.20) train headed for New Castle. By the time the train had reached Rocklin, Roy had managed to sneak into the mail cart, startling Ralph Decker, the mail clerk. Although Roy pointed a 45 caliber pistol at Decker, he never harmed him. After stealing mail from about 50 different bags, he threw his bag off the train first, and then he pulled the emergency brake cord and jumped off the train as well. Unfortunately, he searched the tracks for most of the night, never finding the bag with the loot he had just stolen.

Eventually the authorities retrieved the stolen mail along with all the monies in it. By the next morning, Roy had made it back to Roseville, stopping at the Peerless Café to eat breakfast. It there that Roy believed that a waitress may have recognized him from a wanted poster. After eating, He went back to his room at the Porterhouse Hotel, which was located on the corner of Atlantic and Lincoln streets. It wasn’t until two days later, at a poker game inside the cigar store adjacent to the Porterhouse Hotel, that the authorities surrounded him and took him to Sacramento to face the Judge. After being sentenced to an additional 25 years for escaping and committing another robbery, Gardner was sent on his way, once again to McNeil Island.

His story doesn’t end there folks, as he made many more infamous escapes from the law before he was finally caught. After being incarcerated at various prisons, including Leavenworth, Atlanta and Alcatraz, he was later released at the age of 54. Having been institutionalized for so many years, the transition back to a normal life seemed to be too hard for him.


On January 10, 1940, the “last of the western train robbers”, as he was dubbed, took his own life in his San Francisco hotel room by way of cyanide gas. A man who lived his life on the edge and suffered the consequences of a lifetime of his own choices, made the last choice he had left, escaping the world one last time.

With a story that reads like a dime novel that could have easily come out of the days of the old west, his is one that is unforgettable. As Ken Fisher put it, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid certainly have nothing on Mr. Gardner. A man who thought it would be a marvelous idea to come to the little railroad town of Roseville in 1921, and rob a train.”

-- Previously published in the Roseville Press-Tribune in 2014, written by: J'aime Rubio

(Copyright 2014- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Thank you to Ken Fisher for all your help on this article!

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

The Mysterious Misinformation of Dyer Lane, Roseville, California -

One of the most popular spots in Placer County that is rumored to be haunted is Dyer Lane. Just on the outskirts of Roseville, this road tucked away in the middle of farm land isn’t much to look at, but seems to attract many in the paranormal field over the years. There has been all sorts of stories claimed to have originated from that area. From a barn where teenagers were said to have been butchered, to a secret meeting spot or hangman's tree for the KKK, a Satanic cult and witches coven or even various unexplained deaths. Some even claim to see a ghost cop driving up and down the road, only to disappear. 

I decided to reach out to the police department in Roseville, to see if they had any record of these events taking place. The person I corresponded with at the Roseville P.D. claimed they had no information at all, prompting me to contact the Sheriff's department instead. According to Dena Erwin at the Placer County Sheriff's office who I corresponded with back in 2014, there were no records of any officers dying on Dyer Lane, nor was she aware of any of those other events ever happening out there. 

After searching various archived newspapers and speaking to the Roseville Historical Society about this, it was interesting to note that 99% of the stories circulated are false. However, within recent years there have been several deaths tied to that particular area. The  most recent deaths have been related to drug or gang affiliated crimes.

The former curator of the Roseville Carnegie Museum, Phoebe Astill, had mentioned a murder of a family in that general area years ago. 

“I’m not sure what year it happened, but I remember the story,” she recalls. “It was a Russian family, the father killed the mother and one of the older children, but took the youngest child, a boy.” 

According to Astill, after the bodies of the wife and older child were discovered, the authorities later found the youngest son’s body in the field near one of the towers by Dyer Lane.

Records indicate that on August 20, 2001 Nikolay Soltys murdered six of his family members. One of the victims, his three year old son was brought to an empty field near Dyer Lane where he murdered him. The rest of the murders took place in North Highlands.

There is one other story regarding Dyer Lane that we do know for a fact occurred, the murder of William Mullen.

According to the Press Tribune archives, on March 23, 1985, there was a huge fight at Dyer Lane between the “Punkers” and the “Aggies” (Agricultural/Western) from Rio Linda High School. The newspaper reported that nearly 100 young people showed up to the melee. Out of all the people involved, two were stabbed, and William Mullen was one of them. Although his friends tried to save him, he died on his way to the hospital. He was later buried at the Sacramento Memorial Lawn Cemetery.

As I stated above, in recent years there have been a few gang affiliated deaths on or nearby Dyer Lane but there is no evidence to prove that any of the scarier urban legends that surround this road have any basis in fact. In reality, the urban legends are just that, legends, and local folklore. ----- 

(Copyright 2015 - J'aime Rubio www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

--Note: In recent years, as stated above in the original post, there have been other bodies found on the corner of and on Dyer lane, all of which were linked to drug or gang affiliated crimes. This blog was to cover the history of Dyer lane and any rumors, urban legends or stories about deaths associated with it in the past. --

The Mystery Behind The Babes In The Woods, 1934

Norma, Cordelia, Dewilla

As a parent, I would do anything to protect my children by any means, no matter what. Most parents would agree with me when I say that loving parents would walk through fire to keep our babies safe. I think that is why this story really punched me in the gut when I came across it, leaving my mind still trying to understand what really happened that day in November in the woods of the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania.

One of the saddest of deaths I would say are the ones that involve children. Children are the symbol of innocence, purity and hope. The death of a child is a death unwarranted. They haven't grown up to make mistakes yet, they haven't even lived.  So anytime I come across a story about the deaths of innocent children, I think it affects me even more. This case would be no exception.

On November 24, 1934, John Clark and Clark Jardine were out in the woods on their way to chop some firewood, when they discovered a green blanket in the thicket. At first they believed that a hunter had killed a deer and covered it, planning to come back later to get it. As the two woodsmen approached the blanket covering a large mass, they lifted the fabric to reveal three little girls who appeared to be sleeping.  One of the men told the newspaper that he didn't realize at first that the girls were dead, and it took a few seconds for them to realize it. Quickly they rushed to town to call the authorities and news spread like wildfire of this horrendous discovery.

The identities of the girls eluded the people of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and for a time being, the rest of the country as well. Newspapers reported the horrific finding all over the nation, drawing people from all over to come to view the bodies, hoping to identify the children. Miss Mary Parker, the superintendent of the Children's Home of Baltimore County, Maryland flew to Carlisle to see if the three bodies found were some of the girls who had went missing from her orphanage, but no one could identify the children. Who were these three little girls? Where did they come from? And how did they die?

As mysterious as this was, things got even stranger when just about 135 miles away, the discovery of the bodies of the girls' father and his niece were found in a shanty near the railroad. They had both been shot in an apparent murder-suicide. This only added to the puzzling case that continues to baffle investigators to this day.

The Beginnings

The real story begins long before this tragic event. In fact, it begins with a young lady named Mary Isabel Hayford.  It was March 28, 1921, when Mary Hayford married Roland Sedgwick of Bountiful, Utah. Soon after their marriage she gave birth to a daughter, Norma. Somewhere down the line the marriage didn’t work out, and Mary filed for divorce in 1922, taking Norma with her.

By 1924, Mary had remarried, this time to Mr. Elmo Noakes, of Thistle, Utah, later having two children of their own, Cordelia and Dewilla. Before marrying Mary, Elmo had enlisted in the Marines at Mare Island on April 20, 1920 and was honorably discharged by April 19, 1922. He apparently traveled back to Utah prior to his marriage to Mary. During their marriage the couple moved around a lot, as seen in public records, going from Utah to Indian Valley, Plumas County, California and then back to Salt Lake City again living at  69 West 1st Street, which interestingly appears to be where the huge property of the Church of Latter Day Saints buildings are now.

Mary Noake's Death Certificate

On July 10th, 1932, Mary Noakes passed away at Salt Lake General Hospital after suffering from "Septicemia Hemolytic." The doctor who performed the autopsy concluded that her death was caused from a self-induced abortion. Mary Isabel Noakes was only 28 years old.

I had to wonder why she wanted to abort the unborn child? Maybe Mary reasoned with herself that she was sparing the child a life during the Great Depression. Maybe she thought that it was putting her other three children first, or maybe she was afraid of upsetting Elmo because it was speculated that he didn't want to have any more children. Those are questions we will never be certain to know the answers to.

After the death of his wife, Elmo decided yet again to move, this time back to California. Mary's first husband Roland attempted to gain custody of Norma from Elmo, but was not successful. Conflicting stories claim that because Elmo left the state, little could be done. While the other story claimed that the judge allowed Elmo to keep Norma, given the fact that he had physically raised her for the last 10 years and that he was more or less her "father." Little did Roland know that only two years later he would truly lose his little girl, forever. (Some articles claim that Mary was a widow when she met Elmo, but records prove that isn't true. Roland, Mary's first husband and Norma's biological father, died in 1969.)

After moving back to California, Elmo settled in the small railroad town known as Roseville, just north of Sacramento. Moving in with his sister, Elmo was able to find a job at the Pacific Fruit Express Company, while she watched the girls for him. Things seemed to be looking up for Elmo and his daughters, and by July of 1934, he moved out of his sisters home and into his own 2-bedroom house with the children at 511 Grove Street. The home was nothing fancy, built in 1916, but good enough for him and his little girls to make a new start. Unfortunately, that would not turn out to be the case.

A New Start Interrupted

After moving into his new home, Elmo's sister was unable to watch the children like she used to, so her 18 year old daughter, Winifred Pierce volunteered to help out. Eventually Winifred quit school to be a full time nanny to the girls during the day, and then would walk back home to her mother's house in the evening.  Winifred was said to be a happy young lady, but extremely self-conscious of her appearance due to a deformity on her foot.

Around the same time that Winifred started watching the children, rumors started to spread around the family that there were improper relations going on between Elmo and his niece. After looking into this story further, my personal opinion is that one of Elmo's sisters may have started this dreadful rumor and persisted at causing troubles for Elmo. It is my belief that one of Elmo's sisters were the ones who either started it, or allowed it to spread. Elmo's oldest sister Pearl, (and mother of Winifred Pierce) was adamant that there was never any sort of sexual or improper relationship between her daughter and her brother and it seems she spent many years trying to clear her daughter's name of further slander.

According to Elmo's brother, Robert, he stated that there had been problems with family for many years, and that he basically didn't hold it against Elmo for just disappearing like he did. In fact, Robert had done the same thing a few years earlier to get away from the grip of his meddling family members.  So it seemed to Robert that Elmo had just enough of someone in the family the day he up and left without a word.

What was strange wasn't the fact he left without telling his family, but the way he left. He didn't pack up his belongings and move, nor did he give a notice at his job. No, Elmo purchased a blue 1929 Pontiac sedan from Sacramento Car Dealer William Sutton on October 31, and then on November 11th he left. The oddest thing about it all was that he left without much money, he even skipped out on picking up his paycheck from the last two weeks work, meaning that he was leaving Roseville basically broke.

Let's stop and think about this whole thing for a second. That doesn't sound like he was moving away, it sounds like he was running from something...but what? 

Well, according to Russell Pierce, Elmo's nephew, not only were the rumors about Winifred and Elmo going around but the question about whether Elmo was fit as a parent came into discussion. Could it have been speculated that he was being abusive or neglectful? I believe that those questions must have arose, because Robert Noakes was adamant in his interview to the papers after this dreadful incident took place, he stated that Elmo "never raised a hand towards the children. I don't think he killed them as they say. He loved them. He was as good to them as any could be."

His statements lead me to believe that someone had questioned Elmo's ability as a parent, and possibly someone told him that they would have the children removed from the home.

Maybe after losing his wife, the thought of losing his kids was too unbearable for him, so he did the one thing that a desperate person would do, he ran. I also think Elmo was suffering from some sort of depression because of his erratic behavior of driving clear across country in just a matter of days with the girls. Personally, I think that Winifred saw Elmo making rash decisions and knew the girls were the ones who would suffer. Perhaps she asked him, "Who will watch the girls when you work? You don't want strangers watching them, do you?"-- and that is where I believe that when he was leaving that day, she decided to join him, not for herself, but for the kids. Maybe she didn't want to leave the kids with him alone for fear of his emotional state.

Yes, the newspapers had a field day unfairly depicting Winifred as this young harlot who had her sights set on Elmo and that the kids were just "in the way." It didn't help matters that her own aunt made such horrid accusations about her in the newspapers only adding more fuel to the fire. One of Elmo's other sisters went on record stating "I warned Elmo not to have anything to do with her. Winnie could make him do about anything she wanted him to do."---

The rest of the family had other opinions, all claiming that Winifred was not that type of girl and that there was absolutely nothing going on between Elmo and his niece. Either Winifred was able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes except her aunt, or the aunt was a trouble-maker looking to ruin several people's reputations. So which was it?

For two weeks the family in Roseville heard nothing. Pearl Pierce waited anxiously to hear from her daughter, or her brother, in hopes that everything was alright. Then the newspapers started to report about the bodies of three little girls being found in the woods in Pennsylvania and the connection that authorities started to make on a murder-suicide within the same state. Immediately relatives started speculating and that was when the feud started.

The Family Feud

When news got to the family of Winifred Pierce and Elmo Noakes, two of Pearl Pierce's sisters showed up to Enid and Harry Daniel's home on Thanksgiving day. According to reports, the police were called to the home and both women were charged with "disturbing the peace" after screaming obscenities to their niece when she refused them entry into her mother's home.

At court, Harry Daniels, Russell Pierce, son of Pearl Pierce, and his sister Enid went before Judge Don. L. Bass explaining that on the evening of Thanksgiving that their aunts showed up “abusing and cursing,” after they were turned away at the door. Enid Daniels stated that her mother was in no condition to receive anyone in the home at that time because of the shock and grief of learning of the tragedy. It was then that the two sisters started causing a scene forcing the police to be called to the home.

After hearing the testimony of family members, the Judge convicted the two women of the disturbing the peace and gave them 90 day suspended sentences. The two women had a fit in the courtroom, one even throwing herself on the floor, pounding the ground with her fists and kicking violently, until the Judge threatened to put her in jail. 

The Investigation 

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, detectives were still putting the pieces together to try to figure out the details of the case. Fingerprint analysis proved that the man found dead in the railroad shanty outside Duncansville was in fact Elmo Noakes. The rare foot deformity found on the foot of the female found at the scene proved Winifred Pierce's identity as well. Detectives confirmed that Winifred had been shot and that Elmo committed suicide with the same gun.

Earlier, in nearby Altoona, Winifred had sold her coat to purchase the old .22 caliber rifle that was used to take their own lives. Their bodies were eventually brought over to Carlisle, the same place that the three little girls were being held before burial.

The coroner determined the deaths of the three girls was due to “external suffocation.” There was no signs of struggle or attack on any of the children, leaving the authorities to believe that they were either smothered or that they died by accident, while inside the vehicle from carbon monoxide poisoning.

In a recent article by the Pennsylvania Sentinel Newspaper, letters from a resident of Carlisle were mentioned that brought to light several key pieces of information. For one, according to what was published in the newspaper, the letter by Mrs. Mamie Zinn to Pearl Pierce claimed that Winifred Pierce's body was examined by the local doctor in Carlisle prior to being buried, and he confirmed that she died a virgin. This is a big discovery, because it disproves all the rumors of her having some sort of sordid love affair with her uncle, when in fact, she died without having sexual relations.

Mrs. Zinn also mentioned the fact that the way the children were laid out, it was clear that "loving hands" had done it, meaning they took extra care on how they rested the girls on the ground and covered their bodies. The most important information that Mrs. Zinn gave was the one that may have cracked the case. You see, Mrs. Zinn told Pearl Pierce that Elmo and Winifred had been seen going from house to house, knocking on doors asking for food. They had left the kids in the car. Remember this was the end of November in 1934, and it had been cold and rainy. Many speculated that Elmo and Winifred left the girls in the car with the engine running and perhaps the fumes from the car overcame them.

I spoke to a friend who works on classic cars and he told me that in the old days a lot of times if an exhaust pipe had even a small crack, the exhaust could creep up into the floor boards inside of the older model cars. After discussing all the possibilities, he said that it was very likely if there was a crack in the exhaust pipe or even if they had backed into a space and parked where the exhaust pipe was not getting enough space for the fumes to escape, that they could very easily be pushed back toward the inside of the vehicle. This gives me enough reasonable doubt to believe that death by "carbon monoxide poisoning" was very possible.

Back in Roseville, the Chief of Police E.E. York was also convinced that the girls died by carbon monoxide poisoning even going so far as to state that he believed the girls died from fumes inside the car, and that must have been an accident.

Why Did They Leave?

The question on my mind was, if the girls died by accident, then why did they leave them in the woods? Why would they drive the car all the way to McVeytown, ditch it, and then hitchhike another 50 miles to Altoona?

I had to go back to the initial reason he left in the first place. If someone had questioned his parenting skills and even threatened him with taking the girls away, can you imagine what sort of fears he must have had once he realized that the girls had died?  I cannot speak for Elmo, because I cannot understand his reasoning.

After reaching Altoona, Winifred sold her coat to purchase the rifle that would ultimately take both their lives. After making their way up to a railroad shack near Duncansville, Elmo shot Winifred and then turned the gun on himself.

So why did Elmo and Winifred end their lives?

If it was an accident, did they believe that they would be blamed for the girls deaths? Did they feel guilty for leaving them in the car?  When looking over the facts of the case, I found so much more than I expected.  Sadly, as much as the evidence points to the possibility that the girls died by accident, it also leaves a possibility that they were smothered. If they were killed, the question is, why?

After the deaths many people came forward pointing the police in all different directions. Some people swore they saw Winifred and the girls on a bus from New York, others claimed they saw them in a restaurant or camp ground. Some leads were dead while others seemed credible. One of the families who came forward said that when they were dining at a restaurant in Philadelphia, they noticed a family matching their description and the father was going to make all three girls share one dinner plate. The mother of the observing family offered to let the youngest daughter eat with them and they accepted. While eating, Cordelia mentioned that her "daddy was looking for work." When leaving the establishment the owner claimed that a man who he later believed to be Elmo, stated that the girls were beginning to be a burden on him.

Could it have been possible that they ran out of money and Elmo, in a desperate and temporary  state of insanity somehow convinced himself that ending their lives was sparing them from a life of poverty? As much as I do not want to believe this alternate scenario, the facts are that this is also a possibility.

If the girls died by accident, more than likely Elmo took his own life and that of Winifred's because of the grief they both may have felt. Had he intentionally killed the girls, the murder-suicide was probably because of remorse or a guilty conscience.

Conclusion

Before the funeral of the three girls, their cousin Junius Pierce and uncle Robert Noakes were said to have attempted to go back to Pennsylvania to retrieve the bodies of all the family members. They wanted to have the three girls buried next to their mother in Salt Lake City, but their attempts were unsuccessful.

The residents of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where the girls bodies were found, buried the three girls in their local cemetery. The girl scouts and the boy scouts acted as pallbearers at the funeral and many residents chipped in to pay for all the costs. The American Legion held the funeral for the three girls in Carlisle, where over 1,000 people showed up to the viewing the day before.  Elmo Noakes was respectfully given a military salute funeral, while Winifred was given a spot in the same cemetery as well, after her family had to pay to have her body brought to Carlisle. The headstone at her grave was also paid for by her family. (Oddly, Elmo's headstone has his death date wrong).

In the end Elmo Noakes’ family seemed clearly divided on their theories of just what happened out there in the woods that day. Some of them believed it was an accident, while one of the aunts was convinced that it was Winifred’s manipulation of Elmo to get rid of the children. Something tells me that those ideas were unfounded, being that evidence showed that Winifred died a virgin.  It's likely that the rumors were just vicious lies used to hurt and embarrass Elmo and Winifred.

I have to wonder if certain people had only minded their own business from the beginning, if this story would not have turned out as it did. Yes, Elmo may have had some underlying mental illness that came out towards the end, and based on his actions leading up to the girls deaths, I would have to say he wasn't making the best choices. We may never know what really happened that day..was it an accident? Or did Elmo just snap? The answers seem to elude us even 80 years later. One thing we do know for sure is that ultimately five people died, and more than likely the entire chain of events started with one rumor.

It seems that only God knows what really happened, and in the end that is all that matters now..."The wages sin pays is death."-Romans 6:23

Rest In Peace,- Norma Sedgwick, Dewilla Noakes, Cordelia Noakes, Elmo Noakes and Winifred Pierce. --

(Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio)

Sources;
Interview with family members
Ancestry.com, Family Search
Census Records, Death Records, Birth and Marriage Records,
Various Newspapers
including:
Lewiston Daily Sun 12/1/ 1934
Deseret News 12/21/1934
Berkeley Daily Gazzette 12/1/1934
Prescott Evening Courier 12/1/1934
Gettysburg Times 11/30/1934
Pittsburgh Post Gazzette 12/1/1934