Children of the Sodder family: one of America's greatest mysteries (9 photos)

There is nothing more terrible than the unknown, and it is thanks to her that the case The Sodder children is one of the greatest mysteries in US history. Although the official conclusion is that five children died in the fire, many believe that something much more sinister was behind their disappearance. So what really happened that night: an accident or terrible crime?





Sodder family

George Sodder immigrated to the United States from Italy, when he was 13 years old. He married Jenny Cipriani and settled in city of Fayetteville, West Virginia, which was famous for its large the Italian community. George had his own business, which allowed him to support a large family: he and his wife had 10 children.



Jenny Sodder with son John

Everyone considered the Sodders "one of the most respected families middle class." However, George had a habit of speaking openly his opinion on a variety of issues, than he repelled many in Fayetteville. For example, he had a strong dislike for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, because of which he often quarreled with others Italian migrants.

Omen

In October 1945, an insurance company dropped by the Sodders' house. an agent who tried to convince George to buy insurance. Having received rebuffed and outraged by George's words about Mussolini, the insurer threatened, that the Sodder house "will be engulfed in smoke... and the children will be destroyed."





Benito Mussolini, 1930

After that, another person visited the house, who allegedly was looking for a job. He pointed out to George the two fuses in the house and warned of the risk of fire. George was surprised because he recently replaced the wiring in the house, and the workers told him that nothing to worry about.

Weeks before Christmas Sodder's older sons noticed a suspicious car parked along the main road, passing through the city. The people in the car watched the younger children when they got home from school.

Fire at Christmas

The long-awaited Christmas Eve 1945 arrived. Older daughter, Marion, pleased three younger sisters with new toys, and they played them late. Jenny reminded the kids that they still have to finish housework and then went to bed. At 00:30 she was awakened by a telephone call: some woman has the wrong number. Half an hour later she again woke up from a knock on the roof, but fell asleep again.



The third time Marion woke up to a strong smell of smoke and found that her husband's office was on fire. She woke George and they had time run out of the house, and with them their four children. But they never could get to the others - Jenny, Martha, Maurice, Louis and Betty - as the stairs to the second floor were already engulfed in flames.

Attempts to call for help were unsuccessful - someone cut the telephone line, and the neighbors simply could not get through fire department. George tried to get into the house through the upper windows, but the stairs have disappeared. He wanted to fit one of his trucks to climb over them, but neither would start.



Missing Children Sodder. From left to right: Jenny, Martha, Maurice, Betty and Louis

The family watched helplessly as their house burned. When arrived firefighters, Fire Chief F. J. Morris told the Sodders that they failed to find the skeletons of the children, and assumed that they were burned in the fire. Morris asked George not to touch what was left of the house so that he could was to conduct further investigation, but the heartbroken man equalized ruins with earth.

Official conclusion

The coroner's inquest determined that the cause of the fire there was faulty wiring. However, by a strange coincidence one of the jury members was an insurer who threatened George. December 30th The Sodders were given death certificates for Maurice, Louis, Martha, Jenny and Betty.



Reward Promise Poster

F. J. Morris confessed to the local minister that, in fact, In fact, he found a human heart at the site of the fire and buried it. However, when the organ was dug up, it turned out that it was fresh beef liver, not touched by fire, and Morris just made up a story.

br> George refused to believe the coroner's report. He wrote letter to the FBI, but Bureau Director Edgar Hoover said it was out of its jurisdiction. Later, when a version appeared that children could to kidnap, the FBI did take up the case, but stopped investigating two years later.

The Sodders believed that at the time of the fire, the children were no longer in home. They hired a private detective and put up a big billboard along the main thoroughfare with the promise of a reward for information about children. George traveled the country checking every rumor.

Questions for the official investigation

A lot of questions were raised by the disappeared staircase, which usually stood at the house, but on the night of the fire she ended up at the nearest reservoir. It was also unclear how the telephone line had been cut. Later one man confessed to cutting it when he was inspecting the Sodder property, but denied any involvement in the fire.



Jenny and George in front of a billboard promising a reward for information on missing children

Jenny couldn't understand how the fire could burn the skeletons. to the ground. At the local crematorium, they explained to her that the temperature of the fire was not high enough, as evidenced by household appliances, which successfully survived the fire.

George persuaded a pathologist from Washington to excavations at the site of the house. During the search, they found several small objects and small fragments of bones. They were handed over to the Smithsonian institute, where experts concluded that bone fragments belonged to a child much older than the missing children.

"Love Brother Frankie"

In 1967, Jenny received a letter marked with a postal postmarked in Central City, Kentucky, but without a return address. Inside There was a photograph of a young man in his 30s. His facial features reminded her of Louis, who would have been around 30 if he had survived fire. On the back of the photo was signed “Louis Sodder. I love brother Frankie. Illil Boys. A90132 (or A90135)".



Photograph taken by Jenny in 1967 and photograph of Louis Sodder before the fire

The Sodders hired another private detective to went to search in Central City, but he never told them did he manage to find anything. Sodders added a new one to the billboard photo of Luis, but they did not mention the city, fearing to harm their son.

Main version

George and Jenny continued looking for children for the rest of their lives and died in 1969 and 1989 respectively. Since the day of Jenny's fire wore mourning and took care of the garden, which she set up on the site of the burnt Houses.

After her death, the surviving children of the Sodders were removed billboard, but continued to publicize the case and investigate new versions. One of the main versions, which both they and other residents of Fayetteville, concerned the Sicilian mafia.



Members of the Sicilian mafia behind bars, 1928

Proponents of this theory claim that mafia members extorted George has the money, and that the kids were taken by someone who knew what was going to happen arson. If so, they may have been taken to Italy and the children avoided contact with relatives so as not to put them at risk.