Elsie Paroubek

Eliška "Elsie" Paroubek (1906–1911) was a Czech American girl who was the victim of kidnapping and murder in the spring of 1911. Her disappearance and the subsequent search for her preoccupied Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota law enforcement for six weeks, and her funeral was attended by between 2,000 and 3,000 people. Miss Paroubek's story, and especially her photograph in the Chicago Daily News, were two of the main inspirations for Henry Darger's immense fantasy novel The Story of the Vivian Girls. Background: Elsie's mother was born Karolína Vojáček on November 26, 1869, in Míčov (Meconi), East Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Elsie's father František (Frank) Paroubek was born in Bohemia November 15, 1867. His father's name was Jan. Frank came to the U.S. at the age of fifteen, and returned to Bohemia between 1882 and 1892. He and Karolina were married in Bohemia in 1892. In the United States, Frank worked as a painter while Karolina maintained the home. Eliška (Elsie) was their seventh child. In newspaper accounts, particularly in the Chicago Daily News, Paroubek is frequently spelled "Parobek". Frank is sometimes referred to as "Peter" or "John", and Karolina is sometimes called "Mary". Elsie is also called "Mary" or "Emily" in the Rockford, Illinois newspapers. Disappearance: On the morning of April 8, 1911, Elsie Paroubek left her home at 2320 S. Albany Avenue in Chicago, telling her mother she was going to visit "Auntie", Mrs. Frank Trampota, around the corner at 2325 S. Troy Street. Turning left on 22nd St. and left again on Troy, she encountered her nine-year-old cousin Josie Trampota and a number of other children who were listening to an organ grinder a short distance from Mrs. Trampota's gate. When the organ grinder moved to the 23rd St. corner, the children followed him, but subsequently left, while Elsie remained behind. Several hours later, Elsie's mother went to her sister's house to find Elsie had never arrived. As Elsie had many friends in the area, the women assumed she was visiting at another home, perhaps to spend the night and return the next morning. At 9pm that evening, Frank Paroubek returned from work and went to police at the Hinman Street station to report her missing. Police initially agreed that she was likely spending the night with friends, but when she had not returned by the following morning, Captain John Mahoney took personal charge of the search. Gypsies (identified as Romani people by the Rockford, Illinois press) were suspected after a neighborhood child, John Jirowski, told detectives from the Maxwell Street station led by inspector Stephen K. Healey that he had seen a gypsy wagon on Kedzie Ave., a block west of Troy Street, with two women holding a little girl. There were several camps along the Desplaines River near Kedzie and these were sought. Residents told investigators that one wagon had decamped and left on the morning of April 9. The "stolen by gypsies" theory gained credence because Elsie's disappearance was almost identical to that of Lillian Wulff, who had been found with gypsies four years earlier. Elsie's father, Frank Paroubek, offered his life savings, $50 (about $1,165 today) as a reward. Detectives from the Maxwell Street station searched the Italian quarter at West 14th and S. Halsted Streets, where it had been reported a child answering Elsie's description had been seen with an organ grinder. Inspector Healey also ordered that drainage canals be dragged for the child's body on April 15, and Governor Charles S. Deneen asked the public to aid in the search. Investigation: Detectives Joseph Komorous and Sheehan accompanied Frank Paroubek in his search for the departed wagon, which was initially believed to be headed for Round Lake, Illinois, a village about 50 miles northwest of Chicago where seven wagons were camped. Farmers in the area were alerted to be on watch. When local residents started asking gypsies about Elsie and attempting to search the wagons, they broke camp again and moved on to Volo, Illinois, 43 miles from Chicago. Volo residents reported a child matching Elsie's description and said she appeared to be "stupefied" or "drugged" and partly covered with a blanket. They also attempted to search the wagons, but the gypsies immediately broke camp and departed for McHenry, Illinois, about 60 miles northwest of Chicago. When police caught up with them at McHenry they discovered the little girl was a gypsy and did not match Elsie's description. Meanwhile, Police Capt. Mahoney assigned men to drag the drainage canals near Elsie's home on April 12 and again on the 15th. In several instances, a child was found in a camp who did resemble Elsie, such that even Frank was momentarily certain it was his daughter and it would take some time to convince him it was a mistake. As late as April 24, when a little girl somewhat answering Elsie's description was found in a camp near 18th and South Halstead streets, Frank fell to his knees and prayed. The reason for her capture was attributed by police to "the natural love of the wandering people for blue-eyed, yellow-haired children". Elsie was consistently described as small, with light golden hair and blue eyes, wearing a red one-piece dress, lace shoes (shoes with laces rather than buttons) and black stockings. The little girl is described as having long curly golden hair, blue eyes and pink chubby cheeks, with a prominent dimple in each. At the time she disappeared she wore a red hat, a red dress, black stockings and high top black boots. - Chicago Daily News, April 12, 1911. She was a very pretty child, and passing strangers often stopped to pass admiring comment upon her. - Rockford Daily Gazette, April 21, 1911. On April 17, Police Captain Mahoney received an anonymous phone tip that a child answering Elsie's description had been seen accompanying a man to a Western Springs, Illinois hotel. Again, detectives dispatched to the hotel found nothing. Sycamore, Illinois police chief Ogden accompanied Frank Paroubek to investigate gypsy wagons at Cherry Valley, Illinois, but found no child even remotely resembling Elsie. Meanwhile, Hinman Street police fielded reporters' questions about a $500 ransom note received by Karolina. They "denied official knowledge of the communication, but admitted it might be true." On April 20, neighbors saw Frank Jr., age 6, lugging a pick and shovel out into South Troy Street and start digging. Upon inquiry, Frank said there had been a lot of construction on the street the day Elsie disappeared, and he had heard his parents discussing the possibility that she had fallen into a hole. As she struggled to climb out, she might have been buried under falling sand and gravel. Workers still fixing the street said that it was possible, but they would have noticed immediately. Meanwhile, people in the West End and a woman in Kings, IL reported sightings of light-skinned girls traveling with gypsies. In the second week after Elsie's disappearance, Lillian Wulff, age 11, came forward to offer assistance. Miss Wulff herself had been the subject of a similar manhunt four years earlier. She actually had been stolen by gypsies and held for six days, working as a beggar, until discovered walking behind a gypsy wagon by a farmer outside Momence, Illinois. She provided details of her experience of the culture's typical behavior and volunteered to lead a "rescue party". One of the men who had kidnapped Lillian suggested asking Elijah George, whom he recognized as King of the Gypsies. George was found in Argyle, Wisconsin and brought to Joliet, but "failed to give the desired information" and was released. At this point Inspector Healey again ordered the drainage canal dragged, along with a search of all wells and other places Miss Paroubek could have fallen. By April 23, Lt. John Costello of the Hinman Street station told reporters that every "kidnapping" clue had been exhausted. He was sure Elsie had been "attacked and mistreated" and was now dead, and her body hidden in the cellar of an empty house or deserted barn. He brought detectives to begin investigating empty buildings, barns, sheds, elevators, catchbasins and basements on or near South Albany Avenue. Several of the detectives brought spades, planning to dig in every plot of earth that appeared to have been recently disturbed. Inspector Healey joined in this search along with Detectives Perry and Egan. At the same time, Costello sent two officers to the outskirts of the city on a lead which he had received by telephone but refused to reveal to reporters. Captain Stephen Wood of the detective bureau was having all gypsy wagons followed and wrote to every police official in the vicinity of Belvidere, Rockford and Janesville, Wisconsin to be on the lookout for Elsie. However, he too was now certain Elsie was either being held for ransom, had been in an accident and was either dead or in some hospital, unable to speak, or had been "slain by some degenerate" from one of the shanties in the alley near her home. Also on April 23, a neighbor told police that she had last seen Elsie around 11 a.m. on the morning she disappeared, still with the organ grinder and engaged in conversation with a man on the opposite side of the street, whom the neighbor did not know. The following day's Chicago Daily News devoted a full column to the search, calling it "one of the most extensive and far-reaching quests ever made for a missing child." Twenty police officers and 100 volunteers were involved in Lt. Costello's search, covering a radius of about a mile of the Paroubek home. It was judged to be "one of the most remarkable investigations of its kind" because of the intense public interest, but also due to the huge number of child volunteers. Many described themselves not just as casual acquaintances or playmates, but as friends of Elsie. These children offered to look into "out of the way places" for Elsie or evidence leading to her whereabouts. On April 29, Inspector Healey sent a detective to Zion City, Illinois in response to a long-distance phone tip from the Zion City deputy sheriff. Again, a child resembling Elsie was seen in a gypsy camp, and again the child was found to be a gypsy. By April 30, the superintendent of schools, Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, had requested that all schoolchildren in the Chicago area organize neighborhood searches during spring break. Meanwhile Frank Paroubek, in desperation, consulted a psychic, who said Elsie was in "Argo", Wisconsin. Chicago politician Charles J. Vopicka sent officers to the area she indicated, to no avail. The search "jumped from Illinois to Wisconsin, and from Wisconsin to Minnesota and then back again to Illinois" with no luck. A few days after Elsie's disappearance, Frank Paroubek began to receive anonymous, "insulting" letters. They were all written in English, which he could not read, so he asked neighbors to translate. The letters claimed that Elsie was hidden away by someone who "hated" the Paroubeks, accusing them of mistreating her. Frank was so infuriated by the accusation that he burned the letters. Nonetheless, Detectives Zahour and Zalasky attempted to follow up on this lead. The Czech community rallied to support the Paroubeks. All Czech-speaking policemen were put into plain clothes and assigned to the investigation. The women's auxiliary of the Club Bohemia assisted in the search, creating an "endless chain letter" which was mailed to all parts of the city, with a request for recipients to mail copies to everyone they knew. Various Czech-American politicians became involved. The Bohemian Charitable Association conferred with Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr. on April 22, then announced they would offer a reward of $500 (about $11,500 in today's money) plus however much more could be raised in addition. Mayor Harrison contributed $25 (a little under $600 today) and sent out a special police squad from City Hall. A detachment also operated out of the Lawndale Avenue station in cooperation with the Hinman Street police. Anton Cermak, then a Chicago alderman, said that if Miss Paroubek were not found by the time of the next city council meeting May 1, he would call upon the city council to offer an even larger reward. At that time, state laws did not allow the offering of a reward for the apprehension of kidnappers, as it did for murderers. On April 26, Governor Deneen said he planned to ask the legislature to revise the statutes so that a reward could be offered by the State of Illinois in addition to the personal reward fund. Judge Adolph J. Sabath held several interviews with Elsie's family and also contributed $25 to the reward fund. By May 2 he had increased his contribution to $100 and arranged meetings with Czech societies to find ways to increase the fund. Every sighting of a girl in a red dress living in a gypsy camp was phoned in to police and followed up. By May 1, police had all but abandoned the idea that she had been stolen by gypsies and were returning their efforts to searching wells and dragging canals. Judge Sabath objected, saying that the police hunt was becoming "listless" because Elsie's parents were poor. He was being "swamped" with mail, most of it containing contributions to the reward fund, from all over the country, and increased his own contribution to $100. Among the letters was one from Dr. G.T. Screeton of Carlisle, Arkansas, which read in part: "Dear Judge: In relation to the strange disappearance of Elsie Parobek I will say that a band of forty gypsy men and four gypsy women with eighteen children ranging in age from 3 months to 18 years were seen in the union station at Little Rock, Ark., last week. All these children looked as if they were not of gypsy parentage." Meanwhile, Detectives Zahour and Zalasky sought a man residing near Madison and Robey streets, the suspected author of the anonymous threatening letters Frank Paroubek had received. Lt. Costello, supported by Inspector Healey, flatly declared: "Elsie Paroubek fell into the drainage canal from the Kedzie Avenue bridge or near it. She was not murdered." They believed the author of the letters to have witnessed this. By May 7, twenty-five gypsy bands had been searched and several false leads followed. Police Captain Mahoney announced his belief that Elsie was dead and that police would continue to search for her body. Also on May 7, Judge Sabath ordered an investigation of Frank and Karolina themselves, in search of anything in their past that might have caused someone to kidnap Elsie. Discovery: Two days later, on May 9, 1911, electrical engineer George T. Scully and other employees of the Lockport power plant near Joliet, thirty-five miles outside of Chicago, saw a body floating in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. At first they thought it was an animal from one of the nearby farms, but three hours later, realizing it was a human being, they sent out a boat to bring it to shore. Undertaker William Goodale, examining the body, said that it appeared to fit Miss Paroubek's description: "The description tallied to the shade of the hair, the texture of the stockings, and the stuff and tint of the dress of little Elsie." He thought the body had been in the water for several weeks, although only slightly decomposed. Another report indicated that her body was "badly decomposed" but there were "no marks of violence" on her body. Goodale notified Chicago authorities, who sent Police Lt. Costello to the Paroubek home. Karolina Paroubek cried Mé drahé dítě! (My dear child!) and begged to be told Elsie was alive. Frank was taken to the Goodale funeral home at midnight. He said, "The clothes look like Elsie's. But the face -- I can't recognize it. Her mother alone can tell." Another newspaper reported that Frank immediately said "That's Elsie," and began to cry. Karolina arrived at the funeral home by trolley car the following morning and positively identified Elsie, saying "It's you, my darling. Thank God we've found you and you're not in the hands of the gypsies." For the next hour she paced or sat nervously in an adjoining room with Frank holding her hands, weeping and praying.[44] Goodale, who had kept track of the disappearance in the papers, made this statement to police: "The body appears to have been in the water for about a month, which would tally with the date of Elsie Paroubek's disappearance. The child, when she left home, was without hat, and her clothing tallies in every respect with that found on the dead body. There was no ring or other ornament, and in that respect the descriptions correspond. Excepting only as to the color of the eyes, which cannot be clearly observed as to color, the descriptions are identical." Arrangements were quickly made for an inquest. The jury consisted of F.W. Wurst, Christian Radchiero, John A. Walter, William Woodale, Edwin Murray and Patrick O'Brien. Coroner William Wunderlich of Will County officiated. As the post-mortem examination began, Frank Paroubek was the first witness. Disregarding questions put to him by the coroner, Frank plunged into charges his daughter had been murdered. Through a translator, he asserted "I am sure the gypsies stole my girl and then when they knew we were after them they killed her and threw her body into the canal." At this, Karolina ran from the funeral parlor screaming My Elsie is dead. She was murdered, murdered. Her husband and Det. Zelasky tried to calm her, but in her extreme distress she began running up and down the street, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers. She insisted she had known for three weeks that the "gypsies" had killed Elsie. Frank consoled her and assisted her boarding a trolley car for home. Meanwhile, the coroner said "This case has attracted such attention that a minute examination will be made. We will be content with no perfunctory inquest such as this. The jury will refuse to state its convictions -- for it has none -- until after the autopsy has been held. We want the stomach of the little girl examined, and the lungs as well. The father charges murder. It is certainly possible that he is right." Two physicians, E.A. Kingston and W.R. Paddock, confirmed that there was no water in her lungs, so she had not drowned. Kingston said she had been "attacked" (often a euphemism for rape) and murdered before her body was thrown into the water. Paddock said there was every evidence she had been "wounded" before being killed. Lt. Costello later told the press that she had been "mistreated", seeming to indicate this meant her death was not the work of gypsies. They also found "deep cuts" on the left side of her face. Although these men reported "blue marks on the throat as though the victim had been choked," another examination by Drs. E.R. LeCount and Warren H. Hunter of the Coroner's Office revealed that Elsie had been suffocated, not strangled. The official cause of death was marked "unknown." Coroner Peter Hoffman concurred with Mr. Paroubek as to the probable circumstances of Elsie's death. "It is our belief that the abductor of the child suffocated her to death -- possibly by putting a hand over her mouth." The coroner's report recommended that officials continue to investigate. Inspector Healey immediately detailed detectives to find out exactly what had happened. He said "We have one or two theories, but nothing specific enough to even talk about. I intend to place more men on the case tomorrow." Lt. Costello returned to investigating the anonymous letters. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Hoffman's and Paroubek's theory as fact. On the evening of May 9, Karolina was calmer and gave an interview upon returning home. Surrounded by friends and neighbors, she told reporters "Before the doctors found that Elsie's lungs were free from water and discovered reasons for believing she had been strangled, I knew she had been murdered. A picture of the crime has been in my mind since the second week of her disappearance, and I am convinced that when the truth is known, as it surely will be, it will be shown that she was choked to death a week from April 8, when she was kidnapped on her way to visit her 'auntie.'" Karolina called upon authorities to find and punish the killers. Karolina told Judge Sabath that the search had exhausted the family's savings and they had no money to bury her. Judge Sabath gave her a check for $25, promising to raise more funds. Friends and family members continued to collect money for the Paroubek fund. Mrs. Sophie Johanes raised over fifty dollars by giving a benefit party and soliciting donations from Bohemians on the West Coast. Funeral: Elsie Paroubek's funeral was held at 10:00 a.m. on May 12, 1911 on the lawn of the Paroubeks' home and attended by between 2,000 and 3,000 people. Hours before the ceremony, Albany Avenue and the Paroubek back yard, along with the balconies and porches of nearby houses, were filled with mourners. There was no hall in the neighborhood large enough to hold them all. Frank had actually been offered the use of a hall, but he indicated the huge gathering and said "They have come to say goodbye to my Elsie. Don't let them be disappointed." Reserves from the Hinman Street station were called in to keep order and prevent the crowd from breaking down the fence. Elsie's white coffin rested on two brass stands, surrounded by lilies of the valley, roses and carnations sent by Mayor Harrison, Judge Sabath and other city officials. Eight little girls dressed all in white, including Josie Trampota and her sister Mary, brought out huge sprays of lilies and roses and encircled the bier. Someone brought two chairs out of the Paroubek home, set them near the casket and laid a board across them to hold the hundreds of floral offerings. Karolina was seated at the head of the coffin, while Frank and the other children stood nearby. As the Paroubeks were not Catholics but freethinkers, there were no prayers, and the service was read by Rudolf Jaromir Pšenka, editor of the Bohemian Chicago Daily Svornost. He spoke of the need to cooperate with police to find Elsie's killers. As the undertaker went to lift the coffin into the hearse, Karolina begged him to open it so she could see Elsie's face once more, but her relatives persuaded her not to insist on this and led her away. Most of the attendees followed Elsie's casket to Bohemian National Cemetery, where Psenka gave another address. Police Chief John McWeeny vowed to devote the entire Chicago police force to finding the killer. Alderman Cermak asked Governor Deneen to increase the reward by $200, "as is possible under the statutes". Cermak said, "I will also ask the governor to issue a proclamation calling upon all the people of the state to interest themselves in this case, in order that her murderer be apprehended." Coroner Peter Hoffman started a public reward fund, contributing $25. Considering where Elsie was found, detectives suspected the actual killer might be Joseph Konesti. According to the Rockford Republic, Konesti was definitely identified as the killer by detectives under the command of Police Capt. Wood. Described as a "bearded Bohemian" and a "hermit peddler", he was said to have "frequently enticed little girls to his hut by the drainage canal", about a mile and a half from Elsie's home, and had "frequently been seen near the Paroubek home." The owner of the shack,[59] Mrs. David Shaughnessy, advised police that she had complained to Konesti about his "bringing children around the house", and had evicted him on May 9. Konesti threw himself in front of a train on May 10. Five days later he was cleared of any wrongdoing. On May 15, Frank Paroubek told police he had spoken to a man he did not know, who told him he had seen Elsie late in the afternoon of April 8 on Kedzie Avenue, south of 28th St., long after she was supposed to have been taken by the gypsies. Police Lt. Costello assigned detectives to find the man. The previous reported sighting of Elsie had her walking toward the canal on South Troy St., a half block south of her aunt's house. If the unknown man told the truth, Elsie was only three blocks away from a bridge. Despite the coroner's findings, Lt. Costello had become convinced that Elsie's death was an accident and that she had simply fallen into the canal, although Inspector Healey had had the canals and drainage ditches dragged repeatedly during the search. Coroner Hoffman continued to insist Elsie was murdered. Apparently some confusion had occurred during the initial examinations. The first physician (probably Dr. Kingston) to examine Elsie on the night of May 9 told Lt. Costello that she was drowned, with no marks of abuse, and Costello had repeated this when he spoke to the family. However, the following day, the same physician's autopsy findings concluded Elsie had not drowned and that she appeared to have been suffocated. Detectives surrounded a house near Madison and Robey Streets, and threw a dragnet over the southwestern side of town for a former boarder in the Paroubek home. They continued to search for the anonymous writer of the nasty letters received by Frank Paroubek. Apparently neither the boarder, the writer, or the unknown man who had spoken to Frank were ever found. No one knows what really happened to Elsie Paroubek. Two years later, on the anniversary of Elsie's funeral, Frank Paroubek died. He was forty-five years old. Karolina lived until December 9, 1927. Both are buried with Elsie in Bohemian National Cemetery. Legacy: Though Elsie's mysterious disappearance and death were once the subject of intense police investigation and journalistic focus, her story faded into obscurity until the death of Henry Darger in 1973. Michael Bonesteel, an art historian examining Darger's work, found repeated reference in Darger's Story of the Vivian Girls novel to Annie Aronburg, leader of a child slave rebellion, and to an inspirational picture of her that had been lost. Miss Aronburg had met a shocking yet heroic death at the hands of her captors. (The murder is described in detail, and is nothing like Elsie's death.) According to his diary, Darger really had lost a picture of a little girl and was desperate to get it back or replace it. He did not give the name but said it had appeared in the "Chicago Daily Noise (sic), May, June, or July, 1911." Bonesteel's search in the newspaper archives revealed Elsie Paroubek and her story. A portrait of Annie Aronburg by Darger shows a somewhat older blonde-haired girl. Her hair ribbon and the distinctive collar of her dress are similar to Elsie's in the photograph. In the novel, Darger describes children who are kidnapped and mistreated by adults, while the heroic little Vivians, Annie Aronburg and others form "rescue squads" to save them.