The hanging of Alice Riley Notes:

"Jan 19, 1735 - Alice Riley became the first woman to be hanged in Georgia (at Savannah), for the murder of her master, William Wise, in which she was assisted by her boyfriend, Richard White. She was pregnant at the time of her trial and was allowed to deliver the baby before her execution. The day after Alice's execution, White was hanged on the same gallows.

Alice Riley was an indentured servant who arrived in America in December 1733. She was sent to work for William Wise, along with her husband, Richard White. Mr. Wise was a horrible man to work for, and each day he ordered the two servants to bathe and groom him. In March 1734 Richard and Alice had all they could take. While grooming Mr. Wise that day, they held his head in a bucket of water until he drowned. They fled the house, but were eventually caught while hiding on the Isle of Hope. Both Alice Riley and Richard White were sentenced to death for Mr. Wise's murder. They hanged Richard White first, but when it came time to hang Alice, they found out she was pregnant with William Wise's baby. They waited eight months before hanging her...until after the baby was born. Alice was hanged on January 19, 1735. Her body was left hanging on the gallows for three days. She maintained her innocence until death. Unfortunately, her baby died only 45 days later.

Alice has been seen many, many times in Wright Square. She is as always looking for her baby. She asks everyone to help her find her baby. Very often tourists have called the Savannah police and reported a woman looking for her child in Wright Square. The officers that have been around for a while know it is Alice. Rookies get sent out to look for her as a joke. They never find anything of course. Even though she is often spotted in old fashioned clothing from her day, no one thinks anything of it because of the guided tours in the downtown Savannah area that often have their guides dress in historically accurate clothing.

According to reports Alice Riley has appeared to more people than any other ghost in the United States. Perhaps if you go to Wright Square in the early evening hours you just might catch a glimpse of her. She may even ask you to help her find her baby. Also, I would be careful not to take my newborn to Wright Square. Alice just might think it is hers..."

— Source: Murderpedia

The Murder of Reyna Marroquin Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Arnold Dogelis on Unsplash

"Reyna Angélica Marroquín (1941–1969) was a Salvadoran woman who was murdered in the United States in 1969. Marroquín's murder was not discovered until 1999, 30 years after its occurrence, when her body was found in the former Jericho, New York home of Howard B. Elkins, a businessman who was identified as the prime suspect. Elkins committed suicide before he could be charged or thoroughly questioned.

On September 2, 1999, an old 55-gallon drum in the crawl space of a house in Jericho, Nassau County, New York, was found to contain the mummified remains of a pregnant Hispanic female in her late 20s between 145 and 152 cm (4'9" and 5'0") tall, with unusual dental work. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head. The drum also contained polystyrene pellets, two rings (one inscribed "M.H.R."), a locket inscribed "To Patrice Love Uncle Phil", green dye, and an address book.

The drum had been made in 1965 and used for transporting dye, with markings showing it had been shipped to Melrose Plastics, a synthetic flower company partly owned by Howard B. Elkins, a local businessman who had owned the Jericho house until 1972, when he sold the plastic business and moved to Boca Raton, Florida, with his wife. Under infrared light some of the deteriorated address book was legible. An alien card number written on the first page belonged to Reyna Angélica Marroquín, a 28-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, who had worked as a nanny, and for a manufacturer of synthetic flowers at a factory on East 34th Street, Manhattan. A phone number in the book belonged to Kathy Andrade, who had been a friend of Marroquín. When contacted, Andrade told the police that Marroquín had been having an extramarital affair with Elkins, but had called Andrade to say she had become afraid of him after telling Elkins' wife about the affair. Andrade went to Marroquín's apartment but found it empty, and she was never heard from again. There were reports that when a woman fitting Marroquín's description appeared once with a toddler at Melrose Plastics, employees had joked that the child's father was Elkins.

Detectives who interviewed Elkins found him uncooperative, and told him they intended to obtain an order to take his DNA for comparison with that of the fetus found inside Marroquín. The next day, September 10, 1999, Elkins was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun he purchased at a Walmart store that day found in between his legs. The DNA testing found that Elkins was almost certainly the father of the fetus. Investigators believe Elkins either went to Marroquín's New Jersey apartment or lured her to the factory and killed her. He then took her body to the Nassau County house, possibly with the intention of dumping her in the ocean from his boat, but after filling the barrel with plastic pellets to ensure it would sink, he found it too heavy to move and left it in the crawl space.

Writer Oscar Corral went to San Martín, San Salvador, where Marroquín's 95-year-old mother told him she had dreamt about Marroquín trapped inside a barrel. Marroquín was buried in El Salvador; her mother died a month later and was buried with her..."

— Source: Wikipedia