Identified! PA - Philadelphia - 'Boy in the Box' - 4UMPA - Feb'57 - Joseph Augustus Zarelli #4

[MayMay1123]

What a horrible idea to be living on top where Joseph was dumped.

I believe that there aren't any homes there. There is CORA, which is a social services organization.

 

[Friday Fan]

Nightmare of genealogists trying to track down every cousin.

One of Mr. Laughing's great-grandfathers was (supposedly) married eleven times. Now there are more than 11 kids total, and there are 2 wives who apparently died in childbirth -- graves with both names on the headstones -- but I'd sure charge plenty to track 24 lines!

Actually, this family is very easy to track. It's a straight shot to DAR membership for me..(If I wish to pursue it )

 

[osadelnorte]

Actually, this family is very easy to track. It's a straight shot to DAR membership for me..(If I wish to pursue it )

You should do it! I am a member of the DAR and I grew up as a member of the CAR, Children of the American Revolution. If you have kids or grandchildren, you could enroll them.

 

[Kellieander]

Yes. Just search "girls school" in the thread. I don't think the full name has been used much.

It seems it was a home for "wayward girls." Those on their way to juvenile delinquency and a life of crime and every sort of sin.
(Moo)
The pressure to conform to "good girl" standards had to be unbearable at times. Even just in regards to being a woman who is ultra-feminine because she loves to do housework, not to mention keeping hormones in check. (MOO again)

I read an editorial from a man in the 40's who thought it would be a good idea to give high school girls more life skills classes and take away some of the maths and sciences.


Anyway, it was a school. It wasn't a home for unwed mothers.

Similar place like the house of the Good Shepherd.....

These Religious Prisons Turned Orphans, Young Girls, and Pregnant Women into Slaves Inside Convent Walls - History Collection

Not that long ago, girls and women who defied societal norms were forced into convents and reform institutions. "Do-gooders" established homes in Australia, Europe, and North America to forcibly reform girls and women who simply did not adhere to the rules of polite society. Pregnant and...

historycollection.com

Sickening. These girls were inmates!

My great-grandmother was sent to a similar place many years ago when she was 12 or 13. Her mother kicked her and her brother out of the house after she married a man who didn’t want to raise another man’s children. My GG ended up in an Institution for incorrigible girls run by nuns in Boston, where she was ostensibly taught “life skills” like laundry and housekeeping. In the census during the years she was there, she was referred to as an inmate

 

[RaspberryMama]

Actually, this family is very easy to track. It's a straight shot to DAR membership for me..(If I wish to pursue it )

Hey, I have a direct line too! I have all the info I need for DAR, just have to decide if I want to spend the money to get all the actual documents. Both of my parents ancestors were here in the 1700's. So lucky to not have to deal with foreign records (yet!).

 

[osadelnorte]

If either of you can prove that you had an ancestor who fought for the Union side in the Civil War, you could also join DUVCW, of which I am also a member (my father enrolled me when I was about 14, but I don't know if there is a minimum age for kids to join). There is also a group for descendants of Confederacy veterans if that applies.

ETA: the DUVCW site says minimum age for enrollment is eight years old.

 

[DrQ]

IMHO I watched an ID program on this case many years ago. It made me cry for this poor little guy. It's been a long time coming. Bless his heart. I hope someone is left to mourn his loss. RIP

 

[worldwatcher]

Susquehanna, between Pine and Veree. It's a long stretch of road, but I think he was more towards the eastern end.

ETA map from early investigation:View attachment 388471

“The child's naked, badly bruised body was found on February 25, 1957, in a wooded area of Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.”

'Boy in a box' identified almost 66 years after gruesome discovery

(Is that “fox chase“, the local nick name for that area/street,att?
Or slang?)

Just curious…

 

[osadelnorte]

“The child's naked, badly bruised body was found on February 25, 1957, in a wooded area of Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.”

'Boy in a box' identified almost 66 years after gruesome discovery

(Is that “fox chase“, the local nick name for that area/street,att?
Or slang?)

Just curious…

I think Fox Chase is the name of the area of the city where Joseph was found. You could call it a neighborhood, or maybe subdivision. I have no idea how it got its name, maybe someone local knows.

 

[RaspberryMama]

“The child's naked, badly bruised body was found on February 25, 1957, in a wooded area of Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.”

'Boy in a box' identified almost 66 years after gruesome discovery

(Is that “fox chase“, the local nick name for that area/street,att?
Or slang?)

Just curious…

Philadelphia has about a million (I might be exaggerating) "neighborhoods," each with its own name. Fox Chase is an area in NE Philly, I believe. If you look at Philadelphia on Google maps you'll see names of neighborhoods within the city. As you zoom in closer and closer the more neighborhood names show up. There's a lot.

 

[MayMay1123]

There are over 150 named neighborhoods in Philadelphia, from the very large to the tiny, including Swamppoodle and Fishtown. Fox Chase is named after an inn that was built there in the 1700s. Source-Wikipedia and I've lived here all my life.

 

[RaspberryMama]

There are over 150 named neighborhoods in Philadelphia, from the very large to the tiny, including Swamppoodle and Fishtown. Fox Chase is named after an inn that was built there in the 1700s. Source-Wikipedia and I've lived here all my life.

So... Not a million then?

 

[spacedcurls]

I believe that there aren't any homes there. There is CORA, which is a social services organization.

There are a lot of homes there. The land where CORA (formerly the Good Shepherd School) is, is still pretty undeveloped, but just about everything else, including the spot that Joseph was found, is now houses.

 

[spacedcurls]

There are a lot of homes there. The land where CORA (formerly the Good Shepherd School) is, is still pretty undeveloped, but just about everything else, including the spot that Joseph was found, is now houses.

Excerpt from Jim Hoffmann’s book, from when he was taken by one of the investigators to the spot where Joseph was found:

“Joe McGillen led me to the dump site. I followed him in my rental car. Today, it’s on a suburban street and in fact is someone’s driveway . . . in a serene neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. McGillen and I stood there for a moment as I tried to imagine the box, the bushes, the trash[…]”

 

[worldwatcher]

large cardboard carton, (15" x 19" x 35"), stamped "fragile". It had originally contained a baby's bassinet sold by the J.C. Penney Co.

The bassinet, one of a dozen received on 11/27/56, and which retailed for $7.50, was sold between 12/03/56 and 02/16/57 by the J.C. Penney store at 100 S. 69th St., Upper Darby, PA, with the customer taking it away in its original carton.

Since J.C. Penney had a "cash only" policy at that time, there were no store records indicating the identity of the purchaser. Never the less, all but one of the twelve bassinets, and the cartons they came in, were eventually accounted for.

The cardboard carton that contained the boy's body was in good condition. It was dry inside, but damp on the outside, and appeared slightly weathered. The inside of the carton had traces of white coloring, indicating the bassinet was painted white. The carton was sent to the FBI lab for analysis, but no distinct fingerprints were found.

The bassinette box had a store label on it. Case Summary

Guess,it has been questioned before..

Nevertheless,just had to mention that JAZ was 3 foot 3 inches tall (99,06 cm) when he was found.

So,imo,the box was bought for a baby,shortly before..?
Seems to me,that JAZ was not the only child “living there”

 

[Friday Fan]

My great-grandmother was sent to a similar place many years ago when she was 12 or 13. Her mother kicked her and her brother out of the house after she married a man who didn’t want to raise another man’s children. My GG ended up in an Institution for incorrigible girls run by nuns in Boston, where she was ostensibly taught “life skills” like laundry and housekeeping. In the census during the years she was there, she was referred to as an inmate

I knew kids in HS who were sentenced to reform school. I don't know how "reformed" they were, but they did have legal issues. The Good Shepard School was in the 1950s and the newspaper states most were there on court orders. They left no later than 18 or HS Diploma. Article said most were going home, so it sounds like short stay. Most of the people I know were sent less than a year and came home.

I really don't see how this has anything to do with JAZ or his murder. Someone asked if it was looked into. Authorities don't believe it has anything to do with JAZ.

 

[RaspberryMama]

The white coloring inside the box... Did LE suspect the bassinet had been painted post-purchase? Or did the bassinets come in different colors and the one in this box was painted white? It's not clear to me which is meant.

The inside of the carton had traces of white coloring, indicating the bassinet was painted white.

Why would someone paint a new bassinet? Were they unfinished wood or ?

 

[charminglane]

The white coloring inside the box... Did LE suspect the bassinet had been painted post-purchase? Or did the bassinets come in different colors and the one in this box was painted white? It's not clear to me which is meant.


Why would someone paint a new bassinet? Were they unfinished wood or ?

I believe they meant that the white paint had rubbed off of the bassinet in the box as it was shipped and moved and carried. The contact point where the bassinet rubbed against the inside of the cardboard box.

 

[RaspberryMama]

I believe they meant that the white paint had rubbed off of the bassinet in the box as it was shipped and moved and carried. The contact point where the bassinet rubbed against the inside of the cardboard box.

That's what makes sense, but why did they say "indicating the bassinet was painted white." Were all 13 that were sold from that JcPenney site various colors? If they already knew the all the bassinets were white, it seems odd to mention it at all.

 

[CCJD]

That's what makes sense, but why did they say "indicating the bassinet was painted white." Were all 13 that were sold from that JcPenney site various colors? If they already knew the all the bassinets were white, it seems odd to mention it at all.

Ad for Penney's from Oil City, PA says pastel colors.

Boy in the Box - bassinet

Clipping found in The Oil City Derrick published in Oil City, Pennsylvania on 1/31/1957. Boy in the Box - bassinet

www.newspapers.com