Shadow by the Bridge
Page 24
“It’s my manuscript.”
“I was wondering what you brought out here.” Jenna looked down at the front page. “Shadow by the Bridge,” she read in a whisper.
As she flipped through the manuscript, I was taken back to Linden. I could hear the sounds of the tranquil waterfall layered with the rustling of the leaves. The moon hung in the sky, streaming its rays down the hill and across the bridge. A dark figure stepped out of the trees and headed toward the bridge. I looked hard to see who it was: Leon, Felix, or Anton? Maybe it was all of them, or maybe there was a slight chance that it wasn’t any of them, but someone who I have never suspected.
Valerie reluctantly handed me my glass of bourbon. I took a couple of sips. Sip by sip, the painful memories began to liquefy and drift away—once again.
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
Brown, William.The Linden Murders: Unsolved! New York: Hodgins Printing Co., Inc.1984. Print
“Firing of a Bullet Through Train Window Adds to Linden Terror.”The Daily News 21 March 1924: 2. Print
“Kimball Murder Inquiry Exonerates Some Persons; Search Being Continued.”The Daily News 25 October 1922: 1. Print
Kurek, Albert S.The Troopers Are Coming: New York State Troopers 1917-1943. New York: Rooftop Publishing; 1st edition, 2007. Print
“Linden Triple Slayer Eludes Net.”The Daily News 12 March 1924: 1. Print
The People of the State of New York v. John Doe. Court transcript, Genesee Country History
Department, Batavia, N.Y.
“Witness in Linden Death Probe Dies of Self-Inflicted Wound Coroner Defers Verdict in Case.”The Daily News 1 June 1936: 1. Print
Note From the Author
During the years 1917 and 1924, a series of murders known as the Linden murders occurred in the vicinity of Linden, New York. The gruesome killings brought fear and panic to the western New York area. The news of the homicides appeared in the headlines of the Batavia Daily News as well as making the national news circuit. However, the news was not able to convey the deep effects that the murders had on the people who called Linden their home.
On November 12, 1917, a woman was killed in a small wooded area of Frank and Grace Hunt’s farm. Witnesses living along Route 63 in Batavia, New York described seeing a couple walk past their house arguing shortly before 11:00 AM that day. Approximately thirty-minutes later, the man was seen running alone toward Batavia.
A few days later, Frank Hunt was out gathering firewood on his farm and found the woman’s body lying in what appeared to be a shallow grave. Her face was destroyed.
During the investigation, it was determined that several witnesses at the Lehigh Train Station in Batavia saw the couple. It was never determined where the couple traveled from.
Investigators made every attempt to identify the woman through two showings at the H.E. Turner Funeral Home along with items found at the crime scene believed to belong to the victim. The authorities also received several letters about missing relatives. However, the letters failed to help investigators determine the woman’s identity. After all of the attempts to identify her, the woman known as “Ruth” was buried in the Batavia Cemetery.
In the late afternoon of October 17, 1922 in the hamlet of Linden, seventy-three-year-old Francine (Franc) Kimball’s body was found in her fruit cellar by the authorities. Earlier that day, Franc’s neighbors noticed that she wasn’t outside tending to her small farm as she always did and discovered that no one had seen her since 5:30 PM the day before, so they searched her property and proceeded to enter her locked home. Her neighbors discovered that her home had not been disturbed. With no sign of Franc Kimball, they attempted to make a call only to learn that her phone wires had been severed. Alarmed by the finding, the New York State Police were called.
During the investigation, the residents of Linden were questioned, vagrants who were seen within a ten-mile radius of the hamlet were arrested and charged with vagrancy. The closest possible motive was a comment made by Andrew Michaels after he found out that Franc Kimball told the dry agents that he was making and selling hard cider. He said: “Someone ought to kill old lady Kimball.” District Attorney Kelly interviewed the residents and then held a John Doe Proceeding to determine who murdered Franc Kimball. It appeared that the two most likely suspects Gideon Kettle Junior, who worked for Franc on occasion, and Andrew Michaels both had alibis leaving the murder unsolved.
Seventeen months after the brutal murder of Francine Kimball, on the evening of March 11, 1924, three more residents of Linden were killed in a triple homicide. The owner of the Morse General Store, fifty-one-year-old Mabel Morse, her close friends and neighbors, fifty-six-year-old Hattie Whaley and her husband, sixty-five-year-old Thomas Whaley were found in a pile covered with kerosene soaked rags, rugs, and paper smoldering in the first-floor bedroom of the Whaley home. The autopsies determined that Thomas Whaley was shot several times, Hattie Whaley died from one gunshot to the face just below her eye, and Mabel Morse died as a result of being beaten with an adz handle.
The authorities proceeded with their investigation and theories of a motive. Some believed that the motivation for the killings was the result of a robbery. While others believed that there was a crazed killer who traveled the railroad killing at will. The local residents were interviewed and then interviewed again. In the end, the investigation did not result in any solid leads. However, law enforcement was convinced that the perpetrator of the crimes was a local resident who knew the habits of their neighbors in the close-knit community.
In telling the story of the Linden murders, I’ve taken the liberty to tell the account through my fictional character, Fritz Reynolds. Other fictional characters include Ella Reynolds, Uncle John, Joseph O’Hara, Dr. O’Hara, and Genevie O’Hara. All of the other characters are based on the residents who lived in Linden during that time period.
Through my research of the court documents, voices and personalities of those interviewed as well as the opinions given of each other became somewhat apparent. Hattie Whaley was known as the town’s gossip. Gideon Kettle Junior had the reputation for being socially awkward. Andrew Michaels had a poor reputation due to his trouble with the law for petty crimes and cursing at his neighbors. I used the information to develop their characters.
I made the decision to change the names of the residents of Linden because in essence, they are a work of fiction. Other than the fragments of information that I was able to gather about Hattie Whaley, Gideon Kettle Junior, and Andrew Michaels, they are fictionalized characters who were created in the image of who I thought they might have been and not who they actually were in real life.
Over the years, I have read a number of court documents and newspaper articles. I also viewed several disturbing photographs of the crime scenes. I could only imagine the deep sense of loss and the terror that the residents of this close-knit community felt. Beyond the court documents, the headlines, and photographs, there was a story to tell… It was their story…
Suzanne Zewan
October 2017
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the many people who traveled with me through my book writing journey; to all those who gave their support, conversed, read drafts, offered comments, assisted in the editing, proofreading, and the design of my novel.
I would like to thank my publisher, Mark Pogodzinski, who believed in my book and guided me through each step of the process. I would also like to thank my editors, Lore McSpadden, Sarah Paige, and Valerie Dimino for their input and expertise.
I would like to thank Roslyn Fishbaugh for your never ending encouragement and support from my initial idea to write this story. I carried your words: “You have to write this story” with me down each path, detour, and dead end until I reached this destination. And because fate stepped in, I would like to thank DJ Smith for reminding me that “Writers write” when I lost my way for a period of time.
I would like to thank Susan Conklin, the Gene
see County Historian and Judy Stiles, the Genesee County Research Assistant for all of their assistance with the files and providing copies of court documents, photos, and newspaper articles.
I would like to thank one of my dearest friends, Laura Lewis for her never-ending support and for reading each chapter as I wrote them.
Thank you to my review team: Robbi Hess, Catherine Pelino-Curry, Judith Sobresky, and Jaime Brade for their interest in my novel and for reading my initial proof with a keen eye.
Last but not least: thank you to those who have been with me over the course of the years and whose names I have failed to mention.
Above all, I want to thank my husband, Bill and my son, Trevor, and the rest of my family, who traveled this voyage with me—even though the destination was uncertain.
About the Author
Suzanne Zewan is coordinator at Genesee Valley Educational Partnership and is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College. She has a M.A. in English and Creative Writing and a M.S.Ed. in Career and Technical Education. Other publications include a poem in Jigsaw (2014), a short story and two poems in Jigsaw (2016), and a short story in Amaranth Review (2016).