The 1929 Bermudian Creek Murder Mystery

 

(The audio version of this story is featured on the Pennsylvania Oddities Podcast. Listen to the episode here)

Shortly after nine o'clock on the morning of Friday, June 28, 1929, William Kennedy was building a new fence on his farm near York Springs when the circling of vultures led to shocking discovery on the banks of Bermudian Creek, about a hundred yards from the old Gettysburg-Harrisburg highway. It was the badly-decomposed body of a nude female lying face-down in the mud, covered with leaves and debris which had washed downstream from a period of recent heavy rains. Most the hair was missing, along with one of the ears, one arm and one leg, yet the nails of the woman's undisturbed fingers were well manicured.

Kennedy notified the authorities and Corporal William Kasparvich and Trooper William B. Favis of the State Police were dispatched to the scene. They determined that the woman was between 25 and 30 years of age, roughly five feet seven inches in height and had weighed about 140 pounds. The skull featured prominent teeth, with one eyetooth from the upper jaw and two molars from the lower jaw missing. They estimated that she had been dead for about a week. 

 

 

Kennedy recalled that, just a few days earlier, he had found a suitcase on his property, a good distance from where the body was discovered, containing women's clothing and several baby pictures. He turned the suitcase over to the police, and they found papers inside with Harrisburg addresses. Despite the decomposed condition of the body, authorities were optimistic that the distinctive dental features and addresses would soon lead to an identification. The Adams County coroner, Dr. Edgar Miller, took charge of the body and performed an autopsy later that afternoon. He found no signs of violence. Only one lung contained water, and in such a small amount that it was impossible to determine if the victim had drowned.

A Remarkable Coincidence

It was initially believed the remains were those of an 18-year-old Steelton woman, Emma Horvay, who had left her two-year-old child at home on Sunday, June 23, and hadn't been seen since. Emma was known to have prominent teeth, one missing eyetooth, and was also missing two molars. The coroner's autopsy also revealed a scar on the victim's left side, while Emma had a surgical scar on her left side. Emma's father, John Horvay, was notified by Adams County authorities and traveled to the morgue at the county almshouse to identify the body but announced, with immense relief, that it was not his daughter. Upon his return to Steelton, he found Emma safely at home. 

 
Murder, Declare Authorities

While investigating the spot where the body was found, detectives found that the weeds and plants around the body showed signs of being trampled, leading them to believe that the woman was a victim of foul play. Days earlier, Mrs. Hiram Bream of York Springs found an inexpensive brown overnight bag along the creek but thought nothing of it at the time. After hearing about the discovery of the body, Mrs. Bream directed police to the location of the bag, which contained slips of paper with several names, addresses and telephone numbers. Mrs. Bream also told police that, on the evening of Saturday, June 22, he heard a woman's shill scream in the direction of the creek.

Thanks to Mrs. Bream's discovery and the clues contained inside the overnight bag, police were confident that they knew the identity of the victim-- a 27-year-old deaf mute and mother of four from Harrisburg named Carrie Shellenberger Weiss who hadn't been seen or heard from since June 22. Police notified Carrie's sisters, Mary Donnelly of Boiling Springs and Sarah Allwine of Hummelstown, and they went to view the remains. They both identified the body as that of Carrie Weiss. Later a third sister, Bertha Brownewell, would also view the remains and make the same identification.

The victim's husband, Clarence, who was also a deaf mute, viewed the remains but said that he wasn't sure if the body was that of his missing wife. According to Sarah Allwine, her sister had left the home of her father-in-law, Harrisburg coal dealer William H. Weiss, to go shopping and never returned. Clarence and Sarah were detained by police for further questioning.

Suspicion Falls on Husband

On the afternoon of June 29, Clarence Albert Weiss made history, in a strange way, by becoming the first murder suspect in Pennsylvania history interrogated by a sign language interpreter. At the office of District Attorney John Butt, under the direction of Corporal Kasparvich, Weiss was questioned for five hours by Bessie Lutz, who had learned sign language twenty years earlier to communicate with her deaf parents. Annabelle Boyd, the district attorney's stenographer, took notes of the interrogation.

According to Clarence Weiss, on the evening of her Saturday, June 22, he drove Carrie to a shoe store at Fourth and Market Streets before going to the bathing beach at City Island, arriving there around six o'clock and returning home at eight. He asked his father if Carrie had returned and upon being informed that she had not, Clarence went to see a movie. When he returned at around eleven o'clock and found that she still had not returned, Clarence said he grew frantic. William Weiss telephoned the police and local hospitals. Around midnight Clarence went to bed, and inside a dresser drawer he found a note from his wife, reading: "When you read this I will be on my way west on my honeymoon with another man." Clarence said that his friends had previously warned him that his wife was seen "riding around" with a man from Hazleton.

When shown the brown overnight bag, Clarence admitted that it belonged to his wife and that she had been carrying it when he drove her to the shoe store. "Are you sure that you didn't take your wife out on the Harrisburg Pike and dump her off at the creek?" asked Corporal Kasparvich. "No, sir," Weiss replied. He said that he wasn't even convinced that the body found on the banks of Bermudian Creek was that of his wife. His wife had lighter hair, Weiss said, and the teeth weren't at all the same. He said that she was wearing a yellow dress on the night she was last seen.

William Weiss was also questioned and told police that his daughter-in-law had threatened to drown herself on several previous occasions because she "had no friends" and was "tired of life". He said that Carrie's sisters never visited her, and that she had become the black sheep of the family. Sarah Allwine disputed these claims, of course, and told police that-- contrary to Mr. Weiss' statement-- Carrie and Clarence were not happily married. She said that when Clarence had visited Mary Donnelly's home the day after Carrie's disappearance, he was accompanied by another woman, who was also a deaf mute.

 
We Don't Want to Bury a Mistake

William also said that Clarence and Carrie had a habit of disappearing from home without telling anyone of their whereabouts or activities. Two years earlier the couple had left the area for six months, eventually returning to William's home at 1622 Market Street in Harrisburg. They did not say where they had been. William Weiss said that his daughter-in-law was often moody and temperamental, frequently spending entire afternoons alone in her room, avoiding Clarence as well as their four children. While Clarence had lost almost all of his faculties of speech and hearing entirely, Carrie was able to vocalize in a shrill voice, but was otherwise unable to speak. The couple had met while they were both attending the Mt. Airy School for the Deaf and Dumb in Philadelphia.

 

Mt. Airy Campus, Philadelphia School for the Deaf and Dumb

 

When questioned by reporters, William Weiss insisted that the body was not that of his daughter-in-law. "We don't want to bury a mistake," he said to the Harrisburg Telegraph. "I'll admit that the handbag is the one Carrie had when she left the house Saturday night, but it could have fallen from an automobile and did not have to be placed there." He claimed that he attempted to view the body in Gettysburg, but was told that the remains were too decomposed. He was only allowed to view the hair and teeth. "I did compare a switch of Carrie's hair we had at home with some of her hair and it is not the same," he said. "Carrie had hard straight hair and this hair was soft and silky and sort of curly. I started this investigation when I heard of the contents of that handbag, and I have carried it as far as I can go, and I am positive that it is not our daughter-in-law.

"I've laid all my cards on the table. If my son did this, he should be punished, but in the first place it isn't my son's wife," he insisted. "Even if it should be her, my son could not have had time to do anything to her. He left here at six o'clock and came back at 8:30 or 8:45. We have proof to that. Something like this would have had to be done in the dark, and it was light at that time.

"We measured the distance yesterday to where the body was found and he would have had time to drive there, but it was still daylight. He says he was swimming and when he came home, he had a wet bathing suit." There is no rule, of course, that says murders must be committed under the cover of darkness, and if Clarence had drowned his wife in the creek, this would certainly account for the wet bathing suit. 

Seeking Clues and a Motive

On July 1, with water levels receding after the June rainstorms, District Attorney Butt and Troopers R.W. Frutchey and J.M. Kavanaugh patrolled the banks of Bermudian Creek in search of clues. They located a yellow dress hanging on a barbed wire fence, along with a pair of gray stockings and a flowered handkerchief in the surrounding thicket. Later that afternoon, a hammer-- the kind that came in an automotive took kit-- was discovered at the bottom of the creek. The small amount of rust on the tool wiped off easily, indicating it had only been in the water for a few days. A black high-heeled shoe was also found in the creek. A second autopsy was performed that day by Coroner Miller, but, once again, he could find no evidence of injury or drowning. Coroner Miller turned over the remains to Gettysburg funeral directors H.B. Bender & Son for burial, and the funeral was held on the afternoon of July 2. Carrie Weiss was buried in an unmarked grave at Evergreen Cemetery in a lot purchased by her sisters.

That same day, police also compared the lock of hair which William Weiss had insisted was proof that the Bermudian Creek victim and his daughter-in-law were not the same and reached an entirely different conclusion-- they told the press that the hair was indeed a perfect match. Suspecting that the note which Clarence Weiss claimed to have found in the dresser might be a fake, state police called in a handwriting expert. Clarence Weiss then changed his tune and admitted that the body was indeed that of his wife.

Authorities looked into the husband's background. Clarence, who delivered coal for his father, was an expert truck driver and had often made deliveries in the area where the body was found. Ben Carter, a local farmer, told police that he saw Clarence Weiss in an automobile on June 24 near the spot where the body was found. Carter picked Weiss out of a line-up of 31 prisoners from the Adams County jail. But just as it appeared that their prime suspect would be released from custody on habeas corpus proceedings, shocking information about the husband's past came to light.

Clarence Weiss

 

An Accomplished Thief

On July 8, Clarence Weiss admitted to state police that he had stolen three automobiles in Harrisburg within the past year. Weiss admitted to the auto thefts in the district attorney's office after police decided, on a whim, to check the ownership of the vehicle he had driven to Gettysburg before being taken into custody. It was revealed that this car had been stolen on May 20 from the Dauphin Motor Car Company in Harrisburg. The first theft had taken place about a year earlier, and the car was also stolen from the same dealer. Weiss abandoned this vehicle shortly before stealing another. This vehicle was later abandoned on Swatara Street.

The morning after making his confession, Weiss attempted suicide inside his cell at the state police barracks in Harrisburg, where he had been taken for further questioning concerning the auto thefts. He was found a little after noon lying in a semi-conscious condition on the floor. Around his neck was one end of a broken belt, the other end he had fastened to one of the bars of the cell. Captain Sout of the state police requested an examination of Weiss' sanity by a lunacy commission. The commission, composed of doctors H.B. Walters, Frank Reckord and Lewis Kunkle, met at the Gettysburg barracks on the afternoon of July 10 and examined Weiss. They concluded that Weiss was in need of psychiatric treatment, and he was sent to the Harrisburg State Hospital.

Meanwhile, police announced they had found numerous discrepancies in Weiss' story. Clarence claimed to have seen a movie on the night of his wife's disappearance, but when asked to write out the plot of the movie he had seen, it did not match any pictures being shown in Harrisburg theaters.

The Coroner's Inquest

On Wednesday, July 17, Coroner Miller held an inquest at the Adams County courthouse. Among those called to testify were William Kennedy, on whose farm the body was found, Mrs. Hiram Bream, Dr. Ralph Wickersham, a Gettysburg dentist, and Dr. H.M. Hartman, who assisted with the autopsy. Corporal Kasparvich provided photos of the body and exhibited items recovered from the stream banks. William Weiss testified and refuted the claim that the body was that of his daughter-in-law. Despite William's assertions, the jury concluded that the victim was Carrie Weiss, who had come to her death "by an unknown means and at an undetermined time and place." Despite mounds of circumstantial evidence, there was no proof that a murder had been committed within the boundaries of Adams County. District Attorney Butts declined to file any charges and the probe into Carrie's death was dropped.

While the inquest produced no new information, Clarence was not off the hook by any means. Upon his release from Harrisburg State Hospital on October 1, Weiss was returned to the Dauphin County Jail to face auto theft charges. After he pleaded guilty on October 21, Judge Frank B. Wickersham directed District Attorney Robert T. Fox to appoint another lunacy commission. Unless the commission found him insane, Weiss would be sent to the Eastern Penitentiary. His attorney, Earl Compton, asked the judge for leniency, claiming that his client was not insane, but merely "mentally deficient". The judge was unmoved and said that, unless Weiss was sent to Farview State Hospital, he would deal him the sentence he deserved.

The commission, comprised of the same physicians who had ruled him insane after his suicide attempt, reached a different conclusion on November 7, declaring that Weiss was "mentally defective with criminal tendencies but not a fit subject for the Farview Hospital for the Criminally Insane." Judge Wickersham, who had the power to overrule the lunacy commission's decision, said that he would give the matter more thought before pronouncing sentence. On November 25, Judge Wickersham sentenced Clarence Weiss to 1-2 years at the county poor farm. 

Justice Unserved

When District Attorney Butts of Adams County dropped his probe into the death of Carrie Weiss, the state police also abandoned their investigation. As a result, it was never determined whether or not the note Clarence had found in his dresser drawer was authentic or a forgery. But if the note had been proven to be a fake, would it have made any difference? If Carrie really did write that note and elope with another lover, it might have established a possible motive for murder, which might have strengthened the case against Clarence Weiss. On the other hand, a forged note could be viewed as a murderer's clever attempt to prove that the victim was still out there somewhere amongst the living.

In all likelihood, the results of the handwriting analysis would've been just be one more piece of circumstantial evidence pointing the finger at the husband. But just like Weiss' wet clothing, his lies about his whereabouts on the night of Carrie's disappearance, his familiarity with the route between Harrisburg and Gettysburg, his criminal past, and his father's refusal to positively identify the remains, such circumstantial evidence was not regarded by Adams County and state authorities as substantial enough to prove probable cause. Was Clarence Albert Weiss-- despite being "mentally deficient"-- intelligent enough to get away with murder? Unfortunately, we will probably never know. 

Clarence Weiss later moved to Binghamton, New York, where he found work as a chauffeur. In October of 1934 he married Manila Vaughn of Binghamton and, interestingly, put down on his marriage license application that it was his first marriage. In fact, on the form where it asks "former wife or wives living or dead", Clarence curiously chose to leave this space blank. Clarence eventually returned to Dauphin County, taking up residence with his second wife (or first, as far as he was concerned) at 232 Armstrong Street in Halifax, where he remained until his death in 1970 at the age of 70.

Sources:
Gettysburg Times, June 28, 1929.
Harrisburg Evening News, June 29, 1929.
Franklin Repository, June 29, 1929.
Gettysburg Times, July 1, 1929.
Harrisburg Telegraph, July 1, 1929.
Gettysburg Times, July 2, 1929.
Harrisburg Telegraph, July 9, 1929.
Harrisburg Evening News, July 10, 1929.
Gettysburg Times, July 16, 1929.
Hanover Evening Sun, July 18, 1929.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Oct. 2, 1929.
Harrisburg Evening News, Oct. 21, 1929.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Nov. 7, 1929.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Nov. 25, 1929.