The strange disappearance of Dorothy Forstein
Revised October 2023
Dorothy Cooper Forstein was a happily married, well-off mother with three young children, Myrna and Marcy, from her husband Jules’ previous marriage and baby Edward.
During the 1940s, she was severely hurt in one attack in her house, and then five years later, she vanished in front of her children and was never seen again and taken away by a stranger. What happened to Dorothy? Was it someone with a grudge against her magistrate husband, or was the husband the prime suspect, or was this just a random crime in Philadelphia?
Jules Forstein was her childhood sweetheart, who was a clerk for the Philadelphia City Council. His wife had died in childbirth not long before he and Dorothy had become reacquainted. Their marriage was a happy one, and Forstein’s professional life began to prosper when he was made a magistrate in 1943. The couple moved into a three-story brick home at 1835 North Franklin Street in Philadelphia.
Jules Forstein, Dorothy Forstein’s husband
The attack on Dorothy Forstein in 1945
On January 25, 1945, Dorothy dropped her children off at a neighbor’s house so she could do some shopping. She reportedly joked with the butcher and chatted with friends as she did her errands.
By the time she returned home, it was nearly dark, and when she entered the house, she was attacked and beaten unconscious.
As she was stuck, she knocked the telephone off its base, and when the operator heard the commotion, she quickly alerted the police.
Dorothy was found concussed with a broken nose and jaw, and her shoulder had been fractured. She was rushed to the hospital, and when she awakened, she could only weakly explain that “someone jumped out at me. I couldn’t see who it was. He just hit me and hit me.”
Later, her neighbor saw her return home and thought someone was with her or walking behind her as she made her way through the late evening shadows to her front door. It was getting dark, and the neighbor, Maria Townley, admitted that she didn’t look closely at the man behind her. It was a safe area to live in, and she never imagined that Dorothy was in trouble.
Investigators believed the attack was an attempted murder, and Captain James A. Kelly of the Philadelphia Homicide Division concluded that it could only have been someone trying to kill Dorothy.
Investigators were baffled by the crime as burglary could not have been the motive, as nothing in the house had been taken. She had no known feuds or enemies, and her husband had a solid alibi. Jules
She was one of the most well-liked residents in the street. The most prevalent theory for the police investigators was that the attacker might have been someone who had appeared in court before Forstein and had assaulted Dorothy for revenge. Forstein couldn’t think of anyone who could have held enough of a professional grudge against him to attack his wife. Every possible lead was investigated, but no arrests were ever made.
The disappearance of Dorothy Forstein in 1949
Following the attack, Dorothy became paranoid and constantly on her guard for a further assault. Locking doors and windows and afraid to venture out in the dark.
Then, four years on from the attack, on the night of October 18, 1949, Jules Forstein was away from home for the evening. Jules seldom left his wife and children alone, but he was attending a political banquet. The eldest child, nineteen-year-old Myrna, was also visiting friends.
As Jules left the office, he called his wife to check on her, explaining that he didn’t plan to be home too late. Dorothy replied that everything was fine at home, and she joked with him for a moment, finally seeming more like her old self. “Be sure to miss me!” she reportedly said just as she was hanging up.
Dorothy and the two younger kids spent the evening at home. At around 9 pm, Dorothy phoned a friend to arrange for them to take a shopping trip the next day, and she sounded normal on this call.
Jules returned home at about 11.30 pm. He found young Edward and Marcy in their bedroom, crying. “Mommy’s gone!”
While he was surprised that she would have left the children at home alone, Forstein assumed that Dorothy had gone over to see some friends or neighbors. He telephoned for several hours, and no one had seen her. Finally, he called Captain Kelly again, and the detective soon started his men checking hospitals, morgues, and hotels all over Philadelphia. Police went door-to-door in the neighborhood, but no one saw anything unusual. Officers searched the house for evidence, where they discovered Dorothy’s purse and keys.
Nothing in the house was amiss, and the front door had been locked when Jules had returned to find his wife missing.
Nine-year-old Marcy Forstein told police she was awakened by the sound of someone entering the house. When she went out in the hallway to investigate, she saw a man coming up the stairs, someone she did not recognize.
Her mother was lying face-down on the floor of her bedroom, and she saw the man pick her up and carry her downstairs. Marcy asked him, “What are you doing?” He replied, “Go back to sleep, little one; your mother is all right.” He patted Marcy on the head and walked out with Dorothy’s limp body over his shoulder. She told police that her father returned to the house a short time later.
The man carried Dorothy downstairs and out the front door. He locked the door behind him. Marcy awakened her brother and waited together for their father, who arrived home about fifteen minutes later. The little girl told the detectives that she had never seen the man before and had no idea who he was.
Police were skeptical as there was no sign of forced entry and no physical evidence that anyone else had been in the property, including fingerprints. However, Marcy consistently stuck to her account, and psychiatrists who examined her were convinced she was telling the truth.
The aftermath of Dorothy Forstein’s disappearance
Dorothy Forstein was never seen again. Police had no leads and no suspects, and decades on, no clues have been uncovered.
In the years since Dorothy’s apparent abduction, one particular theory is perhaps the most sensible and concerns a 29-year-old textile salesman named Morris Anmuth.
In September 1944, a crowd assembled in Philadelphia to protest then-Republican Presidential Candidate Thomas E. Dewey as he prepared to speak at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Two Philadelphia policemen, James McCarthy and Samuel Ralston, saw Anmuth and perceived his mannerisms as threatening. They pulled him out of the crowd on charges of inciting to riot, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
Anmuth was fined $10, but he countered it by filing assault and battery charges against the two officers, claiming they beat him for nearly 20 minutes. McCarthy and Ralston were initially held on $1,000 bail each by Magistrate James McBride. However, the charges against the officers were later dropped by Magistrate Jules Forstein. It has been theorized that Anmuth was the man who attacked Dorothy in 1945, retaliating against Forstein for his lenience with the officers–and that Anmuth was also the man who abducted Dorothy.
In 1957, President Judge Charles Klein of the Orphans Court stated that Dorothy would be declared officially dead as of October 18, 1956, seven years after she vanished and just months after Jules Forstein died of heart disease. Judge Klein’s decision was based on a petition filed by Dorothy’s stepdaughter, Myrna. Captain David Roberts of the Philadelphia Homicide Squad concurred that all efforts of police and private investigators had failed to discover a trace of the missing woman.
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Dorothy_Forstein
https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/the-vanished-housewife
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1hfa2u/the_mysterious_disappearance_of_housewife_dorothy/
http://troytaylorbooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-vanished-housewife-on-january-25.html?m=1
http://strangeco.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-strange-disappearance-of-dorothy.html
https://the-line-up.com/dorothy-forstein
