The Disappearance of Alice Corbett: A Utica and Smith College Mystery

November 13, 1925, marked the third miserably cold and dreary day on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Early that morning the girls at Park House made a horrible discovery. A senior girl, Jeanne Robeson, lay dead on the floor of her kitchenette, the apparent victim of gas asphyxiation.

Later that afternoon, a second tragedy loomed as the girls at Clark House became aware that one of their housemates was missing. Alice Corbett of Utica, New York, walked away from Clark House and simply vanished. Her disappearance was front-page news in every paper in the northeast.

With the death of one girl on campus and the disappearance of another, the press at first speculated that the two cases were somehow connected. The police, on the other hand, had other theories to investigate: was the Alice Corbett case a suicide, a runaway or an elopement? Did she suffer a nervous breakdown due to academic difficulties, or was her personal life dealt a staggering blow by a onetime boyfriend?

Join author James M. Greiner as he unravels the details behind this cold case.

Author: James M. Greiner
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: History Press
Published: 09/22/2026
Series: True Crime
Pages: 128
Weight: 0.48lbs
Size: 8.91h x 6.12w x 0.35d
ISBN: 9781467172158