On February 22, 1927, Dr. Frank Loomis left his home in Detroit to go for a walk. He liked to keep himself in shape and had made this a regular habit.
His wife, Grace, was at home, with their two children, Janet and Frank, sleeping upstairs. Grace locked the door after her husband, then went into the sunroom to read.
When Frank returned about forty-five minutes later, he found Grace lying on the floor, covered in blood. He rushed over to her side and listened for a heartbeat. He couldn’t hear one. Desperate, he then felt for a pulse, but couldn’t feel one.
Knowing she was dead, he went to the door and called out to his neighbor, Mildred Twork. Coming to her door, Loomis told her that someone had killed his wife and asked her to call the police.
The police arrived a short time later, along with George Berg, an assistant coroner. He determined that someone had bludgeoned Grace Loomis to death. While he made his examination, police investigated the crime scene and the rest of the house.
Grace had seemingly put up a tremendous fight. She had defensive wounds on her hands, and there was blood smeared on the walls. A pane of glass was broken outward, as well, the glass lying in the back yard. The furnace was running very hot, with a strong fire burning inside. When police examined the inside of the furnace when the heat had died down a little, they found two shirt buttons inside.
The children were taken to stay with a neighbor, while Loomis was taken to the police station for questioning. They strongly suspected that Loomis had killed his wife, and then had gone for a walk. For over sixteen hours, detectives questioned him, trying to make him slip up. Loomis’ account of the night’s events never wavered and stayed consistent.
Loomis told them he believed that someone had murdered Grace during a robbery attempt. Before he had left that evening, he had handed Grace $100 so she could buy a fur coat the next day. Loomis believed that someone must have seen this through the sunroom window, and then had broken in and stolen it when he left, killing her in the process.
The police didn’t believe it. Mrs. Loomis was wearing diamond rings when she died, and they felt that a thief would have taken them as well. Regardless, they never investigated the theory, instead keeping Loomis in custody while they tried their best to prove that he was the killer. During that time, he wasn’t allowed to see anyone but the city prosecutors and members of the police department.
Finally, a colleague and friend of Loomis’ hired a defense attorney to represent him. The lawyer, Emil Colombo, filed a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf, which allowed a judge to decide if Loomis had been wrongfully imprisoned.
Before the hearing was supposed to begin, the head prosecutor, Robert Toms, asked for a short postponement. It was granted, and Loomis was also allowed to be freed on a $10,000 bond.
After spending time with family and friends, he went back to court the following Monday. All charges against him were dropped and he was once again released as a free man.
Arrangements were made to have Grace buried in New Jersey, where she was originally from. Loomis’ children would stay with his mother in Brooklyn, Michigan, while he travelled east with his wife’s remains. Before he did, Loomis posted a $1000 reward for any information leading to the finding of her killer. After the funeral, he returned to Detroit and resumed his medical practice.
With Frank no longer a suspect, investigators finally began to pursue other leads in the case. Although their top theory as motive was robbery, they were open to all leads.
Soon enough they got their first breakthrough. The law firm representing Loomis gave police an anonymous letter that offered a possible new angle on the case. The author of the letter claimed that a female patient had died while Loomis was performing an operation on her. They believed the woman’s husband, in an act of revenge, had then killed Grace Loomis in retaliation.
Unfortunately, the letter turned out to be another dead end.
Newspapers had begun to call the murder of Grace Loomis the “perfect crime.” By their own admission, investigators were baffled as to who had committed the murder. There was no solid evidence, no sound suspects, and, worst of all, no good leads. It would seem that someone had indeed committed the perfect crime and might possibly get away with cold-blooded murder.
Then, on April 12, 1927, police arrested a young woman named Gertrude Newell in connection with the Loomis murder. To everyone’s shock, detectives also arrested Dr. Frank Loomis at his office, officially charging him with first-degree murder. Loomis immediately contacted his lawyers.
Investigators had believed early on that Loomis had been having an affair. Their theory was that when Grace had found out about it, Frank had murdered her. Until then, they had never been able to produce any evidence of Frank having seen another woman, despite their best efforts.
Gertrude Newell was a twenty-eight-year-old woman from Michigan. In 1917, she had married Roy Ritter Newell, a real estate broker in Detroit. They had later divorced in 1922. According to police, Gerturde allegedly frequented speakeasies, or “blind pigs,” where they sold then-illegal alcohol. Allegedly, witnesses had seen Gertrude and Loomis together on at least two separate occasions at local speakeasys.
They claimed that she was seen crying by witnesses in one speakeasy after having seen Frank Loomis’ picture in the paper in connection with the murder. Discussing the murder in front of Newell, the owner stated that she believed that Frank probably knew more than he let on. One of the regulars told her that she shouldn’t talk that way around Gertrude because she was Frank Loomis’ girlfriend.
Frank Loomis was arraigned for first-degree murder but was released on a $100,000 bond the same day. Although Frank Loomis’ financial troubles had continued, one of his friends mortgaged his house in order to pay for it. Gertrude Newell was also released at a much lower $5000.
The preliminary hearing was set to begin the following Wednesday. Everyone agreed, court was adjourned, and everyone started to get ready to leave. Suddenly, someone remembered that was the day the first baseball game of the season was in Detroit. Not wanting to miss the game, both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer went to find the judge.
When they did, he was already in the middle of hearing another case. The lawyers waited quietly until it was finished, then approached the judge. Almost embarrassed now, they explained the situation to him and asked if the date of the hearing could be moved. The judge laughed, then moved the date forward to Thursday.
Shortly after the arraignment, Gertrude Newell agreed to meet with reporters to tell her side of the story. She was joined by her ex-husband, Roy, or Ritter, as he more commonly known.
Contrary to the claims of the assistant prosecutor, Paul O. Buckley, Gerturde adamantly denied ever being to any speakeasies in her entire life, let alone over a dozen times with Frank Loomis. In reference to her having an affair with Loomis, also claimed by the prosecution, Ritter stepped in to elaborate.
Ritter explained that Gertrude had first met Dr. Loomis the previous September. Loomis had made a house call to her rooming house to treat the landlord. The man’s wife was aware that Gertrude was very sick at the time, and asked Loomis to stop in and see her.
About a month later, Gertrude’s ankles were swollen and were causing her some concern. Remembering Loomis from his prior visit, Ritter took her to see him at the doctor’s medical office.
A few weeks after that, Gertrude confided in her father that she was afraid she had tuberculosis. To ease her fears, Gertrude’s father called Dr. Loomis and asked him to come see her at the hotel he was staying at. Ritter told reporters that he believed that this was one of the clandestine meetings Paul Buckley claimed that Gertrude and Loomis had together.
Gertrude and Ritter also claimed that the only time she had spent time with Loomis outside of a professional setting had been during the winter. Loomis was driving past a bus stop where she was waiting to get a ride to a local theatre. He knew her, so he politely asked if she would like a ride instead of waiting in the cold.
Gertrude accepted, and the two had lunch together at a local restaurant before he dropped her off.
The preliminary hearing began on April 28. 1927. The prosecution was led by lead prosecutor Robert Toms, with Paul O. Buckley acting as his assistant. Loomis would be represented by Louis Colombo, with Emil Colombo, his brother and law partner, as his assistant.
The preliminary trial serves to show a judge that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove that the defendant can actually be charged with the crime they’re accused of. In many ways, it acts as a kind of trial before the trial. Evidence is introduced and witnesses brought up to give testimony that supports the guilt of the defendant.
In the preliminary trial for Frank Loomis, the prosecution began by producing a series of doctors, including Dr. William Ryan. Ryan had performed both of the autopsies on Grace Loomis the previous February.
He described how she had four deep cuts on her scalp, none of which penetrated the skull. However, the force of the blows was more than sufficient enough to cause cerebral hemorrhaging, which ultimately caused her death.
In addition, Grace also had numerous abrasions on her body, as well as a cut on her right hand. In Dr. Ryan’s estimation, the wounds had been caused by some kind of hard object.
Detective Elijah Wasson and Sergeant Fred Harrison, who were the first two police officers to arrive at the Loomis home the night of the murder, also gave their testimony.
Wasson described how he had found Grace Loomis dead on the sunroom floor, covered in blood. He said that he found bloodstains on the walls of the sunroom, the dining room table, and also on Frank Loomis’ clothes. While everything else seemed normal, he noted that the telephone receiver was out of its cradle and that a pane of glass had been broken in one of the windows.
Wasson also said that, despite the mild temperatures that night, the house furnace was burning very high.
Sergeant Harrison’s testimony, for the most part, supported Wasson’s, except for one detail. He stated that the grade doors leading to the basement on the side of the house were open about six inches. During the investigation, detectives had discredited the robbery theory because Grace Loomis, afraid of possible intruders, had locked all the doors and windows. While being questioned by police directly after the murder, Frank Loomis had said that he couldn’t remember if he had closed the basement doors, leading to the possibility that an intruder had made his way inside after all.
Sergeant Harrison’s testimony gave credence to the intruder theory, and that Grace Loomis had been murdered during a home invasion robbery.
The night of the murder, 24-year-old Ethel Bell and her boyfriend, Thomas Blockson, were walking past the Loomis home. They had claimed to hear the sound of a woman screaming, followed by breaking glass and someone moaning. In what would become a key point of the trail, the couple had said that they were by the Loomis residence at exactly 8:55 P.M.
Called to testify, Ethel Bell, described as being an attractive woman, seemed to enjoy being the center of everyone’s attention. She passed through the prosecutions questioning with ease. Louis Colombo’s inquiry would be an entirely different matter.
For nearly two hours, Bell endured a brutal cross-examination. Colombo started by challenging a statement that she had just made to the prosecution. While she had just claimed to have known Frank and Grace Loomis, the defense forced her to admit that she had never known them at all. This immediately started to cast doubt on her testimony.
Things only got worse for Bell from there.
Colombo next tested Bell’s memory and the accuracy of her statements by asking her very sensitive questions regarding her relationship with Thomas Blockson.
She was forced to admit that the couple had begun seeing each other when she had still been married to her previous husband. Blockson had even spent several nights at her parent’s home, where she was living at the time. Although Bell said he slept alone in the guest room, questions were asked about how many other bedrooms were on the same floor, and the proximity of her bedroom to his.
The questioning flustered and embarrassed Bell, nearly bringing her to tears more than once.
After this, Colombo began to ask her about statements she had made regarding the time she had passed the house.
While she had initially told police that her and Blockson had been past the Loomis home at precisely 8:55 P.M., she had later told reporters that the time was at 9:05 P.M. Using questioning from every possible angle, Colombo was able to show that Bell clearly did not know the precise time that her and Blockson had been in the area.
Dr. Harry L. Clark, a bacteriologist at the Detroit College of Medicine, testified about the process he had used to test the bloodstains on Loomis’ clothes. He also stated that it seemed as if someone had tried to wash two of the stains on the suit out with water.
Detective Frank McNally, who had questioned Frank Loomis after the murder, recalled to the court everything that Loomis had told him during that time.
While cross-examining McNally, Colombo made an attempt to have the case dismissed by stating that the warrant obtained by the detective for Loomis’ arrest was illegal and never should have been issued.
The judge listened patiently, and then said he was well aware of how the arrest warrant was issued. He admitted that the circumstances under which it was procured were, as he put it, “irregular,” but, in his estimation, there was nothing illegal about it.
When the defense was finished, the judge explained to the court that he wanted to take a few days to review parts of the case before rendering his verdict.
When the court reconvened a few days later, the judge made the announcement that he believed sufficient evidence had been entered, and the case would go to trial.
After an arduous jury selection, the trial began on May 24, 1927. Before the witnesses were called, the jury, both legal counsels, Judge Brennan, and Frank Loomis were brought to the Loomis home. This was done because of a court order filed by the defense asking that this be done so that everyone involved would have a better idea of the details of the case. After their tour of the now vacant house, everyone was returned to the courtroom that afternoon.
Hundreds of people packed themselves into the courthouse to hear the proceedings. Nearly three hundred people were inside the courtroom itself, while nearly as many had to content themselves withstanding in the halls outside. It would be this way every day of the trial.
Robert Toms presented forty witness to support his case.
Many of them gave the same testimony that they had during the preliminary hearing. This included Dr. William Ryan, Detective Wasson, Sergeant Harrison, and Dr. Harry Clark.
Much to her chagrin, so was Ethel Bell, now Blockson after marrying her boyfriend just a few weeks before. She had endured brutal questioning at the hands of Louis Colombo during the preliminary hearing, and she was once again viciously questioned by the defense attorney during the trial.
Several witnesses were there to support details presented by others. For example, a professional meteorologist was called upon to give a definite testimony to the outside temperature on the night of the murder. Then, several police officers that were in the Loomis residence that night were called to state that the furnace in the home had been up very high.
By doing this, the prosecution sought to support the claim that Loomis might have burnt a blood-splattered shirt in the furnace after he killed Grace.
Colombo had fought hard to establish his account of the timeline that night as being correct, and he continued to do so when he was allowed to present his case.
During their investigation, the police had discovered that Doris McClure, a 17-year-old telephone operator, had been on the phone with Grace Loomis shortly before she had been murdered.
According to her testimony, she had answered an incoming phone call only to hear a woman’s piercing scream, to be followed by silence. McClure registered the time as being at about 9:05 P.M.
The defense team were able to produce two customers at the beauty shop where Ethel Blockson worked who stated that there was no way that the couple could have been able to leave the establishment as early as they said they had. It called into question the timeline that the prosecution had set through the Blockson’s testimony, pushing it back well past 9 o’clock, the time that Loomis stated he had left his house.
Another witness, driving in the vicinity, had seen Loomis out walking at about 9:08 P.M. He remembered the time because he was going to pick up his wife and checked the time before he left his house.
To oppose the testimony of Dr. Harry Clark, the defense turned to Dr. William Brosius, another bacteriologist.
Contrary to Clark’s findings, Brosius contended that a microscopic examination of the stains revealed no evidence of an attempt to wash them out. It was also his opinion that the kind of bloodstains on the clothing indicated that Loomis hadn’t been present at the time of Grace’s death, meaning that the evidence didn’t support Frank committing the murder.
The chief witness of the defense was Dr. Frank Loomis himself.
Before questioning began, Colombo asked Dr. Loomis to put on the gray suit that he had worn the night of the murder. Excusing himself to the judge’s chambers, Loomis did as he was instructed. The entire courtroom was in awe as he returned, dressed as he had been, covered in his wife’s dried blood.
Using Emil Colombo as a stand-in for Grace, Colombo then asked Loomis to re-enact the actions he took upon finding his wife’s body.
The courtroom sat in a stunned silence as Loomis lifted Emil Colombo, lying prone on the floor in front of the jury box, a few inches from the floor and then gently set him back down. Loomis then pressed his head to Emil’s chest, just as he had listened for Grace’s heartbeat. Rising up, he then showed how he had then checked for her pulse.
Finished, the two men stood. Although still composed, Loomis’ face seemed almost ashen, and tears were in his eyes. Few in the courtroom were unmoved by the sight.
Colombo next asked Loomis to take the witness stand, and then began his examination.
Under the lawyers questioning, Loomis described the motivation behind the actions that he had just demonstrated to the jury. His first thought was to pick her and up and carry her to the sofa. As he began to lift her up, he remembered that the coroner would want the body to be left where it was found.
Laying Grace carefully back down on the floor, Loomis put his ear to her chest. He listened intently for a heartbeat but heard nothing. He felt for a pulse first at her wrist, and then her temple. He felt nothing.
Discussing his time in jail after the murder, Loomis related how, at first, the police and the prosecutors were friendly and cordial, treating him with respect. All of that changed when Paul Buckley came to take his formal statement. According to Loomis, Buckley’s entire attitude towards him changed.
While he wasn’t physically abusive toward Loomis, Buckley actively harassed him. He was made to answer the same questions over and over again in an effort to make him give an answer that made him sound guilty.
Loomis also said that the way the detectives treated him changed as well. When answering their questions, they would sometimes wink comically at one another, as if they believed Loomis was lying, and then they would laugh at him.
According to Loomis, the police made it very clear that they believed he was guilty of killing his wife.
During the cross-examination, Toms asked Loomis to once again go through his reenactment of his actions the night of the murder with Emil Colombo. Loomis did, then returned to the witness stand.
The prosecutor then asked him how he could have gotten blood stains on his suit. Loomis said that it was possible that his coat had gaped open enough when he knelt over Grace to allow the stains to get there.
Toms also had a problem with the fact that some of the blood-splatter on Loomis’ hat looked like arterial spray, like it had come from a living person. Loomis responded that it was possible that, as he had lifted her from the ground, air trapped in Grace’s lungs could have been expelled, spraying blood in her mouth onto his clothing.
The prosecution also accused Loomis of stating that he didn’t want to touch the telephone or the back door because he didn’t want to get blood on them. Loomis didn’t remember saying any such a thing.
When asked about Gertrude Newell, Loomis stated that, outside of seeing her in a professional capacity, he had driven her home a few times after she had received treatment from him at his office, and that he had had lunch with her and given her a ride to the theatre once. In addition, Loomis had a business meeting with Newell’s father once and they had discussed her health.
On June 16, 1927, the jury took only thirty-five minutes to find Frank Loomis not guilty of murder of his wife, Grace. When the verdict was announced, the packed courtroom burst into applause. The normally self-possessed Loomis began to cry and had to take a moment to wipe his eyes. Many of the jurors shook his hand.
Loomis, obviously relieved, left the courthouse with a few friends and his children, followed by a crowd of people. Now that everything was finally over for him, he planned to spend some time with his family, then return to his medical practice.
His ordeal was finally over. Frank Loomis was no longer in danger of losing his freedom. He was able to return to his normal life and quietly fade back into the relative obscurity of daily living. Although the police continued to investigate the murder of Grace Loomis for a while, all of the possible leads dried up very quickly.
For the next several months, Dr. Loomis practiced medicine at his Detroit office, and raised his children with the help of his mother. Eventually, he even began to see someone – none other than Gertrude Newell. They had begun to see each other shortly after the conclusion of the trial and seemed almost inseparable.
While life seemed to finally be going in a positive direction for the good doctor, Loomis’ life eventually began to unravel.
Rumors about Loomis had begun to spread around town. One was that he had confessed his guilt to police, which he never had. Another was that people had seen him as a patient at a local psychiatric facility, which was also untrue. The rumors bothered Loomis, and he sometimes felt that people looked at him like he was guilty, and that he had gotten away with murder.
At the same time, his medical practice, already in trouble financially before the death of his wife, continued to decline. Along with it, his own financial situation continued to worsen.
But Loomis wasn’t about to give up. He went back to his hometown and looked into setting up a practice there. His mother still lived there, and by this time his children were living with her. Unfortunately, Brooklyn was a small-town, with only so many people to support new businesses. His opportunity to set up shop there fell through, and no one else was looking to hire a doctor in that area.
Even his budding relationship with Gerturde Newell began to sour.
In May of 1928, Newell went to the police several times, telling them that Loomis had threatened to kill her. In another incident, the couple had an argument that resulted in Loomis kicking down a door at her apartment. He apologized to the building caretaker and said that he would pay for the damages.
Outwardly, Frank Loomis gave no indication that something was wrong. He was as friendly and polite as ever, almost stoic. Even his friends only had a small idea of the depth of his inner turmoil.
On the morning of May 20, 1928, Jesse Hardy, the janitor in Loomis’ office building, was walking through the building when he smelled gas. Hardy followed the odor to the office of Dr. Ellis Green, a dentist. Carefully opening the door with his building keys, he discovered the prone body of Frank Loomis lying on a mattress inside.
Loomis was dressed casually in a shirt, pants, and house slippers. He was completely unresponsive to Hardy’s voice or movements.
Quickly as he could, Hardy turned off the gas and called the police and fire departments. When the fireman arrived, they discovered that Loomis was still alive, if only barely. For nearly an hour, they tried their absolute best to resuscitate him, but ultimately in vain. Dr. Frank Loomis was dead.
Loomis had been living in the office building for a while. After the trial, he seemingly couldn’t bear to return to the home he had shared with his wife. At first, he rented a house, but as his financial situation crumbled, he eventually rented a small room in his office building, right around the corner from the dentist.
In Loomis’ office, which was right next door to Green’s, investigators found a photo of Frank and Gertrude Newell, along with a note written by Loomis. It said:
“Detroit Police: A newspaper article will be published in 24 to 48 hours explaining this action on my part. Please be patient until then. Dr. F.R. Loomis.”
An autopsy was performed, and it was confirmed that Frank Loomis had committed suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes. His body was transported to his hometown, where he was buried.
Initially, it was thought that Gertrude Newell had gone missing shortly before Frank’s body was discovered. The police began a city-wide search for her, and newspapers began to theorize that Loomis had murdered her before committing suicide.
Louis Colombo stepped forward and made a formal announcement that Gertrude Newell was alive. He demanded that the speculation of a murder/suicide be stopped, and he gave every assurance that he and his office had been in direct contact with her.
It was later revealed that Gertrude had taken Loomis’ death very badly. She was severely distraught and suffered from frequent fainting spells. Her doctor said that any shock or additional stress could be very detrimental to her already fragile health.
A few days after his suicide, the two letters that Loomis had alluded to in his note were published for all to see. In one, he professed his deep love for Gertrude Newell. In the other, Loomis gave one, final, proclamation of his innocence in the murder of his wife.
Frank stated that he believed that the trial had been caused by people seeking to attain political office, wanting to win a big murder case to achieve that end. He was happy that he had known so many great friends in his life, and that they had felt he was good enough to help in his time of need.
However, Loomis also stated that he was tired of people looking down on actions that he had taken, actions that he took pride in. He had done his best and took some solace in that. However, he also felt utterly alone, and that there was no way out of his situation.
Feeling that there was nothing else left for him, Frank decided to end his own life. But, although his own pain was over, the pain of others was just beginning.
Gertrude Newell, despite their rocky relationship, had loved Frank Loomis. His death had left her alone and heartbroken, with no other choice but to move forward with her life. After recovering from the physical shock of his death, she left Detroit.
Frank and Janet, Frank’s two children, were left orphaned and stayed in the care of their grandmother. An older woman and a widow, she worried how she would provide for them. A fund was created for their care, with about $1000 (just over $16,000 in the modern day) donated to help her.
Unfortunately, she died about a year later in 1929. Frank and Janet disappeared into the fog of history, hopefully taken in by friends or relatives instead of going to an orphanage, especially after having endured so much while still so young.
Did Frank Loomis murder his wife? Regardless of whether someone agrees with the outcome of the trial or not, in the spectacle that arose around the trial of Dr. Loomis, Grace, although ever present in some ways, was forgotten in so many others.
Grace was a caring mother and a loving wife, devoted to her family. She led a good life, until one winter night when someone brutally murdered her within the walls of her own home.
Nearly one-hundred years later, the murder of Grace Loomis remains unsolved. It can only be hoped that, one way or another, justice was truly served.
Sources
Loomis Freed; Posts Reward. Lansing State Journal, 2/28/1927
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Loomis Ruling Due Saturday, Judge States. Detroit Free Press, 5/4/1927
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Dr. Loomis Children to Be Taken Care Of. Lansing State Journal, 5/28/1928.
Mrs. Newell Off to Unnamed Place. Detroit Free Press, 5/31/1928.
Doctor Delivered Ante-Mortem Notes. The Escanaba Daily Press, 6/20/1928.
Year: 1920; Census Place: Detroit Ward 16, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: T625_815; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 514
Year: 1920; Census Place: Detroit Ward 21, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: T625_819; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 646
Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Michigan. Divorce records
Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records
Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Michigan. Divorce records
Detroit Police Department. Detroit Historical Society.
Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. http://www.law.cornell.edu