Fox Lake man finds closure after mother's murder

Eighty-three years have passed since a vaudeville actress named Elsie Regan was shot to death in New York City, and little about that case has changed with time.

Leads dried up long ago after whatever evidence gathered at the crime scene failed to point to any strong suspects. It is a crime, like many others, that remains unsolved, largely forgotten.

Forgotten by all except 86-year-old Kenneth Hamsher.

Elsie Regan was his mother, and the Fox Lake man has spent a lifetime researching her life and death.

There's no made-for-TV ending here. After decades of investigating, Hamsher turned up no new evidence that would force police to reopen the long-cold case.

But all those years of searching and research have led to something else for Hamsher. Nearing the end of his own life, he thinks he finally has some closure.

"My life has been full. I've been able to serve people and have a nice family of my own, and God's been good to me," Hamsher said. "I knelt at (Regan's) grave and I knew that this was my last visit."

That was back in May when Hamsher returned to Manhattan one last time to say goodbye to his mother and make peace with what happened, although he still has many unanswered questions.

"I think that he came back with a satisfaction that he had gone out, made the effort, done what he could to try to retrieve her personal belongings," said Hamsher's daughter, Debbie Glen. "(It's a) sadness that he's carried his whole life."

Regan was found dead on a snowdrift Feb. 8, 1926, with seven bullets in her body - six in her chest and one in her head. She had been performing in speak-easies around New York City.

At the time, Hamsher was raised by divorcee Edna Hamsher in rural Flint, Mich., living modestly in a rented house with an outhouse in the back and a pump for water. Edna answered an ad posted by Regan looking for someone to care for her baby boy while Regan toured.

One of Regan's letters to Edna Hamsher said she had gotten in with a hard crowd and she had possessions sewn in the seam of her coat.

"They lived a fast life; they probably played hard," Hamsher said.

He made his first pilgrimage to Manhattan in the 1970s. He was in his 50s then and felt an urge to visit his mother's grave.

"I had to go there on my feeling, not to solve it, but I went and knelt at her grave, said a prayer, and then she would rest," Hamsher said.

He also did some research and found Regan's death certificate, and he was able to search through her personal belongings. Hamsher checked the lining of Regan's coat but found nothing. He was not allowed to retain any belongings because Regan's murder is unsolved; all evidence had to stay in police custody.

"The only thing I wish I could have had was what I call a flapper's purse (that was) probably (worth) a dollar in a half. A little silver-looking jeweled purse," Hamsher said.

In 2005, Hamsher put a headstone on Regan's grave that reads: "My Mother; Elsie Regan; 22 years old; murdered."

Regan was last seen the evening before her murder. She had told friends she was going out with a semiprofessional boxer friend.

The boxer was found before Regan with a bullet wound in his shoulder. He was considered a suspect but never formally tied to her murder. A stolen limousine was also discovered, drenched with Regan's blood.

Hamsher traced Regan's life back to when she ran away from her family in Toronto, Canada, at 14 to join the circus. At some point, she went into vaudeville.

Regan had arranged to see Hamsher when she performed in Flint, without revealing the truth. He recalled stories of sitting on his mother's lap between performances.

"I would be in the back of the theater, and the fellow entertainers would hold me and give me a Hershey bar to eat," Hamsher said. "During the time they were performing, one of the chorus girls would put me in a dresser drawer behind the theater, which was my bed."

Since New York has no statute of limitations on murder cases, Regan's case is open but "ice cold," said Dan Austin Jr., a retired forensic detective who investigated hundreds of homicides during his career. He's also the vice president of Lutheran All Saints Cemetery, where Hamsher's mother is buried. He befriended Hamsher after spotting Regan's headstone.

Austin conducted his own informal investigation into Regan's murder after he and Hamsher became friends. He suspects no large police investigation was done because of Regan's occupation and her lack of family. The "Roaring 20s" also were known for law enforcement corruption, which Austin also suspects correlated with Regan's murder.

Hamsher learned the truth about his mother and what happened to her on his 10th birthday.

Edna Hamsher presented him with a framed photograph of Regan, which still hangs in his home, and a box of letters Regan had sent to her over the years. Edna also revealed Regan had been murdered years earlier.

Hamsher did not let the news significantly impact his life. He went on to serve in World War II and meet his wife, Thelma, to whom he's still married 64 years later. They moved to Fox Lake, where they started K.K. Hamsher Funeral Home in 1953 and raised a family.

Newspaper stories about his life have appeared in the Flint Journal and New York Daily News, and Hamsher said he is grateful for the media attention and hopes the story will inspire people who know anything about his mother to come forward.

He especially wants to thank any relatives of Regan's friends who attended the cabaret party and helped pay for her funeral.

"I'm not searching for the killers. I'm searching for the people that helped so she wouldn't be buried in Potter's Field," Hamsher said. "I simply want nothing but to thank them for their efforts. That's all I'm doing this for because this is the end."

Austin says it's a sad story with a great ending.

"A young child is basically given up and sent off to live with some women, turns into a fabulous guy, searches for his mom, finds where she's buried, puts a headstone up and tries to put some closure to the end of the story."

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