Unsolved- The Dayton Strangler Serial Killer #truecrim

Dayton Strangler

In the first years of the 20th century, a depraved maniac terrorized the people of Dayton Ohio. At least 5 women and a man would lose their lives to an unknown monster, 11 year old Ada Lantz, 20 year old Dona Gilman, 18 year old Anna Markowitz and her boyfriend Abe Cohan, 15 year old Mary Forschner, and 18 year old Elizabeth Fulhart. There is also speculation that 3 additional murders are also part of this series. Some victims had been shot, others strangled, and the youngest of the 5 may have been drowned in the the filth of her family’s outhouse. The reign of terror began on October 14, 1900 and would last until February of 1909. While there were suspects and even confessions none held up under scrutiny. To this day no one can answer the question of, who was

The Dayton Strangler

In the early 1900’s and before, Dayton Ohio was a bustling hive of innovation. Inventions such as the cash register getting their start in the city. But, like all cities, Dayton had its dark side. Crime is an ever present problem in society, but starting in the first year of the 20th century a series of murders would captivate the area as police sought the culprit.

The first murder took place on October 14 1900. Ada Lantz was 11 years old and her father was a respected carpenter in the community. On that night Ada disappeared during a party in her parents home. When they realized she was missing, her parents and their friends immediately began searching for the young girl.

She was found stuffed down the hole of an outhouse in the back yard. She had been assaulted and beaten severely with marks from a cane or stick across her forehead. Evidence indicated that she may have been alive but unconscious when she was shoved into the filth where she drowned.

There were 5 arrests of people who had been seen in the area around the time Ada went missing. One of these suspects even confessed, but the charges against him were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Because of the space between the first murder and the others, some suspect that Ada Lantz was not killed by the Dayton Strangler. The next Murder in the series occured on November 20 1906. 20 year old Dona Gilman worked at the National Cash Register Works. She took the train to and from work with friends and often her sister.

On that fateful day, Dona said goodbye to her friends as she transferred trains to the one that would take her home. This is where she crossed paths with the killer. She was last seen getting off the bus at the stop in her neighborhood. Her gloves and umbrella were found across the street from her home, while her body was found dumped in some grass nearby.

The body was positioned in a way that made it clear that she had not been killed at that location and it was suspected that it had occured in one of the houses that were within view of the dump site. Gilman had been strangled to death and newspapers reported that she had been mutilated. Skin from her attacker was found under her fingernails, but this was far before the dna would do any good.

Almost a year passed before the killer struck again. Anna Markowitz and her boyfriend, Abraham Cohan were walking in an isolated road with Bertha, Annas younger sister on the night of August 4 1907. They stopped to talk in McCabe park when the creature saw them. He approached from behind and hit Abraham in the head with a club then as he turned shot him twice in the stomach.

Bertha was able to escape to find the sheriff. When she returned with a group of people to find the attacker, they found Abraham clinging to life. Some tracks led them to the Annas body. She had been viciously assaulted and her clothing was ripped and torn before she was strangled.

Cohan was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries after 2 days. Due to his condition, he was unable to give police any information on the murderer. A housekeeper reported hearing the gunshots and someone shout out the name “Harry” but no one by that name was ever arrested. Another man was convicted of the crime, Layton Hines, but he is widely considered to have been innocent. There is a record of him contesting the conviction in 1917 but not the outcome

The next murder occured on January 24 1909. 15 year old Mary Forschner was sent by her step father to make a bank deposit. When she did not return her stepfather called 2 neighbors and the 3 went to look for her. They found her just after midnight in a shed at the edge of a large property. She had been assaulted and strangled. The coroner noted that her killer had very large hands from the marks left on her neck.

A strange man had been seen in the area and a different woman had also been attacked on the same day as the Forschner murder. One witness, Sam Morris, was arrested in suspicion of the murder and said that he had seen a stranger in the neighborhood. When morris approached him, but fled when the man threatened to shoot him.

Not far from where Morris had seen the man, a woman referred to as Mrs. James Powers was attacked. Her husband had come home to find a man strangling his wife and her clothing had been ripped similar to the victims of the Dayton Strangler. Luckily Mrs Powers survived, but her attacker was able to escape.

The attacks had all occured within walking distance of railroad tracks and many believed that this was how the killer traveled. Indeed jumping freight cars was not uncommon in these days, my grandfather left the family farm and did the same to find better opportunities than were in his hometown. A few days after the Forwchner murder, a black man was seen getting off a train with abnormally large hands. Though it is unlikely that this was the Strangler, he did have scratches on his face and was dressed in similar clothing to the man seen near the Forschner murder scene, but were unable to locate this suspect.

The last known murder of the Dayton strangler occured just weeks later on February 8 1909. A young woman named Elizabeth Fulhart had come to Dayton to look for work the day before she disappeared. A week later, her body was discovered floating in a water storage tank behind an unoccupied house.

Fulhart had been assaulted before she was killed. There was a lack of bruising on her neck leaving authorities unsure as to the exact cause of death. Her clothing was askew, indicating she had been redressed post Mortem. Before she had been dumped into the cistern, she Elizabeth had been stuffed into a sack, which some believe had been used to suffocate her.

The Fulhart murder is the last believed to have been committed by the Dayton Strangler. While Layton Hines had been arrested for the Markowitz attack, even newspapers at the time refer to the killer of Anna and her boyfriend as unknown and note that the evidence against Hines was purely circumstantial.

However, there were other suspects investigated by police. There was a former employee of the National Cash Register company named David Curtis who was suspected of the Gilman murder. A semi-anonymous reporter claimed to have an eyewitness who saw Curtis kill Dona.

The suspect would eventually confess to the murder, but as he had made a false confession 2 years prior, people were skeptical of his account. Investigators continued to try to connect Curtis to the murder, but the case fell apart when it came out that he had been threatened into confessing. When the charges were dismissed the people of Dayton celebrated as very few thought he had actually done it.

One of Gilmans brothers had testified against Curtis, but it seems that this was more to divert blame from himself and his family. Accusations of abuse led to the arrest of Dona’s mother and siblings. While in custody, Kate Gilman attempted to end her own life upon hearing her children had been arrested as accessories to the crime.

But again, the evidence was purely circumstantial and the family was eventually released. The town once again celebrated the exoneration. But the tragedy of the Filman family continued, when Kate passed away in December of 1907, soon after the Gilmans were cleared of all charges.

There were several other suspects, however none were accused of the entire series, but were tied through circumstantial evidence to individual victims. They included the brothers of Anna Markowitz, who were said to disapprove of her being with Abraham Cohan. . The others were seen in the area of one of the murders, but none of the accusations held up under the investigation.

With more than 100 years since the crimes of the Dayton Strangler occurred, it is unlikely that anyone will ever be conclusively named as the killer. This is compounded by the fact that this case does not have the name recognition or interest that other unsolved cases have, such as the Jack the Ripper murders or the Zodiac. We still must keep hope for a resolution, and remeber each of the victims who lost their lives to the Dayton Strangler.

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