In the quiet town of Westfield, Massachusetts, the evening of May 7, 1940, brought with it a mystery that would linger for decades. Lewis Benajah Allyn, a 65-year-old White male and a respected professor of chemistry, was in his home at 69 Western Avenue. Downstairs, in his smoking jacket and slippers, he had settled in with a book appropriately titled "The Gun." Upstairs, his wife Alice had retired for the night. The tranquility of their home was shattered by the sound of gunfire.
When his wife came downstairs to investigate the commotion, she found her husband on the floor, fatally wounded by five gunshots. Though he was still alive when she reached him, he succumbed to his injuries before the police arrived, taking the identity of his killer with him to the grave.
The investigation into the murder of the prominent pure food advocate quickly became the talk of the town and even made headlines in The New York Times. A witness reported seeing a black sedan parked near the Allyn residence around the time of the shooting, with a man in dark glasses and a pulled-up collar behind the wheel. The car reportedly had New York license plates. However, this lead, like others, failed to result in any arrests. The case remained stubbornly unsolved, a lone blemish on Westfield's record of public safety. Over the years, the scant evidence that had been collected was further diminished when a flood in 1955 destroyed many of the original police files.
With no arrests made, speculation and theories about the identity and motive of the killer flourished. One of the most prominent theories was that Professor Allyn was a victim of international espionage. He was known to be working on a secret vitamin concentrate formula that was believed to be a significant military asset. It was rumored that a "European nation at war," widely believed to be Nazi Germany, had approached Allyn to acquire the formula and that he was killed for his refusal. On the very day of his murder, a friend confirmed that Allyn had steadfastly rejected an all-expenses-paid trip to the unnamed country to discuss the formula.
Another line of inquiry focused on Allyn's personal life and local reputation. He was known to be a handsome man with a way with the ladies, and it was rumored he was having an affair with the same woman as the local police chief, Allen H. Smith. This led to the suspicion that the chief himself may have had a hand in the murder to eliminate a rival and prevent a scandal. Further complicating the picture were Allyn's professional activities. As a fervent crusader in the "Pure Foods" movement, he had made his share of enemies. He was outspoken against food adulteration and had publicly challenged local grocers, one of whom had vocally opposed his food safety initiatives. Decades later, the case was revisited by a determined detective who uncovered a pistol of the same caliber used in the murder buried near the home of one of these grocers, though it was later determined to have been manufactured after the crime. Despite these tantalizing clues and enduring theories, no one was ever charged in connection with the death of Lewis Benajah Allyn, and his murder remains Westfield's only unsolved homicide.
