Pine Barrens Field Notes: outside research, connections, and leads

Working notes, 2026-09-05. Written from sources outside the notebook (court opinions, Chronicling America OCR, Find a Grave, county histories, news archives). Nothing here has been merged into entry/ pages; each item names the entry it bears on so it can be folded in later. Treat newspaper OCR quotations as transcriptions to be checked against the page image.

1. Cases resolved or materially advanced

Henry Rider payroll attack, Atsion, October 5, 1916 → rider-henry-cranberry-king-1916

The notebook clipping stops at the posse. The rest of the story is on Chronicling America.

  • Who A. J. Rider was. Andrew Jackson Rider, founder of what is now Rider University (Trenton Business College), born Genoa, Livingston County, Michigan; left the school in 1873 to grow cranberries; about 500 acres near Hammonton; styled the “Cranberry King of New Jersey.” Source: Rider University past-presidents page. Henry D. Rider is reported as “of Howell, Mich.” (Howell is the Livingston County seat, so “Lowell” in the notebook is an OCR or reporter error). Rider was president of the New Jersey (some papers say American) Cranberry Growers’ Association.
  • The car. Mrs. Elsie Smathers was Rider’s daughter, not an unrelated driver; she took two bullets and kept driving. A fourth occupant, James N. Rigby, a Rider bog foreman, was also wounded. Rider, Smathers and Rigby recovered at Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia. Payroll was about $5,000 for roughly 300 pickers at Hampton Park. Papers describe the attackers as 11 or 12 men from a Pennsylvania-plated car.
  • Arrests. Within a day Philadelphia police held Millie (Mille) de Marco, 19, described as a Rider bog employee who “knew the movements of Mr. Rider on pay-days” and was cast as the plot’s engineer, plus Giuseppe Russo, chauffeur Frank Vessela, and Frank Ladona. (Topeka State Journal, Clarksburg Daily Telegram, New Britain Herald, Montgomery Advertiser, all Oct. 6–7, 1916, AP wire; New-York Tribune Oct. 6, 1916 p.1 “Cranberry King” headline.)
  • Outcome. Mount Holly News, April 3, 1917, p.3, “Guilty of Murder”: a Burlington County jury convicted Giovanni Iraco of first-degree murder without recommendation for killing Henry D. Rider, before Judge Kalisch with Judge Lippincott sitting. One juror initially refused on capital-punishment grounds and was sent back. The article says a second indicted man’s trial opened that week. Iraco (also printed Iraca, and “Fraca” in a Trenton chronology) was electrocuted at Trenton on Feb. 19, 1918; full arc in section 5a below.
  • Link across entries. Rider & Wilkinson’s bogs at Hampton Gate are where Giuseppe Merchurio worked and died in 1907 (see below), and Beck’s “Wilkerson and Ryder bogs” in the Tuckerton Road entry are the same operation. Per an NJPB Forums thread, Charles Wilkinson bought Rider out and owned the farm outright at his death around 1930; heirs sold to Goodrich and the Claybergers (Clayberger & Goodrich). The 1937 Joe Rego body was found, in the reporter’s own words, in the same area as the Rider killing.

James I. Wainwright murder, 1884 → wainright-james-1884-bamber

  • Verdict: Toms River, Feb. 28, 1885. Jury found Elson K. Rockwell guilty of murder in the second degree; Mrs. Julia Jane Wainwright, daughter Mary Emma, and sons George and Charles acquitted and discharged. Judge Van Syckel sentenced Rockwell to twenty years at hard labor in state prison. The jury had stood 8–4 for first degree when it went out. Prosecutor was District Attorney Middleton; defense by ex-Judge Hoffman. (New-York Tribune, March 1, 1885, p.1, “Twenty Years for Rockwell”; Bridgeton Pioneer, March 5, 1885, p.1; Monmouth Inquirer, March 5, 1885.)
  • Background and aftermath from Steven J. Baeli, “The Murder of James I. Wainwright: Victim of Love,” Ocean County Cultural & Heritage Commission newsletter, Spring 2011 (PDF on co.ocean.nj.us): Wainwright was a Civil War private, Co. A, 38th Infantry, member of A. E. Burnside GAR Post No. 59 above Naylor’s Saloon, Toms River; wife Julia Jane Estlow; children Adelaide, Mary Emma, Catherine (d. typhoid), George, Charles, Hooper. Rockwell’s affair with Julia began about 1875 after Rockwell’s wife Emily died; Wainwright’s campaign against Rockwell cost him the 1881 sheriff nomination. Rockwell served about six years, returned, died 1901, and is buried roughly 25 feet from Wainwright in Riverside Cemetery, Toms River (this confirms the notebook’s unverified cemetery note). Julia, George and Hooper are buried in Monmouth County. Baeli was working on a book of Ocean County murders and runs ochistory.org; worth contacting.
  • Earlier coverage: Bridgeton Pioneer Sept. 25, 1884 p.1 (arrests, including neighbor “Jeff” Thompson, whom the notebook does not name); New-York Tribune Oct. 13, 1884 p.2 (long feature on ex-Sheriff Robbins’ tracking).

Craig Bender, Beachwood, 1940 → bender-craig-1940

Resolved. Evening Star (Washington), Dec. 22, 1940, p.2, AP from Beachwood Dec. 21: a deer hunter found the skeleton of 3-year-old Craig Bender two miles from the summer home; he had disappeared July 18, 1940. Father Alfred W. Bender of Elizabeth identified clothing and said he was satisfied the boy became lost and died in the woods. Investigating: County Detective Charles Feeney, the same Ocean County detective who worked the 1942 Pine Lake Park crossing deaths (whiting-station-train-accident-1942). Earlier wire coverage: Washington Daily News July 20, 1940 p.5; Henderson Daily Dispatch July 27, 1940.

David F. Paul, 1920 → paul-david-f-1920

  • State v. Schuck, 96 N.J.L. 154 (E. & A., June 20, 1921), affirms Raymond W. Schuck’s first-degree conviction; companion case State v. James, 96 N.J.L. 132. The opinion confirms the “James” of the notebook is Frank J. James and the OCR-damaged “Schuck” is Raymond W. Schuck, that James testified against Schuck as a confessed accomplice, and that a “no women on the jury” challenge failed.
  • Both were executed August 30, 1921 (Trenton), Camden County (Wikipedia NJ executions list; Tabernacle Historical Society “Tales of Murder and Mayhem”).
  • Tabernacle Historical Society credits Ellis Parker’s tannic-acid reasoning (body preserved by tannery runoff, proving death 10 days before discovery) with breaking the alibis. Wikipedia’s Parker article calls this his “Pickled Corpse” case. So the notebook’s Paul case and the famous Parker case are the same.
  • Ocean County NJ History blog transcribes New Jersey Mirror Feb. 6, 1921 on the Schuck trial (“Mysterious Mary” witness; money hidden at Evergreen Cemetery).

Merchurio / Schiavo, 1907–08 → merchurio-giuseppe-atsion-1907

Mount Holly News, March 10, 1908, p.3, “Alleged Murderer Arrested”: Antonio Schiavo, under indictment for murdering his companion Guisseppe Mercurio of Brooklyn, arrested January 2 in the province of Salerno; Prosecutor Atkinson learned of it from Felice Ronca, Royal Consular Agent at Trenton; the two had worked the Hampton Gates bogs in the fall picking season; on October 27 they went gunning with Mercurio’s gun; Mercurio carried over $800 (the notebook clipping says $200). The Italian trial verdict is still not found; Italian court records (Salerno, 1908–09) or the State Department consular correspondence would be the next stop.

Bradway Brown, 1933 → brown-bradway-1937-murdered, brown-bradway-palmyra-shot-1933

  • Wider frame. Brown was a childhood friend and neighbor of Ruth Wilson and former suitor of hers; Wilson and Horace “Reds” Roberts Jr., both 24, were found shot in her bedroom at 515 Chester Avenue, Moorestown, in June 1929. Ellis Parker ruled it murder-suicide although Roberts had four head wounds and reportedly no powder residue. Prosecutor George Hillman was a Wilson family friend. Rumors held that Brown had told people he knew who really killed them and may have made anonymous calls accusing Wilson’s father. This is the subject of Annie McCormick, Restless Ghosts: Murder, Suicide, and the Case That Wouldn’t Stay Buried (Camino Books, 2026); see Inquirer, June 15, 2026, and South Jersey Media (Cinnaminson). The book is the obvious source for the missing “1937” clipping and the pardon petition.
  • Contemporary wire. Evening Star Jan. 18, 1933 p.3 (AP photo caption): Brown, 28, wife Ruth McCauley Brown was visiting Beaver, Pa. Times-News (Hendersonville NC) April 18, 1934 p.3, photo layout: Edward Adamski confessed to being present; Adam Szewczek fired the shots in the garage scuffle; Solomon Lutz, Philadelphia barber, arrested as accomplice for renting the car; pictured with Ellis Parker. Lutz is not in the notebook.
  • Why “1937” might be right after all. Ellis Parker’s own federal trial (Wendel kidnapping) began April 27, 1937, and he was convicted that year, sentenced to six years, died at Lewisburg Feb. 4, 1940. Retrospective coverage of Parker’s cases ran heavily in 1937. A 1937 date on a Brown clipping may simply be a Parker-retrospective piece.

David Beebe, 1907 → beebe-david-1907-murdered

  • New-York Tribune, Nov. 17, 1907, p.10, confirms verdict (Rogers manslaughter, Wells atrocious assault and battery, Simons acquitted) and dates the jury’s retirement to Friday Nov. 15 and verdict to Saturday Nov. 16, 1907.
  • Mount Holly News, May 21, 1907, p.3, prints the indictments: Rogers, Simons, Wells for manslaughter “on the night of April 28”; Harvey Reeves indicted for carrying concealed weapons and was “present when Beebe was assaulted”; Wells, Rogers, Simons and Howard S. Beebe indicted for engaging in an affray before the death. Mount Holly News, June 11, 1907, p.3: Howard S. Beebe of Chairville, “held with three others in connection with the killing of his uncle,” released on $300 bail. So the “Howard Beebe whose relationship needs checking” is the nephew, and he was himself indicted for the affray.
  • Tabernacle Historical Society’s page also lists the case and dates it April 27, 1907 (the party night).

Chattin / Brooksbrae, 1917 → chattin-murders-1917-brooksbrae

  • Full New Jersey Courier (Toms River) text, Oct. 12, 1917, survives on the old Batsto rootsweb site (“Double Murder at Pasadena”); Mount Holly News, Oct. 16, 1917, p.2, reprints it. New details the notebook lacks: Prosecutor Plumer, Sheriff Brown, Coroner Brouwer attended; burial at Tuckerton, “the home of the Chattins”; George Bozarth and Charles Halloway of Chatsworth helped at the fire; a Mr. Biller, Philadelphia manager, kept rooms at the plant; Plazziano was described as Austrian; he had been convicted in 1914 of selling liquor without a license at his shack; a few years earlier a man and woman burned to death in a house across from the plant and relatives then accused Plazziano; Samuel Chattin had worked for Mayor Mathis at Seaside Park as a team driver (matches the 1915 census placement).
  • Genealogy. Find a Grave: Samuel S. Chattin (1876–1944), Greenwood Cemetery, Tuckerton, m. Eva J. Johnson Jan. 1, 1898, West Creek. His parents: William Wood Chattin (1833–1895), Civil War veteran, glass blower then expressman, and Harriet L. Crane Chattin (1843–1924), also Greenwood, Tuckerton. Hannah Harriet was evidently named for her grandmother. Hannah herself has no Find a Grave memorial; she is probably an unmarked burial at Greenwood, Tuckerton. Find a Grave memorial IDs: Samuel 42433855, William 42433909, Harriet 42433780.

Allen Bodine Scott, 1954 → scott-allen-bodine-1954

  • Outcome was never a verdict. Scott v. Plante, 532 F.2d 939 (3d Cir. 1976): indicted in Burlington County for the July 18, 1954 murder of his grandmother; February 1955 jury found him incompetent to stand trial; committed to Trenton State Hospital’s Vroom Building; October 7, 1968 the indictment was dismissed on the ground he was insane when the offense was committed; he remained confined and filed a string of pro se federal suits (later Scott v. Plante, 641 F.2d 117 (1981) and 691 F.2d 634 (1982)). Diagnosis in the record: paranoid schizophrenia. These opinions are a rich, citable source on his later life.
  • Find a Grave: Ellen Cramer Allen Scott (Sept. 23, 1876 – July 18, 1954), Lower Bank Cemetery; husband Asbury Kier Scott (1871–1949, buried Richwood UMC); her father Charles Taylor Allen (1851–1922), Lower Bank. Memorial 150152889.

Theodore Pohlig / Glen Renna → theodore-pohlig-1972-murderer

State v. Dissicini, 126 N.J. Super. 565 (App. Div. 1974), is the appellate record of the Henchmen case. It supplies the full narrative: Renna, 23, a Mongols member wanting to join the Henchmen, stabbed by Hunterson Jan. 7, 1971 at the Magalotti home next to the clubhouse in Berlin Township; Mrs. Magalotti sutured him; he was buried alive or near death and everyone present fired into the grave; exhumed Aug. 17, 1971 after the Magalottis went to authorities Aug. 3, 1971 under immunity. Codefendant Joseph Dissicini Jr. was convicted of second-degree murder. Pohlig’s own verdict is not in this opinion; Camden County criminal records 1972 would have it.

Thomas Mulcahy, 1992 → 1992-bags

This is a Last Call Killer case. Richard W. Rogers Jr. was arrested May 27, 2001 after new fingerprint recovery from the bags, convicted 2005 of murdering Mulcahy and Anthony Marrero, sentenced to life. Mulcahy’s last stop was the Townhouse bar, Manhattan, July 8, 1992. HBO’s Last Call (2023) and Elon Green’s book cover it. The entry should be relabeled from unresolved to solved.

Sidney Reso, 1992 → reso-sidney-kidnapped-1992

Body was recovered June 27–28, 1992 in Bass River State Forest after Irene Seale led agents there; Arthur Seale pleaded guilty, 95 years federal; Irene 20 years. Bass River is also where Soden and Caldwell vanished in 1972 (below). UPI June 28, 1992 archive.

Soden and Caldwell, 1972 → hitchhiking-teens-1972-caldwell-and-soden

State Police release May 14, 2013 (nj.gov/lps/njsp/news/pr051413): remains found 2000 by an off-duty trooper in Bass River State Forest identified as Steven Soden after his sister submitted DNA in 2011 to the Cook County (Gacy) effort. Donald Caldwell is still missing (NamUs; Doe Network 6123DMNJ). The Kilbarchan Home is the Paterson Orphan Asylum Association, which moved to the Kilbarchan estate at 81 East 39th Street in July 1942 and still operates.

Cosa Nostra farm, 1967 → cosa-nostra-farm-1967

Property was on Cook Road, Jackson Township. Sonnessa was from Nutley, business partner of Joseph Vecchio (All State Asphalt; 1960 heroin indictment). The still on the farm had been operated by Joseph “Bayonne Joe” Zicarelli, Bonanno capo; Life, Aug. 9, 1968, covered the Zicarelli case. Kenneth Later’s body was in a drum with hydrochloric acid, missing since April of the prior year. Sources: Shore News Network Feb. 25, 2024; historichorrors.com “Chicken Coop Murders”; thenewyorkmafia.com on Zicarelli.

Carslake, 1933 → carslake-charles-l-1933

NJPB Forums “Pine Barren History Shorts” p.15 gives the recovery date as July 5, 1933, face down in West Papoose Swamp bogs, seven miles from Chatsworth, two miles off any track, found by the party led by sons Edward and William; the .45 was never found. Consistent with the notebook.

Royal Pine Hotel / Pinewald → royal-pine-1930, korman-robert-almost-skeletal-man-berkeley-1972

Timeline (Jersey Shore Online, Berkeley Patch): built 1928–30 by B. W. Sangor, architect W. K. Oltar-Jevsky, opened Nov. 18, 1930; sold at auction 1932 for $21,000; Sangor bankrupt, jailed 1938 with Toms River Trust partner for embezzlement; 1935 Dr. Edward Hazard’s hospital (treated Hindenburg victims 1937); 1947 Dennis Memorial Hospital; 1950 Pinehaven Sanitarium; 1970s Bayview; since 1999 Crystal Lake Healthcare and Rehabilitation. The Capone story is debunked by the local historical society. Robert Korman’s 1972 remains were found in the Pinewald section, within the failed Sangor resort footprint.

2. The Red Lion Motel file is the David Cohen disappearance → cohen, weather-4-20-2015, unidentified-2013

  • David Alan Cohen, 42 (DOB July 31, 1972), of West Virginia, checked into the Red Lion Motel, Route 206, Southampton, on April 20, 2015 while traveling to visit a friend in Lacey Township; bought food at Red Star Pizza that night, appeared alone and in good spirits on video; his locked truck was found at the motel with laptop, unopened phone, suitcase and room key inside; only his keys and he were gone. Reported missing April 22. Still missing; NJSP Red Lion Station, 609-859-2282. Sources: Charley Project; PhillyVoice; NJSP Facebook; ashmysteries.com; Websleuths thread.
  • The weather page (Trenton–Mercer, April 20, 2015) is the overnight of his disappearance: heavy rain 5:53–8:53 a.m., 30 mph gust at 4:53 a.m.
  • The “Unidentified 2013” page is almost certainly Angelina “Angel” Cocuzza, 61, missing from Lumberton Independent Living, Route 38, since January 2013 (dates given as Jan. 7 or Jan. 18). On May 1, 2016 Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue, searching for Cohen, found her badly decomposed body in woods off Route 70 at Hog Farm Road near the Red Lion Circle (Tabernacle/Southampton line). No cause of death was published. Sources: NJ101.5 May 3 and May 7, 2016; NBC10. This links the three empty or thin Red Lion pages into one story: a 2015 disappearance whose search closed a 2013 disappearance.

3. Same-person and same-event hypotheses inside the notebook

  • Joe Rego (1937) and Andrew Canzoneri (1937–38) are very likely the same body. Both: found near Atsion in August 1937, wanted in New York, alias Mancuso (Rego “Andrew J. Mancuso”; Canzoneri “Al Mancuso,” “Gyp”). Canzoneri’s body was found Aug. 20, 1937 (a Friday); the Rego discovery was “late Sunday,” which fits Aug. 22 if that clipping is a Monday paper, or is a one-day slip. Working theory: the body was first identified from a name card as “Joe Rego,” then re-identified as Canzoneri, and his widow Margaret of Nesquehoning exhumed him from Vincentown Baptist Cemetery on Feb. 4, 1938 for reburial at Summit Hill, Pa. Merge candidates. Chronicling America has no 1937 NJ coverage indexed; Pennsylvania anthracite-region papers (Tamaqua, Lansford, Mauch Chunk) for Feb. 1938 are the place to confirm.
  • Nehrwein (two entries) is one woman: New-York Tribune Aug. 9, 1887 p.5 calls her Anna Marie Nehrwein, says the Burlington County coroner planned an inquest the next day, that Prosecutor Hendrickson had no facts to present, that she was “refined and lady-like” but “believed to be nearly, if not entirely, demented,” and that relatives were thought to be in Newburg. Aug. 10, 1887 p.1: John Nehrwein of 96 Avenue B, New York, and sister Mary, an uptown housekeeper, came to Mount Holly and identified their sister Catharine; she had left 96 Avenue B (between 9th and 10th Streets) a year earlier and “required constant attention.” Tabernacle Historical Society lists “Catherine Nehrwein, July 23, 1887, near Hampton Gate.” So: Anna Maria = Catharine/Kate, and the correct newspaper citations for the notebook’s “New York newspaper Aug. 11 p.1, Aug. 12 p.5” may actually be Tribune Aug. 9 p.5 and Aug. 10 p.1 (or another New York daily; Der Deutsche Correspondent of Baltimore ran it Aug. 9–15, a German-language lead worth reading for the brother’s statement).
  • Knopp and Hutchinson (1872): no Chronicling America hit for Bricksburg/pines in 1872 yet; the illustrated paper is probably Frank Leslie’s or the Police Gazette.

4. Recurring people (the “cast”) across entries

Useful for a People index or for spotting which clippings share a source.

Person Role Appears in
Ellis H. Parker Burlington Co. chief of detectives 1894–1937 Reily 1909 (“County Detective Parker”), Paul 1920 (tannic acid), Wilson/Roberts 1929, Bradway Brown 1933–34, Ong’s Hat triple 1934, Bryan 1936 (“Ellis Parker Jr.” per clipping); convicted 1937, d. 1940
Clifford D. Cain Burlington Co. detective, later chief Brown 1933, 1941 Indian Mills body, Morey 1945
Prosecutor Atkinson / Coroner Seeds Burlington Co. Beebe 1907, Merchurio 1907–08, Reily 1909
Russell M. Stoddard Mount Holly coroner 1934 triple, 1941 body, 1956 Clump of Woods man
Dr. John S. Conroy County physician Bryan 1936, 1941 body
Arthur H. Holt Camden Co. coroner Sharp 1931, Sbraccia 1934
Lawrence T. Doran Camden Co. detective chief Sharp 1931, Dorn/Fink 1933
Charles Feeney Ocean Co. detective Bender 1940, Whiting crossing 1942
Lakehurst Navy blimps search assets Carslake 1933 (ZMC-2), Bender 1940 (K-2, L-1), New Lisbon 1954, Slocum 1959
Fort Dix soldiers search assets New Lisbon 1954, Slocum 1959, Luciani 1979
Chatsworth relatives sheltering fugitives/suicides   Woodburn Miller captured at sister Helen Chard’s near Chatsworth 1943; William Kane’s sister on Main St., Chatsworth 1961

Place clusters worth a topic page: Atsion / Indian Mills / Hampton Gate (1880, 1887, 1892, 1907, 1916, 1937 x2, 1941, 1945, 1972); Whiting (1892, 1897, 1904, 1905, 1917, 1936, 1942); Cinnaminson / Palmyra / Moorestown (1894, 1895, 1925, 1929 Wilson-Roberts, 1933); Bass River (1972, 1992); Red Lion (1893 Simons is Indian Mills, 1909 Butler, 1942 Bush, 2015 Cohen, 2016 Cocuzza); Pinewald (1930, 1972).

5. Still open, with the next concrete step

  • Woodburn Miller verdict (1943). No hit in Chronicling America. Try Courier-Post/Burlington County Times microfilm for Feb–Apr 1943, or NJ State Prison inmate registers.
  • Quicklime body (1935). Washington Times Aug. 16, 1935 p.5 is indexed but the OCR did not surface it; Philadelphia papers Aug. 15–20, 1935 are the source. No identification found anywhere online.
  • 1941 Indian Mills body. Nothing online. The Leon & Eddie’s token suggests NYPD Missing Persons; FBI fingerprint request would be a FOIA target.
  • Dorn and Fink (1933). The one indexed hit (Indianapolis Times Sept. 29, 1933) was a false match. Philadelphia Inquirer/Record Sept.–Oct. 1933.
  • Katie Woods (1895). Mount Holly News has items Apr. 23, May 28, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, Dec. 3, 1895 and Mar.–May 1896 that the loc.gov index flags for “John Woods Cinnaminson”; the OCR words didn’t match, so read the page images: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85035801/1895-05-28/ed-1/?sp=3 and the Dec. 3, 1895 and May 19, 1896 issues. Likely grand jury and trial.
  • Mitchause (1894). Nothing indexed under any spelling. Try “Minschen” in Camden papers June 1894.
  • Dunham plane (1969). No web trace of wreckage recovery; try NTSB brief for March 29, 1969 (Atlantic City), and Bergen Record.
  • Merchurio in Italy. Resolved in section 5c: Schiavo convicted 1908, five years’ solitary (Courier-Post April 23, 1908).
  • Craig Bender burial. Elizabeth, N.J. cemetery records, Dec. 1940.
  • Hannah Chattin grave. Greenwood Cemetery, Tuckerton, sexton records Oct. 1917.

5a. Second pass (later the same day)

Rider case, complete arc, 1916–1918 → rider-henry-cranberry-king-1916

Mount Holly News coverage on Chronicling America gives the whole prosecution.

  • Trial of Giovanni Iraco, alias Guiseppe Rosso (so the “Giuseppe Russo” arrested Oct. 6, 1916 is Iraco himself), Mount Holly, week of March 27, 1917, Justice Kalisch presiding with Judge Lippincott; for the State, Prosecutor Kelsey, former prosecutor Atkinson, and former Assemblyman Peacock; defense Henry H. Savage. Rider had drawn $4,000 at a Hammonton bank; car seating: Elsie Smathers driving, Henry D. Rider beside her, A. J. Rider and employee John (James N.) Rigby in back, bag with money and a revolver on the floor. Assailants masked to the mouth, shouted “Hey! hey!,” fled when Rider produced his revolver (“enough”). Rider identified Iraco at Jefferson Hospital by nose and mustache. County engineer James Logan’s maps and Nathaniel K. Ewan’s photographs were exhibits. Defense witness Marie Donataraco, wife of Iraco’s indicted, fugitive brother. Ellis H. Parker testified about jail cell locations (Millie and Iraco could talk). Verdict first degree, no recommendation, after a holdout juror relented. (MHN April 3, 1917 p.3.)
  • April 10, 1917: Iraco reportedly confessed; Parker quoted that “they will never convict her” of Millie De Marco. April 20, 1917: Iraca tunneled through his Mount Holly cell wall with an iron spoon behind pasted-up magazine pictures, escaped, recaptured en route to Philadelphia (New-York Tribune April 21, 1917 p.16).
  • Feb. 13, 1917: Hammonton meeting to honor Mrs. Elsie Smathers, “daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Rider, of Hammonton.”
  • Millie De Marco trial, Dec. 12–14, 1917, verdict NOT GUILTY (MHN Dec. 18, 1917 p.2). Attorney-General Wescott prosecuted; V. Claude Palmer defended. Iraca, reprieved twice so he could testify, was the star witness and named the gang: himself, brother Joe Iraca, Raffaele Puccinati, Millie, drivers Frank Ladonne and Frank Vaselli (said to be innocent hired chauffeurs), joined at Atsion by Luigi Pinto, Joe Camara, Frank Foti, Phillipi Caruso, who came the night before by train. Millie’s uncle Tony Rizzo (co-indicted) had taken work on the Rider bogs weeks earlier to learn the payday route; the telephoned signal was “mother will be operated on 5th day.” On cross Iraca admitted perjury at his own trial and that his mother and brother were jailed for murder in Italy. Jury (Blackburn, Stokes, Lowden, Donnelly, Oliver, Scott, Lippincott, Rue, Street, Allen, Esham, Cross) acquitted. Jan. 15, 1918: Millie, who had worked at Burlington County Hospital after release, went home to Philadelphia.
  • Execution: Judge Kalisch set the week of Feb. 18, 1918 (MHN Jan. 1, 1918). Iraca was electrocuted at Trenton Tuesday night, Feb. 19, 1918, one prolonged contact, eyes closed, ignoring two priests; survived by a widow and three children in Italy; sent his gold watch to his youngest son (MHN Feb. 26, 1918 p.3; Monmouth Inquirer Feb. 28, 1918; Trenton Historical Society 1918 chronology, “Giovanni Fraca”). Wikipedia’s execution list gives Feb. 9, 1918, age 34, which conflicts with three contemporary papers; use Feb. 19.

Carslake and the 1925 Rancocas rum scandal → carslake-charles-l-1933, and Ellis Parker generally

Beverly Banner, Oct. 23, Nov. 13, Nov. 27, 1925 (p.1 each). The Oct. 1, 1925 barge raid at Adams’ Wharf by Lt. William Nichols’ troopers and Carslake (55 arrested, liquor near $500,000) set off a grand-jury probe under Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd, who charged that county officials had a prior tip and that “at least two of the county detectives” sent to check “had done nothing.” Those were Clifford Cain and Arthur Carabine of Ellis Parker’s office. Prosecutor Hillman removed Parker and his aides from the liquor investigation; Herman Bading of the State Police took over Parker’s office, with constable William A. McCormick and George M. Hillman Jr. Carslake, a fired federal prohibition agent, was made a special county detective. Bridgeboro informant Samuel Elliott claimed he, not Carslake, gave the tip, and that Carslake proposed a scheme to buy the seized barge cheap; federal agent John Whitehead was pulled off the case. Bail figures involve Raff (apple farm owner) and tenant Bintcliff (the notebook’s “Dentcliffe”), and a second cache at Charles Sharp’s house. This is a documented 1925 shadow over Parker’s office that predates the 1929 Wilson/Roberts controversy and the 1937 conviction.

Smaller confirmations

  • Joseph Perry (1928): Washington Times July 9, 1928 p.3 (INS): Joseph Perry Jr., 23, head nearly severed by a razor, found in weeds along the Iron Mill Road at Elm, three miles from Hammonton, on July 8, by Antonio Chalk, a Waterford baker; police floated a woman-provoked attack and gang-feud angles after the Frankie Yale killing in New York.
  • Stiletto murder (1892): the notebook clipping is (or matches) the Wilmington Daily Republican, Oct. 27, 1892, p.1, “Killed with a Stiletto.”
  • Samuel Shinn: Star and Newark Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1909, p.13: body found near Mount Holly Cemetery, age 83, frozen after wandering from home Friday morning (Jan. 1, 1909). So the September disappearance is 1908 and the death January 1909, matching Find a Grave 1823–1909.
  • Nehrwein, German-language coverage: Der Deutsche Correspondent (Baltimore) Aug. 9, 11, 12, 15, 1887, p.1 each. Adds: she had a recommendation letter signed by James Worth to a New York pastor and a certificate showing employment as a teacher (Lehrerin) at Susan Weiler’s, 160 First Avenue; Prudential book in the name Marie Nehrwein, agent John J. Murphy, 203 Grand St., Hoboken; description about 25, 5 ft., about 150 lbs., long black hair; cards from “Susan Weiler, 160 1st Ave.” and “Lea Shoemaker, 327 30th St.”; Mrs. Peter Bernhardt of 357 West 45th St. and brother Jakob went to identify; brother Johann (John) of 96 Avenue B said Katharine was feeble-minded, subject to seizures, had a wart over one eye, and had last worked for an Irish family at Jersey City Heights; buried Aug. 12, 1887 in the Catholic cemetery at Mount Holly after Coroner Samuel Carr’s inquest at Small’s Hotel, two miles from Indian Mills.
  • Beebe (1907): Mount Holly News May 21, 1907: indictments list Harvey Reeves (concealed weapon, present at assault) and Howard S. Beebe (affray). June 11, 1907: Howard S. Beebe of Chairville, “held … in connection with the killing of his uncle,” released on $300 bail.
  • Woods (1895): still nothing legible; the Mount Holly News issues flagged by the index (Apr. 23, May 28, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, Dec. 3, 1895; Mar. 12 and Oct. 13, 1896) did not contain the name in OCR. Read page images directly.
  • Find a Grave search pages are now Cloudflare-blocked from scripts; individual memorial pages still load. Memorials for Bradway Brown, Henry D. Rider, David Beebe, Craig Bender, Iraca, and Katie Woods still need IDs found by hand.

5b. Third pass

  • Quicklime body (1935) → quicklime-body-1935. United Press, Chatsworth, Aug. 15, 1935 (Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, p.1, “Sordid Crime Revealed in New Jersey”): nude body, “apparently the victim of a ‘mutilation’ operation,” in a shallow lime-filled grave about two miles from Chatsworth; Ellis H. Parker said the man had been brought to the woods alive about three days earlier (fresh blood on shrubbery and a pool of blood about 50 feet from the grave); grave eight inches deep, apparently scooped by hand; clothes “of a good quality” found near the body; found by huckleberry picker John Broome (printed “Brooms”) drawn by buzzards. The Washington Times ran it Aug. 16 p.5 (OCR too poor to read). No identification found in any indexed paper through the end of 1935. This is another Parker case in the notebook (his sixth here, with Reily 1909, Paul 1920, Wilson/Roberts 1929, Brown 1933, Ong’s Hat 1934, plus the 1916 Rider trial testimony and the 1925 Rancocas scandal).
  • Ong’s Hat triple killing (1934) now has dates → 3-murdered-1934. AP/UP wire, Sept. 24, 1934 (Bismarck Tribune p.1; Indianapolis Times p.8): the bodies were found Sunday, Sept. 23, 1934 by a farmer; police believed the men were killed as early as Wednesday, Sept. 19. Stanley Zimmer, 23, owned and drove the car and was identified through fingerprint records he had made at home while studying fingerprinting; William Schwar, 22, had a Pennsylvania police record; Edward Riehl, 21. Parker’s quote about the “blazed” trees and the freshly stripped small pine is in the wire copy. Easton police held one suspect the next day. Police described the trio as a hijacking gang.
  • “Florida Wildman (1881)” is filed under the wrong state → florida-wildman-1881-monmouth-democrat. Glenmere Lake is at the village of Florida, Orange County, New York. The Newton (Sussex County, N.J.) correspondent was reporting on the neighboring county across the state line. The entry’s “Wild-men reports · Sussex County” label should read Orange County, N.Y.
  • “Jack the Ripper (NYC)” is the Carrie Brown murder → jack-the-ripper-nyc. The unidentified woman killed April 24, 1891 at the East River Hotel (Catherine Slip and Water Street) was Carrie Brown, about 56, called “Old Shakespeare.” Algerian-born Ameer Ben Ali (“Frenchy”) was convicted of second-degree murder July 3, 1891, on disputed bloodstain evidence, and pardoned in 1902 after eleven years, partly because a bloody shirt and the room key surfaced in New Jersey. Inspector Byrnes, named in the notebook, was later disgraced. Wikipedia, “Murder of Carrie Brown,” with a large literature.
  • Seaview County (1873): the only Chronicling America hits for “Seaview” in 1873 are a serialized story; nothing legislative. Try the 1873 Acts of the Legislature index and Monmouth Democrat / Ocean Emblem for a shore-county bill. Still an empty lead.
  • Anna Towns: Chronicling America has no match 1925–1935; the Tuckerton shack death is probably in the Tuckerton Beacon or Asbury Park Press, not indexed.
  • Dorn and Fink (1933): the only indexed hit for “Dorn Fink slain” is the Washington Evening Star, Dec. 23, 1933, p.21. If it is the right story, it dates the killings to about Dec. 21–22, 1933 (Repeal took effect Dec. 5, which fits the “post-Repeal split” theory). The page’s OCR did not contain the names, so the match must be checked against the page image before the date is used.
  • Wainwright trial stenographer: State ex rel. Knight v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 48 N.J.L. 70 (Sup. Ct. 1886), by Justice Van Syckel, concerns the Ocean County stenographer’s bill for the Rockwell trial and names Mr. Lindabury as counsel with the State (companion case Lindabury v. Freeholders of Ocean, 18 Vroom 417). Useful as a citable record that the transcript was taken verbatim; the transcript itself may survive in Ocean County records.
  • Whiting 1904, Roy Roberts 1931, Lambert/Ware/Neale 1931, Freyberger 1931, Barnes 1936, Bryan 1936, Sharp 1931, Sbraccia 1934, Morey 1945, Katie Woods 1895, Mitchause 1894, Hutchinson 1872, T.O.T.E. man 1928: no usable Chronicling America hits after multiple phrasings. These need Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton, Salem, or Toms River papers, which are not in the LOC index for those years (Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, or the NJ State Library’s Burlington County holdings).

5c. Fourth pass: NJPB Forums transcriptions

The “Pine Barren History Shorts” thread on forums.njpinebarrens.com (thread 12648, 24 pages, mostly posts by “Teegate,” i.e. Guy Thompson) and a few sibling threads contain typed-out clippings, many from Newspapers.com, that overlap the notebook. The forum blocks automated fetch tools but not a plain browser-agent request. Pages with notebook-relevant material: 2 (quicklime 1935), 7 (Nehrwein 1887), 11–12 (Kell/Morey of Atsion), 15 and 20 (Carslake 1933), 16 (Hampton Gate church), plus thread 14540 (Merchurio 1907) and thread 10588 (Kell family).

Merchurio / Schiavo resolved → merchurio-giuseppe-atsion-1907

Thread “Disappearance and Murder in Hampton Park – 1907,” citing Courier-Post Nov. 21, 1907 p.6, Morning Post Nov. 21, 1907 p.1, Courier-News Nov. 21, 1907 p.2, Mount Holly News Nov. 26, 1907 p.3, and Courier-Post April 23, 1908 p.3, “Atsion Murderer Tried in Italy.” Sequence: Oct. 27, 1907 hunting trip; Schiavo returned alone, collected his pay, left next morning; about Nov. 7 a gun marked “H. J. P.” and a hunting outfit were found near Whitings and searched around fruitlessly; Nov. 21 Prosecutor Samuel A. Atkinson sent Ellis H. Parker to Hampton Park; Parker learned Merchurio carried $200 and that Merchurio had left wearing gloves while Schiavo had none, but Schiavo came back wearing gloves; Parker had a bog drained and the body, “riddled with bullets,” was found. Schiavo was convicted in Italy in 1908 on evidence Parker forwarded and sentenced to five years’ solitary confinement, reported as a cell too small to lie down in. So this is a seventh Ellis Parker case in the notebook, and the Italian verdict the notebook lacked is now known from a contemporary Camden paper.

Quicklime body (1935): autopsy detail and a Beck cross-reference → quicklime-body-1935

Teegate’s transcription (thread 12648 p.2) adds: the man was about 30; the autopsy found the bullet entered under the left ear, fractured the neck vertebrae, and exited through the ear lobe, fired at close range with no powder marks (perhaps blocked by the newspapers); dead at least a week; police called it a “gang ride.” John Brooms (the notebook’s Broome) is buried in Chatsworth Cemetery along Route 563 under vegetation. The detective in charge drew reporters a map of the site. Teegate argues persuasively that Henry Charlton Beck’s More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey, chapter “Lost in the Woods: One Railroad” (p. 236 in his copy), refers to this case: Beck’s first trip with Bill Farrand to New Lisbon “began with an examination of the scene of another in a long series of pine woods murders and the gruesome discovery of a piece of scalp, left in a thicket where a victim had been dumped in the climax of a gang war.” That gives the archive a Beck tie-in for a crime entry and a probable eyewitness description of the site weeks after the discovery.

Nehrwein (1887): the fullest account → nehrwein-*

Thread 12648 p.7 transcribes a long Aug. 8, 1887 article and the Aug. 12 inquest report. New facts: the body lay “near a small post in the village which was formerly the seat of the great woolen mills of Maurice Raleigh” (Atsion); section hands of the New Jersey Southern found it about ten days earlier; Prosecutor C. E. Hendrickson received an anonymous letter from “a prominent citizen of Woodland Township” insisting she had been murdered and demanding secrecy; the handbag was found by a party of young people wedged under a decayed tree and given to hotel keeper Iran (Ira) Crane, then to Coroner Samuel Carr; it held German letters with signatures torn off, a Prudential policy and premium receipt in the name Anna Maria Nehrwein, a German certificate that Maria Nehrwein was a qualified teacher, and a card “Susan Weller, 260 First Avenue” (the German press said 160); footprints circled the body. The scrap of paper read: “I quitted the straight path in my weakness. The beauty of the way made me forget the end.” Inquest Aug. 11 at Small’s Hotel near Medford; Dr. Braddock’s autopsy found no marks of violence; verdict “exposure or some other cause unknown.” This supplies the sentence the notebook entry deliberately withheld, now from a public forum transcription rather than the notebook clipping.

Carslake (1933) → carslake-charles-l-1933

Thread 12648 pp. 15 and 20 transcribe June 27, 28, 29, July 3, 5 and 7, 1933 items. Additions: Trooper Joseph McCormack of Columbus; son William Carslake was a game warden; the coupe was mired off “Goose Pond Road” (Teegate identifies this as Baptist Road, which then crossed Long Causeway north of Goose Pond toward Warren Grove); Carslake stopped twice at George Green’s house about two miles from Chatsworth to ask directions; he had told his family he would spend several weeks at Warren Grove; search in the Goose Pond and Spring Hill roads sector toward Winding Hill where buzzards were seen; galosh footprints followed until they vanished; body face down in West Papoose Swamp bogs, on dry land near Papoose Creek, per Corporal Wood; cause given first as natural causes, then exhaustion and lack of nourishment, then acute cardiac dilatation; funeral July 7, 1933, age given as 58, from his home on Bordentown Road, burial Columbus Cemetery (the notebook says 60). Teegate photographed the grave.

Morey and Kell of Atsion → atsion-rifle-murder-1945, beck-tuckerton-road

The 1945 (or 1942) Grace/Oscar/Albert Morey shooting at an Atsion Lake Road cottage lands in an identifiable family. Charles M. Kell, 66, Atsion cranberry farmer, died Jan. 3 (year not given, about 1938–40), survived by sisters Mrs. Eva Morey and Mrs. Lila Paterson and brothers David and John Kell, all of Atsion. David Kell is the Hampton Furnace overseer in Beck’s Tuckerton Road article (the notebook’s beck-tuckerton-road entry). Albert H. Stackhouse, 71, retired Central Railroad of New Jersey employee, died Sept. 1937 at the home of his sister-in-law Mrs. Eva Morey, Atsion. Eva K. Morey died 1940 and is in Atsion Cemetery. Albert Morey, 44 in 1945, is of an age to be Eva’s son. The Kells owned three houses on Atsion Road across from the lake (lots from the Town of Raleigh), including the present canoe-rental house, sold off in the 1940s–50s. Working hypothesis: the Morey cottage on “Lake Road” was one of these Kell-Morey houses, and the 1945 victims were David Kell’s nieces and nephews by marriage. Check Eva Morey’s family on Find a Grave (Atsion Cemetery) and the 1940 census for Shamong Township.

Beebe, minor → beebe-david-1907-murdered

Tabernacle Historical Society lists the Chairville killing as April 27, 1907 (the party night); the indictment says “the night of April 28.” Both are consistent with a Saturday-night party running past midnight into Sunday, April 28, 1907.

Method notes for this source

NJPB thread pages fetch with curl and a browser user-agent; posts sit in div.bbWrapper. The same user has posted many other Atsion, Chatsworth, Hampton and Indian Mills clippings on the thread (fires, gun clubs, cemeteries) that could seed new place entries. Google Books API and HathiTrust full-text search were rate-limited or blocked during this session; the Reisinger biography of Parker (Master Detective, 2007) is on archive.org for controlled lending and would be the place to check which of the notebook’s Parker cases he covers.

6. Sources used (for the site’s “further reading”)

  • CourtListener: State v. Schuck, 96 N.J.L. 154 (1921); State v. Dissicini, 126 N.J. Super. 565 (1974); Scott v. Plante, 532 F.2d 939 (3d Cir. 1976), 641 F.2d 117, 691 F.2d 634.
  • Chronicling America (loc.gov): New-York Tribune 1884-10-13 p2, 1885-03-01 p1, 1887-08-09 p5, 1887-08-10 p1, 1907-11-17 p10, 1916-10-06 p1, 1917-04-21 p16; Bridgeton Pioneer 1884-09-25 p1, 1885-03-05 p1; Mount Holly News 1907-05-21 p3, 1907-06-11 p3, 1908-03-10 p3, 1917-02-13 p3, 1917-04-03 p3, 1917-04-10 p3, 1917-10-16 p2, 1917-12-18 p2, 1918-01-01 p3, 1918-01-15 p3, 1918-02-26 p3; Monmouth Inquirer 1918-02-28 p2; Beverly Banner 1925-10-23, 1925-11-13, 1925-11-27 p1; Evening Star 1933-01-18 p3, 1940-12-22 p2; Times-News (Hendersonville) 1934-04-18 p3; Washington Times 1928-07-09 p3; Wilmington Daily Republican 1892-10-27 p1; Star and Newark Advertiser 1909-01-04 p13; Der Deutsche Correspondent 1887-08-09/11/12/15 p1; Topeka State Journal, Clarksburg Daily Telegram, Montgomery Advertiser Oct. 6–7, 1916.
  • Baeli, “The Murder of James I. Wainwright: Victim of Love,” OC Cultural & Heritage newsletter, Spring 2011.
  • Tabernacle Historical Society, “Tales of Murder and Mayhem” (also lists Elizabeth Burr 1895, Thomas Foster 1887, an 1860 peddler, Hosea Moore 1838, Shotwell/Foster 1907 wood-alcohol deaths, Vasturio/DeCou 1909, Braddock 1911, all candidates for new entries).
  • Rootsweb Batsto site: “Double Murder at Pasadena”; “Murder of David Paul.”
  • Ocean County NJ History blog (Feb. 2016, Mar. 2016, Sept. 2014 posts).
  • Find a Grave memorials 42433855, 42433909, 42433780, 150152889, 136044320, 13557572, 154833634, 75245177, 13091188.
  • Rider University, “Andrew Jackson Rider” past-presidents page; NJPB Forums, “The Cranberry Packing House at Hampton Park.”
  • Inquirer June 15, 2026 and South Jersey Media on McCormick, Restless Ghosts.
  • Charley Project, NJSP, PhillyVoice, NJ101.5 (May 2016) on Cohen and Cocuzza.
  • Shore News Network (2024), historichorrors.com, Jersey Shore Online, Berkeley Patch, NJSP press release 2013-05-14, Wikipedia (Ellis H. Parker; NJ executions; Last Call Killer coverage via Inquirer/Crime Library).