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Letter from Jackson Elias to Jonah Kensington from Nairobi 8.8.’24:Telegram from Jackson Elias to Jonah Kensington from London 16.12’24: Jackson Elias’ notes rom Nairobi (9 pcs): Jackson Elias’ notes from London: Dossiers from Carlyle Expedition members: Notes of Professor Anthony … Continue reading
The following is an excerpt from the journal of Lawrence Wentworth Stafford, written in january 1925.
I had just finished my afternoon tea and biscuits, when a dear friend of mine, professor Abraham Paynesworth telephoned me. He had received a telegram from a mutual friend of ours, Jackson Elias, the adventurer-author, who was returning to the United States in a forthnight. What striked me as odd was his message, which stated that he had some new information about the Carlyle Expedition and wanted to form an expedition of his own, presumably to follow the trail of the Roger Carlyle. He invited us, Paynesworth, another mutual friend of ours, Dr. Vasili Jusupov, and me, to come meet him in New York. At the time, I did not know that he had sent a similar invitation to three other fellows, all of which I had met or seen last in the november of 1924 during the shindig of Jusupov, celebrating the completition of his dissertation.
The ship M/S Wilhelmina docks in New York to pier #43 in the afternoon of 13.1.1925, and by a happy coincidence, Mr. Jackson Elias meets misters Calvin Borel and Shane O’Flannagan at the docks while disembarking from the said ship. He invites them – and later me, Paynesworth and Jusupov as well – to meet with him in the Chelsea Hotel on saturday 15.1. at the dinnertime, around seven.
Our group of three arrived at the hotel shortly after misters Borel, O’Flannagan and Walker, and met each other in the lobby. We waited for some time, but Elias did not come down from his room, so we asked the reception in which room he was residing in, and took the lift to the fourth floor. Knocking on the door or calling out to Elias did not grant us entry, but after a moment, the sharp-eared mister O’Flannagan heard muffled sounds from the room – sounds he interpreted as sounds of villainy and burglary, and promptly kicked the door in with a sharp crack!
Both to our surprise and his, the door opened to the foyer, where a black man was trying to close the door on us, while another one was trying to flee the room through the window to the fire exit, his hands full of loot he was trying to steal. Before I – or anyone else, in fact – could react in any way, Mr. Walker dashed into the room, grabbed the first man, and forced him down to the ground with the help from his trained fists. The man at the window dropped his stolen goods, and produced a huge blade from somewhere on his belt. At the edge of my vision I saw Dr. Paynesworth produce a blade of his own from his cane, and soon Mr. Borel and O’Flannagan were upon him as well. As the latter gentleman entered the room, a sudden and loud bang was heard from the room – another man was there, and had just tried to fire on poor Mr. O’Flannagan!
It was there that Mr. Borel drew his own pistol, Dr. Jusupov grabbed a bottle, and the room was suddenly a chaos of moving men, shots fired, fists flown and I think even I grabbed my cane and tried to subdue the men inside, yelling them to give up and stand down.
After the men were pacified, we had a look around the room, and found poor mr. Jackson Elias laying on the bed, his throat cut and his chest cut open. Some monster had even carved strange symbol into his forehead. I remember feeling woozy, and had to grab a hold of a chair, the room seemed to move around me in a most disturbing way. I heard some distant commotion at the door, and later was told that Mr. Matthew Griswold the sixth had also been invited there, but left after seeing the horror that was inside. I also remember gathering up the documents the burglars were trying to steal, stashing them into my coat pocket.
The police arrived quickly, saw the situation and got an eyewitness reports from Dr. Paynesworth and Dr. Jusupov. They told us they wanted to talk to us on the following day, and get our statements on record at the police station. After we were let go, my companions told me, that Mr. Griswold had invited us to his flat near the central park, and that’s where we were headed next.
The young mister Griswold wanted to know about the happenings in the hotel, since Elias had invited him there as well. Griswold had been supporting Elias’ travels and writing, and naturally was interested in his far too early demise. Since the evening was already upon us, Mr. Griswold let us stay the night in his guest flat a few stories below. I’m not sure when I finally fell asleep, since I was still shook up from the gruesome events. In the morning, the returned to the police, and gave our statements. Afterwards, some of the men left for the church.