Death of Isidor Fink events
Death of Isidor Fink people
Death of Isidor Fink
Urban legend theory
The story was covered in The New York Times March 10 and 11, 1929, also there are police records about the murder and since 1920s it was copied into many books and articles (sometimes with slightly different details) it is justified to consider if the story isn’t just another urban legend (although started by real events). Since both original sources are unavailable now, we only can speculate about some of the details that could have been crucial for the case.
Was Fink shot two or three times?
The description doesn’t explain if the wound on the wrist wasn’t caused by one of the bullets that ended up in Fink’s chest. Also from which side the wrist was shot - that would explain if he was taken by surprise by the shooter or was he defending himself.
Who’s screams did the neighbours heard? What kind of screams they were?
Was Fink screaming out of fear, was it argument, was it the scream of pain? This makes all the difference in the world.
Was checked the possibility to bolt the doors shut from the outside?
As in many such cases in literature it wasn’t impossible to leave the room and bolt the door behind (f.e. using the string), but it would mean that the killer had previous access to the apartment (so he would prepare such way out) and put a lot of effort without explanation (not to mention risking being caught while trying to close the door without leaving any marks).
Was anything stolen from the apartment?
The money was there, but perhaps something else in the apartment was worth more? Since Fink presumably lived alone there is no one to tell...
What exactly the neighbours did?
They heard a scream or screams, went to get policeman, but why they went straight to the policeman? Why didn’t they try to find out first what happened? Was it one neighbour or many neighbours? Did they all left the scene after the scream or at least one of them stayed and saw or heard something? If it was only one neighbour were the rest of the apartments or houses empty and no one saw or heard anything? After all even in 1920s New York City was full of people.
Neighbour heard a scream, but no gunshots.
The gun silencers were available since around 1906, so it isn’t unlikely that this could explain that.
Did police made a thorough search of the apartment?
It sounds weird, but it wouldn’t be impossible that it was just suicide (again in literature there were such explanations). Again it isn’t impossible that he would shot himself in the chest, just unlikely, and that the first shot didn’t kill him (thus the importance of the wrist wound). After all there are examples when people shot themselves in the head and that didn’t kill them. We know that police searched for secret door and hidden openings, but have they searched also taking under consideration that Fink might have used some sort of device that shot him dead and hidden the weapon (like in the chimney). Of course this is very far fetched since we don’t know any reason why Fink would want to kill himself.
From what angle the shots were fired?
Now it is basic question for the forensic teams, but back in 1920s we don’t know if they actually checked that. Just like with the wrist wound it would make a lot of difference for the case, could support or deny some of the theories.
Did anyone actually saw Fink entering the apartment?
From the descriptions we can’t be sure if Fink was actually killed inside the apartment or was just placed there when he was dead. This would explain the scream and lack of gunshots, but lack of the crime scene description and autopsy files won’t let us be sure about this.
Locked room mysteries were always good material for the detective stories or even pulp fiction that was popular since the beginning of popular press (f.e. the adventures of Sherlock Holmes), so it isn’t impossible that the story was somehow improved by the authors of the article or the story changed with the time. Lack of precise description of many aspects of the case could suggest that it is just urban legend that grew around the death of Isidor Fink and the explanation of the original crime could have been completely trivial.
Do you like unsolved mysteries?
Death of Isidor Fink comments
Have you guys considered that the killer might be one of the Mr Fink’s neighbours. Here’s the reason of my conjecture: I looked at Wikipedia, stating that the neighbours called the police as soon as they heard the scream, hence it is almost impossible for the killer to escape. However,the killer( pretending that he is a neighbour of Fink) might have just slipped past by calling the police.
Anonymous (23-05-2018 05:04:09)
Gun silencers don't actually silence guns except on tv. They do change the sound and make it hard to pinpoint where it's coming from. You can see videos of what gun silencers sound like on YouTube. So that's probably not the explanation for why a gun wasn't heard.
Anonymous (16-05-2017 08:50:51)
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