Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Dorothy May Grammer

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

On an August night in 1952, a blue Chrysler raced down a hill, hit a barrier, and flipped onto its side. Nearby police officers rushed to help the driver, 33-year-old Dorothy May Grammer, but it was too late. A few days later, the autopsy revealed it was no accident. It was a homicide.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Around midnight on August 20, 1952, two Baltimore County police officers stopped for a cup of coffee. It'd been a quiet night. They needed a little pick-me-up. Afterward, they went back to patrolling the outskirts of Baltimore. They made their way through a neighborhood before turning on to Taylor Avenue.

Suddenly, a blue Chrysler raced past them, nearly hitting them. But this wasn't a car breaking the speed limit. The vehicle was completely out of control. The officers fumbled their coffee as they jumped to attention. The car swerved across the street onto a lawn and then sideswiped a telephone pole. It ripped back across the road and careened up into an embankment. The collision sent the car airborne for a moment before it flipped onto its side and skidded to a halt,

just 50 feet away from the officers. The stunned officers sprung into action. They raced to the vehicle ready to help, but what they found inside was unlike anything they'd ever seen before. Welcome to Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host Wendy McKenzie. Every Wednesday, we step into the world of true crime's most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detectives close the case.

You can find episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify. This is our only episode on Dorothy May Grammar. We'll cover what detectives at the time deemed an almost perfect crime, save for a few damning clues. We'll learn how one medical examiner and a few key sources cracked this case wide open and brought Dorothy's killer to justice. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari.

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Deepop where taste recognizes taste. On August 20, 1952, a pair of Baltimore County police officers witnessed a blue Chrysler race past their patrol car at about 60 miles an hour, hit an embankment and flip over onto its side. They scrambled to help, racing to the vehicle. By some miracle, it actually didn't look too bad from the outside. None of the windows had shattered during the crash, and the car was still mostly intact.

The officers hoped for the best, but when they opened the driver's side door, they saw that a 30-something woman had been thrown from the driver's seat to the passengers. She was jammed under the dashboard with her head between her knees. She wasn't moving. One of the officers reached forward to check for a pulse, but he felt nothing. They called for an ambulance and searched around the car for clues as to what happened. They didn't find any items in or around the vehicle, but they did notice one thing that was strange. Check this out. The wheels are still spinning.

Don't touch anything. There's something weird going on here. The accelerators probably jammed from the crash. Just leave it until the medics get here. What do you think you're doing? There's something here. Wait a second. Got it.

It's a rock, big deal. Hmm. I think someone intentionally jammed it into the pedal. But that would mean... Some sources refer to the rock as a pebble, others a stone. Either way, it was a rock big enough to keep the accelerator pressed down. It was the first clue that this might be more than an accident. And if it was something more sinister, that whoever put the stone there was now a murderer.

Because once the paramedics arrived on the scene, they took the woman to St. Joseph's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Back at the crime scene, detectives tried piecing together what had happened. First, they ID the car and the body. They learned that the woman was 33-year-old Dorothy May Grammar. She was a Sunday school teacher at a Methodist church. She had three daughters and a husband who worked in New York City, but she'd moved back to Baltimore with her children a few months earlier to help her aging mother after her father's death. The cops reached out to Dorothy's family,

but her husband of 13 years, 35-year-old George Edward Grammer, known as Ed, was hard to track. down. He was back in the city and not answering his phone. Officers eventually got in contact with Ed's brother. In the early morning hours of August 20th, his brother called Ed's New York City apartment over and over, but Ed didn't answer. It wasn't until around 8 a.m. that Ed finally appeared in New York. That's when he learned the bad news. Then a detective got Ed's account of the night. I just can't believe she's gone.

I understand, Mr. Grammer, but we need to learn everything we can about your wife's final moments. Your family says you were with her that night. Yes, just before. Before it happened. She dropped me off at the train station like she always does when I go back to the city. I take the 11.28 p.m. train out. And that was the last time you saw her? Yes.

Is there anything else we should know about your wife? Did she have any distinguishing accessories on at the time? Jewelry. Yes, actually. She always had her purse with her. It was blue, and she wore these pink-rimmed glasses. The detective found Ed's claim interesting. Neither of those items were found at the crash.

This led officers to hypothesize that Dorothy was the victim of a robbery gone bad. That's the story the newspapers ran with, and the one that Dorothy's family must have clung to as an explanation for how they'd lost her so soon. But there were other theories bubbling to the surface. Baltimore's chief medical examiner, Dr. Russell Fisher, looked over Dorothy's body after the crash. His findings changed everything.

These head lacerations are severe. Something sharp must have hit her. Hmm. A dashboard wouldn't do it? No, it'd have to be some sort of bludgeon. See these two bruises here. Yeah, they're pretty small. Right.

She should have been bruised all over from that impact. So why isn't she? Because dead bodies don't bruise, detective. This woman was murdered before the car ever crashed. Days later, Fisher's findings were in the papers. Journalists reached out to him for comment, and he was more than happy to give them one. Someone killed that woman, then cleverly tried to conceal it.

How can you be so sure? The cause of death was cranio-cerebral injuries due to multiple blunt impacts on her skull. In other words, her skull was fractured extensively. I went and examined the car myself and found no object or surface that could possibly have produced Mrs. Grammer's injuries. Furthermore, her blood was found on the driver's side, but Mrs. Grammer was found on the passenger seat when the car flipped over. Blood doesn't flow uphill, folks. So this was a homicide?

Homicide, point blank, period, and with no ifs, ands, or butts. People took Fisher's word for it. At this time, he was one of the forerunners of the so-called investigative autopsy. The body could reveal the truth of a case, and in this instance, Dorothy was practically screaming for, justice. Coming up, Fisher's claims spur an official investigation. It's been said that art is in the eye of the beholder. But what about greed or chaos? Hi, it's Richard from the Spotify original from Parcast, Unexplained Mysteries. This September, join us as we comb through the clues of some of the

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Now back to the story On August 20th, 1952 Dorothy May Grammer's car spun out of control and crashed Leaving her dead A few choice clues led authorities to believe that the 33-year-old was killed before she ever went careening down Taylor Avenue. The story blew up in the Baltimore area.

Locals gossiped over who might be the suspect. I told my husband that we're not driving at night anymore. God knows who's out there terrorizing the streets. It must have been someone she knew, right? No one murders random women. Of course they do. Don't be daft. That's why we need to be extra vigil.

at all times. If only her husband had been with her, maybe he would have been able to protect her. What was a woman like that doing, driving on her own so late? Well, I hear he stays in the city most of the time. He's barely ever here. Poor Dorothy, she had to raise those three girls

practically on her own. Plenty of eyes were on Dorothy's husband, Ed Grammer. Reporters tracked him down to his mother-in-law's home, where Ed seemed every bit the grieving husband. He even appealed to the public for help. Please, if you know anything, help us so that whoever is responsible for this won't have the chance to do it again. Do you have any idea who would want to hurt your wife? No. I have absolutely no idea.

Meanwhile, detectives reassessed the crime scene. They stood at the top of Taylor Avenue and looked down the bumpy road. At the foot of the hill, cars sped by. on the busy highway cross street. They hoped a fresh perspective would help them find some answers. And it did. The Chrysler hadn't hit that telephone pole. It would have picked up speed all the way down this hill

until it smashed into that highway barrier. You think that's what the killer meant to happen? Yes. The car would have been crushed and the windows would have shattered to give Mrs. Grammer those wounds, like Dr. Fisher said. And that the car was smashed,

we definitely went to found that. Hebel. It was almost the perfect crime. Thankfully for the detectives, Taylor Avenue's bumpy surface sent the Chrysler off its intended path. But this still wasn't enough to solve the puzzle. Fortunately, detectives had another bout of good luck when a witness came forward. Her name was Emma Minterm. She was a social worker staying at a nearby school for blind children near the crime scene. And while she hadn't seen anything, she had heard.

what she described as a high, agonizing scream from a nearby driveway around midnight. The police went to investigate. They searched the area not expecting to turn up much. But then, one of the officers shouted out they'd found a piece of iron pipe. Unfortunately, it had rained recently. So if the pipe was the murder weapon, any blood would have washed off. But they still sent it to the lab for testing just in case. As they waited for the lab results, another major break came in.

Dorothy's brother, Harold Schmidt, went to the police. He had a story to tell them. After the funeral, Harold had gone back with Ed to his New York apartment. Perhaps he wanted to make sure his brother-in-law was okay. But according to Harold, Ed was acting weird. You sure you're okay, Ed? You haven't eaten anything all day. Dorothy's dead. Of course I can't eat.

You don't have to put on an act for me. I don't know what you're talking about. I know you've been eating when the rest of us aren't looking. I saw you in my mother's kitchen the other night. Oh, so you're spying on me. I'm just trying to help. Have it your way. We can talk about something else.

Let me hang up my coat. Wait, don't go in there! What the... I'll take your coat. Okay. While Ed went into the other room, Harold started snooping. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off with Ed. He went into one of the kids' rooms where he caught sight of something tucked under the bed.

He got down on his knees and pulled out a woman's purse. Just then, Ed returned. I thought I just said to... Is this Dorothy's purse? Uh... No... As it turned out, the purse wasn't Dorothy's. actually belonged to Harold's wife,

but it didn't change the fact that Ed had looked like a deer caught in headlights when Harold accused him. After that moment, Harold knew that something was wrong, and the police didn't disagree. To add fuel to the fire, Dorothy's other brother, Robert, spoke up about his own suspicions. Not long before his sister's death, he'd overheard her and Ed having a troubling phone conversation.

Don't you love me anymore? I can't believe you. Trouble in paradise? It's nothing. Ah, Ed's got a girlfriend in the city, huh? How do you know that? Do you know her? Whoa, I'm just kidding, Dorothy.

I'm not. I'll never let him divorce me for another woman. Never. All of this prompted detectives to wonder if this was a crime of passion. But they couldn't rely on hearsay. On Saturday, August 30, 1952, 10 days after Dorothy's death, the police brought Ed to the Baltimore police station. They treated him with kid gloves at first. They were kind, patient, and polite.

They didn't want to scare him off. But then they got serious. They peppered Ed with question after question, refraising and waiting for him to slip up. Ed took a few seconds before answering each time. The interrogation carried into Sunday. Ed's long pauses made him seem nervous. The detectives could understand that. After all, there were three of them,

not to mention the armed guards at the back of the room. But at the same time, detectives considered the possibility that Ed took so long because he just wanted to say the right things. Walk us through that night again. I had to get back to the city for work in the morning, so Dorothy drove me to the station, dropped me off. I gave her $4 for gas and then got on the 1128 train. That was the last time I saw her alive. What were the last words your wife said to you? Can I have a smoke? Sure. Here. So?

Hmm? What did your wife say? Right. Um, give me a minute to think. The fact that Ed was so caught up by this easy question felt like a dead giveaway. Only a guilty man would struggle to answer this. But while they might know they had their man, they still weren't sure why he killed his dutiful, loving wife. Ed felt their glares burn into him. Although they only had circumstantial evidence against him, even he could see how damning it all looked.

He tried to think of a way to exonerate himself, but he struggled to come up with any solutions where he walked out, Scott Free. strangely, Ed didn't ask for a lawyer at this point. Instead, he asked the detectives if he could speak with the armed guards alone. The detective shrugged. If that was what it would take, so be it. They left the room, and while nobody is sure what Ed said to the guards,

the conversation may have gone something like this. What do you think I should do? That's not up to me, buddy. But you think I should confess? Did you do it? Look, if you did it, then coming clean is the only thing that'll clear your conscience. Maybe they'll be more lenient with you. Really?

Sometimes it happens. Okay. Okay. I can do this. Yeah. You can call them back in. Ed steadied himself as the detectives returned. He had a confession to make.

Coming up, Ed Grammer, Reveals a scandalous affair. Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment.

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but it wasn't about his wife. It all started a year earlier in November of 1951 when Ed went to the bowling alley. He was in a semi-competitive league and quite good, if he did say so himself. He was minding his own. own business knocking down pins with his club team when somebody tapped on his shoulder. He turned to find 28-year-old Matilda Mizzy Brockie or Tilly as she preferred.

Excuse me, can you help us down here? There's a pin that's not staying up. Ouch, do I really look like an employee? Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Is it my hair? Already receding too much? No, of course not. Oh, the shirt then. I knew I shouldn't have worn this. Maybe it was the shirt. It's going in the trash shoot the second I get home. Aw, don't go throwing things out on my account.

This shirt could grow in a person. Is that so? Or maybe it's just the guy wearing it. Can I buy you a drink? What about your game? I demolish these guys every week. I'll let someone else win for a change. Seems like I'm the one winning.

Nope, that'd be me. They got that drink, and Ed was immediately smitten. Tilly was young, beautiful, and smart. She worked as a Canadian communications officer at the UN, and she'd already lived quite a life. He found her fascinating. As for Tilly, she found Ed kind and charming. He may not have had quite the same exciting career,

but he had a good job as an office manager for a metals company. He was the type of man who would make a great husband. After that night, a passionate affair erupted. They traded scores of love letters back and forth and spent nearly every weekend together. Although Ed was careful to always go to Tilly's place, never his. That was a bit of a red flag for Tilly, but she never really minded.

Ed told her he wanted to marry her. Of course, Ed was already mined. married to Dorothy and had three daughters with her. But he hadn't told Tilly that. He just never wore his ring when he was with her, and he always scheduled plans around his family. But in the spring of 1952, Dorothy's dad passed away from cancer.

With her mom on her own, Dorothy and the girls moved back home to Baltimore to help out. However, Ed couldn't leave his job in the city. Instead, he took the train back and forth from New York to Baltimore. He occasionally came down during the week, but mainly just on weekends. At first, he was good about making the trips. Soon, though, they became fewer and farther between. Ed made all kinds of excuses as to why he couldn't come to Baltimore more often,

but the truth of the matter was that he simply wanted to spend all of his time with Tilly. Bye, Dorothy. You'll be back this weekend? Maybe. have to put in some extra hours at work. The girls miss you. So do I. I'll try, okay?

I have to go. I love you. We're not sure what exactly Dorothy knew, but at the very least, she strongly suspected her husband was stepping out on her. And she wasn't going to take it lying down. When he was gone, she wrote him strongly worded letters.

When he was in Baltimore, they got into heated arguments. None of this endeared Dorothy to her husband. Every time he looked at her, all he could think about was how he wanted to be with Tilly. In July of 1952, Ed whisked away for a 10-day vacation with his mistress. They traveled to Chicago where they hold up in a hotel and pretended to be man and wife. Tilly thought the only thing stopping them from actually getting married was her strict Roman Catholic family. So after that Chicago trip, she went home to Canada to talk to her dad.

If she could convince him to overlook the religious differences, nothing would stop her and Ed from getting there happily ever after. Of course, Ed knew the real reason why he hadn't proposed to his girlfriend yet. He had to deal with his wife first. But he couldn't just own up to being married and promise to leave Dorothy. Tilly's religion would never allow her to marry a divorced man. However, the Bible said nothing against marrying a widower. Around 11 p.m. on August 19th,

Ed and Dorothy headed out for the train station yet again. They got into Dorothy's Blue Chrysler, which Ed had bought her for their anniversary. Turn left here. I know the way to the train station. I just want to show you. something. It's late. Can we not do this tonight? You're the one who always wants us to be more spontaneous. Ed, taking a different route to the train station is not what I meant. Just turn. Fine. Ed instructed Dorothy to drive all the way to Taylor Avenue. Then, at the top of the hill,

Ed told her to stop. Suddenly, he pulled an iron pipe from behind the passenger seat and smashed. mashed it onto Dorothy's head. Dorothy screamed at the top of her lungs as he struck her over and over. After eight bludgeon's to the head, she fell silent. Blood matted her hair. Ed had no idea how badly he'd fractured her skull. He leaned over from the passenger seat, careful not to touch any blood,

and made sure she was dead. Once he was satisfied, Ed got out of the car. He grabbed his wife's purse, thinking that he could make it look like a robbery. Then he searched the area for a stone. He found one on the side of the road and returned to the car. Very carefully, he lodged it on top of the accelerator pedal so that it couldn't let up. Then he put the car in drive and jumped back, slamming the door. He watched the Chrysler race down Taylor Avenue.

If all went as planned, it would reach the bottom, crossed the highway and hit the concrete wall at the very bottom of the hill. Ed likely didn't stick around to make sure he fled into the night and made his way back to the station to catch a later train into the city. If he'd stayed only a few moments longer, he would have seen Dorothy's car zigzag off course. Back in the Baltimore police station, the three detectives listened to Ed's statement with rapt attention.

Of course, they suspected he was responsible, but to hear it straight from his mouth was another thing entirely. Once they grilled him on all the details, there was nothing left but to charge him with first-degree murder. From there, the judge ordered him to remain in jail without bail. He was too much of a flight risk, given that he had a Canadian girlfriend. Ed's trial started on October 6, 1952, less than two months. months after Dorothy's murder. And to his surprise, Tilly was one of the star witnesses. But not for Ed.

She testified for the prosecution. Unbeknownst to Ed, when the police told Tilly that her boyfriend had not only been married, but that he'd killed his wife for her, she was instantly distraught and disgusted with him. Even though she'd had no knowledge of his family, she still felt responsible in her own way for being his motivation. She was willing to do anything to help the police and make up for that. When she took the stand, Ed's eyes were glued to her. She avoided his gaze the entire time, even as the prosecution read aloud his love letters,

and especially when she was questioned about their relationship. I never loved anyone the way I loved Ed. Do you still love this man? That's a difficult question, Your Honor. You love people for what they are. Ed, lied to me. After she testified, Tilly quit her job at the U.N., moved away from New York and changed her name. She wanted nothing to do with Ed ever again.

Her testimony gave a secondary perspective on Ed's statement, and she helped paint a pretty damning picture. Ed had lied to his wife, and his mistress. And when he wanted to trade the former in for the latter, he did it in the most gruesome way. In his mind, he did it for love, but in the eye of the law, it was cold-blooded murderer.

The judge convicted Ed of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. There were some appeals, but ultimately they all fell through. About two years after the murder, Ed received his execution date. On June 11, 1954, a crowd of 700 people gathered outside the penitentiary. They wanted to witness the moment when Dorothy Grammer finally got justice. But Ed's execution didn't go smoothly.

In fact, it was one of the most miserably botched hangings in Maryland's history. It took 20 long minutes for him to die from strangulation. The whole thing was so bad that it actually led Maryland to change its death sentence policies. After Ed, the state introduced the gas chamber as a more humane execution method. But for Ed Grammer, it was too late. He endured an excruciating end. Many thought he deserved it for what he did to his poor wife. Either way, the almost perfect crime finally came to a close. Ed Grammer had nearly gotten away with it all, but the truth prevailed in the end.

Thanks again for tuning in to Solved Murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. For more information on Dorothy May Grammer, amongst the many sources we used, we found Scott Levitt's 1952 Life magazine profile, the not quite perfect crime, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Solve Murder's True Crime Mysteries is a Spotify original from Parcast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler. Sound design by Michael Langsner with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Freddie Rivera, Nick Johnson, Trent Williamson, and Carly Madden.

This episode of Solveillance, Murders was written by Alex Burns, edited by Sarah Batchelor and Giles Hoffseth, fact-checked by Claire Cronin, researched by Mickey Taylor, and produced by Travis Clark. The amazing cast of voice actors includes Tom Bauer, Joe Hernandez, Brian Kim McCormick, Melissa Medina, Cameron Nicod, and Rebecca Thomas. Solve Murders stars Wendy McKenzie and Carter Roy. Welcome to Arco Rewards Orientation. I'm Hannah.

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