Franz Frehr, 82, and his spouse, Johanna, 84, had lived in a home on Jefferson St. in Buffalo since transferring to the U.S. from Germany greater than half a century earlier.
Franz operated his cabinet-making enterprise for many years on the primary ground of the two-story body residence. 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 had been hiding an excessive amount of money in the home, a fortune accrued over a long time of laborious work and little spending. Associates and neighbors apprehensive that these rumors may entice harmful younger ruffians who may hurt them and steal the cash.
They had been partially proper. However the agent of the couple’s doom turned out to be a predator as wrinkled and grey as they had been.
Charles Bonier
In mid-November, the home fell silent, and neither Franz nor Johanna appeared outdoors or close to the home windows. Then, on Nov. 21, a transferring van stopped on the handle, 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 previous pal from Germany. He stated the Frehrs wished to maneuver into an old-age residence, so that they offered him the home and one other property they owned a number of blocks away.
Bonier stated he would dwell within the Jefferson St. residence together with his housekeeper and her two younger kids.
Requested the place the Frehrs had gone, Bonier stated he didn’t know their new residence or methods to attain them. All he may say was that they went away in a carriage.
New York Each day Information
New York Each day Information on March 27, 1932
The couple had two grown daughters and grandchildren, together with nieces and nephews who recurrently stopped by, as did some neighbors. Nobody recalled Franz or Johanna saying something about promoting the home or an old-age residence.
Inside a number of days, three grandchildren, ages 20 to 17, visited the home and demanded that Bonier inform them the place their grandparents had been.
“It’s none of your business,” Bonier snapped.
This encounter grew to become considered one of many troubling incidents reported to police who quickly opened an investigation.
Detectives requested Bonier to point out them the deeds. He stated they’d been drawn up by a notary that Frehr employed and had been within the county clerk’s workplace.
However it quickly grew to become clear that the paperwork had been forgeries, signed by Bonier, who tried to bribe a notary to say they had been reputable. The notary refused and went to the police, however Bonier disappeared earlier than they might make an arrest.
A search of the home turned up a bloodstained pair of trousers that belonged to Bonier, suggesting that the Frehrs had been useless 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 filth ground. 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 vital 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 informed police he had run away to search for the Frehrs so they might affirm that they’d offered him the property. When police informed him that they’d been discovered useless 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 informed of how Bonier had come to Buffalo and tried to lease a room from the Frehrs. After they stated no, he began badgering them to promote him the property. One downside: He had no cash.
Retracing his historical past, investigators found he had been married and had a farm in Gardenville. Someday within the 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’ identify is listed.
Bonier informed the court docket that Franz had agreed to promote each properties for $3,200. As an alternative of discovering somebody to draft a deed, the 2 previous males went out to dig up celery. Later, he solid the paperwork after the couple disappeared.
Louisa Lindholm, the housekeeper, proved to be an vital witness for the prosecution. Lindholm informed the court docket about discovering a satchel containing about $500 in money (roughly $18,000 in the present day), 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 final result.
On July 31, 1907, he walked calmly to his execution on the jail in Auburn, N.Y.
