The Dayton Strangler

Almost exactly two years after the attacks in Cumminsville, Ohio came to an end, a nearly-identical fiend began assaulting and murdering women approximately fifty miles north, in Dayton…

In 1904, a sadistic killer preyed on women in the Cumminsville neighborhood of Cincinnati, killing three and assaulting a dozen others. He bludgeoned them, strangled them into unconsciousness, raped them, and left them for dead. He became known as the Cumminsville Ripper, a case we covered in an episode which immediately precedes this one. I would strongly recommend you give it a listen first, if you haven’t already.

Then, between 1906 and 1909, a killer preyed on women in Dayton, Ohio, killing four and assaulting a number of others. He bludgeoned them, strangled them into unconsciousness, raped them, and left them for dead. In the course of one of those attacks, he also killed one male victim with a gun. He’s today known as the Dayton Strangler, and in this podcast, we’re gonna try to piece together whether the Cumminsville Ripper and the Dayton Strangler could be one-and-the-same.

Let’s begin with a reminder. The place is Ohio and the time is 1906. Very few homes had a phone (something like 1 phone for every 20 people at that time) and just as few had electricity. Communication with the authorities was slow and so was the response. Cars were still a rarity and city-dwellers used the train to get around — steam, diesel, and electric streetcars sometimes called “traction” cars. Outhouses and water closets were still a thing and night time travel was dangerous for a woman alone, especially in wild public spaces that were hard to light.

It was one week until Thanksgiving. Rain had persisted for several days and turned Dayton into a cool, soggy Ohio moor on November 22, 1906, when a woman’s body was discovered “concealed in the weeds of a common on the west side of Groveland Avenue near Grandview Avenue.”

The Dayton Herald made it front page news under the bold headline ‘Girl Murdered; Body Hid in Weeds.’ The murdered woman was identified as 20-year-old Dona Gilman, an employee of National Cash Register company. The crime scene and condition of the body were described in detail:

The further the investigation is conducted the deeper the mystery becomes. It is the supposition of the officers and physicians that if she had been killed on the ground, her arms would have been at her side, but as It is, the right arm pointed upward, the elbow resting on the ground, while the hand was crooked, as though she had been resisting her assailant. It is also the supposition that the body was left upon the spot where the murder was committed, and then carried, after the body had become stiff, to the place where it was discovered.

The killer murdered her somewhere else then dumped her where she was found, but because rigor mortis had set in, her body was found in an odd position. The Herald wrote:

Her clothes were wet, and it is thought that she had been laying in the rain of Wednesday, and probably of the night before. An umbrella borrowed from [Miss] Ethel Collins, of Forest Avenue, who also worked at [N.C.R.], and the pair of gloves supposed to have been worn by the murdered girl were found on the ground near the body. The umbrella and gloves are perfectly dry. The officials admit that if the umbrella had been wet, it could have been dried by the wind, but if the gloves had dried, they would have been stiff. When found the gloves were soft. This condition Is a puzzle to the officers. Two hat pins were found lying on the ground near the body. One was bent, indicating the possibility of the hat being torn from her head, and later placed upon her head as It was found this morning.

A surface examination of the physical crime scene told a story about how the attack happened:

[From] The evidence furnished by the territory surrounding the scene of the crime, the assault must have taken place on the west side of Groveland Avenue, where the street gave evidence of a struggle which was continued Into the commons, where the weeds were crushed and disturbed.

Naturally, investigators wanted to piece together Dona’s last movements. According to the Dayton Herald:

The last that was seen of the murdered girl was at 5:40 Tuesday evening. She rode home on a Went Fifth Street car with her cousin, Ruby Bond, of Grosvenor Avenue. Miss Bond got off at Grosvenor, leaving Miss Gilman on the car. The conductor of the car was a man named Tanzel and efforts are being made to interview him to ascertain if anyone got off the car with Miss Gilman, and if anyone was seen to join her as she alighted. The post mortem examination confirmed the theory that the girl was choked to death.

We did not uncover any further mention of engineer Tanzel or information he may or may not have offered, so we’re left to conclude it was of no use to the authorities. There was one immediate theory of note, though, right from the start of the murder investigation.

The theory was advanced that the girl had been murdered by a jealous, sweetheart, but this is believed to be incorrect. Miss Gilman had a young man friend who lived In Cincinnati. He was not in this city Tuesday night when the murder is supposed to have been committed. Sayne Gilman, the sister of the murdered girl, Tuesday night called up the forewoman in the department at the N.C.R. Company where Dona Gilman was employed. The forewoman suggested that the young man In Cincinnati be questioned, thinking possibly that there might have been an elopement. Acting upon the suggestion of the forewoman, the sister of the murdered girl called up the young man In Cincinnati, and had no trouble in finding him. He said that he knew nothing of the whereabouts of the girl and had not seen her for several days.

Dona Gilman’s sister was looking for her. Called her boss. Her supervisor said “Maybe they ran off to get married.” The sister called the boyfriend in Sharonville and he said, “No, I haven’t seen her.” Later in the story, the Herald revealed his identity:

The name of the murdered girl’s friend who lived at Sharonville, near Cincinnati, was Stanley Anderson.

The police questioned Stanley Anderson and he was able to provide an acceptable alibi.

You know it wasn’t gonna be that easy.

Notably, Dona Gilman’s murder took place two years after the last confirmed Cumminsville Ripper case, the attacks on Mrs. Phillip Gerbig outside Spring Grove Cemetery on November 15th, 1904.

I’m gonna save us all some time right here by pointing out, the murder of Dona Gilman would be an enduring mystery that occupied the press in Ohio for years because there were plenty of supposed suspects and developments that didn’t amount to much.

A local man the newspapers referred to as a “half-wit,” David Curtis, was arrested and he promptly confessed. It soon became clear he was an attention-seeking eccentric and by December he’d been cleared. Public opinion was that the authorities had attempted to railroad him.

Dona Gilman’s family, including her mother and two of her siblings, were arrested for her murder and forced to post bond for some criminal theory that never materialized. It took until mid-1907 before the Gilman family was also cleared of any involvement in Dona’s murder.

There were other arrests and suspects, too.

In the century-plus since the murder of Dona Gilman, most agree none of the suspects identified or arrested for her murder is the actual perpetrator. And we know that’s the case, because the killing continued.

Let’s pause to note a few things here.

Dona Gilman was last seen alive getting off a streetcar in Dayton, Ohio as she made her way home from work. She was walking alone along “a common” — a small wilderness-type area where a killer could conceal himself.

She was apparently attacked from behind by a fiend who choked her, dragged her to a more-secluded area, raped her, and left her for dead. It was two blocks from the rail line.

On the question of whether the Dayton Strangler is the same predator who was known as the Cumminsville Ripper in Cincinnati two years earlier, some of those details sound awfully familiar.

As with the Cumminsville Ripper’s murders of Mary McDonald and Alma Steinway, the Strangler was likely waiting in the darkness at the stop where Dona got off the car. The only thing missing from the Cumminsville Ripper’s standard MO would be an obvious bludgeoning wound made with an unknown weapon.

The unidentified murderer of Dona Gilman, the Dayton Strangler, was a disorganized, impulsive killer who brashly attacked in public; a sexual deviant who sometimes dragged his victims to another location and had a penchant for going for the throat.

That sounds like the Cumminsville Ripper.

Anna Markowitz and Abe Gordon, who went by the last name Cohan, were out walking on what was described in the local press as a lonely road near the National Soldier’s Home. It was August 4th, 1907. Anna’s sister Bertha, 16, had come along to keep them company.

From out of the darkness a man appeared. He swung a weapon sometimes described as a baton or a blackjack at Abe Cohan and struck him on the back of the head. Cohan turned to see who had attacked him and the attacker pulled a gun and shot him twice in the abdomen.

Bertha later told investigators, as Abe Cohan fell to the ground, the attacker lunged for the sisters, and Bertha’s feet took over. She ran screaming from the scene to the Soldier’s Home to get help.

When a posse returned, they found Cohan still alive, but barely. Anna was missing. They followed the trail left by a struggle which led them through the brush to Anna Markowitz’ body.

From the Mansfield News-Journal:

The clothing had been nearly torn from the body. The arms were crowded down over the eyes as if to shut out a horrible picture. There [was evidence] of a fearful struggle and an assault. The girl was dead from strangulation.

Abe Cohan succumbed to his injuries at the hospital and left Anna’s younger sister Bertha Markowitz as the only eyewitness who had seen The Strangler up close. Bertha described the assailant as perhaps 25-to-30 years old, tall, clean shaven and dressed in all dark clothing.

Despite signs to the contrary, the authorities initially suspected highway robbery as the motive for the crime. As with the case of Dona Gilman, when robbery no longer seemed likely, investigators focused their attention on the victim’s family.

The News-Journal reported Anna Markowitz’ siblings were held under suspicion for a time because Anna’s brothers didn’t like Abe dating their sister and gave him a hard time about it, even admitting to once following him to Lakeside Park, but they denied all involvement in the crime.

The murders of Abe Cohan and Anna Markowitz happened in quite literally the same location where Dona Gilman’s body was found, in the area of Dayton today known as McCabe Park. Like every neighborhood, it has changed a lot since the highway came through, but there are a surprising number of landmarks still around.

A stone’s throw from McCabe Park is the Dayton VA, which is what would have been commonly referred to as a “Soldier’s Home,” back then, but there’s another landmark even more intriguing.

The Dayton National Cemetery. A very large cemetery.          

Today there’s a divided highway to cross, but in 1906 it would have been literally two-minutes’ walk from the spot where Cohan, Markowitz and Gilman were murdered. Even more intriguing, the tracks which passed two blocks north of the crime scene continued onto the grounds of the cemetery and that was the end of the line.           

The Cumminsville Ripper stalked women near Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. He was seen by train conductors just as they passed into the cemetery and again when they came out 18 minutes later.

Is it a coincidence that the murders of Cohan, Markowitz and Gilman also took place along a line where a rail car would go into a cemetery and come back out a few minutes later?

If the Ripper and the murderer of Cohan, Markowitz and Gilman are really the same person, could he have been an undertaker? Or was he simply a cunning psychopath who used the cover of the stone monuments in cemeteries to stage his killings?

The nature of the nearby rail line also brings to mind several other questions.

It was a remote, solitary spur from the main line, known as the Home Avenue spur, built primarily to serve the cemetery and National Soldier's Home operation beginning all the way back in 1867. It was the railroad equivalent of a dead end.

If the Dayton Strangler, like the Cumminsville Ripper, used the trains and traction cars to stalk his prey and then quickly escape, what does it say that he struck along this dead-end line?

Again the question: did he work for the railroad? More questions.

What were the procedures for train staff when they came into a stop like the National Soldier’s Home? Did they get a break? How much time did they have before they had to be back on the car to head the other way?

We’ve gone way down the rabbit hole here so let me get us back on track by saying the authorities arrested and convicted a black man named Layton Hines for the murder of Dona Gilman, who later said he had been intimidated into confessing. Despite the conviction, the Dayton Strangler murders continued and many became convinced they convicted the wrong man. By 1909, even the local press reported Layton Hines was believed by most to be an innocent man.

The last we heard about Layton Hines was in 1917, when the Dayton Herald reported he applied for relief from his life sentence with the Ohio State Board of Pardons. A search for the results of that hearing, using both his real name Layton Marion and his alias, Layton Hines, turned up nothing. Although unsourced historical accounts claim Layton Hines was released, as of this recording we could find no record of it. So, we know he served at least ten years of a life sentence for a crime he did not commit.

At any rate, here again we have a murder with confessions and convictions and yet the consensus seems to be they never got the right person.

The murder of Mary Forschner on January 24th, 1909 was discovered after a search that came straight out of an episode of Scooby Doo. I don’t say that with an air of whimsy, either.

Mary had been on an errand to deposit $9 in the bank. It was Saturday evening and she left home around 6:15. Her parents expected her to return by 8:30.

Robert Geppert was Mary’s stepfather, the head of a large blended household of 11 kids — five his, four his wife’s, and two together — so you can imagine the house was a beehive of activity and it was sometimes a challenge to keep track of the kids.

Geppert worked as a meat cutter at Christopher C. Somerlot’s grocery and butcher shop at 600 Keowee Street (today North Keowee Street) and related the events of his day to investigators, as reported by the Dayton Herald.

"I left Somerlot's grocery, where I had been working all day, about half past eight Saturday night or a little later than that maybe, say quarter of nine. I went to Kornman's barber shop at Keowee Street and the railroad. I had to wait a long time in there. I think I left about half past nine, and then I went to Hackworth's saloon, corner Earl and Keowee street where I had a glass of beer. I stayed there maybe 10 minutes and came on home. It was not quite 10 o'clock when I got home.”

The Geppert’s thought Mary would be home already.

“I think my wife said that Mary was out; that she had not yet come home, and we decided she had gone with Maggie (her sister) to a dance downtown, so I went to bed. It was after 12 o'clock when Maggie and her company got home, and when we found Mary was not with her I got out of bed and went out to look for her. I walked down to the car. I saw the light on the corner at the turn, and thought there would be another car. No more cars came and I went back to the house. Then Hyer and Merkle came with me and we started to look for her. We went through the vacant lot (the lot across from the Geppert home and between it and the Kennedy homestead.) We found nothing there and then one of the men climbed on top of the cement wall at Kennedy's. He could see nothing and got down. This was on the west wall. Then we went on Nock street and started to look there.”

As a brief aside, it should be noted the particular neighborhood where Mary Forschner was murdered has changed extensively due to interchange construction over the years and many landmarks are now gone. In our research, we have yet to find an exact address or intersection for the Kennedy Estate, but we know it was near the Geppert home and that’s where they continued the search.

"The men were ahead of me when we passed the gate, and [then] the light from the lantern showed the hat. It was a hat from our home. I called the other men back saying, 'Here is her hat.'”

The Springfield Daily News described what happened next:

The father found a hat — a girl's hat. He looked. It was Mary’s. Fearfully he examined the ground. Parents do, in Dayton, when daughters are missing. Footprints of two persons were stamped in the soft mud. Covering the small footprints of a girl were broad marks of a heavy shoe.

Keep in mind this happened in a time when few had a phone and searches were conducted by lantern.

The broad footprints led across the road. The little prints were there too, but unevenly placed as though the person that made them was off her feet part of the time. When a person is dragged by the hair, their feet are off the ground part of the time, especially if the dragged person is quite small and the dragger tall and strong.

Today, that would be enough for any of us to call the police and report what we had found — signs of a struggle and the girl’s hat. In the early 1900s, though, they would likely have had to walk blocks just to find a phone. It was a different time. You didn’t call anybody. You gathered your neighbors and followed the clues under the wavering yellow light of your lamp until you found your loved-one.

Robert Geppert jumped up on the wall surrounding the Kennedy estate and spotted a  patch of light-colored fabric.

I saw something white in the shed, beside the stable at Kennedy's and we found it was my girl.

As we discussed in the Cumminsville Ripper episode, murders in the early 1900s were presumed to be robbery-related by default. It was not yet common knowledge that some killers do it, not for money, but because they enjoy it. The press made a big deal about the $9 deposit Mary Forschner had been carrying, and days later, Geppert would tell the Dayton Herald “Robbery was the motive of the crime. I am almost sure of that now, as the girl's ring was taken from her finger Saturday night."

In 1909, they didn’t yet know about serial killers and how they sometimes keep mementos of their victims.

According to the Dayton Herald:

A postmortem held later developed the fact that the girl had been assaulted. after having been struck repeatedly upon the head with a club or blunt instrument of some kind, and choked Into unconsciousness.

The motive was not robbery. Mary Forschner’s bank deposit book was found nearby, the $9 still in it. She likely dropped it when she tried to fight off her attacker. If the killer had known what was in it, he might have stopped to take the money after committing the crime, but his goal was far sicker.

The Dayton Strangler’s attack on Mary Forschner also stands out as strongly similar to the means of attack the Cumminsville Ripper used when he murdered Alma Steinway… hit on the head from behind on a public street, dragged kicking and screaming to a more-secluded location, then strangled, raped and left for dead.

In the ensuing investigation, several witnesses were believed to have seen the man who likely killed Mary Forschner. The first eyewitness was neighborhood resident Sam Morris. The Dayton Herald detailed his strange encounter:

Sam Morris, who lives within a stone's throw of the spot at which the crime was committed is thought to have seen the man. Morris, according to his story, was standing at his gate awaiting the coming of his children, a boy and two girls, when he heard screams. He went towards the spot and saw a dark object [lying in the field], at which he cast a handful of mud. Someone rose out of the darkness and a voice he didn't recognize said, "You'd better get away from here or I'll fill you full of holes.” Morris says he went into the house, got his shotgun, came out, and, finding no one about, fired two shots into the air.

Samuel Morris was held as a suspect initially but later cleared. His role in the events of January 24th, 1909 is now considered that of an eyewitness who was likely present during, and within a few dozen feet of, the rape and murder of Mary Forschner as it occurred. Morris estimated the time to be approximately 9:20 pm.

The other eyewitness, identified as Mrs. John Scheff, claimed to have been chased by the man minutes earlier.

“I got off a street car near my home at ten minutes past 9,” said Mrs Scheff. “I saw a man slinking In the darkness behind me after I had walked a little bit. I knew he hadn't been on the car and I walked faster. He did too. I ran. He ran, and was gaining on me. I turned the corner to get to my house and the man stopped. A little dog ran out and then yelped. I think the man kicked him."

In discussing the Cumminsville Ripper, I told you about Mrs. Wheeler’s report of being stalked and followed shortly before Lulu Mueller’s body was found two blocks away. In this case, the Dayton Strangler seemed to be exhibiting the same behavior. By January 26th, the local press reported there was a third attack, on Mrs. James Powers, who had to be rescued from the clutches of a man who assaulted her.

The citizens are in a frenzy of rage over the fact that these crimes have occurred In this city with a sickening frequency in the last few years and there seems to be no indication of safety for women of Dayton as another assault was attempted tonight on the person of Mrs James Powers of West Third Street who was rescued by her husband after her clothing had been torn and her throat bruised. The assailant escaped.

A little later, the story offers more detail.

Mrs. Powers, who was assaulted this evening, was standing in the door of her home when a man suddenly appeared and seized her. After a short struggle during which she screamed, her husband ran out of the house. Even after Power’s appearance the assailant attempted to drag the woman after him and tore out a handful of her silk waist.

That’s three attacks on women — attempted murders — within 48 hours; bold assaults, right out in the open, even in the presence of men.

When Mrs. Scheff safely made it home about 9:10 pm, her stalker continued to hunt the same neighborhood and found Mary Forschner ten minutes later. They were targets of opportunity.

The Dayton Strangler exactly mimics the MO of the Cumminsville Ripper who terrorized Cincinnati in 1904.

Elizabeth Fulhart was only 18 years-old but had been commuting from her home in Vandalia to Dayton on a regular basis to see her boyfriend. However, on January 29th, 1909, “Lizzie” as she was known by acquaintances, went missing. Nobody heard from her for several days.

Then, on February 5th, 1909, a development.

The discovery today was made by Charles Weaver and his father, Fred Weaver, who had gone to a house at 124 North Jefferson Street to do some carpentering. The house has been vacant for some time and the two men were sent to put it in shape for occupancy.

After lunch, Charles Weaver was thirsty.

Charles Weaver, on the way back to his work about 2 o’clock, went to the cistern to get a drink of water. The lid on the cistern refused to yield to hand pressure and the young man got a crowbar and pried it off. As Weaver stooped to reach into the cistern with his water bucket, he noticed a bundle of clothing floating on top of the water, which was fringed with dirt and debris of varied description. He took hold of the clothes and pulled. The clothes were heavy and when he had tugged for some [...] time a pair of human feet emerged from the water. Weaver dropped his hold upon the clothing and called his father. The two men tried to drag the body from the cistern, but the water was so far from the mouth that they were compelled to fish out the bundle with a hoe.

Just as with the previous episode, I’m pausing for a moment here to correct an inaccuracy. According to a number of sources and the Wikipedia entry for the Dayton Strangler, Elizabeth Fulhart’s date of death is listed as sometime after February 7th. In truth, Lizzie had been missing since January 29th, 1909 and her body was discovered in the cistern February 5th (reported in the papers on the 6th.) The coroner estimated her body had been in the cistern about a week.

That fixes Elizabeth Fulhart’s approximate date of death as January 29th, 1909, or perhaps the day after. Within 24 hours of arriving in Dayton. That would also mean Elizabeth Fulhart’s murder took place only about 5 days after the murder of Mary Forschner.

There are a number of elements of the Elizabeth Fulhart murder that can make one question whether it is actually the the work of the Dayton Strangler — the body was found wrapped in burlap and carefully hidden in a manner inconsistent with the careless way previous victims were discarded. It is, however, hard to deny a young female victim killed in Dayton in 1909 could be a victim of the Dayton Strangler, especially when the vacant house where Lizzie Fulhart’s body was found was right in between the sites of the Gilman, Markotwiz, Cohan murders and the Mary Forschner murder.

Just three blocks from City Hall and in a part of Dayton described at the time as “densely settled.”

Oh, and you could catch a streetcar just a couple blocks away.

The public was weary of the Dayton Strangler by this time and was starting to keep a scorecard in the newspapers. For 2 ½ years the authorities had failed to capture the predator who hunted women in Ohio. In the press coverage resulting from the murder of Lizzie Fulhart, the papers printed the names of Ohio citizens whose murders had not yet been solved.

They include the same 5 names we’ve attributed to the Dayton Strangler: Dona Gilman, Anna Markowitz and Abe Cohan, Mary Forschner, and Elizabeth Fulhart. All of those names were frequently mentioned in the press in relation to each other; considered part of the same case at the time. However, in the course of researching Elizabeth Fulhart’s murder, we found another name not previously mentioned in any of the contemporaneous coverage of the Strangler’s crimes. So, before we ask some open-ended questions and draw our typical wild conclusions, let me tell you about a crime for which we have to turn back the clock nine years, to 1900.

A terrible crime was committed in Dayton Saturday night.

Those were the first words from The Dayton Herald on October 15th, 1900.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Lantz, shared the same birthday. He was 53 and she was a decade younger.

We must assume they were a popular couple (with plenty of space) because that night 15 other married couples showed up at their home at 48 Leroy Street unexpectedly to celebrate the event; a big surprise party. As the night wore-on, the adults gathered for a game of Euchre while the children, including their daughter Ada, 11, played in the yard.

Those who believe in the meaning of the stars and planets, even with an ironic embrace, would point out Neptune had just entered retrograde in October of 1900, as if in warning. Astrologers say Neptune works as a veil, easing our anxieties, but when it enters retrograde, our illusions can be shattered by harsh realities.

In this case, the reality of merriment and joy at the Lantz’ joint-birthday celebration was about to be smashed to pieces.

Among the guests was Police Officer Charles Brandon, his wife, and their daughter Lillie. It was shortly after 10 pm that Lillie went inside to report she could not find Ada.

The Herald detailed the search that followed:

The mother [...] went outside and called her, but received no answer. Mr. Lantz and some friends then took a lantern and searched for the child. By this time the euchre game had broken up. and a certain degree of excitement began to manifest itself among the guests. The neighborhood was systematically searched but no trace of the girl was found. Finally one of the searchers, among whom was Mr. George Hottes of North Williams Street, suggested that the vault be examined on the [thought] that the child may have fallen into it. Lighted matches were dropped through one of the openings of the seat, and an object was discovered, which resembled a child's shoe. This warranted the overturning of the building, and a more careful investigation was made. To confirm the now well-defined suspicion, a ladder was placed in the opening, and Mr. Lantz's oldest son went down and grasped the shoe. Then he drew forth the body of his sister. The clothing was cut from the little form, which was soon thoroughly cleansed with water. The scene was beyond description.

Accompanying the story was a sketch of the yard behind the Lantz’ home. It was three steps down from a quaint back porch to reach the path, which in-turn descended into the yard where it made a right-turn and continued to a door… the crime scene.

The Dayton Herald wrote:

A little, innocent child, a girl of less than twelve years, was inhumanly choked into helplessness, then criminally ravished and finally thrown into a vault. The evidence shows that she was alive when her little body was thrust head first into the contents of the vault.

Historical accounts have been kind in retelling the horrible events of Ada Lantz’ murder because most of us, I think, on first blush, don’t understand what that terrible description means.

Did you pick up on it? Brace yourselves, dear listeners. “The vault” where Ada Lantz’ lifeless 11-year-old body was found is a polite way of saying she was found in the outhouse.

The coroner later determined she had been smashed in the face with some kind of weapon, strangled and raped before she was thrust into “the vault.”

Ada Lantz was not quite 12.

If she was a victim of the Dayton Strangler, she was the youngest-known. Her murder in 1900 also stands oddly alone in relation to the Strangler’s other crimes between 1906 and 1909.

On the other hand… Ada Lantz’ murder took place barely a mile from where Dona Gilman’s body was discovered six years later, and not even 2 miles from where Elizabeth Fulhart’s body was found 9 years later. And the Lantz’ home was just blocks from the same dead-end railroad spur to the National Soldiers Home.

It’s hard to ignore the reputation of a shady neighborhood.

At the time Ada Lantz’ name was published, it was simply one of a number of unsolved crimes, not necessarily characterized as having been the work of the Dayton Strangler. In the time since, however, there seems to be some belief that the Strangler was responsible for the murder of Ada Lantz in 1900, if for no other reason than the neighborhood.

What do you think?

Our research crew is inclined to think Ada Lantz’ murder could be the work of the Strangler but probably isn’t.

We do entertain wild fantasies that we could somehow get our hands on an accurate guest list of the Lantz’ celebration that night, although the chances are slim.

We’d want to check it for one particular name: Alfred A. Knapp.

Mr. Knapp lived in Cincinnati at the time of Ada Lantz’ murder and rode the same rails, through Hamilton, Dayton, and Indianapolis. Knapp was convicted of murdering his wife in Cincinnati and then confessed to at least four other murders from Cincinnati to Indianapolis between 1894 and 1902.

From Hamilton, Ohio, he got the nickname “The Hamilton Strangler” and according to the Salem Daily Capitol-Journal, Knapp was believed responsible for many more murders and apparently said he had a habit of just pouncing on children at random and choking the life out of them.

He went to prison in 1903 and was executed for the murder of his wife, so he could not be responsible for the Dayton Strangler or Cumminsville Ripper cases since they all happened in 1904 or later. He could be responsible for Ada Lantz’ murder in 1900, though.

I wonder if the name Alfred A. Knapp was on the guest list at the Lantz surprise party that night?

Many have pointed out the lack of a cohesive physical description of the suspect that could bolster the case that the Cumminsville Ripper and the Dayton Strangler are the same killer. Our response to that would be, the descriptions of both the Ripper and the Strangler have been all over the place. A black man, a white man, a “mulatto” man. A killer with a bushy mustache. A clean shaven killer. He was tall. He was short.

Could the eyewitness description of the attacker in the Abe Cohan and Anna Markowitz case, given by Bertha Markowitz, just be in error? Bertha described him as tall, but that’s subjective. She was just 16. How tall was she?

There weren’t streetlights in these neighborhoods. There was very little lighting in public spaces. It was almost always dark and the attacks were fast-moving, violent affairs.

In our team’s opinion the physical descriptions of the suspect are largely unreliable. The killer’s real defining characteristic is his MO. You can recognize his madness.

What about the gun? It is a glaring discrepancy that in only one instance — the attack on Cohan and Markowitz — the killer used a gun. In the murder of Mary Forschner, the killer threatened Samuel Morris with a gun, so perhaps he had one that just couldn’t be seen on that occasion. One could also argue he only used a weapon (or threatened to use a weapon) when a man was present. He enjoyed dominating and overpowering women but didn’t want the same struggle with a man, so he used a gun.

There are also important questions to be answered about whether the killer might have been moving bodies around. The inexplicably dry gloves found near Dona Gilman’s body suggested they had been recently placed there, as if the crime scene had been staged. In addition, several neighborhood residents, including Dona’s own family members, refused to believe her body had lain in the awkward position where it was found for two days because she would have been plainly visible from their home.

Here’s a theory.

The slovenly, disorganized killer in the slouch hat that came to be known as the Cumminsville Ripper stalked north Cincinnati in 1904, killed three women, and attacked about a dozen more, as we discussed in the previous episode. The Ripper’s final attacks took place in November of that year, and exhibited a spiraling-out-of-control brazenness about them, increasing in frequency and with growing recklessness.

Perhaps the killer gambled too much and got caught breaking the law. Perhaps it was some kind of minor infraction. Maybe he’d ridden the train to a nearby town like Hamilton or Sharonville or Dayton — a place where a guy could get arrested for burglary or assault without ever rising to the attention of the Cincinnati authorities investigating the Ripper cases.

The killer went to prison, a short sentence for whatever small crime he got caught for, and decided to do his time quietly because it was better than getting caught for the really bad shit he’d done.

Two years later, he’d served his time and decided to start over in a new place, Dayton, Ohio, just 60 miles from his old territory in Cumminsville.

On November 20th, 1906 he killed Dona Gilman. He was fresh out of prison and cleanly shaven, but the Ripper again left his big handprints on young womens' necks. Again the predator hunted, this time in an all-new hunting ground but using the tools familiar to him — the railroads and streetcars and dark, lonely parks and cemeteries. He also showed evidence of evolution.

After Markowitz, Cohan and Gilman were found in the same neighborhood, the killer moved to another neighborhood to hunt prey.

He also used a gun for the first time, presumably to streamline his attacks and eliminate any threat to his real goal — rape and murder. He was becoming a better serial killer and rapist.

The unidentified bludgeoning weapon he sometimes used in his Cumminsville attacks was identified in the Markowitz/Cohan murders as a baton or a blackjack. If the killer brought a baton or a blackjack, which are both concealable weapons, it suggests forethought, planning, and an attempt to deceive. It was a weapon that could be concealed under a coat.

On a streetcar, for example.

It is the opinion of our research team that the Cumminsville Ripper and the Dayton Strangler are one-and-the-same. We believe the same man is responsible for the murders of:

• Mary McDonald, Lulu Mueller and Alma Steinway in Cumminsville, all in 1904.

• Dona Gilman in November of 1906.

• Anna Markowitz and Abe Cohan in August of 1907.

• and Mary Forschner and Elizabeth Fulhart in January, 1909, all in Dayton.

We also believe he could be responsible for the murder of 11-year-old Ada Lantz in Dayton in 1900.

We do not believe he is responsible for the murders of Anna Lloyd or Mary Hackney in Cumminsville in 1909 for reasons we discussed in the last episode.

One other note. It’s hard as hell to research historic true crime when all the press used was a woman’s husband’s name… Mrs. John Scheff… Mrs. James Powers… Here’s hoping we never go back to that version of the patriarchy. Women are people, too.

In the course of researching this episode we were again compelled, as with the Cumminsville Ripper episode, to create a Google Map for the Dayton Strangler murders. You can find the link in the show notes, and we’d welcome assistance from armchair sleuths.

https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1NuXytivpVUwcWWmc2nD-bI8L0YWjulDx?usp=sharing

There are, of course, bigger theories and ideas to be considered about the Dayton Strangler and Cumminsville Ripper. If the same man were responsible for the crimes we’ve named here, there are a lot of gaps in the timeline to be filled-in.

Yes, it’s possible he was in prison for the (almost exactly) two years between Thanksgiving week 1904 and Thanksgiving week 1906, but it’s also possible he was killing somewhere else.

There were 10 months between the murder of Dona Gilman and the murders of Markowitz and Cohan. Sixteen more months before he attacked and murdered Mary Forschner. What was he doing in those time periods, and where was he doing it?

If he rode the rails as much as we suspect he did, or even worked for the railroad, we should be looking for victims in the gaps, from neighboring cities and states, where perhaps the killer’s crimes could have escaped notice.

We should also be looking for arrests around November of 1904, cases in which a man who could also be the Cumminsville Ripper got arrested for a minor infraction and sentenced to two years. Paroles from prison right before Thanksgiving 1906 could use a look. Also, arrests or deaths anytime after late January of 1909 that could explain why the killer apparently stopped.

Every one of those things sounds easier than it is because they did not keep records in 1906 with the same fastidiousness that we do today.

It also occurs to our research team that if one wanted to do a really deep dive into the Ripper/Strangler cases, the most valuable tool in the box would be a railroad expert who could not only offer information about the railroads, but which streets had electric streetcar lines, where the “waiting rooms” were, and other vital information. Not a single murder among these we’ve discussed happened more than a half mile from a streetcar line. It would be valuable to know where people got on and off and where the crew bunked or spent free time.

It is our opinion The Dayton Strangler is the same killer who terrorized Cumminsville but the likelihood it can be proven is slim. The killer’s MO is undeniably identical in both cases. Perhaps there are concrete answers somewhere off in the distance. Maybe we’ll get lucky tying up one of the loose ends I’ve mentioned here. Or maybe you have one of your own.

Good.

Chase it down.

Because until we get more answers, the identity of the Dayton Strangler, and whether he was also the Cumminsville Ripper, will remain Unresolved.

Episode Information

Episode Information

Research and writing by Troy Larson

Hosting and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on April 16th, 2022

Music Credits

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

Theme music created and composed by Ailsa Traves

Sources and other reading

“Alfred Knapp.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Knapp. Accessed 12 April 2022.

“All Released.” The Dayton Herald, 20 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440349/all-released/.

“A Big Reward.” Dayton Daily News, 15 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99439781/a-big-reward/.

“Bloodhounds are now pets.” Dayton Daily News, 09 01 1901, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99441215/bloodhounds-are-now-pets/.

“Carnival.” The Allen County Republican-Gazette, 26 01 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99675232/carnival/.

“Dayton Fiend Adds Another Victim to Long List.” The (New Philadelphia) Daily Times, 08 02 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99679256/dayton-fiend-adds-another-victim-to-long/.

“Dayton is Aroused.” Winchester News, 26 01 1909, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069133/1909-01-26/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1909&sort=date&rows=20&words=Forschner+Mary&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=8&state=&date2=1909&proxtext=Mary+Forschner&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.

“Dayton, OH Area Rail Map.” Google Maps, https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1UQlEfFf316Xdh3zJSdfYVywdzZw&ll=39.75519209991142%2C-84.19389787341588&z=16.

“Dayton Strangler.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Strangler. Accessed 11 April 2022.

“Editorial: The blood of the innocent.” The Dayton Herald, 29 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440773/editorial-the-blood-of-the-innocent/.

“Foul Deed of a Fiend.” Dayton Daily News, 15 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99439880/foul-deed-of-a-fiend/.

“Foul Murder Blots Dayton's Fair Name.” The Dayton Herald, 15 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99439664/ada-lantz/.

“Juice Ended Career.” The Salem Daily Capitol Journal, 19 08 1904, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99063957/1904-08-19/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1903&sort=date&date2=1904&words=A+Alfred+Knapp+strangler&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=12&state=&rows=20&proxtext=Alfred+A.+Knapp+strangler&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange.

Lanctot, Neil, and Keri Youngstrand. “TR Center - Thanksgiving Proclamation.” Theodore Roosevelt Center, 28 November 2013, https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/Item/Thanksgiving%20Proclamation. Accessed 12 April 2022.

“Neptune Retrograde: Natal, Meaning, & More.” Astrology.com, https://www.astrology.com/retrograde/neptune-retrograde. Accessed 12 April 2022.

“Noted Criminal Cases During Mr. Gard's Term.” Butler County Democrat, 07 01 1904, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99612965/noted-criminal-cases-during-mr-gards-t/.

“One man held as suspect in Mysterious Dayton Murder.” Springfield (OH) Daily News, 25 01 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99630983/one-man-held-as-suspect-in-mysterious-da/.

“Released.” The Dayton Herald, 23 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440567/released/.

“Reward Offered.” The Dayton Herald, 16 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440073/reward-offered/.

“Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, National Soldier's Home excerpt.” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4084dm.g4084dm_g06671195605/?sp=1&r=0.51,0.319,0.296,0.126,0.

“Silly Report.” Dayton Daily News, 27 10 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440683/silly-report/.

“Snyder proves an alibi; Chief decides to free him.” The Dayton Herald, 25 01 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99660012/snyder-proves-an-alibi-chief-decides-to/.

“Suddenly Ill.” Dayton Daily News, 15 11 1900, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99440910/suddenly-ill/.