Turner, Abe

Abe Turner (1924-1962) was a chess master who was killed after being stabbed nine times in the back  and stuffed in a safe by a fellow employee, Theodore Smith, at Chess Review Magazine.  Abe had been working there for about three weeks.   Smith  had been recently released from an asylum and claimed that Abe Turner was a Communist spy and had to be killed on orders from the Secret Service.  His body was stuffed in a large wall safe in a basement on 72^nd Street in New York.  The offices of Chess Review were on the 3^rd floor. Turner weighed 280 pounds and was dragged 40 feet along the basement corridor and shoved into the safe.  The body was found by Miguel Vasquez, the building superintendent.