The Lonely Hearts Killers
Also by Tobin T. Buhk
Pardonable Matricide: Robert Irving Latimer, from Michigans Most Dangerous Inmate to Free Man (Exposit, 2019)
The Lonely Hearts Killers
The Bloody Passions of Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez
Tobin T. Buhk
Jefferson, North Carolina
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Buhk, Tobin T., author.
Title: The lonely hearts killers : the bloody passions of Martha Beck and
Raymond Fernandez / Tobin T. Buhk.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : Exposit, 2020 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020018370 | ISBN 9781476679112 (paperback)
ISBN 9781476639642 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Beck, Martha Jule Seabrook, 1951. | Fernandez, Raymond
Martinez, 19141951. | Serial murderersUnited StatesBiography.
Classification: LCC HV6785 .B84 2020 | DDC 364.152/320922dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018370
British Library cataloguing data are available
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-7911-2
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3964-2
2020 Tobin T. Buhk. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: insets, left to right Sing Sing mug shots of prisoner #108594 Martha Beck and prisoner #108595 Raymond Fernandez (Sing Sing Prison Files, New York State Archives, Albany, New York); background images 2020 Shutterstock
Printed in the United States of America
Exposit is an imprint of McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.expositbooks.com
Table of Contents
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
Whos Who
Martha Jule Beck | a.k.a. Martha Martin |
Raymond Martinez Fernandez | a.k.a. Charles Martin and Raymond Martin |
Michigan
Deliphene Downing | Lonely hearts widow of Rolland Downing |
Rainelle Downing | Deliphenes daughter |
Roger O. McMahon | Kent County Prosecutor |
Elmer Al Boss | Wyoming Township Police Officer |
John VanderBand | Wyoming Township Police Officer |
Leigh Slater | Wyoming Township Chief of Police |
Hugh Blacklock | Kent County Sheriff |
Clarence Randle | Kent County Deputy Sheriff |
James Toohey | Kent County Deputy Sheriff |
Arnold Pigorsh | Kent County Deputy Sheriff |
Paul W. Bloxsom | Kent County Coroner |
Lula Parks | Kent County stenographer |
Mildred Bellows | Kent County Jail Matron in charge of Beck |
Adrian W. Verspoor | Lonely Hearts defense counsel in Michigan |
New York
Edward Robinson, Jr. | Nassau County Assistant District Attorney |
Philip Huntington | Nassau County Assistant District Attorney |
James N. Gehrig | Nassau County District Attorney |
Charles Hildebrandt | Nassau County Detective |
Thomas J. Begley | Nassau County Detective |
Herbert E. Rosenberg | Lonely Hearts defense attorney |
Ferdinand Pecora | Judge at the Lonely Hearts trial |
Father Thomas Donovan | Catholic priest assigned to Sing Sing Prison |
Rev. Luther K. Hannum | Protestant minister assigned to Sing Sing Prison |
Wilfred L. Denno | Keeper and later warden of Sing Sing Prison |
William E. Snyder | Warden of Sing Sing Prison |
Timeline
The following timeline has been constructed from the confessions that Martha Jule Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez made to investigators while in the Kent County Jail, from various statements they made to reporters, and from testimony they gave at the trial. The vagueness of Fernandezs timeline reflects his inability to recall specific dates.
Raymond Martinez Fernandez
December 17, 1914 | Raymond Martinez Fernandez born in Hawaii |
191732 | Lives in Connecticut |
1929 | Convicted at 15 for stealing chickens from a neighbors farm |
1932 | Moves to Spain, where he works on an uncles farm |
1934 | Marries Agnesia Robles Alonaso |
1935 | Son Carl Fernandez born in Spain |
May 1935 | Travels to New York, stays six months before returning to Spain |
1937 | Son Ralph Fernandez born in Spain |
193839 | Fights with Francos forces; serves eight months of combat duty |
1940 | Daughter Francisca Fernandez born in Spain |
194042 | Works for the British government in the dockyards of Gibraltar |
1945 | Daughter Gloria Fernandez born in Spain |
1945 | Works as an able seaman aboard the Empire Jewell , an oil tanker en route to Curacao |
December 1945 | Suffers skull fracture in an accident aboard the Empire Jewell ; spends four weeks in a Curacao hospital |
1946 | Works aboard American oiler USS Mission Santa Clara (two months); caught stealing $53 in linens in Mobile, Alabama |
1946 | Convicted of theft of government property; spends five months in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida |
1946 | Leaves the federal penitentiary and returns to New York, where he moves in with his sister |
January 1947 | Meets Jane Wilson Thompson through a lonely hearts advertisement |
April 1, 1947 | As Charles Raymond Martinez, begins corresponding with Martha Beck |