La Salle pleaded not guilty: Court docket, NJSA.
Dorothy and Madeline had moved: Interview with “Madeline La Salle,” August 2014; La Salle v. La Salle, Superior Court of New Jersey.
La Salle was paroled: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I; prison intake form, 1950, NJSA; draft registration card, June 29, 1944; Social Security application, June 28,1944.
a forged $110 check: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950.
La Salle returned to Trenton State Prison: Ibid.; prison intake form, 1946, NJSA.
She’d found work as a seamstress: Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1948, p. I.
The case had taken on added urgency: March 17, 1949, indictment date mentioned in subsequent reports by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950.
Dorothy Forstein’s disappearance: “Kidnapping Story Spurs Search for Wife of Forstein,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 23, 1949, p. I.
The Friday night after Dorothy vanished: “Reward Offered for Clue to Wife,” Camden Courier-Post, November 17, 1949, p. 24.
Dorothy was declared legally dead: “Lost Wife Ruled Dead,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 15, 1957, p. 23.
Ella had difficulty sleeping: “A Tree Grows, a Lonely Mother Waits,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1948, p. 1.
Mitchell Cohen was appointed: Obituary of Mitchell Cohen, NewYork Times, January 10, 1991.
did not have enough major crime: Gillette, Camden After the Fall,p. 25.
state party’s de facto leader: Camden Courier-Post, November 7, 1950, p. 3.
many jobs he held in law enforcement: Obituary of Mitchell Cohen, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 1991.
In his bespoke suits: Interview with Fredric Cohen, November 2017.
He’d met Herman Levin: Camden Courier-Post, June 1, 1956, p. 2.
Cohen also became a theatrical producer: Ibid.; also “Music Fair Opens to 1500,” Camden Courier-Post, June 4, 1957, p. 1.
early in his tenure: “Make Up in Court,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1938, p. 19.
the murder of Wanda Dworecki: Account draws from coverage in the Camden Courier-Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as State of New Jersey v. Dworecki, January II, 1940, and Daniel Allen Hearn, Legal Executions in New Jersey: A Comprehensive Registry (Mc-Farland, 2005), pp. 376–377.
Shewchuk was paroled in 1959: “Pastor Put to Death in 1940,” Camden Courier-Post, July 11, 2000, p. 6.
the death of twenty-three-year-old Margaret McDade: Account draws from coverage in the Camden Courier-Post and wire reports from the Associated Press, United Press, International News Service, and more.
Howard Auld did not die: “Auld Dies Tonight as Final Pleas of Mercy Are Denied,” Camden Courier-Post, March 27, 1951, p. 1.
six-year-old June Robles: Obituary of June Robles, New York Times, October 31, 2017, supplied the bulk of details for this section.
Stan visited her parents: See Christine McGuire and Carla Norton, Perfect Victim (Arbor House/Morrow, 1988), for a complete account of the Colleen Stan case.
Dugard’s eighteen-year bond: See Jaycee Dugard, A Stolen Life (2011); Elizabeth Smart, My Story (2013); and Amanda Berry and Gina Dejesus, Hope (2015), for further information on these cases.
had taken a taxicab: Mitchell Cohen statement, as reported by the Camden Courier-Post, April 3,1950.
Sally later said: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1.
around West Franklin Street: Several addresses on this street were listed in an affidavit included with State of New Jersey v. Frank La Salle, A-7-54 (1954).
rape became a regular occurrence: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 1.
To enroll Sally at Saint Ann’s: Affidavit included with State of New Jersey v. Frank La Salle, A-7-54 (1954).
Sally got used to the new name: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23, 1950, p. 1.
Breakfast in hand: “GEM F: On the Road to Hell,” from Mary Reardon, Catholic Schools Then and Now (Badger Books, 2004), offered a contemporaneous account of an elementary school student in the 1940s that proved helpful in imagining a typical day for Sally Horner during this time frame.
Camden believed in its own prosperity: Gillette, Camden After the Fall, p. 38.
At eight o’clock that morning: This account of the Howard Unruh massacre is drawn from several sources, including Seymour Shu-bin, “Camden’s One-Man Massacre,” Tragedy-of-the-Month, December 1949; Meyer Berger, “Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage on Camden Street,” New York Times, September 7, 1949; “…He Left a Trail of Death,” Camden Courier-Post, September 7,1974; Patrick Sauer, “The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History,” Smithsonian.com, October 14, 2015.
For Marshall Thompson: “Marshall Thompson,” DVRBS.com.
Ferry had just finished: “John J. Ferry,” DVRBS.com, http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-JohnFerryJr.htm.
“When the other cops started arriving”: Camden Courier-Post, September 7, 1974. Reproduced at http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-HowardUnruh.htm.
Cohen walked over to the police station: Ibid.
He died in 2009… the last survivor: Obituary of Howard Unruh, New York Times, October 19, 2009; obituary of Charles Cohen, Camden Courier-Post, September 9, 2009.
Nabokov finished the 1948–1949 academic year: This account of Vladimir Nabokov’s whereabouts in the summer of 1949 is almost entirely drawn from VNAY, pp. 136–144.
“coach in French and fondle in Humbertish”: Lolita, p. 35.
“white-frame horror”: Ibid.
“You’re a detestable, abominable, criminal fraud”: Ibid., p. 96.
The journey from Baltimore to Dallas: Calculated via Google Maps.
However they traveled: Affidavit of Nelrose Pfeil, included with State of New Jersey v. La Salle, A-7-54 (1954).
The park was designed like a horseshoe: Interview with Tom Pfeil, November 2017.
La Salle had changed their names again: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23, 1950.
The trailer park was owned: Interview with Tom Pfeil, November 2017.
He also enrolled Sally: Reproduction of a report card included with State of New Jersey v. La Salle, A-7-54 (1954).
Our Lady of Good Counsel no longer exists: See “Our Lady of Good Counsel, Oak Cliff,” https://flashbackdallas.com/2017/10/01/our-lady-of-good-counsel-oak-cliff-1901-1961/.