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True Crime Historian

The Chinatown Trunk Murder

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

True Crime, Performing Arts, Documentary, Arts, Society & Culture

4.5720 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Awful Death Of Elsie Sigel

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Episode 33 is the sad tale of Elsie Sigel, a pretty young girl from a prominent New York family, went to work as a missionary in Manhattan’s Chinatown. In the summer of 1909, police found Elsie’s body packed in a trunk in an apartment above a chop suey joint.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The weather. Tomorrow, expect a... Biting cold front. Mmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise, slowly but surely, reaching their peak in the afternoon.

0:23.0

Not in the mood for miserable weather?

0:25.5

Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.

0:28.6

Sun Express, nonstop sunshine.

0:37.3

On Wednesday night, June 9th, 1909, about 7 o'clock, George Anderson, a yard master for the West Shore Railroad Company, was standing in the fairy house when two very excited Chinamen entered.

0:48.3

Both were dressed in American clothing, and one of them was very good-looking, well dressed. His companion was of a more decided Chinese

0:58.0

cast and was more shabby in appearance. Anderson's attention was attracted to them by their haste to board the ferry boat.

1:06.0

In their hurry, they both tried to pass the same ticket chopper at the same time and became fastened between the iron railings of the narrow path.

1:16.6

Neither would give way to the other, and yet it was impossible for them to get through.

1:22.6

Employees finally pushed both men back and made them pass one at a time. As soon as they had

1:29.8

passed the ticket chopper, they ran at full speed into the ferry boat and paced

1:35.0

restlessly up and down until the boat had left the New York shore. They remained

1:41.0

together and talked excitedly in low tones and kept apart from the other passengers.

1:47.0

The description given by Anderson answers that of Leon Ling and his companion, Chong Sing. True Crime Historian Presents

2:12.6

Unsolved, a special edition of yesterday's news exploring history's greatest murder mysteries.

2:20.3

In this episode, we'll take a look at the newspaper accounts in the case of Elsie Seigle,

2:26.3

a pretty young girl from a prominent New York family who went to work at a missionary in Manhattan's Chinatown.

2:33.3

In the summer of 1909, police find Elsie's body

2:37.4

packed in a trunk in an apartment above a hardware store on 8th Avenue. I want to add a footnote

2:44.8

here to the prologue and an alert about the rest of this episode. To say that sometimes

2:50.1

historical documents contain language

2:52.4

that defies modern social and cultural standards, especially in regard to race and gender

...

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