Franz Frehr, 82, and his spouse, Johanna, 84, had lived in a home on Jefferson St. in Buffalo since shifting to the U.S. from Germany greater than half a century earlier.
Franz operated his cabinet-making enterprise for many years on the primary flooring of the two-story body dwelling. By 1903, his work life was behind him. His actions centered on chores, errands, and caring for Johanna, who was too frail to stroll.
Their modest methods fueled rumors that they have been hiding quite a lot of money in the home, a fortune accrued over a long time of laborious work and little spending. Mates and neighbors nervous that these rumors may entice harmful younger ruffians who would possibly hurt them and steal the cash.
They have been partially proper. However the agent of the couple’s doom turned out to be a predator as wrinkled and grey as they have been.
Charles Bonier
In mid-November, the home fell silent, and neither Franz nor Johanna appeared exterior or close to the home windows. Then, on Nov. 21, a shifting van stopped on the deal with, and a tall, aged stranger began to unload furnishings.
The person launched himself to a curious neighbor as Charles Bonier and stated he was an outdated pal from Germany. He stated the Frehrs wished to maneuver into an old-age dwelling, in order that they offered him the home and one other property they owned a number of blocks away.
Bonier stated he would stay within the Jefferson St. dwelling together with his housekeeper and her two younger youngsters.
Requested the place the Frehrs had gone, Bonier stated he didn’t know their new residence or the best way to attain them. All he may say was that they went away in a carriage.
New York Every day Information
New York Every day Information on March 27, 1932
The couple had two grown daughters and grandchildren, together with nieces and nephews who often stopped by, as did some neighbors. Nobody recalled Franz or Johanna saying something about promoting the home or an old-age dwelling.
Inside a number of days, three grandchildren, ages 20 to 17, visited the home and demanded that Bonier inform them the place their grandparents have been.
“It’s none of your business,” Bonier snapped.
This encounter grew to become certainly one of many troubling incidents reported to police who quickly opened an investigation.
Detectives requested Bonier to indicate them the deeds. He stated they’d been drawn up by a notary that Frehr employed and have been within the county clerk’s workplace.
But it surely quickly grew to become clear that the paperwork have been forgeries, signed by Bonier, who tried to bribe a notary to say they have been official. The notary refused and went to the police, however Bonier disappeared earlier than they may make an arrest.
A search of the home turned up a bloodstained pair of trousers that belonged to Bonier, suggesting that the Frehrs have been lifeless and their our bodies hidden on the property. The searchers turned their consideration to a makeshift shed within the yard and began digging within the grime flooring. They quickly hit one thing laborious—a layer of sheet iron.
Beneath they discovered the frozen corpses of Franz and Johanna Frehr. Their heads appeared to have been bashed in with a hammer that lay close to the our bodies.
The Buffalo Instances from Dec. 3, 1903.
As a manhunt bought underway, detectives discovered an essential clue to his whereabouts — a bundle of letters from a widow who lived in Erie, Pa. They shortly tracked him down and arrested him in a seedy resort in that metropolis.
He instructed police he had run away to search for the Frehrs so they may verify that they’d offered him the property. When police instructed him that they’d been discovered lifeless within the yard on the Jefferson St. home, he laughed.
“I am too old. I couldn’t have killed them,” he stated.
At his trial in January 1904, the district lawyer instructed of how Bonier had come to Buffalo and tried to lease a room from the Frehrs. Once they stated no, he began badgering them to promote him the property. One drawback: He had no cash.
Retracing his historical past, investigators found he had been married and had a farm in Gardenville. Someday within the Eighteen Eighties, he offered the farm, and after that, nobody may recall him doing a day’s work. Everybody who knew him stated he was at all times penniless.
When his spouse died in 1902, he landed in Buffalo.
Plot for Eva Bonier and Charles’ title is listed.
Bonier instructed the courtroom that Franz had agreed to promote each properties for $3,200. As an alternative of discovering somebody to draft a deed, the 2 outdated males went out to dig up celery. Later, he solid the paperwork after the couple disappeared.
Louisa Lindholm, the housekeeper, proved to be an essential witness for the prosecution. Lindholm instructed the courtroom about discovering a satchel containing about $500 in money (roughly $18,000 immediately), a pockets, and a financial institution e book belonging to the Frehrs. Bonier stated the cash was his.
Bonier confirmed no emotion because the jury delivered the decision: Responsible of first-degree homicide, which meant a loss of life sentence. An attraction led to a second trial, with the identical consequence.
On July 31, 1907, he walked calmly to his execution on the jail in Auburn, N.Y.
