8/2/2019 "Smothered in the Sea Sand" Cape May Murder Mystery 1927

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Mystery of the Wealthy andRespected Pittsburgh Spinsterand Her Strange Tryst With

Death on the Lonely, Dark andStorm-Swept OceanBeachat CapeMay

"As Miss Clark stood there below the Cape Ma y boardwalk did unseen armsout from the dark and hurl her to the beach? And then did strong, brutalclinch in her hair and around her head and force her nose and mouth down 'the smothering sand, holding her there until the strangling grains filled throatd lungs, and she died?

2:30 o'clock on the af ternoon ofMiss Mary S.a supposedly wealthy Pitts-at Washington, D. C.,Ashevil le, N. C.on the night of Friday, Janu-

local train that runs f rom Wild-J., to Cape May, and,.beginnings of a howling bl iz-her way through th e snow.andbeach.on Saturday af ternoon Janu-a beach patrolman stumbledfrozen andin the sand, an d justthe reach of the highest storm-jury, af ter considerablebrought in a verdict that sh eshe had been murderedthat betrayed a merciless and

killer iwho meant to leave noas to his identi ty. He r facethrust down into the loose sandthere unti l she had slowlyto death. A t each desperateshe had breathed in the f ineof the sand. Her nose andfilled with them, and the au-t h e _ grit even in her lungs.rightan d smaller bruises upon th eThere were no marks of f ingerssleetmight have been of aid to the

Cape May whoPi ttsburgh woman. Shein Cape May. It wasi t was ident ified a mysteryshape itself of exactly the kind

found that before leaving Wash-ut $50,-of easily negotiable securities.cashed a check for $500. ' SheYor k , and not in her ownthat of "M S. Carey."d bought a mi leage hook in thatCarey. She had usedperhaps because thebore those initials lettered onShe had worn two diamond rings$B,000.h a n db a g , af ter a search, wasabou t a h un dred feet away from

where she had lain. It contained 55, cents in change, the remainder of herticket and a little looking glass an d vanitycase. If securities an d money ha d beenin it, they were gone. Her fingers were

bare.What powerful impulse could it havebeen that had taken this woman under anassumed nam e into that storm-sweptocean town to which she was a stranger?Well off, respected, her l ife had been ofthe quietest. She had turned sixty withno known love affairs. She had pract-ically no relatives and no responsibilities.

What was it that had mad e her cover hertrail, hide he r identity, an d make thatlong secret journey f rom Washington tothe winter - isolated New Jersey coasttown?What myster ious rendezvous could itpossibly have been that so irresistiblydrew such a w o ma n through sleet andsnow an d howling wind down to the dark,storm-swept, lonely ocean beach thatnight with more than $50,000 in her pos-session?Investigation by members of the StatePolice brought out the fact that there wasleft only $21 in the Pittsburgh bank whereshe had her checking account. Theycould find no other funds. Upon thestrength of this an attempt has been madeto overturn th e verdict of murder by theCoroner 's jury , and substitute one of sui-cide. This is upon the theory that MissClark, finding herself at the end of herresources, went all the way from Wash-ington to Cape M ay to kill herself by theextraordinary method of deliberatelyb ury in g her face in the sand of the beach,while, to make the matter doubly certain,she allowed herself to freez e in the midstof the icy storm!Bu t there ar e many thoughtful peoplein Cape M ay, and others who were f r iendsof Miss Clark, who find it quite impossibleto believe this. They do not think itcredible that anyone, and particularly awoman of the habi ts of the Pittsburghspinster, would betray such morbid in-genuity in getting out of the world. IfMiss Clark had wanted to kill herself,there were at least a thousand easierways. Also, they point out, there ma ybe other accounts in the name of "MaryS. Carey" in other banks. A n d , whetherthere are or are not, what became of themoney from the $500 check, th e secur i -ties that she bought before taking her i l l -fated Journey, and her r ings? And whatof the bruises upon the b o dy?Inves t igat ions cost money, and countyo f f i c i a l s mu s t be careful about expendi-tures, but, af t e r all, It ia i mpor t ant that

murderers be brought to justice. Thesefriends and thoughtful people thereforeare not content with th e overturning of -the Coroner's verdict and are prepar ingto .petition Governor Moore of New Jer-sey to order a special investigation of thecase.The only kin of Miss Clark appears tobe a brother in Californ ia and a second-cousin, Joseph P. Fisher, Jr., who lives inPittsburgh. She had been lef t a c o mfo r -able for tune about f i f teen years ago byanother relative. She was worth, prob-ably, between $100,000 an d $150,000.Ac c o rd in g to those who knew her best,she did not make friends carelessly andwould have been the last one to do sowith a chance acquaintance. She "did no tspeculate. He r mi nd wa s keen and herbusiness ability excellent. She had spentmost of her time in Virginia, Washingtonand Atlantic City, living in first-classhotels, an d living quietly because of herhealth, which was none too good. Shesuffered f rom indigestion an d neur i t i s .She was a s taunch Catholic, religious,"cheerful , but liked to be left alone.In Atlantic City she usually stopped atHaddon H-all, one of the Boardwalk hote lswhich caters to a quiet, conservative cli-entele. Sh e took her r ooms there lastyear on May 10. Except for an occa-sional trip to Philadelphia an d Washing-ton, she lived at the hotel dur ing theSummer an d Fall an d intended to stayright on, she had indicated, throughoutthe Winter. -During these months sheshowed no deviation from he r usual un -assuming habi ts , and made and receivedno new friends.Suddenly, on January 10, she gave uphe r rooms at Haddon Hall an d took he rtrunks wi th her to Washington.She lef t for Wa shington, that after-noon on the 1:55 train on the Pennsyl-vania Rai lroad. She gave as her for-warding address the Hotel Mayflower atWashington. She went to that hotel,checked out the next day and registeredat another .But in the meantime she had reshippedher two trunks to New York, giving hern a me as "Mary S. Carey." She hadb o ug h t at the s a me t ime a mileage bookon the Pennsylvania Rai lroad in the samen a me .

On Thursday she bought from a Wash-ington banking house $85,000 worth ofLiber ty bonds an d $15,000 worth of rai l -road securities. She also cashed a checkfor $500.W it h her two t r u nks on the i r way toNe w York u nd e r he r assumed n a me , MissClark lef t the hote l that a f t e r n oon , (dy-ing ou t that sho wa s go i ng to AshevlUe,W l I M T , b A m t i l w n W l | l y , I n n .

Where she spentThursday night is notknown. But on Fri-day af ternoon she ap-peared at the Penn-sylvania Rail road sta-tion in Camden, N. J.,and , us ing the"Carey" m i l e ag eticket, started forCape May.There in the busystation stood this eld-erly spinster with hercolorless, uneventfull ife behind her. Noone in the world wh oknew he r , knewwhere she was. Shehad, as she thought,erased her tracks.The only thing thatcould identi fy herw as t h a t mileagebook, an d that was in another name. Shedid not,apparently, carry an envelope, acard or a single piece of paper that boreanything by which she could be identified.If there ha d been tailors' tags in herclo thes carry ing her name, they had beenremoved. The securities, if she carriedthem, were th e negotiable kind wi th nomore of a mark of personal ownership onthem than an y bank note.Wh y had Miss Clarkpassed sixty, re-ligious, almost mousel ike an d retiringtaken such precautions as these? Hadsomeone instructed her to dp so? If so,why had she obeyed? . Entirely capableof carrying on her own business, clear-headed and quick witted. she would un-questionably have demanded a reason.W hat earthly kind of a reason could havebeen given her to satisfy her?Was she alone? As to this there isa doubt. . There is some evidence thatan expens ively dressed, dark -haired,mu chyounger woman w as with her in thePennsylvania S t a t i o n at Washington.Conductor Henry Steer , a veteran on therai lroad f rom Camden to Wildwood J u nc-tion, remembers that when he took up

Miss Mary A. Clark, Whose Myste-rious Death on the Lonely CapeM ay Beach Is Expected to Be Madethe Subject of a Special Investiga-tion by the Governor of New Jersey.Bu t whether shegot off at the CapeMa y station, neitherhe nor the brakemanof the local can re-member . There were a number of taxisgathered around wai ting for the arrivalof the train. A t this season of the yearthere are always more taxis than passen-gers at the gates. Not one of the taxi-cab dr ivers can remember having seenany stranger getting off that train thatFriday night!When Miss Clark wa s next seen shewas in the poorest section of the town, atth e junction of Broad Street and theReading Rai lroad. The storm had beengrowing steadi ly in violence, and a littlecolored girl, Florence Johnson, was buf-fe ting it on an errand. Sh e later identi-fied the Pittsburgh woman as the onewh o ha d stopped her and spoken to he rthat night."She was a nice lady," said Florence."She seemed to have lost her way. Sh easked me how to get to the beach. I toldhe r that she was going away from th e

Where Mi ss Clark's Body Was Found, With HerFace Still Pressed Down Into the Sand inWhich She Had Been Smothered.

t ion, remembers tnat wne n ne I O O K up oi < " * > , < = . , = * 6 - o . > --- - - - - - -"Mary S. Carey's" mileage book some- beach, but that I was going af ter an eye-where near W o o db ury , N. J., that a dark-hai red, well-dressed woman was on theseat beside her. Whether they were com-panions, he could no t say. He remem-bered the spinster because when shehanded him her mileage book she said toh i m :"Cape May." And he had to give hera fare transfer slip.Th e dark-hai red woman said nothing.Sh e left the train i t w ould seem, al thoughmemories are not clear on this point, atWildwood J u nc t i on , whe r e Miss Clark hiulbeen instructed to get off to take thelumbering s low loca l to Cape Mny.By this t ime th e storm ha d be gu n. Th ewind was s teadily r i s ing a n d t h e ' s n o wcoming down heavi ly . W t i a a Cl ar k got onthe local. This i s cer tain, because th econductor took up the train transfercheck which Steer had. given her.

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ni ng paper at the Re ad i ng station news-stand, and that I'd show her the waythere. I walked wi th her to the end ofth e platform an d pointed the way downO ce an Street to the Boardwalk. She wascarrying a black bag. She didn't seemworr ied or anythin g, because she smi ledv ery nicely and thanked me. Then shewalked away."This was half an hour af ter the localha d gotten in. I t was pi tch dark, exceptfo r th e street l ights , an d these were ob-scured by the wh ir l ing blasts of snow. Itwas bi tter cold and the wind came sweep-ing up from th e oce an in great ic y blasts.The Boardwalk was deser ted.Yet Miss Cla r k , "not in the best ofhealth," as her fr iends say, a l one in tha tstorm-swept town, must have set he rteeth, braced he r shoulders and trudgeddown the stveet, out u pon that lonely

boardwalk an d f rom it down to tHeblack sea beach.It would be difficult for the most livelyimagination to conceive w ha t or whomshe expected to find there of sufficientimportance to justi fy such an amaz i ngaction as this.And what happened when at last, afterthat strange, hurried, secret journey, shestood alone in the darkness of that beach,wi th the ocean roar ing under the lash ofthe storm, the snow and sleet blurringthe lights of the boardwalk behind he rand the icy wind lashing her? -W h a t did she see as she stood waitingand no d ou b t by now f e a r f u l ? Or d idunseen arms reach ou t from th e dark, gripher and hur l her to the sands? And thendid strong, brutal hands cl inch in her. hairan d around her head and force her nosean d mou th down into the smother ingsand, holding he r there unti l th e strang-l ing grains f i l led throat and lungs, andshe died?N o n e ca n tell. By the time th e bod yw as f ou n d i t was f rozen l ike a board, thestorm had wiped out every trace of what-ever footpr ints or other m a rk s mighthave been lef t around her.It is possible, of course, that this el-derly and devout w o ma n who had led sucha sheltered life, might suddenly decide toend it. But it seems scarcely credib lethat she would solemnly pick out a placeun k n o w n to her and hu nd r e d s of milesa w a y , change her name, and,carry ing asmall for tune, journey .to i t , march outon a beach in u bl izzard, stick her head in 1the &in(l l ike an ostrich and slowlysmother horpelf to death.At least, there are enough who do no ithink it credible to make action by thGovernor oi Ne w Jersey seom curta in. >

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