Editor’s note: This is part of a historical series. The following is information from a 1957 article about the mysterious disappearance of  Warsaw cigar store clerk Frank Tucker. The article is from the files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society. 

WARSAW — One of Warsaw’s greatest mysteries, one that was never completely solved, occurred on the evening of Jan. 28, 1927.

Frank Tucker, a 58-year-old cigar store clerk who had not missed a day of work in four years, reportedly vanished while walking from work to his home at 412 Pike St., Warsaw.

News reports from that time claimed Tucker had over $4,000 worth of cash and checks on him when he disappeared.

It was established almost to a certainty that Tucker was waylaid, murdered and robbed while on his way from the cigar store to his home.

No conviction was ever obtained nor was a body ever found. One man was tried for murder, but the trial resulted in a hung jury. A second trial brought forth a verdict of not guilty, and the accused was set free.

Old timers who were close to the “Tucker Case” say that petty bickering between law enforcement officers resulted in a miscarriage of justice, and that the guilty parties were caught but went free.

Tucker worked and lived in Warsaw for 30 years. At one time, he was city clerk. He was about five feet, eight inches tall with a medium build, blue eyes and thinning gray hair. He was married, but his wife had left him, leaving him living alone in the Tucker home at 412 Pike St.

Rather eccentric, especially in financial matters, Tucker always carried huge sums of money with him. He loaned this money freely and cashed checks of any amounts for anyone, friends or strangers alike. Tucker would say he could tell whether a fellow was honest merely by talking to him. He charged no interest on his loans.

When he disappeared, 34 Warsaw men owed him more than $1,500.

He was last seen by Charles Armington on that wet and slippery Friday night. Armington had been down to the depot to mail a letter. Coming up Lake Street, he saw Tucker in the middle of the street, turning onto Lake Street from Center Street. They talked briefly, Armington walking on the sidewalk and Tucker in the street. At the corner where the Christian Church was located, Armington went to his parents’ home where he and his wife were visiting. Tucker walked on up Lake Street.

When Tucker did not turn up for work on Saturday morning. Bob Breading thought this rather odd. Tucker was always prompt. When Tucker hadn’t shown up by 9:30 a. m., two men went to his house to see what was wrong. They found his bedroom undisturbed and his bed untouched. 

He apparently had not been home at all. A check of the neighborhood revealed that the neighbors did not remember seeing him come home. He had left Breading’s about 8:30 p. m. Armington had seen him before 9 p. m.

A few days later, a cap with blood spots was found in an alley off East Main Street. The bloodstained cap, identified as being Frank’s by Robert Breading, a fellow worker at the cigar store, and Frank’s brother, the late Fred Tucker, was found near the Big Four Railroad crossing at East Main Street. The hunt was on. A private detective was hired by Tucker’s estate to find clues.

The detective turned up a lead implicating four men who had conspired to rob Tucker twice before. Confessions were obtained, and three of the men went to prison for two to 14 years on the robbery charge. One man turned state’s evidence and was given a suspended sentence.

A posse searched the rivers and lakes area meticulously for Tucker, but still no evidence was turned up.

One of the men who was convicted of robbery confessed that he helped do away with Tucker. According to his story, the assailants grabbed Tucker from the back at the corner of Pike and North Lake streets, slugged him on the head, then went down an alley to Center Lake. They took the money from Tucker, then tied a gear they found near the old ice house to his legs.

They hauled Tucker to the edge of the lake where a hole had been cut through the ice and threw him in. Then they proceeded up Main Street, missed the turn at Detroit Street and went down an alley where one of the men saw Tucker’s cap on the car floor and threw the cap in the alley. They then drove back to Detroit Street and left town.

This confession touched off a hunt for Tucker in Center Lake which rivaled anything that had before or has ever happened since in Warsaw. No expense was spared; the ice was cleared from the lake by dynamite. Drag lines with teams of horses and gas engines were used to drag the lake.

Another confession was later forthcoming. According to this one, the body wasn’t cast into Center Lake, but all the other details were the same; in this version, though, the body was taken either to Elkhart or Michigan.

After the second confession, one of the men who had turned state’s evidence in the conspiracy case agreed to plead guilty to the murder of Frank Tucker, but one of the law enforcement officers declined the plea, so it went to trial. After the first trial in Whitley County Court produced a hung jury, the second trial in the same court resulted in a verdict of not guilty.

Other charges against the ones who had confessed to being a part of the murder were dropped, and everyone walked free. 

The Warsaw City Chief of Police believed, even up to the time of the murder trial, that Tucker had just “gone away.” Rumors through the years included reports of Tucker being in Cuba, Canada or out west, but none of these have been verified.

However, Tucker did reportedly once tell a friend that he could disappear from Warsaw and no one would know where he was. It is possible that Tucker did just that. He had plenty of time to go from Pike Street to the Pennsylvania railroad station, watch to see if anyone was on the platform, climb on the late train and leave Warsaw.

But why would he have done that? The day after Tucker disappeared, an administrator was appointed by the court to collect money owed him and take care of his affairs. Upon investigating his finances, it was found that he had $4,000 in bonds and cash in a Warsaw bank, as well as $1,500 owed to him.

None of the checks that Tucker honored on Jan. 28 ever turned up.

According to acquaintances, Tucker often said that if an attempt was ever made to rob him he would turn the money over to his assailants without a struggle.

Despite never finding a body, Tucker was declared dead a year after his disappearance. His wife and family received the remainder of his savings after covering the cost of the investigation into his disappearance.

In March of 1930, the murder mystery was revived when four boys found a skull and a few bones at the edge of the Warsaw-Elkhart Road, a mile north of Warsaw. Many believed the skull was that of Tucker.

The skull was crushed on the left side, as though from a blow.

The boys who made the discovery were Lloyd Rose, Robert Emmons, Hans Warner and Morris Nine, all of Warsaw. 

The boys immediately reported the finding to authorities who, after a preliminary examination of the skull, said they believed it was that of Tucker.

The blood spattered cap believed to be Tucker’s that was found a few days after his disappearance was cut on the left side, as though the person wearing it had been struck with a club or some other sort of weapon.

The skull also had no teeth in the upper jaw. Tucker was known to have false teeth.

Some doubt existed, however, as there were people who were of the opinion that the bones were those of a man who had been dead longer than two years.

Since that fateful night in 1928, numerous skulls have been found in the area. It was reported that Fred identified one of them as being his brother’s and had it buried in his grave.

You can draw your own conclusions. Did Tucker board a late train out of Warsaw and just forget about the money he had in the bank and leave the money owed to him, as well as leave behind a brother who was apparently close to him and go to Cuba or elsewhere? Or was the confession of one of the men tried for the murder of Tucker true and his body is still lying at the bottom of Center Lake? Or is Tucker in an unmarked grave somewhere outside the county?

If you had the idea his wife could have done it, she couldn’t. She proved to authorities that she was out of the state at the time.

— Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels