See people on here mentioning the Depression and Prohibition-era crime. Agreed. Prohibition-era crime was quite, quite colorful and incredibly violent. Bootleggers and bordellos, and Queen Lil was entrenched in Vermont at the time, up in Richford by the Canada border, basically building something of a bordello empire and she was into bootlegging in a major way. Her base of operations in Richford and her family farm elsewhere-- both about an hour and a half from Middlebury. She died a natural death years later after retiring from the business, but I wouldn't be too sure about all of those working in her establishment. And I doubt such a case would necessarily be reported. It's also possible this was the wife or partner of a Prohibition gangster from a different area/gang entirely, but he was familiar with "the scene" in that area, however he gained such familiarity.
Am seeing, too, grocery stores were often used to traffic illegal alcohol during Prohibition. And then, there were the gangs that robbed legitimate grocery stores.
After the death of John Dillinger, a new gang of bad guys looking to make a name for themselves came onto the scene.
www.fbi.gov
No clothing. Was this because of the length of time at the recovery site or because the decedents might be identified through their clothing? Could it perhaps be a mixture of both? Two or three years is a long time for remains to be out in an area like that, undoubtedly a lot of the clothing might be gone, but completely? No shreds, nothing? But maybe so. Just noting, though, feathers were huge in bordello fashion of the time. And so were pearls, is it reasonably certain these were from pajamas?
Understood that Depression era, people are doing very desperate things. But this is a mother and her two children (at least it's likely). Authorities were so careful on guarding all this gold with the decedents (think this is speculation above), this is a very desperate time for a lot of people, and that gold would've been left behind. However, I would wonder... where's this woman's purse?
My guess is the killer was desperate, but probably not for money. The killer possibly had plenty. The killer was desperate to get this woman and her kids "out of the picture." They threatened him in some manner, the mother perhaps alienated him in some way to the point he didn't care about the children, and maybe they weren't actually his children. Maybe he feared she was going to "rat him out." And who knows, maybe she was?
I don't see how that case ever gets solved, though, without more in terms of DNA. Can see how there are no ruleouts, uphill climb for sure.
