Kept There by Force

Found 29 July 1901, Bath Beach, Brooklyn, New York.

In a bottle:

July 27, 1901.
Dear sir or madam—If you find this note I wish you would tell the police that I am in a cabin in Bath Beach and kept there by force. I remain yours truly, B. VIOLET CULLEM,
No. 209 East Fourteenth street, N. Y.

The message was found on the beach at the foot of 17th Avenue by a young woman, who handed it to an employee of a nearby hotel. It was then passed to police, who made a search of the area and took a launch out to search yachts. No trace was found. “The message is believed to have been placed in the bottle by a thrilling newspaper reporter who was anxious to get a sensational story,” said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which reported that local residents were “considerably annoyed” following a spate of bogus newspaper stories centred on Bath Beach, and considered the message a “pure fake”.

The address given with the message was a boarding house for theatrical groups, but there was no resident named Violet Cullem. However, as the Daily Eagle reported, “A few days ago, a young woman whose Christian name was Violet had made arrangements to board there, but she did not arrive.”

[Daily Eagle, 29 July 1901]