To me after reading Bellamy's book I believe that the killer could have been someone connected with the school, I always wonder if if was a student who was obessed with Mabel Foote who from photos was a very good looking young lady
OH OH - Louise Wolf, 38, & Mabel Foote, 24, Parma, 17 Feb 1921
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Sounds a lot like the unsolved streetcar serial killer m.o. in Cincinnati 1904-10. A pretty big time lapse but he also took a break between late 1904 and late 1909 possibility due to jail or asylum time.
There is a confused matter concerning the black satchel. According to author Bellamy, the satchel belonged to Louise; according to Shafer, it belonged to Mabel. If it was Louise's, then the embezzlement angle becomes moot. In some newspaper accounts, it is merely referred to as "a" bag or satchel, with no reference to whom it may have belonged.
A couple of questions. Was the path or area where the women were found very well traveled? Were there more than more footprints other than the high heel ones found near the bodies? How could no one heard or seen anything? Because to me there seems to be a coverup somewhere in that town
Bean Road was a sort of back country road, rutted, uneven and spooky. It was sparsely populated by a few scattered farms and none were close by the murder scene. Forest surrounded both sides of the road; it doesn't appear to have been well traveled and no one would have heard any screams due to it's isolation. As far as I can determine, the high heeled shoe prints were the only ones found but the rain could've washed away the flatter heel prints of a man's shoe I suppose.
Dragonfyree
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This is probably really off the wall, but from the little information I see, Possible Lesbian teaching the school children. Nightgown laying out - possibly as a message.
Has anyone considered the Ku Klux Klan? I have read some theories that the famous Hall/Mills (Preacher & The Choir Woman having an affair), murders may have been done by the Klan as a warning.
They were very active during the 20's and did have a history of making examples of people who were perceived as being morally corrupt.
Has anyone considered the Ku Klux Klan? I have read some theories that the famous Hall/Mills (Preacher & The Choir Woman having an affair), murders may have been done by the Klan as a warning.
They were very active during the 20's and did have a history of making examples of people who were perceived as being morally corrupt.
Cherieantonia
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Although I doubt this will lend anything to the case, here is a photo I stumbled upon yesterday while reading through my great-grandmother's scrapbook for the first time.
In in effort to learn more about my relative's friend, I googled Louise Wolf which led me to the Web Sleuth's pages.
Sorry for the instagram, the original photo is at my parents', I took the instagram before realizing there was still an active investigation.
http://instagram.com/p/TCDHqdISQ4/
In in effort to learn more about my relative's friend, I googled Louise Wolf which led me to the Web Sleuth's pages.
Sorry for the instagram, the original photo is at my parents', I took the instagram before realizing there was still an active investigation.
http://instagram.com/p/TCDHqdISQ4/
(attached is the picture Cherie mentioned) . The picture is marked from April 1916 in Rocky River. My grandmother (Cherie's greatgrandmother) is at the far right- behind Louise and another woman. My grandmother was a school teacher in 1916, but was much younger than Louise. So this may have been a picture of school teachers. It is probably irelevant, or the murderer could be in the picture.........
Chris
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jlc.cookie
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Louise Wolf was my grandmother's aunt. Her murder is still a somewhat taboo topic in our family. I really appreciate the work you've all done and the research/photos you've posted here. While it doesn't bring anything new to light, it does color the stories I've been told with details.
I would like to share what I know with all of you in the hopes that it may help put some pieces together. Please bear in mind, however, that I have not read any of the research or seen any primary documents/evidence. Everything that I know is family lore. Also, these stories were imparted to me through my mother and my great-aunts (some of them very very old now or were at the time they told the stories) so its been diluted and, unfortunately, my retelling of it may be flawed as well due to lapses in my own memory or outright misunderstanding.
About the Lesbian Love Triangle theory: I can neither prove nor disprove it. I will say this about it: Louise was one of many children (her brother John is my Great Grandfather, he was older and fairly wealthy which may explain the $10,000 reward). Something terrible happened to Louise's parents (they died unexpectedly, I know not how) and the children including Louise were sent to family members or put up for adoption (explaining the article about the sibling finding out the murdered woman was her sister). John still lived in the area but had a wife and a LOT of kids himself so he couldn't board Louise. It is my understanding that due to her circumstances, she was forced to make her way herself and was unable to obtain a desirable marriage. This may explain why she was rooming with another woman at the age of 38 (also keep in mind, back then it became increasingly difficult for a woman to marry after the age of 23-24 and the male population had taken a dive in the wake of WWI and the Spanish Flu). So, while she could have been a lesbian, the fact that she was unmarried and living with another woman is not enough evidence to support that. I would also submit that even if she had been a lesbian, the likelihood that the murder would be as physically demanding as bludgeoning by another jealous lover is pretty low (especially considering that most women then had very little physical training and wore terrible shoes- I would vote stabbing or shooting more likely). If another party (KKK etc) had wanted to make a statement about morality, they would have made that known- it would have been obvious.
I talked with my mother and few family members that were alive at the time about this, and we all came to the conclusion that it is possible she could have been a lesbian but even if she were, that most likely had no bearing on the murder. Also, no one has ever said anything that remotely supports this theory (or the embezzlement theory).
The accepted theory within the family about the murders is that there was a nearby monastery known at the time for housing the mentally insane as monks. There were reports of men dressed like monks traveling on foot nearby at the time of the murder. It was believed that this may have been a robbery/rape attempt by the monks that escalated into murder. (I have not been able to confirm that a monastery really existed in that area at the time. This may be entirely made up).
After a few years, the murder (and the fact that it remained unsolved) became something too painful to talk about. My grandmother and her sisters would occasionally recall things if pressed, but these stories were the reflections of people who were children/teenagers at the time. Who knows what else the adults knew that is now lost to history? (i.e. the embezzlement/lesbian theories).
Whatever happened, this murder had reverberating effects on my family. Even now, nearly 100 years later, we would still like closure. Even if the family no longer talked about it, it was never far from their minds; my mother, for instance, was named in memory of Louise. I think it's remarkable that an unsolved murder can affect generations of a family.
I would like to share what I know with all of you in the hopes that it may help put some pieces together. Please bear in mind, however, that I have not read any of the research or seen any primary documents/evidence. Everything that I know is family lore. Also, these stories were imparted to me through my mother and my great-aunts (some of them very very old now or were at the time they told the stories) so its been diluted and, unfortunately, my retelling of it may be flawed as well due to lapses in my own memory or outright misunderstanding.
About the Lesbian Love Triangle theory: I can neither prove nor disprove it. I will say this about it: Louise was one of many children (her brother John is my Great Grandfather, he was older and fairly wealthy which may explain the $10,000 reward). Something terrible happened to Louise's parents (they died unexpectedly, I know not how) and the children including Louise were sent to family members or put up for adoption (explaining the article about the sibling finding out the murdered woman was her sister). John still lived in the area but had a wife and a LOT of kids himself so he couldn't board Louise. It is my understanding that due to her circumstances, she was forced to make her way herself and was unable to obtain a desirable marriage. This may explain why she was rooming with another woman at the age of 38 (also keep in mind, back then it became increasingly difficult for a woman to marry after the age of 23-24 and the male population had taken a dive in the wake of WWI and the Spanish Flu). So, while she could have been a lesbian, the fact that she was unmarried and living with another woman is not enough evidence to support that. I would also submit that even if she had been a lesbian, the likelihood that the murder would be as physically demanding as bludgeoning by another jealous lover is pretty low (especially considering that most women then had very little physical training and wore terrible shoes- I would vote stabbing or shooting more likely). If another party (KKK etc) had wanted to make a statement about morality, they would have made that known- it would have been obvious.
I talked with my mother and few family members that were alive at the time about this, and we all came to the conclusion that it is possible she could have been a lesbian but even if she were, that most likely had no bearing on the murder. Also, no one has ever said anything that remotely supports this theory (or the embezzlement theory).
The accepted theory within the family about the murders is that there was a nearby monastery known at the time for housing the mentally insane as monks. There were reports of men dressed like monks traveling on foot nearby at the time of the murder. It was believed that this may have been a robbery/rape attempt by the monks that escalated into murder. (I have not been able to confirm that a monastery really existed in that area at the time. This may be entirely made up).
After a few years, the murder (and the fact that it remained unsolved) became something too painful to talk about. My grandmother and her sisters would occasionally recall things if pressed, but these stories were the reflections of people who were children/teenagers at the time. Who knows what else the adults knew that is now lost to history? (i.e. the embezzlement/lesbian theories).
Whatever happened, this murder had reverberating effects on my family. Even now, nearly 100 years later, we would still like closure. Even if the family no longer talked about it, it was never far from their minds; my mother, for instance, was named in memory of Louise. I think it's remarkable that an unsolved murder can affect generations of a family.
Oct 2 2022
Look Back: How a 100-Year-Old Cold Case Murder Continues To Haunt Parma
This murder thrust Northeast Ohio into national headlines in 1921. Today, the unsolved case remains one of the most violent in Parma's history.
clevelandmagazine.com
''On March 11, 1921, students of Parma Rural High School assembled under a banner that screamed against a bleak winter’s heaven. The bucolic, sparsely populated township of roughly 1,000 had recently come under the nation’s magnifying glass.
On the morning of Feb. 17, students crunching through icy mud on the loneliest stretch of then-Bean Road had discovered the bodies of Louise Wolf and Mabel Foote strewn like discarded dolls. The women had been the children's teachers.
The pair were seen leaving the school together at 5 p.m., suggesting a swift altercation, as Foote’s broken watch froze on 5:15 p.m. The terrain, shredded mud for 600 feet uphill, and a dented umbrella, found among the teacher’s articles, revealed a vicious struggle on the victims’ behalf. The murder weapon was believed to be a fence rail.''
By Kelly Kennedy May. 11, 2022
Dark Side of the Land: Murder case of 2 Parma teachers remains unsolved
A Parma high school principal and teacher were brutally beaten to death on their way home from school. The grisly murder happened more than a century ago and sadly for the two young women, detectives never closed the case.
''Both women were beaten so badly they were practically unrecognizable. Their skulls were bashed in; their clothing was torn to shreds, and close by, a bloody fence that had brunette and blonde hair wrapped around the end of it. Police believed it was the murder weapon.''
Jan 2022
Community still haunted by murder of 2 Parma school teachers 101 years ago
A Parma high school principal and teacher were brutally beaten to death on their way home from school. The grisly murder happened more than a century ago and sadly for the two young women, detectives never closed the case.
