Voodoo Murders | Halloween 2025

10/31/2025

Henry and Marlene talk Halloween and discuss grisly, but little known crimes dating back almost 100 years, that were considered "Voodoo Murders".

STORIES:

Catherine Danz and the Voodoo Doctor
Voodoo Crazies
Dr. Hyghcock and His Voodoo Exploits
The Strange Death of Carl Merker
Death by Voodoo
The Price of Disobedience

In 1903, Catherine Danz was convicted of poisoning her husband with the help of a voodoo doctor

CATHERINE DANZ AND THE VOODOO DOCTOR

In 1903, an investigation revealed a murder mill running out of Philadelphia. The cost for each person was $100. Later investigation would find it had been in operation for about 30 years, under the very nose of the authorities.

The secret started to unravel with an investigation spurred by Philadelphia’s coroner in October, 1902 upon the death of three children in the Williams family; children who strangely enough were insured in case they died.

In December, 1902 John Williams and his common law wife Emma Kecklein were charged by a coroner's jury with the murder of their young daughters Anna and Josephine in order to collect insurance. Arsenic was found in the children's bodies. At that time the couple had three more children: a 6 year old boy, a 4 year old girl and a baby not yet a year old.

In February 1903, a judge allowed the bodies of Anna, Josephine and a third daughter Laura to be exhumed from Oakland Cemetery. The coroner learned that their parents had bought powders from Horsey the so-called Voodoo or herb doctor.

This inquiry led to the voodoo doctor’s home, where a private investigator passed himself off as a client. It wasn’t local police who pursued this clue, but insurance companies who found several, sudden deaths occurred to their clients in the same neighborhood.

The investigation yielded that over 34 murders were caused by the instruction of the so-called Voodoo Doctor

The organization was run by George Hossey (Holsey, Horsey) who was a self-described voodoo doctor. He was an illiterate laborer, who had somehow developed a large following.

The racket covered murder for money, murder for hate, murder for illicit love, murder for social position, murder for mere revenge.

Ultimately at least 34 murders were revealed by the investigation.

Horsey was proven to have sold a large quantity of arsenic. He also solicited and entered into a contract to murder a woman for $100, after the private investigator convinced him he needed help to get rid of a troublesome woman.

The motivation for the 34 similar contracts he entered into was to cause the death of these individuals who had life insurance policies. The cases involved insurance payoffs, disturbed domestic relations or the interference from a next of kin.

Besides arsenic he gave instructions on how to pull off the poisoning. This is what he told his customers: "First, give dose of the poisoning. Then send for a doctor. He gives the ailment some big name. Give another dose then, but stop after that and let the doctor think he's treating patient properly. Then after awhile begin again, and don't stop until death takes place. The doctor will make out a certificate the coroner is never notified and he knows nothing about it.”

Horsey’s specialty seemed to be clearing up relationships done by deliberate murder with the insurance feature as a secondary factor. His price was always $100.

George Hossey was named as co-conspirator with Catherine Danz c.1903

He used a code of numbers and hieroglyphics to refer to his customers in a list he kept, which stumped police for backtracking and exhuming possible victims. Authorities questioned physicians in the northeast section of the city who signed death certificates within the past 2 years that specified heart lesions as the cause of death.

At George Horsey's premises police seize a "wagonload" of bottles, drugs, instruments and other paraphernalia. Surprisingly it seemed the majority of Horsley’s clients were women, both married and single. There were two boxes of "Rough on Rats" poison. Investigators were stunned to find he kept authentic, blank death certificates and had signed some of them as Dr. George Horsey MD. He was initially arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

One of his most recent customers was Catherine Danz. She was arrested in March, 1903 and charged with poisoning her husband 18 months before. A postmortem examination found Mr. Danz died of arsenical poison. Horsey was being held as an accessory to the crime. Catherine Danz's arrest was made based on information Horsey gave to a detective, when he was being questioned.

Wilhelm G. Danz was a butcher and lived at 2625 N. Fourth St. In April 1901, he became ill, and a doctor treated him for rheumatism of the heart. Two months later he died and the death certificate listed the cause of death as paralysis of the heart. Less than a month later, on July 22, 1901 life insurance was paid for $3,000.

Catherine Danz said she had given her husband drugs from Horsey in order to cure him of the drink habit since he was a hard drinker. They had two children, George, 18, and Anna Maria, 19 at the time.

When Catherine Danz went to trial at the end of March 1904, it was found that Horsey appeared to be mentally broken over his own death sentence, and would not be able to take the witness stand.

Catherine Danz was pardoned in 1911 for the murder of her husband

Mrs. Danz dressed all in black to the trial, including gloves and a heavy veil to her court proceedings. She pled not guilty. Until that point she had an excellent reputation among her neighbors, and it was hard to believe she had planned to intentionally poison her husband.

During the trial, testimony was given that Horsey had told her to bring three hairs from her husband's head. These he wound around a stick, he gave the stick and hairs to her with the instruction to bury them in a spot over which her husband passed daily. Coincidentally Mr. Danz was struck with a bout of rheumatism and did not walk around as he usually did.

Also revealed was that Danz's life insurance was payable to his mother-in-law, Anna Groff. and not his wife. She lived with the couple, and had loaned him a much greater amount than the $3,000 she received at his death. The money was to allow him to go into business. This effort failed, and he never repaid her. She was the one who paid the insurance premiums. Mrs. Groff was known to be wealthy and owned several properties in the area.

Catherine Danz was found guilty, and she appealed the conviction. In April, 1905 by a vote of 5 to 2 the Supreme Court decided that Mrs. Danz must hang.

In 1906, George P. Horsey was found guilty of the murder in the first degree of George Danz. He was slated to hang on March 26, 1906.

Catherine Danz's sentence as well as Horsey’s were commuted to life in prison.

In June, 1911 the board of pardons granted her a full pardon, after she had served 8 years behind bars. Catherine Danz left Eastern State Penitentiary dressed in black wearing a double black veil. The pardon was received ten years to the day of her husband's death. She was 56 years old when released. She said that when her husband lay dying he had begged for forgiveness for abusing her, striking her mother who was blinded by his violence and throwing their son out of the house. Catherine had not forgiven him, nor had her daughter. She told newspaper reporters after her pardon that her mother died two days before she was sentenced, and her son left and joined the military and her daughter trained to become a nurse. She was going to live with her in Illinois.

It’s unknown what became of George Horsey the voodoo doctor.

Emma Williams was acquitted after experts testified that embalming fluids were used on her daughters, which contained arsenic and antimony, and there was no definite proof she had poisoned them.

Due to these cases, bills were proposed to use formaldehyde as an embalming fluid to preserve the bodies, instead of arsenic so proof of poisoning could not be blamed on the embalming process.

Several murders occurred at the turn of the century inspired by voodoo beliefs

VOODOO CRAZIES

Kansas City, Missouri
In February, 1920 in Kansas City, Missouri, Tom Bundy, 21, killed his father Joe Bundy with an axe because of a voodoo doctor's revelations. HIs mother went to see the seer due to an unknown illness she was suffering from. The voodoo doctor told her to get rid of her husband, claiming he had brought on a "spell" by boiling herbs and tricking his wife into drinking the concoction. Tom said his mother told him "if you love your mother you will get rid of your father."

After striking his father twice with an axe, he robbed him of $70. He sent $30 to his sick mother, gave his wife $20 and paid his rent with the rest. Afterward he was the one who called the police to report his father’s murder. He eventually confessed. It's unknown if the seer who told his mother about the curse, and instigated the murder was ever found.

Sheridan, Wyoming
In January, 1924 Elzie Simms killed his wife Elenor Loquine Simms, 50, believing she had cast a voodoo spell over him. He hit her over the head with a lead pipe, and slashed her throat. He then turned himself into the police at Sheridan, Wyoming.

Elenor Simms was born in France, and had immigrated to Martinque. Her father was French and her mother Japanese. She met Elzie Simms in Cuba after the Spanish American War, and they married.

Mr. Simms was examined by two doctors from United States Veteran Hospital at Fort Mackenzie, and was diagnosed with suffering from paranoia dementia praecox. A jury returned a verdict of insane and recommended his commitment to the state institution at Evanston.

While being transported to the asylum he leapt from the window of a car on a passenger train running at nearly 60 miles per hour near Fort Steele.

On February 22, 1924 Elzie Simms was found suffering from severe exposure. He was starving, and his feet were so badly frozen they had to be amputated. When found he told police the spirits had made him jump from the train, and then give himself up.

In the 1920 census he was living with his wife and his stepson Clement Davis, and all seemed to be well. In the 1930 census he was still at the asylum and engaged in ward work.

In 1925, Reyouque Eryquew H.H. Hyghcock, who called himself a voodoo doctor was arrested on suspicion of murder

Doctor Reyouque Eryquew H.H. Hyghcock
Camden, NJ 1925

Dr. Hyghcock's past was always a mystery, which included his name which most probably was false, but that didn't matter because throughout his life he attracted followers like moths to a flame.

In 1925, Hyghcock was allegedly 71 years old, and had come to Camden several years before from Norfolk, Virginia. He posed as a spiritualist and operated taxicabs and a real estate business.

In April of that year, Hyghcock was arrested for practicing medicine without a license, and obtaining money under false pretenses. He was about to be released on bail when his daughter Rosella Hyghcock told police her father shot a woman. She said that while her mother was in Washington D.C. visiting her sister, a woman came to the house and started to fight with her father. It was late at night. They were in the big room in the front of the house, and then her "Pop" got a gun and shot the woman. He took her out in his automobile and burned her. She said he told her to keep quiet, and said the woman was sick and died, and he buried her in a cemetery.

In April, 1925 charges of murder were pending against Eryquew C. H. Hyghcock who called himself a voodoo doctor. His house at 413-415 Liberty Street was raided by police based on his daughter's story. His wife Estella Hyghcock was also held. During questioning he admitted to being a bigamist, and he was married to 5 women and had fathered 37 children so far.

Subterranean passages snaked under the house. There were three tunnels with a score of rooms and compartments under the cellar. In the chambers were bodies of chickens, pieces of dry meat, weirdly dressed and painted dolls and many bells operated by an electrical switch in the kitchen.

Also arrested was Louis Reeves who acted as the voodoo doctor's chauffeur. It turned out Hyghcock owned several cars.

While scouring the labyrinth police found a bloodstained hatchet buried under the floor, a hidden vault with the entrance freshly cemented, which was recently wall papered. A well under the "sacrificial room" had the lid removed by police, who were driven outside by the horrible stench that came from it. A blood-stained mattress cover hidden in a second story rear room, and at least four skeletons of infants were found on the property.

He was also involved in human trafficking, even though it wasn’t referred to in those words. He admitted to bringing girls from the southern United State and keeping them in the hidden cellars and sub cellars, until he could find a job for them in Camden, Philadelphia or the vicinity. He called this his "girl farm". The last batch had been 8 girls from Florida. They would have to come back every week, and give him part of their earnings.

What were called "murder" letters were found under a bureau in a room on the 3rd floor. Registered and special delivery, it was dated November 27, 1923 it read:

Dear Dock, I have been wondering why you don't answer my letters. I got a letter from your wife saying that you were out of town and she would let me know when you came back.

Dock, he went away and came back and went again and back. Dock, are you working on him? I don't see any change in him. For God's sake do something with him. Is there any way that you can kill him next month? You know you told me if I did not kill him, he would kill me.

Dock he is no better than he was when I was up to see you. If this powder don't reach him you'll have to give me something else. I'm still using the powder every other day and only thing I notice in him when I use the powder he gets a little excited. Enclosed you will find five dollars and that only leaves fifteen.

Please answer at once and let me know what you are going to do.
Etta M. Harsey, 1520 Arctic Ave. Atlantic City

Hyghcock admitted to bigamy with 5 wives, and having fathered 37 children

There was another letter asking for help in getting rid of a woman.

The police learned that when Hyghcock was arrested in Philadelphia in October, 1923 he bought his way out of jail for $100. He was arrested in connection with the shooting of a woman.

Police learned that before ending up in Philadelphia, he kept a den in Norfolk, Virginia. He was driven out of town, and had to flee.

William Miller a druggist was the owner of one of the houses on Liberty Street occupied by Hychcock. He was the brother of a city council member, and he gave permission for police to tear out the underground partitions, and dig into the underground passageways. The other house was owned by Nathan U. Katz a real estate dealer on Kaighn Avenue.

Thousands came to watch as firemen dug up the property.

In April, he was released on bail, since the only charges against him were practicing medicine without a license. Human bones of an adult were not found.

In July, the neighborhood around the Liberty Street houses were thrown into a "frenzy of tenor" when moans, whimpers and howls were heard coming from the deserted "voodoo den". Police found three men and a woman dancing and shouting in an upstairs room. The property was considered tainted and haunted already.

In October, 1925, just as everyone was forgetting about Hyghcock, he made the newspapers again when a bomb was set off under Justice of the Peace, Tony Rocco's house, which damaged his front porch and broke a few windows in the district.

The police investigation uncovered a strange story of "voodooism" by one of Doc Hyghcock's disciples and exposed an orgy of wide open gambling in the Third Ward.

Anthony "Babe" Paradise was arrested on suspicion of having set off the bomb. Also arrested was Leona Brown a so-called "mystic" of the Third Ward, who Rocco said charged him $100 for "treating Mrs. Rocco and who failed to help her." He produced a receipt for $82 signed by Brown for medical services rendered to his wife according to "witchcraft methods."

He said, "I bawled her out because she didn't help my woman any and she said she would get me."

Snake-like tunnels were found under Hyghcock's house c.1925

The police didn't believe Leona Brown had set off the bomb, but they did believe she had been selling strange charms and potions to sick people in Little Italy. She was held for practicing medicine without a license. She told the courts she was only a spiritualist.

Babe Paradise on the other hand was found to be operating a big gambling house near the Rocco residence. He was also arrested on charges of forgery and larceny.

In May, 1926 a year after Dr. Hyghcock scandalized Camden, New Jersey, Sam Fulton, 30, from Jamaica, New York was charged with first degree murder in what was known as a "voodoo murder". He killed his common-law wife Minnie Hall on Palm Sunday, and then remained beside her bed for five weeks, praying. He gave himself up because his dead wife appeared to him in a dream and told him to admit to the murder, accept being electrocuted and join her in heaven.

He was sentenced to 20 years to life at Sing Sing. In order to escape a death sentence he pled guilty to second degree murder claiming it was self defense after she attacked him with a hatchet. He showed a county detective who arrested him where he had a scar on his head. The argument had stemmed because he discovered evidence of her infidelity.

Minnie Hall was said to have been one of several women on the staff of a Jamaica cellar digger known as "doctor", who brewed weird concoctions to insure the drinker against the loss of her husband's love.

In 1928, Hyghcock was arrested for having a loaded revolver, and driving a motorcar without a license. He was driving a box car sedan from 1861. He was wearing a high hat and hip boots. He said he carried the weapon for protection.

Three years later he was arrested after a girl told of powders he gave her for an illness he said were "snakes".

He was described as a short, squat man weighing nearly 200 pounds. He told police he was 82 years old and had fathered 48 children. He looked younger, and in truth no one knew his real age.

In 1935, federal agents came upon two 25-gallon stills in a labyrinth of tunnels and caves near Malaga that were tied to him.

In 1938, he was charged with performing an abortion on a 13 year old girl. The girl's stepfather Fleming Poindexter was also arrested. Hyghcock was released for insufficient evidence but the stepfather was arraigned.

The voodoo doctor died in May, 1942.

Carl Merker was mistakenly identified as a murder victim, it turned out he was alive and well in Tampa, Florida c.1929

Carl Merker
Tampa, Florida, 1929

In December, 1929 Carl Merker arrived in Tampa, Florida, and was charged for vagrancy and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Barely a month later, Carl Merker, 22, was reported as being murdered. His father Fred W. Merker who lived in Nebraska had hopes that the man reported killed was not his son. He told Tampa police that his son had been traveling for most of the past 4 years, and each winter he would go south. His last visit to Nebraska was in May, 1929, however he left to go to New York with a stable of show mules, but then "followed the horses" at race tracks. He had written he was in Georgia two months before.

The corpse was then identified by a county convict ward and two prisoners held in Tampa's jail. The three claimed he was Carl Merker, who had just been released from spending 30 days behind bars for vagrancy.

Newspapers reported Carl Merker was survived by his mother, a brother Paul, 12, and Margaret, 10. To make matters worse, Fred Merker was told his son was killed as a sacrifice in a voodoo ritual.

Richard Sheard called police and admitted to smashing Merker’s skull with an ax. Sheard said he was awakened at 1 a.m. by someone on his back porch and saw a man prowling around. He went out the front door, got his ax from a woodpile, returned and struck the man on the forehead as he forced the rear door. The wounded man died on his way to the hospital.

The voodoo angle came into play when police found a fully clothed, bandaged wax dummy, and weird paraphernalia reminiscent of voodoo rites inside Sheard’s house. Sheard explained he used the dummy since he was taking Red Cross lessons in first aid at his place of employment.

Later his story changed and he said the dummy was connected to the local lodges he belonged to.

The police thought it was suspicious that Sheard had a loaded gun in the house, yet according to him went to another building, retrieved an axe and killed who he thought was an intruder.

Carl Merker died in 1970, many years after it was thought he had been murdered

The dead man had his own set of unusual belongings. He had 22 cheap gold rings, some letters, a razor, a workman's badge issued in Birmingham, Alabama and about $4 in cash.

Richard Sheard was held on a first degree murder charge, since it was revealed he had spent a term in the same jail with Merker, when he was serving time for vagrancy.

Fred Merker sent $400 to an undertaker in Tampa in order to have the body shipped to him in Omaha, Everything came to a grinding holt when he received a wire from Bowling Green, Florida by his supposed dead son, Carl. It read: "Do not take that body of that man. I am still alive and doing good. I'm still with K.G. Barkoop show. Send a wire at once."

Carl Merker was not only alive, but holding down a dollar-a-day job with the Barkcoop carnival company.

Merker had left home just after leaving grade school and went on to travel with Ringling, Barnum and Bailey, and many other shows. He was just a circus routabout dressed in an old brown coat, corduroy trousers, shoes showing just a trace of soles and an old blue shirt. He lived an impoverished life despite his father being a wealthy real estate dealer.

The body which was already in transit was halted, and held at an Omaha morgue since the Merkers refused to accept the body.

This was not the first time Carl Merker had given his parents a "bad turn". In 1917, when he was 9 years old, he went missing for five days. He was given up for dead and turned up in Lincoln, Nebraska in custody of the chief of police. He explained that he had just gone "visiting".

The body was identified by M.S. Harrell as belonging to Henry Rhodes a dock hand who he had known for 15 years. Preparations for the funeral were halted when Rhodes' sister arrived at the undertaker's establishment and denied the body was that of her brother.

Then the remains were said to be that of Thomas O'Connell, a laborer from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This identification was based on a telegraph from a Tulsa construction company.

At this point the coroner refused to make a definitive identification.

Tampa’s Chief of Detectives Fred Thomas said he was very much surprised that the body had been identified as Merker, since the dead man was least 40 years old, and not 22, which was Merker's age.

Thomas said, "Young Merker's father should have been required to come here and identify his son and accompany the body back to Omaha." The man did match Merker's description, which was reddish hair, a hooked nose, freckles and a light complexion.

Two weeks after the murder the police took a closer look at the workman's badge number and stationery found with the dead man’s belongings indicating he had worked for the Williams Brothers Inc of Tulsa. Police verified he would travel to different states while working for the company.

Then George Knapp who lived in Omaha went to view the body on the chance that it might be his brother Jasper "Jap" Knapp, 52, who 3 years before went with Ringling Brothers' circus and was last known to be out of work and living in Orlando, Florida. It turned out this was not Jasper Knapp.

On January 29, 1930 the unknown man was buried in an unmarked grave in the potter's field at Forest Lawn cemetery in Omaha.

Richard Sheard was released in June, 1930. The charge of manslaughter was dropped. The authorities had no choice but to believe his version of the story of how he killed the unknown man.

In 1959, Carl Merker made the papers when he was held up by 3 men who took his wallet. He worked at the racetrack at Del Mar, California, and was walking to his job from the bus stop.

Carl Merker really died in 1970 at the age of 63.

Norman Bechtel belonged to an influential Mennonite family

Norman Bechtel
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1932

In January, 1932 Norman Bechtel, an insurance company employee was thrown from an auto onto the lawn of a Germantown estate. He was found alive, but died two hours later in a hospital. He was 35 years old and a member of a well known Berks County family.

His father Samuel was a merchant, and he worked for his uncle Joseph B. Bechtel. His family founded Bechtelsville, five miles from Boyertown, and many relatives live in the nearby towns of Palm, Congo, Bally, Barto and Gablesville.

The injured man was found by a police officer behind Lone Oak, a home owned by Mrs. Stokes that had stood vacant for about 10 years. The officer heard moaning from behind some bushes. He had been guarding the nearby home of Judge Harry S. McDevitt due to bomb threats made against him.

Later it was found Bechtel had 8 stab wounds near the heart, two in the head and his skull was fractured. The officer had noticed that earlier an automobile had stopped near the area where Bechtel was found.

Robert Ross, a Mennonite Church officer said he had accompanied Bechtel to Lansdale the night before to attend a church meeting where they were planning a religious retreat. After the meeting Bechtel had dropped him off first, and then Eleanor Temple at their respective homes. They were all co-members on a committee of the Mennonite Church.

Police theorized he had been stabbed with a stiletto, possibly when attempting to defend Eleanor Temple. The truth would turn out to be far different.

The next day Bechtel's blood-stained car was found about 5 miles from where he was dumped.

The attack was linked to the hand of a Pennsylvania hex doctor. Weird symbols were found carved on Bechtel's forehead. Small crescents had been cut on each side of his forehead and a horizontal cut about one inch long under each crescent. There was another cut starting just below the hair line and ran straight down to the bridge of the nose, and two other ran diagonally upward from each eyebrow. The police believed the killer had deliberately marked the victim with a razor blade or scalpel. There was also a circle of stab wounds formed around his heart.

The Mennonites do not officially believe in witchcraft, hexing or pow-wow rituals

Police found Bechtel's diary which he had kept for the past 9 years. They did not find any definitive answers to point to a culprit. His diary only contained names of men and women he worked with at the church and the Boy Scouts.

The police were stymied when no fingerprints were found on Bechtel's auto.

Within a few days of the crime there were 3 theories entertained: one was robbery, second that he was attacked by a maniac and the third was that he was a so-called "hex or witch victim."

Bechtel had carried life insurance for $60,000 which the police thought was unusual, since he was only 31 years old and a bachelor. The bulk of his estate was left to his brother and half-sister, with some money to his church, and another stipend for the upkeep of the family cemetery. Outside of insurance payoffs to his family, Bechtel was virtually penniless due to speculating in "fly-by-night" stocks.

A few weeks after the murder, Ellis H. Parker, considered one of the outstanding man hunters in the United States said: "The person who killed Norman R. Bechtel probably never saw him before. I would say the murder looks like the work of a person mentally deficient. That makes it an exceedingly difficult task. I would say there is a little chance to solve the case except through accident or a lucky chance. .... The illogical ferocity with which Bechtel was stabbed and slashed seems to confirm this.”

Parker had become famous for solving many murders, including the killing of John Brunen 10 years before. He would also become involved in the Lindberg kidnapping.

Detective Paul Kleinspehn while investigating the Bechtel murder, found that there were two unsolved murders in the Bechtel family during the past 30 years.

One was Harry Bechtel whose body was found at Haddonfield, New Jersey in 1905. He was an accomplished musician and had recently moved to Philadelphia. He had lacerations on his face, and no other injuries. The coroner cited the cause of death due to exposure even though Bechtel was carrying considerable money with him, and he always kept the money inside a vest pocket. The murdered man's pocketbook was found some distance from the body. His watch, overcoat and hat were missing. Professor Bechtel was known to be a drinking man. He had been admitted to a Kelley "cure institution" another name for sanatorium at least 3 times and had been discharged as incurable.

The murder of Hannah Mabel Bechtel was never solved c.1903

The county physician opined that Harry Bechtel had a light hemorrhage of the brain and wandered out along the lonely road. While there, the hemorrhage became more profuse and he fell, and died before he was found.
His murder was never solved, and wasn’t even seriously investigated as a crime.

The next Bechtel family member to die mysteriously occurred on October 26, 1903. Her name was Hannah Mabel Bechtel, 21, and her mother found her body in the cellar of their home at 627 Cedar Street, Allentown. Her skull was crushed, but there were no other marks of violence on the body. She was last seen alive driving with David Weisenberg the day before her death.

Her mother had been awoken by dogs marking around 1 a.m. She looked out her bedroom window and saw two men carrying an object from a carriage, and placing it in the underground alley near their house. Later that morning she found her daughter's coat and scarf inside the home. This did not seem unusual, until later when she found the girl's body.

Known as Mabel by her family she lived in the home with her widowed mother, a sister and several brothers. She worked at the Palace silk mill. She had two admirers, Alfred Eckstein who was favored by the family, and David Weisenberg who wasn't since he was Jewish. Both were arrested and posted bail.

Blood stains were found in the murdered girl's room and a stained and broken hatchet in the house. Her outer clothing had little blood, but her undergarments were saturated. According to the police this proved she was undressed when killed.

Several of Mabel's brothers were held by the authorities. One of them, Thomas Bechtel had stains on his clothes, which he said were tobacco marks, the police disagreed.

Thomas Bechtel committed suicide while in jail. He cut his throat with a pocket knife, but he left no note admitting that he killed his sister. The police accepted his suicide as an admission of guilt. They received an unsigned, type-written letter from Philadelphia that said: "She was killed by her brother. The body was taken downstairs and laid in the passageway. The story was then made up between them about the carriage. The struggle with the girl to get her to release herself from the Jew, Weisenberger who was dragging her down to infamy, occurred that night in a terrible scene when the brother, wrought up to madness, killed her."

Whether her brother was the one who killed her, the case was unofficially unsolved.

The murder of Norman Bechtel would not be solved for many years after it occurred

Like many murder investigations, the pursuit of the truth in order to solve the crime, airs out the victim’s dirty laundry.

It was found that Norman Bechtel despite his religious activities in the Mennonite Church liked to sit in on large stakes poker games.

Bechtel "frequently entertained a group of men in his bachelor apartment" to play poker, which he called a great American game, but the stakes were not so moderate. Bechtel was prone to display a thick roll of bills; some assumed these were his winnings at the card table. His uncle told police he often carried several hundred dollars on his person, but he thought it was money he had collected as treasurer of the church organizations.

A newspaper made the comparison to the assassination of Arnold Rothstein in 1928, who was killed a short time after sitting down at a high stakes card game. It was guessed the motive behind Rothstein's slaying was due to the gaming table, but nobody was ever prosecuted. The inference was impossible to overlook; was Norman Bechtel’s murder due to his love of gambling?

This was later disputed with some acquaintances at work saying he only carried $10 or $15 on his person. This challenged the theory the murder was due to robbery.

The only clue police had was a chauffeur's cap stained with spots, which may have been blood found near Bechtel's body.

For an unknown reason the police said they discounted the killing as being tied to a hexerei curse, even though the newspapers were referring to it as the "Eye Mark Murder Mystery". Hexerei is a practice of witchcraft among the Pennsylvania Dutch. There are basically three types of magick practitioners: powwowers (white magick generally for healing and hex breaking), hexerei (black magick generally for hex casting), and hex doctors (sort of a gray area of magick including people who practice white & black magick).

Captain Harry Heanley in charge of the homicide squad disclosed that besides being stabbed, the killer had forced Bechtel's right eye from its socket.

It seemed the more the police dug into Bechtel's life, the more obvious it became that he took great pains to keep it mysterious. He "kept his own confidence, and virtually never talked, even to those who were associated with him in business and those who presumably were his friends, of his personal affairs or his personal life." He was friendly with the neighbors in the apartment building where he had lived for two years, but made no effort to become closely acquainted.

He had few if any girlfriends, and was known to dress immaculately and had meticulous habits, even a "trifle fussy." He had an aversion for even the slightest dust or the slightest disarrangement of furniture in his apartment. If a chambermaid did not perform her job correctly, he would insist that she be called immediately to rectify her error regardless of the time of the day it was.

At one point the Bechtel case was tied to the 3-X killing in Long Island two years before

When Norman Bechtel was buried at the Hereford Mennonite Church next to his mother nearly 3,000 braved the cold weather and came to witness the ceremony.

Bechtel's death was then attributed to the work of the mysterious "3X" maniac who terrorized Long Island in the summer of 1930.

Supposedly the clue that pointed in this direction was that a bloodstained rag used by the killer to wipe his hands, was wrapped in a newspaper containing a copy of a letter sent by X to Captain William E. Houghton of the local secret service, in which he promised to reveal information about the recent Communist bombing. The locale of the Bechtel murder was similar to that of the crime perpetrated on Long Island. In June, 1930 the body of Joseph Mozynski, a Long Island grocer was found shot through the head in a lonely spot in Queens. The killer wrote to a New York newspaper, boasting of his murder, and telling where the bodies could be found. A large reward was offered but the killer was not apprehended.

The months passed and Bechtel's murderer remained at large. In December, 1932 Detective Michael Corskey who had been assigned to the case was stabbed to death during a struggle with a man armed with an ice pick near 39th Street and Powelton Avenue. After a massive citywide manhunt, the killer George "Sugarfoot" Green was captured, tried, and sentenced to 6 to 12 years. It was eerie and unnerving how similar Corskey’s death was to Bechtel’s. Questions were whispered as to whether Corskey had come too close to learning the identity of the murderer, and was done away with.

In April, 1937, five years after the crime, the police declared the case had been solved. William Jordan, 36, a chauffeur confessed to the murder. Three other were implicated by Jordan, one of them being a woman. A fifth member of the gang was said to have died since the murder.

Jordan denied being the one who killed Bechtel, only that he witnessed the attack. The underlying motive for the crime was that Bechtel was being blackmailed by the gang. Their names were John Coles, 41; Fletcher Williams, 30 and Lucille Young, 29. Oliver Armstrong now dead was said to have had an engagement to meet Bechtel, and all five had driven together to the assignation.

According to Jordan, Bechtel and Armstrong got into an argument and began grappling. During the struggle Armstrong stabbed Bechtel with a long-bladed penknife. Armstrong then drove Bechtel's car into the estate.

Armstrong died in January, 1935 from natural causes.

During the hearing the three other prisoners interrupted Jordan to deny his story placing them at the murder scene.

It took 5 years for the mystery of Norman Bechtel's murder to be solved

The police then became very cryptic, and said the crime was "very complicated". The mayor inferred it involved both robbery and a "sex angle."

Two detectives were penalized on charges they accepted graft from the Bechtel family at the beginning of the murder investigation. One took $2,800 from Wilbur Bechtel, and the other who was the homicide squad’s captain, bought Bechtel's automobile, which was new for only $250.

This convinced the mayor something was being hidden about the crime by the Bechtel family, especially since Norman Bechtel's diary and other important papers were mysteriously missing.

Wilbur Bechtel was questioned why he made a loan to homicide squad detective Frank Choplinski, once for $2,000 and then $800. He replied that Choplinski needed the money to settle a debt. When asked if he had ever lent money before to a stranger, he replied no he had not.

Then the story took another turn, when police said it was John Coles, 41, a pudgy man, who lured Bechtel to a lonely rendezvous, however it was Oliver Armstrong, a janitor who blamed Bechtel for the loss of his job at the Paramount Apartments, where Bechtel lived that brought the night to a horrible conclusion.

This was Jordan's story: He and Coles, Williams and Armstrong went to a speakeasy kept by Lucille Young on January 19, 1932. They had been drinking White Mule all afternoon long. The money began to run out, so Coles went to a nearby garage where he worked and tried to borrow some money. He failed and returned to the speakeasy. Then Coles suggested they accompany him to meet Bechtel. When Coles got out to meet Bechtel, Armstrong accompanied him. An argument broke out, and then Armstrong started to hit him on the head.

The mayor then asked Coles if he had a “love of silk underwear.” His answer was "No sir, Bechtel never bought me any silk underwear. I had no date with Bechtel that night." It was a strange, but telling question.

Coles was identified as an employee of a garage where Bechtel kept his automobile on South Melville Street, Philadelphia. He was formerly the manager of the apartment house of West Vernango Street where Bechtel lived at the time. Was this where they had met?

Mennonite churchyard c.1942

A few days after his confession, William Jordan slashed his throat and legs inside his jail cell. He recovered and went to trial in May, 1937. The others were set free since there was not enough evidence to prosecute them.

Helen Temple testified that after Bechtel left her at home it appeared he planned on meeting with someone. She said that Bechtel had never been her suitor, or even a very good friend. The night of the 19th was the first time she had seen him in several months. The fact that he was driving in the neighborhood of the Stokes estates, confirmed her story, since this route was far from his apartment.

Dr. William Wadsworth, the coroner's physician described that Bechtel had been stabbed 8 times in the heart, once on the hip and eleven on the head.

William Jordan was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in Eastern State Penitentiary. The D.A. stated he did not pursue a charge of murder because he believed Jordan was not the actual killer. The place where Bechtel was found was so far from the route he would have taken to his home that police were convinced he went there to keep an appointment.

In May, 1938 Jordan was acquitted after being granted a new trial by the State Supreme Court.

Lucky for him, there was a dead man to blame the murder on. There were no fingerprints found in the dead man’s car, indicating that whoever had been inside it had worn gloves. This did not point to an unplanned encounter.

There was also the peculiar way Bechtel was stabbed. William Condon, superintendent for the Philadelphia morgue said at the time: "The deliberate designs in which the wounds were cast resemble a sculptured carved piece of work. I would certainly like to know the explanation."

Why would a murder that escalated from an argument end up with the victim getting wounds on each temple, beginning at the top of the ear and pointing toward the nostril, a crescent-shaped wound, carved as if on wood—deliberate, careful, exact. On each cheekbone was a somewhat similar slash about two inches long. The peculiar knife carvings on each side of the victim's head formed roughly an eye. Could this design and the fact that one of his eyes had been removed was done by someone who believed in the Evil Eye?

The savagery of the knife thrust that killed Norman Bechtel penetrated through his overcoat, his coat, his steel spectacle case, his shirt and his underwear. He then received seven stab wounds in a circle around his heart.

Lone Oaks, also known as the Stoke Mansion where Norman Bechtel was dumped

in retrospect, years after the murder, the brevity of the coroner’s actions seemed suspect. The public was barred from the inquest, the police were on guard and there were only six witnesses present. Coroner Schwarz said: "There is no use wasting time over this. We are not going to spend hours when there is not any testimony that means anything, and we’re not going to put on a circus for the benefit of morbid, curious people." The inquest lasted only 20 minutes. No clues were disclosed and the verdict given was the Bechtel had "died of stab wounds at the hands of a person or persons unknown."

Months after the murder, the Stokes mansion known as Lone Oak was visited by a wrecking crew and it was demolished, even though it had stood unoccupied for years since the owner was usually traveling abroad. Was it the stigma of the murder, or something else?

Was it coincidental that Bechtel had grown up on a farm near Boyertown, where powwow was common? The Mennonite denied any belief in pow-wow magick.

What was not released to the public, even during the 1937 arrest of his attackers, was that Bechtel was involved in "several love affairs", and they were attempting to blackmail as well as rob him since he was known to carry money with him at all times.

It appears that Norman Bechtel was leading a double life. He was an upstanding Mennonite church member who belonged to on an old, influential family, but it seems he had gone out to meet John Coles for a homosexual assignation. Coles who had been drinking with a group of people, had run out of money, and perhaps he mentioned he would be meeting Bechtel. It was easy to imagine they would believe he would be an easy man to blackmail. Did he refuse, and this is when Armstrong attacked him?

The Mennonite Church especially in the 1930s saw homosexual activity as a sin, and defines marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman, this is based on the interpretation that the Bible teaches genital intercourse is reserved for heterosexual marriage and that any violation of this covenant, including homosexual activity, constitutes sin.
Could the nature of his death have been the reason why siblings paid off the detectives on the homicide squad who were in charge of the investigation? The scandal would have reflected on his family and the church, and he would still be just as dead. Had they suspected he had a secret life, or were they just as stunned as the police? No doubt his siblings reached out to the Mayor who seemed to have understood the true circumstances of the crime, and asked to suppress an ugly truth about their family member, even at the cost of punishing his killer.

However this leaves a question as to why he was tortured, stabbed and carved with occult symbolism. This appeared to be a methodical and deliberate act.

Who killed Bechtel? A sadistic robber? A religious fanatic? An outraged lover?

The death of Samuel Forte a few days after Norman Bechtel was also suspected to be tied to occult motives

Samuel Forte
Philadelphia, February, 1932

In a strange, so-called coincidence only 3 weeks after Bechtel was killed, Samuel Forte, a night watchman in a Lansdale foundry was killed. He was 45 years old, and the father of ten children. He was also a member of a secret cult whose leaders according to his wife had completely bewitched him.

A window cord had been fastened his neck, and the other end tied to a beam which was laid over the top of two lockers. The hands were tied behind the body with rags, and the feet held together by a belt. The body was found in a kneeling position with the knees barely clear of the floor. The body was found inside the Werner Foundry Company where he worked.

The man's mouth was cut and the left eye badly bruised. His untouched lunch was on a bench nearby.

The locker room was some distance from the factory. There was nothing of value in the place, and Forte's few personal belongings were not touched.

Detective Samuel Woffindin said, "All the windows of the foundry were unlocked and anyone could have entered the place. On three occasions during the last week, efforts were made by someone to break into the foundry. I do not think it was for the purpose of robbery. Each time Forte blocked the attempt." One time, the man had sought entrance to the plant under the pretense of using the telephone.

A day after Forte's death the mysteries of an Italian religious cult entered into the investigation. He belonged to this cult and a Bible written in Italian, which he studied continuously was missing. The police chief questioned two of Forte's sons, Charles, 21, and Joseph, 18. They told him their father had joined the organization 7 years before, and had refused divulge any of the secret rites or members to his family. His family had tried to persuade him to abandon the cult.

Eventually authorities learned there were five other members of the cult in Lansdale, and police learned that faith healing was one of their principles. None of the members could take medicine of any type no matter how ill they were.

The coroner's physician confirmed Forte had died from strangulation, but the question lingered if it was murder or suicide.

The police theorized Samuel Forte was killed because he wanted to leave the cult. The members would meet at each member's home by rotation, and they were very secretive about their movements, however suspicions soon centered on one man because of the peculiar knots tied in Forte's bonds.

It was not long before Forte's murder was tied to the death of Norman Bechtel, due to the cult angle.

The Forte investigation then took a turn when police contended he had been murdered by the husband and son of a woman member of his religious cult, with whom he carried on a love affair. The belt used to tie Forte's hands were traced to the woman's husband, and the strips that bound his feet to the tailoring shop where the son worked. Their names were Julio DiSantis and his son Anthony, 18.

The lead came from Mrs. Forte who suspected her husband of infidelity for the past six months. She said: "He was always going to the home of another member of the cult. Many times his friend was not at home and his wife was here alone. He always told me he was going there to pray but that was not the only reason." She also said her husband had been threatened because he want to abandon the cult, and return to the Catholic church. S

Ultimately the coroner's inquest failed to determine if Samuel Forte died as a result of murder or by suicide, even though it was found that his hands were bound so tightly, it would have been impossible for him to have done it himself.

Four months after his death, Forte's widow submitted a claim for compensation to the Werner Foundry Company, since he had been working when he lost his life.

In May, 1933 a hearing was held regarding the compensation Mrs. Forte claimed was owed to the family. The company had denied it based on the belief he had died by suicide, and they were not responsible for this.

Nothing more was publicized about the outcome, which indicates the company probably settled with Mrs. Forte.

The truth of the manner of his death was never disclosed.

The common thread of these deaths and crimes, was the occult theme of the belief system or lifestyle of the victim or the perpetrator.