■ 23 April 2012 | 11:32 AM
On February 17, 1937, readers of Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot were stunned by a shocking photo featured within the pages of the morning publication.
Taken on the previous evening, the grainy photo showed the crumpled body of the murdered Katherine “Kitty” Ewell, aged 21, on the floor of Savage’s cigar shop (96 Commercial Place) in downtown Norfolk.
The entire story as reported by The Virginian-Pilot is republished below.
Our reason for publishing this story today can be found after the story and photos.
Harry Bosman Kills One Girl, Badly Wounds Another; Tries to Hang Self
“Kitty” Ewell Dead, Clara Tucker In Critical Condition After Shooting
Harry Bosman, 39-year old former bootlegger and Government witness in two recent “big shot” liquor cases here, instantly killed Katherine Elizabeth Ewell, 21-year old waitress, and critically wounded her companion, Clara Tucker, 23, in a sudden burst of gunfire last night about 8 o’clock in Savage’s Cigar Store, at 96 Commercial Place. The Ewell girl was employed as a waitress in the store.
Two hours later, Bosman attempted to hang himself in the cell in which he had been placed at police headquarters. He had looped his suspenders over a bar in his cell door, and had fastened them about his neck. They broke under his weight, however. Officers who went to his cell to question him about the shootings found him lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. He was revived in a few minutes.
“Yes I killed her, I admit to it. I shot her,” Bosman admitted to Detective Leon Nowitzky and other officers at police headquarters. “I did it because G--d--- her, she broke up my home,’ he said. “ I’m glad she’s dead. I’m going to die, too, and I know it.”
Changes Statement
Told that the Tucker girl was in a critical condition, Bosman said: “Pity I didn’t shoot her in her G___d___head.”
Later, under direct questioning by Detective Nowitzky, the prisoner said the shooting of the Tucker girl was “accidental.”
Bosman was removed to the city jail, where he was placed under guard to prevent a repetition of his suicide attempt.
According to A. G. Savage, proprietor of the cigar store, the shooting occurred with dramatic suddenness, and altogether unexpectedly.
About 7:30 o’clock, investigating officers were told, the Tucker girl came to the store, and she and the Ewell girl engaged in conversation. A little later, Bosman came in, talked with them a few minutes, and left.
About 10 minutes later, Savage said, Bosman returned. Katherine--or Kitty, as she was known to her friends--was behind the counter, toward the rear of the store. Then all of a sudden, he said, Bosman began shooting. He said he and a customer who was sitting at a front table, drinking a bottle of beer, ran put to the street.
Had Latched Door
In getting out, he told Nowitzky, he found that Bosman had latched the door when he came in. Savage told the officers he was sitting in a chair, reading when the shooting began.
At the time of the shooting, Clara Tucker was sitting in a chair a few feet from Bosman and Kitty. A bullet passed through the lower part of her abdomen, from the right side to the left, piercing the liver.
Questioned at St. Vincent’s Hospital by Detective Nowitzky, the Tucker girl, in great pain, gasped that “Harry Bosman shot me...I don’t think he meant to shoot me.
Harry Bosman Kills One Girl, Wounds Other
He shot her (meaning Kitty Ewell) three times before he shot me.
“I don’t know, but I think Kitty is dead,” she continued. “He said she’d double-crossed him, had broken him up with his wife, but wouldn’t ever double-cross anybody else.
“I don’t know why he shot me,” she concluded, and gasped a request for a drink of water.
Patrolmen Sidney Etheridge and W. C. Killmon, among the first to reach the cigar store in response to a call to police headquarters, said they found Bosman there, drinking a bottle of beer. They said he handed over his weapon, a .22 calibre target pistol, and surrendered himself to them without making a statement.
Examination of Kitty Ewell’s body by Dr. C. D. J. Macdonald, city coroner, disclosed powder burns on the face, indicating that the shots that killed her had been fired at close range. Two bullets had struck her in the front of the head, and emerged at the back, and another had struck her thumb. Death apparently had been instantaneous.
Officers, arriving on the scene, found her collapsed on her knees, her face pillowed on her arms, and her mass of curly golden hair flecked with blood.
Investigation by Detective Nowitzky and other officers last night indicated jealousy as the motive for the killing. They were informed that Bosman and the Ewell girl had been “going together” for about two years; but that during the last two weeks, she had had double had another admirer in whom appeared to be interested.
The girl lived with her parents at 1608 Willoughby Avenue, Brambleton. Her mother, Mrs. Cornelia McCarthy Ewell, near prostration last night, and other members of the family said that Bosman went to the neighborhood Saturday night and had an altercation with Kitty and her escort, who were in an automobile near the house.
The body was removed to the Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home pending funeral arrangements.
Kitty Ewell was a native and lifelong resident of Norfolk. She is survived by her parents, Gary P. and Mrs. Cornelia McCarthy Ewell; four sisters, Mrs. William Reid, Mrs. O. B. Gaskins, Mrs. A. E. Edwards and Mrs. H. C. Robinson, all of Norfolk, and four half-brothers, R. A., B. M., C. R. and J. C. Kidd, also all residing in this city.
Clara Tucker resides at 1017 Holt Street.
Officers searching the scene of the shootings found seven empty rim-fire cartridges. Bosman’s pistol was empty when he turned it over to them, they reported. Besides Detective Nowitzky and Patrolmen Killmon and Etheridge, officers figuring in the investigation were Detective Sergt. B. H. Dowe and Patrolmen F. Phelps and R. A. James and Detective H. H. Hylton.
Bosman attained a position of some prominence in the news last year when on two occasions he turned witness for the Government in Federal liquor cases.
Harry Bosman - Photo taken by Virginian-Pilot photographer Charles Borjes
Katherine Ewell - Photo by Charles Borjes
Previously unpublished photos of Harry Bosman – These are scans of the only remaining negatives of Bosman. The negatives are suffering from from chemical decomposition resulting in the production of acids which in time will destroy the negatives.
On the morning of April 23, 1937, (75 years ago today) just over two months after the violent death of Kitty, the body of Harry Bosman was discovered in his Norfolk jail cell.
Bosman faced a life sentence in the state penitentiary and was discovered by the “Hall Hand” a Mr. Alvin E. Jackson.
Bosman had attached a white belt to the bottom part of the bunk above his and placed it around his throat, and appeared to lurch his body forward with enough force to cause his own death by strangulation.
Norfolk City Sergeant Charles Francis told a reporter for The Ledger-Dispatch that “Every precaution customary in such cases has been taken and it seems from the evidence that Bosman was able to snuff out his life without attracting the attention of Jackson who was stationed on the landing. So as far as we are concerned the matter is closed”.
And with that statement, the book on Katherine Ewell and Harry Bosman was shut.
Harry Bosman is buried in Norfolk’s Forest lawn cemetery.
And Katherine “Kitty” Elizabeth Ewell in Norfolk’s St. Mary’s Cemetery.
-Photos courtesy of the Sargeant Memorial Room and a special thanks to the staff of the Norfolk Public Library Sargeant Memorial Room for their assistance.
Ewell’s headstone photo courtesy of - usgwarchives.org
Portions of this story were previously published in the February edition of The Times of Tidewater. You may subscribe HERE.
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