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After years of economic strife, Hjalmar finally lands a job with the Federal government in Washington, D.C., and the family moves to Hyattsville, Maryland, a suburb. Shirley is attending the New Jersey College for Women when her mother dies in 1942. Faye has smoked herself to death, with Abbie the Pekingese sleeping on her bed, keeping her company until the end.
Shirley returns to Hyattsville and takes a wartime job with the Maritime Commission, charting the location of Navy ships in the Atlantic. In one of the worst things he ever does to her, Hjalmar ships Abbie away to a farm by train. Standing on the platform, she can hear the dog screaming as the train pulls out of the station. He dies of a broken heart within weeks. And while she is away at school, Hjalmar also throws out or gives away all her personal belongings.
Hjalmar has been the author of many hurtful actions, but Shirley could not possibly be prepared for what is about to happen.
Hjalmar Eclov is to be prosecuted for alienation of affection in a case that attracts a lot of attention. Alienation of affection is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as
the diversion of a person's affection from someone (as a spouse) who has certain rights or claims to such affection usually to a third person who is held to be the instigator or cause of the diversion
During WW II, Hjalmar is in the Navy briefly. Jake insists that this is not true, but I have seen a photo of him in uniform, though I can’t find it again. My mother confirms this and says he was discharged because he got seasick on one of the Great Lakes. I find this unlikely, as there are plenty of desk jobs in the Navy.
To challenge Jake, I Google my grandfather. It’s easy to find him online as his name is unusual. Sure enough, I find the notation that verifies his fleeting service in the Navy. He is inducted into the Navy in 1919 as an ensign for ‘temporary service.’ This is the year after the end of World War I in Europe. I am unable to discover what ‘temporary service’ after a war entails.
More importantly, I find a remarkable document from the 1948 United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit titled, Eclov v. Birdsong.
It is a court case in which my grandfather tries to appeal the decision in an earlier judgement, in which he lost a case brought against him for “alienation of affection, loss of consortium, and criminal conversation.” In the initial case, Hjalmar is found guilty and fined $15,000, a large amount for a civil servant of the time, which is garnished from his paycheck. Today, this amount would be $222,939.[1] Everybody, friends and strangers alike, knows about his conviction.
Hjalmar left a trail of broken hearts behind him.
Hjalmar’s lawyer starts the appeal with a weak argument that the original fine was excessive. The appeals court begins their statement with these words, “We regard this contention as wholly and totally without merit. An undisputed record showing more of shame, degradation, and duplicity in marital relations has seldom been presented to this court. A more callous and arrogant attitude has never been assumed than by appellant by the case at bar.”[2]
Um, shame, degradation, and duplicity. Callous and arrogant. This is starting out pretty badly.
My mother has mentioned this case over the years, almost in passing. Of course, she must have been deeply embarrassed and angry at the very least but says only that she believes that her father was set up by the couple involved, the Birdsongs. At the time, she was engaged to be married to my father.
Here is what really happens, as far as I can tell from the court papers.
After they move to Hyattsville, Hjalmar and Faye meet a couple, Joe and Louise Birdsong. Over time, they become friends, and begin to spend a lot of time together, taking automobile drives, playing bridge, and going to neighborhood events. As Faye’s condition worsens, Thelma is often by her side.
Within two weeks of Faye’s death, Hjalmar persuades Louise to come alone to his place saying he is sick and needs help. He promptly seduces her and promises marriage. Shortly thereafter, Hjalmar convinces her husband Joe to allow Shirley and himself to move into the Birdsong’s home.
According to the court documents from Hjalmar’s appeal, “Eclov began a systematic course of depraved conduct, constantly debauching Birdsong’s wife in Birdsong’s own home, gradually edging Birdsong out of his home, and finally removing Mrs. Birdsong and much of the Birdsong’s furniture to the house he had under lease. . .”
Next, Hjalmar advises Louise to go to Florida for a divorce. She does so eagerly in August of 1943. Joe is totally in the dark as to his wife’s intentions. By December, Louise is worried that Hjalmar’s ardor is fading and returns to Washington. She goes to him immediately. He whisks her away to a hotel, where he checks them in as man and wife under an assumed name.
After nearly a week, he drops the bombshell that he isn’t interested in marrying her after all.
Louise is devastated. Against all odds, she is in love with Hjalmar. But she is low on financial resources. She begs her son to help her reunite with Joe. Joe is thrilled, apparently bearing no ill will to his wife, and they take their youngest son and move to Florida.
Washington Evening Star, March 1, 1948
Sadly for Joe, it doesn’t last. After fighting about Hjalmar for two months, Louise leaves again in the early spring of 1944, intent on a divorce and still in love with Hjalmar. Joe returns to Washington, where he is served with process in the divorce proceeding. He pleads with her to drop the case, but she won’t. Louise obtains her divorce, but Joe is unaware that it has been granted. Incredibly, he still doesn’t know Louise has been unfaithful with Hjalmar.
In mid-December of 1944, “Mrs. Birdsong learned that Eclov had completed his shameful seduction and betrayal of her by marrying another woman.”[3]
Louise wants to confess her sins to Joe at his apartment, insisting that Hjalmar be present, but he refuses to come. Joe confronts him at this office to no avail. When he returns home, Joe finds a revolver in Louise’s purse. She breaks down and admits she plans to kill their son Philip and then commit suicide. She does not.
This is a tawdry and tragic tale, made worse by being reported in the newspapers.
After reading the details of this case, I come to several conclusions.
-My grandfather is a cad of the worst order. Or, as we say today, an ASSHOLE. He leaves behind him a trail of broken hearts.
-My mother must suffer deep emotional injury, shame, and anger at her father’s betrayal of her and her mother. I don’t know how she can bear to include him in her life.
-The Birdsongs don’t have the brains God offered a flea.
Ah geez, that's quite a story. The Birdsongs are indeed idiots.