Update: Murder at the Mansion

For everyone who always believed Briarcliff Mansion is haunted, I have encouraging news for you. There was, in fact, a murder that took place on the property. I ran across this story within the first couple of months of research but it took nearly a year and a half to find all of the resources I needed to piece the story together and figure out what really took place.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there if you only refer to a few newspaper archives. I went to quite a number of sources, including a request for the original police report record from the Atlanta Police Department. They got back to me in a reasonable amount of time, but informed me that the record was “purged.” I spoke with the Dekalb County Medical Examiner’s office, but their records didn’t go far back enough. I spoke with H. M. Patterson and Sons Funeral Home to see if their records went that far back. They did, or at least they used to. But several years ago their basement flooded and destroyed records from the 1930s and earlier.

It was a long journey that stopped off through several conspiracy theories before I had clarity. At one point I had to research right-hand drive versus left-hand drive cars in 1931 because it mattered, depending on whether we could assume the murderer was right-handed. But perseverance paid off because I feel confident that the version of the story I’ve compiled is the closest representation of truth that we’ll ever have.

In the end, I knew I had to find the murderer’s grave to get closure. I had some luck with Westview Cemetery, although not at first. Not being family of the deceased, they couldn’t tell me where his grave was located. But I stuck with it and eventually received a plot number and a map that took me to the site. The feelings I experienced as I stood at the end of the unmarked depression in the ground were very complicated. I guess that happens when you get invested in a project about dead people from 90 years ago.

I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did as I untangled it. If you have any questions or theories, feel free to contact me.