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 website the 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.
Here is another tale from Green Mount Cemetery, which served as the final resting place for Baltimore's ruling elite for well over a century. This is the tragic story of Helena Mignon Zeigler. She apparently unknowingly participated in a love triangle involving a married man that ended in a murder suicide. The incident made national news. It initially appeared to be an open and shut case, but one question remained: Who was the murderer and who was the suicide?
Here's her story:
The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York), 30 Mar 1923, Fri:
KILLS HERSELF
AFTER SLAYING
WEALTHY LOVER
-----
Frederick W. Burnham, New
York Contractor, Society
Man, Dies from Bullet
Fired by Helena Zeigler,
Who Turns Gun on Self.
-----
SEQUEL TO ENDING
OF LONG COURTSHIP
-----
Suiter a Married Man, Wife
Demands He Make His
Choice--Decides For Her,
and Tragedy Comes When
He Tells Decision
-----
New York Bureau,
Buffalo Evening News,
NEW YORK, March 30.--Miss Helena Zeigler, aged 26, who lived with her parents at 583 Riverside drive, walked into the office of Frederick W. Burnham, wealthy contractor, in the Grand Central terminal building yesterday afternoon, fired a bullet into his temple and them killed herself with the same weapon.
This, the police say, was the sequel to a courtship of Miss Zeigler begun by Burnham soon after his marriage 10 years ago to another woman and the establishment of a handsome country place at Riverview Manor, near Dobb's Ferry.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee H. Zeigler went to the East 51st street police station last night to identify the body of their daughter and learned for the first time, the police said, that Burnham was a married man. The revelation regarding the man who had called at their home all these years and was regarded as a suitor for their daughter's hand shocked the parents as much as the news of what their daughter had done.
Had to Make Choice
Whether the girl knew before last week that her supposed suitor was married the police could not ascertain, but they were told by a friend of Burnham that the contractor had informed Miss Zeigler last week that he would have to give her up because his wife had learned of their friendship and demanded that he make a choice between them.
Burhan expected Miss Zeigler at this office yesterday at 4 o'clock to discuss the termination of their relations. The girl arrived according to their plans. She talked with Burnham for 10 minutes behind the closed door of his private office. Then persons in the office and along the corridors were startled by two pistol shots.
A moment later Miss Zeigler was found on the floor dead with a bullet wound in her right temple and a derringer in her right hand. Burnham collapsed from a wound in the left temple, from which he succumbed at Bellevue hospital early this morning.
The police said the Zeiglers informed them they were opposed to their daughter marrying Burnham and had advised her not to do so because he frequently came to the Zeigler house under thee influence of liquor.
In a few minutes after the shooting the news spread through the crowds of commuters in the concourse of the Grand Central station two floors below and special police were called to duty to keep the curious from the elevators.
Burhan is the New York representative of Burhan & Burnham, contractors of Chicago. He is 44 years old, and is married. He and his wife, Estelle, have a handsome home in the Riverside Manor section of Dobbs Ferry, where they have lived for nine years. There Mr. Burnham is a member of the Ardsley club, the Riverside Manor association and other social and civic organizations. Mrs. Burnham is active in the Dobbs Ferry women's club and the Christian Science church.
Edward S. Lyman, an architect with offices at 15 East Forty-seventh street, and a friend of the Burnhams, said that Mrs. Burnham's interest was almost solely in her home, church and welfare work. Mr. Burnham, he said, frequently sought amusement in New York.
Chose Wife, Friend Says.
Several years ago, according to Mr. Lyman, Burnham met Miss Zeigler and a deep attachment grew between them. Recently, he continued, Mrs. Burnham had learned of their fondness and had told Mr. Burnham that he would either have to give her up or give up Miss Zeigler. He said Mr. Burnham decided that he must stick by his wife and a week ago informed Miss Zeigler that their friendship would have to end. It was for a conference by prearrangement regarding the termination of their relationship that Miss Zeigler visited Mr. Burnham's office yesterday, Lyman said.
Four o'clock was the time set for their meeting. Persons on the third floor of the Grand Central terminal building, where the Burnham offices are, said that Miss Zeigler, with a young woman accompanying her, was seen walking up and down the corridor outside Burnham's office two hours earlier.
According to Harry S. Cox of 104 Perry street, Burnham's office manager, Miss Zeigler came in the office at 4:15 and asked for Burnham. Mr. Burnham was then engaged with Millard E. Ames, a contractor of 472 Hawthorne avenue, Yonkers, with offices at 101 Park avenue. Cox said he told her, and Miss Zeigler left. He said Miss Zeigler came in alone and he did not learn that she had a companion outside until after the shooting.
When Ames left Miss Zeigler entered the office again. The office consists of one large room with one-quarter of it partitioned off as a private office. A second quarter adjoining the private room is cut off from the remaining half by a railing. The half thus left next to the door serves as a reception room. Cox has his desk in the open quarter, and the door to Burnham's office opens next to Cox's desk.
Heard Shots, After Hot Argument
Cox said Burnham was telephoning when Miss Zeigler returned and she waited until he had finished his conversation. She then went into Burnham's office and closed the door. Presently, Cox said, he hard their voices but he could understand what they were saying from where he sat at his desk outside the door. At the end of the 10 minutes' heated discussion, he said, he was startled by a shot. Afraid a bullet might come through the thin partition and hit him he ran to the door leading to the corridor instead of into Burnham's private office, and just as he reached the corridor he heard the second shot.
Without re-entering the office, he hurried downstairs to a telephone. There, he said, he tried to reach Ames and summoned Dr. McLeod of the Emergency hospital in Grand Central station. Returning, he met Ames coming back to the Burnham offices and hurried in with him. They listened a moment, but not a sound came from the closed office of Burnham. Then they opened the door.
The slender body of Miss Zeigler bundled in its great fur coat lay on the floor beside Burnham's desk. Burnham apparently had just recovered consciousness sufficiently to rise from his chair was staggering toward a wash basin in the corner. His fingers were groping at his wounded temple. He half swung around, looked mutely at his friends and collapsed.
This seems like a tragic but open and shut case. Poor Helena had been strung along for years by the adulterous Frederick Burnham and she snapped when he tried to discard her. It's an old story. My second grave tale, about Emanuel & Ruby Snell, also dealt with a jealousy-inspired murder/suicide. However, Helena's parents didn't buy it. They believed their daughter was the victim, not the murderer and began expressing their doubts almost immediately.
Bakersfield Morning Echo (Bakersfield, California), 31 March 1923, Sat:
PARENTS CLAIM GIRL
DID NOT FIRE SHOTS
-----
NEW YORK, March 30.--Insistence by the relatives of Miss Helene Zeigler that she could not have mortally wounded Frederick Burnham, wealthy contractor, and then ended her own life with a bullet in his Grand Central offices late yesterday, has moved detectives to try to determine the owner of the weapon.
"Find the owner of the gun, and you'll find out who killed her," Miss Zeigler's mother said.
Her father, H. Lee Zeigler, wealthy importer, was equally convinced of his daughter's innocence of the shooting.
"She was my chum," he said. "She could not have shot Fred Burnham. If she had intended to marry him, she would have told me about it. The greatest mystery to me is why he kept his marriage a secret."
Helena's parents did more than just speculate to the press. They hired an attorney and demanded an investigation into the killings to overturn the medical examiner's report.
Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), 23 Jul 1923, Mon:
ZEIGLER SAYS BURNHAM
KILLED GIRL and SELF
-----
Her Father Seeks to Change
Reports of Tragedy
Henry Lee Zeigler, of 583 Riverside Drive, made known some entirely new information yesterday regarding the dual tragedy in which his daughter, Miss Helena Zeigler, and Frederick W. Burnham, wealthy contractor, were killed last March in the latter's offices in the Grand Central Terminal.
Mr. Zeigler mentioned a few of the points which his attorney, Charles E. Le Barbier, will present at a hearing this week, to show that Miss Zeigler did not shoot Burnham, but that the contractor fired the two shots that resulted in his and the young woman's deaths.
The special proceedings instituted by Mr. Le Barbier are designed to amend an official report, both in the medical examiner's office and on the police blotter, which indicates that Miss Zeigler fired the shot from which Burnham died a short time afterward, and then killed herself by firing a bullet from a small derringer.
The father and the family of the young woman are determined to clear her name, and insist that she had no reason to and did not shoot and kill Burnham and herself.
I can understand her parents' desire to erase the stigma of both murder and suicide from Helena and affix the blame firmly on Burnham. However, the proceeding story offered no real evidence. The following story gives the Zeigler family a more sympathetic hearing.
The Miami News (Miami, Florida), 25 Aug 1923, Sat:
WHICH HAND HELD THE GUN?
The Mystery of the Deaths of Helena Zeigler and Frederick
Burnham, Once Thought Solved but Now Again in the Courts
Did Helena Zeigler's gloved finger press the fatal trigger, or---
Was it the hand of Frederick Burnham that wrought the double crime?
By Ruth Waterbury.
Who killed Helena Zeigler?
Who killed Frederick Burnham?
Did Helena Zeigler kill Frederick Burnham and then commit suicide, or was the reverse true?
The police reported the day Helena's dead body and the wounded Burnham were found in the latter's private office that it was the girl who had done the killing. They admit, that it is possible that Burnham may have committed suicide after killing the twenty-six year old girl who was calling upon him, but hold it improbable.
It was the murder story of the early spring. The setting was the average office of the average business man, specifically room 2736 Grand Central Terminal. It was shortly after four o'clock of the afternoon of March 29.
Cox, Burnham's secretary, had admitted Helena to the private office. He thought nothing of it. She was a frequent visitor. He even forgot they were there, they talked so quietly for ten minutes or more. then swiftly he was startled from his secretarial vacuum. Two shots were fired, one immediately after the other.
Cox rushed away from the office. He did not do what nine people out of ten would have done -- go to the private office and try to stop whatever horror its door hid. He rushed away and stayed away for twenty minutes. He explains that he was delayed because he wore only his office coat, which held no money, and that he wanted to telephone Ames. He must have secured money somewhere, for he did call Ames, and Dr. McLeod, emergency doctor for the terminal. The three men went back to the office together. In one account it was said they entered the scene of the mystery simultaneously. In another, they state they entered individually.
But on one point there is no question, Helena Zeigler was dead. She had left her pleasant, luxurious life swiftly. Death had come to her on the swift wings of personal tragedy. Her beautifully clad body lay with its head toward the door through which the three men entered. Near her, they report, lay a pistol, an old-fashioned double-barreled derringer of Remington make.
Burnham was at the wash bowl as his friends entered. Ames cried out to him to tell what had happened. He moved his stiffening lips. He struggled to speak but no sound issued and he collapsed into unconsciousness. He died that way a few hours later at Bellevue.
He and the girl bore exactly the same kind of wound, in exactly the same place. On both the stellate wounds, wounds made by the gun being held tightly to the head. Both bullet holes were immediately in front of the left ears, ofthe woman and of the middle-aged man.
Burnham had known Helena since her seventeenth birthday, when he met her with older sister, Natalie, while the two girls were students at the Hamilton Institute. They immediately introduced him to their parents and thus became a welcome exiler at their home.
He called very often. At first he courted Natalie. Then Natalie got married and he sought out Helena. He asked her constantly to marry him.
Her parents opposed it. They felt the discrepancy of fifteen years in their ages was too great. They hadn't the slightest intimation that he was married. They never dreamed that his wife was one of the most charming women in the smart society of Westchester County.
According to his custom, he had telephoned Helena the morning of the murder. He asked her to stop at his office at four and go on to tea with him. Mrs. Zeigler was with Helena as she dressed to keep the appointment.
Helena wanted to take little Estelle Tatro with her, for she expected to do a little shopping before her call. But Estelle's mother said the little girl had to do her school work, so the two compromised on a trip to the movies that evening.
She set the table for dinner before leaving. She joked with her mother about having prepared her favorite artichoke salad. Then she kissed her and started out with sixteen-year-old Estelle. It came to her that she could at least give Estelle money for a soda, so together they hunted through her pockets for some change. But Estelle was disappointed. Helena's pockets were empty.
On his part, Burnham had lunch with Ames at the Commodore. Ames, it is reported in the Zeigler affidavits, exclaimed at how badly his friend was looking. Burnham is said to have replied that he was worried, that he was going to tell Helena Zeigler that he would see her no longer and that he was afraid when she heard this information that she "would dust him off."
Ames called at Burnham's office again that afternoon a four o'[clock. At the same time Helena and her friend, Mrs. Murphy, were waiting to see this man whose double life had been so strangely maintained. Mrs. Murphy left in a moment. Then as Ames left the private office, Helena entered. It was the last time any one saw her alive.
So the report on the police records says Helena Zeigler killed Frederick Burnham.
And the Zeiglers point to the many discrepancies of the statement. They point out that Cox has stated three different hours at which he believes the tragedy took place. Ames, according to their affidavits, said upon being questioned by the girl's mother, "you'd better get a lawyer and talk to Burnham's lawyer, too. He'll tell you things you don't want to listen to."
The derringer which fired the shots was a difficult weapon to discharge. Did Helena Zeigler in the strength of desperation have the power to empty those two barrels?
The police say yes. Her parents say no. They can prove Burnham had a permit to carry a pistol. The police can prove that the revolver was found beside the dead girl and the cartridges in the little chiffon pocket of her sealskin coat.
By which hand did Helena Zeigler and Frederick Burnham die?
While Helena's actions earlier in the day do not seem consistent with a woman on a suicidal mission, I do not see any evidence strong enough to overturn the initial police report. That said, the more I read about Burnham the less I like him!
The legal motion to the court to alter the reports was detailed in The New York Supplement Volume 203. You can read the entire motion. Here's the conclusion: "The court, upon motion, will not determine whether Helena M. Zeigler was guilty or innocent of the murder of Frederick W. Burnham. I have not been referred to any statute, nor have I been able to find any, giving this court authority to make the order applied for. Motion denied. Ordered accordingly."
Which hand held the gun? That question can never be answered now with absolute certainty. I just hope the Zeigler family found peace in their grief, as, hopefully, did the family of Frederick Burnham as well.
I hope they all rest in peace.
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.
Read about the true haunting that inspired the novel here:
Let's stay in touch:The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 1, An Introduction
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The 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. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The 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. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3
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