DC DC - South Trimble, 78, Washington DC, 31 Dec 1974

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South Trimble, Jr.
Born 1896
Died: 31 December 1974
Unsolved Murder, Washington, DC



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WashingtonExaminer.com
Hindenburg Investigator's Death Unsolved
by Kaitlin Schluter
Posted: 03/28/2010 9:00 PM

On a night usually marked for beginnings, South Trimble Jr. met an unlikely end on the way home from a New Year's Eve service at a Catholic church on Dec. 31, 1974.

The 78-year-old dropped off his wife at the front of their Northwest apartment before parking the car in the basement garage. The couple lived on the 3000 block of Tilden Street NW. As soon as Trimble left the car, he was fatally shot once in the chest in what police say was an apartment robbery attempt.

Trimble was a lawyer in Washington who is known for his involvement with the Senate Commerce Committee's investigation of the zeppelin Hindenburg crash of 1937. Police are still looking for information regarding the murder three decades later.

His wife, Elaine Trimble, heard the gunshot and reported seeing a man dressed in white running from their apartment. Trimble was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival.

According to Capt. Michael Farrish, who oversees the cold-case division, Trimble's case is not under active investigation.

"The problem we have when you get these cases that are getting back into the '70s and earlier, you're getting a handful of dust," Farrish said.

But even if there is not much information, the case is still open. "We don't close a case unless we can charge someone with it," said Farrish, adding that the branch has a number of cold cases.

The police are offering a $25,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the homicide of Trimble.

Those with information are asked to call the Metropolitan Police Department's Command Information Center at 202-727-9099

or e-mail unsolved.murder@dc.gov.

Source:

WashingtonExaminer.com : Hindenburg investigator's death unsolved


LINK:


http://m.washingtonexaminer.com/dce...il.htm?contentguid=8tI6EdVb&full=true#display
 
Bumping this Washington, DC cold case up.
 
This case is now over 39 years old.

I recently read a book about the Hindenburg disaster and thought about this man, who was one of the investigators of that 1937 firey crash.
 
It has been 40 years since South Trimble was murdered. This case is still unsolved and open.
 
Obituary of South Trimble's Daughter...

NEWPORT NEWS - Elaine Trimble Patterson, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, departed this life on November 29, 2014, at the age of 90. Her family and friends will continue to marvel at her lifelong display of optimism, grace, enthusiasm and love.

Elaine was born on January 30, 1924 in Washington, D.C. to the late Mr. and Mrs. South Trimble, Jr. After being selected "Capital's Prettiest Baby," her picture was featured in newspapers across the country.

As the daughter of a well-known government attorney and the granddaughter of two U.S. Congressmen, she grew up with a love of politics and an active social life. During World War II, she christened the liberty ship S.S. Samuel Johnson. She was a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, Georgetown Visitation Junior College and Trinity College (class of 1945).

Elaine married Lt. Col. Lowell H. Patterson, Jr. (a/k/a Pat) in 1958. The young army couple was soon to be happily stationed in the Alsace Lorraine region of France, where three of their four sons were born. ...

... Elaine was preceded in death by Pat, both of her parents, and her brothers, South and Stephen Trimble ...

... She is survived by four sons...

LINK:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?pid=173363868
 
South Trimble - Homicide Victim

Saturday, December 21, 1974
On December 31, 1974, South Trimble, was shot while entering his garage in the 3000 block of Tilden Street, NW. The Metropolitan Police Department seeks the public’s assistance in gathering information regarding this incident.

LINK:

South Trimble - Homicide Victim | mpdc
 
I only recently came across this case on WS but Mr. Trimble's murder has haunted me since as our families have been acquainted. Even more disturbing to me is that I lived in his coop community on Tilden Street for almost 15 years, and maybe even walked over the garage pavement where he met his demise, and never knew.

This is like the cold case in my signature line -- Stevie Johnston who was murdered on Mother's Day in the mid-60s at the age of nine. His sister Lisa Howath wrote the novel Flying Shoes, loosely based on the murder, which I well remember. I never drive by the place where they found his little body that I don't think of him.

So sad there will probably never be answers for these families.
 
It could be just a robbery attempt gone worse, but the Hindenburg connection is the sort of thing that may have caused Trimble to be murdered for bizarre reasons. South Trimble lived on the 30oo block of Tilden Street, which I believe is across from Hazen Park. Since the 1904 General Slocum disaster, the two US disasters that I can think of offhand that especially killed Germans or German-Americans were the Hindenburg conflagration and the Rockport, NJ, train wreck of 16 June 1925. The Rockport wreck was caused by the surface of a Hazen Road washing onto the track at a grade crossing. There is a Hazen Drive that comes off Bowmont Drive not too far from where Marina Habe's body was found somewhere off Mulholland Drive near Bowmont Drive near Los Angeles (her father, the journalist Hans Habe, fled Austria after the Anschluss that happened ten years to the day after the St. Francis Dam disaster). Trimble was attacked one day after the sixth anniversary of Habe's abduction on 30 December 1968 and one day before the sixth anniversary of her body being found 1 January 1969.
 
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South Trimble - Homicide Victim

Saturday, December 21, 1974
On December 31, 1974, South Trimble, was shot while entering his garage in the 3000 block of Tilden Street, NW. The Metropolitan Police Department seeks the public’s assistance in gathering information regarding this incident.

LINK:

South Trimble - Homicide Victim | mpdc
 
It could be just a robbery attempt gone worse, but the Hindenburg connection is the sort of thing that may have caused Trimble to be murdered for bizarre reasons. South Trimble lived on the 30oo block of Tilden Street, which I believe is across from Hazen Park. Since the 1904 General Slocum disaster, the two US disasters that I can think of offhand that especially killed Germans or German-Americans were the Hindenburg conflagration and the Rockport, NJ, train wreck of 16 June 1925. The Rockport wreck was caused by the surface of a Hazen Road washing onto the track at a grade crossing. There is a Hazen Drive that comes off Bowmont Drive not too far from where Marina Habe's body was found somewhere off Mulholland Drive near Bowmont Drive near Los Angeles (her father, the journalist Hans Habe, fled Austria after the Anschluss that happened ten years to the day after the St. Francis Dam disaster). Trimble was attacked one day after the sixth anniversary of Habe's abduction on 30 December 1968 and one day before the sixth anniversary of her body being found 1 January 1969.

Wow, someone saw my post!
3000 Tilden Street is the main building (referred to as H/I Bldg) where the office is for Tilden Gardens Cooperative, but there are also apartments (seems one belonged to the Trimbles) in that building as well as the street-level garage mentioned in the police presser. At that time there was also a restaurant, open to the public, off the lobby of 3000 Tilden. Tilden and Sedgewick streets form a "V' around TG's five acres that front Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington. You are correct about Melvin C. Hazen Park -- it is directly across Sedgewick Street behind the four buildings that compromise Tilden Gardens proper.

Your story is an interesting coincidence and I don't know enough about the elder South Trimble and they don't offer much detail (this is the days before surveillance cameras) about the crime to know if the connection is strong enough to incite murder.

Have you offered these details to MPDC? They still have it listed as an open case but I bet they've got enough to worry about to be interested in going back to it.

One thing I thought was curious about the description of the crime is that there are no shareholder apartments on the garage level or lobby level. After parking in the garage, Mr. Trimble would have had to come into the lobby to access an elevator to one of the four floors above. So the description of an "apartment robbery" is confusing to me. Maybe when Mrs. Trimble said she saw someone running from the "apartment" it was thought that she meant the building proper, not their unit.

** Edit: Just quickly reread the story and it says the Trimbles lived in the 3000 block of Tilden Street. That means they could have live in A Bldg, B Bldg, C Bldg, or H/I. They all have similar situations with apartments over the garage level but A,B, and C, DO have apartments on the lobby level. **

Thanks for responding! Interesting to know someone has knowledge of this case.
 
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Reward poster for information regarding the murder of South Trimble. Includes a photo of him:

https://mpdc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/mpdc/publication/attachments/trimble_south.pdf
Yes, I saw photo.

I contacted the transfer agent who handles the stock sales for Tilden Gardens to see if they had a record of which unit the Trimbles lived in. They said they didn’t keep records like that. :rolleyes:

Guess there is no where to go with this.

edit: what is your interest in this case, if you don’t mind me asking?
 
Yes, I saw photo....
edit: what is your interest in this case, if you don’t mind me asking?

I think I first ran across this case while researching the abduction and murder of Eileen Kelly that same month and year. Seeing that it was still unsolved, I started this thread.
 
Not familiar with Eileen Kelly or her case — was that in DC, too?

Actually don’t personally remember Mr. Trimble’s murder, but do remember a period when he was a topic of conversation around my grandparent’s home. I suspect it was at the time of his murder, but being young then, they probably didn’t want to frighten me with details of his death.

I was stunned to see this on WS since over the years I’ve been acquainted with a few members of his family and had no idea. I also lived at 3000 Tilden for a time — never mentioned there — but 1974 was a long time ago now.

While the case is still open, wonder if any LE are still working on it. Knowing DC, it’s probably long forgotten even that it’s still listed as open.;)
 
Not familiar with Eileen Kelly or her case — was that in DC, too?

Actually don’t personally remember Mr. Trimble’s murder, but do remember a period when he was a topic of conversation around my grandparent’s home. I suspect it was at the time of his murder, but being young then, they probably didn’t want to frighten me with details of his death.

I was stunned to see this on WS since over the years I’ve been acquainted with a few members of his family and had no idea. I also lived at 3000 Tilden for a time — never mentioned there — but 1974 was a long time ago now.

While the case is still open, wonder if any LE are still working on it. Knowing DC, it’s probably long forgotten even that it’s still listed as open.;)

Yes, Eileen Kelly's abduction and murder is an unsolved DC case. Here is a link to Websleuths thread on her:

DC - DC - Eileen Kelly, 18, Washington DC, 14 Dec 1974

Of note is that South Trimble was one of the investigators into the Hindenburg air ship disaster.
 

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