In the summer of 1941, Evelyn Anderson, a 26-year-old female, was working as a waitress in the Bronx, New York, navigating life in the bustling city. Her life, however, came to a brutal and sudden end on August 4, 1941, when she became the final victim of a serial killer who had been terrorizing communities on the East Coast. Her death would be the key to finally stopping his years-long wave of violence.
On that Monday, Evelyn's body was discovered, strangled, in a New York alleyway.
The immediate investigation into her death began as police canvassed for clues. A critical piece of evidence soon emerged: Evelyn's watch had been stolen. Detectives diligently began checking local pawn shops, a move that would quickly unravel the case. Just days after the murder, the watch turned up in a Bronx pawn shop, having been hocked by a man named Charles Woolfolk.
When questioned by police, Woolfolk explained he had received the watch from a female friend, Hazel Johnson. Johnson, in turn, told investigators she had gotten it from a man named Jarvis Theodore Roosevelt Catoe, a 36-year-old resident of Washington, D.C. This crucial lead pointed law enforcement directly to the man responsible not only for Evelyn's death but for a string of other unsolved murders. On August 29, 1941, Catoe was arrested in Washington, D.C.
Under interrogation, Catoe not only admitted to killing Evelyn Anderson but dropped a bombshell, confessing to at least seven other murders committed between 1935 and 1941 in both Washington, D.C., and New York. Known as "The D.C. Strangler," Catoe's rampage had begun years earlier with the rape and strangulation of Florence Darcy in 1935. His other victims included Josephine Robinson, Lucy Kidwell, Mattie Steward, and Ada Puller. For years, his crimes had received little public attention, but that changed when he began targeting white victims, including Rose Abramovitz, a newlywed killed in her home, and Jesse Strieff, a War Department secretary.
Catoe's confession brought clarity to a series of terrifying, unsolved cases that had left the Washington police baffled and facing public scrutiny. He revealed that he suffered from "spells" where he had an uncontrollable urge to kill, often after reading detective stories. Had it not been for the determined police work that traced Evelyn's stolen watch through multiple hands back to him, Catoe's identity as the killer might have remained a mystery. He had taken her purse and watch after strangling her, callously giving the stolen items away.
Although he confessed to killing Evelyn, Jarvis Catoe was tried for the murder of Rose Abramovitz in Washington, D.C. He later retracted his confessions, claiming he had been sick and coerced by police, but the jury was unconvinced. After a deliberation of only 18 minutes, they found him guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death. His criminal history also included multiple counts of rape and indecent exposure.
On January 15, 1943, Jarvis Theodore Roosevelt Catoe was executed in the electric chair. He reportedly walked into the death chamber singing. While his execution brought an end to his reign of terror, it could not erase the pain and loss he inflicted. Evelyn Anderson, a young waitress with her life ahead of her, is remembered not just as a victim, but as the woman whose case finally led to the capture of a dangerous serial killer, preventing him from harming anyone else.
