Elmo Noakes
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Elmo James Noakes (January 8, 1903 - November 25, 1934) was an American man responsible for the 1934 Babes in the Woods murders in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania.
Biography edit
Noakes was born in 1903 in Blair County, Pennsylvania. Prior to the murders he was known as a non-violent man who lived with his niece Winifred Pierce, her daughter Norma Sedgwick and his daughters Dewilla and Cordelia Noakes.
However, in circumstances that remain unclear to this day, Noakes planned to leave home with his family. He bought a car in October 1934, then on October 11 he left with his family without picking up that weeks pay. The family were spotted at a diner in Philadelphia later that month, but were not located.
On November 23, Pierce sold her coat after failing to sell Noakes's spectacles. Noakes used the money raised from this to buy a .22 calibre rifle. The next day, the bodies of Dewilla, Cordelia and Norma were found under a blanket at Pine Grove Furnace Park, Pennsylvania. They had been murdered via suffocation. The day after that, Noakes and Pierce were found dead at a railway station near Duncansville. Once all the bodies were identified, police concluded that Noakes and Pierce had murdered the children and dumped their bodies in the park before Noakes shot Pierce and then himself with the rifle he had purchased on November 23.
Motive edit
The reasons for Noakes's actions remain unknown. Theories include that he and Pierce had formed a murder-suicide pact due to family strife, suggested by Noakes's brother Robert, who said "There's been trouble in the family for years, I guess that's why Elmo went away". It has also been suggested that Elmo Noakes was mentally ill and killed Pierce and the children to save them from an imaginary evil.
Police Chief E.E. York suggested in the aftermath of the murders that Noakes did not kill the children. Rather, they had been accidentally suffocated by exhaust fumes at which point Noakes had killed Pierce and then himself out of fear of being held responsible.