NY NY - Dorothy Arnold, 25, New York, 1910

mysteriew

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Ninety-five years ago, a young heiress stepped out of a bookstore and into a mystery.
Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold, 25, was the daughter of a millionaire importer, Francis Arnold, and the niece of a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

A lively, dependable girl and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Dorothy was beautiful, intelligent and popular among New York's diamond circle.

On Monday morning, Dec. 12, 1910, she told her mother that she was going shopping for a new evening gown.

Mrs. Arnold offered to accompany her daughter, but Dorothy declined.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't put you to that trouble for the world," Mrs. Arnold recalled Dorothy saying. "When I select the dress I shall telephone you. Then you can come down and look it over."

No call ever came.

Her family did not worry when Dorothy failed to return that evening. Dorothy had many girlfriends, and it was not unusual for her to spend the night at the home of one of them. But it was unusual for her to neglect to call and tell her family where she was.

When there was still no sign of her the next morning, her family knew something was wrong. Instead of rushing to police, her publicity-shy father first called in a family friend, lawyer John Keith.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/326630p-279266c.html
 
What an interesting tale! What do you think happened with Dorothy? I would like to think that she did run away and take on a new identity. I imagine it would have been difficult to do, though, since she probably didn't have any money of her own.
 
2sisters said:
I think she did dissappear on her own, it seemed that the life she was living was not the one she wanted.
She had $25 with her. According to the Inflation Calculator (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ it is dead useful), $25 in 1910 money is $513 in 2005 money. That's not a lot but it's enough to get away on.

Not that anyone will ever know. This case is more than cold, it's frozen, it's Absolute Zero. She is well and truly gone.
 
meggilyweggily said:
She had $25 with her. According to the Inflation Calculator (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ it is dead useful), $25 in 1910 money is $513 in 2005 money. That's not a lot but it's enough to get away on.

Not that anyone will ever know. This case is more than cold, it's frozen, it's Absolute Zero. She is well and truly gone.
This disappearance was considered one of the biggest news stories of its time. It got as much or more coverage than the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby. Her family spared no expense in trying to locate their daughter, to no avail.

One article appearing in the April 10, 1914 Fort Wayne News (Fort Wayne, Indiana) claimed that Dorothy Arnold died in a private hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, and that her body was cremated. Apparently quite a few unusual things happened at that hospital, and the Pittsburgh District Attorney thought there was enough evidence to believe the story. Her father did not believe the story, and stated that he felt Dorothy had been killed shortly after her disappearance.

Several articles discuss the fact that Dorothy was involved with a 44 year old man. He was overseas at the time of her disappearance, and received a letter from her in which she stated that she faced a long road ahead of her, and that her mother would think it was an accident. No one could explain what was meant by that, but her family said they firmly believed she did not commit suicide.

Dorothy wanted to be a writer, and had submitted numerous publications to various editors. None of her writing was ever accepted for publication. In the letter she wrote to her 44 year old boyfriend, she mentioned that her writing had been rejected yet again.

Although Dorothy's body was never found, her parents both believed her to be dead. In fact, in their wills, her parents made mention of the fact that they were leaving nothing to Dorothy, as they did not believe her to be alive.

There has been a lot written about this case. One story can be found at http://www.prairieghosts.com/arnold.html. The story about her on the Doe Network can be found at http://doenetwork.us/cases/1028dfny.html.

There is no shortage of information about this disappearance - it would take several days just to go through all of the newspaper articles covering this disappearance!
 
do u think she could have been with child and she was alone man was at war? if she left and lived a life of seclusion and possible with a new man/ children dont you think she would have said something to someone?
 
smile22 said:
do u think she could have been with child and she was alone man was at war? if she left and lived a life of seclusion and possible with a new man/ children dont you think she would have said something to someone?
I think it is very possible that Dorothy was pregnant. She had a 44 year old boyfriend (George Griscom, Jr.) who lived in Philadelphia. The summer before her disappearance, Dorothy lied to her parents and told them that she was going to Boston to visit a female friend from college. Instead, she spent the time with Griscom, although they allegedly stayed at separate hotels. Toward the end of her visit with him, she even had to pawn some of her jewelry to have money to pay for the hotel. It isn't hard to believe that she and Griscom had a sexual relationship. The letter that Dorothy sent to him in Naples, which he received after her disappearance, refers to having a long road ahead of her. That could definitely be interpreted to mean pregnancy and unwed motherhood, something very scandalous in those days, especially for someone of her social standing and wealth.

I was thinking that perhaps she had an abortion that went wrong, and died in the process. Many women bled to death after having abortions, others died later from severe infections.

One article I read speculated that her family knew where she was, and that she had been "sent away" to save the family from the shame and humiliation of her pregnancy. However, there isn't any proof to suggest this happened.
 
Hi I'm Susan. I'm new to the site, but the posts on Dorothy Arnold caught my attention. I've been researching her disappearance. I want to write a book about it. I've been at my local university library reading the times articles on her disappearance from the 1910s. It's a puzzling case. So many rumors about what happened to her, but nothing concrete. And Griscom's behavior towards the press is strange. When he first speaks to the press about her disappearance, he is quite garrulous and eager to talk, but at the same time he's kind of evasive. He comes across as cagey. He claims to be engaged to her, but his father who is with him for the interview denies the engagement. So does the Arnold family. He says that he has come back to the US to help find her, but then the next day takes off for Atlantic City, claiming exhaustion, after a luxury cruise. After that he refuses to speak to the press and is surly. Then the Griscom family hires a former police detective as their spokesman and there are no more interviews. It is a fascinating case, and one I can't let go of. It really is a compelling story. Wish me luck in my researches.
 
Susan Shock said:
Hi I'm Susan. I'm new to the site, but the posts on Dorothy Arnold caught my attention. I've been researching her disappearance. I want to write a book about it. I've been at my local university library reading the times articles on her disappearance from the 1910s. It's a puzzling case. So many rumors about what happened to her, but nothing concrete. And Griscom's behavior towards the press is strange. When he first speaks to the press about her disappearance, he is quite garrulous and eager to talk, but at the same time he's kind of evasive. He comes across as cagey. He claims to be engaged to her, but his father who is with him for the interview denies the engagement. So does the Arnold family. He says that he has come back to the US to help find her, but then the next day takes off for Atlantic City, claiming exhaustion, after a luxury cruise. After that he refuses to speak to the press and is surly. Then the Griscom family hires a former police detective as their spokesman and there are no more interviews. It is a fascinating case, and one I can't let go of. It really is a compelling story. Wish me luck in my researches.
Best wishes to you on your endeavor. This is indeed a compelling story.

I have researched this and read numerous articles about her disappearance. If you haven't already done so, you might find it interesting to research the story about her possibly dying and being cremated in a private hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. The story was believable enough for the District Attorney to state that the mystery of Dorothy Arnold's disappearance had been solved. However, her family disagreed with that. There were quite a few mysterious things going on at that hospital during that time, so it might bear further research!
 
Thanks, I read that story a couple of days ago about the Pittsburgh hospital and it was very strange and intriguing. In that same story a Mrs. Allison is mentioned also who was apparently taken from Dr. Meredith's office one night while delirious, and was never seen again. The doctor and a nurse were arrested for "illegal activities". I suspect they were performing abortions.

Another interesting story I read tonight from 1916, a Captain Ayers of the Missing Person's Bureau claimed while giving a lecture that they knew what happened to Dorothy Arnold but he could not tell. In the next day's Times however he completely backpedalled and claimed that wasn't exactly what he said.

It is really hard to separate the fact from the fiction and the lies from the truth with this case.
 
Susan Shock said:
Thanks, I read that story a couple of days ago about the Pittsburgh hospital and it was very strange and intriguing. In that same story a Mrs. Allison is mentioned also who was apparently taken from Dr. Meredith's office one night while delirious, and was never seen again. The doctor and a nurse were arrested for "illegal activities". I suspect they were performing abortions.

Another interesting story I read tonight from 1916, a Captain Ayers of the Missing Person's Bureau claimed while giving a lecture that they knew what happened to Dorothy Arnold but he could not tell. In the next day's Times however he completely backpedalled and claimed that wasn't exactly what he said.

It is really hard to separate the fact from the fiction and the lies from the truth with this case.
I agree with you, it is hard to separate fact from fiction in this case, as well as in many other cold cases. I find that newspapers articles often contradict each other, and even law enforcement sometimes makes contradictory statements. I'm currently researching a couple of other very cold cases, and at times I want to pull my hair out! Just when I think I've gotten a handle on what actually happened, I'll read something that totally blows my theory out of the water.

The story of the Dr. Meredith and his Pittsburgh, PA hospital is something I intend to do more research on. Since I live in Pittsburgh, this story has really caught my attention. Who knows how many people entered his hospital and never came out again?

Good luck with your research, and I hope you'll keep us up-to-date on how it's going. Maybe you'll finally solve the mystery!
 
Susan Shock said:
... ... And Griscom's behavior towards the press is strange. When he first speaks to the press about her disappearance, he is quite garrulous and eager to talk, but at the same time he's kind of evasive. He comes across as cagey. He claims to be engaged to her, but his father who is with him for the interview denies the engagement. So does the Arnold family. He says that he has come back to the US to help find her, but then the next day takes off for Atlantic City, claiming exhaustion, after a luxury cruise. After that he refuses to speak to the press and is surly. Then the Griscom family hires a former police detective as their spokesman and there are no more interviews....
This sounds so much like a more recent case of Kimberly Christine Mileo, and the tales told by Dana Hudson and his family in June 1983 following Kim's suspicious disappearance from their residence in Croom, Maryland. There is a thread on Kim on the "Missing but Not Forgotten" topic area.

Dana and his family at first were very "helpful" with the police, showing much concern and even being the ones to "find" her car a few days after she disappeared. Dana was questioned and had all sorts of ideas about how she might have committed suicide, then he disappeared for a couple of days to go to Ocean City, MD "to look for Kim". Finally, after a second police interview and after he failed a lie detector test, his parents hired a lawyer. After a final press conference to criticize the police, they refuse any further cooperation or interviews. They later are charged with interfering with the investigation by locking a police officer's squad car inside the father's place of business. With their lawyer, they brought suit against the county and police force for harassing them. It was dismissed as frivolous. Kim is still missing.
 
Let me know what if you find anything of interest with Dr. Meredith and his hospital. I would like to obtain court records, if his case ever came to trial, to use in my novel, if it ever gets that far. I doubt I'll ever solve the mystery though. I have discovered in my reading of the New York Times that at the same time Dorothy's case was being investigated there appeared to be an ugly struggle for power between the Police Commissioner James Cropsey and the Second Deputy Police Commissioner William Flynn, who was formerly with the U.S. Secret Service and wanted to run and reorganize the NYPD along those lines. Flynn won the power struggle and Cropsey resigned in May of 1911. I have the feeling though that Dorothy's missing person's investigation was not taken seriously by Flynn who kept insisting that she left of her own accord and would return eventually. When she didn't return, he later said that she had committed suicide. Flynn later became Director of the FBI.
 
Susan Shock said:
Let me know what if you find anything of interest with Dr. Meredith and his hospital. I would like to obtain court records, if his case ever came to trial, to use in my novel, if it ever gets that far. I doubt I'll ever solve the mystery though. I have discovered in my reading of the New York Times that at the same time Dorothy's case was being investigated there appeared to be an ugly struggle for power between the Police Commissioner James Cropsey and the Second Deputy Police Commissioner William Flynn, who was formerly with the U.S. Secret Service and wanted to run and reorganize the NYPD along those lines. Flynn won the power struggle and Cropsey resigned in May of 1911. I have the feeling though that Dorothy's missing person's investigation was not taken seriously by Flynn who kept insisting that she left of her own accord and would return eventually. When she didn't return, he later said that she had committed suicide. Flynn later became Director of the FBI.
I'll do some more research this week about Dr. Meredith and will let you know what I uncover.

Some of these very old cold cases will most likely never be solved, but they are interesting intellectual exercises. And who knows, maybe you'll be the one to find the solution to Dorothy's disappearance.

By the way, I'd love to hear some opinions about what happened to Dorothy, if anyone has such an opinion.
 
I read that a man who was in jail at the time confessed that he had buried Dorothy Arnold's body. He told the police where she was buried, but they dug around that area and found nothing. The man said she had died during a botched abortion.
 
The man who confessed to helping bury Dorothy's body was an Edward C. Glennoris, who was in prison in Rhode Island for extortion. I read his confession in the New York Times and I'm convinced he made it up. No body was found in the location he described and the day after the story ran he applied for parole, supposedly so he could help the police with their investigation. I think he was intending to flee. All the things he mentioned about Dorothy were things that were mentioned in the Times.

Marilynilpa, I think I can help your research a little. I've found a Charles C. Meredith who was a physician living in Pittsburgh in 1910. I think he is the C.C. Meredith who was arrested in 1914. He appears to have been a leading citizen. There is a painting of him in a book on Pittsburgh's leading citizens. That doesn't mean of course that he didn't engage in unlawful practices. He was the only Charles C. Meredith listed in the 1910 census for Pittsburgh. He was 43 in 1910 and his wife's name was Laura.

I've found an interesting coincidence in my research also. George Griscom Jr
and his family were from Pittsburgh. It really makes me wonder if Dorothy did end up in that hospital.
 
Susan Shock said:
The man who confessed to helping bury Dorothy's body was an Edward C. Glennoris, who was in prison in Rhode Island for extortion. I read his confession in the New York Times and I'm convinced he made it up. No body was found in the location he described and the day after the story ran he applied for parole, supposedly so he could help the police with their investigation. I think he was intending to flee. All the things he mentioned about Dorothy were things that were mentioned in the Times.

Marilynilpa, I think I can help your research a little. I've found a Charles C. Meredith who was a physician living in Pittsburgh in 1910. I think he is the C.C. Meredith who was arrested in 1914. He appears to have been a leading citizen. There is a painting of him in a book on Pittsburgh's leading citizens. That doesn't mean of course that he didn't engage in unlawful practices. He was the only Charles C. Meredith listed in the 1910 census for Pittsburgh. He was 43 in 1910 and his wife's name was Laura.

I've found an interesting coincidence in my research also. George Griscom Jr
and his family were from Pittsburgh. It really makes me wonder if Dorothy did end up in that hospital.
Griscom's connection to Pittsburgh is what made me take the Dr. Meredith story more seriously than any of the other possibilities.

The District Attorney certainly believed that Dorothy died in Dr. Meredith's hospital. I doubt he would publicly accuse such a prominent citizen of wrongdoing unless he was convinced of that man's guilt.

I think there is a lot more to that story, and I hope to begin researching it next week.
 
That is a good point. By the way the article in the Times also mentioned a Myrtle Allison who went into the hospital and never returned. Lutz asked Meredith one day how she was doing and he threw up his hands and said, "She's gone" The implication was that she had died, not left of her own volition. I wonder who this woman was. She was referred to as Mrs. Myrtle Allison. Another missing person.
 
Its truly fascinating how researching one case can lead to information on another. All I know of Dorothy's disappearance is what I have read here, however I found an article while looking into something else taht might be of interest. I haven't heard this mentioned elsewhere.

From The Oklahoman, Feb 2, 1911--dateline Philadelphia, PA--It was said at police headquarters Wednesday night that Dorothy H.C. Arnold, the missing New York girl, was until recently in Philadelphia and had written to her father from this city.
Francis R. Arnold, her father, and Captain of Detectives Souder, it is said, had a long-distance telephone talk last night during whcih it is declared Mr. Arnold said he had received a letter from his missing daughter postmarked Philadelphia. Captain Souder said he did not know the contents of the letter.
"I will deny anything published about this case", said Captain Souder. "this letter was given in confidence and I will not discuss it. I do not want any publicity given the affair".

A hoax? I have the link to the original story, and can PM to anyone interested, I just can't put it out the public or I'll go to jail. :angel:
 
Please do pm link to that story Shadowangel, I would like to read it and include it in my research. It definitely sounds interesting. Thanks.

Susan
 

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