Elizabeth DeBruicker:1939, Attica, Indiana

          I read once that the Indiana State Song “On the Banks of the Wabash” (1913) by Paul Dresser was written about the view of the Wabash River from Attica, Indiana. The song is a melancholy ballad about longing for home, comfort and longing for a lost love.  

         The lyrics were borrowed and changed a bit to write “Back Home Again in Indiana”(1917) by Ballard McDonald and James F. Hanley which more people might be familiar with from the opening of the Indy 500 every year. Fans of Jazz will recognize it as a jazz standard. Both songs, however, express a melancholy longing for the comforts of home. Moonlight on the Wabash, new mown hay, candlelight gleaming through the Sycamores are all synonymous with Indiana.

          In 1939 the citizens of Attica, Indiana were likely fairly familiar with both songs. They were likely steeped in Sycamores and new mown hay.

         The quiet little town of Attica sits north of Terre Haute. It is a very picturesque little town with a typical Midwest downtown, parks and even a golf course. 

          Elizabeth Seraphine DeBruicker and her family lived 4 miles east of Attica, Indiana in Fountain County. Elizabeth was 11 years old in 1939. Her mother was Clementia DeSutter DeBruicker and her father was Peter DeBruicker. Elizabeth had dark brown hair, blue eyes and delicate features. She was taller than most of her friends at 4 feet 10 inches.  She was very thin as she only weighed about 80 pounds. That probably isn’t surprising as the country was still in the grips of the Great Depression. In the Summer of 1939 the United States wasn't at war yet. But, Elizabeth and her family were probably keeping apprised of the events unfolding in Europe. Britain was not yet being bombed by Germany. That would begin in the Summer of 1940. The United States would not declare war until we were attacked on December 7th, 1941. In rural Indiana things were still peaceful. Young men weren’t yet signing up and leaving for war. Young women weren’t yet packing their bags and moving to bigger towns for factory jobs and a chance to make their own way in the world for a little while. In Attica, it was warm and green. Corn was growing and the days were long. The golf course was busy during the day and the movie theater was busy at night. 

            On July 21st, 1939 Elizabeth went to a 4H meeting. Rural people in the Midwest will fondly recall being a part of 4H. I loved it. A weekly 4H meeting was an occasion in the Summer to get cleaned up and dressed up a little and to see my friends from school. We learned skills. Raising animals, cooking, electricity, arts and crafts, sewing, were just some of the projects available. We worked on our projects all summer and had a chance to show them off at the fair each year. 

           Her friends said that she enjoyed the 4H meeting that day. She left for home at the same time that all the other kids left. But Elizabeth didn’t make it home. Immediately her family and friends began looking for her. Had she twisted an ankle? Had she been chased by a dog? Was she off playing somewhere and lost track of time?

Taking a short cut across the golf course was a regular route.

          She wasn’t missing for long. Searchers retraced her usual route and found Elizabeth’s body in a shallow grave at the edge of a gravel pit at the Harrison Hills Golf Course. It was a quick and hasty grave. She was placed at the edge of the pit and sand and gravel had been scooped over her.  A former police officer found the body. Former Warren County Sheriff, O.L. Stewart, was one of the many volunteers assisting in the search for Elizabeth. He kept other searchers away from the body.  Experience told him Elizabeth had not ended up there accidentally. He knew this was a murder and that evidence should be preserved. 

          Sheriff William Henry Ramsey of Attica was in charge of the investigation. Elizabeth’s body was taken from the scene. Even before the medical examiner had finished his report; the local police were questioning individuals who might be involved. 

           Thomas Boys was 26. He was a groundskeeper at the Harrison Hills Golf Club in Attica. He was a married father of three. As someone familiar with the golf course and the gravel pits; he was one of the first people questioned. Police questioned 6 men in total. 

          The newspapers picked up the story fairly quickly. It was a sensational and gripping story. Elizabeth had been such a pretty little girl. She was walking back to her family’s farm when a terrible beast had attacked. It had all the hallmarks of a Grimm’s Fairy Tale. 

          But this was not a work of fiction. Elizabeth DeBruicker had been raped, beaten, strangled and drowned. 

          After questioning; the 26 year old golf course groundskeeper, Thomas Boys (The newspapers spell his name incorrectly in 1939 as Boyce.) was charged with her rape and murder. He confessed to seeing Elizabeth walking across the course. He said he called out to her and they chatted a bit. He raped her there on the golf course. He said the bleeding that was the result of raping an 11 year old child made him panic. He strangled her with the belt of her dress. He also held her head under water on a golf course pond to make sure she was dead. Then he hastily buried her in the gravel pile. 

           He later recanted that confession. He was examined in order to determine if he was competent to stand trial. Thomas Boys was found sane and competent. 

           Thomas Boys was supposed to go to trial in January of 1940 but the judge fell ill. Thomas Boyce’s trial was postponed until April 15th, 1940. 

           While he was being held in jail in Crawfordsville on March 11th, 1940 he managed to overpower the guards and escape. Police from many towns were called upon to set up road blocks and search for him. Thomas Boyce was apprehended in a private home. He appeared dazed as he sat in a rocking chair. He said he had fallen asleep in the yard and then gone inside the unlocked home. He was searched and police found a razor and a packet of razor blades in his pocket. There was also a note to his wife saying he didn’t want to be taken alive. 

          His trial proceeded in April. On May 2nd 1940 Thomas Boys (papers spell it this way in 1940) was convicted. Judge Edgar Rice handed down a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thomas Boys said he would rather have been given the electric chair rather than spend his life in prison. 

          His wife divorced him. She later remarried and moved to Houston, Texas. 

      Thomas Boys appeared in the news again in 1977. He was appealing his conviction and hoping for freedom. He was hoping for a retrial. He wasn’t allowed to apply for parole. He had tried for clemency 11 times. He was 66. He worked for a few years making license plates in the “tag shop”.  Then he later worked as a groundskeeper at the prison. He had a green house and a little cottage of his own. He even had the use of a truck to get around the prison grounds. He said that sometimes guards would take him into town for dinner or a movie. He complained that the newer inmates were rougher and “it wasn’t like it used to be”. He felt sad that he hadn’t seen his sons since 1942. (Elizabeth’s parents hadn’t seen her since 1939.) Thomas Boys never mentioned Elizabeth DeBruicker in this interview. He expressed no remorse but only spoke of what he hoped to gain. 

           It sounds like he had a fairly nice time in prison living in his own cottage, a truck to drive and even trips to the movies with guards. It almost seems as if Indiana rewarded this pedophile and murderer instead of punishing him. His attempt to get a new trial was unsuccessful. On January 18th, 1985 Thomas Boys died in prison in Michigan City of COPD, acute bronchitis, and a possible pulmonary embolism. I find it ironic that he died experiencing some of the pain, distress and horror that Elizabeth felt as she was strangled and drowned. He was in a prison infirmary though and likely had medication to ease his suffering. 

          Elizabeth Seraphine DeBruicker was only an 11 year old child. Her funeral was held at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church; the church she and her family attended each week. She was buried in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Attica. What dreams of hers went unfulfilled? What might she have achieved? We will never know.