Don't get me wrong... I feel leaving him in the box the way they did was wrong, but I do feel that they were on route to bury the child somewhere more private when perhaps they got disturbed... or just got too scared...
What were the feelings at the time towards the immigrants by the police or local community... if it was an accidental death... could they have feared going to the police?
Are we sure that what they presumed was a blunt force trauma to the head, was in fact just lividity, I think we can all safely say that due to the lividity marks being fixed the boy had been dead for at least 12 hours...
How many murders would they have seen back then... I imagine to even find one was pretty rare back then!
I was a child during that era, in the next state, and health care was definitely NOT the nighmare it has become. Almost everyone could get fixed up without breaking the bank; therefore, it would have been within the reach of almost everyone to take proper care of your child - even burial arrangements.
As for how many murders back then, well, being in proximity to Philadelphia, I'd venture a guess that the police were somewhat knowledgable, BUT, not in the way they are today. Back then NO police force had the tools, or understanding, of today's criminal procedures. By today's standards it was very primitive, at best.
I like your idea of an immigrant child, not sure it's true, but I like it. To me the child has always looked to be of pure German or Scandanavian descent. However, that was at the tail-end of the great immigration and many families still held almost pure genetics. It would be hard to tell how long the family had been in this country. When I was growing up there were still a FEW immigrants coming into the area but not nearly as many who had almost entirely settled the area in the preceeding 40-50 years. Many, if not most of our neighborhood, and neighboring ones, was composed of immigrant families from a variety of European nations. Even so, a FEW were still straggling in. My grandfather, who spoke several languages, often helped them to settle in.
I remember hearing stories about the "odd" customs of our immigrant neighbors. For instance, the men who did the work, would eat well, and the women and children would dine on scraps or lesser cuts. Many of the immigrant men were used to lording it over women and would try exercising their "rights" in public by insulting or threatening women whom they felt did not show them proper respect.
All in all, it was an interesting time. Not sure I helped much, but thing were way different back then.
