The Loss Of Miss Constance

THE LOSS OF MISS CONSTANCE

Norman V. Kelly

It was 1928 in Peoria, Illinois and Bradley Polytech Institute was going strong, or was it a college by then? Frankly the average Peorian didn’t know the difference, but they were still proud of the place just the same. Prohibition was basically ignored here by 1928 and the Roaring Twenties were winding down. The Great Depression was coming down the pike, but here in Peoria, things were going very well. The head of the English Department at Bradley was a forty-three year old woman named Jennie Meta Constance with ten years of teaching experience. Jennie was a bright, well-liked teacher who was very active in our community and an inspiration to her friends and students.

On that fateful evening of August 28, 1928, Miss Constance was spending her summer up at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois doing work on her advanced degree in English Literature. Right around 9:30 P.M. she said good night to her three friends and left the library for her apartment.
Miss Jennie Constance never made it home.

Early that next morning a milkman made the grisly discovery of her body half concealed within a high hedge surrounding the mansion of George Peak. Detectives discovered that some of her clothing had been ripped from her body and a brutal wound to the head apparently caused her death. They also found the murder weapon which was a large steel pipe wrapped with a white, blood-stained rag around one end of it. They followed a trail of bits of clothing during which they found the victim’s library card, pieces of her jewelry and her empty purse.

LOCAL HEADLINES

Here in Peoria local newspapers brought the horrific news in the form of headlines and follow-up stories as reporters and Bradley faculty headed for
Evanston, Illinois in disbelief. The Evanston police rounded up the usual suspects and daily our local papers kept us abreast of these new suspects. Everyday Peorians hoped and expected to read that the real killer had been arrested. What they did not expect was this headline here in Peoria:

NEW CONSTANCE DIFFERENCE WITH TEACHERS SEEN AS CAUSE OF MURDER.

As folks read this article their temperatures rose. The Evanston Police were telling the people here in Peoria and Evanston that Miss Constance was killed because of arguments with three members of the Bradley faculty. I hope you can imagine the impact that had here in town and the uproar that idiotic theory caused. The letters and telephone calls led by Dean Wykoff to that police department were numerous and boisterous to say the least.
The buzz of that ridiculous accusation had not yet quieted down when Peoria was elated over the next headline here in Peoria, Illinois.

CONSTANCE SLAYER HELD FOR JURY

Peoria reporters wrote that police had taken their suspect, David Shanks, a shoeshine employee working in Evanston, Illinois back to the scene of the crime where he confessed that he had murdered Miss Constance during a robbery. He told police he had hidden in the shadows with the steel pipe waiting for a victim. Of course, it could have been anyone, but it turned out to be Bradley’s own Jennie M. Constance.

Perhaps after the folks in Peoria chastised the Evanston detectives they decided to do some serious police work. As a result, they traced Jennie’s watch to a young man named Lee Bart Bastion. He told the police that he had purchased the watch for $1.17 from David Shanks. Bastion then took the watch to a jeweler to have the initials J.M.C. removed from it. The jeweler called police and Lee Bastion was immediately arrested. That led to the arrest and confession by Shanks that he had murdered and robbed Miss Constance. Police also arrested a man at a cleaning establishment when they learned hat he had cleaned the blood off of Shanks’ clothing and did not report the incident to police.

Detectives not only solved the murder of Miss Constance, they connected their suspect, David Shanks to at least two other murders around the Northwestern Campus and numerous robberies. David Shanks was eventually sentenced to life in prison, and I for one hope he died there.

Jennie Meta Constance was an outstanding educator and the City of Peoria mourned her senseless and untimely death. Officials over at Bradley named a woman’s dormitory building after Miss Constance in her memory. Her name is still honored on the Bradley University campus to this very day.
So, Miss Constance never made it back to her beloved Bradley Polytech in Peoria, Illinois. She was buried back home in Cumberland, Wisconsin. The next time you are on the campus of Bradley University I hope you give a thought to Jennie, she was a keeper.

Editor’s note: Go to www.peorialibrary.org find Let’s Talk Peoria History for more stories.