Elsie Regan-Searching for Memories of Mom

[Shellie435]

She was 1920s showgirl before she was a murder victim. And before that, she was Kenneth Hamsher's mom.

Hamsher didn't discover the truth about Elsie Regan until years after her 1926 slaying, when she was gunned down and dumped in a Manhattan snowdrift.

Now, at age 86, Hamsher is returning to New York City in a last-ditch effort for details about the woman he never had a chance to call "Mom."

"She was a very beautiful girl," Hamsher said. "I can understand why she was popular and got in trouble."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...returns_to_the_city_on_a_mission_83_yrs_.html

You won't really find anything on the web about this story (yet) I just found it really sweet how well he was taken care of by the ladies and just wants to know about his mom(wouldn't you?) Elsie had written in a letter that she had fallen in with "the wrong crowd" and had sewn some important materials into her top coat in case anything happened to her. I hope when Mr Hamsher goes to NYC for Mothers Day, the PD still has her belongings in evidence ie: her top coat....thats when the real story will start. I'll keep an eye on this as I read the Daly News.

 

[rebel450]

How sad, I hope he finds the answers he is looking for. But God, that was so long ago.

 

[Abroad]

I hope when Mr Hamsher goes to NYC for Mothers Day, the PD still has her belongings in evidence ie: her top coat....thats when the real story will start. I'll keep an eye on this as I read the Daly News.

How realistic is this? Would they have kept an old top coat?

 

[Shellie435]

Well, from what little I know about murders,when someone is found they generally keep all personal possesions in a box in the evidence locker, and all the dna and samples (tissue, hair) are kept at the lab of whatever company is doing the tests. I just hope they still have the box in the locker. He's waited this long, he's due for a Happy Mothers Day.

 

[Abroad]

Even as far back as 1926?

I hope you are right. I would hate to see him disappointed now he has gone in search of the truth. (But wouldn't they have noticed anything sewn into her top coat at the time when they found her?)

 

[chupamela]

This may never be read by the originals but I was curious about what he got to find out about his mother and if they did anything since to find her murderer. From what I've read she had a life you almost always hear about in movies.

She started life in Canada, ran away from home and gone a circus at the age of 14. She was last seen with a semi profession boxer. Police had him as a suspect but never arrested him for the murder. The SP boxer and a bullet in his shoulder and a limo drenched in blood connected to him. We've all heard about the link between repeated blows to the head and homicidal violence, unfortunately back in 1926 that wasn't an illness people knew about. To be fair he also might have been caught up in so crap that she accidentally fell into. The son got to touch the last things his mother touched but wasn't able to keep them. I'm not gonna lie that kinda pissed me off, mostly because the murderer (in 2009) at the time was probably over a hundred years old and the likelihood they'd ever test anything against it is probably slim to none. Still I have to hand it to the police department handling the case they weren't willing to give up. Atleast her son gets to know his mother was more bold and lived life to the fullest in her last decade of life then most people do in their entire lives. I truly love old people and her life would have been the one of the coolest story I'd ever heard so far, I would have been honored to have known her. http://prev.dailyherald.com/story/?id=305878