91 years ago...
Herman H. Barrere, suspect in 1930 murder of Mary Baker, Washington DC.
Private Howard Brewster, US Army, suspect in Mary's Murder
Friends of Mary Baker
April 11, 1930 was a hot day in Washington DC -- a record 91 degrees by midday --
Mary Baker, a quiet 31 year old clerk ("a girl who rarely went out with fellows"), left her office at the Navy Department a little after 3pm and walked about a mile with a friend to a Lenten service at the
Episcopal Church of the Epiphany.
She left the church around 6pm that evening, planning to walk back to her car, which was parked near her office. She had an appointment to meet another friend, who was also a housemate, near the other woman’s office. She was never seen alive again.
The following day, her bloodstained car was found across the Potomac River in Virginia, on a lonely road that ran alongside Arlington National Cemetery. Her body was found ¾ of a mile from her car, stuffed into a drainage culvert near
Sheridan Gate, a secondary entrance on the cemetery’s east side. She had been sexually assaulted, badly beaten, strangled, and shot three times.
Some accounts reported small incisions on the body that investigators determined to have been made by sharp, pointed fingernails, and additional marks identified as having been caused by the
French heel of a shoe. This raised the possibility that a woman could have been involved in the murder, though it doesn’t seem that the angle was pursued for long.
Most of Mary’s clothing, her purse, and her umbrella were missing -- many of these items were later found shoved into a manhole at a Department of Agriculture experimental farm nearby. Also amongst Mary’s belongings (including an untouched bank book and stock certificates) were other items: a book, a necklace of coral beads, a pair of men’s kid gloves, and a scarf. The book and necklace were later traced to unrelated people who claimed the items had been stolen from their parked cars that same month. The gloves and the scarf were both thought to belong to the killer.
Arlington County Police, Virginia State Police, Washington Metropolitan Police, The Department of Justice, and the Navy Department began a joint investigation into Mary's murder. Three people came forward to say they’d seen a stout, florid-faced man in a grey cap pulling out of a parking space in what may have been Mary’s car. The man was hitting a woman sitting next to him whose face was bloodied as she struggled to get away. The car sped off.
A few men were later questioned because they’d been discovered in possession of some of Mary’s things, but they admitted to stealing them from the abandoned car.
- Howard Sims, a dying criminal, confessed to the murder but no evidence linked him to the crime.
- Harry Allard, a prisoner in Schenectady, NY, also claimed responsibility: “She knew I was wanted in Georgia for killing a man two years ago. She threatened to; expose me, so…”. Police questioned Allard for three hours and he admitted to a false confession because he wanted to avoid a five year sentence for car theft...
Mary told her family once, in a letter, that a stout man had been forcing his attentions upon her. One of her cousins had reportedly seen her at the movies with a man answering that description, but his face wasn’t visible to the witness.
-
Harold Brewster, an Army private, was picked out of a lineup as that man. He confessed to the murder then retracted that confession weeks later. The police didn’t seem to know what to do about Brewster and, ultimately, they decided that he was mentally ill and unconnected to the crime.
It seems likely that the additional arrests in the case were in connection with a number of love letters that the investigators found in Mary’s desk in the Virginia home she shared with two housemates. It seems that Mary had another side to her life “in which masculine admirers, including a married man, had figured.” A half dozen suspects who were rounded up readily admitted having at least dated Mary. Some made what a paper at the time called “weekend trips” with her. Two suspects described a “hotel party” in Baltimore attended by themselves, Mary, and a female friend of hers. All the additional suspects produced solid alibis.
The investigators had little else to go on until, three months into their inquiries, a 42 year old real estate salesman from Virginia named
Herbert Campbell brought his .32 revolver (in some accounts it’s listed as a .38) to the police, saying that he feared it was the murder weapon.
Campbell’s story was that the gun had been stolen from him prior to the murder by an ex-serviceman-turned-itinerant-house-painter,
Herman H. Barrere, who returned the weapon after the murder. Ballistics experts tested the gun and it was identified as the murder weapon.
Police traced Barrere to Canada and he was arrested in Montreal. According to a newspaper account at the time, Barrere had told a woman that he had known Mary Baker but “wouldn't care to admit it now.” However, Barrere also had an alibi: he had been in court that morning in connection with a car crash. Later that day, he drove two women somewhere and the three stayed together until about 6.30pm, according to them. Investigators had estimated the time of the murder to be around 6:10pm. A woman who accompanied Barrere to a boxing match at Fort Meyer the following night reported that he took very little interest in the bouts and later strenuously objected to going over the strip of road where Mary’s body had been discovered.
Under police questioning, Campbell supposedly admitted to framing Barrere, although he continued to insist he didn’t know Mary and certainly hadn’t killed her. He claimed to have made up the gun-stealing story to drum up publicity for a miniature golf course he owned, and also because he enjoyed hanging around with detectives working on a baffling case.
Campbell was arrested. In court, his wife testified that, though Campbell had been out during the day of the murder, he had been in the house preparing dinner when she arrived home at 6pm. The case dragged on, eventually earning a hearing in front of the D.C Supreme Court. Ballistics experts for the prosecution and the defense battled it out and Campbell was acquitted.
Campbell later brought two separate suits, one for $250,000 and one for $500,000, against one of the prosecution ballistics experts who testified at his trial, accusing him of making damaging and untrue statements to a Washington, DC newspaper and to law enforcement authorities.
The murder of Mary Baker remains unsolved to this day.
