Shooting Thoroughfare Murder- Part 2

The March 25th Blog entry dealt with the murder of Jacob Knobe, a New York ganster whose body was found near Tuckerton at the end of Rt. S4A near Shooting Thoroughfare. A September 15, 1932 Tuckerton Beacon article described the finding of the body and the beginning of a subsequent investigation.

A small followup article appeared in the Beacon the following week with a headline announcing the charge of murder by the Coroner's jury.

The jury met on September 13th at the Coroner's funeral home in Barnegat where they concluded that ex convict Jacob Konova was found murdered near Shooting Thoroughfare having expired as a result of six bullet wounds to the head. The last name of the victim was reported as "Konova" at the inquest while the initial report in the Tuckerton Beacon reported the surname as "Konobe" while providing a number of known aliases. 

The coroner's jury was composed of six Barnegat residents who probably had a once in a lifetime experience. I'm wondering if any Blog readers recognize the name of a relative who served on the jury and, if so, whether they heard any family stories about the inquest.

The two doctors who performed the autopsy confirmed the original newspaper account that the six shots that killed the victim were fired at close range. Other than that they appeared to give no other testimony.

The coroner's jury evidently did not see the victim's body but were shown a "Rogues Gallery" photograph. I guess this was an attempt to shield the locals from viewing the actual corpse which would have been a much more traumatic experience. I'm sure the photograph was upsetting enough.

The Parkertown residents who were involved with the discovery of the body testified to complete the inquest.

It is not surprising that few new details of the incident came to light at the September 13th inquest as only a day had passed since the discovery of the body. However, the following week's Tuckerton Beacon would report on some significant developments in the case, including a connection to an associate of the infamous gangster "Legs" Diamond who was himself a victim of a mob hit on December 18, 1931.

 Legs Diamond courtesy of Google Images

Stay tuned for more breaking news in the next Blog entry.

Pete S