I’m very excited to share our first-ever panel discussion for Old Spirituals, where I’m joined by Harpreet, Yeon Jeung, and Charlene.
Together, we inspect the 1928 case of Mrs. Emma von Moschzisker (I call her Mrs. von M since I’m certainly mispronouncing it) and the poison pen letters and blackmail she was subjected to.
Given Mrs. von M’s status and connections, this case was quite a scandal!
Check it out here or on YouTube:
i like a panel!
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me too! you can be on a future one
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LOL! no way
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Mrs. von M — I love that we’re already on a nickname basis with a 1928 blackmailer. A poison-pen scandal in 1928 was basically group-chat drama before group chats existed, except the receipts came with postage stamps. Now I’m picturing the four of you debating a woman who weaponized the US Postal Service like it’s a courtroom podcast. Going to find the YouTube panel — the postal inspectors deserve their moment too.
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I like the way you think
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This case would never be charged by a modern prosecutor based on evidence collected BEFORE it went to court. In 1928, someone like Emma von Moschzisker had socio-economic power that allowed her word to be “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
The Bayonne Times reported, “Mrs. Emma von Moschzisker, prominent society matron (emphasis added), charges that Sarah B. Lowell, young bank clerk, attempted to blackmail her by sending her letter containing threats to expose the alleged friendship of the plaintiff with Walter Burnett, electrician and friend of Miss Mowell.”
It was noted in one newspaper that the letter with the word “disease” is spelled “desease,” which is the way Mrs. von Moschzisker spelled the word.
The handwriting expert used by Mrs. von Moschzisker BEFORE the a charge was formally made by her was rejected by her because, she claimed, he charged too much. I suspect she wanted the expert to provide false testimony and for that he demanded an exorbitant amount of money she was not willing to pay.
Further, according to The Bayonne Times of February 15, 1938, the first handwriting expert, John Vreeland Haring, “originally engaged by the prosecution would not agree that Miss Mowell had written the letters,” and was not used at trial. He may be the same expert Mrs. von Moschzisker first visited to collaborate her story but refused to pay his fee. In that same news report it was noted that, “Three handwriting experts yesterday said Miss Lowell did not write the alleged ‘poison pen’ letters. All three indicated the letters were written by a right-handed person, the expert graphologists said. Miss Lowell is left handed.”
It took the jury one and a half hours of deliberation to acquit the “twenty-one year old Hackensack, N. J. bank clerk, who broke down and wept . . . .”, was reported by the Rochester Journal And The Post Express on February 17, 1928. The story included a lovely photo of Sarah Mowell, dressed to the nines.
Why did Mrs. von Moschzisker try to carry out the fake blackmail scheme? What was her motive? Likely her unhappy marriage and the ever so common love triangle pushed her beyond the limits of respectability. Basically it was jealously that made her do it. Of course, all the conclusions here are based on some facts and speculation based on knowing human nature.
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I think she kind of liked Wally 😉
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