Starr Faithfull in New York

Although Starr Faithfull lived for only 25 years, she inspired several authors to write about her. Born January 26, 1906 in Evanston, IL, Starr died in June 1931 after a Long Island boat party.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Starr Faithfull [Brooklyn Standard Union]

* Newspaper article printed on 9 June 1931 *
- 1931 DEATH NOTICES . JULY Brooklyn Standard Union -
DEATH AT LONG BEACH, Laid by Police to Drowning
Inspector Harold R. KING, chief of Nassau County detectives, said today that he was satisfied that the death of Miss Starr FAITHFULL, of 12 Saint Luke's Place, Manhattan, was caused by drowning.
. . . . . Miss FAITHFULL's body was found on the beach at Long Beach, L.I. yesterday. Inspector KING said he expected to confer with Miss FAITHFULL's stepfather, Stanley FAITHFULL, some time today in an attempt to ascertain more fully what friendships and associations the young woman had.
. . . . . So far, he said, all he had learned was that Miss FAITHFULL had been graduated from a private school in Lowell, Mass, a few years ago, that she had resided at home with her mother and stepfather since that time, she had no employment and no special hobby. She had no income except what she received from her parents, Inspector KING said.
. . . . . Miss FAITHFULL disappeared mysteriously Friday after leaving her Greenwich Villiage home, at 12 St. Lukes Place, three doors from the home of Mayor James J.WALKER, Friday morning. At that time she told her step-father that she was going shopping.
. . . . . FAITHFULL told authorities that his foster daughter had never been to that part of Long Island and had no reason known to him for going there. The $3 which he said she had when she left home was found in a pocket of her coat.
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* article printed 11 June 1931 * Brooklyn Standard Union.

ACTION HINTS NEW CLUES TO STARR'S DEATH
. . . . . District Attorney Elvin N. EDWARDS, investigating the murder of 25-year-old Starr FAITHFULL, whose body washed ashore at Long Beach Monday, late to-day ordered that cremation of the dead girl's remains to be postponed.
The District Attorney gave no reason for his order, but indicated that a further examination of the body will be made on the basis of new evidence uncovered to-day.
The body had been removed from Rockville Centre to a crematory just outside Jamaica, and the girl's relatives had assembled for a brief funeral service when the order was issued.
Conflicting stories were heard at the office of District Attorney EDWARDS to-day concerning the nature of the information contained in the thirty-eight pages of diary left by the murder victim. While Mr. EDWARDS was closeted with Elizabeth FAITHFULL, sister of Starr, two detectives who claimed to have seen the diary were questioned concerning its contents.
One said that the book, which was mysteriously recovered ''somewhere in Manhattan'' after the girl's stepfather, Stanley E. Faithfull had repeatedly asserted he destroyed it, revealed that Starr's life had been a happy one. The other detective said there were several entries indicating depression.
Mr. EDWARDS, before going into conference with Elizabeth FAITHFULL, told newspapermen that he would ''have nothing to give out until late this afternoon, if then''.
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* article printed 13 June 1931 * Brooklyn Standard Union.

CABBY REVEALS DRINKING TOUR OF LONG ISLAND

The body of Starr FAITHFULL was cremated at Fresh Pond Crematory in Middle Villiage, Queens, at 4 o'clock this afternoon,on receipt of a written order from District Attorney EDWARDS.
No one was permitted to witness the cremation. It was said the ashes would be turned over to William MACKEN, undertaker, of Rockville Centre, who would give them to the FAITHFULL family.
The fantastic story of Starr FAITHFULL, 25-year-old Greenwich Villiage girl whose days on earth were as mysterious and weird as the circumstances of her death, was slowly pieced together for the benefit of a Nassau County Grand Jury at Mineola today.
While witness detailed their stories to the jurors, a new angle to the case came to light when a taxicab driver, who said he took Miss FAITHFULL from the heart of Manhattan to Flushing last Thursday afternoon, was questioned by assistants of District Attorney Elvin N. EDWARDS.
The girl was intoxicated when she entered the cab, the chauffeur said, and she bought two bottles of whisky during the journey. She drank some of this liquor and gave him some, he said. She wanted to go to a certain house in Flushing, he said, but couldn't find it, so he let her out at a drug store. The store was at Thirty-third avenue and 163rd street.
District Attorney EDWARDS proceeded with his Grand Jury session with some fifteen witnesses and with the silk-bound diary which STARR kept over a period of three or four years.
It was indicated that indictments will be returned against two unidentified men, to be called ''John Doe'' and ''Richard Roe.'' The District Attorney proceeded on the theory he has held since he started the investigation that two men murdered STARR be-
cause they feared her. These men, he believed, killed the attractive girl because she knew something that threatened their security.
Among the witnesses who testified brfore the jurors were Frank W. WYMAN, of Boston, father of the dead girl; Mr and Mrs. Stanley E. FAITHFULL, her stepfather and mother, and Elizabeth Tucker FAITHFULL, 19 year old sister.
The taxicab driver, Si BOCKMAN of the Bronx, and Traffic Patrolman BELLOCHI, who helped the girl into the cab in front of the Chanin Building on Forty-second street last Thursday, were also to testify.
BELLOCHI and employes of the Chanin Building told authorities that the girl, smartly dressed but obviously under the influence of liquor, entered the lobby of the building in company with an older woman - a woman known as a ''character'' to them. The woman asked someone take care of the girl and said she was sick. Employes of the building called Patrolman BELLOCHI, who suggested calling an ambulance. The girl objected vociferously to this and then BELLOCHI put her in the cab. BELLOCHI and building employes have identified STARR'S body as that of the girl they saw. They said, however, that she wore different clothes Thursday than she had on ** missing a few last lines here ** . . . director of the Cunard lines, was one of the grand jury witnesses.
He told reporters that he had known STARR ''only in a business way''in spite of the fact that the girl used his name as an excuse when she was away from home late at night.
Entries from STARR's diary [tending to show that she was extremely fickle in her love affairs and had considered suicide on occasions] were read for the jurors.
Dr. Otto SCHULZ, who performed the autopsy on Miss FAITHFULL'S body, was the first witness and repeated his story in substance to reporters. He said that his examination of the body led him to believe that STARR had been drowned in shallow water, and that she had been roughly handled. It is his assumption that two men held her head under water until she was dead. Sand was found in the windpipe and in the trachea, he said. She had been dead about forty-eight hours when the body was found on the beach, and there was no trace of alchol or drugs in her system.
- - printed in the newspapers during June 1931 - -
- - 1931 DEATH NOTICES .. JULY Brooklyn Standard Union - -
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