Some quick detective work on the part of the European correspondents revealedto everyones consternationthat the veiled lady was none other than Mrs. Francis Arnold, whose privacy at the New Jersey rest home was still respectfully honored by the newspapers. Natasha Ishak is a staff writer at All That's Interesting. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. While Junior was an engineer and came from a wealthy family, he was 20 years older than Dorothy. Outside of work, Arnold mingled and garnered a reputation as a prestigious society girl.. It would be bad enough, the stern Francis Arnold cried out once, if the daughter I loved so well [were] lying beside her grandmother in Greenwood Cemetery, but this suspense and uncertainty are a thousand times worse., And that uncertainty was never resolved. Dorothy Arnolds formidable father had not only inherited a large sum of money, bt he had made considerably more as the head of F. R. Arnold & Company, importers. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 16 daughters. She also had on a long blue coat and carried a black fox muff. Others whispered that she was the victim of a botched abortion. Nor did Dorothy ever speak of knowing anyone in Washington who might have brought the package to Theodoras door. Legacy invites you. Dorothy had met him at Bryn Mawr, perhaps before she knew Junior. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. She had with her about $25 of a monthly allowance of $100. of Luneburg, Province of Hanover, Prussia, came to America 1752. The cherry on top, however, was when he declared his plans to marry Dorothy upon her return. George S. Griscom, Jr., of Pittsburg, who has been much talked about in connection with the disappearance of Dorothy Arnold, the missing daughter of Francis R. Arnold of 108 East Seventy-ninth . His name is engraved on a plaque at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. And, no one ever found her body. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. That night Elsie Henry, one of the girl friends queried, called back shortly after midnight to ask if Dorothy had returned. If anything, Dorothy Arnold looked cheerful. In an effort to bring things to a close, Dorothys father said he thought shed been killed and disposed of in the Central Park reservoir not likely, said the police, as the lake was frozen at the time of her disappearance. Its the best Agatha Christie novel that never was: the story of the disappearance of Manhattan perfume heiress, Dorothy Arnold. For the Arnolds, the fear of embarrassment and public scandal may have played a part in the decisions they took next. This did not happen until January 22, 1911, six weeks after Dorothys disappearance. Assuming, he recapitulated, that she walked up home through Central Park, she could have taken the lonely walk along the reservoir. The storybook Linden Hill estate is currently on the market for $22 million. According to the New York businessman, Dorothy seemed very happy. He said he had no idea what happened to Dorothy but hintedshe was depressed about her faltering writing career. Dorothy was a robust girl whose health was flawless. Edwin was born on December 29 1819, in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co., PA. Beulah was born on February 7 1821. He was hardly the type to sweep a girl off her feet, or rescue her from a stifling existence. The family hired private investigators instead, but they turned up few clues. But at the same time no passengers were reported missing from ocean-crossing liners during the early days of her disappearance. He was a dumpy middle-aged man who still . The pair had met when Arnold was still at Bryn Mawr, and Arnold once even lied about visiting an old college friend to meet with Griscom in secret. Writing was not a womans game, and certainly not in their upper-crust family. He or someone else may have supplied her with the name of an abortionistperhaps along with the necessary funds, in the package so surprisingly delivered on Thanksgiving Day in Washington. But to do this, Dorothy Arnold must have been either supersensitive or else supremely callous. Francis R. Arnold may truly have dreaded the notoriety this interview would inevitably bring. Year should not be greater than current year. Yet asearch of the park turned up nothing. Ship-news reporters, who had unexpectedly found him aboard the Savoie of the French Line, peppered him with questions. George agreed. But George would never be the man the Arnolds wanted as a. Despite their romance, her family didn't approve of her contact with him. Arnold told her mother that she was headed out to buy an evening gown at a department store on Fifth Avenue. A moment later she vanished, never to be seen againat least never by anyone who both recognized her and acknowledged her existence to the world. They began inquiring about her whereabouts among family friends. In the main hallwhich newspapers were later to describe as magnificently furnishedshe found her mother waiting. She had graduated from Bryn Mawr five years before and still retained the serene, slightly lofty demeanor of the ultraserious female collegian. Dorothy was the daughter of a Manhattan millionaire. After this came a real shocker: recently the two had spent a week together in Boston! Ludlow Griscom papers, 1918-1961. Formerly engaged to heiress Carrie S. Hays.Romantically involved with heiress Dorothy Arnold when she mysteriously disappeared on December 12, 1910.------Notes:*Death date confirmed via 1939 court decrees, re: Griscom's estate. Or so one would think. The day before, she had withdrawn $36 from the bank to lake some girl friends to lunch at Sherrys, followed by a matinee. Some speculated that Dorothy Arnolds older, less prestigious boyfriend had ordered a hit on her after she refused his hand in marriage. So back home it was, to 108 East 79th Street where there was little room to rock the boat. Or perhapsas some suspectedhe had some secret inkling of Dorothys fate. [Special Dispatch to The Call] ATLANTIC CITY, Feb. Yet she lived with her parents in a mansion on East 79th Street because her father forbade her to move out. He professed to be totally unaware of his sisters disappearance, claiming that he had been in Europe on a business trip since November. But when he probed with his finger, he saw no writing visible on the charred remains. This theory might seem to be borne out by the steamship folders found on Dorothys desk. The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since Dorothy Arnolds disappearance, reported sightings of the heiress cropped up nearly every year afterward and many imposters claimed to be her in a bid to attain her fortune. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Finally she picked out An Engaged Girls Sketches , by Emily Calvin Blake, a scries of frothy love stories that had appeared in the Ladies Home Journal . We didnt expect you back until Monday. Again Dorothy answered firmly, I always intended to come home today., She spent the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend at home, reading and sewing. Failure stares me in the face. Up until now, he said, he had no idea she was missing. Try again. Accompanied by her brother, she knocked on his hotel room door in Italy for answers, but she was given none, or at least none that satisfied her. She was a clever woman with a college degree, she was fluent in several languages, and she was independently wealthy. Try again later. A later discovery revealed that the girl actually lied to her parents in order to spend a week with a man called George Griscom Jr. Once the headline DOROTHY ARNOLD FOUND spread across the newspapers of the country, but this turned out to be a hoax. But people who are about to destroy themselves usually seem depressed. It was Dorothys mother who decided to track down George overseas. He married Margaret Woodnutt Acton on 4 October 1839, in Salem, New Jersey, United States. An artists sketch of Dorothy Arnold on the day of her disappearance. This account has been disabled. The most popular theory is that she secretly eloped with engineer George Griscom Jr., a suitor her family disapproved of because of his passive and inconsistent character. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Then she made a frightful mistake. In New York newspapers he inserted ads in the Personal columns signed Junior, which begged Dorothy to communicate with him. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. The executor of George S. Griscom, Jr., contends that the gift of the remainder to the testatrix's sister was void in that it violated the rule against perpetuities and that an intestacy resulted. He died in 1920. . More likely is the possibility that she contrived, or connived in, her own disappearance. When Francis died, his will said nothing of Dorothy. She did have a lover that her parents disapproved of, George Griscom Jr., but he joined the search effort for her and, eventually, moved on and married someone else . . View. Griscom denied any involvement in Arnold's disappearance and gave her family a letter she had written to him earlier in 1910. Return now to the Arnold home. Shortly before Christmas 1910, the heiress to a perfume empire Dorothy Arnold vanished without a trace while shopping for an evening dress at a New York City department store. Even her friend Gladys King, who ran into her on 5th Avenue and 27th Street at 2pm, said she was in a good mood when they ran into one another. Naturally, George Griscom was the first suspect in the case of Dorothy's disappearance. This flower has been reported and will not be visible while under review. Both left behind them wills which stated: I have made no provision for my beloved daughter, Dorothy H. C. Arnold, as I am satisfied that she is not alive.. Or perhaps she was skipping town with some European lover another theory that made Mary and Francis hot with embarrassment, but that they had no choice to chase. Reporters were no more successful. Dorothy was the daughter of perfume importer Francis Arnold, and she was the niece of Supreme Court Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham. She was born in 1885 in New York City as the second of four children to Mary Parks Arnold and Francis R. Arnold, a rich perfume importer. Presumably the police department of New York City received one of these circulars, but it stood firmly on protocol, refusing to act in the Dorothy Arnold matter until appealed to directly. Despite the New York Police Departments belief that Dorothy Arnold was still alive, her father filed an affidavit stating his belief that she was murdered. On December 11, 1935, the twenty-fifth year after the disappearance, police told reporters that tips on Dorothy Arnold still came in. The Pinkerton agency thus took their investigation overseas, looking into recent marriage records and checking the passenger logs of recent steam liners. All we know is that as she walked down Fifth Avenue on the aftcrncxm of December 12, Dorothy appeared more concerned with the works of others than with her own literary efforts. ------ Notes: *Death date confirmed via 1939 court decrees, re:. She was 25 years old when she disappeared. His last job was at Moore Brothers in Clayton. It would have been simple for her to jump into Long Island Sound during the night. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Its worth noting that Dorothy was a secretive person and there were aspects of her life which she kept hidden from her family. Instead of calling the police, they made discreet enquiries through John S. Keith, a family friend, and hired Pinkerton detectives to investigate the disappearance. Yes, shes here, Mrs. Arnold stated brightly, in reply to Elsie Henrys question. Only two months before, after her return from a vacation at the family summer home in Maine, Dorothy had requested her lathers permission to take an apartment in Greenwich Village, a district which even then had a reputation lor stimulating creative effort. If there was one thing we can be certain Dorothy was passionate about, more so even than we can be sure she even loved George, it was her writing career. All I can see ahead is a long road with no turning. When she begged her father for an apartment in Greenwich Village, he rolled his eyes, A good writer can write anywhere, he told her. The theory that Dorothy had committed suicide due to her failed writing career was considered plausible by her boyfriend, George Griscom Jr. She'd written entries in her journal, stating her disappointment over the rejections saying, "Well, it [the story] has come back. By the next day the Captain denied that he had ever said this. It read: DOROTHY ARNOLD MISSING. Since that day, nothing. A 1928 article about Dorothy Arnolds case in. She Lied About Everything, except Marrying Wyatt Earp, Investigating One of the Oldest Private Detective Agencies in Paris, 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. Everything there seemed in perfect order, and Mrs. Arnold and Marjorie assured him that all of the missing girls clothes were hanging in the closet, except for what she had worn the day before. Friends thought she killed herself because Griscom wouldn't marry her. Yes, quite scandalous for the times But while the letters speak of love, they do not throw any further light on her whereabouts only some mentions of depression over an unpublished story (Poinsettia?). George Griscom Jr, Arnold's boyfriend, theorized that she had committed suicide because she was despondent over her failed writing career. Griscom urged all whom he met to call him "Junior." When his parents traveled, he invariably accompanied them. Dorothy, still lolling in bed, did not open the envelope or even comment on it, but tossed it aside indifferently. Fearing that her disappearance would become a media spectacle and a source of shame for the family, the Arnolds didnt report their daughters disappearance until six weeks after the last time she was seen alive. So attired, Dorothy Arnold descended the stairway of her family home at 108 East Seventy-ninth Street, about eleven oclock on the morning of December 12. Denial, while just as tragic, goes down a little easier. Tuscaloosa NewsA 1928 article about Dorothy Arnolds case in The Tuscaloosa News daily. Dorothy came from serious money with direct lines back to Mayflower passengers. He was 88 and had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease several years . For the parents, responding to the reporters was like pulling teeth, especially when they began inquiring about the possibility of Dorothy having run off with a lover of a lower social standing. Could she come to the phone? Nor has it been found buried anywhere. Over breakfast the next morning, a distracted family settled on another strange move when they decided not to summon police, instead, Dorothys brother John phoned a friend named John S. Keith, a junior partner in the law firm of Garvan K: Armstrong. View Source Share Save to Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Pinkerton officials listened to the story of the disappearance and immediately mailed a descriptive circular on Dorothy to police departments all over the country. Was it Dorothy herself? That day she wore a well-tailored suit, with a blue serge coat and a tight hobble skirt in a matching color; she carried both a huge silver-fox mutt and a satin handbag. By modern standards, the Arnold family would seem stully and somewhat forbidding. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Here indeed is a riddle deep within a riddle; this was Thanksgiving Day, when businesses closed down and no daily mail was delivered. As evening approached, Francis and Mary began to worry. Passengers merely walked aboard, chose a cabin, and paid on getting off. Drag images here or select from your computer for George Stewart Griscom Jr. memorial. The House was an underground abortion clinic that, some time later, was revealed to have welcomed various women into its doors who often disappeared. She may have become pregnant by Griscom. There they stood for several hours, peering vainly into the faces of passers-by. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? This theory was supported by a doctor who ran an underground womens clinic known as the House. He claimed to have performed a procedure on Dorothy Arnold and that a surgical complication had caused her death. She was pre . The total mystery ol the Dorothy Arnold case is as unfathomable today as it was fifty years ago. On Monday she paid a visit to the general delivery window of the Thirty-fourth Street post office, where she received several letters with foreign postmarks. As Keith rose to his feet, John Arnold suggested that the burned papers might be Dorothys rejected manuscript. Out of ideas, and options, they returned to the only place where they decided it was possibly to acquaint themselves with the most intimate side of Dorothy: her bedroom. There were three telling discoveries in Dorothys room: recently burnt documents in the fireplace, pamphlets for transatlantic steam liner voyages, and letters with foreign post a trifecta of intrigue if ever there was one. Its unlikely, but not impossible, that she would have staged her disappearance to start a new life somewhere else. Cant it wait? he asked. Dorothy's boyfriend George Griscom Jr. was in Italy when Dorothy vanished and appeared to have nothing to do with her disappearance. Era George C. Griscom, Jr., un regordete de cuarenta y dos aos de patillas que viva con sus ancianos padres en Pittsburgh y veraneaba en Nantucket. I found on Findagrave.com. Maybe Id better go with you, Mrs. Arnold said to her daughter. Weeks passed and additional theories surfaced, each testing the limits of plausibility. Originally know as "Dolobran II" and renamed Linden Hill in 1999 by its present owner, the mansion was built in the early 1930s for Rodman E. Griscom Jr. CABLE GARVARMCOM IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING OF HER WHEREABOUTS . Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. Manuscripts she submitted to publisherswere rejected, a fact Dorothy was anxious to hide. A quiet-looking, sturdy girl with a healthy complexion, she had brown hair done up in a high pompadour, and steady, blue-gray eyes. Try again later. He was George C. Griscom, Jr., a plump, sideburned forty-two-year-old who lived with his elderly parents in Pittsburgh, and summered at Nantucket. No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments. The Edwardsville IntelligencerAn artists sketch of Dorothy Arnold on the day of her disappearance. Not only was he much older . This was ruled out when Griscom was found vacationing in Italy with his family (via Ninja Journalist ). The Kowloon Walled City Replica: Historical Accident turned Amusement Park. There, because of the laxity of police supervision over the park, I believe it quite possible that she might have been murdered by garroters, and her body thrown into the lake or the reservoir. Dorothy informed her that she planned to spend the day shopping for an evening dress to wear at her sister Marjories coming-out party, five days hence on the seventeenth. It was thought that perhaps Arnold had run away with Griscom. This browser does not support getting your location. Dorothy Arnold was an aspiring writer but her work was never published. They hired private investigators, the notorious Pinkertons, who searched everywhere for the heiress: shops, hospitals, friends homes, and even the morgue. But it has never been answered. To use this feature, use a newer browser. She came downstairs for breakfast fully dressed for travel, and carrying her bag. 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