Always Returning...

It's been a very long time since I've been here. Life takes over and there just aren't enough hours in a day, or in a month, to attend to all the facets of our lives that should be tended to.
That being said, I now have some time. Unexpected and unfamiliar but here just the same.
Marian Louise Baker is never forgotten. She taps on my shoulder often reminding me that she is still waiting for someone, anyone to let the world know what a gift and blessing she was and that her untimely murder back in the Camelot days of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania should be remembered.
Nothing can change what happened that day. Nothing can erase the horror and brutality of that heinous afternoon by the Harnish cottage. But just as the murder of Jan Roseboro in more recent days clearly screamed that intersection life lines can sometimes lead to an unescapable conclusion, the murder of Marian Louise Baker was in the cards.
Ed Gibbs chose Marian. Or at least his depraved and violently electric mind chose her. But there was to be a victim, don't ever doubt that. The actual identity and circumstances of the killing were variable. A classic case of Marian being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the bubbling, fermenting and oozing hate that was smothering Ed Gibbs was going to be released somewhere, on someone.
It may be easy now to look at the whole sad story and say "Of course!" It seems fairly clear that the players in Gibb's life set the scene years earlier. Crazy lines intersected and Marian Louise Baker paid the price.
It's occurred to me that Helen Gibbs dodged the bullet, or the lugwrench. I often wonder what kept Ed from snapping and killing the one female in his closest proximity. Perhaps it was the timing. Helen wasn't an arms length away from him that cold, gray January day. Marian was.
I wonder if Helen ever shuddered through the years knowing just how chillingly close she came to a brutal death.
Ed Gibbs killed Marian Louise Baker. But he had co-conspirators.
His parents, his teachers, his past girlfriends. Every human being that reminded him that he has no choices in life, no free will to succeed, to fail or to be human.
What is most astounding is that at the time that the people in Ed Gibb's life were binding him emotionally so tight that was snap was inevitable, they really had no clue.

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.

Meeting A Friend of A Friend.......of Ed Gibbs and Marian Baker

God Bless the world wide web.
Seriously.
Without it I wouldn't be planning a trip back to Lancaster to meet a new but uncannily close friend.
Without going into the details, he and I came to learn about each other through research I've been doing off and on for the past year or so.
Somehow and for some odd reason, we've developed a friendship that intrigues the both of us, I believe.
I asked for his help on a "project" pulling together loose ends from my research, and he responded wholeheartedly.
Since that time, a second project, my revisiting the Marian Baker murder, caught his attention as well. And out of the blue, he contacted me to let me know he has a friend...who was a good friend of Edward Lester Gibbs.
He also knows someone who can tell me about Marian Baker.
Wow.
I can't wait to meet him.
I think we have much in common.
He's a parent and it's clear he loves his kids, and kids in general. His family has had a very successful and prominent role in the history of Lancaster.
He's a family man, very well known, and philanthropic in his activities.
I promised to loan him a book that he's had problems locating.
There must be a tie between us. I have never, ever considered allowing "that book" out of my possession in forty years :)
Marian Baker was murdered in 1950. So many years have passed.
Any yet, in September of 2009, I have been contacted by people from several states who have information to share with me. They have told me what they know, what they remember, where they have been and what they believe led to the brutal murder.
Some are torn between wanting to share and also wanting me to enjoy the full thrill of the chase.
They give me tips or clues and gently push me in directions I need to go.
I am so grateful to have been contacted by all of them.
I so appreciate the suggestions and tips they've offered to me. They've been down this road before and shared with me some very valuable advice that will open certain doors for me.
Now, I just need some 72 hour days, the ability to teleport to various states and locations and I'll have it made! lol
I'm still "on it". I just have been so preoccupied with classes and homework and work in general that my time has been limited. I'm still searching for that organizational balance I need to get it all done. That goal post is a bit fuzzy :)

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.

Update To The Roseboro Possible Defense!

Earlier today I posted that a woman on the TB forum has claimed to believe that she was the intended target of the brutal attack and murder in July 2008 that took the life of Jan Roseboro.
Further investigation reveals that this is indeed the mother of the young man killed while in the attempt of a robbery early on the day of the Roseboro murder.
She states that she lives less than a mile and a half of the Roseboro's in Reinholds and that her son had extensive gang involvement.
She has clarified that she has spoken to County Detectives, Mr. Sodomsky and Mr. Roseboro's private investigator.
At this time, she has not been deposed, nor has she heard from either side in some time.
I can't read minds, but it would seem that if her theory had credence, she would have heard from either side often and more recently.
We'll have to keep our eye on this ........ I do think the "gang robbery" theory will have it's day in court.
Mr. Sodomsky has nothing to prove. He just has to muddy up the waters a bit..........