The Murder of Hazel Finson

By Kit Zinser

It is said that in homicides, there are three considerations: means, motive, and opportunity. In many investigations, potential suspects alternate depending on who is telling the story and what is to be gained by each version. This is a true mystery.

Hazel Schaffer was born in 1907 in Pekin and raised in the affluent home of Judge Thomas Schaffer and wife Jennie Schaffer.  There is little information about what transpired before June 30, 1945, when she married Oscar Finson in Portland, Maine.  Hazel brought her son Thomas, born in 1940, to the marriage. Hazel met Oscar, a twice-divorced Army cook based at Camp Ellis in Fulton County while working at the USO in Pekin.  After marrying Oscar, Hazel’s son Thomas took the Finson name and later said, “He was the only dad I ever knew.”  The little family moved to Maine, where Oscar had roots.  Judge Schaffer became ill, and the Finsons returned to Pekin so Hazel could care for her elderly father.  In 1953, Judge Schaffer died.  According to Tom in a 1998 newspaper interview, the judge left Hazel an inheritance of land, farms in Kansas, a resort in Minnesota, and a cabin in Maine. Oscar closed his small painting business in Pekin, and in 1959, the three moved to a brick bungalow outside Washington at 119 Hollands Grove Road.

In 1961, Thomas, age 22, left home and married his high school sweetheart.  He worked as an electrician at Caterpillar Tractor, and the young couple purchased a home in Washington. 

Oscar was a police chief for a few years in Washington, and life seemed idyllic on the outside. But innuendos about drinking, wild spending, misuse of funds, anger, and resentment abound. As the holiday season of 1964 approached, Hazel’s life abruptly ended.  The way Tom Finson tells the story, in 1998 (anyone else involved is dead, with Tom passing in 2018), he first heard of the house fire when a neighbor on Holland’s Grove Road called his home and said his parents’ house was burning.  The couple raced to the home.  Newspaper accounts say that firefighters donned smoke masks and began a search of the building.  They found the body of the family dog on the floor in a dining area at the rear of the house, and one hour later, Mrs. Finson’s body was discovered in the front of the house on the living room floor, with 85 percent of her body burned.  Tom’s account said that Hazel was dead on the living room floor next to her dog, Tippy.

At first, firefighters thought the fire was accidental and had started in the basement from an unknown origin, and Hazel was buried without an autopsy.  Oscar did identify the victim as his wife but later recanted.  However, suspicions soon mounted, and an investigation was initiated through the Tazewell County Sheriff, Fire Chief Tom Boyd, a State Fire Marshall, and Coroner Imig. One observation was that Hazel’s body was not pugilistic, which refers to the tendency of a conscious person to contort into a fetal-like state.  The body was prone, which might indicate that she had been dead or unconscious when the fire broke out.  An inquest was held, and the jury recommended the body be exhumed.  The body was sent to Chicago for an autopsy. Officials later determined:  1. death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning. 2. arson was the cause of the fire. 3. high doses of phenothiazine (a tranquilizer) and alcohol were found in her system.  4. Motor oil was poured about the house and around her body. The investigation continued.  A small discrepancy arose regarding where the dog’s body was found and where Hazel’s was located.  Question:  Could the killer have thought he dispatched the dog and Hazel at the same time, but the dog managed to crawl toward the back of the house where he would normally exit, OR was the dog an afterthought and slain as the killer left the house?)  

Oscar had been at a card game in Washington and stated he turned in the alarm when he returned home and found the house in flames. His son Tom was at home napping after work. No information exists regarding the corroboration of those statements or when the fire started. Tom stated that he had purchased a case of motor oil and put it in his mother’s basement. Officials said one can was missing. 

Tom’s account to a reporter in 1998 said investigators theorized that Hazel had drinks, and someone may have put the sedative in her glass.  After she fell asleep, the arsonist poured oil around the house and body, then lit the fire. 

This had to take some time, and knowing where the Finsons were at a particular time might have solved the murder. Tom said lie detector tests were given, and everyone passed. (Police have never confirmed that anyone in the family took lie detector tests).  Tom related that his parents were planning a trip to Maine around Christmas, and she had $1200.00 in her purse. It remained there.  Nothing else was missing.  He said all doors were locked, and Oscar had a key to let himself in.  The killer could have entered unbeknownst to Hazel.   A question:  Did anyone else have a key in case of emergency?

Time passed, and Tom said he had no idea who killed his mother, but police told him they thought Oscar was a likely candidate.  Again, not verified.  According to Tom, Oscar received “$10,000 to $20,000 from a life insurance policy and out-of-state land that Oscar sold and ultimately pocketed $600,000.  Tom received a small farm.  Oscar rehabbed the Hollands Grove house and sold it, but Tom lived on the property as late as 1966, according to a newspaper article stating he had installed electric heating.  Oscar moved to Maine and lost a family cabin in a fire. Tom stated Oscar collected money on that fire.  Oscar then moved in with Tom and his second wife for some reason.  After drinking heavily, Oscar and Tom had a big argument (subject unknown). Oscar left the next day.

Tom’s focus these many years later was a muzzle-loading pistol that he said was confiscated from his home by police. In the 1998 interview, Tom felt the gun would hold great value.  He wondered where the gun was and contacted the state police. The state police had no information since Tom had no case number.  Finson then called Coroner Bob Dubois (a paramedic on the scene in 1964).  Unfortunately, DuBois could not find a record of it in his office. He said the information was decades old and could have ended up in another file or stored elsewhere.  Most subjects in this unsolved murder have died, and memories are what we make them. 

At the very least, one or maybe two killers never paid for Hazel’s untimely death.