Gunzer's Ghost

Henry Dierking was a 25 year old grocer with a business at 813 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, when he married wealthy widow Appolonia Gunzer after a whirlwind courtship of a month and a half.

Appolonia's late husband John Gunzer (George in some accounts) was a saloon owner in East Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. He had died suddenly in May 1877 - murdered while asleep in bed, bludgeoned with a knife or possibly killed by an air-gun (this was one of the many mysteries of the case). His widow was the main suspect in the case but nothing was ever proved and she was not arrested.* She inherited an estate worth about $30,000, which included the saloon. Appolonia - or Abby, as she was sometimes called - ran it alone until a customer brought a friend called Henry Dierking in to meet her. After a six weeks' courtship, she and Dierking married October 15, 1878.

The honeymoon, such as it was, did not last long. Dierking had had no idea of Mrs. Gunzer's history, though it had been the talk of East Williamsburgh only a few years before. Of course, he was not from there - 813 Park was roughly in the neighborhood of Bushwick, just to the southeast. And now, every time he went into a shop in East Williamsburgh and identified himself, the shopkeeper would gasp, and say how brave he had been to marry Abby Gunzer.

At this point, Gunzer's ghost began to appear to Dierking. The ghost was "covered in blood" and full of advice. His advice: get far, far away from Abby. The ghost also said that Abby "was still [his] property, and it would admit of no interlopers or usurpers." Dierking was now frightened of both Gunzers, the widow and the ghost. But he tried to forget about it all. He had only just married, after all, and was living comfortably on that $30,000. So Gunzer's ghost decided to reinforce the message. He reappeared, this time holding a large (but ghostly) club, and urging Henry to leave.

The second round of ghostly threats - not to mention the club - worked. On November 16, a month after the wedding, Dierking fled to Hoboken, New Jersey. And he stayed there, while he had a lawyer draw up separation papers. Henry told people that Abby was "dangerous" but did not specify why. When Abby was "enticed" to visit him in Hoboken in January, Henry got her to sign the separation papers - not telling her, of course, what they were.

As soon as Dierking returned to Brooklyn, Appolonia sued him for abandonment. Dierking countered this by suing her in turn for an absolute divorce.** The abandonment suit was dismissed, but Henry got his divorce. I have been unable to trace Henry and Abby after the divorce, though an Abby Gunzer was living with her three children in another area of Brooklyn in 1880 (see note below).

The Gunzers were an unlucky family. Four years later, in 1883, there was another violent death in the Gunzer family - this time, a tragic accident. Gunzer's mother Victoria, 80 years old, was walking to her local post office from her home in New Lots, Brooklyn when she wasstruck and killed by a New York Woodhaven and Brighton Beach train. She was nearly blind and deaf, and there were no gates at the train crossings. At the inquest, it was suggested that gates be put up all along the line to prevent future tragedies of this nature.

*There were a couple of suspects, initially, but they were completely cleared and circumstantial evidence pointed strongly to Appolonia. nothing was ever proved and she was never arrested, though.

**There is a charming note in the reports of the court proceedings about how the plaintiff, defendant, counsel and spectators "all adjourned to a neighboring bar-room" to discuss the case while drinking beer and eating cheese sandwiches (from "Gunzer Turned Up Again," New York Times, Mar. 18, 1879, p. 8).

Note: Abby Gunzer age 32 and her 3 children were living at 11 Flushing Avenue in the Maspeth/Ridgewood area of Queens, see here at FamilySearch. This was where many Germans had settled at that time.

Sources

"Gunzer Turned Up Again," New York Times, Mar. 18, 1879, p. 8.
"A Haunted Husband," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar. 18, 1879, p. 2.
"The Dierking Divorce," New York Times, Mar. 23, 1879, p. 8.
"A Widow Ghost," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jun. 19, 1880, p. 4.

"Cut To Pieces," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jul. 27, 1883, p. 4.
"R.R. Accidents," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jul. 31, 1883, p. 2.

There are many articles about the "Gunser" murder in the Eagle; see, for example, "A Dark Deed" (Jul. 14, 1877), which first casts doubt upon Mrs. Gunzer, and "The Gunsers," May 30, 1877, which has includes interesting testimonies.

John (not Frank, as in BDE stories) and Victoria ('Tidelia' in transcript) Gunzer are listed in New Lots, Brooklyn in 1880 census, see here.

Image of the ghost from NYPL Digital Gallery. Image of Graham Avenue at Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburgh, also from NYPL Digital Gallery.