American child murder victim (1906–1911)
Eliška "Elsie" Paroubek (1906 – c. April 8, 1911) was an American girl who was a victim of kidnapping and murder in the spring of 1911. Her disappearance and the subsequent search for her preoccupied Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota law enforcement for six weeks. Her funeral was attended by between 2,000 and 3,000 people.
The story of the girl's death, and especially her photograph in the "Chicago Daily News", were inspirations for Henry Darger's immense fantasy novel "The Story of the Vivian Girls".
Background.
Eliška (Elsie) was born in Chicago in 1906. Her mother, Karolína Vojáčková, was born on November 26, 1869, in Míčov in eastern Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic). Elsie's father, František (Frank) Paroubek was a laborer, born on December 15, 1867, in Podhořany u Ronova, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic).
Frank supposedly first came to the U.S. in 1882 at the age of fourteen or fifteen. He returned to the Podhořany area and married Karolína in her village in 1892, bringing her to America around 1895. Several close relatives also moved to Chicago. In the United States, Frank worked as a painter while Karolina maintained the home. The couple left Catholicism to become freethinkers; therefore their children were not baptized (nor were their births apparently registered with the city) so Eliška's exact birthdate is unknown. She was their eighth or ninth child according to the 1900 and 1910 census records, having at least 3 older siblings who died prematurely. At the time of the 1910 census on April 21, 1910, Eliška was said to be 3 years old. At the time of her death, she was estimated to be 4 years old according to her gravestone, together suggesting a possible birthdate between April 22, 1906, and April 8, 1907.
In census and newspaper accounts, particularly in the "Chicago Daily News", Paroubek is frequently spelled "Parobek". Frank is sometimes referred to as "Peter" or "John," and Karolina is sometimes called "Mary." Elsie is also called "Mary" or "Emily" in the Rockford, Illinois newspapers.
Disappearance.
On the morning of April 8, 1911, Elsie Paroubek left her home at 2320 S. Albany Avenue in Chicago, telling her mother she was going to visit "Auntie", Karolina's sister Julia Trampota, around the corner at 2325 S. Troy Street. Turning left on 23rd St. and left again on Troy, she encountered her nine-year-old cousin, Josie Trampota, and a number of other children who were listening to an organ grinder a short distance from Mrs. Trampota's gate. When the organ grinder moved to the 23rd St. corner, the children followed him, but subsequently left while Elsie remained behind. Several hours later, Elsie's mother went to her sister's house to find Elsie had never arrived. As Elsie had many friends in the area, the women assumed she was visiting at another home, perhaps to spend the night and return the next morning. At 9 pm that evening, Frank Paroubek returned from work and went to police at the Hinman Street station to report her missing. Police initially agreed that she was likely spending the night with friends, but when she had not returned by the following morning, Captain John Mahoney took personal charge of the search.
Romani people, as identified by the Rockford, Illinois press, were suspected after a neighborhood child, John Jirowski, told detectives from the Maxwell Street station led by inspector Stephen K. Healey that he had seen a gypsy wagon on Kedzie Avenue, a block west of Troy Street, with two women holding a little girl. The "Chicago American" repeated this story with the added detail that the girl seemed to be trying to get away and was being restrained; also, that police had reason to believe this was a "Black Hand" kidnapping.
There were several camps along the Des Plaines River near Kedzie and these were searched. Residents told investigators that one wagon had decamped and left on the morning of April 9. The "stolen by gypsies" theory gained credence because Elsie's disappearance was almost identical to that of Lillian Wulff, who had been found among Romani people four years earlier. Elsie's father, Frank Paroubek, offered his life savings, $50 (about $1,547 today), as a reward. Inspector Healey also ordered that drainage canals be dragged for the child's body on April 15, and Governor Charles S. Deneen asked the public to aid in the search. It was at about this time that Elsie's friend Emma Kubat, 14, told police she had last seen Elsie with the organ grinder. Detectives from the Maxwell Street station searched the Italian quarter at West 14th and S. Halsted Streets, where it had been reported a child answering Elsie's description had been seen with an organ grinder.
A full-length photo of Elsie appeared on the front page of the April 12 "Chicago American". This photo, enhanced by artists, reappeared many times in the paper. On April 17, it was accompanied by photos of Frank, Karolina and Elsie's sister Julia.
Investigation.
Detectives Joseph, Komorous, and Sheehan accompanied Frank Paroubek in his search for the departed wagon which was initially believed to be headed for Round Lake, Illinois, a village about 50 miles northwest of Chicago, where seven wagons were camped. Farmers in the area were alerted to be on watch. When local residents started asking "gypsies" about Elsie and attempting to search the wagons, they broke camp again and moved on to Volo, Illinois, 43 miles from Chicago. Volo residents reported a child matching Elsie's description and said she appeared to be "stupefied" or "drugged" and partly covered with a blanket. They also attempted to search the wagons, but the "gypsies" immediately broke camp and departed for McHenry, Illinois, about 60 miles northwest of Chicago. When police caught up with them at McHenry, they discovered the little girl was a "gypsy" and did not match Elsie's description. Meanwhile, Police Capt. Mahoney assigned men to drag the drainage canals near Elsie's home on April 12 and again on the 15th.
In several instances, a child was found in a camp who did resemble Elsie, such that even Frank was momentarily certain it was his daughter and it would take some time to convince him it was a mistake. As late as April 24, when a little girl somewhat answering Elsie's description was found in a "gypsy" camp near 18th and South Halsted Streets, Frank fell to his knees and prayed.
The reason for her capture was attributed by police to "the natural love of the wandering people for blue-eyed, yellow-haired children". Elsie was consistently described as small, with light golden hair and blue eyes, wearing a red one-piece dress, lace shoes (shoes with laces rather than buttons), and black stockings.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;The little girl is described as having long curly golden hair, blue eyes, and pink chubby cheeks with a prominent dimple in each. At the time she disappeared, she wore a red hat, a red dress, black stockings, and high top black boots.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;She was a very pretty child and passing strangers often stopped to pass admiring comment upon her.
On April 17, Police Capt. Mahoney received an anonymous phone tip that a child answering Elsie's description had been seen accompanying a man to a Western Springs, Illinois, hotel. Again, detectives dispatched to the hotel found nothing. Sycamore, Illinois, police Chief Ogden accompanied Frank Paroubek to investigate "gypsy" wagons at Cherry Valley, Illinois, but found no child even remotely resembling Elsie. Meanwhile, Hinman Street police fielded reporters' questions about a $500 (nearly $16,114 in 2022) ransom note received by Karolina. They "denied official knowledge of the communication, but admitted it might be true."
On April 20, neighbors saw Frank Jr., age 6, lugging a pick and shovel out into South Troy Street and start digging. Upon inquiry, Frank said there had been a lot of construction on the street the day Elsie disappeared, and he had heard his parents discussing the possibility that she had fallen into a hole. As she struggled to climb out, she might have been buried under falling sand and gravel. Workers still fixing the street said that it was possible, but they would have noticed immediately. Meanwhile, people in the West End and a woman in Kings, Illinois, reported sightings of light-skinned girls traveling with gypsies.
In the second week after Elsie's disappearance, Lillian Wulff, age 11, came forward to offer assistance. Wulff herself had been the subject of a similar manhunt four years earlier. She had been stolen by "gypsies" and held for six days, working as a beggar, until discovered walking behind a "gypsy" wagon by a farmer outside Momence, Illinois. She provided details of her experience of the culture's typical behavior and volunteered to lead a "rescue party". One of the men who had kidnapped Lillian suggested asking Elijah George, who, he said, was King of the Gypsies.
Elijah George was found in Argyle, Wisconsin, and was brought to Joliet but "failed to give the desired information", and was released. At that point, Inspector Healey again ordered the drainage canal dragged, along with a search of all wells and other places where Elsie could have fallen.
On April 22, Gov. Deneen released a front-page statement to the "Chicago American" calling on "every person" to aid in the search. Also on April 22, John Muts, the town marshal for Trevor, Wisconsin, received a phone call regarding a blonde child in a nearby gypsy camp. Muts, along with saloonkeeper Carl Czdenek of Lyons, Illinois, met with the girl and Czdenek said he was able to speak with her in Czech and verify that she was Elsie. A Mrs. Alice Gould of nearby McHenry also identified the child as Elsie and said the "gypsies" had attempted to steal other children in the area.
By April 23, Lt. John Costello of the Hinman Street station told reporters that every "kidnapping" clue had been exhausted. He was sure Elsie had been "attacked and mistreated", was now dead, and her body hidden in the cellar of an empty house or deserted barn. He brought detectives to begin investigating empty buildings, barns, sheds, elevators, catchbasins, and basements on or near South Albany Avenue. Several of the detectives brought spades planning to dig in every plot of earth that appeared to have been recently disturbed. Inspector Healey joined in this search along with Detectives Perry and Egan. At the same time, Costello sent two officers to the outskirts of the city on a lead which he had received by telephone but refused to reveal to reporters. Capt. Stephen Wood of the detective bureau was having all "gypsy" wagons followed and wrote to every police official in the vicinity of Belvidere, Rockford and Janesville, Wisconsin to be on the lookout for Elsie. However, he too was now certain Elsie was either being held for ransom, had been in an accident and was either dead or in some hospital, unable to speak, or had been "slain by some degenerate" from one of the shanties in the alley near her home.
Also on April 23, a neighbor told police that she had last seen Elsie around 11 a.m. on the morning she disappeared, still with the organ grinder and engaged in conversation with a man on the opposite side of the street whom the neighbor did not know.
The following day's "Chicago Daily News" devoted a full column to the search, calling it "one of the most extensive and far-reaching quests ever made for a missing child." Twenty police officers and one hundred volunteers were involved in Lt. Costello's search, covering a radius of about a mile of the Paroubek home. It was judged to be "one of the most remarkable investigations of its kind" because of the intense public interest, but also due to the huge number of child volunteers. Many described themselves not just as casual acquaintances or playmates, but as friends of Elsie. These children offered to look into "out of the way places" for Elsie or evidence leading to her whereabouts.
On April 29, Inspector Healey sent a detective to Zion City, Illinois, in response to a long-distance phone tip from the Zion City deputy sheriff. Again, a child resembling Elsie was seen in a "gypsy" camp, and again the child was found to be a "gypsy".
By April 30, the superintendent of schools, Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, had requested that all schoolchildren in the Chicago area organize neighborhood