Crimes & Victims:
June 11, 1930: Grocer Joseph MOZYNSKI parks with Catherine MAY (19) along a “lover´s lane” in College Point near Queens. A stranger approches the car, shoots Joe dead without a word of warning and rapes Catherine. He then walks her to a trolley stop and puts her on a homebound car, handing her a note, which reads: “Joseph Mozynski 3X3-X-097”.
June 13, 1930: A letter reaches a local newspaper: “Kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozyeski's friends: "CC-NY ADCM-Y16a- DQR-PA...241 PM6 Queens. By doing this you may save their lives. We do not want any more shooting unless we have to.”
June 14, 1930: Another letter brands MOZYNSKI “a dirty rat”. Providing a concise description of the murder gun and ammunition, for purposes of verification, the letter closes with a warning that "14 more of Mozynski's friends will join him" if the crucial documents were not delivered.
June 16, 1930: Noel SOWLEY and Elizabeth RING are parking near Creedmore, when a gunmen demands SOWLEY´s driver´s license. After confirming that SOWLEY is “the one they want”, he executes the man, rifling his pockets. Elizabeth RING successfully displays a religious medal to avoid rape and is left with a similar note to the one Catherine MAY received.
June 17, 1930: A local newspaper receives a letter with two spent cartridges and a note describing “V-5 SOWLEY” as “one more of MOZYNSKI´s friends” adding that “thirteen more men and one woman will go if they do not make peace with us and stop bleeding us to death”.
June 21, 1930: Joseph MOZYNSKI´s brother receives mailing threats from somebody trying to “secure those papers”.
Soon after New York police receives a long letter apparently from the gunman, describing himself as an agent of an anti communist group, “Red Diamond of Russia”, proclaiming, "the last document, N.J. 4-3-44 returned to us the 19 at 9 p.m. My mission is ended. There is no further cause for worry."
Indeed there was no further trace of the phantom.
June 1936: A man, who falsely confesses to the murders is dispatched to an asylum.
October 1937: The “Lipstick Murders” on a high school couple, Lewis WEISS and Frances HAJEK, being shot in their car, reminds on the 3X case, but remains unsolved too.