didn’t respond to his question in English, so he restated it in Quebecois. At that point, she realized he understood every word the two women had exchanged.
The witness then broke down crying and confirmed that the two women did get a quick glance of the killer. She said that they both heard Max Geller shout before the murderer pulled out a gun and fired.
The second woman was then interviewed and told the same exact story. Neither knew the gunman, but both commented that he looked familiar. All they could add was that he was dressed in an unforgettable black-and-white-checkered suit. However, the flashy suit lead went nowhere.
Pagnucco requested that a top-notch police detective named John J. Morrisey be assigned to the case. Morrisey immediately went to the scene of the crime and practically moved into the place. He tried teaching the green parrot his name, but realized it was not that easy. The bird could only learn a new phrase by repeating it over and over, ad nauseum.
“I’ve noticed that every time the parrot calls out the name of some customer, it usually decorates the name with the same group of oaths,” Morrisey stated. “I made a note of some of them and checked with men who were first at the scene. They remembered that the parrot used some of these same phrases after yelling what sounded like ‘robber.’ ”
The fact that the bird kept repeating the words “It’s murder!” and “Robber! Robber!” shortly after the crime occurred puzzled him. Those that frequented the bar stated that they had never heard the bird say the word robber before. And since it took time to teach the bird any new words, it couldn’t have picked up the term so easily during the time of the shooting.
To Pagnucco, Morrissey must have seemed crazed when he stated that he believed the bird was not saying “Robber! Robber!” Instead, he concluded that the bird was blurting out the name of someone with whom he was well acquainted, someone who had taken the time to repeatedly say his name to the bird until he mastered it, someone by the name of Robert—as in “Robert! Robert!” If the bird was saying his name over and over, could that Robert possibly be the murderer? It was an incredible long shot, but they had little else to go on.
Police canvassed the neighborhood and narrowed their focus down to two men named Robert, both of whom had mysteriously disappeared on the night of the crime.
One of the missing Roberts was Robert Schultz, a frequent customer of the Green Parrot. He had been living in a nearby rooming house before suddenly packing up his bags and leaving town. Police were initially unable to locate Schultz, but then received a call from his landlady that he had returned. Schultz was then picked up and brought in for questioning. He denied any knowledge of the crime. It was confirmed that he arrived at his father’s farm in the Midwest the day after the crime occurred. The train ride took several days, which meant that he had to leave New York several days before Geller’s murder. That robber—I mean Robert—was crossed off their short list of suspects.
That left just one Robert as a possible suspect, a guy named Robert Butler. Butler operated a taxi stand a few doors down from the Green Parrot and disappeared on the night of the murder. His wife stated that he had grown frustratingly tired of operating a cab at night and didn’t come home one evening after work. She had not seen him since.
Butler’s wife seemed to have no concern that her husband had suddenly disappeared without a trace. The detectives suspected that he was still secretly in contact with her and worked with the postal service to track all of the mail addressed to Mrs. Butler, but none of it matched her husband’s handwriting.
One year after the murder occurred, police had still not located Robert Butler. Investigators were convinced that he was contacting his wife in some way, though they did not know how. The mail route was ruled out, and the couple did not have a phone.
Pagnucco suggested that the post office track the mail of Butler’s best friend, in case he was receiving the messages and passing them on to Butler’s wife. They received word that the friend had received a letter postmarked Baltimore, Maryland, but it lacked a return address. They needed to find out what was in that envelope, but if they opened it, Butler’s friend would have realized that his mail was being watched.
Instead, DA Pagnucco hatched a plan. They arrested Butler’s friend, claiming that he matched the description of a man suspected of assault and robbery. They brought the so-called suspect down to headquarters and told him that they were awaiting a positive ID from an eyewitness. In the meantime, they said they had to check all of his belongings to make sure he didn’t have the stolen loot on him. This was all a bunch of hooey, but they needed a way to get a look at that letter.
It was at this time that one of the detectives took a pile of papers out of the suspect’s pockets and spotted the letter with the Baltimore postmark in the stack. That detective quickly left the room to read the letter while another distracted Butler’s friend. Upon returning, he slipped the letter back into the pile of papers and said he couldn’t find anything.
After releasing the friend from custody, the detective who had read the letter confirmed that it was from a guy named Robert and contained information stating his whereabouts. He was working the midnight shift at Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore.
Off to Baltimore, Pagnucco and Morrisey went. They parked themselves right at the front gate of the plant. Hundreds of employees walked by the two men before they spotted Butler in the crowd.
As one would expect, Butler denied any involvement in Max Geller’s death. He claimed to have gotten into a fight with his wife that night and left her.
While on the train back to New York City, Butler questioned why they suspected him. Pagnucco asked “What do you think of Geller’s parrot?” to which Butler answered, “Smart bird.” The DA countered with “I’ll say. He’s the one that told us you did it.” This was followed by a few more sentences before Butler jumped in and said, “I never did like that bird.” He then confessed to the murder.
Butler said that on the morning of the murder, he had been part of a big dice game. A few of the players asked him for a loan but he refused, sensing that they would never return the money. These thugs, in turn, threatened Butler’s life. He retreated to his home and grabbed his gun, just in case they really did come after him. In an effort to calm his nerves, Butler turned to a bottle of alcohol.
Later that day, Butler finally stepped outside and went to the Green Parrot Bar & Grill. Seeing that his friend was already drunk as a skunk, Geller refused to serve him another drink. That was when Butler pulled the gun and fired at him.
On February 10, 1944, Butler was sentenced to seven to fifteen years in Sing Sing.
1917
Mrs. Anna Mallott filed a lawsuit in a Syracuse, New York, court against her neighbor, Mrs. Martha Traylor, for the alienation of the affections of her pet canary, Pete. She sought $500 (nearly $10,000 today) in damages.
Mrs. Mallott said that the canary had escaped from her home after she left the door open. In an effort to locate her lost pet, she placed advertisements in local newspapers and offered a reward for his return.
She argued that Mrs. Traylor was able to coax the canary into a cage and had been in possession of the bird ever since. Mrs. Mallott claimed that the bird was hers, “…for she has often heard it singing and knows its voice, but that she has been unsuccessful” in getting Mrs. Traylor to return Pete.
