DOB/DOD: August 14, 1926 (Connecticut) – June 23, 1945; 19 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: 175 1/2 Ely Avenue, Norwalk
ENLISTMENT: April 9, 1944
SERVICE NUMBER: 6436017
SHIP ASSIGNED TO: USS Salmon (SS-182)
FAMILY: Born to John (1893-1951) and Maria Szabo Kovacs (1891-1966). Five brothers, Wilfred (1914-1966), John (1916-1922), Rudolf W. (1918-1981), James (1922-1991), and John (1924-2007). One sister, Mary Kovacs Lasprogato Mugavero (1920-2009).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Murdered in New Canaan, Connecticut. Charged was Imogene Dumas Stevens, wife of an Army Major. She was charged with shooting Albert Kovacs from point-blank range but was acquitted. There is still a mystery surrounding the death of Albert Kovacs. NOTE: Imogene Stevens died in Sarasota, Florida, in 2010 at 89 years old.
Albert Kovacs, 19, of 175 1/2 Ely Avenue, a sailor of the U.S. Navy who saw Pacific service on a submarine, is dead, and Mrs. Imogene Dumas Stevens, 24, of 19 East Maple Street, New Canaan, attractive, black-haired wife of an Army paratroop major in Germany, is being held in the County Jail in Bridgeport under $50,000 in connection with the fatal shooting at 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Milton, 17 East Maple Street, New Canaan, as police continue their investigation of many puzzling angles of the case.
Police Chief Otto Schmidt of New Canaan quoted Mrs. Stevens as saying that she shot the sailor with a .25 caliber automatic pistol given to her by her husband, Major George Ralsey Stevens, III, before he went overseas when she went to see the youth and his brother, James, 26, were doing in a neighbor’s house.
Albert Kovacs, on weekend leave from the Portsmouth, New Hampshire naval station, and his brother James, ahead gone to New Cannan to visit Miss Faith Coombs, a maid employed in the Milton home, police say, when the shooting took place. Miss Coombs is the daughter of Patrolman Chester Coombs of Norwalk.
According to the story told to Chief Schmidt by Mrs. Stevens, the Miltons and Miss Coombs stopped at her home shortly after 11 p.m., saying they were going for a walk. Half an hour later, Mrs. Stevens said she heard the piano being played in the Milton home. Taking her revolver, Mrs. Stevens said she entered the rear door of the Milton home and found the Kovacs brothers, strangers to her, alone in the house.
They told her they were awaiting Miss Coombs, but Mrs. Stevens said she ordered them out, knowing that the two small children were asleep upstairs. Al, who had been playing the piano, got up and advanced toward her, Mrs. Stevens said.
With the pistol pressed against Al Kovacs, Mrs. Stevens told police she warned the sailor she would shoot unless he left. Mrs. Stevens claims that in a melee that followed, she received a bruise over the right eye, a scratch on the face, and her dress was torn. It was during this melee that she fired the pistol.
When Al Kovacs slumped to the floor, Mrs. Stevens turned to James and told him to take the wounded man out.
Mrs. Stevens then called New Canaan Police Headquarters, and Sgt. Edward J. Ritter dispatched policeman George Waldman on street duty to the scene, then called Chief Schmidt and went there himself.
Police found Mrs. Stevens holding the pistol in the Milton home when they arrived and the body of Al Kovacs at the foot of the front steps of the porch.
Mrs. Stevens became hysterical and was treated by Dr. Thomas Cody. Later, she regained her composure and was taken to Police Headquarters, where she gave her statement to the police.
New Canaan police identified Albert Kovacs through a wallet found in his pockets and later looked up James in Norwalk.
James told New Canaan police that he was frightened and left the scene after dragging his brother’s body off the porch and, finding him dying, sought help.
James Kovacs’ statement of the shooting, as given by his brother, Rudy, to The Norwalk Hour, follows:
“Albert has home on furlough. He had been in the service for two years. He had an appointment with Faith Coombs at 2 p.m. Saturday, but he wanted to go fishing and called Faith at the Milton home, canceling the date until later in the day. Having no automobile, Albert asked me to drive him to New Canaan on Saturday night. We arrived at the Milton home in East Maple Street sometime after 10 p.m. The lights in the Milton home were lighted. The front door was unlocked, and Albert walked in. I sat in the automobile outside. Albert called Faith’s name loudly after opening the front door and then, turning toward the automobile, said to me, ‘She is upstairs. Come in for a while.’ I entered the house and sat down in the living room. Albert, who had been in the house several times before, went to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of beer. He asked me to have one. I declined. Albert wen to the piano and was fingering the keys when a strange woman, who apparently entered the house through the kitchen door, strode into the living room. Her arms were folded across her chest. She demanded excitedly, ‘What are you doing here?’ Albert replied, ‘I am waiting for Faith Coombs.’ The woman said, ‘She has gone out with somebody else.’ Albert replied, ‘I don’t think so. She is upstairs.’ The woman said, ‘She is not at home. You had better leave.’ ‘Now wait a minute,’ Albert said, and he walked over toward the stairs leading to the upper floor as if to assure himself Faith was in the house. I looked in the direction Albert was looking, and a shot rang out. I turned in time to see Albert slump to the floor. I ran over to catch him, and two more shots rang out, and the woman asked, ‘Now, will you get out?’ Albert gasped, ‘We’ll go, we’ll go.’ He was dying. I dragged him out onto the porch of the Milton home. It was apparent he was dead. I ran across the street to get help. I telephoned the first number that came into my head – that of my uncle William Kovacs on Ferris Avenue, South Norwalk. I tried to give him directions on how to get to the scene, but I did not know the location very well. I told him I would get a taxi and meet him on the highway. I could not obtain a taxi. Soon, an automobile driven by a colored man came along, and I hired him to take me to my brother’s house, Wilfred Kovacs, on Fair Avenue, Norwalk. I arrived there about 11:30 p.m. Meanwhile, I tried to reach the police in New Canaan but was told by the telephone operator that the police were already on the scene. My brother, Albert, had been keeping company with Faith Coombs for some time, and they went to school together in Norwalk. My brother John Kovacs, now overseas, was formerly engaged to Faith’s sister, Evelyn.”
Albert Kovacs, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Kovacs, enlisted in the Navy in March 1943 while a student in Norwalk High School. He trained at Sampson, New York, and the Submarine Base in New London.
The deceased is survived by his parents, one sister, Mrs. Mary Lasprogato, and four brothers, Wilfred, Rudolf, James of Norwalk, and John Jr. of the U.S. Army.
Major Stevens, who was attending New Hampshire University, entered the Army and, while stationed in Texas, met Mrs. Stevens. They were married in Texas two years ago. When Major Stevens went overseas a year ago, Mrs. Stevens and her daughter came to New Canaan to make their home, leasing a five-room bungalow at 19 East Maple Street.
The Milton home is next door to the Stevens residence. Mr. Milton is treasurer of Boots Aircraft Nut Corporation of New Canaan.
Mrs Stevens, after being questioned by New Canaan and State Police, was held on a charge of manslaughter under $50,000 bail set by Judge Dana Hawthrone of the New Canaan Town Court following a conference with Prosecutor Edward Morrison. Unable to supply bail, Mrs. Stevens was taken to the County Jail in Bridgeport.
New Canaan police called the State Police into the case. Lieutenant George Rember, Sergeant Joseph Rivers, Jerome Smith, Warren French of the Westport Barracks, and State Policewoman Mary Daly took part in the investigation.
Police said that Albert Kovacs, at the time of the shooting, was in civilian clothing.
New Canaan police said that about two months ago Mrs. Stevens asked their aid in ejecting two Norwalk men from her home. A fight had taken place in which she was struck, she told police at the time. The two men were later fined for breach of peace in New Canaan Town Court.
Major Stevens’ father is a well known real estate broker in New York. Upon learning of the shooting, he immediately returned to New Canaan.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. at the Ganung Funeral Home and at 9:00 a.m. in St Ladislaus’ Roman Catholic Church. Interment will take place in the family plot in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home on Tuesday from w to 10 p.m.
Medical Examiner Dr. William H. McMahon of Norwalk, who conducted an examination of the deceased in New Canaan, said when he arrived, he found Kovacs outside on the walk. He gave the cause of death as a hemorrhage of the aorta vessel, the artery that carried the blood from the heart to all parts of the body except the lungs. Three shots were fired at Kovacs, according to the medical examination. One struck Kovacs in the chest above the heart, going through the lungs, one went through the left arm, and one through the right thigh.
From The Journal (Meriden, CT) October 18, 1945
IMOGENE STEVENS CASE DISMISSED
Bridgeport, Oct 18 (AP) – Declaring he was “forced to conclude that there is reasonable doubt, or more” as to the defendant’s guilt of any crime, State’s Attorney Lorin W. Willis today asked for and obtained Superior Court permission to dismiss the case of Mrs. Imogene Dumas Stevens, 24, of New Canaan, charged with manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of a Norwalk sailor.
Neither Mrs. Stevens nor her counsel, David Goldstein, were in the courtroom as Judge Ernest A. Inglis granted permission for the nolle to be entered.
In a surprise move, the state’s attorney appeared in the courtroom after a minor case had been disposed of during today’s routine session, made a statement to Judge Inglis, and entered his request.
Mrs. Stevens, at liberty since July 12, has been alternately reported at a Southern Army camp with her husband, Major George Ralsey Stevens, III, and at her home in New Canaan.
The claim of the Texas-born brunette since her arrest had been that she acted in self-defense when she shot and killed Albert Kovacs the night of June 23 in the home of her next-door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Milton, East Maple Street, New Canaan.
Mr. Willis maintained that statements of the dead sailor’s brother, James, could not be relied upon by the state; that the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Milton would also be so weak as to be useless because, he said, they had changed their stories; that ballistics tests had shown the fatal shot was fired while Mrs. Stevens’ pistol was pressed against Albert Kovacs’ body, thus refuting his brother’s claim that the shot had been fired from a distance of at least five feet; and that it would have been shown that Mrs. Stevens’ dress was torn and that there was a mark over her eye and marks on her throat.
“In the face of this evidence which I have endeavored to set forth at some length because of the considerable public interest in the case,” Mr. Willis said, “I am forced to conclude that there is reasonable doubt, or more, that Imogene Stevens was guilty of any crime in law for the shooting of Albert Kovacs.”
“It is the law of this state that one may use such force as necessary to protect himself from bodily injury. I am compelled to concede that the evidence in the case indicates strongly that this woman was acting in self-defense when she fired her revolver at Albert Kovacs.
“I am of the opinion, that the state could not convict her in the fact of the established facts. I am, therefore, of the opinion, in view of these facts, that the state would not be justified in putting her on trial.
“In Connecticut, it is not the duty of a prosecuting official to place on trial before either court or jury persons of whose guilt there appears to be possible doubt. I do not conceive it to be the duty of a state’s attorney to prosecute any person who is believed by him to be not guilty under the law of the state.
“For the above reasons and with the approval of the court, I shall enter a nolle upon the record of this case.”
Judge Inglis, in granting permission for the nolle, remarked as follows: “It is quite clear on the statement of facts that the state’s attorney is performing his duty and nothing more in entering a nolle in this matter. The nolle may enter.”
Until today, indication had been that Mrs. Stevens would face trial with the setting of a date indefinite as other matters continued to occupy the Superior Court docket.
In a finding issued June 29, Coroner Theodore E. Steiber held Mrs. Stevens criminally responsible for the death of Kovacs, said that both were under the influence of liquor at the time of the shooting, and that strangely interwoven circumstances leading to the killing included “an illicit love affair” between Mrs. Stevens and her neighbor, Mr. Milton.
“Taking it upon herself to act as the protector of her neighbor’s home,” the coroner found, “Mrs. Stevens shot the sailor after finding him and his brother, James, in the Milton home, where they had called so the younger brother could keep a date with Miss Faith Coombs, who took care of the Milton children.”
The coroner noted that Mrs. Stevens “was determined that these young men leave the premises, and their failure to do so resulted in the death of Albert Kovacs.”
David Goldstein, counsel for Mrs. Stevens, asserted today that he was informed by Mr. Willis that the case had been nolled. In a statement issued by his office this morning, Mr. Goldstein said: “State’s Attorney Willis should be commended for recognizing his duty to nolle the case against Mrs. Stevens. From knowledge of the facts in the case, I am sure no jury or court would have convicted her of any crime after it had heard all of the evidence.
From The Record-Journal (Meriden, CT) October 19, 1945
Norwalk, Conn., Oct 18 – (AP) – A spokesman for the family of Albert Kovacs, a young sailor slain in June by Mrs. Imogene Stevens who was freed today in superior court in Bridgeport, said tonight that “naturally we’re all upset and plan to take some further action if any action can be taken.”
Rudy Kovacs, one of Albert’s four brothers, said he had talked by telephone with an attorney but that he did not want to say who it was until he had a more formal discussion with him.
“We can’t quite understand why such a decision was made,” Kovacs said. “We were disappointed in the stand Willis (State’s Attorney Lorin W. Willis) too. It just didn’t seem right with us.”
Willis, in telling the court today that there was “Reasonable doubt, or more” that Mrs. Stevens was guilty of manslaughter, said the accounts of the shooting given by James Kovacs, a brother who was with Albert at the time, were at variance with the version of Mrs. Stevens who said she acted in self-defense.
“All the evidence,” Willis said, tended to support the self-defense claim.
“We were all waiting to appear at the trial.” Rudy Kovacs said, “But Willis never even solicited a statement from Jimmy.”
WEBMASTER NOTE: The family asked the Governor of Connecticut for a trial by jury, but the governor was powerless to reopen the case. The American Legion in Norwalk asked that Seaman Kovacs’ name be cleared in the incident. Those two things never happened.
From The Journal (Meriden, CT) February 1, 1946
Claiming that public reaction to the nolle of a manslaughtering charge against Mrs. Imogene Dumas Stevens, 24, of New Canaan, who shot and killed Albert E. Kovacs, 19, a sailor, of Norwalk, in the home of her next-door neighbors, Mr and Mrs. Charles A. Milton last June 23, “reflected on the integrity and competency of the entire Connecticut court system.” Mrs. Mary Kovacs, mother of the dead youth, petitioned Superior Court Friday for the appointment of a special state’s attorney “to investigate the entire case.” The charge against Mrs. Stevens was nolled by State’s Attorney Lorin W. Willis on October 18, 1945. with the consent of Superior Court Judge Er nest A. Inglis at the conclusion of a lengthy statement in which Mr. Willis set forth the reasons for his course of action. He was compelled to concede, the State’s attorney said, that the evidence in the case strongly indicated that Mrs. Stevens was acting in self-defense when she killed Kovacs. Mr. Willis furthermore asserted that there was “reasonable doubt, or more, that Mrs. Stevens was guilty of any crime in law” for the shooting. Mrs. Kovacs alleged in her ‘petition that her son’s actions at the time of the shooting “were more justifiably in self-defense” than those of Mrs. Stevens. There has been considerable discussion in the press of the State concerning the abrupt termination of the trial of Mrs. Stevens, and some newspapers seem to be of the belief that perhaps newspaper reporters sometimes gain information beyond what police or court authorities find bearing on murders, and “as a consequence of such discoveries, perpetrators who have been well along avenues of escape have been brought to trial and justice carried through,” as one newspaper put it. The mother of the dead boy is positive that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, and her belief is that, as suggested in the news dispatch above quoted, the Stevens woman was the attacker and not the sailor. Wherever the truth may lie, there is no reason for the State’s attorney to ask the court to drop the case because he believed that the woman shot in self-defense. That was a matter that should have been considered by a jury and not by one man whose vision might have been distorted by the fact that the Stevens woman lives in another strata of society than that to which the boy belonged. Had some ordinary mortal killed a human being through the operation of an automobile, whether the driver was at fault or not, he and his accusers would have had their day in court, just as this Stevens woman should. That is what we have courts for. If a jury decides she was defending herself, so much the better. But the matter should be threshed out in court and not in some court chambers.
Seaman 1C Kovacs is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery, 15 Broad Street, Norwalk, Connecticut; Section B.
END
Honor Norwalk CT veterans 