Person Page 2,729

Mary Ellen Rutledge was born in 1917.¹ She died in 1946, at age ~29.¹

Lethbridge Herald
Tuesday, January 15, 1946
Page 3
Police were at an admitted loss to provide a motive for the murder of Mrs. Mary Pillsworth. Incensed residents talked today of forming [vigil]ante committees to protect womenfolk from a maniac in the town. Later at a meeting, the council decided to post a forum for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the WANTON BRUTE. The wantoness of the attack on the mother of two children committed by a killer who was apparently unseen to the door and left without taking from the home shocked citizens of this town of about (....) some 25 miles north of Toronto known in its friendliness. Our women are afraid to stay in their home alone Mayor J, Beck said in the posting of a reward for the killer who struck with suddenness, her husband away, Saturday night, to leave Mrs. Pillsworth fatally beaten.
... in hospital Sunday indicated the woman had not been molested other than the blows on the back of the head.

Brampton, Ont. - Jan 16., More than three days of intensive investigation have revealed no clue to the slayer of 29-year-old Mrs. Mary Pillsworth, fatally beaten in her home Saturday night.
It is expected that county council at a meeting this week will offer a second reward of $2,000 for information leading to the capture of the woman's attacker. Already town council has posted a $1,000 reward.
Still unlocated is the weapon, believed to be a blunt instrument, used by the attacker to strike down Mrs. Pillsworth in the hallway of her home on Mill Street.
The woman's two young children have not yet been informed of their mother's death.
Mrs. Pillsworth was the wife of Elbert Pillsworth, who operates a radio shop in Brampton, 25 miles northwest of Toronto

Victim of a maniacal attack late Saturday evening, Mrs. Elbert Pillsworth, 28, whose husband operates a radio and electric shop in Brampton, died in Toronto General Hospital Sunday morning afrer being rushed to the city in an ambulance. Dr. I. H. Erb, Provincial Pathologist, performed an autopsy and reported death due to several fractures of the skull.
Police are tracking down every possible clue in an effort to locate the person or persons who murdered the popular young woman who was the mother of two children, Linda 4 1/2 and Donnie 7 months. Reconstructing the scene, it is believed that Mrs. Pillsworth had gone to bed early, and hearing a noise came downstairs to investigate, leaving the two children asleep. Delirious and only partly conscious after the vicious attack she managed to reach the telephone and lift the receiver. Mrs. Elsie Collis, realizing something was wrong when she heard Mrs. Pillsworth trying to tell her what had happened, telephoned her husband at the store and he hurried home.
Sixteen-year-old Muriel Goodfellow who lives across the street and had minded the children on Friday night while the young couple were at the theatre, provided police with a possible clue when she revealed that a man "with a sort of glassy-eyed stare" had come to the door that night and asked if they were home. When told they were out, he said "This is where they live, isn't it?"
The Pillsworths were married in Orangeville, 5 1/2 years ago, and moved to Brampton 2 years ago. He worked for Trans-Canada Airlines at Malton as a radio mechanic until early this year, when he opened a radio and electric shop in Brampton. He had bought a two-story brick home on Mill Street.