Elsie Paroubek

Elsie Paroubek
Elsie Paroubek, whose photograph inspired Henry Darger during his writing of In the Realms of the Unreal. Photo by Matousek Studio, 1575 22nd St. near Kedzie Ave., Chicago, published in the Chicago Daily News May 9, 1911.
Born	Eliška "Elsie" Paroubek 1906 Chicago, Illinois, US
Died	c. April 8, 1911 (aged 5) Chicago, Illinois, US
Cause of death	Homicide by asphyxiation or strangulation
Body discovered	May 9, 1911 Chicago, Illinois, US
Resting place	Bohemian National Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois, US
Nationality	American
Known for	Murder victim

Eliška "Elsie" Paroubek (1906–1911) was a Czech American girl who was a victim of kidnapping and murder in the spring of 1911. Her disappearance and the subsequent search for her preoccupied Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota law enforcement for six weeks. Her funeral was attended by between 2000 and 3000 people.

The story of the girl's death, and especially her photograph in the Chicago Daily News, were inspirations for Henry Darger's immense fantasy novel The Story of the Vivian Girls.

Elsie's mother was born Karolína Vojáčková on November 26, 1869, in village Míčov (Meconi), eastern Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Elsie's father František (Frank) Paroubek was born on November 15, 1867. His father's name was Jan.

Frank came to the U.S. at the age of fifteen and returned to native Bohemia between 1882 and 1892. He and Karolína were married there in 1892. In the United States, Frank worked as a painter while Karolina maintained the home. Eliška (Elsie) was their seventh child. In newspaper accounts, particularly in the Chicago Daily News, Paroubek is frequently spelled "Parobek." Frank is sometimes referred to as "Peter" or "John," and Karolina is sometimes called "Mary." Elsie is also called "Mary" or "Emily" in the Rockford, Illinois newspapers.

On the morning of April 8, 1911, Elsie Paroubek left her home at 2320 S. Albany Avenue in Chicago, telling her mother she was going to visit "Auntie," Mrs. Frank Trampota, around the corner at 2325 S. Troy Street. Turning left on 22nd St. and left again on Troy, she encountered her nine-year-old cousin, Josie Trampota, and a number of other children who were listening to an organ grinder a short distance from Mrs. Trampota's gate. When the organ grinder moved to the 23rd St. corner, the children followed him, but subsequently left while Elsie remained behind. Several hours later, Elsie's mother went to her sister's house to find Elsie had never arrived. As Elsie had many friends in the area, the women assumed she was visiting at another home, perhaps to spend the night and return the next morning. At 9pm that evening, Frank Paroubek returned from work and went to police at the Hinman Street station to report her missing. Police initially agreed that she was likely spending the night with friends, but when she had not returned by the following morning, Captain John Mahoney took personal charge of the search.