Elsie Paroubek

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 $13,000 in 2015) ransom note received by Karolina. They "denied official knowledge of the communication, but admitted it might be true."

Judge Adolph J. Sabath held several interviews with Elsie's family and also contributed $25 (a little under $600 today) to the reward fund. By May 2, he had increased his contribution to $100 (around $2,500 in 2015) and arranged meetings with Czech societies to find ways to increase the fund.

Many sightings of girls in a red dress living in a "gypsy" camp were phoned in to police and followed up. By May 1, police had all but abandoned the idea that she had been stolen by "gypsies", and were returning their efforts to searching wells and dragging canals. Judge Sabath objected saying that the police hunt was becoming "listless" because Elsie's parents were poor. He was being "swamped" with mail, most of it containing contributions to the reward fund, from all over the country, and increased his personal contribution to $100.00 (around $2,500 in 2015) as well. Among the letters was one from Dr. G.T. Screeton of Carlisle, Arkansas which read in part: "Dear Judge: In relation to the strange disappearance of Elsie Parobek, I will say that a band of forty gypsy men and four gypsy women with eighteen children ranging in age from three months to eighteen years were seen in the union station at Little Rock, Arkansas last week. All these children looked as if they were not of gypsy parentage."

On May 15, Frank Paroubek told police he had spoken to a man he did not know who told him he had seen Elsie late in the afternoon of April 8 on Kedzie Avenue, south of 28th St., long after she was supposed to have been taken by the "gypsies." Lt. Costello assigned detectives to find the man. The previous reported sighting of Elsie had her walking toward the canal on South Troy St., a half block south of her aunt's house. If the unknown man told the truth, Elsie was only three blocks away from a bridge. Despite the coroner's findings, Lt. Costello had become convinced that Elsie's death was an accident and that she had simply fallen into the canal, although Inspector Healey had had the canals and drainage ditches dragged repeatedly during the search. Coroner Hoffman continued to insist Elsie was murdered. Apparently some confusion had occurred during the initial examinations. The first physician (probably Dr. Kingston) to examine Elsie on the night of May 9 told Lt. Costello that she had drowned, with no marks of abuse, and Costello had repeated this when he spoke to the family. However, the following day, the same physician's autopsy findings concluded Elsie had not drowned and that she appeared to have been suffocated.

Although Elsie's mysterious disappearance and death were once the subject of intense police investigation and journalistic focus, her story faded into obscurity until the death of Henry Darger in 1973. Michael Bonesteel, an art historian examining Darger's work, found repeated reference in Darger's Story of the Vivian Girls novel to Annie Aronburg, leader of a child slave rebellion, and to an inspirational picture of her that had been lost. Miss Aronburg had met a shocking yet heroic death at the hands of her captors. (The murder is described in detail, and is nothing like Elsie's death.) According to his diary, Darger really had lost a picture of a little girl and was desperate to get it back or replace it. He did not give the name but said it had appeared in the "Chicago Daily Noise [sic], May, June, or July, 1911." Bonesteel's search in the newspaper archives revealed Elsie Paroubek and her story. A portrait of Annie Aronburg by Darger shows a somewhat older blonde-haired girl. Her hair ribbon and the distinctive collar of her dress are similar to Elsie's in the photograph. In the novel, Darger describes children who are kidnapped and mistreated by adults, while the heroic little Vivians, Annie Aronburg and others form "rescue squads" to save them.

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 with gypsies four years earlier. Elsie's father, Frank Paroubek, offered his life savings, $50 (about $1,165 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.

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.

Considering where Elsie was found, detectives suspected the actual killer might be Joseph Konesti. According to the Rockford Republic, Konesti was definitely identified as the killer by detectives under the command of Police Capt. Wood. Described as a "bearded Bohemian" and a "hermit peddler", he was said to have "frequently enticed little girls to his hut by the drainage canal," on West 33rd St. and South Kedzie Ave., about a mile and a half from Elsie's home, and had "frequently been seen near the Paroubek home." Searching the shack, detectives found a green hair ribbon which they intended to take to Karolina for identification, along with "indications of a small hole dug in the ground" and "an old hemp sack, which might have contained the body." The owner of the shack, Mrs. David Shaughnessy advised police that she had complained to Konesti about his "bringing children around the house," and had evicted him on May 9. Konesti threw himself in front of a train on May 10. Five days later he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Two years later, on the anniversary of Elsie's funeral, Frank Paroubek died. He was forty-five years old. Karolina lived until December 9, 1927. Both are buried with Elsie in Bohemian National Cemetery.

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 Halstead streets, Frank fell to his knees and prayed.

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 22nd 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 9pm 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.

Two days later on May 9, 1911, electrical engineer George T. Scully and other employees of the Lockport power plant near Joliet, thirty-five miles outside of Chicago, saw a body floating in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. At first, they thought it was an animal from one of the nearby farms, but three hours later, realizing it was a human being, sent out a boat to bring it to shore. Undertaker William Goodale, examining the body, said that it appeared to fit Miss Paroubek's description: "The description tallied to the shade of the hair, the texture of the stockings, and the stuff and tint of the dress of little Elsie." He thought the body had been in the water for several weeks, although only slightly decomposed. Another report indicated that her body was "badly decomposed" but there were "no marks of violence" on her body.

Elsie Paroubek's funeral was held at 10:00 a.m. on May 12, 1911 on the lawn of the Paroubeks' home and attended by between 2,000 or 3,000 people. The Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper, however, gave the number of attendees as 5,000. Hours before the ceremony, Albany Avenue and the Paroubek back yard, along with the balconies and porches of nearby houses, were filled with mourners. There was no hall in the neighborhood large enough to hold them all. Frank had been offered the use of a hall, but he indicated the huge gathering and said "They have come to say goodbye to my Elsie. Don't let them be disappointed." Reserves from the Hinman Street station were called in to keep order and prevent the crowd from breaking down the fence.

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.

Eliška "Elsie" Paroubek (1906–1911) was a Czech 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.

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.