OH OH - Julius 'Bud' Naegelen, 32, Middletown, 16 Aug 1932

PFF

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Julius Raymond "Bud" Naegelen of Middletown , Butler County Ohio, a former World War I navy man and a manchinst age 32 was accused of shooting and killing his wife Lillian August 16,1932. Never found-he may have drowned while crossing a river altough there were reports of alleged sightings in 1934 and 1938. His profile appeared in "True Detecticve Mysteries" May 1932 and August of 1935. In June 2007 the outstanding arrest warrent was dropped after 75 years. A real old "cold case"!!
 
Julius Raymond "Bud" Naegelen of Middletown , Butler County Ohio, a former World War I navy man and a manchinst age 32 was accused of shooting and killing his wife Lillian August 16,1932. Never found-he may have drowned while crossing a river altough there were reports of alleged sightings in 1934 and 1938. His profile appeared in "True Detecticve Mysteries" May 1932 and August of 1935. In June 2007 the outstanding arrest warrent was dropped after 75 years. A real old "cold case"!!

Here is a link that gives the same info as PFF posted in the OP.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/06/23/hjn062307warrantdrop.html
Saturday, June 23, 2007

snipped:

...described him as 5 feet 6 inches tall, 130 pounds, dark complexion, gray eyes, high forehead, medium brown hair and a thin-in-front, combed pompadour.

A machinist by trade, Naegelen's nose had been broken and was very pointed on the end. He had a scar on either his right or left hand, a birthmark on the left side of his chest and a tattoo of a dagger on his left forearm and a blue dot on his left hand, the warrant states.

Though documents did not indicate where in the city the shooting took place, a letter from the veteran administration in Washington, D.C., dated 1932 said Naegelen had listed his address as 1015 Hughes St. and 1015 Calumet St. in Middletown.

A letter from the Navy dated 1932 said Naegelen served in the Navy, enlisting in Norfolk, N.C., in April 1917 and was given an honorable discharge in 1919.

Old mysteries like this intrigue me very much. I would love to know what happened to him, where he went to, etc.

FWIW, I had a Great Grandfather that disappeared and was declared legally dead after 7 yrs. Surprisingly, I was able to find what happened to him back in 1997. He hadn't died, but started his life over in another state with another woman.
 
This case will be 80 years old in August...
 
A recent article gives a very good and complete summary of this case, starting on p14; it includes lots of info on the Naegelen family, the shooting and events leading up to it, and the witnesses.

http://www.madisontownshiponline.com/MT newsletter Spring 2015 web.pdf

Interestingly both the above article and previous reports seem to have the age wrong for Julius. The above report gives DoB as 1899, and previous reports suggest 1899/1900 based on age 32 at the time of the shooting. However, Ancestry has his military service record which says he was born 21 July 1897 in Newport, Kentucky, making him 34/35 at the time. Also looking at records for this area of Ohio, the spelling of Naegelen seems to vary almost randomly with one or two 'l's.

However, this case still looks dead.
 
I live in Middletown, Ohio. I have never heard of this case. I wonder if there are any family members still in the area; Julius and Lillian had a son, David. I'm going to do some more digging around.

I found some news articles and a census. It seems like Julius may have had a bit of a violent streak before the murder; a Julius S Naegelen beat up a man over a traffic incident in 1925. Julius would have been in his late 20s at that time. Lillian also charged him with neglect and claimed he abused her in 1931, and she petitioned for divorce in 1932, a petition that he appealed.

Lillian is buried at the local cemetery. She shares a headstone with a woman named Emma. The surname on the headstone is Naegelen Johnson, so I'm not sure if Emma's name was Naegelen Johnson or just Johnson. Her dates are 1875-1967, so she was older than Lillian. The cemetery doesn't have the nice online interment records that some of the bigger cemeteries have, but I am going to do more research about Emma, too.

View attachment Lillian Nalgelen Census.pdf
View attachment Hamilton_Evening_Journal_9_15_25.pdf
View attachment Hamilton_Journal_News_9_8_31.pdf
View attachment Hamilton_Evening_Journal_10_17_31.pdf
View attachment Hamilton_Evening_Journal_6_7_32.pdf
 
I found this unidentified guy from 1958 and he had a faded anchor on his left forearm and a scar on back left hand and wrist... I just thought I would post because if the tattoo is really faded and old it could appear like an anchor but may be a dagger... again just posting it up

https://www.flsheriffs.org/uploads/star/THE_SHERIFFS_STAR_VOL_2,_NO_2,_APRIL_1958.pdf
attachment.php
[/QUOTE]
 
That UID isn't in NamUs yet...maybe someone could add it?

Who knows, maybe it'll match!
 

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