....THE MURDER OF MABEL WOOD IN CHICAGO ON FEB. 28, 1927.
(Do not quote without attribution to Alvin Esau)
On Monday, February 28, 1927, Mrs. Mabel Wood, 18, was strangled and her nude body dumped in a bathtub of water in a shared bathroom that was across the hall and thirty feet from the room in the Middleton Hotel at 1447 East 55th Street, Chicago, where she lived with her husband.[1] Mabel Wood was seen in the hotel coming back from work at about 7:15 in the evening. Her husband Carl Wood came home from work as a chef at a nearby hotel at around 8 pm. When he came to his room, he was met by one of the brothers of Mabel, and a female friend, who had just arrived and found the apartment locked, and so were waiting for him. The husband, not having his own key, went to the front desk and got a pass key to open the door. He entered the room with Mabel’s brother and friend, and they found that Mabel was not in the room as expected.[2] The husband had then gone to the bathroom down the hall and entered the unlocked bathroom and found his wife in the tub. There were no clothes or towels or soap in the bathroom, and the clothing Mabel had been wearing when coming back into the hotel just after 7 pm from her job as a cashier at the Lemon Fluff restaurant were missing from her own room.
While Mabel appears to have been murdered, eventually an alternative theory was proposed that Mabel was intoxicated, perhaps with poisoned liquor, and fell into the tub or died of a heart attack.[3] This theory was quickly set aside by the medical examiner, who found no traces of alcohol in her vital organs.[4] In any case, where was the missing clothing? The more logical theory was that she had been subject to an attempted sexual attack in her own apartment, and while resisting the attack had been struck on the head and strangled and then carried to the bathroom and her body fully submerged in the water in the tub to make it look like an accidental drowning.[5] When the apartment was opened it was said to be in disarray, and blood spots were found in the hall between the apartment and the bathroom, and the room key was found on the dresser, and a match box, not belonging to the Wood couple was later found on the floor.[6] The match box had the insignia of a leading jewellery company.[7] The killer may have been scared off before finishing the deed, because, despite being strangled, Mabel was not dead when found just after 8 pm, but died shortly thereafter, despite attempts at reviving her.[8] There was no, or little water in the lungs, and the coroner stated that she had been strangled, given the severe contusions found on her throat and neck.[9] There were also bruises on the head and upper part of the body.[10]
The Chicago Tribune had a picture of Mabel and Carl Wood: [11] (See above)
According to her death certificate, Mabel L. Tremper was born on Sept. 25, 1908, in Boonville, Indiana.[12] A marriage license between Carl V. Wood and Mabel Tremper was issued on Sept. 21, 1926, in Indiana.[13] When she was born, her parents already had 8 children, and after she was born they had at least another 4 children.[14] In 1920 her father was a coal miner in Boonville, Indiana. However at the time of Mabel’s murder he was described as a prosperous farmer, and Mabel was described as having been a very good child, member of the Baptist church, and had left to go to Chicago at age 17 to live with a married sister and find work.[15] Mabel was buried in Evansville, Indiana.[16]
When a number of suspects appeared to have alibis, the police suggested that the murder might be the work of the “gorilla man” strangler.[17] This was before anybody knew that Earle Nelson was the wanted strangler. Aside from strangulation and missing clothes, we have no report that any examination for sexual assault was undertaken. While this is not a murder of a landlady, strangulation and stealing clothes and the possibility of an attempted sexual assault are circumstances that might point to Earle Nelson. When we go to the conventional list of murders attributed to Earle Nelson, we notice that after a flurry of murders right to the end of 1926 there was then a period of many months in 1927 when Nelson appears to have resisted murdering anyone, almost as if he had made a New Year’s resolution to change his life. The first 1927 murder on the conventional list is that of Mary McConnell on April 27, 1927, in Philadelphia. Given the pace with which the “gorilla man” had been, and would be again, hunting female prey, we are tempted to look for unsolved cases in the first four months of 1927, rather than believe that Nelson had caged himself for this length of time. Perhaps this murder in Chicago might serve the purpose?
However, like the “butterfly” murders of Reed, Stone, and Williams, the case of Mabel Wood involved multiple suspects. Earle Nelson may have been thrown in simply because the police failed to pin the murder on someone else. As well as the husband of the victim as a suspect, there were two friends of the couple who lived in a room next door to the Wood hotel-apartment, namely Homer Cameron and George McDonough, and another friend, Delbert Prevo, who lived elsewhere, but was in the adjoining room on the day of the murder.
While McDonough was not reported to be at home, Cameron and Delbert Prevo, were having drinks in Cameron’s room on the night of the murder. Prevo, who was a locomotive engineer on a railway, had been the best man at the Wood wedding a few months previous. Cameron claimed he went for dinner about 6 to 6:30 leaving Prevo in his room. When Cameron came back to his room, he claimed Prevo was not there, and had left a note saying he had gone for more liquor. Prevo did not return, so Cameron played phonographs and read during the alleged time that the attack on Mabel took place in the adjoining apartment. He claimed that the sounds of the phonograph muffling the noise from any attack in the adjoining Wood room and thus he heard nothing.[18]
The police treated Delbert Prevo as the most important suspect. He allegedly had made advances to Mabel Wood a few days previously and quarreled with her husband.[19] One report stated that Prevo, who was estranged from his own wife, had tried to kiss Mabel.[20] Carl Wood, the husband of Mabel, had his own quarrel with his wife the day before her killing. He was upset that she had visited Prevo and gone for a ride with Prevo and Prevo’s wife, Alice.[21] However, apparently, the Wood couple, Mabel and Carl, had played cards with the Prevo couple in the Alice Prevo apartment the night before the murder.[22] The Prevo apartment was not in the same hotel-apartment that the Wood couple lived in and where the murder took place.
Delbert Prevo gave such a precise chronicle of his activities on the evening in question that he satisfied the police, after repeated questioning, as to his innocence.[23] He claimed that he had left the hotel at 6:30 pm before Mabel would have arrived from work at about 7:10 pm. He claimed he had gone to his parent’s house, ate dinner, and then went to see his estranged wife at her apartment at 7:40 or so.[24] His estranged wife, Alice Prevo, gave evidence at the inquest upholding his story. We have no report that the police searched Prevo’s parent’s house, or his car, or his wife’s apartment for the missing clothes. Alice Prevo might also have been a suspect. Were her movements on the night in question carefully reconstructed?
Several witnesses stated that they saw both Delbert and Alice Prevo at the hotel later that night.[25] Alice later admitting to going to the hotel, but only out of curiosity to, “see what it was all about.”[26] There was evidence that Prevo had phoned both Carl Wood and Mabel Wood at their work enquiring when they would be home ostensibly for the purpose of arranging a party.[27] Nevertheless, the police treated both Cameron and Prevo as giving perfectly good accounts of their time on the night in question and they were eliminated as suspects.[28] The husband, Carl Wood, thought that his wife had been killed by someone unknown to her who had sneaked into the room.[29] In other words, someone like the “gorilla man.”
Even though the police bought his story, we still have considerable suspicion as to Delbert Prevo, to name just one of the suspects. While we have no proof that Delbert Prevo murdered Mabel, research into his background reveals that he was an unsavoury character. Delbert Prevo, born in Illinois in 1901,[30] enlisted in the Navy in May of 1918, being only a few months older than 17, and was discharged in June of 1919 at age 18.[31] After his service he moved back to his family living in Danville, Illinois. Delbert Clark Prevo seems to have then turned to booze and crime. Along with a Navy buddy, he was convicted of robbing a clothing store in Indiana and given a suspended sentence.[32] Then in early 1920 Prevo, and a Navy buddy went to Attica, Indiana, to visit a bootlegger. In Attica they were charged with breaking into and robbing a jewellery store and a grocery store.[33] Prevo and his companion were convicted and sentenced from two to fourteen years in prison.[34] Delbert Prevo confessed to the crimes when admitted to the prison in Jeffersonville,[35] and his sentence was later commuted to a lesser term by the Governor.[36]
After his release from prison, he married Alice Munn in Idaho on July 26, 1922.[37] They got married in Idaho even though he was listed as living in Spokane, and Alice was from Walla Walla, Washington. Apparently, Alice Munn had been married previously to Kenneth Williams and the divorce decree had not yet been granted when she married Prevo, and thus the marriage in Idaho, rather than in Washington. All we know is that Delbert and Alice lived together as husband and wife in Denver, Colorado for a time in 1923.[38]
We pick up the story again in 1926 when Delbert and Alice Prevo, were living in Chicago. Delbert Prevo went to an all-night drinking party with a 15-year-old girl, and allegedly sexually attacked her.[39] She later testified that he told her he would marry her if she would keep the matter quiet.[40] Records show that using his father’s name, Alison Henry Prevo, while still married to Alice, he married the girl, Anna Helen Ziedas, on July 27, 1926 in Lake, Indiana.[41] When the two wives discovered each other, Delbert Prevo was charged with rape and bigamy, but he appears to have gotten off the bigamy charge because his first “marriage” was not really a marriage, because his first wife, Alice Munn, had not been properly divorced and thus she was the bigamist, not him![42] The rape charge was also dismissed presumably because the first sexual assault did not involve penetration, while the actual sexual intercourse took place after the marriage and at this time, the legal definition of rape did not apply to marital relations, however non-consensual the intercourse may have been.
Presumably, Prevo and Anna Ziedas were divorced at some stage, but at the time of the Wood murder in 1927, she was described as still married to him, although not living with him, and was an employee of a beauty parlour.[43] At the inquest into the death of Mabel Wood, Anna Ziedas showed up and admitted that she knew nothing about the murder, but her sister, allegedly cried out to the coroner, “She does too know a lot about this murder. This man there,” pointing to Prevo, “attacked her and beat her and chocked her, just the way this Wood girl was killed. It has everything to do with this murder.”[44] However, the coroner was not interested in the Anna Ziedas story, or her sister’s angry accusations, but rather was interested only in the story of Alice Munn Prevo, who corroborated the alibi of Delbert Prevo that he had visited her in her own apartment at the time that Mabel was killed. Delbert, a 27-year-old train fireman at the time, was living with his parents in Chicago, while his estranged wife, Alice Munn Prevo, had her own apartment. She was a dancer in a cabaret called the Midnight Frolics.[45]
A few months after the murder of Mabel Wood, Alice Munn Prevo, now living in some hotel, left a suicide note, swallowed poison, and cut her wrists.[46] The note talked about the good money she had made for a time working as a dancer, but the indignity of abuse suffered at the hands of bosses and clients. She claimed to have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and since then was not making money at the job, and she was now left in poverty and unable to pay for sanatorium treatments. She also was fired that day from her job at the cabaret. She mentioned that her husband was the only man she ever loved, but he had dumped her for another women. She lamented, “Men are all alike. They only want to use you. I went through hell for my husband and in the end of hard work and disgrace I only found myself facing four grim walls of loneliness.”[47]
She was rescued in time and did not die.[48] Police were hopeful that she might now provide further information on the Wood murder, and there were reports that she had earlier claimed that Carl Wood had killed his wife, Mabel.[49] However, if she knew something, she took it to her grave. Before the year was out, Alice Munn Prevo succeeded in death by shooting herself in the heart.[50] She left a note that wished everyone a merry Christmas.[51] The death certificate listed her divorced husband as Kenneth Williams, while Delbert C. Prevo was listed as the “informant.”[52]
Several years later, Delbert Prevo was in trouble again when he was captured with his younger brother, Ken Prevo, breaking into and robbing a house in Chicago.[53] Presumably he went to jail for a time and then Delbert Prevo got married again in Salt Lake City in 1933, to a Mormon girl, Margaret Weidner,[54] but at some point that marriage ended in divorce.[55] However, Delbert and Margaret must have gotten together again, because she was listed with him in various city directories and social pages. For example, in 1946 they were living in Sparks, Nevada, where he was working for the Southern Pacific Railway.[56] Then they were in Reno Nevada in 1950, both working for a bakery.[57] Then they were back in Salt Lake City for a number of years.[58]
Subsequently both Delbert Prevo and his brother Ken Prevo, moved back to their hometown in Mattoon, Illinois, and had numerous convictions for illegal transport of liquor, impaired driving, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness.[59] Delbert Prevo died in 1959 at the age of 57.[60] His wife, Margaret W. Prevo, died in Salt Lake City in April of 1970 at age 61.[61]
This is the picture of Delbert Prevo back in 1927 when he was the prime suspect:[62] (deleted)
Turning briefly to the husband of Mabel, we notice that the death certificate in 1927 listed him as Carl V. Wood. Based on his occupation as a chef in a hotel, we suspect that the individual we are looking for is Carl Vern Wood, born April 21, 1904, in Des Moines, Iowa, employed as a cook in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago in 1942.[63] Carl Vern Wood got married again in April 1930, three years after the death of Mabel.[64] In the 1940 Census he was listed as working as a chef at a hotel in Chicago and married to Anna Wood.[65] In the 1950 Census he was listed as working as a chef in a restaurant in Delavan Washington, while wife, Anna, was working as a clerk in a grocery story.[66] The couple moved at some point to Hesperia, California, where for many years Carl Vern Wood owned the Arcade Coffee Shop.[67] He died in Hesperia in 1977 at age 73.[68] His wife, Anna, died in 1981. Nothing suspicious here.
..................................................................
[1] “Woman Found Dead in Tub,” Fairfield Ledger, March 1, 1927, at 4; “Woman Found Dying in a Bathtub Strangled,” Sedalia Democrat, March 1, 1927, at 3.
[2] “Renew Search for Clews in Bride Murder,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[3] “Not a Murder?” Muncie Press, March 8, 1927, at 2; “Woman Found in Tub was Not Murdered,” Brazil Times, March 8, 1927, at 4; “Question Husband,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, March 9, 1927, at 1
[4] “Police Baffled,” Kokomo Tribune, March 15, 1927, at 12; “Bathtub Death Probe is Renewed,” Boonville Standard, March 18, 1927, at 4; “Bathtub Murder is Unsolved,” Hammond Times, March 19, 1927, at 13.
[5] “Mystery in Body in Tub,” Greensburg News, March 1, 1927, at 1; “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9; “Renew Search for Clews,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[6] “Police Hunt for Slayer,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3; “Match Box is Clue,” Kokomo Tribune, March 4,1927, at 1; “Woman Found Dying,” Sedalia Democrat, March 4, 1927, at 18.
[7] ‘Match Box May Trap Murderer,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[8] “Police Hunt for Slayer,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3;
[9] “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9.
[10] “Boonville Girl is Slain,” Boonville Enquirer, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[11] Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 10.
[12] Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998.
[13] Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019.
[14] U.S. Census of 1910 and 1920.
[15] “Body of Young Bride Slain in Chicago Brought to Boonville for Burial,” Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, March 3, 1927, at 1.
[16] Supra note 11.
[17] “Killer of Young Bride Believed Murderer of 15,” Salt Lake Telegram, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Hint of ‘Gorilla in Bride’s Death,” Indianapolis Times, March 2, 1927 at 9; “Gorilla Man is Suspected,” Sheboygan Press, March 2, 1927, at 1: “Gorilla Man May Be Slayer,” Fairfield Daily Ledger, April 2, 1927, at 12; “Gorilla Man Strangler May be Involved,” Portsmouth Times, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Gorilla Man May be Cause,” Oelwein Register, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Chicago Officials Apparently Have Given Up,” Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, March 20., 1927, at 2;
[18] “Officials Find Music Helped Slayer’s Escape,” Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1927, at 2.
[19] “Police Hunt for Slayer of Young Bride,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3; “Chicago Hotel Mystery Death,” Centralia Sentinel, March 1, 1927, at 1.
[20] “New Checkup on Prevo Story,” Hammond Times, March 3, 1927, at 16.
[21] “Match Box is Clue,” Kokomo Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[22] “Renew Search for Clews,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1 and 10.
[23] “Bathtub Death of Bride,” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Police are Baffled,” Indianapolis Star, March 7, 1927, at 17.
[24] “Gorilla Man is Suspected,” Sheboygan Press, March 2, 1927, at 1
[25] “Expect Arrest Soon,” Kokomo Tribune, March 3, 1927, at 2; “Police Unable to Solve Mystery,” Albert Lea Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 5.
[26] “Police Determined to Obtain Facts,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, March 6, 1927, at 2.
[27] “Husband’s Pal is Freed in Murder,” Sedalia Capital, March 3, 1927, at 10.
[28] “Killer of Young Bride Believed Murderer of 15,” Salt Lake Telegram, March 2, 1927, at 1
[29] “Mrs. Mabel Wood,” South Bend Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 2.
[30] Illinois Births and Christenings, 1824-1940.
[31] Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963.
[32] Past record noted in “Prevo and Stearnes,” Attica Tribune, April 16, 1920, at 5.
[33] “Attica Burglars Are Held by Grand Jury,” Attica Ledger, January 22, 1920, at 1.
[34] ‘Prevo and Stearnes Draw 2 to 14 Years,” Attica Tribune, April 17, 1920, at 5.
[35] “Prevo Confesses,” Attica Ledger, April 23, 1920, at 1.
[36] “Commuted,” Attica Ledger Tribune, Oct. 8, 1921, at 9.
[37] Idaho, County Marriages, 1884-1950.
[38] Denver City Directory, 1923.
[39] “Man Who Married at Walla Walla Now Held in a Chicago Murder,” Athena Press, March 4, 1927 at 11; “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9.
[40] “His Two Wives Meet,” Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1926, at 2.
[41] Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001.
[42] Supra note 37. See, also, “Alleged Bigamist Accuses First Wife of Same Offense,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 13, 1926, at 3.
[43] “Bathtub Death of Bride Grows Deeper Puzzle,” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 1.
[44] Ibid.
[45] ‘Dancer, Trying to Die,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1927, at 8.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
[48] “Girl Dancer Fails in Her Suicide Try,” Massillon Evening Independent, June 6, 1927, at 9.
[49] “Woman’s Hint of Bathtub Murder Solution Probed,” Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1927, at 16.
[50] “Dancer Quizzed in Tub Murder Takes Her Life,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 21, 1927, at 1; “Chicago Night Club Hostess Ends Own Life,” Salt Lake City Telegram, December 21, 1927, at 5.
[51] “Woman Suicide Pens Greeting,” Chicago Suburbanite Economist, Dec. 23, 1927, at 1.
[52] Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994.
[53] “Two Bandits,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1930, at 8.
[54] “Margaret W. Prevo,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 1970, at 23.
[55] Margaret L. Weidner listed as divorced in US. Census of 1940.
[56] Sparks City Directory, 1946.
[57] Reno, Nevada, City Directory, 1950.
[58] Salt Lake City, City Directory, 1950, 1952, 1956.
[59] “Disorderly Conduct,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, April 28, 1956, at 3; “Convict Men,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 17, 1957, at 3; “Mattoon Man Charged,” Decatur Herald and Review, April 21, 1958, at 2; “Two Pay,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 26, 1958; “Second Drunk Driving Fine Within Four Days,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 20, 1958, at 3; “Two Pay,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 26, 1958, at 3; “Revokes License,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, July 29, 1958, at 3, 1959; “Police Court News” re brother’s drunkenness and indecent exposure, Mattoon Journal Gazette, May 25, 1959 at 3.
[60] “Delbert Prevo Dies,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, Feb. 5, 1959, at 1.
[61] “Margaret W. Prevo,” Salt Lake City Tribune, April 28, 1970, at 23.
[62] Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 10.
[63] World War II Draft Cards; U.S. Births and Delayed Birth Registration Records.
[64] Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001.
[65] U.S. Census of 1940.
[66] U.S. Census of 1950.
[67] Obit in Victorville Daily Press, June 7, 1977, at 2.
[68] findagrave.com.
(Do not quote without attribution to Alvin Esau)
On Monday, February 28, 1927, Mrs. Mabel Wood, 18, was strangled and her nude body dumped in a bathtub of water in a shared bathroom that was across the hall and thirty feet from the room in the Middleton Hotel at 1447 East 55th Street, Chicago, where she lived with her husband.[1] Mabel Wood was seen in the hotel coming back from work at about 7:15 in the evening. Her husband Carl Wood came home from work as a chef at a nearby hotel at around 8 pm. When he came to his room, he was met by one of the brothers of Mabel, and a female friend, who had just arrived and found the apartment locked, and so were waiting for him. The husband, not having his own key, went to the front desk and got a pass key to open the door. He entered the room with Mabel’s brother and friend, and they found that Mabel was not in the room as expected.[2] The husband had then gone to the bathroom down the hall and entered the unlocked bathroom and found his wife in the tub. There were no clothes or towels or soap in the bathroom, and the clothing Mabel had been wearing when coming back into the hotel just after 7 pm from her job as a cashier at the Lemon Fluff restaurant were missing from her own room.
While Mabel appears to have been murdered, eventually an alternative theory was proposed that Mabel was intoxicated, perhaps with poisoned liquor, and fell into the tub or died of a heart attack.[3] This theory was quickly set aside by the medical examiner, who found no traces of alcohol in her vital organs.[4] In any case, where was the missing clothing? The more logical theory was that she had been subject to an attempted sexual attack in her own apartment, and while resisting the attack had been struck on the head and strangled and then carried to the bathroom and her body fully submerged in the water in the tub to make it look like an accidental drowning.[5] When the apartment was opened it was said to be in disarray, and blood spots were found in the hall between the apartment and the bathroom, and the room key was found on the dresser, and a match box, not belonging to the Wood couple was later found on the floor.[6] The match box had the insignia of a leading jewellery company.[7] The killer may have been scared off before finishing the deed, because, despite being strangled, Mabel was not dead when found just after 8 pm, but died shortly thereafter, despite attempts at reviving her.[8] There was no, or little water in the lungs, and the coroner stated that she had been strangled, given the severe contusions found on her throat and neck.[9] There were also bruises on the head and upper part of the body.[10]
The Chicago Tribune had a picture of Mabel and Carl Wood: [11] (See above)
According to her death certificate, Mabel L. Tremper was born on Sept. 25, 1908, in Boonville, Indiana.[12] A marriage license between Carl V. Wood and Mabel Tremper was issued on Sept. 21, 1926, in Indiana.[13] When she was born, her parents already had 8 children, and after she was born they had at least another 4 children.[14] In 1920 her father was a coal miner in Boonville, Indiana. However at the time of Mabel’s murder he was described as a prosperous farmer, and Mabel was described as having been a very good child, member of the Baptist church, and had left to go to Chicago at age 17 to live with a married sister and find work.[15] Mabel was buried in Evansville, Indiana.[16]
When a number of suspects appeared to have alibis, the police suggested that the murder might be the work of the “gorilla man” strangler.[17] This was before anybody knew that Earle Nelson was the wanted strangler. Aside from strangulation and missing clothes, we have no report that any examination for sexual assault was undertaken. While this is not a murder of a landlady, strangulation and stealing clothes and the possibility of an attempted sexual assault are circumstances that might point to Earle Nelson. When we go to the conventional list of murders attributed to Earle Nelson, we notice that after a flurry of murders right to the end of 1926 there was then a period of many months in 1927 when Nelson appears to have resisted murdering anyone, almost as if he had made a New Year’s resolution to change his life. The first 1927 murder on the conventional list is that of Mary McConnell on April 27, 1927, in Philadelphia. Given the pace with which the “gorilla man” had been, and would be again, hunting female prey, we are tempted to look for unsolved cases in the first four months of 1927, rather than believe that Nelson had caged himself for this length of time. Perhaps this murder in Chicago might serve the purpose?
However, like the “butterfly” murders of Reed, Stone, and Williams, the case of Mabel Wood involved multiple suspects. Earle Nelson may have been thrown in simply because the police failed to pin the murder on someone else. As well as the husband of the victim as a suspect, there were two friends of the couple who lived in a room next door to the Wood hotel-apartment, namely Homer Cameron and George McDonough, and another friend, Delbert Prevo, who lived elsewhere, but was in the adjoining room on the day of the murder.
While McDonough was not reported to be at home, Cameron and Delbert Prevo, were having drinks in Cameron’s room on the night of the murder. Prevo, who was a locomotive engineer on a railway, had been the best man at the Wood wedding a few months previous. Cameron claimed he went for dinner about 6 to 6:30 leaving Prevo in his room. When Cameron came back to his room, he claimed Prevo was not there, and had left a note saying he had gone for more liquor. Prevo did not return, so Cameron played phonographs and read during the alleged time that the attack on Mabel took place in the adjoining apartment. He claimed that the sounds of the phonograph muffling the noise from any attack in the adjoining Wood room and thus he heard nothing.[18]
The police treated Delbert Prevo as the most important suspect. He allegedly had made advances to Mabel Wood a few days previously and quarreled with her husband.[19] One report stated that Prevo, who was estranged from his own wife, had tried to kiss Mabel.[20] Carl Wood, the husband of Mabel, had his own quarrel with his wife the day before her killing. He was upset that she had visited Prevo and gone for a ride with Prevo and Prevo’s wife, Alice.[21] However, apparently, the Wood couple, Mabel and Carl, had played cards with the Prevo couple in the Alice Prevo apartment the night before the murder.[22] The Prevo apartment was not in the same hotel-apartment that the Wood couple lived in and where the murder took place.
Delbert Prevo gave such a precise chronicle of his activities on the evening in question that he satisfied the police, after repeated questioning, as to his innocence.[23] He claimed that he had left the hotel at 6:30 pm before Mabel would have arrived from work at about 7:10 pm. He claimed he had gone to his parent’s house, ate dinner, and then went to see his estranged wife at her apartment at 7:40 or so.[24] His estranged wife, Alice Prevo, gave evidence at the inquest upholding his story. We have no report that the police searched Prevo’s parent’s house, or his car, or his wife’s apartment for the missing clothes. Alice Prevo might also have been a suspect. Were her movements on the night in question carefully reconstructed?
Several witnesses stated that they saw both Delbert and Alice Prevo at the hotel later that night.[25] Alice later admitting to going to the hotel, but only out of curiosity to, “see what it was all about.”[26] There was evidence that Prevo had phoned both Carl Wood and Mabel Wood at their work enquiring when they would be home ostensibly for the purpose of arranging a party.[27] Nevertheless, the police treated both Cameron and Prevo as giving perfectly good accounts of their time on the night in question and they were eliminated as suspects.[28] The husband, Carl Wood, thought that his wife had been killed by someone unknown to her who had sneaked into the room.[29] In other words, someone like the “gorilla man.”
Even though the police bought his story, we still have considerable suspicion as to Delbert Prevo, to name just one of the suspects. While we have no proof that Delbert Prevo murdered Mabel, research into his background reveals that he was an unsavoury character. Delbert Prevo, born in Illinois in 1901,[30] enlisted in the Navy in May of 1918, being only a few months older than 17, and was discharged in June of 1919 at age 18.[31] After his service he moved back to his family living in Danville, Illinois. Delbert Clark Prevo seems to have then turned to booze and crime. Along with a Navy buddy, he was convicted of robbing a clothing store in Indiana and given a suspended sentence.[32] Then in early 1920 Prevo, and a Navy buddy went to Attica, Indiana, to visit a bootlegger. In Attica they were charged with breaking into and robbing a jewellery store and a grocery store.[33] Prevo and his companion were convicted and sentenced from two to fourteen years in prison.[34] Delbert Prevo confessed to the crimes when admitted to the prison in Jeffersonville,[35] and his sentence was later commuted to a lesser term by the Governor.[36]
After his release from prison, he married Alice Munn in Idaho on July 26, 1922.[37] They got married in Idaho even though he was listed as living in Spokane, and Alice was from Walla Walla, Washington. Apparently, Alice Munn had been married previously to Kenneth Williams and the divorce decree had not yet been granted when she married Prevo, and thus the marriage in Idaho, rather than in Washington. All we know is that Delbert and Alice lived together as husband and wife in Denver, Colorado for a time in 1923.[38]
We pick up the story again in 1926 when Delbert and Alice Prevo, were living in Chicago. Delbert Prevo went to an all-night drinking party with a 15-year-old girl, and allegedly sexually attacked her.[39] She later testified that he told her he would marry her if she would keep the matter quiet.[40] Records show that using his father’s name, Alison Henry Prevo, while still married to Alice, he married the girl, Anna Helen Ziedas, on July 27, 1926 in Lake, Indiana.[41] When the two wives discovered each other, Delbert Prevo was charged with rape and bigamy, but he appears to have gotten off the bigamy charge because his first “marriage” was not really a marriage, because his first wife, Alice Munn, had not been properly divorced and thus she was the bigamist, not him![42] The rape charge was also dismissed presumably because the first sexual assault did not involve penetration, while the actual sexual intercourse took place after the marriage and at this time, the legal definition of rape did not apply to marital relations, however non-consensual the intercourse may have been.
Presumably, Prevo and Anna Ziedas were divorced at some stage, but at the time of the Wood murder in 1927, she was described as still married to him, although not living with him, and was an employee of a beauty parlour.[43] At the inquest into the death of Mabel Wood, Anna Ziedas showed up and admitted that she knew nothing about the murder, but her sister, allegedly cried out to the coroner, “She does too know a lot about this murder. This man there,” pointing to Prevo, “attacked her and beat her and chocked her, just the way this Wood girl was killed. It has everything to do with this murder.”[44] However, the coroner was not interested in the Anna Ziedas story, or her sister’s angry accusations, but rather was interested only in the story of Alice Munn Prevo, who corroborated the alibi of Delbert Prevo that he had visited her in her own apartment at the time that Mabel was killed. Delbert, a 27-year-old train fireman at the time, was living with his parents in Chicago, while his estranged wife, Alice Munn Prevo, had her own apartment. She was a dancer in a cabaret called the Midnight Frolics.[45]
A few months after the murder of Mabel Wood, Alice Munn Prevo, now living in some hotel, left a suicide note, swallowed poison, and cut her wrists.[46] The note talked about the good money she had made for a time working as a dancer, but the indignity of abuse suffered at the hands of bosses and clients. She claimed to have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and since then was not making money at the job, and she was now left in poverty and unable to pay for sanatorium treatments. She also was fired that day from her job at the cabaret. She mentioned that her husband was the only man she ever loved, but he had dumped her for another women. She lamented, “Men are all alike. They only want to use you. I went through hell for my husband and in the end of hard work and disgrace I only found myself facing four grim walls of loneliness.”[47]
She was rescued in time and did not die.[48] Police were hopeful that she might now provide further information on the Wood murder, and there were reports that she had earlier claimed that Carl Wood had killed his wife, Mabel.[49] However, if she knew something, she took it to her grave. Before the year was out, Alice Munn Prevo succeeded in death by shooting herself in the heart.[50] She left a note that wished everyone a merry Christmas.[51] The death certificate listed her divorced husband as Kenneth Williams, while Delbert C. Prevo was listed as the “informant.”[52]
Several years later, Delbert Prevo was in trouble again when he was captured with his younger brother, Ken Prevo, breaking into and robbing a house in Chicago.[53] Presumably he went to jail for a time and then Delbert Prevo got married again in Salt Lake City in 1933, to a Mormon girl, Margaret Weidner,[54] but at some point that marriage ended in divorce.[55] However, Delbert and Margaret must have gotten together again, because she was listed with him in various city directories and social pages. For example, in 1946 they were living in Sparks, Nevada, where he was working for the Southern Pacific Railway.[56] Then they were in Reno Nevada in 1950, both working for a bakery.[57] Then they were back in Salt Lake City for a number of years.[58]
Subsequently both Delbert Prevo and his brother Ken Prevo, moved back to their hometown in Mattoon, Illinois, and had numerous convictions for illegal transport of liquor, impaired driving, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness.[59] Delbert Prevo died in 1959 at the age of 57.[60] His wife, Margaret W. Prevo, died in Salt Lake City in April of 1970 at age 61.[61]
This is the picture of Delbert Prevo back in 1927 when he was the prime suspect:[62] (deleted)
Turning briefly to the husband of Mabel, we notice that the death certificate in 1927 listed him as Carl V. Wood. Based on his occupation as a chef in a hotel, we suspect that the individual we are looking for is Carl Vern Wood, born April 21, 1904, in Des Moines, Iowa, employed as a cook in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago in 1942.[63] Carl Vern Wood got married again in April 1930, three years after the death of Mabel.[64] In the 1940 Census he was listed as working as a chef at a hotel in Chicago and married to Anna Wood.[65] In the 1950 Census he was listed as working as a chef in a restaurant in Delavan Washington, while wife, Anna, was working as a clerk in a grocery story.[66] The couple moved at some point to Hesperia, California, where for many years Carl Vern Wood owned the Arcade Coffee Shop.[67] He died in Hesperia in 1977 at age 73.[68] His wife, Anna, died in 1981. Nothing suspicious here.
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[1] “Woman Found Dead in Tub,” Fairfield Ledger, March 1, 1927, at 4; “Woman Found Dying in a Bathtub Strangled,” Sedalia Democrat, March 1, 1927, at 3.
[2] “Renew Search for Clews in Bride Murder,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[3] “Not a Murder?” Muncie Press, March 8, 1927, at 2; “Woman Found in Tub was Not Murdered,” Brazil Times, March 8, 1927, at 4; “Question Husband,” Lafayette Journal and Courier, March 9, 1927, at 1
[4] “Police Baffled,” Kokomo Tribune, March 15, 1927, at 12; “Bathtub Death Probe is Renewed,” Boonville Standard, March 18, 1927, at 4; “Bathtub Murder is Unsolved,” Hammond Times, March 19, 1927, at 13.
[5] “Mystery in Body in Tub,” Greensburg News, March 1, 1927, at 1; “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9; “Renew Search for Clews,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[6] “Police Hunt for Slayer,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3; “Match Box is Clue,” Kokomo Tribune, March 4,1927, at 1; “Woman Found Dying,” Sedalia Democrat, March 4, 1927, at 18.
[7] ‘Match Box May Trap Murderer,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[8] “Police Hunt for Slayer,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3;
[9] “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9.
[10] “Boonville Girl is Slain,” Boonville Enquirer, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[11] Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 10.
[12] Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998.
[13] Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019.
[14] U.S. Census of 1910 and 1920.
[15] “Body of Young Bride Slain in Chicago Brought to Boonville for Burial,” Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, March 3, 1927, at 1.
[16] Supra note 11.
[17] “Killer of Young Bride Believed Murderer of 15,” Salt Lake Telegram, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Hint of ‘Gorilla in Bride’s Death,” Indianapolis Times, March 2, 1927 at 9; “Gorilla Man is Suspected,” Sheboygan Press, March 2, 1927, at 1: “Gorilla Man May Be Slayer,” Fairfield Daily Ledger, April 2, 1927, at 12; “Gorilla Man Strangler May be Involved,” Portsmouth Times, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Gorilla Man May be Cause,” Oelwein Register, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Chicago Officials Apparently Have Given Up,” Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, March 20., 1927, at 2;
[18] “Officials Find Music Helped Slayer’s Escape,” Chicago Tribune, March 3, 1927, at 2.
[19] “Police Hunt for Slayer of Young Bride,” Bismarck Tribune, March 1, 1927, at 3; “Chicago Hotel Mystery Death,” Centralia Sentinel, March 1, 1927, at 1.
[20] “New Checkup on Prevo Story,” Hammond Times, March 3, 1927, at 16.
[21] “Match Box is Clue,” Kokomo Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 1.
[22] “Renew Search for Clews,” Chicago Southtown Economist, March 4, 1927, at 1 and 10.
[23] “Bathtub Death of Bride,” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 1; “Police are Baffled,” Indianapolis Star, March 7, 1927, at 17.
[24] “Gorilla Man is Suspected,” Sheboygan Press, March 2, 1927, at 1
[25] “Expect Arrest Soon,” Kokomo Tribune, March 3, 1927, at 2; “Police Unable to Solve Mystery,” Albert Lea Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 5.
[26] “Police Determined to Obtain Facts,” Dubuque Telegraph Herald, March 6, 1927, at 2.
[27] “Husband’s Pal is Freed in Murder,” Sedalia Capital, March 3, 1927, at 10.
[28] “Killer of Young Bride Believed Murderer of 15,” Salt Lake Telegram, March 2, 1927, at 1
[29] “Mrs. Mabel Wood,” South Bend Tribune, March 4, 1927, at 2.
[30] Illinois Births and Christenings, 1824-1940.
[31] Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963.
[32] Past record noted in “Prevo and Stearnes,” Attica Tribune, April 16, 1920, at 5.
[33] “Attica Burglars Are Held by Grand Jury,” Attica Ledger, January 22, 1920, at 1.
[34] ‘Prevo and Stearnes Draw 2 to 14 Years,” Attica Tribune, April 17, 1920, at 5.
[35] “Prevo Confesses,” Attica Ledger, April 23, 1920, at 1.
[36] “Commuted,” Attica Ledger Tribune, Oct. 8, 1921, at 9.
[37] Idaho, County Marriages, 1884-1950.
[38] Denver City Directory, 1923.
[39] “Man Who Married at Walla Walla Now Held in a Chicago Murder,” Athena Press, March 4, 1927 at 11; “Mystery Veils Bride’s Death,” Sioux City Journal, March 2, 1927, at 9.
[40] “His Two Wives Meet,” Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1926, at 2.
[41] Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001.
[42] Supra note 37. See, also, “Alleged Bigamist Accuses First Wife of Same Offense,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 13, 1926, at 3.
[43] “Bathtub Death of Bride Grows Deeper Puzzle,” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 1.
[44] Ibid.
[45] ‘Dancer, Trying to Die,” Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1927, at 8.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
[48] “Girl Dancer Fails in Her Suicide Try,” Massillon Evening Independent, June 6, 1927, at 9.
[49] “Woman’s Hint of Bathtub Murder Solution Probed,” Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1927, at 16.
[50] “Dancer Quizzed in Tub Murder Takes Her Life,” Chicago Tribune, Dec. 21, 1927, at 1; “Chicago Night Club Hostess Ends Own Life,” Salt Lake City Telegram, December 21, 1927, at 5.
[51] “Woman Suicide Pens Greeting,” Chicago Suburbanite Economist, Dec. 23, 1927, at 1.
[52] Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994.
[53] “Two Bandits,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 14, 1930, at 8.
[54] “Margaret W. Prevo,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 1970, at 23.
[55] Margaret L. Weidner listed as divorced in US. Census of 1940.
[56] Sparks City Directory, 1946.
[57] Reno, Nevada, City Directory, 1950.
[58] Salt Lake City, City Directory, 1950, 1952, 1956.
[59] “Disorderly Conduct,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, April 28, 1956, at 3; “Convict Men,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 17, 1957, at 3; “Mattoon Man Charged,” Decatur Herald and Review, April 21, 1958, at 2; “Two Pay,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 26, 1958; “Second Drunk Driving Fine Within Four Days,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 20, 1958, at 3; “Two Pay,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, June 26, 1958, at 3; “Revokes License,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, July 29, 1958, at 3, 1959; “Police Court News” re brother’s drunkenness and indecent exposure, Mattoon Journal Gazette, May 25, 1959 at 3.
[60] “Delbert Prevo Dies,” Mattoon Journal Gazette, Feb. 5, 1959, at 1.
[61] “Margaret W. Prevo,” Salt Lake City Tribune, April 28, 1970, at 23.
[62] Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1927, at 10.
[63] World War II Draft Cards; U.S. Births and Delayed Birth Registration Records.
[64] Indiana Marriages, 1810-2001.
[65] U.S. Census of 1940.
[66] U.S. Census of 1950.
[67] Obit in Victorville Daily Press, June 7, 1977, at 2.
[68] findagrave.com.
