While researching the Blithewood Light Infantry (and Drum Corp), a short-lived early 20th century organization for boys in Red Hook and Rhinebeck, I identified about 120 boys (mostly born around 1893) who were reported to be BLI members sometime between 1905 and 1911. On the surface most of these boys seem to have grown up to be average citizens but a few stand out. The story of Jack Weeks Lake, a member of the Blithewood Drum Corps in 1905 from Barrytown, deserves a content warning because he killed his ex-girlfriend and then himself in Wappingers Falls on December 13th, 1930.

Weeks Lake was born in Linlithgo, Columbia County, NY on December 26th, 1891 to James Augustus Lake (who often went by his middle name) and Henriette Berrer. Augustus was seven years Henriette’s senior and may have been widowed when he married her. Weeks’ parents lived in Poughkeepsie in 1880 when they were just starting their family. Who Weeks’ grandparents were, or how or when his parents came together, remains unclear.  The Lakes don’t appear to be very involved in their local community for whatever reason. Aside from a brief time in the first decade of the 20th century, when Weeks’ father was running for Red Hook town constable, there is almost no mention of the family in any area newspapers. This is unusual for the time when something as trivial as visiting another family one town over would be reported on. Also interesting is that, as of this writing, there are only three family trees on ancestry.com for Augustus and Henriette, and all of them are private.

Weeks had three siblings, all older brothers, James Augustus Lake born December 12th, 1880 in Poughkeepsie, William Teetor Lake born April 7th, 1886 in Dutchess County, and Homer John Lake born August 20th, 1883. Like his brothers, Weeks appears to have two names, but usually went by his first name. He appears in the 1930 census as John W. Lake and, at least in 1930, called himself “Jack Weeks Lake”. Brother James moved to Brooklyn, married Rosa Romney, and died of thrombosis in 1940. William was married twice, first to Anna Holcomb and second to Marguerite (last name unknown) and had at least four children, making his home in the Capitol district. He died in 1956 and is buried in Colonie, Albany County, NY. Homer married Hattie C. MacCallum and had two children they inventively named Hattie and Homer. He separated from his wife early on and it’s unknown what became of his children. Homer eventually moved to Peekskill and died sometime after 1949.

In the Town of Milan in 1914 Weeks Lake married Blanche Day from Rock City. They moved to Albany and lived there together through at least 1928. They had only one child, Alma Lake, who married Carl L. Retzloff of Troy.

The first clue that things were a little different about Weeks (aside from the lack of social column mentions about him or his family) is a news story that was picked up by a few regional papers for its gruesomeness. The Hudson Columbia Republican ran an article in their November 5th, 1903 issue that detailed how Weeks, aged 12 or so, cracked fellow student William Strobel Jr.’s head so hard with a baseball bat that he knocked him out, fracturing his skull. Supposedly, Weeks had been “swinging a ball club around his (own) head” in a careless fashion and Strobel walked into it. Good news, Strobel lived to age 89 and seems to have had a normal life, which is more than can be said for some other folks who came in contact with Weeks Lake.

While living in Albany after his marriage, Weeks worked as a deck hand, a driver for a fruit dealer, a chauffeur, and in some capacity for an interior decorator. No mention of he or his wife could be found in searches in upstate papers, though Blanche was reported locally occasionally visiting her folks back in Rock City with their daughter. 

Some time after 1910, Weeks’ parents separated. His father Augustus lived on his own in Barrytown in 1915. In 1920, at 78 years of age, Augustus roomed in Albany with Weeks and his young family, while laundress Henriette lived with their laborer son Homer and granddaughter Hattie, as she had since 1915, in Barrytown. Homer had also been separated from his wife since sometime after 1910. 

It’s unclear what was going on with this family, what difficulties they faced, or what issues they were dealing with. We can only speculate according to what information we do have. For the first time, Weeks, along with his family, are in the local paper visiting his mother, just days before she died without a will on March 27th, 1928. Her sons and estranged husband looked to collect what was estimated to be $1,000 from the estate and filed for letters of administration. Her widower Augustus wouldn’t live to see a dime, passing on July 13th, 1928 in Albany, aged 82.

It could be that this event broke Weeks somehow. Sometime between then and December of 1930, he left his wife and child and moved to southern Dutchess County. He was recorded in the federal census in April of 1930 as a single construction truck driver living with the family of Walter Van Wagner on New Hackensack Road in the Town of Wappinger. In December he roomed with Ernest Ruf at 78 Washington Avenue, Beacon. Weeks (who went by “Jack” at this time) worked for the New York Trap Rock Company quarry as a driver. His boss was a man named Leonard Kinney of Wappingers Falls. 

Kinney had a sister-in-law named Mrs. Anna Lasco Daley. Whether Anna had recently separated from her husband, Daniel Daley before she met Weeks or if meeting Weeks led to the separation is unclear. Her two children were living with an aunt in New York City after the couple split. Reports say Anna had been “taking up with” Weeks for “some time”, and that she had been apart from Mr. Daley for about a year.

For whatever reason, before Friday, the 12th of December, Anna called it off with Weeks. That night Jack Weeks Lake begged her to come back, going so far as to threaten her life if she wouldn’t. He didn’t give her much time to think about it. Weeks entered her home the following morning while her father was still asleep “on the kitchen couch” and her sister and Mr. Kinney were upstairs. The former couple talked for about an hour before her father was awakened to Weeks threatening to “cut the heart out of his daughter” before he pulled out a Smith & Wesson revolver and shot her in the forehead, killing her instantly. He then turned the gun on himself and pierced his own skull from ear to ear. Weeks would survive a few hours before perishing at Vassar Hospital later that day.

The Poughkeepsie Eagle News, in the usual gruesome fashion, printed all three notes Weeks left behind. They are to the point, verging on cartoonish in their simplicity, and were apparently written that Friday night. He confesses to what he is about to do, explaining that he was heartbroken and felt he could neither live without Anna nor see her with anyone else. He said she “passed as my wife” while they were together and thought he was justified in “taking her with” him. Though conceivably she had simply decided to break things off with him, he thought she had “double crossed” him and that he couldn’t help but murder her.

Clearly, Weeks was a very disturbed man. There is some evidence that he hadn’t done something this extreme due to a passing fancy. A typewritten note from Anna’s husband Daniel Daley, dated November, 17th, was also found in Weeks’ apartment. It shows that there was an established relationship that had gone on long enough to warrant this note in which Daley blamed Anna for her infidelity and asked Weeks to “take the stand or sign a statement” that he was “out” at “different places” with Anna, citing that Daley and his friends had seen them together. Later, Daley would deny he sent the note, though it was typed on his workplace’s stationary.

Though this was a sensational story that made the front page of papers such as the Poughkeepsie Eagle News, Beacon News, and Albany Times-Union, our local papers appear to have missed the connection to Barrytown and did not run it. Even the announcements about his burial in St. John the Evangelist Cemetery appear to have missed their notice, perhaps owing to the family keeping to themselves and scattering. If there was local talk, it wasn’t recorded.

Weeks’ widow Blanche Day Lake never remarried and passed away in 1960. She’s buried in Troy with her daughter Alma’s family. Alma Retzloff passed away in 2002. A gravestone for Weeks, or anyone with the surname Lake, cannot be found in the St. John cemetery in Barrytown.

Sources:

• 1870 Federal Census, Manhattan, New York NY, Ave B b/w 12 and 13th, Fred Barrer 
• 1880 Federal Census, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co. NY, Augustus Lake
• 1900 Federal Census, Milan (Rock City), Dutchess Co. NY, Robert Day
• 1900 Federal Census, Red Hook, Dutchess Co. NY, James A Lake
• 1910 Federal Census, Manhattan, New York NY, 8th Ave Howard J. Lake
• 1910 Federal Census, Red Hook, Dutchess Co. NY, James Lake
• 1915 NYS Census, Barrytown, Dutchess Co. NY, Augustus Lake
• 1915 NYS Census, Barrytown, Dutchess Co. NY, Henrietta Lake
• 1915 NYS Census, Rensselaer Weeks Lake
• 1920 Federal Census, Albany, Albany Co NY, Weeks Lake 
• 1920 Federal Census, Red Hook, Dutchess Co. NY, Henrietta Lake
• 1925 NYS Census, Albany, Albany Co NY, Weeks Lake
• 1925 NYS Census, Barrytown Dutchess Co. NY, Augustus Lake 
• 1925 NYS Census, Red Hook Barrytown Dutchess Co. NY, Henryette Lake
• 1930 Federal Census, Montrose, Westchester Co. NY, Homer Lake 
• 1930 Federal Census, Troy, Rensselaer Co. NY, house #121, #3 of 3 apartments. Charles Prankard & Blanch Lake 
• 1930 Federal Census, Wappinger, Dutchess Co. NY, John W. Lake 
• 1940 Federal Census, Peekskill, Dutchess Co. NY, Homer J Lake
• 1940 Federal Census, Troy Rensselaer Co. NY, Blanche Lake 
• 1950 Federal Census, Troy, Rensselaer Co. NY, Carl L. Retzlaff
• Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919
• Albany Times Union, 13 Dec 1930 and 14 Dec 1930.
• Barrytown Explorer, September 1966.
• Beacon News, 15 Dec 1930 and 27 Dec 1930.
• Cohoes & Waterford section of Troy NY directory, 1947.
• Columbia Republican, 21 Nov 1884, 6 Apr 1893, 4 JAN 1894, 4 Apr 1895, 5 Nov 1903, and 4 Sep 1907.
• findagrave.com/memorial/233405544/blanche-i-lake.
• New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967 Cert #6858 Weeks & Blanche Day Lake.
• New York, U.S., Death Index, 1852-1956 cert #70039 “Jack W. Lake” .
• NYDI Cert #17962 Red Hook Henrietta Lake.
• Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 13 Aug 1875 and 13 Mar 1915.
• Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 14 Jul 1921 and 31 Mar 1928.
• Poughkeepsie Journal, Monday, April 04, 1960.
• Red Hook Journal, 29 May 1868, 20 Jun 1905, and 19 Jun 1914
• Rhinebeck Gazette, 26 May 1928 and 7 Apr 1960
• Troy Times, 22 Apr 1925
• WWI Draft Card 1917, Weeks Lake