Peter Zablocki - The Denville 13: Murder, Redemption & Forgiveness in Small Town New Jersey

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2021 by Peter Zablocki

All rights reserved

Front: Denville town center, circa 1950s. Courtesy of the Denville Historical Society.

First published 2021

E-Book edition 2021

ISBN 978.1.43967.208.2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945778

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46714.834.4

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.

CONTENTS

For all my studentspast, present and future. May they always remember to learn from their mistakes and never forget the hidden strength of forgiveness.

P.Z.

PREFACE

This, at its core, is a cautionary tale. It is also a story of the pitfalls of youth and the struggle of the citizenry to fulfill its responsibility for the moral training of its young people. It is a tale of mistakes, regrets, unfortunate circumstance and, above all, forgiveness and redemption. It is not a pretty tale, and it is one that I have wrestled with since I first decided to research it and write about it. My intent from the start was to provide the most objective historical account of events as they transpired. While the research took months of extensive work, it was the latter that proved to be the bigger challenge.

I first came across the events researched in this book while conducting separate research on Denville during World War II. During my interviews about the 1940s and war experiences with the towns senior citizen population, I was told, on a few occasions, about a murder that had occurred in Denville in the 1950s. While it was not my intent to research said event, the frequency of the topic coming up in my interviews and the quaint way in which it was mentioned to me on each occasion led me to this work. I thought, and still do, that out of respect for those involved who are still alive, as well as their family members and the town of Denville itself, publishing the following work should not be taken lightly. It is also the reason why I chose to exclude certain images and the last names of those directly involved. Yet, as I wrestled with this particular aspect of my towns history, my thought kept on returning to my own sons, who will soon be the same age as the boys who grace the pages of this story. It was with them in mind that I decided to uncover a case that has inevitably shaped the town of Denville into the great community it is today. It is, as mentioned before, a cautionary tale of the impulsiveness of youth and the effects that transient decisions have on the rest of our lives, as well as those of our families and our communities.

Denville, New Jersey, is a small town known for its family friendly atmosphere and amazing community. Yet as this research will show, it does also have darker stories to tell. The only surviving file of the Denville Herald, Denvilles newspaper from the 1930s to the 1950slocated in the Denville Public Library in a PDF format and in the Denville Historical Society on microfilmmysteriously omits the pages referring to the following event. While it was widely reported throughout the state and the nation, the people of Denville have chosen to move on from it. In fact, all signs point to the event being deliberately, respectfully and painstakingly hidden in plain sight for over seventy years. I think that we should be proud of our small communities and realize that they have been created from the successes, as well as the hardships and failures, of those who came before us.

As such, I worried that, with todays penchant for true crime and social media, the story would come out sooner or later and for the wrong reasons. I saw it as my duty to the town that I call home to tell a story that hopefully provides enough objectivity and justice to all those involved. It might even vindicate some who have been shamed by others who silently continue to mention the event today without having much perspective or knowledge of what actually transpired. Maybe by bringing this case into the open, we can finally put it to rest and stop the quiet murmurs and rumors that have tormented not only all those involved but also the small town for the past seventy years. Likewise, I hope that young people can take advantage of learning from other peoples mistakes without having to make them themselves.

Peter Zablocki

Denville Historical Society

Denville, New Jersey

February 20, 2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would love to thank my best friend, constant supporter and the person who never fails to push me to be the best version of myself, my wife. She has read numerous drafts of this work, providing suggestions and honest advice along the way. If you enjoy this story, it is because of her, and if you do not, it is because I did not fully heed her advice. I would also like to thank everyone on the board of the Denville Historical Society for welcoming me to their family a few years back and trusting me with the research of our amazing towns history. Thank you for the support and guidance of Vito Bianco, the man who knows so much about Denvilles history that he probably forgot more about it than I could ever dream of learning myself. I would also like to thank the people who read the early drafts of this work and provided pointers, advice, objectivity and food for thought, all of which allowed me to create the work that you now hold in your hands: Kristin Nieto, Mary Miraldi, Christopher Wagner, Maryellen Liddy, Vincent Shivas and Jess Bentley.

Thank you to Thomas C. Schmid, assistant prosecutor at the Morris County Prosecutors Office, who granted me access to the files on which a large portion of this work is based. Likewise, thank you to the late Bob Illig, who had the interest, the drive and the premonition to collect the initial newspaper clippings that began this research.

INTRODUCTION

The story of the Denville 13 revealed itself to historians while conducting research on the town of Denville during World War II. As one of the town historians conducted interviews with people who were around in the 1930s and 1940s, on more than one occasion, he was told of a murder that took place in the town in the early 1950s. While the topic came up on four different occasions, with four different people, what connected all the occurrences was how it was mentioned. In all four cases, the reference to the murder came up after the recording device for the interview was off. One interviewee even asked if it was off before proceeding to mention it. What followed could be described more like an uncovering of the event than a simple research into the past. In fact, in todays digital age, it should not have been as challenging as it was to reconstruct the events of that fateful August day. Why was this not mentioned before? Why do people living in town not know about it? Why do those who do know about it never speak of it out loud? Perhaps the answers lie in the simple fact that it was meant to be forgottenand perhaps deliberately designed to stay that way.