Elmer Schroeder was murdered on September 21, 1953. The day prior, Elmer's relatives and friends kept phoning him at his apartment but got no response. The building's manager was alerted. On September 22, 1953, police were called, and the manager used a passkey to enter the apartment. They found all the lights on and the apartment “neatly ransacked.” Cords had been cut from Venetian blinds in the apartment’s living room, bedroom, and bathroom. In the bedroom, they found Elmer's bludgeoned body, face up to the bed. His hands were bound behind his back. His feet, which were crossed at the ankles, had a cord tied around them; the cord was secured under the bed. Tied extremely tight around Elmer's neck was another cord attached to the bed’s headboard. Two blows, one to the top of the head, the other to the left temple, which looked to have been inflicted with brass knuckles, had crushed his skull. There was a sock stuffed into Elmer’s mouth, held in place by a torn bath towel tied around his face. He had been dead for at least 24 hours. Reports emphasized that Elmer was unmarried, and used coded language to suggest he was a gay man whose "sinful lifestyle" had caught up to him. Elmer was last seen alive around midnight on Saturday, September 19, 1953, at a downtown bar, accompanied by another man. A day later, James Clifford Beardsmore was picked up, questioned for eight hours, then released by the police. Beardsmore told police he had met Elmer at a party that summer. When Elmer became ill in July, he suggested that Beardsmore move in with him until he recovered. On October 10, 1953, police issued a national alert naming Basil Kingsley Beck, an escaped convict, as the No. 1 suspect in Elmer’s murder. The pair was last seen together three days before the murder. On March 1, 1954, Beck was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Two days later, he was arrested in California, where he had been working at an auto supply shop under an assumed name. When questioned about Elmer's murder, Beck said he had been in the area but had never heard of Elmer. Police soon latched onto another suspect named Francis Ballem, who had recently been arrested for another murder. Police searched for a link between Ballem and Elmer but had no success. Two years later, police named Thomas C. Wetling Jr. as a new suspect. Wetling had been implicated in Elmer’s murder by a person who was being questioned by the FBI in an unrelated investigation. According to the informant, Wetling and Elmer knew each other, and after a night of drinking, Wetling accompanied Elmer to his apartment where they argued before Wetling killed him. Detectives questioned Wetling and noted he bore a striking resemblance to the previous suspect, Basil Kingsley Beck. It was soon revealed the informant was James Clifford Beardsmore, who had been questioned and released by police just after the murder. On February 18, 1956, Wetling was indicted for murder. During the trial, Beardsmore testified he had loaned Wetling a suit, the pants of which he later found in a closet “covered with blood.” He also stated that Wetling had confessed to murdering Elmer. The prosecution had no physical evidence against Wetling. Wetling denied meeting or knowing Elmer and also denied he had ever told Beardsmore he had killed him. On September 25, 1957, the jury declared Wetling not guilty. After he was acquitted, Wetling disappeared from the area, leaving behind a wife and two young children. No one was ever convicted for Elmer's murder. He was 55 years old.
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