Born: 1920
Died: 1934
Cleo Tellstone was murdered at age 14 near her home in Vermontville.
Ogdensburg Journal, June 25, 1934
FIND BODY 0F GIRL, HOLD CCC WORKER
Saranac Lake, June 25 — Her skull battered from pistol-like blows, her slender frame bruised and lacerated, Cleo Tellstone, 14-year-old Bloomingdale school graduate, was found murdered Sunday morning in an isolated spot in the Town of Franklin, two and one-half miles from her home.
The discovery culminated a 24-hour search by frenzied members of her family, anxious neighbors, and volunteers from miles around who knew only that the child, daughter of George and Celia Tellstone was missing.
The barking of the girl's German police dog, Rover, an answer to the barking of a dog in a searching party, led to the finding of her body. The police dog was lying at the feet of his young mistress.
That she had been criminally assaulted is the belief of her prostrate mother who wrung her hands and from her sick bed shrieked vengeance on the assailant. State police and District Attorney Harold W. Main are detaining a CCC worker for questioning. The CCC youth is said to be a resident of Syracuse.
Left to Visit Sister
Accompanied by her German police dog, the Tellstone girl left her home, shortly after 9 o'clock Saturday morning for the home of her sister, Mrs. Flora Swinyer, about a mile and one-half away, to mail letters at a post box.
Cleo had promised her sick mother that she would return immediately to aid with the chores. When more than an hour elapsed, her mother telephoned the home of a neighbor to her married daughter, to hasten Cleo's return.
The neighbor investigated and informed Mrs. Tellstone that her young daughter had started homeward more than a half hour before. Slightly alarmed. Mrs. Tellstone dispatched her son, Alfred, to find his sister. The boy followed her tracks from his older sister's house to a wooded point a half mile away. There he lost the trail, but noticed the heavy print of truck tires in the sandy road.
Troopers Called
He returned home with his discovery. Mrs. Tellstone's anxiety increased and she summoned state troopers from the Saranac Lake substation. Sergt. Gerald Woolsey and Trooper R. A. Rosebrook responded and continued the search where the boy had left off.
The questioning of neighbors by troopers revealed that the Tellstone girl, proudly displaying her permanent wave, a gift for her graduation last Friday night, had chatted with two school chums, Selina and Florence Muncil, as she passed their house.
These girls were the last to see the child alive. When more than two hours of searching brought no results, volunteer squads were organized and a thorough combing of the district was started. At dusk Saturday night the search was abandoned, only to be renewed at daybreak with reinforcements.
Dog Leads to Body
The local squads were augmented by volunteer firemen from Saranac Lake and the Bloomingdale and CCC workers. More than 200 searchers were in the woods throughout early Sunday morning. Shortly after 11 o'clock the girl's half-brother, Wilfred, and Harry Montgomery, a neighbor, thought they recognized the barking of Cleo's dog, Rover. They continued their search and soon came upon the body.
Mr. Main said that he was satisfied that the murder was the most coldblooded and cruel in the criminal annals of the state.
“My one ambition now,” he added, “is to send the person who perpetrated it to the electric chair before I quit office.”
The only clues available were furnished by the girl's brother, Alfred, who in his early hunt for his sister was passed by what he claimed to have been a conservation department truck, containing two men.
Ticonderoga Sentinel, June 28, 1934
CCC MAN ARRESTED FOR SLAYING GIRL AT BLOOMINGDALE
Franklin County Authorities Say Camp Worker Confessed He Killed Cleo Tellstone, 14, Following Criminal Assault
Her skull crushed by a blow from a club and her body battered, the remains of Cleo Tellstone, 14, of Bloomingdale, who disappeared last Saturday, were found Sunday in a thick brush near a highway about one mile from her home. The gruesome discovery was made by her brother, Wilbur Tellstone, one of a searching party which scoured the vicinity when the girl failed to return to her home Saturday night.
His investigation practically completed, Harold W. Main, district attorney of Franklin county, said Tuesday he was ready to place a first degree murder charge against Thomas Frederick Showers, 27-year-old CCC worker, for the slaying, revealing that he would base his prosecution on a signed statement purporting to be a confession by Showers. The alleged confession is said to state that the CCC worker lured the girl into the woods, assaulted her and then crushed her skull with a club.
The Tellstone girl left home Saturday morning to mail some letters. About the same time, her father, George Tellstone, told the prosecutors, a truck passed along the road in which she was walking. She did not return home that night and her nude body was found the following day about 200 feet from the highway in a clomp of bushes, around which were signs of a struggle. District Attorney Main said that the weapon used to batter the girl's head — a heavy 16-inch ash club bespattered with blood — had been [found a] short distance from where the body was discovered. The district attorney said that other evidence has also been gathered.
Mr. Main said that Showers, whose home is in Syracuse, told him he had been married eight years, but only lived with his wife a year. He said, the prosecutor continued, that he had been in the CCC nine months, all spent at the Barnum Pond camp near the scene of the slaying. Bloomingdale is nearby, several miles from Saranac Lake.
The victim of the brutal murder was one of a family of eleven children, and she was graduated from grammar school a week ago. She was born in Plattsburg in 1920 and lived there until her parents moved to Bloomingdale about eight years ago.
Funeral services were conducted from the Vermontville Methodist church Tuesday, the Rev. Fred Abbott, pastor, officiating. Nearly a hundred persons jammed the small church, while hundreds of others who came from miles around stood in silence outside.
Reported to be in a serious condition as the result of a nervous breakdown, the girl's mother was unable to attend the services. Six of the youths with whom she graduated from grammar school last week were pallbearers.
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