Nellie Kampmann - Murder & Mayhem in Columbus, Ohio

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2021 by Nellie Kampmann

All rights reserved

First published 2021

E-Book year 2021

ISBN 978.1.4396.7387.4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021943825

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.4671.4731.6

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To the victims and their loved ones. May you find peace wherever you are.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for their help in creating this book: my film noir buddy Ed Violet for telling me about the Lola Celli case; Fred Alter, who was gracious in allowing me to cover his familys tragedy; the ever-talented Jennifer Roth, who polished my prose; Jessica Jewett, Melanie Samples and Wendy Owen for their advice; Fiverrous, who made some amazing pen and ink drawings for me; my sweet husband, Bob; my editor, John Rodrigue; and all my friends and family who cheered me on.

Trying to write a research-intensive book during all the COVID closures presented some unusual challenges. I am likewise grateful for the online resources that were provided by the Columbus Metropolitan Library, the Grandview Heights Public Library and the Library of Congress.

INTRODUCTION

In the end, well all become stories.

Margaret Atwood

Whenever crimes happen in the modern world, one typically hears a chorus of: Things like this never happened in the good old days. Historians know better. If you spend some time looking through Columbus newspapers from the Victorian era or the first half of the twentieth century, youll find reports of crimes strongly reminiscent of those found in todays world. Like today, some are minorothers are downright bloodcurdling.

Postcard of South High Street at night, circa 1910. Night Scene, South High Street, Columbus, Ohio.Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, F.M. Kirby and Company.

A 1909 photograph of the Ohio Penitentiary. Courtesy of Columbus Metropolitan Library.

A random selection of crimes can be found in a scrapbook in the collections of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The unidentified scrapbook, which covers the years between 1932 and 1940, appears to have been compiled by either Jacob E. Sandusky, who was the Franklin County sheriff from 1937 to 1947, or someone close to him. The clippings start off with a headline story about sheep rustlers. A couple of others expose the scandals of gambling and immoral dancing at a nightclub. These may sound quaint to modern ears. A clipping about a peaceful sit-down protest at the governors office that ended in violence from the police echoes more recent events in Columbuss history. Violence against police can be found in others. One set of clippings describes the shooting of a deputy by a teenage girls mother when he went to investigate a juvenile delinquency case. Some apparently common crimes in the scrapbook might take a modern reader by surprise. Recurring themes of hit-and-run homicides and women jumping from or being thrown from cars are found sprinkled throughout the scrapbook. There were also clippings of the more expected crimes, such as bank robberies. A particularly striking newspaper clipping shows convicted bank robber Carl Boettcher being wheeled on a hospital gurney to his new home at the Ohio Penitentiary. Boettcher was gravely wounded in a shootout that killed a police detective. That is covered in the first chapter of this book.

The stories told in this book will feel familiar to the modern reader. There are tales of addicts turning to unlawful activities to support their habits, racially motivated attacks, domestic abuse and gang activity dating back a century or more. Then there are the all-too-common cases of murder for no apparent motivation other than to give the killer a sense of power.

The aftermath of these crimes was often as dramatic as the crimes themselves, the true stories rivaling the most twist-filled fictional detective and criminal trial TV shows. Investigations turned into roller coaster rides of hopes raised, dashed, then raised again. Just when a promising lead looked like it would solve the case, it turned out to be nothing of worth. Key evidence disappeared, and witnesses testimonies shifted. New, unrelated crimes were discovered as the detectives combed possible crime scenes for clues. Occasionally, the loved ones of murder victims found themselves affected years later in ways that they could not have anticipated. Often, the criminals were caught and duly punished. Other times, there was no retribution.

It seems that when it comes to crime, some things never change.

THE GANGSTERS

When people think of criminals from the 1930s, gangsters and bank robbers usually come to mind. The two converged in Columbus on February 4, 1938, resulting in blood and death.

Around 9:30 in the morning, four masked men with .45-caliber guns walked into the Hilltop branch of Ohio National Bank on West Broad Street and started yelling. One jumped the railing and held a gun to the head of assistant manager Elmer J. Hagenberger. Another, who seemed to be the leader, forced manager Curtis G. Wilcox, at gunpoint, to remove money from the vault. The four other employees and four customers were ordered to stand with their hands against the wall by two more gang members. The robbers made off with $3,500, dropping some of the cash in their rush to escape. They fled in a Ford sedan and headed toward Georgesville in the southwest corner of Franklin County.

This was the second time in one week that the area had been hit by bank robbers. The First Federal Savings and Loan bank, right across the street from the Hilltop branch of Ohio National Bank, had been robbed a couple of days earlier. Despite the proximity of these crimes in distance and time, police believed the robberies had been committed by two separate gangs. There was a big contrast in how the gangs operated. The Ohio National robbers were raucous, terrorizing their victims with noisy confusion, while the First Federal robbers operated with quiet efficiency. The license numbers from the getaway cars also did not match.

It did not take long for the police to locate the Ohio National Bank robbers. Several hours after the robbery, authorities received a tip that the gang members were hiding out at a rooming house at 183 Guilford Avenue. Chief of Detectives Harry Carson sent four detectives to follow up on the tip. What started out as a routine check soon turned violent.

Detectives Robert Cooke and Robert R. Cline got out of the car first and knocked on the front door. Since the front room was rented out, Bettie Fisk, the owner, came around the side of the house from the back to speak to them. She verified that men fitting the suspects descriptions were there. They had rented rooms from her, presenting themselves as students. Their behavior had been suspicious. Fisk mentioned that they had insisted on keeping the doors locked and changing the lock on the garage. They had explained to her that they were worried about their car, claiming that it had been burglarized while it had been parked on the street.