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

  • #361
Colonel Timothy Shaler Williams is his full name. He was a fascinating man, in my opinion. There is quite a bit of info out there in the "googleverse" about him. He's actually worthy of a book all of his own, although there wouldn't be many juicy details in his story.

There were a couple of photos of Anna in the newspapers. One of them shows her to be fairly attractive, but I thought she looked like the Wicked Witch in another photo:what:

I have a couple of photos of William, but they are from his college days. I don't have any photos of him closer to the time of Alice's disappearance, other than what I saw in the papers.

I have one particular favorite photo of Alice, but I couldn't find it earlier. I'll search for it and will post it as soon as I locate it.

Marilynilpa - Re. William - There is a "spectacled" picture of him on ancestry but I don't know how to post from there. I have it saved on my computer and I keep meaning to try to post via flickr but haven't had the time to go in and sort out how to do it (even though I knew how to and one time)...Have you seen that one???
 
  • #362
  • #363
  • #364
  • #365
I wonder what made Lawrence Deutzman think Alice had run away? Maybe she had confided in him at some point, in which case, I would really like to know what it was Alice told him. She doesn't strike me as having the type of personality which would lead people to think she had just run away. Maybe her marriage was not as content as it seemed.

Having said that, for all I know Alice and William running a squab farm might have been considered highly unusual and flighty in their social circle at that time.
When Anna left Russia she passed through France. France and squab paste go together like peanut butter and jelly. So, who knows, but it's maybe not so surprising that she happened on a recipe there? When she tried to enter the US in 1924 (before Roy was born) she came to the US via London but starting her trip from France. A lot of Russians at the time went to France before seeking their fortunes elsewhere.

Thinking out loud.
 
  • #366
For those of you interested in searching Anna's side further, Roy married Allyn Wickman and had a son Kiran Ravi Parsons who died when he was 24. I have been unable to find an obituary or cause of death for him. I have found public listings that show that perhaps, Allyn and Roy had another son named either Ray D or Roy D who is (or is if still alive aged 47,48) likely born in 1967 - most likely living in Austin Texas. I have not been able to find any information regarding Anna's likely death (she was born in 1901/2 - so it is likely that she has passed). Nothing. I have found later documents for her where she refers to herself as "Anne Parsons" but that only makes things more difficult when tryingt to find her. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if after William's death in 1964, she didn't marry again and changed her name once more.

JMO

I am at a complete standstill in finding information about Anna. I hope someone else can help out with other bits and pieces that might be relevant.
 
  • #367
Colonel Timothy Shaler Williams is his full name. He was a fascinating man, in my opinion. There is quite a bit of info out there in the "googleverse" about him. He's actually worthy of a book all of his own, although there wouldn't be many juicy details in his story.

There were a couple of photos of Anna in the newspapers. One of them shows her to be fairly attractive, but I thought she looked like the Wicked Witch in another photo:what:

I have a couple of photos of William, but they are from his college days. I don't have any photos of him closer to the time of Alice's disappearance, other than what I saw in the papers.

I have one particular favorite photo of Alice, but I couldn't find it earlier. I'll search for it and will post it as soon as I locate it.

Can you post the pictures you have of William?
 
  • #368

I had such an odd coincidence this evening, that's why i asked Marilynilpa about his initials. My frustration at being unable to access LSE's online alumni directory led me to trawl archives of the minutes of meetings, looking (in vain) for Soni or Sanlar. Then I spotted a payment for a talk by a Col TSB Williams about India!

I know it can't be him, but all the elements were there! Here's the link as I've mentioned it, page 11, but it's tedious and nothing useful to be found, imo.

http://lib-161.lse.ac.uk/archives/fabian_minutes/D04.pdf
 
  • #369
I was thinking that because Anna lived in Richmond, England, this online resource might help us find more details. Maybe Roy went to a local school or was baptised in a church? I don't know, but I'm posting the link because you're so good at finding stuff Pink Panther.

I'm looking too of course. Anna is such a mystery it's driving me crazy.

http://www.calmview.eu/Richmond/Calmview/Aboutcatalogue.aspx
 
  • #370
That database is very frustrating too. It has a list of baptisms from 1865-1964, but when I click on it, I get property deeds.

I'm giving up for the night.
 
  • #371

Yes, that's him.

Sorry if this photo has already been posted. It's a picture of Colonel Williams' estate, Shorelands, where Alice grew up:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-...DKA/v4c_xIxmRGY/s614/ShorelandsLongIsland.jpg

Here's a favorite of mine, showing Alice with Aunt Bess, who was a surrogate mother to Alice throughout her lifetime:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...08/AuntBessWilliams.AliceWilliamsMcDonell.jpg

One more photo, this time with Alice and her young cousin Rene:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...AAAAAAADPQ/_X8wOzxyYTA/s509/Alice&ReneMcD.jpg
 
  • #372
Where are all these fantastic photos coming from? I can't believe how many are still around. There are more here than for people who disappeared in 1997!

ETA: I love that house.
 
  • #373
Where are all these fantastic photos coming from? I can't believe how many are still around. There are more here than for people who disappeared in 1997!

ETA: I love that house.

BBM

Me, too! I have a few photos of it that I'll scan and post here when I can.

I'm trying something new. I think I've created a document that has a little info about William, a photo of him, and something about his father. If this works, I'll put more stuff together like this.

Okay, here goes:

https://skydrive.live.com/?id=documents&docsf=1#cid=A89005C68377721F&id=A89005C68377721F!113

ETA: Hey, I think it worked!!!

By the way, the excellent photos are, for the most part, the work of the husband of one of Alice's nieces. He is an amateur genealogist and has done magnificent work in detailing the McDonnell and Williams family histories. I also have some photos from a private source, but do not have permission to share those.:(
 
  • #374
It works beautifully. I've never heard of sky drive but it seems a great idea and it's beautifully presented.
 
  • #375
I'm using an ipad by the way, and a lot of times I can't view things people post without swapping computers.
 
  • #376
Okay, I'm a hopeless romantic. My favorite photo of Anna is the one where she is running through the grass with her brothers... no squabs, no mysteries, no Russian countesses. A smiling child who is free to laugh and play.

Yep, I'm hopeless!
 
  • #377
It works beautifully. I've never heard of sky drive but it seems a great idea and it's beautifully presented.

Thanks, I just figured out how to use skydrive, it's from Microsoft and it allows you to save documents as web pages to be shared.

I'm so happy it worked, and I'm going to see what else I can put together.

Cheers.
 
  • #378
Okay, I'm a hopeless romantic. My favorite photo of Anna is the one where she is running through the grass with her brothers... no squabs, no mysteries, no Russian countesses. A smiling child who is free to laugh and play.

Yep, I'm hopeless!

From that to where she possibly (probably) ended up. So sad. Don't you wish you could step into the past and stop her right there, just to say, 'In the future, you are going to have a choice. Whatever happens, don't choose the Russian housekeeper.'?
 
  • #379
By fair means or foul, Anna is most certainly dead now. If the means were foul, I have been thinking a little about the method.

The Parsons had an industrial-size furnace in their basement, where trash was also stored. The week Alice disappeared, Anna would not allow the collectors into the basement to collect the trash as usual. It was outside, tied up in a package.

The obvious conclusion was that Alice was disposed of in the furnace. But is so, if her body was shut into a furnace and burnt to ashes, what could the trash collectors possibly have seen? A closed furnace with ashes in it?

It makes me think that disposing of Alice's body may have proved more difficult than expected. Excuse me being gruesome, but she may have needed to be dismembered, and burnt in stages. That would explain Anna's reluctance to let anyone into the basement until the 'clean-up' operation was over.

Another question I had; I know that even with professional cremation companies, bodies are not burnt straight to ashes - bones are always left over and have to be pulverized before being passed to families. So I am wondering if Anna had been left with a lot of half-burnt human remains in her furnace, and had to bury them quickly, in the grounds. That might also explain why the FBI were so certain Alice was buried and made such a thorough ground search?
 
  • #380
By fair means or foul, Anna is most certainly dead now. If the means were foul, I have been thinking a little about the method.

The Parsons had an industrial-size furnace in their basement, where trash was also stored. The week Alice disappeared, Anna would not allow the collectors into the basement to collect the trash as usual. It was outside, tied up in a package.

The obvious conclusion was that Alice was disposed of in the furnace. But is so, if her body was shut into a furnace and burnt to ashes, what could the trash collectors possibly have seen? A closed furnace with ashes in it?

It makes me think that disposing of Alice's body may have proved more difficult than expected. Excuse me being gruesome, but she may have needed to be dismembered, and burnt in stages. That would explain Anna's reluctance to let anyone into the basement until the 'clean-up' operation was over.

Another question I had; I know that even with professional cremation companies, bodies are not burnt straight to ashes - bones are always left over and have to be pulverized before being passed to families. So I am wondering if Anna had been left with a lot of half-burnt human remains in her furnace, and had to bury them quickly, in the grounds. That might also explain why the FBI were so certain Alice was buried and made such a thorough ground search?

I agree with your thoughts. One thing I learned from Allyn Parsons, Roy's widow, is that he told her he always afraid of the basement and never wanted to go down there, but he wouldn't say why.

I think Anna dismembered Alice in the basement, then burned her in the incinerator/furnace. I've said this many times, and I've uncovered nothing to change my mind. There were several investigators at the time who stated this is what they believed. One even went so far as to say that Alice's body would never be found, she went up in smoke.

Anna was a sturdy woman and no stranger to manual labor. I completely believe she was mentally and physically capable of killing Alice in this manner.
 

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