re: Most baffling or unexplained murder cases or mysteries you’ve ever heard of?

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On the evening of June 11, 1930, 39-year old Joseph Mozynski, a married New York City grocery store owner with two children, left his store in Queens after telling his wife he needed to run some errands. In actuality, Joseph was carrying on a two-year affair with his 19-year old mistress, Catherine May, so he picked her up and drove to a secluded lover’s lane area in the College Point neighbourhood. The couple started making out when they were interrupted by a small, slender man who appeared to be around 40 years old and spoke with a German accent. After shooting Joseph twice, he proceeded to rape Catherine. He then searched Joseph’s pockets, pulled out some papers and looked at them before setting them on fire. The assailant then asked Catherine for her home address before walking her to the nearest bus stop. When a bus showed up, they boarded it together and the man gave Catherine a note, warning her not to read it until tomorrow. After arriving at the bus terminal, he escorted Catherine onto a trolley before they parted ways. Catherine decided to look at the note and saw that the words, “JOSEPH MOZYNSKI 3X 3-X-097”, had been stamped on there in red ink. Catherine was so terrified by the incident that she did not to contact the police and she also did not want her family to know she was involved with a married man. When Joseph’s body was discovered the following day, the police tracked Catherine down, but did not believe her story, so she would be interrogated over the course of the next few days.

While this was going on, the editor of the newspaper, the New York Evening Journal, received an odd letter which started with the words, “Kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozynski’s friends”. It was followed by what appeared to be a jumbled code of letters and numbers and the rest of the letter read: “By doing this, you may save their lives. And the women may know where the missing papers are and who has them since they were given to Mozynski. We do not want any more shooting unless we have to”. It was signed: “3X, The Man Behind the Gun”. The letter was postmarked hours before Joseph’s body was even discovered, so it seemed likely it had been written by the killer. The following day, the Evening Journal published a story about the murder, but made no mention of the letter and soon wound up receiving a second letter which read:

“Gentleman: For your information, the young lady, Miss C. May, involved in this case is innocent and a victim of unfortunate circumstances. Mozynski was nothing but a rascal – a dirty rat. Not two women as stated in the papers, but six and two young girls, one 14 and one 15, were with him in that same place. I am the agent of a secret international order and when I met Mozynski that night, it was to get from him certain documents, but unfortunately, they were not in his possession at that time. If his relative knew so much of his luck with women, maybe he would tell us what became of the following items: NYX-26-73; NJ 4-3-44; Philadelphia XV 346. These papers must be returned to us at once or 14 more of Mozynski’s friends will join him. Mozynski’s relatives and friends have up to Monday, 12:00 PM to bring these documents to us or to have someone get in touch with us and tell us where to find them. If no answer is received by that time, we will start merry hell for all of them”

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On the evening of June 16, Noel Sowley, a 26-year old radio mechanic from Brooklyn, picked up his 18-year old girlfriend, Betty Ring, and drove her to a secluded auto salvage yard located near the Floral Park neighbourhood. The couple were planning to make out, but were immediately interrupted when a man carrying a flashlight showed up outside the vehicle and pointed a gun at Noel. He spoke with what sounded like a German accent and ordered Noel to hand over his driver’s licence. After looking at it, the man turned his flashlight towards a spot in the distance and started flicking it on and off and told Noel he was signalling to his friends that he did not need their assistance. He then asked Noel if he knew Joseph Mozynski, but when Noel replied “no”, the man shot him in the mouth. In spite of his wound, Noel managed to say the words, “I’m not the man you’re looking for”, prompting the gunman to check the rear licence plate. He then stated, “You’re the one we want, all right. You’re going to get what Joe got”, before firing a second shot into Noel’s head. He performed a search of Noel’s pockets and found a piece of paper, prompting him to say: “I have it!”. He turned to Betty and seemed like he was going to rape her, but when she held up a religious medal around her neck, he decided to back off. The killer then escorted Betty to the nearest bus stop and after they boarded a bus together, he gave Betty a note before getting off at a stop. When Catherine looked at the note, it had “SOWLEY” stamped in red ink, followed by “3X”.

Ballistic tests would show that the bullets used to kill Joseph and Noel were both fired from the same gun. A newspaper clipping about Joseph’s death was found in Noel’s pocket which had “MOZYNSKI” stamped on it in red ink and the words, “here’s how”, written in the margins. A wadded-up roll of cash was also found at the murder scene inside a blood-stained magazine. Since Betty and Catherine’s stories about the attacks were so similar, investigators no longer believed that Catherine was involved in the murders. The Evening Journal and the police each received a new letter signed by “3X”. The second letter contained a spent .32-caliber shell casing in the envelope and mentioned Noel’s murder, referring to him as “V-5 Sowley”. It stated “Some of our money was found on his person and the N.Y. document” and concluded: “Thirteen more men and one woman will go if they do not make peace with us and stop bleeding us to death”. The Evening Journal decided to publish the 3X letters and on the morning of June 18, they received another letter which read: “Tonight one more will go. You may let know 3X is the man behind the gun. He asks for no quarter but will give none. On June 18 at 9:00 PM, I will be at College Point to get WR V-8”.

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Delphi Murders

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