Flint is well known for its modern violent crimes but Flint's history is filled with little known stories that read stranger than fiction. Gruesome murders, weird accidents, and violent deaths. Join us every Thursday as Joe Schipani details some of the odd but true deaths he found in Flint's archives.
Welfare
Worker June
14th, 1934
Perry Seeley had been a welfare
worker long before the Great Depression hit. Part of his job was going on
routine house checks. This was done to make sure people were not abusing the
system.
On June 14th, 1934 one
of his stops was at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Shufelt. When Seeley
arrived the Shufelt’s had just returned home from their daily job hunt. Mrs. Shufelt’s nineteen year old son Elias
Parker greeted Seeley at the door.
Everything was going fine until
Elias’s friend Hubert Moore came into the room. Hubert had come over to borrow
a shirt from his friend Elias. He sauntered into the room looking like he lived
there. This threw a red flag up for Seeley and he started questioning Hubert’s
residence.
Hubert could not prove that he
did not live there though he actually lived on Mott Avenue.
Things got heated. Seeley became
aggressive and started pushing Hubert and screaming at him. He tried to get him
to confess that he lived there.
After a while, Hubert pushed
back. Mrs. Shufelt tried breaking the two men up. She got knocked to the ground
by Seeley.
That’s when Elias stepped in with
his baseball bat. Trying to intimidate Seeley into leaving he stepped
in-between the two men with the bat. His intimidation didn’t work. Seeley
started pushing Elias trying to grab the bat when Elias struck Seeley on the
head with the bat.
Seeley fell to the floor and died
instantly.
Elias was arrested and served
eight years for second degree manslaughter.
~ Joe Schipani is the Executive Director of the Flint Public Art Project and the FFAR Project Assistant at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. Find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HauntedFlint/
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