07/14/2026
August 1939. In the woods off Old Orchard Street, near today's Buckout Road, an 85-year-old berry picker made a gruesome discovery. Nearly 90 years later, investigators still don't know exactly how—or why—the man died.
John Merriman had been picking berries in the dense Quarry Heights woods near his Orchard St home when his black Labrador Retriever suddenly began barking furiously. Following the dog nearly 500 feet into the woods, Merriman came upon the decomposed body of a man draped over a rock near the edge of a 20-foot cliff.
Police estimated the body had gone undiscovered for nearly six weeks.
At first, the victim had no name.
Detectives searched clothing labels, personal effects, and every clue they could find. Eventually, they identified the man as Bruce Graham, a 50-year-old handyman from Brooklyn.
But identifying him answered only one question.
The circumstances of his death made very little sense.
Just seven feet from Graham's body, investigators found his belongings gathered together in a single pile.
Not scattered.
Not stolen.
Carefully collected.
The items themselves were just as puzzling.
Two pairs of shoes.
New England road maps.
A package of razor blades and a nearly empty jar of shaving cream.
A spoon.
A pair of shears.
An eyeglass case.
A brown felt hat.
Two packs of matches.
A half-gallon bottle of turpentine.
A bottle containing a potent alcoholic drink known as "Smoke."
And one final item that investigators specifically noted in their report...
A triangular piece of glass.
There were no bloodstains.
No weapon.
No obvious evidence of a struggle.
Medical Examiner Dr. Amos O. Squire found the remains so badly decomposed that he could not determine the precise cause of death. Whether Bruce Graham died from an accident, exposure, illness, or something else entirely could never be established.
And that's where the mystery has remained ever since.
Why was a Brooklyn handyman alone in the Quarry Heights woods?
Why was he carrying such an unusual collection of belongings?
Why were those belongings neatly gathered several feet from where he was found?
Did he come there alone?
Or did someone else leave those final clues behind?
Nearly 90 years later, the only question investigators were ever able to answer was who the man was.
The most important question of all—what happened to Bruce Graham in the woods off Old Orchard Street?—remains unanswered.
📚 Want to uncover more forgotten mysteries like this?
Read "Old Orchard Street & The Petrifying Past of North White Plains" and "The Horrifying History of Buckout Road" by Eric Pleska.
Available online from Amazon, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart, or borrow a copy from Westchester County, New York libraries.
