I came across this peculiar story and despite some frustrating unknowns, it’s a very interesting mystery with lots of twists! I would love to hear your theories about the case.

Our story begins in April of 1900 when 19-year-old Lillian Hawkins left her home in Trumbull County, Ohio and moved 40 miles north to the town of Ashtabula to take a job doing domestic work for a local family. Her room and board was included as part of her employment with them.

Being on her own and earning her own living for the first time should have been an exciting time but, not long after starting her new job, Lillian became very sick.  The doctors diagnosed the girl with “nervous prostration,” a generic diagnosis used excessively by Victorian era physicians to diagnose female ailments. Lillian’s problems seemed to be rather serious.  At one point, the newspapers reported that she was “delirious for four days without regaining consciousness.”

Unable to work, Lillian moved to the tiny town of Rock Creek, some 15 miles south of Ashtabula, to recover at the home of her aunt, Mrs. Knowlton. Nina Knowlton was the younger sister of Lillian’s mother.  The family doctor, C. G. Morrison, was called in to see Lillian and he disagreed with the diagnosis of the Ashtabula doctors. He announced the girl was suffering from spinal meningitis.

Lillian’s health gradually improved enough for her to return to work in Ashtabula, but soon she was back in Rock Creek struggling with another bout of illness. Dr. Morrison said Lillian would recover. It seemed only her eyes were tremendously weakened by her illness.

Fred and Nina Knowlton had two young sons so their home wasn’t an ideal place for a young woman who needed peace and quiet to recuperate. Instead Lillian’s mother and brother joined her in Rock Creek and they rented a small cottage near the Knowlton home.

That’s when Lillian began to receive a regular influx of threatening and demeaning letters. Though the papers did not quote the letters, the Cincinnati Enquirer said the messages “reflected upon her reputation…Some of them, it is alleged, were signed with the name of a woman relative and others were unsigned.” But did the relative really send some or all of the letters? The police were mystified by the letters and had no luck tracing them.

Meanwhile, bad luck continued to plague the girl.

In August, a sudden summer thunderstorm caused a hard rain to pour down. Lillian was at home when it began to rain and she hurried across the living room to close the window. As she pulled the glass down, a bolt of lightning struck her and rendered her unconscious for several hours. Dr. Morrison managed to bring her back around.

Lightning striking a person is rare but usually it’s not fatal. Lightning strikes the United States about 40 million times each year, but the odds of being struck by lightning are less than one in a million. Yet nearly 90% of people who are struck by lightning survive it. The CDC tracked people being struck by lightning for a 15-year period and made some very interesting findings. For instance, looking at fatal lightning strikes specifically, men are four times more likely to be victims than women. Also, one third of deaths due to being struck by lightning occur indoors. The CDC estimated that between 6 – 15 people were killed by lightning strike in Ohio over a 15-year period.

Depending on how you look at it, Lillian was either very fortunate or very unfortunate. Being struck by lightning was unlucky, but she was fortunate not to be killed—or even to suffer any long-term health issues from the incident.

However, Lillian was struck by lightning a second time two months later. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to be struck by lightning once may be regarded as a misfortune. To be struck twice looks like carelessness.

No details about the second incident could be found but Dr. Morrison later confirmed his patient had total amnesia for several days. The papers did not mention whether anyone was with Lillian when either of these incidents happened.

Despite these electrifying circumstances, the anonymous letters continued to arrive all summer, throughout the fall, and into the winter. On the night of December 5, Lillian received a letter demanding she return the previous threatening letters she had received and warned her that, if she didn’t give them up, she would be “compelled” to do so. The letter did not explain how Lillian was supposed to hand over the letters.

It was evidently a serious threat. The following night, Lillian was home alone and lying on her bed, dozing, when someone crawled through the front window, tearing through some vines as they boosted themselves into the house. The dark figure entered Lillian’s bedroom. She awoke with a start, but before she could scream, the intruder leaned down and stuffed a gag saturated with chloroform into her mouth. Lillian blacked out.

When she awoke a few minutes later, she was tied down to her bed and could see the intruder, rummaging through her trunk. Lillian watched and wisely did not advertise the fact she had regained consciousness. When the stranger left, Lillian could see letters from her trunk were stuffed in her assailant’s pockets.

When Lillian’s mother returned home, she found her daughter lying on her bed, still bound and gagged. She summoned the police to her daughter’s aid, and the officers questioned Lillian closely. The girl said she had no idea who the assailant was, but she was sure it was a woman, dressed in men’s clothing.

The police wanted to know about the stolen letters, but Lillian said the letters stolen from her trunk were just ordinary messages from family members. She said she’d burned the threatening letters for which the woman was evidently searching.

“The local authorities worked on the case a short time, but gave it up as an unfathomable mystery,” the Buffalo Times wrote.

 

Go to Part 2.