Westfield Police Capt. Michael A. McCabe. (File Photo)
WESTFIELD- Police Capt. Michael A. McCabe will deliver another lecture about the mysterious 1940 murder of Professor Lewis B. Allyn Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, this time with a surprise.
While McCabe has given this lecture before, this time he said he has some new information that may be relevant to the case. Just days before McCabe delivered his last lecture on the “Pure Foods Murder,” as it’s called, he received a letter from a relative of one of the investigators on the case.
“There were notes contemporaneous to the investigation,” said McCabe, who did not want to publicly reveal the name of the investigator before the lecture, but hinted that, “It was from someone who would know what they’re talking about.”
The lecture is presented as a continuation of the Westfield 350 Historical Lecture Series that began in November of 2018 and ran through May of this year. Historical Commission Chair Cindy Gaylord said that The Pure Foods Murder lecture would be the first of several possible planned lectures in the revived series.
Professor Lewis B. Allyn was considered one of the leading experts of Pure Foods in the early 20th century. (Photo from the Westfield Athenaeum)
Walter Powell, a local historian that participated in the original lecture series, is planning to return to the series with a talk about the involvement of Westfield residents in the American Civil War in the 1860s. His lecture does not yet have a confirmed date, but it is planned for early next year.
McCabe’s lecture next week will incorporate the contents of the letter into the range of popular theories he will go over during the talk. Such theories include the idea that Police Chief Allen H. Smith was behind the killing because of a woman that both Smith and Allyn were almost certainly simultaneously having an affair with.
Another popular theory that McCabe will likely address is that the Russian Red Army or the Nazis had him killed. It is believed by some that representatives from both forces approached him to gain access to an alternative to the sugar substitute saccharin that could be used to better feed their troops. The theory goes that one side had him killed either to prevent the other side from getting the formula, or because he simply refused to give it to either.
The lecture will be free to attend. Unlike the lecture McCabe gave in August at the Westfield Athenaeum, this presentation at the First Congregational Church will not require pre-registration due to the larger space.
