Community members may know Annie McCormick as a Moorestown native; others may recognize her as a former on-air reporter for WPVI-TV. However, this investigative journalist has now taken a step back in time to delve into two local crimes that occurred nearly a century ago.
Picture this: Moorestown, New Jersey circa 1929. The small, recently incorporated town had a little over 7,000 residents. Many of the historic homes lining the area around Main Street already existed, including the home that sits at 515 Chester Avenue. This home and its residents are the topic of McCormick’s newest book, ‘Restless Ghosts’.
While few violent crimes and murders occur within the close-knit ties of this 15 square mile town, the murders of Ruth Wilson and Horace “Reds” Roberts Jr. in June 1929 remain a local mystery to this day. The young couple was found shot, naked, and dying in Wilson’s bedroom inside her family’s Chester Avenue mansion; both individuals died from their wounds leaving the community with more questions than answers. Was this a murder-suicide? Was it something more sinister? Various on-hand observers noticed strange circumstances surrounding the shootings, including the fact that Reds had no gun powder residue near his multiple bullet wounds, which certainly would have been present had he fired the gun at himself. However, the young couple had experienced an on-again, off-again romance filled with two proposals and life-ending threats.
With people in the township divided, some believed political corruption the influence of wealthy families prevented a thorough investigation, despite a murder-suicide being the determined outcome. Wilson’s father was a Camden lawyer, real estate developer, and financier. The Burlington County Prosecutor, George Hillman, was a close family friend of the Wilson family. The Roberts family had deep connections in the community with roots to Quaker settlers in Moorestown dating back to 1682. The mixture of Quaker roots and nouveau-riche suburban expansion placed Ruth and Reds in proximity to each other from an early age, and the intersection with other high-standing community members impacted their daily lives.
The restlessness echoed throughout the community, and their violent end did not bring an end to their story. The Wilson’s neighbor and Robert’s friend, Bradway Brown, remained convinced that all was not right with the outcome of this case, rumored to even have threatened Mr. Wilson at points as the true “double murderer” and have gone so far as to hire a private investigator. A society man himself, Brown crossed paths with many well-off individuals in circles at the Union League of Philadelphia and Pine Valley Country Club. Much like his friends, though, Bradway Brown would be found dead from multiple bullet wounds in January of 1933 at his Cinnaminson home.
Nearly 40 months separated these brutal murders, with layers of historic drama that McCormick intertwines for readers to grasp the true nature of these crimes. Was each of these individuals targeted? Were they suspiciously random attacks in the close-knit communities of the early twentieth century? Can these ghosts finally rest after close to one hundred years of speculation?
While this story may not be deeply interwoven into fabric of Moorestown history, it highlights the need for locals to dig deeper into the roots of their communities. “Who else is going to find the stories in the nooks and crannies besides the people that are from here?” questioned McCormick.
McCormick previously authored ‘The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang’, a true crime investigation on the murder of April Kauffman in 2012. Interested readers can purchase both books through Amazon, Camino Books, or at several local bookstores.
What comes next for Annie McCormick? “There’s one story from the 70s that was a young lady that disappeared, and [my mom’s nurses at the Evergreens] told me about this case, where if you’re around 50 years old, it was the case that parents would say to scare kids to come home.” Perhaps that story comes next. Perhaps it doesn’t, but what holds true is McCormick’s roots to Moorestown drive much of her true crime investigative interests.
