The year was 1903. Forty-year-old Edwin Burdick was a wealthy businessman, a part-owner of the successful Buffalo Envelope Company and living in a tasteful mansion at 101 Ashland Avenue in Buffalo, New York with his wife Alicia, the couple’s three children, and Alicia’s mother, Maria Hull.
Despite his seemingly carefree life, however, some dark clouds had started to appear on the horizon. His wife had begun an affair with a friend of his, Arthur Pennell, an attorney and fellow member of the Red Jacket Golf Club, and Edwin had filed for divorce sometime in late 1902. Not that Edwin necessarily had any room to complain about his wife’s dalliances, though: he’d reportedly been carrying on with at least two married women himself.
In fact, the wealthy residents of the Elmwood district of Buffalo were rumored to engage in all kinds of scandalous activities, including excess drinking and drug use, and so-called “strange orgies.” Whether this lifestyle had anything to do with Edwin’s ultimate fate is still something of a mystery.
On the morning of Friday, February 27th, 1903, Edwin Burdick was found dead in his home, lying on his sofa, wrapped up in a rug. He was still clad in his nightshirt, and his head had been bashed in with a golf club. His own golf clubs were arrayed in their bag in the corner of the room, though none were found to have blood on them.
There was a plate of cheese and crackers, as well as a cocktail shaker that still had cocktails in it, left on the table, suggesting that Edwin had perhaps been hosting guests, though people who knew him stated to authorities that he would never serve something so low-class as cheese and crackers if he’d been having a party.
Additionally, a woman’s hair was discovered on the body, but the owner of this hair has never been identified.
Edwin’s wife Alicia was in Atlantic City at the time of the murder, and though Edwin’s mother-in-law and children were in the house when the crime occurred, they apparently didn’t see or hear anything suspicious.
Because Edwin’s wife had been conducting a well-known affair with Arthur Pennell and because there had been several witnessed arguments between the former friends, Pennell was seen as a prime suspect, especially since he was also an avid golfer. That said, since Edwin was also having relations with other married women, it’s possible the husband of one of these women did him in.
However, Pennell made himself look significantly more suspicious by taking his own life only two weeks after the murder; he and his wife drove off into a quarry in their electric carriage.
The 1903 murder of Edwin Burdick remains one of Buffalo’s most infamous unsolved murders.
Crime Immemorial 