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Strange Matters Podcast

The Mysterious Death of Elfrieda Knaak

Strange Matters Podcast

Campfire Audio Productions

Science, History, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

4.4987 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2016

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode we discuss the mysterious and bizarre death of Elfrieda Knaak. In the early hours of the morning Elfrieda was discovered alone and locked inside the basement of a police station, suffering from severe burns from the nearby furnace. Investigators were baffled from the start, as Elfrieda claimed she had carried out the horrible act herself in order to purify herself for her ‘psychic lover.’
While she was slowly dying in her hospital bed, Elfrieda would make increasingly confusing and strange comments. These statements lead to more questions than answers for the police. She claimed she burned herself to prove herself to her so called astral lover, Charles Hitchcock. However Charles claimed he knew nothing about this situation at all.
 
Hitchcock would be ruled out as a suspect due to his broken leg, but many believe he still had something to do with her death, whether directly or indirectly is still unknown. Elfrieda continued on, speaking of a mysterious woman who holds all the answers, an unknown man who threw her down, along with other weird and supernatural comments… However she was unable to answer further questions due to her increasingly worsening health. Unfortunately Elfrieda Knaak would die from her burns before any solid leads or answers could be found, and to this day her death remains a complete mystery.
Did Elfrieda really burn and torture herself all alone? Was somebody with her in that basement, either assisting or forcing her into the furnace? Listen and hear all about the strange twists and turns to the bizarre and disturbing death of Elfrieda Knaak.
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Transcript

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0:00.0

And the Welcome to the Strange Matters Podcast.

0:25.0

Here at Strange Matters we discuss anything just outside the norm,

0:28.0

ranging from the bizarre and unexplained,

0:30.0

to the supernatural and paranormal and everything in between.

0:34.0

I'm your host today, Eric, joined by my fellow co-host,

0:37.5

Sean.

0:38.5

And Ethan, in this episode we'll be discussing the mysterious death of Alfreda Nack.

0:43.0

Yeah, this is another listener suggested episode.

0:46.0

So big thanks to Tannus for not only suggesting this idea,

0:50.0

but also for providing us with a ton of research material.

0:52.0

It really was a big help in helping us

0:54.0

understand all the intricacies to this bizarre mystery.

0:57.0

Yeah, TANS really went above and beyond and sent us some newspaper articles and a lot of information that you can't simply Google search so we appreciate that Tannis

1:06.5

All right so let me do a little overview or introduction to this story

1:10.8

This bizarre and mysterious story takes place in Lake Bluff, Illinois around October

1:15.4

1928.

1:17.0

Alfreda Fritzinac was a 29-year-old book saleswoman and Sunday school teacher and by most accounts was an attractive woman.

1:25.4

She experienced one of the most horrific tortures thinkable.

1:29.3

Yeah, when I was reading about this for the first time is pretty shocking and kind of disturbing to me.

1:34.9

An employee at Lake Bluff City Hall found Alfreda at around 7 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.

1:41.2

Her nude body was propped up against the furnace in the basement of the police station.

1:46.0

Alfreda had extreme burns on her legs, arms, and even her head. She had been charred so extensively that some of her bones were exposed.

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