Carnarvon's Crazy Cousin

In mid November of 1924, Mrs. Rosemary Sparkman attended the Ladies Literary Club silver tea event.  The Salt Lake City group presented a musical program amidst the lovely patriotic decorations, which included tables set with white chrysanthemums, red and blue candies, ices adorned with flags and patriotic colored cakes and other sweets.  Mrs. Sparkman appeared with Miss Ethelyn Cannon to present "The Cake Walk" during the program.  Everything seemed wonderful.

Channel forward in time....about 30 days....mid December of 1924.  On a Saturday evening, a young mother, Rosemary Sparkman, age 28, falls into a deep case of depression.  Somehow, things seemed hopeless for her on this very day, even though she had been seen by a physician for her repeated melancholy for quite some time.

This young mother decided that this very day would be the last for her and her two children on this earth.  With careful tending, Rosemary had her children dressed in their night clothes and tucked into bed.  After they had dozed off, she took a soft cotton cloth, dipped in chloroform, and placed it over their nose and mouth.  She took a rubber head cap and put it over their faces to keep the effects of the chloroform from escaping into the bedroom.  Both children were introduced to eternal sleep by their mother.

Mrs. Sparkman undressed herself for the evening and, leaving on her stockings and a long cotton gown, lay down on the floor of the parlor.  She had turned on four gas burners of the heating stove.  This was the last of her life.  She had decided to do to herself that which she had done to her children.

Photo found on Googlesearch.com , note the mistake on the name of the university that employed her husband.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch issue of 8 December 1924, reported that Mrs. Sparkman and her children were found lifeless.  Her husband was out of town on business.  Mr. Colley Sparkman was an assistant professor of languages at the University of Utah.  The bodies were found by George Ross, owner of the home in which the Sparkman family lived.  He detected the smell of gas as he entered the back door of the home.  Finding Mrs. Sparkman on the floor, he summoned the police.  Detectives arrived just minutes after the gas valves had been turned off.

The children were found in their beds, both having burns on their lips and faces, apparently from the chloroform.  Mrs. Sparkman also had burns on her lips from dosing herself with the same cloth saturated with the drug.

A note was found in the vestment worn by Rosemary.  It read : "lay me away quietly.  No friends, I had no friends in life, nor was I granted them in death.  Let me be alone."

In a brief interview with Mr. Sparkman, he told his life with his wife and children.  He was so proud of his dear Wilford, age 9, and Lorna, age 7.  He did worry about his wife's occasional despondency, but felt she was fine to leave with the children while on a business trip.

Upon further inquiry regarding the family of Rosemary, it was revealed that she was the daughter of Robert Carnarvon and Cecilia McIntyre, born in Scotland in 1896.  Mr. Sparkman  added that Rosemary was the cousin of the late Lord Carnarvon of England.  You might remember him as the financier and discoverer of  the tomb of King Tutankhamen, in Egypt, with his partner, Howard Carter. Lord Carnarvon died in 1923 as a result of shaving an infected mosquito bite, which progressed to acute pneumonia.  Some think it was attributed to the Curse of the Tomb.  Could the curse have affected other family members?  Like Rosemary Carnarvon Sparkman?  I will leave that research up to you...if you dare!

The grave memorial #166413 for Rosemary can be found at www.findagrave.com in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah.

A detailed newspaper report can be found in the Ogden Standard -Examiner, 8 December 1924, page one.

Coatless and Innocent

The Circuit Court of Macon, Missouri was overcrowded with the business of hearing the list of cases on the docket.  Judge Drain was usually prepared to hear a wide range of subjects in his court room that cold day in the winter of 1922.   The prosecutor, however, was not ready for the case he was about to handle.

R. R. Dodson stood before the bench prepared to represent himself.  He began his plea with a description of his life...."I used to own an overcoat, but it is gone, and I guess someone took it.  The coat that I am accused of taking is an old yellow rag, with rips in the back and the pockets turned out."  Dodson apparently had too much to drink one evening, and upon leaving a livery barn, he walked over to the coat rack and put on the coat he had just described.

"I am not a person who steals things", he told Judge Drain.  Dodson explained that his brother was a prosecutor, and his father had been a senator, representative and a sheriff.  "I admit that I get a periodical toot, but I don't steal". He plead not guilty as to stealing an overcoat, as was the charge in the case.

Judge Drain looked rather confused, so he asked Edwards, the prosecutor, "What do you want to do with him?"

"Just turn him loose, your Honor.  His story made me cry", replied Edwards.

"Well, you are discharged, Mr. Dodson", said Judge Drain. "Be on your way."

Dodson was not satisfied with that statement.  He did not have a job, and without a job he had no way to feed himself, or buy a coat that he so badly needed to keep warm during the cold months.

"I can't leave this court without a job, your Honor.  Don't you have some land that I can clean up for you, like some brush to cut.....anything for me to do to earn a few dollars?"

Judge Drain said he didn't own any property that needed work, but he suggested that Mr. Edwards, the prosecutor, had a piece of property that could use some work.  Edwards just shook his head...he had no use for the manual labor of Dodson.

"Then I can't just leave this court," said Dodson.  "I just want to go back to jail and live there until I earn enough money to buy a coat".

And with that statement being said, Judge Drain announced that Dodson could have his wish.  Besides....Christmas was only days away, and he could not let Dodson out into the cold....without an overcoat to his name, on the eve of Christmas, 1922.

That's your "Feel Good" story for the day.

This story was published in the Macon Chronicle-Herald (Macon, Missouri),  Published on Monday, December 11, 1922, Page 1.

Edward Clark : Death Over a Tail Light

This short story will have you wondering about some people and their values and priorities.

 Two cousins had a disagreement regarding the ownership of an automobile tail light.  Apparently, they had disagreements quite often, according to family and friends.

On July 28, 1935, the two men let their anger get the better of them.  Harry Clark decided to arm himself with a gun.  Edward Clark, his antagonistic cousin, would not give in and allow Harry to have the auto tail light.  Harry needed to end the argument once and for all.  He aimed his weapon at Edward and shot him in the chest. The body was found by Charles Clark, father of Edward.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts/1935

The family lived on a farm owned by Tony Finazzo.  Both Harry and Edward, were employed on that farm, along with several of their family members.

According to the state death certificate, an inquest was held by the coroner, Will Freeman, of St. Charles, Missouri.  It was confirmed that a homicide had occurred, and Edward Van Cicle Clark had died of his chest wound.  Harry Clark was charged with first degree murder.

If anyone has further information on this case, please add to the comments.

Roots Tech Pause

Hey folks.  I am enjoying Roots Tech here in Salt Lake City this week.  Therefore, this blog will take a pause until I return home in a few days.  See you then.

The Card Game With an Abrupt Ending

A masked executioner entered the cafe around the midnight hour, He was carrying a shotgun by his side.  Quickly, and with such precision, he raised his weapon and aimed.

Four men were sitting around a table, playing card games, drinking and enjoying their late evening out.  They had no idea that within seconds, two of them would lay dead. Two would be wounded.

Four loud shots were discharged from the sawed off shotgun. The blasts was heard by the deputies at the Springfield police station, just around the corner from the cafe.  By the time they had arrived at the scene, the gunman was whisked away by a Cadillac touring automobile, dark in color and tagged with Missouri state license plates.

The slain men were identified as members of a widely known bootlegging gang, with a territory that stretched from St. Louis to Chicago and places in between.  Robert  Aiello, age 23, and his younger brother, Frank, 20, were the victims.  The seriously  wounded men were identified at Vito Wallace, alias LaPacolo,28, and Lee Meachum, 26.

Robert Aiello, slumped forward in his chair, died immediately.  Frank died on the way to the hospital.  The two other men's wounds were treated and they were released from the hospital. They were questioned by the Deputy Coroner, Robert Stubbs, and said they knew of no motive for the attack.

Several women patrons were bystanders, but they could not identify the masked slayer, and were too upset to even notice that he left in an automobile, driven by a companion that had been waiting for him just outside of the cafe. Helen, owner of the cafe, and her sister, Mildred Joinella, were shaken, but reported that the gunman companion had also entered the cafe, but did not shoot. They also said that a third Aiello brother, Salvatore Aiello, left the cafe just before the gunman appeared. (Oh, really?  Did they try to find him?  Was he was involved in the demise of his brothers?) Others who peered from their nearby windows described the two offenders as "short, fat Italian types", although after being questioned about their statements, they admitted that they really could not identify the ethnicity of the men. But, they did say that they appeared to look just like the "hoodlums" they would hear about on radio news broadcasts.

The Aiello brothers were related to Charles Palmisano, who had been assassinated the night before, on November 10, in St. Louis.  It was reported that a car with Illinois license plates was used in the Palmisano slaying.  The Aiello brothers deaths could have been a reprisal, suggested a Springfield deputy. Mr. Palmisano was a wealthy wholesale fruit merchant.  He was killed as he stood in the doorway of his business.

Jasper Aiello, nephew of the slain men, was killed in front of his home in St. Louis in 1926. Tony Aiello, brother of the victims, was being held in St. Louis in connection with the murder of Alfonso Palazzolo in the previous year. Tony was a brother-in-law of William Russo, leader of a large Italian faction in St. Louis.  Russo was mentioned to be a nephew of the slain Charles Palmisano, although his widow, Mrs. Palmisano, denied they were related. (Are you beginning to see a pattern here????)

Police from St. Louis and Springfield had been collaborating their detective work and came to these conclusions for the slayings:

   Factional differences between Italian gangs

   Whiskey deals gone bad

   Black Hand threats

   Refusal to sign bail bonds

This story was reported in various newspapers across the nation, most dated 11 November 1927.
Among my sources were : The St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Sedalia Democrat, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), Journal Gazette (Mattoon, Illinois), The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Illinois)

As always, if you know further information about this case, please share it in the comments section.  We need to share our knowledge with each other to fully understand each story.

The Bootlegger's Truck

It was 2:30 a.m. on August 14th in 1924 when the fire fighters and police officers of Decatur, Illinois were called to the scene.  A truck, parked on the side of the road at the intersection of  Williams and Seventh Streets, had burst into flames.  Onlookers crowded around the blaze at a safe distance.

Some nearby pedestrians had noticed that two men had driven the truck, and pulled to the side of the road at the 2500 block of East Williams Street.  They exited the truck and walked away.  Several hours had passed when smoke began to billow from the vehicle and flames came from the engine.  The citizens ran to put out the blaze.  It was discovered that the truck was hauling over 230 gallons of alcohol, in 46 five gallon containers.  They were camouflaged by crates of tomatoes,

Police hid in the bushes and overgrown lots around the area, armed with sawed off shotguns, waiting to see if the two men would return to the truck. After several hours, the truck was hauled to the Decatur police station.

It was determined by the fire fighters that oil had spilled on the alternator in the engine, which probably caused smoke and the smell of an electrical fire.  The men in the truck were probably alarmed, and decided to abandon the truck at this location in Decatur.

recent map of the Decatur, Illinois area.
Seventh Street no longer exists in Decatur, Illinois

Police had traced the license plates to the owner of the truck.  Mr. Tony Sansone, of St. Louis, Missouri, was contacted by reporters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  After interviewing Tony, it was revealed that he had rented his truck to a man for $35, who wanted to haul tomatoes to Springfield, Illinois from St. Louis.  He said that he could not recall the name of the person, and futhermore, he had no idea that this man had intended to haul booze along with his tomatoes.

Sansone traveled to Decatur to claim his truck, or what was left of it.  The Decatur police refused to release the truck to Sansone, stating that they had several problems with the story that he told them.  The truck was being held on the prohibition statute. It had been determined that no long distance phone call had been made to Sansone from the Decatur area from any persons within the previous 24 hours.  Sansone was cleared of prohibition charges. But, he could not have his truck.

There was an investigation with the Springfield police department to determine the identity of the party that rented the truck, and stuffed it with the tomatoes and all of that alcohol.  Meanwhile, upset that he was unable to regain possession of his truck, Sansone said that he would take the train to Springfield and find that man himself. He said he would "grab ahold of his hair and drag him back to Decatur".

Tony Sansone was the owner of a produce company located at 1007 Wash Street in St. Louis.

This story was published in The Decatur Herald, 14 August 1924, page 3

Who Killed Gus Rizzo?

A young man, Gus C. Rizzo, was interred in 1924 in the St. Louis Archdiocese Cemetery of Calvary, Section 12, Lot 1657.

archstl.org/app/cemeteries/burial_search

He is laid to rest with his parents, Charles and Rose (Quattrocchi), siblings Anthony and
Charles, and grandparents,  Frances and Michael Quattrocchi.

Gus was wounded in the stomach with a bullet during a very mysterious affray.  He was taken to City Hospital and passed at 3:40 a.m. on April 19.  He never mentioned how or why he became a victim, nor did he reveal who might have committed this crime.

The image of his death certificate can be found on the Missouri Digital Heritage site :

www.sos.mo.gov/images/archives/deathcerts

Young Gus was only 16 years old.  Such a shame.  He was questioned by doctors and police about the incident.  He told them of three "unknown" men who had driven by him in an automobile.  But, he seemed to change his story, making conflicting statements.

His cousin, James Russo, was the person who had taken him to the hospital.  James also reported another story which did not  match any information that young Gus had relayed.  The police went to the site of the shooting where they found a large pool of blood, in addition to two caps and two bullet holes in a nearby fence.  The location was by the home of James Russo.

James Russo was the brother of "Shorty" Russo, a black hand mobster believed to have murdered a man just three days prior to the death of young Gus.  An accomplice of his was Vincent Spicuzza, also believed to have been dabbling in the black hand business.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered the story in a short three paragraph article on April 19, 1924.

As of yet, I have not found the names of the men who slayed young Gus Rizzo.  If you have any further information on this case, please add it to the comments section.