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

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DFWNF said:
My eyes aren't great but the markings do not look like chest hair to me, on such a young looking man, and goes up to the left side of his neck area?
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They certainly do not look like chest hair. Did someone even actually say that?

His chest only show a bony ribcage to me. Hence, my suggesting he appeared malnourished.
 
Toots1 said:
There are too many coincidences to not find a connection between JAZ and the Good Shepard School, which was named "Tekakwitha Hills", after the Native American Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha . I'm not saying that the good sisters had anything to do with the murder of JAZ, but there's no doubt in my mind they knew of JAZ as he was probably adopted out (either by school or some agency associated with the Phila Archdiocese).

1) JAZ was dumped almost literally at the end of the driveway to the School. This tells me that someone "returned" JAZ back to where he came from.

2) John Powroznik - an 18-year-old high school junior told police that he had discovered the body of the murdered boy in Fox Chase on the weekend of February 22-23, 1957, but was afraid to tell anyone about it. John Powroznik's home was located on Pine road near Susquehanna road. Powroznik claimed ownership of a number of muskrat traps in the vicinity.

John's parents, Waclaw and Apollonia spoke limited English. Waclaw, the Father, a farmer, and Apollonia, the mother, worked in the laundry at “Tekakwitha Hills”

3) Upon attending an estate sale at the foster home, an investigator in the medical examiner’s office, Remington Bristow discovered a bassinet similar to the one sold at J.C. Penney. He also discovered blankets hanging on the clothesline similar to that in which JAZ's body had been wrapped. I wonder where the foster children living at this home came from? I wouldn't doubt, "Tekakwitha Hills”.

4) The Medical Examiner's office took the blanket to the Philadelphia Textile Institute, for testing. It was determined that the blanket had been made either at the Beacon Mills, Swannanoa, N.C., or the Esmond Mills at Granby, Quebec, Canada.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha lived the end of her life in an Indian reservation named Kahnawake in Quebec, Canada.
The Esmond Mills at Granby, Quebec is a 1 hr drive from the Indian reservation. She had smallpox, which left scars on her face and she always wore a blanket, which would hide her scars.

The 1939-1964 mayor of the town of Granby, Pierre-Horace Boivin, was instrumental in developing Granby as one of the largest (at the time) textile manufacturing towns. Boivin was a devout Catholic. The Catholic Church honored him as a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory, a title bestowed on him by the Pope.

The Esmond Mills employees' union was created in 1936, the year the Syndicat Catholique National du Textile de Granby (SCNTG) was created, set up to organize all the weavers in the city. Known as the Syndicat catholique national du textile de Granby, Esmond Mills section, it is one of the six components of the SCNTG.

Can someone research whether Esmond Mills supplied the entire Catholic organization in Canada and US with linens/blankets?

I think it's pretty obvious that JAZ was adopted, especially since the Philadelphia police didn't release the names of the birth parents. Hopefully they are getting a subpoena to find out who orchestrated this adoption.

BTW, what happened to the "prominent family" that was mentioned in the press? Were the Zarelli's prominent? Or are the police referring to the adopted family?
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IMO the mother's family was prominent, not Zarelli's. We aren't allowed to discuss any identifying information because that is seen as sleuthing the family. However, I think this family had history in local politics and as philanthropic contributors to the community. MOO

A family such as that would have good reason to not want to have anything related to JAZ's story brought to light.

I feel for both families involved, but little J does deserve justice.
 
Toots1 said:
Phila police said they obtained a subpoena to receive the birth certificate. So, if it was sealed, I would think the subpoena would unseal it. Also, per the Captain of the Phila Police, at the Press conference, "the name on the birth certificate is not exact".
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The father's name is not exact.
txsleuth70 said:
I believe it was listed as dad's "G_ _" nickname and then with a mis-spelling of his last name.

For hypothetical example, if his real name were Gabriel Zimmerman, then the BC showed "Gabe Zemmermann".
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I see!
 
txsleuth70 said:
IMO the mother's family was prominent, not Zarelli's. We aren't allowed to discuss any identifying information because that is seen as sleuthing the family. However, I think this family had history in local politics and as philanthropic contributors to the community. MOO

A family such as that would have good reason to not want to have anything related to JAZ's story brought to light.

I feel for both families involved, but little J does deserve justice.
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This! Accomplices before or after the fact if still alive need to go to trial. Joseph is the one that matters. Malnutrition, beating, fatal head trauma and discarded naked in a dumping area in of all things a bloody bassinet box.
 
txsleuth70 said:
They certainly do not look like chest hair. Did someone even actually say that?

His chest only show a bony ribcage to me. Hence, my suggesting he appeared malnourished.
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No. Nobody said that, and I was not implying it. Some posted about a black eye, and about him having an open shirt, and malnourished, and I agree. Apologies if my post was not clear. The markings on his chest all the way up to his neck on his left side look to me like he was badly beaten and bruised . Jmo.
 
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Daphne1972 said:
This! Accomplices before or after the fact if still alive need to go to trial. Joseph is the one that matters. Malnutrition, beating, fatal head trauma and discarded naked in a dumping area in of all things a bloody bassinet box.
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I believe they are all deceased. But I do I feel like his mother's family was a maybe a prominent Irish family - with a county sheriff, judges, attorneys and/or politicians in their history maybe. MOO. Probably the reason for any potential special treatment. Understandably so for the times, too. Breaks my heart for a very young unwed mother - but still more so for JAZ. LE may reveal something at some point when a last living relative has passed on. I believe CF mentioned there was an Uncle. And I have a feeling that he may have been born just a year before JAZ or somehow close in age. That's possible you know. I was 18 when my mother had twin girls with my step father. They are my first born's aunts. And they were only 6 when he was born. So it's possible that JA has an Uncle just a year older.

My next curiousity is how one would locate when a young woman may have become a Sister? I would guess that might be a common occurrence in a devout family if a child might be born out of wedlock. Maybe he might have fallen down stairs or passed from an accident, then was bathed of all evidence just so it wouldn't be traced back to the family? Just too many unknowns.
UnlicensedPI said:
I do believe I found this household in the census. A 40-ish female head (widow), her teenage daughter, and three foster children, including a 6-year-old boy. No one in the household worked. I'm guessing there may have been a revolving door of foster children and that was probably the primary source of income beside whatever money the widow may have gotten after her husband's death. The makeup of the household likely changed between 1950 and 1957.

If not this house, there were other farms nearby with young hired help and farm hands as enumerated in the census.
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@UnlicensedPI Would you send this page or the info by private message, please?

The younger 'mom' appears older than teenaged to me.
 
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For weeks, surviving family members have declined to comment until Friday. CBS Philadelphia has learned the biological mother and father of Zarelli are deceased.

Those family members still living say they were blindsided when police called to tell them they were related to this young homicide victim.

They say they never knew about their connection to the case before last month. One family member, who asked that her name not be used, told CBS Philadelphia they mourn for Zarelli and wanted to be there Friday.

They also say they will be persistent with police and other investigators to continue to figure out what happened to the young child in 1957. They want closure.

www.cbsnews.com

"Boy in the Box" Joseph Augustus Zarelli gets new headstone

Labeled for years as "America's Unknown Child," Joseph Augustus Zarelli received a new headstone at Ivy Hill Cemetery.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
 
csa29 said:
For weeks, surviving family members have declined to comment until Friday. CBS Philadelphia has learned the biological mother and father of Zarelli are deceased.

Those family members still living say they were blindsided when police called to tell them they were related to this young homicide victim.

They say they never knew about their connection to the case before last month. One family member, who asked that her name not be used, told CBS Philadelphia they mourn for Zarelli and wanted to be there Friday.

They also say they will be persistent with police and other investigators to continue to figure out what happened to the young child in 1957. They want closure.

www.cbsnews.com

"Boy in the Box" Joseph Augustus Zarelli gets new headstone

Labeled for years as "America's Unknown Child," Joseph Augustus Zarelli received a new headstone at Ivy Hill Cemetery.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
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I’m glad to hear this. I can’t imagine their grief
 
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KAYTOM said:
I was looking into 1950 customs surrounding illegitimate children, and I found the following:

"Did you know that during the 1950s, unmarried, pregnant women mostly “went away,” often to Florence Crittenton Homes where they were required to place their children for adoption, returning to their hometowns only after their babies were born and placed with adoptive parents? Their pregnancies were often kept secret from their families and friends. Adoption documents typically summed up the reason for placement like this: “The birth mother is unmarried and cannot provide a home for the child.” Born and Adopted in the 1950s: What We're Learning from Project Search & Reunion - Amara

Customs might have been different in the city though, which tends to be a little more progressive with things of this nature, but it would explain one half of JAZ's family having no clue he was even born.

I checked out the Florence Crittenton homes and there was one in the Germantown Section of the city which is closer to Fox Chase than 61st and Market. I'm not sure if the Florence Crittenon Home was still in operation in the 1950's or if the fact that no adoption records were found, mean there's zero chance of a connection. I'd imagine the city has a lot of records that get lost or misfiled.

Anyway, this is all speculation, and my main reason for posting this was the underlined text. The adoption route, either legally or black market are both avenues I think might be applicable.

There was a doctor practicing in Georgia that ran a black market adoption ring. He'd convince pregnant women that were considering abortions to sell the children. In some cases, he lied and told the mom the child died after labor.
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Georgia Tann may have been the go-between in the Georgia case. She was involved in the (let's call it what it was) kidnapping and sale of hundreds, if not thousands, of babies, and not all of them were born to unmarried mothers, either. If a mother came into this particular hospital, and staff gathered that she was low-income, poorly educated, etc. they would often hand her relinquishment papers to sign while she was still zoned out from medication, and that's how they obtained the babies.
 
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