Minnesota Then
Hard-working and likable, the twenty-year-old Matthews was a flour packer at the Pillsbury Mill. She lived at 3547 S. 20th Ave in south Minneapolis with her father, stepmother, half-brother, and two younger sisters.
Matthews and her younger sister Jennie often went out on weekends but always shared their plans with their father. He worried about their safety and wanted to know they'd be safe. That weekend, Matthews told him she would meet Ida Belfy and Minnie Morgan for a show at the Isis Theatre, then have dinner.
She planned to spend the night at Ms. Belfy's to avoid riding the streetcar alone, but her plans changed during the show. Instead, after dinner, she boarded the southbound Cedar streetcar home.
It was 11:06 PM.
The streetcar stopped at Cedar and Thirty-Fourth Street, and Matthews walked the rest of the way home. Less than half a block from home, an unknown assailant attacked her. She screamed, but her cries went unanswered. Matthews fought bravely but was strangled and left to die. Her clothes were tattered, her neck scratched and bruised, and her lips swollen.
Neighbors reported hearing cries of "please let me go" between 11:30 and 11:45 PM. Mrs. H. C. Thomas, who lived two doors from the Matthews family, was awakened by the yells but saw nothing and assumed it was children playing. Mrs. J. Larsen and her son Verner, who lived down the block, stepped onto their porch to investigate but couldn't see anything in the darkness. Larsen sent Verner next door to the Tibbetts' to call police.
Alerted by Verner, Mrs. G. W. Tibbetts and her daughter Eva rushed outside to investigate. About a hundred feet from the body, it moved, and they ran back inside to call the Sixth Precinct. A dispatcher promised to send an officer. Tibbetts later reported that a motorcycle patrolman arrived "after a time" at Thirty-Fifth Street and Twentieth Avenue, about half a block from the scene. Since he wasn't in uniform, they were afraid to approach him. After standing around briefly, the officer rode away.
They continued to hear faint movements from the person on the ground. At 12:30 AM, Mrs. Tibbetts called police again, suggesting it was probably a drunk person and they should come get him. She gave her address and promised to leave a light on. The dispatcher said they'd send someone on horseback, but after waiting over an hour, Mrs. Tibbetts and her daughter turned off the light and went to bed.
Eva Tibbetts discovered Alice Matthews's lifeless body around 7:00 AM. She immediately got her mother to notify the Matthews family. Jennie Matthews later reported brushing against the body around 1:00 AM. Assuming it was a passed-out drunk person, she ran home without saying anything.
Mrs. Tibbetts called police again. This time, they had no trouble finding the crime scene. They discovered a hatpin near Matthews's body, likely used to ward off her attacker. Police canvassed the neighborhood looking for a man with scratches on his hands and face. They also questioned streetcar conductors and anyone else who had ridden when Matthews did.
Newspapers called the crime the most brutal in city history. The mayor criticized the police response, increasing pressure to find the killer. Authorities were inundated with reports of suspicious men, but none proved useful, and police found no solid leads. To aid the investigation, the governor, mayor, and City Council each offered a five-hundred-dollar reward for information leading to the murderer's capture.
Unfortunately, the killer was never found. Police arrested numerous suspects, but none were linked to the crime. One man confessed four times over three years but was deemed to have monomania—an unhealthy obsession with the case—and was committed to an asylum in Rochester, Minnesota.
On March 27, 1912, Matthews was buried at Layman's Cemetery in Minneapolis, with more than a thousand attendees. Police scanned the crowd for suspicious behavior but found no leads.
Matthews's murder and the search for her killer remained headline news until April 15, 1912, when the RMS Titanic sank and overshadowed the case. Although local citizens continued to discuss Matthews and seek justice, the investigation went cold.