OK OK - Pauline Amsel, 14, Durant, 11 Nov 1914

[justthinkin]

Other theories: incest gone awry somehow or perhaps the father heard a noise in the house set out to investigate, armed with a gun from his bedroom, only to find what he thought of as his very prim and proper daughter in bed with a boy in her bedroom. The father may have fired a warning shot or a serious shot, but missed. If this occurred and the boy later heard the father had slit the girl's throat, he may have feared for his own life too much to ever come forward.

It could prove interesting to exhume Pauline's body to see what marks her bones may have on them. What do you know of the other 3 wounds?

 

[Poobah90]

This is going to sound like a stupid suggestion but has anyone watched that show (I think it's on PBS) called the History Detectives?

This story sounds exactly the type they like to investigate and create shows on.

Just my opinion.

Would be great if the family member posting here would contact them.

I don't think it sounds stupid at all.

 

[Syl]

justthinkin,

Syl seems to disagree about the gentile boyfriend, but without a larger jewish community in Durant, I'm inclined to disagree with .....him.....

It was such a post-Victorian age and mostly young girls were pretty prim and proper. Also, I guess because Pauline was from an orthodox Jewish home, I tend to think of her as the typical young lady of the era.

Incest had been mentioned, but who knows.....and no one would have believed her in the early 1900 anyway. I don't believe it now. I do think early on that some orthodox Jewish families felt that marrying a Gentile was a fate worse than death. That doesn't mean they acted on it. Of course, we certainly don't know if that was the motive if it were a parent. We don't know much, for sure, do we!

 

[Syl]

Is anyone here from Durant or close by?

 

[Syl]

This is going to sound like a stupid suggestion but has anyone watched that show (I think it's on PBS) called the History Detectives?

I have never seen it...and I thought I knew them all. What a great idea. When and where is it on? Thanks!

 

[Marilynilpa]

Is anyone here from Durant or close by?

I haven't looked at this thread in quite a while.

In answer to your question, I am not from Durant but have many relatives in that area, including some in Ardmore, OK. I also have an aunt who attended college in Durant.

 

[okiloki]

Is anyone here from Durant or close by?

I live in Durant!

 

[Syl]

http://C:\Users\Sylvia\Pictures\p

I can never forget about Pauline. When I wrote a book about the case, I had only one picture of the inside of the house (I lived there myself), so I painted the living room staircase beside which I play on my first piano, only I picture Pauline there since I had read she was a music student in Durant, Oklahoma. I imagined she felt the breeze through that huge window in the early 1900s as I did in the 1940s and 50s

 

[Tessie]

Is anyone here from Durant or close by?

I am close just on the south side of the river. I can't believe I am just now seeing this thread. We actually lived in Durant for three years...

 

[Syl]

This is the painting I tried to attach in my last post....my idea of Pauline at the piano. I am neither a real artist nor writer, but I had no pictures to put in the book like the master bedroom, the long hallway toward the sleeping porch, Pauline's bedroom, the house from the outside, etc. so I painted them from memory and from drawing plans of the house.

 

[Linnaeus]

Here's a recent discovery for those who have tried to put faces to the names: A photo of Pauline and her mother Celia Levy Amsel, probably taken within a year or two of the murder. Melody Amsel-Arieli, who had done her own research on her distant relative's long-ago murder (100 years this November), received this from another cousin who was cleaning out her attic. This was posted just a couple of weeks ago on her blog:

http://amselbird.com/2014/03/11/hello-pauline/

Not TOO far off from the nice painting, except the fashion for those enormous bows must have lasted several years-- somewhat reminiscent of photos of Mary Phagan from 1912.

A contemporary article from the local paper about a suspect in the case (surprise! some poor Mexican immigrant who was darned lucky nobody lynched him, since it appears extremely likely that he was innocent of the crime.)

http://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc82632/m1/1/

The early 1900s were a weird time with a LOT of messy, unsolved stabbing sprees (Villisca being the most infamous.) But this does smack of a family dispute gone horribly wrong.

 

[scriptgirl]

Who would harm her? Poor little one.

 

[Richard]

Pauline Amsel
BIRTH 8 Aug 1900
Durant, Bryan County, Oklahoma, USA
DEATH 11 Nov 1914 (aged 14)
Durant, Bryan County, Oklahoma, USA
BURIAL
Hebrew Cemetery
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, USA
PLOT 16




LINK:

Pauline Amsel (1900-1914) - Find A Grave Memorial