{"id":225021,"date":"2026-06-22T15:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225021\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T15:46:14","slug":"socialites-deaths-in-1929-mooretown-subject-of-new-book-by-philly-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225021\/","title":{"rendered":"Socialites\u2019 deaths in 1929 Mooretown subject of new book by Philly journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Annie McCormick, a former TV broadcaster and longtime Philly journalist, has penned a new book about a century-old South Jersey murder mystery in her hometown.<\/p>\n

In 1929, two young socialites were found shot inside a Moorestown home. Ellis Parker, a man known as the American Sherlock Holmes, ruled it a murder-suicide \u2014 even though the one who allegedly pulled the trigger was shot multiple times.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you shoot yourself four times in the head?\u201d McCormick questioned.<\/p>\n

Four years later, the couple\u2019s friend and fellow socialite was also found shot to death, nearly across the street from the first shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody starts to say, wait a minute, this has to be connected,\u201d McCormick said.<\/p>\n

Her book, titled \u201cRestless Ghosts: Murder, Suicide, and the Case That Wouldn\u2019t Stay Buried,\u201d<\/a> follows the case, which took place in her hometown. <\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in Moorestown. I love my hometown, and I thought I knew so much about Moorestown\u2019s extensive history,\u201d she said. \u201cI couldn’t help but constantly look around and think, wow, this happened there, and this happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n

McCormick spent four years researching and writing the book, delving into extraordinary detail about the lives of all involved back then. She pulled information from newspapers, tabloids, court documents and police paperwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell down this rabbit hole,\u201d she said. \u201cEach year, I\u2019m still reading more information about the two different cases and the impact on the community and the town, and how the town basically is wondering if the justice system even works.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCormick said the investigative process of the case was somewhat similar to modern-day cases she has covered as a journalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nonfiction, so you can\u2019t make up your own ending, but toward the end of it, I think the reader is left with a lot of questions, and I want the reader to come to their own conclusion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview with McCormick in the player below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Annie McCormick, a former TV broadcaster and longtime Philly journalist, has penned a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8090,31,97752,783,915,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-225021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-books","tag-crime","tag-moorestown","tag-murder","tag-new-jersey","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}