The Trunk Murderess

In the summer of 2011, I was watching an episode of Investigation Discovery’s show Deadly Women (Season 3, Episode 6: “Hearts of Darkness”) on the television. I was surprised (and I admit a little excited) to discover that a horrible and macabre incident had occurred practically under my nose. Shortly after watching this episode, I started to poke around gathering information– it was a task all too easy for a murder over 80 years old. After years of getting side-tracked, I’m finally putting this story to paper for The Witching Hour’s 2013 “Murderous May”.

Be forewarned, this story is of a gruesome nature and contains one photograph which may be disturbing to some readers.

The trunks in which the bodies of the two murder victims were stuffed. (Photo from Arizona Memory Library Archive)

DISCOVERY AT THE TRAIN DEPOT

Two heavy black and silver trunks lay in baggage claim at Los Angeles Union Station. The first trunk, a large packer trunk (40″x24″x38″), and its contents had weighed an exceptional 235 pounds. The second trunk, a steam trunk (15″x18″x36″) weighed under 200 pounds. The unusual heaviness of the trunks was what first aroused suspicions of baggage agent George Brooker as he checked baggage from the Golden State Limited from Phoenix, Arizona. It was October 19, 1931 and, at the height of prohibition, the railroads had been instructed to keep an eye out for contraband such as Thompson submachine guns and bootleg liquor. But baggage agent Brooker knew something was different about these particular suitcases because they had the nauseating smell of putrefaction and were leaking a dark liquid that a baggage handler in Phoenix had mistaken as medicine.

Brooker told his boss, baggage agent Jim Anderson, about the suspicious baggage. When the owner of the luggage arrived just before noon that day and made latent claim to the seeping trunks, the claim agents refused to release the trunks unless the owner opened them. When Winnie Ruth Judd declined to open the suitcases and quickly left the scene and her baggage behind, Anderson rang up the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Lieutenant Frank Ryan responded to the call and, upon arrival, he picked the lock on the larger of the two trunks.

The smell of rot washed over Ryan as he opened the lid of the trunk. Probing deeper, lifting a layer of rags and clothing, he was soon staring into the vacant eyes of a dead woman.

Murderous May: Killer Blood

This month, The Witching Hour is once again showcasing murders. Murders are interesting because the only person who knows what REALLY happened was the murderer. In most cases, the victim of the crime is deceased and cannot give their side of the story. Though, that is changing a little as forensic science develops and new evidence on cold cases is found. The most recent development in forensics is to use the blood of convicted murderers to match DNA of cold case crimes fitting the profile of the crime to evidence gathered at these unsolved crime scenes.

This photo taken Friday, Nov. 30, 2012, in Chicago shows three vials of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy’s blood recently discovered by Cook County Sheriff’s detective Jason Moran. The sheriff’s office is creating DNA profiles from the blood of Gacy and other executed killers and putting them in a national DNA database of profiles created from blood, semen, or strands of hair found at crime scenes and on the bodies of victims. What they hope to find is evidence that links the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases and prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates and maybe evidence from decades-old crime scenes to help them solve their own cases. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Serial Murderer John Wayne Gacey, the widely traveled Clown Killer, left behind vials of blood which police are trying to get permission to use for the purposes of seeing if Gacey left behind any other victims that were not credited to him. If police are allowed to create a database of serial murderers’ DNA, it might assist police in reducing their cold case files– at least for more recent crimes. As it is, police are extremely lucky to have vials of Gacey’s blood which they can use. Blood collected as evidence cannot be used. The blood must be or have been collected by a coroner or medical examiner. Police have already used this technique to connect one unsolved murder to John Wayne Gacey.

It’s almost fitting that we here at Witching Hour celebrate the month of May with stories of murder. This afternoon on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, Jodi Arias was convicted of the first degree murder of Travis Alexander (June 4, 2008). This may not be interesting to some, but the whole thing happened in my backyard. Arizona is a death penalty state, so it is possible that Arias will not be spending life in prison.

Live News Feed- Jodi Arias Interview (May 8, 2013 ONLY)

Sources:
* AP News Break: Gacey’s Blood May Solve Old Murders

French family blames ghosts for injuries

MENTQUE-NORTBECOURT, France, April 25 (UPI) – A French family said they have sustained injuries from flying objects at their home, which they believe to be haunted by ghosts.

The residents of the home in Mentque-Nortbecourt said a family member was hospitalized earlier this month after being struck by a chair in the face and a soap tray in the back, The Local.fr reported Thursday.

Full story

New Orleans Vampire Murder: The Real Story Televised

Those of you who follow this blog might be interested to know that one of the stories we mentioned here at The Witching Hour blog is part of a TV series on Investigation Discovery (ID). The story was about Shawn Johnson. Here on the blog it’s titled New Orleans Vampire Murder: A Lesson in Truth. (Please note: This episode has nothing to do with our blog entry other than a shared topic.)

The Investigation Discovery (ID) network has a show called “Dead of Night”. They aired an episode titled “Bourbon Street Bloodbath” regarding this phantasmagorical murder on Tuesday, March 26, 2013.
A clip from the show titled “He Heard Screaming” is/was available here:
http://investigation.discovery.com/tv-shows/dead-of-night

If you have the ID channel, you can see when the “Bourbon Street Bloodbath” episode airs by going to this website:
http://investigation.discovery.com/tv-shows/dead-of-night/tv-schedule.htm

Jadewik’s Author Update

You may have noticed this place has been more than a little “dead” lately… for me, at least, there are a few really, really good reasons. I do have stories that I’m working on in an effort to produce some back-log… but, really, the main reason I haven’t been posting a lot is because I’m expecting my first minion. Unfortunately, things haven’t been going so well for me. My energy has waned and, most recently, I’ve been admitted to the hospital for complications per a condition called “pre-eclampsia.” (I call it “baby poisoning”). The short version is that my future offspring is slowly killing me and the doctors are letting him kill me so his chances of survival increase. It’s a strange balance of medicine and might… reversible only when the baby is born (plus some recovery time).

Naturally, I haven’t had much time to write… or do research for the blog. However, being forced to be in the hospital now… and probably for some 2-6 weeks longer (whenever the baby comes out) I might have time to go through some of the notes and research for stories I’ve already looked into writing about. Who knows… maybe I’ll actually build up a decent back log and get this place rolling again.

In the meantime, I appreciate all our faithful readers for being so patient. I write because I enjoy sharing the things I learn… and I love to share them with you all because I love telling stories.

Since I’ll have extra time on my hands… if there is anything we haven’t covered here at Witching Hour that you’ve heard about or something you’d like us to look into, don’t hesitate to comment!

Happy New Year!