Rose Bresoff Busch

The afternoon of November 19th, 1968 was like any other afternoon, Rose was at home, her maid had finished up for the day, and Rose was pulling a cake out of the oven. The yard man William Young was finishing up outside, Rose offered to take Mr. Young to the bus stop but he declined the offer. He made sure the doors to the house and her Chevrolet were locked and started on foot toward the bus stop at 5:15pm.

At 5:25pm Harry Busch called his wife Rose, to ask her if she needed him to pick anything up on his way home.  Another man who worked with Busch noticed Busch's flat tire as he was leaving for the day, Busch then called his wife back to tell her that he would be late. However, he got a busy tone when he called, A few minutes later he tried again and got no answer, He would later report he believed his wife was driving Mr. Young to the bus stop as she did this often. 

At 5:52pm the ADT company records state the alarm at United Loan was switched on, meaning Busch and his co-worker B.T. Barnette Jr. were leaving for the day. They then left in Barnette's car to drop of Busch's car keys at Floyd's Gulf Station at Broadway and Jackson Avenue. They spoke to the attendant and told them were to find his car, and to call him at home when the repair was finished.  Harry then tried to call his wife Rose again, noting that he had just spoken to her and found it odd that she did not pick up the phone. Barnette then drove Harry home. 

As Harry walked through his house, he found Rose laying in the hallway that led from their carport to the kitchen. She was laying on her back, covered in blood, she had wounds to her head and knife wounds to her body. The fatal wound had pierced her heart. The blade had broken off in her left breast, the handle was laying on the floor next to her body, the force that had delivered the blows had caused it to break. 

Next to her body along with the knife handle lay her glasses and dentures. A gunshot graze was noted on her hand as if she had tried to block a shot. 

At 6:11pm Harry called the Knoxville police department, then called two of Rose's Nephews I.B. "Buddy" Cohen and Sol Leeds. At 6:15pm the first officer arrived, a patrol officer who then radioed back that he needed more units. 

The Police found no signs of forced entry, meaning Rose may have let the killer inside her home. They noted 10 stab wounds in all and the pistol that had fired the shot at her hand was a .22 caliber (a small caliber gun). 

The following morning on November 20th a city brush crew was working on Cherokee Blvd, found a pair of bloodstained gloves. On Kenesaw Ave a Cleveland Ohio police uniform coat and a police type hate were located. They had fake police badges on them. Also, along this same area of Kenesaw Ave two Ohio license plate belonging to a stolen car were found, along with a second pair of gloves. The gun was also located, a .22 Caliber- semiautomatic pistol fitted with a silencer. 

The Police noted that there was no blood on the "police uniform items". Oddly because a crime was bloody and brutal as this, would have almost likely covered the killer in blood.  They believe that the killer was inexperienced with weapons and silencers, mainly due to the silencer being of good quality just ill fitted also the wrong type of ammunition was used, causing the pistol to jam, resulting in the killer beating her with the butt of the gun and untimely grabbing a knife from the kitchen to stab her with. It's believed that her death was a hit but not done by a professional. 

However, Mr. Harry Busch had a mistress, named Hazel Davidson, who called herself a "playgirl" of Knoxville. The police found payment records in the Busch home made out to almost $60,000 to Ms. Davidson from the Busch's, Davidson would later claim she never got the money. She was Suspected in the murder of Rose.