An Invitation That Is Always Open

I particularly like this picture of Marian. She was at work at F&M, around 1948, Such a horrible tragedy.
I am aware that some of Marian's family that I have not yet met or spoken to are reading here. As you all must know by now, I am approaching this revisit with compassion, respect and a search for the final truth. Contact me as you feel comfortable. As others have learned, I do not betray trust. I hope to hear from you soon. I will continue to pray for Marian and for those who still love her dearly to this day.

Still Pursuing The Portrait/Photograph Of Marian

I am again awaiting information from the curator at F & M regarding the portrait of Marian that hung in East Hall when the Administrative Offices were relocated there. Upon demolition the location of that portrait became a mystery at least to her family and friends.
I always cringe when I think of where it was hanging. East Hall. The married students' housing where Ed Gibbs had lived with his wife, Helen. Where he hid his bloody clothes under the attic floor boards. From where he glanced out of the window, seeing the law enforcement officers eyeing his car. The building he tore out of in a panic, racing to the office where he breathlessly uttered his confession first.
I am still waiting to hear from a commenter who asked me to contact her. I have no contact info for you but would love to speak with you. Hopefully I will hear from you again soon.

Where Edward Lester and Helen Gibbs Lived In Lancaster, PA

This is a photo of East Hall Dormitory, where Ed and Helen Gibbs lived on the F & M campus at the time of Marian Louise Baker's murder. In 1946 this building had been converted into an Infirmary and many one room apartments for married students. Those rooms were sparsely furnished and rather drab and dreary. Given the events that were swirling around Ed Gibbs at that time, his home surroundings surely didn't help.
This is also where he hid items from the crime, the attic being a handy space to use.

Where Marian Baker Worked and Met Edward Lester Gibbs

I found this site a while back while researching possibly haunted sites around Lancaster County, PA. I hadn't heard the stories of a possible haunting in Stager Hall until I found the site. I am still amazed that I didn't check out the campus more when I did my research there on weekends, when home from LVC. I spent many hours in the library there as well as at Millersville.
I now wish I would have checked out Stager before any renovations and also East Hall Dorm, which is no more. I will check into the date of the demolition of the dorm in which Ed and Helen Gibbs lived.
I know this could also be posted on the "Spooky" part of my blog, but it fits here as well. I may post in both locations. I have taken this from the website with the photo. I also have pics of several sites in Pitman, New Jersey, Ed Gibb's hometown that I will post for you.

Stager Hall

Classrooms and Offices

Specific Location to Watch For: Baker/Gibbs case would involve the first or the second floor. Dissecting theater was on third floor. Background: Stager Hall was redubbed as such in the mid 1980s after extensive renovations. Before that, it had been called "Stahr Hall" after former President Stahr, and before that it was simply "The Science Building". Although the building usually housed classrooms, for a while in mid-20th century it was also the home of the administrative offices. Deaths/Morbid Stories: In Stager's early days as the college's Science Building, the Biology department's Anatomy students dissected cadavers on the third floor. See Dietz-Santee Hall for related story. The more prominent story in regard to Stager is the tragic murder case of Marion Baker in 1950. Marion Baker, 21, had worked as a stenographer in the Treasurer's office (presumably located in Stahr Hall) since she graduated from high school. She was recently engaged, and lived nearby in a boarding house. Edward Gibbs, 25, was a married F&M senior who lived with his wife in East Hall (currently the Roschel construction site). He studied business, worked in the Campus Bookshop, played football, and was a Sigma Pi brother. He, along with many other F&M men at the time, was a war veteran, having served in Italy during WWII. On January 10th, 1950, Marion Baker took a bus downtown to run some errands. As she walked out of the post office, she ran into Edward L. Gibbs, who offered to drive her back to campus. She accepted since she knew Gibbs from his frequent visits to the treasurer's office to make deposits for the bookstore. He drove her to a secluded spot to the south of town instead, and strangled and bludgeoned her to death. After her body was discovered and the search intensified for her killer, Edward Gibbs walked into President Distler's office and confessed. During his trial he could only offer "impulse" as his reason for senselessly murdering Marion Baker. After a closely-watched trial, Edward Gibbs was sentenced to death. He was executed in the state's electric chair in 1951. Ghost Stories: Possibly due to the extensive renovations over the years, no ghost stories have been reported.

Remembering Marian Louise Baker

Next month, on the 10th of April, will be Marian Louise Baker's birthday. Had she not been brutally murdered south of Lancaster in the cold January air of 1950, she would be 81 years old this year.

Her brother, Ross Dalton Smith Baker, passed away in the summer of 2008. He spent most of his life without his sister to share in the memories.

Marian is buried next to her aunt and uncle, the O'Donels, in Perry County, Pennsylvania. It is so fitting that she should rest there, rather than beside her natural mother and step-father. Her aunt, Alice Soules O'Donel and her husband Leroy, raised and loved Marian as their own. Their grief draped over them the rest of their lives. For Marian's mother, Mrs. Bruce Britcher...not so much. She barely made it to Marian's funeral on time.

Marian and her brother had been given to relatives to raise at a very young age.

Ross was fortunate to have been raised by another sister of his mothers and lived a life of service and duty. He grew to be a fine man, loved and admired in the community.

Marian had hopes and dreams of becoming Mrs. Ed Rankin and raising a family of her own.

But those dreams ended with a cold iron lug wrench beating the lifeblood out of her not far from Willow Street on the afternoon of January 10, 1950.

Marian was employed as a cashier at F & M College and was running errands on the afternoon of her death. She accepted a ride from a student of the college, who she knew marginally.

Why she accepted the ride continues to baffle me. She had made her feelings about Edward Lester Gibbs clear in the past. He annoyed her and she was not fond of him.

Perhaps she was just glad for the ride. Maybe she thought it would be a faster way to return to the college.

I have tried to imagine what thoughts were running through her mind as they crossed the "Singing Bridge" at Engleside, already very far in the wrong direction from where she planned to go. Perhaps she was being polite at that point, not wanting to insult or offend Ed. But by the time they had crossed the bridge, did she start to feel any fear or apprehension?

Ed Gibbs testimony and relating of facts as to that day cannot be depended upon to be truthful in their entirety. So we continue to wonder.

Did Marian start to argue with him? Demand to be taken back to the school?

I find it very hard to believe that she was relaxed and calm, that far out of the way, with a student she disliked so. Did she begin to wonder what his true plans were?

Clearly when they turned left off of the highway and went back into the wooded area, things had to have started to seem a bit worrisome to her.

Marian Louise Baker was a friend of our family. She died many years before I was born, but my Mom and my aunt and grandmother knew her well. Her home, with the O'Donels was a short distance down the road from their house. Her picture was in their photo album.

At no time has anyone ever allowed for the possibility that Marian would have allowed any advances, no matter how slight, from Ed Gibbs. Nor would she have flirted with him for attention.

She was in love with Edgar Rankin. And planned to be his bride.

Edward Lester Gibbs killed those plans. He altered lives that could never be repaired.

Ed, himself, met death as a result of that afternoon. He died in the electric chair.

His wife, Helen, returned to New Jersey and was never publicly heard from again. She never attended the trial or issued a statement.

What really happened in that car on January 10, 1950? What really happened at the Mylin cottage near Willow Street?

And why did Ed Gibbs go to his death without telling the whole story? What on earth was there left to lose?

I'm working on those questions and several more.