Jacoba “Bubbles” Schroeder Murder

 Who killed Jacoba 'Bubbles' Schroeder

Jacoba ‘Bubbles’ Schroeder was born in Lichtenburg on 8 June 1931.  When she was 4 years old, her mother had to start working. She was left to be cared for by a cousin who lived in Vereeniging until she was 13 years old. For the next four years she lived with her mother in Johannesburg.

 

In March 1948 Jacoba Schroeder returned to Vereeniging where she started working for a coal agency.  Without relatives' knowledge, Jacoba moved back to Johannesburg only 2 months after that.

After her return to Johannesburg Jacoba moved in with fifty-two-year-old Philip Stein who was a bookmaker after they met at a dance in Orange Grove.

Stein soon realized that Jacoba sometimes would be a lot more trouble than he anticipated. She had a habit of throwing a tantrum when she could not get her way.

Stein said “that she was a young woman with a little loose in her morals. But she was very sweet except when she was drunk. Then she would be unmanageable.”

Matters finally came to a head early in June of 1949. Jacoba had come home drunk once too often and Stein asked her to leave. Shortly after this, she moved to Dorchester Mansions in Rissik Street, where she shared an apartment with a girl name Mrs. Griffin, who was a ‘hostess'.

Jacoba was never short of money even though she never held a regular job during the time she was living in Johannesburg. Nor was there a lack of men willing to spend money for her company.

Mrs. Griffin would say “Bubbles was a glamour girl. She’d spend her day at the beauty parlor and her nights at night clubs and she could be most chaining. Until she had a few drinks in her, of course. Then she became obstinate and difficult.”

On Thursday, 11 August 1949, a man named Morris Bilchik visited Jacoba at Dorchester Mansions. They made plans for a date together the following Saturday night and the two of them went out together. At the end of the evening, they went back to Bilchik’s home and spent the night together.

Monday morning, Bilchik, swanked of his conquest to his friend named David Polliack. At lunchtime, the two men went to Jacoba’s apartment. their plan was for Jacoba to get a hold of her friend named Penny and the four of them would go out together that night. Unfortunately, Penny was nowhere to be found and, in the end, they decided to make up a threesome.

After Bilchik and Polliack left, Jacoba went to visit Philip Stein. She spent some time in his apartment and had a few glasses of brandy.  She returned home at 6 pm.

When she reached her apartment, the two men were already waiting for her. She apologized for keeping them waiting and invited them in so she could change into a green dress and put on some make-up.

 Around 7:30 pm they set out for Polliack’s house. Polliack’s mother was in Durban at the time so they had the house to themselves.

Jacoba traveled with David, while Bilchik took his car. They reached the house at about eight o’clock, just as David’s cousin, Hyman Balfour Liebman, was leaving for Houghton to pick up his girlfriend. Polliack and Bilchik invited him to bring his girlfriend back to the house to join the party but Liebman declined.

After Liebman left, the other three went into the house. Polliack asked Irene, who was the cook, to prepare some food and at about 9:30 pm, they sat down to eat a meal of tinned asparagus soup. Followed by chops with chips and tinned peaches for dessert.

Afterward, they went into the living room. Jacoba drank a few glasses of brandy and snacked from a tin of peanuts.

As it become apparent to Bilchik that Jacoba and Polliack wanted to be left alone, he left at 11:15 pm.

After Bilchik left, Jacoba en Polliack cleaned the living room and went upstairs to listen to records in the bedroom. Not long after they went upstairs, Bilchik phoned. He was jealous of them. He first spoke to Jacoba and then he spoke to Polliack to say sorry for disturbing them. After about fifteen minutes on the phone, he rang off.   

At about midnight Liebman returned home from his date. Polliack met him in the hallway and told him that Jacoba was in his room. The problem was she had too much to drink and he wanted to take her home before she passed out.

Liebman went to look for himself and it was clear to him, he later stated, that Jacoba had been drinking, but that she was far from drunk. She insisted on having another drink. Liebman eventually fetched her a glass of weak brand.

At about 12:30 am Jacoba suddenly wanted to go home. She said that her mother expected her back at 1:00 am. At about 1:30 am the three of them walked out onto the driveway, where the cars were parked. Polliack wanted to drive her home but Jacoba got into Liebman’s car and refused to get out. In the end, Liebman offered to drive her home and with Jacoba complaining that she wanted to drive, they set off to her apartment. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, Liebman pulled into the driveway and at this time, he was alone.

He told his friend, “That girl’s a lunatic. She wanted to drive and when I wouldn’t let her, she made me stop and got out. I told het to be sensible but she wouldn’t lister.”

Polliack was angry at Liebman for letting her walk and asked him where he let her out.

Liebman told him that he let her out at the Dunkeld bus terminal.

Polliack asked Liebman whether she said anything to which Liebman replied that she asked which way to town.

Liebman told Polliack that he told Jacoba to follow the bus wires along Oxford Road and she replied that he would be surprised to read about her corpse in the morning papers. Polliack confronted Liebman and shouted at him, “Don’t you realize what can happen to the girl.”

Liebman replied, “yes of course I do but at this time of night I didn’t think she’d come to any harm.” Liebman told Polliack that he was tired and fed up and is going to go to bed.

Although it was nearly 2:00 am, Polliack set off in his car to try and find Jacoba. After about an hour, he returned home. Jacoba “Bubbles” Schroeder had vanished.

Liebman and Polliack assumed that Jacoba had managed to get a lift from a passing motorist, but neither of them thought anything was wrong until Bilchik phoned Polliack at work the next day. Bilchik phoned Jacoba’s apartment that morning and her mother told him that she never returned home from the night out.

After hearing this news, Polliack went to see Mrs. Schroeder himself. After this Bilchk, Polliack, and Mrs. Schroeder drove to Rosebank Police Station and opened a missing person report on Jacoba.Polliack also phoned the general hospital to see if maybe she had been admitted there.

Jacoba “Bubbles” Schroeder’s body was discovered, thirty hours after her death, at Birdhaven plantation by a man named Samuel Ngibisa Mobela.  The plantation was less than a kilometer from the spot where Liebman claimed to have dropped her off that night.

She was lying on her back about 30 meters from the road where the grass was burned. Her face was turned to face right and her left leg was laid over the right leg. Her left arm was pressed against her body while her right arm was pitched out at a 75-degree angle. She was hatless, shoeless and her coat was missing. There were scratch marks on her body and some bruising on her neck. There were no footprints around and no sign of a violent struggle.

 The first thing Dr .J. Friedman, The Johannesburg District Surgeon saw when he arrived at the crime scene was the position of Jacoba “Bubbles” body. From the way that “bubbles” was lying, it appeared that she had been placed in that position. That suggested that she had been murdered nearby and was carried to the place they found her body.  That theory proved to be true by the fact that although her shoes were missing, she had no grass or soil on the sole of her feet. She certainly did not walk to the spot where her body was discovered. 

The green dress she wore was slightly ripped and one of the buttons was missing. The lower part of her stocking was also torn in a number of places. Her panties were torn on the right side but her bravo Petticoat and bravo brassiere were intact. 

In the post-mortem, it was revealed that she was not sexually assaulted and in her mouth were some pieces of hard, Clay-like material. Although they found some bits of the clay in her throat, there were no particles in her lungs proving that the clay was forced into her mouth after she had been murdered. Dr. Friedman examined the content of Bubbles’ stomach and the extent of digestion of the various food particles he found to entirely validate Polliack and Bilchik’s account of events on the night of her death. In the post-mortem, it was revealed that Bubbles suffered from a condition called Thymus Gland which will cause her to fall unconscious very fast from the slightest pressure on her neck.

The bruising on her neck indicated that she was strangled from behind, most likely by a scarf or something similar, and had scratched herself in an effort to free the item from her throat.

Dr. Friedman concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia and inhibition due to the pressure on her throat and the impaction of the hard clay-like substance in her

 Dr. Friedman concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia and inhibition due to the pressure on her throat and the hypopharynx. He estimated the time of death was around 2:00 am on Tuesday 16 August.

The police searched the area around Birdhave Plantation on a large scale but had no success. 

On 13 October, almost two months after Bubbles’ murder, Hyman, Liebman, and Polliack were arrested in connection with the murder of Bubbles. They appeared in court the next day and were returned to custody. They were later granted bail of 5000 and 500 pounds respectively.

The trail began a few days later. The only evidence that the police had was all circumstantial. The prosecution based its case upon the fact that Liebman and Polliack were the last people who were with Bubbles late the night of her death. There was no direct evidence that they could present to connect the men with her murder and they were acquitted of the charges.

So, who was responsible for the death of Jacoba, Bubbles Schroeder?  The police were content that Liebman strangled her with a scarf after he drove her to Bridhaven Plantation and attempted to have intercourse with her. After she fell unconscious, he carried her to the field away from the road. But there was no evidence to prove their theory.

The other theory was that Bubbles was robbed and killed by a passing African. This theory was supported by the fact that her mouth was stuffed with lime. (In some African Cultures it is customary to place something in the mouth of a victim who suffered a violent death to prevent him or her from speaking ill of the killer in the afterworld. But also, this concept has a number of dimness. For example, if the motive for the crime was robbery, whys was Bubbles killed? And whys were the body laid out so neatly?

Another possibility was innovative by the late Benjamin Bennet, who was a crime writer for the Argus at the time. Bennet suggested that Bubbles tried to get a lift home and was picked up by a passing car. (If there were 2 men in the car the passenger would have moved to the back seat). She was then assaulted and the person in the back would put a scarf around her neck to restrain her.  She was then ‘accidentally’ choked. They then carried her body to the nearby plantation and dumped her. Lime was put in her mouth to confuse the investigators into thinking an African committed the crime.

All of this is mere speculation and we are still left to wonder who killed Jacoba Bubbles Schroeder. It is unlikely that the truth will ever be uncovered

 

Source: http://www.africacrime-mystery.co.za/books/fsac/chp10.htm