Update on the Ghost Sign at 1480 S State

The old Pappy's Pawn at 1480 S State as it is today, Dec 6 2021.

An update on the old ghost sign uncovered at the now-closed Pappy’s Pawn at 1480 SState, Salt Lake City.:

As of this morning (6 Dec 2021), the stucco has been repaired and painted red, meaning that the recently uncovered sign is now hidden again behind the stucco (see the previous post).

 

The old Pappy's Pawn at 1480 S State as it is today, Dec 6 2021.
Note the lack of seagull statues on top of the pawn sign.

Also note that the existing sign no longer has the seagulls, which we learned from @handysixdeuce that the seagulls were originally part of a massive art installation at the now-demolished Prudential Federal Savings building previously located at 115 S Main Street SLC and is now the site of the Eccles Theater. 

I'm not sure if Pappy took the seagulls with him or if the new owners have them. I just hope they didn't end up in the trash.

Here are some interesting articles about the art and architecture of the Prudential Building, the 2014 demolition of the building, and the promise of SLC to reincorporate the seagulls into the Eccles Theater - which has not happened.

• Salt Lake Tribune archive article about the removal of the seagull art installation: https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57977106&itype=CMSID
• Mid-Century-Modern Daily's article on the Prudential Federal Savings building https://www.mcmdaily.com/salt-lake-city-prudential-building/ 

Of note, the Prudential Building was designed by architect William Pereira who is best known for designing San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid.

The seagull piece was named "The Gulls of Salt Lake City" and was created by California artist Tom Van Sant with the aid of master welder Timothy E. Smith. It consisted of 100 gulls attached to three stainless steel rods, 120 feet long, held in tension between the roof and a sunken garden below street level. A cricket was placed at the top of the sculpture.

Prudential building and seagull sculpture in the 1960s.
From Utah Division of State History site file.

Prudential building and seagull sculpture in the 1960s.
From Utah Division of State History site file.

Mystery Butterfly Case at the Natural History Museum of Utah - Solved!

The origin of this butterfly (Lepidoptera) case was a mystery, until now! 😊

These pics came to me from Christy Bills, the entomology collections manager at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Very little was known about this case other than what is presented in the images. Christy asked if I might be able to fill in some of the missing details, especially the connection between J.G. McDonald (the SLC chocolate maker) and this case.

This case dates to 1909 when Thomas U. Spalding (1866-1929), an early Utah collector of Lepidoptera, displayed it at the Utah State Fair with butterflies collected in Eureka and Provo, Utah. This case was widely praised for being the finest and most extensive collection of western butterflies thus far exhibited.

It made such an impact that James G. McDonald, the president of the Utah State Fair Association and president of the J G McDonald Chocolate Company (now Broadway Lofts at 159 W 300 South), purchased the case from Spalding and gifted it to the University of Utah Stewart Training School in 1911.

The Stewart School accepted McDonald’s gift and used it for many years to teach a more direct interaction with nature. In fact, the Stewart School expanded its collection to include several cases of songbirds and exhibited them at future State Fairs.

Years later, in the early 1940s, Clyde Gillette (1927-2015) was a student at the Stewart School. He had an early love of butterflies and even co-authored academic papers as a teenager with Professor Angus M. Woodbury.

Reportedly, Gillette retrieved the Spalding Butterfly Case from a trash can at the Stewart School and held on to it.

Later, in 1976, Gillette co-founded the Utah Lepidopterists’ Society and the case then became theirs. They then loaned it to the Natural History Museum of Utah for display and later formally gifted it to the museum.

This case is now over 110 years old and, as is so often the case, little decisions here and there from various people have led to its preservation for the rest of us.

Sources: Eureka Reporter 1927-07-18, Des News 1910-05-21; Daily Utah Chronicle 1911-10-09; Gillette obit 2015

Images provided by Christy Bills, UMNH.

Note: A version of this post was also published on the UMNH Blog.

Spooky SLC: Unsolved Murder of Frances Korous, part 2

Liberty Park 1912 with the bridge where it was surmised that
Frae’s body was dumped into the lake. From UDSH. Color by Imagecolorizer.

Continued from previous post

20 days later, on the afternoon of Nov 6 1920, 13 year old Truman Pratt was sailing a toy boat in the southeast section of the Lake at Liberty Park when he saw what he thought was a Halloween mask floating in the water about 15 feet from shore.

He fashioned a hook to the string of his boat and tried to drag the item back to shore, only to discover it was the body of Frae Korous. He immediately found Park Superintendent Sidney R Lambourne who was in the greenhouse who then called the SLC Police.

At the Coronor’s Inquest, it was discovered that there was no water in Frae’s lungs which ruled out suicide. Death was caused by strangulation by a piece of cloth tightly knotted around her neck; the cloth came from a woman’s undergarment (but not from Frae’s undergarment). Her shoes were partially untied. Her jewelry was still attached to her clothing ruling out robbery. And there were no bruises or other injuries on her body. Her stomach was found to be empty with the exception of a red liquid, likely from some cheap candy. No sign of poison was found in her stomach. And rigor mortis had set in with her body being in a sitting position indicating she was killed in a chair.

A spot of blood was found on the bridge at Liberty Park and some thought that may indicate where her body was dumped. It appeared that her body had been in the lake for up to 2 weeks (although rigor mortis, so maybe not).

In the 1920s that was the extent of the forensic evaluation and the SLC Police were stumped. No motive could be determined and no suspects were found. Although the empty stomach pointed to her being alive for a time after her last meal, some of the Police thought it indicated that her brother Yaro lied about the last day she was seen alive and he was arrested and held for several days. Eventually he was released as there was no evidence to hold him.

The murder of Frances "Frae" Korous was never solved.

Sources: Numerous historic news articles but especially SL Trib 1920-11-07.

Weird note: Truman Pratt later drowned in Utah Lake at the age of 38 while duck hunting.

Spooky SLC: Unsolved Murder of Frances Korous

Frae Korous, graduate of St Marks nursing school.
From Weekly Sentinel 1909-02-10

Today, 100 years ago on Oct 17 1920, Miss Frances “Frae” Korous was last seen alive. Her dead body would be discovered weeks later in the lake at Liberty Park. Part 1 of 2.

Frae Korous (1879-1920) was an unmarried working woman; she was a graduate of the 1906 St Marks Nursing School, served in the US Navy as a nurse in WWI, and worked with the Salt Lake Public Health department when it was first organized. She was well regarded in her profession and well liked as an individual.

Just a few months after her discharge from the US Navy, Frae returned to SLC in Oct 1920 to live and work. Although most her family was back in Iowa, her sister Rose (also a nurse) and her half-brother Yaro lived in SLC. 

She soon got a job in a local Doctor’s office and was planning to move into the Keith Apts. Meanwhile, she got a room at the YWCA women’s boarding house located at 306 E 300 S (also the location of the current YWCA).

On Oct 17 1920, Frae went to the Methodist church and then visited her brother Yaro and his family at their home, 556 N Dexter St (~850 West). She ate a large Sunday dinner and gave some candy to her nieces and nephews. Her brother escorted her to catch a streetcar which would take her back to the YWCA for the night.

Frae never made it to the YWCA that night nor work the next morning. Her friends and relatives became concerned. Search parties were organized by the SLC Police and local Boy Scouts to look for her in the nearby canyons

A reward of $150, with the Governor’s endorsement, was offered. But there was no sign of Frae. Some thought she might have committed suicide while others thought she may have been hit by a car and dragged away.

Continued next post

The backside of the YWCA building in 1918, at 306 E 300 South.
From UDSH. Color by imagecolorizer.

Frae's brother Yaro Korous house at 556 N Dexter St (~850 West) in 2020.

Spooky SLC: Reverend Frances Hermans, part 2

Continued from previous post

Artist illustration of Rev Francis Hermans disposing of
Henrietta Clausen’s body in the church furnace, SL Trib 1930-03-13

After human remains were found in the Scandinavian M. E. Church furnace in May 1896, the SLC Police became involved and they found the decomposing torso of Miss Clausen buried in a corner of the Church’s dirt floor basement, bloody overalls belonging to the Reverend, two false teeth from Miss Clausen in the furnace, and a blood-stained wood barrel in the basement.

The door of the furnace was only 10x6 inches and it was thought that the barrel was used as a butcher block to dismember the body so it would fit into the furnace.

The Police further searched the Church and two trunks in Reverend Hermans’ study were found with clothing and other items belonging to Miss Clausen, and also to another missing Swedish immigrant, Miss Annie Samuelsen.

Bottles of poison, chloroform, and other drugs- some of which produced abortions- were also found in the Reverend’s study. Miss Samuelsen’s aunt admitted that her niece had “improper relations” with the Reverend and that he had produced an abortion shortly before her disappearance.

According to members of the Church, after the disappearance of Miss Clausen, the other missing woman, Miss Samuelsen, had become his favorite. They grew intimate were soon to be married; she went missing the previous January and soon after the Reverend pawned her gold watch and ring. Police suspected that Miss Samuelsen had also been poisoned by the Reverend and her body dismembered and either burned or buried elsewhere.

It was also discovered that Reverend Hermans had embezzled $7K of church funds (~$217K in 2020 dollars). He had been married 3 times and in each instance his wife died under mysterious circumstances. Two of his three children also died in unusual circumstances. And the sister of his 2nd wife went missing. His 3rd wife, Martha, died in SLC in 1895 and had a life insurance policy for $500 ($15K in 2020 dollars).

Reverend Hermans never returned to SLC and was never apprehended for his crimes.

The Scandinavian M. E. Church was demolished in 1906 and an apartment building was constructed in its place. A new apartment complex built in 2016 now occupies the area.

The Evidence, Images from SL Herald 1896-05-24, 1896-05-26, 1896-05-27

Spooky SLC: Revered Frances Hermans, a Serial Killer

Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church in 1906
at 158 S 200 E SLC. From UDSH.

In 1896 human bones were found in a SLC church furnace and the gruesome killings of a serial killer were uncovered, Part 1.

“Sanctuary of God Defiled with Blood” was the front-page headline on May 23 1896 of the SL Herald.

Charred and dismembered human remains had been found in the basement furnace of the SLC Scandinavian Methodist Episcopal Church located at 158 S. 200 East (now Liberty Crest Apts).

While the Reverend of the Scandinavian Church, Francis Hermans, was in Chicago on business, John M. Hanson who resided in the second story apartment of the Church and was member of the Scandinavian M. E. Church’s Board of Trustees, learned of an unusual fire in the furnace that had occurred the previous autumn. 

It was odd because the furnace was never used after it had nearly burned the church down several years previous and this fire occurred the day after his friend, a young Swedish immigrant woman, had disappeared. There was also an awful stench relating to that fire which the Reverend had dismissed as burning garbage.

It was Mr. Hanson who found two straight razors, a knife blade, a garter buckle, corset steel, a belt buckle, and several human bones in the Church’s furnace ash grate.

Hanson and his wife had always been suspicious of the disappearance of their friend, Miss Henrietta Clausen, the previous September. The last time Miss Clausen was seen alive was in the company of Reverend Hermans and she had been known to be madly in love with him and had been sleeping in his study.

The Reverend denied any improper behavior on his part and said that Miss Clausen had propositioned him, which he sternly rebuked. The Reverend further said that she had then left the state and became a dancing girl and a prostitute. At the time, the Reverend’s explanation for the disappearance of Miss Clausen was accepted as he was an upstanding member of the community and well-liked.

Continues next post

Illustration of the basement of the Church, from SL Herald 1896-05-23

Reverend Francis Hermans, SL Trib 1945-12-16

Spooky SLC: John de Baptiste the Infamous SLC Cemetery Grave Robber

SLC Cemetery at night from 11th Ave

In the 1860s, John de Baptiste robbed hundreds of graves in the SLC Cemetery, Part 1.

In Jan 1862 Utah’s “three-week” Governor, John W. Dawson made a lewd proposition to a society lady in SLC which resulted in his being chased down and beaten by a relative of hers.

Warrants were issued for all members of the gang involved in the beating and Porter Rockwell tracked some of them down, killing the gang leader, Lot Huntinton. Moroni Clawson and John Smith were taken into custody but were killed the following morning, allegedly during an attempt to flee police custody.

The bodies of Huntinton, Clawson, and Smith, were all buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Initially, the body of Moroni Clawson went unclaimed and in a charitable gesture SLC police officer, Henry Heath, purchased burial clothing for Clawson.

About a week later Clawson’s brother, George, came to town to exhume the body and rebury him in the family plot in Draper. Upon opening his brother’s coffin he found the body naked.

Clawson and Heath asked the cemetery Sexton about the situation and he suggested talking with the cemetery grave digger, John de Baptiste.

While at Baptiste’s home on 3rd Ave the two noticed boxes containing “sickening heap of flesh soiled linen” and funeral robes of people who had been buried in the City Cemetery for the past several years. Infant clothes and about 60 pairs of children’s shoes were found along with adult funeral robes and men’s shirts, caps, and socks.

Officer Heath was particularly outraged and was concerned about the grave of his daughter being desecrated. Heath immediately confronted Baptiste at the City Cemetery and “choked the wretch into a confession” of robbing graves, dumping the bodies out of their coffins, and using the wood for kindling in his home.

Baptiste confessed to robbing only a dozen graves but the evidence pointed to at least 300 grave robberies over a 3 year period, mostly those of women and children.

After the confession of grave robber John de Baptiste, a 50 ft long table in the courthouse was covered with several hundred funeral suits, shoes, and clothing recovered from Baptiste’s house.

Relatives of the deceased came to identify and claim the clothing. Many of the family members were intent on reclothing their deceased relatives out of fear that without proper burial clothing the religious ceremonies and rites would be incomplete.

Brigham Young addressed the people and told them not to disinter their relatives but to let them be in peace and he promised them that they would “be well clothed in the resurrection.” Ultimately, all agreed that the clothing would be reburied into a single grave site at the SLC Cemetery.

Brigham Young told the people that killing Baptiste was too good for Baptiste and that he wished to banish him and “make him a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth.” So, Baptiste was sent to Antelope Island where he was tattooed with the words “Grave Robber” on his forehead.

On Antelope Island he was met by Henry and Dan Miller. The Miller brothers kept cattle on Fremont Island and they agreed to transport John Baptiste by boat to Fremont Island and allow him to remain there alone with their cattle. They provided him with a shack and provisions every few weeks.

After 3 weeks on Fremont Island, the Miller brothers checked in on Baptiste and he seemed to be getting along quite well and helping himself to the provisions left for him in the shack. But 3 weeks later Baptiste was gone. The Miller brothers found that part of the shack had been removed and one of their cows had been slaughtered and the hide cut into strips. Baptiste had made a raft of the wood from the shack and the hide of the cow.

It is unknown what happened to Baptiste. Some stories indicate that he escaped by raft to Promontory Point where he caught the railroad. Some say he did not even make it out of the Great Salt Lake and must have drowned.

Source: The Saint and the Grave Robber by John Devitry-Smith

An open grave at SLC Cemetery.
Imagine this one filled with previously used burial clothing!

Salt Laker was the Victim of the Chicago Trunk Murder Mystery

Image of the body from the Chicago Trunk Mystery
as published in the Boston Medical
and Surgical Journal 1898 V139 p 466-467

In 1896 headlines splashed all over the country about the “Chicago Trunk Mystery.” 

The body of Mr. Prospier Chazal (he was French) was found stuffed in a trunk in a large warehouse in Chicago. The last place Mr. Chazal was seen alive was Salt Lake City in 1893, three years previous.

On Feb 16, 1893, a large box marked “Household Goods” arrived in Chicago from Salt Lake City. A Chicago address was written on the box but no one there knew anything of it and refused delivery (and the associated fees). 

The box was eventually sent to a storage warehouse where it remained until March 25, 1896, when it was sold at auction as unclaimed freight.

Two businessmen purchased the box for $14.50 ($447 in 2020 dollars) thinking the contents might be a stove they could resell. What they found was a dead body with a thick rope fastened about the knees and neck and the head bent to the chest. Two fractures were also found on the skull. The body was stuffed snugly inside a 32x22x18 inches zinc case with the lid soldered closed. The zinc case was in a trunk which was wrapped in an oil cloth and then placed in a wood box with sawdust.

The identity of the body was ultimately narrowed down to Prosper Chazal or Oliver Pike. At the coroner’s inquest in 1896 it was proven that Pike was seen alive after the trunk was shipped (and again alive in 1897) yet Pike’s relatives were persuasive and the body was declared to be that of Oliver Pike. (A body was required in a probate case involving Pike’s relatives and allegations of bribes paid to the coroner’s jury soon surfaced.) The body was handed over to Pikes relatives and buried in Fayette, OH.

However, most people believed the body was truly that of Prosper Chazal, a French man who was a saloon-keeper on Franklin Ave (now Edison St) in Salt Lake City. 

It was thought that Chazal met with foul play after flaunting large amounts of money and diamonds around downtown Salt Lake.

Sources: Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 1898 V139 p 466-467 (including image); various historic newspaper articles.