In the Port Richmond section of Staten Island on Monday July 14, 1924, Anna McDonnell was sitting on her porch with her son Francis and baby daughter Annabelle when she noticed a shabbily dressed stooped old man with gray hair, a gray mustache and a gaunt gray stubbled face approaching on the street.  As he passed by he turned towards them and tipped his hat.  Later that afternoon Francis, his brother Albert and the three Donovan boys, while playing a game of catch were beckoned to by the same man.  Francis went over to talk to him and together they walked to Charlton's Woods.  His body was discovered by three Boy Scouts the next day, partially concealed under a pile of branches and leaves, naked from the waist down  (shoes and socks, knickerbockers and underpants had been violently ripped off) , 'atrociously assaulted' (as reported in newspaper accounts) and strangled with his suspenders.  

The Gray Man

After weeks of a fruitless investigation (Francis's father Arthur, a police officer assigned in Manhattan, was transferred to Staten Island to assist)  Mrs. McDonnell made a public appeal.  "Help us catch the monster who murdered our little boy.  Help us find the gray man" she implored.

Portrait of the Cannibal as a Young Man (with apologies to Mr. Joyce)

After his conviction for the murder        of Grace Budd, Albert confessed to killing the boy and that he was about to dismember the body when he thought he heard someone approaching and fled.