Wow- interesting!
PS I feel undressed without my shoes on - I wear them from the time I get out of the shower in the morning until I get in bed.
Wow- interesting!
PS I feel undressed without my shoes on - I wear them from the time I get out of the shower in the morning until I get in bed.
Do you wear them when you visit others' houses? I can't help but wonder why she had her shoes on, especially when it was muddy outside.
Wow- interesting!
PS I feel undressed without my shoes on - I wear them from the time I get out of the shower in the morning until I get in bed.
Do you wear them when you visit others' houses? I can't help but wonder why she had her shoes on, especially when it was muddy outside.
Ok just read a few pages, went to Youtube to watch. I'm hooked now!
I was born in 58 but even in the early 60's the big crimes in small town America were peeping toms, however the farmer seemed very plausible to me. The jacket did look like a stain was on the back as if he picked up the girl and had her over his shoulder.
The shoes, I'm thinking is she heard him enter the house but didn't know what it was, got scared, picked up her shoes in a panic as protection. Instead of picking up something heavy to defend herself, the only thing she thought to grab was her shoes. You have to remember the mindset back in those days. Crime was not wide spread like today, children were still children! I think she started to go towards the sound and saw him, threw one shoe and took off to go upstairs upstairs. Her mind was protecting the baby. He grabs her on the stairs and drags her, she throws the other shoe at him.
He throws her over his shoulder and heads for the basement. She is fighting him, lost her glasses. I think he walked out the front door, locking it behind him (self locked)
She is struggling and they both fall down, she takes off and the chase is on. He catches her hits her in the face and knocked unconscious, he places her in the basement well and goes to get his car, he gets her and places her in the trunk and goes home.
The only other thing that might have been is if she had a boyfriend that nobody knew about. I remember my babysitter in 1960 always had her boyfriend come over or she was talking on the phone. Now granted the time is 7 years earlier but not much. The only problem with this theory is the shoes, if she was expecting a boyfriend, she wouldn't have thrown her shoes, at him. MOO from just watching the Youtube and a few post.
Edit to add: I remember when I was young and was startled I picked up a hairbrush for protection. So shock, surprise and fear can make a person do something no very reasonable to us. Still you have to remember Children were Children back then.
I was born in LaCrosse and my grandparents were close friends of the Hartley's, my grandfather being a chemistry professor at the University.
My grandparents (Mr & Mrs Lawrence Rowe), along with the Hartleys, the Campbells, and others I can't remember, formed a pot-luck "supper club" that met regularly - and this is how I know and remember the Hartleys.
I can say they were both exceptionally pleasant, charmingly funny and sweet natured.
No one in my family, or anyone, ever mentioned or discussed Evelyn in front of them. I was told they had accepted the fact that she was dead and her body would never be found. They had lost another child earlier to polio, which from other stories I have been told, was another entire nightmare affecting many families and spreading fear throughout La Crosse. So the loss of a child was something they were already unfortunately familiar with.
I also know that there was extensive investigation and searching for Evelyn (or her body) at the time, and the Hartleys were vigorously involved - and that any attempt to portray the Hartleys as being disinterested, or no longer being interested in continuing the investigation, is to discredit their need for closure in mourning the loss of their daughter and moving on with their lives. I also understand that the event generated significant fear throughout the city, which remained for sometime.
Regarding rumors of what happened that night, I have heard the following theory discussed by my family: The assailant(s) were let into the house by Evelyn under false pretense of car trouble, students looking for Prof. Rasmussen, or some other sympathetic story. Evelyn was smart enough to be aware of potential danger, but kind, and it was believed that appealing to her desire to be helpful would have worked as a way of getting inside the house. It was strongly felt that Evelyn did not know the attacker(s). At some point after this an attack occurred inside the house. Evelyn looses one shoe escaping, and unable to get out of the house (or in an effort to keep the assailant(s) away from the infant), flees (or falls) down the stairs to the basement. Another fight occurs in the basement, either before, or while, Evelyn is trying to escape through the basement window. It is at this point that she is screaming and neighbors look outside and see nothing. She escapes out the basement window (possibly with stab wounds in her back and legs), and is disoriented, rapidly losing blood, possibly about to faint or lose consciousness, she steadies herself from falling leaving a bloody handprint on a house, while she zig-zags across the yards. The attacker(s) leave the house, and pursue and capture her. She is seen by a witness being taken by two people to a car and then being driven from the area. The Gein rumors were frequent - but there were also rumors that this was an act of one or two male college students engaged in a random rape attack, fraternity hazing stunt, or some such that spun disastrously out of control and ended in murder.
Anyway, I stumbled across this discussion and thought members might be interested to hear this...
I don't suspect the dad because of the phone calls. The rule was always that she would talk to her parents an hour into babysitting. Her parents were both home waiting for the call. Something happened while her family was home, her dad's presence witnessed by her mother and probably all of her siblings.
I read part of this thread but it is long and now my kids are asleep and the house is quiet and it is freaking me out.
But-
Did anyone wonder about the family whose house it was being involved?
Did anyone wonder if the basement window was used/going to be used because they were going to take the baby instead of Evelyn? And maybe she fought to defend the baby?
All these people who just disappear...it makes me sad and a little afraid.
Good points. I still find it strange that it took him so long to enter the house, and that he didn't call from the house. But, you never know how people will react in a crisis.