# No Black Cat

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 3, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536 "2013-07-03T13:21:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536/1 "2013-07-03T13:21:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> **Skeleton of man’s wife found in wall**
> 
> POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — A skeleton found walled up in a dead man’s junk-filled basement has been identified as the man’s wife, a first-grade teacher whom he reported missing more than 27 years ago.
> 
> James Nichols died of natural causes in December at the age of 82. Police found his body after neighbors said they had not seen him for days. With no relatives coming forward to claim the body or deal with the estate, county officials buried the IBM retiree and hired a contractor to clean out the house, which was stuffed with hoarded items and trash.
> 
> On Friday, the contractor found the skeleton sealed in a plastic container behind a false wall.

She was killed by a blow to the head, just like in Poe’s story. But this time there was no black cat to give it away. It musy have been the use of “a plastic container”, not available to Poe’s narrator.

A pretty chilling story. The man reported that his wife was despondent over the death of their child (then 25) by drowning, and that she left a typed note. Her locked car was found in a nearby parking lot, but police found no evidence of “foul play”. He got away with it for 27 years, and died undiscovered.

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**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536/2 "2013-07-03T13:51:00Z")

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It makes you wonder if it was a really good false wall or some really bad police work at the time.

Imagine living with that secret in your basement for so long. Since he’s escaped justice, I hope at the very least that this gruesome concealment preyed on his mind. It would be karmic, too, if his home and his neighborhood decayed around him over the ensuing years, while he stood by, unable to renovate or sell.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536/3 "2013-07-03T13:54:52Z")

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We’re kind of grasping at straws when “unable to renovate” is karmic punishment for murder, aren’t we?

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**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-black-cat/662536/4 "2013-07-03T21:08:11Z")

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> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> We’re kind of grasping at straws when “unable to renovate” is karmic punishment for murder, aren’t we?

Heh. Yes, indeed.

But a man capable of living with the corpse of someone he murdered was probably beyond being emotionally affected by _any_ form of punishment, trivial or serious.