[ Post a Response | Kentucky Unsolved Mysteries ]
Posted by Becky On August 22, 1932, john Gregory Callahan and Isabelle Hettle Callahan of Louisville, KY were having simple breakfast with part of their family. The meal included pancakes and homemade cherry preserves. Before long the family was violently ill and had to be rushed to the hospital. Within the next few days 5 of the family of 11, including both parents, were dead of food poisoning. Several other children recuperated in the hospital and then were released. The story and the investigation became front page news. Not all of the children consumed any breakfast that morning. Two of the boys were out of the house, one picking mushrooms and one helping on a newspaper route. Two children had not yet made it to the table. The victims started feeling the effects very quickly. Isabelle was reported to have said, "Don't eat any more of that. I think it's poisoned. Attempts to save most of the victims were futile the infant, Kenneth, died that day. John(43), Isabelle(in her 40's), cecilia(8) and virginia(6) died 2 days later. Dorothy (5) and George (15) recovered after a stay in the hospital. Times were hard. John was a house painter but had been out of work for about a year and the main bread winner for the family of 11 was young Marie (20) who worked at a box company. Local authorities and the FBI investigated and neighbors reports led to several theories. All of the following theories were stated or hinted in issues of the Courier-Journal, Louisville Times and the Louisville Herald-Post after the story became front page news. Murder and suicide were considered when the health authorities reported the physical symptoms to suggest the ingestion of a poison. Interviews with neighbors and friends revealed that Isabelle and John were deeply depressed over their financial state. Marie's meager salary had been their only income for a long while. Could one of them have planned the deed as an act of desperation? Other theories by investigators tried to explain how the event might have been accidental poisoning. Sugar of lead was found dissolved in milk for the treatment of poison ivy. Could it have been consumed by mistake? Wild cherry preserves were found on the table. Wild cherries have pits that contain some amounts of arsenic. Could the preserves have been the fatal cause? Eventually the source of the poison was reported to be the corn meal in the pancakes. It contained amounts of arsenic. How did it get in the corn meal? Some family members have said that Marie may have done it because of the stress of supporting a family of 11. Neighbors and family reported that the outside icebox had been rifled by thieves recently, taking the reserves of the needy family. Could the corn meal have been tainted as a punishment for the thieves and made it to the table by mistake? Older members of the family have passed down the following accounts as the one story accepted by some: The owners of a nearby grocery (Hanke's) were providing occasional supplies to the Callahan family. The store was also having trouble with rats and the owner's wife prepared a corn meal and arsenic mixture as a simple method of eliminating the problem. She apparently was away when John & Leo Callahan came to the store for supplies. The owner added the open bag to the supplies by mistake. To this day it is inconclusive whether the authorities decided what had happened or just forgot the case because of the possible criminals (if any) had died in the action. Recent investigations by the family have attempted to find the records. They have had no success. The records were said to have been either destroyed as out of date or ruined in the 1937 flood of the Ohio River which inundated many Louisville buildings. No one may ever know the whole story since most of the participants, investigators, and records in the case have been lost. The newspaper accounts had so interested the residents of Louisville that 6000 people attended the funeral mass at St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church on Burnett Street. Prior to the mass, a family group held a private service at Bosse's Funeral Home. The eventual burials were in Calvary Cemetery. Some of the boys had to live in the Orphan's Home for a time, until a legal guardianship could be arranged. Times were difficult and other relatives had big families. Eventually, the boys were rescued by an aunt, a sister to Isabelle, and then by the oldest daughter, Marie, who married and took the boys into her home.
on 10/23/2005, 9:33 pm
These are my great grandparents and Leo Callahan is my grandfather. He passed away when I was 6 and he only spoke of the incident a few times to my mother.
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