Spine-Chilling Murders in the Northeast

by Nick Vulich

Ever wonder what evil lurks in your hometown? Spine-Chilling Murders in the Northeast takes you behind the scenes of some old-time killings in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and more. Joseph Elwell, the Whist Wizard of Manhattan, was shot to death in his home overnight on June 11, 1920. Roy Harris, an aspiring novelist, confessed to the crime, but it soon turned out to be nothing more than a publicity stunt to help sell his new book. Louise Lawson led a double life. The folks back home in Walnut Springs, Texas, knew her as a shy young girl aspiring to a big-time musical career. Her friends in New York knew her as a Broadway Butterfly, one of those kept girls who lived in a fancy apartment. When she was found dead in 1918, it turned out she was the victim of a gang that targeted the working girls of New York. Marie Williams (aka Boots) was the prettiest girl ever arrested in West Virginia. She told police that she, and her boyfriend, Peter Treadwell, were in the room when Henry Pierce was murdered, but they did not have anything to do with the crime. The police wanted to believe her, but... When nineteen-year-old Avis Linnell turned up dead at the Y. M. C. A. in Boston, suspicion quickly fell on her fiance, Reverend Clarence V. T. Richeson. The Boston Globe said Richeson had a "soft" and "musical" voice, almost too much for a girl to resist. It didn't help the Reverend any that he was carrying on with Avis, while he announced his upcoming marriage to wealthy Boston socialite, Violet Edmands. Pretty Josephine Amore killed her neighbor/lover Michael Martelle in Newark, New Jersey, in August 1908. Martelle kissed her and threatened to harm her family unless she ran away with him. "I got me a great big gun," said Josephine, "and killed him." Detectives didn't believe her for a minute. They were convinced her husband, Carmine Amore, was the killer, but could never quite pin the killing on him. Alfred Morrison shot his wife in his sleep and told police he didn't know anything about it. He was lost in a dreamlike state much like Walter Mitty. The newspapers quickly labeled him the Mount Vernon Dream Killer. Hans Schmidt, a New York Priest, became known as the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Killer after he murdered Anna Aumuller and scattered her dismembered remains in the North River. He told detectives he tasted her blood first, then when she was dead dragged her body into the bathroom and carved it up. George White, a man of color, was arrested for sexually assaulting and murdering seventeen-year-old Helen S. Bishop in Wilmington Delaware in June 1903. A mob broke him out of the Castle County Work House as guards stood by and did nothing to stop them. White was dragged out into the woods and burned alive. All he could say in his defense was, "You would not have done this if I was a white man." Read them if you dare!

Genres: True Crime

141 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 11, 2020

About the author

Hey there Nick Vulich here.

Ever since I was a kid I had this crazy urge to read and write. There is something about a book that can open up new worlds to you. When I was younger I read every Max Brand and Zane Grey western I could get my hands on. Then, I found Kenneth Roberts and his historical novels – Arundel, Northwest Passage, A Rabble in Arms. The detail he worked into them was mind blowing.

In college I was turned on to Frodo Baggins and the world of the Hobbits. I found Kurt Vonnegut downright inspiring. I still remember sitting in David Morrell’s classroom at the University of Iowa back in the late seventies, listening to his lectures on early American literature.

After graduation, I lost touch with my writing self for over thirty years, until I was brought face-to-face with this new-fangled thing they called Kindle. It reminded me of what I was all about.

In the years since then I have penned over twenty books, most of them with an e-commerce bent – How to sell on eBay, Amazon, and Fiver. I have written innumerable history books, started and given up on over a dozen novels.

The most amazing thing is, I can say whatever I want to say. I can write it today, put it out there for sale tomorrow, and within a day – sometimes two or three, someone else in this world is going to connect with what has been rattling around in my brain. How cool is that!

Indie Authors Toolbox is just that, a collection of gadgets and doodads you can whip out when you need them to spice up your writing; learn a little more about self-publishing; or connect with one troubled brain that is focused on figuring out this thing we call Indie Publishing.

Welcome aboard. Hold on because you are in for one hell of a ride.

Reviews

[Mary Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this was a freebie, I didn't expect much. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of interesting cases from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

[Mark Cheviron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were interesting and fast paced