WI WI - Evelyn Hartley, 15, La Crosse, 24 Oct 1953

[Richard]

Over 70 years missing. Who abducted her?

 

[STANDREID]

I have a lot of questions about this case.

If there was a toddler about, why wasn't the basement door locked?

Is there any chance that Evelyn or the girl she was reportedly substituting for could have been pregnant?

Was this case the inspiration for the movie Halloween?

Did Evelyn ever read "romance" magazines that had personal ads in the back?

Was Evelyn mistaken for Mrs. Rasmusen?

Where was Booker T. Hillary, who committed a very similar crime in 1962, in 1953?

Did Evelyn have a diary?

Were any Hartley or Rasmusen acquaintances later arrested for abuse or a sex crime?

 

[Same Old Stella]

Good questions but I can only answer one for sure; Evelyn wasn't pregnant. In fact, she was having her menstrual period on the night of her disappearance.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Where was Booker T. Hillary, who committed a very similar crime in 1962, in 1953?

Hillary had just been released from the King's County Jail in Hanford, CA, on Mon Oct 12, 1953 after being involved in an argument resulting in the death of Charles E. King. He was enlisted as a US Army soldier at Camp Roberts, CA at the time. Highly unlikely he traveled to La Crosse, WI in the next 10 days. Possible, but unlikely. Some online records and news accounts also spell his last name as Hillery.​

Source: Newspapers.com Tulare Advance-Register Tue, Oct 13, 1953 ·Page 6​

 

[Keiri]

believe it or not, nobody posted these before:

Evelyn Grace Hartley – The Charley Project

1388DFWI - Evelyn Grace Hartley

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

17 exclusions

 

[PGHJW]

Release the Tywee tapes!

 

[bigals]

Release the Tywee tapes!

Excuse my ignorance... what are the Tywee tapes?

 

[cenazoic]

See the wiki article under “Later Developments”:

Disappearance of Evelyn Hartley - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

In 2004, a man named Mel Williams came forward with a conversation he recorded at a bar in 1969. Although his goal was to record a band which was performing, the conversation between two men was unintentionally recorded as well.

On the tape, one of the men, Clyde "Tywee" Peterson, implicated himself, Jack Gaulphair (or Gaulthair), and an unnamed third party in the disappearance, claiming that Evelyn was murdered and buried in La Farge, Wisconsin, after her kidnapping.

 

[Quoththeraven]

On the tape, one of the men, Clyde "Tywee" Peterson, implicated himself, Jack Gaulphair (or Gaulthair), and an unnamed third party in the disappearance, claiming that Evelyn was murdered and buried in La Farge, Wisconsin, after her kidnapping. #948

Green Bay Press-Gazette Wed, Feb 04, 1953 ·Page 4 (Ancestry.com)

On Oct 25, 1951, Judge Kopp fined Marion Driscoll, 30, and Jack Gaulthair, 24, both of La Farge, $100 each…The men had been found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a girl under 16.
The incident occurred on April 30, 1951, when Driscoll and Gaulthair called on the young girl at her La Farge home, told her a friend wanted to see her, and then took her to a tavern.

The La Crosse Tribune Tue, Dec 26, 1967 ·Page 2 (Ancestry.com)

Frank (Jack) Gaulthair, 39, died Monday morning, Dec 25, in his home here (La Farge, WI) of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Surviving are his mother, Mrs. Mabel Bassindale of La Farge.

The Journal Times Mon, Apr 26, 1948 ·Page 4 (Ancestry.com)

Divorces have been granted in Municipal Court to Mabel M. Gaulthair, Racine County Asylum, La Farge, WI, from Frank Gaulthair, La Farge, WI.

(Frank and Mabel Gaulthair were parents of Frank (Jack) Gaulthair)

The Racine County Insane Asylum was a mental hospital, operated by the County of Racine, Wisconsin, from 1889 to the 1970s.

https://casetext.com/case/state-v-driscoll-12

The minor involved was a girl who then lacked about one month of being sixteen years of age, by the name of Donna H_______.

The two defendants together with another young man, Richard Campton, (age 25) called in an automobile at Donna's home near La Farge around 8 p. m. The defendants induced Donna to enter the car under the false assertion that another boy, with whom she had been keeping company, was one of the passengers in the car. After she entered the automobile and discovered that this statement was untrue, the defendants refused to let her out of the car but drove off with her in it.

Right after Donna and her companions had arrived at the Gaulthair home three other persons came there, one of them being a Mrs. H________ aged sixteen, whose husband was in Korea. Mrs. H________ came upstairs while Donna was seated on one of the beds with Gaulthair, and Driscoll then took off his clothes and Mrs. H_______ took off part of hers and they got into the other bed. In the meantime Gaulthair, who evidently was intoxicated, had lain down on the bed on which he and Donna had been sitting. Afterward Driscoll and Mrs. H_______ got up and dressed, and defendants then took Donna home about midnight.

In my opinion, based on past events, one can speculate who the third unnamed party might be. I also wonder, with all the advancements in dNA forensics, why LE hasn't resubmitted DNA evidence in this case. That is, if they even save any. They've been pretty quiet on what evidence they kept to this day.

 

[Betty P]

My theory on this is quite simple....it was locked.
So once your inside, with a probably screaming and panicking Evelyn you need to leave quickly. All the doors and windows are locked. IF the keys are not in the locks (placed in a bowl or on a key holder say) then you don't know which key is which. You would logically then leave the way you came in, via the basement.

It seems that there were some pry marks on other windows and doors, evidently they had failed to break in until they discovered the small basement window. So the house itself was pretty secured by the sounds of it. I used to think that this was a burglary gone wrong, but now I am not convinced. I think professional burglars would have been able to break into that house more easily and I also think they would have scoped the house better and made sure it was unoccupied.
That leads me to one conclusion - Evelyn was specifically targetted. Which leads me to the next conclusion - the perpetrator had to know she would be there and therefore was someone known to her, her family or the family who owned the house.

That's possible. Evelyn certainly put up a fight. Their kidnapping plan was a failure almost from the start. The victim was very unwilling, so much so they had to inflict a (likely) fatal wound before they even got her to their car. JMO, that's more than enough evidence that these men were strangers to Evelyn and that she very much feared for her life.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this thread up.

 

[spartanx]

i agree Ed Gein had nothing to do with Evelyn...i don't get into a stranger-kidnapping just because the entry was a basement window..it's possible it was someone Evelyn knew...the assailant had other intentions and something happened...they panicked and Evelyn fought back...the situation escalated..and as for the man who recorded a bar conversation and reported her in 2004, my gut tells me he was involved just my opinion...i don't think Ed Gein was involved either he was a small shy man and his MO was nothing like what happened to Evelyn...Ed had mother issues, he attacked older women he knew; Breaking into a strange house to grab a teenager who would have put up a great fight (and she clearly did), and dragging her two blocks to take her away in his car, doesn't seem like something Ed Gein would have done given his physical stature, his history, and his particular preferences...
whatever
Rest in peace

 

[Quoththeraven]

That's possible. Evelyn certainly put up a fight. Their kidnapping plan was a failure almost from the start. The victim was very unwilling, so much so they had to inflict a (likely) fatal wound before they even got her to their car. JMO, that's more than enough evidence that these men were strangers to Evelyn and that she very much feared for her life.

Because the burglars tried prying other windows in the neighborhood tells me that's what they were there for, to burglarize. Probably because they knew many of the people in town were at the La Crosse- Winona game. They were in this neighborhood for that purpose. Evelyn wasn't the intended target. She was a secondary target and crime of opportunity.

"A "crime of opportunity" is a crime committed without prior planning, when the perpetrator sees a chance to seize the moment and commit the act."

Many burglars are rapists. Preying upon unaware and defenseless victims, whether it's rape or burglary, is part of their sociopathic nature. A substantial proportion of violent crimes in the home, including rapes, are committed during household burglaries.

I agree with Spartanx's view above, on the tape, one of the men, Clyde "Tywee" Peterson, implicated himself, Jack Gaulphair (or Gaulthair), and an unnamed third party in the disappearance of Evelyn. They had done something similar before.

https://casetext.com/case/state-v-driscoll-12

Two reasons why they took her. Mainly to rape her or she possibly recognized them. Or both. I think they injured (stabbed?) her because they feared exposure from her screaming. It was a reflex action to shut her up outside the basement window.

There was quite a bit of evidence collected in this investigation, both on scene and around La Crosse. There was a high probability that DNA evidence was on many of those items, a blood-stained jacket, a pair of blood-stained sneakers, a blood-stained bra and blood-stained underwear, all with type-A blood on them. Because we haven't heard of any of the items ever being tested for DNA since they started using DNA to solve cases tells me they threw all the evidence away years later. The La Crosse police wouldn't even let private detectives see their case files. The FBI refused to get involved.

 

[PGHJW]

I's up on that.