murder

Crime story. Helen Buck was staying with the Heilners in Brooklyn, earning her keep as companion to Julia Heilner (who was "an invalid," and is the woman on the right in the photo above). She went out visiting on 23 April 1915; when she came back, she saw the family's newly hired butler, Joseph Hanel, leaving the house with a parcel and wearing one of Selig Heilner's nephew's collars. She asked a hired man from the neighborhood to go into the house; he found Julia Heilner beaten and strangled in the pantry. The address of the crime scene was 217 Albemarle Road. Almost a year later, in February 1916, Joseph E. Hanel was arrested in Baltimore and extradited back to New York. He claimed to have an accomplice who did the murder, and would only admit to robbing the Heilners, but some of Hanel's fingerprints were found on the beer bottle used against Mrs. Heilner. (Some of the Heilners' property turned up in pawnshops in Philadelphia.) Seligman L. Heilner was president of the Princess Corset Company.

pennylrichardsca, Thanks for shedding light on the tragic story behind the trio in this photograph. We will add information about the crime to the record.

Sad story....

French journalist, his wikipedia entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Calmette He died in March 1914--assassinated by Henriette Caillaux, who was afraid he was about to reveal secret details of her personal life. (She was acquitted.)

I was just about to google his name. Thanks :)

pennylrichardsca: Thanks for the information on M. Calmette. Quite a story! We will add more details to the record.

NYT of July 16, 1914 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A1FF9345D13738... notes Runcie as one of the doctors who performed the autopsy on Lulu Biley, the victim in the "Carman Case." NYT of July 9, 1914 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10614FA3F5E13738... indicated that he was a friend and fellow physician of Carman, and was at the Carman house treating Florence Carman's mother for a heart attack the day Florence was arrested.

Bain's photo of the Carman house (scene of the murder), with investigators:

swanq: Thanks for the NYT article which identifies Runcie as one of the doctors who performed the autopsy on Lulu Bailey. Thanks Wystan for the image of the murder scene. We will add more details to the image description when we update.