An Acid Bath For The Suffragist

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Althuler got calm.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
May twenty ninth, nineteen eleven, lying in the bath tub
of his flat. Henry Sheeb, thirty years old, five eighteen
East seventy eighth Street, was found dead this afternoon. It
is believed he had been dead at least three weeks.

(00:31):
The body was badly decomposed. Sheib and his wife lived
in the apartment, and about a month ago she went
to Cleveland, where his relatives live. Sheib was a chauffeur
and tenants in the house noticed him about several days
after his wife went away. As no rent had been

(00:52):
paid in the last month. Superintendent Daniel Smith this afternoon
decided to open the apartment using a pass key. He
opened the door and immediately noticed an odor. He went
through the rooms, and when he reached the bathroom, he
discovered the body. Policeman mal Day of the sixty seventh

(01:14):
Street station summoned doctor Brown of the emergency hospital, who
said that the man had been dead at least three weeks.
The surgeon believed apoplexy was the cause of death. In
the bathtub was four inches of water, but the man's
face was not covered. It is supposed that he was

(01:35):
stricken as he was about to take a bath. True

(02:05):
crime historian presents Unsolved, a special edition of Yesterday's News
exploring one of history's most baffling mysteries. Episode three hundred
and sixty eight tells the sad story of a woman
found dead in a bathtub, her body so decomposed that
police first assumed that it is her husband because they

(02:28):
heard she is sick and convalescing somewhere. When the truth
is revealed and the husband found alive, he soon becomes
a suspect as officials assume murder. But is the chauffeur,
murderer or the victim of police harassment. I'm true crime
historian Richard O. Jones, and for your puzzlement and indignation,

(02:51):
I give you an acid bath for the suffragist. The
Lilian She mystery May thirtieth, nineteen eleven. The discovery of
a woman's body in a bathtub partly filled with a

(03:13):
quicklime or acid solution intended to destroy identification at number
five eleven East seventy eighth Street is believed today by
the police to furnish another murder mystery. When the body
was found late yesterday by the man in charge of
the apartment, it was believed that Harry A. Sheeb, thirty

(03:33):
one years old, a chauffeur, and he was supposed to
have died from apoplexy. Today, Sheib is a prisoner at
police headquarters, suspected of knowing something about the strange disappearance
of his wife, Lilian, a suffragist worker and writer, and
the body found in the bathtub, which proved to be

(03:54):
a woman's and is believed to be hers. Although paying
rent on the seventy eight eighth Street apartment until a
few days ago, Sheib has been living at number nine
ninety three Amsterdam Avenue. His wife has not been seen
since early in February. When arrested early today at one
hundred and tenth Street and Broadway, Shib denied his identity,

(04:18):
but finally admitted it, and when told at the East
sixty seventh Street police station that he was suspected of
killing his wife, he turned pale and exclaimed to Lieutenant Breen,
my god, that isn't my wife. Up to that time
he had not been told anything about the finding of
the woman's body. It was Dan Smith, in charge of

(04:40):
the furnished apartment buildings at number five eleven East seventy
eighth Street, who found the body yesterday afternoon, after Sheb
had failed to pay the rent several days overdue. He
opened the door with his brass key, and the air
that rushed out caused him hastily to close the door
again and run for a policeman. They climbed the fire escape,

(05:05):
opened the windows, and when it was possible, went into
the apartment. In the bath tub, faced downward was a
body that, at a rough estimate, had been there for
three or four weeks. Clinging to it were fragments of underclothes.
One leg was sticking out of the tub. There were

(05:26):
three or four inches of liquid in the tub, and
doctor Brown, who was called from the Presbyterian Hospital, thought
it was water, although it seared the hands. Watchman Smith,
who was a sort of supervisor with the authority of
the usual janitor, had been told that missus Sheeb was
in Cleveland, Ohio, and it was concluded the unrecognizable mass

(05:50):
of flesh was the remains of Sheeb, who had died
from apoplexy when preparing to take a bath, and it
was so reported by the police. The strange burning effect
of the fluid was explained after the body had been
removed to the Morgue on the order of Cordner Holzausen.
The Morgue attendant said the body was not only that

(06:11):
of a woman instead of a man, but that it
had been immersed in a solution of quicklime or some
acid for the purpose of destroying it or preventing identification.
The police at once got busy. They found in the
rooms a large quantity of suffragist writings, evidently the handiwork

(06:32):
of Missus Sheeb. Copy paper with completed and uncompleted articles
was everywhere, but no woman's clothing could be found anywhere.
Detectives Owen and mc mahon were assigned to the case
and found on a slip of paper the address of
a Broadway garage and began questioning persons living in the house.

(06:54):
Smith told them that last February Sheeb, who had been
living in an apartment twenty three with the wife, told
him Missus Sheeb had gone to Cleveland to visit his
relatives and might not be back for some time. Sheeb
said he would live elsewhere during her absence, but would
keep the apartment in return every week and pay the rent.

(07:14):
For several weeks. He came regularly and paid or sent
the money by messenger recently. According to Smith, Sheb came
with the rent and said, in case I should get
a few days shy with the rent, don't get uneasy
and go into my place. I'll be around all right
and make good, so don't go inside. The rule in

(07:35):
the furnished apartment house is that the rent must be
paid every week. Smith said he became suspicious at the
way Sheb talked, although he couldn't tell why. At any rate,
when the rent due last Thursday was not forthcoming and
nothing was seen of Sheeb, Smith decided to take a
look inside. With the result already detailed, the detectives got

(07:59):
a photograph of Sheb and started out to look for
the man whose obituary was in all the afternoon papers.
They learned at the garage that he drove a car
for George Wyeth of number twenty eight eighty one Broadway,
a wealthy man interested in an accounting machine. At the
garage where mister Wyeth keeps his machine, they learned that

(08:20):
the chauffeur had it out and remained in hiding in
the neighborhood until after one o'clock this morning, when Sheb
drove up. They put him under arrest, telling him he
was wanted for not having a chauffeur's license. She denied
his identity, saying his name was Smith, but when taken
to the garage, the employees there said, that's sheb all right.

(08:43):
He was then confronted with photographs of himself and admitted
his identity. When asked why he denied it, he jauntily replied, oh,
John D. Rockefeller himself would deny his identity if anyone
came along and ask him questions, and he didn't know
their business of people do it. It was learned at
the East sixty seventh Street station, according to the police,

(09:06):
that she really has no license and that it had
escaped the notice of authorities. Although he was recently arrested
and fined for having a smoking car, the prisoner thought
he was under arrest for the simple misdemeanor until the
police suddenly told him of their suspicions, and then he exclaimed,
my god, that's not my wife. Although the police say

(09:28):
nothing had been told him of the finding of the body,
sheb seemed very cock sure. At first. He did a
lot of talking and several times contradicted himself, but nothing
he said, according to the police, threw any light on
the whereabouts of his wife, nor could they get from
many information that might lead to the discovery of her

(09:49):
whereabouts if alive. Sheib told the police that his wife
was miss Lillian Glover, an orphan of Holyoake, mass When
he married her five years ago in New Jersey, she
was then twenty years old. He seemed to have only
a vague idea as to their relatives and where they lived.

(10:09):
She did a lot of writing on suffragist matters, he said,
but he didn't know what she did with her articles
and never knew her to get any pay for them.
He said she was intensely jealous of him and imagined
he was trying to flirt with every woman he passed
on the street. Often, he asserted, his wife had tantrums,
enraged and ranted and left the house. Usually it was

(10:32):
always because of her jealousy, and she did not remain
away long. Last summer, he got a position driving a
car for a man living in Amityville, Long Island. She
left him soon afterward and came back to New York,
telling him that she would live with him when he
returned to the city to work. It was then he
gave up the Amityville Place and went to work for

(10:54):
mister Wyeth. They went to live in the East seventy
eighth Street apartment February second, He said he went home
and found a note with a key to the apartment
lying on the dresser. The note and his wife's handwriting, said,
I can't stand this any longer. There's no use in
your looking for me. I'm gone. He said he expected

(11:16):
she would return sooner or later, and told it around
she had gone away on a visit. He explained his
paying the rent for two places by saying he knew
he would feel lonesome living in the east side apartment
and rented a room on the west side, nearer his work.
He admitted keeping up two apartments was a drain on
his resources. He said that he was the only person

(11:37):
who had a key to the apartment so far as
he knew, although his wife might have had a duplicate
made before she left hers for him with the note.
He declared he had not heard from his wife since
February second, when she disappeared, and said he had not
been in the flat for a month, but intended to
go there last night and pay the rent and find
out if his wife had been about. Told the police

(12:01):
he had no idea who the woman could be, but
he did not believe it was his wife. He did
not know any woman could have gone into the flat,
he said, and the woman's identity was as much a
mystery to him as to anyone else. The police confess
there are many puzzling features about the case, not the
least of which is what became of the woman's clothes.

(12:23):
The detectives found a few little odds and ends of
clothing about the place, but nothing that the person, in
their opinion, could have worn to the house alive. The
solution in the bathtub had so eaten away the underclothes
worn by the woman. They offered no clue whatever. Today,
a dentist who did some work on Missus Sheeb's teeth

(12:44):
will go to the Morgue and try to identify the body.
The detectives regard the outcome of this examination as the
most important thing in the case just now. Superintendent Armstrong
of the Morgue said today that the body was in
such condition from chemicals it would require an autopsy to
determine positively, so far as the officials are concerned, whether

(13:06):
it is that of a man or a woman. It
is a small body, however, and there seems to be
no doubt in the mind of the coroner that it
is a woman. Sheib said his wife was a small
woman and never weighed more than one hundred and four pounds.

(13:27):
Henry A. Sheeb, held by police on suspicion of having
caused the death of his wife Lilian, made the astonishing
declaration to Deputy Commissioner Dougherty this afternoon that he wrote
a letter addressed to himself and signed Anna, which intimated
intimate relations with that fictitious person. Shib's statement was made

(13:50):
in the course of a long examination to which he
was subjected at police headquarters. The detectives were very anxious
to learn the whereabouts of Anna, and persistently quized him
on that point, said Scheib, I wrote that letter myself.
I was going to show it to my wife when
she came back, to prove that other women liked me.

(14:13):
Sheb was given a pen and ink and a sheet
of paper in order to write the Anna letter. From dictation.
He turned out an exact facsimile of the letter, which
was found in his room after his arrest. In the
letter were references to Sheeb's wife. The suspect was under
the probe of Dougherty and Inspector Russell for several hours.

(14:35):
He admitted that he had made a mistake in giving
the name of his wife. His latest story is that
she was Lily in Lover, not lilyan Glover. He declared.
She came from a small town near Holyoake, mass Link
by link, a convincing chain of circumstantial evidence is being
forged round Sheb. It has been established to a certainty

(14:59):
that even if he didn't know of his wife's whereabouts
as he claims, he lied systematically on the point after
she disappeared. As recently as last Wednesday, she voluntarily stated
to missus John Wyeth, wife of his employer, that his
wife was in Chicago with his mother, living in Llewellen Avenue,

(15:20):
said Sheb. She is out of the hospital and doing fine.
About a week previously, she but asked for and had
been granted, a short leave of absence. He said he
wanted to put his wife on a train and send
her to Chicago. She had been, he said, in a
hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts. Mister Wyeth recalls that during the

(15:42):
spring Sheb made several requests for advances on his salary
owing to the heavy expense of taking care of his
sick wife. While she was representing to his employer and
Missus Wyeth that his wife was alive, her body was
in the bathtub of the East seventy eighth Street flat,
the rent of which Sheb was paying. Missus Wyeth says

(16:06):
that one day last winter, when she was about to
enter her car, a small, sick looking little woman with
light blue eyes walked up and spoke to Sheb. This
is my wife, missus Wyeth remembers Sheb to have said,
and she's not filling well, if you wouldn't mind, I
would like to take her up to one hundred forty
eighth Street, where we live in the car, Missus Wyeth

(16:28):
had no objections. Sheb took the little woman up to
one hundred and forty eighth Street. Some time after that,
Sheb informed his employer that he had sent his wife
to a hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, so she could be
near her parents. Since his arrest, he has told police
his wife was an orphan when he married her. The

(16:50):
detectives attach a lot of importance to Sheeb's admission made
to the coroner into various police officials that he was
in the flat last on April fifteenth, Two weeks before that,
a family living in the flat above was driven out
by an undesirable odor. The coroner's experts say the body
was in the bathroom at least three months. The police

(17:13):
today began a systematic inquiry into Sheeb's past. He has
admitted that he came here from Chicago. When asked if
he had ever been arrested there, he said he had
not been, but when told his picture and measurements were
to be sent to the police there just the same,
he is alleged to have exclaimed, well, you'll probably find

(17:34):
that I've not been an ider down angel in Chicago.
Just because my wife was found dead in the bathtub
is no reason I set fire to Dreamland Park. They
do not know whether he was trying to be witty
or was so rattled he didn't know what he was saying.
They are investigating a rumor that his real name as Wells,

(17:55):
and that his home is in Sacramento, California. Headquarters men,
on the strength of a letter found in Sheeb's possession,
visited Miss ethel Mullen at the home of her parents
six thirty five ninth Avenue. Miss Mullan said she and
her friend, Miss May Flannery met Sheb about four months

(18:15):
ago through another girl whose name they declined to give.
He had been attentive but always brought them home early.
She said he had never said anything about being married.
The last time they saw him was last Wednesday. Miss
Mullan's mother corroborated her. May Flannery was found today by
an Evening World reporter at number four fifty West fifty

(18:38):
eighth Street, where she lives with her aunt, missus Jackson.
May is seventeen years old, small, dark and attractive. She's
employed as a clerk in a Broadway department store. Quote.
Ethel Mullen and I met Sheb early in April. We
were walking in sixty third Street when he spoke to us.

(18:58):
We told him we didn't know him, and he said
it was all right and we could call up the
garage and ask all about him. He invited us to
get into his car and took us to number six
thirty five ninth Avenue, where we both lived at the time.
I never liked Sheeb, but I did like to ride
in his automobile. Ethel and I went out in the
car with him four or five times, and once he

(19:19):
took us to see Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. We used
to ride up to the Bronx or Westchester, and he
brought us home early. He passed with us as a
single man, but he never said or did anything that
was not proper. Of course, we never had an idea
that he had a wife. A letter that is puzzling
the police since they found it in a bureau drawer

(19:41):
in Sheeb's room is a badly worn one addressed to
William Allen from H. S. Allen, his brother at avalon
Catalina Island. It was dated March twenty second, nineteen eleven,
inclosing forty dollars sent in response to a telegram for
money said at the Samadi Garage. A William Allen had

(20:03):
worked there but recently dropped out of sight. No one
knew how Sheb came into possession of the letter. The
most important clues found since the discovery of the body
of missus Sheeb has been discovered by newspaper reporters doctor
Lehane and Detective McMahon. Also found in the kitchen of
the flat a copy of the Sunday World of March

(20:25):
twenty sixth. In the bathroom were found two pieces of
Sunday World's magazine section dated April second. These discoveries make
it certain that someone who had easy access to the
Sheb apartment had been there at least twice since the
death of Missus Sheeb, and while the body lay in
the bathtub for doctor Lehne is convinced that at least

(20:46):
four months have elapsed since Missus Sheeb died. The pieces
of the Sunday World so close to the body were
first pointed out to the police by a reporter.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
To avoid future commercial interruptions, visit us at www dot
patreon dot com slash true Crime Historian. For as little
as a dollar a week, you can enjoy full access
to the true crime historian Dusty Vault, exclusive episodes, and
whatever personal services you require. That's www dot patreon dot

(21:34):
com slash true Crime Historian.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
June first, nineteen eleven, Henry A. Sheeb, after a day
of strenuous defenses the various charges on which he was
arrested and rearrested, was discharged by Magistrate O'Connor on the
West Side Court this afternoon on a charge that he

(22:01):
had in his possession a sixty dollars per overcoat belonging
to his employer, John Wyeth, of twenty eight eighty one Broadway.
Earlier in the day, Sheeb had obtained a few minutes
of liberty when the justice who issued a rid of
habeas corpus in his favor yesterday set him free. He

(22:21):
was immediately re arrested by Detective Gloucester on two charges,
one of operating an automobile without a license and the
other charge involving the overcoat. Gloucester arraigned him on the
first automobile charge. Magistrate O'Connor heard the evidence and imposed
a fine of ten dollars. Then Glocester made a short

(22:42):
affidavit on the overcoat charge. Magistrate O'Connor tried that case
at once and obtained an admission from the detective that
the overcoat had not really been found in the possession
of Sheb, but in the possession of a man named Allan. Discharged,
said Drade O'Connor, and there only remained for Sheb to

(23:02):
pay the fine of ten dollars, but he didn't have it,
nor did his lawyer, and he was held in the
pen while his lawyer went out to get it during
the interim Assistant District Attorney Wilmot, who was present to
press the various charges, said that the moment the fine
was paid, Sheb would be re arrested on another charge.

(23:23):
After the fine was paid, Sheb was arrested for the
third time. Sib got his first court hearing before Justice
Bishoff of the Supreme Court. A great crowd thronged the
court room in Corridor E O Town. A Chicago lawyer
who had known Sheb for many years and volunteered to
defend him, was in court, as was Alexander Carlin, who

(23:47):
has been retained by Sheb. District Attorney Whitman and Assistant
District Attorney Strong were on hand to represent the state.
Mister Carlin asked for the release of Sheb on the
ground that he was in without warrant of law by
a coroner's commitment for forty eight hours. Justice Bischoff wanted
to know if any information had been filed against the prisoner,

(24:10):
replied mister Carlin, none, whatever. The only charge against him
is that he is a suspicious person. Mister Strong argued
that inasmuch as Sheb is suspected of the murder of
his wife, the coroner was justified in holding him in
the absence of a formal charge. He said. He understood
the coroner has a right to commit a suspect to

(24:30):
imprisonment for forty eight hours, said Justice Bischoff. There is
no law to warrant any such procedure, explained mister Strong.
At the time this man was arrested, we had to
hold him in order to prevent his escape from our jurisdiction.
But we had no time to file information. The case

(24:51):
had to be investigated, said Justice Bischoff. From the letters
before me, I can gather nothing to justify the detention
of this man. I have no right to assume that
you will be able to gather legal evidence upon which
he may be held. Put in mister Carlin, as an
officer of the court, I promised to produce the prisoner
at the Coroner's court this afternoon. Not heeding mister Carlin's

(25:14):
volunteered pledge, Justice Bischoff said, all I can do is
sustain the writ the prisoner's discharged. She laboring under great excitement,
hurried through the crowd from the court room, with his
lawyers on either side of him. Just outside the door,
a husky looking man with a square jaw and a
police look grabbed hold of Sheb and yanked him to

(25:36):
one side. Here, what are you doing, cried mister Town,
who is a noted lawyer in Chicago and unfamiliar with
the appearance of New York policemen. The police looking man,
who proved to be Central Office Detective McMahon, said, it
means this man is under arrest. I have here a
warrant sworn out by John Wyeth charging him with grand larcening.

(26:00):
Mister Town and mister Carlin grabbed hold of Sheb, and
the detective held on too. The crowd surged about, and
there was a lot of excitement in the corridor and
in the court room. Mister Town appealed to District Attorney Whitman.
He said hotly, this is not a fair proceeding, mister
District Attorney. We have pleasured ourselves to produce our client
in the coroner's court at one o'clock, said mister Whitman.

(26:24):
I don't know anything about this proceedings. I did not
know the warrant was to be issued. The police officials
did not consult me. McMahon showed his warrant, which was
in due form then he got a better grip on
Sheb and hurried him away, stating that he would take
his prisoner to police headquarters and later arraign him in

(26:44):
the West Side Police court. John Wyeth, who swore out
the warrant, was Sheeb's employer. He charges Sheb with the
theft of a fur coat valued at six hundred dollars.
Evidence in the hands of the police indicates that Sheb
was getting ready to flee from the city when he
was arrested two days ago. He had announced his intention

(27:05):
of resigning his position as chauffeur for John Wyeth, and
all that held him from departure from New York was
a lack of money. Professor John Larkin, who took the
organs of the dead woman for the purpose of analysis,
made today a preliminary report to Coroner Winterbottom, which encourages
the authorities and the belief that they will be able

(27:28):
to build up a murder case against Sheb. The report
of Professor Larkin states he will undoubtedly be able to
determine the cause of death. Thus far this has been
a question of doubt. An important piece of cumulative evidence,
such as has been piling up on Sheb ever since
his arrest was furnished The Evening World Today by Claude Mne,

(27:50):
the telephone operator in the Saint Charles apartments at five
sixty five West one hundred and forty eighth Street. Min's
got to know Sheb when the chauffeur used to drive
Missus Ways, the wife of his employer, to the Saint
Charles where she visited Missus Watson, a friend. While Missus
Wyeth was in Missus Watson's flat, it was the custom

(28:10):
of SHEB to sit in the corner and talk with Mine.
The telephone boy was anxious to become a chauffeur, and
Sheb instructed him about the construction and operation of automobiles.
Mine noticed within the last three months that Sheb had
become morose and preoccupied sometimes, who would remain outside in

(28:31):
the car smoking cigarettes while Missus Wyeth visited her friend.
It was apparent to mine In the superintendent of the building,
that the chauffeur had something on his mind. On Wednesday,
May twenty fourth, Sheib called on Mine and announced that
he was going to quit his job and leave New York.
Mine at once asked Sheb of the chance of getting

(28:54):
the job of chauffeur for mister Wyath, said Sheb to mine.
I haven't told mister wat yet, but I'm going to
tell him and cut loose next week and I'll try
to get you the job. There's nothing in New York
for me. I'm going to strike out for the West
as soon as i can, say, asked Sheeb, suddenly shifting
the subject. Can you read my mind? Do you think

(29:15):
it possible to read a man's mind by looking into
his eyes? Mene replied that he was no mind reader. Well,
said Sheep, if you could read my mind, you'd learn
something that would surprise you. You'd be wise to something
that a whole lot of people would like to find out.
But I don't think there's anything in this mind reading business.

(29:36):
One reason I'm getting away from New York is because
there's no justice here in the courts for a poor man.
The rich get everything. Look at that fellow Rosenheimer who
killed a girl with his automobile. They let him off
because he had lots of money. If it had been me,
they would have sent me to the chair. Millionaires can
have what they want. If a millionaire wants your wife,

(29:59):
he can get. But if a millionaire interfere between me
and my wife, I'd kill my wife. There'd be a
chance to beat that, but there's no chance if you
kill a millionaire unquote. Sheb was trapped in another lie
yesterday when the dentist who had done nearly all the
work on his wife's teeth identified her by gold crowns

(30:20):
and pivot teeth he had put in place. Detective Diefendorf
then recalled a conversation he had with Sheb at the
time of the arrest. Diefendorf asked, if that's your wife's body,
how are they going to identify it. Sheb replied, cheerfully.
They can't identify it. The detective said, but they can
always get the dentist who fixed up a person's teeth

(30:42):
to make an identification. She declared, not in this case.
You know that dentist who was killed in his office
at fifty ninth Street and Third Avenue last winter, Well,
he's the man who fixed my wife's teeth. They can't
get an identification from a dead man. A dentist was
killed at fifty ninth Street and Third Avenue a few
months ago. He may have done some work on missus

(31:04):
Sheeb's teeth, but another dentist put in fillings and crowns.
A development that the police are working on today is
that Sheb had been using two names, and that he
has been concealing the real maiden name of his wife,
which he first said was Lillian Glover and yesterday declared
was Lover. It has learned today that she is Elizabeth

(31:25):
Connor O'Grady, daughter of Connor O'Grady, a well known man
of Springfield, Massachusetts. Sheb was known to her parents as
Hugh Allerton, Sherman of Chicago, the initials being the same
as those of the right name. According to the statements
made to the Eograds, the couple were married here in

(31:45):
nineteen o seven in Saint Francis Xavier's Church, West sixteenth Street,
by the Reverend S. J. Donnelly. It was said at
the church today that no such priest had been attached
to the church in recent years. After his arrest, Sheb
told the police they were married in Jersey City. The
detectives working on the case are unable to understand why

(32:09):
Sheb went under another name unless there was a previous
missus Harry A Sheeb he desired to avoid, and this feature.
They are investigating very closely. The police admit that Sheb
is one of the most remarkable suspects they have ever encountered.
They have trapped him in one misstatement after another, only
to be met with exasperating calmness and in obstinate adherence

(32:33):
to the last story he happened to tell. After Sheb
had admitted writing the love letter to himself and had
satisfied Commissioner Dougherty that it was true by writing a
copy of it from dictation, he told his lawyer Carlin,
according to the latter, that he never claimed to have
written the letter and had not written anything at all

(32:53):
at the dictation of the police. Commissioner Dougherty and Inspector Russell,
who grilled Sheb for three hours yesterday, laughed when told
this and said they would produce the duplicate letter written
by the prisoner if necessary. The police learned today that
at the time she was telling various friends here that
his wife was in this or that hospital. He gave

(33:15):
one acquaintance an account of her death and funeral. This
was miss May Blake, who had known that Shebs for
three years and is an usher at the Lyric Theater.
They all formerly lived at number one seventeen West sixty
third Street. Missus Sheeb called her husband Hughey, and they
seemed to be a loving couple. The friendship of the

(33:36):
two women was such that they exchanged pictures. Miss Blake
said today quote After a while, I moved away and
went to live with the Bartels at number one forty
one West sixty second Street. I did not see them
or hear anything from them until one day in the
middle of last March, when I was walking along Eighth Avenue,

(33:56):
I was startled by a man rushing out of a
restaurant and tapping me on the shoulder. It was Harry Sheep.
He said he was awfully glad to see me, and
then he exclaimed, isn't it too bad about Lilian? I
asked him what he meant, and he said that she
had died two weeks before. He told me that she
had been taken down with pneumonia and he had taken

(34:17):
her to the German hospital. She lived only three days,
according to what he said. He told me how her
lips had swollen with the fever and that she looked
very ugly in death. Then he went on to tell
how he had taken her body to her home in Massachusetts.
It was Holyoak or Springfield, I do not remember which.
He told me about the services at the church, how

(34:39):
all the people in the town turned out at the funeral.
He even went so far as to give me a
description of how the little girls of the parish, all
dressed in white and carrying flowers, walked in front of
the coffin up the aisle of the church. Then he
told me how everyone went out to the grave, and
how he had cried over her coffin until they had
to take him away. I pitied him so much that

(35:01):
I gave him my dress and asked him to call
me and see me. I didn't see any harm in
it now that his wife was dead. But he never came,
and I never have seen him from that day to this.
It is all very terrible, and I'm so sorry for Lilian,
as she was a very sweet girl and I was
very fond of her. June second, nineteen eleven, a writ

(35:28):
of habeas corpus, designed to secure the release of Henry A.
Sheeb from custody, was dismissed this afternoon by Justice Bischoff.
Justice Bischoff held that there is sufficient evidence at hand
to warrant the suspicion that sheb killed his wife, Lilian
and left her body in the bathroom of their apartment

(35:49):
for several weeks. Sheib was taken into court at twelve
thirty o'clock on a writ that he had been granted
two hours before. He was represented by Alex and Carlin,
who maintained that the commitment of his client to the tombs,
on the strength of a deposition made by Inspector Russell
of the police department, was illegal. Justice Bischoff read over

(36:12):
the deposition and appeared to agree with Carlin. Then assistant
district attorneys Johnson, Ruben and Strong got into the proceedings.
They pointed out that the woman disappeared early in the
year that Sib left the flat at the time the
woman's absence was marked, but continued to pay the rent
for the apartment that he had declared he was in

(36:33):
the flat on April twenty fifth, where there is indisputably
evidence apparently that the body was there at that time.
The many discrepancies in the stories he told to account
for his wife's disappearance were also pointed out to the court.
Justice Bischoff said that the body was undoubtedly in the
flat on April twenty fifth. According to the evidence, if

(36:55):
she was there at that time or any other time,
he should have reported the death of his wife to
the authorities. His policy of secrecy indicated guilty knowledge. Sheb
was sent back to the Tombs. Counsel for Sheb will
try some other plan to procure his release. They hold
that the police have not produced evidence that a crime

(37:17):
was committed. Confronting the authorities is the task of proving
how Lilian Sheeb came to her death. This was a
task successfully taken up by the authorities of London in
the Cripping case. In fact, there is considerable similarity between
the Cripping case and the case of the woman whose
body was found last Monday in a bathtub in an

(37:38):
apartment at number five eleven East seventy eighth Street. In
the Cripping case, only fragments of the body that in
buried in the cellar were found. In the Sheeb case,
the body was in such an advanced state of decomposition
that the cause of death is impossible of determination by
ordinary means, as if in the Cripping case, the authorities

(38:02):
must depend upon a chemical examination. Professor John Larkin who
does all that kind of work for the city, reports
that he will not be able to complete the requisite
tests for three weeks, and the absence of definite information
as to the cause of the death of Sheib's wife,
no information based upon facts can be filed against him.

(38:23):
The police are under the necessity of resorting to legal subterfuges,
such as mark the proceedings in the Sheb case yesterday,
when the prisoner was arraigned four times in court and
discharged three times. In order to hold him, it was
necessary for Inspector Russell and coroner's physician Lehane to make

(38:43):
affidavit charging him with murder in the first degree. Alexander
Carlin Sheeb's Council maintains that this form of procedure is illegal.
If habeas corpus proceedings batter down all the plans of
the police, it will be necessary to place a continual
watch of detectives over the suspect, with orders to arrest

(39:05):
him on some pretext or other should he attempt to
leave the city. Inspector Russell's men have some evidence which
they are compelled to keep secret. On this evidence, they
have built up two theories designed to account for one
of the factors entering into first degree murder motive. The
two theories they are now working on are that Missus

(39:27):
Sheeb was killed through jealousy or in order to get
her out of the way. Charles Connor O'Grady, Missus Sheheb's father,
arrived late yesterday from Springfield, Massachusetts, and identified Sheb as
the Hugh Allerton sherman who married his daughter. The side
of his father in law visibly affected Sheb, who became

(39:49):
nervous immediately and almost collapsed. According to the Springfield police,
sherman who married the O'Grady girl, is wanted there for
jumping his bail in a check transaction. The police think
Missus Sheeb was the only person who knew that Harry A.
Sheeb and Hugh A. Sherman were one and the same,

(40:09):
and that because of his ill treatment of her, she
had threatened to give him away to the authorities and
was put out of the way to prevent it. The
police have heard that Sheb served a term in Elmira
and that he was hauled before the domestic relations court
last fall by his wife for non support. They are
investigating both reports. Winnipeg Dispatches quote John Mackenzie, a real

(40:35):
estate dealer there as, saying he corresponded with Missus Sheeb,
whom he met on a trip to New York until
early this year. He also knows miss may Blake, the
girl to whom Sheb described his wife's death and funeral,
and says he has heard them discuss Missus Sheeb's troubles
with her husband. According to Mackenzie, Missus Sheeb told him

(40:57):
her husband was intensely jealous of her, although he ran
around with other women and spent most of his money
on them. Mackenzie says he sent Missus Sheeb money from
time to time because she had written she did not
get enough to eat. He addressed letters to her as
Lilian May Stearn's care of General Delivery. He has a

(41:17):
photograph signed ever Yours Lil Sheeb. Missus Fred Carston of
Blue Island, Illinois, mother of Sheeb, has announced she will
come to New York to help extricate her son from
his troubles. She is sixty years old and recently married
a well to do real estate operator. The condition of

(41:38):
the body made it impossible for a Grady to identify
it as that of his daughter, but as Sheeb has
positively identified it and as a dentist chart in the
hands of the police also established the identification. He will
give it burial. Doctor Lee Haines expects development shortly. He
completed his examination of the body today and said there

(42:01):
were no signs of violence discoverable. The lungs showed no
signs of strangulation and no bones were broken. The police
now depend on the chemical analysis for traces of poison.
Doctor Lehane said the shirt, towel and apron found in
the tub were not stained, except where a little of

(42:22):
the cloth had lain in the liquid in the tub,
which indicated to him that these cloths were thrown over
the body long after the body itself was put in
the top. June third, nineteen eleven. In the story of
Eileen Macombe, not yet seven years old, the police have

(42:47):
found they believe a strong strand for the net of
circumstantial evidence which they have been night and day weaving
for the chauffeur Hairy A Sheeb, now formerly charged with
the murder of his waff the little girl, were proved
by her testimony that as far back as the holidays
of last year, Sheib was setting afloat the fiction, which

(43:10):
he repeated so often subsequently, that his wife had been
taken to a hospital very ill. Even more important from
the viewpoint of the authorities is the child's positive assertion
that last Sunday afternoon, less than twenty four hours before
the discovery of the corpse by a suspicious janitor, she

(43:30):
encountered sheb as he hurried away from the vicinity of
the locked and empty rooms, wherein so the coroner's physician
claims the woman's remains had been hidden for upwards of
six months. So the District Attorney's office counts heavily upon
evidence of little Eileen Young as she is, for she connects,

(43:51):
by two widely separate incidents, the main points of the
theory which the police have built up to account for
the mystery. The found witness is the daughter of John mccomby,
a well to do carpenter who lives with his family
in a comfortable flat on the top floor of number
five eight East seventy ninth Street, almost directly back of

(44:13):
the house where the crime is supposed to have been committed.
An Evening World reporter heard the child's story this afternoon
at the home in the presence of her mother, who
pieced out the narrative with things which she herself remembered. Eileen,
who is phenomenally bright for her years, with the precocious
alertness of the city raised child, gave her account with

(44:37):
a clearness and coherency that would do credit to one
three times per age. Her acquaintans with the Sheebs dated
back to last fall. The Macombe children, there are three
of them, Eileen being the second, used to play in
the courtyard which runs through the block back of the
row of the model tenements where they live. From a

(44:58):
rear window of a ground flour or flat in the
row which faces seventy eighth Street, they frequently saw a slender,
pale little woman who seemed to take great interest in
their frolicking. Finally, one day she spoke to them, telling
them her name was Missus Sheeb. On Thanksgiving Day, Sheeb

(45:19):
himself came to the mccomby apartment and introduced himself to
Missus mccomby. He said his wife had taken a fancy
to the young mccomby's and wanted them to eat dinner
with her that afternoon. Although she often heard her little
one speak of the lonely lady, as they called Missus Sheeb.
Missus mccomby would not trust her brood into strange hands

(45:40):
until she had investigated herself. She accompanied Sheb back to
his house, and after meeting with Missus Sheeb, she consented
that the three youngsters should make the visit. They came
back at dusk, stuffed with goodness and radiantly happy. Thereafter,
one or another of them, but most frequently Eileen, was

(46:02):
almost daily in the sheeb apartment. Missus Sheeb gave her
small collars, candies, and tea cakes. She showed them a
handsome doll which she was dressing for her little niece
in Massachusetts, and on Christmas morning she and her husband
brought to the Mcombe house a bundle of small gifts
for their little friends. It was during the Christmas holidays,

(46:25):
and probably only one or two days before New Year's
Missus mccombe's remembrance serving to fix the approximate date that
Eileen and Stanley, her brother, aged three, went in the
afternoon to seventy eighth Street address to see their charm.
Their knock brought Sheb in his shirt sleeves to the
hall door. According to Ellen, he said to her runaway kitties.

(46:49):
My wife is very sick and I don't want you
to disturb her. The children tiptoed off obediently. The next day,
Eileen was back again to inquire how the invalid was.
This time she didn't get past the hall door either. Sheb,
who seemed to be spending most of his time indoors,
told her missus Sheeb had grown worse during the night

(47:11):
and had to be taken to the hospital. She is
very sick, he added, and then he closed the door,
leaving her outside. For weeks afterward, Eileen made daily visits
to the Sheebs, but her Knox never brought any answers.
Each time, she would go home and tell her mother,
she supposed the lonely lady must still be at the hospital.

(47:32):
On last Sunday afternoon, somewhere around three o'clock, Eileen and Stanley,
with some other children, were skylarking on the sidewalk in
front of Kepler's drug Store at the southeast corner of
seventy ninth Street and Avenue A, a half block from
their home. She saw Sheb, whom she had not seen

(47:53):
in months, coming up the avenue from the direction of
seventy eighth Street, she ran toward him. Ring to her account,
he stopped at the sight of her and smiled, and
when she came nearer, he patted her on the head quote.
I said to him, why, hello, mister Sheep. He said,
hello Eileen. I said, oh, mister Sheeb, how was missus Sheep?

(48:15):
He said, she's almost well and she'll be home again
in a few days. I said, I'm so glad, And
then he crossed the avenue caddy cornered and walked fast
along seventy ninth Street, going toward First Avenue. I ran
home to tell my mama that our lonely lady would
be out of the hospital soon. But the next day
Papa came home and said she was dead in a bathtub,

(48:38):
and we all cried unquote. The mother added that when
she first heard of the discovery of the remains, she
could hardly credit the news, for on her last meetings
with the Sheeps, they had seemed to her a most
loving and devoted couple. Her husband went yesterday afternoon to
the police with the account of the little daughter's experience,

(48:58):
and it was then arranged that I Eileen should be
taken a headquarters and subjected to a test at the
Detective Bureau, she was handed a sheaf of police photographs.
She ran through them and at once sifted out five
different pictures of Sheb and identified all of them. Because
of her age, the District Attorney hesitated at first to

(49:19):
add Eileen to his list of prospective witnesses, but after
he had heard from two of his assistants descriptions of
the child's quick wit and good memory, he decided to
use her testimony at the proper time. While men from
the Central Office were uptown scouring the length of East
seventy eighth Street for any shreds of proof which they
might fit into the fabric of their case, plans to

(49:42):
meet and combat Sheb's newest fight for freedom were being
framed at the Criminal Courts Building on an adjourned hearing.
He was taken before Magistrate Corrigan in the Center Street
Police Court at one o'clock this afternoon. Sheb was in
the consultation room at the Tombs in conference with his
lawy Carlin, in town when a fashionably dressed woman who

(50:03):
said she was missus Helen Foley of number fifty one
Beach Street, came to the prison accompanied by her brother
Edward Foley, and asked to see the prisoner, saying his
published pictures bore a close resemblance to her husband, who
disappeared two years ago. Warren Fallon took her before sheeb.
At first glance, she said, that's him. That's the man

(50:26):
who deserted me. She laughed, and she quickly added, no,
I've made a mistake. This is not my husband, although
he looks like him. A few minutes later she crossed
the bridge of size, handcuffed between detectives Gloucester and McMahon.
Lawyer Carlin wanted to send all the witnesses away from
the courtroom, but the magistrate allowed Deputy Commissioner Dowerty and

(50:49):
Inspector Russell to remain, so mister Carlin contented himself by
sharply cross examining each witness for the prosecution. Doctor Timothy Hayne,
coroner's surgeon, described the autopsy. He also said that when
sheb was brought to the more Glass Tuesday, he admitted
the body was that of his wife, saying he recognized

(51:11):
it by the teeth. Doctor Lane based his claim that
the woman must have been dead at least four months
and probably longer on the physical conditions. A leg which
had escaped the fluid that filled the tub was mummified
in itself, a certain evidence that death occurred a considerable
time before he recalled that Sheib had told him the

(51:34):
last time he saw his wife alive on February second, when,
according to the prisoner's account, she went away in a
jealous hoff decay had been so far advanced that it
was impossible to tell whether any violence had been inflicted.
Most of the vital organs had entirely disappeared, which explained
why he could not answer Carlin's demand to know whether

(51:57):
the woman might have succumbed to chronic lung trouble. The
lawyer said, quote, it has been alleged that the defendants
spent days in the rooms and even slept there while
the body was in the tub. Could any human have
endured the odors? The bathroom door was well made and
tightly closed, and most of the odors escaped by a
window opening into the court, which was open, said doctor Lehane.

(52:22):
The bathroom door was well made and tightly closed, and
most of the odors escaped by a window opening into
the court, which was open. Nevertheless, the condition must have
been such in the flat that only a man who
was drunk or full of drugs could stay there very long.
A normal man could not endure the situation long. Here,
the preliminary hearing was broken off to be resumed Tuesday morning.

(52:46):
Although mister Carlin had been threatening to sue out another
rit of habeas corpus, which would make three times he
had invoked this rite in his client's behalf, he made
no objection to the remanding of Schibe to the tombs
if us or Larkin of Columbia University went to the
morgue last night and procured two sealed jars containing what

(53:07):
remained of the internal organs of missus Sheeb. He is
analyzing them for traces of poison, but it will be
next week before he is able to make a report
concerning the result.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Enjoy ad free listening at this safehouse. Dubbadubbadubba dot Patreon
dot com, slash True crime Historian.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
June fifth, nineteen eleven. Twenty five persons, all witnesses to
some phase or another of the bathtub mystery, went to
the Criminal Courts Building this afternoon to repeat a new
their stories to Assistant District Attorney Ruben, who was in
charge of this puzzling case. It was stated that if

(54:08):
he regarded the evidence on hand as being sufficient to
sustain the charge, mister Reuben would go before the grand
jury not later than tomorrow and ask for an indictment
for murder in the first degree. The twenty five witnesses
included Inspector Russell of the Detective Bureau and several of
his men. Little Eileen McCombe, the six year old charm

(54:31):
of the dead woman and her mother, Missus John mccomby
may Blake, a young woman to whom sheb posing as
a widower, paid attentions, and one new witness in the
person of a waitress in a Harlem restaurant. According to
one report, this girl was the Anna of the letters
found in Sheeb's rooms. After his arrest on the night

(54:53):
when his wife's body was discovered in his abandoned flat,
Sheeb declared that he himself wrote the love letter signed Anna,
but it was said that the police had found a
genuine Anna who admitted knowing the accused man. The newest
theory in the mystery that Missus Sheeb was either killed
by drowning or that boiling water was used after her

(55:15):
death in an effort to destroy the body. Received more
attention today from the detectives when the body, or what
remained of it, was found a week ago today in
the locked and deserted flat. It lay face upward in
the dingy white tub, with the head flat on the
bottom and one of the legs sticking up from the

(55:36):
other end. This body was half covered in a noisome liquid,
which the investigators at first took to be an acid
solution of some sort. Later they had reasons to amend
this theory, but subsequent search has revealed indubitable proof that
after the woman's body sank into the tub, a considerable
quantity of water must have been poured in. This is

(55:59):
a stablo by the presence of rings of dried sediment
upon the smooth inner walls. The first of these shows
plain against the white porcelain surface. It encircles the tub
at a height of about ten inches. The next is
perhaps five inches lower down, and there follows a succession
of these black water marks, showing how the natural processes

(56:23):
of evaporation gradually reduced the volume until there remained only
the fluid mass which would resist all the influences of
heat and cold. Moreover, these traces helped to bolster up
the claim of the authorities that the remains of the
woman must have lain in the tub for weeks and
perhaps months. To an evening World reporter, a high authority

(56:47):
of the police department this afternoon made this statement. My
belief is that the woman, while in bed, was at
first choked until she died or lost consciousness, and then
that the murderer, cared, carried her body into the bathroom
and thrust it into the tub and turned on the water,
either to finish the work he had begun or to

(57:08):
assist the natural action of decay. I based this opinion
mainly upon certain physical facts. To begin with, the body,
when found, was crowded down into the short tub, with
legs protruding, just as though it had been flung there. Moreover,
the head lay directly under the water taps at the
straight up and down end of the tub. This, to

(57:31):
my mind, effectively disproves the suggestion that missus Sheeb might
have succumbed to illness while taking a bath. Any sane
person taking a bath would lie or sit in the
tub with the head at the sloping end of the
tub and the feet toward the faucets, whereas in this
case the normal position was exactly reversed. There have been

(57:54):
certain important developments of the last few hours which I
cannot at this time even hint at. I can't tell you, however,
that we are strengthening our evidence all the time, and
we feel entirely confident that the committing magistrate will hold
Sheb without bail and that the grand jury will indict
him for murder in the first degree. Yesterday and today

(58:16):
the Sheb flat was thoroughly gone over by men from headquarters,
even the wallpaper being examined. The detectives announced later that
they had found evidence indicating that an effort had been
made to dispose of the body by boiling it. After
having been partly carried out. According to the detective's theory,
the effort was abandoned. It is recalled that a hardware

(58:38):
dealer in the neighborhood says that in February she bought
the biggest copper bottom wash boiler in the store, saying
his wife intended to take in washing. The same dealer
had previously sold missus Sheeb a smaller boiler and one
adequate to the needs of the average household. This smaller boiler,
the police say is still on the Sheeb flat. The

(59:01):
other boiler was soon after. We're taken back by Sheeb,
who explained that his wife had gone to a hospital.
Another important witness has appeared. Missus J. J. Donnelly of
three nineteen West sixty fourth Street, told a story of
domestic trouble that culminated about a year ago in a
street assault which she says Schibe made on his frail

(59:24):
little wife. The police do not try to conceal the
fact that they have one of the naughtiest cases in
years to handle. Connor Seal Grady, father of Missus Sheeb,
who came here from Springfield, Mass and identified the prisoner
as the man who married his daughter under the name
of Sherman, now says he is not satisfied that the

(59:46):
body is that of his daughter. He declares the identification
is not complete enough to satisfy him, and that until
it is he will take no steps towards burying the body.
When Deputy Commissioner Dougherty heard the Sheb would declare that
he slept in the flat until March twenty fifth, He
gave orders for his men to bend their efforts towards

(01:00:07):
ascertaining where Sheb lived between February two, when he was
last seen at the seventy eighth Street flat, until he
rented his room in Amsterdam Avenue late in March. They
are satisfied he did not live in the seventy eighth
Street house as he says, but they have been unable
to discover where he did live. After he and his

(01:00:33):
client had discussed every phase of the police evidence, mister
Carlin announced he was ready to back his assertion that
missus Sheeb died of tuberculosis. The defense will contend that
she was in the last stages of the disease, died
while taking a bath, and that the sudden change in
the temperature two weeks ago caused rapid decomposition of the body.

(01:00:55):
Quote Harry Sheeb slept in the flat for seven weeks
prior to March twenty fifth, and his wife was missing
all that time. It was after a quarrel on February
second that Missus Sheeb left her husband. He kept up
the payment of rent, believing he would hear from her.
In a last effort to prove their assertion that missus

(01:01:16):
Sheeb was murdered by her husband. The police have come
forward with a ring, but the pawnbroker who gave the
ring to them has failed to identify Sheb as the
man who pledged it. The ring did not belong to
the dead woman. We will prove that missus Sheeb and
her husband quarreled frequently. In the summer of nineteen ten,
she left him, and after an absence of several months,

(01:01:38):
she came back to him. All the time she was gone,
Sheib kept the flat and never disturbed any of the
little furnishings she had added. In the fall of last year,
they became reunited, but in February, the woman, jealous without cause,
again left him. At that time, she was a victim
of the white plague. Her body was wasted and death

(01:02:00):
was not far off. Sib knew this and determined to
have everything ready to nurse his wife should she come
back to him Once. He sent her to a sanitarium
and paid her bills there for some time. To prove this,
we will summon physicians who attended the unfortunate woman just
before missus Sheeb left her husband. The last time. She

(01:02:21):
was in such a condition that medical men would have
despaired of curing her. Instead of being a brute as
he has been pictured. Harry Sheeb paid the rent of
the flat, hoping she would return. For seven weeks he
lived there alone and then he lost his position. That
was at the time the automobile broke down. Knowing it

(01:02:41):
would be from five to six weeks before repairs could
be made, Shib took a position with the Semiati garage.
Tired of living alone, Sheb went to the house of
Hugo Minor at nine to ninety three Amsterdam Avenue and
took a room. In his new position. The chauffeur had
night work and could not very well go away over
to the east side. There was no wife to meet him,

(01:03:04):
and he preferred to be near his work. If Missus
Sheeb died in her apartment as described, it was after
March twenty fifth, as her husband was there until that time.
Doctor Lahane, the coroner's physician, has said the woman has
been dead four months when found. That may appear to
be so to him, But what about the warm weather

(01:03:25):
since May one? Was that not responsible for the condition
of the body? Unquote. June sixth, nineteen eleven, after working
all night, Professor John Larkin of Columbia University reported today
to District Attorney Whitman that he had been unable to

(01:03:47):
discover any traces of poison in the internal organs of
Missus Lillian O'shady Sheeb. This report, although not entirely unexpected,
was a profound disappointment to the police who have been
working night and day since the finding of the corpse
to make out a case of circumstantial evidence against the

(01:04:07):
woman's husband, Harry A. Sheeb, who is under arrest on
a charge of murder. Professor Larkin said that none of
his tests produced suggestions of any of the mineral poisons,
such as arsenic decay was so far advanced, he said
that even if there had been an alkali poison in
the body, he could not have proved its presence. Immediately,

(01:04:30):
the high police officials, who have been at work on
the bathtub mystery were called into consultation with mister Whitman
and his assistant, Mister Reuben. It was apparent that the
authorities feared they might not be able to muster sufficient
testimony to ensure that Sheb would be held without bail
for any considerable time. Except for his own contradictory statements

(01:04:51):
regarding the prolonged absence of his wife and certain suspicious details.
They had nothing seemingly upon which to base a forty
normal accusation. Professor Larkin made his report verbally, he didn't
have time to write it out formally, and he said
he wanted more time for further examination of the liquid
in which the body lay when it was discovered, although

(01:05:14):
he held out no hope of discovering anything of significance there.
He was sitting alongside Magistrate Corrigan this afternoon when the
adjourned hearing of sheb was continued in the library of
the District Attorney's office. Doctor Timothy Lehane, coroner's physician, who
was on the stand when the examination broke off last Saturday,

(01:05:36):
resumed his testimony, describing with minute detail the condition of
the body and the autopsy. SIB's counsel, Mister Carlin, devoted
more than an hour to cross examining doctor Lehane, mainly
centering his fire upon Lehane's estimate of the length of
time the corpse was in the flat. Lehane stuck to

(01:05:57):
it that the woman must have been dead for at
least four months and possibly five or six. Carlin demanded,
suppose I produced a witness to prove that missus Sheeb
was alive on February twenty seventh. Lehane answered that would
make it approximately four months until the finding of the
remains February, March, April and May. After policemen and an

(01:06:21):
ambulance surgeon described the finding of the body in its
removal to the Morgue. Doctor S. A. Wooster, a dentist,
testified that missus Sheeb on January twenty sixth, went to
his office on East fifty ninth Street and contracted with
him to do twenty two dollars worth of repair upon
her teeth. During the week following this date, she called

(01:06:43):
twice and began preliminary work, receiving from her four dollars
on account. After the second visit, she never returned and
he had no word from her. Abraham Moscow, now living
in the Bronx, and his wife, said they had been
forced to move out of the seventy eight Street tenement
on April fourteenth because of noisome odors. Both of them

(01:07:05):
insisted that the unpleasant smells had been noticeable for at
least two months before they moved. Several other former tenants
agreed that the odors began to fill the building as
far back as February and March. Magistrate Corgan adjourned the
hearing until Friday morning, and in the meantime remanded Sheb

(01:07:25):
back to the tombs without bail. June seventh, nineteen eleven.
It developed this afternoon that on the day after the
body of Missus Lillian O'Grady Sheb was discovered, detectives in
searching the apartment found upon the bed in the single

(01:07:45):
sleeping room a mattress with dark brown stains upon it.
The stains were at the upper end, where the head
would rest in the case of a person lying in
the normal position. Without making public the news of the discovery,
the police department turn this mattress over to Professor John A. Larkin,
the bacteriologist at Columbia University, for analysis. He made a

(01:08:08):
private report today to Deputy Commissioner Dougherty that the discolorations
were caused by dried human blood. This new development, in
the eyes of the men at the Detective Bureau, constitutes
a new and valuable piece of evidence to be used
against the dead woman's husband, who is now in the tombs,
charged with her murder. Inspector Russell holds that the presence

(01:08:30):
of the bloodstains at the upper end of the mattress
serves to confirm his original theory that Missus Sheeb, while
helpless in bed, was choked until she died or became unconscious,
and then that she was thrust into the bathtub and
covered with boiling water. On the other hand, it seems
certain that Carlin in Town, lawyers for the accused man,

(01:08:54):
will undertake to explain the bloodstains on the claim that
Missus sheephb had weak lungs and suffered from frequent hemorrhages.
The two lawyers succeeded today in entering the flat, which
is upon the ground floor of a model tenement, by
a rear window opening upon an enclosed court. They took

(01:09:14):
from the walls a calendar for nineteen eleven, with the
January page still adhering as support for their contention that
Missus Sheeb went away of her own accord on February second,
and that sheb did not thereafter occupy the room. They
also hold that their own entry by way of the
window served to emphasize the suggestion advanced by the defense

(01:09:37):
that Missus Sheeb returning home and finding the door locked
might have broken in from the back and then, while
taking a bath, succumbed to illness. Unless some really important
evidence is found in the meantime, Assistant District Attorney Reuben
has little hope of inducing Magistrate Corgan to hold Sheb

(01:09:57):
when the preliminary hearing is continued on Fry. Mister Rubin
admitted that so far the police have been unable to
find little proof that would serve to actually connect Sheb
with the supposed murder, except for the accused man's own
contradictory statements, his often repeated fictions regarding the missing woman,
and his suspicious behavior prior to the finding of the

(01:10:19):
body in the flat. There is at this time absolutely
nothing upon which to base a formal charge. Yet mister
Rubin feels morally sure that a crime was committed. The
police are promising that they will have charges sufficient to
hold Sheep for possibly several months while the detective Bureau
seeks evidence. It does not believed the grand jury will

(01:10:43):
take up the alleged murder case unless stronger evidence develops.
Magistrate Corgan, who is in charge of the preliminary hearing,
has expressed the hope that the grand jury will take
the case off of his hands. They say. The police
have proven neither a motevtive nor a murder. The preliminary
report of Professor Larkin of his chemical analysis was a

(01:11:06):
disappointment to the police. He found no poison in the organs,
but has not completed his examination of the fluid found
in the bathtub. Coroner's physician Lee Hayne has testified that
death by poison was the only kind of murder that
could be proven owing to the condition of the body.

(01:11:27):
The pivotal point in the case is now that of
the time of death. Sheeb says he lived in the
flat until the latter part of March and that there
was no body in the bathtub. Then coroner's physician Lehane
asserts that from all medical standards, the body must have
been there at least four months. Professor Larkin gives it
as his opinion that the woman had been dead about

(01:11:49):
two months.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
Enjoy ad free listening at this safe house dubbadubbadubba dot
Patreon dot com, slash true crime Are You.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
June eighth, nineteen eleven, Another woman who thought from the
pictures printed in the papers that Harry A. Sheeb might
be her husband, went to the Tombs today to see
the prisoner. She was the third within a week, and
like her two predecessors, she failed to identify Sheeb. This

(01:12:25):
one's name is missus Mary Tripp. She's about forty years
old and lives in Flatbush. Her husband, she says, has
a habit of leaving her for irregular periods. He went
away about two years ago and she hasn't seen him since.
Sheieb's published photographs. She thought bore a close resemblance to
the truant. She consulted with Missus Connolly probation offer at

(01:12:48):
the Adams Street Court, and at miss Connolly's suggestion, she
went to the Brooklyn headquarters and told her story. Detective
Murray was detailed to accompany her to Manhattan. Deputy war
Card and Hanley stood. Sheb in a row with fourteen
other men, and Missus Tripp was asked to walk along
the line and pick out her husband if she could.

(01:13:09):
She passed sheb twice, once when he had his hat
on and once when he was bareheaded, and failed to
recognize him as she was going away. She said she
must have been mistaken. The bacteriologist of Columbia University Today
received in his mail a letter apparently written by a

(01:13:30):
woman threatening him with death unless he dropped the case.
The envelope bore a one cent stamp who was addressed
to doctor Larkin at number four thirty nine West one
hundred and thirtieth Street, and the postman took it to
his home, number two ninety three on the same street.
Quote Doctor Larkin, you better drop your connections with the

(01:13:51):
missus Sheeb case. There is nothing in it. If you
do not, I will shoot you on site, signed suspect
Jim on quote. Professor Larkin took the letter to the
West one hundred and twenty fifth Street station and turned
it over to Captain Farrell. June ninth, nineteen eleven. While

(01:14:16):
the preliminary hearing of Harry Sheeb went on today before
Magistrate Corrigan, his lawyers were confident that he would be
discharged from custody, while the police were ready to admit
that in less some evidence more valuable than any on
hand should materialize. At the last moment, there was little
prospect that the prisoner would be held for the grand

(01:14:38):
jury on the charge of murdering his wife, Lilian. The
examination of today's witnesses failed to lift any of the
mystery that surrounds the case. Sheib's employer, John H. Wyeth,
testified that the chauffeur had remarked to him in an
ironical tone one week before he was arrested that he
had had a happy birthday in February because that was

(01:15:00):
the day he took his wife to the hospital. Missus Wyeth,
wife of Sheeb's employer, testified that the chauffeur had told
her four days before the arrest that his wife was
recovering from an illness in Chicago and wanted him to
join her there. Another witness was miss May Blake, who

(01:15:20):
gave her occupation as a lady usher in the Lyric Theater.
She said she had met Sheb on the street early
in March and that he told her his wife was dead.
His eyes filled with tears, she said, and he asked
if he might come and visit her, said Miss Blake.
He told me that in death she had presented a
very ugly appearance, her lips burned by fever and her

(01:15:42):
face discolored. He seemed to be very much affected as
he told me this, And when I invited him to
call on me, he accepted gladly. Then he told the
same thing again to me and people with whom I bored.
He described the fine funeral he had given his wife
at a cost of four hundred dollars, and how little
girls of her hometown and all her friends and relatives

(01:16:04):
had turned out to attend the funeral. It was very
affecting to listen to him. Missus Mary Fell, a laundress,
said that on February twelfth, she brought her some of
his clothing and some of Missus Sheebs to be laundered.
He told her. She said that his wife was ill
in a hospital, and that her illness had already cost

(01:16:24):
him two hundred dollars. Three or four weeks passed before
he called for the bundle. Miss Agnes Graham, a telephone operator,
said that about two months ago she told her that
missus Sheeb was ill in Springfield, Massachusetts. During February, he
frequently mentioned his wife's illness to her, she claimed. Miss

(01:16:46):
Nina Pray, rent collector for the building, told of having
called at the flat every Tuesday up to February ninth,
and receiving an answer from some person whose identity or
sex she said she could not recall. After that date, however,
she was unable to get any response to her calls,
though the rent was paid at irregular intervals up to

(01:17:08):
May tenth. She opened the door of the flat on
at least three occasions, she said, and found it each
time in precisely the same condition. Lieutenant Gloucester of the
Central Office, who took Sheb to the morgue, told how
Sheb had at once identified the skull as his wife's
and had lingered around the remains, although he Gloucester was

(01:17:30):
forced to leave the room because of the odor. At
four o'clock, after twenty witnesses had been examined, Assistant District
Attorney Strong asked for an adjournment until Monday, saying he
still had one more witness to produce. Alexander Carlin, attorney
for the prisoner, protested, but on mister Strong's promise to
close this case within fifteen minutes time, the magistrate continued

(01:17:54):
to examination until Monday, meanwhile remanding Sheb to the tombs
without bail. June twelfth, nineteen eleven, Harry Sheeb was this
afternoon discharged from custody by Magistrate Corrigan. Immediately after the

(01:18:15):
man left the Criminal Court building, he was again arrested
by Lieutenant Gloucester on the charge of taking the automobile
of his employer without permission, which constitutes grand larceny. The
new charge upon which she was arrested was preferred by
John Wyeth, who asserts that the chauffeur used his machine
for joy rides without his permission. Shib was taken to

(01:18:39):
the fifty fourth Street Court for hearing upon the new charge.
The dismissal upon the murder charge followed the hearing of
a number of witnesses and arguments by Assistant District Attorney
Strong and Alexander Carlin, the latter representing Sheeb. After all
the testimony was in and the statements of Council were made,

(01:19:00):
Magistrate Quarrigan said that none of the evidence had established
that missus Sheeb had been murdered or that the defendant
had murdered her. Sheeb shook hands with his counsel and
friends and started away after the decision was rendered, only
to meet with his new trouble. Before the decision was reached,
Magistrate Quarrigan heard Louis P. Ludwig, who said that he

(01:19:23):
was employed by the gas company which supplied the flat,
and that he came at intervals to collect from the
quarter meter. He said that he had to let himself
in with the pass key and noticed the peculiar odor
of the decomposing body upon his late trips. George Hunrath,
who lives in the house where the body was found,

(01:19:43):
said that the last time he had seen Sheb and
his wife together was February second, when the two came
from the house apparently quarreling. He said that the wife
went toward Avenue A in seventy eighth Street, and that
she followed her and brought her back to the house.
May Flannery said she had been joy writing with Sheep

(01:20:03):
several times and that he had never said anything to
her about having a wife. Anne A. Crouse, cashier and
a restaurant on Broadway, said she had been writing three
times with Sheep, the last time being May eighteenth, and
that she did not know he was married. Policeman Skellion
Inspector Russell completed the list of witnesses. Both gave facts

(01:20:26):
that the police investigation had developed for the defendant. Attorney
Carland dwelt, upon the statement of coroner's physician Lehne, that
he did not know how the woman came to her death.
For the people. Mister Strong called attention to the many
conflicting statements made by the defendant, to the fact that
he paid the rent for the room where the body

(01:20:47):
was found with so much care, and to his ready
identification of the body at the morgue, and various other
elements of the tragedy. When he finished, Magistrate Corgan said,
Miss Strong, while I agree with you that there are
suspicious circumstances connected with this case, still the people have
not proved that this woman died from homicide or that

(01:21:10):
this man killed her. She went to the elevator with
his counsel. He did not notice mister Wyeth, his former employer,
was in the next elevator. When Lieutenant Gloucester arrested the
man at the bottom of the shaft. His attorney, Carlin,
was furious. Who makes the charge? He demanded, I do,
responded Wyath, and the entire party went to the scene

(01:21:33):
of the next trial. June thirteenth, nineteen eleven. Chauffeur Harry
Sheeb landed back in the tombs this afternoon, this time
under bonds of three thousand dollars to await the action
of the grand jury in a grand larceny complaint. His

(01:21:56):
return to his old cell was a victory for the
Detective Bureau, which for two weeks has been working to
find evidence that would connect Sheb with the death of
his wife. John Wyeth, who made the newest accusation yesterday
after Magistrate Corrigan had declined to longer hold the much
buffeted prisoner for homicide upon such scanty proof as the

(01:22:18):
police had gathered, appeared today as the complainant in the
West Side Court, where the preliminary hearing was resumed. Mister
Wyeth's charge was based upon the new law which makes
it a felony to use an automobile without the owner's consent.
Mister Wyeth said he was positive he did not use
his machine May eighteenth, the date named in the warrant

(01:22:41):
and the affidavit, because on the evening of that day
he had guests at dinner. Anne Akraus, a waitress to
whom Sheb had paid attention after his wife had disappeared,
testified that on May eighteenth, at six thirty o'clock in
the morning, she wrote a note to Sheb asking him
to take her that evening for a spin. About eight
forty five o'clock, she said he drove a machine to

(01:23:04):
her house on West ninetieth Street. Mister and Missus Sherman,
Miss Simper and W. D. Meeker accompanied Sheeb for a ride.
They were gone two hours and a half. Anna Crous
rode on the front seat with Sheeb and recalled that
he told her the automobile was a Pullman, the make
owned by mister Wyeth. W. R. Clemens, manager of a

(01:23:28):
garage on Broadway, produced records to show that the Wyeth
Carr had been checked out May eighteenth at eight forty
p m. And had been returned shortly before midnight. Alexander Karen,
Sheeb's lawyer, cross examined each witness sharply. Then he announced
that he wanted to press a charge of perjury against
mister Wyath because of the alleged contradictory statements Magistrate Fresh

(01:23:53):
He told mister Carland that if he wanted to make
a case against mister Wyath, he must swear to the
preliminary papers and assume responsibility for prosecution. Mister Carlin dropped
that subject and made a lengthy plea for the discharge
of his client, saying that a miserable police conspiracy was
behind the continued imprisonment of Sheb, and that detectives in

(01:24:15):
New York would swear an innocent man's life away to
make reputations. When he was through Central Office, men handcuffed
the suspect and started with him for jail, while mister
Carlin hurried out, threatening to invoke habeas corpus, a right
which he already employed twice in his efforts to free
as man. October eleventh, nineteen eleven, Harry Sheeb was placed

(01:24:46):
on trial today before Judge Foster in General Sessions on
an indictment charging grand larceny. This indictment was found shortly
after Sheb was arrested and charged with the murder of
his wife. There was no direct evidence that Sheb had
committed murder, other than that he was separated from his
wife and she was dead. In order to hold him

(01:25:09):
and dodge writz of habeas corpus, the detectives prevailed upon
John H. Wyatt, for whom she worked as a chauffeur,
to swear out information charging grand larceny in that Sheb
used mister Wyatt's car without his permission for joy riding purposes.
Sheib has been in the tombs ever since, awaiting trial.

(01:25:34):
October fourteenth, nineteen eleven. Harry A. Sheeb, the chauffeur who
has been locked up ever since May twenty ninth, when
the body of his wife, Lilian was found in the
bathtub of their flat at five eleven East seventy eighth Street,
was acquitted yesterday before Judge Foster in General Sessions, where

(01:25:57):
he was on trial for grand larceny. Sheb was first
arrested for having caused his wife's death, and when that
and two other charges brought against him failed to hold him,
his employer, John H. Wyeth, brought the charge of grand larceny.
Sheib did not take the stand in his own defense.

(01:26:19):
Assistant District Attorney McCormick was unable to find more than
one of the women with whom Sheb was said to
have been riding May eighteenth, and she could not state
positively that it was mister Wyeth's car which was used.
The strongest point against him was the testimony of the policeman,
who said that Sheb admitted to them he had used

(01:26:39):
his employer's automobile without his permission. Judge Foster instructed the
jury to regard the charge as one of petty larceny,
and they brought a verdict of not guilty. Sheeb said
that he had been very well treated in the tombs,
but that he was very glad to get out. During
the hot weather summer, he said, the temperature in his

(01:27:02):
cell rose to one hundred and twenty eight and he
spent four days wrapped in a wet sheet. He had
not decided whether he would try to get another job
as a chauffeur. About the first thing he would do,
he said, would be to have his wife's body removed
from Potter's Field, where it was buried while he was
in the tombs. His council Alexander Carlin, said that a

(01:27:25):
suit for ten thousand dollars damages for false imprisonment would
be brought against mister Wyath. She added, a summer in
the tombs is worth more than that you can bet unquote,

(01:27:56):
that was an acid bath for the suffer, just the
Lillian Sheeb mystery, called from the historic pages of the
New York World and other newspapers of the era. True
Crime Historian is a creation of popular media opening theme

(01:28:17):
by Nico Vitesi. Incidental music by Nico Vitesi, Chuck Wiggins,
and Dave SAMs. Some music and sound effects license from
podcastmusic dot Com. Closing music by Dave SAMs and Rachel Shatt,
engineered by David Hish, Third Street Music Media Management, and
graphic elements by Sean R. Miller. Jones And as for me,

(01:28:43):
he did a lot of talking and several times contradicted himself.
I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones, signing off for now.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}An Acid Bath For The Suffragist

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

An Acid Bath For The Suffragist

Stuff You Should Know