Long Beach History: The Unsolved Case of Starr Faithfull

The mysterious death of Starr Faithfull represents to many true-crime fanatics, a crime that embodied the Jazz Age. On the surface, Starr Faithfull was a perfect representation of the flapper lifestyle. She was a young, attractive, socialite model who frequented speakeasies and had many sexual liaisons, which would later be uncovered through her diary. Because of her allure, Faithfull’s case gained national and international recognition in 1931, with Times magazine calling it a “sexy death mystery.” The story first broke when her body was found on the shoreline by a beachcomber on the morning of June 8th, 1931, in Long Beach, New York.

Background:

Starr Faithfull was born Marian Starr Wyman in 1906 in Evanston, Illinois. Shortly after she was born, she and her family moved to New Jersey. Though Starr’s mother came from a relatively wealthy family, they themselves were poor, often relying on family to support them. Starr’s aunts and cousins, for example, contributed to sending her to the prestigious Rogers Hall Academy in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she began to go on outings with her cousin, Andrew Peters. Andrew was a middle-aged Boston politician. During their outings, he would drug Faithfull with ether, an anesthetic, then take advantage of her drugged state and molest her. When her parents became aware of the abuse, they blackmailed Peters, forcing him to pay them for their silence. This hush money was her family’s only source of income. During and following the abuse, Faithfull became sullen and reclusive, dropping out of her prestigious school with only two months left to graduate, and moving to New York City. In reality, she was not the carefree flapper that the media painted her as, but an emotionally scarred victim of past abuse.

Faithfull’s family last reported seeing her on June 5th, leaving the house in the same silk dress she was wearing when found dead on the Long Beach shore. Many witnesses claimed that they had seen an intoxicated Faithfull on or near the RMS Mauretania, the RMS Carmania, and the SS Île de France. However, her whereabouts beyond this point are a bit unclear. What happened to Faithfull can be separated into two main theories: suicide or murder.

Suicide Theory:

A prominent theory is that Faithfull committed suicide by jumping overboard on one of the ships that left from the New York City port. Some also believe that, intoxicated on barbiturates, she fell overboard. This was further corroborated by the fact that Faithfull had written three letters to Doctor Carr, outlining her depression and plans to commit suicide. The New York Times published these letters on June 22nd and June 24th. In the third letter, the day before she disappeared, she wrote:

“It's all up with me now. This is something I am going to put through. The only thing that bothers me about it—the only thing I dread—is being outwitted and prevented from doing this, which is the only possible thing for me to do. If one wants to get away with murder one has to jolly well keep one's wits about one. It's the same way with suicide. If I don't watch out I will wake up in a psychopathic ward, but I intend to watch out and accomplish my end this time.” Because of this letter, it was almost unanimously believed that Starr Faithfull had committed suicide, a product of her drug addiction, unrequited love for Doctor Carr, and her mental illness caused by her trauma. However, her stepfather, Stanley Faithfull, refused to believe this. He believed she was murdered.

Murder Theory:

Stanley postulated that Andrew Peters, her former abuser, had her killed to prevent her from testifying against him. Additionally, the amount of sand found in her lungs made investigators believe that she was drowned close to shore. An investigation into Long Beach’s wave and tide patterns was conducted to understand how Faithfull’s body ended up in Long Beach, but the results were never published.

Stanley continuously insisted that she was murdered and openly admitted to taking Peters’ money after blackmailing him, rather than seeking legal justice for Starr. He also gave misleading and inaccurate information about Starr to the police, making him an untrustworthy source. Many believe he was simply trying to keep the public interested in the story by insisting on a homicide investigation rather than suicide. But why did Faithfull have so much sand in her lungs if not for murder? Why was a woman fitting her description seen in Island Park that night with a mysterious group of men? Why was she covered in bruises when found on the shore? These questions were never answered, nor was a murderer ever found.

My Takeaways:

Ultimately, by October 1931, her case was considered closed, without any true consensus on the nature of her death. But one thing is clear to me: Starr Faithfull was let down and taken advantage of throughout her entire life, which was the likely reason for her demise. Even in death, the media focused only on the scandalous aspects of her life without truly recognizing her as a victim. Newspapers printed photos of her bruised body and later published excerpts of her diary which outlined her sexual relationships as well as the years of abuse she endured from Peters, who was never prosecuted.

When I think about Long Beach, I rarely think of it as the scene of a famous unsolved case. Long Beach had only been established as a city in 1922, but this quickly made it a recognizable name. Though the case of Starr Faithfull was active nearly a century ago, it is still a reflection of the impact of abuse and media sensationalism. There are many more theories out there, but what happened to Starr Faithfull will likely always remain a Long Beach mystery.