The disappearance of Charles L. Carslake (1933)

Disappearance and search

Carslake left his Columbus home on Thursday, June 22. He was seen the next day buying gasoline from Harry Leeks on the Harrisia–Speedwell–New Gretna road. Searchers covered Harrisia, Jenkins Neck, Sim Place, Martha Furnace and Calico. His coupe was found five miles from Chatsworth, deeply mired off Goose Pond Road, with clothing and an empty gun holster inside; the gun was absent. More than 200 troopers, game wardens and residents joined the effort, assisted by a Lakehurst Navy airplane and the all-metal blimp ZMC-2.

Nearly two weeks later, a reduced party including his sons William and Edward, State Police Corporal Jarvis Wood and Trooper James Scotland found his body beneath three pines near West Papoose Swamp, about seven miles from Chatsworth. An autopsy attributed death to acute cardiac dilation after exhaustion. He was buried at Columbus following services at his home. Reports say he had been in poor health; they also mention a daughter, Sarah, in New York and another son employed at Atlantic City’s Traymore Hotel.

Prohibition connection

Carslake had gained attention after alerting State Police to a rum barge arriving at Adams Wharf on Albert Dentcliffe’s Centerton farm along Rancocas Creek. Troopers arrested about sixty people and seized trucks, cars and liquor reportedly valued above $300,000 after armed guards attempted to resist, burn and scuttle the barge. The source record dates that episode October 2, 1925.

Aftermath of the 1925 raid

The October 1 Adams Wharf raid produced 55 arrests and liquor estimates approaching $500,000. A grand jury then investigated whether Burlington County officers had ignored an advance warning. Prosecutor George Hillman removed Ellis Parker and his aides from the liquor inquiry after detectives Clifford Cain and Arthur Carabine were criticized for failing to act; State Police officer Herman Bading temporarily took charge. Carslake, by then a dismissed federal prohibition agent, became a special county detective. The controversy is relevant to his public career but is not evidence concerning his 1933 death.