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| "Most people come here to solve the case all over again," the archivist said, "Ellis Parker`s story is an interesting angle." |
| I mentioned the movie we had seen and the inaccuracies we noticed. He shook his head. |
| "I met with them when they were making the movie and I carefully told them about the crime scene, but they went ahead in another direction. I even showed them the ladder and where it had cracked." |
| "But in the movie it was a lower rung that had broken, not the side rails," I noted. "I guess that's show biz for you." |
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| The Lindbergh archives consist of a room full of file cabinets and with walls lined with boxes. Everything is stuffed with newspaper articles, original letters, telegrams, and court documents covering every aspect of the case. I was overwhelmed and I was only covering the Ellis Parker angle. Where would you start if you wanted to investigate the entire Lindbergh case? The archivist told us he occasionally has high school students drop by to research a quick term paper on the case. When they get a look at the extensive files, most go to an encyclopedia instead. |
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| Fortunately, the Ellis Parker material had been assembled into a seperate collection that only took up a relatively few file drawers. Of course each drawer was chock a block with folders containing newspaper articles, telegrams, loose letters, photos, and court documents. It was an embarassment of riches. I sat down in a cubicle and started in on the task while assorted state police came and went. I could almost guess what they were thinking. "Here's another yoyo trying to prove we were wrong."In addition to the usual information, the files contained what appeared to be the original manuscript of The Lindbergh-Hauptmann Aftermath, the book written by Parker`s suspect attempting to cash in of his experience. I had about 50 pages copied for future reference. |
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| I plodded along while Barbara browsed more leisurely. She strolled out in the hall at one point and ran into one of the troopers who asked her about what we were doing. When she told him we were researching part of the Lindbergh case he looked very serious and said. "Believe me, we got the right guy." |
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| I assembled an impressive collection of letters, photos, witness statements, and other documents relating to Ellis Parker, including a number of letters he signed. One of the letters was from prison. There was so much stuff, I knew I would have to come back again. I asked the archivist if he had ever seen the confession Parker`s suspect had signed. He hadn`t. |
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| By the time it got close to 4:00, I was bleary eyed. It would take a while to go through all this stuff, and I still had no confession. I decided to look in one more drawer and found it just as full as the others. As I flipped through the pages I suddenly froze. There was the confession! All 25 pages of it. Paydirt! |
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| There were actually three versions of the confession, with each one a refinement of the previous one. I had copies made and carefully tucked them away. Things were looking up. |
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The next morning we went to see
the lawyer whose father had testified at Ellis Parker`s trial.
He was an old timer like the Surrogate, but not quite old
enough to remember Ellis Parker personally.
"But my father
testified as a character witness in Parker's trial," he said. "Told
the jury what a great guy Parker was."
He paused a moment, then
added, "They convicted him anyway."
There didn't seem to be
any good answer to that, so I asked if the attorney ever met
Parker himself.
"Well, no. I was too young. But years ago I
defended the Boston Strangler."
"I always thought F. Lee Bailey
did that."
"Well, sure, but I defended Albert DeSalvo years
earlier, before he was the Strangler; when he was stationed at Fort
Dix. He got in some trouble with some women."
That's putting it mildly, I thought, and made a mental note to come back if I ever wrote a completely different book.I was beginning to realize that very few people had more than the most rudimentary knowledge of Ellis Parker, even people with a direct connection to him. |
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| The county executive still hadn`t cracked the safe in the Prison Museum, so we skipped it and looked up the retired Chief of Detectives. He was a tall thin man with a neat mustache and a friendly manner. I was disappointed to learn that Anna Bading, Ellis Parker`s secretary, was extremely confidential. She really didn`t tell Parker`s successor much of the lowdown about Parker and his cases. But there were some records, letters, and assorted memorabilia left behind in the office and the successor told me about them. Parker had been amazingly productive, working several cases at once, but his oft-repeated claim of investigating several thousand cases was smilingly dismissed as something of an exaggeration. I asked the successor about the Rancocas Rumrunning scandal and what effect it had had on Parker. He had never heard of it. He promised to look through his desk and see what else he could find and we departed. |
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| I decided to make another attempt at finding Parker`s office, hoping someone a bit more sympathetic might be on duty in the old courthouse. To my disappointment, the same dour figure loomed in the empty first floor. This time, however, he relented somewhat and let me take a quick look at the second floor. There were two empty courtrooms and nothing else. I decided the place must have been remodeled. It wasn`t until I was outside I realized the office must have been in a separate section in the back. Those doors were all separately locked. Maybe next time. |
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| The people at the Garden Street house welcomed us and had the newspapers all ready to go. This time Barbara came in and got to see the place as well, including the Billy Bass. The owners were as knowledgeable about Ellis Parker as anyone we had met in town. Inspired by the magical presence of my bride, they filled us in on the details of how they came to buy the house after the Parker family had been unsuccessful in their attempt to covert it into apartments. |
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| Someone said that the perpetually closed Elks Club might be open at night, so I stopped by after dinner. Barbara stayed at the motel, since the Elks was for men only; something like the He-Man Women-Haters Club of Little Rascals fame. This time there was obviously something going on inside, but all the doors were locked, no doubt to fend off non-Elks and other undesirables. I waited near the side entrance for a moment, then saw a pizza delivery guy leaving. Greeting him, I slipped into the sanctum before the door had a chance to lock again. Now I was inside. Now what? |
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