Murder in Minneapolis: Frederick Wescott (1867-1912) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 39) Theme: "Should Have Been a Movie"

Frederick "Fred" Wescott was one of my great grandmother Mary Jane Wescott's older brothers, making him a great granduncle to those in my generation in the family. He was born in Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin 12 May 1867 a couple of years after his father George Garner Wescott returned home from fighting for the Union in the American Civil War. That may have used up most of Fred's luck; things did not end well for him as this tragic murder mystery will reveal.

Fred Wescott 1895

Place

• Rising Sun Restaurant, a somewhat seedy establishment at 208 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnestota

Time

• 1912, beginning on the evening of Saturday 1 June

Cast of Characters 

• Frederick Wescott, age 45, cook in the Rising Sun Restaurant, the victim
• Mrs. Isabelle Getsman, age 35ish, otherwise known as "Scotch Maggie", owner of the Rising Sun Restaurant
• John Getsman, her husband, age 56, a horse dealer and sometime saloon owner
• Daniel Moon, clerk in the Grand Central hotel, 110 Second Street South, Milwaukee 
• Minneapolis Police Chief Mealey, Captain Smith and Detectives Crummy and Johnson
• Hubert Jacobs, possible witness, age 23, height 5 ft. 3 inches, walks with a slight limp

Synopsis

The headlines shouted out the tragic news on the front page of the Monday 3 June 1912 edition of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

Headlines 3 June 1912 Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN, front page
accessed from Newspapers.com 

The lengthy story that followed was conveniently broken into sections since there was so much to report. It continued:

     Fred Wescott, cook in the Rising Sun restaurant, 208 Second avenue south, was murdered Saturday night by being stabbed in the back, either shortly before or immediately after entering the restaurant at about 10 o'clock.

    Mrs. Isabelle Getsman, formerly better known as "Scotch Maggie", her husband, John Getsman, a horse dealer and Daniel Moon, clerk in the Grand Central hotel, 110 Second street south, are being held in Central station pending a further investigation.

    Although Wescott must have been stabbed before 10 o'clock, it was not until after 3 o'clock in tho morning that the police were notified of his death. Then it was said he had died from heart disease, and it was not until detectives and the coroner arrived that the stab wound under his left shoulder blade was discovered.

From there, the article reported how the stories told by Mr. and Mrs. Getsman contradicted one another. First, they reported her version verbatim:

"Wescott has been cooking for me for the last two years. Last night, at about 8 o'clock, he said he was going out to get a shave. I gave him a dollar, asking him to buy some groceries. It was about 10 o'clock when he returned. He hadn't had a shave, nor did he have any groceries. Tho dollar was also gone. 

   "He took off his coat and sat down in the kitchen, cocking his feet on the kitchen table. I noticed there was blood on his vest and asked him about it. He said it didn't amount to anything. 

   "I left him there and went to bed. My husband came in about 11 o'clock and I told him about Fred. He talked to him a moment and then also went to bed. It was some time afterward that I heard Wescott walking about. Shortly after I heard a peculiar gurgling sound and awakened my husband, who went to investigate, and then hurried out to find a policeman."

There were some differences in the versions of husband and wife. He said the door was locked when he got home while his wife had said it not been locked. (The policeman on the beat who had made his rounds between 10 and 11 p.m had found the door locked.) She said that when her husband came home she prepared supper for him and they shared a bottle of beer; he denied eating anything after he got home. Each claimed to be the first to go to bed that night. 

According to Mr. Getsman, when he found Wescott in distress, he went to find a policeman and wandered up and down Washington Avenue both directions but was unable to find one. When he got home, still not having obtained assistance, he found that Wescott was dead.  Finally, Getsman ran to the National Hotel and telephoned police headquarters saying there was a dead man at his place, probably having suffered a heart attack. (The police were, understandably, suspicious that Getsman, who had lived int he city for many years and knew the area well, would have known where police headquarters and the patrol barn were located and would have easily been able to find a policeman had he really wanted to.)

The third person arrested was Daniel Moon, clerk at the nearby Grand Central Hotel. He had been in the Rising Sun Restaurant that evening and was supposedly the last man to have seen Wescott alive and well. Mrs. Getsman tried to focus blame on Moon saying that Moon and Wescott had planned to open a saloon together but must have fallen out; Moon denied all of this. He said he had seen Wescott shortly after 8 o'clock that evening when Wescott had left to go to 28 First Street North to feed the dogs at Getsman's barn. That was the last Moon saw of him.

The Coroner's autopsy found that Fred's death had resulted from internal hemorrhage caused by a sharp object such as a stiletto or double-edged knife; two such knives were found at the scene (nor surprisingly since this was a restaurant). 

Other evidence found by the police included a white cook's apron, covered in blood and rolled up in a ball in the back yard. It was noted that the stab wound had penetrated Fred's shirt and vest but there was no damage to his jacket, leading the police to the conclusion that the stabbing had occurred indoors and not out on the streets as implied by Mrs. Getsman. 

Newspaper stories over the next while often tended to the lurid but do give a sense of what transpired in the investigation. 

It seems that after the confusion of the first night, Daniel Moon was released, as was Mr. Getsman. One witness by name of Hubert Jacobs had been located after a 24 hour search by Detective Crummy. Jacobs stated that he had just been leaving the restaurant on the fateful night after hearing Mrs. Getsman and Wescott arguing about the necessity of  peeling more potatoes. He said he had seen a struggle ensuing, culminating with her stabbing Wescott in the shoulder with a knife. 

Mrs. Getsman remained in jail and remained silent on advice of counsel. When the papers learned of her stage moniker "Scotch Maggie", the opportunity proved irresistible to the reporters.

Star-Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 5 June 1912, p.10
Newspapers.com

Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Tuesday 4 June 1912, page 2

The article was not kind to "Scotch Maggie", describing her and her establishment in very unflattering terms:

 

Seated moodily in the woman's ward last night, the woman, now known as Mrs. lsabelle Getsman, gave little evidence of the girlish charm that had made her name a sort of  power to be reckoned with a score of years ago. She had not only beauty of face and figure then, according to those who knew her, but a voice of remarkable quality as well. It was her voice, in fact, that caused her to be sought for a certain class of entertainments. And always she sang Scotch songs with Scotch dances accompanying. ''Scotch Maggie" they called her and the name clung through the years that became more and more sordid until, as the keeper of a sordid little restaurant in sordid part of the city she is said to have, in the heat of anger, thrust a knife through a man's back.

It got worse when describing the ravages that time and tough living had wrought on poor Maggie:

The woman whom the police came to take away from the restaurant and lock up was an over stout, frously-haired, hard faced woman. For years she had catered to a patronage of rough men in an eating place surrounded by pawn shops and employment agencies. It had taken the light out of her eyes and the color out of her cheeks and made hard lines come about her mouth.

The article then compared this to her enticing beauty of eyes, clothes, and aura of perfume in years gone by. She was said to have laughed at the world in those days.

"The boys used to have some great fights over Maggie," said the old time

detective. "And in those days she had a temper that, was as hot as her face

was beautiful." 

 

But now, the article concluded, she had a sodden brain that might only vaguely remember her days as the belle of her set 20 years previously. Strong drink had robbed her voice of its sweetness and Maggie of her charm. Her establishment, it said, catered to down-and-out strangers who had lost their grip, as had she. The word "sordid" was used numerous times. Was it really as bad as all that or was the paper playing it for all it was worth to boost readership?

It should be pointed out that the 1910 U.S. Census had given Maggie's age as 33; presumably this should be taken with a grain of salt - or life had indeed been very hard on her for her earn the description of an over stout, frously-haired, hard faced, sodden-brained middle-aged woman!

The Rising Sun was, of course, closed immediately. However, two canaries and a parrot were left behind. The parrot was quoted as calling out "Maggie! Where's Maggie?" Mr. Getsman kindly took it to keep her company in prison (although a cynic might think he was just trying to rid himself of the nuisance!)

Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 9 June 1912
Newspapers.com

The disappearance of Hubert Jacobs, the only witness, led to the discharge of all charges against Mrs. Getsman. Jacobs was later arrested in Louisville in February of 1913 on a charge of grand larceny and running a sweat box operation. (Internet searches have not enlightened me on exactly what sort of crime this is.) He at one point confessed to the murder of Fred Wescott, but later repudiated that confession. 

Then on 2 April 1913, Mrs. Getsman was rearrested and indicted by the grand jury. A few days later Jacobs was also indicted. It seemed they were both to be tried for the murder in April of 1913.

Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 2 April 1913, p. 9
Newspapers.com

But in the end, both were released due to lack of evidence.

13 June 1913 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, p.11
Newspapers.com

This marked the end of the investigation. Was "Scotch Maggie" guilty? We might speculate as to whether there was some sort of conspiracy to confuse matters to the point where no one could be brought to justice. Today, forensics could likely come up with ample incriminating evidence from such a murder scene, but apparently not in 1912.

How did Fred end up in Minneapolis? - Flashback Scenes to Fred's Life in Wisconsin

• Happier scenes can be found from Fred's childhood in Kaukauna, Wisconsin with his parents George Garner Wescott and Sarah Catherine Bullen and his siblings - 5 brothers and 2 sisters. They were a musical family and played for dances; father George conducted an old-fashioned singing school.

1895 Wescott Family (colorized) - Fred is standing on the left side of the group of siblings

• On 11 October 1894 at age 27 he married German immigrant Josephine ("Josie") Nikodem and started a family with her. They had 6 children, 3 sons and 3 daughters born between 1895 and 1908. 

Fred Wescott on the right beside wife Josephine with 4 oldest children (in white shirts), estimated date 1903

• In August of 1904, Fred purchased and operated the Spotted Dan Saloon (located on the road to the asylum in Chippewa Falls) - perhaps providing him with experience that led to his future at the Rising Sun in Minneapolis a few years later. 

• The plot muddies when we see the newspaper report of Fred and Josephine's  1906 divorce on the basis of his cruelty and violence toward her which says that they weren't married until 10 October 1903.  

Marshfield Times, 26 December 1906, page 6

• Apparently they had a change of heart just a year later (assuming these two reports relate to our couple; so far no actual records have been located to verify these reported events).

Chippewa Herald-Telegram, Chippewa Falls, WI 
11 January 1908, accessed from Newspapers.com

• The Chippewa Herald-Telegram newspaper of 7 June 1908 tells how Fred Wescott had been fishing in the river opposite the Central Depot when he found a watch and chain with locket attached; he turned this in to the authorities. In the midst of such a sad tragic life story, it is nice to find evidence of Fred being an essentially honest man who liked to fish in his spare time.

• The 1910 census for Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin gives some clues that life was not easy for Fred and Josephine; he was supporting his family of 8 by doing odd jobs and they lived in rented property. No mention is made of his ownership or operation of the Spotted Dan Saloon.

• It isn't difficult to visualize how marital problems could lead later that year to Fred's desertion of his young family for a fresh start in the bigger center of  Minneapolis. It would prove to be a tragic decision.

• Fred found work as a cook in the Rising Sun Restaurant at 208 2nd Street South in the Bridge District (now called the Gateway District) of downtown Minneapolis. This was right in the hub of all the action near the Mississippi River. Newspaper accounts from the time describe the area as "sordid".  Licenses for establishments at 203 and 205  2nd Street South had been denied by inspectors just the year before; we must assume Fred was not working in a high-end establishment.

John Getzman license denied - Minnesota Star Tribune 3 July 1911, p.7
accessed from Newspapers.com

• The area, including the Rising Sun Restaurant where Fred was murdered has been  totally demolished and the area modernized since then. 

Google Earth image showing modern Minneapolis
highlighting location of the Rising Sun Restaurant 1912 

Follow-up Information for the People Most Affected:

• No one has ever been charged for the murder of Fred Wescott. He was buried without fanfare or marker at the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery in Minneapolis. 
• Mrs. Isabelle Getsman ("Scotch Maggie") disappears from the records after 1913; one might assume the publicity and notoriety caused by the murder destroyed what was left of her life and her marriage.
• John Getsman later married for a second time and died at the age of 67 on 10 June 1927; he is buried at Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis. His Find a Grave memorial highlights his connection to the Fred Wescott murder. 
• Daniel Moon was still a clerk at the Grand Central Hotel in 1916.
• Hubert Jacobs has proven difficult to find; he had married Florence Northern the year before the murder. There was one divorced man of that name located in the Missouri State Penitentiary at the time of the 1930 U.S. Federal Census, but we cannot know for certain if this is the same man.
• Fred's widow Josie must have struggled financially for many years; several of her children worked in the shoe factory by 1920. By the time of the 1930 U.S. census she had remarried to a man named Joseph Lavigne and we hope was living a more comfortable life with him. 
• Earl Wescott, Fred's oldest son, died at age 33, unmarried.
• Garner Wescott, Fred's son, died at age 39 but had been married and left a widow and young children.
• Lyda Wescott, Fred's daughter married and had a family; she lived to the age of 92.
• Margaret Wescott, Fred's daughter, married and had a family; she lived to age 69.
• Vera Wescott, Fred's daughter, married and had family; she worked most of her life in the Chippewa Shoe Factory and died the day before her 103rd birthday. 
• Albert ("Manny") Wescott, Fred's youngest son, was injured in a tragic accident while the investigation into his father's death was still ongoing. What a terrible blow this must have been to his poor mother and the extended family! He grew up to get married but, like his brothers, died relatively early at the age of 54.

Chippewa Herald-Telegram, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin 3 May 1913, p.3
Newspapers.com

Irvin D. Yalom (When Nietzsche Wept) said that "if we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic", but I know of no height that would diminish the tragedy surrounding the seemingly senseless murder of Fred Wescott.