The Girl Who Was Murdered on the Bridge

Expand

Photo: Milwaukee Journal via the Milwaukee Polonia Project

Hattie Zinda

Hattie Zinda

In November 1909, evenings in the Riverwest neighborhoods could be bitterly cold, the relentless winds blowing hundreds of dead leaves across sidewalks and lawns. Hedwig “Hattie” Zinda was currently spending one night a week with her sister who had lost a baby. After the dishes were washed and some light cleaning was finished, Hattie began the 12-block walk to her home at 2467 N. Weil Street. She moved quickly through the brutal, moonless night because a week earlier, two well-dressed men accosted her on the Milwaukee River bridge.

“It’s rather late for a pretty girl to be on the street,” one of them said, exposing yellow teeth in a wolf-like grin. “Don't you think you should be at home?” Seeing no one who might help her, Hattie dodged around the men and began to run. She heard one of them shout, “Get her.” Frightened, Hattie ran as fast as she could, slowing down only when she saw people on Humboldt Avenue. Using the last of her breath, she screamed for help. Her pursuers immediately disappeared into the darkness.  

Whether or not Hattie told her father about the unpleasant encounter with the men is not known, but on Friday, November 12 she resumed visiting her sister. Hattie left around 8 p.m., a thin coat wrapped tightly around her slender frame. Reaching the railroad crossing, she waited more than five minutes while a lengthy freight train passed.

Hattie Zinda would be dead within the hour.

Her father Jozef panicked when she didn’t come home. He lost his wife two years earlier and prayed to God his daughter would walk through the door any minute. The policemen brushed Jozef’s concerns aside and said his daughter was in one of the 5-cent moving picture theaters. 

Missing Child Alert

Newspaper coverage of the story included Hattie’s picture on the front pages along with details of her disappearance. The police were excoriated for their negligence, and angry citizens became amateur private detectives in an effort to solve the mystery. “Not in years,” read a Milwaukee Journal editorial, “have the people in Milwaukee been stirred to such depths.” That she had vanished near a freight train led to rumors that tramps had sold her into white slavery. But her sister, Anna Fliss, was positive the two men who had scared Hattie a week ago came back to try again. The police agreed that more than one man was involved in the abduction, but they had no solid leads.

Five days after Hattie disappeared, a body was discovered in an abandoned shack on the river’s edge near Humboldt and Garfield. Detective John Shenar approached the structure after noticing a black hair ribbon on the ground. The door was locked, but the glass in a small window was broken. Easing his head through the window, Shenar saw Hattie’s crumpled body in the corner. A coroner’s examination determined that she had been raped and then strangled. Multiple bruises on the body indicated that Hattie fought back against her assailants. The coroner called attention to a hank of blond hair still clutched in her hand. 

Based on the evidence they had, the police concentrated on the whereabouts of the men seen in the vicinity of the murder site. One or both had to be small enough to squeeze through the broken window of the locked shed was and at least one of them had blond hair. Valuable depositions were provided by Stanley Grszwaczewski and John Gansezski, two teenagers who were on their way to nearby O'Gorman’s barber shop on the night of Hattie’s death. They saw a tall man with an overcoat and derby in front of the shack where Hattie was found. John Worzala, who lived on Dousman Street near the railroad tracks, said he was awakened by his dog barking on the night of the murder. When he went outside, he saw two men jump aboard the northbound train.

Memorial services began at the Zinda residence where an estimated 1,200 people filed past Hattie’s coffin in the living room. The next day, thousands more gathered outside and formed a procession to St. Casimir’s church. Father Joseph Zinda, a cousin, performed the last rites before Hattie was buried in St. Adalbert’s Cemetery. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 23, a Jones Island bartender told a Journal reporter that two men entered his saloon on the day Hattie’s body was found. He overheard them talking about leaving Milwaukee. “One of the men was short, heavy, and darkly complexioned,” the barkeep said. “The other was about 180 pounds and had blond hair.” That neither of these men would fit through the broken window was forgotten in the excitement of this new evidence.

Hasty Trial for Suspects

Expand

Photo via the Milwaukee Polonia Project

Hattie Zinda suspects

Hattie Zinda suspects Karol Wojciechowski (left) and Adam Pietrzyk (right)

Detective Eugene O'Gorman and patrolman Bernard Ronowski were assigned to locate the two men. They traveled to three states and relied on information gleaned along the way. At last, the officers arrested Karol Wojciechowski, 36, and Adam Pietrzyk, 25, working in an Upper Michigan lumber camp. 

The suspects were held in Milwaukee for three days before the blond-haired Pietrzyk made a confession. Interpreted by attorney Michael Blenski, Pietrzyk said he saw Wojciechowski drag a struggling young woman into the railroad yards. 

In the middle of a blinding snowstorm, the two men were taken to court for an unheard-of late evening trial. Wojciechowski could speak broken English, Pietrzyk none. Within an hour, both had been convicted of first-degree murder. On the stand, Wojciechowski testified that Pietrzyk murdered Hattie. Before the clock struck midnight, both men had been sentenced to life imprisonment and put on a train to the penitentiary in Waupun.

For the rest of their lives, both men changed their stories and denied having any involvement in Hattie’s murder. Adam Pietrzyk died of tuberculosis in 1920. Karol Wojciechowski maintained his innocence and was pardoned by then-Governor Julius P. Heil in 1942. Heil approved the pardon because the state prison board determined that Wojciechowski had been convicted on circumstantial evidence.

Karol Wojciechowski, 70 years old, went to Owen, Wisconsin to live with a nephew. He may have passed away in 1950. Hattie Zinda’s father Jozef died August 8, 1933. His funeral service was also at St. Casimir Church, and he’s buried in Calvary Cemetery.