PORT HUME CITY POLICE — WITNESS STATEMENT File: Jarzembek, W. — 14 Oct 1923 — Case closed 18 Oct 1923. Witness: Halina Vasko, widow, of 23 Korcza Street, Little Warsaw. Translator: Mr. Stanisław Nowakowski, same parish. Interviewer: Det. H. Ostermann. Taken: 15 October 1923, 10:40 a.m., at the parish hall.
Q. Mrs. Vasko, please state your name and your relationship to the deceased.
A. (via translator) Halina Vasko. Father Jarzembek was our pastor since I came to Port Hume. He baptized both my children. He buried my husband last year. He was a good man.
Q. You delivered linens to the rectory on the evening of the fourteenth.
A. Yes. I do the altar linens every month. I took them in the basket on the Sunday evening because Saturday I was at the sodality meeting late.
Q. At what time.
A. Around a quarter to eight, maybe a little after. It was dark.
Q. You entered the rectory?
A. Only the back porch. I do not go into Father's rectory itself. I leave the linens on the porch bench and I knock on the door.
Q. Did you see Father Jarzembek that evening.
A. I did not see him. I heard him.
Q. Tell me what you heard.
A. I heard voices from the study. I know Father's voice. He was speaking Polish, not English. He sounded — not angry, but like a man who is putting a difficult question to someone he knows. And another voice answered him, also in Polish, lower. The other voice I did not see. I thought from the voice it was Mr. Korzeniowski the butcher. Mr. Korzeniowski had been to the rectory earlier that afternoon, a neighbor told me. I thought he had come back. But I did not see the man, only heard him.
Q. Are you certain it was Mr. Korzeniowski's voice.
A. (pause) I am certain I thought so that night. I have thought about it since. A voice heard through a wall is not the same as a voice heard in the room. I heard a man's voice. I assumed Mr. Korzeniowski because I knew he had been there. I did not verify.
Q. How long did you stay.
A. One minute. Less. I heard the voices, I left the linens on the porch bench, I knocked once on the door and said "Ojciec, to linen" in Polish, and I walked out. Father did not open the door. The voices kept speaking. I walked home. I stopped at Mrs. Sosowski's for a moment on the way and then I went home.
Q. And the next time you heard of Father Jarzembek?
A. On the Monday morning when Mrs. Makowski came to my door and told me.
Q. Do you know anyone who had reason to wish Father Jarzembek harm.
A. (long pause) No. — No, Detective, I do not. Father was a man who heard many confessions. Father knew many things about many people. That is the position of a pastor. I do not know of any one person.
Q. Thank you, Mrs. Vasko. I have no further questions.
Witnessed and signed, Halina Vasko — X — Х. В. [translator's countersignature] Stanisław Nowakowski [interviewer's signature] H. Ostermann, Det.