Anna Towns
Available sources summarized
State police investigated whether adulterated alcohol caused a Philadelphia woman’s death in a West Creek shack near Tuckerton.
What was reported
The couple were living in the shack while a house was being built. Neighbors said they joined others in drinking the prior night. At about 10 the next morning, Towns’s intoxicated husband ran to the Rulon home and said his wife was dead. The brothers found that she had apparently been dead for hours.
Influenza was considered first, but state police suspected poisoned liquor and asked Dr. Brower of Toms River to perform an autopsy. Trooper Stephen A. Hickman of Tuckerton and County Detective Spencer investigated. The husband was held in bail; the OCR does not preserve the amount or autopsy outcome. The source collection title’s “1836” is the street number, not a year.
Source
Unidentified clipping with Tuckerton dateline; headline mentions a body in a shack near Tuckerton and suspected poisoned liquor. Date, publication, and page unknown.