The Rahway Murder of 1887

The Rahway Murder of 1887
Born 1865 (approximate)
Status Unidentified for 131 years, 6 months and 22 days
Died March 24 or 25, 1887 (aged 18-22)
Rahway, New Jersey
Cause of death Homicide by sharp and blunt force
Body discovered March 25, 1887
Resting place Rahway Cemetery
Other names The Unknown Woman
The Rahway Girl
Rahway Jane Doe
Height Approximately 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)

The Rahway Murder of 1887 regards the murder of an unidentified young woman whose body was found in Rahway, New Jersey on March 25, 1887. She is also known as The Unknown Woman or the Rahway Jane Doe.

Four brothers traveling to work at the felt mills by Bloodgood's Pond in Clark, New Jersey early one morning found the young woman lying off Central Avenue near Jefferson Avenue several hundred feet from the Central Avenue Bridge over the Rahway River.[1][2][3] Her body lay at the side of the road in a pool of blood that had frozen in the cold. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear, her hands were wounded, and the entire right side of her face was extensively bruised from an administered beating.[4]

Description

The woman appeared to be in her early 20s, and was described as attractive, with brown hair and blue eyes. She was found clad in a dark green cashmere dress that had been trimmed with green feathers and a fur cape to protect from the cold. She also wore yellow kid gloves, what were described by the papers as "foreign good shoes," a black hat made of straw with red-colored velvet trimmings adorning it, a black dotted veil, and a bonnet. She had carried a basket of eggs. Other belongings were found in the Rahway River.

Aftermath

Her murder was the subject of national headlines and hundreds came to view the body.[5] Investigators had her embalmed body photographed dressed in the clothes she was found in and these images were circulated widely, but neither she nor her killer were ever identified. She was buried in May 1887 next to the Merchants' and Drovers' Tavern in Rahway Cemetery.[6][7]

At the time of the murder, Francis Tumblety, one of the many controversial purported suspects according to Ripperologists in the Jack the Ripper slayings, was living in New York City twenty miles from the site and one could travel in roughly 35 minutes from Rahway to New York City; one historian has speculated as to the theoretical possibility of significance.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Cruelly Slain: The Unknown Victorian Woman Murder of 1887 By Gary Sweeney. http://www.the-line-up.com/victorian-woman/ (depicting an engraving of the girl)
  2. ↑ History of the Rahway Police Department.http://rahwaypolice.com/the-office/history/
  3. ↑ Murder Mystery still unsolved after 92 years. Aug 16 1979 Rahway News Record. http://www.digifind-it.com/rahway/data/news-record/1979/1979-08-16.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1211ufnj.html
  5. ↑ Rahway Cemetery’s Famous Burials. http://www.merchantsanddrovers.org/rahway-cemetery/
  6. ↑ March 29, 1887. The New York Times. THE MURDER IN RAHWAY. "Three days have passed since the body of an unknown young woman who had been murdered was found by the side of the highway in the suburbs of Rahway, but scarcely any progress has been made toward clearing away the mystery which surrounds the crime..."
  7. ↑ Murder in 1887 Rahway. http://patch.com/new-jersey/woodbridge/murder-in-1887-rahway-author-of-the-unknown-woman-spe8ffb006f24; The Unknown Woman Murder Mystery Tour in Rahway. http://www.nj.com/suburbannews/index.ssf/2010/1/the_unknown_woman_murder_myste.html. 125th Anniversary of Unknown Woman Murder Mysteryhttp://www.nj.com/independentpress/index.ssf/2012/03/125th_anniversary_of_unknown_w.html
  8. ↑ Shipley, F. Alexander (2010). The case of the unknown woman : the story of one of the most intriguing murder mysteries of the nineteenth century. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Pub. Co. ISBN 978-1434906984.

Further reading

  • Indianapolis Journal 4 April 1887 ("Suspicion that the Rahway Corpse Is the Remains of Lillian Snavely. Watson Claims that He Was in Baltimore at the Time the Murder")
  • The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), Sunday, April 10, 1887, Page 4.
  • Peter Genovese. New Jersey Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (2003).
  • Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran. Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (2003).
  • Sleuth, Old. Young dyer: Or," Piping" the Stratford murder mystery. A companion to the Rahway mystery. Munro, 1887. (A dime novel or penny dreadful)
  • The Rahway murder mystery: Little Lynx "piping" the roadside tragedy. New York. Munro, 1887. (a dime novel or penny dreadful)
  • The New York Times (March 1887) ("NO LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY; ONE POSSIBLE CLUE TO RAHWAY'S MURDER. THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER PROBABLY A CRANK").
  • June 16, 1887 - THE RAHWAY MURDER MYSTERY. Chicago Tribune.
  • "Nothing But Idle Rumors - The Rahway Murder Still A Mystery" New York Times (April 6, 1887)
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