Joan Winters

Joan Winters (December 8, 1909 – October 1933) was a Broadway dancer who was murdered in the Garden of Gethsemane, outside Jerusalem, in 1933. Although her birth name was Carol Vesta von Niedergesaess, her father changed the family surname to Godfrey during World War I, so for most of her life she was known as Carol Godfrey. She was born in Seattle, Washington, where she lived with her family until 1928.

Dancer Winters appeared on Broadway in 1930 as Sue in the drama Bad Girl. She left for Europe on April 13, 1932 and planned to return to New York City in time to celebrate her birthday on December 8, 1933.

Murder According to a UPI wire report from November 4, 1933, Winters's corpse was discovered together with the body of Mohammed Karamini, an Indian civil service employee from Madras,

Family reaction Joan's father, Bert Godfrey (born Otto Christian von Niedergesaess), a marine engineer from Brooklyn, New York and the head of Godfrey Propeller Adjusting Corporation of Brooklyn, met with reporters in his home at the Hotel St. George. The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation provided a gravestone in June 2014.

The text of an enigmatic and prophetic poem that she wrote to her parents shortly before her death is engraved on her tombstone. The entire text reads: