NY NY - Alice Parsons: Heiress, Long Island, 1937

[Marilynilpa]

I know it's a bit tedious going through posts and transferring links to the media thread. It's something useful I could do though, and I don't mind it too much (one of those tasks that have a clear beginning and end, so I'm not left gnawing my nails).

So if anyone wants me to add their links to that thread, let me know.

I have thousands of newspaper articles, but many of them are duplicates. I need to weed them down to the basics.

What about articles from newspaperarchives.com? Only members can read them, so should those be posted anyway? Or are we just going with links to articles anyone can access?

 

[zwiebel]

I have thousands of newspaper articles, but many of them are duplicates. I need to weed them down to the basics.

What about articles from newspaperarchives.com? Only members can read them, so should those be posted anyway? Or are we just going with links to articles anyone can access?

Myself, I would just go with articles anyone can access. It is frustrating to click on a link and find you have to join up/pay. I think it is best to disseminate this case as widely as possible - more chance of reading your book one day too!

I do think if we have all the links we have posted in the media thread it could make things much easier to search for though. One thing I usually do - put the headline of the article above the link. It really helps with finding stuff, but I forgot to do it this time!

ETA: Changed my mind! It is such a good way to store all the links, it might be an idea to post them with a warning of "paid for access" or something. At least then they are there, for anyone who wants to follow up.

 

[Marilynilpa]

Myself, I would just go with articles anyone can access. It is frustrating to click on a link and find you have to join up/pay. I think it is best to disseminate this case as widely as possible - more chance of reading your book one day too!

I do think if we have all the links we have posted in the media thread it could make things much easier to search for though. One thing I usually do - put the headline of the article above the link. It really helps with finding stuff, but I forgot to do it this time!

ETA: Changed my mind! It is such a good way to store all the links, it might be an idea to post them with a warning of "paid for access" or something. At least then they are there, for anyone who wants to follow up.[/QUOTE]

BBM

Okay, that makes sense. I'll round up what I have to add to the list. The same stories appeared in papers all across the country, so I'll try to stick to one source rather that providing ten links to the same article!

 

[Marilynilpa]

I just wanted to say again how exciting it is to have you guys sharing my interest in this case. :great:

 

[Marilynilpa]

I was slightly off in my recollection about Alice and the musician. Here is the article:

http://apa3.olivesoftware.com/Defau...%33%31%2f%31%39%34%35&PageLabel=&ViewMode=GIF

 

[Marilynilpa]

I've located a lot of stuff about Alice's inheritance. Since it is almost 1 a.m., my eyes are refusing to focus on too much so I'll post more tomorrow.

But for now, I wanted to provide some info about Alice's inheritance from her uncle, Colonel Timothy Shaler Williams.

When he died in 1930, Alice inherited $61,836.76. In addition to that, Colonel Williams set up a $30,000 trust fund for Alice. She received a net income from this trust until she turned 35, at which time she received the principal balance. Alice turned 35 on May 3, 1934.

By the way, $61,836.76 in 1930 = $811,327.05 in 2012.

Alice's aunt, Alice R. Williams, died on November 24, 1936. Upon her aunt's death, Alice inherited additional money from her uncle - 1/4 of the residuary estate. Alice's portion is believed to have been $56,000, which was paid out in 1937.

$56,000 in 1937 = $902,688.00 in 2012.

In addition to this, Alice received partial ownership in various properties. Tomorrow I will list everything she inherited. I also have info about the money William inherited from his family.

Alice was a very wealthy woman, and received the additional $56,000 inheritance just days before she disappeared

William was not a very wealthy man.

Anna had no money other than her wages.

It adds up to a nice motive for murder as far as I'm concerned.

 

[zwiebel]

I've located a lot of stuff about Alice's inheritance. Since it is almost 1 a.m., my eyes are refusing to focus on too much so I'll post more tomorrow.

But for now, I wanted to provide some info about Alice's inheritance from her uncle, Colonel Timothy Shaler Williams.

When he died in 1930, Alice inherited $61,836.76. In addition to that, Colonel Williams set up a $30,000 trust fund for Alice. She received a net income from this trust until she turned 35, at which time she received the principal balance. Alice turned 35 on May 3, 1934.

By the way, $61,836.76 in 1930 = $811,327.05 in 2012.

Alice's aunt, Alice R. Williams, died on November 24, 1936. Upon her aunt's death, Alice inherited additional money from her uncle - 1/4 of the residuary estate. Alice's portion is believed to have been $56,000, which was paid out in 1937.

$56,000 in 1937 = $902,688.00 in 2012.

In addition to this, Alice received partial ownership in various properties. Tomorrow I will list everything she inherited. I also have info about the money William inherited from his family.

Alice was a very wealthy woman, and received the additional $56,000 inheritance just days before she disappeared

William was not a very wealthy man.

Anna had no money other than her wages.

It adds up to a nice motive for murder as far as I'm concerned.

Ah! So where on earth did Mr Z get the idea that $100,000 in those days was worth $15m now? Serves me right for taking his word for it, I suppose. I usually trust him implicitly where numbers are concerned because he has a degree in math and I - well, my math teacher wept when I left her class, and it wasn't tears of sorrow.

I didn't realise the disparity between Alice's and William's wealth was so great. It's making me wonder about his original motive in marrying her. In one of the articles linked (maybe the social register?) it says something ambiguous about the young William; something like, 'he has not yet decided on his career'.

What a shame if he finally decided his only 'career' would be marrying Alice, for her money.

 

[Marilynilpa]

Ah! So where on earth did Mr Z get the idea that $100,000 in those days was worth $15m now? Serves me right for taking his word for it, I suppose. I usually trust him implicitly where numbers are concerned because he has a degree in math and I - well, my math teacher wept when I left her class, and it wasn't tears of sorrow.

I didn't realise the disparity between Alice's and William's wealth was so great. It's making me wonder about his original motive in marrying her. In one of the articles linked (maybe the social register?) it says something ambiguous about the young William; something like, 'he has not yet decided on his career'.

What a shame if he finally decided his only 'career' would be marrying Alice, for her money.

The following site is one I use often:

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

You type in the amount of money and the year, then select the year you want to compare it to, and it does the rest.

There was something "off" about William, but I don't know exactly what. He graduated from Yale and had a prosperous family business to join, and yet it was his cousin who took a responsible position in the business. William worked for a while for his dad, then was a salesman for Barcolo Manufacturing Company in Buffalo, NY. He never appeared to have a successful career of any kind.

Until he married Alice and became a gentleman farmer, a role that seemed to suit him quite well.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I'm feeling a little under the weather today, so I'll wait until tomorrow to gather up the info about Alice's wealth (and William's lack of wealth).

 

[zwiebel]

Marilynilpa, stay well! You have a book to write and we are supposed to be sleuthers - you don't have to worry about doing it all for us.

The 'gentleman farmer' bit interests me. In England, in the old days, that would often mean someone else does all the work. I wonder if it was Alice who was really the driving force behind the business and then, when she fell ill, there was Anna.

Having said that, am I right in thinking that the amount of money Alice had/was due to inherit, meant she and William did not really need to work at all?

 

[zwiebel]

The other thing I was thinking but have seen no mention of - didn't they have any other staff? No housekeeper, no farmhand?

That seems unusual to me, considering the wealth and status of the family.

 

[Pink Panther]

Ah! So where on earth did Mr Z get the idea that $100,000 in those days was worth $15m now? Serves me right for taking his word for it, I suppose. I usually trust him implicitly where numbers are concerned because he has a degree in math and I - well, my math teacher wept when I left her class, and it wasn't tears of sorrow.

I didn't realise the disparity between Alice's and William's wealth was so great. It's making me wonder about his original motive in marrying her. In one of the articles linked (maybe the social register?) it says something ambiguous about the young William; something like, 'he has not yet decided on his career'.

What a shame if he finally decided his only 'career' would be marrying Alice, for her money.

From what I've been able to tell there were HUGE disparities between the two and this little branch of Parsons didn't really seem to amount to much...

Also - the whole chicken farming thing - was from Williams's side. I've found his brother Oliver's passport (born 1892) application when he was 23 and he listed himself as a "chicken farmer".

JMO

 

[Pink Panther]

The following site is one I use often:

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

You type in the amount of money and the year, then select the year you want to compare it to, and it does the rest.

There was something "off" about William, but I don't know exactly what. He graduated from Yale and had a prosperous family business to join, and yet it was his cousin who took a responsible position in the business. William worked for a while for his dad, then was a salesman for Barcolo Manufacturing Company in Buffalo, NY. He never appeared to have a successful career of any kind.

Until he married Alice and became a gentleman farmer, a role that seemed to suit him quite well.

From what I've been able to find, none of his siblings did either. They all lived at home until well into adulthood, only one brother married and then poof - they all disappear. Nothing remarkable from any of them. A weird little branch of nothingness after so many historically important things coming from the same family name.

Still looking...And justl might find myself proven wrong.

 

[zwiebel]

This is becoming more and more interesting. Excuse me for going off at a tiny English tangent, but Winston Churchill, that famous English war-time leader, had the same thing too; his children just were not up to following in his footsteps and he spent all his post-war years worrying about how to support them, until he found his second career as an author.

Does anyone think it was possible that William's 'happiness' at becoming a gentleman farmer might have been a bit of a pretence? That there was a ready-made career waiting for him and even if it went wrong, he had Alice's money to get him out of any trouble? How did he and Anna manage financially, after Alice disappeared?

i was going to suggest William might have borrowed from family to survive in the years immediately following Alice's death, but I'm going to hold fire and see if Pink Panther turns up any info about whether any other Parson's family member actually had any money to lend him, first!

 

[Pink Panther]

This is becoming more and more interesting. Excuse me for going off at a tiny English tangent, but Winston Churchill, that famous English war-time leader, had the same thing too; his children just were not up to following in his footsteps and he spent all his post-war years worrying about how to support them, until he found his second career as an author.

Does anyone think it was possible that William's 'happiness' at becoming a gentleman farmer might have been a bit of a pretence? That there was a ready-made career waiting for him and even if it went wrong, he had Alice's money to get him out of any trouble? How did he and Anna manage financially, after Alice disappeared?

i was going to suggest William might have borrowed from family to survive in the years immediately following Alice's death, but I'm going to hold fire and see if Pink Panther turns up any info about whether any other Parson's family member actually had any money to lend him, first!

I really don't know what happened to this little branch of Parsons. It's surprising given their family history but none of the children really seemed to have accomplished anything of acclaim. They all lived at home well into adulthood. Only William and his brother Oliver seem to have married - both of them doing so late in life. William didn't have any children and only one other sibling had a child so everything kind of ends there. Surely, there was some money from the family but nothing outstanding. William was most definitely living on Alice's maney. Once he and Anna went to California there is little to no information to be found on him. I've found a press photo of him talking to reporters about Alice's disappearance, a record of his passage to California (that I've posted), an article stating that he had married Anna and that they ran a cabbage farm in California and then nothing at all. Apart from his death record in California, nothing. And Anna is impossible to track down. She disappears completely after Alice's death.

I know that Marylipna spoke with Roy Dmitri Parson's wife (Allyn). Did she have any more information to offer about Anna's life/demise?

 

[Pink Panther]

There are quite a few strange things in the family tree...some that confuse me to the point that I can't quite figure out how to explain.

Here's one. William's mother's maiden name is Laura Wolcott. Timothy S Williams (Alice's uncle) married Alice W Kelley. She was previously married or divorced to J B Kelley and had a daughter by him. Her daughter's name...Edna Wolcott Kelley. Wolcott is a well-known name but...there must be a connection here! What are the chances that there is no connection? Very slim imo. I just can't find it!

Also, Alice Williams (Timothy's wife not Alice Parsons) seems to have already been a Williams prior to marrying Kelley. She was related to Chauncey Pratt Williams...I haven't been able to find out how she was related to her husband. Also, she was about 17 or 18 years OLDER than her second husband.

???

 

[Pink Panther]

Top right hand corner, Mrs. Timothy S Williams ...

She was the daughter of Chauncey Pratt and Martha Hough Williams. She was (her second husband's) Timothy's! Cousin? Second cousin? Third cousin? I haven't been able to figure it out! Her brother is listed as Chauncey P Williams of Albany.

https://plus.google.com/photos/1040...50013366371041/5101743501776500258?banner=pwa

 

[Pink Panther]

One last strange family tree bit of info...

Timothy Shaler William's mother (Alice's uncle) was Frances Henrietta GRANT. Frank D MacDonell (Alice's father) married Grace E GRANT after her (Alice's mother) died.

Again, maybe no connection but...what are the chances?

 

[zwiebel]

Good heavens, we need a family tree for all this! They are beginning to sound like those old European Royal houses, with all their 'keep it in the family' way of intermarriages. And just look what happened to them!

How on earth did Anna, after being implicated in a case like this, manage to erase her past so effectively? And keep it that way until she died?

Pink Panther, have you any ideas about how I could trace Anna in England? I haven't been able to find anything, not even in msm at the time of Alice's disappearance. British papers are usually interested in American goings on, but I guess in 1937 they may have been more concerned about other things......

 

[Marilynilpa]

Alice's wedding announcement:

http://apa3.olivesoftware.com/Defau...%33%31%2f%31%39%32%36&PageLabel=&ViewMode=GIF