User:Astaire/sandbox/3X murders

3X murders
Location	Queens, New York City, New York, United States
Date	June 1930
Attack type	Murder
Weapons	Firearm
Deaths	2
Perpetrator	Unknown

The 3X murders were two related homicides in the New York City borough of Queens in June 1930. In both murders, an unknown killer fatally shot a man inside a parked car in a lovers' lane, then escorted the victim's female companion to a nearby transit stop. The killer, who sent a series of cryptic, threatening letters to local newspapers and the police, claimed to be part of a secret international organization seeking the return of documents that had been stolen from them by the victims. The murders remain unsolved.

First attack

Events

On the night of Wednesday, June 11, 1930, 39-year-old grocer Joseph Mozynski and 19-year-old Catherine May were in the back seat of a parked car near the Whitestone Landing railway station in Queens. A stranger suddenly approached from the rear of the car and demanded money from the pair. He ordered Mozynski into the car's front seat and shot him twice in the head through the car's open window. The killer dragged Mozynski's body 20 feet away from the car, then forced May outside, raped her, and burned some papers that he found in her possession.^[1][2][3][4]

The man took May to a bus stop two miles away, where they both boarded a bus toward May's home in the College Point neighborhood. While on the bus, he gave her a note, warning her not to open it until the next day. He then got off at the Flushing subway station and disappeared. Frightened and worried about the repercussions for being involved with the married Mozynski, May did not immediately report her ordeal to the authorities.^[1][3][5]

Investigation

When the police found May's bloodstained coat in the car late the next day, she admitted witnessing the shooting and showed her questioners the note she had been given. The paper was roughly 3 by 7 inches and bore a "United States" watermark. A rubber stamp had been used to imprint "Joseph Mozynski" in red ink on the paper's margin. The symbols "3X" were stamped in the note's lower left corner, and the symbols "3-X-097" were stamped in the lower right. May was confident that the killer had not created this note in her presence.^[1][5]

May was initially held as a material witness on $50,000 bail (equivalent to $911,952 in 2023) at the Long Island City prison. She gave officials conflicting stories during the first three days of her interrogation, leading them to suspect her involvement in the crime. A statement she signed named Alberto Lombardo, "an Italian gangster from the Lower East Side of Manhattan," as Mozynski's killer. However, assistant district attorney Stephen Frontera soon stated his belief that Lombardo was not a real person. Police also initially suspected 20-year-old Joseph Moissete, one of May's rejected suitors, who was arrested on a train in Chicago several days after the crime. Moissete explained that he was attending his mother's funeral in California and was cleared of suspicion after the second murder.^[6][7][8]

Second attack

Events

Five days after Mozynski's murder, on the evening of Monday, June 16, 26-year-old Noel Sowley was shot to death inside a parked car in a Queens junkyard. Sowley was accompanied that night by 20-year-old Elizabeth "Betty" Ring, who survived the ordeal.^[2][9][10]

The accounts of Ring and May were strikingly similar in several aspects. Ring reported that a gun-wielding stranger had appeared by the car and demanded Sowley's driver license. After taking Sowley's license, the stranger turned toward the rear of the car and seemed to use his flashlight to send a coded message into the darkness. When Sowley asked what the stranger was doing, he replied that he was signaling his "friends" on a nearby hill that he would not require assistance.^[9] The stranger used his flashlight to examine the car's rear license plate, then walked back to the car window, telling Sowley, "You're the guy we want, all right. You're going to get what Joe got." Ring also remembered that before the shooting the man muttered that he would "kill thirteen men and one woman."^[10] The stranger fired twice, hitting Sowley in the head, and proceeded to search his body. Ring recalled that while searching, the man said something about "$5,000 and the documents." Upon finding a slip of paper, the man cried "I have it!" and placed it in his pocket.^[8][11]

The stranger refrained from sexually assaulting Ring when she pled for mercy and produced a religious pendant. He then took her to Rocky Hill Road. Along the way, Ring recalled that the man was rambling incoherently about documents and secret rings.^[8] At the station, they boarded a bus for the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica. The man rode part of the way there with her, and before disembarking gave her a note similar to the one that he gave May.^[9][10]

Investigation

Police discovered Sowley's body the next day. A 15-year-old Queens boy, Edward Multer, informed the authorities that while walking in the woods near his home, he met a man carrying a bunch of freshly picked dandelions. Seemingly a foreigner, the man told him in broken English that there was "a dead man in a car over there."^[8] Investigators found a newspaper clipping in Sowley's pocket about Mozynski's murder; the clipping contained the words "Here's how" scrawled in pencil on the margin. The murders were also linked by ballistic analysis showing that the soft-nosed bullets from both crime scenes were from the same revolver, which was believed to be .32 caliber and foreign-made.^[12]

Like May, Ring did not report the murder to the authorities, afraid that her involvement would reflect poorly on her patrolman father.^[8] She was brought in for questioning to the Jamaica police station that evening, where she readily admitted her presence at the crime scene and reenacted the previous night's events for investigators.^[9][10]

Victims and witnesses

Joseph Mozynski

39-year-old Joseph Mozynski was the owner of a grocery and delicatessen on the corner of 13th Street and 3rd Avenue in College Point, Queens. He was married to Stella Mozynski.^[13] Mozynski was in possession of a safe deposit box, which was opened after his death and which contained nothing of particular interest.^[14]

Catherine May

At the time of Mozynski's murder, Catherine May was a 19-year-old woman who lived with her parents in College Point. After her arrest, The Washington Post mistakenly reported May's first name as Blanche and said that she was 22 years old.^[3]

Assistant district attorney Stephen Frontera described May as "overdeveloped mentally."^[7] She reportedly kept a diary and enjoyed reading books by philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. She appeared to treat her interrogation casually, bantering with police detectives and correcting their grammar. May was also apparently musically inclined. While at dinner on a break from questioning, she sang and played piano at a nearby restaurant; she also sang through the window while in her cell, alerting reporters to her location. She was represented by attorney Philip Wolinsky, a friend of the May family, during her arrest.^[7]

Noel Sowley

26-year-old Noel Sowley was the chief mechanic for the Cable Radio Tube Corporation. He had lived in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn with three roommates until the beginning of June, when he moved to a summer cottage in the village of Bayville on the North Shore of Long Island. Sowley reportedly enjoyed spending time at the beach, in particular canoeing and motorboating.^[8][10]

Elizabeth Ring

Elizabeth "Betty" Ring was a 20-year-old clerk at a large industrial company at the time of Sowley's murder. The Daily Star newspaper of Queens described her as "small, dark and of frail appearance."^[8] Although she had married Vincent Laustsen in August 1929, she was living apart from her husband in the Queens neighborhood of Hollis with her father David Ring, a patrolman of the 5th Precinct in Manhattan.^[8][13][15] She had met Sowley five years before the murder at a YMCA swimming competition and knew him for two years before losing touch due to a trivial disagreement. The two had run into each other again on June 15 in Bayville, where Ring was staying in her father's summer home, and decided to go on a date the following night.^[8] Two months after Sowley's murder, Ring was served with divorce papers by Laustsen, who charged her with "misconduct" during the marriage.^[15]

Letters

June 13

The first of the killer's letters was sent to the city editor of the New York Evening Journal on Friday, June 13, two days after Mozynski's murder:

Kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozynski's friends: "CC-NY ADCM-Y16a-DQR-PA—241 PM6 Queens." By doing this you may save their lives. We do not want any more shooting unless we have to.^[16]

This brief message was dismissed as a prank and no action was taken.^[16]

June 14

The Evening Journal received a second, longer letter at its offices on Saturday, June 14, one day after the first message. It was judged to have the same handwriting as the first letter and was written on the stationery of Catherine May's workplace, the Civil Service Bureau at College Point.^[17] Police later determined that this letter and the previous letter were both sent from Postal Station A at 661 Broadway in Brooklyn.^[18]

Ref: Mozynski
Queens
Gentlemen: For your information the young lady, Miss C. May, involved in the case is innocent and a victim of unfortunate circumstances. Mozynski was nothing but a rascal—a dirty rat. Not two women as stated in the papers, but six and two young girls, one 14 and one 15, were with him in that same place. I am the agent of a secret international order and when I met Mozynski that night it was to get from him certain documents but unfortunately they were not in his possession at that time.^[16]

The letter also listed the documents sought by the killer and warned that "fourteen more of Mozynski's friends will join him" if they were not returned. It described in detail the murder weapon and ammunition and was signed with a series of mysterious symbols: first an inverted V with an underscore, followed by a second V and three Xs (ΛVXXX). After receiving the letter, the newspaper handed it over to city police.^[17]

June 17

The first letter after Sowley's murder was sent to Queens police inspector John J. Gallagher on Tuesday, June 17. The letter, which was written in blue ink on cheap note paper, was mailed from the Hudson Terminal station in Manhattan at 6:30 p.m., and was enclosed in a long white envelope that had been torn in all four corners. The envelope also contained two .32 caliber shells.^[18]

Inspector J. J. Gallagher, Lieutenant J. Smith.
For your information, one more of J. Mozynski's friends was sent to meet him. V-5 Sowley was shot to death near Floral Park and not very far away from police signal station. I enclose the two empty shells. Some of our money was found on his person and the N. Y. document. The girl was, as in the case of Miss May, put aboard a bus and sent home—but no clues were left for you this time. Thirteen more men and one woman will go if they do not make peace with us and stop bleeding us to death.^[18]

Another letter was sent to the Evening Journal, this one warning of the murderer's plans to kill another victim:^[18]

You have not published the code message sent you—too bad—for your information there is more work for the police now. Tonight at 10 p.m. Sowley was bumped off near Floral Park, not very far away from the police signal station—you will find him near an auto junk pile. We have selected this night to do it, as Mozynski was buried today. This is our second warning. Thirteen more men and a woman will go the same way if they do not return two of the missing papers. The New York document was found on Sowley last night and also some of our money as in the case of Miss C. May. I advise you to publish the code messages for tomorrow one more will go. You may let them know that 3-X is the man behind the gun. He asks for no quarter, but will give none. On June 18 at 9 p.m. I will be at College Point to get W. R. V-8.^[19][8]

June 19

mailed at the Hudson Terminal station in Manhattan.

Dear Sir: I beg to thank you for publishing the code message sent to you.
W. R. V8 of C. P. has returned the Philadelphia XV346 to me tonight after reading your paper—also 37,000 dollars of the blackmail money—thanks to God—if I may use his name.
This means the following persons will be spared:
W. R. V8 College Point.
S 12 College Point.
K 2 Brooklyn.
Z 3 (the woman in question, the tall blond).
M 6 N. Y. C.
XX-V (NYC Police Department detective.)
The following document still is missing—NJ 4-3-44—and 39,000 dollars—for this document, the following people still are marked for death:
X-14, X-21, X-2, L-6, X-7, X1, V-4
All initials withheld—too much of a clue for the super-detectives of Bayside.
Mozynski's number was R9
Sowley's number was X-4
Please print this final message to the seven men left on the death list.
N. J.—CCk-2-33-Av. 3X-Rosmilt-R. P. 49-7.
ΛVXXX
As in the Mozynski case, the girl with Sowley was sent home. She also proved to be an iron woman. I had to put the gun close to her breast to quiet her. She even tried to start the car. But when I told her I would fire she then to my surprise began to say her prayers and to prepare herself for death.
This saved her, as God is the only one I fear, and I could not shoot a woman showing so much courage.
The shooting of Sowley should show it by now and also a second warning to the rest. I know who the other girl is and where she lives, and as she happens to be of good family she has nothing to fear. I never will reveal who she is. As for the detectives and their commanding officer, to my estimate—well, what's the use?
Sorry for them that's a black mark against them. But they never will find out who I am. One word from any one means death or a long term in State or Federal penitentiary. Again thank you for your kindness.
Please do not forget to publish the enclosed message, also the numbers of those who are still marked for death. I will wait to see what will happen. I will not shoot until they decide their fates themselves.^[14]

June 21

now that . In the lengthy, rambling letter, the killer described himself as a former officer in the German army and an assassin working on behalf of the "Red Diamond of Russia", a secret international organization. He claimed that he had been randomly chosen to exact punishment on the victims, one of whom had stolen three valuable documents from the group, and that he would return to Russia

Dear Sir:
The last document, N.J. 4-3-44 returned to us the 19 at 9 P.M. My mission is ended. There is no further cause for worry. I do not know Dr. Williams and the others. The first sign means A, the supreme tribunal of the order. The second V, its special agent. The two combined form the Red Diamond of Russia, a secret organization all over the world. Anyone breaking its rules is marked for death. These men were dismissed for treason. They were all our friends but came in contact with a gang of blackmailers and a drug ring and turned against us. One of them stole the documents mentioned before and they tried to use them for blackmailing our men here. Most of us are soldiers and every nation in the world is represented in our ranks.
Word came to us at the supreme council in Russia of the peril in the U.S. Twelve of us picked one card. Mine was the king of diamonds. I was the one selected to punish, and inflict death if necessary. I have patiently waited. I have warned them all of danger. Instead of heeding the warning they answered me by blackmail. They were requested many times for the return of the papers but refused to surrender them. It was when Mozynski died that they found out who I am. Now it is all over. The documents in question—one is a military document, another is political and the third one just surrendered is commercial.
Who am I? Not much. An ex-German Army officer of the Wilhelmstrasse Office, Berlin, during the war. Now in the service of the Red Diamond of Russia. Yes, the code was addressed to Sowley. Now it is all over. You show me to be brave. Any man who took orders from this 77[th Precinct] is fearless. Your policemen are brave men, only they need training. I was watching them at C.P. [College Point] on the 18th at 9 sharp.
A German officer never breaks his word—yes, right there. Have you heard a plane? It was a monoplane, small, very fast. The plane circled twice over Flushing, C.P., Bayside, then went away. If you did, then you will know I was there. I am called back home, but before going away today I want to say that your women are splendid—courageous. I have been here before, but never had the experience I had this time. I am glad it is over. I have no fish eyes. The police have fish eyes. The case of Miss Catherine May shows it plenty. Both are very nice and brave women, but why the rough treatment of one and the gentle treatment of the other. There your police is wrong. They have always been wrong from beginning to end. That is why they have lost from beginning to end, for two reasons—one I have stated to you. The other, they are too slow.
I am deeply sorry for having stained your country with blood, but let this be a warning to all concerned—treason of one word means death. The next time no mercy will be shown. Death only will be the penalty, but I hope I will not be the one to inflict it next time. We are not maniacs, or bandits, or robbers—robbery never was the motive—and we do not belong to any dope ring. Do not let anyone fool you, if any more letters come they are fakes. I am leaving today on my way back to Russia. Please note I do not write USSR. We do not recognize them. There is no one else to begin trouble. It is settled.
H.P. 12W. A.
This is final. You know what we want you to know. Quiet your people and tell them that 3X is no more.
XXXXXXXX
By
H.P. 12W. A.^[20][21]

Despite the killer claiming to have finished with his "mission," police continued to be on watch, suspecting that the killer was attempting to lull them into complacency.^[22] However, no further crimes were ever credibly linked with the 3X case.

Dubious "3X" activity

Various crimes and threats with possible links to the 3X case continued to be reported during and after the investigations. Some of this activity was determined to be unrelated, and none of it was ever definitively connected to the original murders.

Harold Bridenbach "murder"

Police officers received a message in the early hours of June 19 informing them that the body of a man named Harold Bridenbach could be found somewhere in the Bronx along the Boston road:^[14]

Where is X8W-9? He is already dead. He is on the Boston road. His name is Harold Bridenbach. Find the woman, old man, and you've got me.^[23]

The note was signed in the same way as the killer's other letters, but detectives noticed that the writing was markedly different. Nevertheless, police mounted a full-scale search with more than 1,000 patrolmen and detectives, using any manner of transport from foot and horseback to cars and motorcycle squads.^[14][13] The exhaustive search of the area failed to uncover any bodies, and handwriting analysts believed that the message was counterfeit.^[24] Although the killer's next letter mentioned sparing a man's life after he returned one of the documents, the killer referred to this man as "W.R. V-8," not "X8W-9." Furthermore, investigators could not find anyone named Harold Bridenbach living near the road in question or even in the New York City metropolitan area.^[25]

John Mozynski letter

Joseph Mozynski's brother John, a plumber who lived in Philadelphia, himself received a threatening letter on June 20. The author told him to leave a certain set of papers inside the city's Broad Street train station or face the consequences:

John,
I am here now in Philadelphia. You must have those papers, they're mine. Give them to me by putting them in a newspaper and leaving it back door entrance to men's room, Broad Street station Saturday afternoon. If you don't have them, leave word who has. No foolin' and keep the gumshoe squad off.
I won't be there, someone else will. Mulrooney, N. Y., didn't get me and Schofield won't. I either get those papers or somebody pays dear. C C Phila J M PDQ 3325 as Sat. 6 21 P.M. MNX.
Your last Sat. night—Two more Phila after you if you fail.
V 3 X^[26]

Mozynski's brother denied having any such documents or being acquainted with May, and received police protection for this new threat.^[27] According to the New York Times, Philadelphia detectives believed the handwriting was "identical" to previous letters.^[26] However, other newspapers reported that police believed the Philadelphia letter was a hoax, with "markedly different" handwriting.^[28] The request also seemed not to match the killer's previous messages. In his letter the day before, the killer wrote that "W.R. V-8" had returned the "Philadelphia XV346" document, leaving only the "N. J. 4-3-44" document to be returned.

Meyer Newmark letter

Just two days after the killer's lengthy goodbye letter, Meyer Newmark, a newsdealer living in Brooklyn, received a warning note in the style of 3X on the morning of June 23. The letter, which had been mailed from Long Island City at 4:30 p.m. the previous day, told Newmark that he would be killed on Saturday, June 28 unless he relinquished a certain document:^[29]

AJ-CCK-223
Meyer Newmark—
Evidently you overlooked my constant warnings in the papers. Following document is still in your possession—U. J. 4-3-44.
You will have the document on your person in preparation to deliver to me any morning between now and the following Saturday.
P. S. S.—Do not disclose these facts and oblige 'The Man Behind the Gun.'^[29]

The name of the document mentioned in the note, "U. J. 4-3-44," was almost identical to "N. J. 4-3-44," which the killer claimed had been returned in his final letter. Newmark told police that he did not have any such document. Although the handwriting appeared similar to the killer's, detectives noticed that the note's signature was simply 3-X, missing the characteristic V symbols of previous letters.^[30][31] Police reportedly did not place much credence in Newmark's letter.^[29]

Edna Sanchez threats

The offices of Queens borough president George U. Harvey received several menacing phone calls in late June from an individual claiming that he was the 3X killer. The caller, who spoke to Harvey's personal secretary Edna Sanchez, initially claimed that he had "something important to tell Mr. Harvey about government matters" and that he wanted to speak with Harvey on a private connection. Sanchez told him to call back later and reported the incident to the city. When the man tried again later that day, police detective Thomas Devery impersonated Harvey and had a conversation with the caller, allowing the police to trace the call to the intersection of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. Detectives arrested a suspect outside a nearby cigar store. However, Sanchez and Devery agreed that the caller and the suspect were two different people. Although the caller had a foreign accent, the suspect spoke perfect English.^[32]

A day later, Sanchez received another phone call from apparently the same man. He told her that she made the wrong choice by notifying the police and warned her that "you'll hear from me again." The final message to Sanchez came the next day, when the speaker again identified himself as the 3X killer and said that he was "going to get [her] next." The last two calls were too short for investigators to trace the caller's location. Police presence at Harvey's offices was increased as a result of the threats.^[33]

Later letters

Various messages purportedly from the 3X killer received attention over the next year, though none was ever linked to a crime. The New York Evening Journal, which had already been sent multiple letters from the 3X killer in June, received another purported 3X letter on October 3. The author wrote that he would soon end the lives of two more people, one in New York and one in New Jersey. Claiming that he had already captured his victims, the author stated that he was exacting revenge on the two men for killing "officers and men" in the secret organization to which he belonged. He also warned of "serious labor troubles" that would begin soon in the area, writing: "When it comes watch your powder magazines in New Jersey."^[34] The letter continued on to threaten reporters at the Evening Journal for covering the 3X case, warning them that "further mention of 'necker' or 'petter' killer must be discontinued at your own interest." The author apologized "if my letters seem incoherent to you," placing blame on "my very limited knowledge of the English language" and suggesting that "I could write in German in the future, if you want." In a postscript, he also apologized for his poor handwriting: "Excuse writing, but have met with accident and my hand is in bandage."^[34]

Four months later, in February 1931, the Evening Journal received yet another letter supposedly from the 3X killer. The author apologized for not fulfilling his last promise to carry out a killing and announced that he would kill more people in the future, writing: "I warned you of troubles. You have already had plenty. You are due for more, far worse than you have had." Police believed that the letter was authentic.^[35]

One of the last hints of 3X activity was a June 1931 letter sent to chief inspector John O'Brien of the New York Police Department. The letter, dated June 23 at 10 p.m. with a postmark from Pittsburgh, boasted about committing a murder and warned that another would soon take place:^[36]

Ha! Ha! In my own little efficient way I have removed another undesirable from this world. A Pittsburgh girl between 18 and 25 is next. Tell Pittsburgh police to watch out for me and try to catch me.^[36]

Detectives reported that the letter's return address, 88 North Fairmount Avenue, did not exist.^[36]

Confirmed impostors

Morris Horwitz attack

On the evening of June 19, 1930, insurance firm president Morris Horwitz was sitting inside his car in front of his Brooklyn house, chatting with his wife through the car's open window. A "wild-eyed, crazy-looking man" approached the car, drew a pistol, and told Horwitz to start driving. He then entered the car, sitting up front next to Horwitz. Frustrated with Horwitz's slowness, the attacker hit him in the forehead with the butt of his pistol, then shot at him and fled. Horwitz, who survived the bullet entering his abdomen, remembered the attacker as a blond man in a dark suit, measuring roughly 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. Although the shooting was initially reported as another 3X attack, police officials could not find any clues to link the gunman with the 3X killer.^[14][25] After receiving Horwitz's full description of the shooter, they concluded that it had no connection with the original murders.^[37]

Rebecca Hirsch "attacks"

35-year-old housewife Rebecca Hirsch claimed that she had been the victim of a home invasion by a young man who entered her Brooklyn residence on June 23, 1930 looking for jewelry to steal. She told police that the robber had bound her hands and attempted to light her clothes on fire before she managed to fight him off.^[38] Two days later, Hirsch reported that she was walking on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn when someone threw a note at her from the window of a taxi. The menacing letter was signed "Maniac" and contained a sketch of the Moon alongside two X marks.^[39][40]

In January 1931, Hirsch was rescued from the burning bathroom of the book bindery where she worked. She was found bound and gagged with a skull fracture and the letter "M" scratched on her chest. A nearby note signed "3-X Maniac" triumphantly claimed that Hirsch "will not struggle any more."^[41] However, a week later Hirsch admitted under questioning that she had faked both attacks herself in an effort to get sympathy and attention from her estranged husband.^[42]

Hector Avallone murder

Hector Avallone, an agent for the Prudential Insurance Company, was shot in the Bronx on July 24, 1930 by a gunman in an attempted holdup, later dying in the hospital.^[43][44] A note purportedly from the 3X killer claimed responsibility for the crime, stating that Avallone had returned a forged document instead of the original one and threatening two more future murders.^[45] Police graphologists later determined the note to be fake, believing that the message was intended to distract detectives from the true killer. Ballistic analysis also confirmed that bullets found in Avallone's body did not match those found at the original crime scenes.^[46][47]

Investigation

Manhunt

In his letter after Sowley's death, the killer warned that he next planned to "get" someone referred to as "W. R. V-8" in the College Point neighborhood on the night of June 18. Two thousand uniformed police, along with 425 detectives, were mobilized to hunt for traces of the killer throughout the night, leaving only a skeleton crew in the rest of the city. The search was the largest manhunt in the history of New York City up to this point.^[18] The hunt also attracted several thousand curious onlookers to the neighborhood, who spent the evening milling about on the sidewalk waiting for any sign of activity.^[13]

Patrolmen, detectives, and squads of motorcycles and automobiles were deployed along lovers' lanes and other less frequently trafficked areas in Queens, while plainclothes police officers rode on public transit searching for possible suspects. A number of decoy cars occupied by detectives and policewomen attempted to lure the killer out of hiding.^[24] At least four suspects were taken into custody during the manhunt, but police detectives and Ring concluded that none of them was the killer.^[13][18] Police suspected that the killing promised in the letter was a "ruse" intended to draw attention to a different area of the city.^[13]

At the height of the investigation in late June, it was estimated that the city was spending $10,000 per day (equivalent to $182,390 in 2023) on the manhunt, including police salaries, automobile rentals, and meals and transportation.^[48] On July 8, police commissioner Edward P. Mulrooney announced that he was withdrawing the last 200 men guarding Queens, believing that the killer had fled the area.^[49]

Witness descriptions

Soon after Sowley's murder, the police assembled and distributed a description of the killer based on May and Ring's statements. Both women agreed that the description appeared accurate.^[8]

The maniac who committed two murders in cold blood and has "promised" to take another life in College Point tonight is described by the authorities as being a man of slight build, five feet six inches in height and weighing about 125 pounds.
He is about forty years old; his face is lined and the skin is drawn tightly over his sunken cheeks. His lips are large, and his eyes are small and squinty. At the time he murdered Noel Sowley Monday night he was dressed in a dark suit, which was unpressed and shabby. A dark fedora hat, turned down in front, was drawn tightly over his forehead.
He had two emblems or buttons, one in each lapel. The police describe one as being a "St. Christopher medal" and the other is said to indicate his membership in an expert marksman's club.
He speaks with a heavy foreign accent but his writing and the choice of his English shows that he is possessed of a good, at least a fair education.^[8]

Another description was distributed to police participating in the June 18 manhunt, demonstrating the variations between May and Ring's recollections:

(A) Forty years old, 5 feet 6 inches, 125 pounds, pale complexion, wrinkled face, dark clothes, dark gray soft hat, speaks with foreign accent.
(B) Thirty years old, 6 feet, 165 pounds, thin face, sunken cheeks, lanky build. Little hump on bridge of nose. Small eyes, thick lips, peculiar teeth, wore black suit, black bow tie, white shirt, soft white collar and black fedora hat, with telescope brim. Speaks with accent indicating German extraction. Wore a small round bronze button on left lapel of coat marked "Rifle Association."^[18]

Yet another police description described the man's accent as "Italian or Polish".^[13]

Psychological profile

Commissioner Mulrooney initially believed that the 3X killer was a "religious maniac of the most violent homicidal type," due to the killer's targeting of young couples in lovers' lanes and his lenient reaction when Ring made a religious sign.^[10] Since Sowley's murder occurred less than a mile from the Creedmoor State Hospital for the Insane, police also focused their search on asylum inmates and escapees. May and Ring examined all 1,934 inmates of the Creedmoor asylum, but were unable to find anyone resembling the killer.^[18] Soon after news of Sowley's murder, one psychiatrist concluded based on newspaper reports that if the 3X killer were insane, he would be diagnosed with paraphrenia based on his interest in symbols and signs and his delusions of persecution.^[50] Another psychiatrist, Dr. Raymond Kieb, believed that the killer suffered from paranoia due to his "craving for publicity" and his attempts to rationalize his actions.^[51]

Unconfirmed reports

A number of unconfirmed sightings of suspicious individuals surfaced in the wake of the killings of Mozynski and Sowley. On June 21, two couples in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, one in an apartment hallway and one on a rooftop, separately described seeing a man watching them from a distance. The man was reportedly a close match to descriptions of the 3X killer. Police shifted their attention from College Point to Brooklyn after the reports.^[22]

The next day, on Sunday, June 22, a family picnicking in the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica reported that they were approached by a middle-aged woman who asked them for a ride to Manhattan. After eating a sandwich, the woman walked off into the woods, revealing that she was wearing men's trousers under her skirt. The family also remembered that the woman "walked with a mannish gait" and covered part of her face with a large straw hat. Police regarded this report as "highly important," theorizing that the killer could be posing as a woman in order to send letters undetected.^[51]

Also on June 22, 40-year-old vagrant Dewey Ede told police in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that he had spent the previous day traveling with the 3X killer. Ede said that he had met the man while eating lunch at a restaurant 15 miles east of Coatesville, and that together they walked to a culvert where they spent the night. Ede's companion, who matched the eyewitness descriptions of Ring and May, reportedly told him that he had been "selected from the Red Diamond of Russia for a secret mission in America," that he had killed Mozynski and Sowley, and that he would be returning to Europe via Harrisburg and New Orleans. However, police officials found Ede's story hard to believe, and Harrisburg detectives reported that no one matching the killer's description had arrived in the city by Monday.^[52][53]

Suspects

Joseph Ustica

One of investigators' early suspects was Joseph Ustica, a World War I veteran who had escaped from Kings Park State Asylum in East Islip, Long Island a month before the murders. Ustica had been declared insane after his 1928 arrest for killing Brooklyn contractor William Gilbride, and was thereafter interned at Kings Park. He reportedly believed that he had an urgent mission to protect women and to recover a certain set of mysterious documents, and also made threats in the name of an international society. May and Ring, who were shown photographs of Ustica, believed that he bore some resemblance to the killer but could not make a positive identification.^[54][55] However, detectives visiting the Kings Park asylum dropped their interest in the suspect after Ustica's description failed to match the killer's.^[14] In addition, a psychiatrist at the Creedmore asylum argued that Ustica could not read or write English and would therefore be unable to compose the killer's letters.^[56]

Ustica was at large until 1932, when he voluntarily returned to Kings Park. He was later discharged as sane, after which he was put on trial for Gilbride's murder in 1933. The case was dismissed after the prosecution's key witness modified her story during the trial.^[57][58]

Joseph Oswald Clark

On June 20, 40-year-old Joseph Oswald Clark, another asylum escapee, was arrested by Philadelphia police and transported to New York. Clark had been on the run since June 1929, when he broke out of the Creedmore state hospital. In his residence, detectives found a typewriter and mimeograph that he used to write "harmless" letters to individuals in New York City and Philadelphia, alerting them to the poor conditions at the asylum.^[59][60] After Ring rejected Clark as a suspect, he was reportedly taken to Kings Park and then back to Creedmore.^[61][62]

Sidney Buchan

Rev. John Vanderveer Cooper, a minister at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, informed police that the 3X letters' handwriting resembled that of a past parishioner and worker at the church. The man, named as Sidney Buchan, was a former Secret Service agent who had disappeared from the church two months earlier after having paranoid delusions that members of an international conspiracy were plotting against him. Although Ring was uncertain about Buchan's involvement after viewing his picture, detectives found and interrogated the suspect but concluded that he was not involved in the killings.^[63][64][65]

Cooper later received a threatening delivery on June 23. The package, which had been mailed from Philadelphia and was signed "V3X," contained a piece of rope and a card telling him "Use this now or I will get you next."^[65] After going to the police, who placed his home under protection, Cooper received another letter on June 28. Signed "3X" and "Sidney Buchan," the note told Cooper to meet the author at 510 W. 90th Street in Manhattan:

You received a box with a rope in it and a note saying 'do it now,' but you got the cops.
This is a death threat and a final warning.
Tomorrow at 6 p.m. If I am not there, it means that I am delayed by some threadwork for other people. Don't be there with policemen, or you'll get it worse. Don't forget. Yours—3X 3X 45X.^[66]

Police attended the meeting in place of Cooper, but they found that the address was fictitious.^[66]

Nicholas LaRoche

38-year-old sexton Nicholas LaRoche of Mount Vernon, the last of the police's major early suspects, was taken to police headquarters in Manhattan on June 24. Ring had identified LaRoche in a rogues gallery due to his previous narcotics convictions, believing that he resembled the murderer. LaRoche's handwriting, obtained from a forged prescription, also resembled the killer's penmanship. After viewing LaRoche in a police lineup, May and Ring took more than 30 minutes to decide that he had not committed the murders, believing that the gunman had a darker complexion.^[48]

Aaron Blattman

Police returned to the 3X case in August when 38-year-old court aide Aaron Blattman was arrested leaving a telephone booth in the Bronx. Blattman, who was held as a material witness in the case, was a fingerprint expert who had previously testified in several city trials. Although May and Ring were certain that Blattman was not the killer, investigators suspected him of making a series of anonymous phone calls to the police which claimed that the speaker had crucial information about the murders. While under interrogation, Blattman claimed that he knew who had killed Mozynski, but did not reveal the killer's identity. Police also found a variety of newspaper clippings about the 3X case during a search of Blattman's residence.^[67][68]

Blattman was released after eight days, still denying that he had placed the anonymous phone calls.^[69] He later filed a suit against police officials, seeking $100,000 in damages (equivalent to $1,823,904 in 2023) for the "great mental worry and harassment" he claimed to have suffered.^[70] In November, he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a court officer and removed from the city payroll.^[71][72]

Frank Engel

Six years after the murders, the 3X case reappeared in newspaper headlines with the June 1936 arrest of 30-year-old Frank Engel for disorderly conduct in Elizabethtown, New York. During questioning, Engel, a resident of College Point, told police that he was the 3X killer. Officials doubted his story, not least because the 6-foot, 175-pound Engel did not match witness descriptions of the gunman.^[73] May's mother and neighbors were also skeptical because May had grown up with Engel in College Point and would therefore have recognized him.^[74] He was taken to Queens, where May and Ring failed to connect him with the killer, and committed to the Creedmore asylum a week later.^[75][76]

Legacy

Seven years later, the 3X murders reentered the public consciousness for their similarity to the "lipstick murders" of October 1937. The victims, Frances Hajek and Louis Weiss, were a young couple who were stabbed and shot to death inside their car, which had been parked in a lovers' lane in Queens. Both victims were found with red circles drawn on their foreheads using Hajek's lipstick tube. Like the 3X case, the murders of Hajek and Weiss remain unsolved.^[77][78]

The 3X case has drawn comparisons to the later Son of Sam murders in New York City and the Zodiac Killer murders of northern California, several of which also took place in lovers' lanes. Like "Son of Sam," the 3X killer seemed to enjoy media attention, regularly informing the press about his thoughts and activities.^[79] The 3X killer also employed enigmatic codes and signed his letters with a distinguishing symbol, like the Zodiac.^[80]

The attention received by the 3X case, along with similar cases such as the Texarkana Moonlight Murders, may have indirectly contributed years later to the spread of "The Hook," a popular urban legend dating to the 1950s about a young couple parked in a lovers' lane who are pursued by an escaped serial killer.^[81][82]

Notes

References

• Mauder, Jack G. (June 1940). "The 3 X Murders". The American Mercury: 222–228.
• Nash, Jay Robert (1998). Terrorism in the 20th Century: A Narrative Encyclopedia from the Anarchists, through the Weathermen, to the Unabomber. New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc.
• Newton, Michael (2009). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes. New York: Infobase Publishing.