1931 Murder of Pheobe Stader (Part Two)
Capture, Trial, Conclusion
Submitted by Al Shipley, City Historian and Rahway Library Research Consultant
(Editor’s note: Part One of this story can be found in the October issue of “Our Town,” page 16. Log on to Renna Media, “Our Town” and scroll down to past issues to open the October, 2023 issue.)
It was almost 11:00 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, February 1931 when William Frazer left Rahway with the bloody corpse of his paramour, Pheobe Stader, hidden under a blanket in the back seat of his brown Buick. He was headed for Florida to complete the romantic getaway he and Pheobe had planned just before he killed her.
By midnight that night, Frazer drove into Washington, D.C. where he parked and spent the night sleeping in his car. On Friday morning, he drove to Richmond, Virginia, stopped for gas and continued on for about 45 miles until he reached the small village of Tappahannok. The day was cool, but the sun was shining as Frazer pulled the car into an open field. He drove across it for a distance of about a mile until reaching the beginning of a wooded area. He exited the Buick and looked cautiously around. When assured there was no one in sight to notice him, he opened the back door, pulled Pheobe’s body out, and dragged it behind a cluster of bushes. Using a pair of scissors, he cut the clothes from Pheobe’s body to stymie efforts of identification. Frazer then gathered the shreds of clothes, looked over the field again, turned from the nude body, and returned to the car. He headed south towards Raleigh, North Carolina to rendezvous with his cousin Ira who was bringing $200.00 from his mother.
Sometime, somewhere, along the ride south, Frazer picked up a young hitchhiker – 16-year-old Will McGrath-who would travel with him all the way to Raleigh. It was during this journey that Frazer made an unusual stop that raised suspicions in the mind of his passenger. After stopping on the side of a country road, Frazer told the youth he had to get rid of some rags. He then took the remains of Pheobe’s clothes, walked a short distance off the roadway, and set them afire.
It was early Friday evening when Frazer reached Raleigh’s Sir Walter Hotel where he met his cousin who had arrived by bus around 5:00. Raleigh’s grand, ten-story hotel was a safe place to meet as there was little chance of being observed in the busy lobby. Ira handed Frazer a wad of cash and, still feeling obligated to his erring cousin, agreed to send him more money within the next few days. He instructed Ira to address the envelope to the alias, H. G. Devlin, care of General Delivery. Frazer planned to get lodging in a boarding house and remain in Raleigh until money was forwarded which would enable him to continue on to Florida. Before departing, Frazer intimated to Ira that he could get “ten years” as an accomplice if the law ever caught up with them.
The long bus ride back to Rahway gave Ira time to think. He became more and more unnerved as he wondered how long Frazer’s odyssey could continue and in what jeopardy he might be placing himself. Returning to Rahway, he went directly to Frazer’s Jefferson Avenue home, to confer with his cousin’s wife, Hilda. Although she remained steadfast in her loyalty to her way-ward husband, she realized his only chance for leniency might come if he surrendered. The two finally agreed that Ira should meet with Rahway’s Chief of Police, George McIntyre, on Monday morning to tell the grim story.
Chief McIntyre found the entire account baffling, and immediately called upon the Union County Chief of Detectives, Roy A. Martin, to come to Rahway to hear the story and discuss matters of jurisdiction since the place where Pheobe died might have been Elizabeth. Together they made some initial inquiries, and after interviewing Pheobe’s husband, the two were more convinced the story might be true and a murderer was on the lam. Figuring Frazer would be waiting for money mailed from relatives, Detective Martin conceived a clever scheme to nab the fugitive. The detective mailed a letter to the Raleigh Post Office addressed to H. G. Devlin. He then contacted Raleigh’s Chief of Police to explain the plan and ask him to set up a stake-out in the post office for the next few days.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening, February 24, a man, looking for his lost dog in a field in Tappahannok, Virginia, spied buzzards circling over a clump of bushes. Walking closer he noticed a number of other scavenging birds were on the ground flitting around the same scrub brush. Terrified that his dog might be their prey, he ran towards the bushes scaring off the birds. When he reached the spot, he was horrified to discover the body of a badly mutilated woman. Authorities were immediately notified, and the body was brought to the County Offices at Bowling Green, Virginia. The next afternoon, Phillip Stader arrived to view the body. He was only able to identify the gruesome remains to be his wife, Pheobe, by a bruise on the right thigh and by the way the toes were trimmed and polished.
On that the very same night, Frazer stopped by the Raleigh Post Office to check for any mail addressed to H. G. Devlin. The postal clerk handed him two letters and as he turned to a counter to open them, the clerk gave a silent signal to the plain clothes detectives. Frazer’s flight was over, and he was apprehended without incident.
The case against William Frazer for the murder of Pheobe Stader went before the Union County Grand Jury on June 15, 1931. Witnesses for the prosecution included Frazer’s cousin, Ira, who gave his account, and Will McGrath, the young hitchhiker, who testified he was there when Frazer set fire to a bunch of “rags” during the drive to Raleigh. Prosecutors also presented a board of psychiatrists who had examined the alleged murderer, and concluded he was sane. The defense argued that there was an absence of premeditation and no motive and sought a verdict of accidental homicide and temporary insanity.
In a highly unusual method of getting to the facts, the brown Buick “death car” was brought inside the courtroom. It had been hoisted up to the second floor and placed next to the jury box so the details and angles of the shooting could be demonstrated. Frazer was first to enter the vehicle and from the back seat re-enacted how his shot was accidental and was fired from the rear. He explained he went to get the rifle after hearing sounds of a wild animal. Ballistic experts followed and demonstrated how the shot could only have come from someone standing from the side of the victim, not from behind.
It took the jury only six hours to reach a verdict. Frazer was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and upon hearing the verdict, Judge Alfred A. Stein sentenced him to die by electric chair on July 27, 1931. Three days later, a stay of execution was granted until September.
Over the next several months, Frazer’s wife and mother, who both remained faithful to Frazer, worked with lawyers for an acquittal. The mother claimed that her son, a World War I veteran, had not been the same since fighting in France. She maintained that having joined the army when he was just 17, he had trouble re-adjusting to civilian life and began to drink. She recruited several of her son’s army buddies to make statements on his behalf citing his war record. Frazer’s wife blamed Pheobe Stader for all her husband’s problems and referred to her as a gold-digger. His lawyers petitioned the Court of Pardons to commute the death sentence citing a plea of insanity. After their requests failed, they appealed to Governor A. Harry Moore to intercede and grant a reprieve.
Governor Moore, however, refused the request, and William Frazer’s last hope was gone. His fate was sealed: on April Fools Day 1932, he was executed at Trenton State Prison.
