MD MD - Wayside, near Mt Victoria, WhtFem 40-60, UP14979, gallbladder & liver disease, Jan'65

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Richard

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Unidentified White Female
Located on 27 January 1965 in Charles County, Maryland
Estimated date of death: Late December 1964 or early January 1965

Vital Statistics
Approximate birthdate: 1915-1925
Estimated age: between 40 and 50 years of age
Approximate Height and Weight:
Distinguishing Characteristics: She had brown hair and was of small build. An autopsy indicated that she had suffered from cirrhosis of the liver.
Dentals: Possibly on file with Maryland State medical examiner, Baltimore.
Clothing: She was wearing only her underclothing when found.

Case History
This woman's body, clad only in underwear and covered by leaves, was found by a foxhunter on 27 January 1965. She was approximately 200 yards from Mill Run Road, near the villages of Mount Victoria and Wayside, in Charles County, Maryland.

It was estimated that her body had been in the woods for about three weeks. One theory was that the woman had been killed elsewhere and dumped in Charles County. The woman wore no rings or watches and there was no other means of identification on her. Her body was so decomposed that it was impossible to take fingerprints. It appeared there might have been some facial injuries.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Charles County Sheriff's Office

Source Information:
The Washington Star Newspaper
The Washington Post Newspaper

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Washington Post 27 January 1965:
Fox Hunter Finds Body of Woman
LaPlata, Md, Jan 27.

The mutilated body of a woman clad only in her underwear was found this afternoon in woods near Wayside, Md.

Charles County Sheriff Francis C. Garner and Dr. Edward J. Edelen, County medical examiner, said she had been dead several weeks.

Garner said the woman is believed to have been between 40 and 50 years of age.

The body was partially covered with leaves when it was spotted by Harry E. Taylor Jr., a Prince Georges attorney who was fox hunting about 200 yards deep in woods off Mill Run Road.

Garner, who investigated with deputies Joseph W. Thompson , Robert J. Mudd, and Francis W. Canter, said there have been no reports of missing women in Charles County. A 13-state broadcast was ordered to learn of any missing women elsewhere.

An autopsy will be performed in Baltimore to determine the cause of death.

--------------------------------------------------------------
From the Washington Star 28 January 1965:
Woman's Body Found In Woods in Maryland

The decomposed and apparently mutilated body of an unidentified white woman was found in woods near Wayside in Charles County, Md, yesterday.

The woman, wearing only underclothing, appeared to have been between 40 and 50 years old and had been dead for several weeks, according to Sheriff Francis C. Garner and Dr. Edward J. Edelen, deputy medical examiner for the county.

Her body, face down and partially covered with leaves, was discovered about 4 p.m. by a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates from Prince Georges County, the sheriff reported.

Garner said Attorney Harry E. Taylor Jr., who lives in Brandywine, spotted the body while fox hunting on horseback about 200 yards in a woods off Mill Run Road, not far from the Wicomico Hunt Club of which Taylor is a member.

An investigation was initiated by Garner and three of his deputies - Joseph W. Thompson, Robert J. Mudd, and Francis W. Canter - to determine the woman's identity and how she died.

The sheriff said there have been no reports of missing women in the county matching her description and said police in a 13-state area were asked to check missing- persons lists.

He said the body was so decomposed that it was impossible to take fingerprints and said it appeared there might have been some facial injuries.

The body was removed to the Arehart Funeral Home in LaPlata, but was to be transferred today to the State medical examiner's morgue in Baltimore for an autopsy.

The woman wore no rings or watches and there was no other means of identification on her, the sheriff said. He said she had brown hair and was of small build.

-----------------------------------------------------------
From Charles County Leaf 4 Feb 1965:
Woman's Body, Found in Woods Still Unidentified

State and federal authorities continued their search t establish the identity and the cause of death of a woman whose body was found last Thursday morning about 200 yards off of Mill Run Road near Mt. Victoria.

A preliminary report after an autopsy performed in Baltimore indicated the woman, apparently between 40 and 50 years old, had died of cirrhosis of the liver. Sheriff Francis C. Garner said he was awaiting the final reports on the autopsy before listing the cause of death.

The woman's body, clad only in underwear and covered by leaves, was found by Harry E. Taylor Jr., a Prince Georges County lawyer, while he was fox hunting on horseback.

From the condition of the body it would appear it had been in the woods for about three weeks, One theory was that the woman had been killed elsewhere and dumped in Charles County, but at the moment there is no evidence to support this.

A thirteen state broadcast has been made to determine her identity. According to Sheriff Garner she does not fit the description of any missing persons reported in Charles County.
 
The Mount Victoria Jane Doe was discovered on 27 January 1965, and estimates put her death as 3 weeks or "several weeks" prior to discovery. That would have made her death some time around 6 January 1965. A search of newspaper archives, contact with the Charles County Sheriff Office, and with the Maryland Medical Examiners office has turned up no resolution of this case.

The following newspaper articles, however, indicate that a crime of similar nature occurred on the evening of 8 January 1965 in Washington DC. (Note: Charles County, Maryland is only about a half hour drive south of the DC city limits.)

Both murders were described as mutilation slayings. The Washington DC woman was immediately identified, however, and a suspect developed by early the next morning. Read the newspaper articles for details. Could these two murders be connected?

----------------------------------------
Washington Post
1 February 1965
Page A1

One of 10 Most-Wanted Fugitives
Suspect in Slaying of D.C. Secretary Is Arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles

The FBI announced last night the arrest in Los Angeles of WalterLee Parman, 34, He was sought for questioning in the mutilation slaying of Shirley Ann Cary, 32-year-old State Department secretary in this city.

The nude body of Miss Cary, a native of Wakefield, Mass., was found in an alley behind the 3800 block of Garfield Street NW, on the morning of Jan. 9. Washington authorities charged Parman with first degree murder. A Federal warrant was issued Jan. 11 charging him with unlawful interstate flight to avoid prosecution for murder. He was placed on the FBI's list of the ten most wanted criminals.

At the time of Parman's arrest in his apartment, the FBI said, he had a .25-caliber pistol together with a bank robbery "demand" note in a metal box.
Parman used the alias of George D. Farr. The FBI said that upon his arrest he stated he had attempted to assume a new identity, but said: "I am glad it is over because I am tired of running from the FBI."

Parman was arraigned before a U.S. Commissioner in Sos Angeles and is jailed at the Los Angeles County Jail under $60,000 bond.

According to the FBI, exhaustive investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington identified Parman as the person who had accompanied the murdered woman on a round of visits to night spots on the night of Jan 8. The victim was reportedly last seen alive with Parman a few hours before her body was found.

------------------------------------------------------------
Washington Post
2 February 1965
Page A3
50-State Manhunt Ends With Arrest OF Suspect in Murder of Secretary
By Alfred E. Lewis, Washington Post Staff Writer

A nationwide manhunt by the FBI ended Sunday night in Los Angeles with the arrest of Walter Lee Parman -- 22 days after the mutilation murder of a State Department secretary in Washington.

Parman, 34, had been sought since the morning of Jan. 9 when the nude body of Shirley Ann Cary, 32 was found in an alley behind the 3800 block of Garfield St. NW.

A first-degree murder charge was filed against Parman by the Metroplitan Police Department on Jan . 11 and on the same day a Federal warrant was issued charging him with unlawful interstate flight to avoid prosecution for murder.

One day after the issuing of the warrant, Parman's name, through the personal intercession of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, was placed on the Bureau's list of ten most wanted men.

It was the first time in the 15-year history of the list that a wanted man has been put on the list within one day. It has been learned that this was what brought about Parman's arrest.

This is what happened:

The FBI learned that on Jan. 11 Parman sold his car in Youngstown, Ohio. The area was saturated by squads of FBI agents who learned that a man answering Parman's description had taken a bus to Chicago.

In Chicago, it was learned that Parman had taken a bus to Los Angeles. The FBI was now only a few days behind him.

Sunday, the FBI received two calls identifying Parman, through public posters and pictures, as being in the Los Angeles area.

He was tracked down and arrested in a furnished apartment in southwest Los Angeles. The FBI said Parman had in his possession when arrested a .25-caliber pistol, a bank robbery "demand" note and a list of Los Angeles banks in a metal box. Parman was living under the alias George D. Farr and, according to the FBI, said he was "glad it is over because I am tired of running from the FBI."

Parman was arraigned before a U.S. Commissioner in Los Angeles and held at Los Angeles County Jail under $60,000 bond. He will be returned to Washington by U.S. marshals.

Yesterday, Det. Sgt,. Sam Wallace of the (DC) Metropolitan Police flew to Los Angeles to question Parman.

-------------------------
From FBI Most Wanted Fugitives List: The Worst Criminals of 1965

WALTER LEE PARMAN.
Crime: A massive nationwide search was launched for Parman after he was charged in the brutal strangulation-murder of a Washington, D.C., secretary.

Conclusion: He was traced to a Los Angeles apartment where he was living under an alias. Parman was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, but later escaped.
------------------------------------------
Aparently recaptured at some point, Parman is currently listed as a Federal Prisoner in California.
 
Name WALTER LEE PARMAN
Register Number 00698-000
Age 73
Race White
Sex M
Release Date LIFE
Location ATWATER USP
Source: Federal Bureau of Prisons - Inmate Locator

Link: http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp


It would be interesting to know more about this case. Why did J. Edgar Hoover get personally involved? And why was he so quickly put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List? It seems fairly obvious that Parman was known to the FBI before January 1965. Why is he in a Federal Prison, rather than a Washington, DC prison if he was tried for a locally committed murder?

Was Parman simply a bank robber who accidently killed and mutilated his date? OR was he a suspected Serial Killer who had done the same type of thing before? What information is available on him?
 
Richard said:
From the Washington Star 28 January 1965:
Woman's Body Found In Woods in Maryland...Garner said Attorney Harry E. Taylor Jr., who lives in Brandywine, spotted the body while fox hunting on horseback about 200 yards in a woods off Mill Run Road, not far from the Wicomico Hunt Club of which Taylor is a member...
Click to expand...
Just what was the nature of the location where this unknown woman was found? Who owned the land? The following articles might give some insight into the setting.

It should be noted that the Wicomico Hunt Club did not actually own property in Charles County, but rather had permission from landowners on several large adjacent farms to ride and conduct their club activities on the property. One of those farms was owned by a man named William "Billy" Zantzinger.

Billy Zantzinger had gained national infamy two years earlier in 1963, when he beat a black woman with a cane, causing her death. Singer and Song Writer, Bob Dylan wrote a song about the incident. Here are some links to other internet sites which discuss Billy:

------------------------------------------------
Subject: Whatever Happened to William Zantzinger?

The sorry tale of William Zantzinger and poor Hattie Carroll has been told in detail once before, not in the pages of The Telegraph, but in a piece that was specially written for the anthology, All Across The Telegraph. It was only a few months ago, however, that, 28 years after the crime that was commemorated in Bob Dylan's great song, The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, William Zantzinger was again in trouble with the law.

A profile of Zantzinger was published in the Washington Post magazine on August 4, 1991, written by Peter Carlson. What follows is a revised version of the original AATT article, with borrowings from Peter Carlson's work to bring the story up to date....

William Devereux Zantzinger, 24, killed poor Hattie Carroll at 1.40am on February 8, 1963, at the Spinsters' Ball - an annual charity event sponsored by post-debutantes - at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore. That year's event was to benefit the Baltimore League for Crippled Children and Adults.

Zantzinger attended the function ... The Spinsters' Ball had begun at about 10 o'clock on the Friday night and was due to run until about 2am on the Saturday. Two hundred people had invitations to attend.

The Zantzingers drove there from West Hatton, the 630-acre family farm at Mount Victoria in Charles County, which produced tobacco, corn and grain. When Billy Zantzinger, a high spirited young man who loved partying and, especially, horse-riding and fox-hunting with the Wimoco Hunt Club, turned up at the Ball, he was pretty drunk. "I just flew in from Texas! Gimme a drink!" a laughing Billy shouted, by way of announcing his arrival. At well over six feet tall, in white tie and tails, a carnation in his lapel and a top hat on his head, he cut a striking figure.

He carried a cheap wooden cane with which he pretended to be Fred Astaire; when he wanted a drink, he used the cane to tap smartly on the silver punch bowl; when a pretty woman whom he knew waltzed by, he'd tap her playfully, all in fun, no offence, of course. By about 1.30am Billy had had more than enough to drink; his initial high spirits had darkened and his behaviour, particularly towards the hotel staff, began to degenerate.

Ethel Hill, a 30-year-old black waitress of Belkthune Avenue, Baltimore, was clearing a table near the Zantzingers when she was approached by Zantzinger himself. He asked her something about a firemen's fund, then, as the police reported it later, she was struck across the buttocks "with a cane of the carnival prize kind". She tried to move away, but Zantzinger followed her, striking her several times across the arm, thighs and buttocks. Mrs Hill wasn't seriously hurt, but her arm hurt, and she ran, in tears, back to the kitchen.
In the next few minutes, the cane would be used again, first against a bellhop, then to yank the chain around the wine waiter's neck; as Billy's wife, Jane, tried to calm him down, he collapsed on top of her in the middle of the dancefloor and began hitting her over the head with his shoe; when another guest tried to pull him off, Zantzinger thumped him. Then, apparently retrieving some of his dignity, he dusted himself down, and decided he needed a drink.

Working behind the bar was Hattie Carroll, a 51-year-old black woman who had worked at the Emerson Hotel for six years as an extra employee for special functions and "ballroom events". She was a member of the Gillis Memorial Church and was active with both the church and in local social work. The mother of 11 children, Hattie Carroll lived with two of her daughters, a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old, her other nine children all being older and married. She suffered from an enlarged heart and had a history of hypertension. Zantzinger went up to the bar at just before a quarter to two and ordered a bourbon and ginger ale. Hattie Carroll was busy when he barked out his order. "Just a minute, sir," she said. As she did come to serve him, she fumbled with the glass, and Zantzinger shouted at her, "When I order a drink, I want it now, you black !"

Hattie said she was hurrying as best she could, but Zantzinger struck her across the head and shoulders with his cane. She shouted for help and slumped against the bar, looking dazed. "That man has upset me so," she told a fellow worker who came to help her. "I feel deathly ill." Her speech was slurred and she collapsed. A hotel official called for an ambulance, and for the police. When the wooden cane was found later, it was broken in three places. The ambulance took the unconscious Hattie Carroll to the Baltimore Mercy Hospital. The police arrested Zantzinger and charged him with assault. As they escorted him out through the hotel lobby, the policemen were attacked by Zantzinger and by his wife.

Patrolman Warren Todd received multiple bruises on his legs; Zantzinger received a black eye. Zantzinger and his wife were taken to the Pine Street police station, where Jane Elson Duvall Zantzinger was charged with disorderly conduct and her husband with the same offence, plus two charges of assault "by striking with a wooden cane" Ethel Hill and Hattie Carroll. Mrs Zantzinger was released on providing a $28 collateral.

William Zantzinger was held overnight in police custody. He appeared in the Central Municipal Court the following morning, still wearing tails and a carnation, though without his white bow-tie. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Judge Albert H. Blum had left instructions that he was to be notified if Hattie Carroll's condition worsened, but at 9.15 that same morning, while the hearing was in progress, Hattie died, never having regained consciousness. The suspected cause of death was a brain haemorrhage caused by a blow to the head.

News of her death didn't reach the court, however, and in the meantime, Zantzinger had been released on $600 bail. When the police were told of Hattie Carroll's death, a warrant for his re-arrest was issued, this time on charges of homicide. When the police from Charles County went to the Mount Victoria farm, some 70 miles south of Baltimore, neither of the Zantzingers was at home. The police therefore put out an APB, and Zantzinger was soon apprehended and charged with first and second degree homicide.
It was the first time in the history of the state of Maryland that a white man had been accused of murdering a black woman. ...
Zantzinger's defence requested that the trial should not take place in Baltimore, where anti-segregationists had been active for some time, but in the more "neutral" territory of Hagerstown. And so it was.

Zantzinger's defence was a simple one - he was drunk at the time, so drunk that he didn't even remember hitting anyone, his wife, a policeman, let alone a black barmaid. Furthermore, the defence contended, Hattie Carroll was, after all, a large woman, an overweight woman, who had a history of high blood pressure. She could have suffered a fatal stroke at any time. The fact that she did so after being beaten about the head by William Zantzinger's cane was just one of those unfortunate coincidences. He was just a victim of circumstances. The three judges weren't impressed. Zantzinger was guilty, they concluded, but not of first-degree, nor indeed, second-degree murder; they found him guilty of manslaughter and deferred sentence until August, when Zantzinger was sent to prison with a six-month sentence.

With time off for good behaviour, he was home in time for Christmas, and though the sentence outraged the black activists in the area, and moved Bob Dylan to write his song, most of Zantzinger's friends in Charles County thought that the whole thing had been blown out of all proportion, that Billy had got a bum rap. He didn't have any difficulty at all settling back into Charles County society. He ran the tobacco farm for awhile, then went into real estate. He moved up-county, to Waldorf, then to a two-acre property in Port Tobacco where he lives today. ... (much more)

Link:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=47133&messages=50

------------------------------
Legacy of a Lonesome Death

Commentary: Had Bob Dylan not written a song about it, the 1963 killing of a black servant by a society man's cane would have been long forgotten. By Ian Frazier November/December 2004 Issue ...

Do you know the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"? Put it on now and listen to it, if you happen to have it on a CD or an album. If you don't, or you don't remember it, it's about a young society swell named William Zantzinger who, in 1963, killed a black serving woman named Hattie Carroll at a ball at a Baltimore hotel by striking her with a cane.... Zantzinger's actual arrest and trial were more complicated than the song lets on.
Police arrested Zantzinger at the ball for disorderly conduct -- he was wildly drunk -- and for assaults on hotel employees not including Hattie Carroll, about whom they apparently knew nothing at the time. When Hattie Carroll died at Mercy Hospital the following morning, Zantzinger was also charged with homicide. The medical examiner reported that Hattie Carroll had hardened arteries, an enlarged heart, and high blood pressure; that the cane left no mark on her; and that she died of a brain hemorrhage brought on by stress caused by Zantzinger's verbal abuse, coupled with the assault.

After the report, a tribunal of Maryland circuit court judges reduced the homicide charge to manslaughter. Zantzinger was found guilty of that, and of assault, but not of murder.The judges probably thought they were being reasonable. They rejected defense claims that Hattie Carroll's precarious health made it impossible to say whether her death had been caused, or had simply occurred naturally.

The judges considered Zantzinger an "immature" young man who got drunk and carried away, but they nevertheless held him responsible for her death, saying that neither her medical history nor his ignorance of it was an excuse. His cane, though merely a toy one he got at a farm fair, they considered a weapon capable of assault. They kept the sentence to only six months because (according to the New York Herald Tribune) a longer one would have required that he serve it in state prison, and they feared the enmity of the largely black prison population would mean death for him. Zantzinger served his six months in the comparative safety of the Washington County Jail. The judges also let him wait a couple of weeks before beginning his sentence, so he could bring in his tobacco crop. Such dispensations were not uncommon, apparently, for offenders who had farms.... William Zantzinger: What happened to him? Does he own that farm today? Zantzinger is, it turns out, an amazing guy. In the semirural part of Maryland where he still lives, many people know his name. If you mention him to someone in real estate, the antiques business, the legal profession, or law enforcement, you get a reaction. People don't want to talk about him, or they do, or they want their names left out of it, or they shake their heads and laugh; they never have to be told who he is....

When Zantzinger got out of jail in early 1964, he returned to his family and farm. He had a wife and two young boys. (His wife, Jane, had been charged with assaulting a policeman at the ball.) The farm is called West Hatton. Its main house, a three-story brick mansion, has pillars and a porch on the side facing the Wicomico River. A Revolutionary War veteran built the house in about 1790. Both of Zantzinger's parents also lived on the farm; his father could trace his ancestry from the earliest white settlers of Maryland, and his mother, from a governor of Maryland. All along the river, lawns and fields lead up to mansions facing the shores, landmarks of the old tobacco-growing Maryland Tidewater.

Neighbors of the Zantzingers owned enough land that you could ride to the hounds after foxes on it. Zantzinger loved foxhunting, and some of the 1963 news articles identified him as a "huntsman." Yet the Zantzingers were country gentry -- he worked his farm alongside his employees, and he drank with the locals, black and white, in the nearby bars.At some point, Zantzinger sold the farm and got into real estate. Notoriety did not pursue him, and his name stayed out of the paper until it began to appear regularly in the notices of Charles County property owners who were delinquent with their taxes....

Link:
https://www.kable.com/pub/mrjs/subAllCusT01.asp?laf=SEVX
 
Richard said:
Just what was the nature of the location where this unknown woman was found? Who owned the land? The following articles might give some insight into the setting.

It should be noted that the Wicomico Hunt Club did not actually own property in Charles County, but rather had permission from landowners on several large adjacent farms to ride and conduct their club activities on the property. One of those farms was owned by a man named William "Billy" Zantzinger.

Billy Zantzinger had gained national infamy two years earlier in 1963, when he beat a black woman with a cane, causing her death. Singer and Song Writer, Bob Dylan wrote a song about the incident. Here are some links to other internet sites which discuss Billy:

------------------------------------------------
Subject: Whatever Happened to William Zantzinger?

The sorry tale of William Zantzinger and poor Hattie Carroll has been told in detail once before, not in the pages of The Telegraph, but in a piece that was specially written for the anthology, All Across The Telegraph. It was only a few months ago, however, that, 28 years after the crime that was commemorated in Bob Dylan's great song, The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, William Zantzinger was again in trouble with the law.

A profile of Zantzinger was published in the Washington Post magazine on August 4, 1991, written by Peter Carlson. What follows is a revised version of the original AATT article, with borrowings from Peter Carlson's work to bring the story up to date....

William Devereux Zantzinger, 24, killed poor Hattie Carroll at 1.40am on February 8, 1963, at the Spinsters' Ball - an annual charity event sponsored by post-debutantes - at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore. That year's event was to benefit the Baltimore League for Crippled Children and Adults.

Zantzinger attended the function ... The Spinsters' Ball had begun at about 10 o'clock on the Friday night and was due to run until about 2am on the Saturday. Two hundred people had invitations to attend.

The Zantzingers drove there from West Hatton, the 630-acre family farm at Mount Victoria in Charles County, which produced tobacco, corn and grain. When Billy Zantzinger, a high spirited young man who loved partying and, especially, horse-riding and fox-hunting with the Wimoco Hunt Club, turned up at the Ball, he was pretty drunk. "I just flew in from Texas! Gimme a drink!" a laughing Billy shouted, by way of announcing his arrival. At well over six feet tall, in white tie and tails, a carnation in his lapel and a top hat on his head, he cut a striking figure.

He carried a cheap wooden cane with which he pretended to be Fred Astaire; when he wanted a drink, he used the cane to tap smartly on the silver punch bowl; when a pretty woman whom he knew waltzed by, he'd tap her playfully, all in fun, no offence, of course. By about 1.30am Billy had had more than enough to drink; his initial high spirits had darkened and his behaviour, particularly towards the hotel staff, began to degenerate.

Ethel Hill, a 30-year-old black waitress of Belkthune Avenue, Baltimore, was clearing a table near the Zantzingers when she was approached by Zantzinger himself. He asked her something about a firemen's fund, then, as the police reported it later, she was struck across the buttocks "with a cane of the carnival prize kind". She tried to move away, but Zantzinger followed her, striking her several times across the arm, thighs and buttocks. Mrs Hill wasn't seriously hurt, but her arm hurt, and she ran, in tears, back to the kitchen.
In the next few minutes, the cane would be used again, first against a bellhop, then to yank the chain around the wine waiter's neck; as Billy's wife, Jane, tried to calm him down, he collapsed on top of her in the middle of the dancefloor and began hitting her over the head with his shoe; when another guest tried to pull him off, Zantzinger thumped him. Then, apparently retrieving some of his dignity, he dusted himself down, and decided he needed a drink.

Working behind the bar was Hattie Carroll, a 51-year-old black woman who had worked at the Emerson Hotel for six years as an extra employee for special functions and "ballroom events". She was a member of the Gillis Memorial Church and was active with both the church and in local social work. The mother of 11 children, Hattie Carroll lived with two of her daughters, a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old, her other nine children all being older and married. She suffered from an enlarged heart and had a history of hypertension. Zantzinger went up to the bar at just before a quarter to two and ordered a bourbon and ginger ale. Hattie Carroll was busy when he barked out his order. "Just a minute, sir," she said. As she did come to serve him, she fumbled with the glass, and Zantzinger shouted at her, "When I order a drink, I want it now, you black !"

Hattie said she was hurrying as best she could, but Zantzinger struck her across the head and shoulders with his cane. She shouted for help and slumped against the bar, looking dazed. "That man has upset me so," she told a fellow worker who came to help her. "I feel deathly ill." Her speech was slurred and she collapsed. A hotel official called for an ambulance, and for the police. When the wooden cane was found later, it was broken in three places. The ambulance took the unconscious Hattie Carroll to the Baltimore Mercy Hospital. The police arrested Zantzinger and charged him with assault. As they escorted him out through the hotel lobby, the policemen were attacked by Zantzinger and by his wife.

Patrolman Warren Todd received multiple bruises on his legs; Zantzinger received a black eye. Zantzinger and his wife were taken to the Pine Street police station, where Jane Elson Duvall Zantzinger was charged with disorderly conduct and her husband with the same offence, plus two charges of assault "by striking with a wooden cane" Ethel Hill and Hattie Carroll. Mrs Zantzinger was released on providing a $28 collateral.

William Zantzinger was held overnight in police custody. He appeared in the Central Municipal Court the following morning, still wearing tails and a carnation, though without his white bow-tie. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Judge Albert H. Blum had left instructions that he was to be notified if Hattie Carroll's condition worsened, but at 9.15 that same morning, while the hearing was in progress, Hattie died, never having regained consciousness. The suspected cause of death was a brain haemorrhage caused by a blow to the head.

News of her death didn't reach the court, however, and in the meantime, Zantzinger had been released on $600 bail. When the police were told of Hattie Carroll's death, a warrant for his re-arrest was issued, this time on charges of homicide. When the police from Charles County went to the Mount Victoria farm, some 70 miles south of Baltimore, neither of the Zantzingers was at home. The police therefore put out an APB, and Zantzinger was soon apprehended and charged with first and second degree homicide.
It was the first time in the history of the state of Maryland that a white man had been accused of murdering a black woman. ...
Zantzinger's defence requested that the trial should not take place in Baltimore, where anti-segregationists had been active for some time, but in the more "neutral" territory of Hagerstown. And so it was.

Zantzinger's defence was a simple one - he was drunk at the time, so drunk that he didn't even remember hitting anyone, his wife, a policeman, let alone a black barmaid. Furthermore, the defence contended, Hattie Carroll was, after all, a large woman, an overweight woman, who had a history of high blood pressure. She could have suffered a fatal stroke at any time. The fact that she did so after being beaten about the head by William Zantzinger's cane was just one of those unfortunate coincidences. He was just a victim of circumstances. The three judges weren't impressed. Zantzinger was guilty, they concluded, but not of first-degree, nor indeed, second-degree murder; they found him guilty of manslaughter and deferred sentence until August, when Zantzinger was sent to prison with a six-month sentence.

With time off for good behaviour, he was home in time for Christmas, and though the sentence outraged the black activists in the area, and moved Bob Dylan to write his song, most of Zantzinger's friends in Charles County thought that the whole thing had been blown out of all proportion, that Billy had got a bum rap. He didn't have any difficulty at all settling back into Charles County society. He ran the tobacco farm for awhile, then went into real estate. He moved up-county, to Waldorf, then to a two-acre property in Port Tobacco where he lives today. ... (much more)

Link:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=47133&messages=50

------------------------------
Legacy of a Lonesome Death

Commentary: Had Bob Dylan not written a song about it, the 1963 killing of a black servant by a society man's cane would have been long forgotten. By Ian Frazier November/December 2004 Issue ...

Do you know the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"? Put it on now and listen to it, if you happen to have it on a CD or an album. If you don't, or you don't remember it, it's about a young society swell named William Zantzinger who, in 1963, killed a black serving woman named Hattie Carroll at a ball at a Baltimore hotel by striking her with a cane.... Zantzinger's actual arrest and trial were more complicated than the song lets on.
Police arrested Zantzinger at the ball for disorderly conduct -- he was wildly drunk -- and for assaults on hotel employees not including Hattie Carroll, about whom they apparently knew nothing at the time. When Hattie Carroll died at Mercy Hospital the following morning, Zantzinger was also charged with homicide. The medical examiner reported that Hattie Carroll had hardened arteries, an enlarged heart, and high blood pressure; that the cane left no mark on her; and that she died of a brain hemorrhage brought on by stress caused by Zantzinger's verbal abuse, coupled with the assault.

After the report, a tribunal of Maryland circuit court judges reduced the homicide charge to manslaughter. Zantzinger was found guilty of that, and of assault, but not of murder.The judges probably thought they were being reasonable. They rejected defense claims that Hattie Carroll's precarious health made it impossible to say whether her death had been caused, or had simply occurred naturally.

The judges considered Zantzinger an "immature" young man who got drunk and carried away, but they nevertheless held him responsible for her death, saying that neither her medical history nor his ignorance of it was an excuse. His cane, though merely a toy one he got at a farm fair, they considered a weapon capable of assault. They kept the sentence to only six months because (according to the New York Herald Tribune) a longer one would have required that he serve it in state prison, and they feared the enmity of the largely black prison population would mean death for him. Zantzinger served his six months in the comparative safety of the Washington County Jail. The judges also let him wait a couple of weeks before beginning his sentence, so he could bring in his tobacco crop. Such dispensations were not uncommon, apparently, for offenders who had farms.... William Zantzinger: What happened to him? Does he own that farm today? Zantzinger is, it turns out, an amazing guy. In the semirural part of Maryland where he still lives, many people know his name. If you mention him to someone in real estate, the antiques business, the legal profession, or law enforcement, you get a reaction. People don't want to talk about him, or they do, or they want their names left out of it, or they shake their heads and laugh; they never have to be told who he is....

When Zantzinger got out of jail in early 1964, he returned to his family and farm. He had a wife and two young boys. (His wife, Jane, had been charged with assaulting a policeman at the ball.) The farm is called West Hatton. Its main house, a three-story brick mansion, has pillars and a porch on the side facing the Wicomico River. A Revolutionary War veteran built the house in about 1790. Both of Zantzinger's parents also lived on the farm; his father could trace his ancestry from the earliest white settlers of Maryland, and his mother, from a governor of Maryland. All along the river, lawns and fields lead up to mansions facing the shores, landmarks of the old tobacco-growing Maryland Tidewater.

Neighbors of the Zantzingers owned enough land that you could ride to the hounds after foxes on it. Zantzinger loved foxhunting, and some of the 1963 news articles identified him as a "huntsman." Yet the Zantzingers were country gentry -- he worked his farm alongside his employees, and he drank with the locals, black and white, in the nearby bars.At some point, Zantzinger sold the farm and got into real estate. Notoriety did not pursue him, and his name stayed out of the paper until it began to appear regularly in the notices of Charles County property owners who were delinquent with their taxes....

Link:
https://www.kable.com/pub/mrjs/subAllCusT01.asp?laf=SEVX
Click to expand...
the funny thing about all this.. is that this man known to his tenants is Mr. "Z" He owns an apartment building on Harford Rd here in Charles county. I know my friend rents from him. She knew nothing of this man until a news article came out on Mr. Z and some property that he sold with out the ex tenants knowlege.
 
The following Doenetwork Missing Case file is featured in a separate thread here on Websleuths, but I thought I would repost it in this one for comparison sake.

The physical description of Margaret Peters seems to match with that of the Mount Victoria Jane Doe. The time frame between her disappearance from Seattle, WA and the death of Jane Doe, however, as well as the distance would be factors to consider. The extremely long time between the time she supposedly disappeared, and the reporting of that disappearance, however, could account for the time being off by a year or so.

A big questions would be: Who was this man that she was dating or living with? Where did he travel, and what did he have to say about her disappearance?



------------------------------------------------------
Margaret Peters
Missing since 1962 from Seattle, King County, Washington.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: August 31, 1921
Age at Time of Disappearance: 41 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"-5'5"; 110 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark brown hair; brown eyes. Peters has tan/olive skin.
Medical Conditions: Alcoholic
AKA: Peggy

Circumstances of Disappearance

Peters was last seen by her daughter in the Seattle area during the Spring/Summer of 1962. When Christmas rolled around and she was not heard from, her children knew something must've happened to her. No matter where she went, she always called them at Christmas time.

Peters was an extreme alcoholic, and was dating a man in the Ballard area of Seattle when she was last heard from in 1962. The possibility exists that she may have returned to Nevada, where she lived from 1958-1961, however no one there associated with her at the time recalled seeing her. She has not been seen again.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: The Doe Network

Source Information:
The Doe Network Case File 1264DFWA

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1264dfwa.html
 
outofthedark said:
I can't locate the unidentified woman anywhere on DN
Click to expand...
She has never been added to Doenetwork. I found all the information in a scrapbook of old newspaper clippings.
 
I do not know for certain whether or not Walter Lee Parman had anything to do with the murder and mutilation of Mount Victoria Jane Doe in or before January of 1965, but it is known for certain that in that on 8 or 9 January 1965, Parman did in fact murder and mutilate Miss Shirley Ann Cary in Washington DC. Coincidence, or Serial Killer?

Parman is still living and is incarcerated in a Federal Prison in California. Here is an interesting story about him, written by his Niece in 2005.

Note that he spent time in Cleveland, Ohio and in the Silicon Valley of California. Anyone know of similar unsolved cases that might be linked to him in either place?

-----------------------------------------

From a website titled: Mrs. Wendel's Class

People love stories. We like to hear them; we like to tell them. This fall as we studied the oral tradition of the first Americans and the stories written by early immigrants, the Juniors also researched their own personal history. They searched for incidents, both recent and long past, that have had meaning for their families. Many of the essays that resulted are worth sharing.So we have decided to present them to whoever would like to see them. For your reading pleasure, here are the Class of 2005s personal family histories.


By Tami B

Have you ever thought you could do something bad and never get caught? Well, that is what Walter Lee Parman thought, also known to others as Mike Noble. Now, as he sits in the Federal penitentiary in Lompoc serving his life sentence I’m sure he wishes he could start over; rethinking the choices he made long ago.

In 1965 Walter Parman decided to make some wrong decisions in life? He met a 32 year old State Department secretary in Washington DC and decided to take her to his apartment. Shirley Ann Cary had no idea what would happen that evening. After they were done having sex she had started making fun of him. His frustrations started to get the best of him. He then strangled and mutilated her.

Soon after, the police found her body in an alley and Walter was placed on the Ten Most Wanted List. Walter was found three weeks later and then arrested. He was found in Los Angeles and was returned to Washington DC to a wait for his trial.

A few weeks later he was convicted and sentenced 20 years to life for first-degree murder. He went to Lorton Reformatory, which is the main prison in nearby Lorton, Virginia.

Later in his sentence the guards started to realize that Walter was not an ordinary prisoner. He would give speeches and help around the prison. He was very friendly and he never argued with the guards. He also met a girl named Sherron Melrose, who wrote letters to him frequently and the soon became very close. Since Walter knew he had no chance of parole, he decided to “parole himself” (he told officers later on). Walter had the perfect plan. He was invited to speak at George Washington University and he escaped while the prison guard was parking the car. Sherron met him with $300 dollars and clothes. For Sherron’s safety they split up.

Walter then went to Cleveland and he worked for several weeks as a cook in a restaurant. He wanted to move faster in making his life better so he moved to Silicon Valley. He then chose the name “Mike Noble”. Walter then had everything he needed to start a new life. He had a birth certificate, driver’s license, social security card, and passport.

Later that year, Walter met up with Sherron and they were soon married and had the first of their three children. Walter had worked for many companies before deciding on working for Shugart Associates. Within a few years he was making $50,000 annually. He worked as the company’s manager. People who knew Mike Noble thought he was a wonderful man, no one would have ever guessed the horrible past he was hiding. In June of 1984 Walter divorced Sherron and married Mavis Becker (my great aunt).

The police tracked Walter to Silicon Valley after an informant saw him at a electronics show. The police only managed to find him using a picture because of his identity change to Mike Noble. Walter told the police that, “he knew he was going to get caught and he had every intention of leaving but he was too in love with Mavis and he had become too successful at his job to leave”.

After a few months, Walter was returned to prison in Washington. He then received an additional sentence of 20 months to 5 years because of his escape. In 1987 he was transferred to Lompoc so he could be closer to Mavis. He also became chief purchasing clerk for prison maintenance. He then wrote a novel about his life. He thinks he deserves freedom because of his 12 crime free years. Walter told the police that, “ most inmates in prison feel sorry for themselves, and I feel positive that I’m doing the best I can for myself”.

Most people are pessimistic about their lives, even if they have the best that life has to offer. In Walter Parman’s case though, he is being very optimistic in the way he is living his life. Even though he has made some wrong decisions, he is still living life in the best way he can.

LINK:

http://www.jrhigh.valley-city.k12.nd.us/Wendel/page11.html
 
Bumping case up. Here is an updated Doenetwork Link for the case of Margaret Peters, missing since 1962 from Seattle, Washington.

Note that some characteristics seem to match with the Mount Victoria Jane Doe, such as age, sex, race, hair color, and possible alcoholic condition:

Unidentified White Female
Located on 27 January 1965 in Charles County, Maryland
Estimated date of death: Late December 1964 or early January 1965
Vital Statistics
Approximate birthdate: 1915-1925
Estimated age: between 40 and 50 years of age (in 1965)
Approximate Height and Weight: (not specified, but she was of small build)
Distinguishing Characteristics: She had brown hair and was of small build. An autopsy indicated that she had suffered from cirrhosis of the liver.
Dentals: Possibly on file with Maryland State medical examiner, Baltimore.
Clothing: She was wearing only her underclothing when found.

Margaret Peters
Missing since 1962 from Seattle, King County, Washington.
Classification: Missing
Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: August 31, 1921
Age at Time of Disappearance: 41 years old (in 1962)
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"-5'5"; 110 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark brown hair; brown eyes. Peters has tan/olive skin.
Medical Conditions: Alcoholic
AKA: Peggy


LINK:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1645592#post1645592
 
I wonder if her death could have happened during/after a New Year's Eve party? Saying that her death happened approximately 3 weeks earlier puts her death approximately Jan. 6, but that is just an estimate... could be Jan. 1? There would have been lots of parties I would suspect.

If you look up Mill Run Rd (Newburg, MD 20664), you can see that it is a fairly isolated area. It seems likely that she was present at a local home prior to her death. The theory that she was killed elsewhere and brought to Charles County, however, is definitely a possibility as there is a bridge nearby into Virginia. Note that there are many isolated areas closer to Washington DC.

What links Parman to this Jane Doe other than the fact that both ladies were only wearing underwear? I guess that it's possible, but his confirmed victim was someone that he had dated, and there were no other known victims.

That part of Charles County would pretty much have been the back of beyond to someone living in Washington DC back in the 60s. It would not have been a place for a casual visit. Unless someone could confirm that he was spending Christmas out there, for example, I would think the likelihood of a link to be remote. Despite the presence of the bridge, my suspects would still be people in the area. If it was a dump job coming from Virginia, I would still suspect that the killer would be from around Fredericksburg. Neither area was developed much at all at that time. They were both pretty rural.
 
Bluecat said:
I wonder if her death could have happened during/after a New Year's Eve party? ...

...It seems likely that she was present at a local home prior to her death. The theory that she was killed elsewhere and brought to Charles County, however, is definitely a possibility as there is a bridge nearby into Virginia. Note that there are many isolated areas closer to Washington DC.

What links Parman to this Jane Doe other than the fact that both ladies were only wearing underwear? ...

That part of Charles County would pretty much have been the back of beyond ... my suspects would still be people in the area...
Click to expand...

You make some excellent observations. At the time, Charles County Sheriff's investigators tried to match this unknown woman to any local women or missing persons - but they had no luck.

The area was - and still is quite rural and isolated, however, the farm she was found on was part of a Fox Hunting Club. As such, they sponsored several horse riding events and social gatherings throughout the year. So a number of folks did know the area and there could very well have been a New Years party there in 1965.

As to suspects, just about anyone could have killed her; a local, someone from Washington, DC, someone from Virginia, etc.

I suggested a possible link to Parman, based on the proximity in time, likelyhood of murder, and similarities in victim disposal. The similarities are hard to ignore.

I do not buy the theory that Walter Lee Parman, alias George D. Farr, alias Mike Noble, etc etc, was just a poor schmuck who "made a bad decision" one time. When most normal people have a date "go bad" it does not result in the girl being strangled, stripped, mutilated, and dumped in an alley. This is more like the work of someone who had experience along the line.

The question in Parman's case should be "How many other women has he murdered before and after he murdered Shirley Ann Cary?"

But the killer of this Unknown Woman could also be a local - as I mentioned in an earlier post - one local man who lived very near where the woman's body was found had recently been released from jail after having killed a woman at a social party only a few years earlier. The "foxhunter" who found her was the man's family's attorney.
 
In January 2010, this case will be 45 years old. There has never been a resolution. She has never been identified and no suspect has ever been named in her murder.
 
It has been 45 years since this woman was murdered and her body dumped in the woods. She has never been identified and her killer has never been caught.
 
William D. "Billy" Zantzinger died on 3 January 2009, a month short of his 70th birthday.

Although he may or may not have had anything to do with the death of Mount Victoria Jane Doe, he has been mentioned in this thread and the unidentified woman was found on or near his family farm.

Zantzinger's last known address was Bel Alton, in Charles County, MD.

This case is still unsolved, and unfortunately investigators have not been able to locate much information about it.
 
This case is a sad one. A woman was beaten, strangled, murdered and her body dumped in the woods and covered with leaves back in December 1964 or early January 1965.

She has never been identified. News articles at the time described her as white, petite build, about 40 to 50 years of age, brown hair. She suffered from Cirrosus of the Liver.

Although much is known of the history of the large farm she was found on, it was never determined where she came from or why she ended up in Southern Charles County, Maryland.

Unfortunately, it seems that Charles County's Sherrif Office has no record of this case and that any records in the Baltimore Medical Examiners office have been misplaced. It is not certain what became of her remains or of any autopsy photos.

What remains is speculation, but perhaps the case can still be solved.

The farm that she was found on was the home of one Billy Zantzinger, a local dandy and ner-do-well who had actually murdered a woman at a high society social party in Baltimore in 1963. With the help of high paid lawyers, he got off with a conviction of manslaughter and a one year stint in a county jail. Perhaps it was just a Coincidence that this woman's body was left on his family property to be found by the family attorney who was out horseback riding on a weekday, 200 feet into a woods, in late January 1965.

Billy Zantzinger might have killed her, but it is also possible that someone else murdered her and dumped her body on the Zantzinger property figuring that Billy would become the number one suspect in the event her body was found.

In Washington DC (about an hour drive north), at almost the same time as Mount Victoria Jane Doe's death (within days), another woman was murdered and her body mutilated and dumped in a very similar manner by a man named Walter Lee Parman.

Parman holds the record for being on the FBI 10 Most Wanted List the shortest time before capture. He was tried and convicted of the murder of Shirley Ann Cary and sentenced to life in prison. In an appeal, he mentions another similar rape/strangulation/mutilation case which took place in a church in Washington DC. He evidently had knowledge of such a crime, and cited it hoping that the court would think him innocent of killing Miss Cary because the Other killer must have done it.

Parman served only six years of his sentence in Lorton Prison before escaping. Recaptured in 1984, he remained in a California Federal Penitentary until 2009 when he was released. Here was a guy who could escape from prison and remain at large for 12 years and who traveled all over the country. Could he have murdered the Mount Victoria woman and placed her in Charles County? Possibly. I wonder what Mr. Parman is doing today.
 
Walter Lee Parman
December 6, 1932 ~ August 30, 2011
Hometown: Salt Lake City, UT

Walter Parman, age 78, passed away peacefully at Intermountain Medical Center due to complications from a heart attack.

He was born in the Philippine Islands to Walter Lee Parman, Sr. and Julia Estelle Shadd.

He served in the U.S. Air Force and loved to just get in the car and take a long drive to wherever the road would take him.

We will greatly miss him.

Walter is survived by his wife, Sheron; daughter, Joyce (Alex); son, Mark (Brittany); daughter, Pamela (Moe); grandchildren, Gabby, Stephen, Caleb, Tyne and Brooklyn; and brother, Robert (Mary) Parman.

No services will be held.

LINK:

http://obitsutah.com/show_obit.php?id=8858
 
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