The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-11-03
Furnace Murders Are Rare With
Friends Failing to Mask Evidence
Staying by Fire Most Horrify-
ing Crime Form That
Presents Self
Only Two Cases Over. 80 Year
Period Have Ended in
Mystery

InlcAgO, NOV. O.-MuIQer Oy lire
is the most shocking, horrifying
form Of crime that ever presents it.
self to the public.
1t is rare. Era of murders rs the
present age seems to be, the cases
in which victims have been burned
to death, or in which bodies Of VIC
Tins have been cremated by the
murderer after death, are almost
rare enough to count on the fingers
of one hand.
The mysterious, amazing case of
Miss Elfrieda Grace Knaak, fatally
burned in a furnace in the basement
of the Lake Bluff city hall, is the
latest in the short list.
Miss -knaak insisted she herself
thrust first her arms and then her
legs into the flames, holding them
there until they were charred to the
bone, in confused sort of "ordeal
by fire" to test her psychic love"
for Charles w. Hitchcock, married
policeman.
!, Authorities, however, are openly
skeptical, and insist some man must
have forced her into the flames.
They have no clews to work on,
though, and the case may end a mys-
terry.
Ohio Case Parallels
In 1924, in Columbus, O., there was
a somewhat parallel case, when the
body of Mrs. C. V. Sheatsley, So
year-old wife Of a Lutheran minis
ter, was found in the furnace of their
home.
The Rev. Sheatsley had been away
from home all afternoon. Their four
children had left Mrs. Sheatsley in
the house at 1880 p. nn., and the first
to return was son, Milton. He
reached the house at 3:15, and his
mother was nowhere to be seen.
Half an hour later the other chill
dren came home, and all noticed the
odor of burning flesh. A son. Clar-
ence, aged 16, went to the basement.
opened the furnace door, and
looked in.
He was so excited he said nothing
about it to anyone, explaining later
that he wanted somebody else to be
the first to break the news. 1t was
more than an hour later before the
minister returned home; he went
downstairs, opened the furnace, and
made the CHASTITY discovery. He
called the police at once.
Days of investigation followed
The police made certain that none
Of the family had returned to the
house between 100, when Mrs.
Sheatsley was last seen alive, and
3:15, when Milton came back. No
one had seen any stranger enter the
place. There were no clews to in
dictate that anyone had broken in.
Yet it seemed impossible to be-
lieve that a 5O-year-old woman could
have crawled into the firebox Of a
furnace in which strong fire was
burning, shut the door after her. and
deliberately lain down there to die
in the most painful manner imag-
Unable. No solution Of the mystery
was ever reached.
Into Furnace Alive
In New York, in 1925, there was
murder by fire which. while the ele-
ment Of mystery was lacking. made
quite as much stir as the present
case.
George Symuk, a big, burly night
Waterman in a lumber yard, was
pursuing a sordid amour with Mrs.
Sophie Poleski, who was leaving her
husband every evening to slip out
and meet Symuk in the empty office
Of the lumber yard, set back from
the street behind big piles of boards
that made it as private as two clan
destine lovers could wish. Every
night Mrs. Poleski would bring him
a bottle of wine, and he would give
her some money.
At last, however, Symuk became
suspicious, in dull, vengeful way.
He believed that Mrs. Poleski was
going to get all his money and then
poison him in the wine she brought
him. So one night when she entered
the office he struck her over the
head with hammer. The blow
stunned her. Symuk dragged her
downstairs to the basement, where
there was big furnace with fire
box some six or seven feet long.
Into the flames he pushed her, while
her piercing screams rang out in the
little room. He slammed the door
shut, and returned upstairs.
As he was going up, however, a
policeman entered. The officer had
been passing through the lumber
yard and heard the screams. Over
Symuk's protests he went to the
basement. Unable to find anything.
he drew his revolver and ordered
Symuk to tell what had happened.
Dumb with fear, Symuk could only
point to the furnace. The officer
threw open the door-and saw the
woman's charred body.
Symuk was arrested, and made a
full confession.
Bluebeard Cremated Victims
In 1922 Henri Landru, Frances
notorious bluebeard, was guillotined
after the astounding revelations of
his wholesale murders at his villa.
Most Of his victims had been Gre
mated; however, Landru apparently
made sure that they were dead be-
fore putting them in the flames.
A somewhat similar case occurred
in New York in 1910, when Albert
W. Wolter was arrested for the
murder Of 15-year-old Ruth Wheeler.
He had lured the girl to his apart
ment through q newspaper adver-
tisement asking for stenographer;
then he had attacked her, stran9led
her, and thrust her body into his
fireplace. Throughout most Of the
night. with shades closely drawn.
Wolter attempted to cremate her