A podcast about NYC True Crime & Cold Cases,
as told by CC.
Happy Halloween! Head to the Podcast to listen to this 2005 Halloween true crime case involving a true evil genius, the fashion industry and psychotic craziness.
On his way to his arraignment.
Jane Larkworthy & her husband after testifying. Peter Braunstein & his father.
Aaron Gell's Book. The punch knife he used to stab himself. The W Magazine cover.
Head over to the podcast tab and listen to Episode 1 of the Crime & the City Podcast, a double feature blast from the past where I dive into the unsolved crimes of the Red Circle Slayer and the 3X Killer in the 1930s.
Crime scene photos from the Red Circle Slayer double homicide:
The Red Circle Slayer victims, Lewis Weiss and Frances Hajek:
Media Coverage of Frances & Lewis' murders:
Composite Sketch of the 3X Killer & his first letter to police:
The 3X Killer's Letters:
- The note handed to Catherine after Joseph was murdered:
Joseph Mozynski
3X3-X-097
- First letter sent to police:
Kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozynski’s friends: CC-NY ADCM-Y16a DQR-PA 241 PM6 Queens. By doing this you may save their lives. We do not want any more shooting unless we have to.
- Letter sent to police after 3X killed Noel Sowley:
“V-5 Sowley was one of Mozynski’s friends, thirteen more men and one woman will go if they do not make peace with us and stop bleeding us to death.”
- Final letter to police:
“N.J. 4-3-44 returned to us the 19 at 9 p.m. My mission is ended. There is no further cause for worry."
Media coverage of the 3X killer:
Sources:
A 1989 cold case
In the Spring and Summer of 1989, two toddlers disappeared from the same Harlem park under the same suspicious circumstances. These two children and their families are connected in two ways; they lived in the same apartment building, and disappeared in the same way. They are forever linked by this unsolved kidnapping.
On May 18, 1989, Christopher Milton Dansby, who was 2 years old at the time, was playing at Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground in Harlem (113th St and Lenox Avenue, in Northern Manhattan) with his mother and several relatives. His mother left him in the care of her relatives to quickly run to the store to buy groceries, but when she returned her son was nowhere to be found. Her relatives, including Christopher’s grandmother, told her they had last seen Christopher playing with a red ball and two other children, but Christopher’s mother had not brought a red ball to the park and the ball, the two children and her son were not in the park. A 7 year old boy from their neighborhood claimed to have seen Christopher walking with an unidentified Black man on 111th Street later that day, 2 blocks from where he was last seen by family.
Police had several working theories going, but at the time of the first boy’s disappearance, they questioned Christopher’s mother on whether she sold her son for drugs or if he was taken to cover a drug debt. While Ms. Dansby admitted to having been a crack-cocaine addict in the past, she had been clean for years by the time Christopher was abducted and did not owe money to anyone.
Click the photos to enlarge. The bottom sketch is of the unidentified man that was seen walking with Christopher after he disappeared. He has never been found.
On August 10, 1989, Shane Anthony Walker, who was about 1 ½ years old at the time, was playing at Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground with his mother when two small children approached (a 10 year old girl and her 5 year old brother) and asked to play with Shane. Rosa Glover, Shane’s mom, sat on a bench while the 3 children played together on the slide and swings. As Rosa watched her son play, she was approached by an unidentified Black man who struck up a casual but strange conversation. He started talking to Rosa about the crime in the neighborhood and said “things happen to children,” even bringing up kidnapping, while pointing to scars on his body, claiming they were from “fighting.” Rosa, realizing she had been distracted by the stranger, turned to look for her son, but he and the two children he were playing with were gone. The little girl and her brother reappeared after a little while through a hole in the fence surrounding the park. The children claimed they left Shane in the park before going through the fence and returning. Rosa took the two children to the police station with her to report her son as missing.
Despite the police questioning the children and the man who had spoken to Rosa extensively, they came up empty.
Shane’s parents both still live in the same neighborhood in Harlem and hope their son will eventually return to them. After 31 years, they still hold out hope.
- Both boys lived in the same apartment building close to the park - Both boys were Black
- Both boys were around the same age - Both boys were last seen playing at Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground - Both boys were playing with the same brother & sister before vanishing - Both cases were ruled out for relative-related abductions by the police - Both boys disappeared around the same time of day; Christopher at 7pm and Shane at 5pm - Both boys disappeared on a Thursday, three months apart
The police have no viable leads, 31 years later. The boys are still missing to this day. There was a theory that these cases may be connected to another case from 1989, that of Andre Terrance Bryant, a 1 month old that was abducted in Brooklyn. The police believe the baby was abducted and sold in a black-market baby-ring operation. Andre was also Black, but was abducted after his mother was murdered by two childhood acquaintances who she ran into after not seeing them since she was a kid. Andre's mother was walking with her 3 children down the street, including Andre who was in a stroller, when a car with Maryland license plates pulled over to speak to her. In the car were two women who Andre's mom believed she knew in middle school. They went shopping together and Andre's mom noticed that the women used a fraudulent credit card for their purchases. The next day, she went shopping with the women again but before doing so, received a phone call from them from a nearby payphone asking her to bring Andre along for the day. When Andre's mom got in the car, it was the last time anyone saw her alive. Her body was discovered shortly after in the woods near Eastchester Bay in the Bronx. Andre has never been found. It is believed that the two women sold Andre on the black-market.
I believe the children were kidnapped and sold into a black-market operation dealing in child trafficking.
I think that the two children that were seen playing with both boys were used as a ruse to lure the two boys toward their kidnapper. They could have been children of the kidnappers and in on the ruse/coached to lure children to the kidnapping. I think that the kidnappers lived in the neighborhood, probably in the same project building as the two families for a short while and tracked their patterns, learning their schedules and behaviors before abducting the two boys and moving on to a different neighborhood or state. As these are the only two known cases in the neighborhood that are connected in such specifically similar ways, I believe the abductors moved on to a different location after they took Shane and Christopher.
If the boys were sold to other parents via black-market baby “adoptions,” there’s a chance they are still alive somewhere. Since the boys were so young, they most likely would not remember their real parents and the circumstances of how they ended up with their “adoptive” parents. I am hoping this is the case and nothing dark and disturbing befell the boys. There are of course the other possibilities of black-market child trafficking pedophilia rings, but given the way they were lured away from their families, I believe they must have been sold to families instead.
The boys are in their 30s now, I think the case should be brought back to light and their aged-progression photos should be circulated to raise awareness and potentially find them. From my dive into archived newspaper and news segments, I cannot find a lot of publicity on their cases during the late 80s; I am not sure that there was a lot done as far as media is concerned to help spread awareness.
From The Doe Network: Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: New York City Police Department Agency Contact Person: Detective Daniel Keane Agency Phone Number: (212) 694-7781 Agency E-Mail: N/A Agency Case Number: KNMP08843 NCIC Case Number: M-377468192 NamUs Case Number: 7460 NCMEC Case Number: 727904
Sources https://missingchildren.wikia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dansby http://charleyproject.org/case/christopher-milton-dansby http://charleyproject.org/case/shane-anthony-walker http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/135dmny.html https://theashleylawfirm.com/8-puzzling-unsolved-cold-cases-new-york-city-history/ http://charleyproject.org/case/andre-terrence-bryant https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
