Month: October 2021

Last week, we looked at the 1948 killing of Dorothy Eggers by her husband, Arthur Eggers. This week I’m bringing you something a bit different. You’ve probably heard of Peyton Place. The 1956 novel, set in a fictional New England town, sold millions of copies. It also spawned a hit movie and a successful television series. But did you know that one of the major plot elements in the book comes from a real-life crime? The killing of Lucas Cross by his stepdaughter Selena in the book has its roots in the real-life murder of Sylvester Roberts. Roberts’ daughter, Barbara, shot him in 1946 after years of abuse.

Barbara Roberts

Barbara Roberts was born on January 27, 1927, the fourth of five children. Her father, Sylvester Roberts had immigrated from Birmingham, England in the early 1920s. But the factory jobs he found in Boston and New York were little different or better than those in Birmingham.

Shortly after Barbara arrived, Sylvester bought a small farm near the town of Gilmanton, New Hampshire. He had little interest in farming, it turns out. When her mother died in 1937, it fell to Barbara to be the woman of the house and raise her younger brother, Billy. She was barely 11 years old.

 In 1942, with America newly engaged in World War II, Sylvester Roberts and his oldest two sons joined the Merchant Marine. Now he was gone for long stretches of time. But when he returned, he ruled the roost with an iron hand—or fist.

Barbara Roberts Kills Her Father

In December 1946, Barbara received a telegram announcing that Sylvester would be returning home. When this occurred, he expected Barbara to pick him up at the train station, some 23 miles from the farm. This time, however, the family car was not running and in a garage for repairs. When Sylvester arrived at the farm on December 23, 1946, he was in a towering rage.

Violence was nothing new in the Roberts household. Sylvester had been abusive to his children for years. But this time, he chased Barbara and Billy around the kitchen table, all the while threatening to kill them. Barbara managed to get her hands on a gun—Sylvester’s gun—and shot him dead. Then, according to her confession, she covered the body with a sheet and dragged it into the barn. There she put it in the cellar under the floorboards of the sheep pen.

Barbara Roberts Confesses

Sylvester Roberts’ body reposed under the sheep pen until September 5, 1947. That’s when Barbara finally confessed to her brother Charles. Taken to the police station, she repeated her story of shooting her father. Stunned detectives could hardly believe the neat, slim girl sitting in the interrogation room could be responsible for such mayhem.

When Barbara’s trial began on December 2, 1947, she pled guilty to manslaughter in the first degree. Judge William Grimes sentenced her to three to five years in state prison. Her little brother, Billy, also pled guilty to the same offense. As a minor, he got four years’ probation.

Epilogue

Shortly after Barbara went to prison, the truth about what had really gone on in the Roberts household came out. The story came from a group of journalists, including cub reporter Ben Bradlee of Washington Post fame. For years, Sylvester Roberts had physically abused his children. But he had also repeatedly raped his two daughters, Barbara and her older sister, Marjory.

The revelation of this ugly secret generated public sympathy for Barbara. Citing “the girl’s best interests,” New Hampshire governor Charles M. Dale pardoned her on December 21, 1948. She had served barely a year in prison.

Barbara Roberts eventually married and left Gilmanton. She died in relative obscurity, age 89, in Rochester, New Hampshire on February 7, 2016.

In the 1950s, New Hampshire housewife Grace Metalious began working on a book. One of the central plot elements involves a young girl, Selena Cross, murdering her physically and sexually abusive father. Nominally fiction, Peyton Place appears to be a composite of several small New Hampshire towns, including Metalious’ hometown of Gilmanton. Racy for its day, the book created quite a stir in New Hampshire, not least for dredging up the “Sheep Pen Murder.”

A new book by Renee Mallett, The Peyton Place Murder, explores the Roberts case and its relation to Peyton Place and author Grace Metalious.

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Last week, I covered the Amityville Horror murders committed by Ronald DeFeo, Jr. This week, we’re back in California for a film-noir style murder case, that of Arthur Eggers. In 1948, Eggers killed his wife Dorothy and dumped her body in a remote mountain area. But his ineptness led to his quick arrest and ultimate conviction.

Arthur Eggers, Frustrated Husband

Arthur and Dorothy Eggers couldn’t have had a happy marriage. He was a shy and submissive man while she was the dominant personality in the marriage. She insulted him frequently, calling him “a little insect” among other things. She also slept around and didn’t care if Arthur knew it.

When Arthur discovered Dorothy with one of her lovers, he flew into a rage and tried to attack the man. Dorothy tried to stop her husband and her paramour escaped. She, however, was not so lucky. The gun Arthur was waving at the retreating Lothario “accidentally” went off, killing Dorothy.

With a dead body on his hands, Eggers went to work. He used a hand saw to remove Dorothy’s head and hands to make identification difficult. He then wrapped the body in a blanket and dumped it in what he though was a remote area of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Motorists Find Dorothy Eggers’ Body

On the morning of January 2, 1946, two men drove up the steep grade of Waterman Canyon. Their car began to overheat pulling up the steep mountain grade. So, they pulled into a wide turnout to let it cool and refill the radiator with water. There is no record today of what car they drove. But so soon after the end of World War II, it was likely no newer than a 1930s model. Cooling problems were not uncommon in older cars.

While waiting for the engine to cool, the two men took in the breathtaking view of the San Bernardino Mountains. One of them looked down into the ravine below. He saw a woman’s body wrapped in a green and white blanket tied with rope.

Sheriff’s deputies and detectives retrieved the body and noted the missing head and hands.The woman had been of middle age, probably mid-forties. The only distinguishing features were severe bunions on the feet. Police deduced that the killer was not familiar with the area. The dump site was an area where people often stopped to view the scenery, after all.

Arthur Eggers Confesses–And Recants

Eggers reported his wife missing at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Temple City substation, where he was a clerk. He attempted to mislead authorities, though, by misstating Dorothy’s height as 5 feet, 2 inches. Her true height was 5 feet, 7 or 8 inches.

On January 4, Eggers sold his wife’s wedding rings to a jeweler for $10 ($140 in 2021). He used a fake name and address. Two weeks later, he sold Dorothy’s 1940 Plymouth sedan to a deputy in the Temple City substation. He forged her name to the ownership certificate. Although he had cleaned the trunk, small spots of human blood remained. The blood was Type A, Dorothy’s type (this was decades before DNA testing).

Eggers was arrested on suspicion of murder on January 22. He maintained his innocence until questioned by retired deputy Robert Jones. The two men had worked together a long time and Eggers respected the older man. Before long, Eggers admitted that he’d killed Dorothy “accidentally” as they fought after he caught her with the other man. The next morning, he led deputies to the site where he’d dumped the body.

However, it wasn’t long before Eggers started revising his confession, tweaking it to minimize his level of guilt. Then he recanted completely, saying he never killed his wife, and the Waterman Canyon body wasn’t even hers.

Arthur Eggers on Trial

Arthur Eggers went on trial for murder on May 6, 1947. His attorney, James Starritt filed a motion to block the indictment. The motion failed, but Starritt did get Eggers’ confession set aside. However, there was plenty of evidence against him. One of Eggers’ nieces, who lived with the couple, identified the blanket used to wrap the Dorothy’s body. A neighbor testified to seeing Eggers vigorously scrubbing the trunk of his wife’s car.

There was also forensic evidence. There was, of course, the Type A blood found in the trunk of Dorothy’s car. Investigators found the same blood type in the couple’s bathroom. They also found bits of bone and flesh imbedded in a handsaw belonging to Eggers. Equally damning, test-fired from Eggers’ .32 calibre handgun matched the slugs retrieved from Dorothy’s body.

It was no surprise, therefore, when the jury of ten women and two men returned with a guilty verdict on June 29. Eggers still maintained that the Waterman Canyon body wasn’t Dorothy. As if that would negate the physical evidence and counteract his admission on the stand that he shot her.

After sanity hearing in which a jury rejected the argument that Eggers was insane, Superior Court Judge Clement Nye sentenced him to death.

Epilogue

Arthur Eggers died in the San Quentin gas chamber on Friday, October 15, 1948.

The Eggers case is one of the cases covered in Jason Lucky Morrow’s book, Famous Crimes the World Forgot.

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