Popular.com

Chris Lewis, 50 years old, janitor of the Lake Bluff Village Hall, thought he saw a specter when he went to the basement at 7.30 o'clock yesterday morning to replenish the fire.

Miss Alfrida Kinnock was standing naked, leaning against a pipe in front of the furnace.

Her forearms were burned black. The hair was burned from her head, and her face and forehead

were black with charred flesh,

the skull being laid bare at the forehead.

Her toes had burned to cinders, yet she was standing.

Her clothing had been destroyed in the furnace fire.

Across the room from the furnace were her shoes,

purse, and wristwatch. Between them and the furnace were many bloodstains. Lewis ran out, shouting for help.

Others came, and Miss Kinnock was taken to the hospital. All day the detectives held to the theory that the young woman had been attacked by a moron

who then sought to hide his crime by putting her into the furnace. The

The True Crime Historian presents yesterday's news, tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges, told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism.

Episode 364 tells an unusual story of a broken-hearted young woman found naked and fatally burnt

in the basement of a police station.

Her family, the police, and the general public find it hard to believe that she

could have torched herself in such a horrific manner. So the hunt is on for proof of a murder.

I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones, and for your horror and indignation, I give you the Lake Bluff Furnace

Girl, the burning love of Alfrida Kinnock. Lake Bluff, Illinois, October 31st, 1928.

Miss Elfrida Kinnock, 30 years old, a pretty Sunday school teacher of Deerfield, Illinois.

Attempted self-immolation yesterday because of her faith in God and as a test of her love for a handsome married man,

she told physicians last night. Miss Kinnock was found in the basement of the village hall of

...