14 May 2012

Lost Capitol Hill: Ruth C. Reeves

Numerous times when I’ve shown people my Capitol Hill scandal book, people comment that it appears fairly thin for that. I explain that it’s volume 1 of many. Today’s story was one of many that may make its way into volume 2.

 On Monday, September 8, 1958, three boys were fishing for catfish in the Anacostia River, underneath the East Capitol Bridge. Their fishing gear was a jump rope with a hook attached, not exactly the most likely equipment to catch anything. Thus, they were surprised that they catch anything, and furthermore by the sheer weight of it. After much pulling, they determined that it was not a fish that they had caught, but a body.

Police were called, and they pulled the body out of the river. Their first impression was that it was of a young, African American woman, and that she had spent only a short time in the river. After being strangled, and before she was cast into the Anacostia, she had been tied to a 26-lb block of concrete so that she would remain underwater.

After reading the article published in the Washington Post on Tuesday, John Sulhoff, who was the superintendent for a downtown building, went to the coroner. One of his elevator operators had failed to appear on Sunday, and he was concerned that the body might be that of his missing worker.

Sulhoff identified the body as that of Ruth C. Reeves, who lived just of East Capitol Street on 34th Street SE. Reeves, a cafeteria worker as well as an elevator operator, was known as a “devoted, dependable, cheerful employe who was seldom absent from work” according to the Post – and was actually 38. She was also a member of the House of Prayer on 7th Street NW.

Detail of picture of Reeves published in the Washington Afro-American on September 16, 1958 (Google News)

The police were soon on the trail of a mysterious “regular visitor” of Reeves’s, and on September 10, they arrested Philmore Clark, who lived on Capitol Hill at 300 C Street NE.

300 C had been a boarding house since it was built in 1888. Its only previous brushes with crime had happened in 1896, when someone wrote a bad check to an inhabitant, and 1924, when the wondrously-named Harry H. Haggenmaker was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct at that address. In recent years, however, it had become much less salubrious, in spite of its proximity to the Capitol.

Clark was indicted in October in the murder of Reeves, and after considerable hearings, during which his sister was indicted for perjury, eventually plead guilty to second degree murder in the slaying. The final proof that he had been involved was revealed by Assistant US Attorney John Conliff Jr, who explained that the hunk of concrete that had been used to sink Reeves’s body had come from a wall at 300 C Street.

The Post never mentioned either how long Clark was sentenced to jail for his crime, nor was any motive ever postulated. Reeves was buried in Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, just across the District line in Suitland, Maryland.

Robert Pohl will be reading from his new book Wicked Capitol Hill this Wednesday at 6:30 at Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse.


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One response to “Lost Capitol Hill: Ruth C. Reeves”

  1. IMGoph says:

    “just off,” not “just of” East Capitol 🙂

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