Est. 1908 · Unsolved 1934 Disappearance · Reno Prohibition-Era Crime · Wingfield-Era Reno
Roy Frisch worked as a cashier at the Riverside Bank, owned by Reno power broker George Wingfield, and lived with his mother and sisters in the Queen Anne residence at 247 Court Street, built in 1908. In that job, Reno Historical records, Frisch became aware of transactions tied to William J. Graham and James C. McKay, two figures described as overseers of the Reno underworld of the 1930s.
Frisch was subpoenaed as a government witness in their federal mail-fraud trial, which was scheduled for early April 1934. On the evening of March 22, 1934, he left the Court Street house to watch the film 'Gallant Lady' at the Majestic Theater. A friend spotted him near Sierra and Court streets after the show. He never reached home. A nationwide manhunt, heavy publicity, and a reward turned up nothing, and he was declared legally dead in 1941.
Suspicion settled on gangster Lester 'Baby Face' Nelson and his associate John Paul Chase, who had ties to McKay and Graham and were reportedly in the Reno area around that time. Theories about the body ranged from disposal in nearby mineshafts to burial on the grounds of Wingfield's mansion, but none were ever proven.
The case stayed open into the present. In May 2024, Reno Police excavated a Court Street property over two days in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Reno anthropology department and a cadaver-dog team. No remains were found, and the disappearance of Roy Frisch endures as one of the city's most durable unsolved mysteries.
Sources
- https://renohistorical.org/items/show/47
- https://www.kolotv.com/2024/05/23/reno-property-searched-90-year-old-missing-person-case/
Phantom footsteps on the staircaseThe porch light legend
The haunting attached to 247 Court Street grew directly out of the unsolved case. Reno's Riverwalk District haunts guide and several downtown ghost-tour operators describe the same recurring detail: footsteps on the interior wooden staircase, heard on quiet nights, as though Roy Frisch were finishing the walk home he never completed in March 1934.
The porch light is the other fixture of the legend. The Frisch family kept the front light on for years after the disappearance, hoping Roy would return, and tour narrators have folded that real detail into the lore, saying the light still shines to guide him back to the door.
The reports are restrained by ghost-story standards: no apparition in the windows, no violent scene, just the sound of a man coming home up the stairs. Because the house is private property, these accounts come from the sidewalk and from secondhand tour tradition rather than documented interior investigations, and the historical record offers no resolution to anchor them to.
Notable Entities
Roy Frisch
