I am an avid genealogist. The past is very important to me. I spend a lot of time in cemeteries photographing tombstones to upload on the website FindAGrave.
I enjoy recognizing long dead people by putting memorials to them online. However, every once and a while something grabs me about a specific grave. It could be the name, or the dates or a ceramic photo. In those cases, I feel compelled to dig a little deeper. That's what this series of blogs is about: The tales behind those graves. Some of my subjects will be heroes. Some will be villains. Some will be victims. And some will linger in between, like most of us. However, don't be surprised if the tales are inherently tragic. These are grave tales. They all end in death.
For this tale I returned once again to Ohr Knesseth Israel Anshe Sfard Cemetery. It is one of my favorite cemeteries and the final resting place of many fascinating characters. I have no idea what drew me to the grave of Yetta Palatnik. There was no photograph of the deceased. Nothing written on the tombstone indicated a life cut short. Sixty seems young to us now, but that was not necessarily so in 1934. Nothing bespoke tragedy, aside from the normal sadness that accompanies every death. Still, I felt compelled to look her up. I found a mystery, but to me the mystery was why was it considered a mystery.
The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 09 October 1934, Tuesday:
4-STORY FALL KILLS
WIDOW AT JOHNS HOPKINS
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60-Year-Old Woman's Body
Found in Alley Below Window
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NURSE SAW PATIENT
HALF-HOUR EARLIER
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Was Being Treated For
Lacerations of Head
And Throat
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Discovered to be missing from her room on the fourth floor of the Halsted Building at the Johns Hopkins Hospital at 3 o'clock this morning, the body of Mrs. Etta Palatnik, 60-year-old widow, was found crumpled in an alleyway directly below the window by hospital attendants who had organized a search. She was taken to the accident room and there pronounced dead.
The woman, who lived in a room at 1528 East Baltimore street and who was being treated for severe lacerations of the head and throat said by her to have been inflicted by a "machine" was last seen at 2.25 A.M.by Miss Lancy Kinsey, a nurse. Miss Kinsey said that Mrs. Palatnik apparently was sleeping when she saw her at that time. At 3 o'clock when she again entered her room, the patient was missing.
Chair Beside Bed
A chair had been dragged over beside the bed, police who were summoned said. A window, facing on the alleyway, had been lowered from the top.
The accident room physicians said that the woman had suffered a fractured skull, a fracture of both legs and a fractured arm.
Mrs. Palatnik was admitted to the hospital on January 2. On that day she was found in her room at the East Baltimore street residence with lacerations on her throat and head. Her son, Isadore Palatnik, 2100 block East Fairmount avenue, was called by the persons living in the house. He told the police that his mother said she had been cut by a machine. He took her to the hospital.
Mrs. Palatnik's body was taken to the Hopkins morgue after she had been pronounced dead. Coroner J.S.H. Potter, of the Northeastern district, was notified and began an investigation.
Mrs. Palatnik is survived by three sons and a daughter.
What happened to poor Mrs. Palatnik seems obvious to me: Suicide. I don't know why the reporter played the events like a mystery -- aside from the obvious. Johns Hopkins naturally wouldn't want to be held liable for allowing a sick woman to throw herself out of a fourth story window. Still, why didn't the reporter directly hint at suicide? I'm sure it wasn't out of respect for the woman or her family. The newspapers of the time relished in lurid details. Why the hesitation here? The quotation marks around the word machine when it first appeared openly expresses skepticism. Was there really a machine? Based on the information available, I would suspect that her initial wounds were self-inflicted.
I have avoided suicide stories in these blogs. As a member of a family that has repeatedly experienced the trauma of suicide, I realize that the subject can be genuinely triggering. However, I went forward here. I was touched by the story of this poor widow. Yetta (Ita) arrived in the United States with her son Isadore (Itzek) on 22 December 1924. They arrived in New York City, but their final destination was Baltimore. Yetta was 51-years-old at the time. She was married, but neither her husband or her other children accompanied her.
Yetta wasn't in the country long enough to appear in many official government records. Fortunately, I was able to find an incomplete and somewhat inaccurate family tree online. According to that source, her maiden name was Oxstein. She apparently married Jacob Silverman and had three children with him: Samuel, b. 1896; Sarah b. 1898; and Harry, b. 1899. Jacob must have died or divorced her because Yetta later married Harry Palatnik and seemingly had two more children: Isadore, b. 1907 and David, b. 1924. Therefore, David was only ten-years-old when his mother died. But where was he? The thought of her having a ten-year-old son only compounded the tragedy. But I don't think she did. My research seems to indicate that the David Palatnik was the son of another Yetta Palatnik. That mistake saddened me. The one person who thought enough of Yetta and her family to research her and post her family tree didn't even get it right.
Not that the family made it easy. Her son Isadore Palatnik changed his name sometime between her death and World War II. By the time Isadore filled out his World War II draft registration form, he went by Irving Platt. I assume he made the change because it was easier to pronounce than Palatnik.
Here's his death notice:
Irving's death notice adds more siblings but also indicates that Yetta seems to have taken the Palatnik name with her when she died. A tragedy. I'm glad this blog gives me the opportunity to bring forth her name again.
Rest in peace, Yetta.
Remember, there is a story behind every grave. You never know what you're missing when you walk past one...
Grave Tales:
My novel Chapel Street is now available! You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble. Chapel Street is the tale of a young man battling a demonic entity that has driven members of his family to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting.
Learn more about the book, click
Here.
Listen to me read some chapters here:
Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An IntroductionThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The HouseThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is UsThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, ArrivalThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, MethodologyThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1 The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's TaleThe Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3
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