DC DC - Beulah Limerick, 19, Washington DC, 31 Dec 1930

Richard

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Beulah Limerick - age 19, Shot to death, December 1930, Washington DC

Beulah Limerick was Secretary of the Ski High Whoopee Club of Washington DC, a group of young men and women who loved to party until dawn in the Age of Jazz.

One morning in December, 1930, Beulah returned home with a young man at 1 AM.

By 2 AM, according to Beulah's brother Vernon, Beula went to bed in a downstairs room.

At 4 AM, a Washington Metropolitan Police officer, who often kept an eye on Beulah, flashed his light inside her home and saw her lying in bed, apparently asleep.

At 6 AM, a border in the Limerick home, Richard Reed came down the stairs and saw Beulah in bed, thinking that she was sleeping.

At 8 AM, Vernon Limerick tried to wake his sister and found her to be dead. He stated later that he had thought she had died a natural death. A Doctor (a young intern) was called to the house and he declared her to have died a natural death from internal hemmorhage.

It wasn't until later that evening, at a local funeral home, that it was discovered Beulah Limerick had been murdered. She had been shot in the back of the head and a flattened .25 caliber pistol bullet was recovered.

Time of death was estimated to have occurred at 3AM. After death, her face had been roughed, the bloodstains washed away, and her black hair had been snugly tucked into the the small wound at the base of her brain.

Beulah had kept a diary in which she hinted at numerous affairs and contacts which gave investigators a lot of potential suspects. Eventually, detectives focussed on Vernon Limerick, Richard Reed, and the policeman on the beat as suspects. The young man she had arrived home with was cleared.

In 1938, charges of murder were brought against the Washington Metropolitan police officer who had shone his flashlight into the Limerick home that night. He was acquitted and the case remains unsolved.

LINK:

http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper ...e NY Morning Herald 1936 Grayscale - 1154.pdf
 
Thanks Richard, for posting this.

Here are some articles on Beulah :

NY Daily News 2008
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/whoopee-girl-mystery-article-1.358760

A lot of tragedy in the family :( Free Lance-Star, Jan 1931
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...M5NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SooDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5436,3144183

Here's how it affected Wash DC, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan 1931
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n..._sMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q2kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2586,5139378

An "obscure little girl", The Southeast Missourian Jan 1931
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...4QgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3tMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1525,3940920

4 murders in 6 yrs in Wash DC!!!
http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper ...g Herald 1936 Grayscale/Gloversville NY Morni

Elsie Louise Bryant murdered in 1931, shot in DC, also from Westmoreland Co. 14 yrs old- this is about her funeral
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...NhNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6540,5708822
 
She sounds like she would be fun to hang out with!

I probably overlooked it if mentioned in one of the linked stories, but I found this.

It's a memorial for a man that lived in the house after Limerick's murder.
His dog apparently found the murder weapon and went on to become a "Superstar" named Grease Ball, The Sleuth*(!).

Lee Albert Pearson (Find A Grave)

*Check the link. I SWEAR that's what he was called!
 
¿¿¿¿. ??????
'...flashed his light inside...'
'... boarder saw..thinking she was sleeping.'
Brother thinks she died natural death??? What planet??
 
The mention in the first post brings to mind the type of music that was played back then. Here is a song done in the style: "Dr. Jazz" done by the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band.''

LINK:
 

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