Interesting case. Note that dad GEORGE MORVAN had obtained custody of his two children the year before his 4-year-old daughter's murder--despite the fact that he was shacking up with a "divorcee" who was not the children's mother! This was in 1937. Little is said here by way of explanation. Only that the mother initially had custody when she had separated from her husband two years before. I imagine that tremendous financial hardship--this being the heart of the Great Depression--and something to do with it.
At the time, the Queens medical examiner described the little girl's death as "the most brutal murder" he had seen in 27 years.
From the New York Times, March 3, 1937
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20816FD395E177A93C1A91788D85F438385F9&scp=115&sq=father+child+murder&st=p
DEATH OF GIRL, 4, LAID TO CRIMINAL ATTACK
Police Start Murder Inquiry as Autopsy Reveals Queens Child Is Victim of Brutality
The death of Joan Moran, 4 years old, at her home at 115-41 Sutphin Boulevard, Jamaica, Monday afternoon, was caused by perintonitis resulting from an attack, it was disclosed yesterday by Dr. Howard W. Neail, senior assistant medical examiner in Queens.
District Attorney Charles P. Sullivan of Queens, Deputy Chief Inspector John J. Ryan, in command of Queens detectives, and other investigators were questioning last night the child's father; Mrs. Norma Gatto, a divorcee with whom he had been living; her brother and others. He said they had no definite clue to the identity of the slayer.
The transformation of the what appeared to be a child's accidental death, possibly complicated by neglect and abuse, into a murder investigation followed an autopsy performed by Dr. Neail yesterday morning at Queens General Hospital. He said his findings revealed "the most brutal murder" in his twenty-seven years' experience in the medical examiner's office.
The cse came to the attention of police Monday evening when they received a telephone call that a child had died at the Moran home.
Detectives Irving Higgins and Gordon Hill went to the home and found there the child's father, George Morvan, 25, a house painter, and Mrs. Gatto, also 25. Morvan and his wife separated about two years ago. At first she had custody of Joan and a son, George, now 2, but about a year ago the two children were returned to the father, the police learned.