In Search of the American Sherlock Holmes: Tracking down Ellis Parker and the Second Lindbergh Kidnapping. A literary true adventure by John Reisinger

Chapter 9- The Jersey Bounce   "I wonder how many other people come to New Jersey three times in a single year and never visit a beach or see a slot machine?" wondered Barbara as we headed up I-95 in the morning sunshine. "Bruce Springsteen?" "You`d think after all these trips they would give us a discount at the toll booths," I grumbled.   Once again luck was with us. There was a massive back up through Philadelphia, but only southbound. We sailed on through. By now the car was almost on automatic pilot.   The archivist of the New Jersey State Police Museum greeted us and we plunged into the Lindbergh archives once again. This time I hit a separate collection of the papers of Governor Harold Hoffman, Parker`s friend and protector. Hoffman had been politically ruined by championing Bruno Hauptmann`s cause, mostly on the advice of Parker. Hoffman`s collection had been discovered in his garage after his death in the 1980s.   There was a lot of good material, including transcripts of Parker`s testimony to the Mercer County Grand Jury, letters dealing with Parker`s trial and efforts to obtain a pardon, and Parker`s 13 page report to Hoffman detailing the results of his investigation of the Lindbergh case. This was a key document because it detailed Parker`s reasons for doubting Hauptmann`s guilt.     There were some weird things as well. Tucked in among the papers was a folded sheet of notepaper. A shaky handwritten message was addressed to the governor. "If Hauptmann dies, you die," was all it said. At the bottom was the same red dot, blue circle and three hole "signature" featured on the ransom letters; just another of an almost infinite number of loose ends in the case. But it was time to get to the Trenton libraries.   When you approach Trenton from the southeast, you pass a truss bridge over the Delaware. Hanging proudly along the side in letters 20 feet tall is what must have been some 19th century civic booster's idea of a snappy slogan; TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES. It was apparently supposed to evoke thriving industry, but makes the town sound more like a robbery victim.   The Trenton Library had a room devoted to Trenton history and here was where they kept the microfilm files of the Trenton Times. The large room was festooned with street signs, framed newspapers, statues, old photos, and even a baseball uniform from some old Trenton team. If T.G.I. Fridays had a library, this is what it would look like. To preserve all the records and artifacts, the room is kept at a temperature more appropriate for preserving meat. The librarian/curator was gracious and soon I was surfing the Trenton Times. From the visit to the state police archives I had found a reference to the date of the elusive Rancocas Rumrunning Scandal, so I wanted to see the local paper for that day. To my delight, I found full details of the Rancocas Rumrunning scandal, and a run down of Parker`s suspension that resulted. There was also information about the man Parker suspected of the kidnapping.   While in Trenton, we looked for the home of Parker`s suspect on Greenwood Drive, not knowing if it still stood. I had an address and a picture, so we set out. I had tried to find the address on the Web to contact its present occupant, but with no success. I had even found a website of a nearby synagogue and e-mailed the Rabbi asking if the house still existed. I had not gotten an answer. So we felt our way around the streets of Trenton with a map and a picture from an old newspaper. Suddenly, there it was; older, considerably shabbier, but unmistakable; the once luxurious three story duplex. On the third level was a dormer window. According to the confession, this was where the Lindbergh baby was kept until it had died accidentally. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, much to Barbara`s relief. She hadn`t much liked the look of the place.   "I've always wondered where the Addams Family moved to," she observed.   The Greenwood Avenue house had been the suspect`s home when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, but the family had moved to nearby Walnut Street by the time Parker had the man detained. Parker, Ellis, Jr., and Parker`s secretary Anna Bading had visited the Walnut Street house in an effort to verify the confession. This house also still existed, but it was small and featured a large "Beware of Dog" sign in its front window. As we slowed down to look at the house, a curtain was pulled aside and suspicious eyes peered out. "OooooooKay," I said, "I think we`ve seen enough. Let`s get on to the State Library." "Good plan," said Barbara, peeking up above the dashboard she had been hiding behind..

The suspect's house

The New Jersey State Library is in the state government complex downtown and has microfilm files of other local papers. It was also a lot more comfortable than the Trenton History Room in the Trenton Library, being kept at a temperature more appropriate for maintaining human life. I got more articles and files while Barbara went to the nearby records office to look for a death certificate for Parker`s suspect.   Barbara didn`t have any luck, but managed to create a minor sensation on the way back by getting caught in a fast closing elevator door. The guard assured her they had been meaning to get it fixed.   We returned to Mt. Holly to look for Parker`s grave. I had several articles about the funeral, and old pictures showing the people and the grave. There were two mausoleums nearby that could be used as landmarks to locate the plot.   The Mt. Holly Cemetery is an old fashioned graveyard with heavy marble and granite monuments, the kind of a place you wouldn`t want to visit at night. We soon found the mausoleums and recognized the locations where the photographers were standing when the old pictures were taken. Ellis Parker is buried next to his wife and his daughter under a pink granite headstone. Under the large letters PARKER are the names, Cora (his wife), Mildred, (his daughter), and Ellis, 1871-1940. The newspaper pictures from 1940 show the headstone buried in flowers, but there were no flowers now. The monument was bare; a forgotten stone in a lonely corner of a sad old graveyard. I wondered how long it had been since anyone had visited Ellis Parker.

Standing in that lonely cemetary and looking at the newspaper photos we could suddenly visualize every detail of the funeral as if it had just happened.   "Over there is where the hearse parked and there between those rows is where they carried the casket, " I said. "Over by that mausoleum is where Ellis, Jr. stood comforting his mother."   In the stillness of the late afternoon, as we looked at the funeral pictures and compared them to the mostly unchanged cemetery around us, a strange thing happened. We felt we had been transported back to 1940. The sky turned cloudy and the gloom deepened. In the empty stillness, it almost seemed as if the crowd at the funeral had just left and Ellis Parker had just begun his eternal sleep.   "It's strange, but after all this research, I almost feel as if I knew him," Barbara said quietly. "It's sad, really." I nodded. "It`s getting late. We`d better be going. We've got to be in Flemington tomorrow."     What awaits our heroes in Flemington?   Will Hauptmann be found guilty again?   Will the admission be refunded if there is a mistrial?     Don't miss Chapter 10- Deja Vu All Over Again

Chapter 10

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