Noir Crime: The Mad Killer Of Suffolk County
A lone plate sat on the counter top at Bailey’s Restaurant in Westhampton Beach. There was a fried egg that lay untouched on the plate. Beyond the table, the cash register door was opened and all the cash was gone. A customer cautiously called out for the proprietors and got no answer. It was still hot in the early morning hours of August 9, 1959 in Westhampton Beach and the weary customer had decided to stop at the new establishment for a cup of coffee. Bailey’s had been open for only six weeks. The customer later told police he had been wanting to try the coffee there. He also reported that as soon as he entered the restaurant, he felt that something was wrong. But he continued to call out. Thinking the restaurant staff was most likely busy in the back area, he peered through the door marked “Employees Only” and noticed that the rest room door was ajar and something was lying on the floor.
As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he was not prepared for what he saw. On the floor was 50-year-old Irene Currier. She was bound with kitchen towels at her hands and feet. Another towel had been tied tightly around her neck and a scarf stuffed into her mouth. It was however, a bullet fired into her left temple that had taken her life. The customer ran from the diner and called the police. They quickly determined that the shooting was the work of the same man who had robbed and murdered two other restaurant owners on the South Shore of Suffolk County, only days earlier. The killer would eventually be dubbed the “Mad Killer of Suffolk County” by the press.&The murder of Ms. Currier would make it the third killing that week. All three victims had been shot to death during holdups occurring around midnight. In each case, the murdered person had been working alone in a diner or delicatessen. As the police got down to the business of collecting evidence, they were able to determine that several people had visited the diner earlier in the evening. They theorized that there had been someone else in the diner at the time the killer walked in. The police believed the killer had placed the order for the egg, to give the other customer time to leave. They immediately set about finding any other customers that had visited Bailey’s that night. Before too long the police located a man who had been headed back toward Queens on the morning of the murder. He told police he had seen a man running from Bailey’s Diner around 1 a.m. the night of the murder. The witness said he noticed a man jumping into a car and taking off at a high speed, showering gravel all over the parking lot.
He said that he suspected something might be wrong so he made a note of the type of car and managed to get two letters of the license plate. A lead soon developed when the police became aware that a large number of coins had been stolen during one of the robberies. A supermarket employee reported that the night after Ms. Currier was murdered, a man came into the store and asked to exchange silver for bills. The woman said that the man suddenly began acting strange, changed his mind and fled.
The police eventually found their way to former convict Francis Bloeth, who later admitted being the “Mad Killer.” Ms. Currier and her husband had dreamed of having their own diner for years. The couple had saved their money, working as a bartender and waitress in Manhattan and had purchased the diner only months before the murder. It had become the habit of the couple, to share duties, sometimes working individually and sometimes together. It just so happened that Ms. Currier was the one who was working alone that Friday night. After the murder, hundreds of policemen were assigned to the manhunt and the terror intensified. When Mr. Bloeth was finally arrested he made no attempt to deny what he had done. Quite the contrary. He bragged about the murders and told police that he had fun killing his victims. He specifically stated that he had enjoyed strangling Ms. Currier. Mr. Bloeth later admitted that he threw the 33-caliber weapon that killed Ms. Currier into Lake Ronkonkoma. The police would interview several of his friends, who told them that he was seen in a tavern near the lake drinking just hours after he robbed, strangled and shot Ms. Currier. For years, Mr. Bloeth would wreak havoc on the Suffolk County Court system, firing his attorneys and appealing his convictions. He was tried in Riverhead the first time around and sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent three years in Sing Sing awaiting his own execution.
In 1962, Mr. Bloeth’s attorney won him another trial. His conviction was overturned due to “publicity.” The second trial was held in New York City. The confessed murderer was convicted a second time and again sentenced to death. But in June of 1965, the state legislature limited the death penalty to only those who had killed a member of the police force. As a result, Mr. Bloeth was one of 17 death row inmates granted clemency. His sentence was commuted to life. In March 1981, after 22 years in the state prison system, the “Mad Killer of Suffolk County” was paroled from Auburn Correctional Facility. The man who killed three people for a total of $300 would get another chance. The last known article referencing Mr. Bloeth was in a 1990, in the Syracuse Herald-Journal. The article states that he was “currently employed and trying to live a good life.” At that time, people quoted in the article were starting to forget his reign of terror and some were talking about “forgiving” him and helping him “get on with his life.” When asked, Ms. Currier’s brother, Irving Bailey, had a different idea about the situation. “You try to forget, you know you should put these things behind you but it’s hard.” Mr. Bailey said. He added that he believed it is important for people to remember what Mr. Bloeth had done. Having become friendly with the prosecutors during Mr. Bloeth’s trials, Mr. Bailey said in an interview later that there was one thing told him that chilled him to the bone. “I remember we were going up some stairs and I asked him what was going to happen to this guy,” he told the reporter of his conversation with one of the prosecutors. “He said don’t worry, this guy will never see the light of day. Continue reading
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