NO REST FOR DEAD
Mystery slay in 1911 stirs ‘spirited’ stories
Today the building is known as the Barton Center, part of the Salvation Army’s Block of Hope in Indianapolis. It is where people who are down on their luck or battling personal demons go for help.
It is also, some say, haunted.
Over the years, there have been stories of strange murmurs, inexplicable movements, and the fleeting specter of a woman in a kimono of navy blue with red poppies.
Much of it may be the work of the restless spirit of Dr. Helene Elise Hermine Knabe, who met a violent death there on Oct. 23, 1911, author Nicole Kobrowski told Justice Story.
Kobrowski wrote a book about the 110-year-old murder mystery, “She Sleeps Well.” She also runs tours of haunted sites in Indianapolis.
Knabe’s assistant, Katherine McPherson, came to the apartment, which doubled as a medical office, a little after 8 a.m. on Oct. 24. Back then, the building was known as the Delaware Flats.
McPherson first noted an eerie silence in the apartment, odd for the early rising, energetic doctor. She glanced into the bedroom and saw Knabe sprawled out on her bed, a blood-soaked nightgown wadded up under her arms.
Knabe’s throat had been slit from ear to ear; the gaping wound penetrated to her spine.
Suspicion immediately fell on the building’s janitor, Jefferson Haynes, but there was nothing to implicate him. Neighbors told of unsavory strangers hanging around. One said he’d seen a prowler — a “sodden degenerate, with baggy, watery eyes and a weak mouth” — peeping through the window of Knabe’s first-floor home.
Nothing was stolen, there was no sexual assault, and she had no known enemies. A motive for murder did not exist.
Soon, a new theory emerged. “Now Think Dr. Knabe Suicide: Murder Clues Fail,” was the headline on a New York Times story a week after her death.
The article noted that detectives were favoring the notion that she killed herself. As far-fetched as it seemed, the idea was “confirmed by information as to the life and habits of the dead woman,” the paper reported.
Some said that she was despondent because of money troubles. Others hinted that her unconventional life — including rumors of a lesbian relationship — was the root of her despair.
Today, women doctors are nothing unusual, but when Knabe was pursuing her education and career, it was considered outside the norm. She leaped over many barriers to get where she was.
As a young girl growing up in Germany, Knabe dealt with her mother’s death and abandonment by her father. An uncle took the girl under his wing, even though his job as a diver who scraped barnacles from ships was not lucrative. Hard work became a habit for Knabe, and, in her teens, she helped support the household as a master seamstress. She continued to send money home to her uncle when she moved to America.
Knabe graduated from Indiana Medical College, one of two women, in 1904, and then worked as a pathologist for the Indiana Board of Health. In 1909, she joined the Indiana Veterinary College faculty. Rabies held a particular fascination for her. Among her many other activities, she also illustrated medical texts and practiced and taught gymnastics.
Friends knew Knabe as serious, disciplined and upbeat. In the days leading up to her death, she showed no signs of distress.
In December 1911, a coroner’s report said that there was little doubt that she was murdered. Still, the suicide theory continued to dominate.
Two months later, the Local Council of Women raised funds to hire a private detective — Harry C. Webster. “The police have maintained that suicide was more plausible than the murder theory,” noted a small newspaper item announcing the independent probe.
At the end of 1912, the private eye delivered his bombshell report to a grand jury.
“Dr. W. B. CRAIG AND A. M. RAGSDALE INDICTED IN HELENE KNABE CASE,” was The Indianapolis News frontpage screamer on New Year’s Eve, 1912.
Both men were prominent Indianapolis figures. Dr. William B. Craig, 40 and a widower, was the dean of the Indiana Veterinary College. Alonzo Ragsdale, 58, an undertaker who was hired as the executor of Knabe’s estate, was arrested as an accessory.
According to Webster’s report, a love affair gone sour between Craig and Knabe led to the slaying. Craig wanted to end their relationship; she did not. His housekeeper told of a violent quarrel a few days before Knabe’s death. Others spoke of how he told her to go to hell.
The nature of the wound — made with surgical precision — also pointed to a person with Craig’s skill as a doctor.
Ragsdale was brought into the case when Webster learned he had a garment given to the deceased doctor by her cousin, Augusta, as a Christmas gift. It was a dark blue silk kimono with red poppy flowers.
After a weeklong trial, a jury quickly found Craig not guilty.
“The ending of the trial leaves the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Knabe as mysterious as ever,” noted The Indianapolis Star on Dec. 10, 1913. And that is how it has stayed.
When, about a century later, Kobrowski heard of odd happenings in the Barton Center, she jumped to look into it as a possible tour location.
Kobrowski delved into the building’s history, part of her preparation for adding any site to her Historic Indiana Ghost Walks & Tours. She learned of the long-forgotten case of the death of the “lady doctor,” as newspapers called her, and soon added it to her schedule of excursions into the paranormal.
JUSTICE STORY has been the Daily News’ exclusive take on true crime tales of murder, mystery and mayhem for nearly 100 years.