Casefile True Crime - Case 192: The Sodder Children

Episode Date: October 16, 2021

On Christmas Eve 1945, while most citizens of the town of Fayetteville, West Virginia celebrated the end of World War Two, Italian immigrants - George and Jennie Sodder watched their house go up in flames... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn This episode's sponsors: ShipStation – Try ShipStation FREE for 60 days with promo code ‘CASEFILE’ Noom – The last weight loss program you’ll need. Start your trial today The Jordan Harbinger Show – Learn the stories, secrets, and skills of the world’s most brilliant and interesting people For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-192-the-sodder-children

Is it me or do you have a good ear? Maybe it's just an impression, but the song likes to relax the sound of people who talk to you about super captivating topics for hours. It sounds good, because I have something really interesting for you. The first mobility service by subscription to the country offered by the mobile audience. Yes, of course. At Star, you can subscribe to your 5G forfeiture without being attached. Mobile audience.

To you, the difference. Or on our website. This episode involves a crime against children. It may not be suitable for all listeners. There was excitement in the air as Marion Sodder returned home following her shift at the local dollar store on Christmas Eve 1945. 17-year-old Marion handed out gifts she had bought from work to her younger siblings, who persuaded their parents, George and Jenny, to let them open a few early. The family of 12 had an extra reason to celebrate Christmas that year.

World War II had ended only three months prior. It wouldn't be long before the Sodder's second oldest son, Joseph, who had been serving in the US Army, returned home to Fayetteville, West Virginia. As the night wore on, two of the older Sodder sons, John and George Jr, retired to bed. They had spent the day helping their father with work and were tired. The pair headed up into the attic, which was used as a space for the many Sodder children to sleep. The attic was divided into two rooms and accessible via a set of stairs. George Sr. also went to bed at this time, in the master bedroom on the main floor.

His wife followed shortly thereafter at around 10.30pm, taking their three-year-old daughter, Sylvia, with her. The other Sodder children, Morris, Martha, Lewis, Jenny and Betty, continued to play with their new toys. Marion lay on the couch, keeping an eye on the youngsters who ranged from 5 to 14 years old. At about 12.30am, Jenny woke to the sound of the telephone ringing in her husband's study next to the master bedroom. She got up to answer it and was met on the line by a woman whose voice she didn't recognise. In the background were the sounds of laughing and chatter and of glass clinking. The caller asked for someone who didn't reside at the Sodder residence. When Jenny told her she had the wrong number, the woman laughed strangely before hanging up.

As she left the study, Jenny realised the lights were still on in the family room where the children had been playing. The front door was also unlocked. Usually the job of the last family member to go to bed, Jenny walked past Marion who was sleeping on the sofa and locked the door and turned off the lights. Assuming all her other children were asleep in the attic, Jenny went back to bed. A light sleeper, Jenny was disrupted again 30 minutes later at around 1am on Christmas morning. What sounded like a hard rubber ball landed on the tar and wood roof of the family's cottage. It rolled down the roof. Then there was silence. Exhausted, Jenny ignored the noise, rolling over and going back to sleep.

30 minutes later at 1.30am, Jenny woke to the smell of smoke. She followed the trail and found it was coming from George's study which was on fire. She raced back to her room and roused George. He in turn woke Marion who was still sleeping on the sofa. She took three-year-old Sylvia outside to safety. Jenny yelled frantically at the bottom of the attic stairs for the seven children above to come down. The fire was moving quickly and was already starting to take hold of the stairs. After what seemed an eternity, John and George Jr. made their way down. Their hair was singed from the flames. Meanwhile, George Sr. attempted to call the local fire department only to find the phone line to the Sotter House was dead.

Marion sprinted to their closest neighbour who also tried to call but the phone went unanswered by the operator. Another neighbour who was still awake saw the Sotter House going up in flames and also attempted to phone the fire department. But again, there was no operator response. George Sr. was forced to retreat from the house when the flames and smoke became too intense. Four of his children and his wife were safe outside in the freezing winter night. But his five children who had been up late playing with their toys remained in the attic. Attempts to control the fire with water from the outside rain barrel proved fruitless. It was frozen solid.

Instead, George Sr. realised he might be able to climb up to the exterior attic window. He ran around to the side of the house where he always kept his trusty ladder. It was gone. George had another idea. He jumped into one of his two coal trucks thinking he could reverse it up to the house and climb on top to reach the attic window. He inserted the key into the ignition but the truck wouldn't start. He tried his second coal truck. It wouldn't start either.

Both had been working perfectly fine the previous day. Meanwhile, one of the neighbours, frustrated at not being able to reach an operator, drove into the town of Fayetteville and tracked down F.J. Morris, the fire chief. He alerted his volunteer fire team using a commonplace practice at the time. One fireman would call another, who would in turn call another, until a team was assembled. Unfortunately, many of the volunteer firefighters had yet to return from war. The department was severely understaffed. Although the fire station was just over two miles from the Sotter family home,

fire chief F.J. Morris could not attend alone as he couldn't drive the fire truck. George and Jenny Sotter could do nothing more than watch the inferno helplessly. Within 45 minutes, the roof crashed down to the basement level. Their house was completely destroyed. As daylight broke on Christmas Day 1945, all that was left of the Sotter house was ash and ruins. The Fayetteville fire department arrived at 8am, six and a half hours after the fire started, long after anything could be done to rescue the children or salvage the property. George Sotter Sr. was treated at the local hospital for lacerations to his arm,

sustained while trying to reach his trapped children. Fire marshals and local police combed the wreckage for an hour. Fire chief F.J. Morris and his team failed to find any human remains, explaining to George and Jenny that their children's bones must have completely disintegrated from the heat and intensity of the fire. Newspapers throughout the United States reported on the tragedy. The Fayetteville County prosecutor announced there would be an investigation into the deaths of 14-year-old Morris, 12-year-old Martha, 9-year-old Lewis, 8-year-old Jenny and 5-year-old Betty. A coroner's jury was assembled who concluded the cause of the fire to be faulty electrical wiring,

likely originating in the home study at the rear of the house. Strong winds were blamed for causing the quick acceleration of the fire. On December 30, 1945, George and Jenny Sotter were issued five death certificates for each of their deceased children. Their cause of death was listed as, quote, death by suffocation or fire which completely destroyed the home in which they were sleeping. As no remains had been found, the Fayetteville County prosecutor assured the Sotters a more thorough investigation would be completed in the new year, once the festive season had ended. A week later and against the wishes of authorities, George went to work to cover the site of their former home,

unable to look at the wreckage any longer. Using a bulldozer, George emptied five feet of dirt on top of the ashes to fill what once was the basement. The Sotters then created a memorial garden and shrine at the site. George built another house on his property, but in a new location. The surviving Sotters tried to move on with their lives. However, as the shock wore off, George and Jenny were left with an uneasy feeling. They were certain that the fire that destroyed their house and killed their children was not an accident. There were others in the community who felt that way too.

One such person was a local bus driver. He described what he called balls of fire being thrown by a group of people at the Sotter house. Whether or not this lead was followed up by authorities is not known. A few months after the blaze, the snow blanketing the region began to thaw. Three-year-old Sylvia was playing near the site of her former home when she found something that had previously been concealed by the snow. About the size of a baseball and made of dark green hard rubber, the object was hollow with a screw cap. Sylvia showed it to her parents. George thought he recognized the object and took it to a military official to confirm his belief.

The object was a type of grenade, sometimes referred to as a pineapple bomb. George was certain this was the noise Jenny heard on the roof just before the fire broke out. He also concluded that the unknown woman who phoned the Sotter house earlier that night was calling to make sure they were home before the fire was lit. Adding to George and Jenny's speculation that the fire was a deliberate act was the ladder that was always kept by the side of the house. It was later found thrown down an embankment approximately 80 feet away, seemingly discarded by someone so it couldn't be found. On the night of the fire, but before it was set, a man had been witnessed stealing a block and tackle from George's shed on the property. George used the items as a pulley system to work on his coal trucks. He speculated that his trucks might have been tampered with by the man, causing them not to work during the blaze.

No investigation was conducted on the trucks to see if they had been tampered with, or if it was simply the cold night air that caused them not to start. However, the thief, a local man named Lonnie Johnson, was later arrested and charged for the theft of the block and tackle. While being questioned by police, he also admitted to cutting the Sotter's electric line, despite the claims by George and Jenny Sotter, who said the electricity was on as the house burnt down. Jenny later said, We would never have gotten out of there alive if the lights had been cut. After the fire, a telephone repairman was called out to attend to a hanging telephone line. They informed the Sotters that the phone line had been cut, explaining why George and Jenny couldn't call for the fire department during the blaze. To cause this damage, someone had declined the telegraph pole, which was over 14 feet high.

The Sotters believed that Lonnie Johnson had cut the phone lines by accident, thinking it was the electric line. Johnson pleaded guilty to cutting the line, but denied stealing the block and tackle. Nevertheless, he was fined $25. Even though the Sotters were convinced their house was intentionally set alight, they were uncertain as to who might be responsible. As far as they were aware, their middle-class family was well respected within their close-knit community. Both the George and Jenny were Italian immigrants who wound up in Fayetteville, where they met and fell in love. They had their first child, John, in 1923, before going on to have another nine children. George was an intelligent man, unafraid of a hard day's work.

From the moment he arrived in the US at age 13, he labored to build his own American dream. He worked in Pennsylvania on the railway, before moving to West Virginia where he began his own trucking business, moving dirt and other construction materials around various sites. He settled in Fayetteville, drawn in by its large population of Italian immigrants. Although theirs was a happy life, the Sotta family still faced difficulties. This led them to question if anyone around them might have reason to hurt them. Weeks before the fire, on a cool, fall day, George Sotta was suddenly disrupted by the sound of knocking. It was coming from the front door. At his doorstep was a young man he didn't recognize.

The stranger asked if there was any work going at George's coal trucking business. George regretfully told him no. Instead of leaving, the man meandered towards the rear of the Sotta's farmhouse. George followed close behind, keeping an eye on him. The man then stopped where the building's two fuse boxes were located. George had just had new wiring installed to fit an electric stove for his family. The local power company had recently given the setup the once over, telling him the wiring was installed correctly and functioning properly. The man turned to George and said,

This is going to cause a fire one day. Without offering any further explanation, the stranger went on his way. In retrospect, George considered this unknown man could be the arsonist, seeking revenge for not being given work. But this was not the only strange encounter at the Sotta's house prior to the fire. A short time after this incident, another man showed up on the Sotta doorstep named Armstead Rossa Long Jr. He was trying to sell family life insurance. When George declined to take out a policy, Long Jr. became furious, yelling at George, Your goddamn house is going up in smoke and your children are going to be destroyed.

You are going to pay for the dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini. This comment took George by surprise, but his views on the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini were well known throughout the Italian community in Fayetteville. Although Mussolini was admired by some, George Sotta went out of his way to make known his view that he despised the former dictator, who had been executed nine months before the fire. It was a subject that divided his neighbours, and George was sure it made him some local enemies. Armstead Rossa Long Jr., the man who had threatened George, later served on the coroner's jury who determined the cause of the fire to be faulty wiring. He was never investigated as a suspect, nor was his appearance on the jury with two of his close acquaintances regarded as a conflict of interest. In addition, in the weeks prior to Christmas, as the school-aged children finished up for the year, they approached George and Jenny with a concern. They had seen a man watching them intently from his car that was pulled up alongside the highway as they got off the school bus and walked to their home.

Initially dismissing their children, the Sotters now wondered if this had anything to do with the fire. One issue that lingered in the minds of the Sotta parents was the lack of human remains uncovered in the aftermath of the fire. One day, Jenny Sotta was reading a newspaper when she came across an article detailing the deaths of a local family of seven in a house fire. All skeletons had been recovered, including that of a three-month-old baby. According to the Sunday Gazette Mail, Jenny Sotta began to experiment. She wanted to see if a fire could completely disintegrate bones, as she had been told by the fire chief following her own tragedy. Jenny took leftovers from dinner, chicken bones, pork chop bones and beef joints, and placed them in a wood-burning stove to see what would happen. After each time, she was left with a pile of burnt, but still visibly intact, bones.

Jenny visited a crematorium to discuss her findings. An employee told her that even after burning a human body for two hours at 2,000 degrees, skeletal remains were still present. The fire that consumed the Sotta household did not reach nearly as high a temperature or burn intensely for as long. It left a major question for the Sottas. If the children were in the fire, then where were their remains? 50 miles north of Fayetteville, in the town of Charleston, a woman was reading the local newspaper when she saw an article detailing the fire that killed the Sotta children. Accompanying the piece were the photographs of the five deceased children. The woman recognized four of the five children immediately, having seen them at the hotel where she worked a week after the fire.

She contacted authorities and assigned an affidavit which read, The children were accompanied by two women and two men, all of Italian extraction. I do not remember the exact date. However, the entire party did register at the hotel and stayed in a large room with several beds. They registered about midnight. I tried to talk to the children in a friendly manner, but the men appeared hostile and refused to allow me to talk to these children. One of the men looked at me in a hostile manner, he turned around and began talking rapidly in Italian. Immediately, the whole party stopped talking to me.

I sensed that I was being frozen out and so I said nothing more. They left early the next morning. This was not the only alleged sighting that made its way back to George and Jenny Sotta. Another woman came forward to say she served the children breakfast at a tourist stop outside of Fayetteville on the morning of the fire. She also noticed a car with Florida license plates parked outside. This coincided with a later sighting in the commercial fishing village of Cortez, Florida. The local police followed up the leads, but they didn't get far. In 1947, the Sotters, certain that their children had been kidnapped and a fire lit to cover the tracks, wrote to the FBI.

They received a reply from director J. Edgar Hoover. In the letter, he told the Sotters he would like to be of assistance, but it seemed like a local matter not within the jurisdiction of the FBI. However, they agreed to help if permission to investigate was received from the Fayetteville police and fire departments. For reasons unknown, the police and fire departments refused to cooperate. George Sotta followed up the alleged sightings of his children, travelling to the various locations where they were reportedly spotted. But he returned home each time, no closer to finding them. In 1949, he travelled to Manhattan in New York City after seeing a photograph of some schoolchildren in the local newspaper. He became convinced that one of them was his missing daughter, Betty.

George tracked down the family, but they refused to talk to him. In order to help chase up leads, George hired private investigator C.C. Tinsley. Tinsley interviewed members of the Fayetteville community. Upon speaking with the local minister, a strange story emerged. The minister reported that the fire chief, F.J. Morris, who investigated the ruins of the Sotta house on Christmas morning, had visited him with a confession. Morris said he had found the remains of a human heart in the ashes that morning, but instead of notifying anyone, he took the heart, placed it inside a box and buried it underneath the rubble of the former Sotta house. C.C. Tinsley confronted the fire chief, who admitted burying the box. Together, they went to the scene and dug around until they located it.

Tinsley sent the box and its contents to a mortician. He examined the specimen and sent a letter summarizing his findings to George Sotta. It wasn't a human heart, but a piece of beef liver. It hadn't even been in a fire. The findings added more confusion to the case. Jenny Sotta revealed that the family hadn't been eating beef liver, nor was there any in their house on the night of the fire. Tinsley returned to fire chief F.J. Morris and told him of the findings. He confessed to burying the liver in the hope that it would be found and put to rest the Sotta family's concerns that their children were still alive somewhere.

When word of the bizarre act got out, others speculated that he buried the organ to put a stop to the investigation. The specimen was never sent back to the Sodders and disappeared, presumably discarded, so no further testing was ever completed. Why he buried the liver in a box was never ascertained. Fire chief F.J. Morris maintained that other human remains were found on the morning of the fire. However, the Sodders refuted this claim, telling the media that they were informed that nothing was found. Writer Stacy Horn reported on her website that elder son John allegedly told police in a statement that he tried to rouse the missing Sotta children who he initially claimed were asleep in the attic when the fire took hold. However, George and Jenny Sotta later disputed this assertion, saying that John reported this out of guilt for running down the attic stairs to escape the blaze without alerting his siblings. As the three-year anniversary of the blaze approached, the Raleigh Register printed an article about the Sotta children and their possible disappearance.

Titled Mysterious Fate of Five Children Pondered, it listed further evidence that the children might still be alive. Evidence included a girl who came forward to say she had seen one of the supposedly dead children looking out a car window while the fire was in progress. Another private detective hired by the Sodders named George Swain theorized in the article that the children might have been lured from the house under the pretense of attending a Christmas party. They were then kidnapped for sale on the black market. He added that he had interviewed witnesses who were at the fire on whether they smelled burning flesh or heard screams coming from the house. All those he interviewed said they hadn't. However, the strong winds that night may have accounted for this. The article ended with a quote from the editor. It is the truth, not sympathy, that Mr and Mrs Sotta seek.

They want to know whether their children are living or dead. The parents shall believe their lost ones are alive until proven dead. This story is published in the hope that somewhere, somehow, it will bring forth information that will end the agonizing doubts for the parents. Either through a happy reunion with their children, or definite establishment that the children did meet death in the fire. After three years working on the Sotta case, private investigator George Swain announced in September 1949 that he was stepping down from the case. He told the Beckley Post-Herald that he had nowhere left to turn. He said, My three years' work on this mystery leaves the matter unsolved, in spite of the fact I worked diligently in probing every known lead in the face of utter frustration met at every turn. Many mysterious circumstances will puzzle me forever. My efforts in a large measure were prompted by sympathy for the bereaved parents, and I regret that I was unable to bring them even a crumb of solace in the bereavement.

My heart goes out to the Sotta family. I have been guided by advice from some of the nation's most noted experts on Asim, pathologists and criminologists, and I feel that many of the mysteries surrounding the fire never will be solved. I believe it is utterly foolish to spend any more money on a search that is bound to prove fruitless. As I see it now, the question is not whether the children perished in the flames, but what became of the bones following the fire. Despite the resignation of the lead investigator on the case, the Sotters refused to give up searching for their children. On September 11, 1953, nearly eight years after the fire, George and Jenny put up a billboard on their property which was visible to those driving along Highway Route 16. Adorning the billboard were the black and white photos of Morris, Martha, Lewis, Jenny and Betty Sotter. Above the five photos in large capitals was the question, what was their fate, kidnapped, murdered, or are they still alive?

Alongside was the announcement of a $5,000 reward. In addition, the Sotters printed out flyers with the children's photos and information, hoping to circulate the images as far as possible. The billboard made local news with the Beckley Post-Herald reporting. Sotter says he cannot understand the lack of interest shown by authorities in the case. He has had to pay for and push what investigating has been done. However, the family has pledged all in its power to solve this mystery. The family is not particularly interested in punishing anyone if there was foul play. They state they would be glad to waive charges or to sign any kind of release asked for if they could only regain their children or learn what happened to them.

Over the years, the billboard was carefully maintained by George and Jenny Sotter and repainted with new messages now and again, each time pleading for information on their children. One tip came in from a woman in Houston, Texas, who sent a letter to the Sotters. According to Medium.com, she maintained an acquaintance of hers had confessed to being Louis Sotter and told her he was living with his brother Morris, both of whom were listed as deceased in the fire. George traveled to the area but was unable to locate the woman who sent the letter. The local police managed to help George find the man who confessed to being Louis, but he denied ever making the confession. One day in 1968, 22 years after the fire, Jenny Sotter went to collect her mail. Rummaging through the various letters, one envelope caught her eye. It had her name on it, but no return address.

A postmark revealed it had been sent from Central City, Kentucky. When Jenny opened the letter, she realized it had already been opened and resealed, similar to previous letters she had received in the past. Inside was a single black and white photograph showing the upper body and face of a man in his late 20s to early 30s. On the back, someone had scrawled. Louis Sotter, I love brother Frankie, L-L-I-L, boys, A90132 or 35. The cryptic message meant nothing to the Sotters and there was no child named Frankie in their family. However, from the moment they laid eyes on the photo, George and Jenny were convinced that they were looking at their son Louis, who was 9 years old at the time of the fire. He bore a striking similarity to the photo of Louis as a child that was still situated on the billboard.

The Sotters made a copy of the photograph to add on to the billboard and another which they framed and hung in pride of place in their home. They hired a private investigator to follow the lead to Central City, Kentucky, paying him upfront for his services. George and Jenny never heard from him again. As 1968 drew to a close, the Sotters had spent over $15,000 of their own money to chase up leads, pay private investigators and promote their children's disappearance. They increased the reward for information to $10,000. George told the Sunday Gazette, It's hard sometimes to get to sleep at night, just wondering about them. After all, if someone wanted to get me, why did they get my family too?

But as long as we live, we will dig into it, to come out with an explanation on what really happened 23 years ago in that fire. George Sotter died a year later on August 16, 1969, at age 73. After his death, Jenny continued to display the billboard at the Sotter property. Over the years, it became weathered and run down. Jenny, who had worn black exclusively ever since the fire as a sign of mourning to her five children, became more reclusive. As reported in the Smithsonian magazine, she began to have more and more rooms built on the existing Sotter house, in an attempt to distance herself further from the outside world. Jenny tended the memorial garden, planted at the site of their former home, ensuring that the flowers thrived. Jenny Sotter died in 1989, at the age of 85.

She was buried next to George at Highlawn Memorial Park in Fayette County. George Sotter's headstone reads, Who believed in justice for everyone, but was denied justice by the law when his five children were kidnapped Christmas Eve 1945 at Fayetteville, West Virginia. In the years following their mother's death, the remaining Sotter children continued to follow up leads and promote the story of the fire that changed their lives forever. Some developed the theory that the fire was orchestrated by the Italian mafia, who were supportive of Benito Mussolini. Or that the local mafia had tried to recruit George and he had declined, prompting them to seek revenge. According to the Smithsonian magazine, another theory was that the five missing Sotter children had been kidnapped by someone they knew, who told them of the fire and offered to take them somewhere safe. They speculated that perhaps they were alive and had not contacted their siblings in order to protect them.

Sylvia Sotter, the youngest surviving Sotter child, is now in her late 70s. She is the only known Sotter child still alive. According to Medium.com, Sylvia is certain that her siblings did not perish in the fire. She still browsers online blogs dedicated to finding out what happened to her family in the hope of getting some answers before she passes. Although Sylvia was only three at the time of the fire, she can still remember her father's bleeding arm. She has also never forgotten the screams of those who escaped the inferno, watching helplessly as it destroyed their lives forever. One event that came the closest to solving the mystery of what happened to the Sotter children occurred in August 1949, nearly four years after the fire. In desperation to find any evidence that would prove to him that his children perished in the blaze, George Sotter hired a small crew and excavated the site he had previously filled over with dirt. Watching as George removed the soil with a bulldozer was a Washington DC pathologist named Oscar B Hunter, whom the Sotters had hired for his expert opinion.

As printed in the Raleigh Register, he told George that had the children perished in the fire, he expected their skulls would be located. No Fayetteville County officials attended the scene aside from a deputy sheriff who watched on and didn't participate. Excavating to a depth of five feet, the crew combed through the dirt and rubble to find human remains. They found several coins that had been burned but were still recognizable, a damaged dictionary, bits of roofing and other small objects that had not been impacted by the blaze. Then, they uncovered some bones. The skeletal remains, which appeared to be vertebrae, were sent to the Smithsonian Institute for analysis. The report, which was sent to the Sotters, concluded The human bones consist of four lumbar vertebrae belonging to one individual.

Since the transverse recesses are fused, the age of this individual at death should have been 16 or 17 years. The top limit of age should be about 22, since the centra, which normally fused at 23, are still unfused. The oldest Sotter child determined to have perished in the fire was 14-year-old Morris. The report continued On this basis, the bones show greater skeletal maturation than one would expect for a 14-year-old boy. The vertebrae showed no evidence that they had been exposed to fire, and it is very strange that no other bones were found in the allegedly careful excavation of the basement of the house. One would expect to find the full skeletons of the five children, rather than only four vertebrae. This was a sentiment echoed by many professionals who were called upon to give their opinion over the years following the fire.

In a 15-year anniversary article printed in the Beckley Post-Herald on Christmas Day 1960, a pathologist said I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's highly improbable. I have seen about 120 burning deaths, and there were always some remains left. Another pathologist who wished to remain anonymous was quoted as saying No ordinary house fire could completely consume five bodies. The findings prompted two hearings about the Sotter case in the West Virginian capital of Charleston. However, the governor and state police superintendent closed the case due to lack of evidence. The vertebrae were not returned to the Sotters, and the report concluded that the bones likely came from the dirt that George Sotter used to cover over the rubble of the fire.

As the remains have long since disappeared, this raises another question that will forever be unanswered. If the bones weren't from the Sotter children, then who did they belong to? When Jenny Sotter died in 1989, her remaining children took down the billboard she and George had erected in an effort to find out what exactly had happened to 14-year-old Morris, 12-year-old Martha, 9-year-old Lewis, 8-year-old Jenny, and 5-year-old Betty. It had read, On Christmas Eve 1945, our home was set afire and five of our children, ages 5 through 14, kidnapped. The officials blamed defective wiring, although lights were still burning after the fire started. The official report stated that the children died in the fire. However, no bones were found in the residue, and there was no smell of burning flesh during or after the fire.

What was the motive of the law officers involved? What did they have to gain by making us suffer all these years of injustice? Why did they lie and force us to accept those lies? Copyright© OSHO International Foundation www.OSHO.com OSHO is a registered Trademark of OSHO International Foundation