The Mysterious Christmas Burning of the Hotel Denmark's Housekeeper
CALL 888-MURDERY, that's 888-687-3379 to share YOUR Kinda Murdery story and inspire an episode of the show.
Sources:
Various primary articles from newspapers.com. Papers and article titles named in episode narrative.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/kinda-murdery-true-crime-murder-stories--5496890/support.
Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of
violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening
now. True crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish, the
strange in the darkly comic. I'm Zevan Odelberg, host of kind of Murdery,
a podcast that's about more than just murder. It's my very own pocket
dimension, home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories, the unsolved,
the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long
as it's kind of murdery. That's right. Just like it says in the
intro, this is kind of murdery. I am Zevan Odelberg, and I
am also very happy that you're here. Let's get straight to it. I
got something to read to you, and we're going to talk about it a
little bit. This from the Coshocton Morning Tribune. Cashockton is a city in
Ohio. On Thursday, December twenty eighth, nineteen sixteen, headline New Jersey,
Inn, Jersey spelled without the Eve, by the way, just j
E R s y New Jersey, Inn. The scene of weird murder Dover,
New Jersey, December twenty seventh. A murder is dark and weirdly uncanny
as any fiction, was unfolded to authorities here today. The story is three
days old which has been kept locked up in the breast of a country hotel
keeper and a coroner. Thomas W. Murphy spelled Mr. Fey, but
it's Murphy, proprietor of the Lake Denmark Hotel, was awakened on Christmas Eve
by a scratching outside his door. He opened it and on the floor of
the hallway lay his house key for Lillian Green. She was moaning painfully.
She was stark naked, and on her body were blotches of terrible burns.
Why you're all burned, said Murphy. No, just scorched, she said,
and died. Murphy told the authorities. Green had gone out to meet
a friend whom he did not know. Early that evening. He heard nothing,
he said, until the scratching came outside his door. No footsteps were
heard coming and going, and the six dogs which he had in the kennel
just outside the hotel, were silent all night. It would have been impossible,
he said, for anyone to have brought the woman without his hearing them.
Authority said it would have been equally impossible for the woman to have walked
more than a half dozen steps. Her feet were burned horribly. Okay,
what the heck? Right, It's late at night on Christmas Eve or early
in the morning, and the owner of a hotel in a small town in
New Jersey, here's a scratching outside his door. Is it jolly old Saint
Nicholas. Well, no, it's not. He opens the door to find
his mostly nude housekeeper horribly burned, and when he says, oh, my
gosh, my dear, you're horribly burned, she says, no, I'm
just scorched, and then she croaks, what is going on here? Well,
we're going to talk about it. We're going to try to figure it
out. So please do join me as we together uncover what truths we can
and solve what mysteries we may. Kind of Murderer's Investigation of the truth behind
the mysterious burning of the hotel Denmark's Housekeeper starts now. All right, So
it's worth noting here that news reporting in nineteen sixteen didn't work quite like it
does today, which is mostly to say that it wasn't nearly as instantaneous or
homogenized. It may have been equally hyperbolic an outlandish. Though. Today I'll
be telling you the story of Lillian Green aka Elsie Green, alternately reported as
being either thirty four or forty six years of age, the housekeeper at the
Hotel Denmark in Dover, New Jersey. And I'll be telling you this story
through the lens of just two days, just two days worth of newspaper articles,
either from December twenty seventh or December twenty eighth, because remember, like
some kind of god awful stocking stuffer, Lillian was discovered burned to death on
Christmas Eve. The article I read you in the Open was published on December
twenty eighth in Coshocton, Ohio. Let's move now to a day earlier and
a good site closer to home. This is an account of the same awful
discovery published in the Ashbury Park Press out of Ashbury, New Jersey, on
Wednesday, December twenty seventh, nineteen sixteen. The main thing it has in
common with the Ohio article is one hell of an evocative headline. This one's
entitled burned and nude, she meets death. Subtitled woman found dying in vestibule
of hotel near Dover provides deep mystery. Found with her body blackened by burns
and devoid of clothing. Miss Elsie Green, thirty four, manager for twelve
years of the Lake Denmark Hotel at Lake Denmark near Dover, New Jersey,
died early yesterday in the Dover Hospital, leaving no clue in one of the
deepest mysteries that Morris County has known. Murder is suspected. The woman was
found unconscious by her employer, Thomas W. Murphy, just before daybreak yesterday
and the vestibule of the hotel. There were no signs of fire in or
about the hotel. Coroner Totten of Dover says no ashes adhered to the victim's
skin. Mister Murphy, who conducts the hotel, said he was awakened soon
after four a m. Yesterday by a pounding on the front door. He
threw on a bath robe and hastened downstairs, passing through the dimly lighted reception
room to the front door. He opened the inner door of the vestibule,
and stepping toward the outer doors, he stumbled over Miss Green's body. The
shock of the discovery unnerved Murphy, who was more than sixty years old.
He hastily withdrew to the reception room. Having regained self possession, he lighted
a lantern and went back into the vestibule. When he failed to get any
response from the woman, he phoned to doctor W. S. Costello of
Dover. In less than an hour, the physician arrived. Mister Murphy,
meantime, had obtained clothing and Miss Green had been carried to her room.
She was still unconscious. While the physician applied treatment, the hotel keeper kept
phoning in an effort to get an automobile. A neighbor finally sent one,
and doctor Costello and his patient were hurried into the Dover hospital. Efforts there
to save her life were in vain. Detectives have been unable to trace Miss
Green's movement after she left the hotel Christmas night. The coroner said the skin
on her trunk, arms, and part of her face was blackened, as
if the woman had fallen into a wood fire. Miss I had long been
known to the residence about the lake as Billie. She liked the loneliness of
the countryside and enjoyed herself fishing and gunning. When not busy about the hotel.
She was a first rate rifle shot and was a close friend of Annie
Oakley, the famous markswoman whoa like Annie gets Your Gun Annie Oakley. This
was now not just a hotel housekeeper, but a close bosom friend of the
most famous and infamous female sharpshooter in the history of the American West. Damn,
this story is getting good. I mean, I hope you guys can
take these sorts of caveats for granted. But obviously the events occurring in the
story are terrible. But the details are getting juice here, I mean already
pretty juicy. Mysteriously burned to death, naked woman knocking on the door on
Christmas Eve, and now she turns out to be a sharpshooter and a friend
of Annie Oakley. My my, my, But what the heck happened to
her? And how did she end up outside the boss's door? If you'll
recall in the first start, when Murphy commented on her burns, Green was
said to reply, I'm just scorched, and then she died on the spot,
and Murphy was truly flummixed because there was no way somebody could have entered
the hotel without him hearing. But apparently her feet were so badly burned there
was no way she could have walked herself to his front door either. And
now, in this next telling of the story, which was actually published a
day earlier than the first one I read. But remember it was published in
the local newspaper and there was no Internet yet, so it makes some sense
that near by Ashbury Park, New Jersey, would have the story before they
got it in Ohio. But in this story you just heard, she doesn't
even die at the hotel, let alone, right after uttering the famous I'm
just scorched words. No, she hangs on and then is taken by the
neighbor's car to the hospital and dies there. So again, what's the deal?
How did she get burned? Where? Why did she die? Let's
see if we can figure it out. Here's a brief column from the twenty
seventh of December, this one printed in the Evening Review out of Bayonne,
New Jersey, entitled woman's death is shrouded in mystery. Here's the relevant bit.
It was alleged that there was no fire at Murphy's Denmark Hotel, that
miss Green had not been there that night, and that her bed had not
been slept in. There was a fire, however, at the Hotel Erskins
at Lake Hoppatong, about nine miles from Lake Denmark. I hope I pronounced
that right, Lake Hoppatong. If anybody lives near Lake Happatong or Bayone or
Dover, New Jersey, please do reach out to the show kind of Murdery
at gmail dot com, at kind of Murdery on all social media where you
can call the kind of Murdery hot line eighty eight Murdery. That's eighty to
eighty six to eighty seven three three seven nine. Feel free to correct me
on that pronunciation. So, anyway, back on track, there was no
fire at the Hotel Denmark, but there was a fire at the Hotel Erskins
at Lake hopatan about nine miles from Lake Denmark, and the authorities are working
on the theory that miss Green may have been burned in that fire and brought
by automobile to Murphy's hotel and they're left to be discovered. Okay, so
whoa, I think we're working on a conspiracy of some kind here where she
was terribly burned at a different hotel and a different hotel fire and then driven
through the freezing winds of a crisps eve night back to the hotel Denmark and
dumped on the front steps like a tragically abandoned baby. That's the theory,
now, all right, Well, that is a theory that is for sure
now. The Patterson, New Jersey Morning Call on the same day also carried
an article entitled woman's death shrouded in mystery, and also floated this theory that
perhaps Willian Green aka Elsie, had not been injured at the Denmark, but
had received her ultimately fatal burns about nine miles away in another town at another
competing lake resort hotel called the Erskine. The difference here, though, is
the Morning Call has a few more details to support this idea than the Bayonne
paper did. Let's take a look at what they have to say this from
the Morning Call out of Patterson. The police first thought the case of murder.
Investigation later led them to believe that the housekeeper had set her clothing on
fire in the hotel and ran out in the snow to extinguish the flames.
This theory was shattered by the failure of the police to find any trace of
her clothing about the place. Efforts are now being made to link the discovery
of the dying woman with a fire, probably of incendiary origin, which destroyed
the Hotel Erskine near Lake Hopatong on Saturday night. The theory that miss Green
was burned at the Hotel Erskine and brought back to the Lake Denmark is being
considered, but is entirely uncircumstantial evidence. All of the persons in the hotel
Erskins escaped, but none saved their clothing. Okay, wait, are they
saying that the fact that she was burned at the Hotel Erskins is supported by
the fact that everyone who escaped the Hotel Erskins had all their clothing burned Also,
so a bunch of naked people came running out of the hotel fire at
the Hotel Erskins. Or are they just saying that all her clothes were burned
and everybody's clothes were burned at the Hotel Erskins, but everybody else had their
clothes on, just not Elsie slash Lillian. I'm not sure what else do
they have to support this burned somewhere else and dumped at the Denmark theory.
Let's see, it says this theory that nobody at the Erskins managed to save
their clothes, just like Lillian Green. Elsie Green is strengthened by a story
told by Murphy. He said that he and miss Green were alone in the
Lake and Mark Hotel on Saturday afternoon that would have been Christmas Eve, that
he Murphy had fallen on the ice while skating and went to bed. So
sixty year old hotel year Thomas Murphy was spending a nice Christmas Eve Saturday just
skating on the lake. Okay, he must have been quite the hale and
hearty fellow. So Murphy falls on the ice. This is the supporting evidence
for the idea that she was burned at a different hotel. He'd fallen on
the ice while skating, hurt himself, and he went to bed. Shortly
after he laid down, he said he heard miss Green go out, slamming
the door behind her. Murphy fell asleep, and in the early hours of
Christmas Eve morning, he heard the door open again with a slam. There
was a noise as that caused by a falling body and groans. He ran
down the stairs and found Miss Green dying. Prosecutor Read said tonight that he
had not obtained any definite clues, but that the investigation of the case would
be pressed until some solution to the mystery is found. So this idea of
burned at the hotel Erskin is supported by the fact that after taking his lumps
ice skating, Murphy heard from his bedroom Lillian Green's comings and goings. Perhaps
there's an assumption here that because she was a hotel housekeeper, that she had
friends among the staff at the other hotel that she wanted to spend the holiday
with. That certainly sounds plausible, and that she must have left and gone
to the Erskine got caught in the fire. That seems to be what's implied.
The only part of this particular chain of circumstantial evidence that I am a
hard time buying is that a sixty year old man in nineteen sixteen, when
sixty was a whole hell of a lot older than it is today, was
spending his Christmas Eve ice skating. But maybe I'm just unfamiliar with exactly how
hale and hardy the wintertime jerryatrics in New Jersey tend to be, so just
quickly recapping where we are so far. At first, we had a forty
six year old hotel housekeeper named Lillian Green, who was mysteriously burned showed up
on her boss's doorstep naked on Christmas Eve. He said, my gosh,
my dear, you're all burned. She said no, I'm just scorched,
and she died right in front of him. Then that became a thirty four
year old housekeeper named actually, no, not housekeeper, excuse me, a
thirty four year old hotel manager named Elsie Green who happened to be a great
outdoors woman and a sharpshooter and a dear bosom buddy of Annie Oakley. And
then in the next iteration, we're back to Lillian. She's older again.
She's a housekeeper again. This time she received fatal injuries off the premises,
and then her body was brought back to the Hotel Denmark and dumped. Nobody
much seems to suspect mister Murphy. Honestly, I don't even suspect mister Murphy.
He's been too busy working on his triple Salcow apparently. So let's see
if we can get to the bottom of this, Shelly, What really happened
in the case of the mysterious Christmas burning of the Hotel Denmark's housekeeper. Hold
on, Now, what do we have here? This from the Atlantic City
Daily Press on the twenty eighth, and it says many people living in the
vicinity of the hotel, including mister Murphy, who had employed miss Green as
his housekeeper for several years past, believe that she was lured from the hotel
by some unknown party and taken to some place where she met with foul play.
Okay, so now we're back to maybe she was burned at the hotel
erskin, or maybe something more nefarious was happening. But I think it's also
worth noting here that mister Murphy in particular has an extremely vested interest in no
one having died violently on his premises, in his building, or even on
his property. He doesn't want a black mark on his hotel or superstitious people
staying away. So as much as he may have loved Miss Green or thought
she was a wonderful employee, it would be far more convenient for him,
even if he's not the murderer, for her to have not died on his
premises. Here we go. It says they believe she was lured from the
hotel by some unknown party and taken to some place where she met with foul
play. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that the majority of miss Green's
personal effects, including a bag which Murphy alleges who have contained a hundred dollars,
are missing well the cloth thickens. By the way, one hundred in
nineteen sixteen was almost twenty eight hundred dollars almost three grand today, so not
an insignificant amount of money for a housekeeper to be carrying around with her.
It also says here that apparently miss Green had told several persons who were guests
of the hotel that she had received an invitation from a brother who resided in
Newark to spend the holidays in that city, but so far no trace of
her brother has been found. Whoa she was murdered by her brother for the
hundred dollars, then her clothes were burned off her and he drove her back
to her place of employment and dumped her body there on Christmas Eve? Is
that what they're saying? Disgracious? It seems to me that all the reporters
on this case are just banking on the basic assumption that no one who reads
their article has read anything else about the case up to that point. And
something that's pretty remarkable about that particular assumption is, as I mentioned at the
top of today's episode, every article that I'm sharing with you was published on
one of two days, either December twenty seventh or December twenty eight. So
these wild swings in opinion or rapid development or rolling back of theories and evidence,
we're all occurring within twenty four to forty eight hours of each other.
I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm about ready for the
definitive version of this story. I'm not saying necessarily it's the truth, but
the narrative that the authorities ultimately land upon, and for that going to return
to the Patterson, New Jersey Morning Call on Thursday, December twenty eighth,
nineteen sixteen, and the headline Miss Green died accidental death. Clothing took fire
from lighted candle in her bedroom. Street clothes found, shoes and other apparel
were in hallway. Woman was preparing for bed when the accident occurred. No
evidence of foul play was discovered in the investigation. While it is still uncertain
how Miss Green's clothing became ignited, there was found unmistakable evidence that she was
in the corridor on the second floor of the hotel when the accident occurred.
Here, the county officials found the baseboard along the side of the corridor was
blistered by flames, and small particles of burned clothing carried by the flames were
found on the sidewalls and ceiling in both the hall and the bathroom. Detective
Brennan also gathered an envelope full of charred fragments of clothing from the floor in
the walls. No large pieces of Miss green clothing, however, were found
that had been in contact with the flames. The prosecutor and detective questioned mister
Murphy for more than an hour, going over every part of the inside of
the house and inspecting the various buildings on the premises. After going over the
ground thoroughly, the officials came to the conclusion that Miss Green was preparing for
bed and had passed too closely to a candle set upon the floor, that
her night dress had ignited, and that her cries an attempt to put the
fire out is what awakened mister Murphy. It is thought that Miss Green may
have inhaled some of the smoke and the flames because she apparently asked Murphy for
water before she died and drank six glasses in a row and then expired.
Lillian Green's burial took place today, Thursday, December twenty eighth at Ridgeley Park,
Pennsylvania, where her father was buried. Besides her brother in Newark,
Miss Green is survived by her mother and another brother, William Green, of
Pittsburgh. So perhaps, and if you want an apology, you can have
one from me. The actual outcome of this story is certainly anticlimactic. But
I had a heck of a time, a heck of a good time,
I should say, gum shoeing my way through it because it started so absolutely
salaciously. And really, what I did today is I just gave you guys
the play by play experience of investigating this story through primary document, primary source
newspaper articles and uncovering the truth, or at least the truth that the officials
were satisfied with the official narrative, which is cought her dress on fire with
a candle trying to read in her bedroom, burned herself up so bad that
she died tragically, and that was really all there was to it. They
decided it wasn't nearly as bone chilling and spine tingling and thriller murder mystery as
it appeared at first, But I still had a great time on raveling those
clues, and I hope you did too. Until next time, I'm Zevian
Odelberg, and this has been kind of murdering,
Apple Podcasts
Castbox
Castro
Goodpods
Moon FM
Overcast
Pocket Casts
Podbean
Podcast Addict
Podcast Republic
Spotify