When nighttime descends and the world hushes to silence, the familiar corners of our homes can sometimes breed unease. It’s easy to dismiss these feelings as mere products of an overactive imagination.
However, history suggests that there might be more to our fears than we’d like to admit.
From eerie unsolved mysteries to chilling crimes, some events from the past serve as stark reminders to double-check our surroundings, especially that one often-overlooked space: the closet.
1. Burglar Causes Reign of Terror
This first hiding in a closet case was reported in 1910. A masked man, hiding in a closet, murders two people and fatally wounds a third.
“Daylight today brought relief to Springfield after a night of terror in which a woman and a man were killed, and another woman was fatally shot. A double tragedy followed the reappearance of the masked burglar who a year ago kept the city in panic for weeks. Confronting three unprotected women in their home, the bandit shot Miss Martha Blackstone dead as she screamed, and fatally wounded another, Miss Harriet Dow. A few hours later the body of a man was found on the tracks of the Boston and Maine railroad. The third woman threatened by the bandit, Mrs. Sarah J. Dow, today declared her belief that the dead man was the murderer, but the police incline to the theory that the bandit, incensed at having secured no money from the women, held up the man and killed him, leaving the body on the tracks, where it was mangled by a train.
“An investigation of the house in which the women were attacked today showed that the thug probably had hid in a closet in the early part of the evening. When he suddenly appeared before the three, a slouch hat hid the upper portion of his face and the lower was masked with a handkerchief. As he demanded money, Miss Blackstone, who was a graduate of Smith College, and a school teacher, fled in panic, screaming. She dropped with a bullet through her heart.
“Miss Dow, while her mother tried to calm her, jumped up, and was shot through the head. Then the robber fled toward the railroad track.
“Within a short time posses had been organized and several suspects were arrested. All of them were released.” [Source: The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. (Richmond, Ind.), 01 April 1910.]
2. Jealousy Causes Double Murder
In 1915, a man hides in a closet, waiting for the right moment to bash in two heads with a hammer.
“Memphis – That a man whose identity is unknown, but who was in love with Margaret Favar, hid in a closet all night, waiting his chance to wreak the vengeance of a jealous rage upon the actress, dancer, former wife of Creatore, famous band master, and later spouse of F.D. Tompkins, United States army officer, who killed himself in Los Angeles, is the theory held by the police after a two days’ search for the slayer of the woman and J.C. Crowell, wealthy planter and manager of the Buckeye Cotton Oil Company’s mill of Greenwood, Miss.
“The murderer used a hammer with which he crushed the skulls of his victims, then set fire to the house. The bodies were discovered by firemen.” [Source: Batesville daily guard. (Batesville, Ark.), 24 Sept. 1915.]
3. Police Seek Hotel Robber
Now here is an interesting one. The burglar hid in a closet and then tossed his victim under the bed. From 1917:
“A hotel burglar who hid in a closet in the room of Mrs. Harry Powell in the Arlington hotel last night, beat her, tied her up and threw her under the bed. Then he set out to ransack the room when Mr. Powell knocked on the door. He escaped by way of the fire escape, which the police think he used to enter the room.
“When Mr. Powell and hotel employees broke down the door they found Mrs. Powell unconscious.” [Source: The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 24 March 1917.]
4. Burglars Caught Hiding in Closet
Here is a fantastical report of some burglars hiding in a closet after being overheard by policemen in 1912.
“Loud hammering and the tearing of metal were heard by Policemen Farley and Reynolds of the West Seventeenth Street Station as they passed the 11-story loft building at No. 11 West Seventeenth Street at 1 o’clock this morning, and they borrowed a key from a watchman nearby and went in to see about it.
“On the sixth floor they found the door leading to a loft occupied by JJ Pearlstein, dealer in cloaks and suits, forced. A safe inside had its door torn off and on the floor were a complete assortment of burglar tools. A part of the cement flooring of the loft, eighteen inches thick, had been torn away near the safe, evidently for the purpose of boring down to the floor below, occupied by H.L. Dangler, a dealer in feathers.
“A quantity of wearing apparel had been tied up in bundles and a cash box had been taken from the safe and broken open. The policemen hurriedly searched the halls and roof without finding anyone, although they had heard footsteps as they entered the building.
“Finally, they decided to look in a closet of the tenth floor hallway. The door was locked, but they opened it with a skeleton key and found three men huddled inside.
“At the West Seventeenth Street Station the prisoners said they were Edward Hoffman, 20, an electrician; Samuel Miller, 23, a salesman; and Isidore Kaplen, 22, a driver.
“Hoffman told the police he entered the building in search of employment and knew nothing about the attempted burglary. Detectives found that the street door of the building had not been forced, and believe the men entered late yesterday afternoon and hid in the closet until they were free to go to work.” [Source: The evening world. (New York, N.Y.), 08 May 1912.]
5. Young Wife Killed
Finally, this horrifying news report is from 1916.
“When John Schalapin, interior decorator, returned to his apartment in West 29th Street at 5 o’clock Monday evening, he knocked on the door, expecting his wife to admit him.
“Instead, the door was swiftly opened and a dash of muriatic acid into his eyes utterly blinded him. He grappled with a man who fought himself free and escaped, leaving Schalapin screaming in pain.
“After the decorator had been taken to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, detectives made a minute search of Schalapin’s rooms.
“And all the while they were at work, as they trod up and down the stairway, they were passing a room on the second floor in a closet of which was the body of Schalapin’s young and good-looking wife. She had been murdered.
“A man’s yellowish silk sock knotted around her neck and a man’s handkerchief stuffed into her mouth had strangled her.
“Above her right temple were three deep wounds, blows struck with a force that had crushed her skull.
“At noon yesterday Mrs. Alois Hauswitzer received a postal card inclosed in an envelope. It was from her husband, whom she had not seen since Tuesday afternoon. Hauswitzer leases the premises where the crimes were committed, owns the furnishings, and rents the rooms in suites.
“The postal card read:
“‘Dear May – There is nothing in the newspapers yet. I am guilty. My life is ruined. I hope my baby gets better pleasure during its life and that you will be happy with the baby. Do not use my name for the baby.’
“The detectives had heard a good deal of talk in the neighborhood that Hauswitzer had for weeks past tried to force unwelcome attentions on Mrs. Schalapin, and that the landlord and Schalapin had quarreled seriously about it.
“They found that Mrs. Schalapin had not been seen since early Tuesday afternoon. Moreover, they learned that Hauswitzer, because of the illness of his two-year-old child, frequently spent the night in unoccupied apartments.” [Source: The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]), 23 Aug. 1916.]
