Times Herald from Washington, District of Columbia (2024)

July 1, 1951

Publication:

Times Heraldi

Location:

Washington, District of Columbia

Issue Date:

Sunday, July 1, 1951

Page:

81

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

lem of either proving additional crimes or of locating all those persons now missing with whom Lorena and Bassett were known to have associated three husbands and Liz zie Cavanaugh came in for particular scrutiny But the excitement lessened when the threehusbands were accounted for (the first was found to have died naturally in New York the second was found alive in New York and the third alive in Chicago) and then Lizzie Cava see me of her own free will and tell you iwhyXthinkoiums aW visit one She was here in April too along with another woman a Mrs Lizzie Cavanaugh Bothwanted to sell me their own bodies bor rowing the money in advance and having Yale receive the collateral after they were dead It may be that some medical schools make such deals but Yale I told them as much and they went away Mrs Alexander seemed obsessed with the idea of somehow earning money out of bodies for later in April she wrote me she knew where she could obtain three I thought she meant by robbing graves and when I answered her I pointed put that this was a very serious Dr Sanford still had letter and he produced it Armed with the missive Marsh and Arnold took the woman back to I ESS than a week after tne discovery of Affeinbucker's body rank Bassett changed his story Instead of denying that murder had taken place in the old carriage factory he admitted that it had but took a leaf from book by charging that she alone had committed it and that he had been her unwill ing accessory in disposing of the body cowed intp doing so because it had been she who had carried the loaded pistol bought the sajd Bassett I only intended using it to clggn a suit I was 'asleep in another room Lorena soaked a sponge with If and i bucker But I say I was too surprised Lorena had been talking for months about killing people and selling their bodies Those gone I considered reporting "HersTttothepolicerTha the papers closely for the next several days there was no mention of a murder or anyone missing in Bent on questioning the doctor Chief Marsh and Detective Arnold left for New Haven taking Lorena Alexander 'with them Their route was by way of Shelton and Derby for now they planned to have Lorena point out to them if she could the ravine in which she claimed rank Bassett nad thrown Jack body or a fvfig while it appeared either that the woman had certainly been lying or that her ability to orient her self wasgrievously aUaultf or although she indicated several ravines repeated searches produced nothing Stolen Wallet IN ALLY near the community of Oronoque Lorena suddenly rose up in the seat of the surrey in whichjhey were traveling and cried: "There down that embankment! sure this is the Once again the officers halted their rig and proceeded to hunt The embankment covered with underbrush sloped down to a brook and there at the edge wedged between two trees was found the shattered barrel with a body among its hoops and staves Hours later in New Haven while Lorena rested at the local police headquarters the Bridgeport officers went to see Dr Sanford The anatomy professor repeated what told the newspaper reporter and then added further information which gave the case a dramatw "In July when Mrs Alexander called on he said didn't in the least behave like a woman acting under compulsion If It was Bassett who was sitting out in the wagon and if she had been afraid of him she could have sought protection from me No gentle men in my opinion Mrs Alexander came to Bridgeport and charged both her and Bassett with the Weinbucker killing The next day rederick Stevens a Bridgeport druggist came forward to declare that on July 12 Bas sett had purchased a 2 ounce bottle Of Chloro form from him and that a few weeks before that Lorena had attempted to buy arsenic at his store but had been denied it since she could give no reasonable explanation of why she wanted it When these facts and letter to Dr Sanford were published in the newspapers the story gave rise to a great Hurry of excite ment not only in Bridgeport but all up and down the coast The statement that three bodies were available to Iter made it appear that perhaps she and Bassett had murdered not Weinbucker alone but others In supportof this it had placed the time of the Weinlrjek'r killing in May or June when actually it could not have occurred until at least July 12 Her mistake was attriouted to the possibility she confused the old sailor murder with one she and Bassett had committed earlier Thus the police were faced with the prob she had in mind were Bill Clay that ex hus band of hers who lives in New York Thomas Baker her son in law and an old woman we knew who takes in With the two whp had once been com panions now bitterly avvsing each other State's Attorney Olmstead made presentments to the grand which resulted in both being indicted for Jack murder Lorena was tried in October and Bassett in ebruary of the following year 1879 The two juries brought in identical ver dicts guilty of murder in the second degree Both defendants received life sentences which they served in fuil Lorena remained in the penitentiary at Wethersfield until 1902 when she was trans ferred to the Middletown State Hospital for the Criminal Insane and there she died tliefithtTTMd'fiVm 84 But like Lorena he also lost his reason After 59 years of imprisonment he died in the Middletown institution on Nov 26 1937 Next week another strwy from the Album of amous Mysteries If you like ice creamyoull LOVE ROSTEE Watch how your family goes for MAKES 5 TO 8 SERVINGS on NOW! 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