Suspense Magazine November 2012

After Howard’s funeral, his parents
returned to Greene County, bringing
all parties together again giving
authorities the opportunity to question
them and stories a chance to shift.
Esther, who flatly stated she was at a
creamery on the east side of town the
morning of the murder, would later say
she was in Albany with Burt the night
before the murder, some fifty miles
from Windham, not returning until
the morning of the 29 th . That put her
and Burt on the road at the time of the
murder.
Geography aside, reporter Mable
Parker Smith had her own take on why
Burt likely did not kill Howard. She
had met up with him only days after
the murder and they walked behind
the sawmill where the boy was found.
Mable called Burt “slow minded,”
not quick enough to have efficiently
covered the tracks of a murder. Though
she felt Howard was probably a thorn
in Burt’s side if he did spend his days
flirting with the two women, and many
Windham residents pegged Burt as the
murderer.
Rose drafted her own story
modifications, including a switch from
hearing nothing after Howard left the
house to hearing screams around 6:45
that morning, which she ignored for
reasons unknown. Only when Howard
didn’t show up for breakfast did she ask
Anna where he was, the one person in
the house to have seen Howard alive
that morning, walking toward Kelly
Creek with two men, all with fishing
poles in their hands.
It was a story Anna would stick
with and religiously recite whenever
questioned by authorities.
Investigations were leading some
officials to believe that Howard was not
murdered at the site where his body
was found, but elsewhere and then
carried to the creek. The dry clothes, no
signs of a scuffle at the site, the neatly
placed fishing pole and tackle box, all
seemed to point to another location,
likely indoors.
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Charles Rothenberg, who offered
$1,000 for information on the death
of his son, also believed Howard was
not killed by the creek. He released
a statement to The New York Times
insinuating that Howard was murdered
in his bed, “and his body dragged to the
lonely spot where it was found… There
are four people who know who killed
Howard. I will not say who they are,
but they will be made to tell the truth in
time.” Charles recounted the last time
he saw his son. “Howard begged to go
home with me. There was something
on his mind. He feared somebody.”
Before the summer was over, news
traveled down from Windham that
Dr. Mulbury, beloved physician and
still active in the case, died from heart
failure. Residents had more confidence
in Mulbury then they did with local
law enforcement in solving the case.
He’d been anxious to see it resolved
and continued working with the D.A.’s
office until his death. Many believed he
died from overwork on the case.
By September, tensions mounted.
Material witnesses were tired of waiting
to be released, Charles wanted answers
and the D.A.’s office hoped for a break.
Newspaper articles caught the
attention of Governor Smith. He told
Coffin he wanted updates. But all Coffin
could do was admit he had no evidence
to base murder charges so he turned the
attention back to Charles Rothenberg.
“We have used all the pressure we
can to force his wife to talk,” Coffin told
reporters. “She knows a great deal more
than she has told, but who can force her
to talk if her husband won’t One time
Rothenberg accuses one person, than
another. I can’t act on his accusations
alone.”
The demand for something to
be done moved authorities to have
Howard’s body exhumed on September
13 to perform a second autopsy. The
verdict was the same as Mulbury’s,
however: death by asphyxiation caused
by strangulation. No poisons were
found in the body. However, a new
twist did emerge from the autopsy.
“It is known that proof now is
not so strong the boy was murdered,”
reported Dr. Martland who performed
the second autopsy. “It is possible,
according to experts, that the slow
strangulation from which he died was
accidental.” Howard was not choked
quickly, he said. The cloth over his
nose and throat was loose enough to
permit some air to reach his lungs and
“a period of agony” must have preceded
his death. Dr. Martland stated there
was evidence that Howard struggled
desperately to free his bound hands.
Released from her hold in Greene
County, Esther returned to her family
in Brooklyn at the end of September.
Bad feelings pushed the family apart.
Bitter, Esther said Charles set the law on
her “like hounds” and she let go a storm
of comments to a Brooklyn newspaper.
“Give me the necessary authority
and the assistance of two good New
York City detectives and I will solve the
mystery surrounding the murder of my
nephew within forty-eight hours,” she
was quoted. “They blackened my name
before the world. They tried to estrange
my husband from me by besmirching
my character. They threatened me and
hounded me and then they let me go.
That is what they call justice in Greene
County. God deliver other women from
such justice. I had nothing to do with
the murder of Howard Rothenberg, for
all that his father charged me with it. I
am as innocent as my sister.”
Yet, once again, Esther changed her
own story. “They believe Howard was
murdered in the barn and they say I was
seen near the barn that morning. That
is a lie. I was not there.” She claimed
a Windham doctor told authorities
she’d been “desperately ill” for ten days
preceding and on the day of the murder
which Esther said made it physically
impossible for her to have committed
the crime.
In November, the case was prepared
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