An Unidentified woman was murder on March 25, 1887. She was found on the side of the road in Rahway, New Jersey. Four young men found her on the side of the road in a pool of blood. She was dressed in a dark green cashmere dress that was trimmed in green feathers and a fur cape. She was in her 20s with brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing yellow gloves and a black hat made of straw with red-colored velvet trimmings, a black dotted veil and bonnet. She had carried a basket of eggs.
She was found laying off Central Ave and Jefferson Ave a few hundred feet from the Rahway River Bridge. Her throat was cut twice from ear to ear. Her hands were wounded and the whole right side of her face was extensively bruised from beating. There were huge footprints around her body.
Her murder was known worldwide. It was the subject of National Headlines. Hundreds of people came to view her body and her images were circulated widely but no one ever identified her nor her killer. This was an unsolved murder that is well known. Her ghost haunts the cemetery where she is buried as an unknown woman.
Of course, around this time, it was right after the Revolution. Women were married young and were only allowed to work around the house. So, what really happened to this woman? She was obviously working with carrying a basket of eggs. Did she make her husband angry to where he beat her to death? Did she go against her father, and he hurt her? Why did no one talk or even try to find out who she was? Who were they trying to hide?
There is also the story that since New York City was only a 35-minute ride away that she could have been a subject to Jack the Ripper. But do you really believe this? This woman had a name, and she was a human being that was just left there dead. Yes, she became famous and is still known to this day. Was this what she wanted?
I believe that she was a wife to a man that was abusive. She did not do what he asked, and he beat her. Then after knocking her cold from the beating, he cut her throat twice to make it look like it was just another murder from Jack the Ripper. Then, since people were scared of him, he bribed them not to tell who she was. But he must have been someone with great power to be able to get away with this.
Maybe she really was murdered by Jack the Ripper. He was a well-known killer that targeted women. But this just did not seem like a killing from Jack the Ripper. Of course, back in the day there was not the type of machines that there are today to be able to see if she might have been raped. She could have been raped and then murdered.
This woman was not a slave because of how she was dressed. People with that type of clothing were rich or wealthy in this time. So, she was of some importance or was connected to someone wealthy. This was a cover up and the person who did this to this beautiful woman got away with it. They got away with murder. This is what is wrong with the world. When you have money, you can get by with the law and then it just shows people that this is okay to do.
So, in the end of this little story I leave this, please do not let money be the root of all evil. Money is needed to make it in the world but do not use it for the wrong doings. We are all human beings and deserve a chance to live life but do not do it to wrong others. We should be helping people. Do not let another murder go walking due to having the money to bribe people. This beautiful woman did not deserve what happened to her and no one else does.
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Comments (4)
Seven years after the murder, a woman named Margaret Grace told the detective on the case that she saw a woman at the house of Clinton Froat in the kitchen with William Keetch, the day of the murder. She said her name was Ellen Maher and she had just arrive in the US from Coleraine, N Ireland with the intention of heading west. She also looked like the victim. There was in fact a woman who arrived two months earlier in January, starting from Belfast. Name: Ellen Maher New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 Gender: Female Ethnicity/ Nationality: Irish Age: 20 Birth Date: abt 1867 Place of Origin: Ireland Departure Port: Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland Destination: USA Arrival Date: 24 Jan 1887 Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA Ship Name: Britannic There was no follow up in 1894. And I can't ruler her out with the records. See page 301 of this Google Book: https://books.google.ca/books?id=_nybKqeEEZQC&pg=PA301&lpg=PA301&dq=%22case+of+the+unknown+woman%22+%22ellen+maher%22&source=bl&ots=cMXr0Ayqkx&sig=ACfU3U0_k4gVKSV23-GDlLHJRc_3l0AusQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB6p7goIr-AhVMj4kEHfsRAB0Q6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22case%20of%20the%20unknown%20woman%22%20%22ellen%20maher%22&f=false
N Grotta is really Maria Ursula Grotta born in Bretten, Germany in 1865. I think an embroidered monogrammed M can look like an N. They often add a line in the middle of the N for the gothic style. Anyway, she seems to disappear in the US after she arrives in 1887. At least, I can't find her. As for the seach for the suspect, I think the newspapers might have been exaggerating the size of the footprints. There's nothing about huge footprints in the inquest. There is a mention of a clump of dark hair found at the scene. It was darker than Rahway Jane Does' hair which was brown. The suspect I mentioned in the last post had sandy hair in his WW 1 draft record.
There's an image on Ancestry allegedly showing William Froat and showing his feet. Worth a story? In the meantime, this is my working candidate for the Rahway victim if you believe she was German, a recent immigrant and had a first name with the initial N. N Grotta in the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 Gender: Female Ethnicity/ Nationality: German Age: 21 Birth Date: abt 1866 Occupation: Servant Place of Origin: Germany Departure Port: Antwerp, Belgium Destination: New York Arrival Date: 18 Feb 1887 Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA Ship Name: Belgenland Starting Point: Bretten
Great story on Rahway Jane Doe. It's a crime that should not be forgotten and neither should she. Can we trace her in the immigration records. She might be "German, or Scandinavian or Irish" early 20s, and she had a one letter monogram on her collar. Wouldn't that be the first initial of her first name? I can check ancestry for candidates. Until we know who she is, it's hard to say if it's a domestic incident or a stranger murder. I do think though there's every possibility that the Ripper, if he wasn't Rahway, was definitely inspired by Rahway which happened only the year before the Ripper crimes. I think he copied the killing of the victim on the road and the double throat slash from ear to ear. Both times he killed someone on the road, and he had time, he did that. Two suspects were Clinton Froat and William Keetch but the one person who allegedly confessed to the crime, according to a witness, was the stepson and nephew, William Froat, who would have been 14 at the time of the murder, although articles say he was 20. Did a 14 year old American inspire Jack the Ripper? https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Case_of_the_Unknown_Woman/_nybKqeEEZQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22william+froat%22&pg=PA299&printsec=frontcover