Pennsylvania, F-G, 1852-1987, Undated

438 COMMONWEALTH v. GELFI, Appellant.

Opinion of the Court. [282 Pa, ~.

voluntarily declared. The questions must necessarily be
framed so as to ascertain that fact. Whether the juror
was opposed to capital punishment was important for
the Commonwealth to know. Illustrating the wisdom of
the rule, out of the sixty-eight jurors examined, in the
present case, twenty-one of them were actually chal-
lenged for cause by the Commonwealth because of their
inability to render a verdict of murder in the first degree
through conscientious objection to capital punishment.
The first assignment of error is dismissed.

A juror, when examined on his voir dire stated that he
required a very high order of proof from the Common-
wealth before he would return a verdict of murder in the
first degree. He said the evidence would have to satisfy
him “without any doubt at all; [he] would have to be
absolutely sure that man was guilty. There would have
to be no doubt in [his] mind,” before he could return
the first degree verdict. The court sustained the chal-
lenge to-this juror. ;

The method of filling a jury box is addressed to the
trial judge, and much weight must be given his judgment
in passing on its legality. The reason is manifest; the
juror appears before him, he sees him and hears what is
said, and is able to form his opinion as much from the
proposed juror’s conduct as from the words which he
utters, printed in the record. Hesitation, doubt and
nervousness indicating an unsettled frame of mind, with
other matters, within the judge’s view and hearing, but
which it is impossible to place in the record, must be
considered. As it is not possible to bring these matters
to our attention, the trial judge’s view should be given
great weight in determining the matters before him.
Nothing short of a palpable abuse of discretion justi-
fies a reversal in passing on a challenge for cause: Com.
v. Henderson, 242 Pa. 372, 377; Com. v. Sushinskie, 242
Pa. 406, 413; Com. v. DePalma, 268 Pa. 25, 32. Nosuch
abuse appears in this case.

COMMONWEALTH v. GELFI, Appellant. “~~

1925.] - Opinion of the Court.

Appellant contends that the remarks of counsel in the
course of the trial were prejudicial to him. He first
complains that the language, certified by the court be
low, “I want the twelve intelligent jurors to understand,
I think the objection is frivolous,” did not express fully
counsel’s words. Under the authority of Com. v. Ezell,
212 Pa. 293, 296, this certification is conclusive on us,
unless it appears the court below abused its discretion
in directing their transcription in the record. The trial
judge is the best authority to state what the alleged
abusive remarks consist of, and whether harm was done
defendant: Com. v. Henderson, 242 Pa. 372, 378. In
the opinion overruling the motion for a new trial, the
court stated there was “nothing in the nature of the
remarks or the tone or the way it was uttered that would
prejudice the defendant in any way.” We agree with
this conclusion. %

The fourth and last assignment complains of a part of
the charge of the court, where the trial judge, in express-
ing an opinion on the evidence, withdrew from the jury
its right to find as a fact the existence of sufficient provo-
cation. A judge, in the trial of a homicide case, may
express his opinion on the weight and effect of evidence,
to the extent of saying there is no evidence to reduce
the crime to manslaughter, and, where there is ground
to justify it, he may express an opinion, so long as he
leaves the jury free to act: Com. v. Leesner, 274 Pa. 108,
114; Com. v. Myma, 278 Pa. 505, 510. Notwithstanding
this expressed doubt as to whether the evidence sus-
tained defendant’s claim, the court submitted to the jury
the question of sufficient provocation, though defendant
had testified he was not angry.

To show provocation, we have held there must be suf-
ficient cause and a state of rage or passion without
time to cool, placing the prisoner beyond the control of
his reason, suddenly impelling him to act. Sufficient
provocation is incapable of exact definition, but no

words, mere gestures or charges, however false or in-

|

a

C2. 6

At left above,
Marian Baker's
broken watch

Mr. and Mrs.
Edward Gibbs,
“happiest pair
on the ‘campus"

SP (Lancaster)

POTTER tee entire

| Marian Baker
By Al Richards.

Special Investigator for . eed
ACTUAL DETECTIVE STORIES

ARIAN BAKER ... was she dead

or alive? - y
The last anyone saw of the
pretty, 2l-year-old Franklin and
Marshall College secretary was at 2:15
7 be’ ee of Tuesday, January

“She smiled and waved at me then,” -

George Crudden told the police. Crud-
den was a sports writer on a Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, newspaper, and he knew
Marian because his work often took him
to the College, where the missing girl
was employed in the treasurer’s office.
“It was downtown, near, the bank, and
from the direction she was walking I
was sure she was heading back to
school.”

But Marian Baker had not returned
to the school. She had disappeared into
the Lancaster crowds, and then mys-
teriously from the sight of men. What
had happened to her?

Someone disappears, and the first

thought usually in the minds of the -

officials is of a runaway—that a few
days will bring word from the missing
party, that the entire case will revolve
around something like a love affair or
a petty quarrel.

But not so with Marian.

Almost the minute the police entered
the case and learned a few details of her
background, they felt the presence of
something sinister. It was a presenti-
ment bred of instinct and reason.
Somehow the officers sensed the shadow
of an evil thing, as real as the odor of a
swamp. ‘

Marian Baker was not the type of
person to pick herself up and disappear.
She was too solid and sensible a girl
for that.. And, anyway, she had no rea-
son to leave Lancaster. Here were her
friends, and here was her heart—she
was engaged to be married to a boy. who
worked in Lancaster.

Marian had come originally from
near-by Conestoga, where she had been
raised by an aunt and uncle, Mr. and
Mrs. Leroy C. O’Donel. She had gone

fC Om es me
4—25—-19516

~

CO pe OT ere RTT TTT EL IT

%
to work for the college in 1946, follow-|
ing her graduation from high school,
About a year ago, she had left her rela
tives’ home to board with Mrs. John E.
‘Weaver in Lancaster; Mrs. Weaver hai
been a high-school classmate of he
She’d moved because she wanted to *
nearer her fiance, Edgar B. Rankin, who; @
had found it difficult visiting her in| 4
a since he worked an ae F

t. Lt ie

A, THE college, Marian worked inj |
the office of Donald M. Mylin, the
school treasurer, where she handled the:
college’s petty cash account, On the
day she disappeared she left her office
to make a small deposit of college money
in the Farmers’ Bank and Trust Com-
pany, and also to mail a registered let-
ter for her boss at the Lancaster post],
office. . .

Checking her movements, the officials
learned that she had made the deposit
and had mailed the letter, leaving the
post office about 2:10 p. m. Five min-
utes after that the newspaperman had
seen her. . >

And then nothing: No word and
trace. It was as if she had stepped i
to some abyss, or into another ‘world.
. What had become of her? Y

Three sets of officials worked hand
hand to learn the answer: The S'
Police under Captain Frank Gleaso
the city authorities, directed by Po
Commissioner Fred C. McCartney, al
county investigators headed by She
Abe Lane.

But, seeking light, all that the i
vestigators had been able to do was a
deeper patches: of gloom and myste
to the case.

They learned, for instance, that
had told Mrs. Weaver she would not
home for dinner because she had
appointment with her _hairdres
They learned, also that she had not
this appointment. :

They found that her room in t
‘Weaver home was in perfect order, h

wil


‘Here Is the Exclusive and Inside
Story of the Investigation That
Shocked the Country—The Search
That Followed the Disappearance
Of an Attractive Girl. From the
F&M Campus in Lancaster, Penna.

possessions — including money — all at the very worst.” He shook his head.

there. Certainly it was not the room “But we’d have heard. We’d have heard

of.a girl planning to run away. something.” <
And at the College, her work had been “She’s been killed,” Captain Kirchner

left unfinished, as if she had expected repeated. :

-tocome back to it shortly. Her accounts “But if she’s dead, where’s her body?”

balanced to the last penny, which was The ringing of the telephone inter-

not impaytant as evidence of her hon- rupted Detective Matt. He watched as

esty—for the college officials did not Captain Kirchner swept it up. The

need to be convinced of that—but rather Captain’s face was a kaleidoscope of

was proof of the exactness of her work emotion as he listened to the person on

and the way she conducted herself. the other end of the line: Intentness,
Shortly after her disappearance, the wonder, disbelief, each in its turn.

Officials had ordered a thirteen-state The Captain hung up slowly and with

teletype message sent out, describing a thoughtful deliberateness. .

Marian as being five feet, nine inches ’

tall, weighing about 130 pounds and

having short, wavy, dark-brown hair

and long eyelashes. It described, too, M : k h
the clothes she’d worn when last seen: Pretty Marian Baker: She
Ared plaid finger-length coat, a match- was never to come back

ing umbrella, a plaid skirt, a black
oaeragh ed and ees pee es : .
sports shoes. Pictures ha een dis- ee

tributed for publication in newspapers Marian’s desk, below, as
in all near-by cities. And then, follow- 5 she left it on that day
.ing this, a grimmer aspect of the in- ;
vestigation was begun. Everything had
been done to find Marian Baker alive.
Now the police sought her body.

Under the direction of Detective Cap-

“tain John Kirchner, a block-by-block
search of the vicinity of the post office
was made, for in that neighborhood were

a@ number of.vacant lots and empty
warehouses. College authorities were
quick to authorize a search of all
‘campus buildings, and here, too, the
Officials probed and hunted, hoping that
Marian Baker was alive and dreading
what they might find. Near-by roads
and lanes and footpaths were searched
and, at the same time, state troopers
, were tramping the banks of streams
y Conestoga, Marian’s home town,
not knowing what might have brought
her there, yet putting no limits, no
boundaries, to their investigation. .

But two days slipped by and the offi-
cers still were without a clue.

’ The girl had waved and smiled and ,
-then disappeared like a wisp of smoke.

$$ CHE’s dead,” Captain Kirchner said.
His voice had a somber finality
to it. “I hate to say it, I hate to admit
-it, but she’s dead.”
“It was late evening and many of the
investigators were gathered in the Lan-
caster Police Headquarters. Their faces
were solemn, funereal. They had come
to know the persoriality of the missing
girl so well, had come to know her
gaiety and gentleness so thoroughly
that this case had become vitally im-
portant to them. ag
Detective Frank Matt said, “I kept
thinking about amnesia. Or kidnaping,

stir =

= be yt:
Vth HUE LL BR i


~

440 COMMONWEALTH v."GELFI, Appellant.

Opinion of the Court. [282 Pa.

sulting, will free a man killing another from the guilt of
murder: Com. v. Newson, 277 Pa. 48, 50; Com. v. Colan-
dro, 231 Pa. 348, 351. “No words of profanity, reproach
or abuse or slight assault, are provocations sufficient to
free the party”: Com. v. Russogulo, 263 Pa. 93, 105.

Defendant shot his wife six times, four of the bullets
passing through her body. The number and character
of wounds inflicted on her person was sufficient to show
the elements of murder of the first degree: Com. v.
Straesser, 153 Pa. 451, 455. Intent to take life may be
presumed from the weapon used. Particularly so when
it is fired six times: Com. v. Eckerd, 174 Pa. 187, 149-
150; Com. v. Cook, 166 Pa. 193, 196.

The facts thus proven constituted murder in the first
degree. The jury having so found, and no error appear-
ing in the record, it follows that the judgment of the
court below must be affirmed.

Judgment affirmed, and it is directed that the record
be remitted for the purpose of execution. |

Busser et al. v. Snyder et al., Appellants.

Constitutional law—Appropriations for charities—Constitution,
article III, section 18—Act of May 10, 1928, P. L. 189—Poor laws
—Old age assistance—Mazxims—Expressio unius.

1. If an act is not opposed to any constitutional barrier, the fact
that it may be an excessive regulation of private affairs and there-
fore socialistic, cannot be considered by the courts in determining
its constitutionality.

2. Nor, in the passing upon the constitutionality of such an act,
can the courts take into consideration that it may be a highly bene-
ficial measure for the wellbeing of society.

3. An act of the legislature should not. be held invalid unless it
is clearly, strongly and imperatively prohibited by the Constitution.

4. In passing upon the constitutionality of an act, words must
be understood in their general and popular sense.

5. Courts must construe the language of the Constitution liter-
ally in the spirit in which it is commonly understood, otherwise

prejudices may crop out.

BUSSER et al. v. SNYDER et al., Appellants. 4

1925.] Syllabus.

6. The debates of the constitutional convention cannot be taken
to override the ordinary meaning of the words employed in the
Constitution.

". The Act of May 10, 1923, P. L. 189, providing for “assist-
ance to certain aged persons” and creating an old-age assistance
commission” is unconstitutional, inasmuch as it violates section
18, article III, of the Constitution, which provides that “no appro-
priations, except for pensions or gratuities for military services,
shall be made for charitable, educational or benevolent purposes,
to any person or community, nor to any denominational or secy,
tarian institution, corporation or association.”

8. The State is not obliged, either in justice or morals, to per-
form the duty outlined in such an act.

9. The words “charitable, educational and benevolent” were
intended to include pensions or gratuities of any kind, with the ex-
ception of those given for military service.

10. Pensions or gratuities for military service are in the nature
of compensation for a special and highly honored service to the
State, implying the idea of a moral obligation on the part of the
government; charity and benevolence are not founded on this con-
sideration.

11. The words “person” and “community” as used in the act,
are not limited to the idea of a single person or place where per-
sons are located; they are used in an inclusive sense, applying to
persons, kind, class and place without qualification, and so used
the language of the Constitution is an absolute and general pro-
hibition.

12. The fact that the appropriation is made, by the Act of 1923,
to an agency cannot sustain the act.

13. Nor can it be sustained because the appropriation is to an
agency as an arm of the government, working out a governmental
policy.

14. Giving to the words “benevolent” and “to any person or
community” the broad meaning does not in effect wipe out ap-
propriations to nonsectarian, nondenominational and other insti-
tutions or persons.

15. Even if it did, the court would be required to perform its
duty in construing the Act of 1923, regardless of the consequences
to other appropriations.

16. When the Constitution forbids appropriations to denomi-
national or sectarian institutions, an implied authority was given
to appropriate to nonsectarian or nondenominational institutions;
expressio unius est exclusio alterius.

—~

GIBBS, Edward L., white, elec. PA@ (Lancaster) April 25, 1951

‘dent at the university, On January 9,

24

eee ts

The stolen engagement ring...
her symbol of hope and happiness...
became a clue to her doom

~

| Be ee Pa., is no-haunt of the underworld; no crime-
ridden city. It is twenty-eight years since last the death

‘penalty was invoked in the county. It is a green and peace-
ful town, with a thriving business center andthe site of

Franklin and Marshall College.

It is populated by decent, average American citizens who
work, marry and rear children. Like Marian Louise Baker,
they also become engaged.

Marian Baker was 21 years old, an attractive, brown-eyed
girl who worked’ as a stenographer at Franklin and Mar-
shall College. And Marian was in love. She was engaged to
Edward B. Rankin of Conestoga, a stu-

1950, the young couple had selected and '

~

BY D. L. CHAMPION

purchased the diamond engagement ring. On the fateful
10th, it sparkled on Marian’'s finger—an emblem of hope
and happiness, >

Immediately after lunch on Tuesday, the 10th of Janu-
ary, Marian Baker left the college and-walked into town
to attend to some minor business. Her first stop was at the
local bank, where she deposited seventy-five dollars of the
university's money. From there she ‘made her way to the
postoffice to mail some letters.

Just as she left the postoffice, Marian Baker glanced, for
perhaps the hundredth time, with feminine pride at her
gleaming ring. As she did so, she noticed the hands of her
wrist watch’ indicated exactly 2:05.

She had no way of knowing that her watch, though then
in perfect condition, would stop at exactly 2:37, never. to
run again; and simultaneously with the stopping .of that
watch, Marian Baker would-be dead. She stepped from the
gloom of the building into the sunlit street.

A familiar voice said, “Hi, Marian.” ae

The girl looked up to see one of her many acquaintances
in Lancaster, She said, “Hi.”

“Going back to the college?”

Marian nodded.

“Wait here a minute. I'll give you'a
lift. My car’s right around the corner.”

!

nd —

Kil)
aw:

ult
Fre
rat
cli

al

ho
int
sin
Ni
hu

th
ne
by
ac

dl
su
Vi


52

BECOME AN EXPERT

ACCOUNTANT

Cheice of Bookkeeping —Advanced Accounting
or CPA Coaching —Ne experience necessary!

The demand for skilled accountants—men who reall
know their business—is increasing. National and State

legislation is requiring of business much more in the
pen hod rg Auditing, Spouiak: Wale, Riaeraio Or-

tion, Management, Finance. Men prove
their their qualifications in this important aaa ace pro-
msible positions.

Free Beok—“Accountancy, the Profession that Pays”
. We train

LASALLE EXTENSION UNIVERSITY

A CORRESPONDENCE yds uid

HOW TO bea

DETECTIVE

or INVESTIGATOR
Earn Up to and Over

$5000 «a year

Age, Sex, Education
Not Important

Respected, Profession. Kony PD sok
tome STUOV Tibcher ‘ou This poactnety

sion, Short 20 Lesson Course Is Easy ogo Hs De-
tective Le ggg A Insurance Companies, hae ge Houses,
tore U Urgently! i! Me reactor! i
“ n—
BARNES SCHOOL is

IVE ING
now accepting applications for its new Home Study
Course from those who wish to take advantage of its
pia dota ig Training Facilities ir
Phils especially prepared Short, Easy to learn 20
Sredited Diploma fuaiityine 9 Jou as a trained Dets
01 ua! sa ve

Rtor. Co 3 ‘ou peaches on the job
assignments for Gerricaeet'| Ips you to pass
Police Tests in Any State.

CARRY THE BADGE
OF AUTHORITY

This Dipioma Will Be
rs After Short se ee Study Course,

infest ink Theme No Delay.

IVE TRA
-Send for FREE Folders Now, Write-

J. BARNES DETECTIVE
TRAINING 8CHOOL :
BOX 490-C Times Square Station, New York 18, N. Y.

those almost unbelievable breaks of which
every investigator dreams but rarely en-
counters. “What,” he asked, “is this senior’s
name e?”

“Gibbs,” the boy told him. “Edward L.
Gibbs. He and his wife live at the college
dormitory. I believe she works for the. Arm-
strong Cork Company.”

Sergeant Aumon was alone when Kane
entered his office. He pointed to a teletype
message lying on the desk. “There it is,
Jim. Withers was picked up in Pittsburgh.
Says he spent Tuesday afternoon with a
Lancaster girl. The boys -went to see her a
few minutes ago. When she backs up his
story ... well, we’re washed up

Kane smiled briefly. “Not quite,” he said.
“Listen to this . .

His report was like a shot of adrenalin
to the weary Aumon. Gibbs was among
the students already questioned. Attention
was centered on him early in the inves-
tigation because of a long scratch on one
cheek. But he was dismissed when a fellow
student admitted having inflicted it during
basketball practice. Gibbs, however, had not
yet cleared himself. completely and * was
scheduled ‘for a complete cross-examination
in the morning.

College records identified him as.a 25-
year-old veteran who served with the Army
Air Force in Europe; an excellent. student,
supposedly happily married. But he did
know Marian ite and on several occa-
sions had driven her to the bank when she
placed canteen funds on deposit.

“Gibbs could be our man,” Kane declared.
“What do you say?”

Aumon grinned. “I say, let’s go!”

But Edward Gibbs -was not to be found
in any of his usual haunts—and for a-very
good reason. At that moment he had walked
into President Distler’s office and demanded
an audience. Distler, in conference ‘ with
Max Hannum, publicity director of the
college, looked up in amazement when the
disheveled youth brushed by the secretary
= sought to restrain him and forced: his

NSure, -Ed, we know you,” Hannum as-

sured him. “Come in and sit down.”

Gibbs shook his head. “You don’t know
me. You only think you do.”

It was the kind of statement the men
ordinarily would have ignored, but these were
not ordinary times for the harassed college
officials. Simultaneously the same thought
flashed into the minds of the two men. “This
is it, yet it ‘can’t be. Things like this just
don’t happen.”

“| Did It"

But all doubt was dispelled when Gibbs,
haggard and wild eyed, said, “I’m your
man. I did it.”

Stalling for time, Distler countered with
a question. “What did you do, Ed?”

“I ki#led Marian.”

Two Baltimore reporters entered the outer
office just then, wanting an interview. But
Distler and Hannum were holding a stick of
dynamite with the fuse lit. They dared not
let the press in on what was transpiring until
definite proof of guilt had been established.
The truth was, both men were hoping
against hope that the student’s confession

was untrue, perhaps brought on by nervous -

tension and ovérwork.

But the reporters were suspicious. They
lingered for ten minutes while Gibbs sobbed
in a corner and Distler and Hannum en-
gaged in a loud discussion .on irrelévant sub-
jects trying to throw the reporters off.
Eventually the newsmen departed in disgust.

With one hand on the telephone, Dr.
Distler said, “Are you sure, Ed, that this
is not hysteria or hallucinations ”

- “It’s hard ‘for me to believe, too,” the

youth answered. “But I can describe the
whole thing. I’ll show you where I hid
some of the stuff.”

’ Convinced at last, President Distler. lifted
the phone. .

Edward Gibbs made a full confession to
the brutal. crime. “It wasn’t a date,” he
insisted, after explaining how he met Marian
Baker on a downtown street and offered to
drive her back to the college. “We just
went the long way around.”

At .the Harnish cottage, Gibbs had a
sudden impulse to choke his lovely com-
panion. But she fought free and fled from
the car.

“I followed her,”
in an almost inaudible voice. “When 1
caught her I choked her again and again.
But when I saw her lying so still I knew
if she wasn’t dead, then I had to kill her.
So I went back to the car and got a lug
wrench out of the trunk. I hit her with that
until I was sure she was dead. I—I guess
I was out of my mind.”

Returned With Shovel

Suddenly overcome ‘by the. enormity of
his crimé, Gibbs fled the scene. But he re-
turned within an hour, bringing a shovel
to dig a grave. The frozen ground prevented
this and after removing his victim’s ring
and taking her purse, he dragged the body
under the cottage and covered it with the
sheets of metal roofing.

“I was sure nobody would be able to find it
for a long, long time,” he went on. “I had
an idea that when spring came and the ground
softened up a little, I might come back and
bury her. I didn’t figure anyone would come
around the cottage in the winter.”

“What did you do with her purse?” Aumon
asked.

“I threw it away. There was $14 in it.
I took the money and spent it.”

“And the ring?”

“That I flushed down a filling station
toilet.”

The ring was recovered from the drain
trap. Other officers, searching Gibbs’ dor-
mitory home, found a jacket stained with
the blood of his victim. At the same time,
an electric magnet located the lug wrench
in Conestoga Creek where it had been
thrown by the killer.

Proof of guilt ‘was now established, but
officers scoffed at the “impulse” motive for
the crime. In their opinion, Marian Baker
was slain when she resisted the advances
of her supposed friend.

After reenacting the slaying on two dif-
ferent occasions, Gibbs was given a hearing
in the office of Alderman J. Edward Wetzel
on January 19. He listened in silence as
District Attorney John M. Ranck read a
warrant which charged him with “wilfully,
feloniously, maliciously and premeditatively”
choking the pretty secretary to death.

With no change of expression, Gibbs then
heard himself ordered held without benefit
of bail for trial in the Lancaster County
court on March 13. At that time the final

_ curtain will be rung down on the campus

drama of life and passion and sudden death.
Epitor’s Nore: To spare possible em-
barrassment to innocent persons, the names

Alvin Edwards, Jim Withers and Ben Wil-
liams, used in this narrative, are fictitious.

‘A WAREHOUSE:

of unusual items for sale

The Pe

(Cont

the student murmured -

CAST

Joseph Durde
J. C. Durden, .
James Henry
Margaret We:
H, T. Whitley.
Joe Gallo...
E, C. Dickens
E. L. Howell.
John Newbur)

trunk, then nox
The latter ass
body from the
er. While Ho:
of the victim’s
with Tommy °

“What time
Whitley asked

“About 1:30
here then. I fi

‘ about 7 o’cloc’

headquarters t
“And you've
“Not that I

of them here.’

Coroner H
“This man ha
said, “probably
stabbed once
thin long blad
and 24 hours.
him.”

Whitley gla
ficers and spe
man?”

“This guy
tion,” Detectir
ported him m
driving a new

“Check tha
structed. “If
this Pontiac’s

Gallo hurric
to City Hosp

Sergeant D
the car over,

“Here’s on
pointing to <
compartment
was a machir
broken off in

“Good. W1!

Dickens sh
there’s some
to the side oi
On the front
packages of
was thrown a
Its lower ed:
did parts of t
front seat.

“Lean over
requested Dic
particularly.”

Whitley dic

“Right,” no
be a woman
course, we d
longed to the

The ID r
along one sid:
smear on th
of weeds anc
rear bumper.
make this ca

A team of
inquiries in t
tempting to
seen the car
tween 1:30 .
The car-hops
them recallec


ie fateful
of hope
of Janu-
nto town
vas at the
irs of the
ay to the

inced, for
de at her
ids of her

»ugh then
never to
ig of that
from the

laintances

a

Killed at the roadside, victim was dragged
away and an attempt was made at burial.

Marian Baker waited outside the postoffice. A few min-
utes later she stepped into a car and sat beside its driver.
From one point of view the girl was merely entering a
rather battered 1946 model coupe; from another, she was
climbing into a hearse—a hearse destined to carry her to
a rude and makeshift grave.

When Marian Baker. had been missing for thirty-six
hours, the:vague worry of Mrs. John E. Weaver crystallized
into definite fear. Mrs. Weaver had known Marian ever
since they had been in the first grade of school together.
Now, Marian boarded with her childhood friend and her
husband at their home, 415 Reynolds Avenue, in Lancaster.

Mrs. Weaver telephoned, transmitting her anxiéties to
the new Police Commissioner Fred G. McCartney. McCart-
ney immediately ordged his men to investigate. However,
by the time the week-end arrived, no one had stumbled
across the sinister trail which led to Marian Louise Baker.

It was on Saturday. morning, January 14, 1950, that Mr.

Marian Louise Baker was be-
trothed the day before her
death. Investigator examines
bloodstains near the road.

Mr. Harnish is a local attorney. Customarily, the Har-
nishes spent the winter in Florida but this year, for per-
sonal reasons, they had remained at home. Thus it was
they drove to the cottage; normally, they would not have
visited it until the following spring.

About 4 o'clock of the afternoon, Mrs. Harnish crumbled
some stale bread into a bow] and went out into the crisp air
to feed the birds. As they chirped around her, avidly peck-
ing at the bread, Mrs. Harnish noticed some odd marks
on the ground. She bent over, examined them more closely.

It appeared as if something bulky had been dragged
over the ground, something which had swept: a swathe,
about a foot wide, clear of leaves and debris. Mrs. Harnish
followed the strange trail.

It led her to the rear of the cottage. There, beneath the
porch, was a kind of a dugout, a deep hole under the house.
Peering into it, Mrs. Harnish saw a sheet of corrugated
ivon on top of which had been placed a wooden horse ol

2.

4 6 . ‘ bs 2
e and Mrs. Martin M. Harnish decided to pay a visit to their the sort used by carpenters.
ive you'a 4 summer frame cottage, about a half mile off the Quarry- Her feminine curiosity aroused, Mrs. Harnish pulled the
corner.” ‘ ville Turnpike. horse away, then tugged at the sheet of corrugated iron.
;
o
5


a

{ 26

She blinked once at what she saw, then stood for an in-
stant, frozen to immobility.

In another moment she found her tongue.

“Martin!” she called to her husband. “Martin! For
Heaven's sake, come here!” 4

Her husband came dashing out of the house. Hé“fooked
at his wife's wembling, pointing finger. He bent down
and lifted the iron. sheet.

“Martin,” said his wife. “What is it? Who is it?”

“Unless I’m very much mistaken,” said the lawyer quietly, -

“it’s that missing girl from Franklin and Marshall, Marian
Baker.”

Mr. Harnish was not mistaken. His telephone call to
Commissioner McCartney was relayed by the latter to Cap-
tain Frank Gleason of the Pennsylvania State Police
Captain Gleason in company with Corporal Frank E. Kane,
also of the State Police, rushed to the murder scene. At the
same time Commissioner McCartney and Detective Cap-

tain Kirchner raced to the Harnish cottage in their own
car.

The girl’s body lay stiff and cold in its informal grave.
Her skirts were pulled up to her hips. Blood covered the
side of her skull. It was obvious, even without the coroner’s
report, that she had been struck repeatedly with some
heayy, probably metallic, object.

Following the trail on the ground in the reverse direc-
tion of Mrs. Harnish, the policemen noted that it led to a
pile of garbage beneath a tree. Then it continued down
toward the dirt road which approached the house.

There was a dark stain on the ground at the edge ol
the road. Commissioner McCartney glanced at it and said,
“Probably blood.”

Captain Gleason nodded his agreement.

The search for clues continued. Several buttons were
found which apparently had been torn from the girl’s
clothes. In the garbage heap Kirchner came upon a nine
inch length of lead pre There were no stains upon it
which might be blood; nevertheless, the officers held it for
laboratory examination. It may well have been the murder
weapon.

But important clues there were none. The body was
placed in a station wagon and taken to Lancaster in charge
of Dr. Charles P. Stahr, the deputy coroner. In the mean-
time, Corporal Kane was put in charge of the case by Cap-
tain Gleason. The Corporal returned to Lancaster with
Commissioner McCartney and his men. ’

Mrs. John Weaver was called to make a positive identi-
fication of her friend’s body. With tears streaming down her

The body of Marian Louise Baker was removed by state
policemen from beneath a vacant summer cottage. Her
broken wrist watch indicated to police the time of her death.

face s}
her?”
The
Fen: A
parent
that ¢t
attem}
Gor
you ki
jewelr
“She
thoug!
She p
her w:
Kar
From
Its crv:
| Zor; t
Mrs
“In
ring w
Mrs
har
ordere
\s
for RK
\
INLO t

With
Frank

TE RAL RE rE


‘ave stayed out over-
of notice. “She just
ort of thing,” the

»m some of Marian’s i
lege, the investigator :
of the girl’s person-
| life which hardly
she had disappeared.
) be that Marian was
| could wish. She had
ongaged to a young; §
‘yy Murrow, and she
engagement ring he
de and delight. Most
on and interest had
ier forthcoming June 5

Te eee

tch had stopped at :
the time of death.

Pe ae at

sshift, cluttered tomb.

marriage. She was known to have dated
some of the college students prior to
her engagement, but after it, she had
dropped all such former friends.
* Murrow, reached by Matt at his home
in nearby Conestoga, was unable to
throw any light on what might have
become of his fiancée. The young man
told the detectives he had seen Marian
on Monday evening, and was to see
her again that night—Wednesday.
“Last night,’ he asserted, “I was
working at the plant—the Armstrong
Cork Company, and until five yesterday
afternoon I was asleep in my room. I’m
sure of this much—Marian is not the
kind of girl to just go off and not tell
anybody. This thing looks bad to me.”

Y the following morning, the
mystery of Marian Baker’s where-
abouts had tongues wagging through-
out the Lancaster area, but particularly
on the Franklin and Marshall campus,
where the girl was widely-known and
well-liked. The college president, Dr.
Theodore A. Distler, placed-vevery fac-
ility of the institution at the service of
Detective-Captain. John Kirchner, who
had assumed active charge of the case.
Kirchner, Matt and other officers
were. having a busy time of it, for a
spate of rumor and report began to
descend on police headquarters—all of
them purporting to be “reliable” leads

&

,the coat—and ran for her husband.

in the case. If all were to be believed,
Marian had been “seen” -in a dozen
different places in and around Lan-
caster, getting into a dozen different
cars, with a dozen different men. All of
these reports had to be checked, of
course, and in the fullness of time, all
were proved groundless.

But on the morning of Saturday,
January 14th, those in charge of the
case began to deal in concrete, demon-
strable—and tragic— fact—for on that
morning Marian was found, dead. -

Mr. and Mrs. Martin Harnish, of
Lancaster, were the unhappy heralds of
this phase of the investigation. On that
Saturday morning, the couple had driv-
en from their home a few miles south
along Highway 202, and turned right
up a dirt road for a half mile, to arrive
at their summer cottage. Presently, while
walking around the front grounds, Mrs.
Harnish noticed that a bench, which
customarily stood there, was missing.
She also observed that a trail of scuffed
earth suggested it had been dragged
toward the rear of the house.

Mrs. Harnish followed this trail and
found the bench in a semi-basement ex-
cavation under the house. It lay atop
two sheets of roofing metal, and at the’
bottom of the entire pile, the woman
caught the flash of a red-plaid coat. She
peered closer, saw a girl’s leg under

Within half an hour, State Police,
commanded by Captain Frank Gleason,
and Lancaster officials, including De-
tective-Captain Kirchner and Detective
Matt, were on the scene, together with
Lancaster County Coroner, Dr. Charles
Stahr. When the encumbrances had
been lifted from the body, Dr. Stahr
noted that the girl was lying on her
stomach, and that her clothing was
disarranged and torn in places. Marian’s
head bore indication of two severe
wounds, and marks around her throat
suggested she had been strangled.

A later autopsy showed that the cause

of death was the skull wounds, which .

had been inflicted, the autopsists said,
by a weapon akin to a lug-wrench. The
contusions around the throat suggested
that the girl had probably been first
strangled into unconsciousness. There
was no sign of criminal assault. The
time of death was fixed as Tuesday after-
noon. The precise minute might well
have been about a half-hour after Mar-
ian left the Lancaster post office, be-
cause the hands of her wrist-watch,
which had been smashed, pointed to
2:36. Not so readily susceptible to in-
terpretation, however, was the fact that
two objects of intrinsic value—her en-
gagement ring and pocketbook—were

_Missing.

ONE of the first concerns of the po-
lice, on reaching the Harnish cot-
tage, was to reconstruct as best they
could the probable course of the crime.

_ To begin with, it was obvious that the

girl must have been brought to the vic-
inity in a car. With this probability
already in mind,.the police had parked
their vehicles on Highway 202, and pro-
ceeded to the cottage on foot. Yet, the
dirt road leading to the cottage showed
only one set of tire marks, and this set
was soon demonstrated to have been
made by the Harnish automobile. The
killer, then, must have carried the girl
to her improvised tomb, and after
several hours of intensive scrutiny of
the area, the investigators believed they
could imagine, with some certainty, the
anatomy of the crime.

The first signpost was a small clear-
ing off the dirt road, just beyond its
intersection with Highway 202. The
clearing showed that a car had pulled
in there from the highway and then re-
versed itself to return to it. Also in the
clearing was a patch of scuffed earth,
stained with dried, blackened blood.
Here, the investigators, believed, the
attack had taken place. Marian had then
been carried toward the house, but not
directly to where she had been found,

(Continued on page 64)

15


Dig that CRAZY CA

The words of each juror: ‘‘Guilty, first degree, death,” rings in the weeping killer's ears as he leaves the court.

She didn’t tease, and she
wouldn’t flirt—but

this crazy, mixed-up Joe

College had her figured all wrong !

CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, September, 1954


4

CAMPUS KILLER!

by CHARLES BOSWELL

ye leaves the court.

Yue oaks and elms arch
over the walks and cast their shad-
ows on the verdant campus of Franklin
and Marshall College, at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. The college, which is for
men only, is a distinguished one, proud
of its traditions that reach back to the
time of President of the United States,
James Buchanan, who was the first
president of the board of trustees.
Franklin and Marshall is a place where
respect for learning and the higher
aspirations of mankind are given signal
honor. Yet Franklin and Marshall, like
many a meaner place, found itself, in
the year 1950, the center of the hub-
bub: which follows in the wake of
murder.

On January 10, 1950—a Tuesday—
Marion Louise Baker, an employee of
the'college, disappeared, although it was
not until the next day: that her disap-
pearance was recognized as such.
Marian, twenty-one years old and

Search for Marian Baker (above) end-
ed when police dug her out of shallow
grave under vacant summer house.

oo Fosse

enw | mina ART NMR eu eT


extremely attractive, was on the sec-
retarial staff of the college treasurer,
Donald Mylin. Shortly after lunch on
the Tuesday in question, she left her
office to go to downtown Lancaster,
there to perform a number of duties
with which she was costomarily charged.

She did not return to her office that
day. Nothing was thought of it, how-
ever, since it was quite possible that her
errands had consumed the rest of the
working day, and that she had gone
directly home after taking care of the
last of them.

However, the next morning, when
Marian did not appear at her office,
Mr. Mylin began to wonder, especially
since she had telephoned no word to
explain her absence. He called the home
of the friends with whom she roomed
in Lancaster, and was alarmed to learn
that not only did they know nothing of
Marian’s whereabouts, but she had not
put in an appearance there since leaving
for work the morning before. Mr. Mylin
felt that his course was clear. He got in
in touch with the Lancaster police and
informed them that Marian Baker was
missing.

ETECTIVE Frank Matt was as-

signed to the case, and before
many hours had passed, he had ac-
quired considerable information.On the
previous day, the investigator learned,
Marian had lunched on the campus
with friends. These friends asserted
that Marian had made no mention of
anything which might be construed as
a departure from her usual routine.
About one-thirty, Marian had made a
deposit for the college in a downtown

14

ee

bank. There she had chatted with the
teller and remarked that she had an ap-
pointment with her hairdresser for five-
thirty. A check at the beauty salon dis-
closed she had not kept her appoint-
ment.

After leaving the bank, Marian had
mailed a registered letter at the main
post office, at around two o'clock.
George C. Crudden, one of the col-
lege’s public relations staff, provided

the next—and so far as Matt could then -

discover, the last—trace of the missing
irl.

, “I walked out of the post office with

her,” Crudden said. “We chatted for

a moment on the sidewalk, and then

she went off up the street.”

So it appeared that Marian Baker had
vanished from the crowded, downtown
section of Lancaster shortly after two
on Tuesday.

A check of the girl’s room at the
home of the friends with whom she
lived on Reynolds Avenue was dis-
quietingly unrevealing. It yielded no
indication that she had intended to re-
main away from it overnight, and Matt
was assured by:the woman of the house
that every item of Marian’s wardrobe
was in place, except for the plaid skirt,
white blouse, sport shoes, and red-plaid
coat she had been wearing when last
seen. Moreover, the detective’s inform-
ant was emphatic in her assertion that

Marian would not have stayed out over-
night without prior notice. “She just
didn’t do that sort of thing,” the
woman insisted.

From her and from some of Marian’s
associates at the college, the investigator
learned something of the girl's person-
al life—a personal life which hardly
could suggest why she had disappeared.
The fact seemed to be that Marian was
as happy as any girl could wish. She had
recently become engaged to a young
man named Harry Murrow, and she
wore the diamond engagement ring he
gave her with pride and delight. Most
of her conversation and interest had
centered around her forthcoming June

Her smashed watch had stopped at
2:36, indicating the time of death.

SO eS

marriage. She wa
some of the col
her engagement,
dropped all such
¢ Murrow, reach
in nearby Cone:
throw any light
become of his fi:
told the detective
on Monday ever
her again that ni
“Last night,”
working at the |
Cork Company, a
afternoon I was a
sure of this muc
kind of girl to ju
anybody. This thi:

Y the follo
mystery of \
abouts had tongu
out the Lancaster
on the Franklin a
where the girl w:
well-liked. The c
Theodore A. Dist
ility of the insticu
Detective-Captain
had assumed activ
Kirchner, Matt
were. having a bu
Spate of rumor a
descend on police
them purporting ¢

t
.
HI
iN .
M3 .
i ?
enter ren nirseenars senna v

It's easy to

OWN a Business!

... Even if NOW Employed

We'll personally train and help
‘ou get established .. . start-
ng part or full time.

Clean & Mothproof
Rugs & Upholstery

@ No Shop Needed

@ $9 Hourly Gross Profit
@ No Experience Needed
@ Nationally ‘Advertised
@ World-Wide Services

If reliable and diligent, you
can become financially inde-
pendent in a growing lifetime business
of your own. Alert dealers can average
$9 hourly gross profit on service they
render plus $7 on EACH serviceman. Nationally Adver-.
tised services rendered IN homes, offices, clubs, insti-
tutions, etc.

DURACLEAN (illustrated above) cleans by absorption.
Eliminates scrubbing . . . soaking . Shrinkage. Dirt,
grease and many unsightly spots vanish as if by magic.
Wool fibers come to life . . . matted pile rises... colors
revive. Upholstery and floor coverings last longer.
DURAPROOF (not illustrated) is another ear ‘round
Service. Kills moths and carpet beetles. Makes material

e
ith. ctects furnishings, clothing, and auto
ees ont 4 ice fea by International

D,

Mraclean\.

Easy to learn. A Duraclean dealer will train and assist
ou. He’ll reveal his successful methods and sales plan.

of a world-wide organization built upon repeat orders and
‘i ed customers, You have the
freedom, prestige and profits of YOUR OWN business.

Operate from your own home, a shop or office, as you
refer. We furnish enough materials to return your TOTAL
PNVESTMENT. We help finance reliable men. rt
or full time. Write TO
tails . . . then decide!

DURACLEAN CO., 7-343 Duraclean Bidg., Deerfield. Ill.

LIN

How to Make Money with
» Simple Cartoons’

A book everyone who likes to
should have. It is free;

{A
draw

ARTOONISTS' EXCHANGE
Dept. 583, Pleasant Hill. Ohio

“You needn't bel Now you can
remove unwanted hair forever
— in the privacy of your home
— with the famous Mahler Hair
R, lt Eoilat 1 A. lai d

WITH

UNWANTED

by thousands of women who
have discovered how Mahler
destroys the hair root perma- &%
nently! By following our instruc-
tions you, too, can learn to use
“Athe Mahler safely and effi-
ciently! Positive money-back
guarantee! Act today!

Send 5¢ for ‘illustrated 16-page #%
booklet ‘New Radiant Beauty”

PROVIDENCE 15, &. 1.

m MAKE EXTRA MONEY “BF

pe EVERY BUSINESS EVERYWHERE
USES UNION LABEL BOOK MATCHES

No experience needed to earn big daily
commissions, Be a direct factory repre-
sentative of the world’s largest exclu-
sive UNION LABEL Book Match manu-
facturer. Prospects everywhere, Feature
Glamour Girls, Hillbillies, scenics and
dozens of other styles—Double Books—
Jumbo Books—nearly 100 color combina-
tions. New, bigger portfolio makes this Jf’
fastest selling line a real profit maker §'¥
for you. Write TODAY for full details. 4)

qu

NS ed

Get this big, valuable collection of genuine, all-
different postage stamps from the exciting land of
the mysterious Amazon... scarce airmails, gore
ig commemoratives, giant-size mps picture
wild horses, covered wagon ction-packe
fights, native war heroes; PLUS sens
stamp, beautiful “Christ of the Andes”; many
others. EXTRA!’ Bargain Catalog, ‘Collectors’
Manual” plus other exciting offers for your in-
spection. Send 10¢ for mailing costs:ACT NOW!

began, as though glad to finally rid him-
self of his gruesome secret. “I was driving
downtown that afternoon when I saw
Marian leaving the post office. I knew
her from the treasurer’s office and I knew
she was probably heading back to the
campus. I offered her a lift.” .
The ex-soldier explained that it was
then that the strange impulse had come
over him. Instead of heading directly for
the campus, he had turned southward onto
Route 222. He had often played golf at the
Media Heights course and had noticed the
boarded-up, isolated Harnish cottage from
one of the greens. Although he had never
been there, he now headed directly for
the cottage with his pretty, unsuspecting
passenger.
“On the way down, we talked about col-
lege functions and social life,” Gibbs re-
called. “Then I turned off the highway
and drove over a little hill to a spot near
the cottage, where I parked and shut off
the engine.
“TI remember her saying something about
what a pretty view it was, and then some-
thing happened. I still don’t know why,
but I reached over and started to choke
her. She got out of the car and started to
run away, screaming. I ran after her,
started choking her again and twisted her
around. Then I saw her eyes were shut
and when I let go she fell to the ground
and just lay there.
“I thought she was dead, but I knew I
had to kill her if she wasn’t. I went back
to the car, opened the trunk and got out
a lug wrench. I walked back and beat
her with it. There wasn’t a soul in sight;
there was nothing but silence. I knew she
was dead now and I had to get the body
out of sight.”

The confessed killer then related in vivid
detail how he had tried to dig a grave,
first with his bare hands and then with

a shovel, but failed because of the hard
ground and roots. He had actually re-
turned to the campus to get the shovel,
leaving the body concealed under some
branches and debris. Gibbs claimed he had
then dragged the body by the feet to the
opening under the cottage porch, covered
it with the sheets of corrugated metal and
departed. But it was not the last he saw
of the body.

“I kept thinking about it after I got back
to the college,” he said. “I decided to go
back again. This time I pulled one of the
sheets away to take her rings and purse.
The purse had $14 in it, so I took that and
threw the purse over a bridge on my
way back to town.”

According to the incredible confession,
in which Gibbs had put forward no plausi-
ble motive, he had made no less than three
daylight trips to the murder scene without
being detected.

“Didn’t you try to rape her?” asked Cap-
tain Gleason, when Gibbs had finished.

“No, it’s like I told you. I just don’t
know why I did it.”

Accompanied by Corporal Kane, Detec-
tive Matt and State Police Corporal Ver-
non Simpson, Gibbs was taken for his
fourth and last visit to the yellow-shut-
tered cottage beside Mill Creek. He pointed
out where he had attacked Marian Baker
and the path over which he had dragged
her body. Then he was returned to the
state police barracks, arriving there just
before 10 P.M.

His earlier composure while confessing
his guilt was gone now and he faced a
battery of reporters and photographers
with bowed head and slouched shoulders.
His hands were thrust into his pockets as
he was escorted into Captain Gleason’s
office to face Lieutenant Colonel Jacob C.
Mauk, deputy state police commissioner,
and Major William F. Hoffman, command-

JAMESTOWN STAMPS, N3MF JAMESTOWN, N.Y.

ing the southeast ¢
police.

After a short time.
announce that Gibbs
page confession and
with murder. As the
throughout Lancaste:
to the Lancaster Co
hearing the next mo!

The news of the ki
fession brought mix
Lancaster and on th
shall campus. Mrs.
‘the news. The killer
were shocked and foi
to believe. Marian’:
both sorrow and an;
the confession. Robe
to the state police ba)
after Gibbs had left,

“If I could get my
I’d kill him!” he vow

On Thursday, Janv
brought before Alder
zel and charged wit)
der. He was then retu
county jail without b:
torney Ranck and t
gathering evidence ag

Gibbs had claimed
Marian Baker‘s purse
lug wrench into a ri\
to Lancaster after
magnetic devices, sta
covered both articles,
to the dead girl’s w
Conestoga Creek. ]
plumbing of a servic:
also found the diamo
and another ring take
nographer at the same
claimed, had all been

GIVE—
Strike back ai

Even as the confes
his cell under consta:
atterney announced -
impulse motive that «
the only factor in t)
vealed that a psychiat
in to examine the col]

“I believe that Gil
avoided giving us the
his wife from the sh:
that it might have be
stated Ranck. “But I
fied with his confessic
ousy or sadism may
and we will continue

Other officials specu
made advances to tl
employee after drivin
road near the Harnisl
refused these advanc
warning that she inte
senior’s wife, Gibbs h
and finally battered
killer, however, steadf
maintained that he he
quaintance with Mari
der and that he ha
interest in her.

While the district ;
defense lawyer argue
sibility of a psychiat:
college released a }
personality analysis o1
a guide for future em
on Gibbs, while inter
insight into the murde

The killer’s judgmer
according to the anal:
described as an “in
“moderately aggressiv:
most situations,” “tak
was “usually willing t

ee i ati sss:

because of the hard
He had actually re-
sus to get the shovel,
‘concealed under some
Gibbs claimed he had
ody by the feet to the
cottage porch, covered
corrugated metal and
as not the last he saw

oout it after I got back
said. “I decided to go
me I pulled one of the
> her rings and purse.
n it, so I took that and
‘ver a bridge on my

incredible confession,
put forward no plausi-
nade no less than three
murder scene without

rape her?” asked Cap-
Gibbs had finished.
old you. I just don’t

Corporal Kane, Detec-
2 Police Corporal Ver-
bs was taken for his
sit to the yellow-shut-
Mill Creek. He pointed
attacked Marian Baker
which he had dragged
e was returned to the
ks, arriving there just

osure while confessing
' now and he faced a
‘rs and photographers
ind slouched shoulders.
-ust into his pockets as
into Captain Gleason’s
enant Colonel Jacob C.
e police commissioner,
F. Hoffman, command-

entence."

‘the news.

ing the southeast division of the state
police.

After a short time, Gleason emerged to
announce that Gibbs had signed a four-
page confession and was being charged
with murder. As the news was spreading
throughout Lancaster, Gibbs was rushed
to the Lancaster County jail to await a
hearing the next morning.

The news.of the killer’s arrest and con-
fession brought mixed reaction -both in
Lancaster and on the Franklin and Mar-
shall campus. Mrs. Gibbs collapsed at
The killer’s fraternity brothers
were shocked and found the news difficult
to believe. Marian’s relatives expressed
both sorrow and anger at the details of
the confession. Robert West, who rushed
to the state police barracks within minutes
after Gibbs had left, was livid with rage.

“If I could get my hands on that ——,
I'd kill him!” he vowed.

On Thursday, January 19th, Gibbs was
brought before Alderman J. Edward Wet-
zel and charged with premeditated mur-
der. He was then returned to his cell at the
county jail without bail while District At-
torney Ranck and the police set about
gathering evidence against him.

Gibbs had claimed that he had thrown
Marian Baker‘s purse and the bloodstained
lug wrench into a river on his way back
to Lancaster after the murder. Using
magnetic devices, state troopers soon re-
covered both articles, as well as the cover
to the dead girl’s umbrella, from Little
Conestoga Creek. By dismantling the
plumbing of a service station toilet, they
also found the diamond engagement ring
and another ring taken from the slain ste-
nographer at the same time. The $14, Gibbs
claimed, had all been spent.

GIVE—
Strike back at CANCER

Even as the confessed killer sulked in
his cell under constant guard, the district
atterney announced that he doubted the
impulse motive that Gibbs said had been
the only factor in the murder. He re-
vealed that a psychiatrist would be called
in to examine the college senior.

“I believe that Gibbs has deliberately
avoided giving us the true motive to save
his wife from the shame of the publicity
that it might have been attempted rape,”
stated Ranck. “But I am not at all satis-
fied with his confession. I think that jeal-
ousy or sadism may be the real motives
and we will continue to question him.”

Other officials speculated that Gibbs had
made advances to the attractive college
employee after driving her to the lonely
road near the Harnish cottage. When she
refused these advances, with the added
warning that she intended to inform the
senior’s wife, Gibbs had choked, punched
and finally battered her to death. The
killer, however, steadfastly denied this and
maintained that he had only a casual ac-
quaintance with Marian before the mur-
der and that he had had no romantic

_interest in her.

While the district attorney and Gibbs’
defense lawyer argued about the admis-
sibility of a psychiatric examination, the
college released a previously prepared
personality analysis on all of its seniors as
a guide for future employers. The report
on Gibbs, while interesting, contained no
insight into the murderer.

The killer’s judgment was undependable,
according to the analysis, but he was also
described as an “independent worker,”
“moderately aggressive,” “can be trusted in
most situations,” “takes things easy” and
was “usually willing to cooperate.”

On January 28th, Gibbs was formally ar-
raigned in a 30-minute hearing before Al-
derman Wetzel and continued without bail
for trial. On the morning of March 13th,
he was indicted by the Lancaster County
grand jury and the murder trial began the
following day.

District Attorney Ranck openly attrib-
uted the murder to a sex motive and in-
troduced the slain girl’s muddy undergar-
ments as evidence. He then revealed that
police had dressed a life-sized doll in the
same type garments as worn by the murder

-victim and had dragged it by the feet

over the same route the. defendant had
used. The experiment proved that the
garter belt, which had been found pulled
down on the body, would not have been
in this position from dragging.

Ranck described Gibbs to the jury of
seven men and five women as a “willful
killer who thought he could get away
with murder because he was an intelligent
man.”

Gibbs then ‘took the stand in his own
defense to testify that “something inside
me snapped” when he killed the girl he
admittedly knew “just enough to say
hello.” He said he had been on his way
to a movie when he spotted Marian walk-
ing in downtown Lancaster, and had not
planned the murder.

In a dramatic courtroom scene, Dr. Ed-
ward A. Strecker, a prominent psychiatrist
from the University of Pennsylvania, took
the stand for the defense and described
Gibbs as immature and emotionally inse-
cure. Dr. Strecker claimed Gibbs could
not distinguish right from wrong at the
time of his crime, but under prosecution
cross-examination he admitted that Gibbs
was legally sane. To illustrate this point,
he held his finger at the 6% inch mark on
a 12-inch ruler to indicate the defendant’s
degree of sanity.

On Thursday evening, March 16th, the
case went to the jury and, after five hours
of deliberation, the jurors returned to the
courtroom to announce their decision. Ed-
ward Gibbs was guilty of murder in the
first degree, with the penalty of death in
the electric chair. Judge Joseph B. Wiss-
ler postponed the automatic sentence while
an appeal was filed for Gibbs, whose at-
torney insisted he was a schizophrenic and
that the “jungle took hold of him” as he
sat in the parked car with Marian Baker.

Shaking his head in disbelief and mur-
muring, “It can’t be,” over and over, Gibbs
was returned to the Lancaster County.
jail. There he collapsed completely. His
world had virtually come to an end and
he had dragged down with him the three
people who had loved him the most. His
wife, in a state of seclusion at her mother’s
home, had not returned to Lancaster for
the trial. His mother was under the care
of a physician at her New Jersey home.
His father suffered a heart attack as the
jury’s verdict was announced. .

When his appeals were exhausted, Gibbs
was taken to the Eastern State Peni-
tentiary and there, on April 23rd, 1951, he
paid with his life in the electric chair for
the crime he insisted to the end had been
dictated by an impulse. He was the first
killer from -Lancaster County to be exe-
cuted in almost 30 years, but it may take
that many years before the scars are
erased from the town, the college and the
people who were effected by the brutal
crime. Even 30 years may not be long
enough. rx x)

Eprror’s Note:

The name, Robert West, as used in
the foregoing story, is not the real name
of the person concerned. This person
has been given a fictitious name to
protect his identity.

GOOD-BYE
rummy BULGE!

I FEEL LIKE
A KID AGAIN
-IT'S GREAT!

REDUCE

YOUR
APPEARANCE

| INSTANTLY!

Zk Now at last, you can get
we rid of, quickly and
easily, the ugly “Bay
Window” that makes.
people call you ‘‘old-
timer" and causes you to
feel tired and drag your-
self around! No longer
will your clothes fit like
a “tight sack” or worry
you about tearing apart
at the seams or buttons
peperae off. Exclusive
OWER PANEL automati-
cally adjusts to your
body, guaranteeing fit.

NEW

CADET

HEALTH BEL?
WITH
POWER PANEL

As soon as you try on your CADET, you'll experi-
ence a remarkable, soothing, comfortable
feeling. With your stomach pulled in, your back
braced, your shoulders squared, your head held
erect—you feel taller . .
of power and strength!

OUTSTANDING
FEATURES!

Miraculous Slenderizing Control! Nothing can
compare with CADET’s scientifically designed
and constructed POWER PANEL.

CADET instantly trims the appearance of your
sagging, bulging midsection . . . makes you look
more energetic and full of ‘teen-age’ pep—or
it doesn’t cost you a single penny!

or $998 SUT
Waist Sizes 26”-46” NO MONEY

Extra Pouches TRY IT BEFORE
Available 75¢ each YOU BUY IT!

MAGIC-MOLD, Dept. C24¢

467 Livonia Ave., B’klyn 7, N. Y.

Send me for 10 days FREE TRIAL a CADET

HEALTH SUPPORTER BELT. | will pay postman

$3.98 (plus postage). If not completely satis-

fied, | may return the CADET for full refund of

purchase price.

Send me .. extra pouches at 75¢ each.

My waist measure is ........... iiceieaaiias nt :
(Send string size of waist, if no measure is handy.)

Name

. You'll feel a glow

MAIL NOW

SAVE MONEY—Enclose payment and we pay post
age. Same Money Back Guarantee. (Foreign orders
must be prepaid and S0¢ extra added for handling.)

89

* : oT S¢ © one ‘ad eae ge "9
' GIBBS, Edward, white, electrocuted Pennsylvania (Lancaster) )-25-1951

$
}
3
i

Fil

E
|
|

~ VETERAN COPS are noted for their sixth sense, but
mostly their instinct has been honed sharp on the long
grindstone of experience. It was that way with Corporal
Jim Kane, of the Pennsylvania State Police. Kane had been
ordered to investigate the sudden disappearance of pretty
Marian Baker, and the closer he checked the more worried
Kane became for the girl, She was young, lovely, engaged;
with no logical reason to suddenly disappear.

Donald M. Mylin, the treasurer of Franklin & Marshall
College in Lancaster, reported that his secretary had failed
to return to the campus after going downtown on business
errands early Tuesday afternoon. Her landlord was worried

_ when she did not appear at her rooming house all Tuesday
night, January 10th. The uncle who had reared her had
seen nothing of her at his home in the village of Conestoga,
a few miles south of Lancaster. Her mother in New Bloom-
field, about 60 miles to the northwest, had heard nothing

from Marian. And finally, her fiance in Conestoga, to whom

her engagement had been announced only a couple of
weeks earlier, had no idea where she could be.

Marian had lunched with co-workers on the tradition
hallowed old campus, explaining that she had to go to the
bank and the post office on business for her boss. “And,”
she’d added gaily, “then to the jeweler’s, The ring’s to be
ready today.”

At the bank, Kane learned, she made a $75 deposit.
Her next stop was at the jewelry store, where she was given
the diamond engagement ring bought by the young man
she planned to wed. From there she went to the post office
to register a piece of college mail. This was at about 2 P.M.
It was there her trail ended.

A charming girl of steady habits and impeccable reputa-
tion, Marian certainly had not gone on willingly on some
-harum-scarum adventure. Everyone who know her—and
she had many friends, particularly on the college campus—
was agreed on that, none more insistently than her fiance,
who dropped everything to try frantically to aid police in
their search for his sweetheart,

It was an unseasonably warm winter’s afternoon, even
for the mild reaches of the lower Conestoga Valley. Just
south of Lancaster the rolling fairways of the Meadia Heights
Country Club wore a bright mantle of green. And below
the golf course lay the gray contours of a wooded area,
threaded with gurgling streams, where several Lancastrians
in recent years had put up summer cottages.

One of these belonged to an attorney in the city. An im-
maculate structure, its gleaming white paint relieved by
the brilliant yellow of its shutters, it stood on stilts a few

36

RAH-RAH COLLEGE BOY

AND THE

MISSING
SECRETARY

by Taylor A. Pratt, Ph.D.

The Ivy League had never seen its like—the hallowed halls
of learning and lovely old campus were crawling with cops

heavy bludgeon was used—possibly a length of iron pipe.”

~

yards off a single lane, hard surface road that wound nortk- =
ward from U. S. Route 222, the main traffic artery between —
Lanacaster and Maryland. On this Saturday, the owners,
planning to leave for a Florida vacation, made a last visit =
to the cabin by Mill Creek. The lawyer’s wife brought with
her a bag of table scraps to spread out to the furry opossums
which lived in the surrounding woods. She was preparing to
do this very thing when scuff marks on the ground caught
her eye. Shexnoted the direction of the marks. They led to- -
ward the building itself, toward a spot where a shallow
cellar had been dug beneath a stilt-supported porch. There.
several sheets of corrugated iron roof sheathing lay across
the pit, a sawhorse from her picnic table atop them.

The lady was puzzled. The sawhorse did not belong there.
She walked over to investigate, then she saw the footprint.
It was a man’s track, and it had been made quite recently
in the soft earth. Suddenly fear possessed her. “That miss-
ing girl!” she thought. She did not want to do it, but she |
made herself lift one of the sheets of corrugated iron.

Her screams brought her husband on the run. Beneath the -
metal sheet was a mass of bloody hair and flesh. :

(re KANE got the alarm at four-fifteen p.m.
Twilight was thickening in the Mill Creek woods when
state police and city officers swarmed up the lovers’ lane to =
the vacation cottage. With these officials came Dr. Charles
P. Stahr, deputy coroner for Lancaster County. see
The girl lay face down in the makeshift basement. She
was fully clothed, even to a red coat, but her garments were
pulled up around her waist, doubtless, Kane said, from her
being dragged into the pit by her feet. The back of the
head was crushed.
“Compound fractures of the skull,” Dr. Stahr said. “That’s ;
all I can say now, except that apparently some sort of very ©

=
a

From the owners, Kane and Detective Frank Matt heard
details of the discovery of the body, while troopers rushed
out to block off the by-road at the intersection with Route
222, and other police continued their examination of the
grounds around the cottage. An identification expert busied
himself with the single clear footprint just in front of the
basement. He measured it carefully and made a cast of the
track for further study back at the barracks. There was no
blood around the cottage, but a small amount was found
beside the road about 20 feet north of the driveway leading
to the cabin. And here, searching police also found a white
pearl button, apparently torn from a woman’s blouse. a

Late Saturday night, Dr, Stahr was ready with his autopsy

Mu fuer 7 163 Z AMAZING DETECTIVE

was seen alive, to
ninute ride, staying
‘hat means she was
autes after leaving
ven almost directly
Ve must assume two
1e accepted a ride
she knew, in down-
his person is some-
district. I feel cer-
ut that boarded-up
ie girl got into the

?” asked one of the

aree things,” replied
“The obvious mo-
the ring and purse
ik this is a cover-up
1ich has to be either
yusy.”
ag on the jealousy
nted another officer.
it. When she first
ollege the girl dated
tructors. But in the
going steady with
e anyone else. There
a position to murder

3 that the killer in-
irl,” answered Cap-
she resisted him, he
‘age and choked her

>

: of

on sale
ill newsstands

then clubbed her
n of the girl’s garter
iden sexual advance
e and resisted.”
ceed to intensify their
ispects, concentrating
who both owned a
. in class at 2:30 P.M.

g the hunt began with
oning of 63 friends
dead girl. Then the
campus where Presi-
) permit police use of
; and personnel.

nmunity is deeply
{ at the death of Miss
‘’ said the president
1e college desires to
» the solution of this

.bsent from classes at
ographer’s death was
ised about 200 of the

This list was then
her showing all stu-
rs and those on both
: for special question-
set up on the campus
sted students was re-

ran interview ata.

> students were also
orward with any in-
seemingly unimpor-
rovide a lead to the

killer. In particular, the police wanted
to know about students who had shown
detailed knowledge of the crime, who had
fresh scratches or bruises, or whose cars
bore bloodstains.

Since all garages, auto accessory stores
and car washing stations had been alerted
to watch for a car with bloodstained up-
holstery, the investigators were kept busy
running down false leads all day Monday.
More than 300 phone calls were received
by Lancaster and state police, in addition
to dozens of verbal leads provided by
college students and faculty members.

By Monday evening, January 16th, there
was still a heavy backlog of leads to be
followed and special teams of state and
local police were set up to work around
the clock in categorizing the information
and checking it. By Tuesday morning they
had weeded out the most promising pos-
sibilities for the full force of investigators.

Tuesday morning passed, with special
emphasis given to clearing as many of the
collegiate suspects as possible. By that
afternoon, only 15 remained of the original
list of 200 who had missed classes on the
10th. So far, none of them had been able
to provide the police with any usable
information, but that afternoon Captain
Gleason got another of many tips from
the campus. Since this one came from
President Distler himself, he paid it special
attention.

The president revealed that one of the
students, whose father was an undertaker,
had come to him with the information that
another student had questioned him at
some length a few days earlier about dead
bodies. He wanted to know how long
it took for a body to decompose, whether
fingerprints could be made from a body
and similar information. Marian Baker
was still missing at the time and the first
student, believing the questions were the
result of morbid curiosity, had gotten the
information from his undertaker father.

“This is very interesting,” admitted Cap-
tain Gleason. “Did you get the name of
the student who wanted all this informa-
tion?”

“Yes,” President Distler replied. “It was
a senior named Edward Gibbs.”

The captain thanked him and ran his
finger down the list of students still to be
questioned. The name, “Gibbs, Edward
Lester,” quickly came into view with a
significant notation. Gibbs owned a car
and had been absent from a class at the
time of Marian Baker’s death. There was
also the information that Gibbs was. mar-
ried and lived with his wife on the cam-
pus.

Searching further in the sheafs of reports
prepared by detectives at the college, he
found still another mention of Gibbs. The
senior had been reported because of a
scratched face and routinely questioned.
He had claimed that it was suffered during
a basketball game and this was later cor-
roborated by others in the game.

Since Gibbs was still on the campus, and
was scheduled for a routine interview with
investigators, it was decided to take no
special action on the new information im-
mediately, but Gleason passed it on at a
conference that evening with District At-
torney Ranck, Captain Kirchner and other
officers assigned to the case.

Gleason had also obtained additional in-
formation on Gibbs, a 25-year-old GI stu-
dent from Pitman, New Jersey. He was a
member of a prominent Pitman family, had
won three athletic letters in high school,
belonged to a college fraternity, possessed
a C average and had an excellent personal
reputation. :

“We have decided to include him with
four others to,be singled out for intensive
questioning on the campus,” stated Glea-
son. “The others have reputations as cam-

pus ‘wolves’ who own cars,” he concluded.

That evening all five were ordered to
report the following morning to the office
of the dean of students, where a team of
detectives would question them.

Corporal James Kane of the state police
and Detective Frank Matt of the city force
were assigned the duty of interrogating
the five students and by noon they had
talked to four of them without result. Only
Gibbs had failed to show up. The two
officers decided to visit his dormitory.

Parked at the curb outside the dormitory
was a two-toned blue 1947 Chevrolet coupe
bearing the New Jersey license plates the
detectives had listed as Gibbs’. They halt-
ed for a moment to look it over and
glance inside. The upholstery looked clean.
The detectives then continued into the
dormitory, where they knocked on the
door that bore Gibbs’ name. There was no
reply from either the student or his wife.
Assuming the senior was somewhere about
the campus, since his car was still in front
of the building, the officers returned to the
dean’s office after leaving a message for
Gibbs to report to them.

But even as the campus bells tolled 2
P.M. and the detectives walked leisurely
back to the dean’s office, a husky dark-
haired youth, haggard and unshaven, burst
into President Distler’s office. The secre-
tary tried to stop him, but he brushed by
her with a mumbled explanation that “it’s
important” and strode into the president’s
private office. ‘

Dr. Distler was discussing a speech with
his public relations director when the
youth, clad in typical campus attire of dark
sport shirt, dark gray pants, brown suede
shoes and a light tan field jacket, came up
to his desk, his face muscles twitching.

“Did you wish to see me? Is something
wrong?” asked the startled educator.

“T’m Eddie Gibbs,” came the staccato
reply. “You want me. I did it. I’m your
man.”

Before the officials could speak, Gibbs
turned on his heel and left the office as
hurriedly as he had come. Dr. Distler
watched him through the window, strid-
ing across the campus toward his dormi-
tory, before calling the dean’s office and
asking for the detectives.

Gibbs was waiting, alone, at the dormi-
tory when Kane and Matt arrived. He
readily agreed to accompany them to the

‘Lancaster state police barracks for ques-

tioning.

“I knew you were closing in on me,”
the husky senior volunteered as they drove
off the campus. “I saw you looking over
my car before. That’s when I knew what
you really wanted to talk to me about at
the dean’s office. I just couldn’t take it
any longer. That’s why I gave myself up.”

For a week, Gibbs continued, he had
tried to live a normal college life and to
hide his emotions from his wife and fra-
ternity brothers. The murder had come
up often in casual conversations and Gibbs
had tried to remain calm during these
times. He had also tried to keep informed
about the progress of the investigation as
best he could, he told the two detectives,
by asking questions and buying the first
editions of the local newspaper directly
from the plant.

Even though the detectives did not press
questions on the now unburdened suspect,
he continued to talk. “Yes, I’m the fellow
you were looking for all that time. I killed
Marian Baker and I thought I could get
away with it. She was hard to kill; she
didn’t want to die.”

At the barracks, Captain Gleason was
waiting to question the remorseful senior.
But he needed little prompting to tell the

* story of a “brutal impulse” that had caused

him to kill the pretty stenographer.
“I don’t know why I killed her,” Gibbs

The Opportunities
That Await YOU

NOW

In Scientific

Crime Detection Work

Follow in the steps of this successful
F career man... start to train now for
a responsible, steady, well-paying
position in the field of criminal in-
vestigation. If your job is dull, rou-
tine, without future . . . then here is

train you to take advantage of these
same opportunities if you act im-
mediately!

learn.

Over 800

CLIP AND MAIL COUPON NOW

American Bureaus

of Identification

Employ I.A.S. students or graduates...
factual proof of what I.A.S. training can
do. Every one of these men learned FIN-
GER PRINT IDENTIFICATION, FIRE-ARMS
IDENTIFICATION, POLICE PHOTOGRAPHY

AND CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION—the eco-
nomical I.A.S. home study way.

So don’t delay! Cash in on the increas-
ing opportunities for finger print techni-
cians and criminal investigators.

FREE! “BLUE BOOK

@ OF CRIME”

Packed full of thrills. Reveals “behind the
scenes” facts of actual criminal cases. Tells
how scientific investigators solved them
through the same methods you learn at
1.A.S. Explains, too, how you can get
started in this profession at low cost.
Don’t wait ... mail in this coupon today.

INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCE
(A Correspondence School Since 1916)
Dept. 1623, 1920 Sunnyside, Chicago 40, III.

INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCE
1920 Sunnyside Ave., Dept. 1623,
Chicago 40, Minois

Gentlemen: Without obligation, send me the “Blue
Book of Crime,” and list of Identification Bureaus
employing your students and graduates, together with
your low prices and Easy Terms Offer. No salesman
will call, Literature will be sent ONLY to per-
sons stating their age.)

87


a

WM H109¢ . fe,
ABM ON

eR amULID Ing

na | aNsn
atanai8

Aj

f
tf

SOMERSET memOR TE 9s, oo
5 oe

ded no
narrated
Suspect
We had
s in the
all over

dIctor’s
rar of
iders’

car’s

_you,
iden-

tities were made for his benefit.

Looking for me? Why?”
“Maybe you can help us. You
know Frances Coyne?”

“Sure.”

“Did you know she is dead?”

Gray’s eyes widened in apparent
horror.

Perry, standing near by, gasped and
jerked upright.

“Dead!” Gray muttered. “No, I
ain’t heard nothing about it. But
when?”

“She was murdered,” Brubach said.
He tried to make his voice sound cas-
ual, but he watched Gray closely,

But Gray appeared thunderstruck.
It was obvious that this was first-

Then suddenly he shot
an unexpected question.

“Why haven't you been at work out
on Beechwood Boulevard?”

Gray stammered hesitantly, then
explained:

“That’s too tough work, I ain’t
never going back there. I quit.”

“You quit?”

“Well, I didn’t tell ’em I was quit-
ting. I just ain’t going back. This
job’s better. Ore pay and less
work,” ained that off and on
for seve he’d worked for

how, when the
do some more

id, was a good st
worthy, Th

trusted him with the car on several
occasions.

When Brubach had arrived, Gray
was scrubbing the inside of the car.
The detective now examined the car’s
interior more closely.

“What are you cleaning up?” he
asked. :

“Tar stains,” Gray said. “Spilled
some tar on the seaf. :

“I was carting away some rubbish
in the car, and some of the rubbish
had soft tar on it.”

RUBACH came directly to my
office to report on this conversa-

tion.
at Gray had
ced:

under arrest and in

66

That

that there we

might have cleaned them up. But
they weren’t tar stains.”
I got the point, but said popping.
“And in the fifth Place,” Brubach

the day the girl was ki
the gir] breaking off with hi
his not going home the night of the
killing—and you've got a case.”
hier circumstances,” I reminded
im.

“Sure, circumstances,” he said.
“But -we’ll have more than that soon
enough. I want to see Verzella.”

The first thin rubach and Ver-
zella di k to Dr. Sanders

wanted a picture
of his car,

poli
sented and the pic
jiffy

They showed it to me proudly—a
picture of a big, spreading stain on
the cushion—a stain that had been '
invisible to the naked eye,

“Infra-red Photography,” Verzella
explained. “Sometimes we call it in-
visible photography.”

e infra-red ray is invisible. But
by using infra-red. light in hotog-
raphy, you can get pictures o things
the eye cannot see,

Brubach grinned, then Pointed to
the pictured stain.

“That look like tar ‘to you?” he
asked.

I had to (Continued on Page 60)

This Pennsylvania metropolis follows the FBI in establishing

a photographic depart

TRACES.

of cement from this safe

found in suspect’s clothes
se) ©6resulted in his conviction.

ment to aid in apprehension of felons

TROUSER.

cuffs were repositories
for particles of mortar
incriminating Baranetski,


eel

YS ae |
ff th
Ol, aod

34 ae |

THE SMUDGED—.

print of a heel was sharply
defined under the camera to
pin down two store bandits.

aia Shain AS Satna

TRUCK——

used as an arsenal and a
transport for Pittsburgh’s
liquor store thieves’ foot,

Verzella made the pictures true to Scale, that
is life-size, in order to make them appear as
they would to the human eye. Had you cut out
the picture of the chisel and held its point

gouge in the door jamb,

you’d have found them to be a perfect fit. It

ere is a case (No. 1)

brought that door jamb

, the murder of a young

girl, which is a good a of how the camera

late winter rains that

and Arthur Christy of
disgruntled as he drove
tine Drive in Schenley
from Pitt University’s
at 9:20 a. m.

stands police in good stea
T WAS raining March 2, 1936—one of those

are almost cold enough

to be sleety. .The drizzle made murky Pitts-
burgh even murkier. It was a day for indoors,

3059 Harry Street, was
along twisting Serpen-
Park, a stone’s throw
Cathedral of Learning,


It was a wonder that he saw the
girl at all, what with the rain pep-
pering his windshield and the wiper
slip-slapping back and forth. But he
did see her—a girl lying under a bent,
leafless spirea bush not far from the
roadside. In summer he would have
thought nothing of it, for park
sleepers were frequent on hot days
and nights, but in this cold drizzle
Christy knew at once something was
in 3

Without haste he braked the car,
drew to a stop and got out. Rain
spattered his face and he quickened
his step. His consciousness of the
rain vanished, however, as he stooped
beside the girl and touched her.

She was cold and stiff. Dead!

Face down, sg extended, her head
rested on her left arm. When he
gently turned her over he saw the
dark splotch of blood on her left
breast, and which spread ‘as ‘rain-
are softened the congealed blood.

Christy arose quickly and fled
panicky, to the roadway. He screamed
at the first car that passed.

The first officers to reach: the scene
were patrolmen from the Oakland
Station. They kept the oe
crowd back and question Christy
until Detective George Brubach and
Police Lieutenant Franklin McQuaide
got there from downtown. McQuaide
is one of our best investigators, and
Brubach, usually assigned to robbery

operates: with..the homicide
squad on many occasions,

While McQuaide listened to Chris-

CAPTURED ——

in the garage where Pittsburgh police found $10,000
worth of stolen liquors, ex-convict Thomas Irwin had
_ $4,100 cash in his pockets. He got {21/2 to 25 years.

ty’s story, Brubach began a search
of the vicinity. His st thought,
since it had been raining, was of foot-
prints, but he found none except
those made by the crowd of curious
spectators. ;

His search started in a wide circle,
and as he pire onan, the circles got
smaller as he came nearer the b y,
under which he found a girl’s black
patent-leather purse. Brubach opened
it and found some coins, car checks, a
pencil stub, hairpins, rouge, lipstick,
compact. There was one letter. It
was addressed Frances Coyne,
3007 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh.

“Probably her,” Brubach said,
showing it to McQuaide.

“Maybe,” McQuaide said.

Then Brubac stooped and ex-

amined the dead girl. She was
extremely pretty. A brunette. She
was a a i dressed, but not
e ively.
‘Look here,” he said-- suddenly.
“Her dress is fairly dry on the fron’
og the og be pene eh ae
Christy. “How did you say she was
lying when you found her?”
om her stomach,” Christy replied.
“Then she must have been here
since before een Brubach com-
mented. “It started raining just about
midnight.”
Brubach examined the wound over

the girl’s heart. “Looks like a thirty-.

eight,” hé said tersely. “And look!”
He gestured for McQuaide to look
pel ay “Powder burns, or I miss
my bet.”

PARTNER

Specks of black formed a circle
around the hole in the dress and
around the wound.

Within 20 minutes Brubach and
McQuaide were at the Terrace Street
address. There they learned that the
dead girl really was Frances Coyne,
24 years old. A photograph proved
it, although, of course, they confirmed
it by direct identification later.

She worked, the detectives were
told, at the Dithridge Apartments, an
upper-class residence-hotel in the
Pitt campus district. :

HAT’S where ect d went next, and
uestioned Priscilla Johnson, also a
ithridge employee and one of

Frances’ closest friends. From her

they learned that the two girls, at

the end of the day’s work the day

before, had left the Dithridge to-

ether, ing a street car en route
their respective homes.

“Frances got off at Soho and Center,
just as she always does,” Priscilla
said. The girl obviously was stunned
and distraught. -

“About what time?”  Brubach
asked. ;
ae was about six. Maybe five to
s' ” ; . >
“How do you know?” --

“Well, we're through work here at
5:30. We had to take time to clean
up and get into our coats, and then
we had wal to sme car 2. block
away. © igure we got on the car
about quarter to six, and we had been
on maybe eight or ten minutes when

of Irwin, Edward Dugan, had a pair of shoes In ‘his
room which had left a tell-tale heelprint. Camera
shot supplied this evidence, got him 20-40 years.


:
Ee
S
1 Ro
inte

a
>
8
g
valor
ANSIUM
a
hey

|
q
{Al

Ls

ORO hee

SOMUISET pePORTT ES >
BET NGvewntk ter

S ROCALTENIER Placa

ar
ty iM
metas

STOREHOUSE. r ‘ 4 ty NS “- ats
for pilfered portables was the Reet a. Ps
Pittsburgh garage where cops e eee ey
nabbed Ed Dugan and Tom Irwin,

Case histories from the files of Pittsburgh’s Inspector of
detectives attest to importance of camera in criminology

Frances got off at Soho and Center.” “Oh, couple of months ago. That cipally by Brubach, had yielded no

And when Frances got off, you was Steve Gray. She liked him lots information other than that narrated
stayed on?” but she said she didn’t want to tie here, and the only possible suspect
“Yes, I have to ride another mile.” herself down to one man.” 5 we had was Stephen Gray. We had
“Did you turn and watch her as “Did they quarrel?” to talk with him. If he was in the
she left the street car?” “Oh, no.  He’s still having dates clear, why, we’d have to start all over
“No, I was reading a paper.” with her. Only not so much as he again,
“Then you didn’t see her after that used to.” :
at all?” “Where does this Gray live?” OR two days the whole force was
“No.” “I don’t know. I never heard Fran- on the lookout for Gray. We
Well, that was that. Frances Coyne ces say.” , watched the house where he
had left the street car about six p. m. “Know where he works?” roomed, but he never showed up. We
She’d been found dead two miles “No. He hasn’t been workin had officers waiting at the WPA pro-
away 15 hours later. steady, though. No, wait—seems ject, but he didn’t show up there
“Do you know anyone who might did hear about him getting a WPA either,
have wanted to kill Frances?” Bru- job, though.” Meantime Brubach talked to every
bach asked, At Pittsburgh WPA offices it was person he could find who knew Gray.
“Of course not,” Priscilla said. “No quickly ascertained that Stephen He hoped to uncover in their answers
one would want to kill her.” Gray, 25, was employed on a project some clue as to where we might find

“Someone wanted to—and did,” out on Beechwood Boulevard. He had Gray. This was laborious work. A
Brubach said wryly. “Try to think been hired two weeks before. This day passed. Then another.
back now. You’re a good friend of was the only Stephen Gray on the And ultimately we did get 4 break.
hers. Did she ever tell you anyone books. At the project, the foreman We found one friend of Gray who told
ever threatened her?” supplied some interesting informa- us Gray had often worked. as a gen-
“No.” tion. Gray was on the employment eral handyman and car washer for a
“How about her boy friends? Did list, all right, but he hadn’t shown up Dr. T.G. Sanders.
she have just one? Or lots of them? for work that oy Moreover it was Brubach hustled out to the doctor’s
I ask you this, because she’d be more the first morning he hadn’t shown up Ouse, _
pt to confide in you than she would since he’d been hired. And jin the garage at the rear of

in her family,’ He supplied Gray’s home address, the house he found Gray.

“She went with lots of boys, I but Gray was not at home and hadn’t He was Scrubbing the car and with
don’t know them all. But she had been home the night before as in- him was George Perry, Dr. Sanders’
lots of dates. She used to go Steady quiries proved. chauffeur, who was tuning the car’s
with one fellow, but they broke And at that point the investigation motor.
it up.” stalled. “We’ve been looking for you,

“When?” The investigation, conducted prin- Gray,” Brubach said, as soon as iden-

36


get

the
and
ling

the
vith
and
ka

ned
wit-
hed.
med

ke,”
him
i us
ou’re

e of
t he
f he
-om-

sch’s
vhile
-man
ce of
“nace

ormy
per-
in all
that
1 Old

ae pe Yat if

er 15 \ ae Se : ‘ K
Later Weiss took.us to another bridge

where he insisted. Girsch had thrown the
gun into the stream.

We never did find it but we had enough
evidence to proceed with the trial.

When Attorney Fred Service of
Sharon, retained by Girsch’s parents, saw
the hopelessness of the defense he ad-
vised a plea of guilty to second degree
murder with a life sentence.: Upon his
clients’ refusal to accept his advice he
withdrew from the case. Thereafter their
demand for trial forced Judge J. A. Mc-
Laughry to appoint Attorneys Ben Maris
and George Mashank as counsel for the
prisoners.

The .entire trial centered around the
confessions. They were admitted in evi-
dence and the jury made short work of the
deliberations, returning a verdict:

“Guilty of murder in the first degree.”

T.here was‘ no recommendation of
mercy. Slowly the full significance of the
verdict dawned on the defendants. It
meant that they would die in the chair.

After 20 months in the Mercer jail while
their counsel attempted to reverse the
verdict, the Supreme court finally sealed
their death warrants. All hope was gone
now and every tick of the clock brought
the hideous specter of death nearer.

Escape Attempted

OX THE night of July 20, 1920, the
county jail was thrown into an up-
roar by the attempted suicide of a pris-
oner in one of the cells. Deputies, pris-
oners and trusties rushed wildly about.
When the prisoners were again celled and
checked Johnny Girsch’s cage was empty.
Deputy Sheriff Edward Thomas sounded
the alarm. t

The search started immediately. Weiss
was safely locked up but where was
Girsch? : ’

It was 1 a. m. when the searching depu-

ee

ties came upon a man groaning beside
the south wall of the jail. It was Girsch.
In the jail hospital he was found to have

‘a broken ankle.

So-cleverly had the pair worked that it
was some time before a concealed hole,
dug through the south wall, was discov-
ered, In some manner, Girsch had ob-
tained a pair of pliers. With these he had
been able to rip sheet metal from places
where it could not readily be observed.
For four days with Weiss’ help he had
carved away at the wall with these crude
implements. To mask these operations
they had taken turns at centering atten-
tion on the jail bullpen by playing cards,
singing and acting up.

Rope Breaks

AKING advantage of the confusion

Girsch had wiggled through the hole
in the masonry. In some mysterious man-
ner he had obtained a length of clothes
line on which he intended to lower him-
self. As he started the 40-foot descent
the rope broke and left him lying helpless
with a smashed ankle.

After one look at his pal Weiss lost his
nerve.. He covered up the exit and re-
turned to the cell. Later he denied all
knowledge of the plot but the brick dust
in his clothing gave him away.

Governor Pinchot fixed the week of
Oct. 25, 1925, for the executions. Sheriff
William A. Bone and his deputies re-
moved the doomed pair to’ Rockview
Prison at Bellefonte on Oct. 24.

On Oct. 26, Mike Weiss trod the last
mile and passed through the little door
from which there is no return.

A few moments later John Girsch stag-
gered into the rigid chair and paid for
his part in the crime.

The great commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania had avenged the brutal slaying of
Qld Bill Turner.

“Git a load of dis! It tells how I outwitted da police!”
WHEN ANSWERING ADVERTISEMENTS, PLEASE Mention May Dartne DETECTIVE

Pe ee, FE ae

:
!
5

eS

SmaI

Not only cool shaving, that
proved that little more than
an inch of Listerine Shaving

leaves your skin flexible and
soft, but economical shaving
as well. By laboratory tests we

Cream will actually produce a

int of rich, foaming, cooling
seiker that stands up. Of
course you wouldn't want that
much lather, buc it gives you
some idea of what a wonder-
ful cream our product is. Re-
member, Liscerine Shaving
Cream also contains glycerine
which puts a film on thesface
so that the razor glides freely
and easily.

LAMBERT PHARMACAL. Co.
St. Louts, Mo.

A PINT
OF

ATHER:

2

FROM THIS

MUCH

SHAVES

ee

59

ot he

A OMNO TT AB MA mm FI ore

Fifty I tments of Politicians t ;
and Piaflnent Officials to Be}.
~ Asked. U.S. Attorney, als

Se a

“ASKS ‘TO.SEIZE =.

Order, If Granted, Would Permit |
1. Destruction © of - Refrigerato
* Cars Used in Hauling. ee

©) 5 OVER 1,000
“eyee

Ae Oct. 24—Fifty ‘indictments | Riack ville,’ 8:
{of prominent politicans, railroad officials [nave Mnished a campaiga, Foc #9)!
land peer funners‘wilt be asked by As-| thie the’ committed to Greenville:

A Leimtant Us & Attorney James Li -Me-foourage,| The various committvon |
Dowell from the grand jury;Monday in ; ‘ ‘ aay a
addition to the indictment, of five large
«| pallroadd@ as Corporations for’ the Ulegal
‘i transportation of beer. ©" *
MeDowell stated he plana to as« ror
-} orders. -for: the eetsure..cf ‘more than
1,000. refrigerator, cars. by the rail-
foade for. the trans tion, of: beer
over intricate routes from thy east to
Chicago bootleggers, - The order woud
i} permit, the destruction. of--the .selsed
oan. Cora eee enh

eS the x eae m
20> Mee, Kiten Stevemass
 Mrm: Ellen Btevens, aged 89, died at
the fome of her son, James; on the
Mercer: 7 road this”, morning
at 1230, ‘Bhe had been Mi only for the
| past. several days, and ber death wae

haa been :done that oa ber fone 4
everything ia in ree tor
night, the opening.” :

waa born April 31,/2884 tix (
ship, Mercer county the bon’ ef
and Kathryn. Davidson  Ratger«

deceased Io survived ‘by hi wil ss
five: children, -2dartin C. and Jarry
of Greenville: 8.° Wylie, of Wei

Joseph and Ruth at bonis.” We %s
one aay ee 8 lite long Woember of the Retormes |

eaeee? eee

; Oot Jeion' wis thordughly goné into at thej execution. | Benatar Service » stated)
lecution claméacy ‘in the cage of Mich- hearing|on Wednesday and ¢hat no rea-| that Weise’ mother, ig) now” coming home ‘at 1 ¢'elook Saturday atte
asi Wales and,Johi Girach, \wentenced [sons were developed why, jubtice would frola tbe ied; coentry at ee ee Interment: will be made. in Foch #
é : 2A waco NE as before he dies and’ ft te hopd that time cemetery, Adamayville,.. °° ~! oy
be furthered by pardoning or commut:| nay pe permitted hee’ artivalet
frig the sentence of the condemned. a :
Mercer, Oct. 24—-Michael Weiss and
John: Girab, tonvicted slayers of wh.
Ham &.) Turner; of | West Middlesex,
left: the Mercer jail this morning at
0:40 on thelr’ way ‘to. Rockview  pent-
tentlaty, tn Center: county where they

ft &

me DE aes tt

' > © Mire. Matilde Cassidy
Mra ‘Matiida Cassidy, 2594 72. |
ot George Cassidy, Uied: al) 22°
morning at-the home of hor
‘one-half. mile north: of Oran 5
the Kiraman road. The «« peak

fp pardon was fe

tie ei

Gre to pay the penalty for their crime

are belng conveyed in two closed autt-
mobdiies,” each “man handcuffed’ and

“Monday: in’ the electira chair, © They.

Ul the entire: summer witi) ©
The husband dled 15..yeers &
Gectased: wag born in Venann?

Co, August 20, 1846. Her troic

B, Beachier, wag Matilda Bites,” |:

He Serviving “ars two eons. TH;
Pymaguning township- 90d -

home... Vive grandaitidres *"

peated In: the rear seat between two
> | pueda,” They are -to be: delivered to

rs

ii
ra

i

vee CREE RR

Pastor

ercer

at?

i

¢

Over 30. friend? ©
nd @ full. program, of *
,evening’s. enterts!n:
boro. have been visiting Mrs, Kelley's} 005°" Ke
parents, Mr,and Mrs. William Die} THE WEATH
sanauiten ‘Dents tecsnd attell. - Phek hg. ee ea,
are‘ on. their way” to Spartensburg| - south portions, Bun?
where Mr. Kelley has accepted @ call ably.
from ‘the Baptist church, He recently
resigned hie pastorate at Stonebdoro. ”
The Kelleys recently had as Visitors
; Rev. and Mrs, Coulson Shepard who
John’ Hodge, Miss BE. A. Hodge, W.| have just been assigned by the Amert-
J. McClellan, Mra, J.C) Winter, River-| can Raptist Publication Bociety to take
view Hotel, Homer Bros., Levi B. Tay: | charge of the newest chapel car, the
lor, McClimans Hardware Co., R, D.| “Moorehduse”’, The  Shepards. were
McClure; The Toggery, Gibeon Furnl}converted in Bible school classes
ture Co.,: Greenville Kandy Kitchen, conducted by Mr. and’ Mre, Kel-
Dunn Battery Shop. National “Market Jey in Philadetphia while they were at-
Pee : i 28 } CO. Keystone Plumbing and’ Supply | tending the Philadelphia Bible Institute.
iBad Weather Forecast. Co, Dorwart. Harry Shoe Co., Smith} Mr. Shepard immediately gave up hie
“Phere will be bad weather ahead for | steam Bakery,” Mre. Mary 0. Ltving-{ connection with & prominent life fn-
you tp old sge if you continue. paying | ston, W.. F. Amy and Sone, J. F, Bas-| surance company fo devate himeelf to
4 think or £0 down. (n | kin, The Pate, J. R. ‘Titzel. WH. A Tay-| Gospel work. :
Looser, wea- aaa
7 024-8 °

wae

3
:

acon

ge N

a a

in. cash and promises) of others® that
they -woull eontritute, | ©)". :
; Subscriptions ‘were received from the
following since the last report:

sin| Which’ hed been broush'
SA) determined effort fa to be made
Roday) by: Senator F..
Rave. Governor’ Gifford Pinchot say
the edecution. - Senator, Service and
‘tien ‘Attotnéy Tra McNeal, of Sharon, ‘visit-
: ed them until! after midnight. Today Sen-
atoc Sébvice js-to see the governor. to
Harrisburg.in & last effort to stay the

So nrae

Bh caast “own [>

“Pctuds that. sing.
were much more
met in silences»
[° Harry Di Keck. FE}.

| Joslin ‘werg the‘ col

<GATHERING OF NEEDLEWORK
= GUILDISBIGSUCCESSTHIS.


“Ynchal Hue | i Duce Co E 0-26-/925
oS ee -~
qeene Precen tate of fo Granta
Mardis NES ef |
Yithian pg Fee Pea Lite,
SYNOPSIS bs Lf :
ales Ad eee ks ALeLien, Letts AALevsa ono ea re,

rs f:
tad goes Bactee Le disace previsicaly tut eh wot denedo. Gx 2g ee

Ctl, fLaAtht A Lu Aan ¢teacted Lary 7 Lo abnce hcl, (LAsfeating

LE ROSE ae: OE A De eS) eg Si. ardent

Prada behsae Via cegh 7 lee ea rf Hae caegihlirn Btn. Bim de: oe

 gake j
Chruchiccd Ah aewuredl turd Ck oro Artatee! tesaseseed Labegpinl

Pu

TRIAL

APPEALS

LAST WORDS

EXECUTION

SOURCE


Bate Prison, Peetatectie Oct

aaeee orate and mee Weiss, eon |

/Mereer “aunty: Teiavers, were
en ht ohere this: “morning ‘at’ %
clock; after ¢fforte of: ‘thelr counsel to

rect @ reprieve. trom Governor: Pim |b

thet, and a prior. refusal for cummuta-|-
tion from the Pardon Board had failed.
‘roth ‘men “went to! death, calmly,’ ale
is h each. had. ‘protested: his” 4ono-
‘while in athe, Mercer” county dell),
week. : Girseh went to’ the | at
and) wan pronounced dcad ai7:07,

followed at fs at o'clock and was

et: Og te Bee
isc beg Weiss were. convicted of
dng William Z. Turner, West wet
x filling station proprietor early
y drove up to the station ‘Ke

twas charged,» sah SCE

eee: th - Gi
ta shoulder all hiame, for’
vein aon that the life 6€ bis |:

@

might be spared.~ ?
“we men die tof tna

;
. BROtES

«93 DBAD, SCORES.

INJURED BADLY

. 1 pete paid

«On ‘Atlantic: Seaboard cacti

. LOSSES ARE HEAVY

Av lenat 233 persons. were kitted, scores

; of were; injured ‘oceam-golng . vessels _im-

periled and niany! small vessels swept
Troms : their: ‘hoorings. Inta_ wilely sepa:
tated” etotms - which: ‘ewirled along the
JAtlantic peabourd advious recetved from
many, pources revealed ‘today,
‘FS Death and destryiction was partici:
y hea'
wore |

agents ‘and: vicinity. ‘ave:

‘ies New ;
& ost, ¢ we Roh bi

oes

aa dite und tAjuring tix, Leone Sh

spared.

and that: tt. would be. utite 4

yt a
‘however, santil: later’ “this; week,

Merter, . ‘Oct: 26—Consideradle

this morning »
that. the execution.

‘court hous¢ atti

ty :thelr sentence \
to” “life. imprisonment,» aay

aa ip The: journey to the: Rockew, , ih
pte i pes wma ‘and . the: two: ‘boys,
hapdcutted ‘and (a between ‘guards,

were: _joheertt ul. = rode’ wth, his

‘the yey, J: Rock view. .

tHe waatola iat hed are ust aie

protested his ‘Innocence to the end.
The’ tatter’s' mother was réportéd on
her way to America trom Roumania to
gee her son.) Sho is not due to bred Mong |

ein’ hin ars ‘and ed be fittie but
Gieech apparently enjoyed “the trip

om

be Tue! steamer Commonwealth, Fath
New, York, carrying 326. pas-
_sengers’ and 25 officers: and crew, was
reported | this morning “46 "ve in a help:
lees condition ‘oft Rhode: Irland. Boats
pL vent : to hee rescue and later reports |)
| sala that: all on board were saved.
osThres” ties “In: Alabama “were
+ espe: Sunday but no large cities were
in ‘the path (of ithe stofm, Houses col-
lapsed ‘under | “the! ‘terrific’ wind! - The
damage done was largely to small com
munities. Ap ene
“Pittsburgh, “Oct. | s€—Pitisburgh and
Western Penhéytvania suffered mildly
from a 60-mile gale'a purt of the wind-
‘storm. ‘which: ‘swept, the east. yesterday.

o-
° burt a canvas’ today fall dt Boones rt)
iow was evident about ihe court boure nite pee 2

when word was received
of. John Girsch and :
‘Michael Wels Yad occurred) at Rock:
view: Dy leon: ‘att -o'c}oek, ‘It had evi:
{sentiy,, been the hope. of most of the
‘that the: two boys
woutd. be. -reprieved: “pnd that éventual- | ©: PAE
d ‘be ommuted

Ans pectone, damage, *

B napacsed raking paper by Wick &
Oh ee reer Youngstown, on

ait © QUOTED ED AT. 146 iy

Nieridie LPO esseceeteedere es "yatag

General Asphalt . .-++++- non tadenes OO)
American Can deep beaene et views -2B4 -
Baldwin: Pecual bevhgd beg bemaospes «429%
‘Baltimore and Ohio” cerarctartrnny 36%
' *-% aie bahia, ce Gebh 9 48%

Anaconda is ccd sein eee 46
Canadian Pacific’ Riad attri lak

» | Central. Leather. Prntés ¥

aD Rh cele 29%
Corn: rebar tte tis a8% 1
We ag eet Be. re ”
Erte - Seyret ia es eyes bes ote ae: 36%

General Electric: Aperhde ee shee SESS
Royal. Duteh Dede ype ree bese nies 61%
Sinclair - BOS ade Suds Inde wean vans 20%
Btudebaker.. PY Ape doh diate dee ey tee 64%
‘Westinghouse aye 75%
Pennsylvania 2.) cece ds ok eds 48M
New, Haven. Sate Eitan. 81%
Transcontinental: whyeses isiect 3%
Mt, Pan (pd 4, byeikesceets eee IBM] ©
Chandler Motors. ve teehee Fins cates a 2 44y
teneral: Motors» 1%
we ‘8. Steer. hey ipa oT
Gute: States’ Btcel Fat etewegr reget TREN
Marland © te Ayes} bivesces BANG
Overtand Wie tp es, Sy ry ase ~» 30%
Pan American BE scereveni tes 1%
Pure cn Beek Pe Fe ae  eyahinn ve ae 27%

“atm
virgaaaeee 66~

Sees ees gee sha

ot rome etae >

than ees

Side

ba ba ube oe
f

a ce ct ee ihe emits
Or 3

_INHEAVY GALE!

Vessel ‘Are Swept Of Moorings

tytn’ Servet bigenbihy Derenne +

Serre stern: almoat ‘wrecked the town |i.
“ét ‘Weburn, Moan, taking’ a. toll of one |”

[the door and discovered | Coltina tying
vet at the base of a hay chute.” aa pe man
} waa: apparently.dead.

a company got Cirgety Me,

HEI TWP,

Tom Collins, Well- Knowh Resi: | |

“dent: of fa Aton reget ate
_ Road, ‘Dies From Fall.

HAD DROPPED 35 FEET
_) THROUGH HAY CHUTE

5 : Saw ee
{Found By Leo Youngblood This
Morning; ‘Life Expired As He
é «ar cen Into Home. , os

———

ee Colting, pragntnent Hisehe Sark:
ship: farmer who - pe oné-halft mile
north, ,ot Maysville on “the Jamestown:
Mayavilie road, was ‘found Yeo this
morning shortly after eight o*elock in
the: barn. Tocated on the Colling farm,
the tacovery / “being mete by!) Lea
Youngblood had inquired at the home
concerning . Mr, Colina, and his wife
told ‘the visitor: that her tiishand was
out in-the barn “working, : :

Youngblood then went out ta the barn
and called, but got no answer... Bellev-
ing he might be somewhere ele on
the ‘farm, the Visitor made & thorough

Inspection, and not finding the owner,
returned to the barn, where he opened

“Youngblood * ¢arried “the “body. into
the tarmbouse, aid “he wiid he beileved
the man breathed slightly before en.
tering . the house. - However, the mon
‘was, pronounced dead ‘shortly efter-
wards by examining physicians, ©

The suppoaition ie that Collins came
to his aeath by falling from the hay
chute, which fs 35 feet high. Jilg wite
told (Toungblood. that Collins war st
work with the hay, apd for this reason
it da believed Collins was on the top of
the chute ana fell the entire distance
to thé concrete figor, amet set ot
teal instant: deaths: hd

= The foneend is survived by his wits,

fa.“ Trentél “RRA May, |

and five He cerenity John and George. of
Greenville, William of Weat: Salem,
Edward of Barr, Colorada | and Jaren
ot. Chicago. -

Funeral arrangements have not. been
completed,

5 tee Pa Tee nere eye

Sheriff Levies
On Hutton Fuel
and Transfer Cor

*Nener,, “Ort. “Ree A jeu the
equiptnent of the Hutton Fuel & Trans
fer conipany: of: Uircehyiiie was made
Saturday” by Serif Wo A> Bone at the
sult of. te cParmers & Merchants ‘frust
ethe POpeny.

wr

foe

Heads
-Besp
Ar

DRIVS

The. kk
gion fom
2 '
for ite,
phans,
hour Bq
and

~ €305
fo $1,7
in the
commu
Pett .
tho t

the re
» The

“} mast

Oreen¥
enee th
thoroba
funds 4
the ¢©
poreon
welt»
throvk
tee Hy
day i
on At
gious!
fuiv

at be tory? yr te

Paty Pes

ich Mrs. Mauk tearfully confirmed
i been worn by Karen, it had turned
nothing.

iEN, at fifteen minutes past mid-
night, a battered 1940 Chevrolet
lan tore through the streets until it

ched the Conemaugh Headquarters. .

vhite-faced volunteer fireman, Rich-

| Barkley, punched a pre-arranged

nal-on the siren. Within a few min-

‘s Chief Fesko, too, had skidded to

ialt in front of the siren. .

‘We found her, Chief,” Barkley an-

anced huskily.

“Where?”

‘Up by Saint Petka’s Cemetery. I

‘oe Steve Steffish—he’s still there,
ing.”

*esko, his hands suddenly clammy,

s almost afraid to voice the next

2stion. “The girl—is she hurt?”

‘She’s dead.” -

With Barkley leading the way, Fesko

xd for the cemetery.

‘Steve knew about some back roads

wund Saint Petka’s Cemetery so he

sgested we try ’em,” Barkley had

dlained. “We were turning: around

one of ‘em when we saw her lying’

the ground in the weeds.”

The cemetery, less than a mile from
» home of the missing girl, was soon
whed and Steve Steffish, a -young
chanic, lagged down Chief Fesko’s

dut the Chief needed no signal as his’

adlights illumined the lonely, wind-
ept hill. There she was, a limp, white
ure, the gentle blue eyes staring
santly at the sky. Tossed near by
re her blue coat, her dress, her other
‘thes, a white mask and.a paper bag
apples, candy and chewing-gum—
r meager “trick-or-treat” booty.

No wounds were visible on the pitiful
ile body, yet unquestionably she was
ad. Steffish had turned away, unwill-
5 to look at the body. Fesko told him
rshly: “Pull yourself together, Steve.
‘t back to town and tell Starchuk to
tify ~ State Police and the coroner.
ry a

A number of cars soon ringed the
netery. The Chief selected a dozen
n to seal off the area. No one was to

"Watch Children" said the sign across from the last house Karen
stopped at. Above, right, cold, windswept St. Petka's Cemetery

enter but law aileiie and the coroner,
he instructed.

+ Deputy Coroner Richard Wilkerson
and Coroner Joseph Grovekar soon
arrived.

“Either suffocated or strangled,” an-
nounced the Coroner. “I can’t tell for
sure until after the autopsy. She was
handled roughly—or she was thrown
out of a car. Her hips and back. are
bruised.”

In less than an hour, the chief of
detectives of near-by Johnstown, Cap-
tain Samuel Christian; Cambria Coun-
‘ty Detective John Reed; Assistant
County Detective Charles: Volchansky
and the Conemaugh burgess, Stephen
McGanka, were ‘Bf, the scene. A quick
but methodical* search disclosed no
clues other than the tire tracks of Chief
Fesko’s and Steffish's cars.

But McGanka, wandering farther

’ than the others, shouted from a point.

well down the weeded slope. As the rest
came running, he pointed to a clear,
sharp impression, apparently made by
_ tires with a heavy tread.
« “It's-from one of those snow-grip
tires,” commented Fesko. “And a pretty

new one. The question is, were they:

=~ tonight, last night or a week
0 Md ° .

“We'd better cover ‘em up until we

can get a moulage expert here from the
Greensburg barracks,” suggested Reed.
Several pieces of heavy cardboard were
found and pinioned over the tracks.
Sergeant James Blair, commanding
the State Police substation at Ebens-
burg, the county seat, soon arrived.
After a brief huddle with the be com
county officers, Blair said: “The
portant thing right now is to trace the
girl’s path. Find out where she went
with her trick-or-treat bag. The poor

kid. -It was like a holiday for her—and |

look what happened.”

The officers decided that Chief Fesko
‘would tackle this angle, while Reed and
Blair would concentrate on an. all-out
canvass of the filling-stations, homes
and restaurants that dot the Ebensburg
Road leading to the cemetery to find out
if anyone had been seen along the road
that night. Captain Christian, mean-
while, would set in motion a dragnet for

Steve Steffish, left, who rushed home from a date to find ,
the body, with William Mauk, Karen's sorrowing father

an

known morals offenders through the'en-
tire Johnstown area.

Fesko, steeling himself for the task of
notifying the family, became aware that
this would not be necessary the moment
he turned off steep Oak Street into
Fifth. Hundreds of persons jammed
the street, indicating that news of the
hideous slaying already had swept
through the town.

He pushed his way to the Mauk home.
The father and mother were numb with

grief but Larry, the slain girl’s brother,
told him: “Chief, a lady told me she saw
Karen walking toward Helen Locher's
house up at the end of Coulter Street
about eight o'clock.”

He didn’t know the name of the lady,
Larry said, although he ,believed she,
lived about two squares away.

Fesko left the home and elbowed his
way through the throng to the spot
where Coulter Street runs into Fifth.

* (Continued on Page’ 51)
IW


‘LY ESTABLISHED

increase your
income... be
your own boss

We train you
in your town

Start NOW...
while employed

and Mothproof
and Upholstery

modern convenient way

reliable and diligent, we’ll es-
tin a Duraciean service-deal-
Duraciean dealer will train
you. It’s easy to learn. He'll
proven, successful methods -
pian. He'll work with you.

2rship becomes part of a 25--

orid-wide organization built
AT ORDERS and RECOMMENDA-
1 satisfied customers.
nereasing tyour income, you
reedom and prestige’ of YOUR
ess. Alert dealers can earn $5
‘ly profit on service they ren-
$on EACH service man at Na-
‘e Guide charges.

finance honest, reliable men.

PROVED METHODS

cleans by absorption ! Aerated foam
dirt hol it in until
harsh, hi

y. It el scrub-
< and shrinkage.

Dirt, grease and
tly spots vanish as it by magic. Wool
. life... matted pile rises... colors
\stery and floor coverings look newer,

another year round serv-
hs and carpet beetles and
als resistant to both. Dura-
ed by an Interna-
R WARRANTY,

loyed,
to ar boniowes

: and build a per-
fitable, full-time

equipment... no
1, Some dealers
shop or office as
A pital Start full or
to learn... quickly established.
sAL COOPERATION Program gives
je and continuous advantages after
ished as your business grows. For
STIONAL ADVERTISING, YOUR
advertised in magazines like Better
rdens, Life, McCalls, House & Garden,
Sanada) and a dozen others. World-
ships throughout the world. Copyright
ark protection. Certificate approves
ad materials, Products Insurance. Six
ty. Pocket Demonstrators. Sales Book.
Folders & cards, Tested Ads, Ad Cuts
-e Display Cards. Kadie & TV Musical
. Booth Display for YOUR Home
t, Publicity Program gets FREE local
tories, Prizes awarded dealers. Lab-
‘ops current products, conducts re-
EW products, ete. Duragram bulletins
sonceivable topic. Resale Service helps
ing, drafted, etc.) sell his business.
Behind all,this is a Headquarters:
YOUR personal success,
Open territories are limited! Send
coupon today (before you forget it)
for FREE Booklet haoning oe
unusual services and how
become independent in YOUR ik OWN
ji built upon s.
No obligation !

a Business” Coupon

lean Co. 8-601 Ouraciean Bidg.

Deerfield, titineis
) obligation to me, send booklet and
ing full details. Tell me how I may
rowing, lifetime business of my own.

é

Puls yaa edtlenudia "Maun ae
Gauneneunsanoncncnenscaausnecad

Bers
ae 3.”
neatesg

given by Jane Theodor, but shallow
allbis, plus the fact that her assailant
and the killer of Karen might not be the
,8ame, persuaded Chief Griffith not to
release them.

’. Meanwhile, several men were located
who had purchased snow-tread tires
similar to the one that had made the
track near the body. However, each
man.proved to be a reputable citizen
who could not be involved.

At two o'clock that afternoon the
officers got together again. And Blair,
turning to Chief Fesko, asked suddenly,
“What do you know about. this Steve
Steffish?”

Fesko was surprised. “You mean the

one who found the body?”

“That’s who I mean.” :

“Well,” the Chief said, “he’s about
twenty-two, a mechanic, a hard-work-
ing boy. Offhand I’d say you couldn’t ©
find a more unlikely candidate. And as
I remember, he was out on a date that

_ night and the girl was still with him

when he answered the emergency
alarm. If you like, we'll make sure.”

They made sure and realized that the
ag owed Steve Steffish its gratitude.
He, too, could not possibly have been
involved. 5

That afternoon a little man ina gray,
zipper jacket walked into the special
headquarters and asked to see the
officer in charge.

“My name is John Malenik,” he said.

*“I know something that might help

catch the killer.”

_ He was ushered ifito Blair's office.

“How do you do, Mister Malenik,” the
Sergeant said. “You have some in-
formation connected with this crime?”

“Maybe it’s connected, maybe it has
— to do with it,” Malenik replied.
“But I thought you ought to know
about it.”

“Go ahead.”

“Well, Thursday evening a friend and
I were driving back from Johnstown a
little before nine when a car came roar-
ing down the hill from Saint Petka’s
Cemetery and almost ran into us.
Whoever was in the car certainly was in
a hurry to get away from that hill. I
forgot jot all about it until just a little while
ago when I read about the little girl
being found up there. So—well, I
thought you might be interesfed.” -

“I certainly am interested,” Blair
told him. “Do you remember what
kind of a car it was?”

“T didn’t get the license number. Like
I said, at the time, I thought it was just
another crazy driver. But the car was
a fifty-three Chrysler. Gunmetal
gray.”

A’'53 Chrysler, gunmetal gray. Given
a pa hyv-e tire. And owned by, or
accessible to, a big man with dark hair
and an old, brown overcoat. °
How could they find that man?

TREY couldn't, as the. oy wan
til finally, at dusk, they
other conference.

“We have only one angle left,” Blair
said dispiritedly. ‘“That’s to go over
everything again. Everything.’ Maybe

. un-
an-

- @ witness forgot something; maybe we

forgot something. Let’s find out.”

‘ So they did and Sunday morning
something. that had been overlooked
was turned up.

Mrs. Peggy West, a close neighbor of
the Mauk family, remembered that at
half-past six ,Thursday night, Karen
had knocked on her door. Little Paul
Lindenberg, the six-vear-old son of an-
other neighbor, had been with her..

Chief Fesko, who, with County Detec-
tive Reed had uncovered this lead, hur-
ried over to Mrs. Lindenberg. ~

“Yes, that’s true. Only Paul came
back in a little while, without Karen,”
she revealed.

Fesko. asked if he could talk to the
boy and Mrs, Lindenberg called him, a
shy, quiet-mannered boy, with wide,
alert eyes. - P
; Fesko bent over him.

“Paul, you know that someone did a.
terrible ‘thing to Karen. We're trying
awfully hard to find that man, and we
need your help. ‘Why did youcome back .
alone that night?” —

“Karen didn't have a@ mask on, a
she wanted | one,” the child wipiied *
— She said she was going .

‘minutes before Karen had left.

-“Tt must have been

home to get one, but she didn’t come
back and Mommie told me I'd. better
stay in. She said it was too cold.” +

Mrs. Lindenberg declared that this
was essentially true, that the boy and
the girl had been out for just a few
“That
must have been around seven,” she
said. “Paul kept pestering to go out
again, but I simply let him on the porch
for a little while.”

Again Fesko turned to the boy. . Had
he seen Karen while he was on the
porch?

And to his surprise, the boy nodded.

“Sure. She waved to me. She had
on a white mask, but I know it was.
Karen. She was walking up Fifth; I
guess she was going to Helen Locher’s.
That's her real good friend.”

Fesko sighed. This was going over
stale ground.

* And it wouldn't help. She had been
seen last, without question, strolling up
Fifth Street toward her playmate’s
home. Then she had vanished—until
her lifeless little ‘body was found near ,
the cemetery.

Nevertheless, they couldn’t quit.
Chief Fesko and Reed went on, from
door to door on Fifth Street and then on
Coulter. Had anyone seen the girl after
little Paul Lindenberg waved to her?

HEY came to a home in the rear of |
, Coulter Street and they knocked on
a door and an elderly woman. answered.
“Hello, Mrs. Gossard,” Fesko greeted

her.. He introduced Reed and explained .

the purpose of their mission. -

“Did Karen happen to stop here that
night?” he asked.

“I don’t know; I wasn’t at home,” the
woman replied, as she had before. And
then she added, “My son could tell you.
He was here.” .

“Your son?” Fesko asked.

“Yes, my son, Harry,” she explained.
“You know him, don’t you, Chief?”

“Sure, I know Harry. We were class-

mates in high school.” -

“Why, that’s right,” the woman said.

“I thought he was in the Merchant
— Has he come back home to

ve?”

“Yes, he’s staying here with me,” the
mother said. “But he isn't at home
right now. He drove his sister to Phila-
delphia for a visit, Tomorrow, though,
he should be back and he can tell you
whether Karen stopped here.”

“Well come by to see him if it’s
necessary,” Reed said.

He turned to leave, but Fesko was
speaking again.

“Come to think of it, I guess that was
Harry I saw driving past my house the
other day,” the Chief said. “I thought
it looked like him, but I figured I must
be mistaken because I thought he was

still in the Merchant Marine.”

“No, he came back to live with me
after he and his second wife were
divorced,” Mrs. Gossard said. “You
might have seen him.”

“The fellow I saw was driving a fifty-
three Chrysler,” Fesko said.

“That's the kind of car Harry owns,” .
she agreed.

“Sort of a gunmetal gray.
“That’s the color, af right,” she said.
larry

“It sure does sound “like it,” Fesko
said quietly. “You say he’s coming back
home tomorrow?”

“Yes, he’s supposed to bring his hates

_home tomorrow night.”

The two policemen said their goodbys
and left. When they were out of ear-
shot, Reed spoke. “You may have hit
the jackpot.”

'V/\/ HEN I heard Harry Gossard was
in town, my memory started
clicking,” Fesko explained. “Back in
thirty-five: he was arrested on a
charge of rape. The charge was dis-
missed, but he was convicted of adultery
and served ninety days in jail. He left
here and joined the Merchant Marine,
working on oil tankers out of Philadel-
phia.. He’s been married twice and.

“divorced twice..

“When I remembered that record, ‘I
» decided to pull a bluff on what kind of
car he drives. And it worked.” .

en does he look like?” Reed

“As I remember him, he fits pretty
well the description of the man who
grabbed the teen-ager.” «

.. When they reached Headquarters,
however, Harry Gossard was all but
forgotten. :

For in Richland Township, not far
away, a tall, dark-haired, husky man
had been overheard trying to lure a ten-
year-old girl into the woods by offering
to show her a “nest of rabbits”.

Two neighbors had heard the man
speaking to the child and when they
approached he had scurried off into the-.
underbrush. Police were ‘summoned
hurriedly, the entire area was blocked
off and State Troopers and officers from
Richland Township and Scalp Level
Borough were plunging into the woods
trying to trace the man.

By radio, Fesko, Blair and Reed
listened to the varying reports. Blood-
hounds were requested; road blocks
were set up on all highways; cars
cruised up and down the roads border-
ing on the forest; the startled little
girl was trying to give etioers a usable

description. .

And then, at three p. m., came the
final report: “Man captured ... Ralph
G. Comellio of Bedford . . 2 ‘Admits

But Comellio, upon being ‘rushed to
the Johnstown Headquarters, vocifer-
ously denied that he had admitted any-
’ thing. “All I told those cops was that .
I talked to the girl,” he said. “I didn’t
have nothing bad in mind.”

A stocky, black-haired man of 26,
with deep-set, brooding eyes, he told the
questioning officials that he was a con-
struction worker in ‘Bedford, 38 miles .
to the southeast, and had been in Wind-
ber, Richland Township, to. visit a
friend. “He wasn’t home, so I was just
walking around. I met the little girl
and I was talking to her and all of a
sudden two guys said something tough
0 me. I didn’t want to start anything,
*so I took: off.”

Asked for an account of his move-
ments on the night of October 28, Co-
mellio said he had been at home that
evening, with his mother and a sister.
State detectives sped to Bedford to
verify his alibi and Jane Theodor once ~
more was brought to Police Head-
quarters.

And once more she shook her head.
His eyes and hair were similar, but he
was too short to be the man who had
accosted her.

Just before dusk the State detectives
returned with word that Comellio’s
alibi appeared to be sound. His mother
and sister, both of excellent reputation,
were certain that he had not ventured
out on the past Thursday evening. Co-
mellio was cleared of suspicion.

“That just about leaves us high and
dry—except for Gossard,” declared
Captain Christian wearily. “And if he
comes back on schedule, then I'd figure
he’s in the clear. A man who'd do
something like that would probably take
off as fast as he could.”

Early that evening a stake-out was
established at the home of Gossard’s '
sister. Assigned to the detail were
Corporal Smith, Trooper Luther and
Chief Griffith.

It was a nerve-racking job. Each
time a car slowed down near the house,
the men tensed. And each time they
had more difficulty relaxing again when
the car went tly on its way.

At 11:25 p. m. a car’ swung into the
driveway, a 1953 Chrysler, gun-
metal gray. The officers moved in as
the driver opened his door to get out.
asked. you Harry Gossard?” Griffith

Marin. yes,” the man replied. “What's
wrong?” = -

“We want you to come to Johnstown
Police Headquarters with us to answer:
a few questions.”

“Wait a minute,” Gossard protested.

“What’s this all about? I’ve had a long
trip and I’m tired. I’m on my way
home to Conemaugh.”

“Okay, if you want it that way we'll —
take you to Conemaugh,” Smith said.
“But you might be safer in Johnstown. .
People’ in Conemaugh are pretty sore
about the.-killing of Karen Mauk.

(Contin inued on Page 54) .

- charge .

"


o'clock, following Gerry’s path,
e had seen no one and nothing.
u talk to Peter again,” she told
icers. “Maybe he was looking out:
ndow or maybe he saw something
he went out to the store.”
y'd already talked to Peter and he
nothing. But the detectives de-
to wait until he came h
t the movies—to be sure he was
led in this re-questioning. They
i for him with his family.
st year,” one of the family said,
r and Gerry, they sort of went to-
ill. When they were

nother girl now.” ~ i es
s was news to the officers. Ques-

;. They also learned that he had
“across the street in the store” at
time during the evening, while his
er was at work.

reral windows in the Makarewicz,
ment overlooked the street down
1 Gerry would have walked. The
rs went into Peter’s own room,
2 if his did.

was a windowless cubbyhole con-
d from a closet into a bedroom.
sht came from a single electric bulb
it was furnished only with a cot
a small dresser.
that dim light the detectives saw a
ction of pin-up photos, clipped
various popular magazines, hang-

‘ter came in soon. No, he’d seen no
and he'd heard nothing, he said,
he hadn’t even met Gerry for weeks.
hadn't been out of the house the
‘ing before. . :
Zou went to the store, didn’t you?”
tective asked him.

Yh, yeah. But that was early.”

"Get the Holiday Killer of This Little Girl" (Continued from Page 11)

re a group of youths was talking

tedly.
We'll find him!” one was saying.
d we‘'won'’t turn him over to no

3! That will be too good for him!” -

Enough of that!” the Chief warned
nly. “We don’t want any hot-
ded action—this is a job for the
ce and co
d of stuff!”
‘thief Fesko, moving on to the
her home, met with disappointing
w3mation, Neither the mother nor
le Helen, Karen's playmate,

a the child during the evening.

‘esko managed to run down the

nan who had reported seeing Karen,

und eight p. m., strolling toward the
ther home. She was positive; she
2w Karen, she said. P

ND hers was only the first of many |
- conflicting ‘and contradictory re-
+s, with some witnesses placing the
Jd, at the same time of eight o'clock,

points widely separated.

3hortly after dawn a squad of.detec-
es and a laboratory expert arrived
mm the Greensburg barracks of the
nnsylvania State Police. Moulage
sts were made of every visible tire
ick on the diyt roads surrounding
int Petka’s Cemetery. Four different
oes of tires had made the marks. Two
‘re immediately identified as having
en made by the cars of Chief Fesko
d Stephen Steffish. State detectives
nt to work to classify and trace the
maining two impressions. One, the -
ow tire, was relatively new. Perhaps
dealer might remember the man he

id sold guch a tire to.

Slowly the canvass grew, along
yensburg Road and in Conemaugh and

_-

Pipe down on that.

“What time?”

“About six or a quarter after.”

That was the time Gerry had been in
the delicatessen, talking to Mary Con-
stantino, Another casual question
brought out the startling fact that the

. store Peter meant was this very same
delicatessen. :

HEN undoubtedly he had been there
at the same time she had been. He
- could have overheard her telling Mary
—— planned to return home at ten
0’ ; ~theiee
And a moment before, he'd said he
hadn't seen Gerry for weeks. ‘
’ It wasa flimsy discrepancy. The two
could have missed each other by seconds
in the store; they could have been there
at the same time, pre-occupied or per-
haps behind different stacks of goods,
and not seen each other. Yet the de-
tectives decided to take Peter in to

.ing the scratches. .

‘Still, his presence in the store at the
same time as Gerry was not cleared up
too well. And his statement that he
hadn't seen her for weeks. They
questioned him.and he denied knowing
anything about the crime and they took
a silver nitrate test of his trousers and
his palm-prints.

And the silver nitrate tests, District
, Attorney Lane claimed later, proved
positive—blood ‘had been spilled on
those trousers.

~ They brought in Gerry’s torn clothes

and Far nem on. 6 Sale & trom ©

ter. .
“Peter broke down and cried,”. de-
clared Chief Folan. “He cried a long

~ time. He was hysterical and we let him

cry. When he pulled himself together,

_ he looked at us and said; ‘I did it’.”

According to District Attorney Lane,

om up as the night waned and

‘At nine a. m. Friday, city, state and
county officials gathered in Captain
Christian’s office on the fourth floor of

the Johnstown Public Safety Building. .

Sergeant Blair was promptly selected to

head the investigation. Even as the

conference was in session, Chief Charles

Griffith, of the Johnstown Police De-

partment, and Captain Christian,

moved back and forth from the interro-
gation room, where nine ex-convicts
were undergoing questioning.
- Each ‘time Christian in dull, weary
tones, reported, “They all have good
alibis and they're sticking to ‘em.”

Sergeant Blair is the father of three
girls himself. “The worst thing,” he
said, “is that little kid, so trusting, go-
ing out on a holiday treat, like on @
party, right up to strangers. And one
of them took advantage of her. Gentle-
men, that’s one man we've got to get—
the holiday killer of. this little girl.”

“What. more can we. do?” Chief
Fesko asked. :

Blair shrugged. . “I don’t know.
Maybe bring that high-school girl in
here to look at mug pictures. And that
woman from Franklin, too.”

“Then you think it’s the same man?”

asked. ‘

“gure I do. The high school, where
he grabbed at the girl, is pretty close to
the street the Mauks live on, isn’t it?
And the times are just about right,
aren’t they—he could have met the
little girl ten minutes-after he was
frightened away from around the high
school.” ' .

The officers decided to bring in only
the teen-ager, Jane Theodor, inasmuch

as the woman in Franklin had not had _
rporal

“Johnstown itself. But nothing was .good look at the man’s face. Co

Peter followed that statement with a

complete confession. Peter, the Dis-
trict Attorney ¢laimed, had brooded for
six months over rebuffs given him by
Gerry. He kept watch from an upstairs’
window as the time approached for her
return. When he saw the car pull up
at the corner, Peter, according to the
investigators, put his plan into imme-
diate action. - }

“He left his second-floor apartment,” -
claimed District Attorney Lane, “and -
went down. the rear stairs into the

. cellar, leaving the house by a door that

opens toward the Annese home.

“He walked along the rear of &
garage adjacent to his own home, then
past a hedgerow of bramble bushes. He
made his way to the garage next to the
Annese dwelling and went in. He
waited there.

“when Geraldine came up the side-
walk to the rear door of her home,
Peter called to her. He identified him-
self and she went to the garage.”

Lane later claimed that Peter had .
confessed that he hit’ Gerry with his
fists and that “she put up an awful
struggle”.

According to the alleged confession,
Peter then returned home by the route
that he had used to reach the garage,
ve B + pea hiding any traces of his foot-
prints. :

FOLLOWING Peter’s statement, he
was taken over the ground by Dis-
trict Attorney Lang and Detective Bog-
danchick.

The news of Peter’s alleged con-
fession created a huge stir in Norwood.
People flocked to the Flats, threatening,
but Peter Makarewicz was promptly
whisked away to the Dedham jail. .

Much of the public outcry was the re-
sult of the tension created by the climax
to the wave of terrorism that had
gripped the town prior to Gerry’s death.

However, Peter, when questioned re-
garding the cases of the preceding
weeks, denied any part in them.

The gangling youth did not answer
the description of the man with the bag
who had sprung out at Irene Caffrey

William Smith and Patrolman Harold
Luther of the State Police went for her.
“Jane,” Chief Fesko told her when
_she had arrived, “you can help us a lot.
We're going to show you photographs of
men who have been arrested in the past
and we believe the man who grabbed
you may be among them. See if you
can pick him out.” .

“But before you do that,” put in
Chief Griffith, “can you enlarge on the
description you gave Officer Starchuk?
You must have thought about him a lot
since last night. Can you think of any-
thing besides the shabby coat and the
black hair?” ‘

“Yes, Sir, I believe I can,” Jane said
promptly. “The coat was @ brownish-
tan color, kind of wrinkled, and he was
at least six feet and about two hundred
pounds. I think he hada scar on his
chin, but I’m not, sure of that.”

From ten a. m. until 2:15 p. m., Jane
studied dozens of criminals’ photo-
graphs. And at the end, she told them
with a sigh: “I'm awfully sorry, but not
one looks like him.”

She was driven back home. '

A bare three hours later came what
seemed the first real break—no less
than three witnesses excitedly telephon-
ing Headquarters that a tall man was
standing in front of Saint John’s
Church. He wore a brown, shabby over-
coat and was making strange gestures

t each woman that passed.

He was still there when Fesko and two
State detectives arrived. The Chief's
eyes gleamed with interest as he noticed
the height of the man—at least six feet
—and the black hair beneath a wide-
brimmed felt hat.

Taken to Headquarters, he said he
was Paul Leftwicz, a brick mason.
Frequently breaking

into’ emotional

and she was sure that her assailant
could not have been Peter, a boy she
knew by sight. Most of the other
events had occurred in areas well re-
moved from Peter's neighborhood and
his connection with them seemed un-
likely.

‘According to police, the finger- and
palm-prints from the fender belonging
to Freund's car tallied perfectly with
Peter’s own, fully substantiating the
confession he allegedly had made.

Public indignation toward Peter
Makarewicz rapidly subsided, once the
tension was over. Phillip De Rose,
Gerry's half brother, had tried to get
at Peter when the handcuffed youth
was reenacting the crime, but later De
Rose regretted the action. .-

“why seek revenge?” asked De Rose.
“what good would it do? That would
not bring back my sister.” ‘

Expressions of sympathy were ex-
changed between the Annese and Maka-
rewicz families.

Meanwhile, Peter Makarewicz was
formally arraigned in Dedham District
Court on a charge of murder before
Judge Gilbert W. Cox, on November 15,
1954, and held without bail for a hear- |
ing by the grand jury.

According to Peter's attorney, Louis
Goldstein, the youth had not signed
his alleged confession and his counsel
would “concede nothing and waive
nothing.” Investigators claim that the
confession was taken in full in short-
hand in the presence of witnesses and
will be produced when required.

Meanwhile, Norwood police are still
operating under a “shoot to kill” order
where prowlers are concerned. Issued
by Town Manager John B. Kennedy,
the order had not been rescinded at last

report. .

Even the quick #lution of the death
of Gerry Annese, as claimed by county
and town authorities, has not relieved
the town of the pressing fear that some
horror may strike anew. ’

In this story the names Irene Caffrey,
Michael Renz, Harold Hillary and Rudy
Gorson are fictitious. .

outbursts, he declared that he had been
waiting for some time in front of the
church for a friend who was su

to drive him home. He denied making
any suggestive gestures. passing
women.

“t never do anything like that, °

never!” he insisted. :

Jane once more, was brought to
Headquarters. She took a long look at
Leftwicz, then shook her head. “That is
not the man—he’s too thin and he’s too.
bald,” she declared.

Becoming convinced that apprehen-

_sive witnesses had read into Leftwicz’
idle gestures as he waited much more
than was actually there, the officials
soon gave him a clean bill of health and
released him. °

But the growing fear that had caused
Leftwicz’ arrest became worse. Tele-
phone calls to the Conemaugh and
Johnstown Police Departments became
a flood, and the same question was asked
frantically, endlessly: “Has he been
caught yet?” The belief that the killer
would strike again. all but paralyzed

normal life. Meetings throughout. -

Johnstown, Franklin and Conemaugh
were canceled. Drug stores and
restaurants remained almost empty of
customers. No children were permitted
out’ after dark. At the various plants
operating around the clock, women em-~-
ployes walked in threes and fours to
and from the buildings and to bus stops.

It was a grim, abnormal situation,
with no end in sight. Despite a huge
concentration of police strength, the
most frightening killer of all, a child
killer, was still at large. Where? —

By Saturday noon, no less than four-
‘teen known deviates had been ques-
tioned and all but two released. Neither
of these two matched the description

WA AS CLEAR A PICTURE
} AS WITH $35 ANTENNAS!
ior '

Antenna for this

tv
1) mediately. So Jaw. weprlecd
rays this Midget

Lag: —.

ye ca can it = A,

alec gt ay arti
wr T.Y, Antennas are iited,
THIS. "AD "AND MAIL My eyed onty. 3" plus dh

awe. We'll: xi pon

tn Dear for ag curse ane fr today
“ain offer remains to effect,

EVANS RADIO co., Dept. 3
0 ASBURY AVE

Amazing Television Invention!

Fits into Palm of Your Hand
ONLY
T

outper-

aoa Woche ot Py

MONEY shee eS UARANTEEI

Het k-pulll
Junk that old unstiehtly weak-pul ati

‘be
Mechanism
where

irene meee tal
return me for ful
hendss while this

EVANSTON, ILL.

BUYS BEAUTIFUL

Only *5° Down

“Deep in the Heart of Texas”

full 39° Send For Details FREE!

Liquidation Sale! While they last, choice homesites
now available on Medina Lake — just 38 miles on
paved highway from historic San Antonio, Texas.
Electricity, telephone, schools, ehurches! Warm
summer days and cool summer nights make this ideal
for round-year living. Ideal spot’ for retirement.
FULL PRICE enly $39.50. Terms only $5.00 DOWN
and balance ever 7 months. Send for big colored
brechure FREE. Ne obligation! Address Avalon
Ranch Sales Ce., Dept. 500, P.O. Bex 258i,
San Antonie, Texas,

LAKE HOMESITE .

NASAL CONGESTION ASSOCIATED WITH
MEAD COLDS MAY CAUSE SYMPTOMS OF,

SINUS

TROUBLE,

ASTHMA, HAY FEVER. -

Amazing New Treatment—FREE TRIAL
b ds have ing, fast relief
vith this i from

ymptoms of hay na ya asthma, sinus head-

forehead, soren: in
top of head. ‘back of head and
wn neck, temporary hard of hearing, loss
f smell and taste, drip and drainage nose
od gern can’t think es ae or see well at

imes, EE TRIAL P congestion. Write

or 7 DAY FREE TR' Aty POSTPAID. oe orm

‘ah mail ie beck? posepeld’ “tice of trial
ma a a

etiod if not amazed with resul

DAODERN EXTENSION TRAINING
Prepore for a career in public
law enforcement or private
investigation through our
complete home study program.
Write for free literature,
4. Please state age. »

NATIONAL DETECTIVE ACADEMY
3305 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD
LOS ANGELES 5, CALIF.

hearing an
those Lufrenade head

16 years. ‘this may be
the answer to your
Gee: NOTHING TO

AR. Here are
SOME of the symptoms that may ikely

mucus. "t mucus
Hawking ona vat ing. B bn gpers In nose or.
throat pe en day. ae ing worse with a
cold. Hear—bu - words.
Hear better on Tuer

rainy days.
bells, whistles, eng, escap! steam
or many other sounds. r condition
is conned by catarrh of the ead, you, too,
may likely y enloy such had | relief
man: ave report WRITE
TODA For PROOF “AND 3e@ DAY
TRIAL

Fre ELMO COMPANY
DEPT. 50D1

54

Head ayes oles crickets, .

DAVENPORT IOWA .

There's no telling what they might do
if they get riled up

Smith waited or sroieeak for his words
to sink in, then added:

. “Don’t you think you'd better come
with us to Johnstown?”

“T'll go wherever you say,” Gossard
replied. “If you're investigating that
case, I want to cooperate.”

As the day of Karen Mauk’s funeral
dawned, the detectives investigating
her slaying were busily interrogating
Gossard in a guarded office of the
Public Safety Building in Johnstown.
But no one outside the official circle
knew about it. Gossard’s arrest was
kept secret for more than 24 hours.

The 39-year-old merchant seaman
said he had heard. of Karen’s death on
the morning he left for: Philadelphia.
But he denied any other knowledge of
the crime. He also denied grabbing
Jane Theodor, declaring that he had
— that Thursday evening at home

one.

He volunteered to take a lie-detector
test. But when a lie detector was
rushed from Harrisburg to Johnstown,
he refused to go through with the test,
police said, complaining that he was too
nervous and didn’t trust the machine.

fogged up. Take ‘em off and clean
‘em, will you?” he asked.

Puzzled, Gossard slowly removed the
glasses and reached for a handkerchief,
And from the adjoining room came a
muffled scream.

Christian rushed back- to find Jane
trembling, ashen-white.

.. “I’m almost sure it’s the same man!”
she allegedly told him.

Gossard was driven to the cemetery
and shown the spot where the girl had
been found. With expressionless eyes,
he stared at it. Then, taken to where

« the tire-tracks had been discovered, he

said calmly: “My car was never here.”
‘This psychological move, apparently,
had failed.
At 9:30'p. m. that night Jane again

was brought to Headquarters. She was:

taken before a line-up of five men. Dis-
trict Attorney Fred Fees of Cambria
County told her in solemn tones: “Jane,
this is a matter of terrible importance.
I want you to'look carefully at these
men. Then, if you saw one of them on
last Thursday night, walk up to him and
point him out.”

Trembling visibly, the girl stared first
at one face and then another. Then,

* officials claimed later, she pointed an

‘THE police had one more chance—

Jane Theodor, The pretty girl,
brought to the Detective Bureau from
her Monday morning classes, looked in-

tently through the one-way mirror di- .

viding the interrogation room from
Captain Christian's office, and shook
her head. “His hair and his build are
almost the same,”: she said. “But the
- man who grabbed me wasn’t wearing

glasses,

“Just wait a minute, Jane,” replied
Captain Christian.

He went through another door into
the interrogation room and broke. into
the questioning being conducted by
Chief Griffith and Blair.

“Harry, those glasses of yours are all

“And Now What's Ahead—"

“I never asked her. What difference
does.it make?”
“Just this! You shouldn't be taking

money from her.”

. “What am I supposed to do? . Tell the
other kids that my folks are hard up
and I can't go with them for a soda?”

- “It’s no disgrace to be poor. But
when you run short of money, why don’t
_you let me know?”

salt 10t Of good it would do me,” she

~. I wanted to ask her other questions,
but I realized that Ruth was at the age
where the things she could buy were
very important and where always being
™ broke could be very embarrassing to
her among her friends. If I tried te pin
her down too much she'd only get mad.
‘The next time Jackie came to our
ago she'd been drinking. It was easy

I told her to get out and not to come
back.
again.

For awhile I thought Ruth was going
to obey me. She would come home from

_ school, have a sandwich, then tell me

that she was going to the corner candy
store or the Onward House.

But pretty soon I found out the truth.
Ruth and Jackie were meeting on street
corners, then going off together. No
one knew where they went. .

When I asked Ruth about it, she was
evasive. “Sure, I bump into Jackie on
the street sometimes,” she said. “But
I can't a that, can I? She lives in
the neighborhood.”

“you don’t run around with her any
more, do you?”

“Of course not. You told me not to.”

I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t do much
about it. And even if she had been with
Jackie, I couldn’t see any bad effects.
At least, Ruth hadn’t taken up drinking
and smoking.

Stories of the street-corner meetings

And I forbade Ruth to see her ©

unswerving finger at Gossard and said
in a clear voice, “This is the man!”

At three o’clock the following day,
Gossard asked if he could talk to his
minister. Fesko and Sergeant John
Schoble immediately brought the Rev-
erend S. F. Hauser of the First Breth-
ren Church to Headquarters.

After an hour-long consultation, the
minister emerged and said quietly:
“Harry realizes he has made a terrible
mistake. He wishes to talk to you.”

That was the end. An hour later
District Attorney: Fees claimed that
— had confessed killing Karen

au

Officers claimed that this is what he.

said:
“I was lying on the couch, watching

stopped and I hoped that my latest talk

with Ruth had worked.

Then, one day, I met a man who
operates a candy store on Milwaukee
Avenue near Grand.

“There's something I think you
should know,” he said. He told me that
Ruth and Jackie had become regular
customers of his, going to the store soon
after school and often staying there “
afternoon. And they had plenty of
money to spend.

One afternoon Jackie got up from
the booth they were in and my friend
overheard their conversation:

“Where are you going?” Ruth had

asked. —)
“Out,” a replied. “Wait for me.”
“What are y }) going out for?”

“To baby-sit.”

“But you'll be gone a long time.”

“Not as long as you think. Just stick
around.”

Ruth ordered another soda and
played the juke box while she waited.
Jackie was gone about 45 minutes.

“Is your baby-sitting over already?” °

Ruth asked.

“Sure. It doesn’t take long. And I
got five bucks.”

“That’s a lot - money. for baby-
sitting,” Ruth said

“They got plenty,” Jackie said. “So
I soak ’em.”

I thanked my friend and went home,
my mind in a whirl. The problem was

‘ far worse than I had suspected and I

didn’t know just how to cope with it. It
was now early June and school would
be out soon. Ruth would be free all day
and who could tell what kind of trouble
she might get into?

I carried the problem to work with
me, not knowing just what to do about
it.’ It would be impossible to keep Ruth
at home every minute. The only
answer seemed to be a straightforward,
heart-to-heart talk with her.

The following afternoon, when my

/

television, when I looked out the window
and saw Karen coming up the street.
I went out and asked her if it was trick-
or-treat. She said yes, so I asked her

if she would like some money instead .

and I asked her to get into my car. I
drove straight up Oak Street, to Ebens-
burg Road and then into Saint Petka’s
Cemetery... ;

“On my way home I saw the paper
hat in the car, I threw it into the old
garage. I burned the old coat I was
wearing and my shirt and my trousers.
Later on I went out to help hunt for
the little girl.”

Gossard also admitted, police said,
that earlier in the evening, while driv-
ing through town in his car, he had
spied Jane Theodor waiting at the cor-
ner of Oak and First and made the
> gd attempt to pull her into a dark

ey.
~ News of the arrest somehow leaked
out and an immense, traffic-choking
throng was soon swarming before the
Public Administration Building in
Johnstown. Through a rear door, Goss-
ard was rushed to‘a cell in the County
Jail at Ebensburg, eighteen miles away.

On the following day, Thursday, No-
vember 4, 1954, to avoid a possible dis-
turbance, he was secretly brought to
Conemaugh and arraigned before Bur-

gess Stephen McGanka, who is also a .

justice of the peace.

oe the hearing Gossard ‘was fright-
en

“I waive a hearing,” were his only
words, uttered in a whisper.

At this writing, he is st a held with-

* out bail in the Cambria County Jail at

Etensburg for a coroner's jury and

- further legal action. His auto has been
~impounded and is being kept under a

sealed tarpaulin in the Public Safety
Department garage in Johnstown.

The names Jane Theodor, Ralph Co-
mellio and Paul Leftwicz used in this
story are fictitious.

(Continued from Page 13)

4 4s
wife came home, we both had it out with
Ruth. We told her that Jackie was
heading for trouble.

“We don’t want you to get mixed up
in anything wrong,” her.mother said:
“We don’t want you to be a—a crim-

inal.” . . .
“I'm not going to be a criminal,”
Ruth replied. “All I want is a little |

fun.”

“You can have fun without Jackie,”
I told her. “Remember how you used
to go to Sunday School every Sunday?
You met a lot of nice boys and girls and
dy a lot of fun with them, didn’t
you ”

“I guess so,” she replied sullenly.

_ “But that was kid stuff. It doesn’t ap-

eal to me any more.”

j COULD see that we weren’t making -

any progress. “All right,” I said,
“I want you to listen to me. You are
not to see Jackie again.
to stay away from Milwaukee Avenue!
Do you understand?”

She said she would do as I told her.
But I could tell that she didn’t mean it.

Ruth had not come in by the time I
left for work the next evening. And
when I got back after midnight, she was
not there. My wife, in tears, was wait-
ing up for me.

“Ruth never did this before,” she
said. “Do you think something hap-

pened to her? Maybe she was hit by a’

“I don’t think so,” I said.
she’s run away.”

“Run away!” .

“She probably isn’t alone.
much better off if she were.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I'm going to Jackie’s house. Maybe
she’s there.”

She wasn’t. Neither was Jackie. But
her parents didn’t seem worried. Their
main reaction was irritation because I
got them out of bed.

“I'm afraid

She’d be

And you are~

—


said:
v. He

He
x as
but I
hings
‘ome

ither
of his
s over
d girl
school

r was
n Dis-
ed on
we go
sented
at the

from
arred.

that
iid in-
rs.” In
rilbert
anting
iblicity

sets of
nue to
nightly
> com-
closed

Chief.
2wicz’s
that he
1e chief
d man
> other

itrike
o¢4¢

1 Cone-
-e days.
on.

a state
young
on the

* asked

he was

d, “It’s
vhere I

the
keep it
ttle kids
‘s your

; special
earched
him as
n Pitts-
d been
possible
girl, a
ne rail-
munity
fichorn

id back
20 from
ight, he
leaving
He had
ing east,
put out
‘ked up.
iis heels
ttsburgh
ory, and,
ir man,
layer in

emaugh
ses. All
. as they

Elsa
Maxwell's

Etiquette
Book

AT LAST—an etiquette book that treats
this subject from a modern-day view-
point. In this book the famous hostess to
world celebrities writes helpfully about
the correct thing. The bride-to-be, as
well as the father of the bride, will find
the exact information they want in the
fresh approach of this splendid book.
Here in clear, straightforward language,
are the answers to all your everyday eti-
quette problems. Here you find important
suggestions on good manners in restau-
rants—in church—in the theatre—on the
street—and when you travel.

Only $1.00

The price of this book that puts you at
ease no matter where you are—and opens
the door to achievement and success—
costs only $1.00 and we pay the postage!
Take advantage of this truly remarkable
bargain. Mail coupon below for your
book—TODAY.

Mail Coupon Today

Sort OO een SU ese eee ee peeeooeRseesesce@
¢ BARTHOLOMEW HOUSE, INC., Dept, TD-255

$ 205 E. 42nd St., New York 17, N. Y. :
* Send me post aida Py, of ELSA MAX-¢$
e WELL'S ETIQUETTE BOOK. I enclose $
¢ $1.00 °
NAMES ie yds cMe pec dius ds is ieeevess seaevie
@ Please Print e
e e
SMTRENT i os ccc cesugies Sad casectoest saeees °
e e
e e
© GITYS sic eiae seeh bcs iia aed

‘Stop Making

Mistakes in... ENGLISH !

Is your English holding you back? You can gain greater confi-
dence, win new friends, make more money—through BETTER
ENGLISH, Free 32-page booklet tells how you can become a
more effective speaker, writer, and conversationalist without
going back to school. New, easy method takes only 15 minutes
a day. Costs little. For your FREE booklet, send a card or
letter. No obligation—no salesman will call.

“CAREER INSTITUTE, Dept. E-182,25 E. Jackson, Chicago 4

RUPTURED?

Get Relief This Proven Way

Why try to worry along with trusses that gouge
our flesh—press heavily on hips and spine—en-
arge opening—fail to hold rupture? You need the
Cluthe. No leg-straps or cutting belts. Automatic
adjustable pad holds at real opening—follows every

dy movement with instant increased support in
case of strain Cannot slip whether at work or play.
Light. Wate: proof. Can be worn in bath. Send for
amazing FREE book,, “Advice to Ruptured,” and
details of liberal truthful 60-day trial offer. Also
endorsements from grateful users in your neighbor-
hood. Write today to:

Cluthe Sons, Dept. 16, Bloomfield, New Jersey

gave foolproof alibis for Thursday night.

Vagrants, loafers, ex-cons, all such in
the community were checked. Neighbors
of the Mauk family, and particularly those
male residents near the alley where little
Karen’s hat had been found, were thor-
oughly investigated.

“It seems pretty clear,’ Chief Fetsko ob-
served, “that Karen, out for as much ‘loot’
as she could get on her ‘trick-or-treat’ ven-
ture, was enticed into a car very near her
home. The guy probably offered her candy
or gum or maybe even money, got her into
his car and sped away. There was not too
much transient auto traffic through Fifth
Street at around 7 or 7:30 Thursday night.
It could well have been some neighbor’s
car she climbed into.”

On Saturday morning, the chief learned
about Harry Grossard, a 39-year-old ex-
merchant seaman who, since May, had been
living with his mother only a few doors
from where the little victim’s Halloween
hat had been found.

A 6-foot, 200-pound man, Grossard had
been twice wed and twice divorced. He:was
a mild-mannered, bespectacled man who
had been a salesman before going to sea
after his second marriage broke up.

Fetsko and Reed went to his mother’s
home and found that Grossard had left
Conemaugh that very morning, bound for
Philadelphia.

“Sudden trip?” the county officer asked
a brother of the absent sailor.

“Oh, no,” the brother replied. “He’d been
planning to go all week. He had an errand
to do for our sister.”

Grossard, the officers learned, had re-
turned to his mother’s home after a severe
injury to his back while working on a
tanker. He still wore a brace.

“Which in itself doubtless lets him out
as a suspect in any crime of violence,”
Fetsko said as he and Reed journeyed back
to report to Sergeant Blair, “A guy wearing:
a brace isn’t apt to go in for rough stul!.”

“And he wasn’t running away when he
went to Philly,” Reed added.

Nevertheless, Fetsko ordered a record
check on the man. A short time later, the
chief phoned Sergeant Blair.

“Harry Grossard,” he said. “Five arrests.
Two of them on sex complaints.”

On that Saturday morning, back in Ali-
quippa, Police Chief Zvonar organized a
large search party and returned to the hill
on which the Bryant family lived. News of
the Conemaugh murder lent urgency to

_ the finding of Helen Jean, dead or alive.

He spread his men in a tight skirmish
line and moved with them slowly, carefully
up the rough, wooded knob. They covered
every foot of ground, beat through every
thicket, peered behind and around every
boulder.

It was Regis Yarnell of Clark Manor who
almost stepped upon the body of Helen
Jean Bryant, lying in a shallow grave only
about 100 yards from her home. Wednes-
day’s searchers had passed by this very
spot, but had seen no sign of the girl then.

Within a matter of minutes, Chief Zvonar
knew why. The body had been covered
with dirt and leaves. Heavy rains Friday
night had washed the earth away, and
high winds had scattered the leaves, baring
the corpse.

Helen Jean had been bludgeoned to
death, probably with one of the rocks with
which the hillside was strewn, in the opin-
ion of Dr. Margaret Sanders, deputy cor-
oner, who examined the body. In addition
to the severe head injuries, the girl had
suffered a gash on the throat which had
barely missed the jugular vein, and there
were scratches on her face.

Her short coat was pulled down from
her shoulders, pinioning her arms. Her
white bra and white blouse had not been
disturbed, but her skirt had been pulled
above her waist, and her panties hauled

If so, you will be
happy to know how
we have improved the
hearing and relieved
those miserable head
noises, caused by ca-
tarrh of the head, for
thousands of people
(many past 70) who
have used our simple
Elmo Palliative Home
Treatment in the past
16 years. This may be
the answer to your
prayer. NOTHING TO WEAR. Here are
SOME of the symptoms that may likely
be causing your catarrhal deafness and
head noises: Head feels stopped up
from mucus. Dropping of mucus in
throat. Hawking and spitting. Mucus
in nose or throat every day. Hearing
worse with a cold. Hear — but don’t
understand words. Hear better on clear
days. Worse on rainy days. Head noises
like crickets, bells, whistles, clicking,
escaping steam or many other sounds.
If your condition is caused by catarrh
of the head, you, too, may likely enjoy
such wonderful relief as many others
have reported. WRITE TODAY FOR
PROOF AND 30 DAY TRIAL OFFER.

THE ELMO COMPANY
DEPT. 5MG2 DAVENPORT, IOWA

‘How to Make Money with
heeee Simple Cartoons’ =...

A book everyone who I!kes to draw

Beronia have. It Is free; no
obligation. Simply address
C HANGE
ARTOONISTS' EXCHANGE
Dept. 582 Pleasant Hill, Ohio

CHECKS

Famous Hub Checks, Non-
Duplicate, Square Edge, Heavi-
est Game Check, Cut and Stack
Accurately. Supplied in any color. 3s =

FREE CATALOG Expose: The Open Book,
Sealed Book, Scientific Betting, Master Key System,
How to Control Fair Dice, Runup System, Plastic

> 1 ”
“The Old Reliable” reg Caode for

K. €. CARD Co.,823 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago 5, Ill,

Repair electrical appliances of friends and
neighbors. Service electrical equipment in
factories, stores, etc, Work full or part
tin New Shop Method home-training sys-
Rush name today for FREE BOOK and
ecial form for getting Electronic Kit, Spe-
Service Kits. Advisory Service. Ilus-
trated Instructions on new be A aN Atty
plan. od us later with your EARNINGS
WHILE LEARNING. Rush name.

CHRISTY TRADES SCHOOL
Dept. D-683
4804 N. Kedzie Ave., Chicago 25, Il.

HALT CRIM

Bese PAYS OFF BiG!

t
TIME! voy CAN LEARN mod-
ern scientific detection
methods in spare time... look
forward to steady secure em-
ployment as a trained Investiga-
tor! This course from OLDEST
Detective School In the Nation's
FEDERAL

Capital,
AGENT and NAVAL INTELLIGENCE OFFI-
CER, revenis latest methods of detecting vio-

developed by former

lations quickly ... surely... safely. We have
trained THOUSANDS ... Write TODAY for free
Book and Lesson Sample.

International Detective Training School
1701 Monroe St., N.E., Dept. $52, Washington 18, D.C.

99


a?

100

HANDS TIED?

AQ) —because you lack a

“SC HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA

e You can qualify for an American School
Diploma in spare time at home! If you have
left school, write or mail coupon for FREE
booklet that tells how. No obligation of any
kind.

-—-———=—==- OUR 58TH YEAR ---------

1

1 AMERICAN SCHOOL, Dept.V269

1 Drexel at 58th, Chicago 37, Hlinois

' Please send FREE High School booklet.

i NAME 008 CRTEV Tees o's ceenectipecgueaes dats drve
‘ AdENGAS8 vc 5660s sce php Bie Ligh oracle tings petk a
} Chi PR oo 6.0 a bE oo SRE RE alee + aes

Canadi d : Ci lete ‘Canadian Course Available.
| ~=Write American School, 1610 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal.

How To Make Money:

Discover new way to earn spare-time cash.
FREE information: TRUE DETECTIVE, 205 East
42 St., N.

INVENTORS

Learn how to protect your invention. ‘‘Patent Guide’
containing information on patent protection and pro-
cedure with ‘‘Record of Invention’’ form will be
forwarded to you upon request—without obligation.

CLARENCE A. O'BRIEN & HARVEY JACOBSON

Registered Patent Attorneys
531-A District National Building
Washington 5, D. C,

LEARN AY HOME IN SPARE TIME!
EARN $3,000, to $6,000. per YEAR. We J
train you in a few short months. No ex
perience required. No age limits. Free

vie ©
BECOME AN EXPERT

MAN

Key salesmen earn $5,000 to $10,000 a year and up. Thousands
of firms seeking well-trained men. LaSalle trains you rapidly,
thoroughly, in spare time at home. Low cost, easy terms. Nearly
60 years’ experience —over 200,000 salesmen trained. FREE 82-
PAGE BOOK, ‘‘Salesmanship, the Power that Wins Success,’’ tells
today’s new opportunities, and how you can prepare for large earn-
ings in this profitable profession, Write TODAY.

LASALLE Extension University, 417 So. Dearborn St.
A Correspondence Institution « Dept. 2306SC, Chicago 5, Il,

’ oy’
MODERN EXTENSION TRAINING
Prepare for a career in public
law enforcement or private
investigation through our
complete home study program.
Write for free literature.
Please state age.

ONAL DETECTIVE ACAD

Nasal Congestion Associated With Head
Colds May Cause Symptoms Of

SINUS

ASTHMA, HAY FEVER.

Amazing New Treatment-—FREE TRIAL
Thousands have received amazing, fast relief with
this sensational, new treatment, from symptoms of hay
fever, asthma, sinus headaches, pressure in forehead,
soreness in eyes, cheek bones, top of head, back of
head and down neck, when caused by nasal conges-
tion. Write for 7 DAY FREE TRIAL, POSTPAID, no cost
or obligation to try it except it is agreed you will
mail it back, postpaid, at end of trial period if not
amazed with results.

Nationai Laboratories, Dept. S46, Galt, Calif.
Offer not good in California.

down to the knees. A rape attempt clearly
had been made, but it had not succeeded,
Dr. Sanders said.

One foot was bare, the other sheathed
in a faded pink sock. The second sock and
one shoe were turned up in the brush near-
by, but the other shoe could not be found.
Her schoolbooks and pencils were scattered
only a few feet from the makeshift grave.

Not far away the searchers came upon
the blade of a common kitchen paring
knife. It had no handle, and from its ap-
pearance no handle had been attached in a
long time.

“Not a very likely weapon, a blade with
nothing to hold it by,” Zvonar said. “It’s
probably just a coincidence it was lying
here.”

Authorities both in Aliquippa and in
Cambria County instantly realized the
possibility of a connection between the
murders of Helen Jean Bryant and little
Karen Mauk. The slayings had been within
the same week, only about 80 miles apart,
and the method and motive very similar.

“And if they’re both the work of the
same maniac,” said State Police Sergeant
John Krzton when he reached Aliquippa,
“then God knows where he may strike next.
If he’s traveling East, he may be heading
for a big city, Philadelphia or New York,
where it’s easier to get yourself lost.”

Dolores Bryant, the dead girl’s younger
sister, however, was sure she knew who
had slain her sister. “That fellow down the
hill.’ she said, pointing to a second dwell-
ing perched on the steep slope about 75
yards below where Helen Jean had been
found in her scooped-out grave.

“We were both afraid of him,” the 14-
year-old girl revealed. ‘“He used to come
out and shake his finger at us when we
went by. We always ran till we got beyond
where he lived.”

“That fellow down the hill,” the officers
soon learned, was 22-year-old Elijah
Thompson, who lived with his dad, a rail-
road brakeman, and three brothers in a
ramshackle dwelling that stood just off the
hillside trail.

They found Elijah at home. He came to
the door wearing a four-inch square of
gauze taped over a wound on his head. In
the bedroom which Thompson pointed out
as his, the officers found a bloodsoaked pair
of trousers wadded on the floor of a closet.

“You want to tell us about it?” Sergeant
Krzton said.

“Sure, I'll tell you,’ young Thompson
said. “Only I thought you fellows already
knew all there was to know about it.”

“Not all,” Krzton said. “Go on, tell your
story.”

“T went over to my wife’s Monday night,”
Thompson began. “I wanted her to fetch
the kids and come back to me, that’s all.
I had me an old knocked-down .22 rifle. I
meant to scare her a little, nothing more.

“Then she lit into me and made me mad.
I hauled the rifle outa my pants leg, where
I was carryin’ it, and I guess I blazed
away two or three times. At the wall,
though. I wasn’t shootin’ at anybody.

“This neighbor, he came in somehow. He
grabbed the gun away and batted me one
on the head. I don’t remember good after
that, but they say I fell through a window
and that’s how I cut my arm so bad.”

Thompson rolled up his sleeve, showing
a thick bandage covering most of his fore-
arm. “Anyway,” he continued, “that’s how
I came to wake up in the hospital. They
wanted to keep me there, but I signed a
paper and left by myself.”

Krzton looked at Zvonar, Zvonar at the
sergeant. What was the man talking about?

They soon found out. On Monday night,
Thompson had gone to the home of his es-
tranged wife in Rochester, about five miles
down the river-—the Ohio here flows almost
directly north—and the fight had occurred
as he related it.

Rochester police and hospital records
bore him out. He had suffered a head in-
jury which surgeons feared might be a
skull fracture, and he had lost so much
blood from a severed artery in his arm
that for a time the doctors believed he
might not live. It was against their advice
that, on Wednesday, he had signed him-
self out of the hospital and returned home.”

“That’s where the blood on my pants
came from,” Thompson told the officers. He
disclaimed all knowledge of what had hap-
pened to Helen Jean Bryant. He admitted
that on several occasions he had shaken an
admonishing finger at Helen Jean and
Dolores as they scurried down the path to
catch their school bus.

“But I didn’t mean nothing by that,” he
explained. “I was just sort of kidding ’em
about being late for school.”

Their first likely suspect seemingly in
the clear, Krzton and Zvonar looked for
another.

“One thing’s a cinch,” the state police ser-
geant said. “That girl never got off that
hill last Monday morning.”

Zvonar agreed. “Elijah’s got a brother,”
he said. “He just got out of the federal pen,
over in Chillicothe. We might try him.”

The brother was not at home, but the
two officers camped in the Thompson
dwelling until he returned, only a few min-

BAD TIMING

A rubber check artist in Columbus,
Ohio, presented his phony forgery to
a local merchant. An old hand at it,
his check looked authentic drawn on
the Monticello, Arkansas, Farmers and
Trust Bank. But this time it bounced the
artist right into jail. That bank went
out of business in I9I1,

—Charles H. Pettay

utes ahead of his father, Elijah Thomp-
son Sr.

The younger brother quickly offered an
alibi for the supposed time of the mur-
der, 8:15 a.m. on Monday. “I was down-
town already,” he said. “At an employment
agency, lookin’ for work. Dad was asleep
when I left. Lije was the only one up.”

Krzton noted the bitter look young Eli-
jah shot at his brother. On a quick hunch
the sergeant turned to the father. “You got
a paring knife in the kitchen, Pop?” he
asked.

“Sure,” the old man replied. He moved
toward a table and hauled out a drawer.
He pawed in it for a moment, then turned,
shaking his head. “’Taint here,” he said.
“Not that it’s any loss, an old knife like
that, without no handle.”

“Without a handle?” Krzton echoed. He
turned to Elijah Jr. “Son,” he said, “I
guess you’d better come with us.”

For four hours young Thompson held
out against their questioning. But by then
they could tell him that the blood on his
pants was not of his own type and that he’d
worn another pair of trousers when he
called on his ex-wife Monday night.

U
Doub
A_ strong
adjustable
flat groin
comfort. .
give mea
state right
both size
except on

Delay
811 Wycar

@ \(

Like Yoga,
Accomplish
(Free detai
Escondido, (

RE

PAYS BiG!
TRATED cr
* making subs:
own busines:
learn easily
Management
related subj;
rooms in le
Write Tons
Approv.
WEAVER :
2020 Grana

New (7

adios, auto
@rtists’ sur

Guns, sport
Plants, firey
all over wo

JOHNSON

VE

EVERY!
Their beaut;
You make 7
Card $1 As
‘chrome, Lace
other fast-se
$10°$25-$50in B
amples, 4 be
Gift Set FRE!
CREATIVE CARD

A.P.O., F.P.
$3.00 with ona
ED SALE « sti

Report of latest legal developments

on cases published by TD

PENNSYLVANIA'S
HALLOWEEN HORROR

(TD February, 1955)

In two communities in western Penn-
sylvania, Halloween of 1954 is remem-
bered as a time of fear and horror. Helen
Jean Bryant, 16, left her home on a hill-
top in Aliquippa, near Pittsburgh, to go
to school—and disappeared. Little 6-
year-old Karen Mauk started out in the
late afternoon with her trick-or-treat
bag and vanished.

Karen’s body was found first, in the
brush beside a byroad near a cemetery,
her trick-or-treat bag spilling candy and
cookies into her curly hair. She had been
smothered.

Later, searchers discovered the body of
Helen Jean in a shallow grave 100 yards
from her home. Her head had been bru-
tally bludgeoned and her throat cut.

Helen’s younger sister told officers that
a man who lived down the hill from
their home had often frightened them as
they went to school. He was Elijah
Thompson, 23, whose father was a rail-
road brakeman.

Questioned by police, Thompson finally
confessed, “I done it—I don’t know
why.” He said he’d watched the sisters
every day as they went to school. ‘That
day, she was alone. I came up behind her,
hit her head with a rock.” Then, he said,
he cut her with the knife, then scooped
out a grave and covered her up.

In court Thompson pleaded guilty and
said he hoped the judge would sentence
him to death. And on January 20th, 1955,
Judge Morgan H. Sohn granted his wish
and sentenced him to the electric chair.

Sue Fuller

CLUB MURDER OF THE
PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN

(TD April, 1955)

When he returned home from an early
morning walk to get the Sunday papers
on December 12th, 1954, Milton Fuller
found his wife, Sue, 25, dead in the bed-
room of their Brinkley, Arkansas, home.
Her head had been crushed by blows
from a club.

On Friday Billy Ray Willingham was

arrested in Forrest City, 25 miles east of
3rinkley and charged with the murder.
Following a 30-day observation period
at Arkansas State Mental Hospital, Wil-
lingham was ruled sane. During this pe-
riod two witnesses were found who
placed the falsely arrested Willingham
in Memphis, Tennessee, at the time of the
murder.

And on February 3rd, 1955, he was re-
leased by the prosecutor, who stated, “I
am convinced that Willingham is not
guilty.”

In an interview with TD correspond-
ent, James R. Holland, Billy said: “Some
Forrest City police got me and said I
killed the Fuller woman. I explained that
I didn’t even know her and had never
seen her. They took me to the jail and
called Brinkley police. While riding over
there, the officers cussed me and said I
killed the woman. I told them I was in
Memphis at the time. They slapped me,
started beating me over the head. I
didn’t bleed, but my head was swollen.
They grilled me for three straight days.

“That was the first time I was ever ar-
rested and I hope I don’t have to go
through that again.”

Helen Bryant

Harry Gossard, 39, former merchant-
seaman, picked up as a suspect in the
slaying of Karen Mauk, admitted that
he had lured the child into his car by
offering her money for her trick-or-treat
bag. He claimed that he had slipped and
fallen on her, that he had not meant to
hurt her.

Gossard pleaded guilty to a general
charge of murder and was ordered com-
mitted to Torrance State Hospital for
psychiatric examination.

"| DIDN'T LIKE THE PLACE"

(TD April, 1955)

On December 12th, 1954, the Yacht
Club Apartments, a 4-story brick and
wood structure on Water Street, Haver-
hill, Massachusetts, burned in a fire that
took the lives of five tenants. The fire
was determined to be of incendiary
origin.

Richard E. LaPlante, whose family
lived on the fourth floor of the building,
was held on charges of arson and man-
slaughter. At his trial in Essex County
Superior Court before Judge Horace T.
Cahill, a jury of 5 men and 7 women ex-
onerated LaPlante.

DEATH FOR $1

(TD November, 1954)

On the evening of July 5th, 1954, How-
ard Englander, 29, an aircratt mechanic
and father of a 3-year-old child, went
surf-casting off Manhattan Beach. Ab-
sorbed in the sport, he was unaware of
two shadowy figures creeping up on him
in the darkness. Suddenly one of them
struck him on the head with a length of
lead pipe, then trussed him with his own
fishing line and threw him into the
water.

In the very early hours of July 6th
Ernest Lee Edwards, 23, a Philadelphia
hoodlum, and his companion, Richard P.
Connors, 24, driving north in the car they
had stolen from Englander, were ar-
rested when they stopped and attempted
to mug another man on Riverside Drive,
New York.

Connors revealed to police details of
Englander’s death and was granted a
separate trial on his promise to testify
against Edwards for the state. Still blood-
stained, the pipe with which the fisher-
man had been slain was found in the
car.

Englander’s body was found on July
llth some 40 miles from Manhattan
Beach, when the crew of a fishing boat
spotted it. An autopsy showed that the
victim had been struck at least a dozen
times with the lead pipe. Parts of his
skull were pulverized.

At Edwards’ tria! before Judge Sam-

uel S. J

Connor:
to Cone
no luck
front, s}
attack

said, “I
stvle.” }
“The d

onlv $)

An
returne
der aga

recomn

the deat

1954, th
found i
near Ne
bee:

bu
Ider
George
police
hi
tu :
He
vertit
plant
Frit
Spoke:
be
OY 4
Texas.
elaborat
street :
officers
T ever
quarte
He
the ‘
drin}
be:
When
dead it
commit?
toward ?
the w
that the
fused to
remarry
At hi
found hi
der in t}
January
Roberts
impriso:
WHE!
In the
former
Klan,
politics
the Jaw
lured M
a t SIM
one ot
dianape
a state \
with he
office in
Stephe
forced \!


records
read in-
ht be a
so much
his arm
=ved he
r advice
ed him-
i home.”
\y pants
icers. He
iad hap-
idmitted
vaken an
2an and
path to

that,” he
jing ’em

ingly in
‘ked for

lice ser-
off that .

brother,”

‘*hompson
few min-

offered an
the mur-
was down-
mployment
was asleep
one up.”
young Eli-
juick hunch
r. “You got
Pop?” he

He moved
it a drawer.
then turned,
-e,” he said.
4 knife like

, echoed. He
he said, “I
us.”

ympson held
But by then
blood on his
and that he’d
ers when he
night.

AMAZING COMFORT WITH Patented

RUPTURE-EASER

T.M, Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. (A Piper Brace Truss)
For MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN

a

$ | ne 2606551

7 Right $99 5
or Left Side

A. strong, form-fitting washable support. Back lacing
adjustable, Snaps up in front. Adjustable leg strap. Soft,
flat groin pad. No steel or leather bands, Unexcelled for
comfort. Also used as after operation support. Mail orders
give measure around the lowest part of the abdomen and
state right or left side or double. (Note: Be sure to give
both size a nae when ordering.) We prepay postage
except on C.0
cosy 7,000, 000 Grateful Users!
Delay may be serious—ORDER TODAY!
PIPER BRACE CO.
811 Wyandotte

© YOUR HIDDEN POWERS @

Like Yoga, hypnotism, telepathy, psychology—combined,
Accomplish ‘‘tomorrow what seems impossible today.
(Free Pia SHAR SNSTITUTE, Box 842-D8,
Escondido, Cali

RERSTICATE

PAYS BIG! SEND FOR FREE, BIG, ILLUS-
TRATED CATALOG NOW! Graduates rement
making substantial incomes, Start and run your
own business quickly. Men, women of all ages,
learn easily. Course covers Sales, Property
Management, Appraising, ane Mortgages, and
erlanest fp acca Set HOME or in class-
ms in leading cities. Diploma awarded.
Write TODAY for free book! No obligation,
Approved for World War II and Korean Veterans
WEAVER SCHOOL oF REAL ESTATE (Est. 1938)
2020 Grand Kansas City, Mo

new Catalog ot 3000 Novelties

for amazing catalog of novelties,
Send 10¢ gifts, live animals, hobbies, fun
makers, planes & boats, magle tricks, joke
articles, unusual seeds, gadget timesavers,
Gea cameras, optical goods, projectors, movies,
Gh jewelry, disguises, stamps, coins, puseles,
radios, ‘auto & bike jes, banks, s’ gadgets,
artists’ supplies, printing sets, motors, knives, billfolds,
guns, sports, books, games, music, scientific supplies,
plants, fireworks, office & household items, etc., from
all over world. Rush name, address & 10c now!
JOHNSON SMITH CO., Dept. 917, Detroit 7, Mich.

Kansas City 5, Mo.

3D MIND

complete, money back if not delighted,

MENTAL SCIENCE, Dept. 203
Los Angeles 64, Calif.

2611 Tilden Ave.

For Selling Only 100 Boxes
of Our Lovely FLORAL

EVERYDAY GREETING CARDS

Their beauty and value sell on sight.
You make 75c on each box. New 21-
Card $1 Assortments, unusual Koda-
chrome, Lace, Tal! Cards, New Gift Items, 100 Py]
other fast-sellers. Cash’ profits to 150% plus $ ove
$10-$25-$50 in Bonus Gifts. Get FREE Stationery
Samples, 4 best Assortments on approval: ai
Gift Set FREE if you act fast. WRITE NO

Oryers
FREE
CREATIVE CARD C0. "440i Cermak Rd., Dept. BAA, "chicago 23, Ill.

LAY GUI

24 rN FOAVS
serena ACK

SURPRISE FRIENDS, RELATIVES, HAVE
POPULARITY AND FUN GALORE!

In this introductory offer you ae TOP
RADIO GUITARIST ED SALE’S fa-
mous 66 page secret omar worth
$2.75 which positively teaches you to
lay a beautiful song the first day and
any song by ear or note in seven days!
Contains 52 asta 87 finger placing
charts, etc. Shows how to tune, keep
time, build chords, bass runs, dance
chords, swing, etc., plus 110 popular
and western songs, words and music; a $1.00 Chord Finder
of all the chords used in pular music; a $2.00 Guitarist
Book of Knowledge—TOTAL VALUE $5.75—ALL THREE for
98, Sony NO MONEY: Just name and address, pay
postman $2.98 pl C.0.D. postage. (Or send $3.00 with
ek, and hoot tage. BM aes dy laws lorry s: BO. 0 C.0.D.
all ou le » A. Canada and Foreign

$3. $0 ‘with orde! .

ED SALE e STUDIO {507-A ¢ BRADLEY BEACH, N. J.

“Yeah,” he said wearily at last. “I done
it. I don’t know what got into me. I just
couldn’t help myself.

“T watched that girl, day after day, young
and pretty and fresh-looking, with her red
hair, running down the hill. Last Monday
she was alone. I came up behind her with
a stone, and hit her on the head.”

He then ran home, he went on, got the
paring knife blade and went back and cut
her throat. He scooped out the shallow
grave, covered the body as best he could,
and changed clothes and went to Rochesicr.

It was obvious, from his hospital record,
however, that Thompson had not been in
Conemaugh when little Karen Mauk was
slain. Indeed, he had a solid alibi for
Thursday night.

In Cambria County, news of the capture
of Helen Jean Bryant’s slayer and of his
confession, which he _ readily signed,
spurred the officers there in their quest for
the brutal killer of the little girl.

A Windber man, captured near the ham-
let of Scalp Level, southeast of Johns-
town, after an attack upon a 10-year-old
girl, was promptly questioned in Karen’s
death. He had an alibi the investigators
could not crack.

In Conemaugh, in Aliquippa, as well as
neighboring communities, on Sunday eve-
ning—Halloween—there were no rag-tag
kids upon the streets, no yellow Jack-o-
lanterns grinning from front windows. The
children were kept indoors. The festive
spirit of the holiday had vanished in the
shock and grief which all residents shared
with the two bereaved families.

Volunteer firemen and auxiliary police-
men were out that evening, guarding the
streets as worshipers attended evening serv-
ices in their churches. There were few
adults even who dared the streets alone.
From religious gatherings, neighbors
grouped together to return to their homes.

And that night in New Castle, only 30
miles north of Aliquippa, the third of
Western Pennsylvania’s Halloween horrors
was perpetrated.

There a 12-year-old girl, venturing out
alone, was seized in the dark, carried into
a back yard and assaulted. Although suf-
fering from severe shock and injuries, she
fortunately survived the attack.

By Monday, the probe in Conemaugh
seemed no farther advanced than it had
been an hour after little Karen was. found
dead on the cemetery hill.

Roger Eichorn had been completely
cleared in the case, and returned to face
whatever parental wrath awaited him in
Pittsburgh.

Early in the afternoon, County Detective
Chief Reed got a call from one of his men.
“Harry Grossard’s expected back today,”
Reed announced, when he hung up. “He'll
be at a sister’s, over in East Taylor Town-
ship, on Route 219. I suppose we better
bring him in for questioning. Matter of rou-
tine, with his record.

Trooper Harold “Sam” Luther of the
state force took Grossard into custody late
in the afternoon. In Blair’s headquarters in
the firehouse, the big salesman calmly de-
nied all guilty knowledge of the little girl’s
death.

“Why, I knew Karen,” he said. “A sweet
little thing. She lived right near my moth-
er’s house. I—I’ve, well, had a little trouble
in the past, but not that kind of thing.”
He shuddered. “I couldn’t do that, not in
this world,” he declared.

He had, admittedly, no alibi, for Thurs-
day night. He said he had just been out
driving around until 8, or maybe 8:30 or
9 o’clock. ‘“‘There was no reason for me to
keep close track of the time,” he said,

I wasn’t watching a clock.”

During the long interrogation, Grossard
complained of pains in his back. “If you're
going to keep me here much longer,” hic
said, “please get a doctor in. I need some-

IRACLE TOMATO
ep ields @ BUSHELS

Toa Vine

Now—You can grow the world’s
most amazing Tomato right in
your own garden and get from
2 to 3 bushels of delicious, ripe
tomatoes from every vine.

BURGESS CLIMBING

; ® Tayo GaaP

rAigp TOMATO grows 16 to 20 feet high.
Aap TOMA meaty, solid fruit, wonder-
ful flavor. Some weigh as much
as 2 pounds each. Unsurpassed
for canning and slicing. Blight
free—drought and disease-re-
sistant. Grows in any garden
Outyields all other varieties.

TRIAL PACKET
Y .. Postpaid. Order Today 10¢
3 Packets for 25c

Write for FREE complete
Catalog listing many unusual
Seeds, Plants and Bulbs.

BURGESS SEED & PLANT CO.
136 B. Galesburg, Mich.

itch ee

Crazy

Very first use of soothing, cooling, liquid D. y D.
Prescription positively relieves raw red itch—
caused by eczema, rashes, scalp irritation, chaf-
ing—other itch troubles. Greaseless, stainless.
43¢ trial bottle must satisfy or money back.
Ask your druggist for D.D.D. PRESCRIPTION.

SHINE | WITHOUT ‘POLISH’

Cars Gleam Like Mirror
“sg MEN! WOMEN! So easy a child can do it!
Amazing “Dry” Pato puts mirror- like
shine on car WITHOUT ‘POLISH’. No
mossy pastes, liquids, sprays. Simply
M clide over car, PRESTO! Leaves hard,
atroun, long-lasting protective Wax
Coating. Take orders! Earn money! «

SAMPLES FOR TRIAL

'4 Sample offer sent immediately to all who
A send name at once, Justa postcard will
do, SEND NO MONEY —just your name,

KRISTEE C0.,Dept.411, Akron 8, Ohio

10 SHOT MAGAZINE f
Designed by Master Crafts-
man from the famous German
Fast Shooting Automatic Luger!!

Be the proud owner of this Exciting
Automatic and the envy of your friends!
Finished in sleek blue-black of high impact
#475 Styron with fancy polished-chromium-
type steel trigger!

Sharp looking—simulated knurled Ivory
Grips!! Not an air or COz gun. Fires 10 slugs in rapid
succession!! FREE—Surprise Package! Plus 100 slugs
with order of 2 Lugers at $5.95. Plus 2 Free Holsters!! Order
now-——while they last. Be a two-gun man! Dept. MG

Krieger Labs, M.G., 11708 N. McCadden Pl., Hollywood 28

FROM PaUniF

’ Prove it yourself no matter
q how long you have suffered

or what you have tried.

Beautiful book on psori-

asis and Dermoil with

amazing true photo-

graphic proof of results

orto A sent FREE. Write for it.

Don't mistake eczema

for the stubborn, ugly aA ate
embarrassing scaly yd ry 0

disease Psoriasis. ts Sean Te

ply non-staining Sars

moil, ‘Thousands do for ak

scaly on body or bs a

scalp, Grateful users ‘often

after years of Sunerine.

report the scales ha Kiger 4
fone, the red patches gradually

appeared and they enjoyed the nent of clear s'

again. Dermoil is used by many doctors and is Med by a
positi cement to give definite benefit in 2 weeks or
money

Send 10c (stamps OF
1 Spo

ry
avannnnes poe

stores and other leading, “Brucatets.
Box 3925, Strathmoor Station, Dept. 8305, Detroit 27, Mich.

101


re a couple of
1other tavern

‘to work fast
uan who had
| out a note-
‘scriptions of
descriptions

feet tall. He
had full lips,
ls and was
‘usiness suit.
et 8 inches
| faced and

of the small
ivailable if I
questioning.
earching the
ist then with

hundred feet
e said. “No
ve a valuable

and went to

of Lincoln
tacts.

me,” I said.
ieaded west.
Eau Claire
» trail them.”

‘ontacted the
DARING

sheriff of Eau Claire county and asked
him to barricade the highways leading
into the city and to watch for the tan
Pontiac sedan.

Then I called my office in Rhinelander
and asked that a deputy be sent out to
watch the tavern while DuBois and I
started after the fleeing pair. The deputy
arrived a few minutes later and after
sealing the tavern and warning him to
keep everyone away from the spot where
Shannon had fallen, DuBois and I clani-
bered into our car.

Two and one-half hours later we sped
into Eau Claire but the trip was fruitless.
The sheriff said that no car answering
to my description had passed through
since my message. ; '

“They must have taken to some by-
road and are waiting for a better time
to leave the state,” he said. “However,
we'll contact other officials around here.
The car could have given us the slip
although it seems impossible. All of the
roads have been guarded for the past
two hours.”

At the sheriff’s office I called the

authorities at Minneapolis, Minn., and,

asked them to watch for the tan Pontiac.
I believed the pair might have branched
off to Highway 61 at Stevens Point to
go to that city.

Then, thanking the sheriff for his co-
operation, Attorney DuBois and I started
our trip back to Rhinelander. It was
now early morning and the May sun was
just peeping. over the: horizon as we

DETECTIVE

entered my office again. Both of us were
haggard from lack of sleep but I knew
that we would have to continue on the
case if we expected results.

So far we had not made much prog-
ress, being aware only of the facts at
hand concerning Shannon and the shoot-
ing. The Lone Pine tavern had long
borne a shady name in the county as
being nothing more than a dive where
suspected lawbreakers mingled with the
resort crowd.

KNEW that Shannon had served a

prison term in Waupun penitentiary
for armed robbery but after his release he
had seemed to operate strictly within the
law. I was also aware that the man was
known as Art Morgan and his former
home had been Louisville, Ky. He had
served minor jail sentences in that state
several times before being apprehended
in Wisconsin.

Attorney DuBois and I discussed the
case as we mapped out a plan of investi-
gation. At the beginning I was positive
that this was no mere gang affair even
though it had been reported that a gang
of bank bandits was hiding in the vicinity.
Since Oneida county is in the heart of
the Wisconsin resort district it would
be an ideal area in which to hide with
little chance of detection, but frequent
raids upon suspected resorts had revealed
no hidden mobsters.

[Continued on page 68]

no na ape

, E Tinta Pane ge

’

C. Morgan Knight, young broker
and yachtsman, fell before the des-
perate bandit-slayer’s gun when he
attempted to halt the killer’s get- -
away from a holdup in the Wana-
maker store, in Philadelphia, left.

Dis y
helped Sheriff Rodd to prepare: the %
* Wisconsin end of the search which.”

gah?

the slayer in Philadel hi


‘ solution of the murder of

The hat, below, left behind
by the mystery woman in
the case, and two .38 bul-
lets, were vital clues in the

Arthur Shannon, proprietor
of the Lone Pine Tavern.

grimly ahead as he threaded the Oneida county, Wis.,
stretch of Highway 51 near Rhinelander.

Suddenly the car slackened speed as a bright neon sign
appeared almost directly ahead. A moment later gravel
crunched under the spinning wheels and the car came to rest.

A thin, fleeting smile touched the driver’s lips as he alighted.
Then the smile was gone and the man paused to inspect a
nickel-plated revolver. Thrusting the gun back into his pocket
he advanced toward the door over which hung a sign which
read “Lone Pine Tavern.” The door swung open and the man
stood inside coolly taking stock of the tavern and its occupants.

A woman who had been seated at the bar looked at the figure
poised by the doorway, then quietly rose and disappeared into
a room just off the tavern proper. Arthur Shannon, the pro-
prietor, dropped his bar towel and approached the stranger.
A flush of anger clouded Shannon’s face as he eyed the man.

“Get out,” he said ominously. “Get out before I throw you
out !”

The bearded man smiled contemptuously. “Okay,” he said,
grinning at something behind Shannon’s back.

Shannon whirled. The woman had reappeared and in her
hand was a grip. The sound of the door banging behind the

Te bearded driver of the tan Pontiac sedan peered

TAVERN TREANGLE anc

We GE GMP gh eee

se uy

Former Sheriff HANS RODD
Oneida County, Wis., as told to

ALDO A. PELLIN

bearded man seemed to spur Shannon to action. With an
inarticulate growl he clutched at the woman as she tried to
pass him. Deftly side-stepping, she eluded the restraining hand.
Again the door banged and Arthur Shannon was standing
alone inside his tavern. A moment later he ran outside, his
face contorted with rage. ‘Where do you think you’re going ?”
he shouted after the woman’s retreating form.

She stopped, and in the faint glow of the tavern light she
seemed both lovely and brazen in her blond beauty. “Away,”
she taunted. “I have other plans,”

“Not with that guy!” Shannon barked, advancing as he
spoke. “You're staying here. I’ll attend to him.”

HANNON’S hand darted to his hip pocket. When he

reached the woman’s side he was fondling the butt of an
automatic, but the threat frightened neither the woman nor
her bearded companion. As Shannon reached the car the
woman dropped her grip into the back seat and calmly turned
to face him. She laughed triumphantly as his hand fell to his
side and then she climbed with deliberate slowness into the
front seat.

the


nm. With an
she tried to

raining hand,
was standing if
1 outside, his ;

wre going ?”

ern light she
ity. “Away,”

neing as he

When he
ie butt of an
woman nor
the car the
almly turned j
nd fell to his a
iess into the

The dark-skinned triggerman, left, stood before
a court of justice and dourly heard sentence pro-
nounced upon him after Former Sheriff Hans
Rodd of Oneida county, Wis., above, co-author

of this story, finished his investigation.

eT

i the


Shannon again was toying with his
half-drawn weapon as he turned to the
bearded man. “Tell her to get out of
the car,” he snarled. “I’ve got a gun
and I know how to use it.”

A sudden hush fell upon the scene.
The three couples who had been in the
tavern and had seen the grim playlet
start, now came to the door and crowded
about, watching. The bearded stranger
said nothing for a moment, then shrugged
his shoulders. It was a deceptive gesture.

A split second later he whipped out a
gun, firing in the same movement. Shan-
non went to the ground with a gurgling
scream of pain and rage. Again the gun
spat flame and lead. The gunman
chuckled softly and walked over to his
victim.

“T’ve waited four years for this mo-
ment, Shannon,” he said. “Haw do you
like it?”

Four more times the gun cracked and

the helpless man on the ground jerked -

as the bullets thudded home. As the gun-
man ran toward his car Shannon vainly
tried to drag his gun out but the effort
was too great. With a roar the Pontiac
sped out of the driveway and upon the
highway traveling at a high rate of speed.
A dark object hurtled out of the window.

[twas about 1 :30 o’clock on the morn-
ing of May 27, 1937. I had been busy
all that day investigating a report that
a band of bank bandits had invaded my
county. Tired, I was envisioning a few
hours’ sleep when the telephone rang.

“Art Shannon has just been shot,”
said an unidentified and excited voice.
“Better send an ambulance over to the
Lone Pine tavern right away.”

I wasn’t startled by this news. I had
been expecting it for some time and
wondered how long I would have to wait.
Now it had happened.

I telephoned for thé hospital am-
bulance, gave some rapid instructions
and then tried to contact the coroner. I
learned that he was out of the city and
I telephoned District Attorney Orville
DuBois of Oneida county. I explained
what had happened.

“Pick me up,” said DuBois. “T’ll be
ready.”

There were several cars in the parking
lot near the tavern when we arrived. We
drove up to where a group of men and
women were standing about an inert form
sprawled upon the ground. I focused the
spotlight on the man and got out, shoul-
dering my way through the ring.

20

Shannon was lying on his back. Ugly
bloodstains were spreading rapidly over
his ‘shirt front. I looked down further
and saw another stain on the right knee.

- A quick examination proved that one of

the bullets had found its mark in the
knee cap.

DuBois and I made a hasty examina-
tion. In Shannon’s hip pocket I found
a .32 caliber automatic and handed it to

DuBois.

A moment later the ambulance I had
summoned swept into the small parking
area and a white-jacketed man jumped
out. He knelt down and then called
sharply for the stretcher.

“He’s pretty bad, Sheriff,” said the
interne. “Might not live out the trip.”

When the ambulance had gone I
herded the three couples back into the
tavern for questioning. All of them
stated that the man had entered the tavern
only to be ordered out by Shannon. The
girl who had been at the bar had followed
the proprietor outside and the shooting
had followed. No one knew who the man
or the girl was, although the man had
been drinking at the tavern bar the night
before.

“He caused a disturbance last night,”
said one of the witnesses. “He got pretty
drunk and was always hanging around
that girl. Shannon finally ordered him
out and I saw the girl say something to
him afterward. She looked pretty mad.”

“Did she work here?” I asked.

“Not that I know of,” said the man,

“although I’ve seen her here a couple of
times. I’ve seen her at another tavern
several times also.”

I knew that I would have to work fast
if I expected to catch the man who had
done the shooting. I pulled out a note-
book and then asked for descriptions of
the fugitives. All of the descriptions
were positive and all tallied.

6 hot man was about six feet tall. He
was dark skinned and had full lips,
weighed about 180 pounds and was
dressed in a light gray business suit.
The girl was about 5 feet 8 inches
tall, was blond and round faced and
weighed about 120 pounds.

Next, I took the names of the small
group and told them to be available if I
needed them for further questioning.
DuBois, who had been searching the
ground outside, came in just then with
a gray hat in his hand. :

“Just found this about a hundred feet
down the road, Sheriff,” he said. “No
identification but it might be a valuable
clue. Size seven.”

“Hang on to it,” I said, and went to
the telephone.

I contacted the sheriff of Lincoln
county, giving him the brief facts.

“Check on this angle for me,” I said.
“I’ve learned that the pair headed west.
They may be going toward Eau Claire
on Route 51 and I’m going to trail them.”

Immediately afterward I contacted the

DARING

sheriff of
him to b:
into the «
Pontiac s
Then |
and aske:
watch th
started ai
arrived :
sealing t)
keep eve:
Shannon
bered int
Two a
into Eau
The she
to my ¢
since ml)
“They
road an
to leave
we'll co:
The car
althoug!
roads h
two hou:
At tl
authorit
asked t]
I believ
off to |
go to tl
Then
operatic
our tri:
now ea:
just pe

DETEC


510 VESCIO v. PA. ELECTRIC CO., Aplnt.

Opinion of the Court. [836 Pa.
injured or injuring person, and therefore the utterances
of either, concerning what they observed, are equally
admissible’: Wigmore on Evidence, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, sec.
1755. However, on account of the lapse of time between
the accident to Smith and his statement about it, it is
doubtful if his statement, even though apparently a
spontaneous one, can be regarded as part of the res
gestae. See Com. v. Fugmann, 330 Pa. 4, 17, 198 A. 99.
It is not necessary to decide this, for assuming this tes-
timony was improperly admitted, it was not prejudicial
to the defendant since there was no substantial dispute
about the fact that those involved in this accident
thought the current was turned off or about the fact
that the wire which Vescio came in contact with was
a “liye” one.

Appellant complains that the verdict of $10,000 is
excessive. The testimony showed that on November &,
1936, the date of Vescio’s death, he was between 21 and
22 years of age and that he was unmarried. He sup-
ported his mother with weekly contributions ranging
from $10 to $15, which included payments for his room
and board on those occasions when he was at home.
When he worked away from his mother’s home, he made
the same contributions to her. He also bought her con-
siderable houschold equipment such as an electric iron
and washer, and he provided her with coal. He also
paid the interest on a mortgage of $1500 on his mother's
property and occasionally paid something on the prin-
cipal. He also paid the taxes. The mother received no
support from her husband who had deserted her and
“went back to the old country” ten years previously.
The undertaker’s expenses in this case were $543.50 and
the burial expenses $56.70, making a total of $600.20.
As to decedent’s earnings, it was shown that when he
worked for the General Electric Company in Erie, they
ranged from $25.00 to $30.00 per week. It was testified
that he was the only person contributing to his mother’s

VESCIO ». PA. ELECTR

hace IC Co,, Aplnt. 511

Opinion of the Court,

not her son
her life’s dura-
the probability
sh his ability to
ating what amount the
itributions from her

ton eee to support her during
- It also had the right to consider

that he might
ie marry and thereb sate te
Support his mother. In ea —

son,

Ould then be a j

Just e

6.3: of such lost future cont
ell Telephone Co., 315 P

Under the evid Ir

- conclusion j i

os laid down by law for mejanitia ah’ i Res
MS character (see Gaydos et l

Pa. 529; 152 A849) “an weued ic

not be sustained.

The judgment of
the court below i
and, ag modified, is affirmed ta

ence, or

ages in. cases
’. Domabyl, 301
ard in excess of $6,600 can-

educed to $6,600

Si

Commonwealth v. Le Gr

and et al,

appeal nune pro tune
8ppeals has expired. [516-17]

‘wating |

jAsuuieg peqno

BTUCBA

ud)

erydtepett ,
INST pue sowep SyMWEY

‘a

6€6T *QT zequecegq uc (Aqun0p

-o1,00Te *syoeTq S‘aeyoqeTs


is
512 COMMONWEALTH v. LE. GRAND et a

Syllabus—Opinion of the Court. Pe 3
A ls—Review—Criminal law—Sentence—Murder
ppeals—.

[836 Pa.

° p uilty to court of
3 W here a defendant leads 4 murder and the our

oyer and terminer find t defe t g ] f mur der in tho
Ss he ndan ul ty 0.
fir st degr ee and imposes the death penalt Ys such penalt ill be
10d fied on appeal onl yw her e its imposition 1s @ manifest abu
rr 1 bb

of discretion. [517]

\ > ? ?
CHAFE ER, M: XE ’ v7 7p Sh 7
ar d LISC. De cket, . ; f m | Db
Nos. 226 1 M 1S ) No ro udemer

te : i S ssi Ss 1939,
d n neces of O. & Tv, Phila. Co., April mess sosee " :
and se iS ; ss ae nn

Fletcher Le Grand et al. Petitions dismissec

ander,
Morton S. Freeman and Raymond Pace Alex
for petitioners.

istri mney, and
Vincent A. Carroll, Assistant District Attor ahi
Charles F. Kelley, District Attorney, for Commo

939:
OPINION BY MR. JUSTICE MAXey, Sa Se hs 6
Defendants each filed in this court on sexieg?
a petition for allowance of appeals pie tes soap
the judgments of murder in the its igen a ie
neces of death of the Court of Oyer an  seneach
paar County. These judgments gee: petits
followed the prisoners’ pleas of guilty pee: pai a a
ing before Judges McDevirr, Seay a Se ae
termine the degree of guilt, and the proy ei
x ] ere taken to this court but app “
<a sidtend of sentences to life pret en te
iP hers to the Board of Pardons and the app!
tions were refused. shea
On Sunday, March 26, 1939, between 2 as tank
Jefendants, who for some time had been - eee
bl ks working in the vicinity of the rear o Bite
Hf. Wanamaker clothing store in Philadelphia, re

EES AA REO ED Et i aaa

COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et al. 513
511, (1939).] Opinion of the Court.
the lid of a manhole on the sidewalk in the rear of this
store (on Clover Street). The lia was the coy
of a coal chute to the store cellar. They descended
“hand over hand” on a chain which anchors the man-
hole cover to a mooring in the coal bin. After they

were inside, they replaced the cover. Defendants en-
tered the store for

ering

cide. Fuller at t of age and Le
Grand 2 ge. They came to Philadelphia about
1933 from southern states. The watchman on the prem-
ises was John Heyworth, aged 70 years, who had been
in the employ of the store for many years. Fuller was
employed by this store as a porter and general worker
for about two weeks in 1935 and knew this watchman.

Defendants carried no weapons. After gaining en-
trance, they went upstairs to the street level floor to
examine some suits and while there they heard the
watchman moving around in the basement. They also
heard a radio playing. Fuller testified that “when
We discovered that he [the watchman] was in the store,
we tried to get out as we entered.” They thereupon
descended the back stairs to the basement and heard
the watchman going up the front Stairs,

A few hours after the defendants left the store the
watchman was found dead and these two defendants
were soon afterwards arrested. At 7 Pp. m. of the day of
the homicide, both prisoners signed confessions and
from these the facts of the killing are obtained. Fuller
in his confession said, inter alia: “We were trying
to get out again and he [the watchman] seen us and
We rushed him and hit him ove
Pidor and he fell and we didn’t
we were not taking any chance
here, so we came upstairs to see if there was anybody
else up there, Then we came back down again and the

fellow he was laying where we left him, he wasn’t dead
VOL, CCCXXXVI—33

Ss of not getting out of


1.
514 COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et a
| Opinion of the Court.

+t him again and we made up our
oe nt os Se ees pam unlocked the eis ud
mira ani Scdnah Clover ote to oe =. opesiny
; <i- nd wen
poets Eee Fe et a “of not getting out S
ne ig tien in ink by Fuller himself a hee
nae na ihe. statement and was asked to grams
ue om nts. These words, according to the - omg
a ia an were “transplanted” for the wore ae
cea eee o we were.” Fuller, in his gig eh :
grirabees Geena hit the watchman “three i hs
a atc he went down,” and that he hy ’ 3
ine SET pewain once with oe xt coh a
Cc. Schrader, who mi .
sked on cross-examination : “Did Se a
‘enti s] actually tell you they beat this ma eq
un , pent downstairs?” He answered: ae
cig ine ; eh Fuller . . said he saw the w ei
a atin spa ‘hie from the floor and he got = ei
eae e Grand got the cuspidor and they
andle 4
ar him on the floor.”
Fuller testified aa ce
mm? 6“ ve oth 4
uae ae to get out, and recticencewe Pn
: r th
ciate er ae Pia AES hat. Fuller, we
i PEGs s stand, denied that he and Le Grand 8 ay
eae a they went downstairs the 6 eo
ie ee ae Le Grand suggested that rede
cagert a for the hat and “so, I went bac ; ee
eee ight watchman laying there ang At
seen ee mand] ‘This night watchman oe . sty
aye i doe ie had hit him with, I took at -
ee ia it So, there was no finger hoe as
eee a was a sponge inside of it. I run : ae
because ee ‘ater and the sponge, and I pene ves
er ee ne Then I poured it on his one a
rat aa ows. and we goes back up to th
set it kK

[836 Pa.

struck
tective William

i y a y t ; an
rand 4 eat?’ the wat hm
rf

rent
that they both wé
i a were on the

and I

ai ad

COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et al. 515
511, (1939).] Opinion of the Court.

floor and went out.” Fuller admitted in a question
asked by Judge Crumuisu that Le Grand in going to
his (Fuller’s) assistance, “hit the watchman several
times with the cuspidor.”

Le Grand, in his confession said, inter alia:
standing up to the manhole and he was standing back
of the stairway and the man [watchman] came in right
in front of me and then James [Fuller] hit him first
with this mop handle, he hit him on the head. This
stick was broken and then James grabbed him and I
struck him with the cuspidor on the head. Then I hit
him again, then James had him partly down then I hit
him and he dropped. Then we went upstairs to the first
floor to see if there was anyone else up there, then we
didn’t see no one and we went down again and we both
struck him again. He was trying to get up. We hit
him with a cuspidor. We went upstairs and James
went in the office and got the key and we unlocked the
back door” and went out. Questions addressed to him
by the detective and his replies are as follows: “Q. What
was the object of you and Fuller making sure that the
watchman was dead? <A. I wanted to keep him down
So I could get out. That’s what I wanted to do. .

Q. What was the reason of you and Fuller both strik-
ing him over the head again with the cuspidor? A. Be-

cause he was getting up. Q. How m

any times did you
Strike him over the head with the cuspidor the second

time? A. Ihit him once and he dropped down. Q. How
many times did you see Fuller strike him over the head
the second time? A. I didn’t see him strike him but
once.” The cuspidor in question w
ing heavy and “loaded in the bottor
ment.”

On the stand Le Grand testified that when Fuller
hit the watchman with the mop handle, it broke, and
he “picked up the cuspidor and hit the watchman with
it and they went down,” and that he struck the watch-
man with it “only once.” He denied that they attacked

“T was

as described as be
n, with sand or ce-


i
516 COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et a
Opinion of the Court. [336 Pa.

sme they went downstairs
a icine Se foe wali hat. He said he
ee what Fuller did, that they were only there
tee i minutes when Fuller found his hat and
So iadst back up the stairs, unlocked the eae
ey W . :
and left. “ed to read into the rec-
i Deana Dr. paler at the oe
oe ae the injuries to the [watchman s] on
to the effect thé types of weapons. There were a
were caused by two typ were really more than that,
jena’ Sion] eon testify accurately to -
ae aie ies, and the cause of death was a sd
separate ah k : the argument before us, it was state
t cha -watghman’s skull was fractured. tak
aes Ecinpigsiwenitth contends (1) ape : oie this case
e pro tunc ”
no pox . © eens sro had quch power there is im
a a ia eal because the sentences of nem Pb
merit nti  eapiiate, The Act of May 11, Ae", -
arene ae s follows: “Section 4. .- - No eahe
see ae ved, in any case, from a sentence or or
ape at ‘quarter sessions or oyer and ar .
ae a within forty-five days from a
u ”?
a Be vin best imposed on each of ae a
pane May 12, 1939, the last day on which a
nes neko was June 26, 1939. nies om
aa al s filed four months and five @ay pars
now before. us ‘pecan to review those cases, aoe
late. It is not ss ch this court has allowed ans ap
civil cases, ees the statutory period for allow mi .
pro..tune, .# 4 In all of those cases there 5 a ot
peals had ee tances such as fraud or a canted
ceptional setae which in fact and in law 7 oe
excusable api the statute limiting the peers a Pa.
ie panne ” this court in Zeigler’s Peteyom, - Tuts
ai jae inioted with approval the following fro
1 9 109)

COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et al,

‘ 517
511, (1939).]

Opinion of the Court.

ing, unless accident, fraud or excusable mis-
ake is affirmatively shown.” In Fisher v. Hestonville
etc., Passenger Railway Co., 185 Pa. 602, 40 A. 97, this

urt, in an opinion by Justice MITCHELL, said: “There
n be no question that the rule that fra
hing into which it enters a
“Mnents, and the equitable p

ud vitiates every-
pplies to verdicts and judg-

owers of the courts on that
subject may be administered summarily upon rule. But

» the jurisdiction as already said is exceptional, and the

facts upon which it is based should appear of record.”
the record now before us this court is without power

allow these appeals nunc pro tune.

That the application of this statutory limitation on

ur power works no injustice in these two cases is the
unanimous opinion of this court.

dnevitably to the conclusion reache
lade by defendants and their coun

life imprisonment instead of death should have been
osed. In jury trials in murder cases the jury has
Power to Say, after adjudging a defendant guilty
of murder in the first degree, whether the punishment

ll be death or life imprisonment, and when a plea
Of;guilty to murder is entered, the court which takes

le plea fixes the degree of murder and decides
‘Penalty:

C, (2222)

12 are ie aA HO
. Re aM a .
, - ae RI ONCE Phe oy
‘ask thats: tell iil ell al halal bs
Pra kt faye “4 3 : F
4 , r } { pe

The evidence leads
d. The only claim
Sel is that sentence

upon
Act of May 14, 1925, P. L. 759 (18 Pg

'Upon appeal this court will modify the
eme penalty for murder where its imposition is a
ifest abuse of discretion : Commonwealth v. Gar-
famone, 307 Pa. 507, 514, 161 A. 733. There was no
Abuse of discretion in imposing the sentences now un-
e@ review. The evidence establishes that these defend-

ts not only committed a murder in the perpetration’
2 burglary but also that they intended to kill their
Victim and that the killing was atrocious and brutal.


they felt that the killor was someone she
had known and trusted. Otherwise she
would not have entered a car with him.
Probably, they theorized, she had pro-
tested when she saw where she was being

driven, and the first attack on her was:

made in the automobile,
“The killer probably hit her or choked

Me her in the car,” Captain Gleason said,

“and somehow she managed to break
loose. I fee) sure the fatal bludgeoning
took place outside, because there isn't
enough room in a car to swing a pipe
the way this one was swung. And don't
forget the skull fragments we found out-,
side.” ‘

Lieutenant Davis said, “There still
might be blood in the killer’s car. We
shouldn't overlook that.” :

He hadn’t, Captain Gleason added
dryly. Already a warning had gone out
to all garages, car-cleaning agencies and
automobile seat-cover stores to be on the
lookout for a bloodstained machine. In
addition, Captain Gleason. said; the
files were being searched for all men
with records for assault on women. Al-
though Marian had not been assaulted,
the possibility of this as a motive could
not be overlooked.

And the officers had no assurance that
the slaying of Marian Baker would re-
main a single, isolated affair. Because
of the bruality of this crime, the-police
could picture the killer slaying again.
Even now as they talked, perhaps, or to-
morrow, or the day after that.

Te slaying of Marian Baker was one
that shook Lancaster and the neigh-
boring towns and cities to their roots. It
was a crime as horrible and revolting
as any that section of the country ever
had seen. Marian Baker had become a
symbol of every girl, and her death a
portent. What had happened to her

could happen to anyone, and at any.

time. There was no safety in innocence.
Terrible enough it was that sudden
death often came to those women de-
liberately seeking excitement and ad-
venture—the Black Dahlias of the
world—but for it to come to a girl deep-

‘ly in love, clothed in sincere respect-

ability, was even more terrible and
frightening.

The fact that Marian Baker stood out
as a prototype of any man’s wife and
daughter made the tragedy of her death
a headlined story in newspapers
throughout the East.

And one lead that came in to Head-
quarters that evening was from New
York.

It came in a teletype message from
police of that city. The report said that
a waitress there had served a girl last
Tuesday or Wednesday night, a girl who
resembled Marian Baker’s newspaper
picture. With the girl had been a mid-
dle-aged man who had paid the check
with a $100 bill and had left a two-dol-

* Jar tip. The man, for no apparent rea-

son at the time, had told the waitress
that the girl was his niece.

What could Marian have been doing
in New York, and who had been the
middle-aged man with her? And, if
she had been in New York, why had she
been brought back to Mill Creek to die?

The officers barely had time to digest
this first sensational report when a sec-
ond lead, even more electric, followed.

A man who lived in Lancaster said
that on the Tuesday afternoon of the
crime he had been driving along High-
way No. 222 and he had seen a car pull
into the private lane leading to the Har-
nish cottage.

ER. had been a maroon car, a late model

rd. .

And what he recalled best about the
auto was that it bore a Franklin and
Marshall College emblem.

The officers never had lost sight of
the possibility that the killer might have
been one of Marian’s campus friends.
And this new lead—which almost made
the officials forget the New York an-
gle—seemed to pin it down definitely.

On that quiet campus ... a killer?
But who? A student? An instructor?

‘One of Marian’s fellow employes?

52

Early the following morning, several
of the investigators closeted them-
selves with Doctor Theodore Distler,
President of the College, and Max Han-
num, assistant to Doctor Distler and
director of public relations. The officers
had noted, as_ they’d entered the
campus, the somber hush’ that seemed
to lie over everything. Here and there
small groups of students were huddled
together, talking quietly, looking almost
fearfully at the officers. It was an
atmosphere of unease, like leaves
gently stirring before a storm.

That same atmosphere was reflected
in the office of Doctor Distler, whose
face was pale and disturbed as he sat
behind his desk playing with a letter
opener and almost unaware of the fact
fest” was holding something in his

nds.

THE Doctor spoke quietly, for there
was a great heaviness on his heart.
Sudden death had come to the campus
and it had taken away a gentle, happy
girl who had deserved none of it, and
he assured the officers that he and the
other College authorities would give
them all the help they needed.

“You know, Doctor,” Captain Gleason
said, “there’s a great possibility that
the killer is one of your students.”

Doctor Distler nodded, his face grave.
He'd already given that possibility much
thought. . ;

“What we’re going to want from you,”
Captain Gleason went on, “is a list of
all the students who were absent from
class on the day Marian disappeared.”

Max Hannum said that they would
go even further than that. The College
had a student body of 1,350 men—it is
not co-educational—of whom 50 per
cent lived on the campus. In addition to
the names of those who had “cut” class
that Tuesday, the College authorities
would give the officers the names, ad-
dresses and phone numbers of every
member of the student body.

“Good,” Captain Kirchner said. “It’s:

going to take a lot of work and a lot of
time, but we'll question every boy here
if we have to. When do you think we’ll
have that list?” :

_ Hannum said that they would have
it within a few hours. He asked then if
there was anything else they could do.

Captain Gleason nodded. “I think
there’s something very important you
can do. If the killer is a member of the
student body, it’s possible he said some-
thing to one of his friends that might
tie him into the case.”

Gleason asked that each member of
the faculty be told to urge his students
to come forward with any information
they had, no matter how unimportant
it seemed.

“Y’d like to enlist the entire student
body in on this hunt,” Gleason went on,
“and I wish your instructors would im-
press that fact on them. Tell them we
need the help of each and every one of
them, that there’s probably a killer
among their group and it’s up to them
to help us find him.” .

Doctor Distler promised to call a fac-
ulty meeting immediately.

Leaving the President’s office, the in-
vestigators spoke next to Donald Mylin,
in whose office Marian Baker had
worked. The College treasurer, still dis-
traught by the tragedy, told the officers
that Marian had been yery popular with
the students, and Mylin told how the
fellows would joke with her and often
ask her for dates.

“She ever accept any that you know
about?” Captain Kirchner asked.

YLIN shook his head. “Not to my
knowledge.” After a pause, he
added quickly, “Of course she used to
go out with them once in awhile before
her engagement. But not since.”
Captain Gleason asked, “Was there
anyone in particular who liked her? I
mean a fellow who used to date her?”
Mylin said that he recalled one stu-
dent who had been graduated the year
before and who had paid Marian a
great deal of attention. He’d been a pre-
medical student. Although Mylin

~ What Became of F & M's Marian Baker? (Continued trom Page 13)

couldn't recall his name off-hand, he
knew he could find it, 4

And then Mylin added something else
which had the effect of piling mystery
upon myatery,

He said’ that occasionally Marian
made withdrawals from the. bank for
the College, Whenever the withdrawal
amounted to more than $500, Mylin ac-
companied her. Next to the last day of
each month, Mylin said, he and Marian
would go to the bank and withdraw
$15,000, which was kept on hand to cash
the GI checks, :

“Well,” Mylin said, “what I’ve been
thinking is that perhaps someone
thought Marian was going to the bank
to make a withdrawal instead of a de-
posit. That could have been the motive
behind the whole thing.”

The officers wondered about this.
They felt as if they were on a treadmill,
walking and walking and not getting
anywhere. The case was filled with so
many “‘if’s” and possibilities! Each lead
they received took them in a different
direction. Whenever they thought they
had something pinned down, itsquirmed
away like an eel..

And all the while, time, which was
so important, was slipping away. The
trail was cold already, and each passing
day made it colder. They were no closer
to the killer, they couldn’t even be cer-
tain of his motive, or of the time or day
of the slaying. Sometimes they felt as
if they were punching their way
through cobwebs, one cobweb leading
only to another.

As Gleason and Kirchner left Mylin’s
office they met Lieutenant Davis, who
had exciting information for them. He
had found a girl who had lunched with
Marian before she disappeared, and the
girl recalled what Marian had eaten:
Mashed potatoes, baked lima beans and
a tangerine. Nothing else.

The officers were elated by this infor-
mation, The victim’s stomach had been
sent to Philadelphia already and a re-
port should be forthcoming soon. Dis-
covery of any other food in her stomach,
especially meat, would establish the fact
that she had eaten another meal after
her disappearance. But if the same
food contents were found, it would clear
up many confusing angles to the case.
It would indicate that the hands of the
victim’s watch had stopped at 2:35 p. m.
instead of 2:35 a. m., for certainly she
would have had another meal by night-
fall. It might disprove the stories that
Marian had been seen at five o'clock by

the eight-year-old neighbor, that she.

lage seen in Philadelphia and New
ork.

Waiting for the list of students, the
officers walked through the campus,
stopping here and there to talk to the
undergraduates in the hope they might
be able to pick up a lead.

They learned nothing.

Beneath the apparent quiet of the

campus, the officers sensed a sinister.

pulse-beat. It was there in the voices
of the students to whom they spoke, in
the glances that followed them wher-
ever they went. It was a quick, nervous
pulse-beat, like that of a person afraid.

AS THEY walked, Captain Gleason
suddenly grabbed Lieutenant Davis’
arm.

“What's the matter?” Davis asked.

“Look there!”

Davis looked. A line of cars was
parked along the curb. '

And the first car was a maroon Ford.
With a metale Franklin and Marshall
College emblem attached to its rear
license plate. ‘

Was this, the officers wondered
tensely, the car that had been seen en-.
tering the private lane that Tuesday?

They searched the interior of the
unlocked car, and found nothing in-
criminating—no bloodstains, no marks
to indicate a struggle. Captain Glea-
son called over a student standing
near by. The boy walked forward, his
eyes wide. No, he didn’t know who
owned this car. Another student was
called, and this boy did know. It be-

longed to Saul Doren, a maintenance
worker at the College.

A few minutes later the officers con-
fronted Doren, a tall, slender man who
was wearing khaki trousers and a
troubled frown.

Captain Gleason came directly to the
point. He snid, “You were over at Mill
Creek last week, weren't you?”

Doren nodded nervously. He was
obviously frightened,

The officers took him to Head-
quarters for questioning. Doren’s face
had lost whatever color it had had, his

,hands were agitated and _ restless.

During the ride to Headquarters, he
protested that he knew nothing of the
crime.

At Headquarters, the officers gath-
ered around him as he sat there,
huddled over, his fingers intertwined
on his lap.

“T was near Mill Creek,” he said
thickly, almost to himself. “I was
gonna tell you. Somehow I knew you'd
find out. But I was scared. I was
scared you might think I done it.”

“What were you doing there?” Cap-
tain Gleason demanded.

“Nothin’. That’s it. It was my day
off, see, and I just took a ride. And for
no reason at all I turned off down that
lane. I parked a little ways down.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I was just lookin’
around. I had nothin’ to do and it was
my day off.”

“How long did you stay?”

“About fifteen minutes.” _ 8

“Just admiring the scenery?” -

“Well, I wiped my car off-a little.”

OREN said that he had driven down

the lane at one o’clock, which was
something the officers couldn’t dis-
prove, for their informant had been
unable to tell them exactly what time
he had seen the car.

“You knew Miss Baker, didn’t you?”
Gleason questioned.

Doren nodded. “Everyone did.”

aa you ever ask her to go out with
you?” :

“Look, Mister,” Doren - retorted
angrily, “I’m married, see, and I don’t
run around. And what’s more, I
didn’t have nothin’ to do with this
business. And you'll never be able to
prove I did.”

Gleason was staring at Doren’s
shoes, which were heavy, Army-type
affairs. He could see at a glance that
they were no match at all for the shoe-.
print found at the cottage. He knew,
however, that this didn’t necessarily
clear Doren, for the print they’d found
could have had nothing to do with the
case, or Doren could have worn a differ-
ent pair of shoes that day. But the Cap-
tain didn’t want to go too. strong on
Doren. Not yet, that is. So far, all they
had against the man was the coinci-
dence—if it: had been coincidence—of
his presence on the Jane where Marian
Baker had been killed, and on the day
she'd disappeared.

Although the questioning continued
awhile, when it was over Captain
Gleason told the man that he was.en-
tirely in the clear. He did this pur-
posely, for from now on Doren’s move-
ments would be watched closely, and
without the man realizing that he was
still a suspect.

While the officers were discussing
Doren, a call came through from Phila-
delphia. It was a report from Doctor
Charles Lampert and Doctor Edward
Burke, police chemists of that city.

They had analyzed the contents of
the dead girl’s stomach, and what they
found cleared away like mist many of
the intangibles surrounding the case.

The food found in her stomach was

‘the same food she had eaten for

lunch.

There had been no other meal.
Digestive processes had been ended by
death three hours or less after the
meal. .

“All right,” Lieutenant Davis said
jubilantly, “now we know when she
was killed. Tuesday. Tuesday after

.

The accused slayer:
Note the tell-tale scar

day when she saw Marian leave the
Weaver home and enter a car that was
parked at the curb.

“Who was in the car?” Captain
Kirchner asked.

“A man,” the child answered. “And
it wasn’t Ed.”

-Ed was Edgar Rankin, Marian’s fi-
ance. And that, the mother explained,
had impressed Dorothy most of all, for
she knew Rankin well.

“Do you know who the man was?”
Davis questioned. .

Dorothy shook her head. ~°

The girl knew George Danbur, too,
and the man in the car wasn’t Danbur,
either. It-wasn’t anyone she knew. :

“About what time was this?” Davis
asked. naa

‘It was somewhere around five o’clock,
the child answered. She remembered,
because right after that she’d gone into
the house and had seen the time.

Five o'clock?

The officers were amazed. ‘

Before this, the last Marian had been

seen had been at 2:15 p.m.- What had
she been doing between 2:15 and five
o'clock? What had brought her back
to her room? Why hadn’t she been at
work? :

But the child’s story still was not

complete. :

She said that Marian had been carry-
-dng a suitcase as she hurried out of the
“fivlis® and entered the car, a black
coupe, ; ;

HAT did this mean, the stunned of-

ficers wondered—that Marian had

gone away willingly with the man who

was to kill her? But why? And who
was he?

Leaving the Henrichs home, the per-
plexed investigators rushed over to the
Weaver house. Mrs. Weaver was as
amazed as the officers at what they had
learned. She had not been home at five
that’ Tuesday and could not disprove or
verify Marian's presence there. But she
did know for a definite fact that Marian
owned only one suitcase, and that it was
still in her room, along with all her
other possessions. .

Once more Marian’s room was
searched and once more everything was
found in order.,

What could this mean? Had the lit-

Usher
Pa

tle girl actually seen Marian, or had
she seen someone else? :

The officers who had been at the cot-
tage reported in—State Police Sergeants
V. E. Simpson and John Aumon, Cor-
porals Kane and James J. Haggerty,
and City Detectives Matt and Cogley.
Sergeant Aumon carried with him a 23-
inch length of rusty pipe he had found
about 500 yards from the death cottage,

Captain Gleason studied -the pipe
carefully. ‘

“This may be the death-weapon,” he
said thoughtfully, “but off-hand, I
doubt it. The pipe’s so rusty it prob-
ably would break in half if it was ever
used as a bludgeon. Anyway, I doubt
if-the killer would have thrown it away
as far from the scene as you found it.
He’d probably have left it somewhere
around the body.”

Except for some bloodstains, the of-
ficers had found nothing else of im-
portance at the scene. :

The police tried to make some sort of
a pattern out of the evidence they had.
They were certain that Marian had been
brought to Mill Creek in a car and slain
near the cottage where she was found.

From this, and knowing her character, -

(Continued on Puge 52)

.

Bloodstained clothes in this attic,
under the rafters as shown at the
tight, substantiated a wild story


ili i ed aM ices 5 pi ed ye atid

lunch, Considering her watoh, it was
probably at two thirty-five.”

No doubt about that now. Into dis-
card could go all the stories, all the
rumors placing Marian Baker alive
after that time.

But, even though they knew the
death time, the officers .were con-
fronted with another puzzle: The
speed with which the slaying had
taken place. :

Msn had been seen alive at

2:15. Since it was about a nine-
minute automobile ride from the spot
where she last was seen to the cottage,
that left only eleven minutes in which
the slayer could have picked her up and
killed her. y

Eleven minutes for homicide... —

“This proves definitely what we
guessed all along,” Captain Gleason
said. “The killer was someone she
trusted, because she undoubtedly got
into the car with him right away.”

The officers were inclined to dis-
count the robbery theory entirely now.
Despite the fact that Marian had not
been assaulted, they felt that she had
died resisting her killer’s advances.
They believed that the slayer had
spotted her on the street and: was
someone she knew from school. Prob-
ably he’d told her he would drive her

_ back to the College, where she had to
report for work, but instead he had
sped off in the opposite direction, to
the Lovers’ Lane near Mill Creek. And
there— f

“Of course, we can’t be sure,” Cap-
tain Gleason said, “but the way I look
at it, this was a spur-of-the-moment
crime, a killing of sudden passion. It
didn’t have to be Marian Baker. It
could have been anyone.”

“Tt could be anyone again, too,”
Davis said softly.

A crime of passion is one that al-
ways carries the threat of repetition.
Whatever was lurking in the brain of
the killer, still was there, still as evil
as ever. No one could tell when it
would break out into homicide again.

Max Hannum, director of public re-
lations for the College, arrived at
Headquarters later that evening. He
had with him the names and addresses
of each member of the student body.
On a separate piece of paper he had a
list of about 150 students who’d had no
classes scheduled for the fatal after-

noon, and 25 who had “cut” school,

that day.

Hannum said, “We had our faculty
make that appeal to the students you
asked us to. We tried to impress on
them that the case would be almost
impossible to break without their help.
Now all we can do is wait and see.”

After Hannum left, the officers
studied the list of names carefully.
The first boys they would question
would be those who deliberately had
cut school that day, and then those
whose schedule had given them the
afternoon off. These were the- only
students who could have killed Marian.
But, this failing, the officers then
would question each and every boy at
the College, no matter how long it
would take. : :

While the officers were going over
this list they received a call-from Mrs.

r, at whose home Marian had
lived. She said that she recalled some-
thing which might be important but
which she had forgotten during the
first shock of the tragedy.

DUNG the Christmas vacation, she
said, Marian had told her that two
boys had asked her out for dates and
had kept on asking her despite the
fact that she had turned them down.

One of them was a boy from Con-
estoga, Marian's home town, and his
name Mrs. Weaver remembered. .

The other was a Franklin and
Marshall student—and all Mrs.
Weaver recalled here was that his last
name sounded like Vingetti.

Vingetti... . :

Hanging up, the investigators went
through the list of names Hannum had
given them.

“J think we've got it!”
Gleason exclaimed.

A man named Ray Vichetti was

Captain

among those atudenta who'd had no
classes the fatal afternoon.

“what do we do, Captain?” Davis
asked, “Pull him right ine"

Gleason shook his head slowly. No,
they wouldn’t do that. They would
handle Vichettl no differently than
they would the others questioned. If
they brought him in now, he would be
on his guard, The other way, Vichott

would consider himself no more suspect .

than anyone else, and he might fall
more easily into a trap.

The following morning, the ques-
tioning of the students was begun by
dozens of state troopers and city de-
tectives. The campus was alive with

At the Last mesting of this Board,
the able assistance rendered

ur attention

Tight afler the movie, Viohett! re»
piled. That was some time after
four. Ask anyone at the dormitory
and they would vouch for. that,

“Do you own an automobile?”
Giana asked.

“No.” -

Vichetti might have borrowed a car.
Gleason didn’t press the subject, how-
ever, for an outaide check of the youth's
friends could reveal that. Instead the
Captain said, “I understand you asked
Marian for a date recently. Right?”

Vichetti was startled. He appeared
ready to protest. But instead he said,
“T asked her? Sure I asked her, There
was no harm in that, was there?”

ASIER Be at
Chief Constadl

McClean on Avgust 12th, 1949, when @ man .

"a police offi
faction to the Board of

ed with impersonating ~

great satles onc,
hear of* such ():7-":

Ancidents of cooperation with the P

yourself, and we
‘our adairation and

Photograph of the letter received oe of two newspaper-
men who went out to track down The B

activity as, one by one, students en-
tered the offices where the questioning
was being conducted. Like a plucked
harp string, the campus vibrated.
Students joshed with one another, yet
there was a nervousness and an anxiety
in their jokes. One of them was a
killer and although they joked back
and forth, a vein of apprehension
more often than not ran through the
humor.

Vichetti was among the first ques-
tioned. He was a_ serious-faced,
slightly bald young man who revealed
no signs of nervousness.

Captain Gleason asked him where
he had been the afternoon of the slay-
ing and Vichetti said that he had gone
to a movie. -

“Alone?” Gleason asked.

Vichetti nodded.

“Did anyone see you?”

“IT don’t know. I didn’t see anybody
I knew.” :

“what.time did you come home?”

Prep et

ae Seaman,

wish to teke this
appreciation of the as
only to the Police but to th

ermit, Story on Page 2

“You knew she was engaged, didn’t

Vichetti nodded.

“And yet you insisted.” }

A fellow could try, couldn't he,
Vichetti asked. If he got a date, swell;
if not, what had he lost? . He’d liked
Marian, sure, but he hadn’t been in
acre with her. And he hadn't killed

er.

The officers let him go. But here,
too,.as with the case of Saul Doren, the
college employe, they intended to check
pb degee Vichetti was far from in the
clear.

Each of the other students the offi-
cers talked to that afternoon had a sub-
stantiated alibi for the tragic Tuesday
afternoon. And a report even came
through from Conestoga that the other
youth Mrs. Weaver had mentioned
seemed free of suspicion, too.

About two o'clock that afternoon,
Max Hannum approached Captain

Gleason. With him was.a young man -

_ something on

Br stare ee eae

whom Hannum introduced as Thomas
Vorens, Hannum obviously was dla-
turbed.

He told Gleason that earlier that day
he had found @ note in the mallbox—a

‘result of the faculty ‘plea to the stu-

dents. Ho showed Gleason the note,
Written in pencil, and unsigned, it read:

“There is a boy on this campus
who asked another boy, who is the
son of a mortician, how long it
takes for a body to decompose.”

Hannum said, “I tried to find out
which student is the son of an under-
taker. I didn't come to you right away
because I didn’t want to confuse the
case for you any more than it was.
Anyway, a short time later, I was walk-
ing along the hall when Tom here
stopped me. Tom said that he hoped I
didn’t think he was crazy, but he had
his mind. He said that
last. Wednesday one of the fellows at
school asked him how long it took for
a body to decompose.”

Wednesday. The day after the slay-

“Did you write this note?” Gleason
asked Vorens.

ce youth shook his head. He said
he’d mentioned the incident to an-
other boy, and perhaps that boy had
written it.

“who ‘was the one who asked you
the question?”

“A fellow named Ed Gibbs.”

“Exactly what did he say?”

“Well, he asked me about the body
and I asked him did he mean if the
body was exposed or not. He said, ‘Ex-
posed.’ Then I asked him if he meant
complete decomposition and he said it
didn’t make any difference. Anyway,
I told him I’d have to ask my Dad. But
to tell you the truth, I forgot and Ed
didn’t ask me again.”

“Did he seem nervous at all?” Gleason

asked. : :

“A little, I think. I mean, now that
I look back.”

Gleason told the boy not to say a word’
about this to anyone and then he ques-
tioned Hannum about Gibbs.

Hannum said that he could not pic-
ture Gibbs as the slayer; he’d brought
the matter to the official’s attention
only because he knew that even the
faintest clues were being sought. ‘

Gibbs, a senior in the Business and
Economics school, came from a prom-
inent Pitman, New Jersey, family. He
was a veteran who had enrolled in the
College after his discharge from the Ait
Force, a quiet young man of 26, keenly
interested in athletics. He was married
and lived in the East Hall dormitory on
the campus with his wife.

“Pm sure you'll find Ed had nothin
to do with this,’ Hannum said. “!
would be just too unbelievable. There
must be a simple explanation why he
asked Tom that question.”

“Do you know if Gibbs owns a car?”

“Yes, Ed has a car. Look, Captain,
I’m not trying to tell you your business
but if my opinion means anything, Ed
didn’t have anything to do with this.
It could be almost anyone else. Why, he
and his wife are the happiest young
couple on the campus.”

After cautioning Hannum not to
mention a word of what had happened,
Gleason conferred with Sergeant Au-
mon, Corporal Kane and Captain”
Kirchner.

“What do you think we ought to do?” .

Gleason asked. “All we have against
Gibbs is this peculiar question he
asked.”

“And the fact,” Aumon added, “that
he’s on the list of students who didn’t

_ have classes that afternoon.”

The officers hadn't come up to Gibbs
yet in their questioning, and they were
wondering if they should call him in

now
But Captain Kirchner had a sugges-
tion to offer.

661 ET’S assume for the moment,” he

said, “that Gibbs has a guilty con-
science. He’s an intelligent young man,
and we don’t have anything against
him except a story he could explain
away easily. If we bring him in for

questioning and tip..our hand. and let

53

f

a

— of the woods, as if from vain dig-
ging. °
Detective Matt said, “I wouldn’t be
surprised if the killer tried to bury the
girl here, only he couldn’t because the
dirt’s too hard and matted with roots.”
“You know,” Harnish, the cottage
owner, offered, “in the Summer this
driveway is kind of a Lovers’ Lane. I’m
not here much in the Winter, but may-
be they use it then, too.” ;
Marian Baker, engaged and appar-
ently happily so, slain in a Lovers’ Lane?
a Somehow the officers could not believe

Darkness soon forced the officers to
suspend their search for clues. Post-
ing guards at the spot for the night,
they went to the Lancaster Hospital.
Maybe something of importance had
been uncovered there. Perhaps the an-
swer to the whole case. :

They learned at the hospital that a

few pennies and a bus token had been’

found in Marian’s coat pockets. But,
according to the firends and relatives
who had been notified, missing were
her diamond engagement ring, another
ring of black onyx, her umbrella and
her black pocketbook.

Although Doctor Stahr and Doctor
George Heid, Junior, County Coroner
and pathologist at the Lancaster Hos-
pital, had not completed their autopsy,
their findings so far proved that Mar-
ian had not been criminally attacked.

The officers were stunned by this.

HAT had been the motive behind
the slaying? The fury with which
the girl had been killed spoke eloquent-
ly of some black and boiling emotion.
But what? Robbery?
“Here’s her watch,” Doctor Heid said.
“It was still on her wrist.”

42

’ The watch, its crystal smashed, was
stopped at 2:35. ;
Marian had been seen last at 2:15
p. m., Tuesday. But did the smashed
watch mean she had been killed within

. twenty minutes? -

Or -did the 2:35 indicate a. m., in-
stead of p. m.? And on what day?

“From the amount of dehydration
in the body,” Doctor Heid said, ‘it
would seem that not too much time
lapsed between the. slaying and the
discovery of the body.”

This amazed the officers, for they’d
felt certain that Marian had been
killed shortly after her disappearance.
But what the Doctor said opened. wide
fields. If Marian had been slain a short
time before her body was discovered,
where had she been all those days?
Held captive? Was it possible after all
that the restaurant owner in Phila-
delphia had been correct when she'd
identified Marian’s picture?

OCTOR HEID said, “Of course, we
can't be sure. There may be a large
margin of error.”

He said that a more certain way of
setting the time of death was for the
police to learn, if they could, what Mar-
jan had eaten for lunch on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the dead girl’s stomach
would be sent to Philadelphia for ex-
amination by police chemists there,
whose facilities and experience were of
the highest caliber. By analysis of the
stomach contents, they would be able
to determine what she had eaten last
and how much time had elapsed be-
tween her final meal and her death.

The following morning, while other
officers returned to the cottage to re-
new their search for clues, several in-
vestigators turned once more to the

.

wr.

RS NRE

From the second-floor window at left, a young man watched in
panic as his car was searched. Above, the apartment's interior

friends and relatives of the slain girl.
Rankin, the victim’s fiance, was heart-

broken by the tragedy. He told the po- .

lice that the last time he saw Marian
had been on Sunday evening, that they
had made plans to see each other some-
time during the middle of the week. He

himself had worked at his job all Mon-,

day night, and on Tuesday, he had gone
to his father’s farm and helped him
strip tobacco. Then, after a few hours’
sleep, he’d returned to his job, working
all through Tuesday night. His story
was easily proved by the police, who
never once had considered him a sus-
pect. | :

“We were to be married this Sum-

mer,” Rankin said. “She was a wonder- |

ful girl, a good girl.”

W fined same story. of tragedy striking a
good girl was repeated by everyone
who had known Marian Baker. But
from only one friend did the police that
morning receive a lead.

It sent them rushing to the neigh-
borhood in which Marian had boarded.

This lead-concerned a man by the
name of George Danbur, a neighbor of
the Weavers, who had been teaching
Marian to drive a car. According to the
story the officers heard, Danbur had
been quite interested in Marian.

The engagement ring stripped from
the slain girl’s finger—that could have
been done in jealousy.

Within an hour the officers were
questioning Danbur.

“I liked Marian,” he admitted easily.
“But not the way people might think.
I liked her as a friend., She was such a
terrific kid—”

Lieutenant Reese L. Davis, of the-

State Police, asked him quietly, “You
weren’t in love with her by any chance,
were you?” '

Danbur shook his head quickly. “I
liked her but I didn’t love her,
They’re two different things, you-know.”

“Did you ever date her?”

“Never at night, no. Just once in
awhile during the early evening, when I
was teaching her to drive. But it was
never a date. Never a real date. Marian
wasn’t interested in me.” ‘

“And that’s why you were jealous,”
Davis said softly, studying his man,

“Because she wasn’t interested in you.”

.

. alibi down to its roots, and found it

Danbur’s face grew red. “I wast
Jealous! I wouldn’t have touched a
on that kid’s head!”

Davis went on in the same soft voi
“She'd get in your car, She might
out to Mill Creek for a driving le.
she'd hardly go there for any other
son or with anyone else.”

Danbur had lost his composure
pletely. Sweat had broken out on
forehead. “She didn’t,” he said w
“I didn’t even see her.”
He had an alibi, in fact, for Tu
afternoon and evening. He’d worked
evening, and at night he’d been hi
with his mother. While séveral offi
continued their questioning of Dan!
others checked his story. They ran

But did that necessarily mean
was in the clear? 2

After all, although Marian had
appeared on Tuesday, it was
she had been slain several days la‘
The officers decided, however, to
Danbur go. They,had no grounds to hi
him on, no evidence—and until they
some they would watch and wait.
bur was not out of the case yet.
from it. From now on he would be
served and studied carefully, but f:
a distance. ‘

T= investigators conferred at_H
quarters, but only for a*fé
utes, Because another call came t!
that sent them scurrying back to!
neighborhood from which they just] .

come. :
The call had been from Mrs. Do
Henrichs, a neighbor of the Wea
She’e phoned to tell the officers
a member of her family had seen M
late on the afternoon she'd disap
When the police arrived at her
Mrs. Henrichs said that her eight-
old daughter, Dorothy, had seen
entering ‘a car on the Tuesday
vanished. The child claimed that
incident had slipped her mind
she’d heard about the slaying.
The officers quickly ques’
Dorothy. :
“Tell us just what happened, Ho
Lieutenant Davis said. He wan!
hear everything in her own words.
Dorothy told the officers that she
been standing outside her house on


al grave.
ered the
yroner’s
some

se direc-
led toa
d down

lve. of
{ said,

lis were
he girl’s
1 a nine
upon it
Id it for
murder
rly was
n charge

le mean-

by Cap-

ter with

identi-
own her

by state
ve. Her
‘yr death.

my

eR

PET,

face she said, “Yes, that’s Marian. Why did this happen to
her?”

The police did not know the answer to that question
yet. Although from the position of the body and the ap-
parent absence of any other motive, they strongly suspected
that the killing had occurred during the struggle in an
attempted criminal assault.

Corporal Kane's first question to Mrs. Weaver was: “Do
you know if Marian was carrying a purse? Or wearing any
jewelry?”

“She always carried a purse,” said Mrs. Weaver. “Al-
though I can’t swear she had it the day she was missing.
She positively was wearing her new engagement ring and
her wrist watch.”

Kane opened a desk drawer and withdrew an envelope.
From the envelope he took a tiny, feminine wrist watch.
Its crystal was shattered and its hand had stopped at exactly
2:37. Kane said, “Is this the watch?”

Mrs. Weaver nodded mutely.

“In that event,” said Kane, “we can be sure that the
ring was stolen and probably the purse.”

Mrs. Weaver dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.

Kane, realizing she was stricken with grief and horror,
ordered her escorted home.

As she left, Kirchner came into the office. “I’ve sent
for Rankin. That was her fiance.”

A few moments later Edward B. Rankin was ushered
into the presence of the officers. Now, Rankin’s grief, doubt-
less, was certainly no less than that of Mrs. Weaver's, but

‘his uppermost emotion at that moment was.one of stark,

flaming rage.
“Get the guy who killed her,” he cried as he came into
the office, “and let me get my hands-on him. The low ——”
Kirchner put a quieting hand on the young man’s shoul-

With Cpl. James F. Kane, who headed the state police investigation is the
Franklin and Marshall college student, at right, accused of the murder.

der. “Easy,” he said, “we're doing everything we can.”

Rankin was put through a routine interrogation, during
the course of which he firmly established alibis for both
Tuesday—the day Marian Baker was last seen—and Wednes-
day. It was almost midnight when ‘he was dismissed. and

‘McCartney, Kirchner and Corporal Kane held a conference.

“We have a couple of obvious facts,” said Kane, “though
I admit they don’t get us very far. We can safely assume

-that she was‘killed at 2:37, that the killer smashed her

watch at the same time. he smashed her skull. The coroner’s
report should confirm this.”

McCartney nodded. “We can also safely assume that the
murderer was known to the girl. She must have gotten into
his car in town willingly enough. From the reports we have
on her character, she wouldn't be likely to get picked up
by a stranger.”

“And if that’s true,” put in Detective Kirchner, “the
probabilities are high that the killer is from Franklin and
Marshall. Naturally, nearly all the girl’s local acquaint-
ances: would be from the college.”

The following morning the three officers had Dr. Stahr’s
report and it threw the sex motivation theory right out
the window of Commissioner McCartney's office.

The deputy coroner stated flatly that there-was absolutely
no indication of criminal assault. Marian Baker had died
from a severe skull fracture and brain injuries caused by
that ubiquitous blunt instrument which commits so many
murders.

Pondering this report, the officers were completely bafiled
as to the killer’s motive. When the commissioner tentatively
suggested robbery, Kane shook his head.

“L can’t quite see that,” he said. “She couldn't have car-
ried a great deal.of money in her purse. She’d just deposited
seventy-five dollars in the bank for the college. And to
murder a girl for her engagement
ring, which is now hot as a three-
alarm fire, just doesn’t make sense.”

That same Sunday some sixty ofh-
cers, recruited from the local police
department and the State Police bar-
racks, descended on the college cam-
pus, checking each student and
employe. The report of the coroner
had also given it as his opinion that
the gir} had been slain on Tuesday.
The police tended to the idea that
the unholy deed had occurred right
after Marian had left the postoffice
where she had been seen by several
people at a few minutes past two.
They believed that her stopped wrist
watch showed she had been attacked
at exactly 2:37.

Thus, the officers on the campus
set about checking the whereabouts
of everyone on the afternoon in ques-
tion.

It was on Monday morning that
the police started to receive tele-
phone calls from people who claimed
they had seen the girl before she was
killed. Others gave gratuitous tips
on how to apprehend the killer. And
there were others who even claimed
they knew the murderer.

Naturally, the police could not af-
ford ‘to overlook a single one of these
tips,.even though many obviously
came from cranks. So, as a matter of
routine, several men had to be de-
tached from the main local investi-
gation to run down all the telephone
tips.

The first person summoned as a
result of [Continued on page 50]


illic A an

aternity house. He re- ing to drive her to the college. But instead

time we examined Gibbs’ car for blood — emerged from the fr:
had driven along route 222 to the Harnish

1d¢a
in the stains.” garded the officers curiously, then walked he
“There aren’t any obvious stains in it,” over to them. “Hey,” he said, ‘what are you cottage.
mmis- said Kirchner. “I checked that.” guys doing with Gibbs’ car?” He had parked the car. Then, he sta.:d,
er was “Maybe the chemicals will bring them Kane didn’t answer that. He said, “Where he had been overcome by a sweeping impul:*
v itin out.” said Kane. “Where’s the car?” is Gibbs? We want him right away.” to kill the girl. He seized her b the throat
e ring Kirchner led them to the coupe parked The student stared at him for a moment and began to choke her. When she screamed
irry it outside the Sigma Pi fraternity house. The as the significance of the question came to he picked up the lug wrench from the floor
expert opened the doors and went to work. = him. of the car and smashed her on the head
rrived Kane and Kirchner waited anxiously, watch- “Say,” he said, “you mean Gibbs is the with it. Marian, though dazed, rushed out
made ing over the laboratory man’s shoulder. They __ killer? I bet that’s why he asked me about of the car, but fainted at the roadside.
thing knew application of the chemicals would bodies decomposing.” “T hit her again and again,” said Gibbs.
show if human blood were present. “What did he ask?” said Kane swiftly. “Then I knew I had to get the body out of
1e aus On the second floor of the iaargertgi toast “Why, Gibbs knew my dad is-an under- sight. 1 dragged it to the garbage pile, then
stions a well: built young man stood by the win- taker. A couple of days ago he asked me how drove back to the college and got a shovel.
paper, dow. He stared intently through the glass, long it would take a body to decompose. I tried to bury her but the ground was frozen
many watching the officers below at work as if his I didn’t think anything about itatthetime.” solid. Then I areee her under the porch
s and life depended upon it, which, as a matter “That’s the clincher,” said Kane to Kirch- of the cottage and. put the corrugate iron
| Col- of fact, it did. ner. To the student, “Where's Ed Gibbs over her with the wooden horse on top.” ,
| The young man was no fool. He was well = now?” He admitted stealing the ring and purse
work | educated. He knew something of the world. “J don’t know. He was in the frat house from the corpse. He took fourteen dollars
a from He was quite aware of what the officials were _a_ little while ago.” from the hk before he threw it and the
of the doing. lug wrench into Conestoga Creek. He had
They He closed his eyes for a moment, took a Kane and Kirchner rushed into the fra- bought a new wrench right away, in case the
spade deep breath. Then he spun around on his _ ternity house. Gibbs was not there. Neither fact that his was missing should throw sus-
killer Hoel. and left the house through a reat door. _ was he at home. They began a thorough and picion upon him. He also admitted throwing
bury He made his way swiftly to the office of the futile search of the campus. Naturally, it the engagement ring away in Fred Erb’s
of the college president. never occurred to either officer that the washroom.
Dr. Theodore Distler was seated at his killer they sought was at this very moment Gibbs vowed he had made no attempt to
desk, discussing the murder with his assist. in the office of the college president admit- force himself upon the girl. Even though he
ng, the ant, Max Hannum. The young man strode _ ing his guilt. ‘ had stolen the fourteen dollars, he insisted
ssioner unannounced into the office. Distler looked At last Myrtle Donner, President Distler’s that robbery was not his motive. He still
\t had up. He said, “Hello, Gibbs. Do you want secretary, found them. She told them what spoke mysteriously of the overwhelming im-
Cones- something?” had happened and escorted them to Distler’s pulse which came over him—an impulse
ght up “No, You want me.” office: There, the Franklin and Marshall au- which he could not combat.
condi- “ft didn’t send for you.” thorities heaved a sigh of great relief and Late Wednesday evening, January 18, 1950.
that it “No, But you want me. I killed Marian handed Gibbs over to the police. Gibbs was formally charged with murder
Baker.” He was rushed at once to headquarters. before Alderman J. Edward Wetzel at the
Veaver Corporal Kane looked grimly at Detective “When I saw you guys examining my car,” Alderman's office on Duke Street. There,
a Ade Kirchner. The upholstery of the coupe, he said, “I knew I was licked. I gured: I'd Gibbs corifirmed his confession to the police.
of .the where the lab expert had applied benzidene tell: President Distler everything.” After a preliminary hearing on January 28,
found was slowly turning blue. Kirchner said, “I A stenographer was summoned artd Gibbs 1950 the Alderman ordered the prisoner
guess this is it.” ‘ made a detailed confession. He had picked held without bail for action by the grand
ig with - Before Kane could reply, a young student Marian Baker up at the postoffice, after offer- jury at the March term of Criminal Court.
to tind
f the

he col-
asked f foot of a wooded mountain, there was talk “And Newman?” Prosecutor Dillow asked.
1e case Prophesy ro) of nothing except the crime. “Kind of a queer kid,” Powers rejoined.
es out Powers had not been idle, while awaiting “Goes around talking to himself on the
1 the county seat. It was streets, Reads a lot. Some folks say he took

ry the D his colleagues fron
oom true, he reported, that there was no known it pretty hard when Hannah up and married
animosity in the vicinity toward any member _Epling. He was sweet on the girl himself.”

Be oe sided 16 of the Kast family. Hannah, he told Johnston “Any idea where these two were around

ate last [Continued from page 16} and Dillow, had been one of the most popu- 9 o'clock last night?” Johnston inquired.

lar girls in the locality, with several local Powers shrugged. “I figured we'd get at ©
vicinity before darkness set in. Indeed, he youths paying court to her before she mar- that today,” he said. “But here's something
couldn’t even remember an auto on the road ried. more to chew on. I’ye heard it said. at least
scratch outside—the only road in the neighborhood— And Clarence Epling, he said, was known a couple of times that Hannah Epling was
since the workers had quit for the day at by friends and neighbors as a steady, hard- _— seen one night, a week or so ago, getting into
the big Celanese Corporation plant, a quar- working young man who apparently had a car with some man. And it was not her
ikled his | cea A up New River from the Kast resi-. taken great joy in his wife and child. husband.”

Say, has | dence. “It’s my guess,” the sheriff spoke up, “that Johnston realized there might be informa-
| “And I can tell you this,” Kast said. “I we can count out everything but Jeatousy tion of importance in the town talk about
| was out of this house less'n a minute after in trying to find a motive for the murder. the crime. So he detailed Powers to remain

bs Know | | — that gun went off. There wasn’t acar on the Who were the girl's boy friends before she in the village, with his ears cocked at the

ut iC, see road then, either, all the way to the bridge, settled on young Epling?” most likely listening posts, while he and
too. and that’s half a mile. Whoever did this Powers was able to supply several names, . Prosecutor Dillow went out to the Kast home
1e swivel got away on foot.” ; but he emphasized two—Grover Willard and to begin their probe afresh.

inxiously There was none among the few, scattered Brad Newman.

inly, the neighbors of the family who could possibly Willard was a steel-muscled youth of 19 Guy Kast was obviously perturbed about

‘gitimate | be considered as a suspect. And there was who, although he had never been in trouble something. “Hannah was killed with a shot-

student's, none among these people, the sheriff discov. with police, was known as something of a un,” he said. “I guess that's why I went to

tory had ered upon questioning them, who had seen ,_ ne’er-do-well. ook for my old twelve-gauge. Hadn't had
skin be- any strange or suspicious man in that “He'd rather run his coon dogs in the it out in a coon’s age. Well, it’s gone.”
girly section on this evening of August 15, hills at night than anythin else,” the Nar- “Any idea where?” Sheriff Johnston asked.
as lost in 1939. rows policeman said. Indee , it was the boy’s “Nope. I’ve tried to think if I lent it to
ed again. It was midnight when Sheriff Johnston insatiable love of the hunt that kept him somebody, but I don’t believe I did. It’s gone,
i reached his home, and there was nothing from working at a steady job—and it may though.”
all right. more to be done on this case until the mor- have cost him his suit for Hannah's hand. From Kast the two officials learned that
row, Nothing, that is, except to tele hone “J hear,” Powers said, “that Grover was Clarenée Epling had not been eager to go to
Commonwealth's Attorney ge L. billow out with his hounds till after midnight last Kentucky to get work in a coal mine. It had
to ask the prosecutor to join in the probe night. He's a quick-tempered ki Been in been mainly at Hannah's insistence, and
hd every- early in the morning. a lot of ee And he sure knows how to —_-upon her promise to join him with the baby
wn.” On Wednesday, the day after the slaying, handle a shotgun.” as soon as he found suitable living quarters,
and Mar- the sheriff and Prosecutor Dillow joined In that region, familiarity with and pos- that he was persuaded to go at all.
ilone. He Officer Powers in Narrows to continue work session of a twelve-gauge shotgun was not “What did she do while he was away?”
who car- on the mystery. to be unexpected. Most of the men there- Dillow asked. ‘For amusement, I mean.”
In the village, with its main street winding abouts owned such a ‘hag a or used one “Went to the movies a few times. She did
It’s high along the curving banks of the river at the _ in the forested mountains from time to time. stay out kind of late a night or two. Sitting
DL
{
pa i ee —


tr.

he same time Dillon turned up
rising bit of evidence which
to further strengthen the grow-
lief that Steinbrook was dead.
nd the missing man’s account in
‘ containing some $5,500, on
nothing had been drawn or de-
since before Christmas,
1 Frank Wilson came similarly
ant evidence. Not only did he
his uncle a substantiai sum on
in now long past due, but he
located others who likewise
borrowed money which should
been repaid’ months ago.
\brook had made no effort to
ct these amounts, totalling
than $2,000, :
ncle Walter was too good a
essman not to attend to mat-
like that if he was alive!”
mn was certain. “And here’s
hing else. He always liked to
hig money around with him
times a thousand dollars or
his wallet. If he didn't bank
~ney from the sale of the
—as he apparently didn’t—
ances are that he had quite a
‘him over Christmas—”

VIS nodded. “Men have been
lled for lots less !”

vite the weight of additional
-e before them, members of
‘oner’s jury were reluctant:
final judgment on the iden-
the deceased. Another ad-
ent was called. Nearly three
after the discovery of the
undle in the Prospector’s
€ case seemed stalemated.
lever time and opportunity
-d, Wilson, sometimes
ometimes accompanied by

Thompson and a party of

‘, had ridden into the hills

leys searching dry creek

and abandoned prospec-

3gings, for further proof

acle’s murder or the body

ange.

3 On a morning when he

ne, in the vicinity of the

dy Dells, that Wilson saw

‘an coming toward him.

t’s eyes bore a hint of

something I found yester-
to discuss with you, Mr,
‘man began. “Out in the
d by the house there’s a
n rubbish, I never paid
ion to it until yesterday
nd scattered things about
looked close—and I saw
4 bones !”
1ued on page 47]

vailable bones, expressed an
n that the dead man more closely
ximated the Proportions of
rook than LaGrange. The latter
en of larger build than his older

GIBBS, Edward, wh, elec. PA® (Lancaster) 4/25/1951

(STARTLING DETECTIVE,
. July, 1950)

BY HUGH LAYNE

hadn’t taken his wife,

EY MARTIN HARNISH Ms

ees wah him to check their pg sete ha

iles south of Lancaster, Pa., be os

sihde Cedi. the odds are the slain girl’s body would not have been dis

ight sen ting Harnish was putting out bones and pe apa A wgraees

h ‘ ihe test noticed the drag marks on er cp neater ‘ gate

ait right, rear of the cottage. ag oe = Kein * ry whe phe sb

ilir torney’s wife found seve y

pdt pe rth a shin with leaves; and a wooden horse from a

icni been thrown on top. ii 2 a

gee 5 Wenge did not belong there, Mrs. iy ya ict inc dhacions:

pa until she noticed a fresh footprint directly ee elas ing 3

nthe the mystery of Marian Baker, pretty 21-year-old Fr: te needle

shall College stenographer who a hittne wo eed beige ibe coneaualt

| ind. Lifti f ;

Rog? "Hada inet + al ir Pe mass of hair and clothing that spelled
iron, r I :

~“Terrifed she called for her husband. Martin Harnish came running, took

f
troopers remove the body 0
ore Marian Baker, below, from its
hiding place under a summer cottage.


eo

Bludgeon Slayer
of the
Promised Bride

[Continued from page 27]

these gratuitous calls was Everett L. Byrnes.
Byrnes was a delivery man for a bakery
whose route included the Harbish cottage
where the body had been found. He had at
one time given the dead girl lessons in driv-
ing a car, An anonymous call stated that
Byrnes had been scheduled to give Marian
Baker another lesson on that fateful after-
noon,

But the interview of Byrnes proved as
futile as every other interview actuated by
the telephone calls. Byrnes had been at-
tending to his duties for the bakery, and
half a dozen customers along his delivery
route attested to the fact that he could
hardly have been upon the murder scene at
the time the police believed Marian Baker
had been killed.

All day Monday, in the meantime, the in-
vestigators were busy at Franklin and Mar-
shall College. They were ably assisted by
President Theodore Distler who not only
collaborated, but instituted inquiries of his
own.

Late Monday afternoon, Corporal Kane
received a phone call from one of his men
on the campus.

“There’s a guy here who, like a lot of
others, has no actual proof of his where-
abouts on Tuesday afternoon. Says he drove
his car into town, then went to a movie.”

“That’s not much,” said Kane.."A lot of
innocent guys down there won't be able to
prove exactly where they were.”

“Yeah, But this guy’s got a scratch on his
face. Runs from his temple to his chin.
Looks like it was made by a finger nail.”

That was the first interesting fact Cor-
poral Kane had heard all day. He said,
“What's his name?”

“Gibbs. Edward Gibbs. I’ve got him in
the Sigma Pi fraternity house right now.”

“Hold him, I'll be right down.”

Kane hastened from the office, stepped
into the State Police car and drove to the
college. In the fraternity house he met Kirch-
ner, Gibbs, and Tom Floyd, trainer and
coach. Fe

Eaward L. Gibbs was a solidly built
youth of 25. He was a senior and a veteran.
He had a young wife who lived with him on
the campus, At the moment his face was pale
and he was obviously nervous.

Kane looked at him. A faint red scratch,
almost entirely healed, ran down the right
side of his face. -

Kane said, “How'd you get that mark?”

Gibbs stammered something incoherent.
Kirchner said, “He claims he got it in an
intra-mural basketball game the other night.
‘That’s why I have Coach Floyd here.”

Kane turned to Tom Floyd. “What about
it coach?”

Floyd scratched his head. “I honestly don’t
recall.” he said. “It's quite likely the boy
was scratched during the game, though.”

“Why don’t you ask Bunce?” said Gibbs
suddenly. “He did it. He'll remember.”

“Who's Bunce?”

“Robert G. Bunce. From East Hall. He
was playing against me. He'll remember.”

Floyd volunteered to bring in Bunce.
Gibbs waited nervously with the officers for
his fellow student to arrive.

‘A few minutes later, Bunce came into the
room. When Kane inquired about Gibbs’
scratch, he recalled it at once.

50

“Sure,” he said, “I did that to Ed. I re-
member it well.”

So another lead was run dead into the
ground. With a sigh, Kane returned to the
car. Kirchner went back with him to local
police headquarters. There, they came upon
another discouraging report.

The length of lead pipe which had been
found hard by the Harnish cottage was
given a clean bill of health. It bore no blood
stains, and it was free of fingerprints.

The officers called it a day with the sensa-
tion of men running on a treadmill and get-
ting nowhere at all.

On Tuesday morning, Commissioner Mc-
Cartney had an idea. “The girl’s purse, ring.
and the murder weapon are still missing,”
he said. “Now, in my experience with crim-
inals, I’ve observed that in about seventy
per cent of the cases they tend to throw
away incriminating evidence in the nearest
body of water. Anyway, it’s worth looking
into.” ;

Kirchnet nodded his head slowly in agree-

-ment. “You mean Little Conestoga Creek,

near Maple Grove. That’s the nearest fair-
sized body of water.”
“A good idea,” said Kane. “I'll get in touch

“with Major Hoffman of the State Police

in Philadelphia. He'll lend us an electric
magnet. That’s much faster than dragging
the creek.”

He put through a telephone call imme-
diately to Major William F. Hoffman. The
Major promised to dispatch the electric mag-
net to Lancaster at once.

Meanwhile, the investigation at the college
was still in full blast and a score of men were
still connie in running down the crank
phone calls to their bitter and invariably
futile end.

Shortly after,lunch a man called at head-
quarters and asked to see Corporal Kane.
He gave his name as Fred B. Erb. He stated
that his business had something to do with
the unsolved murder.

“Send him in,” said Kane, when he was
informed. He said it without much hope.
He'd had his fill of false clues in the past
few days.

A moment later Fred Erb stood by the
desk. He said, “Corporal, I run a gas station
out on the Lincoln Highway. Now, I've been
reading in the papers that the dead Baker
girl was wearing a ring when last seen. But
that ring wasn’t found on her corpse.”

“That’s right. What of it?”

Fred Erb fished in the pocket of his over-
alls and produced a piece of tissue paper.
He carefully unwrapped it. Something glit-
tered in the sunlight from the window. Fred
Erb laid it on the desk. He said, “This
wouldn’t be the missing engagement ring,
would it?” .

Kane looked at it. It was a band with a
diamond set in it. He said, “In all proba-
bility, it is. Where did you get it?”

“Out of the washroom bowl.”

“What!” .

“That's right,” said Erb imperturbably. “I
was cleaning out the bowl in the washroom
at my gas station. This was in the bottom
of the bowl.”

For the first time sinte he had entered
the case, Corporal Kane found excitement
mounting within him. This looked like a
Grade A, genuine clue.

He said, “Sit down, Erb. Wait here a min-
ute until I get positive identification on this
ring.”

He picked up the telephone and within
a short time both Edward Rankin and the
jeweler who originally sold the ring were at
police headquarters, Each of them positively
identified the ring as that worn by Marian
Baker.

Kane then returned to examine Erb, But
once again he got nowhere at all. Erb stated
that a great number of people had visited
the washroom of his gas station since last

Tuesday. He didn’t have the vaguest idea
of who could have dropped the ring in the
washroom bowl.

After Erb had left, Kane said to Commis-
sioner McCartney, “Obviously, the killer was
trying to get rid of the ring. He threw it in
the bowl and flushed the toilet. But the ring
was too heavy. The water failed to carry it
away.”

At this time the electric magnet arrived
from Philadelphia. Arrangements were made
to use it in Conestoga Creek first thing
Wednesday morning.

That morning dawned and still the au-

' thorities were baffled. Reams of questions

and answers had been put down on paper,
both as a result of investigating the many
tips and interrogating the students and
coweyene of Franklin and Marshall Col-
ege. .

The sleuths were assiduously at work
again. Now, a fresh report had come in from
the men assigned to search every inch of the
territory around the Harnish cottage. They
had discovered what appeared to be spade
marks in the frozen ground. As if the killer
had used a shovel in an attempt to bury
his victim, but had given up because of the
hardness of the earth.

And at 11 o'clock of the morning, the
electric magnet proved that Commissioner
McCartney’s statistics were correct. It had
recovered Marian Baker’s purse from Cones-
toga Creek. In addition, it had brought up
an automobile lug wrench. From the condi-
tion of the wrench it was apparent that it
had not been long in the water.

The purse was identified by Mrs. Weaver
with whom Marian Baker had lived. Al-
though there was no identification of the
wrench, Kane was positive they had found
the murder weapon.

Then, at noon the telephone rang with
important news. Kane picked it up to find
Detective Kirchner on the other end of the
wire. Kirchner said, “I’m down at the col-
lege. I just ran into Coach Floyd. He asked
me if there was anything new on the case
and I mentioned that we'd just found out
that the killer apparently tried to bury the
Baker girl.”

“So what did Floyd say?”

“Why, he said he recalled seeing a guy
carrying a shovel off the campus late last
‘Tuesday afternoon.”

“Did he say who it was?”

“Sure. Gibbs. Edward Gibbs.”

“You mean the guy who got that scratch
in the basketball game?”

“That’s the guy.”

The wire was silent as Kane wrinkled his
brow in thought. At last he said, “Say, has
this Gibbs got a car?”

“I'll check. I don’t know.”

“Okay, check without letting Gibbs know
what you're doing. While you're at it, see
if there’s a lug wrench in the car, too.”

Kane hung up. He sat down in the swivel
chair back of the desk and waited anxiously
for Kirchner’s return call. Certainly, the
scratch on Gibbs’ face had seemed legitimate
enough. Not only was there the student's,
Bunce’s, testimony, but the laboratory had

‘attested that there was no human skin be-

neath the finger nails of the dead girl.

Pondering these things, Kane was lost in
deep thought when the phone jangled again.
He snatched it up. “Hello?”

“Kane? Kirchner. Gibbs has a car, all right.
Coupe.”

“Is there a lug wrench in it?”

“Yeah. A brand new one.”

This was the best news yet. “Hold every-
thing,” said Kane. “I’ll be right down.”

Kane went down to the Franklin and Mar-
shall campus. But he did not go alone. He
took with him a laboratory expert who car-
ried a tin box of chemicals.

Meeting Kirchner, Kane said, “It’s high

time we examin
stains.”

“There aren't
said Kirchner. “I

“Maybe the <
out,” said Kane.

Kirchner led
outside the Sigm
expert opened th
Kane and Kirchn
ing over the labo:
knew applicatio:
show if human !

On the second
a well: built you
dow. He stared
watching the offi
life depended u
of fact, it did.

The young m:
educated. He kn
He was quite aw
doing.

He closed his
deep breath. T!
heel and left th:
He made his wi
college presiden

Dr. Theodor:
desk, discussing
ant, Max Hanpr
unannounced

up. He said.

something?”
“No. You w:
“I didn't ser
“No. But yo

Baker.”

Corporal Ka
Kirchner. Vh«
where the lab
was slowly tur
guess this is it

Before Kane

Pro

[Cont

vicinity befor
couldn't even
outside—the ©
since the wor
the big Celan:
ter-mile up \
dence.

“And I cat
was out of t!
that gun wen
road then, eit
and that’s h
got away on

There was
neighbors of
be considere:
none among
ered upon q!
any strange
section on
1939.

It was mi
reached his
more to be ¢
row, Nothin
Common we:
to ask the }
early in the

On Wedr:
the sheriff
Officer Pow
on the myst

In the vil!
along the ¢

afternoon. The supervisor then re-
membered that the girl had said some-
thing about an appointment at a Lan-
caster beauty parlor that day. A call
there established that the appointment
was not until later in the afternoon and
that Marian had not been there or
called to change the appointment.

It was hard to believe that any-
thing could have happened to her in
the middle of the day in Lancaster, the
seat of a rich agricultural county and
never noted for crime. Since Marian
had been traced as far as the bank, it
was decided that she had taken some
extra time to shop for her trousseau.
When it came time to close the office,
the supervisor thoughtfully cleared
Marian’s desk and locked the pen and
umbrella inside.

But when the bare, still-unoccupied
desk confronted her the following
morning, she called the rooming house
where Marian lived. The landlady, a
former schoolmate of the missing girl
and one of her closest friends in the
town, sounded worried.

“JT haven’t seen her either,’ she
said. “She told me yesterday morning
that she would be home for dinner be-
cause she had an appointment at the
hairdresser’s. But I didn’t hear her
come in last night and her bed hasn’t
been slept in.”

Another call to the beauty parlor
brought the information that Marian
had not kept her appointment nor had
she telephoned an explanation. The
supervisor again conferred with Treas-
urer Mylin and he suggested that she
call Leroy C. O’Donel, Marian’s uncle
and closest relative, in nearby Cones-
toga. O’Donel had raised Marian.

The uncle was startled at the news
of his niece’s disappearance. ‘She

comes here only on week ends,” he ad-
vised the apprehensive college officials,
“but she would never go off like this
without telling us.”

Both Mylin and his supervisor were
beginning to think the same dread
thought and, after talking to O’Donel,
the treasurer called Lancaster police
headquarters and spoke to Detective
Captain John P. Kirchner. The cap-
tain agreed to fill out a missing person
report and called in Detective Al
Farkas and Policewoman Alice Rubin-
cam to begin an immediate inquiry.

They proceeded to the rooming house
on Reynolds Street, where the young
landlady repeated what she had told
the college official before. She ex-
plained that, while Marian paid rent,
she was regarded more as a member
of the family than as a roomer. The
landlady then led the police to the
second-floor bedroom which the miss-
ing girl had occupied. It was simply
furnished but neat. The bed was made
and there was no sign of disturbance or
sudden packing. Clothing could be
seen in the closet and the dresser
contained various cosmetics and a
framed photograph of a handsome
young man. The landlady identified
him as Marian’s fiance, Robert West.

“They’ve been going together for two
years,” Marian’s friend explained. “I
don’t think she’s dated anybody else
during that time. She got her diamond
last month and they plan to be mar-
ried soon. I do hope she’s all right.
If she went on a trip, she couldn’t have
taken any more than the clothes she
was wearing.”

A quick search of the room showed
that apparently all of Marian’s clothing,
except for the items she had been
wearing, was still there. So was a

Bloodstains and bits of bone near the road showed violence of the savage attack

small amount of money the girl kept
in a drawer for emergencies. The
landlady described the outfit she had
worn the previous day as a blue, black
and white plaid skirt, white blouse,
low-heeled black sport shoes and red
plaid coat. She had not worn a hat
and had carried a brown leather purse
with a shoulder strap.

Detective Farkas obtained the name
of the company in Conestoga where
West worked and placed a phone call
to him there. In a few minutes he was
talking to a worried young man who
told him he hadn’t seen his fiancee
since Sunday evening, January 8th.
They had discussed their wedding plans
and Marian had seemed very happy.
She had given no hint of a planned
trip and a sudden elopement had never
been discussed.

“We didn’t make any definite date
during the week,’ West concluded,
“but I had told Marian I would call
her. I have no idea where she could
have gone and I’m worried. Please
let me know if you find out any-
thing.”

J}, For the remainder of that Wednes-[#

“day, Detective Farkas and Police-
woman Rubincam contacted friends
and relatives of the missing stenog-
rapher in an effort to unearth some
clue to her strange disappearance.
Her remarried mother, her brother
and an uncle were located in New
Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, but none
had seen Marian since October.

A downtown check of taxi drivers,
bus drivers, railroad station employ-
ees, hotel clerks and hospital attend-
ants was undertaken. Each was
shown a photograph of Marian Baker,
but no one recalled seeing her after
the post office clerk noticed her walk-
ing toward Prince Street. All com-
plaints and reports received by the
Lancaster police department on Tues-
day afternoon and evening were sifted
for a possible clue, but nothing ap-
peared to have any bearing on the
case.

It was almost midnight on Wednes-
day that Captain Kirchner decided
to pour the full facilities of his depart-
ment into the search. His first move
was to send out a 13-state teletype
alarm for the missing girl, with a
complete description of both her and
her clothing.

The following day, Thursday, the
Lancaster force and the Pennsylvania
State Police combined forces to begin
a block-by-block search for Marian.
There was little effort to hide. the
growing fear that the attractive stenog-
rapher had met with foul play. Orders
were given to examine all alleys,
vacant lots and unoccupied buildings
in and around the city. The state
troopers, commanded by Captain
Frank J. Gleason of the Lancaster
Barracks, concentrated on the outlying
areas.

Captain Kirchner visited the college

“Tt can’t be!” he sol

campus and obtaine
Theodore A. Distle
search the buildings
the college property
of the day there was
clue to Marian’s fat

By Friday, reports
from other eastern P
munities as well as }
were carefully exami
The only one that sc
was a report from
a girl answering Mz
had left a Lancaste:
restaurant there. °
police had shown
prietor a picture post
girl, and she seemed
same girl who had
wich and coffee on
Captain Kirchner
uncle as soon as he
and asked if she he
relatives in  Philac
could recall only on
provided her addre
claimed that she ha
in over a month.
angle began to look |
taken identity.

As the search of 1
completed during th:
caster police reinf
troopers and concen:
areas, secondary rr

t of money the girl kept
for emergencies. The
cribed the outfit she had
vious day as a blue, black
laid skirt, white blouse,
lack sport shoes and red
She had not worn a hat
ied a brown leather purse
der strap.
‘arkas obtained the name
any in Conestoga where
and placed a phone call
In a few minutes he was
worried young man who
hadn’t seen his fiancee
y evening, January 8th.
-ussed their wedding plans
had seemed very happy.
en no hint of a planned
iden elopement had never
2d.
make any definite date
week,” West concluded,
old Marian I would call
no idea where she could
nd I’m worried. Please
if you find out any-

ider of that Wednes-
Farkas and Police-
wat m contacted friends
of the missing stenog-
1 effort to unearth some
strange disappearance.
-d mother, her brother
e were located in New
Pennsylvania, but none
‘rian since October.
yn check of taxi drivers,
railroad station employ-
‘rks and hospital attend-
undertaken. Each was
tograph of Marian Baker,
recalled seeing her after
e clerk noticed her walk-
Prince Street. All com-
reports received by the
lice department on Tues-
1 and evening were sifted
e clue, but nothing ap-
ive any bearing on the

ost midnight on Wednes-
aptain Kirchner decided
ill facilities of his depart-
e search. His first move
out a 13-state teletype
he missing girl, with a
cription of both her and

‘ing day, Thursday, the
ce and the Pennsylvania
‘ombined forces to begin
lock search for Marian.
little effort to hide the
that the attractive stenog-
1et with foul play. Orders
to examine all alleys,
ind unoccupied buildings
nd the city. The state
smmanded by Captain

yn of the Lancaster

trated on the outlying

rchner visited the college

LL '

“It can’t be!” he sobbed again and again as he was led back to a cell after the jury had considered its decision for five hours

campus and obtained from President
Theodore A. Distler permission to
search the buildings and grounds on
the college property. But by the end
of the day there was still not a single
clue to Marian’s fate or “whereabouts.

By Friday, reports began to come in
from other eastern Pennsylvania com-
munities as well as nearby states. All
were carefully examined and checked.
The only one that sounded promising
was a report from Philadelphia that
a girl answering Marian’s ‘description
had left a Lancaster bus token in a
restaurant there. The Philadelphia
police had shown the woman pro-
prietor a picture poster on the missing
girl, and she seemed certain it was the
same girl who had ordered a sand-
wich and coffee on Friday morning.
Captain Kirchner called © Marian’s
uncle as soon as he heard the news
and asked if she had any friends or
relatives in Philadelphia. O’Donel
could recall only one girl friend and
provided her address. But the girl
claimed that she hadn’t seen Marian
in over a month. The Philadelphia
angle began to look like a case of mis-
taken identity.

As the search of the city area was
completed during the afternoon, Lan-
caster police reinforced the state
troopers and concentrated on wooded

areas, secondary roads and lovers’ .

lanes throughout the city’s outskirts.

After an overnight halt, this phase
of the search was continued on Satur-
day morning with the growing feeling
of apprehension in Lancaster that the
tall, well-developed stenographer had
somehow fallen victim to a killer or
kidnaper who boldly struck by day-
light.

It was after a late lunch on Satur-
day that Martin Harnish, a prominent
Lancaster attorney, and his wife got
into their car for a drive out to their
summer cottage a few miles south of
town. They headed south on USS.
Route 222 and drove through the bare
hills toward the Media Heights golf
course, which overlooked the Cones-
toga River and the surrounding coun-
tryside. Turning off the highway onto
Mill Creek Road, they drove along the
narrow dirt road which made a sharp
loop a few hundred yards later to ap-
proach the pretty white cottage that
stood by itself near Mill Creek.

The cottage had been closed up for
the winter and its colorful yellow
shutters were tightly drawn across the
windows. It was a pleasant day and
the Harnishes had thought it would
be nice to visit the cottage and see if
everything was all right there. While
Mrs. Harnish set out some food for the
small animals that scampered across
the grounds, her husband decided to

repair a damaged ladder and walked
toward the garage to get it. It was
then that he noticed the peculiar
marks on the ground.

“What do you make of this?” he
called to his wife. “It looks like we
have had visitors.”

Since they had already checked the
cottage and found no sign of forced
entry, the couple was curious about
the marks. Mrs. Harnish thought they
might have been caused by a motor-
cycle driving near the cottage. While
her husband continued toward the
garage, she followed the marks, which
ran from the dirt road toward the rear
of the cottage and ended at a point
directly beneath the rear porch. There
the porch was supported over low
ground by sturdy timbers and the
area underneath had been converted
into a makeshift basement and storage
area for the one-story cottage.

Glancing underneath the porch, Mrs.
Harnish observed a lawn mower and
other items in their customary place.
Lying on the ground were several
sheets of corrugated metal, and a
wooden horse from a picnic table
stood on top of the sheets. This last
item was the only one which some-
how troubled her. Mrs. Harnish re-
membered storing the picnic table
horses together and wondered how
they had (Continued on page 85)


2ll had died from
dded that the vic-
<cessive amount of
le before he suc-
two bottles, which
{ were found near

having contained

clinical director at
he Insane, testified
ell had been under
riod of 85 days, she
»oison to her hus-
d that in his opin-
m wrong and had
2 was doing at the .

d and testified that
tted in their pres-
o her husband in
ded that she had
1e had resorted to
leave her husband.
Robert <A. Farris
d cited Mrs. Cock-
2 entered a plea of
nd-degree murder,
ty of a jury trial.
xe, Judge Nimocks
Mrs. Cockrell’s con-

would have been
d the defendant to

Central Prison at

at Gertie Cockrell
er and, with
i she will be
( ‘r, 1963.
)rtn carolina com-
ekrell once ran the
on in the familiar
af tobacco is raised
gather at the rural
s and gossip. But
sart of the pattern:
ot a joke. oe¢

NOTE:

2nson, as used in
not the real name
ned. This person
ious name to pro-

county grand jury
ill three youths for

to Chicago from his
go, young Brimhall
the shot that had
The young sailor
which he said: “I
‘as a police officer. I
1 gun and I shot at
* about it.”
tectives that he was
ind had been living
le in Elgin, Dlinois.
? years old and that
tage in order to get

told Assistant State’s
. married. My wife
She’s in California.
n to her now?”
the case, Policemen
were awarded the
d by Police Digest
[The award, carrying
a famous Chicago
iow dead, is
ading police

as given to Special
to Assistant State’s
their assistance in
_pturing the slayers

oo

Dead Girls Ask
No Questions

(Continued from page 9)

become separated. She paused a moment.

Then, as she moved closer, she saw the
outline of a man’s shoeprint on the soft
earth in front of the metal sheets. Until
that moment no thought of the missing
Marian Baker had crossed her mind, al-
though both she and her husband were
fully aware of the continuing search for
the stenographer.

Now, as she moved toward the metal
sheets, she noticed that they were not lying
flat on the ground because they had been
stacked on top of some object. Filled with
dread, Mrs. Harnish lifted the end of the
closest sheet. All she could make out
underneath was a glimpse of red cloth
before she dropped the metal with a
scream of horror that brought her hus-
band running from the garage.

“She’s under there—that girl they’re all
looking for,” gasped the frightened woman,
pointing to the ominous jumble of metal.

The attorney ripped the topmost sheet
from the pile and a blood-matted head,
a mass of tangled clothing and a girl’s
arm came to view. The clothing was
pulled up and obscured the face, but
Harnish was quick to realize that the body
of Marian Baker had at last been found.
Since the telephone in the cottage was
disconnected for the winter, the attorney
raced through the woods to the home of
a farmer and called the state police.

It was getting dark when the first offi-
cial cars slowly made their way along the
dirt road to the cottage beside Mill Creek.
Captain Gleason, one of the first at the
scene along with Captain Kirchner, or-
dered all vehicles to pull off the road some
distance from the cottage in order to avoid
damaging any possible evidence in the
area.

Police Commissioner Fred G. McCartney
and District Attorney John M. Ranck
joined the two captains as they waited for
Deputy Coroner Charles P. Stahr. When
he arrived, portable lights were set up
and beamed under the porch.

Cautiously the metal sheets were lifted
and laid to one side. When the last sheet
had been removed the body of the mur-
dered stenographer came under the full
glare of the lights. She lay on her stomach,
the head protruding toward the outside
and the legs close together and toward
the back.

Although completely clothed, the dead
girl’s slip and skirt were rolled up to her
chest. Her underclothing was not dis-
turbed, but a garter belt was pulled down
over the left thigh and several of its eye-
lets torn or missing. The stockings were
still in place and not torn.

The coroner bent over the victim’s head,
matted with dirt and twigs, and announced
there were two large wounds on either
side of the skull.

“There are also finger marks on the
neck,” the coroner revealed. “But it is
difficult to say at this time whether she
was strangled or beaten to death. The
wound on the left side of the head is a
particularly severe one and appears to
have been made while she was lying on
the ground.”

When the body was lifted from its crude

, fave and the face exposed, there was

no question of identity. The cold weather
had preserved the once-attractive features
and the resemblance to photographs of
Marian Baker was unmistakable, Captain

Kirchner also noticed that the prized
diamond ring, as well as the shoulder
bag, were missing, although a valuable
gold watch wa¢ still on the dead stenog-
rapher’s wrist. ;

The reason for this seeming oversight by
a loot-minded killer became apparent
when the captain’ removed the watch. Its
crystal was shattered and the hands
stopped at 2:37,

“There’s no way of telling just what
time of day it was when that watch was
smashed,” remarked Captain Gleason. “But
since she was last seen a few minutes after
2 on Tuesday, it looks like whoever killed
her did. it within half an hour afterwards.
No wonder we haven’t been able to find a
clue. She probably never knew what hit
her.”

After posting a guard at the cottage to
insure that any evidence there would be
preserved, the police officials accompanied
the coroner’s truck back to Lancaster,
where the body was taken to Lancaster
General Hospital for autopsy. First, how-
ever, members of Marian Baker’s family

-and her fiance were summoned for a for-

mal identification. They all somberly
agreed that the dead girl was the missing
stenographer.

Dr. George Heid, a prominent Lancaster
pathologist, then began the autopsy and
announced a short time later that Marian
had died from a compound fracture of the
skull and injuries to the brain stem. He
theorized that the murder weapon was a
piece of thin, round metal, possibly a
length of pipe or a tool. She had also
been struck on the face by a fist and a
tooth had been knocked out by the blow.
The marks on the throat were superficial
and indicated only enough force to render
the girl unconscious, but not to kill her,
Dr. Heid stated.

“There is no evidence of a sexual attack,”
he continued, “although there are a few
shallow abrasions of the upper legs, prob-
ably caused by the body being dragged
over a rough surface.”

Because of the preserved state of the
body, it was difficult to establish a time
of death, except that it had occurred more
than 72 hours previously. Since it had
been determined that Marian had eaten
her last meal in the college cafeteria, Dr.
Heid promised to analyze the stomach.
contents and compare them with the menu
of that day.

Sunday was no holiday for the city or
state police as they returned to the isolated
cottage for a daylight’ search of the
grounds. Working shoulder to shoulder,
the officers examined every inch of ground
around the cottage and eventually came up
with several significant clues.

A few feet from where the drag marks
began at the unpaved'road, a sizable blood-
stain was found. Nearby, to give grimmer
proof that the murdered girl had been
struck down at this spot, were several bone
fragments, seemingly shattered from the
girl’s skull as she lay on the ground, un-
conscious from the initial attack.

The officers also noted that the drag
marks did not proceed in a straight line
to the cottage, but went about 40 feet to
a wooded knoll. At the base of the knoll
could be seen fresh spade marks, expos-

ing tree roots a few inches below the sur-.

face. From this point the drag marks con-
tinued uphill for 90 feet, then turned right
for another 90 feet and ended under the
cottage porch.

“It looks like he tried to bury her first,”
commented Captain Kirchner. “But the

roots or the hard ground were too much
for him, so he dragged her under the cot-
tage instead.”

‘Along the path created by the dragging
body, police found wisps of brown hair,
two buttons from Marian’s blouse and one
of the eyelets from her garter belt.

ll Set You Up Ina

MONEY- MAKING

BUSIN ESS You can

Run From Home!

EVERYTHING
FURNISHED

FREE!

TOP MEN
MAKE
$5 - 510
AN HOUR!
@@ee
YOU NEVER
INVEST
ONE
CENT!

Vil Show You How to Make
BIG MONEY the First Hour!

Get into a high-paying business without spend-
ing a cent! I’ll rush you, any FREE, a
Bewerty Starting Business Outfit. It contains

IVERYTHING you need to start making ex-
citing cash profits the first hour!

As the Mason Shoe Counselor in your town,
you can start taking easy orders the minute
gl Outfit arrives. You need no experience.

ll show you how to add as much as $217.00
EXTRA income a month for just 2 orders
a day... how to take orders from friends, rela-
tives, neighbors, folks where you work.

EVERYONE wantscomfortable shoes. Mason
Air-Cushioned shoes are backed by the Good
Housekeeping Guarantee Seal, have been ac-
cepted for advertising by the American Med-
ical Association. Some topnotch men have
taken up to 20 orders their first day. ... earn-
ing up to $10 an hour!

NOT SOLD IN STORES!

Mason Shoes are not sold in stores, so folks
must buy from YOU and KEEP buying from
you! You feature 160 dress, sport, work shoe
styles for men, women... with such EXTRA
features as Air Cushion innersoles, Steel Shanks,
work soles of Neoprene, Cork, Cushion Neo-
prene Crepe, Safety Shoes.

You'll run the best “‘shoe store” business in

town, because you actually “carry” a greater
selection than a store. You draw on our stock
of over 200,000 Ma in sizes 2'2 to 15, widths
AAAA to EEEE. No need to substitute...
folks get the style, size, width they order. No
wonder you can expect fast profits!
Rush Coupon for Your FREE Outfit!
Start now! We will rush, absolutely FREE,
EVERYTHING you need to start making
money the first hour! Make the extra cash you
need ... send the coupon TODAY!

MASON fire in raccs, Bisons

Send for FREE outfit!

Mr. Ned Masen, Dept. 551

Mason Shoe Mfg. Co., Chippewa Falls, Wis.
Please set me up ina MONEY-MAKING BUSINESS £
ean run from home, Rush FREE and poereaie my Start-
ing Business Outfit with EVERYTHING I need to start
making extra cash from the very first hour!

Name...
AMEN a scicbinshscavcclhnetenccsivess ecco
Town. won Mc cinewbiiis:

85

ae

86

Shrinks Hemorrhoids
New Way Without Surgery

Science Finds Healing Substance That
Relieves Pain—Shrinks Hemorrhoids

For the first time science has found a
new ag ge | substance with the astonishing
ability to shrink hemorrhoids and to relieve
pain — without surgery.

In case after case, while gently relievin
pets, actual reduction (shrinkage) too
place.

Most amazing of all — results were so
thorough that sufferers made astonishing
statements like “Piles have ceased to be a
problem!”

The secret is a new healing substance
(Bio-Dyne*)—discovery of a world-famous
research institute,

This substance is now available in sup-
pository or ointment form under the name
Preparation H.* Ask for it at all drug count-
ers—money back guarantee. “Reg. U.8. Pat. Off.

8
~ Write today for Eugene
Becket How to Bovelo a Successful

Bt. Tos meni prety reece, FREE
oO

call. JUST S AME AND AGE RIGHT NOW] BOOK

PREFECT YOICE INSTITUTE, 210 South Clintes St., Dect. CT-7  Chicags 6, lll,

LEARN LOCKSMITHING
jaar tie, meeting: erent eet
Age or physical” handica no disadvan-

ge. ar around, s income.
or part time. Practical, illustrated les-

Famous SPEEDWRITING shorthand. 120
words per minute. No symbols; no
machines; uses ABC's. Easiest to
learn, write and transcribe. Low cost.
Over 350,000 graduates. For business
and Civil Service. ping available.
34th year. Write for booklet to:

.

CONSTIPATION

FREE BOOK—Tells Dangers

Learn more about Colon Disorders, Piles,
Fistula, Constipation, and commonly associ-
ated chronic ailments. 40-page book—FREE.
The Thornton Minor Hospital, Suite 304-C, 911
E. Linwood, Kansas City 9, Mo.

DIRECT TO YOU...EASY TERMS
Genuine Rockdale Monuments
and Markers. Full Price $14.95
and up. Satisfaction or MON-
EY BACK. We pay freight.

Compare our low prices.
WRITE FOR FREE CATALOG.

ROCKDALE MONUMENT CO. « DEPT. 481,¢ JOLIET, ILL,

The killer, however, had left only the
single shoeprint as a clue to his identity
and the ground was too sandy to get a
definite pattern of measurement. The
depth, however, was estimated to have

‘| been caused by a man weighing between

180 and 190 pounds.

Before leaving the cottage area, state
police also located a pair of carpenters
who had been working not far from the
murder scene on the afternoon of the
10th. They remembered hearing screams
from the vicinity at approximately 2:30,
but had dismissed them as the sounds of
a child being punished. They had heard
nothing further and had seen no one. An-
other resident of the vicinity recalled see-
ing an automobile, with a Franklin and
Marshall emblem, parked on Mill Creek
Road late on the evening of the 10th.

On the basis of this information, the
police obtained from the college a list of
the more than 1400 male students on the
campus. Separate listings were made of
those students who owned cars and those
who either had no classes scheduled or
who were absent from classes at the time
when Marian Baker was believed to have
been murdered. The task of questioning
some hundreds of students and instruc-
tors was complicated by the fact that
nearly all of them knew the pretty bru-
nette by either name or sight, since she
was a familiar and friendly figure in the
treasurer’s office. .

The luncheon menu for January 10th at
the college cafeteria was obtained and
was found to coincide with the partially-
digested contents of the dead girl’s
stomach. Up until this time there had
been a slight possibility that Marian had
been kidnaped and held captive for a time
before her death. The new information
definitely proved she had met her death a
little more than an hour after eating lunch.
The time of death was further confirmed
by a jeweler’s examination of the shat-
tered watch. He estimated it had run
only seven hours since its last winding
and had approximately 28 hours of run-
ning time remaining at the moment it was
smashed.

So far the only person who had been
questioned in any detail about the murder
of the stenographer was her fiance, Robert
-West. But his records at the plant showed
he had been working all day on the 10th.
Furthermore, not even the vaguest motive
could be ascribed to him.

“I have no idea who could have done
this terrible thing,” he kept repeating in
despair. ‘We loved each other and were
going to be married.”

Late Sunday afternoon police talked to
a frightened 8-year-old girl who lived a
few doors from the dead girl’s rooming
house. “She knew both Marian and her
fiance by sight and told the officers that
she had seen Marian leave the house some-
time Tuesday in the company of a strange
man. The youngster claimed Marian was
carrying a suitcase. a

Since there was no other confirmation
to the girl’s story, and no suitcase or
clothing was missing from Marian’s room,
the police tended to discount the story
and pointed out that the young girl could
have been confused by the time element.
Captain Gleason, who had taken charge
of the investigation once it was proved
that the murder occurred beyond the Lan-
caster city limits, also believed that the
car parked near the murder scene on Tues-
day evening probably.had no bearing on
the case. He pointed ‘out that the lonely
dirt road was an ideal parking spot for
young couples. ‘

“We know for certain that this murder
took place during the afternoon, at ap-

proximately 2:30,” he told other investi- .

gators at a Sunday evening conference.
“We also know that from the post office,

the last place the girl was seen alive, to
the cottage is a nine-minute ride, staying
within speed limits. That means she was
picked up within minutes after leaving
the post ‘office and driven almost directly
to the murder scene. We must assume two
things from this: She accepted a ride
in a car from someone she knew, in down-
town Lancaster; and this person is some-
one familiar with the district. I feel cer-
tain he knew all about that boarded-up
cottage even before the girl got into the
car.” :

“What about motive?” asked one of the:

officers in the room.

“It could be one of three things,” replied
the state police captain. “The obvious mo-
tive is robbery, since the ring and purse
are missing. But I think this is a cover-up
for the real motive, which has to be either
a sexual attack or jealousy.”

“We’ve been working on the jealousy
angle all day,” commented another officer.
“I don’t think that’s it. When she first
came to work at the college the girl dated
a few students and instructors. But in the
two years she was going steady with
one boy she didn’t date anyone else. There
seems to be no one in a position to murder
for a jealousy motive.”

“My own opinion is that the killer in-
tended to rape the girl,” answered Cap-
tain Gleason. ‘When she resisted him, he
probably flew into a rage and choked her

March issue of

at all newsstands

into unconsciousness, then clubbed her
to death. The position of the girl’s garter
belt shows that a sudden sexual advance
might have been made and resisted.”

The officers then agreed to intensify their
search for possible suspects, concentrating
on college students who both owned a
car and had not been in class at 2:30 P.M.
on the 10th.

On Monday morning the hunt began with
the thorough questioning of 63 friends
and relatives of the dead girl.
search turned to the campus where Presi-
dent Distler agreed to permit police use of
the college’s facilities and personnel.

“The college community is deeply
shocked and saddened at the death of Miss
Marian Louise Baker,” said the president
in a statement. “The college desires to
lend all assistance to the solution of this
terrible crime.”

A list of students absent from classes at
the hour of the stenographer’s death was
drawn up and comprised about 200 of the
1530-man enrollment. This list was then
checked against another showing all stu-
dents who owned cars and those on both
lists were singled out for special question-
ing. A schedule was set up on the campus
and each of the effected students was re-

quested to report for an interview at a.

specific time. Other students were also
requested to come forward with any in-
formation, however seemingly unimpor-
tant, which might provide a lead to the

Then the

killer. In particu

to know about sti

detailed knowledge
fresh scratches or
bore bloodstains.

Since all garage:
and car washing st
to watch for a car
holstery, the inves!
running down fals«
More than 300 phc
by Lancaster and ;
to dozens of ver!
college students a

By Monday even
was still a heavy
followed and spec
local police were ;
the clock in categ:
and checking it. B:
had weeded out tt
sibilities for the ful

Tuesday mornin;
emphasis given to
collegiate suspects
afternoon, only 15 r
list of 200 who had
10th. So far, none
to provide the pc
information, but t
Gleason got anoth
the campus. Since
President Distler hi:
attention.

The president re.
students, whose fat!
had come to him wi
another student hi:
some length a few c
bodies. He wante
it took for a body
fingerprints could |
and similar inforr
was still missing at
student, believing t
result of morbid cu
information from hi

“This is very inte:
tain Gleason. “Did
the student who w:
tion?”

“Yes,” President I
a senior named Edv

The captain than
finger down the list
questioned. The n
Lester,” quickly ca
significant notation.
and had been abser
time of Marian Bak
also the information
ried and lived with
pus.

Searching further
prepared by detecti
found still another r
senior had been ri
scratched face and
He had claimed that
a basketball game a
roborated by others

Since Gibbs was s'
was scheduled for a
investigators, it wa
special action on the
mediately, but Glea
conference that eve)
torney Ranck, Capta
officers assigned to

Gleason had also «
formation on Gibbs,
dent from Pitman, }
member of a promin
won three athletic
belonged to a colleg
a C average and hac
reputation.

“We have decided
four others to.be sir
questioning on the
son. “The others ha


COLLEGE
GIRLS DIE

YOUNG

by LESLIE GOMEZ

When a steady and
trustworthy chick

like Marian doesn't

show up, the cops

start to worry!

Marian Baker was an assistant to the college treasurer.

* INVESTIGATORS like Corporal James Kane of the Pennsylvania State Police
develop a sixth sense where crime is concerned. Missing persons cases were old
stuff to the veteran, but “Big Jim” could spot a bad one without half trying. This
one, involving Marian Baker, had all the earmarks of trouble. If the girl were still
alive, she would have had to be either physically or mentally ill. The pretty young
assistant to a college official had vanished without a word to her family, friends or
even her fiance. There appeared to be no reason for the disappearance. Foul play
seemed to be the only answer.

Donald M. Mylin, the treasurer of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, reported
that his secretary had failed to return to the- campus after going downtown on business
errands early Tuesday afternoon, Her landlord was worried when she did not appear
at her rooming house all Tuesday night, January 10th. The uncle who had reared her
had seen nothing of her at his home in the village of Conestoga, a few miles south of
Lancaster. Her mother in New Bloomfield, about 60 miles to the northwest, had heard
nothing from Marian. And finally, her fiance in Conestoga, to whom her engagement
had been announced only a couple of weeks earlier, had no idea where she could be.

Marian had lunched with co-workers on the tradition hallowed old campus, explaining
that she had to go to the bank and the post office on business for her boss. “And,”
she’d added gaily, “then to the jeweler’s. The ring’s to be ready today.”

At the bank, Kane learned, she made a $75 deposit. Her next stop was at the jewelry
store, where she was given the diamond engagement ring bought by the young man she
planned to wed. From there she went to the post office to register a piece of college
mail. This was at about 2 P.M. It was there her trail ended.

A charming girl of steady habits and impeccable reputation, Marian certainly had

CRIME FILES, May, 1971

Judge Joseph

not gone off willingly
Everyone who knew h
ticularly on the colleg«
more insistently than
to try frantically to aid
heart.

It was an unseason:
for the mild reaches
south of Lancaster the r
Country Club wore a
the golf course lay th
threaded with gurgling
in recent years had put

One of these belonge
maculate structure, its
the brilliant yellow of
yards off a single lane, |}
ward from U. S. Route
Lanacaster and Maryla
planning to leave for a
to the cabin by Mill Cr
her a bag of table scraps
which lived in the surro
do this very thing when
her eye. She noted the «
ward the building itsel
cellar had been dug ber

urer.

ia State Police
cases were old
alf trying. This
e girl were still
le pretty young
mily, friends or
ince. Foul play

caster, reported
wn on business
did not appear
had reared her
’ miles south of
west, had heard
her engagement
‘e she could be.
npus, explaining
er boss. “And,”

as at the jewelry
young man she
piece of college

in certainly had

Judge Joseph B. Wissler saw justice done.

not gone off willingly on some harum-scarum adventure.
Everyone who knew her—and she had many friends, par-
ticularly on the college campus—was agreed on that, none
more insistently than her fiance, who dropped everything
to try frantically to aid police in their search for his sweet-
heart.

It was an unseasonably warm winter’s afternoon, even
for the mild reaches of the lower Conestoga Valley. Just
south of Lancaster the rolling fairways of the Meadia Heights
Country Club wore a bright mantle of green. And below
the golf course lay the gray contours of a wooded area,
threaded with gurgling streams, where several Lancastrians
in recent years had put up ‘summer cottages.

One of these belonged to an attorney in the city. An im-
maculate structure, its gleaming white paint relieved by
the brilliant yellow of its shutters, it stood on stilts a few
yards off a single lane, hard surface road that wound north-
ward from U. S. Route 222, the main traffic artery between
Lanacaster and Maryland. On this Saturday, the owners,
planning to leave for a Florida vacation, made a last visit
to the cabin by Mill Creek. The lawyer’s wife brought with
her a bag of table scraps to spread out for the furry opossums
which lived in the surrounding woods. She was preparing to
do this very thing when scuff marks on the ground caught
her eye. She noted the direction of the marks. They led to-
ward the building itself, toward a spot where a shallow
cellar had been dug beneath a stilt-supported porch. There

gs

Husky college student admitted knowing missing girl.

several sheets of corrugated iron roof sheathing lay across
the pit, a sawhorse from her picnic table atop them.
The lady was puzzled. The sawhorse did not belong there.

She walked over to investigate, then she saw the footprint. °

It was a man’s track, and it had been made quite recently
in the soft earth. Suddenly fear possessed her. “That miss-
ing girl!” she thought. She did not want to do it, but she
made herself lift one of the sheets of corrugated iron.

Her screams brought her husband on the run. Beneath the
metal sheet was a mass of bloody hair and flesh.

Saha KANE got the alarm at four-fifteen p.m.
Twilight was thickening in the Mill Creek woods when
state police and city officers swarmed up the lovers’ lane to
the: vacation cottage. With these officials came Dr. Charles
P. Stahr, deputy coroner for Lancaster County.

The girl lay face down in the makeshift basement. She
was fully clothed, even to a red coat, but her garments were
pulled up around her waist, doubtless, Kane said, from her
being dragged into the pit by her feet. The back of the
head was crushed.

“Compound fractures of the skull,” Dr. Stahr said. “That’s

_all I can say now, except that apparently some sort of very

heavy bludgeon was used—possibly a length of iron pipe.”

From the owners, Kane and Detective Frank Matt heard
details of the discovery of the body, while troopers rushed
out to block off the by-road at the intersection with Route
222, and other police continued their examination of the
grounds around the cottage. An identification expert busied
himself with the single clear footprint just in front of the
basement. He measured it carefully and made a cast of the
track for further study back at the barracks. There was no
blood around the cottage, but a small amount was found
beside the road about 20 feet north of the driveway leading
to the cabin. And here, searching police also found a white
pearl button, apparently torn from a woman’s blouse.

Late Saturday night, Dr. Stahr was ready with his autopsy
report. Marian ‘Baker had not been sexually attacked. Death
had resulted from the crushed skull: an area nearly ten inch-
es long had been bashed in. “She has been dead somewhere

9

cy


Hatless suspect (above) could not refute evidence in boxes (right).

in the neighborhood of 72 hours,” the deputy coroner said. “However, this
estimate could be off as much as 24 hours. She ate a meal not long before
she was slain. It will take some time to analyze the undigested contents of
the stomach.”

There was no purse on the body, and none had been found in the neigh-
borhood of the cottage. There was no ring on her finger, but her wrist
watch was still strapped to her wrist. It had stopped at 2:37. From the first,
police had no doubt about the identification of the dead girl, but three
persons were brought to the Lancaster General Hospital morgue to make a
formal identification.

The hunt for Marian Baker was ended. The search for her slayer was just
begun.

With rape eliminated as a likely motive for the slaying, Corporal Kane
was quick to suspect another—jealousy. Had Marian jilted someone to ac-
cept her fiance’s proposal?

Her handsome young man shook his head. Marian had had no other boy
friends, although naturally enough she had many casual friends among the
Franklin & Marshall undergraduates.

“‘We’ll have plenty of men to consider as suspects,” Kane said with a sigh.
“Every student at F. & M. who has a car—and who knows how many town
fellows besides?” :

However, Captain Gleason of the Lancaster force was not discouraged.
They were not without clues, he pointed out, leads which' might serve to
eliminate most of the possible suspects in the case. |

Using the autopsy report to guide them, (Continued on page 44)

10

—

Don Bolander, M.4
cago; B.S., Nort
Director of Career
on adult education

LET'S B

It you've ever t
in English, may
years of disappc
You see, none
farther than our
will let us go.

I have met cou
gent men and w
back in their jo
without knowin;
express themsel

Wha

Could you get :
mand of good E
these questions:
Even with all y
how long has i
promotion?

Even with all :
people get toget
are you the.one

Be Hone

If people are n
you speak and w
enough with yc
have already ta
success.

The Ne

You can maste
going back to s
have helped thor
to stop making
English, increas
become interes
right in their ow

Here
I can help you,
minutes a day
Method of mas
answers to the
show you how c
stop being asha:
do something a

NEW MOVIE

We have just completed ONE GREAT
1970 STYLE ADULT FILM. 4 Girls,
2 Guys in the REAL THING! Absolute
clarity, in COLOR. IT’S FABULOUS!
Previewers state — “The Very Best’!

HERE’S HOW TO ORDER —

Send Us $2.00 For Sample Film C)
Reg.8 C) Supers O
200 Ft. Color Film $22.00 C1)
20'Big Color Photos $10.00 CJ
I enclose () Cash 0) ck. CM.o.
S & W PRODUCTS
Box 1026 NORTHLAND STA.
SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075

YOU MUST BE 21!

STAG BUYERS GUIDE $122

RARE UNIQUE UNUSUAL ITEMS

CONFIDENTIAL UP-TO-DATE list of dealers in FRANCE,

SWEDEN. DENMARK, HOLLAND. SPAIN, AFRICA. INDIA,

ENGLAND, CANADA, U.S.A. who sell adult photos, books

slides, movies, ete. includes 3 PROFUSELY illustrated

BROCHURES and CATALOG. For complete list & details
nd $1.00 to K-M SERVICE Dept. G7

se
2226 VAN DYKE DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48214

RARE EROTICA!

Adult books and magazines of an unusual
nature available. Some privately printed and
not offered in any bookstore or newsstand.
Send $1 for samples and catalogue. State age.
Shipped in plain wrapper.

Frank J. Pepe Dept. AD-3
P.O. BOX 565, WATERTOWN, N.Y. 13601

i

BE A PRIVATE
INVESTIGATOR

FORMER POLICE OFFICIALS TRAIN
YOU FOR A NEW, EXCITING AND
PROFITABLE CAREER!

Are you getting tired of doing the same dull work every
day of your life—find yourself in a routine rut? Stop
wasting time—MAKE A CHANGE RIGHT NOW! A group
of nationally known Police Chiefs will train you by mail
for a career in INVESTIGATIVE AND POLICE SCIENCE,
in the comfort of your own home. You can open up new
avenues of travel and excitement, meet interesting peo-
‘ple and MAKE GOOD MONEY TOO! This fully recognized
i pote self-study course may give you a new lease
on life: f
WRITE FOR FREE BROCHURE NOW —
GET SET FOR A NEW CAREER!
Approved by the State of Illinois Supt. of Public Instruction

North American Institute of Police Science
One N. LaSalle St., Dept. AD.61 Chicago, Ill. 60602

YOUR CAR

Save money on auto repairs with this informa-
tive up-to-date auto repair book. Yu. can do it
yourself, easily, quickly. Everything is covered
from Ammeters to Voltage Regulators plus sec-
tions on emergency repairs, tools and equip-
ment, a price list of various repairs, preventa-
tive maintenance measures, buying

pasts new and rebuli¢ and much Only
more. Knowing your car and what $ 00
keeps it moving will save you 2
money, time and aggravation. ped.

PADELL BOOK CO., Dept. N1005;ew vos ony:

44 .

had walked. ;
The trusty had his finger on the trig-

| ger of his shotgun when. they saw. the

girl in the distance. She was walking
slowly. The superintendent stopped the
car before Helen Spence Eaton knew
she had been spotted. eh

“You take that side,” the superin-
tendent told the trusty. “I’ll come in
from the: other.” ‘

The men moved cautiously through
the underbrush. The trusty reached
Helen Spence Eaton first.

“Up with your hands!” he shouted.

The surprised. girl stopped in her
tracks. She turned quickly, and the
trusty claimed she reached for the pistol
in her blouse, Whatever happened, he
fired point-blank. .

The bullet caught the girl square in
the back of the neck. Her legs buckled
and her limp body slumped to the.
ground. Death was almost instantaneous.

The superintendent ran forward. The
pistol Helen Spence Eaton had stolen
was still tucked in her brassiere.

The shooting of the shanty boat girl
caused quite a disturbance in the White '
River country. Helen Spence Eaton had
become very well known. Many people
claimed the trusty had no business with
a gun. The superintendent ‘came in for
severe criticism. But that didn’t bring
Helen Spence Eaton back to life.

Most of the natives have nothing but
sympathy for the girl who never under-
stood the workings of the law. They say
she never had a chance. That’s why they
still sing about her in the, White River
country. \ *

COLLEGE GIRLS
(Continued from page 10)

the detectives began their investigation
by assuming that Marian Baker had been
slain. early on Wednesday’ morning.
With the coroner’s estimate that she had
been dead about 72 hours when he ex-
amined the. body, and with her watch
stopped at 2:37, such an assumption
seemed correct.:

Now, with a little more than 12 hours
of her time unaccounted for—from her
appearance in the post office until the
estimated hour of her death—the sleuths*
began hunting intensely for someone
who had seen her during that period.
Analysis of the victim’s. stomach con-
tents tallied precisely with what Marian
had eaten in a restaurant at the college’
at lunch time on Tuesday.

A report from a watch expert told
that Marian’s timepiece had stopped
about seven hours after last being
wound. Marian, a very methodical
young woman, usually wound her watch
at 7:30 A.M..in the morning. Apparent-
ly, then, the girl had been killed not

long after her Tuesday lunch at the col-

lege, and approximately seven. hours—
with some leeway granted by the watch-
maker—after last winding her wrist
watch. _

“In other words,” Gleason said, “she

was ‘killed at 2:37 on Tuesday after-

noon—just about half an hour after she

was in the Lancaster post office.”
Who could she have met in that

{ P

phone calls that poured into their head-
uarters, the city and state detectives
sifted a dozen likely tips. But the one
they considered most important came
from a young Lancaster matron who

had gone to high school with Marian ~

Baker. “I saw her in the second block
of North Queen Street, just after 2
p.m. the day she was killed,” this wom-
an said. “She was talking with a man.”

The informant did not know the man
and could describe him only vaguely.
He was husky, she said, at least 25 or
older, and he wore a corduroy jacket.
That the slayer was a large man was
indicated by the footprint he had left
at the murder scene. Its measurements
and depth convinced the experts who
studied the track that the slayer was
heavy and, when they found other prints
belonging to the same person, they con-
cluded: from the space between them
that he was also tall.

GAIN the investigation turned, like
the needle of a compass, toward
Franklin & Marshall college. By Tues-
day, the college officials had compiled
the list of students who had cut their
classes or had had no classes on the
afternoon of January 10th. There were
some 200 names on this list. Captain
Gleason also got the names of all un-
dergraduates who owned cars. This list
ran to several hundred.
Patiently, Gleason and Corporal Kane

cross-checked the two rosters. Finally .

they had the names of nearly 50 young
men who both owned autos and, pre-
sumably, had been off the campus at
the time of the murder. :

“Now,” Gleason said, “we'll try to
learn who among these was acquainted
with Marian Baker. I’m convinced that
she was driven to her death, and equally
sure she did. not get into the car. with
a stranger. She just wasn’t, the kind of
girl to be picked up on the street by
someone she did not know.”

At the college, Kane and Matt talked
with a girl who had worked with Marian
Baker, '

“There’s been something’ on my
mind,” she told them. “I certainly don’t
want to get an innocent person into
trouble, but on the other hand I want
to see the murderer brought to justice.
There’s a senior here in school—one of
the GI boys—who knew Marian. His
name is Eddie Gibbs. Occasionally he
does odd jobs in our office. And I
know that sometimes he drove Marian
to the bank. I’m telling you this,” the
girl continued, “because when I saw him
the other day he had a scratch along
one cheek. He ‘said he got it in a bas-
ketball game, and maybe he did. I

thought you ought to know about it.”

Kane looked into the matter of the
scratch. Fellow players and a coach re-
membered it. Gibbs had suffered the
scratch in a practice game on the basket-
ball court.

Kane and Gleason now began work-
ing on the lists of names to be checked
against the 50 undergrads who might
be regarded as possible suspects. Seven

of the men Marian Baker had known -

}

‘brief period? From hundreds of tele-

Now, for the«
fried chick
shakes, and
weight with
You can get
you enjoy: \
maple syru
key with Z
Stroganoff!
roast! Mashe
with whippe
Slim-Pak® c
other diets |
your Slim-P:
And Slim-P:
a day!

Calls Slim-Pz
“Never foun
with, nor a p
me as Slim-P
it is to be ab
starving. Goc
cal scientists.

Loses 27 Pot
“T have just «
tle of Slim-
started I we
measured 40
I now weigh
34-inch wais:

Teen-Ager Lo
“I am 16 yez
the diet for ‘
pounds. I h
times, but I
satisfaction f
am very

not get I

‘| Was Getun
“I was getti
could not lea
back in my s

Loses 10 Pou
“Slim-Pak is
pounds in o
mending it t

‘Without Ne:

“Without fea
nervous tens
ing, I have lo
—5 inches fr
18 pounds.”

‘Miraculous,’
“I am 70 ye:
helped me m
weight I ha
strength and

WEIG

How much we
off — and kee
People who w
1-11 pour
12-19 pour
Over 20 pour

Ask your doctor
Your Personaliz

supplement foc
loss! Registerec
771541.


Bei a \
4 § va te id
pair. - proved fruitless. As far as we could
1,200 . éarn he didn’t have an enemy in the
ango world. His family affairs were
| the unusually happy and serene. If robbery
:d to was the motive why hadi’t the killer or
killers taken the money? If they were
ssano willing to kill for it, it would have taken
id he but. a moment to rifle Bill’s pockets. |
We Nothing at the station had been dis-
ven- ‘turbed. Suspects had been rounded up,
time quizzed and released. ;
seem ‘.. Iran over to Wheatland with Heasley
ninal. to give the boarding house another
When examination, Nothing had been heard
1 his of Weiss and Girsch. I was certain
issing they'd cleared out of the valley. And i|
an to police hadn’t been able to trace them i|

through Youngstown and the Mahoning
steel district.
Neither Heasley nor I were confident
that our new search would bring results,
but we were determined to try every-
‘thing. I knew the fugitives were steel a ae
‘workers. It was logical that they. would '

During their wild race from the

death scene shown below the

murder bandits paused to ‘

. throw their guns into the dark, |
icy waters of this creek. The

filling station, shown in circle

‘below, is indicated by arrow ‘
on map. The bridge is marked

by a cross at upper left.

» eee
pee +

fe | SSS Caer ct Sateen aes
A up Weiss and Girsch. It shouldn’t be
~ difficult to find the two steel workers.

For the next 72 hours I worked
steadily. Every police officer in the ®
valley went sleepless but the mysterious
» murder of Old Bill had proved a compli- “¢F)
= cated riddle. Our only lead was that two 27
? men had figured in both crimes. We wete
working on the remote possibility that *
.the Wheatland’ robbers were also the
crimson killers who had murdered Old
Bill so ruthlessly.

By Wednesday we were certain that
Weiss and Girsch were the robbers. The
watchman at the old rolling mill brought !
me an overcoat smeared with something
that looked like dried blood. I sum-
moned Jessano.

“T sold that coat to Johnny Girsch,”
he said after one look at the coat.

It had been found near a short cut: 9%) @
path that led from the holdup scene to © 4} fe
the boarding house where Weiss and a SS
Girsch had lived. Tests proved that the eR
spots were blood.

The investigation of Old Bill’s affairs

*

+


but all she could sce was the red light on
a car going toward Farrell.”

“Know what time it was?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” came the snappy answer.
“T know because mother had just told me
it was 9 and I had to go to bed.”

The boy's mother said that Specht had
dashed into her home about two hours
later and asked her to call the police.

“We've been worried about Old Bill
ever since they held him up last Janu-
ary,” she explained. ‘‘He always told
us that he’d never let anyone get away
with it again.”

We canvassed the neighborhood com-
pletely but the March blizzard had
masked the operations of the bandits
completely.

I took the autopsy report back to
Farrell with me. Before I had a chance
to study it Constable Heasley of Wheat-
land paid me a flying visit.

“T want you to help me find a couple
of stickup guys in that Jessano case last
night,” he said. “I think we got them
cold if we can find them,”

Heasley described the Wheatland rob-
bery of the night before.

*Jessano left his tailor shop in Farrell
and took the 10:15 home. He lives about
a mile from the car line and while walk-
ing along Council avenue he saw a car

Ze
Ss

bouncing toward him. He tried to duck
it but it swerved and threw him in the
ditch. He was stunned for a moment.
Then he realized that they were frisking
him and tried to put up a fight but they
knocked him out. He came to in time to
see two men running across a field.
They'd left the car, but they’d taken the
plates off. I found these keys in the
ignition lock.”

License Plates Found

H E TOSSED the key ring over to me.
I recognized one as a locker key of
the Sheet and Tin Plate mill. ’

Heasley had not only identified the
key but he’d tried it in: 600 of the
mill lockers before -he found that it
opened the box ot Mike cise

p uy
SS

‘

He'd |

also followed the trail of the bandit pair
as pointed out by Jessano about 1,200
feet to a fence near the old Shenango
Rolling mill. There he had found the
license plates. These, too, belonged to
Mike Weiss.

“When I mentioned Weiss to Jessano
something clicked in his memory and he
identified him as one of the robbers.”

“Maybe someone stole his car,” I ven-
tured. I'd known the boy for some time
and he had no record. He didn’t seem
to fit the picture of a calloused criminal.

But Heasley seemed convinced. When
he informed me that Weiss and _ his
friend, Johnny Girsch, were missing
from their boarding house I began to
grow interested.

“They left last night,” he said.

Immediately I sent out word to pick

aN a dil ill

wn, be
Se ee ua

MSE ON, ee OS

, points to the
sano was thrown


=
om

~

hide among men who shared their in-
terests,

“We may find something to tip us off
on where they went,” I said to Heasley.
But the room in the boarding house
yielded nothing.

“Let’s have a look around before we
leave,” suggested Heasley.

After searching the outbuildings, the
constable began -to probe an unusually
large pile of rubbish. First a tube ap-
peared, then a tire. Soon we had a
collection of auto accessories. Later the
recovered merchandise was identified as
loot taken from Old Bill’s station in the
January robbery.

36

“They robbed it once,” Heasley said.
“This time it was murder but they got
nothing. They robbed Jessano for get-
away money.”

From that day on we worked
constantly, combing the steel mills in
Youngstown, Cleveland, Buffalo and
other steel districts, But despite the
wholehearted cooperation of local and
mill police not the slightest trace of the
suspects could be found.

On Sunday afternoon Mike Beharry,
an old friend of mine, dropped into the
office to chat with me. He was down
from Cleveland on a visit and wanted to
know all the details of Old Bill’s death,
After we'd discussed the killing, we
talked of conditions in the steel business,

“We're taking on a lot of men these
days,” he said. ‘Working full shifts.”

“Got time to do a little detective work
for me?” I asked. At first he thought I
was joking but when I explained what I
had suddenly thought of he realized I was
serious.

“You know steel workers. You get
around among them in a way that police
can’t. Cleveland would be an ideal hide-
out for Old Bill’s killers, and with the
complete descriptions you might spot
them,”

I gave Beharry all the information I
had on Weiss and Girsch.

“If you get any line on them have
Cleveland police pick them up at once.”

When Mike Beharry shook my hand

When his first holdup resulted in
a meager haul of tire tubes which
he hid in the shack below, John
Girsch, left, tried a second robbery.
His victim was cruelly murdered.

‘ he {

and said good-bye I knew he’d do every-
thing in his power to locate the fugitives.

Returning to my task, I tried to
reconstruct the shooting from the facts
I knew. It seemed logical that Turner
had slammed the door with his left
hand and perhaps put his left shoul-
der against it. The autopsy showed
that a bullet had entered the left side of
the neck at an upward angle and passed
out through his mouth. Three more
slugs had ripped through his left arm.
The abrasions on Old Bill’s forehead
must have been caused by splintered glass
or his fall,

Suspects Seized

'@ THE following Wednesday

Cleveland police telephoned to teil
us that they were holding two suspects,
Mike Beharry must have gone to work
immediately. Half an hour after the call
I was racing toward Cleveland with
County Detective Taylor and Constable
Heasley.

We found Weiss and Girsch in the
Cleveland detective bureau. The pair
waived extradition and we decided to
return them to Pennsylvania for ques-
tioning. But first I wanted to talk to
Mike Beharry.

“IT must have looked over 500 fellows
Monday night,” he explained. “But none
of them fitted the descriptions. I spent
most of Tuesday doing the same thing,
When Tuesday night came I looked over
all the boys in the department. A new
matcher and helper had been sent in and
after I compared them with the descrip-
tions I figured I had the right ones, I

[Continued on page 58]

DARING

- al . )

a ST


Clue of the Bloodstained Overcoat

found out they'd worked four nights but
this was their first one in my depart-
ment. So I slipped out and called the
police.”

At 7 o’clock that same Wednesday
night we were back in Farrell with our
men. District Attorney L. R. Rickard
had come over from Mercer, the county
seat. Leaving Weiss ina cell we brought
Girsch into my office where he admitted
the robbery and assault on Jessano, When
confronted with the recovered loot he
ray admitted the January filling station
job.

But murder? He didn’t know anything
about that.

Then Weiss came out to answer ques-
tions regarding his part in the crimes. He
denied everything. He confined himself
to German gutterals and, knowing that
he’d been in this country for only two or
three years, I summoned Captain Sam
Fleischer.

From then on the quiz was carried on
by Rickard in English and Fleischer in
German. Two hours of persistent ques-
tioning resulted in a statement that Weiss’
car had been stolen two weeks before.

“Why didn’t you report it?” Fleischer

In their attempt to eacape from Mercer County jail the bandit killers drilled a ho!

[Continued from page 36]

asked in German. But Weiss had nothing
more to say.

Fleischer led the surly and defiant
Weiss back to a cell. He began to curse
his partner, Girsch. A few cells away
Girsch heard the tirade in German and
broken English.

The night captain, Fleischer, returned
to the conference room and a hasty con-
sultation took place. Hurriedly a type-
written statement was prepared in Ger-
man. It was a relief to Girsch to be
brought back into my office out of range
of the threats and curses of his bellow-
ing companion.

“Sit down,” ordered Fleischer, On the
desk in front of Girsch he laid the state-
ment typewritten in German, For a mo-
ment the steelworker stared at it nerv-
ously. i

Fleischer picked up the paper.

“Johnny, it’s all over. Mike just put
you in the hot seat.”

“He’s a liar’ Girsch snapped. “He
shot Old Bill himself.”

“That’s what you say,” Rickard stated
in a tone of disbelief. Girsch stared
blankly from me to Fleischer and back to
Rickard.

ex

¥

through the thick brick wall at the spot shown by arrow. One fell 40 feet when :

he tried to slide down a rotten rope.

58

eZ

“Suppose you tell us all about it then?”
the district attorney suggested. Girsch
nodded and I summoned our stenogra-
pher.

Once more he glanced around the room,
staring momentarily at each face.

“Go ahead.” Rickard’s tone suggested
that he didn’t care whether Girsch talked
or not. He reached for his hat and coat
as the prisoner prepared to tell his story.

“Wait a minute!” Girsch was deter-
mined to save himself as much as possible.

“Mike and me planned to rob the
old man for a long time, We picked
that Saturday night because we thought
he’d be flush. It was easy the first
time. We drove past the station and
when we saw he was alone we turned
around and came back. Mike stopped the
car a little way off and we sneaked around
back of the station through the cornfield.

“We came around the left side just as
the old man opened the door to come out.
He saw us coming and saw Mike’s rod.
His right hand went for his pocket and
he slammed the door. Mike started shoot-
ing and the glass broke. Mike fired four
or five times. Then we ran for the car
and started home. Mike was mad_ be-
cause we didn’t get any money. That
started an argument. He had money for
a getaway but I didn’t. So we decided to
lay for Jessano. We'd been planning to
get him, too. We waited for him to get
off the car.”

Weiss Blames Girsch

e
E DESCRIBED the robbery, the
flight after abandoning the auto, and
the hurried packing at the boarding
house.

“T threw my coat over the fence at the
old mill because it was smeared with
blood. We caught a car for Sharon and
hired a cab to Youngstown. We took a
train to Cleveland.”

Girsch filled in the details and signed
the confession with the four of us as wit-
nesses. But we were only half finished.
Weiss was brought back to be questioned
again,

“You can’t get away with it, Mike,”

Fleischer said in German, showing him

the signed confession. “Johnny told us
all about it. It’s up to you now. If you're
guilty, say so.” ‘

Weiss bared his teeth in a grimace of

‘rage and desperation. For a moment he

clenched his powerful fingers as if he
would gladly have throttled his com-
panion. Then in English he asked:

“What did he say?”

“He said you shot Turner.”

District Attorney Rickard read Girsch’s
statement to Weiss word for word while
Captain Fleischer translated in German
to make it most emphatic. The face of
the steel worker paled under the furnace
tan.

His version of the events of the stormy
Saturday night of March 1 tallied per-
fectly with that of his fellow bandit in all
but one particular. He insisted that
oe had loosed the deadly hail on Old

ill. ]

The following morning we packed

-Girsch into a police car and drove him
‘out to Old Bill’s station to review the

crime for us. He took us to a little bridge
near Wheatland where he said Weiss had

» tossed the murder weapon into the stream.


iis Little Gi
By Richard Knight

Special Investigator for
_ ACTUAL DETECTIVE STORIES

4

Chief of Police Frank Fesko was in
eadquarters at the time: Fesko knew
ie Mauk family and Karen, too, a
es pert . little girl of - vivacious

ts. ;
“She went out to ‘trick or treat’ about
ilf-past seven and she isn’t back yet,”
sarchuk explained to the Chief. “It
‘obably isn’t anything to worry about,

cept for those two other reports to- .

ight. But I don’t like it, Chief.”

The Chief didn’t either. “Come on,
t’s see about it,” he’said.

Within a few minutes the officers had
illed to a halt in front of a two-story
‘ame dwelling on Fifth Street. Several
arsons were standing around the

ae

Neighbors outside the garage, |
2, at right. | is the Mauks’:
home, 3 the lonely cemetery

me °

home and on_ well-lighted porches,
talking and gesticulating.

Fesko and Starchuk hurried inside.
William Mauk, father of Karen and a
plant: inspector for Bethlehem Steel,
was pacing the living-room. Mrs. Mauk,
weeping softly, got up from a chair as
they entered. ©

“IT hope I’m not being ‘bothersome
about this,” she said. “But I’m terribly
worried. Especially after what hap-
pened to Jane Theodor just awhile
ago. Karen never has done this before.”

\

Gay, vivacious little Karen Mauk, who pestered her mother
until she was allowed to go out that pre-holiday evening

“Done what?” asked Chief Fesko.
Mrs. Mauk explained that before she
left for the PTA meeting, Karen had

asked to go out trick-or-treating. She'd .

been out once but she wanted to go
again and she had begged so earnestly
that the mother had given in to her,
telling her not to go too far. She had
dressed Karen in her warm blue coat,
then placed a gaily-colored “Spanish”
hat on her blond tresses and a “Snow
White” mask to cover her face.

__“That-was nearly three hours ago.:
We asked at all the neighbors, but she

isn’t around,” said Mrs. Mauk. “She
was next door, at Mrs. Hedrick’s, for a

few minutes, but that was right after
she left here. I just can’t imagine her
‘going out of the neighborhood.”

The father, William Mauk, told the
‘Chief that he had dozed off while
watching a television program, and the
next thing he knew his wife was shak-
ing him and asking him about Karen.

"He had presumed that she was in—

asleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms
with the other children, Donald, nine,
‘Cindy Lou, three and a half, and Jeff- -
rey, an infant of eighteen months.

“J went upstairs,” said Mauk.
“Karen’s bed was empty. She wasn’t
in any of the other rooms.”

GOSSARD, Harry, white, electrocuted SP (Cambria Co.), June 4, 1956.

“At 7 p.m. on the evening of Halloween, 1954, 6-year-old Karen Mauk went out with her
trick-or-treat bag. When she did not return to her home in Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, neighbors
and police began a search. Her body was found shortly before midnight, scarcely 100 yards from
the Mauk home. The coroner stated that the child had died from suffocation.

“Suspicion attached to Hgarry Gossard, 39, a 6-foot, 200 pound ex-seaman, who had a
record of 5 arrests, two of them on sex charges, Gossard finally confessed that he had lured the
child into his car on a promise of something for her trick-or-treat bag, but he denied meaning to
kill Karen, saying that he ‘slipped and fell on her.’

“Convicted of murder and sentenced to die during the week of June 4th, 1956, Gossard
lost his final appeal to the state suspreme court on May 21st, 1956. He was executed in the
state’s electric chair on the night of June 4th.”-7rue Detective, September, 1956, page 4.

GossakD, Har), che.

Challenge of Johnstown’s Karen Mauk: -

set the Holiday Killer o

"Trick or Treat," the Child Had Said Trustingly to All in

‘& Caubsca, ) ‘oO - “u “LF SY

‘The Little Pennsylvania Town. And Someone She Spoke to

Had ‘Violated Her Trust.

i \
There was no holiday spirit on the streets of Johnstown |

_

aN

Ra

the night people learned what had happened to Karen Mauk’

‘ police in the Johnstown, Pennsyl- .

T HE first sinister report to reach the

vania, area that. night of October
28, 1954, might have been the story of
a more than a pre-Hallowe’en
prank, :

A woman who was angry rather than.,

frightened made that report to officials
in the tiny town of Franklin, on the
outskirts of Johnstown. As she'd been
walking home from the store, she said;
a huge man with a pair of “paper spec-
tacles” had embraced her, then whis-
pered an invitation to a “party”. She
had pushed him away.

The second story to come in was a
bit more portentous but still not of
major importance. "\

Pretty Jane Theodor was waiting for
a friend at the corner of First and Oak
Streets in Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, a
few miles from Franklin. A huge, pow-
erful-looking man brushed past her in

8

‘

the dark, then whirled suddenly, his.

arms reaching for hér waist.

Jane screamed in frenzy, twisted -
away from the man’s grasp and ran
~ toward her home on First Street, less
than a block away. Mrs.. Theodor, a
widow, heard her screams and hurried

outside. So did several neighbors.

Still frightened, the attractive girl
could tell them only that a “tall man
with a peor overcoat” had tried to

grab he

A neighbor telephoned the police and
at 7:35 p. m., just five minutes later,

Officer Frank Starchuk of the Cone-

maugh police drove up in front of the

home.

. Starchuk, aided by several neighbors,
'/ searched the alleys and a dark lot at the

end of the street. They found no one.

The officer returned to question Jane

more thoroughly, and learned that she

had been waiting on the corner for one

=

ee
* ec
=e »

> ag!

SN

of her girl friends with whom she had
planned to attend a Hallowe’en dance
that evening.

“Can you give me a better descrip-
tion of this man?” asked Starchuk.

The frightening incident had hap-
pened so quickly, Jane said, that she
hadn't noticed his clothing too much,
other than the shabby overcoat. “But
he had thick black hair and the most
intense eyes I. ever saw. He didn’t say
a word, just looked at me.” The girl
shuddered.

Another meaningless prank? Possi-
bly, Starchuk realized. But it also could
be much more sinister. He asked Jane
if she would accompany him on a cruise
through the town, in an effort to spot
the man, and the brave girl readily

‘As they entered the police cruiser,

’ Mrs. Margaret Mauk, mother of five

children, was leaving a car in front of

the high school, not far away. She ©
congestion ‘around the.

noticed the
Theodor home and from a woman on

Which? How Could He Be Found? ;

the curb learned what the disturbance
was,

“I don’t like the sound of this, Larry,” -

she said to her son, who was driving.
“Karen is out alone tonight. Will you
ask your father to see that she gets in
early?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Mother,” Larry
said. “She'll be all right.”

He drove away then and Mrs. Mauk,
trying to quiet her strange premoni-

tion, went on into the high-school,

building, where she was to attend a
PTA meeting. ; .
At 9:30 p. m., Starchuk and Jane
finished their tour without sighting
anyone, Starchuk took the girl home
and returned to Police Headquarters.
There, at ten p. m., he received the
third report. The worst of all. Little
Karen Mauk, just six years old, had not
come home. : r,

Mauk entered this
found the paper hat

when La
garage a

<r mie

First hint of the tragedy came .


Coulter Street, a narrow thoroughfare
that is an extension of Fifth. He was
not far from his own home.

“There’s something on that old door,
the one that’s fallen down,” said Bill.

entered the chill, dusty in-

terior. His light picked Out a red,
Spanish-type hat—and a tremor swept
up his back. :

“That looks like the one Karen wore,”
he whispered. : :

Notified, Chief Fesko and Starchuk
hurried to the scene. They searched the
garage, cluttered with loose boards and
rotting timber, but found nothing.

Chief of Detectives Christian: |
‘~ "They all have good alibis..."

No one knew where she was—and
they had called the police.

Perhaps, Fesko hoped, she ‘was
wandering around with little concep-
tion of the time, or she had fallen
asleep on someone’s porch. The Chief ae
hurriedly organized a search party of .
willing neighbors. Actually, he d{dn't
have much to be apprehensive about, he
knew. The neighbors began the search
with hopeful, sometimes almost ‘gay
,_ Shouts, for Karen, ; :

THEN, at 10:45 p. m., came the first‘
ominous turn of events, ; “7
‘ Larry, Karen’s brother, accompanied
. “by Bill Hedrick, his friend from next |
~ door, idly speared the beam of his flash- ie
light into an abandoned garage, on.
10 st Be

' Hant tongues of flame lashing at the

“not previously. covered, many of them

Even the grim, dark recesses of the Bethlehem Steel plant in
Conemaugh were searched the night the little girl disappeared

“I don’t like the looks of this—-not
a bit,” whispered Fesko to his officer.
“I'm getting back to ‘the office. Keep
things moving here.”

Next door to the Conemaugh Police
Headquarters is the volunteer fire de-
partment. Fesko threw the switch that,
sounded an emergency call. ~

By 11:05 p. m., more than 200 Cone-
maugh citizens, many ‘of them volun-
teer firemen, were milling in the Street.
Mounting to the top of a car, Fesko
grimly outlined the reason for the
emergency call. ev

“I'm hoping that the girl is okay; but
right now it looks bad,” he said,
“Everyone of you will have to help us.
Look in lots, fields, parked cars. She
may even have wandered out of town
and is lost in the hills. And don’t for-
get those steep slopes off Ebensburg
Road. She may have tumbled down one

of them. Don’t go. near the child's

giant bowl, appeared to be. swarming
with a million fireflies. At the bottom of
the bowl searchers threw shafts of light
along darkened railway tracks, into
sheds and open warehouses. Spotlights
from scores of private cars ranged

recesses
around the sprawling Conemaugh
plant of Bethlehem Steel, their hand
torches frequently dimmed by the bril-4

sky from the furnace stacks.

BAck in the town itself, Chief Fesko
directed search parties along streets,

dotted with yellow traffic shields iron-
ically cautioning, “Watch Children”.
As the hands of the clock crept to,
ward midnight, the hunt seemed like}
waste motion. Beyond the paper hat

4

Chief of Police Fesko: “Every ’
citizen will have to help us” v4
s ‘4 ; * 4


44

Grim officers assemble with stretcher to remove little Karen’s body. Tragic reminder is festive trick-or-treat bag (1)

downtown, and she wasn’t too well supplied with cash to
set out on her own.”

Residents ‘and business people along Iron Street were
questioned. Helen Jean’s school friends were canvassed.

“No one had seen her on Monday. No one could offer any

clue to where she might have gone.

She had no steady boy friend who might have whisked
her off. The railroad depot and inter-city bus lines were
checked until the police were satisfied that Helen Jean had
not left town by any of these.

“We'll search that hill where she lives,’ Zvonar decided.
He assembled a force of his regular men and auxiliary
policemen to hunt through woods and ravine, from Iron
Street to the hilltop, for some sign of the whereabouts of
Helen Jean Bryant. No trace of the girl was found.

Teams of men from Zvonar’s force—known Officially as
the Hopewell Township police—combed up and down Iron
Street, re-questioning dwellers, merchants and workers.
Others hunted methodically through the entire bailiwick,
until ‘they were satisfied that the girl was nowhere in
Aliquippa or its vicinity. If she had passed along Iron
Street early Monday morning it was likely that she had
gone unrecognized in the fog.

“T can’t quite buy that,” Chief Zvonar said. “As Bill

Hildebrand already has pointed out, why should the kid
have passed up a free ride downtown in the school bus,
even if-she did not intend to go to her classes? There'll be
plenty of men available Saturday morning, when they’re
all off work. If she doesn’t turn up by then, we'll gather
a force and really sweep that hill.”

While Matt Zvonar and his men sought doggedly for the
key to the teenager’s disappearance, another tragedy was
in the making in Cambria County, just above Johnstown,
some 80 miles to the east.

There, in a valley of the Alleghenies, William Mauk
lived with his wife and five of his six children at 232 Fifth
Street in the little steel and rail city of Conemaugh—the
oldest, Bill, 19, like Albert Bryant, was in service, attending
boot camp at the Naval station in Bainbridge, Maryland.

At about 7 P.M. Thursday, 6-year-old Karen Mauk
climbed the twin flights of steps from the sidewalk to her
porch and burst into the living room, breathless and
bubbling with excitement.

“Can I go trick or treat, Mummy?” she begged. “Can i
please?”

“It’s not Halloween yet, not till Sunday night,” Margaret
Mauk replied.

“But I was out once already,” little Karen protested.

“Can't I
“That
“But |

Just a lit
All w

masked,

Hallowe

cousin \

curly-h:z
was gol)
must go

Mrs. }

it to K

mask té

bag and
‘Don’

more ol

allowed
Mrs. °

to rush

home t

with Dx

and wh

celebra
Whe:
she for
matica!
in the !
“Whe
“In b
her in |
“Goo
out wit
mean t

near h
goodies
100 ya
“The
be now.
He c¢
street.
bered *
purple
At |
sumin¢
Compe
Wor
private
to mor
The
costun
in Cou
got the
motest
in the
Polic
7:30 th
ished, :
had le:
a few
The
who r)
him. (
search:
Mauk,
upon }


c-treat bag (1)

should the kid
the school bus,
es? There'll be
1, when they’re
en, we'll gather

loggedly for the
ner tragedy was
sove Johnstown,

William Mauk
iren at 232 Fifth
‘onemaugh—the
-rvice, attending
e, Maryland.
Karen Mauk
sidewalk to her
breathless and

egged. “Can I,
night,” Margaret

<aren protested.

“Can’t I go out now? You let me go out Monday night.”
“That was your birthday,” her mother reminded her.
“But Paul’s going out, right away. All the kids are.

Just a little while. Please, Mummy.”’ -

All week the neighborhood youngsters, costumed and
masked, had been traipsing from door to door, gathering
Halloween loot. If Paul Lindenberg, Karen’s 6-year-old
cousin who lived just up the street, and with whom her
curly-haired little girl had been playing the last half-hour,
was going “trick or treat,” well, then, she supposed, Karen
must go, too.

Mrs. Mauk got out her little girl’s costume hat and pinned
it to Karen’s blond curls. She adjusted a kewpie doll
mask to the pretty, smiling face, found the child’s “loot”
bag and thrust her out the door,

“Don’t be out long, darling,’ the mother admonished,
more out of habit than concern, for Karen, when she was
allowed to play out of doors after dark, never did stay late.

Mrs. Mauk thought no more of Karen’s absence, having
to.rush to get to a PTA meeting, leaving her husband at
home to sit with Jeffrey, the baby, with little Cindy and
with Donald, the twins, who would be 9 the next Monday
and whose birthday the family, as it always did, would
celebrate together with Karen’s, over the week end.

When Margaret Mauk came home from the PTA session,
she found her husband absorbed in a magazine. Auto-
matically, the mother checked her brood. She was back
in the living room almost at once, pale and frightened.

“Where’s Karen?” she demanded.

“In bed, isn’t she?” the father replied. “Didn’t you tuck
her in before you left?” :

“Good heavens, no!” Mrs. Mauk exclaimed. “She went
out with Paul, at seven o’clock, to trick or treat. You
mean to say she didn’t come home? Oh, merciful God,
where could she be?”

Bill Mauk already was shrugging into his coat. “Now
don’t worry, Peg,” he said. ‘She probably went home with
Paul. I’ll run up and fetch her back.”

But as he ran down the steps to the walk, Bill Mauk
knew the hope was dim that little Karen was at her cous-
in’s. It was 9:30. The Lindenbergs would have seen to
it that Karen was home long before now.

Young Paul said he and Karen had parted at about 7:30
near his home. Karen, he added, her bag loaded with
goodies, had gone tripping homeward—a matter of only
100 yards or so, as he entered his own dwelling.

“Then where,” her father moaned, “could she possibly
be now?” —

He called at the homes of neighbors, up and down the
street. No one had seen Karen, though several remem-
bered that a little girl wearing a kewpie doll mask and a
purple coat had rung their bells early in the evening.

At 11:15 Thursday night, the town’s fire siren wailed,
summoning the members of the Conemaugh Volunteer Fire
Company. to join with police in a search for the little girl.

Word spread of Karen’s disappearance. Boy Scouts and
private citizens swelled the ranks of the searching party
to more than 150.

The hunt was less than half an hour old when Karen’s
costume hat was found, lying in front of a private garage
in Coulter Alley, a bare 100 yards from her home. How it
got there, the family living at the address had not the re-
motest idea. No one had seen or heard anything suspicious
in the alley near the garage.

Police Chief George Fetsko was genuinely alarmed. At
7:30 that night, at about the time Karen must have van-
ished, a tall, husky, shabby man with a scar on his cheek
had leaped upon a 14-year-old girl on First Street, only
a few blocks from the Mauk home.

The girl had screamed, dodged and escaped, and police
who rushed to the neighborhood had found no trace of
him. Could it have been, ‘Chief Fetsko wondered as
searchers combed the entire community for little Karen
Mauk, that this man had fled to Fifth Street, had chanced
upon Karen alone, had seized her and carried her away?

“Get some of your boys to scout around the outskirts of
town,” he said to George Peyton, veteran president of the
volunteer fire company. “If he’s got the kid in a car, they
still may be out on some lonely back road.”

The volunteer firemen responded willingly. And it was
only a few minutes after midnight when Steve Steffish
and Dick Barkley nosed their car up a byroad which
climbed steeply to the back service gate of St. Petka’s
Cemetery, atop a hill two miles west of Conemaugh.

From the windswept crest they could look down upon
the lights of the town. Here, both men knew, was a spot
long known as a lovers’ lane. Their headlamps swept the
narrow thoroughfare to its end.

“No car here tonight,” Steffish said, backing to turn
around.

The yellow band of light made a slow circular sweep in
front of the machine as Steffish nosed forward again,
wrenching at the wheel.

“Steve!” Barkely shouted. ‘‘There! In the grass!”

The hunt for Karen Mauk was ended. The little gir]
lay, unclad in the chill night, in the weeds just off the lane.
Her kewpie doll mask and her clothing were strewn beside
the pathetic little body, and her trick-or-treat bag spilled
an apple, a handful of cookies and candy almost into her
wind-tossed curls.

Deputy Coroner Richard P. Wilkinsin examined the body.
The little girl had not been attacked, he said. She had
died of suffocation.

“Not of strangulation,” Dr. Wilkinsin said. “I’d_ say
something like a blanket or a coat was wrapped around
her face so tightly she was smothered.”

“The big, scar-faced man!” Chief Fetsko growled. “The
guy who tried to grab the other girl. He’s the man we’ve
got to find.”

Five state troopers, with Sergeant James A. Blair at their
head, were rushed to Conemaugh to assist the local police
and county detectives in charge of their chief, John W.
Reed.

That little Karen had been taken alive to the hilltop,
and there slain, was evident from the handfuls of grass
still clenched in her tiny fingers. (Continued on page 98)

Karen’s grieving family, her brother Bill, mother, father


a

or

gd by aye
s Py

%

"4
Ry

a\ ¢.

d her uncle.
iade a grave

N WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, the Halloween
of 1954 will be long remembered. Not for the
winy apples, the candies and nuts and cakes the

kids begged to swell their bulging bags of loot, not
as a happy sojourn from the workaday world of
mine and mill and railyard, but for the horror that
struck once, then swiftly struck again, blighting
whole communities with sheer terror.

It all began, actually, the week preceding Halloween,
on Monday, October 25th. '

At 16, Helen Jean Bryant was an uncommonly pretty
girl, with sparkling bright blue eyes, a pert, turned-up
nose, and a soft wealth of strawberry blond hair that fell
to her shoulders.

She was fully aware of her loveliness but, 'so far as Helen
Jean was concerned, it was as much of a taunt as a gift.
She lived with her parents, her five sisters, all younger
than she, and four of her five brothers—19-year-old Albert
was soldiering in Korea—in a squalid, rickety house far up
on a hill on the outskirts of Aliquippa, 20 miles northwest
of Pittsburgh.

The Bryants, a round dozen in all, were crowded into
these quarters on the bare knob looking down upon a maze
of railroad tracks and a big steel mill smoking on the
banks of the Ohio River because, though it was no fault of
his own, Earl Bryant was out of work and the family was
on relief,

Only in the summer, Helen Jean felt, could she be like
other girls and live in a regular neighborhood with chums

- close by, with places to go in the evenings, and boys to

come to linger on the stoop. Her summers she spent with
her grandmother in Corapolis, half-way up the Ohio toward
Pittsburgh.

But summer was two months gone. She had had to re-
turn to Aliquippa to begin her junior high school year.
And ‘she hated it.

She hated the isolation, here on the hilltop. She hated
the eternal crowding, the inescapable friction that rubbed
tempersraw. She hated the long descent each morning down
the twisting path to the foot of Iron Street, where she
caught the bus to school, and she detested the tortuous
climb back every night.

Usually her sister Dolores, 14, accompanied her, being
a freshman in the same high school, but this morning, peer-
ing out a window into the cottony pall of fog that gripped
the hillside, Dolores announced that she was sick and was
staying home.

Helen Jean quarreled with her mother before setting off
down the path at 8:15 a.m. It was some little thing—Mrs.
Bryant, later, wasn’t sure what it was about—but when
Helen Jean flounced out, her wrath was in full blaze.

“I’m not coming home, not back here, ever!” she stormed
and slammed the door and vanished in the fog.

When Helen Jean did not return that evening, when she
did not come home all night, Mrs. Bryant was not unduly
worried. She knew her daughter had had about $3 in her

HALLOWEEN HORRI

Helen Jean Bryant left for school alone on fateful Monday

purse that morning and she figured the girl most likely had
caught a bus to Corapolis to spend the night with her
grandmother.

However, Helen Jean was not in school on Tuesday when
Dolores returned to her classes and she had not been there
on Monday, either. The grandmother had not seen her.
On Tuesday night, the pretty strawberry blonde was re-
ported to police as missing.

“Looks like she did run away, like she said she was
going to,” her mother told Police Chief Matt Zvonar.

Zvonar broadcast an alarm up and down the Beaver
Valley communities and to the Pittsburgh Missing Persons
Bureau. In the meantime Lieutenant William Hildebrand
began backtracking on the girl.

One of his first discoveries was that she had not boarded
her school bus on Iron Street on Monday morning.

“She might have missed it deliberately, if she really in-
tended to run away,” Hildebrand suggested to his chief.
“But, on the other hand, it would have been a free ride

R by C. L. LAMSON -

Three girls already had met a fiend. Two had lost their lives.

The holiday spirit vanished in shock and fear

| CONFIDENTIAL

® You can get the cash you need
| immediately ... entirely by mail.
BNo co-signers or endorsers re-
B quired. No inquiries of employers,
B relatives, or friends. Convenient
EB monthly poyments to fit your in-
come. Men and women, over 25,
B with steady income eligible, any-
gwhere in U.S. If you need $50 to

$500 extra cash for any purpose,
i moil the coupon today; we'll rush

free application blank to you.

BORROW
BY MAIL

$50% » 500!

Application Blank
SENT FREE

in Plain Envelope

(NO OBLIGATION)

City National Bank Bldg.
fl Omaha 2, Nebraska... Dept. TD-2

PP OCCUPATION... .necscovescodvddivccscaviecs’y.5

BE Husbond or
Wife's OCCUPATION. .. Soecee ce
a a oe ee oe Se ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee

Write today for FREE book, “THE LAW-TRAINED

MAN,"’ which shows how to learn law in spare time
through the famous Blackstone home-study course in business
and professional law. All instruction material furnished in-
cluding big 16-volume law library. Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)

degree awarded. Moderate cost; easy terms. Write today.
Blackstone School of Law, 225 North Michigan Ave.
Founded 1890 Dept. 152, Chicago 1, III.

GETTINGUPNIGHTS

If worried by too frequent, burning or itching
urination, Getting Up Nights, Backache, Pressure
over Bladder, or Strong Cloudy Urine, due to com-
mon Kidney and Bladder Irritation, try CYSTEX
for quick, gratifying, comforting help. 900 million
CYSTEX tablets used in past 25 years prove
safety and success. Ask druggist for CYSTEX
under satisfaction or money-back guarantee,

mM JOBS ON SHIPS

MEN WANTED (16-55) HIGH PAY
Earn while you Travel to foreign
lands. Experience not required.
Choice jobs: merchants, yachts,
luxury liners, freighters, etc.
Adventure! Life Careers can be
E. Yours! Write for FREE information
also FREE Bonus Offer.

WORLD-WIDE SEAMEN’S SERVICE
Dept. MC-! 309 W. 42 ST. New York 36, N.Y

NEW, NATURAL LIGHTWEIGHT

DENTAL PLATE

MADE FROM YOUR OLD ONE-New, Professional
Method gives on baa a 4 perfect-fitting plastic
piate—upper, ower or partial—fro eur cc

‘oose plate without an impression, CLINICAL method
means fast service, huge savings. Try new plate full 30
days at our risk, New pilates sent you Air Mail same day,

SEND NO MONEY iatetitais Wosan’ Nictens for fol particu-
CLINICAL DENTAL LAB.,335 W. Madison t.,Dept.97-B, Chicago 6, Ill

LEG SUFFERERS

Why continue to suffer without attempt-
ing to do something? Write today for New
Booklet-—“THE LIEPE METHODS FOR
HOME USE.” It tells about Varicose
Ulcers and Open Leg Sores. Liepe Methods
used while you walk. More than 60 years of

success. Praised and en-
dorsed by multitudes. FR EE
LIEPE METHODS, 3250N.G Bay Ave.,
Dept. B-45, Milwaukee 12, Wisconsin BOOKLET

EXTRA

MONEY
.» . FAST!

es
dab-it
4, ks TRADE MARK

SPLIT-SECOND DEMONSTRATION SELLS
“NO-RING’’ MIRACLE STICK SPOT REMOVER

No selling experience needed. Amaz-
L

DAB-It ON...
SRUSH OUT...

a
Beautiful label, handy non-break-
able container and self-selling doz-
en-display carton for quick retail and
wholesale profits! 2 samples $1.00,
FREE information! Write NOW!

M&M SPECIALTIES, INC.

Dept. B-11, 842 Third Avenue, New York 22, N. Y.

A moment later, the girl came by. He
called to her softly, the statement taken

by police continued. The moment she
entered, recognizing his voice, he put his
strong hands about her throat and forced
her to the floor. She was dead before he
arose. He went to the door and closed it
before returning to disrobe and criminally
assault her.

Taken to the scene to re-enact his con-
fessed crime, a short time after breaking
down, the youthful killer was confronted
by his victim’s husky stepbrother, 26-year-
old Philip De Rose. As young Makarewicz
pointed to the spot where he’d attacked
the girl, De Rose lunged toward him shout-
ing, “Let me at him! Let me at him! Let
me kill him like he killed my baby sister!”

State and local police, at the scene to
hold back the crowds of angry neighbors
collected to watch the re-enactment of the
murder, restrained the grieving De Rose.

From the crowd came a woman’s angry
scream: “Kill him! Kill him! We wom-
en should be the ones to kill him!”

Peter Makarewicz was rushed to the
Norfolk County jail at Dedham. On the
way he told Chief Folan and Lieutenant
Delay of the State Police, “I had nothing
to do with the attacks on those other girls
and women. Gerry was the only person
I ever loved. I don’t know what made me
choke her and I can’t remember much
about what happened afterward. But I do
know I never attacked any other girls. I
never did anything really wrong before in
my life.”

A further check on the youth’s back-
ground seemed to confirm his words. The
Reverend Hippolyte Zawalich, pastor of
St. Peter’s Polish Church where Peter had
attended Masses regularly for years and

received the sacraments every month, said:

“Peter served Mass only last Sunday. He
was one of the nicest boys I’ve known. He
developed a slight inferiority complex as
he started to gain height so rapidly, but I
talked to him and we straightened things
out. Any time he had a problem he’d come
to me and talk it over.”

He had not, however, gone to Father
Zawalich with the greatest problem of his
young life—his brooding unhappiness over
the rebuffs of the pretty dark-eyed girl
he’d loved since their grammar school
days together.

On Monday, November 8th, Peter was
taken before Judge Gilbert W. Cox in Dis-
trict Court at Dedham and arraigned on
a charge of first-degree murder. As we go
to press, Peter’s defense attorney presented
a motion to the court requesting that the
boy be arraigned in juvenile court from
which the public and the press are barred.
The defense made this request “so that
nothing might be published which could in-
flame the minds of prospective jurors.” In
granting the motion District Judge Gilbert
W. Cox asserted that the statute granting
juveniles arraignment without publicity
“does not exempt a capital case.”

In the meantime the tree-lined streets of
the little town of Norwood will.continue to
be patrolled after the 10 o’clock nightly
curfew, and women and girls of the com-
munity are warned to remain behind closed
doors unless accompanied by males. Chief
Folan is satisfied with Peter Makarewicz’s
confession and the boy’s statement that he
had never molested another girl. The chief
believes there is still a sex-crazed man
at large, the man responsible for the other
reported crimes, and that he may strike
again at any time. oo¢

Halloween Horror

(Continued from page 45)

“The poor kid!” Blair sighed. “Tried to
put up a fight.”

There was one clue at the murder scene,
a clear set of tire tracks, left in bare earth
which had not entirely firmed after recent
rains. Blair paced up and down the lane,
an electric lantern in his hand. No other
tracks had been left in the road since the
rains. The tire prints must be those of the
killer’s car.

Corporal David A. Drenning made casts
of the tracks. In the meantime, Sergeant
Blair set up a headquarters in the Cone-
maugh Firemen’s Club. There he, Chief
Fetsko, Detective Chief Reed, Coroner
Joseph Goveker and District Attorney Fred
Fees mapped the first moves to ferret out
the killer.

As a result of this brief meeting, state
police threw up roadblocks on the few
highways leading out of the area across
the mountains. City officers checked the big
railroad yards in the city and began sifting
their files to cull out all men with past rec-
ords of arrests for sex offenses. In Johns-
town, only a couple of miles .to the south,
Police Chief Charles R. Griffith set his de-
tectives to work on a similar task.

In Conemaugh High School on Friday
morning, County Detective Chief Reed
talked with the girl who had escaped the
clutches of the big scar-faced man the
night before.

“He passed me several times,” she said.
“Then, all of a sudden, he jumped at me,
but I got away. He’s someone I never saw
around town till a couple of days ago.”

In questioning other pupils of the high
school, Reed found no less than a dozen

who had seen the scar-faced man in Cone-
maugh during the past two or three days.
All agreed he was a stranger in town.

Shortly before noon on Friday, a state
police detail scooped up a husky young
hitchhiker, trying to thumb a ride on the
outskirts of Johnstown. A trooper asked
where he had come from, where he was
going.

“Who cares?” the youth responded. “It’s
a free country, ain’t it? I can go where I
please, can’t I?”

“It’s a free country, all right,” the
trooper answered. “We intend to keep it

. that way—and safe, too, safe for little kids

to be out of their homes. What’s your
name?”

“Bill Jones.” :

They took him to Sergeant Blair’s special
headquarters in Conemaugh and searched
him, finding papers that identified him as
Roger Eichorn, with an address in Pitts-
burgh. When he learned he had been
picked up for interrogation as a possible
suspect in the murder of a little girl, a
slaying which had the steelmen, the rail-
roaders and all the rest of the community
ready to lynch the killer, young Eichorn
talked fast and freely.

He’d quarreled with his girl friend back
in Pittsburgh, he said, had swiped $20 from
his dad and left home. Thursday night, he
claimed, he’d been in Pittsburgh, leaving
the city at Friday’s crack of dawn. He had
stayed off the main highways leading east,
he said, fearful his parents would put out
an alarm on him and he would be picked up.

Chief Fetsko let the youth cool his heels
in the lockup while police in Pittsburgh
checked both his address and his story, and,
certain that Eichorn was not. their man,
they pressed their hunt for the slayer in
other directions.

There were not many men in Conemaugh
with records of previous sex offenses. All
these were tolled off, one by one, as they

Elsa

| May
 Etiqe

Bool

AT LAST—an eti:
this subject from
point. In this book
world celebrities »
the correct thing
well as the father
the exact informa
fresh approach o:
Here in clear, str:
are the answers to
quette problems. H
suggestions on goo
rants—in. church—;
street—and when

Only

The price of this b
ease no matter whx

the door to achie\
costs only $1.00 anc
Take advantage of

bargain. Mail cou;
book—TODAY.

Mail Cou;

Soeeeecccccccocccves

¢ BARTHOLOMEW HCU:
3 205 E. 42nd St., New )
¢ Send me postpaid a
3 WELL’S ETIQUET
$ $1.00

3 NAME. .

@ STREET..............
e

COCOC OOO OO OO DeoeODEe%

Stop Making
Mistakes in.,. |

Ms your English holding you b.,
ence, win new friends, make mo
ENGLISH. Free 32-page boo}
more effective speaker, writes.
going back to achool, New, eas:
a day, Coste little. For your Fj
letter. No obligation—no gule-:

‘CAREER INSTITUTE, Dept. E-i¢

RUPTU

Get Relief This

Why try to worry along
peed sehr _ontep heavily «
rge opening—fail to hold
Cluthe. No eg-straps or ci
adjustable pad holds at real

dy | peoumaget with instan
case of strain Cannot slip »
Light. Wate: proof. Can be
amazing FREE book, “Advi
details of liberal truthful 6
endorsements from grateful
hood. Write today to:

Cluthe Sons, Dept. 16, Blo


e ‘
oe Y x
™ 4
+e NJ
.

3 »

GQgEEN, James, black, hanged Gettysburg, Paey 15-185 36
: , ~-°.* GETTYSBURG COMPILER, NOV. 22, 1852.

GREEN,

* SAMES
«+ For thé Merder of
| «@ SAMUEL MARS,

-. Near Benudersville, in Adams
ee County, on the Ist day of
Lae “ “April, 1852. one:

|. Wepdict, “Guilty of Marder in the
pan First Degree.” . *y
lg motion FoR”A NEW TRIAL.
‘The trial of Jgmes Green, for the murder of
el Mars,(both coléred) in Menallen tawn-
: ip, on the first of April, 1852, was cummé@hced

> Yn the Coart of this cognty on Thursday wiorn-
ing la . *

~

oe

thirty-seven juré?s called, the follow-
ere etiidoegend uly sworn: *
% nuel Neidich; Jehn Coshun, Amos
Magipie » Joseph Jo Kerr, Sebastian Waeffer.
Siave! Diiter, enry Felty, George B. Thom-
"gs, WRiaklin Hersh, Henry Mayer, George
Chritzinan, and Geosga Hagerman. *
.” Mr. Reed, for the Commonwealth, opens.
“ Michael Warmer, affirmed.—I knew both
“* Green and Mars; was in their company Ist
- ApriHast. That morning Green oct tithe boy
down to tell me to come over; he wanted to
seo me, or rather the old lady. He said he
wanted me to tell Naney Woods to fetch her
bundle back to his house ; I told her; she said
the would. and then the wagon started, (Paul
.. Bowers driving) at the house of John Wooas
* ge over the Hill; and John Woods,
~ Samael Mars and Paul Sowers, all started with
4. the wagon. John Woods inoved to the Hilk
_ Green called for John Wouds to come back ;
he did not hear ; the two men stasted to go over;
: after they got out to the big road, Green hal-
loed for Nancy Woods to come back; ste
eame back ; Green said she would not go back.
I told him to Jet her go. Green said their
_ heads hung together, there will bea revolution
reg the Hill to-day. He said their neads hung
together, there would bea revolution up; and
then he said there would bea revolution ou
- the hill to-day. Green asked me to go along.
== Bteld him T could not. We call it the big
Hill, aboet 14 miles from Bendersvitle ia this
county. Wayon started from Wouds’, 24 niles
from where he moved to. He was talking
~ aboot Nancy Woods. 4
«Rs The family had started —she came back.
_-- Rachael Woods, swurn.—I ain the wife of
= Joba Woods; were moving on the ist April
Jast. . [ saw Saraue) Mara that morning beture
we went up to the Fill.

anoraing ;
, Hal. as said he wouid break Sain Mars’.
. plans ap to-day, the God d—n infernal rascal.
asked him how? He said he would show
>a, -_|t was going up the Hill. Green asked
Bars if be was a man? Mars said he was a
span, Green said he was a manwo. Mars
=. tuld Green he wanted noshing to do with him;
then Green shot hin with a pistol. Green
vs. sald he had a revenge at Mars, aud Green said
it was aut aow, They were standing face to
face before he told him he wanted nothing to
dv» with hiin. Green went cut when he fired
iS the pistol. Mars tollowed hii, and threw a
eS @tick at him. Mara turned to come back to
the house and fell. Mars lived about 14 hours
efter, Thin was about IL o’clock. ‘They
# were in the roomatourhouse. I was standiny
4: bebind Mars; had been cutting the pies, was
i. — nothing then. Mars said Green would
not killany more men about 15 minutes before
he died. I saw Green in the house go up
towards Mars closeto him. Mars pushed him
back with bis open hand, and said | want

%,

tay* he
oe

P I saw Greene
ad atalk to him going up to the:

the wagon a little forward; T'was in the kitch-
en when the pistol was dischargedj.don't re-
member of any body being in thekitghen then.

Daniel Kline, sworn,—I1 was at the house on
the.big hill; I heard: Green say hesfeared no
man living; said so to Mars; Mara@owed he

: | did not téar for one man, and did not care for

him, Saw Jim Green having the pistol; had
itin his hand; he shot Marsy he shot very
quick; Green went out; Mars went ‘after him,
picked up a stick, ran about two rods, threw it
ter him: Mars tufned to come back, and fell;
reen came back; 1 went out and went up'to
him, and said, Jim, what made yoa shoot
| Sam without a reason? he said, I shot him;
before Green shot 1 saw Mars put up his hand
and say, stay away from me; Green was se?
close to Mars then; he took the pistol forward;
he must have raised it up some.
>. I was in the room when he shot.
Gharily Sanders, sworn.—{ went with Green
to Woods’ on the hill; going along the road
up the hill, J heard Green say to Rachael

room I saw Mars Jay his hand on Green and

Green said, by God you are nut going to push
me about this way, to Mars; saw Green with

t heard pistol going off.
>. Was standing rather against joint of the
door; wus tore in the kitchen than room.
John Woods, sworn.—1 was at imny own house
/ on the firstof April last, on the big hill; the
i first L heard was, Green asked Sain Mars
> whether he was a man; Sam suid he was, and
| feared no one man; then Green stepped up close
| to him, and suid, by God I fearno tan hiving;
Sam Mars shoved him back with his open
hand, and told him he did not want to have
; anything to do with him; after that be shot
‘hin as soon as itcould be done. Fle brought
hia right hand round opposite there; (abdomen)
| saw the pistul in his pocket before this oc-
curred, a half hour before; Green went out;
Mars followed after, picked up a stick, follow-
ed after about two rods, threw it, turved to
core back and fell; | helped him up and he
| fell again; then Green caine back; I told him
| he would string hemp for thag he said, (don’t
' care, | expect to hang any how; then he said
jhe would goto town and give himself up.
Green is my step-father.
4. Was standing ratherbetween, He did
not hold his hand on his hip. He etirried that
pistol 5 ot 6 years, as he said to defend him-
aelf against any body that would interrupt him.
He left them.
Charles Myers, affirmed.—1 brought Green
on 2d April to jail. Onthe way coming down,
says I, Jim, | expected this would turn out
with you this way, some day, with your pistol.

| ou

I had to do it in my own detence. I then told
| Jim, says 1, Jim, you know there was no use
of your doing a thing of that kind, you know
Sam Mara was never very quarrelsome. I
thea tuld hin, you know Sam would not have
hurt you; he said he did not know what he
would do, he was a great deal stoater man than
(0) he was. 1 then asked him, was you and
Sain Mara at variance about any thing, or what
they were quarreling about. He then said a step
daughter of his was hired at Sain’s mother's,
and he did not want her to stay there; that he
thought Sam wanted her for his own accom-
modations, and she appeared to want tu stay
there. He said he did shoot him, and was sor-
ry forit. He was determined to puta stop to it.

Nancy Woods, sworn.—lI was at this moving;
T went, pp oo to the hill; I was tn the house.
The first. thing I heard, Green asked Mars if
he was aman? He eaid he was, and feared
no one.miun. Green stepped up to Mara, and
Mars took the back of his hand and pushed him
away. Green swore by his maker not to push

. nothing to do with you. f
~ 9$.° Mara was a middling Yarge man. |
have told all that was said; { cid not hear

|

him tihat way; thenhe shothim. | Afterhe had
stot, Green went out. Mare followed him ;

Woods, Sam Mars did not speak to me to-day; |
she said, didn’t he? he said, no, never mind, ; threw after him ; he turned back and fell down.
| ew il lay his plane; then on the hill in the; Jim did not come back again; Jim went to

Then he told me, [aim sorry it was done, but :
| 6 feet high; his form indicated a man of great

pretty soon after the load was unloaded; dreve big hill, from a house about a mile below Ben- | T i] E

|

say he did not want anything to do with him; | stop before nor after he fell.

}
'

pistol in his right hand, and as I was going | Charity; they stood out just at the room door

|
!
\
'
|

dersville. Paul Sowers hauled the gooda.

John Woods, Paul Sowers, James Green, and } ===
Samuel Mars, took the goods out of the house,

and put ttemonthe wagon. [ saw them drink;

had liquotina gallon jug ; saw Sam Mars, Jim
Green, ahd’ Paul Sowers at the house where Mo
moved from. I went with Rachael, Nancy, | some
Charity Sanders and Jim Green; Samuel Mars,

John Woods, and Paul Sowers went with the i
wagon ; us peopte got there first. The wagon WE
went another road ; we did not go by any pub-| scriber:
lig road. I was there ; all helped to unload and | are info
b#ag things into the house ; all the men took a, 98 by 6
drink around upthere. i was there when the

pistol was fired off; | was not in when it began. aad
Sam followed Jim around, and Jim told Sam | Govern

to stand-back ; Samm swore and hit against the
door. Sam swore by Jesus Christ, and hit
against the door with his fist; Sam pashed Jim
over against.gpe ; 1 was standing at the win-
dow; he kitéeked him, I gyess; he kind a
leaned ; then Jim fired the pistol.. Jim went
out, round a little pen inthe yard. Mars fol-
lowed after, picked up a broom handle, and

ing anc
a
day las
tysbarg

Geor;
Jacob |
Clellan

A. Sw:
Wao. R

tysburg
on the
chosen

abe

Benderaville to give himself up; Jim did not

*. | was out in the yard before I went in,
and when 1 went in all were in but Nancy and
as I went into the kitchen. Churity and Nan-
cy did not come into the room atall. Jim told
me in the yard that he was going to Benders-
ville to give himself up.

Thomas Blocher, sworn.—I! live in Benders-
ville, acting justice of peace. On Ist April last,
Green came to my office and called me out, |
I went out; Green said semething serious on}
the hill; he did not surrender himself at that
tiie; I sent him to the Prosecuting Aftorney,
to Mr. Reed at Getysburg; I sent him with
Mz. Johnston, Jin was anxious to come; I
sent a few lines to the Prosecuting Attorney;
Green came to my house between 12 and 1
o’clock; gave the lines to Mr. Johnston.

re. Adid not make out a commitment; ap-
plication was made to me fora warrant attei-
wards; I issued one, and next-day about dark,
he was brought to my office. ‘This is the pis-
tol he have ime the first day he came. :

James G. Reed, sworn.—As near as I can re-
collect, Johnston and prisoner came to my of-
fice; Johnston delivered a note from Esquire |’
Blocher, that this matier had taken place in
Bendersville, and he did not know what to do
with Green, ‘They did not know whether
Mars was shot; Green could not say whether
he had actually hithim. From representations
made by Green, | advised Green to go back to
Esquire Blocher. Afterwards I advised Green
to go to a justice in Gettysburg, and have the
investigation here; that he declined doing.

Dr. Mutama.—1 \vad seen Samuel Mars, de-
ceased; he was a large muscular man, neasly

that of .
Willian
tion of

We |
Tharsd:
cidedly
“not slay

sar-(
menced
cheap, :

papers p
beautifu
purpose
ry Sato
srs. Mc
able in:
strength. I would suppose 160 or 170 pounds| ~
weight, perhaps more,

Jesse Couk.—Mars was a_ stout, big man; HW
think he was considered a man of great
strength —a strong man. I would suppose his
weight 180, or may be more, from his appear-
ance. I would suppose him about 25 years of
age; Jim mear fifty. :

>. Mars was not married. a

Thomas Blocher.—Knew Mars; about 25 or
26 years did; wasa strong Jooking man; wt.
130, rather more than less. I was present as
one of the jurors; took part in the examination
before the jury relating to the occurrence; I}
was foreman of the jury. Paul Sowers, Dan-
iel Kline, and Rachael Woods were examined
before the jury.

Ithink there was no declaration made of
that kind (about revenge) in Paul Sowers’ tes-
timony. “

™. Fthink the question in reference to that
was pot put to him. ay le

Rachael Woods did testify in reference to
Jim having vengeance. .. Sowers was the first | ODF 32

The
azine is
able one
tains a «
Flower
wood-c:
ter is of
volume
per ano

X hc. Dah

| A Me
structio:
the mos
for som:
doltar }
designe


GREEN,Dowling, black, hanged Pittsburgh, Pa., July 23, 1907.

"NEGRO HANGS FOR KILLING HIS WIFE: CHANTING A HYMN, HE CHEERFULLY
WALKS TO THE SCAFFOLD; Pittsburg, Pa., July 23 - Dowling Green, a
negro, was hanged here today for the murderof his wife. Green
marched cheerfully to the scaffold singing 'In the Cross I Know I'm
Anchored.' Dowling Green, who was hanged here today, was convicted
of killing his wife. Green is a negro, 28 years old, and jealousy

is supposed to have been the cause for the murder, When on trial

for his life, Green insisted upon going on the witness stand and
telling the jury the story of his crime despite the protests of his
counsel who had been appointed by the court to defend him. During
the recital, Green became very dramatic and, leaving the witness
box, crawled along the court room floor to depict how he had

stalked his victim and her alleged paramour, After hearing the tale
the jury required but 20 minutes to bring in a first degree verdict,
Another negro, Angelo Jackson, also was convicted of murder, who was
to have suffered the death penalty on the same scaffold with Green,
but yesterday his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in the
Western penitentiary by Governor Stuart," :

DAILY OKLAHOMAN, July 2), 1907, page 3. (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, )


%
>
£

F;

| pt of the room, they were swearing so hard.
told Mr. Cook the same ! testified to.

| Egalked about it.
P picked op the stick at the door. Square roow;
foc opened into kitchen, near the corner.

“Mars there ; when } wentin | wentin through

not k!l}#ay more men about 15 minutes before
he die I saw Green in the house go up
wards” Mars closetohim. Mars pushed him
back with his open hand, and said I want
nothing to do with yon.
‘4. Mars was a middling Jarge man. |
have told all that was said; I did not hear
Mars swear any. Mars did not give (rreen a
hard push. I never told Jesse Cook that I
was not behind Mars; I did not tell him Mars
ve Green ahard push; never told any body
so. I did not tell Mr. Cook there was hard
wearing, loud swearing, and that both of them
swore. -1 never said I had a notion to get

]
don’t mind as I did tell Mr. Cook Green said
he had vengeance and now it was ont. Don’t
think it was more than a week after Cook and
Mars followed about 2 rods;

saac Woods was in the room at the time.
Green stuod next the kitchen coor. Boy was
standing by the window. Greemasked Mars
if he was a war. TI heard no conversation be-
fore that. I saw Green all the time he wag in
the room. No dancing in the room betore that
happened.

_ Don’t remember that I did hear whistling ;
I did see them have whiskey, but did not see
drinking nor hear whistling. Paul Sowers,
Charity Sanders, Daniel Cline, Nancy Woods,
Joho Woods, I think all were in the same room.
Isaac Woods was in the room also. I don’t
mind of any body being in the kitchen; the
kitchen door was open; two windows in the
Toom. Isaac was standing at window towards |
the kitehen door; | saw Isaac at window when
the pistol was fired; | can’t tell where the rest
stood,

Mara had his coat off and sleeves rolled up
when this took place; don’? mind whether
Green had or not; did nat see Green with cvat
off ard sleeves rolled up; saw jug in Mars’ |
hand; I saw* them drink at the house before |
the movirg started; Mars and Green drinking.

Paul Sowers, sworn,—l was atJohn Woods’ :
on Ist of April Jast; I saw both Green and |

the kitchen into the room of the house on the |
big*hill; | heard Green gay he feared no man‘
living; Mars said he did not fear one man, and
did not care for hin; | saw Green up elose a-
inst Mars; Mars took his hand and pushed
im buck, and told him to stay away from hia |
and not bother him; then [ passed out into the
kitchen, and justus 7] went out of the room
door I heard Green say, ‘keep away trom me;’
ane no soerer than [ heard that word I heard |
the erack of a pistol, and then Green ran out |
through the kitchen past me, and said, 1 have
ol my revenge now. Mars ran after him and
Tllewed him; pigked upa email stick, ran a-
bont two rods fromthe house and threw it af-
terhim; Mars turned to come back and fel!;
Woods helped him to near the house on eons
hay; he lay on that; Green came back; Joba
Woods told hiin he would streteh henip for
that; he said he did not eure a dainn, he ex-
ted to hang any how. Daniel Cline asked
im what made him shoot Mars without a rea-
son? and he said, J shot him, and then wert
across the hill towards Bendersville. This was
about |1 o'clock in the day. I saw Grecn Ko
up close to Mars, and he pusbed him away;
he pushed him away with his open hand.
bi. Lthink [ said he said he had his revenzo

Coroner's jury about 6 or 7 hours after death.
I did say, I think, that Green said he would
have to pay for it; | know now he said so; |
was a good deaf bothered then, and can’t tell
whether J said so or not.
ing passed, or I had not told it; [think I told
the words there pretty near as | dic here; there
was whiskey there in a jug; wag about a gal-
lon jug; don’t know how much was in it: [!

Mara and Greeu drink at tle house from :

whieh Woods moved;

I did not see them:

#nok at the house on the hill; this happesed yw

_teling; ‘she said they swore so.

I cemembar ic hace with the matter,

The first thing I heard, Green asked Mars if
he wasa man! He eaid he was} and feared
no one man. Green stepped up to Mars, and
Mars took the back of his hand and pushed hito
away. Green swore ty his maker not to push
him that way; thenheshothim. Afterhe had
shot, Grreen went out. Mars followed hii ;
Mars picked up a stick, threw it afier him 5
Mars turned to come back towards the house,
and fell; John Woods helped himop. Green
suid he had revenge, and it was outnow. He
said taat after Mars had laid down and Green
bad come back.

rt. Don’t know how he come to tell that;
he told that tu Rachael Woods. Rachael was
standing there; T was standing there too;
Rachael said he wou!d hang for that. Tle said
he expected to hang. When he came back, he
said he had his revenge,and it was out now.
He said he would hany for that; he said he
expected too. Mars said Jim would never kill
another man. f am step daughter of Green;
not good friends since April.

John Woods. — (Pistol shown.) That is
Green’s pistol, and the cne he shot Mars with.

Dr. Mumma, sxorn.-—Was caiied upon by
Esq. Blocher, to assist; after Larrived Coroner
arrived, and requested me to assist him ; £ did.
Contents of pistol entered the belly about two
inches above the navel, a little to the lelt, pas-
sing back towards the spinal column, towards
back bone. Found shot; there might have been
sings. We took out some five shot; wounded
ins the peritoneum ; the lining of the belly. —
The shot was the cause of his dvath 3 the bleed-
ing, internal and some external.

a. Shot glanced after it struck the hack bone.
Hand held something bigher than the wound.

Commonwealth res/s, :

Mr. MeConaughy opens for the Prisoner.

Jesse Cook, affirmed.— have known Green
abouteight years. Eunderstoo! he came from
Roppahannock county, Virginia. J think he
earried a pistul ever sinre he came into our
ncighborhood, eight years ago last spring; I
saw the pistol frequently in his panis pocket,
He worked for me about the first work he did
after he came into the neighborhood, and offand
on until his arrest. I think he carried the nis-

, tol atl the time; he told me he carried this pis-

tol to defead himself against kidnappers.—
Catharine Payne wag considered his sister in
the netyhborhood. -L was one of the persons
that carried on the prosecotion agains! ‘Thom.

| as Finegam‘et al ;-1 think this was about seven |

years ag903 she lived about a uiile from Ben-
dersville, Jim lived in that neiehbarhood ; don’t
know that he had any particular home; was
a laboring man; IT had a conversation witi

Rachael Woods some short time after, about |

two or three weeks after the murder. She said
she wae not behind the deceased. L asked ker
if these men had been quarreling; she said they
were not. I asked her then if she syw Green
Shoot Niars, she said she did. I told her then
it had boew represented that if the contents of

the pistol’ had gone through Mars it would have |

killed her, and consequently she could not have
seen him shoot, being behind. sshe said that
was not the case; that she was off ty cne side

| cutting pies, and that she Mad a notion to go out |
[asked her then what induced

several times.
her to think of going out if they were not quar-
I asked if
they both swore? sho said they did. I asked
Ler what they said ? She said Green said he was

nut afraid-of any man, and that Mare said he was

, : nC not atiaid of any man neither; and Mars gave
}now; don’t remember whether I said any thiag |

before the Coroner about having his revenge, |
1

Green a:push, to use her langnage, a hard
posh, go Ke did; and then Green shot him, and
went out, and Mars followed him. I think that
is all the conversation, as nears I dan recollect.
I positively declined having any thing to dy
] served a eubpeena on Char-
ity Sanders ; she asked me who sent the sub-
pena? } told her MeConaughy, on behalf of
James Green, the prisoner; abe said McCon-

have anything todo with hiin,’ and. she did not
like his green spectacles. r “8
Isaac Woods, sworn.—I was with them ; John
vods" fliiting; Went op to the house on the

oy

Pe re a
ae

ne? ts
=e iit Be Sa AE Re?

no aE IE EERE IRIE" a cen oan

| Tahink there was no declaration made of
that kind (about revenge) in Paul Sowers’ tes-
i timrony.
| >4. J think the question in reference to that
| was not put to him.
j Rachael Woods did testify in reference to
i Jim having vengeance. Sowers was the first
Witness examined; he was not reealled after
! Rachael was examined, Rachael was the on«
,ly one at that time that testified in reference to
‘having revenge.

Dr, Mumma.—I was present at the Inquest ;
| did not hear Paul Sowers say so; I was busi-
ly engaged at the time, sewing up the man.
/ Of course I soust have had the opportunity ; 1
‘heard one speak in reference to Green’s re-
venge.

an
hear it.

Defendant rests.

Commonwealth resumes.

Jehn bWoods.—Isaac Woods was inthe room.
Isaac was looking out of the window. I was
/in there all the time. Mars did not run Green
round the room. fle did not push him nearly
over before he shot.

Paul Sowers.—He cid not run Green round
; the room; he did not push him. 1 was look-
hing at him, :
| ancy }¥oods.—I{ did not see Mars run Green
round the room, nor push hitn nearly over.
| he testimony was closed on Friday morn-

ing, When Mr. Reed, for the Commonwealth,
‘addressed the jury,and was followed by Messrs.
| Cooper and Durkee for the Prisoner—Mr.
Hepburn closing, for the Commonwealth.

Judge Fisher then charged the jury upon the
law in reference to mnider, and pointed to the
Most material parts of the testimony in the case.

The jury retired at about 54 o’clock. After
having been out some five hours, (until 103
/P. M.,) the Court was again called, the jury re-
-turned,anda verdictof “GUILTY OF MUR-
DERIN THE FIRST DEGREE” rendered.

A motion fora new trial, on the ground that
the verdict was notin accordance with the-evi-
dence, was then made by the Prisoner’s coun-:
sel—the motion to be argued at the January
Court. The next Orphan’s Court would
| doubtless have been fixed upon for the argu-
‘nent. but an Argument Court at York will de-
‘wand Judge Fisher's presence there at that time.

Si eee a os

President Pierce’s Cabinct.

Some persons, it seems, are already busying
theinselves in selecting a cabinet for the Pres-
jidentelect. ‘The following names have been
L sugested 3 they present an array of talent and
qualifications from which a strong cabinet might
(readily be formed:

;  Bigler, Buchanan and Dallas, of Penn’a.
| Cass, of Michigan.
|

They might have said it, and I did not

Vix, Dickinson, Van Buren, (John,) Marcy,

and O'Connor, of New York.
| Gen. Houston, of Texas.
! Allen and ‘odd, ef Obio.
} Atherton and Burke, of New Hampshire.
{ RJ. Walker, of Washington, D.C.
} . Douglas and Shielde, of Mlinois.
Davis, of Indiana. = :
| Stockton and J. R. Thomson, of N. Jersey.
| “Hunter and Wise, of Virgioia.

Cobb, ot Georgia,

Bancroft, of Massachusetts.
| Soule, of Louisiana.
| Marshall, of California.
| Whether President Pierce will take his cab-
_inet from this list, or }ook around for other good
“and capable men, we know not, . It is a inat-
ter for himself, looking to the welfare of our
- National Union, the public interests, and the
; harmouy of the united Democracy of the whole
| country, and we doubt net he will, as in all
| other of his public acts, determine it ina man-
, ner creditable te himself and satisfacto:y to the
great body of the people. Franklin Pieres has
| proved himself fully equal to aay position in

t

‘aughy was not of their party; she would not | which he has yet been placed; and we have

no fears that he will fail in the one to which
he has just been called, with such oreat anan-

imity, by the people of the United States.—1.

‘ Wreat Chester Republican. _

 STUCTIO:

the mos
for som
doltar |
designe:
our yor
with the
ers, and
street,
vance,
sor
We a
Petearsc
Philade!
Parlor;
Ton Ra
tions, fr.
graved b
to peruse
Philadel
create a
Stowe’s
mense 8
From the
take the f.
the chara.

“The ¢
and maste
the equa
most deb
blighting
locality ;
where th
There is
this book
some infl
gratulate
datnaged,
fairy stru
toundatio

Price 5
better ar

bound in «

Seque
A. D.
New Yor

“Uncle 7

White's I
‘Uncle 1
copy from
lime to re
Of-it. we
being full
depicting

ship and «

as being a
toend.

sae-Th
postage J:
in the han
ready in J

Reg A
number o
the testim
against Ja
a week's

‘also comp

8ame reas

eS The Re.

election t!

four cone
aldermen

of sixteeu

yar Fo:


Maier Ss nT,

i et

ty-six years

BOO iL
retire.
‘

_ aot tg TE ATT We taK NOSES, ‘Lhe firs doer County,
. andonly pain-killing plaster, Nowe Kidge southeast of FI : ; sag Z,
j New 4 7) unter’s Run. acpual work
’ original, instantaneous, ppfallible ] Larrterstoy . Unt work wi “neegn ZN.
Dreeearss. safi Prin v1 “hi nh MP TP vives Cisahe ue ates iinet Lj. dilatoni nas : faa cd Tew.
eA aie tigh and W e. Utt 6 and vastly Pits Bishi ro, : wy ae I. ~/ i botifh rT
Ee : sppe aSfers. S Jittles y : ee 4 |,
f Se che céeD ie for > UT postage oo Ea AfeK nj rhiktuwn cee Ne heZ id pa i Prtinaaionse 3 4 .
Mile be found | 7 UG AND CHEMICAL Co., Bostom/ Maas. 1 yep tA prrrteeiees wees ute mtended to connect | ‘The stran
See be func MeSherrystowa... LS sclncn ene th yAay with the Delaware river, | the farmer |
ee. aT’ Marv's Hall, '?n 1769 a second sury ’ this
t WED. BIN OTL, eisedeticset vadhettyetts t sound survey of this route was “TY don’t
Pee Of ench DAP Mobawitied iy ccesccsc gis ee vm | conducted under the direction of the A 4 AF
Ms he will be Kent Al “f PN s AEN atepenye 13 | can Phitosuphic Ae pny ‘he Ameri- | Clared the f:
| A’ FORD , Mont Alto, Pranktin cotutys ye tat | ssophical Society; but work Was “Nor I.”
iB: | a Lj o | Mountain east of Narrows... ; +04 only commenced on the Chesapeake and awful :
| Moiintain west of Narnawe . A oe Delaware Canal, 13) miles lon 8 140 t rascal es:
} r All h N Mt. Hoify-apiings, Cumb. connec, 10 | aad subsequently suspended The li vast: *Midessal
Z IL™, D. D.S t € ew Styles. Mumma: burg... Seay ii coy yal relocated in Is22, and ramaleiad inten tive ane
f pie New Hisbae  ge ebeey va sixty-tive years after the if a a . Dart, §
: Newmauicc., Ss srevenseisn vended on Inade, and twenty-five véwve nite went wee es be
| EERO FIRST-CLASS WORK AND DON'T New.(oxtond:. 9.00 cn oe ee ihe Peargehen i The Chesapeake and Ohio i “He aie't
e ’ nee Onto ee ie Canal, With which Washin ton ‘ \. sery ;
| BE AFRAID Td BUY [T . he Grove, Cumbe: land county 7 gris identiied in its carly ntazes, ett Diana oe a,
—; huven Rock. sie... a Wale originally herignegl to furnish ; aid f i ,
} Sanne aime : Rock-Top (at Cashtown! 0000" 1200) water route corres Ondine ver : 5 7 Leaiy a Despite Fan
. WD) s<sinece cg 1? Lo : if ik very closely with | should slee
READY Preiig ae TUE ROXEL & BRO. respect sabrina h oe tas Say the live followed by Hrauldock's expedition snoring pa
F S fally aniowdeeba' the ict tO), rox} i ery REE Aterbe dss sa neant ue es thastaned as the salen. yee out lie (os
b ‘ well-known Truxet eatablishine nt ae colt gna Ross rifle eis HONESAS S48 pbb Byveek dens, OTL] fram vy x : 5 : “— : Ontempluted a line | he went to be
oe dle street, Gettysburg, and te publicin ges |e ae? ork county “TEE ET a Oil, District of Columbia, to Somme time
E that they wwe prepared te put up ali work in ee, SEAMS cee, vf - edb was Vigerously commenced. in| bolt upright
nein sty t :tiueste : PONAS Go Aia Tage oT rte “an Se. cued sO x iles + +
F andat much lower Pilea. The ely work, To Tan ros igs ee oe OO Lainie train Camber ae : Gs pe Sate, os
dd ve UN CUUB co eeee seseeeees cesses cues, os e ” fe MOV DECrEane oO Ceourve mn kite
=) - BUGGIES, PHAETONS, DAYTON WAG-| << 10% Brousgi’s Hs | were aperted, sean eT eats ane
é A) ONS, JUMP-SEAT CARRIAGES, | ie York county... 000 2 ci ey > ae sy lela. < and postpone- | the floor ah
* : , Mow Grove... dae, IME Che early: chmile’ of materi ‘tte ae
i SURREYS, SKELETON WAG.- *York....... tease 970 fanagnitnde, and "a in cau ils Ot material | peered inte t
; OCW terete Ver pe NAG uly the shorter and che:- A shad
si ONS, &C. &C Highest point ‘on Chantarch,.o co” S64 Fer Tes, intended main! ty ee
’ ne teal ai Chambersbur turn: ost ot wuuty to serve local pur- | the floor towa
Also In senson a large Collection of very pike (east ot Newman’. ° Poses, fo tuost of which rete n
ish and dur: ETNA Tce fvery atyl ; Sort TT UL Scie aca wheee ee Lda] bee vated veterence has alread The farn
and durable CULSFERS, Highest puint on Gettysbur nd Shi : ASO | Geen mia ‘eo Were tiuished in ‘weomparatiy i not h a 1er
sia ; hee sand Ship- brief peri Band hea aratively | 0 esitate a
8 | of all Sa, aE NT Gt Hlchuer wt Py nedkeounty linn ! 2,100 Wt i dL. Ringwait in Kuitway | dark form and
. of all kinds done promptly : By tn 3 shest point on Gree, Ridwe Dvetih “y avled, ‘ debs 3 i
JRER, hr pele nak the pabite 2 att age cae south of Chambershu re nie 2 000 Lie cu eee helt onan i.
: ‘rms before Purchasing elsewhere Highest point on Cold S . 44°) mw { Some Indian N : ie
| ra oes Springs road amos. light ! quick P
({ mile east of springs: a hie rosans fn a.
W nin: : Ps crcase en Pet ie ates be A8 800n as
M ey c TROXEL tj BRO. in : Dee ae the South M sunitain OW SPELLED AND Hoy PRONOUNCED. Mrs. Green co:
; ay 8, 87. tf Seventy os r sultan." ‘ gree: . i
es y Frank tin y. one saacoPe A writer i Nevence Suys that Kansas wiunae el
{ Sprites and A Mito rond ee eee | SORT le red) bee os
4 aud, H. pronounced “Kan-saw.”’ “Kan. Land sakes
jley 5 NEW SPRING USUMMER iean tide at Baltimore. sas” is the French spelling, and the ‘37 | 9: Ply the.
t Sa should be silent. In Lier ‘So it is!” g
, . Jenutenant Long’s iF hie’
y A y seh es PASEE Secs. at, : g’s re- The minis
; . Doctor's Story. ena = capereton to the Rocky Moun- lodger, who ha
; ; [ HOW GREEN'S HODY Gut TO VANOv ER a ik 1819, the name is spelled “Konza.”? and now caugh:
3 Bee * About fi Pas vee auras Long wrote, Lewis & Clark decided (me thee
‘ ‘bout forty years ago, a negra ‘iia: hs that Arkansas should be Arkansaw aus, wor
‘ fi Wr murder at Gettysburg, Fait the With a hundred Indi ee and so | Maine, He’s j:
F H LL THE LATEST STYLES physivians of that town determined to dis hearer } a an names of streams The next mi
' ve a ter Sechody for dissection, A young Thea preohaien Taylor, a surveyor, as early eee upon
‘ Seo _ | Over doctor, who has since re tect neg {ot Ul, wrote “Pequeh y, Land
’ 1 ite ree as since re te es: = ; qUéhaw, now P a: ‘ ’
oe SUITINGS AND PANTINGS district in Congress, was peneans Pane Peixtan for Paxion; Phsata ph Tent cried Farmer G:
is 5 cution, and on his return to Hanover ee the immortal Washington anaited iri ae ‘I am the s/
| ‘COL- ALL WOOL CASSIMERE SUITS...... $10 to §20 laced his fellow physicians here to mak Junettising; he also wrestled with a much | “48 the reply. _
. WORSTED SUITS........., Nea ~ | the effort to forestall the Gettysbure ©] More intricate name; in 1754 he wri Upon investi
Pats | SRM, FW ARMac bsneandilbnentiosiisetconas, £10 to $25. d ttysbure doctors i 9 ; ’ he _ writes } se
Bs. FANCY CASSIMERE PANTS... - $2to 7 and get the body of the murderer and bring a “gins; In another letter ~he bag ronnie, bagay
ess: FITS QUARANTEED, AND MADE BY COoM- it to Hanover for the porpose of Gisimatton wughyanghane, now known as Youghio- ister had drives
Boyne, Pte PETENT HANDS, Our informant, then a young medic:l stu. gheny. The same great man from his Was stolén: profie
ec : dent, now a portly and snecessful phisicias earliest trip west to the day of his death Trough thee
Fr ms JOSEPH in a. Pennsylvania town, accompanied the | pre’, mouonsahela, Monoughalia The | 2d heard theah
> From, ate BS. medical party, who drove to Gettysburg apts latter is the most masival of the two. Tay- with the farmer
3 . 4s Gettysburg, May 10,87. tf the body. On their Way a heavy rain boied lor, an educated, intelligent Quaker, and 2 omepe would
ge bor falling. The alms-house burying-ground was weurate Surveyor, always wrote Conodo- ee sem
| ec i Estab lished........ . Oct. 24 167 reached, aud the grave found snd sued tn quanott, for Conodoguinet, the crooked ap tnintent er"
iS han oe : : seeeeee Vet. 24, 70. | a harry, to get away before the arrival of the water; but to evolve the modern -{John] The
an Zie ler Gett§sburg doctors. ‘The ruin continued (ere { PoDMs creck ont of the Sequosockoo ct trav) | Bight before, hac
ie ib at WOr ing, the ground was very muddy, and the ‘8 a striking instance of the early abandon. house in a sullen
: 9 ; Tope around the coffin slipped off eae ment ot an unpronouncable aboriginal name caused by
; f times, on cach occasion the voff =e Ou Tuaylor’s early map Shamo ray, | Slippery horse ti
ba tin dropping { Pp kin creek ¥ : :
| e4 ck into the grave with a thud. Final igures as Quatoochatoon. The Susquehan- with his prisoner.
gir 6S . the body was secured and placed in the nied aa region from its discovery hy John Sinith eae
: on. The grave-robbers drove off rapidly be tull of similar examples of discarding or |. .4N Eastern Se:
Tx |. WM. T. ZIEGLER, Proprietor, When leaving beard auother team drive up |» "28 the names used by early surveyors, | his little girl, H
ge el aa » = their beaten rivals go into the graveyard : Latimer ae ily had gathered :
43 3 AGLE HUTEL,— ant! express their astonishment at the open cag OT Whar Ht EXPECTED.—-Bobby—. | 0, busy withih
b |. | WASHINGTON ST., GETTYSBURG, Pa, |B rare Say—lo you like my sister Belle?” | #4 her mother «
| fon « First-Class in all its Departments. | posited in se ola sultan beady lola oes rybody: ike, NiY certainly, Rob- “Bae rly
Hoty fas. BATTLEFIELD A SPECTALOS: Dos an . Still~nopse and there dis- + verybody likes Miss Belle, do they | «« ut we are. al
at Shae na e i in ve i inquisitive boys, aftee several | 2°t? * | and your., pape
a days. The wild report ran abons Bobby—“‘Dunno. | : blessing.’? |
bes | that the doctors had killed a pany 4 secure | %2 She told ma you was mph: erie rect | qoze came in, efi
; ae Lp : eet for dissection, or that @ grave in one —I most forgot what.’’ ; gh ect | ed: her little ban
eed : a town burial places had been robbed, Young Mr. Jones—" Bat try to think head and said ins
| ‘ trey aed Gack the excitement and indignation, Robert. Was it a perfect pentleman?”? —" Gallagher }?%-4:4
i 7 ON. : * i :
zl a WANTED the truth ei were kept busy explaining rer Naw! Ob, I know now. She he pene
: To cunvass for the 5 : : . © matter, to prevent being ar. | 22!4 you was a perfect niguor, Dp; Dogs ady.
i he sale of Nursery Stock! | rested u Real: gar-f 2 , P guoramus, ’’— Bing- aes
Fs TEXP eM ent, Suaranteed. SALARY -_ All the physicians concerned are | “4™Plon epublican. ~ | have built ups ¢
4 ne JEXPENSES PAID. Appiy at ‘onco, | VOW dead, except the'two above mentioned ein ;
~ “& HOWLA ete isinic ’ | Herald... ape oe See : Ir has been discovered that kisses—] Bas — ee
: : er to this paper, ry ‘ ‘ igses 3— love in i mE a
Le toe ts eee XD, ROCHESTR NY. The body carried away was that of James one we acide ow ate tull of electricity. | walter: ca
ate dems rreen, colared, buried in. the Paor- ‘descri y o'd maids have always| Tux best fire ¢
ae e Grapes. x. aor house * described them as shocking.— Boston Courier, gets up in the ‘mor
ee a A Hee

Se ES.

# a R Me er ey rig
FO Biinin deal Sidi AGES AE ROS

Free for Asthma
During Summer

- If you suffer with those terrible attacks of Asthma
when it is hot and sultry; if heat, dust and general
mugginess make you wheeze and choke as if each
gasp for breath was the very last; if restful sleep
is impossible because of the struggle to breathe; if

even if you are utterly discouraged, do not abandon
hope but send today for this free trial. It will cost

Frontier Asthtna Co.

215-F Frontier Bldg.
462 Niagara St.,

Buffalo, N. Y,

FREE!

FOR THE ASKING
S

The famous MI Blueprint Booklet,

handy and complete, is yours for the
asking.

It contains full descriptions of nore
than thirty blueprints of interest to
the handy man. The booklet was pre-

pared by editors of MeEcHaAnix Ittus-
TRATED,

Anyone who plans to build a boat—
or who wishes to own a boat—will find
the Blueprint Booklet full of interest-
ing information. It makes no difference
whether your ideal is a swift; sleek
runabout, an auxiliary cruiser for
those week-ends, a round-the-world
ketch, or a small “dink” for exercise
and fishing—they’re all described in
this booklet, together with instructions
for obtaining the blueprints,

You may obtain one of these book-
lets immediately, Simply write,
“Please send me a MrcHantx ILLus-
TRATED Blueprint Booklet,” and give
your name and address, A three-cent
stamp is required to cover the cost of
mailing. The booklet will be Sent to
you without any obligation whatever.
Mail letter to:

BLUEPRINT DEPARTMENT

MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED
1501 Broadway New York City
72

concerning the Weyerhauser and Matt-
son kidnaping but he refused to implicate
himself in either case. Theny several days
before being taken to prison, he con-
fessed that he had shot Shannon, giving
his motive as revenge for a double-cross
while the two were in Waupun peniten-
tiary,

Under special guard he was rushed to
Moyamensing prison in Philadelphia. His
trial began on Nov. 25, 1937. The jury
deliberated only 40 minutes to bring in
the verdict of guilty. Judge McDevitt,
who presided ‘over the trial, compli-
mented the jury upon its decision. On
Dec. 31, Albert Gregg, twice a killer, was
doomed to the electric chair,

After being sent to Moyamensing to

await execution, Gregg tried to escape by
digging a hole in the plaster wall of his
cell. He was caught in time and brought
to the modern prison at Holmsburg
where he was placed in an “escape-
proof” cell, :

Gov. George H. ‘Earle in the state

capitol at Harrisburg then set March 27,.

1938, as the date for Gregg’s execution,

igh in the Nittany mountains of Centre
county Albert Gregg walked calmly to
the chair in Rockview penitentiary,

Mary Stebineau has never been heard
from or seen since the night she fled with
her killer Sweetheart. The girl held in
California was released when authorities
learned of Gregg’s capture, Some believe
that Mary is dead,

Solving New York’s Arson Slayings

[Continued from page 37]

terrifying monster of flame, belching
gases and smoke, it had roared like thun-
der as they stumbled about helplessly in
an effort to escape its fury,

The fire investigators knew that uncon-
sciousness or death had come to those
children and the old man long before those
surging flames finally cut their ‘way
through the roof,

From the roof down through the rafters
they traced the Course of the fire to the

little cockloft and thence to the back hall.
There it stopped. It had not come up from
the cellar. The top of the stair treads
that led down were scorched. The under-
side was not,

ATIENTLY they checked and re-

checked their findings, There was no
doubt about-it. The fire had started on
that landing between the kitchen door and
the cellar stairs, But how? Why?

Chief Walsh checked off possibilities on

is fingers: :

“Gas pipes? None here, Heating pipes
not near the areaway. Furnace eliminated
since underside of cellar stairs is not
scorched,

“Combustibles? Clark Says there was

. no gasoline or other explosives there, nor

anything that would be likely to cause
spontaneous combustion.”

“I asked him about the possibility of
the children playing with matches,” said
Sheehan. “They used to months ago but
they were spanked for it and never did it
again.”

“Too late at night for that, anyway,”
Chief Walsh said, “This fire moved fast.
How about that electric switch that
turned the cellar lights on and off?”

“It was turned to the ‘off? mark,” said
Sheehan. “There was nothing in the re-
mains of the wiring that makes it seem
likely.” ~

Chief Walsh nodded grimly. “Let’s go
Over it all again,” he said. “Maybe we
overlooked something.”

They retraced their Steps carefully. The
clue they now were seeking was a dan-
§crous one. They were reluctant to be-
lieve that anyone could have deliberately
Started a fire in a house full of sleeping
children. ‘

The housekeeper had been questioned.
She had arrived for work as usual that
morning, unaware of the Catastrophe, and
had found that the children she had moth-
ered were dead or dying.

After Clark had left the house the night

before, she told the Officer, she had fin-

ished up some work in the kitchen and had
departed for home. The old man had let
her out. She had heard him lock the door

they think,” :

Sheehan nodded, He knew that the
opinion of neighbors is a powerful ele-
ment and usually had some basis for its
knowledge. :

The neighbors, however, were unable
to help. They had gone to bed as usual,
had been awakened during the night by
the noise, and as they saw the towering
flames, they had remembered with hor-
ror that it was a house containing little
children,

A man who lived across the street told
some pos-
sible importance. While he had been on
his way to bed shortly after midnight,
undressing in his darkened front room, he
had happened to look out of the window.

looked at it the motor started and the car
pulled away without the headlights being

‘THE neighbor concluded the occupants
were lovers, who had parked for a
while. He had gone to bed.

The neighbor also recalled another
item that might have some bearing on
the case. A few weeks before there had
been another fire at the Clark’s. It was
not in the house but in the truck that
Clark used as a moving van. The neigh-
bor, who kept his car in one of Clark’s
rental garages, had detected the fire
smouldering in blankets used for wrap-
Ping furniture. He had called Clark. To-
gether they had put the fire out.

Because it had done no damage and
had been quenched easily, it had not been
reported to the authorities and was not
on the books, ‘

Now, however, it assumed greater im-
portance. What could have caused a fire
to start in blankets and comforters piled
ina truck? It was baffling but interesting.

What of the mysterious darkened car
that had pulled away suddenly, apparently
about the time the fire started?

Sheehan reported this to Chief Walsh
and continued questioning neighbors,
Eventually his questioning brought him
to a woman who lived around the corner,

iis

She had walke:
at that critical
She, too, had s:
not noticed it |

“There was -
me more than |
noise from ba
sounded like a
You know, tha:
cold?”

Sheehan no
hard. The sot
cold snow ord
enough. But in
the. rear of the
been heard by
along the street
ing. Above al
few minutes b:
out.

HEEHAN «
‘ported his
woman’s story.
“Let’s see if
Walsh. “She h
footsteps from t
Then she went :
looks out over t
In a few minut:
“Right,” said
“We have eli:
sible cause,” sai
no reason for t!
started through
From now on °
that it was ars:
“That fits i:
Sheehan.
“T’ve been d
self,” said the
is no reason |
could have bee:
The insurance (
est. Clark is a
low who has |}
living for his
points to some
somebody who
get even with |
solute madma
firebugs.
“There have
terious fires in :
the last few m«
on Breckenrid:
known causes.
“Then there
imer street. 7
and in the last «
dozen persons
house in the mi:
escaping with 1
“All these f
throw of Clar!
been two unex:
- think we’re dea
han, a murder
Sheehan was
ing that Chief
vestigator who
never drew a cx
ranted by cold
the analysis. I
ing suspicions.
“Sheehan,” s
your assignme:
the names of e\
it in for Clark.
Go to the co
saloons of the:

back fence gos:
Above all, talk :

forget his grici
Sheehan tac!

minedly but wi
difficulties of t

Killed in the Line of Duty 605

loss to every American; for, indeed, a part of America has died. 4
; The following is a list of those taken from the Honor Roll of the :
: Pennsylvania State Police. Brief biographical data and the circum-

stances of their deaths have been added to better identify them:

Conic John F. Henry was born at New York City on August

; If value is to be placed on the protection of life and property, then the
¢y 10, 1875. He served with the U. S. Marine Corps aboard the U.S.S.
by . ° . . .

R XXIV loss of a guardian of the law, wherever it occurs, should be a personal
|

; December 15, 1905. He Was assigned to Troop D, Punxsutawney.
Henry was the first constabulary member to be killed in the perfor-
| mance of duty. He was shot and killed at Florence, Jefferson County,
as he and other Troop D members attempted to arrest suspected Black

Hand Society gangsters on the afternoon of September 2, 1906. Henry,

31, had completed nine months of constabulary service.
. Private Francis A. Zehringer was born at Conshohocken,
Pennsylvania, on February 18, 1872. He served with Troop D, Fourth
U; 8, Cavalry and later with the Sixtieth Company, U. S. Coast

iestly, Artillery prior to his enlistment in the State Police on December 15,
have 1905. He was assigned to Troop D, Punxsutawney. Zehringer was shot

ity. It and Killed at Florence, Jefferson County, as he and other Troop D

t any members, including Private John F. Henry, attempted to arrest

0 1 Suspected Black Hand Society gangsters on the afternoon of Sep-

i a tember 2, 1906. Zehringer, 34, had completed nine months of constabu-  _-
ior ot lary service.

L3~ Private Timothy Kelleher was born at County Cork, Ireland,
| on March 15, 1878. He fought with the Boers during their war with En-
be at all gland. In the United States, he served with Troop M, Second Cavalry,
pen who and saw action in the Philippines prior to his enlistment in the State
tae ob- Police on December 15, 1905. He was assigned to Troop C, Reading.
urably to On September 14 1907, Kelleher witnessed a woman being attacked

by two men; he went to her aid. One of the men plunged a knife into his

‘ad, who side. He died instantly. His body was found the next morning on a

dure fi- Scrap heap along a railroad enbankment. Kelleher, 29, had completed
a one year and nine months of constabulary service.

fittine ““4—Sergeant Mark A. Prynn was born at Tywardreath, England,

lai ; on November 19, 1879. He enlisted with the State Police on December

P ops 15, 1905, and was assigned to Troop C, Reading. Accompanied by

Private Reginald Gibson, Prynn, at Gilberton, Schuylkill County, was

Fy time taking into custody a man wanted on a stabbing charge; Gibson was

dies.”’


. ®
434 ECKTOR et al. v. VICTORY INS. CO., Appel.
Opinion of the Court. [282 Pa.

insurance and other concurrent policies, justified pro- |

portionate insurance liability is not before the court.
Concurrent insurance was permitted; such policies, or
the fact that they existed, were not offered in evidence,
and the only information as to them was contained in the
schedule attached to the proof of loss. But, as we have
stated, the proof of loss was not offered except for the
sole purpose mentioned, and the case was closed at the
conclusion of plaintiffs’ testimony.

The judgment is affirmed.

Commonwealth v. Gelfi, Appellant.

Criminal law—Murder—Vury—Challenge—Conscientious scru-
ples against death penalty—Examination on voir dire—Discretion
of court.

1. Where a question is asked a juror as to whether he has seru-
ples against returning a verdict which would involve the death of
the defendant, it is the effect of the question rather than its form
that must be considered. .

2. The test of disqualification is the juror’s ability and willing-
ness to eliminate the influence of his scruples and render a ver-
dict according to the evidence and this is to be determined by the
discretion of the trial judge, based upon the juror’s answers and
demeanor.

3. A challenge of a juror for cause will be sustained, where he
says on his voir dire that the evidence would have to satisfy him
without any doubt at all, and that he would have to be absolutely
sure that the man was guilty before he would return a first-degree
verdict.

4, Nothing short of a palpable abuse of discretion justifies a
reversal on a challenge for cause.

Criminal law—Murder—Abusive remarks of counsel—Discretion
—Certifying remarks on record.

5. On a trial for murder, the trial judge is the best authority to
state what alleged abusive remarks of counsel consist of, and his
certification of them is conclusive in the appellate court, unless
abuse of discretion is shown.

:
i

e be)
COMMONWEALTH v. GELFI, Appellant. 43

1925.] Syllabus—Arguments.

Criminal law—Murder—Charge as to provocation—Weapon—
Intent.

6. To show provocation there must be sufficient cause and a
state of rage or passion without time to cool, placing the prisoner
beyond control of his reason, suddenly impelling him to act.

7. No words, mere gestures, or charges, however false or insult-
ing, will free a man who kills another, from the guilt of murder.

8. Intent to take life may be presumed from the weapon used,
and particularly so when it is shown that the weapon was fired
six times.

Argued January 12, 1925. Appeal, No. 19, March T.,
1925, by defendant, from judgment of O. & T. West-
moreland Co., Noy. T., 1923, No. 271, on verdict of guilty
of murder of the first degree, in case of Commonwealth
v. Angelo Gelfi. Before Moscuzisker, C. J., FRAZER,
WALLING, SIMPSON, KEPHART, SADLER and SCHAFFER,
JJ. Affirmed.

Indictment for murder. Before Dom, J.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree on
which sentence was passed.

Errors assigned were various rulings and instruc-
tions, quoting record. .

Curtis H. Gregg, with him Philip K. Shanger and
Harry E. Cope, for appellant, cited: Hall v. Com., 22
W. N.C. 25; Com. v. Van Horn, 188 Pa. 143; Staup v.
Com., 74 Pa. 458; Com. v. Myma, 278 Pa. 507; Com. v.
Stallone, 281 Pa. 43.

J. Hdgar Murdock, Assistant District Attorney, with
him Nevin A. Cort, District Attorney, and Robert W.
Smith, Special Assistant District Attorney, for appellee,
cited: Com. v. Sushinskie, 242 Pa. 406; Com. v. Hen-
derson, 242 Pa. 372; Com. v. De Palma, 268 Pa. 25;

Kelly y. Ry., 270 Pa. 77; Com. v. Marcinko, 242 Pa. 388 ;

Com. v. Webb, 252 Pa. 187.

"S26 £02 Trady (puetezowys®\) gg *eg *oete ‘fotesuy *TyTIO

‘

436 COMMONWEALTH v."GELFI, Appellant.

Opinion of the Court.

OPINION BY Mr. JUSTICE KEPHART, February 9, 1925:

Angelo Gelfi was convicted of murder of the first de-
gree. It appears from the evidence that he killed his
wife because she refused to permit him to enter the
house. The defense was, a provocation sufficient to
arouse the passion of an ordinary man beyond the power
of control. This question was resolved against defend-
ant. The evidence contains all the elements of first de-
gree murder, and, unless there are trial errors, the con-
viction must be sustained.

The first assignment of error excepts to the action of
the court in refusing to exclude the following question
asked a proposed juror sworn on her voir dire: “If you
were accepted as a juror in this case, and the evidence,
as you would get it from the witness, and the law, as
you would get it from the court, instructions from the
court, would warrant your finding this defendant guilty
of murder of the first degree, which would mean the
death of this defendant, could you, and would you, re
turn such verdict?” The question was objected to as
being hypothetical, and as giving a comprehensive guess
as to the juror’s probable action, presupposing a case
of murder in the first degree to exist.

It is the effect of the question rather than its form
that must be considered, and, in substance, it inquired
if the juror had conscientious scruples against capital
punishment. The existence of this mental attitude was
long ago held sufficient ground on which to base a chal-
lenge for cause. Com. vy. Lesher, 17 S. & R. 155, is the
leading case; it presents an earnest discussion on both
sides, but the majority opinion has never been departed
from. The law, in every case, is scrupulous to prevent
even the possibility of undue bias; the slightest ground
of prejudice on the part of the juror is sufficient. It
need not be made out, its probability is enough. Says
Top, J., (p. 156): “Any one who, in any possible way,
no matter how honestly, has been warped by any pre-
conceived opinion which may affect his verdict, or has

se he an ye

c s
COMMONWEALTH v. GELFI, Appellant. 4

1925.] Opinion of the Court.
made up his mind what verdict he is to give,...... is ex-
cluded. Nothing in the law can well be more extensive
than this right of challenge propter affectum.” The
moment the fact of relationship, favor, enmity, preju-
dice, bias, preconceived opinion, scruple, or interest of a
sufficient nature, is made out, it removes the juror;
nothing further is necessary. The reasoning for the
rule relative to the right to challenge for cause so as to
obtain a fair and impartial jury is shown by the words
of Lord Coke: “He that is of a jury, must be liber homo,
that is, not only a freeman and not bond, but also one
that hath such freedome of mind as he stands indifferent,
as he stands unsworne.” Co. Lit. 155 a. But it dates
back to the statute of 8 Henry VIII, ch. 12. See Turner
v. State, 128 Tenn. 27, 157 S. W. 67. It is a funda-
mental rule that a juror should approach the trial of a
cause absolutely indifferent to the parties or the effect
of his verdict. Scruples against capital punishment
or opposition to the death penalty carried to the point
of interference with the discharge of a juror’s duty
under the law has been recognized as a cause for the
rejection of a proposed juror in all the states where
crime is punishable by death. The rule early announced
in this State was followed as late as Com. vy. Minney, 216
Pa. 149, where this court sustained the Commonwealth’s
challenges, made because of “conscientious scruples”
against capital punishment, citing the Lesher case.
The test of disqualification is the juror’s ability and
willingness to eliminate the influence of his scruples
and render a verdict according to the evidence, and this
is to be determined by the discretion of the trial judge,
based upon the juror’s answers and demeanor: Com. v.
Minney, supra, 150, 151; Com. v. Egan, 190 Pa. 10, 19.
It is the sgme test which is applied to opinions as to
guilt or innocence of the prisoner: Com. v. Taylor, 129
Pa. 534. |
The state of the juror’s mind on the death penalty
could not be known except through interrogation, unless

a
~ ~ ®
9 =e

wal Aelita fe o-L fi


MURDERER?

questions them.

ity was dressed

P columbus head-
| . However, no
\ until 5 in the

located in the

‘  ittered, was dis-
Detective Chief
Sergeant E. C.
the scene.

man, studied
& on page 53)

GIBBS, Edward, white, elec.
PA (Lancaster) April 25, 1951

(FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE,
May, 1950)

LOCKED IN THE MIND OF SOMEONE, A HAPPY HUSBAND,

<4

WHAT IS IN‘a murderer’s mind when his fingers close around
the windpipe of his victim and the. pressure is increased until
he feels the crunching of cartilage? Does he look down at ‘what
he has done, and then, like a child with a broken toy, try to
set the sagging head straight again? Does he brush’ back the
wisps of hair that have fallen out of place, and, as he feels the
skin grow first cool, then cold, is there a feeling of panic and
revulsion?

Somewhere in Lancaster, Pa., the night of January 10, 1950,
a man knew the answers to these questions, and, buried under
an iron sheath in an abandoned summer bungalow, was a dead
girl who had for one fleeting second before she died seen the
look in a killer’s eyes that told the story’

But Marion Baker, 21 years old, engaged to be married, was
dead and the dead don’t talk. ’

Nothing was left of a girl who had pounded a typewriter in

Stricken with remorse, the suspect slumps in silence as Attorney W. H. Brown and Alderman J. E. Wetzel check over case.

A SCHOLAR, A FRIEND. WAS A DRIVE TO MURDER. WHY?

the office of Franklin and Marshall College, listened to a softly
playing car radio; parked on a lonely hill; learned to cook and
to sew so that when she married in June she would make a
good housewife. Nothing was left of a girl who looked for an
apartment,;, clipped recipes from women’s magazines, fed a
horse a lump of sugar or kissed her fiance out. in front of
everybody Christmas Eve when she announced her engagement.

Back in her room was a narrow shelf with a few hats and,
hanging .on a rack, a few dresses; a few trinkets, half a shelf
of books, a photograph of a boy, a car and a girl; some letters
and a hairbrush with a comb. stuck aslant. That was all that
was left to say there had ever been a Marian Baker.

In another room, a boy sat smoking, looking out of the win-
dow. Closing his eyes he felt the throat under his hands. Then
he threw the cigarette down, stamped it out, and walked through
the door, There was no turning back now. Marian Baker was

33


The twisted, heavy iron of the train’s
cow-catcher was torn loose and bent
back. Another inch and the crumpled
metal would have been thrown under
the wheels and derailed the engine and
probably all of the coaches.

Both cylinder cups and a connecting
steam pipe were broken.

Dangling from a valve gear was a
canvas automobile baby seat. Passen-
gers and the train crew soon found the

battered pile of metal that once had

been a car. It lay top down in a muddy,
weed-grown ditch, 150 feet from the
crossing. The door on the driver’s side
had been knocked off and a pair of
woman’s legs protruded from this
twisted opening.

With flares, lanterns and flashlight,
the crew, passengers, Officer Charles G:
Wright of the Zion police, and Depu-
ties Valenta and Summers searched in
the boggy ditches and along the weedy
right-of-way for the body of the baby
they were certain had been in the can-
vas seat. But they found no other vic-
tim.

The vehicle was a 1936 Pontiac. In
the jumbled contents that remained in-
side the car was a woman’s purse con-
taining a driver’s license issued to Lu-

cille Ashcraft.

Scene of the smash-up was just out-
side the citv limits. Therefore it was
a case for the sheriff’s office.

Lake County Coroner Garfield Leaf
ordered the body removed to a mor-
tuary in Zion. As the officers lifted
the body, its limpness indicated that
most of the bones had been crushed.
The right eye of the attractive dead
woman was blackened. Two abrasions
and a bruised spot showed on her fore-
head.

THAT was what the accident report
disclosed. And, instead of answer-
ing any questions, it posed new ones.

The crossing where the smash-up
had occurred was perfectly level. The
tank of the car had contained gaso-
line. Presumably the auto owned by
a mechanic would be in good condition
and would not stall unnecessarily.

Yet the fireman and engineer of the
train were positive that the car had

been sitting in the right-of-way, mo-
abandoned.

tionless, as if it. had been-
there. They had seen no action from
inside the car, no frantic effort of the
driver-to-leap~-out~ to-safety-.

Why? Because Mrs. Ashcraft had
been killed before the train struck her
car?

‘“Maybe,” Kennedy said, “the autop-
sy report will tell us whether we have
a murder or not. It’s here somewhere.”

He dug up the report, made by Doc-
tor Asa L. Myers, and he and the two
deputies read it.

_. The findings of Doctor Myers were
brief but significant. Strangely enough,
the only marks of violence had been on
the woman’s face. The swelling and
discoloration of the abrasions iridicated
that they had been made while the vic-
tim was still alive... No other bruises
were found anywhere on the body. And
the dead woman’s system had been
filled with alcohol.

Piecing the details together brought

out an ominous picture for the officers. ,

The alcohol consumed by Mrs. Ash-
craft had been more than enough to
make her woozy. She had been drink-
ing with a man and a man had been
seen beside her as she drove toward the
spot. where she_was to. die so violently.
Had she been given the drinks de-
liberately so that she would pass out
and be left in the car to die? Did the
bruises mean that the whisky had not
worked fully and she had been beaten
unconscious and left in the car?
“That woman was murdered, Tom,”
Deputy Stried said when they had fin-
ished the autopsy report. ‘I’m sure

of it.”

Kennedy shrugged: “Maybe so.
We'll sure have to look into it further.
Let’s go out to the tracks and see jf
we can find anything there.”

At the intersection of the tracks and
21st Street (State Route No. 173) they
found a few curious people looking over
the scene. While Kennedy stopped_to

talk to them, Stried and Christian
walked down each side of the right-
of-way. The deputies found several

62

\twisted pieces of metal and shattered
bits of glass, but nothing pertinent to
the case.

A youngster about twelve walked

along beside Christian. “What are you
looking for, Mister?” he asked.

“Pieces of the car,” the deputy an-=
swered laconically.

The lad walked on a few steps. “Are
you a cop?”

Christian nodded.

A few more steps and the boy said,
“Gee, you're late. .Some guy. was out
here poking around the weeds early
this morning. He picked up a stick
and walked off with it.”

Christian stopped abruptly. He
wanted to know all about this.

FOATTERED- at such- official atten-
tion, the boy talked readily: He had
arrived at the crossing before- seven
a. m., “right after breakfast.” Within
a few minutes he had noticed the man
~probing through the weeds around the
spot where the car had landed after
the .erash. He had picked up a club,
tucked it under his jacket, climbed the
fence and walked south into Zion.
Quickly Christian asked the boy to
describe the club.
“It looked like a billy club tome. You

that remained of the vehicle before
they turned away empty-handed.

“Now what?” Stried asked.

Kennedy shrugged. “If it’s murder, .
there’s got to be a motive somewhere.
Let’s see_if we can_

-Consequently, they decided to probe
into the slain woman’s past. Beyond a
doubt, the reason for Mrs. Ashcraft’s
death lay in something she had or had
not done.

If they failed’to find that reason, they
could fall back on a time-consuming
canvass of taverns in an effort to iden-
tify the man who had been drinking
with her just before she died.

T= Officers got their first picture of
Mrs, Ashcraft’s character from the
mrinister- mbers of the congrega-
tion of the church she had attended.
Prom the lips of these persons came
a noble story of the woman who evi-
dently had been placed on the train
tracks to die. Mrs. Ashcraft had lived
for her husband and children only. She
had been a devoted mother and wife.
During the war she had cared for the

‘children alone while Ashcraft was

fighting in the Pacific with the Army.
She also had taken a job in a war plant.
Those who knew her well marveled at

of Yale's Professor Thorne,"

September, 1950;

August, 1950,

Up to the Minute

[ATEsT developments on cases published in previous issues, printed here from
time to time in answer to numerous requests:

On November 11, 1950, Theodore Carter began a life sentence for the Mill-
ville, New Jersey, murder of Lorraine Hess—"One Chick Who Wouldn't Date,"

OFEJCIAL, September, 1950;
- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on November 20, 1950, affirmed a death

sentence for Edward Gibbs, slayer of Marian Baker in L
of fr'& M.'s Marian Baker?" OFFICIAL, April, 1950;

eodore A. Trent-Lyon was committed to a Connecticut state hospital Novem-
ber 16, 1950, after being indicted for slaying Doctor Lewis Thorne—'The Killing
December, 1950, issue; *

Also sent to a state hospital was Stanley Openshaw, seventeen, accused of the
’ fatal Bronx shooting of his father, Martin—"Please Get Me a Policeman,

Henry Abner pleaded guilty June 15, 1950, to the Chicago slaying of aged
“Mary Kennedy, and went to prison for 199 yeare—' "Homicide and Faded Glamor,"

cast

“What B

"issue of ‘

know the kind the Navy Shore Patrol
carries?”

The deputy did. The Great Lakes
Naval Training Station is just a few
miles south and every youngster in the
area had had ample opportunity to see
the clubs the Shore Patrol used.

“Was this man wearing a uniform?”
Christian asked.

“Oh, no. He had on a brown jacket,
gray pants and a gray hat. The hat
was pulled down so low and he was so
far away I couldn’t see what his face
looked like.”

More questions produced nothing of
additional value. The man had ap-
peared to be neither young-nor old to
the boy. It wasn’t much of a descrip-
tion. Christian thanked the youngster
and hurried off to bring the news to
Kennedy and Stried.

Was this man the killer?

Why had he been prowling around
the death scene so early in the day?
What was the piece of wood—the

weapon used to beat Mrs. Ashcraft to.

death?

The officers decided to question those
who lived near the scene in arr effort
to locate someone else who had seen the
stealthy figure with the club. But this
work produced nothing. Seemingly the
sinister character had slipped into town
unnoticed.

-A visit to the garage where the flat-
tened Ashcraft car had been taken
produced the same annoying lack of re-
sults. The officers poked through all

\

the way she managed to maintain a
limited social life while giving her
youngsters full attention.

For awhile, when the officers heard
the same facts over and over from dif-
ferent persons, they thought they were
pursuing a dead-end lead.

But this impression. changed_when
they talked to a thin-lipped, graying
maiden lady.

“Yes,” she said, “Lucille Ashcraft was
a fine mother. But—

She paused and stared primly through
her metal-rimmed glasses at the wait-
ing officers. She seemed to be debating
how to-phrase her words. Then she
pressed her lips firmly together, took a
deep breath and talked rapidly.

While Lucille Ashcraft had been
working in the war plant, a man named
Joe Gilleys often had ridden to work
with her in the same car, she said.

“Mind you,” she ‘went on, “I’m not

saying anything against the two of
them. But—”

Besides, the woman said, she had seen
a strange car around the Ashcraft home
at night lately.

Kennedy pointed out that the spin-
ster lived quite a distance from the
Ashcrafts to have so much knowledge
of what went on there.

“Oh, I don’t spend all of my time in
the house,” she explained. “I have
some cats and-often I’ve had to take-a
walk at night through the neighbor-
hood to pick them up.

“Mind you, I’m: not saying Joe Gil--

leys ever went there when Ford Ash-
craft was out. But—”

She lowered her voice and in the con-
fidentia] tone of one who is revealing
exclusive information, said, “I happen
to know ing with.
@ man last night and he was seen with
or ae the car just before the train

ad

Christian stared at her in surprise.
“Where did you hear that?”

“Like I said, I get around. I was
downtown today and heard people talk-
ing about it.”

The woman was willing to continue.
with her chatter but once the investi-
gators had satisfied themselves she had
nothing more of importance to tell
them, they departed.

“& sweet little old lady, wasn’t she?”
Stried said as they reached the car.

Kennedy grunted. “I hate to do
business with people like her but she
has given us a new angle.”

The woman also had given the offi-
cers the name of the store in Waukegan
where Gilleys now worked. The wind-
up of the investigation appeared near.
The deputies were anxious to end the
case as quickly as possible. To cinch
the evidence against the possible killer
it would be necessary to find witnesses
who had seen him with the woman
just before the murder.

“We've got to locate the place where
they were drinking,” Kennedy said. -

The trio split up. Kennedy and
Christian took over the hunt for the
saloon and Stried started after Gilleys.
The only information the officers had
to guide them in finding the tavern was
the fact that Mrs. Ashcraft and her
man of mystery had been seen driving
east on 29th Street. So Kennedy and
Christian drove west on 29th from the
railroad tracks.

In Waukegan, Stried had no diffi-
culty finding the store where Gilleys
was employed. It was a large concern
so the officer asked a clerk for Gilleys.

“Oh, Joe didn’t come to work today,”
the employe answered. “I guess he’s at
home.”

As soon as the deputy had Gilleys’
address he was on his way. Stried
was convinced now that he was on the
trail. This man had known the victim
well and had failed to appear for work
the day after she died so violently.

Gilleys, however, was not at home.
His-wife-said-that-he-had-been-out late -
the night before and didn’t get home
until after midnight.

“He was so tired he took today off,”
she explained. “I don’t know where he
is now.” She hesitated, corrected her-
self. “Oh, yes, now I remember. He
went to the dentist. I’m sure you'll
find him there.”

Mrs. Gilleys asked why the deputy
wanted to see her husband. Stried
glibly explained that he wanted to
question him about an auto accident.

“I’m sure your husband is the man
who can help me,” he said. “He was
described as wearing gray trousers, a
brown jacket and a gray hat.”

Mrs. Gilleys smiled with relief. “Yes,
_that’s him, all_right.. For awhile_I
ba he might be mixed up in some-
t g ”

HE officer didn’t disturb this idea
and left as soon as the woman told
him the location of the dentist’s office.
Gilleys was surprised when °Stried
asked if he would step out of the wait-
ing-room- for-a little chat. He went
willingly but greatly perplexed.

The deputy came to the point imme-
ow by repeating the spinster’s
story.

“That’s just like that old biddie!”
Gilleys said. ‘“She’s spent so much of
her life with cats she acts like one! If
she had enough to keep her busy she
wouldn’t have to stick her nose in
everybody’s business!”

Gilleys subsided momentarily. Then,
in a voice simmering with restrained
determination:

“First g I’m going to do is prove
that I working last night. Then
I've got a few things to tell you.”

Stried was agreeable to this. He
studied the man carefully on the drive
to the store. Gilleys appeared to be
telling the truth, but the deputy knew

(Continued on Page 64)


him know how weak our case is, chances
are he'd give us some kind of an alibi,
and there you are. We'd really be

_ stuck.”

_ “So what do we do?” Sergeant Au-
mon asked.

“Let him sweat it out. The story’s
around the campus that everyone who

. didn’t have classes that day is going to

be questioned. Gibbs is undoubtedly
waiting to be called in, and he probably

_ has his alibi ready. Well} let’s call in

everyone but him. Let’s make him think
that we’re purposely holding him out.”

Kirchner went on to say that, from
Vorens’ story, Gibbs was the nervous
type, one who worried constantly. His
plan, therefore, was to let Gibbs’ wor-
ries grow in his mind, to let him wonder
why the police weren’t questioning him,
to make him—by playing with him cat-
and-mouse fashion—believe that they
had something on him and that they
purposely were letting him stew.

“T’'ve got-a feeling,” Kirchner said,
“that if we give him enough rope, he’ll
tell the truth. Before we talk to him I'd

like to get him to the point where he'll _

talk easily.” ;

The officers agreed that Kirchner’s
plan had merit, and they decided to put
it into effect. ‘

The questioning of the students con-
tinued, and at a brisker rate. The offi-
cers were not working under the theory
that Gibbs was guilty but with the
thought in mind that each student
questioned was a suspect until cleared
are: They had no preconceived
ideas,

One by one the students were ques-
tioned and checked off.

Nothing.

Late that same afternoon, while the
questioning was still being conducted by
other officers, Sergeant Aumon and
‘Corporal Kane spotted Gibbs’ car

‘parked outside the dormitory. Through

discreet questioning, they learned that

Gibbs was in a room overlooking the

pen and a plan formed in all their
nds. .

A plan which, if it worked, could °

bring Gibbs just a little closer to the
breaking point.

THEY opened the unlocked doors to
his car and searched it, not only for
the purpose of finding evidence, but also
with the hope that Gibbs was watch-
ing them, his fears growing, wonder-
ing what the officers knew and what
they would find. ;

For almost fifteen minutes they ex-
amined the car, certain that some-
where in that length of time Gibbs had
known what was happening.

To their disappointment, however,
they found absolutely nothing in the car
that was incriminating. Nor did they
detect a telltale pair of eyes watching
them from inside.

That evening, the officers were joined
at Headquarters by Major William F,
Hoffman of the State Police, who was
in charge of eleven southeastern coun-
ties of the State. The importance of
the case, the widespread publicity it
had received, had brought him to Lan-
caster to take direct charge of the in-
vestigation. A ;

Briefed on what had happened so far,
he was in complete accord with the way
the case had been handled by the State
investigators, And the way Gibbs was
being treated met with his whole-
hearted approval. .

“He knows, I’m pretty sure,” the Ma-
jor said, “that you men have searched
his car. Therefore he’s undoubtedly
wondering why he hasn’t been brought
in for questioning. I feel sure that we’re
going to bring him right up to the
breaking point.”

Major Hoffman had an idea for un-
nerving Gibbs further. He suggested
that they have one of the school officials
call Gibbs to his office on some pretense.
It would have nothing to do with the
crime, but its' purpose would be to

_ tighten the strain’on the youth.

“If he’s our man,” Major Hoffman
said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the lit-
tle game we’re- playing causes him to
give himself up. That’s a long shot, of
course, yet I’ve seen this sort of thing
pay off with a guilty conscience before.
Dealing with a man of Gibbs’ intellec-
tual and apparent emotional level isn’t

54

the same as dealing with the ordinary
criminal, You can't bully them or face
them. You have to use a lot more psy-
chology.”

But what if Edward Gibbs wasn't
their man?

The officers, even though they had
their sights momentarily trained on
Gibbs, knew better than to put all their

‘hopes on him. They had not forgotten

Doren, the College employe who had
been near the death scene on the day
of the tragedy, or Vichetti, who had
tried so hard to date Marian even
though he knew she was engaged. Nor
did they forget that the guilty could be
none of these, but some unknown.

The following morning, Sergeant
Aumon and Corporal Kane spoke with
A. G. Breidenstine, Dean of Students.
They told him that they were interested
in Gibbs and that, for psychological rea-
sons, they would like the Dean to speak
with him.

“Do you have anything you can use
as a pretense for talking to him?” Cor-
poral Kane asked.

The Dean thought for a moment.
Then he said that he’d heard Gibbs had
quarreled with his Spanish instructor
the day before. He might question the
youth about that.

‘L®avina the Dean, the officers de-

cided to intensify the war of nerves
by openly questioning other students
about Gibbs, with the hope that re-
ports of this would get back to the
youth.

They spoke with several of his class-
mates, .

And from one of them they received
& lead.

This person said he’d noticed a
scratch on Gibbs’ face the day after
Marian had disappeared. When he’d
been asked about it, Gibbs had laughed
and said he’d got it playing an intra-
mural basketball game on ‘Tuesday.

The officers then hurried to the ath-
letic office. see

And there they learned that no intra-
mural game had been scheduled for that
Tuesday. a 1 EOE iy ‘

From there, the officers went to Dean

Breidenstine’s office. The Dean told
them that Gibbs had been in.’
. The Dean had asked him about the
quarrel with the Spanish instructor and
Gibbs had answered that it had been no
quarrel but just a slight difference of
opinion.

“I told him I'd just’ wanted to make
sure he wasn’t getting into any trouble,”
the Dean said, “and I let him go.”

“Did he seem upset when he walked
in?” Sergeant Aumon asked.

“He was very pale. I’d never seen a
living person look that pale in my
whole life.” \

The officers wondered what to do.
Arrest Gibbs on. the evidence of the de-
ae query and the scratched

‘ace

They decided to wait a while longer.
What they wanted was a confession, and
they didn’t want to ruin their chance
of getting one.

It was something like gently tighten-
ing a screw.

But was it tightening on the right
suspect?

[| ATER that same afternoon Max Han-
num was sitting in the office of Doc-
tor Distler, discussing the crime. Sud-
denly, through the open door, Hannum
could see a figure walking down the cor-
ridor toward the office, a husky young
man with dark, wavy hair, his body bent
over slightly, hands thrust in his
pockets, .

The youth came up to the door.

“Come on in,” Hannum said.

The youth walked inside and sat
down heavily, staring at the floor.

“Anything wrong?” Hannum asked.

“I don’t know,” the young man said.
He was fidgeting nervously in the chair.

“Something is on your mind,” Doc-
tor Distler said. “Are you sick? Aren’t
you feeling well?” ;

“I am sick,” the youth answered. “But
it’s not what you think.” He swallowed
hard, then the College authorities an-

nounced later, blurted out, “I did it.”

Doctor Distler and Hannum stared at
him in amazement.

“Did what?” Doctor Distler asked ap-
prehensively,

“I killed her,” the youth said, accord-
ing to Doctor Distler, “I killed Marian
Baker.” ,

Doctor ;Distler stood up slowly, his
heart thudding. He knew this boy, and

‘it was impossible to believe,

He thought the young man was suf-
fering from the strain of overstudy for
the approaching examinations. He
wanted to think anything except what
the youth was admitting.

“Wait a minute,” he cautioned.
“Yot’re hysterical. Try to take it easy.”

“I can prove it,” the youth was say-
ing. “I’ve got things around the campus
that will prove it. I know they're after.
me. I was over in Breidenstine’s office
and I could see he was stalling. I even
know they searched my car. I saw them
from the dormitory window. So let’s get
this over with.” .

Max Hannum edged his way to the
door. In a few minutes the police came

HE youth was Edward Gibbs. In a

broken voice, sobbing, he was quoted
as telling the police that he’d met
Marian—who often had cashed his GI
checks—near the post office and had
offered to drive her back to school. ‘In-
stead, he’d driven her to the Harnish
cottage. :

“Suddenly,” the confession said, ac-
cording to police, “I got an impulse to
choke her. I grabbed her around the
neck. She struggled for a time and then
jumped from the car, tried to run, but
fell unconscious.”

Police claimed that Gibbs said he’d
choked her some more, then went to the
trunk of his car and took out a lug
wrench .,,

Afterward, he’d gone back to his dor-
mitory, got a shovel and returned to
the scene to try to bury the body. But,
because of the condition of the ground,
he could not dig a grave. :

Again ‘he’d gone back to the College,
returning to the death scene at about
7:30 that night, after having procured

‘a flashlight, police said. It was a weird

picture Gibbs painted, the officers said,
describing how, in the dark loneliness
of Mill Creek, he had dragged the body
over to the cottage and placed her un-
derneath it, how he had taken her um-
brella, pocketbook and rings and thrown
umbrella and purse into Little Cones-
toga Creek, about three miles from the
— and rings down a service-station
ain,

Gibbs denied vehemently that he had
made improper advances toward the
victim,

“I didn’t try to kiss her,” he said.
“She didn’t appeal to me.”

District Attorney John M. Ranck,
among other officials, was inclined to
doubt Gibbs’ version of. the motive.

The officers took Gibbs to the dormi-
tory where he lived and there, they said,
they found his bloodstained clothing
rolled up into a ball and tucked away
on a ceiling joist ina corner. From there
they took him to the death scene, where
he re-enacted the crime.

As sensational and tragic as the slay-
ing had been, so similarly filled with
drama and emotion was the revelation
that Gibbs was accused as the slayer,
His young wife, Helen, to whom he had
been married only two years, was pros-
trated with grief and had to be taken
to the home of her parents. Gibbs’
father, an official in a linoleum com-
Pany and who, with Mrs. Gibbs, was
active in Pitman church, social and civic
affairs, suffered a heart attack while
rushing to Lancaster to be with his boy.

In Pitman, where Gibbs had lived and
had been a star athlete in high school,
and ‘on the Franklin and Marshall Col-
lege campus, where he had been known
as a quiet, likeable fellow, shocked
groups gathered together to discuss th
case in awed voices. :

Bot the anomaly of this youth
seemed without answer. Gibbs had
come from a good, highly esteemed
family—his uncle.is mayor of Pitman
—and in the Air Force, where he had
served 29 months and had received
seven battle stars, his service record
was unblotted. He had been known as

an extremely polite young man, re-
served and gentle. And his marriage
had been considered tdeal.

His record at the College, however,
revealed that he was Just about getting
by scholastically—not because of any
lack of intelligence but rather because
he never took the trouble to improve
his marks. As one professor remarked,
peony “did not seem to care about any-

ng.”

* A report made on Gibbs for the
College placement bureau—which
helps find jobs for students after
graduation—the Economics Depart-
ment assessed the confessed slayer as
follows:

“Judgment: Others cannot depend on
his decisions.

“Initiative: Independent worker;
gives good suggestions; moderately ag-
gressive.

“Honest: Can be trusted in most sit-.
uations,

“Industry: Takes things easy; does
enough to get by.

“Cooperation: Usually willing to co-
operate. .

“Leadership: Can lead in small
groups, :

“Appearance: Usually presentable,

A psychologist at the College camé up
with a speculative analysis of this young
man, based on his classroom observa-
tions and on what others had told him
of Gibbs. ‘

“I am told he liked to boast of his
athletic prowess,” the prof said.
“Apparently he was a good athlete in
high school, but not at college. He was a
: big fish in a little pond at Pitman. His
family included persons of prominence
there. The influence of\his family and
the small-town atmosphere failed to dis-
close his shortcomings,

. “When he came here he faced real
competition, and he wasn’t equal to it.
Sometimes people relieve that by ag-
gressive tendencies, and sometimes those
tendencies take extreme form .. .”

A fraternity brother of Gibbs’ con-
firmed the professor’s account of Gibbs’
disappointment at being unable to star
in college athletics; for although he was
- on the football team, he never made the
first squad. The fraternity brother said ”
that Gibbs once went to the football
coach to complain that he wasn’t being
given a fair chance, and that he emerged
from the conference in tears.

Meanwhile, Edgar Rankin, the slain
girl’s fiance, fought against any rumor
that might arise to besmirch Marian’s
reputation. He said—and he was backed
up in this by everyone who knew Marian
—that Marian never had dated Gibbs,
and that she had been slain because she
had trusted him as a boy she'd often
seen casually around the campus.

District Attorney Ranck pleaded, too,
against wild speculation and P.

On January 28, 1950, Gibbs was held
without bail for the March grand jury.
Doctor Edward Strecker, noted Phila-
delphia psychiatrist, was retained by
Gibbs’ family to examine him and on
February 4 Gibbs was brought to the
psychopathic building of Philadelphia
General Hospita] to undergo a detailed
brain test by a device known as an
electro-encephalograph’ which traces
the pattern of the brain waves and.
which will be able to determine if Gibbs
suffers from an abnormal organic men-
tal condition, .

THREE days later, on February 7,
authorities announced that he. also
would be given the Rorschach ink-blot
test, a form of mental test used in the
Nuremberg trials of the Nazi war crim-
_inals. Miss Eleanor Ross, Philadelphia
psychologist, was to give him the test,
in which the subject is asked to state his

- reactions to various blots of ink.

As OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
goes to press, the results of the test have
not been made known. Meanwhile, back
in his cell in the Lancaster County
Prison, Edward Gibbs smokes quietly
and stares absently and always

. Silently into space. . ,

‘ The names of George Danbur, Saul
Doren, Thomas Vorens and Ray Vich-
etti are fictitious in this story in order
to protect innocent persons.


At the first shot my heart stopped
beating. I couldn’t see what was hap-
pening. 1 could see only Marv leaning
against the door.

Then there was another shot—and
another and another .. .

I couldn't even scream. I wanted to
run but my legs wouldn’t move. Instead,
I watched Marv. He was still standing
by the door; I waited for him to fall.
And those other shots in the kitchen—
what had happened to Dad?

Gregory and Dawn were in the bed-
room next to the kitchen. Where were
those bullets going? The walls were
only plaster-board.

Black-Overcoat whirled from the
cash register when the shots were fired.
He pointed his gun straight at my head;
I could look right down the hole in the
barrel. The gun was twitching and jerk-
ing, but I wasn’t afraid of it. I didn't
think that it could go off and send a
lead slug smashing through my head. I
thought only of Gregory and Dawn and
the thin, plaster-board walls.

All those thoughts must have come in
a split second, for Marv was still stand-
ing in the doorway, his hands were still
up and the store was still filled with the
roar of the exploding guns. To me,
though, it seemed that the horrible
nightmare had been going on for hours
and hours.

Meanwhile, here is what happened in
the kitchen:

Dad, with Mister Colt in. his hand.
let Marv go out of the door ahead of
him. He planned to wait until the ban-
dits had seen Marv and were concen-
trating on him before he came out.

When Marv pushed the thin man, he
fell partly through the door and in front

- Jad. Dad had to put out his hand
ceep the man from knocking him
.. As he pushed him away, Thin-
1 fired. .

The bullet tore through Dad’s left
hand. It went right through the palm
and out the wrist.

*¢1 NEVER even felt it,”” Dad said later.

“IT knew he had shot at me, It was
like I had always said; a holdup man
with a gun is a murderer.”

Dad shot back three times. The thin
man fell and Dad stepped over him. “I
knew you and Marv were out there with
another bandit and his gun. All I could
think of was that I had to hurry.”

Just before Dad came out of the
kitchen, Black-Overcoat moved from
the cash register toward Marv.

Marv leaped behind an island of
groceries.

Black-Overcoat knocked a big box of
doughnuts off the edge of the counter.
He still held in one hand the sack
I had given him with the two cans of
sardines in it. He had been putting the
money into this sack.

Some of the doughnuts rolled on the
floor and I stooped down to pick them
up. With the roar of the guns still in
my ears, and Black-Overcoat swinging
his gun to find Marv, I was worried
about the doughnuts. I was wonder-
ing how many of them would be ruined
because they fell on the floor. They
sold for 25 cents a dozen. Why I was
worried about the doughnuts, I don't
know, but my mind refused to think of
anything else. The doughnuts seemed
to be all that mattered at the moment.

When I moved, Black-Overcoat
swung back toward me. I guess he was
confused. He didn't say anything; he
just turned and pointed the gun at me
again.

At the other end of the store, Marv
had snatched up a bottle of catchup
~ was holding it in his hand like a
club.

Dad came out of the kitchen then.

I could see the blood dripping down
his hand. He held onto the door-jamb
and the blood was running from his
fingers in a stream.

I must have cried out, for Black-
swung away from me to look

a

Ne have an oil stove at the end of

» counter. Black-Overcoat jumped

iind it. He steadied his arm on the
top of the stove and pointed the gun
at Dad.

Shots roared out.

They came so fast they seemed to

be one long shot. The noise filled up
the store like a single, tremendous ex-
plosion. : .

Then—silence.

Breaking glass tinkled somewhere.
I heard a can fall from a shelf.

I turned, and I saw tomato juice
flowing out of a hole in a can. First
the doughnuts, now the canned goods.
Wasn't this ever going to be over?

Dad and Black-Overcoat were still
pointing their guns at each other. Who
had shot? Where had the bullets gone?
Dad’s hand was still on the door frame
and the red blood was making streaks
on the white paint.

ing. My knees refused to hold me up.
I tried to speak, but my mouth opened
and my lips formed words, and nothing
came out.

“Hey, you okay?” Marv asked.

“Yes, I’m all right. Gregory and
Dawn—”

Marv ran out of the store. He was
back in a moment. “Didn’t even wake
them up.”

Dad had put down his gun. He was
holding his wounded hand but the
blood kept dripping. “Just a scratch,”
he said over and over.

Marv went to the telephone and
asked for the police. “Send an ambu-

time again.

1950, OFFICIAL.

cases.

Up to the Minute

{tgp et years ago, when a penitentiary sentence
ended William Bakey’s spectacular career as a
holdup man, he decided that he wasn’t through; if he
ever got out, he’d be ready to jump back into the big

Bakey was released in 1949, ready to go. The
trouble, he soon learned, was
ready, too. Less than a week after Bakey and a con-
federate had swooped down on a dairy office in Phila-
delphia and taken $40,000 at gunpoint. he was back
injail. The story of his capture was told in the March,
1950, issue of OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES, under
the title, “With Only Blue Shoes—And ‘Youse.’”

Since the appearance of that issue Bakey and
Augustus Farley have been sentenced to terms of 20
to 40 years each, and the six detectives who tracked
them down have been publicly commended.

J. Albert Guay, the arch-murderer of Quebec,
Canada, was sentenced to death early this year.
Guay was the man-who had killed 23 persons, in-
cluding his wife, with a time bomb planted on an
airliner. “23 Dynamited in Mid-Air,” the story of this
investigation, was in the January 1 and January 15
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES.

Also sentenced to death was Harley La Marr,
nineteen-year-old part Indian who robbed, assaulted
and murdered a woman in Buffalo, New York, in an
abortive attempt to provide money for the funeral of
his stepfather, stabbed to death by his mother. This
story. “To Bury His Mother's Victim.” was in the May,

Edward Gibbs, the smiling college undergradu-

ate who took pretty Marian Baker for a ride and left

. her body beneath a Summer cottage, got no mercy
from a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, jury.
16, 1950, he was found guilty of first-degree murder
and the jury recommended that he be sentenced to
death. “What Became of F & M’s Marian Baker,” the
story of this case, was in OFFICIAL’s April, 1950,

OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES, always first
with the latest cases, occasionally publishes the
stories of these investigations prior to trial of the ac-
cused. This department appears from time to time to
keep readers up to date on final disposition of the

the police were

On March

Black-Overcoat swayed. He toppled
to the left and I saw his head strike
the new island that Marv had built.
We had planned to paint it in. the
morning and use it to display cookies
and cakes.

“Any more of them?” It was Dad’s
voice. He stepped out into the store
with the gun still in his hand.

“That's it!’ Marv said. “You got ’em
both, Dad!”

“Lucky,” Dad said. “I’m fresh out
of slugs. I used three on each.” He
pointed to the catchup bottle in Marv’s
hand. “If there were any more, you’d
‘a had to tackle them with that.”

Marv laughed. “I was going to throw
it before you came out.”

I took a step toward them and
grabbed the counter to keep from fall-

lance. There’s been a shooting.” He
gave them our address.

TT ambulance, police and people all
came within a few minutes. I can’t
even remember what happened during
the time before they arrived. Dad and
Marv were telling each other what they
had done while the bandits were in the
store. I tried to bandage Dad’s hand
but he pushed me away. He was more
interested in going over the details with
Marv. : ,

Neither of the bandits on the floor
moved.

The ambulance men came in and took
Dad away. They told us the wound in
his hand was painful but not serious.
Miraculously, the bullet had gone
through without smashing any bones.

However, they left the two bandits on
the floor. They said there was no hurry
to move them; the police and coroner
could do it later.

Uniformed policemen came first.
They pushed all of the people outside
and locked the doors. Then Deputy
Sheriff Howard Kelly came in and
looked at the two dead men.

“We've been hunting for them for
weeks,” he said. “We gota call on them
not more than twenty minutes ago.
They robbed a tavern only a few blocks
from here. It’s the same pair, sure. The
black overcoat and all.”

Deputy Kelly went outside with his
men. He asked the people who had
parked in the driveway and along the
street to move their cars; he wanted to
find the car the holdup men had used.
He didn’t find it, however.

He came in and asked me about the
car but I couldn’t recall seeing the men
come in an automobile.

“They must have had a car,” Kelly
said. “They couldn't have gone from
the scene of their last holdup to here
unless they had one. Besides, stickup
men don’t travel on foot. There must
have been another.man with them.”

Deputy District Attorney John R. Col-
lier came in and asked us a lot of ques-
tions, We told him what had happened.
Police photographers made pictures.
The coroner moved the bodies away.
Then there were the newspaper report-
ers and photographers. We had to go
over it again for them.

It was long after midnight before
everyone had left. Marv tried to get me
to go in and lie down but I couldn't.

“I’m going to scrub up that blood,” I
told him.

Blood was on the kitchen floor, on the
walls, in the store. It made me sick, but
I had to scrub it up. I couldn’t stand to
see it. What if it had been Marv’'s
blood, or all of it Dad’s blood—or even
the blood of Gregory or Dawn?

SCRUBBED but the stains wouldn’t

come out. When I rinsed the rags in
the sink, they seemed to turn the water
to more blood: It made me so ill I
we could stand up. But I wouldn't
stop.
“Lolly, it looks okay,’ Marv said. “We
can worry about it tomorrow.”

“I can’t stand the sight of it,” I told
him. “Every time I see the stains, I
think it might have been you or Dad
lying there on the floor.”

“Okay, I’ll paint over it tomorrow.
You won't be able to see any sign of it.”

I don’t think paint will ever cover it.
I can still see the red blood on the floor.
Why did they have to come into our
store? They were young, strong men—
why couldn’t they have worked for their
money?

The next morning Deputy Kelly came
out to see us. He told us that the man
in the black overcoat had been identi-
fied as Jay W. Harris and the other
bandit as Henry Douglas Smith.

“We've had a dozen people in to look
at them already,” Kelly told us.
“They’ve been identified in I don’t know
how many robberies. We figure they
had one or two others with them. Our
men are working on it and should nab
them before long.”

“I'm still sorry they were killed,” I
said. “They were such young men.”

“You’re wrong,” Kelly told me. “I
talked to your Dad and he’s got the right
idea. Any holdup man who carries a
gun is a murderer. Those two were the
worst kind of murderers. They even
had dum-dum slugs in their guns.”

I didn't understand and Kelly ex-
plained. Smith was carrying a .455-
caliber Webley, an English-make gun.
The slugs left in the gun were cut off
at the end and deep cuts filed in the
lead so that it would mushroom and
tear a tremendous hole in the flesh.
Fortunately, the one shot he had fired
at Dad had not been fixed that way.
But if he had struck Dad with a second
shot in any vital area, Dad would have
been killed instantly.

Harris had a .38-caliber revolver. He
had drilled holes in the end of his bul-
lets so they would flatten out when they
struck.

“They’re the lowest, meanest type of
killer you’d ever find,’ Kelly declared.

45

DE IECTUVE SwRI S

ORIIE Fe


“We sure will,” the Middletown ser-
geant promised.

Before midnight. Middletown police
called: back. “We've found a George E.
Bowers registered at a downtown hotel,”
the sergeant said. ‘“He’s in his room, with
his wife—apparently asleep.”

“Keep the place staked out,” Bennett
begged. “We'll be there in a few hours.”

Early the next morning Bennett, Sgt.
Chester Wilson of the Middletown force,
another detective and a deputy sheriff
stood before Bowers’ hotel door. Bennett
knocked. A sleepy voice asked, “What is
it?”

“Telegram,” Bennett replied.

The door opened’ and the officers
pushed in. Bowers was heavy-eyed, clad
in rumpled pajamas. In bed, a young
woman Jooked up with startled eyes.

“They want you hack in Crothersville,
Bowers,” Bennett said. “Get dressed.”

Obediently, Bowers put on his clothes.

On the drive back to Crothersville,
Bowers sat in morose silence. Twice he

tried half-heartedly to talk. Bennett
ignored him, letting the tension build up.

Meanwhile in Crothersville Sheriff
Morris had found conclusive new evi-
dence..He’d taken a search party to the
spot described by the man who had driven
Bowers to Indianapolis. In thick weeds,
he found the bundle Bowers had carried.
It contained a pair of jeans spattered
with blood. The net around Bowers drew
tighter.

When he saw the evidence the hard-

’ working officers had accumulated, Bowers

quickly confessed.

He was, he admitted, a bigamist. He
had married the girl in Ohio without
waiting for the formality of divorce in
Indiana.

That, he insisted, led to the murder.

“J heard Kovert was carrying tales
about: me to my wife here,” he whined.
“So I told him I was to meet two fellows
out by the creek to go coon hunting. He
drove me out there. He honked the horn
a couple times. Nobody came, of course.

So I asked him if I could fire a shot to
attract their attention. He said he didn’t
care. I got out and loaded the shotgun.
Then I pointed it through the door. He
threw up his hand as I shot.”

Bowers said Kovert then opened the far
door and got out of the cab and started
running. He ran about seventy five feet,
then fell. Bowers said he reloaded the
gun, approached within six feet and fired
at the cabby a second time.

Then, he said, he’ took Kovert’s wallet,
backed the cab up the road, turned around
and drove to Scottsburg. The wallet, he

said, yielded about $40. He had thrown

it out of the cab on the way to Scottsburg.
(It was later recovered.)

“You know the rest,” he said.

As this account of the police investiga-
tion is prepared for publication, Bowers
awaits the trial that will determine his
innocence or guilt. .

(The name, Ed Brant, as used herein is fictitious
to protect the identity of a man innocently involved
in the case.—-The Editor.)

Slaying
in Lover’s Lane

{Continued from page 35]

Major William Hoffman, commander of
State Police Squadron 4 based at Phil-
adelphia, .arrived in Lancaster before
dawn Sunday to add his long experience
and ability to the search for the per-
petrator of the slaving in lover’s lane.

City Detective Frank Matt and Sgts.
John Ammon, V. E. Simpson and Cpl.
Leonard Mazakas joined the pre-dawn
conference in Commissioner McCartney's
office.

“Tt appears we're looking for someone
Miss Baker knew, who owned a car and
picked her up at the postoffice,” Captain
Gleason stated after outlining the meager
findings. “We will ask the college
authorities to make a list of all students
who were absent from the campus
Tuesday afternoon and another of all
those owning cars. Everybody in the
treasurer's office where the girl worked
will have to be questioned,

Teams of investigators fanned out in
many directions that Sunday morning.
Every inch of the ground at the Harnish
cottage on Mill Creek was gone over
carefully by daylight. As a result, -de-
tectives came up with two important
discoveries.

One was a small amount of blood on
the ground near the road. The other was
more blood beside a pile of brush. Drag
marks in the earth, resembling heel
furrows, connected the two spots.

“Indications are,” Corporal Kane stated,
“that the killer parked his car and lifted
the body onto the ground. That would
explain the first blood. Then he dragged
the corpse to the brush pile, where it re-
mained for a while. That accounts for
the larger amount of blood there. After
that the corpse was placed on the sheet
of corrugated iron and dragged to the
open cellar.”

Major Hoffman agreed that was a
logical explanation. Then, after several
moments pause, he added, “We know this
section of the road is used as a lover's
fane. Marian Baker could have driven
here with someone she knew and mis-
takenly trusted.”

As the commander finished Sergeant

52

Ammon and Detective Matt, who had
been searching Mill Creek for the murder
weapon and the missing pocketbook,
came up. Ammon was holding a section
of heavy lead pipe in his handker-
chief.

Major Hoffman examined the 15-inch
length of pipe carefully, There were
several dark brown stains on one side.
“This could be the death weapon,” he
stated. “We'll send it to the science lab
at Harrisburg for analysis.”

Specimens of the blood found on the
ground were taken. These were hurried

to the state capital along with the stained

lead pipe.

By Sunday evening the investigators
had good reason to believe they were
making commendable progress. They had
a pretty good idea what had happened
that fatal Tuesday afternoon. College
authorities were preparing the lists of
students absent from the campus. Scrap-
ings taken from beneath the slain girl's
fingernails had been rushed to the Harris-
burg laboratory along with other evi-
dence.

On Monday morning, when business
houses opened, operators of automobile

* accessory shops, dry cleaning establish-

ments, gasoline stations and auto repair
places found detectives waiting to give
them instructions.

HE accessory shops were warned to
be on the alert for customers asking
for new seat covers.

“If Marian Baker was bludgeoned to
death inside a car,” the officers explained,
“the killer must have gotten blood on the
cushions. Report anyone buying seat
covers.”

Dry cleaners were instructed to be on
the look-out for bloodstained garments.
Service stations and repair shops were
likewise instructed to report any motor-
ists whose actions might arouse the
slightest suspicion.

One thing investigators checking, the
slain girl’s background learned was that
she had been taking driving lessons
during the past few weeks. The records
at the Lancaster barracks of the State
Police showed that she had passed her
test ten days before her death.’

One of her close friends told the de-
tectives, “The man who was instructing
Marian drives a delivery truck. His daily
route carries him through the Mill Creek
section where the Harnish cottage is
located. His name is Robert Simms. He's

married and has two children and lives in
Conestoga.”

Captain Gleason sent out a call for
Simms, but before state troopers could
locate him, the delivery man showed up
at the barracks of his own accord. That
was Tuesday morning, one week from
the day the Franklin and Marshall typist
had disappeared.

“T heard about Marian Baker’s mur-
der,” Simms told Gleason, “and I knew
you'd want to question anyone who had
been seen in the vicinity of the Harnish
cottage with her.”

The captain said that was correct. “You
taught her how to drive so she could get
a license,” he added. “Tell me about it.”

“T’'ve known Marian for a long time,”
the man answered. “She was a friend of
my wife’s, She’d been wanting to learn
to drive for a long time, so I told her I'd
teach her. We used the hard-surfaced
road off Route 222 near the Harnish
cottage because there’s almost no traffic
out that way in the winter time.”

Captain Gleason had been studying the
man as he spoke. He was of medium
build,.short and maybe 40 years old.

“Where were you on Tuesday after-
noon, January 10?” the trooper asked.

“IT was making deliveries from 1 o’clock
until after 5.”

“In the neighborhood of the Harnish
cottage?” Captain Gleason asked.

Robert Simms shook his head em-
phatically. “No,” he replied, “definitely
not. My route takes me through that
section in the mornings. I was on the
other side of Lancaster that afternoon,
My customers will testify to that. At
least two dozen people saw me.”

Sergeants Ammon and Simpson were
detailed to follow through on Simms’
story as soon as he left the barracks.

When Franklin and Marshall College
authorities finished their list of students
who were off campus on the Tuesday
afternoon Marian Baker disappeared it
numbered more than 200.

Detectives went to work checking in-
dividual undergraduates at once.

Laboratory tests made on the lead
pipe found in Mill Creek and scrapings
taken from beneath the slain girl’s finger-
nails were disappointing.

“The brown stains on the pipe are
paint, not blood,” the head of the science
lab told Captain Gleason over long dis-
tance. “We have also analyzed the scrap-
ings and found no evidence of blood or
fragments of skin. The blood you for-
warded from the roadside is Type O.”

Detective Matt, wl
Tuesday checking pa
hope that the killer m
loan on the missing ri
he had drawn a blank.

Questioning dozens
that same afternoon a
futile. Wednesday mor
an entirely different 5

One of the girls in th
told Corporal, Kane t!
had been very friendly
had graduated the pre

“He's taking post-;
Columbia in New Yo
added. “But I believe
during the past Chris

The state trooper -n
this boy's name and ho:
checking everything,’
office worker. “Now pl
ber any of the pres
showed Miss Baker sp
might have given her

T HE girl explained
undergraduates ca
urer’s office from tin
bills. “They’re all fri:
“and most of us who
make frequent trips to
and postoffice on <
Students with cars fr
lift.” Then she name:
given this assistance

While other detecti
the list of those abse
sophomore went to
Cartney’s office in L

“T was working out
on Wednesday, Janu:
told the officer, “wher
of the other fellows
deep scratches on his

The student paused
about continuing, ==]
right thing,” he added

“IT asked him abx
said, ‘I got them playi:
was before Marian
found; and I didn’t
things at the time. Th
police theory that 1
murdered Tuesday
just a mere chance—

The commissioner s
done the right thing
He made a notation
boy’s name and promi:

As this conversatio
still another undergr:
with Captain Gleasor
barracks.

“My father is a mo
began. “And a lot
probably know somet
That’s why I wasn’t
this fellow asked me
body to decompose
Marian Baker case br
ing about this person \
decomposition. Since
ties have urged us a
with any information
thought it only my d

The state trooper w
of the student who h
it took a body to de

By early afternoo1
uary 18, when city an
in Commissioner Mc‘
tight web of circumst
on one person who, 1
believed himself to b

The story of Robs
livery man who had
to drive, had been cor
not have been near t
on the afternoon o:

at

~<

ionths to make his get-
‘ured: the trail grown
that the murder never

‘Tiptions of the missing
ind wore a red, finger-
ngers; no pocketbook
ystal smashed was on
ist be Marian Baker’s

ing darkness, the in-
ulages of the footprint
ver the nearby terrain
preliminary examina-

iced road north of the
button which they be-
girl’s clothing, And
discovered deep lines
2 "“drag marks’ which
dy.
cher murdered some-
’ Corporal Kane rea-
rked here. Otherwise
Zround near the cot-
tnetal must have been
> body under the rear

by during the after-
is road is a favorite

ictim had been dead
ashed wrist-watch is
Id be Tuesday after-
that time-piece gives

tures on the rear of
e autopsy will show
‘ll take the body to
ou a complete report

‘ason arrived at the
e grounds surround-

report to college
observed some-
“Quarters in the
¢ unnerved him.

ing the Harnish cottage and the road leading to Route 222.
No one except police officers had been allowed to enter
the prefnises.

“Working in the darkness has been difficult,” Corporal
Kane explained, “and we’ve tried not to. obliterate any
clues. We’ve found no murder weapon. And the girl’s
pocketbook—if she had one—is missing. There’s a broken
wrist-watch, a pearl button we believe was torn from the
victim’s coat, and evidence that she was dragged a short
distance by her arms before being placed on a corrugated
sheet of iron and moved to the spot where she was found.

“Most important of all,” the trooper continued, “is. a
good set of footprints found near the cottage. We've taken
moulages,”’

Captain Gleason was pleased. “What about tire treads?”
he asked.

Kane motioned toward the hard-surfaced road. “The
only ones we've found were made by Mr. Harnish’s car,”
he said: ‘We believe the killer drove here but apparently
his car didn’t leave the surfaced road.”

APTAIN GLEASON said, “We'll give everything a
double check by daylight.” i

The victim was positively identified at the hospital later
that evening by Leroy C. O’Donel, Marian Baker’s uncle;
John E. Weaver, her landlord; and Mr. Mylin, treasurer
of Franklin and Marshall College for whom she worked.

State and city police attempting to establish the exact:
time of the murder, consulted a watch expert who said
that only seven hours had elapsed between the time the
wrist-watch had last been wound and the hour when it
stopped. :

Mrs. Weaver, in whose home the slain girl had roomed,

.said Miss Baker was in the habit of winding her watch

on arising at 7:30 each morning, That information indi-
cated the girl was murdered Tuesday afternoon shortly after
she disappeared.

When Dr. Stahr’s autopsy report came in just before
midnight it showed that Marian Baker’s stomach contained
partially digested food. Friends on the campus furnished
a menu of what the girl had eaten in the college lunch
room at noon Tuesday and this checked with the stomach

contents. That fact added support to the Tuesday afternoon

“murder time theory.

“Miss Baker was killed from a blow on the back of the
skull, just to the left side,” the autopsy report continued.
“The death weapon appears to have been a circular object
of some kind, possibly a heavy pipe. Eight to ten inches
of the victim’s skull were crushed in from the impact of
the blow. The condition of body tissues shows the victim

“had been dead at least seventy-two hours when the body

was discovered. There is no evidence of a sexual attack.”

When Marian Baker’s bedroom in the Weaver home
was searched early Sunday morning the police were dis-
appointed. They had hoped to find a diary or letters that
might provide a much-needed lead, but this did not prove

.to be the case.

Mrs. Weaver said, “Marian usually carried a black
leather purse. She was an average girl who liked good times
and was popular with both sexes, but she certainly wasn’t
the type to accept a ride in a car from a stranger.”

The detectives made a note about the black purse, for
none had been found near the cottage. Then Corporal Kane
asked, “What about boy friends?”

Mrs. Weaver said that Marian Baker had become en-
gaged to Edgar B. Rankin the preceding Christmas Eve.

*s “He’s 23 years old,” the landlady continued, “and he lives

over in Conestoga. I don’t know too much about him, but
he always struck me as an exceptionally fine young man.”

When Corporal Kane contacted the fiance he proved
to be just what Mrs. Weaver had said. He was deeply
shocked by the tragic news of Marian Baker’s death which
he had ,heard late Saturday night.

“I’ve been terribly upset since last Tuesday when she
disappeared,” he said. “I gave her a diamond engagertient
ring on Christmas Eve,” he continued. “She has worn it
every day since then along with a second ring that had an
onyx and diamond setting.”

The detectives knew that no-such rings had been found
on the slain girl’s fingers. This information, added to the
fact that the black leather purse was missing, gave the in-
vestigators pause to think. The locale of the crime, a lover’s
lane, made the motive appear obvious, but all the clues thus
far found pointed in another direction—robbery.

[Continued on page 52]:

An investigator points to blood
spots beside road. The time at
which the victim’s watch stopped
proved to be an important clue.

chee


could fire a shot to
in. He said he didn’t
loaded the shotgun.
arough the door. He
I shot.”

rt then opened the far
the cab and started
out seventy five feet,
said he reloaded the
thin six feet and fired
nd time.

took Kovert’s wallet,
ie road, turned around
sburg. The wallet, he

$40. He had thrown,

the way to Scottsburg.
vered.)

rest,” he said.

of the police investiga-
or publication, Bowers
at will determine his

it, as used herein is fictitions
of a man innocently involved
or.)

wo children and lives in

n sent out a call for
-e state troopers could
elivery man showed up
f his own accord. That
ning, one week from
in and Marshall typist

_ Marian Baker’s mur-

Gleason, “and I knew
‘estion anyone who had
vicinity of the Harnish

e J

d that was correct. “You
o dtive so she could get
ded, “Tell me about it.”
{arian for a long time,”
ad. “She was a friend of
| been wanting to learn
ig time, so I told her I'd
used the hard-surfaced

222 near the Harnish
there’s almost no traffic
the winter time.”
jn had been studying the
ke. He was of medium
maybe 40 years old.
you on Tuesday after-
0?” the trooper asked.

z deliveries from 1 o’clock

iborhood of the Harnish
ain Gleason asked.
is shook his head em-
” he replied, “definitely
takes me through that
mornings. I was on the
cancaster that afternoon.
will testify to that. At
1 people saw me.”
mmon and Simpson were
How through on Simms’
as he left the barracks.
lin and Marshall College
shed their list of students
campus on the Tuesday
jan Baker disappeared it
e than 200.
vent to work checking in-
graduates at once.
tests made on the lead
Mill Creek and scrapings
ieath the slain girl’s finger-
sappointing.

. stains on the pipe are
* the head of the science
Gleason over long dis-
e also analyzed the scrap-

d no evidence of blood or

skin. The blood you _for-

the roadside is Type O.”

Detective Matt, who had spent all
Tuesday checking pawn” shops in the
hope that the killer might have sought a
loan on the missing rings, reported that
he had drawn a blank.

Questioning dozens of students late
that same afternoon and evening proved
futile. Wednesday morning, however, was
an entirely different story.

One of the girls in the treasurer s office

had been very friendly with a youth who
had graduated the preceding June.
“He's taking post-graduate work at

this boy’s name and home address. “We're
checking everything,” Kane told the
office worker. “Now please try to remeim-
ber any of the present students who
showed Miss Baker special attention and
might have given her a ride in his car.”

undergraduates came into the treas-
urer’s office from time to time to pay
bills. “They’re all friendly,” she added,
“and most of us who work in this office
make frequent trips to the Lancaster bank
and postoffice on college business.
Students with cars frequently give us a
lift.’ Then she named several who had
given this assistance at various times.

While other detectives were going over
the list of those absent from campus, a
sophomore went to Commissioner Mc-
Cartney’s office in Lancaster.

“T was working out in the college gym
on Wednesday, January 11,” this yout
told the officer, “when I noticed that one
of the other fellows there had several
deep scratches on his face.”

The student paused as though hesitant
about continuing. “I hope I’m doing the
right thing,” he added. ;

“Tt asked him about them and he
said, ‘I got them playing basketball.’ That
was before Marian Baker’s body was
found; and I didn’t .connect the two
things at the time. Then I read about the
police theory that the girl had been.
murdered Tuesday afternoon. There’s
just a mere chance—”

The commissioner said the student had
done the right thing by coming to him.
He made a notation of the scratched
boy’s name and promised to check on him.

As this conversation was taking place
still another undergraduate was talking
with Captain Gleason at the Lancaster
barracks.

“My father is a mortician,” this youth
began. “And a lot of people figure I
probably know something about corpses.
That’s why I wasn’t too surprised when
this fellow asked me how long it takes a
body to decompose. But when this
Marian Baker case broke, I got to think-
ing about this person who asked me about
decomposition, Since the college authori-
ties have urged us all to come forward
with any information we might have, I
thought it. only my duty—”

The state trooper wrote down the name
of the student who had asked how long
it took a body to decompose.

By early afternoon Wednesday, Jan-
uary 18, when city and state officials met
in Commissioner McCartney’s office the

tight web of circumstance was closing in -

on one person who, until that hour, had
believed himself to be beyond suspicion.

The story of Robert Simms, the de-
livery man who had taught Miss Baker
to drive, had been corroborated. He could
not have been near the Harnish cottage
on the afternoon of the murder. The

HE girl explained that almost all the ©

graduate of last June who had been
friendly with the slain girl and was

attending Columbia in New York had
been investigated. He had not seen
Marian Baker in months.

The person the investigators were
centering their attention on had gone
about his everyday business in a normal
manner, unaware that little things he
had said and done during the past week
were pointing the finger of suspicion
toward him.

‘He owned a car; he had been off
campus on the afternoon of the crime;
he had been a frequent visitor to the
treasurer’s office; he had scratches on
his face; and it was he who had asked
the mortician’s son how long it took a
body to decompose.

This man was standing near a window
of the East Hall college quarters he
occupied with his wife, Helen, Wednes-
day afternoon when he saw men he
recognized as detectives approach his
car and start going over it carefully.

The officers were not aware that he
was watching. If they could have seen his
face at that moment when it went white,
they probably could have read ‘the
thoughts of the airforce overseas veteran,
but they would still have been surprised
at his reaction,

The youth turned quickly, and without
waiting to get his hat or put on a tie,
hurried out of the residence hall and
across the campus to the office of the
president, Dr. Theodore A. Distler.

Max Hannum, public relations director
for Franklin‘and-Marshall, was discussing
the preparation of a speech with the
‘president when the visitor by-passed Miss

| AT LR ANN NINE

WINS FREEDOM

Robert V. Christen

The latest development in Indiana’s
complex Lobaugh case, reported. in
the May, 1949, issue of STARTLING DE-
TECTIVE under the title Jn the Shadow
of the Chair, is the release of Robert
V. Christen who was sentenced last
year to a life term in the 1945 slaying
of Mrs. Dorothea Howard in Fort
Wayne, Ind. Me was freed January 28
as the result of the state Supreme
Court ordering a new trial on the
grounds there was insufficient evi-
dence to sustain the conviction. The
prosecution moved for dismissal of the
new case, stating it had no additional
evidence to offer.

Myrtle Doner, the secretary, and rushed
into the inner office, saying, “I have to
see those two men. They are my friends.
This is important.”

“P’m Eddie Gibbs,” the youth blurted.

The senior student who was married
to-one of the prettiest girls on the campus
and whose home was in Pitman, N. J.,
wore a tan army jacket. He was haggard
and wild-eyed.

Hannuin said, “Sure, Ed. We know you.
Come in and sit down.”

Young Gibbs sucked his breath in. “You

want me, don’t you?” he shouted,
- The two men had not known until that
moment how near the Marian Baker case
was to being solved. Now it came to them
in a flash. They waited breathlessly.

“Yes, you want me,” Gibbs exclaimed.
“You've been wanting me all day. The
detectives are going over my Car right
now. I wasn’t fooled. Well, ’'m your
man |”

Then Edward Gibbs, son of a well
known New .Jersey family, poured out
the details of the story that had shocked
the peaceful little college campus. His
voice was nervous but coherent as he told
how he had picked up the ill-fated girl
outside the postoffice that Tuesday after-
noon, eight days before, taken her for a
ride that ended at the Harnish cottage
on Mill Creek.

“1 did it,” he sobbed, “but I don’t know
why I did it. We were sitting there in the
parked car talking when the impulse
struck me. I reached over and started
to choke Marian. I didn’t know what I
was doing. When she got out of the car
and started to run, screaming, I ran after
her.

“I choked her again, twisted her around
and saw that her eyes were shut. As she
lay there, I went back to the car for a
lug wrench and hit her with it.

“There wasn’t a soul in sight. I knew
she was dead, and I had to get her body
out of sight, so I dragged her down the
hill. I tried to dig with my hands, but I
couldn’t. Then I went back to the car,
drove back to the campus and got a
shovel and returned to dig a grave. There
were too many roots in the ground. I
couldn’t do it. Then I pulled-her across
the driveway. I found two sheets of metal.
I put her body on them and pulled it
toward the open cellar. I’d never been to
the Harnish cottage before, but I'd seen
it from the golf course.

so she couldn't be identified. I also
took the purse that had $14 in it. On the
way back I threw it away after I put a
rock into it to make it sink in the water.
That’s how I disposed of the wrench,
too.”

City and state detectives had entered
the president's office during the latter
part of the conversation, Young Gibbs
signed a full statement and took the of-
ficials to the scene of the crime and
enacted it for them.

The two missing rings were found in
a service station rest room drain where
young Gibbs said he had thrown them.
The pocketbook and lug wrench were
also. recovered.

Edward Gibbs was formally charged
with murder on Thursday. January 19,
1950. A. preliminary hearing was held
before Alderinan J. Edward Wetzel on
Saturday, January 28, at which time the
coroner and state and city police pre-
sented their evidence. Wetzel ordered
young Gibbs held for the grand jury.

“T RIPPED the rings from her fingers

(The name Robert Simms is fictitious to protect
the identity of a person innocently involved in the
investigation..--The Editor.)

53

ae ee

SS ay

one quick look at the corpse, hurried his wife into their
car and’ sped to the nearby home of their tenant, Earl
Kreider, to summon police. ~

“Tt’s murder!” the attorney dior over the wire.
“We've found Marian Baker’s body !”

Cpl. James E. Kane of the State Police; Fred G. McCart-
ney, newly appointed police commissioner of Lancaster,
and Dr. Charles Stahr, deputy coroner, arrived at the
cottage located on a lonely, one-lane road off Route 222
shortly after 4:30 p. m. that Saturday, January 14, 1950.

The lawyer and his wife led the way to the open “cellar”
beneath their immaculate, white cottage where the mur-
dered girl’s body lay face down on the cold earth. Her
clothes were pulled up around the upper part of her, body.
Crimson stains on her head left no doubt as to what had
happened.

Everyone in the little circle of grim-faced people who |

looked down on the death scene was well acquainted with
the facts leading up to the tragic discovery.:

yas: BAKER had been reported missing on
Wednesday, January 11, by her employer, Donald M.
Mylin, college treasurer, when she failed to return to work
Tuesday afternoon and’ continued to be absent on Wednes-
day. She had last been seen at the Lancaster Postoffice
early Tuesday afternoon and had failed to appear that
evening at 415 Reynolds Avenue where she roomed.

During the subsequent four-day. investigation, authori-
ties had quizzed hundreds of students, relatives-and friends
of the missing girl, They searched automobiles for clues
and checked and re-checked the pretty typist’s activities
to no avail.

Following broadcast of a thirteen-state alarm, she: had
been reported seen in both Philadelphia and Harrisburg,
but investigation proved both leads groundless.

Mrs. Harnish broke the ominous silence. “It was just
chance that brought about the discovery,” she said. “This
was to be our last trip to the cottage before leaving for
Florida, If I hadn’t been putting out scraps for the opos-
sums—”

The officers knew what she meant. Except for this one
twist of fate, the corpse could have remained hidden all

winter. The killer would have had months to make his get-
away. Clues would have been obscured: the trail grown
cold; and it would have been likely that the murder never
would have been solved.

Kane and McCartney checked descriptions of the missing
girl. The victim was fully clothed; and wore a red, finger-
tip coat. No rings were on her fingers; no pocketbook
nearby. A wrist-watch with the crystal smashed was on
her arm. All present agreed this must be Marian Baker’s
body.

Although hampered by approaching darkness, the in-
vestigators went to work taking moulages of the footprint
found near the cottage and going over the nearby terrain
for clues while Dr. Stahr began his preliminary examina-
tion at the scene.

About ten feet from the hard surfaced road north of the
cottage officers found a white pearl button which they be-
lieved was ripped off the murdered girl’s clothing. And
in this same area, the detectives also discovered deep lines

- cut in the earth closely resembling the “drag marks’’ which

had first led Mrs. Harnish to the body.

“Tt appears that the girl was either murdered some-
where else and brought here in a car,” Corporal Kane rea-
soned, “or she was killed in a car parked here. Otherwise
we would have found bloodstained ground near the cot-
tage. A piece of the long, corrugated metal must have been
used as an improvised sled to drag the body under the rear
of the cottage.”

Attorney Harnish, who had stood by during the after-
noon investigation, volunteered, “This road is a favorite
lover’s lane.”

Dr. Stahr said that he believed the victim had been dead
seventy-two hours or more. “The smashed wrist-watch is
stopped at 2:37,” he added. “That could be Tuesday after-
noon or Wednesday morning. Perhaps that time-piece gives
us the exact hour of her death.

“There are extreme compound fractures on the rear of
the skull,” he continued. “I believe the autopsy will show
they were the direct cause of death. I’ll take the body to
Lancaster General Hospital and give you a complete report
by midnight.”

When State Police Capt. Frank Gleason arrived at the
scene the investigators had roped off the grounds surround-

This youth hurried to report to college
authorities when he observed some-
thing from his living quarters in the
dormitory, at left, that unnerved him.

ing the Harni
No one exce}
the premises.
“Working
Kane explair
clues. We've
pocketbook—
wrist-watch,
victim’s coat,
distance by |
sheet of iron
“Most inj
good set of f
moulages.”
Captain G
he asked.
Kane mot
only ones w
he said; “‘W
his car didn

APTAI>
double «
The victi1

* that evening

John E. W
of Franklin
State an
time of the
that only s
wrist-watcl
stopped.
Mrs: We
. said Miss
on arising
cated the gi
she disapp:
When [
midnight it
partially d
a menu of
room at nm


GROAN ap ee

ee ne ES ee ne

carmen ton

* One Unit eat

ELECTRIC BUG KILLER

x

Piha 5

Sufficient V4,
for an
Average ~
Size Home

KILLS Flying Moths® ¢ >

e Flies CC gee
¢ Mosquitoes —\ ~~
© Silverfish NOW
° Gnats a eS

—
* Spiders * Exposed Ants Roaches ONLY 98
e Wasps (Insect does not have to
e Centipedes come in contact with unit)
Sanitary Electric Lindane Bug Killer controls, kills in-
sects — actually fumigates 1500 cubic ft. area. Uses
as little current as an electric clock. Guaranteed me-
chanically for 10 years. Multiple units also perfect for
business and commercial use. With Lindane Tablets,
U.L. approved cord.

Electric Bug Killer and 10 tablets, $1.98 plus 35¢ hdig.
40 Extra Lindane Tablets .. ere ee $1.00 prepaid.
Send check or money order, Satisfaction guaranteed.

BAN ELECTRONICS,
Suite $077, 1472 Breadway, New York 34, N.Y.

“ey, long! An ADHESIVE
10

EAT ANYTHING WITH FALSE TEETH!

New Lyons ALL DAY AOHESIVE for FALSE
TEETH holds dental plates snugly in place all
featherweight CUSH-
peers breath sweet .. . prevents SORE
GUMS. No messy paste or powder needed.
Sanitary, wafer-thin cushions stop False Teeth
troubles. Eat, speak, laugh, bite, chew, sneeze
with confidence! Lyons ALL DAY ADHESIVE
Denture Cushions are the safe, sweet wa to
improve suction and PREVENT SORE G MS.
Recommended by many Dentists. Box of 36
UPPERS $1.00 ppd. Box of 36 LOWERS $1.00
pd. Please specify. Money back guarantee.
Coder now from WALTER LYONS AND CO.,

Suite 5077, 1472 Broadway, New York 36, N.Y.

LIGHTER

This pistol looks and
feels like a Browning
Automatic. Press the

trigger and out comes
a cigarette . ,

Press
the trigger again and

the barrel lights your

cigarette with a real

flame. Precision made by skill-

ed craftsman, it’s compact...

fits pocket or purse. Looks like a
very expensive item. Full Mone
Back Guarantee. Only $2.98 plus 35¢
shipping charges. Order C.0.D. or
send cash, check or money order to:
Honor House Prod. Corp.

Suite 507, 1472 Broadwa

START SAVING $1,000 with a Perpetual
Calendar Bank. Insert 25¢ a day and watch
date advance, savings grow. Must save daily
or date won’t change. Your reward: a new _
home, car, college, etc. Free savings chart.
DeLuxe model $2.25 each; 3 for $6.50; 6
for $12.50. Add 25¢ each bank for handling.
Suite 507, 1472 Broadway, New York 36, N.Y.

38

State Police Sgt. V. E. Simpson, A

of North Queen Street, just after 2
P.M, the day she was killed,” this wom-
an said. “She was talking with a man.”

The informant did not know the man
and could describe him only vaguely.
He was husky, she said, at least 25 or
older, and he wore a corduroy jacket.
That the slayer was a large man was
indicated by the footprint he had left
at the murder scene. Its measurements
and depth convinced the experts who
studied the track that the sldter was
heavy and, when they founds other
prints belonging to the same person,
they concluded from the space between
them that he was also tall.

A SAIS the investigation turned, like
the needle of a compass, toward
Franklin & Marshall college. By Tues-
day, the college officials had compiled
the list of students who had cut their
classes or had had no classes on the
afternoon of January 10th. There were
some 200 names on this list. Captain
Gleason also got the names of all un-
dergraduates who owned cars. This list
ran to several hundred.

Patiently, Gleason and Corporal Kane
cross-checked the two rosters. Finally
they had the names of nearly 50 young
men who both owned autos and, pre-
sumably, had been off the campus at
the time of the murder.

“Now,” Gleason said, “we'll try to
learn who among these was acquainted
with Marian Baker. I’m convinced that
she was driven to her death, and equally

‘sure she did not get into a machine

with a stranger. She just wasn’t the kind

of girl to be picked up on the street by |

someone she did not know,”

At the college, Kane and Matt talked
with a girl who had worked with
Marian Baker, 3

“There’s been something on my
mind,” she told them. “I certainly don’t
want to get an innocent person into
trouble, but on the other hand I want
to see the murderer brought to justice.
There’s a senior here in school—one of
the GI boys—who knew Marian. His

lexander Novacheck, carry evidence to trial.

name is Eddie Gibbs. Occasionally he
does odd jobs in our office. And I
know that sometimes he drove Marian
to the bank. I’m telling you this,” the
girl continued, “because when I saw
him the other day he had a scratch
along one cheek. He said he got it in a
basketball game, and maybe he did.
I thought you ought to know about it.”

Kane looked into the matter of the
scratch, Fellow players and a coach re-
membered it. Gibbs had suffered the
scratch in a practice game on the bas-
ketball court,

Kane and Gleason now began work-
ing on the lists of names to be checked
against the 50 undergrads who might
be regarded as possible suspects, Seven
of the men Marian Baker had known
rather well appeared among the SO.
“Now,” said Gleason, “we'll concen-
trate on these.”

By Wednesday, four of the seven had
been eliminated. The three who re-
mained were Jeff Boyer, Eddie Gibbs
and Pete Barnsedge. “We'll take it easy
from here on,” Gleason said. “I don’t
want to wreck some college boy’s ca-
reer by making a premature arrest, even
for questioning. But we’ll be thorough.”

In the meantime, the possibility of a
new motive had appeared—robbery.
For, it was learned, not only was

Marian Baker’s diamond engagement .

ring missing, but a black onyx ring and
a black leather purse, containing a gold
compact—a gift from her fiance—and
some money also were gone.

Pawnshops were watched, but' neither
ting nor the compact turned up in any
of them, Corporal Kane went back to
the F. & M. campus to make careful in-
quiries about Gibbs, Boyer, and Barn-
sedge, It was a practice at the college,
he learned, to give psychological tests to
undergraduates and, on the results of
these tests, records called “composite
ratings” were filed.

Gibbs, Corporal Kane found, was
credited with good emotional stability,
had a good record for cooperation, was
happy-go-lucky, could be trusted, Boyer

AMAZING DETECTIVE

te
ee
ri
Be
Ba
RS
iy
Fe
¥
%
©
i
:
*
#


nie 8-i l a by

a. NF RE EE et Te aa ay PT Ree gee
pee as, LTR OI, ei e FE Sin ool a SG i $
PIE ated EMERG lp A lec PROTA SSS CRA lA Be tens

was moody, introspective, a good stu-
dent but not possessed of a high degree
of stability, And Barnsedge was some-
thing of a playboy who had been on the
carpet at the school for several esca-
pades.

Kane went back to his barracks.
There he found a summons from Cap-
tain Gleason and answered it immedi-
ately. Seated with the captain was a
young college student.

“Tell your story to the corporal just
as you told it to me,” Gleason directed.

The boy, a student in the pre-medical
school, said that a couple of days after
Marian Baker disappeared, a friend ap-
proached him on the campus and asked
several strange questions.

“He wanted to know how long it
would take a human body to decom-
pose,” the med_ student said. ope
wanted to know if fingerprints could
be lifted from a dead person’s skin. He
asked if a person who'd been dead a
long time still could be identified.”

The pre-med student had thought
nothing of these morbid questions until
after the news of the Baker murder
broke.

“What student asked you about these
things?” Kane inquired.

“Edward Gibbs,” the boy replied.

Gibbs, a husky, 25-year-old veteran,
was married and lived with his beautiful
young wife in East Hall on the F. & M.
campus. He was a senior in the college.

APTAIN Gleason, Corporal Kane

and Detective Matt went at once to
the college. Here they heard from an-
other pre-med student that Gibbs had
questioned him also about decomposi-
tion and fingerprints. And that Gibbs
had been seen on the night of January
10th crossing the campus with a shovel
in his hand.

The detectives now went to East Hall,
looking for Gibbs, They could not find
him.

“We'll see him later,” Gleason said
He did not know that the young man
whom he sought was at that moment in
the room of a friend, watching the offi-

cers come and go from his own room. -

A short.time later, Gibbs excused
himself and went to the living quarters
of a fraternity brother.

“I’m the man,” Gibbs said. “I did it.
I killed that girl—the Baker girl.”

His friend stared in disbelief. “Who
do you think you're kidding?” he
scoffed.

“I did it,” Gibbs repeated. He talked

_ for several minutes, and then his young

friend knew that Eddie Gibbs was tell-
ing the truth. But before he could
gather his wits, Gibbs had whirled
from the room and was gone.

Gibbs crossed the campus quickly to
the administration offices and burst into
the president’s office. And while the
amazed men in that room stared at him,
the GI student made his confession of
murder,

Gibbs said he had met Marian Baker
on a street in downtown Lancaster just

as she came from the bank on Tuesday ~

afternoon, January 10th, He had often
driven her to and from the college, and

AMAZING DETECTIVE

now offered to take her back to the
campus after she completed her er-
rands, He had picked her up at the post
office just a few minutes after 2 P.M.
But instead of returning directly to the
school, he said, he drove south on
Prince Street on past the Media
Heights Country Club and into the road
that led past the vacation cottage.

“Marian and I were talking about
college life, about social functions,”
Gibbs related. “I drove to the top of
the hill and parked. Suddenly, some-
thing happened. I don’t know why. I
reached over and started to choke her.
I didn’t know what I was doing. When
she got out of the car and started to
run, screaming, I ran after her. I
choked her again. Twisting her around
I saw her eyes were shut. I knew I had
to kill her—if she wasn’t already dead.”

Gibbs said he got a lug wrench from
the car and bludgeoned her with it.
Then he dragged her to the woods and
left her beside a rubbish pile. He tried
to dig a grave with his hands, but could
not.

Next he took off his corduroy jacket,
a sweater and his socks and threw them
into Mill Creek, tossing the lug wrench
after them. Then he returned to ‘the
campus. That night he went back to the
murder scene with the shovel to dig a
grave, but tree roots prevented this. Fin-
ally he dragged the body to the cellar
beneath the cottage, covered it with the
roof sheathing, retrieved his bloody
clothing from the creek, and ween:

He hid the garments in an attic*atop
East Hall. Later he turned them over ‘to
the police.

Edward Gibbs repeated his confes-
sion to the state police. He said he took
the engagement ring and the black onyx
ring from Marian Baker’s fingers and,
a short time later, threw them into a
toilet at a gas station on Lincoln Way
East. The diamond ring was recovered
from the drain trap there.

Gibbs admitted taking the victim’s
purse, also. He spent the $14 in it and
hurled the purse into the creek with the
death weapon. Both were subsequently
recovered by the police.

The college student reenacted the
crime for the detectives as District At-
torney John M. Ranck looked on. Then
Gibbs signed a four-page statement de-
tailing his account of the savage crime.
He still insisted there was no actual mo-
tive for the crime, but authorities indi-
cated they believed that Marian Baker
lost her life while resisting advances
from a man gone suddenly berserk.

Charged with murder, Edward Lester
Gibbs was taken before Alderman J.
Edward Wetzel on Saturday, January
28th. Alderman Wetzel ordered Gibbs
held without bail in Lancaster County
Prison to await action by the grand jury
in its March session. The trial was held
as scheduled, and a verdict of guilty was
returned. On April 23rd, 1951, also on
schedule, Edward Gibbs paid his debt
to society in the electric chair at Rock-
view Prison. ¢

Note: The names, Pete Barnsedge
and Jeff Boyer, are fictitious.

TRAIN AT HOME FOR

BIG MONEY

IN BUILDING
CONSTRUCTION

How to Succeed as a
Craftsman, Specialist
or Contractor

Because building construc- ey
tion employs more than 5 million workers,
over 300,000 jobs must be filled each year—
nearly all skilled. Train for a top-pay job as a
craftsman or specialist—or go in business for
yourself as a contractor. Learn estimating,
purchasing, blueprint reading, supervising, all
phases. Get the needed know-how through
easy CT! Home Study. Earn money as you train
—build garages, basement rooms, porches, etc.

MAIL COUPON FOR FREE BOOKLET. Over
1 million homes are built every year — over
$20 billion spent on remodeling. Discover
how quickly you can train for top income,
security and independence.

COMMERCIAL TRADES INSTITUTE Dept. C-84,
1400 GREENLEAF AVE. ° CHICAGO 26, ILL.
Send free booklet, ‘Your Future in Building

Construction”.

NAME AGE
ADDRESS. :
CITY ZONE__STATE

24 MMs

6a.
Unweven Cotton and Rayon
That’s right! Two dozen large towels for only $1.00
(plus 10¢ for extra postage and handling). Think of it
—LARGE-SIZE unwoven Cotton and Rayon towels for
less than a nickel apiece! Terrific value you’ve got to
see to believe. We had to buy more than a hundred
thousand to get this special low price. Now we're pass-
ing this savings on to you, our customers. All orders on |
a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis, so be sure
and order all you’ll need—you'll sure use all you'll
—and you'll never get a buy like this again. Tha’
you. ORDER NOW! MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE.
MURRAY HILL HOUSE, Dept. T-51-A
P. ©. Box 126—Bethpege, L. |., N. Y.

ag

OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOU

For ad rates, write PCD
549 W. Washington
Chicago 6

(MB-AUG.-SEPT. '63)

___ BUSINESS & MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES
$100 WEEKLY POSSIBLE, compile mailing lists and prepare
envelopes for advertisers. Le Bo time. Particulars
free. National Service, 81, Knickerbocker Station,’ N. Y. City.
MAKE $25-$50 week, clipping newspaper items for publishers.
Some clippings worth $5 each. Particulars Free. National,
81, Knickerbocker Station, New York City.

cep Na is gale a HYPNOTISM

HYPNOTIZE UNNOTICED, QUICKLY, effortlessly, or re-
fund! Thousands delighted! $2.00. Minter, Box 244-N, Cedar-
burg, Wisconsin.

FREE ILLUSTRATED HYPNOTI talogue. Write:
Hypnotist, 8721 Sunset, Hollywood 69W, California.

INVENTIONS
INVENTIONS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY for manufacturers.
For additional information write Kessler Corporation, C-138,
Fremont, Ohio. ‘
PATENT SEARCHES, $6.00! Free “Invention Record’/
arene Hayward, 1029 Vermont, Washington 5,

AGENTS & HELP WANTED
BEAUTY DEMONSTRATORS TO $5.00 hour demon-
strating Famous Hollywood Cosmetics, your neighborhood.
For free samples, details, write Studio Girl, Dept. 29C38,
Glendale, California.

39


Now, with a little more than 12.
hours of her time unaccounted for—
from her appearance in the post office
until the estimated hour of her death
—the sleuths began hunting intensely
for someone who had seen her during
that period. Analysis of the victim’s
stomach contents tallied precisely with
what Marian had eaten in a restaurant
at the college at lunch time on Tuesday.

A report from a watch expert told
that Marian’s timepiece had stopped
about seven hours after last being
wound, Marian, a very methodical
young woman, usually wound her watch
at 7:30 a.M, in the morning. Apparent-
ly, then, the girl had been killed not

. long after her Tuesday lunch at the col-
lege, and approximately seven hours—
with some leeway granted by the watch-
maker—after last winding her wrist
watch.

“In other words,” Gleason said, “she
was killed at 2:37 on Tuesday after-
noon—just about half an hour after she
was in the Lancaster post office.’

Who could she have met in that
brief period? From hundreds of tele-
phone calls that poured into their head-
quarters, the city and state detectives

smi q : Be ie er eer are seh ee Peta ORT ; sifted a dozen likely tips. But the one
tac 3 ts eke tae BERLE tS sy seas papas PPS, they considered most important =
t visit 4 pe : _Reporter_goints: to bloodstains on- road te cottage. ig eal ne ae pore Cit Whelan
t with | ghee Ss OS en Dea te ree TT ines ai Ss (ey # Baker. “I saw her in the second block
ssums @ 7
ing to
a at,
‘allow 4
There
— report. Marian Baker had not been sexually attacked. Death -
: had resulted from the crushed skull: an area nearly ten inch- F ; Sticeetess: bhatt nh 2
Sant es long had been bashed in. “She has been dead somewhere aan tages _ cha act Mes: agune As a” ahi ken
‘ently in the neighborhood of 72 hours,” the deputy coroner said. ier
miss- “However, this estimate could be off as much as 24 hours.
t she She ate a meal not long before she was slain. It will take
some time to analyze the undigested contents of the
hthe # stomach.”
Fi There was no purse on the body, and none had been
# found in the neighborhood of the cottage. There was no
pm. 3 i _ ring on her finger, but her wrist watch was still strapped to
when @ her wrist. It had stopped at 2:37. From the first, police
“a to - had no doubt about the identification of the dead girl, but
ales three persons were brought to the Lancaster General Hos-
¢ : pital morgue to make a formal identification.
She The hunt for Marian Baker was ended. The search for
were her slayer was just begun. : :
her = With rape eliminated as a likely motive for the slaying,
the i Corporal Kane was quick to suspect another—jealousy.
F Had Marian jilted someone to accept her fiance’s proposal?
sits ¥ Her handsome young man shook his head, Marian had
ae 2 had no other boy friends, although naturally enough she
3e.” i had many casual friends among the Franklin & Marshall
in 4 undergraduates. :
hed & “We'll have plenty of men to consider as suspects,”
ute a Kane said with a sigh. “Every student at F. & M. who has a
the = car—and who knows how many town fellows besides?”
ail However, Captain Gleason of the Lancaster force was
not discouraged, They were not without clues, he pointed
out, leads which might serve to eliminate most of the
possible suspects in the case.
a Using the autopsy report to guide them, the detectives
in began their investigation by assuming that Marian Baker
tid had been slain early on Wednesday morning. With the
coroner’s estimate that she had been dead about 72 hours
os when he examined the body, and with her watch stopped
| y at 2:37, such an assumption seemed correct.
IVE

AMAZING DETECTIVE

GIBBS, Edward, wh, elec. PA (Lancaster) 4/25/19)"

She was engaged
and lovely...
The prettiest girl

at college...

Certainly nobody
there had

committed her

brutal murder!

HE TUESDAY afternoon she
disappeared from Franklin
and Marshall College, in Lan-
caster, Pennsylvania, Marian
Louise Baker had several chores to
perform during’ lunch-hour. Two
were for her boss, College Treas-
urer Donald Mylin, who had asked
his pretty secretary .to make a
bank deposit and register a letter.
The third chore was _ personal—
Marian was to pick up her diamond
engagement ring from the jewelry
shop in downtown Lancaster
where it was being repaired.

“It was a trifle snug,” Marian -

confided to Betty Garvin who
worked in the office as a steno-
grapher.

“When is the wedding?” Betty
asked, as she admiringly watched
her friend slip into a chic red
coat.

“Hugh and I haven’t set a date

44

OFFICIAL POLICE DETECTIVE,
Oct., 1984 (art. incomplete-pub

yet,” Marian answered. : ‘
“That guy of yours had ‘better: -

’ hurry up and tie the knot,” Betty ..
said teasingly. “According to the» ,

roster I just typed there are 1350.

-males in this college and just’

about everyone of them makes_-a
noise like a wolf when he sees a
certain tall brunette.” :
‘Marian smiled. She was used
to being kidded about her full-
blown statuesque beauty. She
stood five. feet nine in her low-

ery or)

By Jonas Bayer

heeled shoes and
pounds. of  provoca
tributed weight.

“See you in about a
said. “Meanwhile, kee
away from the door.”

Picking up her b
pocketbook, she bris.
Administration Buildi:
returned.

By late afternoon,

*Mylin was frankly wc

unexplained absence
retary. Could Mariar
waylaid because of t
had been carrying? H
the bank and the
vestigated. Among th:
deposit slips he four
F. & M. College. It sh
deposit of $75 and bc
teller’s time-clock s
p.m. January 10th 19!
So Marian Baker
the bank safely enou;
the post office revea
had been there, too,
leaving the bank. The

_ registry window, wh

well from past visits,
registering a letter fc
brunette at about 2 0’«
had been his first cu:
he returned from lw

Perhaps, the treasu)
self, Marian had take:

Shattered cr

stopped the
watch at 2:¢

exact time c
deadly atta

SMALL-TIME———=
hoodlum Stephen Baranetski’s alibi
was shattered by Verzella’s camera.

Pittsburgh police successfully adapt a new wrinkle

to the old science of crime detection-photography
By WALTER C. MONAGHAN as told to TED COOPER

a L phage” ay, >
us ac "
ne in helped oF i
in whic sraypat!
4 ws uiy Wy F ¥ oo 4
NY Ne RNA ih i i a

ane
A /

photographic department an integral
oa of our criminal investigation forces.

e FBI started it and we quickly fol-
lowed suit. i :

But don’t think that there is anything
amateurish about it. Don’t let the
memory of fiction detective stories lull
you into believing that the camera as
used by the police is a plaything—
something that a detective in a
thought of using on the spur of. the mo-
ment. Definitely, this is not so, as will
be shown, I ieve adequately, in the
three cases that I am about to relate.

In the final analysis the part of a
camera in a trial is simply that of a
witness appearing on the stand for the
state. Most courts these days hold that
camera evidence is admissible evidence,
although there was a time when they
didn’t. But even so, a photograph in-
troduced in court as evidence must
undergo a “cross examination” as thor-
ough and as rigorous as any human
being on the stand ever faced.

For the camera can lie, if mishandled,
like a jured witness. On the other
hand it’s invaluable.

For instance, we had a case not so lon
a ets, “a man was on. trial

Fa with breaking into a store. The
case ed on proving that the prisoner
was the man who entered the

store.
We had a chisel hetonaindg * him, and
iy ayn Wi we had a photograph taken by Pasqualla.. 7%
 anoalttitntttt WANNA oe Verzella, our police photographes, of
att AYN Mini . gouged-out place in the door of the. store:ig@
AAAI , go IS ecu 53 a

—


Rk die 5 ae arate ms eS

cole ba td a

Deve sia TE

&

See 2)
t.

64

RS

“inte

Se ONT ROTTS te Madea

yr PHOTOGRAPHER". tg)
Pasqualla Verzella, officially atiaohed to ‘the
Pittsburgh, Pa. police department, swinging
into action with his crime detection apparatus,

INFRA-RED—— -

photograph of the rear seat cushion of an
auto revealed hitherto invisible stains
which solved the murder of Frances Coy

UCH has been written about the
scientific solutions of crimes. How
ballistics tests have been used to
trap murderers and to send them
to their death or to prison for life.
How chemistry has been used not

only in homicide cases but in arson in-
vestigations and countless other crimes
to bring criminals to justice. And
gi ay, oor

Much has_ been written about pho-
tography and its role in crime detection,
but because of the keen interest in snap-
shooting that has been aroused here in
the United States, and because of the
number of camera fans, it seems to me
that this science would create more in-
terest now among the readers of this
magazine. And then, too, of all the sci-
ness photography is the newest to be

d in criminology.

wwe in arent sr pride spraives on
“among United Sian fo me

MTS NS

AES EA BATON Re


EXCITING
Marital Relations.

Products For Men

REVOLUTIONARY DISCOVERY! — Thousands of
satisfied users! Do you sometimes find it diffi-
cult to. perform your marital duties? Well, it
could be because of age or fatigue. Now, there
is a way to avoid embarrassment and enjoy
yourself, too, regardiess of your age. You can
now satisfy the woman in your life just as if
you were 21. No drugs, no pilis, you wear it
externally. It will produce a sensation and
satisfaction never thought possible. For illus-
trated brochures and complete detailed infor-
mation send $1.00, refundable on first order,
To Maxon Products, P.O. Box 5013, Dept. AD6
San Mateo, Calif. 94402,

SATISFY

YOUR WIFE

Is she frustrated because your climax comes too fast?

In Sex Harmony booklet a doctor tells @ how easy way,
ax, prolong pleasure, satisfy wife;’

can help delay dim:
she then thrills with sensations you evoke in her, de-
sires you more often @ importance of sex relations
@ health effects @ sex techniques @ love zones @ how
to make erect organ bigger, stiffer, harder @ how to
move it for‘clitoral arousal @ how to achieve mutual
fulfillment. Adults only. Just write ‘Send SH, I’m over
21’ and mail with only $1 (no CODs) for your reveal-
ing copy. Plain, sealed wrapper marked ‘Personal’.
10-day return privilege. Don’t mias it. Order NOW!
Frankwell Co.,Rm 72H Box 120, Union City, N.J.07087

; RO OVY PHOTOS * sues» #
BOOKS * MAGAZINES J

eevee MOVIES!
1 ae |
SEND $1.00 FOR C AND

8
'GOLDFIELD * Box ee Hagerstown, Md. 21740 H

oe oe oe oe oe oe oe oe ae Dee pt. "4 mane anaseg

ILLUSTRATED BOOKLETS

The king YOU will enjoy. Each one of these
ag ge is size gy and is ILLUSTRATED-
w Page cartoon ILLUSTRATIONS of COMIC
CHARACTERS and is full of tun and en.
tertainment. 20 of these booklets ALL DIF-
FERENT sent prepaid in plain envelooe upon
receipt of $1.00. No checks or C.0.D. orders
TREASURE NOVELTY CO., Dept. 38
182 Knickerbocker Station, New York, N.Y. 10002

MALE PHYSIQUE
BIG BOYS — $1
Complete Illustrated Catalogue and
other interesting offers only $1.00.

ROYAL (ADM-~4) Box 1548
Pompano Beach, Florida 3306]

S 4
yw los

Erotic Qmporto

us STIMULANTS ge

“n re)

At last! Marital products that really
work! Guaranteed to fill every need. If
you've been disappointed in the past &
want the ultimate in proven products,
we are the answer. (She need never
know.)

0 Full color catalog & brochures, $1.00
CO Complete, useable sample kit, $5.00

CONTROL, Dept. C-166
Box 975, North Hollywood, Calif. 91603}

rather well appeared among the 50.
‘“Now,” said Gleason, “we’l]’concentrate
on 'these.”

By Wednesday, four of the seven, had !

been eliminated. The three: who re-
mained were Jeff Boyer, Eddie. Gibbs
and Pete Barnsedge. “We'll take it easy
from here on,” Gleason said. “I don’t
want to wreck some college boy’s ca-
reer by making a premature arrest, even
for questioning. But we’ll be thorough.”

In the meantime, the possibility of a
new motive had appeared—robbery. For,
it was learned, not only; was Marian
Baker’s diamond engagement ring miss-
ing, but a black onyx ring and a black
leather purse, containing a gold com-
pact—a gift from her fiance—and some
money also were gone.

Pawnshops were watched, but neither
ring nor the compact turned, up in any
of them, Corporal Kane went back to
the F. & M. campus to make careful in-
quiries about Gibbs, Boyer, and Barn-
sedge. It was a practice at the college,
he learned, to give psychological tests to

undergraduates and, on. the results of
these tests, records called “composite
ratings” were filed.

Gibbs, ‘Corporal~ Kane found, was
credited with good emotional stability,
had a good record for cooperation, was
happy-go-lucky, could be trusted. Boyer
was moody, introspective, a good stud-
ent but not possessed of a high degree
of stability. And Barnsedge was some-
thing of a'playboy who had been on the
school carpet for several escapades.

Kane went back to his barracks. There
he found a summons from Captain
‘Gleason and answered it immediately.
Seated with the captain was.a young col-
lege student.

“Tell your story to the Corporal just
as you told it to me,” Gleason directed.
. The boy, a student in the pre-medical
school, said that a couple of days after
Marian Baker disappeared, a friend ap-
proached him on the campus and asked
several strange questions.

“He wanted to know how long it
would take a human body to decom-
pose,” the med student said. “He want-
ed to know if fingerprints could be lifted
from a dead person’s skin, He asked if
a person who'd been dead a long time
still could be identified.” «

The pre-med student had thought
nothing of these morbid questions until
after the news of the Baker murder
-broke. :

“What student asked you about these
things?” Kane inquired.

“Edward Gibbs,” the boy replied.

Gibbs, a husky, 25-year-old veteran,
was married and lived with his beautiful
young wife in East Hall on the F. & M.
campus. He was a senior in the college.

APTAIN Gleason, ‘Corporal Kane
and Detective Matt went at once to
the college. Here they heard from an-
other pre-med student that Gibbs had
also questioned him about decomposi-
tion and fingerprints, and that Gibbs
had been seen on the night of January
10th crossing the campus with a shovel
in his hand.

)
Gas

|

The detectives now went to East Hall,

ei for Gibbs. They could not find
im. '

“We'll see him later,” Gleason said.
He did not know that the young man
whom he sought was at that moment in
the room of a friend, watching the offi-
cers come and go from his own room.

A short time later, Gibbs excused
himself and went to the living quarters
of a fraternity brother.

“I’m the man,” Gibbs said. “I did it.”
I killed that girl—the Baker girl.”

His friend stared in disbelief. ‘“‘Who
“0 you think you’re kidding?” he scoff-
ed.

“I did it,”,Gibbs repeated. He talked
for, several minutes, and then his young
friend. knew that Eddie Gibbs ‘was tell-
ing the truth. But before he could gath-
er his wits, Gibbs had whirled from the
room and was’ gone.

Gibbs crossed the campus quickly to
the administration offices and burst into
the president’s office. And while the
amazed men in that room stared at him,
the GI student made his confession of
murder,

Gibbs said he had met Marian Baker
on a street in downtown Lancaster just
as she came from the bank on Tuesday
afternoon, January 10th. He had often
driven her to and from the college, and
now Offered to take her back to the cam-
pus after she completed her errands. He
had picked her up at the post office just
a few minutes after 2 P.M. But instead
of returning directly to the school, he
said, he drove south on Prince Street
on past the Meadia Heights Country
Club and into the road that led past
the vacation cottage.

“Marian and I were talking about col-
lege life, about social functions,” Gibbs
related. “I drove to the top of the hill
and parked. Suddenly, something hap-
pened.'I don’t know why. I reached over
and started to choke her. I didn’t know
what I was doing. When she got out of
the car and started to run, screaming, I
ran after her. I choked her again. Twist-
ing her around I saw her eyes were

shut. I knew I had to kill her—if she
wasn’t already dead.” ‘

Gibbs said he got a lug wrench from
the car and bludgeoned her with it.
Then he dragged her to the woods and
left her beside a rubbish pile. He tried
to dig a grave with his hands, but could
not.

Next he took off his corduroy jacket,
a sweater and his socks and threw them

into Mill Creek, tossing the lug wrench:

after them, Then he returned to the
campus, That night he went back to the
murder scene with the shovel to dig a
grave, but tree roots prevented this. Fin-
ally he dragged the body to the cellar
beneath:the cottage, covered it with the
roof sheathing, retrieved his bloody
clothing from the creek, and went home.

He hid the garments in an attic atop
East Hall. Later he turned them over to
the police,

Edward Gibbs repeated his confes-
sion to the state police. He said he took
the engagement ring and the black onyx
ring from. Marian Baker’s fingers and,
a short time later, threw them into a

TAP AT gg NCEE ea

Andy oN
Williams *,
Raindrop: ‘a\
Keep “A # Hf

Fallin’
On My

FRANK SINATRA'S
GREATEST HITS |

} SOUL EXPERIENCE
| om = s MORE

i
fo tsszz7
pd

© 197) CBS Direct Mari

‘ sia ‘a (SB


a Ween

18 MILES

Powerful folding Opera Glasses
fit into pocket or purse. Center

eye piece adjustment. Worth many
times low introductory price. Com-

NOW ONLY parable to models selling for $4.95.

; 7 ”

tl Bruce Sales Company Room 2102

lf \\ 261 Filth Ave., New York, N.¥: 10016 H

“ 1 Please send me Hi-Power Binoculors. ‘

Y | 1 for 78¢ = = 2 for $1.80. , :

/ ; 1 Limit 2 to © customer. '

| Henclose: C Cosh 2) Check (G Money Order |

t Sorry, No. C.0.0.'s. ‘ ‘

'

1. NAME ‘

Postpeid. s < ;
ee 2 ' ADDRES: ao ‘
te © customer, 4 o CITY. ZONE. STATE. ’
Lemme mm wwe ewww wwe mewccnwnwens!

MAGIC TRICKS

REVEALED

ANYONE ...6 To 60...CAN
PERFORM: THESE FEATS OF MAGIC
ONCE YOU KNOW THESE SECRETS!
First time revealed . . . this private
collection from “Art. the Magician.” .
COMPLETE SECRETS REVEALED!
Every single trick fully explained! You
saw some of them on T.V. Many were -
tformed by such master magicians
HOUDINI, THURSTON, etc. And
now... YOU can do all of these
\ famous magic tricks. They're fun!

They're mystifying! Simply terrific for
parties!

MAIL COUPON TODAY!

Bruce Sales Company
261 FIFTH AVE., ROOM 2102:
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016 1

SPECIAL ¥ 00

INTRODUCTORY
OFFER

NOTHING EXTRA TO BUY!

Every single trick is performed with everydey
things you heave around the heuse... coins, cards, pe
balls, handkerchiefs, repes, etc. The smell price of as
$1.00 is all yeu pey! é

“POSITIVELY ASTONISHING” ...
say people who have scen this collection. You'll be
plucking coins from thin air! You'll cause cards to
change their spots at your command! You'll hear
the gasps of wonder as you do the world-famous
“Indian Rope Trick.” You'll actually do over 250
baffling tricks, including:

'
© The Vanishing Ball © Disappearing Handkerchief } L enclose $1.00. Please RUSH my 150 MAGIC |
© The Mind Reading Trick © The Knot that Unties itself | TRICKS postpakl. If the Gricks sony work,
© The Secret of Number 9 ° The Disappearing Coin ‘ can return in 10 days for fi refund. |
© Phantom soa e Moting 2 bal Roll by Isl | os No COD's,) \
© Growing Meney ° Mirace jumping Trick MAME: Slide csaes Ue Nass seikieto
© The Coin Leaping Trick * The Phantom Money Trick, etc., etc. Please Print
HURRY! Supply is Limited! j ADDRESS. oe Sa anieticblban vic aie
a a a a ee ee os 2 i alabae MeORTA TITS Co

24

What

interview, liven up an article or re
merriment, to a gathering of friends,

good

Here are th ds of aisl
and quotes for every imaginab!
occasion. You'll find each book has jokes especially for
professional people

people,

people—for every group you can think of.
The subj

With hundreds and hundreds of
sketches, drawings and illustrations
showing how to draw!

This book is very complete. It starts from
first stroke on paper to framing your
Has separate sections on:

.C2",4 DRAWING FOR FUN

Amazing Offer!

JOKE BOOKS $4 ALL

better way to warm

Sf
up an audience, start an drawing.
rt, or just bring

than to tell a
? Moves d
lin, dotes, puns, quips,

speaking and writing

Pictures; Animals, Birds ‘and _Fish; Portraits and
le with many examples of Faces and Figures of men,
women, children in all actions and positions, Instruction
on techniques, shading, He paid composition, 3 00
etc. etc. Makes drawing EASY. Aaa

v

FREE; with every order the MANIKIN BOOK. Contains |

or for working men. educational
farmers, salesmen, politicians. old people, young

of these | b

topic

3 are as varied as the

* outline figures of the human body in many difler-
they are about. You'll have a ys to fit any
H

ent positions for you to trace or fillin. ,

bien, Goods Seca) flan’ gid sien, Ceaeeem PADELL BOOK CO., Dept. M1004
che. 1199 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10001
Co 1199 BROADWAY, Stile 402-¥ : ie
Padell Book Co New YORK, N.Y. 10001 | ‘
4g

toilet at a gas station on Lincoln Way
East. The diamond ring was recovered
from the drain trap there.

Gibbs admitted taking the victim’s
purse, also. He spent the $14 in it and
hurled the purse into the creek with the
death weapon. Both were subsequently
recovered by the police.

The college student re-enacted ‘the
crime for the detectives as District At-
torney John M. Ranck looked on. Then
Gibbs signed a four-page statement de-
tailing his account of the savage crime.
He still insisted there was no actual mo-
tive for the crime, but authorities indi-
cated they believed that Marian Baker
lost her life while resisting advances
from a man gone suddenly berserk.

Charged with murder, Edward Lester
Gibbs was taken before Alderman J.
Edward Wetzel on Saturday, January
28th. Alderman Wetzel ordered Gibbs
held without bail in Lancaster County
Prison to await action by the grand jury
in its March session. The trial was held
as scheduled, and a verdict of guilty was
returned. On April 23rd, 1951, also on
schedule, Edward Gibbs paid his debt

to society in the electric chair at Rock-

view Prison.

Editor’s Note: The names Pete Barn-
sedge and Jeff Boyer are fictitious.

_ BATTERED, BEATEN
(Continued from page 31)

Mrs, Bridges in the office a little after
2 o’clock on the previous day. He had
not kept his appointment with Bridges
at Laurens because his car had broken
down. His story was checked out and
found to be true.

Later in the day, the official autopsy
report was. issued. It stated that not
only. had Mrs. Bridges been unmerci-
fully beaten but that she had been
stabbed a dozen times and her skull
had been split open by some heavy
instrument.

Upon receiving the official report
Johnson, SLED Chief Strom, and Clin-
ton Assistant Chief T. Blakely got
together for a conference.

The officers decided to question all
Known criminals and parolees in the
county and Sheriff Johnson suggested
that they, obtain a list of Justin Bridges’
clients, and that each one of these be
exhaustively questioned.

The consensus among the officers
was that the motive for the frightful
killing may well not have been simple
robbery. An ordinary thief would not,
in all likelihood, have murdered so
sadistically.

During the following weeks sus-
picious characters were grilled as were
a number of itinerants and hitchhikers.
Nothing significant was elicited from
anyone.

In checking the list of Justin Bridges’
law clients, it was learned that the at-
torney aided a good many people in
the lower income brackets, It followed
that if robbery had been the. true motive,
the crime had peers not been com-
mitted by a well-to-do client. Lieutenant

You're h:
But chan
% could be worth son
Don't be

If you en

quite good at fashic
I. Or if you
% as a magazine or bo
a Or mayb

f could be directed tc

There m:
talent that you hav:
f While no
i you may need to ge
‘ training.

; Famous /
a way no other schc

Because |
famous artists. The
illustrators like Bot
.work appears very ¢

In additic
staff who know the
further faster.

bing § They kno
loo! or.

And their
what's most promisi
as far as possible.

When you
But you never work


Pa,) COMMONWEALTH y. WEISS 403
(130 A.)

COMMONWEALTH v. WEISS et al.

(Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. June 27,
1925.)

1. Homicide @=-133, 142(6)—Misstatement In
indictment of date of murder immaterial, and
exact time provable.

In indictment for murder, misstatement as
to exact date held immaterial, but exact time
could be proved on trial.

2, Criminal law @=-532('/2)—Trial court need
not hear preliminary testimony of accused as
to whether confessions were voluntary.

Where confessions of accused were propos-
ed to be submitted, and court was satisfied from
state’s evidence that whether statements were
voluntary was jury. question, refusal to hear
preliminary testimony of accused to effect that
confessions were not voluntary held not error,
and evidence could be submitted to jury, with
instructions to disregard confessions if not vol-
untary.

3. Criminal law @==369(3)—Evidence of as-
sault and robbery immediately following mur-
der proper.

Although ordinarily, distinct crime, uncon-
nected with that charged, cannot be introduced,
evidence of assault and robbery immediately
following murder charged held. admissible as
showing that accused in their flight desired to
secure funds to leave scene of murder.

4. Criminal law @==371(12), 372(1) — Inde-
pendent crime admissible to show motive or
plan of action of accused.

Evidence of independent crime, which in-
dicates motive or plan of action of accused, ei-
ther preceding or following commission of crime
charged, and where so closely joined as to show
probability that accused were guilty of offense
charged, is admissible.

5. Criminal law @==696(4) — Failure to strike
statement as hearsay not error where objec-
tion was not confined to that statement.

Where, in developing evidence connecting
keys found in. car abandoned by murderers with
locker belonging to accused. witness stated
that he had been given number of locker belong-
ing to accused, refusal to strike, as hearsay, on
objection to whole line of evidence, and not
specifying particular statement which was hear-
say, held not error. ‘

6. Criminal law ¢==761(9)—Court’s statement
to jury, that it would have no difficulty In
finding that death occurred by force applied
from outside, not error.

In prosecution for murder, where there was
no question but that shots resulting in death
were fired by other than deceased, statement of
court to jury that latter would have no difficulty
in finding that death occurred by reason of force
from outside held not error.

7, Criminal law @==520(2)—Promise of detec-
tive to befriend accused if confession is made
does not vitiate confession.

Mere promise of detective to befriend ac-
cused in case confession is made does not vitiate

confession, and statement by officer that it
would be better for accused to tell the truth
does not invalidate effect of incriminatory re-
marks.

8. Criminal law @=-1171(1)—Reference by dis-
trict attorney to counsel for accused by his
former name not prejudicial.

Where counsel for accused had changed his
name by court action from Markovitz to Marks,
inadvertent reference by district attorney to
him as Markovitz held not prejudicial.

9. Criminal law @=-1177—Failure of court be-
low tu ask accused why death sentence should
not be imposed could not avail accused.

: In prosecution for murder, failure, after ver-
dict, to ask accused to make any explanation
which they might desire, or why sentence of
death should not be imposed upon them, could
not avail accused, as at most requiring remis-
sion of record for resentence.

Appeal from Court of Oyer and Terminer,
Mercer County; J. A. McLaughry, President
Judge.

Michael Weiss and John Girsch were con-
victed of murder of the first degree, and
they separately appeal, the appeals being ar-
gued together. Affirmed, and records remit-
ted for execution in both cases.

Argued before FRAZER, WALLING,
SIMPSON, KEPHART, .SADLER, and
SCHAFFER, JJ.

George Mashank, of Sharon, and Benjamin
H. Marks, of Farrell, for appellants.

L. R. Rickard, Dist. Atty., of Mercer, for
the Commonwealth.

SADLER, J. One Turner conducted a gas-
oline station in Mercer county, and, on the
night of March 1, 1924, was murdered, four
bullets having been fired into his body from
the outside, as the jury has found, Shortly
thereafter two young men, the present ap-
pellants, boarding in the same house at the
time, were charged with the crime, and later
convicted of murder of the first degree. It
seems that, for some time prior to the as-
sault on the deceased, the defendants had
been watching his place of business, with
the idea, as appears by their own confessions,
of committing a robbery. From the state.
ments of the prisoners to be found in the rec-
ord, this was the third or fourth time the
two had gone to the station for that purpose.
They left their residence in an automo-
bile, and parked the car at the back of
‘the gasoline station on the night of the
killing, waiting until the deceased came out
and prepared to close his store. Girsch, one
of the defendants, stayed in the auto, sta-
tioned a few fect away, while Weiss went in,
and the latter was apparently met by Turner,
whom he then killed. After the first shot
was discharged, Weiss fired again three
times. The two started back to Wheatland.

G@=>For other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes

a ee , ’
2 AOE IRB LO ART ERO INRA ER Ri i are gpl Hr, |

ae PRE es

ao mn
et ee

ane a a


ER AES NA Se AA

Beinn. mang

peep. al aaa

ee AS

a

TR

we ne te ee ro

A

mesg “ea A See TR

it iat AP et team

(thE iil

404

On the road they met one Desanno, a tailor,

with whom they were acquainted, and as-
saulted him, taking from his person such
money as he had. Having secured funds
with which their flight could be continued,
they packed their suitcases
Youngstown, Ohio, hiring a taxicab for this
purpose. They desired to return to Beaver
Falls, but the expense was so great as to
make this impossible, and it was decided to
go to Cleveland and secure work, which pur-
pose was carried out. They were arrested
in the latter city, and the confessions as to
their participation in the crime followed. It
igs insisted that. these statements were the re-
sult of threats, but this question was proper-
ly submitted to the jury, which evidently
found the claim made to be unjustified. Ver-
dicts of murder of the first degree were ren-

- dered in both cases, and the many trial er-

rors, assigned as a basis for a reversal in
each case, were argued together.

[1] It is first claimed that the testimony of
the witnesses showed the murder to have
been committed on the night of March 1,
1924, whereas the indictment named the date
as April 19, one thousand nine hundred and
blank, and it is alleged this was prejudicial
to the defendants by reason of the fact that
their defense was based upon proof of an
alibi, ‘The legal question raised has already
been passed upon by this court, it having
been plainly decided that, if the date of the
commission of the crime was within the stat-
utory period, the exact time of the commis-
sion could be properly shown on trial. The
statute of limitations in cases of murder is
inapplicable, and therefore a misstatement as
to the date was unimportant. “It is not nec-
essary, except where time enters into the
nature of an offense, to prove the exact time
alleged in the indictment. Any other time
may be shown on the trial if it is prior to
the finding of the indictment, and within the
period prescribed by the statute of limita-
tions.” Commonwealth v. Ryhal, 274 Pa. 401,
118 A. 358; Commonwealth v. Major, 198 Pa.
290, 47 A. 741, 82 Am. St. Rep. 803.

[2] The second and third assignments of
error are directed to the refusal of the learn-
ed court below to hear, preliminarily, testi-
mony of the defendants as to whether or
not the confessions proposed to be submitted
were yoluntary or otherwise. The jury hav-
ing been excused, evidence on part of the
commonwealth was offered to show the cir-
cumstanees, under which the self-inerimina-
tory statements were made. The court was
satisfied, as we are, that the facts disclosed
required submission of the question to the
jury. Later, the defendants attempted to
prove that force, threats, and promises were
used by officers to secure them, and the whole
matter was referred to the trial jurors, with
instructions entirely in accord with the rules
frequently emphasized by the courts of this
state. There is no reason why the defendants

130 ATLANTIC REPORTER

and went to.

. Pa.

and their witnesses must be heard in the ab-
sence of the jury, where the court, from facts
presented, is satisfied in its own mind that
the confessions were freely made. Of course,
if the jury is convinced, after hearing all of
the evidence, that any unfair means were em-
ployed to secure the self-accusations, it will
disregard what was said, and it was instruct-
ed todosoin the present case. The weight,
that should be given to such statements is:
entirely a matter for it to determine, keeping
in view the circumstances that led to the
making of the declaration alleged to be in-
voluntary.

[3,4] The fourth assignment complains of
the admission of evidence to show the as-
sault and robbery of Desanno, already refer-
red to. It followed immediately after the
killing of Turner, and was allowed to be con-
sidered by the jury as showing that the de-
fendants, in their flight, desired to secure
funds so that they might leave the scene of
the murder. One of the defendants had no
money, and the other but a small sum. It is
well recognized in Pennsylvania that proof of
independent crimes cannot be admitted (Com-
monwealth v. Gibson, 275 Pa. 338, 119 A. 403,
unless connected closely with the one for
which the prisoners have been charged. Al-
though, as a general rule, a distinct crime,
unconnected with that taid in the indictment,
cannot be introduced in evidence against the
accused, yet where the offenses are so con-
nected that proof of the one necessarily in-
volves proving the other, such proof is admis-
sible (Commonwealth v, Coles, 265 Pa. 362,
108 A. 826). But if the act which is proven
may indicate the motive or plan of action of
the defendant, either preceding or following
the commission of the crime, and is so close-
ly joined thereto as to show the probability
that he was guilty of the offense charged, it
ean be properly received. Commonwealth vy.
Dwyer, 79 Pa, Super. Ct. 485; Commonwealth
vy. Elias, 76 Pa. Super. Ct. 576. What has
been said with reference to these assignments
applies also to the fifth, where objection is
made to the admission of testimony of the at-
tempted robbery of the Turner garage short-
ly before the murder occurred.

[5] Again, it is complained that the evi-
dence of one Heasely was admitted, though
objected to as hearsay. It appeared that, in
the automobile abandoned by the defendants
on their trip to Sharon, was a bunch of keys,
and that among them two were identified as
belonging to lockers of a sheet mill in which
the defendants had been employed. One of
these was found by the witness to open the
locker used by the defendant Weiss, and he so
testified. ‘This evidence was developed by
counsel for the defendants in their cross-
examination, and the motion to strike it from
the record was not limited to the part in
which the witness stated he had been given
the number of the locker as belonging to
Weiss, but applied to all of his testimony con-

eB,

eet Pee

Set S Sage PRR tt bs NAPE tenets oe
i pth aS aay sig ads ati BEE ae otha So me


Pa.) COMMONWEALTH v. SUNBEAM WATER CO. 405
(130 A.)

cerning the key and the lockers. We cannot
say, therefore, that any reversible error was
committed by the court below in declining to
strike from the record all that was said by
the witness.

[6] The seventh assignment suggests that
error was committed by the court below in
the statement to the jury that it would have
no difficulty in finding that Turner’s death oc-
curred by reason of force applied from the
outside, No question of fact was withheld
from it, and, as we read the testimony, there
ean be no doubt that the shots which result-
ed in death were fired by other than the de-
ceased. No reasonable suggestion that the
death was a result of suicide was made to
appear.

[7] Defendants averred, also, error in re-
fusing to affirm the thirteenth point, by which
the court was asked to tell the jury that, if
any promise had been made by a detective to
befriend the defendants, in case a confession
was made, it would make necessary the dis-
regard of it entirely. The mere statement,
by an officer to the defendant, that it would
be better for him to tell the truth, does not
invalidate the effect of the incriminatory re-
marks which may be made. Commonwealth
y. Spardute, 278 Pa. 37, 122 A. 161; Common-
wealth v. Lewis, 222 Pa. 302, 71 A. 18.

{8] The next assignment which requires
consideration is the alleged remark of the
district attorney during the course of the
trial, in which he referred, evidently inad-
vertently, to counsel for defendants as Mr.
Markovitz, his name having been changed,
by reason of court action, to Mr. Marks. We
find no exception in the record, in the manner
required in such cases, It is improbable that
such a statement could have in any way prej-
udiced the defendants in their trial. Clear-
ly, the record as presented to us would not
justify interference with the conviction of the
defendants on the ground suggested. Com-
monwealth v. Gelfi, 282 Pa. 434, 128 A. 17.

{9] The last alleged error which it seems
necessary to note is directed to the failure
of the court below to ask the defendants why
the sentence of death should not be. imposed
upon them after their conviction, but this
was not pressed on the oral argument. From
the papers before us, it does not affirmative-
ly appear that the defendants were not given
the opportunity to make any explanation
which they might desire—certainly they
made no such request. As we view the tes-
timony, no advantage would be gained by
the appellants, even if there had been a tech-
nical failure to call upon the defendants to
make any such statements desired, since, un-
der the facts appearing, it would be necessary
to remit the record, so that the defendants
could be resentenced (Commonwealth vy. Pres-
ton, 188 Pa. 429, 41 A. 534), and this seemed

to be the view of the able counsel represent-
ing the appellants, which is adopted.

The judgments are aflirmed, and the record
is remitted for the purpose of execution.

‘COMMONWEALTH v. SUNBEAM
WATER CO.

(Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. June 27,
1925).

1. Taxation @=-238—‘Manufacture,” in stat-
ute exempting manufacturing corporations
from capital stock tax, defined.

“Manufacture,” in Act July 22, 1913 (P. L.

908; Pa. St. 1920, §§ 20866-20368), exempting

manufacturing corporations from payment of

capital stock tax, means fabrication or compo-
sition of new article, of which imported ma-
terial constitutes an ingredient or part.

[Ed. Note.—For other definitions, see Words
and Phrases, First and Second Series, Manu-
facture. ]

2. Taxation ¢=-238—Distillation and cleansing
of water not “manufacture,” within act ex-
empting manufacturing corporations from
capital stock taxes.

Distillation of water to cleanse it of impuri-
ties is not “manufacture,” within Act July 22,
1913 (P. L. 903; Pa. St. 1920, §§ 20366-20368),
exempting manufacturing corporations from
payment of capital stock tax.

3. Taxation @==25!—Corporation, claiming ex-
emption from capital stock tax as manufac-
turing corporation, must clearly bring itself
within exemption.

Corporation, within general language of Act
July 22, 1913 (P. L. 908; Pa. St. 1920, §§
20366-20868), imposing capital stock taxes,
must clearly bring itself within exemption
therein, to be exempt as manufacturing cor-
poration; language relieving from taxation be-
ing strictly construed.

Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Dau-
phin County; Wm. H. Hargest, President
Judge.

Proceeding by the Commonwealth against
the Sunbeam Water Company. Judgment
for defendant, and the Commonwealth ap-
peals. Reversed, with direction.

Argued before MOSCHZISKER, C. J., and
FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KUHP-
HART, SADLER, and SCHAFFER, JJ.

John Robert Jones, Sp. Atty., of Philadel-
phia, and George W. Woodruff, Atty. Gen.,
for the Commonwealth.

John W. Jacobs, of Harrisburg, for appel-
lee.

SCHAFFER, J. Is a corporation produc-
ing distilled water a manufacturing corpo-
ration, and therefore exempt from the pay-
ment of capital stock taxes under the terms
of the Act of July 22, 1913 (P. L. 903; Pa.

@=2For other cases see same topic and KHY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes

henna ae 5

 idipidknmpaatek See .

=


JOHN WILLIAM GIVINS, white, electrocuted Pennsylvania State
Prison (Beaver County) on 2-27-1950,

Was arrested in Colorado Springs, Colorado, John William (Bill) Givins, hatcheteslayer of
two Mount Gallitzin farm hands left Beaver County jail on morning of 2=25-1950 for what he
smilingly termed his "last long ride," Had turned to Catholic rekigion, On morning he
left Beaver County was calm and said he waspheased because ‘I'm glad this business soon will
be over," Just as the car roared away from county jail, Givens (indicating his handeugfs)
said: "If they'd given me a busticket, I'd have gone up myself," BEAVER FALLS NEWS-TRIBUNE
2225-1950, Photograph with officers on page one,

Went to chair maintaining same calm he had shown: since the night he was returned to Beaver

Younty from Colorado in December, 198. Body claimed by veterans! administration and was to

be buried in St, Johns Cemetery in Bellefonte, After arrival at prison had made no special

requests and ate regular prison fare, In letter to reporter opeed after death, told of

early life in Fayette County and how he had become a "drunkard, bum and wastrel," H ad serve:

_ two prison terms = one at San Quentin for lst degree robbery, serving four years and five
months of a five year sentence before being paroled in 1939, Returned to Pittsburgh early

in 190 and then went to Canton, Ohio, in 191, Residing at Goodwill Mission there, he was

hired as a janitor, Robbwd the restaurant till of $168, Pleaded guilty to grand larceny and

was sentenced to Ohio Penitentiary for 1 to 7 years. Served three years before being paroled,

Breached parole, returning to Pittsburgh and worked at odd jobs until he went to work as a

farm hand at Mt, Gallitzin in June, 196, Had cuit school at 15, made a failure of married

life and left wife and child to join army in 192l, being honorably discharged in 1927 and

resumed life of wanderer, staying in hobo jungles and mooching liquor and food across the

continent. Givens in tabloid:

"July 17, 19l7-Bashed in the head of Matt Magana in their room at the farm house at Mte

Gallitzin academy, baden, using a hatchet. Then slit his throat with razor blades; covered

the body with a blanket and slept in the adjoining bed the fibhowing two nights.

"July 19, 19l:7-Ysed the same hatchet on seep Joseph Neugebauer in the farm cornfield,

dragged him into the woods and left him to die, With Neugebauer's keys, refurned to the

house and took $115 from his victim's trunk,.,.and was on his ways

"December, 19}8-Apprehended in Colorado Springs by FBI where, under the name of Gollins, he

was employed at the Salvation Army home, Waived estradition and returned to Beaver County.

"March 21, 1949 = Pleaded guilty to both charges of mrder before Judges Robert E, McCreary

and Morgan H, Sohn,

"March 25, 19)@-Hearing of testimony to determing degree of guilt.

"April 1, 199-Court reported findings and fixed sentence at death,

"Week of Feb. 27, 1950, set for execution,

"Nov, 14, 1949-Supreme Court upholds conviction,

"Feb, 2k, 1950-State pardons board hearing and they refused to intervene,"

BEAVER FALLS NEWS-TRIBUNE, Feb. 27, 1950


a, suspect :
the first
* he said.

The police knew he had a criminal record; the child’s parents knew he had a criminal

record, but to the little six-year-old girl he was just a friend and a kind neighbor.

by BRUCE McINTYRE

JOHNSTOWN, PA., NOVEMBER 6, 1954

™ Jt was a time for children—three
days before Hallowe'en, trick-or-treat-
time, the time for youngsters to parade
around the streets in costume and mask,
pretending to be spooky and scary, fero-
cious and frightening ... And it was
the time for one person, a grown man,
to go around betng all these things at
once, without benefit of the usual fancy
dress or mask, His costume was a busi-
ness suit. His mask, a smile. His treat,
a ghastly trick,

The first phone call came to head-
quarters at 7:30 that night, Thursday,
October 28, 1954.

A 14-year-old high school sophomore
reported breathlessly to the police of
Conemaugh Borough, a suburb of Jobns-
town, Pa., that a man had just tried to
grab her. “It was on First Street,” she
said. “He walked by me a couple of
times and then he jumped at me. But I
pulled away and ran.”

“What did he look like?” the officer
on duty asked.

“T didn't get a very good look be-
cause it was dark,” the girl said. “But
he was kind of tall, wearing a suit but no
hat.”

A patrol car was dispatched to the
neighborhood, but a search of the streets
brought no trace of the assailant.

At that very moment, a few blocks
away in Conemaugh, Mrs. Margaret
Mauk, a housewife and the mother of
six children, was debating whether or
not to let her six-year-old daughter,

continued on next page

lt was a time for false faces, trick hats and bags full of goodies. Little Karen

&

wanted to join in the fun. Her mother said no first, changed her mind.

noes ems

bie


o

Suspect contided io a state

Karen, go out to play a little while.
“Tt’s late,’ she told the blonde, curly-
haired little girl. “You've been out play-
ing already, and I don’t think you ought
to be on the streets after dark.”
Karen’s eyes began to moisten. “But
all the kids are out, Momma,” she said.
“They're all playing: trick-or-treat.”
Mrs. Mauk sighed. She was due at a
Parents-Teachers Association meeting to
discuss the yearbook for the Conemaugh
Public School, where Karen was a first-
grader. There wasn’t time to argue. “All
right, honey,” she said. ‘‘Just this once.
Let's see if we can find you a costume.”

T WAS ten minutes later when Karen

skipped down the steps of her house,
wearing a paper costume hat, a white
mask, and a bag to hold the hoard of
goodies she expected to collect.

Her father, William Mauk, 41. a mill
worker at the Bethlehem Steel Com-
pany, stayed home with three of the
children: Donald, nine; Cindy, three,
and Jeffrey, 17 months. Bill, the oldest,
19, was in the navy. Larry, 17, was at a
movie,

Mr. Mauk, busy with the children,
hardly noticed Karen’s absence. But
when his wife came back home at 9:30
and looked around and didn’t see the
girl she asked, ‘'Where’s Karen?”

“Don’t you know?” her husband asked.

She shook her head, rushed to the
phone and got in touch with several
neighbors. Their stories were the same:
“Yes, she was here an hour or so ago.
I gave her some cookies, but I haven’t
seen her since.”

Mrs. Mauk next called the borough
police. Police Chief George Fesko jotted
down the description: ‘Blonde, six years
old, purple coat, mask, costume hat.” He
said, “All right, lady, Pl have the men
get on it right away.”

Fesko would have written it off as
just another lost child complaint. But he
remembered the call from the high-
school girl two hours before. It was still
in his mind at 11:15 p.m. when Mrs,
Mauk, nearly hysterical, called again
and he had to tell her there was no sign
of Karen.

Fesko used a last resort. He flicked a
switch and the borough fire siren cut
through the night, summoning the entire
company of volunteer firemen.

Fesko gave Karen’s description. “‘Fan
out and cover the whole borough,” he
told them. “If you don’t find her by
then, keep.moving towards the coun-
try.”

.

It was a few minutes after midnight,
the Hallowe’en season’s witching hour,
when firemen Steve Steffish and Richard
Barkley drove their light truck into the
entrance of St. Petka’s cemetery in East
Taylor Township to turn around.

The headlights struck something white
in the tall’ weeds on the fringe of the
graveyard. ‘“What’s that?”  Steffish
asked. “Looks like somebody lying
there,” Barkley said. They jumped from
the cab.

A moment later their flashlights
played on Karen Mauk’s tiny, nude
body.

The girl, sprawled on her back, lay in
a clump of wet grass. Surrounding her
was a little pilé of her torn clothes, a
crumpled paper bag stuffed with candy
and cookies and~a bright red apple. A
dried trickle of blood stretched across
her lips, and her skin was covered with
dark, deep-set bruises.

The men ran back. to the truck and
sped to headquarters.

;

trooper: “This is just between you

victim of the loathsome trickster.

Chief Fesko summoned a doctor, tele-
phoned state police in the Cambna
County seat at Ebensburg, and returned
to the scene with other officers.

“T can’t tell what killed her,” the doc-
tor said at the cemetery as he examined
the girl's battered body. There was evi-
dence, he added, that Karen had been
sexually molested.

A little while later Chief Fesko drove
out to the Mauk home to tell Karen's
parents as gently as he could that their
daughter had been murdered. “Oh God,”
Mrs. Mauk cried out when she heard.
“Oh merciful God, I wish I had made
her stay in!” She was near collapse and
her doctor ordered her to bed.

By 2 A.M., Friday, a heavy rain had
begun to fall. Chief Fesko worried that
it.might obliterate evidence in the ceme-
tery, but 20 state troopers from Ebens-
burg and the nearby city of Greensburg
arrived quickly to comb the area.

The most significant thing they found
was a set of tire tracks. obviously not

=

finds

those
seeme
to con
made

road |
on the
try to
Bef
full
Fesk«
Reed,
Ebens
Ti v
volunt
Karen
maugl
every¢
a tatte


“Do you think he would have resisted
a holdup?” Lieutenant Bloomfield
asked.

“I don’t know. He told me not to.
He said: ‘Human life is more important
than money, so just hand them the
money and don’t argue.’”

Kourtjian said that he normally
worked in the store from three to nine
p. m. But the previous night some
friends had stopped by the store and
invited him to an outing in a cottage
near Flat Rock.

“Uncle Simon told me to go,” Kourt-
jian said. “So I did. We left about six
o’clock and he was alone in the store.”

Kourtjian said he had been close to
his uncle and had helped in the store
since January. He was positive that
nothing in the business dealings could
have produced a motive for the slay-
ing. “I just can’t understand it,” he

said. He promised to notify the detec- |

tives at once if he remembered any-
thing at all that might be helrful.

ARLY in the morning Sergeant
Leedle ran ballistics tests on the gun
found in the 1949 Ford. It could not
have fired the shots that killed Kourt-
jian. The driver of the car was booked
on a traffic violation charge and
released, along with his companions.

Then a message came from Willow
Run Airport: Michigan State Police
had picked up a husky, dark-haired
man of 23 carrying a .25 pistol and
trying to board a plane. Sergeant
Blank and Detective Stapleton left at
once to bring him to Headquarters.

While he waited for them, Lieuten-
ant Bloomfield got out the records of
the Marik case. He was studying them
when Detective Inspector Thomas Coc-
hill, commander of the Homicide
Bureau, arrived at his office. Together,
they went over the details of the case.

About 5:55 a. m. on Thursday, Feb-
ruary 23, 1956, Richard Goodnuff,
sixteen, was riding his bicycle on Lis-
bon Street on his way to church, where
he was to serve as altar boy at the 6:15
mass. Two blocks from his home, he
had to stop suddenly to avoid striking
a figure sprawled on the sidewalk
directly in his path.

In the dim light, Richard saw the
figure was that of a man and. he was
unconscious. The boy got on his bike
and raced to the nearby Fort Station.
Sergeant John Brandt of the Fort Sta-
tion and Sergeant Ware of the
Homicide Bureau, with other officers,
investigated. The man was dead. Papers
in the dead man’s pockets identified him
as Geurgen Marik, a recently natural-
ized citizen who had been an Armenian
emigrant. One shot from a high-pow-
ered rifle ‘had penetrated his heart,
killing him almost instantly.

Investigation disclosed that Marik
was a graduate of an Armenian medical
college and had served as a physician
in the Russian Army during World War
II. He had settled in Connecticut, where
he sought a physician’s license but state
officials had turned him down because
of lack of information about his edu-
cation. He had moved to Detroit in
1950 and taken a job as a factory
worker.

Marik had been on his way to the
factory job when he was shot down only
a few doors from his home. His lunch
box was near the body. His clothing had
not been disturbed and no effort had
been made to rob him.

Despite two weeks of intensive inves-
tigation, the detectives had found no
clues, no .witnesses and no apparent
motive. Everybody in the Armenian
community had been questioned,
including Simon Kourtjian, whose store
was only half a mile from where Marik
was shot.

Inspector Cochill and Lieutenant.
Bloomfield listed these points in com-
mon between the two victims:

Both had been Armenian emigrants;
both lived in the same section of
Detroit; they had been killed within
half a mile of each other; motive was
not apparent for either crime and each
apparently was killed by someone he
knew.

But there the similarity ended.
Kourtjian had been in the United States
for more than 30 years; Marik was a

comparative newcomer, having been in
America only seven years. Kourtjian
was 56, Marik 45. They had come from
different sections of Armenia, their
backgrounds had been different and
police had found no evidence of any
tie between them. :

Cochill and Bloomfield agreed that
no connection could be proved between
the two cases, though the possibility
still existed and would not be over-
looked.

“Why did you try to push your way
onto that plane?” Cochill asked.

“T had to get out of here in a hurry.”

“why?”

“That’s my own business.”

“Running away from something?”

“That's my own business.”

“We're making it our business,”
Cochill told him quietly. ‘Where were
you last night between half-past eight
and nine?”

“Say, what’s all this about?”

Up to the Minute

E sovereign state of New Mexico in its penitentiary at Santa

l Fe has a tiny room decorated in green which never has been

used. That room is the gas chamber, constructed recently

when New Mexico legally changed its method of execution from the
electric chair to gas.

First person to use that room probably will be curly-haired,
fat-faced David Cooper Nelson. A jury in Los Lunas, New Mexico,
has found Nelson guilty without recommendation of mercy of
first-degree murder for the hitch-hike slaying of Ralph Rainey.
Such a verdict in New Mexico automatically calls for the death
sentence.

Nelson has confessed to a second hitch-hike slaying, this one
the killing of Kenneth Short, just over the state line in Texas. Con-
ceivably, if he should escape execution in New Mexico, he could be
brought to trial in Texas.

The interstate detective work that was necessary to capture
Nelson was featured in the story, “Case of the Three Stolen Iden-
tities’, in the April, 1956, issue of OFFICIAL DETECTIVE
STORIES Magazine. .

While New Mexico is awaiting the first guest in its death cham-
ber, Pennsylvania entertained the 334th, Harry Gossard, Halloween

Slayer of six-year-old Karen Mauk when she came to his door on a

“trick-or-treat” sortie. Gossard was electrocuted in Bellefonte,
Pennsylvania, early in June.

“Get the Holiday Killer of This Little Girl’, was the title of
the story of detective work following the report that Karen was
missing from home. It appeared in the January, 1955, issue of
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES.

The state of Michigan does not have capital punishment. Asa
consequence, Leonard Lundberg, who reversed the usual hitch-hike

procedure and killed pretty Patricia Burdick when she thumbed a ~

ride from him in the Upper Peninsula, was sentenced to life im-
prisonment. “Of All the Friends Patricia Trusted—”, the detective
story in this case, appeared in the August issue.

Prison bars are breaking up that old gang known as the White
Fencers, once one of the juvenile terrors of Los Angeles. Five of
the gang’s die-hard delinquents will spend the rest’ of their lives
behind those bars for the holdup-shooting of grocer Sergia Mar-
karian; the five are Charles Cowan, seventeen; Thomas Guajardo,
nineteen; Raymond Ulibarri, sixteen; Ruben Machado, seventeen,
and Israe] Muro, sixteen. More White Fencers are in prison now
than out. ‘

The remaining members of the gang, however, are attempting
to wipe out the delinquency reputation. They recently donated a
day’s pay from every gang member to make up a purse for Mrs.
Markarian.

This story, entitled ‘“‘Too Many Scar-Faced Killers”, was pub-
lished in the July, 1956, OFFICIAL.

Frequently, the detective work in a criminal case is finished
long before the accused person is brought to trial. To bring you
that detective work as soon as possible, OFFICIAL DETECTIVE
STORIES Magazine publishes these stories at the earliest date.
Final verdicts on these cases is given regularly in this department.
—The Editor.

Soon Sergeant Blank and Detective
Stapleton returned from the Willow
Run Airport with a man who gave his
name as Daniel Kleihauer. He was
husky, a little above average height
and had dark, curly hair. State Police
had been called when Kleihauer created
a disturbance trying to board a plane
for which he had no reservation.

The officers had searched him and
discovered the .25-caliber automatic
pistol.

He was surly when Cochill and
Bloomfield questioned him.

Cochill told him.

“Well, I didn’t do it,” Kleihauer
stated flatly. “I never heard of this
Greenland Market and I don’t know
where Morrell Street is.”

“Then maybe you'll tell us where you
were.”

“Sure. I was at the airport trying to
get a reservation. The flights were all
sold out. I got sore and decided I was
going to get on that plane one way or
another. Call up the airport and ask
‘em if you don’t believe me.”

“Why were you carrying a gun?”

“J like a gun. I need it.”

“You know there’s a law against
carrying concealed weapons?”

“Sure. So I was caught. So what?
That doesn’t prove I killed anybody.”

“We'll let our ballistics men tell us
that. While they’re making the tests,
you'll have ‘to stick around.”

The gun was turned over to Sergeant
Leedle and ballistics tests showed that
it was not involved in either the Marik
or the Kourtjian case. Kleihauer was
returned to the Michigan State Police,
who charged him with carrying a con-
cealed weapon.

Lieutenant Bloomfield, Sergeant
Blank and Detective Stapleton didn’t
get much sleep that day. After a quick
nap, they were back early in the evening
to join forces with Lieutenant Nichols
and his men. They punched doorbells,
talking to everybody in the vicinity of
the Greenland Market.

The description of the unknown man
who had entered the Kourtjian store at
8:40 was repeated. Then the detectives
asked pointed questions:

Do you know anybody fitting that
description? Do you know anybody
who owns a gun?

Several said the description seemed
to fit David Tessen, 22, who lived on
Ferdinand Street only two doors away
from the Kourtjian home. Others said
they had seen Tessen driving a dark
Ford convertible.

Sergeant Blank and Detective Staple-
ton, canvassing nearby taverns, also
heard about Tessen. For more than a
week, one bartender said, he had been
trying to get hold of agun. But nobody
was able to say whether he actually had
found one.

In another tavern, Detective Staple-
ton picked up a second name. Paul
Ray, 26, had appeared in the tavern
about half an hour after the slaying. “I
just saw a man shot between the eyes,”
an informant reported him as saying.

“Did you ask him who was shot or
who did it?” Stapleton inquired.

“No. I didn’t pay.no attention to
him. I figured he was drunk.”

Others in the same tavern were
questioned. One man recalled that Ray
had been trying to sell a gun but had
found no buyers.

“Didn't you think that was strange?”
Stapleton asked.

“No. All sorts of things happen in
here. A lot of these people have pipe
dreams when they're drunk.”

“Was Ray drunk?”

“I don't know. But he’s sold guns
before. I hear he has a Federal
permit.”

Stapleton questioned others. Yes,
they were acquainted with Ray and
they knew he had a permit to sell guns.
What about Tessen? Yes, said several,
they knew Tessen. One man was ac-
quainted with both. He said he had
seen them together in the tavern on
Thursday, the night before the killing.

HEN this was reported to Lieuten-

ant Bloomfield, he called a confer-

ence of his men and the Fort Station

officers working on the case.

“Tessen?” Detective McGhee ex-

claimed. “I know him. Kreucher,

Zundel and I picked him up on a bur-
glary charge only a few days ago.”

“What happened to the charge?”

‘Bloomfield asked.

. — awaiting trial now, out on
ail.’

Several of the Fort Station officers
were acquainted with Ray, though not
as a criminal. He had been seen
around the taverns at various times.

“He drives those haul-away trucks
carrying cars to various parts of the
Midwest,” said Sergeant Mertz. “As
far as I know, he’s always been legit-
imate.”

“What about this permit to sell
guns?” Stapleton asked.

“We didn’t know about that,” Lieu-
tenant Nichols said. “Suppose we pick
him up and ask him to show it to us.”
- a grab them both,” said Bloom-

eld.

Lieutenant Nichols, Sergeant Mertz
‘and other Fort Station officers went to
Tessen’s home at 4:30 p. m. on March
6. He was brought to Headquarters for
questioning. Sergeant Blank and Detec-


Ss

‘gf ee
Rita

The p

record

by BRI

JOHNS!
@ /tu

days

time,

4 around

: pretena

ctous ar

the time

to go

once, wit
dress or
NESS Stitt
a ghasti

The
quarter
October

on duts

“TY did
cause
he was k
hat.”

A pat
neighbor
brought

At th
away
Mauk, 3
six child
not to


fa

ats

Jackie Smith

THE DISMEMBERED BLONDE
(LD April, 1956)

In General Sessions court in New
York on January 25th, 1956, Thomas
Daniel, 24, a harness firm employe,
and Leo Pijuan, 48, a hospital orderly
at Bushwick Hospital, Brooklyn, were
indicted, charged with first-degree man-
slaughter in the death of pretty Jac-
queline Smith, 20, a fashion designer.
Jackie had died in Daniels’ apartment
on Christmas Eve, 1955, as the res
of a bungled abortion perfor y
Pijuan, who admitted that he nefer had
performed an abortion before.

Shortly after their trial bega

sodium pentathol as an anfgsthetic. It
apparently was an overdose and he saw
that the girl was in a stgZte of shock.
Unable to revive her, hef/summoned a
doctor from Lincoln Hosyital, who pro-
nounced Jackie dead, a told them to
notify police. Instead,f they dismem-
bered the body, wrappdd the pieces in
Christmas paper and stributed them
in trash cans.

Judge Mitchell D. Schweitzer ruled
that Jackie’s death was established
through the testimony of the doctor
who was summoned too late. The case
went to the jury on May 29th and after
deliberating an hour and 35 minutes the
jury of 10 men and tWo women brought
in a guilty verdict.

On June 26th Judge Schweitzer sen-
tenced Thomas Daniel to prison for not
less than 8 years and 6 months and not
more than 20 years.

oe

Leal

cece

a_i

REDHEAD HELLCAT
(TD June, 1956)

In Montgomery, Alabama, Rhonda
Bell Martin, 46, was held in jail for her
trial on six first-degree murder in-
dictments. Her victims were Claude
Martin, her fourth husband; George
Garrett, her second husband; Carolyn
Garrett, 6, a daughter by Garrett; her
mother, Mrs. Mary Frances Gibbon and
two other daughters, Emogene Garrett,
13, and Ellyn Elizabeth Garrett, 11.
Her present and fifth husband, Ronald
Martin, stepson of her slain fourth hus-
band, is paralyzed from the waist down
as the result of ant poison which Rhon-
da confessed giving him in his coffee
over a period of two months. Ronald
is still undergoing treatment in a
Biloxi, Mississippi, hospital.

Two earlier husbands escaped death
through divorce, and two of her five
children apparently died of natural
causes.

Rhonda, a waitress in a Mobile res-
taurant was arrested on March 9th,
1956, after Ronald Martin’s illness was
diagnosed as due to poisoning, and con-
fessed to the series of crimes which
began in 1937. The motive was pre-
sumed to be insurance policies from
which she benefited.

Her trial, | began on June 4th,

PENNSYLVANIA'S
HALLOWEEN HORROR

(TD February, 1955)

At 7 p.m. on the evening of Hallow-
een, 1954, 6-year-old Karen Mauk
went out with her trick-or-treat bag.
When she did not return to her home in
Conemaugh, Pennsylvania, neighbors
and police began a search. Her body
was found shortly before midnight,
scarcely 100 yards from the Mauk home.
The coroner stated that the child had
died of suffocation.

Suspicion attached to Harry Gossard,
39, a 6-foot, 200-pound ex-seaman, who
had a record of 5 arrests, two of them
on sex charges. Gossard finally con-
fessed that he had lured the child into
his car on a promise of something for
her trick-or-treat bag, but he denied
meaning to kill Karen, saying that he
“slipped and fell on her.”

Convicted of murder and sentenced
to die during the week of June 4th, 1956,
Gossard lost his final appeal to the state
supreme court on May 2lst, 1956. He
was executed in the state’s electric chair
on the night of June 4th.

/ 7

Report of latest legal developments

i on eases published by TD

THE MODEL BOY AND
THE BABY SITTER

(TD January, 1955)

For Kenneth Chapin, 20, of Spring-
field, Massachusetts, death in the elec-
tric chair on June 2nd, 1956, was the
legal penalty decreed by the state for
the knife-slaying of Lynn Ann Smith,
14-year-old baby sitter, and her charge,
Steven Goldberg, 4, in the Forest Park
home of the Goldbergs on September
25th, 1954.

Kenneth confessed that he had seen
Lynn Ann near the window’ and
knocked on the door. When she opened
it, he pulled out his knife, “‘just to
scare her.” But she screamed, and he
stabbed her. Then, fearing the child
would identify him, he stabbed little
Steven to death.

On March 19th, 1955, an all-male
jury convicted Kenneth Chapin of the
two murders, with no recommendation
for mercy, and Judge Charles Fairhouse
sentenced him to die in the electric
chair. But on June lst the Governor’s
Council approved a 6-months’ stay of
execution after Governnor Herter re-
quested the delay in order to allow
Chapin’s counsel time to pursue appeals
in both state and federal courts.

WHO WAS THE SOCIAL SET
FIREBUG?
(TD September, 1955)

From December, 1954, to June, 1955,
a wave of incendiary fires had plagued
Rumson, New Jersey. All were in a
residential section known as “Million-
aires’ Row.” None had cost a life, but
property losses were extensive. Sey-
eral unexplained blazes had broken out
at “The Needles,” one of the imposing
homes in the area.

In January, 1955, detectives sum-
moned to a fire on an estate near The
Needles, saw a figure they took to be
Mrs. Elizabeth Needle running from the
place. Arrested on January 13th and
charged with setting the fire, Mrs.
Needle denied that she had been on
the property. She had gone to drug-
store, she said, and was awarf that of-
ficers had followed her.

During the investigatio

Mrs. Needle

56, a jury of 9 women
itted Mrs. Needle of the
Union County Judge Ed-
eGrath had instructed them
cases where evidence points

ee

¥ smile? --
|) 3 fecca
‘A i "dj ve to -
, Karen ied oven and

SEFEYEEE 3
ket
erpite
haces,
< e Ae
AE
aterde

¢ LPiEL

a
=
‘
5
i
J ;
‘
§
8

* dowm the steps and along the street,

_ swinging the trick-or-treat bag. Smiling,
an meetin lait tha docs Heavens, »

~~ she’d be_ late. It was - already after
are = os :

Conemaugh Borou a

cruised the quiet streets of the little mill

town. When the high school girl, cry-

“g ing and near hysteria, reported the at-
i os tack, Police Chief George Fesko had
= ordered a search. The girl had said
s: the man was “big, tall, with a scar on
: his face.” The police prowled the
= . streets of Conemaugh for an hour, but

they saw no ome answering to that

‘Karen Mauk walked slowly toward

~~~her home. She held the trick-or-treat

bag carefully so as not to crush the

cookies ee g candies bapa See.

frightened so t the bag

—y almost fall. Her mock hung down

on her chest by its strings. Maybe- she

ought to put it on, but she was close

to home now, and besides, there wasn’t
anybody around to scare. ;

SPOOKY BY THE ALLEY

; Tt was sort of spooky right here by

= Coulter’s Alley, but Karen wasn't

; 2 frightened. There weren’t really any

: hobgoblins or witches, but it was fun
to make believe. Going along a dark
street like this you could pretend that
the scraps of paper blowing in the gut-
ter were strange kinds of cats that only

“came out on Halloween. And the bare
branches of the trees, if you looked
at them just right, were witches with
pointed hats and black teeth. Karen
took three giant steps, being careful not
to step on cracks.: .

“Hello, there,” a voice said.

Karen jumped. For a second she
thought it was a ghost, until she saw the
man coming toward her, out of the
deeper shadows.

“Oh,” Karen said. It was only Harry.

fe IE NUN

ee
rls
ut ! ai

i
:
cf
ii

I
, i
:

i
BFS,

fh

and _hobgoblins. .
Two miles out of town he
the main highway and
twistin;

i

a
Hilf
afi
ah ev E
seh ire

d stopped at the top of: the hill.
plas off th: headlights shaved 4 seaete

i
i

win stretch of waist-high
and occasional scrub trees. He snapped
off the lights and immediately they were

urrounded by darkness.
. He sat hunched over the wheel for a

ALL IN EXCEPT KAREN

Mrs. Mauk returned from the PTA
meeting at 9:30. All the kids were
in the house. Except Karen. Mrs. Mauk
couldn’t help the sudden, numbing
sense of fear that came over her. It was
much too late for a six-year-old to be
out alone.

She put on the coat she had just
taken off and went around to the neigh-
bors. Karen had been there—but much
earlier. Hadn’t seen her since, oh, may-
be 8 o'clock.

Mrs. Mauk called the police. The
squad car came, and the men began a
careful. systematic search of the neigh-
borhood. Some of the cops wondered
a little, thinking about the earlier report
of the attack on the high school girl, but
they didn’t say anything to Bill Mauk

Steffish and Richard Barkley drove into

St. Petka’s Cemetery. It was worth a

Scene Ske geen Sew Se wt
y . ;

screwy ideas, like coming srccnoad d

fe
‘
a]
ti
vi

there was more—the line of
Riek ace coe ade ata tae, ee
~ marks about the lower And

she had struggled; when the doctor
pried open her clenched fists he found

WORK OF A MANIAC

made a brief announcement:

wasn’t raped, but she was cri
molested. This is the work of a maniac,

a sex pervert.”

Sgt.. James Blair of the State Police
and County agarose ape Reed were
called in on the case. e next morning
they announced that they had two slim

‘ clues—the description given by the high
school girl and the tire tracks in the
damp earth at the scene of the crime.
They rounded up 24 possible suspects,
some of them known to be sex offenders,
but eventually they released them all.
The girl couldn't identify any of them.

Halloween night in Conemaugh was
not a night of partying. The streets were
deserted, except for the police. The
jack-o-lanterns were gone from the win-
dows and the kids were kept inside. The
word got around that the crime was
more horrible than the cops would say,
a crime so foul as to stagger the imagina-
tion. The men of Conemaugh stood on

ef
Fa5 F

healed bass ud,

’ ‘ Tee eee , ‘
ee Ce pos ea aa i
Bar ais ccc Ne Ba Dalaba eth cis a ahiean Bin Rabon

las

i Ses

BA ca 8 bo ie

bh hie Te ee it

NEWS CAME TUESDAY

~ On Sunday night came a report from
Newcastle, oer sapere of Pittsburgh.
A 12-year-old girl and her 4-year-old
brother were into a car at

point and driven to a lonely road.

man assaulted the girl sad dike drove
her back to town, warning her that he

- Would Kill her and her brother if she

parents.
This was not comforting to the
citizens of Conemaugh, nor to the
Mauks. Karen’s mother wept as she told

To many, the news came as no
surprise. Harry , the: 6-foot,
200-pound ex-seaman, been mar-
ried twice, and he had a record of five
arrests, some for sex offenses. He'd
returned from his merchan

g Company

was living

ple wanted answered and which the
— didn’t answer. Harry Gossard

to hia

had been under suspicion from the be-
nning. Why had the police let him
ive out of town? :
Ling’ arrested him Sunday night,

when

THE RED

HOT AND THE DOUBLE WIFE
(Continued from Page 23) «> :

Agostino “Gus”. Amedeo. Given th
chance, he'd have no trouble sacigute:

~ ing the swarthy, big-eared, 26-year old

ex-con with the hard, flat eyes and the
arrogant mouth. Gus had a high pri-
ority on Charley’s list: Last June 28,
unwilling to go along with a 25: years-
to-life.sentence for burglary, Amedeo
had crashed out of Chicago’s Municipal

Building—an escape facilitated

by means of a gun thoughtfully smug- —

gled in to him by his girl friend, Delores.
_ Mrs. Delores Del Genio Marcus, that
is. The attractive, 23-year old occa-
sional blonde happened to be married,
and the mother of two children. AL
though Gus wasn’t permitted to have
callers, Delores visited him several times
by posing as his wife and waving a five-
dollar bill under the nose of Baliff
Henry Peterson. Mrs. Marcus was now
out on- $10,000 bail, awaiting grand
jury action. ‘

Gus hadn't been seen since the break,
but Charley would cheerfully bet a
week’s pay that the burglar was still in
Chicago. » a Criminal since he
was 16, had been tagged by the Munici-
pal Court Behavior Clinic as “mentally
defective, with a borderline IQ,” and
a man like that wouldn’t travel far. He’d
feel lost outside his own backyard. He
was still hiding out somewhere on the
North Side, Charley felt, and one of
these days he’d catch up with him.

As the detective left the squad car
the radio came on with a description of
three wanted gunmen. “I'll take it,”
John Bosquette said, and got back in
the car. Annerino and Murphy pushed
open the door of the tavern and went in.

They stood a moment, their eyes ad-

justing to the light. The Circle Lounge

was just another stop on their tour— -

maybe a little fancier than most, but
essentially no different than a hundred
_other nei bars on their beat.
A garish jukebox, a bowling machine.
the ma-

circular bar, polishing glasses. His wife, .

Theresa, helping him out.

The detectives split up, one on each’
side of the saan — meen coach 2,
moving quietly, unobtrusively, trying
not to spoil anybody's fun. Just a rou-
tine investigation.

Murphy, on the side toward the door,
looked at a driver's license, movedson.
Next in line was a man in sports coat
and tan slacks. He sat hunched over
with his arms folded under his head,
face down on the bar, a half-filled glass
in — of ate hs thvagl

rummy, Murphy thought. He shook
the man’s shoulder lightly. “Wake up,
buddy. Police.”

SWUNG OFF STOOL

he recognized the man. “Charley!” he
ote. “It's Gus Amedeo! ‘Shoot

Amedeo lunged against Murphy,
fighting to free his arm, and knocked
the detective back against the bowling
machine. He wrenched his arm loose
and fired, the sound ringingly loud in

er.
Yet there were questions the towns- ©

‘meets during the

full—why he had been allowed to leave

town when he was under suspicion, ©

. arrest (“A mass of scientific evidence,”
Sgt. Blair said), and why investigation
quarters were maintained in the
Conemaugh Fire Station long after the
killer had been put safely ind bars.
Probably no one but the authorities
will ever know what actually ha
on that ss road in St. Petka’s e-

tery, and perhaps it is just aswell. @

= the — The bullet ploughed into

eee tere gtey tn
an

Amedeo sprinted for the door. Mur-
phy whipped out his revolver and fired
twice, missing, and then Theresa Man-
elli, confused and terrified, ran between
Murphy and Amedeo. The killer was
= the door before the detective could

again.
It Bad taken only a few seconds, and
before John Bosquette fully realized
what had happened Amedeo was racin

~ the street toward the Chicago an:
orthwestern Railroad tracks on N.
Ravenswood Ave. Bosquette threw the
squad car into gear and roared up the
street. At the end of the block the d
car tangled with another automobile—
not a serious collision, but enough so
that Amedeo had time to run along the
tracks and disappear into the darkness.
The cop killing touched off the big-
gest manhunt Chicago had seen in years.
Chief of Detectives John O’Malley im-
mediately moved to seal off the city.
Special details were assigned to an

* around-the-clock check of bus, railroad

and airline terminals. Every road lead-
ing out of Chicago was put under sur-
veillance. Police throughout the mid-
west were alerted. Descriptions and pic-

’ tures of Amedeo were printed up for

nationwide distribution, and 1200
posters were put up in bars, restaurants
drugstores on the North Side.

Within a matter of hours everyone
in Chicago who could read or listen to

.

49


BADQUARTERS

a a

GAZINE, 1

¢
t

LITTLE GIRL
DEAD

It was Halloween, the time hese kids play trick or treat.
Karen was only six, but she wanted to go from house to
house like the other kids. A killer waited in the dark.

CONEMAUGH, PA., OCT. 28, 1954

@ HE WALKED softly in the shadows along First Street,
following the girl. He had seen her as she passed under
streetlight. She. was very young—about 14, he thought—
with a pretty, animated face. But it was the body, the sight
of the lithe young body, firm and softly rounded, that ex-
cited him. She was probably on her way to some doings at
the high school, but he couldn't permit that. He wanted
her: He had to heve her.

He slipped quietly along the sidewalk, his big, hulking
body tense. His palms were damp and he ran his. tongue

a

8
=
z
g
g
8
5
=
Ly
3
¢
y

and his world narrowed and focused to a lusting concentra-
tion on the girl that walked ahead of him. He came up and
put his*hands on her, feeling the firm flesh under her
clothing; and so strong was his craving that it seemed she
must understand his need, and so accept his hands and body.

Instead he felt, almost in surprise, the convulsive shudder
of her body under his hands; he saw her white face turned
toward his, her eyes widening in fright. She screamed.

The scream seemed to echo in the quiet night. It shattered
his narrow world; he was no longer alone with this girl. He
heard shouts and footsteps running along the sidewalk. He
whirled and ran down the street, disappearing in the darkness.

Karen Mauk decided to go in the house. She was tired
of playing with her cousin, 6-year-old Paul Lindenberg, and
anyway, it was too dark now to play any more games. The
house at 232 Fifth Street, rain-stained and weatherbeaten,
bulked darkly against the lighter sky. Light from the windows
laid pale yellow rectangles on the dead autumn grass of the

play yard.
Karen said good-bye to Paul and he scooted off to his house,

March, 1955.

ee ee ee

by Lawrence Griffith

a few doors down the street. As she ran up on the front
porch she saw a pale blue ghost with no head.

Karen shivered deliciously. Already a lot of the houses

in town had grinning orange jack-o-lanterns in the windows,
and pretty soon it would be Halloween, and all the goblins
and spooks and witches would come out of hiding and scamper

through the streets. In Karen's first grade class a whole-

line of witches rode broomsticks across the top of the black-
board, and ferocious-looking cats with their tails sticking
straight up in the air stared at the children out of bright,
blue-paper eyes. Halloween was almost as good as Christmas,
Karen thought. Especially when she went out with her
costume and mask. She knocked on doors and people were
so scared they gave her candies and cookies for her trick-or-
treat bag. :

She ran in the living room, banging the door just in time
to keep out a goblin with eyes as big as pumpkins and a tail
two blocks long.

The living_zoom was comfortably shabby and worn, with
the look that comes from six kids being born and growing
up, and contentment and happiness lay on it like a patina.
Bill Mauk sat in his easy chair, resting from his day’s labor
at the Franklin Mill of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Mrs.
Mauk was getting ready to attend a PTA meeting.

“Mother, I want to go out on trick-or-treat.”

Margaret Mauk was inclined to refuse. She’d scarcely
have time to button Karen into her costume. And remember,
Karen had been out on trick-or-treat Monday night. This was
only Thursday, and Halloween wasn’t for a few days yet.
If Karen went out tonight, wouldn't it spoil it for the real
Halloween night?

“Oh, Mother.” Grown-ups just didn’t understand. Pretty
soon Halloween would be over, and Karen wouldn't be able
to wear her costume for a whole year.

Margaret Mauk sighed and tucked a stray wisp of hair in
place. There was always one of the (Continued on page 48)

19

‘9S6I=1-9 (BTzqueg

SS


if ee

Se at ene ee ee oe

by RICHARD MULLIGAN

HE MURDERS of the two pretty
(f. young girls were not really what

might be called “carbon copy”
slayings, but they contained a sufficient
number of points of similarity to arouse
immediate speculation that they might

have been committed by the same.

heartless killer. aS

The victims were both young, attrac- \

tive girls, although one was om the-

* threshold of maturity and the other was

considerably younger. There was no
doubt that a lustful sex drive had
motivated both. fatal assaults. Both
youngsters had been set upon close to the
safety of their homes. And the attacks on
the girls had occurred within 72 hours of
each other during Halloween week.

So vivid are the recollections of that
double horror, in fact, that they have
wrought .major changes in the century-
old Halloween traditions observed in
Western Pennsylvania. For many of the
youngsters who were intimately ac-
quainted with the two slaying victims are
now grown, and have children of their
own, and they wouldn’t dream of allow-
ing their own youngsters to go out alone
on their trick-or-treat excursions on the
night when—according to juvenile lore—
ghosts are reputed to walk, skeletons rat-
tle their bones, cackling witches fly on
broomsticks through the night sky and
black cats yowl by the light of a big round
golden harvest moon.

The murders of the two girls in that
Halloween week of 1954 occurred 80
miles apart, but because of the cir-
cumstances, police understandably saw
a link between them, despite the dis-
parity in the ages of the victims.

Helen Jean Bryant was 16, astrikingly
beautiful girl on the threshhold of young
womanhood. Softly waving copper red

- popular children’s holiday

ry

Body of pretty Helen Jean Bryant (above)
was found near short-cut path to school.
Nude corpse of Karen Mauk (below) turned
up in graveyard beyond the city limits

hair topped a lovely face with full red
lips, a provocatively uptilted nose, and
sparkling blue eyes. Her figure was the 73%
envy of every girl inher circle of friends. On

One of 11 children—six girls and five >
boys—she lived with her parents. in’a”
small, weather-beaten house high up ona
hill on the outskirts of Aliquippa, 20 miles = 4

time the tragedy struck. But although the
family was poor, the children always
were neatly dressed and well cared for,
Their neighbors knew the Bryants as
hard-working, God-fearing parents who
“lived for their kids.”

The Bryant house sat atop a bare knob
of ground overlooking a maze of railroad
tracks and a big steel mill smoking on the
banks of the Ohio River. In the summet}
time Helen Jean got a respite from they
crowded conditions in the family home}. *
during school vacations she would go to-=
live in the pleasant home of her grand-)—
es ; : BY)

mother in Corapolis, downriver abo {4
halfway to Pittsburgh.
She had returned to Aliquippa in,
September, however, to begin her &
sophomore year in high school. On the » 1
morning of Monday, October 25, 1954,
the girl had a spat with her brothers and ;
sisters before she left for school. She had.
always been a high-spirited youngster
but the spat was nothing more seriou
than one of those quickly forgotte!
flareups which-occur in any large family,
As a rule, Helen Jean's 14-year-old
sister, who was a high school freshman
accompanied her to school. Together
they would walk down the twisting pat
from their hilltop home to the foot of Ira
Street, where they would meet the school”
bus.
But on this gray, foggy, overcast mo'
ning, Helen's sister awoke with a. sore
throat, and her mother decided to keep

MASTER DETECTIVE MAGAZINE. December, 1975.

(itr, GF bf erial Al Tective Ae, (7 70,7’ F2»)


|

\ panied by

illers

b

Three
In 15

1

Special to The Pittsbugon Press

BELLEFONTE, Pai March pa
Three killérs—one who burned two:
women to death to escape marriage, .
another who shot # Philadelphia

policeman and a gangster who mur-:

hanker—died:
within a few minute
if at Rockview:

‘dered a ey ite
ira after mid-,

in the electric cha
Fenitentiary
ni !
t Fequited less thhn 15 minites’
cr “etelaas the slayers, strangers
until hours befor§ they walked,
one-by4oné, to their; deaths, The:
executions brought tq 272 the num-|
ber of: persons ele¢troductéd : for.
their crimes in the. state.
Those who died were:
Ralph E. Hawk, 31, of Marion,
Pa., who ' burned two women to
death In an attempt; to avoid booale

riage.
}} Philadelphia,

Fred Re{baldl, 27,
who killed. a polic

Albert W. Gregg. 131, a Chicago
store and killed Philadelphia
banker while shootibg his way to
freedom. ; i

Hawk was first to dle. He stepped
fizmly,the:few paces from the death
house to the execution chamber, a
smile upon his lips. j He 'was silent
and-stared ‘upward fintil the black
death mask was slipped over. his
head.

Two ministers ‘accdmpanied Hawk

on, his walk to the chair. Rev;
Clyde Meadows, of }Chambersburg,
near Marion, 9 friend of Hawk's in|
earlier days,
doomed man who
him for réligious consolation.

Rev. C.F. Lauer, prison chaplain;
walked along with Hawk, intoning a
psalm. He pronounded benediction.

The charge stryck Hawk at
12:31%4 aim. He ys cea)
dead at 12:34 a. m.

Reibald{ walked
tion chamber as n as Hawk
body wasiremoved, [He was ‘accom:
Rev. Fs} P. McCreesh,
Catholic chaplain, who murmured a
special prayer for the dead. Pale-
faced, Réibadli weé his Nps -with
the tip of his tonghe nervously as
his gaze rested yee: Warden
Frank Craver of Holfmesburg ‘County
Prison, Philadelph whete | the
doomed man _ had’ been se for
weeks. }

“So long, wate good tuck to
you. That's all,” he oe

“So long,” whispe ed Mr. iWeees:
Executioner Robeyt Elliot threw

switch at 12:36% a. m. Reibaldi

pronounced dead at 12:39%. ©
” Uithes ‘was paler and his: lips
quivered ‘as he walkéd, hesitantly,
into the death chiqmber. He said
nothing, but stared, fascinated, at
" stumbled

ihto the execu

-

the chalr until:
against it.

Gregg was the: anly one of the
trio who died without turning to
religion. ‘Rev. Lau attempted to
convert him, ‘but until the last ft
was doubted that Grege asked for-
giveness. .

Grege’'s identity ? was uncertain.
Some belleved Albext W. Gregg was:
an allag. If so, he @led without re-/
vealing his real name, for the
charge ‘struck him ‘at 12:42 a. m.
and he was: pronounced dead three
minutes Jater. | P

Gregg was _the 4

.of each other:

ganster, who robbed; a department |

‘ccd pteadily at the]:
bad turned to|-

5

showed much ~agitafion ‘as the time

Die in , Chair |

inutes at Rockview.

ns

die sensteniied. He. " smoked ine

eéssantly, and the dimilight in the,
death hotise was traced: by the glow
of a cigaret as he resplessly paced
back and forth. i

His | was. the. only¥: unclaimed
body. Burial was planned for him
in the prison cemetery: today. Mrs.
Bertha Reibaldi of :Philadelphia
claimed the body of. her husband,
{the father of two children. Hawk's
father, John &, Hawk, claimed the
body of his son. é

Young Hawk had been a farm
hand at Marion until he sought to
burn.the family of Catherine Gel-
wix, his flancee and fn expectant
mother, in an effort to;avoid marry-
ing the girl, Mrs. Hazel Gelwix
and a daughter, Heley, 15, burned
to death in bed but rieighbors res-
cued Catherine although she hdd
been, hit across the head with a
flashlight. % ty :

Reibaldi, a paroled : ‘convict, was
given the supreme pefialty for the
fatal shooting of a ‘Philadelphia
policeman, Maurice Handloff, who |
surprised Reibaldi when he held up
a motorist atia traffle signal. |

Gregg was another‘ parolee. He'
was convicted ‘of shodting C. Mor- |
gan Knight, socially prominent in-
vestment banker of ; ‘Philadelphia, |
when Mr. . Knight - interfered as:
Gregg escaped Wangmaker's de- |
partment store.in Philadelphia with |
$1200 he obtained in @ holdup.

Police at Philadelphia said Gregg |
W130" cdiittised" robbing the Boule- |
jveid bank of Chicago-nf €5900 in a!
‘dup several month; ure the
Wanamaker robbery.

nly man: who}:


THE MONTH'S BEST CASES

By John Shirley
d minister in an
tice.

E KIDNAP! ..
West Virginia—Tortur
abandoned mine until G-men

PASSION PLOT OF VIRGINIA’
Dee eens By Sheriff Fran

Virginia—Y outhful passion leads to a
witted sheriff solves the mystery.

TRAILING THE FIEND OF RAT RIVER - By Harry F. Mullett

Canada—A mysterious stranger defies Canadian Mounted Police
until, true to tradition, they get their man.

CALIFORNIA’S RIDDLE OF THE MISSING NURSE
peng ED By Kate O’Connor

o—A beautiful girl disappears, leading police on the
murderer. F

LLERS AND T
. By

s murder crew

TORTUR

ERS
Walden Snell

er but a keen-

Ss ILLICIT LOV
k D. Mays and

crimson murd

eoverere?

San Francisc
trail of a heartless
WISCONSIN’S BANDIT KI
SHOWDOWN ae ee eee

Chicago—The last 17
bank robbery but ar

HE CRIMSON
‘George Hymer

turn to

Pee a ee es

bert Ru
d but his

North Carolina—
comrades avenge

H MOLLS .
_.By Roland E. Lindbloo

on killing of a bus driver baffles police until a
rtling admission.

RAIDERS A

wrence Flick, Jr., an
fect bank robbery fails w

ve’s hunch.
MURDER MADNESS «eo With a By

Illinois—Patient detectives catch up with a pair 0
in the concluding chapter of a gripping tale.

cage wee pe Wi ie Fe Ce

PENNSYLV
AMBUSH - By La
Philadelphia—A per
are trapped by @ detecti

hen clever bandits

ieee ete e ree Re

Se a ee

CRIME FILE
PHOTO FLASHES
$90,000 GEM THEFT
CURB THE SEX CRIM
STRAIGHT FROM HE

eh

. By Dr. J

cee cseennoeegvesreg er

INAL
ADQUARTERS

veawewe 6 eee bee ee
oovee ooee oooeee

ND THE DEADLY
d Mackenzie Griffin

Martin Cotter
€ brutal killers

eet teebenseeeere™

ooeeee

10

14

18

22

26

32

38

46

, at 11
sville, xy;

monthly by Coun
matter at the po
nal entry at Greenwich,
MANUSCRIPTS AN
ACCOMPANIED BY
Price 15 cents a COPY,
Printed in U.

ird month
N.

E is published

ECTIV
d a® second-class

Entere
379, with additio

.¥. ALL

RISK,
FFICE.
scriptions, $2.00
forms close t
New Yor
1014 Russ Bldg.; Los An

MEMBER AUDIT

New Y
AT TH
THE N
possessions;
Press, Inc.
tising offices:
Simpson-Reilly,

eceding date of is

rec!
360 Michigan Ave.;
eilly, Garfield Bldg.

CULATIONS

4

ar

00 W. Broadway,
under the act

B

TO


elec, Pa. (Philadelphia) 3/28/1938,

TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTE RIES, February, 1938

«kK brown

e the head
egs intact.
| 48 tattooed
; ‘re a heart

.” a cupid
? and Paul”

‘five years
last meal
‘ed in his

this fifth
ntification
m out of

~

rT Cowles ; ey ‘y wm James Bogue (left) and
on in the Frank Bird (hiding face), con- William Hanley slugged a
thi ; fessed member of gang that Fy ‘
‘MS mys- committed $18,000 Cleveland [fy

bank robbery, is shown just ;
rs b after federal judge had sen-
ngsbury " tenced him to 45 years in prison

“+ a

ts around
ical killer
| torso in
d’s West

me upon
iward, as
: and the

ion, was
victim’s
irk gray
x oxford
; on the

re

S,

(Above) Trailéd tor seven
weeks through ten states, An-.
thony Sapienza, hatless and
shackled to detective, returns
to Chicago to face murder
charge. ta gt al aoceny t
nked two tec- J
tives, on his way A ponte (Right) Alfred W. Gregg, paroled ex-
1 AP eee nay Sif court as he learna that the mint bechie fa
iary, Pennsylvania, for slaying Court as he learns. man he sho!
iceman . in a_ Philadelphia holdup has died
j of State Motor Pols and that he now faces murder charge

t
ee J 4 #4

[ ntium,: Hite ;
His last hope for clemency gone, Peter.
Chrisoulas, condemnéd Chicago slayer,
kisses the hand of his spiritual com-
forter just before walking the last few
faltering steps of the last dreary mile


GETTYSBURG, P

{
|
a.
|

ure.

marvel of puri-
less. “More eco-
ade end cannot

mi 2o0flow
sp »wders.
Ni ERCO.,

ATCHED

2

y covered with
ar. Cured by
3} extraordinary
pigs performed
\R last I noticed
ning out allover

‘of it until some
}look like spots

lfch came off in
‘Mhing. I would

pl then the
meanwnile,
n did Iconsuilt
it without aid,
ary, | happen-
he newspaper
i and purchas-

btained almost

i
!
i
i

Bs, and in four
My disease
mmended the
y vicinity,and
e taken them,
ire of them, ¢s-
; with scaly
fifes, I cannot

you for what
eentome. My
pnd I was an

my skin is as

errill, Wis.

tsoever of the
fans shown itself
£0, COTEY,

i which
y, CMiICURA
IULUT, prepared

ousands upon
om made happy
ating, itching,
skin,scalpand

PTICURA, 50c.;
pared by the
Co., Boston,

hn

The Robin.

My old Welsh neighbor over the way

Crept slowly out in the sun of spring
Pushed from her ears the locks of gray,
And Hstened to hear the Robin sing.

And, ¢rue! in sport, as boys will be,
Tossed a stone at the bird who hopped
From bough to bough of the apple tree,

:

{

{

|

i
|.

Her grandson, playing at marbles, stopped, |
|

i

“Nay 7 said the grandmother, “have you not ;

heard,
My poor, bad boy, of the tiery pit,
And how drop by drop, this merciful bird
Curries the water that quenches it?

“He brings ecol dew tu his ttle bill, ,
And Icts it fallon the souls of sis.
You ean see the mark on his red breast still
Of tires that scorch as he drops it in,

“My poor brouruddyn timy breast barbed bird |
Singing so sweetly from limb to limb,

Very dear to the heart of our Lord
Is he who pities the lost like him!’

“amen?” said I to the beautiful myth;
“Sing, bird of God, tu my heart as well;

Each good thought is a drop wherewith
To cool gud lessen the tlres of hell,

“Prayers of love Mke raindrops fall,
Tenrs of pity are cooling dew,
And dene to the heart ofour Lord ure all
- Who sutfer like Min in the glory they do!’
—John G. Whittier.

LOCAL HISTORY

AND GENERAL.

York Turnpike.

The York and Gettysburg Turnpike was
built in 1818 and 1819, and its completion
was.celebrated by a grand ox roast and gath-
ering at Lashell’s Tavern, five miles east of
Gettysburg. The total stock subseriptions
amounted to $103,516, and the entire cost of
building road and bridges to $107,366.
Alexander Cohean, of Gettysburg, was the
first President, and George Upp, of York,
the first Treasurer of the company.

Copper in the Mountain.
Mining for copper in our South Mountain
is no new thing. Hon. John Sweeney, of
Chambersburg, born at ‘Sweeney's Cold
Spring,’’ and all his life residing in or in
sight of the mountain, informs us that as

| early as 1833 prospecting for copper ore was

systematically carried on, and that it re*
sulted in the sinking of a shaft and the
building of a smelting furnace on the James
Watson farm, in Hamiltonban. township;
about two miles above Maria Furnace, Col.
Reed, of Fairtield, being the geveral supe &
intendent. Considerable copper was se-
cured, but not in paying quantity, and about
1836 the work was abandoned. Copper
wining has, however, been going on in the

mountain quite acti

ch eto Teen ert eece waen lta ~

| meadow, under a tree near Rock creek.
i hanging took place in the corridor of the jail
| Maj. John Scott sheritt—on the 15th of

vely during the last fif- |

The

April, 1853. Green was convicted of shoot-

ing Sanmuel Mars, also colored, at a flitting

The

story printed above is measurably correct. —
Faditor Compader.

in Menallen township, the year betore.

Bor the Gettysburg Compiler,

Soveral Mattors.

WHEN the Saracens threatened destrac-
ition to all Christian nations the “‘fayelus
bell’ Wegan to be tolled, morning, noon and
evening, that-nll the faithfal might unite in
invoking her blessing upon the Crusaders.

VINEGAR has been used with advantage
as agargle und a spray in Diphtheria. It
i has the advantaye of being not unpleasant
‘to the taste, harmless tu‘the mucous mem-
handy. —

Evipemics of Scarlet Fever and Diph-
theria are often introduced into families by
cats, dogs and fowls, which become impress-
ed with the contagious yerms by coming in
contact with offal, thrown upon surface
ground, instead of being burned or buried.

se careful of sick dogs, cats, chickens, or the
so-called distempered horse. Frequently
: thé contagious germ is lurking in their ail-
ment.

THE composition for filling Hand-Grenade
Fire Extinguishers is Common Salt 19.46
parts, Sal Ammoniac 8.88 parts, water 71.66;

pounds, water 7 gallons, Mix the invredi-
ents and fill into thin lottles, distribute
the bottles about the house, convenient for
ase. They should be thrown with force
enough to break into pieces.

MASSAGE. —The treatment under which
the Emperor of Prussia has recently been
subjected, according to Dr. Wagner, of
Friedsburg, includes four different manipn-
Jations:

rubbing the surface of a part with the palin
.of the hand, ruund and roand to the centre,
from the periphery; distended veins and
Jymphaties are thus émptied and Uquid
trausudation removed from the tissues.

2d, Aneading—applied by rubbing a part
with the ends of the tingers and thumbs.or
the palm of the hand, and is used in intliam -
matory trausudation and in those bruises
and swellings that manifest themselves in
the cellular tissue.

3d, Percussion—which consists in tapping
the surface of an affected part with the
tips of the fingers held in a row—or with a
small wooden hammer—on the hand cover-
ing the part of suspected disease.

jth, Passive and Active Motion,-~This,
joined with Stroking, Kneading and Percus-

ave fannad ta haof serviea in vetting rid

bo aieva de

brane, excellent as an antiseptic and always |

or Common Salt 20 pounds, Sal Amnmoniac 10 |

Ist, Stroking—that is, gently smoothing or | :
/ name piven.

Trapping a Horse Thief.

Farmer Green had just tinished milking
his cows when a handsome top-baggy drew
up to the door.

Setting down the milk pails in the barn-
door, the farmer hastened to greet the rather
clerical looking person who sat in the car
riage.

“How de dew,’ said the farmer, with a
respectfal bow.

“(ood evening,’’ retorted the stranger in
slow, measured tone. ‘I would like to ask
how far it is to Shirley ?”

‘Nigh on tew thirty mile,’’ answered the
farmer.

“So fur? J mnst reach there by to-morrow
night, in order to fill my engagement there
ou the Sabbath,”

“Are yew a minister?’ asked Tarmer
(areen.

“Yes, Lam one of the Lord’s servants. T
have an appointment in Shirley for the next
Lord's Day. But I can go little further to-
night. Do you know of a pluce where I can
rest to-night?”

“It’s four mile tew the next house, an’
the folks there are mighty onreligious. If
you could put up with our accommodations,
yew might stop here.’! |

“Muy the Lord abundantly reward you
for your kindness, I will gratefully accept
your offer.”’

“Drive rite round here, an’ we’ll put the
hoss in the baru. Meeriah,’’ he culled to
his daughter, who was slyly peeping out of
a window, ‘‘tell your marm we've got com-
pany tew supper.”

“Meeriah disappeared to execute this ord-
er, and the farmer, followed by the stranger,
walked round to the barn door.

“Seems tew me yew ve got er allfired slick
piece of horsetlesh here,”’ remarked the
farmer, as they removed the little chestnut
horse trom the thills.

‘Yes, bless the Lord, he is a good little
horse,’’ replied the stranger.

‘‘Pritty well winded, though.
have druv allfired hard,”’

“Only the last mile or two,’’ said the
stranger, hastily. ‘‘He is a good horse, but
his wind is poor.’’

After they had taken care of the horse,
the stranger carefully drew his wagon be-
lind the farmer’s wood-pile, where it could
not be seen from the road. Then he follow-.
ed the farmer into the house.

The farmer’s wife had prepared a tempt-
ing supper, and the stranger’s eyes glowed
as he observed the table.

“This is Elder Goodman, marm,’’ said
the tarmer introducing the stranger by the

You must

“He is goin’ over ter Shirley ter fill an
app intinent fer Sunday.”

Atter the stranger had bowed to the farm-
er’s wife and daughter, he asked for a place
to wash away the dust stains of travel.

A few moments later they sat down to the
supper table in Farmer Green’s large, old-
fashioned kitchen.

In solemn tones the stranger asked the
Lord to bless the fuod before them, to bless
the kind farmer, and his wife and daughter.

During the entire meal Elder Goodman
talked of the goodness of the Lord. The
fariner’s family listened in respectful silence,
save when they occasionally attested to the
truth of the stranger’s words:

That evening the stranger read several
passages from the Bible, and explained them
in a tluent manner. He uttered a short
prayer, and he wished to retire early, as he
desired to rise at an early hour, and start on
his journey. es

“Yew needn?t be.in a hurrysbout startin’ | ery eee

Orig
“Bill Char
that is, if he
some way of
withal to kee
ions in the
street cigars’
“BUL ead |
evenings at |
to do, he woi
and inspect
making two «
he’d place th
same time k:
use his tack]. |
“Bill livec
him. That
was o tinsm
night to see
had been ens
was in the di
ing tackle w
our tinsmith
fy the vari: |
different spe: |
“This hoo
morning, th:
at noon whe!
white moth
in the evenir |
was setting,

“One hug:
attention.
small eyehoc
ged piece of
size of your
ot Biles
cloth in ‘my
fish with thi

“6 ‘Yes, si

‘T caught a

falt that wei

** “Where
knowing wh
seen & sucke
or four poun

6 (Yust thi
my wife and
When we re
perfect jam
the door wh
the ticket ¥
circle ticket:

my pocket t
I discovered
Stolen ! excl

‘6 éMrs. C)

She felt disa
play. A th
just as,quic!
to executio?
inside out |
hooks I had
such @ man
shoved back
ot the hook
ward, = -

: a6 ‘T took
I placed it |
started for 1 |
siderable of |
the box offi
my way th:
ing tickets.
pocket to t:

-“ ‘Just a

I felt a bi
when [ fou
sucker in t
who wore #
to his tugg:
one or two
my wife 8
gentleman

very partic

:


518 COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et al.

Opinion of the Court. [3836 Pa

It is true that they carried no weapons into the stor
but when their victim was in their power they delibe .
ately beat him to death with a heavy cuspidor. An in.
tentional killing may be and often is carried out with
weapons not ordinarily termed “deadly.” Such weap-
ons as revolvers are called “deadly” because their “ior
mal use is to cause death. But an ax, a baseball bat,
an iron bar, or, as in this case, a heavy cuspidor, ma '
all be so used as to cause death. When one ents
prostrate man in the head with a heavy cuspidor, it is
a legitimate inference that he intends to kill that man,
There was some attempt in this case to discredit the
confessions of these defendants as being induced b
duress but there is no proof of such dues and if there
had been the court below was in the best position to
pass upon the question. The confessions were compe-
tent evidence and for the purposes of these applications
their admissions must be accepted.

These men were burglars. Burglary is one of the
most detestable crimes known to the law. Blackstone
(Book IV, sec. 223) characterizes common law burglary

“ ;
rs a very heinous offense” carrying “terror with
J e s e ° e e : ° .
ie it is a forcible invasion of the right of habi-
a 1 e J . . ° .

on; . . . an invasion which in [a state of nature]

would be sure to be punished with death.” By statute
both in England and in this country the offense of bur-
glary has been extended to include the wilful and ma-
licious entering, with intent to commit a felony, of such
a building as the defendants entered on the night in
question. Until the middle of the 19th Century in Eng-
Jand burglary such as the defendants were admitted]

guilty of, was itself punishable by death. \ Every our
glar is a potential assassin and when his felonious pur-
pose encounters human opposition his intent to steal
becomes an intent to kill and any weapon he finds at
hand becomes a weapon of murder. We have held as
recently as Commonwealth v. Kelly, 333 Pa. 280, that
even an accidental killing in the perpetration of a rob-

COMMONWEALTH v. LE GRAND et al. lke

B11, (1939).] «> Opinion of the Court. °°”

-bery or burglary is murder in’the first degree. In the

~ instant case, the killing was not accidental; it was in-
-tentional, for all men are presumed to intend the nat-

ural and probable consequences of their acts. The in-
itial beating and the repeated beating these defendants

~ administered to their helpless victim, resulting in “six

separate injuries” to his head, one of which was a skull

_ fracture, was calculated to cause death and did so. Un-
der the facts this record presents, no one challenges

the justness of the judgment of guilty of murder in
the first degree, and no one can justly deny the appro-
priateness of the imposed penalty of death.

~The petitions for allowance of appeals nunc pro tunc

are dismissed.

Grove v. Equitable Life Assurance Society of
United States, Appellant.

~ Insurance — Group insurance — Policy — Construction — Em-
ployee’s status—Termination of employment—Leave of absence.

1. In an action to recover on a group life insurance policy issued
to an employer which provided that the insurance upon the life
of any member should terminate upon his ceasing to follow the
specified occupation, where it appeared that the employee’s status
as such at the time of his death was not clear, it was held, under
all the evidence in the case, that the question was one for the jury
and that its judgment on the verdict should be affirmed. [520-25]

2. An employee who ceases to follow his task because of illness
or leave of absence, or both, does not thereby forfeit his status-as
an employee who is insured under such a group insurance policy.
[526] ;

3. An “expiration of a leave of absence” granted to an employee
is not equivalent to his “termination of employment.” [526-7]

_, Practice—T rial—Charge—Conflicting instructions. ~\:. >

4. Conflicting instructions by the trial judge were held not to
constitute reversible error, where it appeared that the trial judge
so repeatedly instructed the jury that there could be no recovery
by plaintiff unless the decedent had the status of an employee at
the time of his death, that the jury was not misled by the trial

; fs ~1908, °@
Rn UO 9
Z ad Berks |
e, white, hange
“GARRITO, apels cpheame a
ATLL

LkSg
31 3- 1908 .
a2VE@ go Will app

PeCiate


he ead Bh

rected Captain

1x home, Cap-
brought back
pervisor Stege
irick resumed
k to his story
i suddenly to a

you were in
you gave the
‘et for a pur-
ose you state
it your family
‘hat isn’t true.
cause if you
sth you could
it right?”
iolently.

Spruce Street
‘nt on Super-
» the McLaren
at little blind
ng, and about
you c

tace suddenly
at him and

took little
, and—you—

is words were
imbled forth:

ll against the -

I took her
un. She fell

raven terror,
no intent
v—that

ult !

entire

aly told,
emfained un-
ne anything

s like I told
Harrison and
t. “I took the
‘o Racine. I
lournoy and
reet near the

hool yard. I
I'd buy her
the passage-

I made her
‘eam. I got
nd opened it
me with her
s. I hit back
d ran away.”

imped up and
stricken five-
errors of her
eerie passage
uilding. That
, BO concern
been branded
ible scientist
age door for

2 Beil 6 ic CaM rae _

United States. He was not, he insisted—
and the testimony of the psychiatrists bore
him out—a rapist in any sense of the word.
His exhibitionism had been his only offense
against society; he was his own victim in
what followed later. He related that his
isolated experiences had for a necessary
requirement the sight or close proximity
of a girl or woman. Age or beauty were
of no consequence. Let those who judge
such “minor” misdemeanors unimportant,
ponder the fate of Antonette Tiritilli.

O* THE afternoon of the day Capoldi
confessed, we took him in a patrol
wagon to re-enact the crime under the
observant eye of Assistant State’s Attorney
John J. Phillips. We stopped at Laflin and
Flournoy Streets so that he could show us
his movements from the intersection on-
ward. A line of policemen stood at the
curbing on the north side of the street.
Capoldi, manacled to two officers, was
started on his way.

One of the most vindictive screams I
have ever heard from a human throat
literally tore the air before he had gone
twenty feet. And then things began to

happen! From east and west, from around .

the corners, from everywhere, figures.came
running. By tens and twenties and fifties
they swelled to a crowd of six hundred
on the south side of the street, and as their
rumbling grew to a roar, they surged
towards the line of policemen. Before I
could issue an order, two men leaped from
the doorway of a building across the
street. I recognized them at once. .They
were George and Angelo Cannone, ticles
of the murdered Antonette. They came on
the run with George in the lead. He leaped
for Capoldi, who was squealing in fear,
but four policemen intercepted him. Two
others grabbed Angelo by the arms.

“Let me have your club and I’ll beat
him to death!” screamed Angelo, struggling
like a maniac.

“Get him back to the wagon, boys!” I
shouted. “Close up, you men, and k
the crowd off!”

The line of officers moved swiftly to
surround Capoldi and the two men shaékled
to him, and somehow we got them fafely
back into the patrol wagon. I decided then
that there would be no re-enactment oi that
particular crime. It was my duty to pr
my prisoner, of course, but I have no
hesitation in admitting now that I was
much more concerned with the welfare of
the policemen handcuffed to him.

It was barely two weeks later when
Capoldi was led before Criminal Court
Judge Benjamin P. Epstein to answer to
an indictment for murder. He was unable
to employ counsel, and so he stood repre-
sented by the public defender. At the
request. of the lawyer, Judge Epstein
ordered a -psychiatric examination by Dr.
Harry Hoffman, head of the Behavior
Clinic. And when, several days later, Dr.
Hoffman made his report, Judge Epstein
impaneled a jury to determine Capoldi’s
mental responsibility. The jury found, on
the evidence of the State’s witnesses, that

on where he he was feeble-minded to the point of being
sill in the incapable of understanding the charge
vas a cheap against him or of being able to plead to
broken and it. On that finding, Judge Epstein-rendered
keenness. He his decision.
it with soap He ordered Capoldi to confinement in
ing, after he the asylum for the criminal insane at
spaghetti and Menard, in the southern part of Illinois.
down to go Under the ruling, it will do no reputation-
es of little seeking lawyer any good to free Capoldi
nd under the by the habeas corpus route, nor will it
ne Detection benefit Capoldi to become mentally normal.
. If a-court of. record of a board of psy-
on—an chiatry pronounces him responsible, he will
terest be brought back to Cook County and tried
vublic for murder. And that way lies the electric
a the chair!
TT EET

(Cambria) January 4, 1937

INSIDE DETECTIVE

Parade of Crime

(Continued from page 4)

grilled him. Both said robbery had been
their motive.

For these bathtub slayers looms one final
parallel—death in the electric chair.

x* * * *

CRIME HISTORY also ‘repeats in the
Mattson kidnaping.

Little Charles Mattson is taken from.

his play room by a masked man who left
a note demanding $28,000 ransom. Charles
Lindbergh, Jr., on March 1, 1932, was
snatched from his nursery by someone who
left a note asking $50,000,

In each instance a ladder was examined
for fingerprints, subsequent ransom notes
were sent, the parents acknowledged the
notes through “personal column” ads in
the newspapers, an intermediary was
selected to make payment, and the family
begged authorities not to interfere.

The Lindbergh baby’s body was found
in a thicket near his home. The Mattson
boy was fotnd slain ‘in a thicket near
Everett, Washington.

How much further will this Lindbergh-
Mattson parallel be continued? It is to be
hoped that the latest kidnap. investigation
will not be marked by the muddling, the
police rivalry, the official indecision and
stupidity which marked the probe which
finally sent Hauptmann to Jersey’s chair.

(Editor’s note: A complete account of
the Case mystery appears in the April issue
of Front Pace Derecervs, companion
magazine to Insme Detective. The official,
inside story of th
soon i SIDE

Oddities of. crime:

BELLEFONTE, PA.—Jacob Gable went
to the chair for the murder of Mrs. Harriet
Goldstein, seventy-nine. She had seen him
rob a candy store, and he was afraid she

WHEELING
a hunger strike, declaring he wouldn’t
eat until detectives caught the burglars who
killed his wife.

NEW YORK CITY—A clothing store
which has a radio program featuring the
announcement: “Calling all men! Calling
all men to Barney’s!” was raided by a
holdup Fane:

SIOUX FALLS, S. D.—Helen Seidler,
twenty-five, told police how a mob killed
her boy friend, and tried to kill her, by

putting them in a powder magazine and°

then touching a:match to it.

* * *

FRANCE HAS a new executioner to
succeed the aged Anatole Deibler, who
chopped off the heads of 270 men and
women with his guillotine. He is Deibler’s
nephew,. Andre Obrecht.

Obrecht’s job will be to travel all. over
France, lopping off heads wherever and
whenever his services are demanded. For
this he will receive a handsome salary, plus
a liberal expense account. When not oc-
cupied with official business, he must live
in complete seclusion.

The new headsman was initiated into
the tricks of the trade by his uncle, assist-
ing at several executions. He also practiced
by cutting off the ends of bundles of straw
with the keen-bladed instrument which does
for French criminals what the electric chair
does for American slayers.

n case will appear’

: Technique
Sec

would tell the police. P ‘ a

KNOW THE AMAZING TRUTH
ABOUT nex AND LOVE!

WAY with false modesty!
At last a famous doctor has told a// the
secrets of sex in frank, daring language.
No prudish beating about the bush, no

veiled hints, but TRUTH, blazing through °

576 pages of straightforward facts.

Love is the most magnificent ecstasy in
the world... know how to hold your
loved one...don’t glean half-truths from
unreliable sources. Now youcan know how
to end ignorance...fear...and self denial!

MORE THAN 100 VIVID PICTURES
The 106 illustrations leave nothing to the imagi-

-mation.., know how to overcome physical mismat-

ing .. yknow what to do on your wedding night to

avoid the torturing result of ignorance. :
Everythin ftaining to sex is discussed in daring

language. “Ail the things you have wanted to know

about your sex life, information about which other

ks only vaguely hint, is yours at last.
Some will be offended by the amazing frankness
i k and its vivid illustrations, but the world
nger any use for prudery and false modesty.
EVERY MAN SHOULD KNOW
oF Rerfect Union How to Regain Virility
rets of the Noneymoon Sexual Starvation
Mistakes ofEarlyMarriage Glands and Sex Instinct
. ity To Gain Greater Delight
Venereal Disedses The Truth About Abuse
J

°
bas

VERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW
rfect Mating How to Attract and Hold
at to Allow a Lover

Men
Sexual Slavery of Women

to d
‘ Intimate Feminine Hygiene Essentials of Happy

Prostitution Marriage
Birth Control Chart The Sex Organs

8: <TH AVE.,
1270 SI
New York, N. ¥.

SEND NO MONEY «**MAIL COUPON TODAY!
FREE PIONEER PUBLICATIONS, Inc.

tt. 484
1270 Sixth ae, New York, N. Y.

Please send me, ‘Sex Harmony and

purchase price will be refunded imme-
diately. Also send me FREE OF
CHARGE, your book on “New Birth
Control Facts."

Thook stew” ‘binh MGS oie Casey sig Sieh ain «Rete ss
will be ‘a revelation BOIS. RB cae eves a seees
to you... Sent free

Be Se ease See | Ott nnd Slates... soc eens oes aoe
Eugenics.” Foretgn orders 15 Shillings in advance

57

Apel IED


so itt

@ 26

oy ea eS ae ay | Ya df C heated Ge) gp 1-V19E2
<< / Wane Giscupliged a CU 46-yard b
tie) Ae. vpeF, 2 9957 | OTHER

METHOD

We he tht \ 79 Wish er. | gtk bel

MOTIVE

Lh Bud neat be LY bdiuy Ad Ge Phe
anya (Lived 5 oes ah / :

AN. hy daupMler
LiheughsArcfqurpid Focus. Yarrkis js ee aa PG
Lifeline Decdath ty Hioasldauoashing biti. Lhe cn atte Be tee.
eee pactotded h Mente

TRIAL

APPEALS

LAST WORDS

EXECYTION

Sipe Ae G eligi wat! LUTHLIS of U2 coten fiche Z sis a ®

AN NEWTON OFFICE SUPPLY=0OTHA


cd
ard

“| can't believe it," the girl's fiance, Edgar Rankin, said when.
the four-day search ended with finding her battered body.

AS

Makeshift grave: A sawhorse, a sheet of roofing, a pile of
leaves under a cottage. Only by accident was it found.

*s
a+
*

one,
loved one. A friendly ride was commonplace . .. as a rule.

The crumpled body of a girl whose wedding date was less
than six months away is carried from the crude graveyard.

dead and
But fow
the whole
a wooden
roofing, be
a cottage
made only
heels, rous
In the f
girl’s brok
Dr, Charle
county an
half frozen
as he pulle
Like wi
Marian Bz
come the n
that her ki
The rep
an ear by
bulance wz
“We ha
Fred McC:
East. Up-u
it’s a killer
The file
voluminous
a 13-state :
officers we
Marian |

_ January 1(

Company ;
“We tra
John Kirc
picked up }
store for r
saw her ¢
stopped, sh
much as w
Marian }
few miles
she boarde:
“Nothing
a 5:30 appx
never kept.
come back
“No mot
her fiance?

Edgar R
Baker was
aiding in tl
nearly shak

“T just ¢
But the lif
morgue slat

Rankin r
fiancée sinc
rooming ho

“There’s
found,” Ser
might have
maybe ?”

“No, sir!
wasn’t datir

Rankin w
had vanishe
city. No on
attracting a

“My gue:
troopers sai:
suitor after
jealous and
will happen

Following
where Mari
guest rathe
to grade sc


50

You'll wear this Northbilt Leatherkraft
jacket of part worsted Gabardine in
luxurious comfort. Rayon lined with
extra pocket in lining. For better cloth
and leather jackets for work or leisure
wear, buy Northbilt Leatherkraft.

Write for free folder of Spring styles.

DEPT. 05 ee MINNEAPOLIS 1, MINN.

Sell amazing Air-cushion shoes

st ul to friends and neighbors.

£ ' Everybody buys shoes. Big
SH 0 Profits for your spare
time. Outfit FREE.
Rush postcard for it TODAY!
Consolidated Shoe System, Dept,
CS-5, Chippewa Falis, Wise, 7

omelees LETR'LITE Lighter

Fi
“Nationally
bea Advectised
at $1.50
OUR PRICE only

aA

or

JUST PUFF
it's Flameless Ql

FLUID

CONTENTS § OUMCE

You Get Both the LIGHTER and the FLUID

Liants up instantly!—even in the stronwest wind. No
wick to burn out, jo flint to repluce. No wheel to wear
on your Hager. in fact, nothing mechmical to get out of
! your service. Just insert cigarette into head
of lighter, press bottom and draw. Then preato—you ve
Fonte aticat, light you fever “had. “LEKTROLITE the
\ lip_this nd
SEND NO MONEY ott sli this nd snd mai
Lekwwelite ‘ag rd get me i nied ie gitt box, pay
onan we
and C.0.D. fee on our 10-day Money buck Guarentee”
Special: 3 Complete Sets $2.49
Deluxe Gold Toned Metal Model $1.69
CHARM SALES Co.
125 East 46th St., Dept. L-22, New York 17, N. ¥.

“ET Had to Kill” ©

(Continued from page 35)

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Marian Baker....................Victim
Edgar Rankin......:..............fiance
Jim Withers.............. former student
Ben Williams..........,.....deliveryman
John Aumon...................sergeant
James Kane....................corporal
Fred McCartney............commissioner
Edward Gibbs................... student

lifelong friends.

“Then you should know something of her
social life,” Aumon said.

“Marian and Edgar went together for
nearly two years,” Mrs. Weaver said. “In
all that time she dated another boy on only
one occasion. That was about a year ago
when she and Edgar had a quarrel. It was
just a silly little spat and they made’ up
quickly.” :

sow Ou're sure Rankin didn’t brood about
it?”

“I should say not. He ‘forgot the, whole
thing. Since then the two ot them have spent
all their time apartment hunting and Marian
has been learning to cook and sew.”

Sergeant Aumon was shrewd enough to
see the line of questioning .was leading no-
where. Marian probably accepted a lift in
the car of a person she thought was a friend,
but she certainly hadn’t gone off on an
afternoon date.

“Marian fully intended to return to the
college or she would have locked up her
desk for the day,” Aumon theorized. “But
on the way back she met someone—a
student, a professor, or just an acquaintance
who happened to be going her way. Who-
ever it was, he took the girl out to Mill
Creek and killed her. Our job is to find
that man!”

lt was easy to say, hard to do, F. & M.
was a coeducational school with several
thousand students on its roster. In addi-
tion, the slain girl had many friends and
acquaintances off the campus.

On Sunday, Dr. Stahr definitely set the
time of death as Tuesday afternoon, January
10. His post-mortem report stated that the
victim had been strangled and beaten to
death but she had not. been criminally as-
saulted.. Intent to do’ so, however, | still
remained as a possible motive for the crime.

“We're slicing things pretty thin,” Aumon
said thoughtfully, when he heard this. “It
Marian Baker’s watch was correct, she was
picked up, driven three miles into the coun-
try and murdered—all in the space of 20
minutes after George Cudden saw her on

a downtown street! Her watch was broken
at 2 33574:

Who Drove the Coupe?

Captain Kirchner and Commissioner Mc-
Cartney enlisted the aid of college president
Theodore Distler in the herculean task of
identifying every F. & M. student who had
been absent from class on the afternoon of
the slaying. A probe of all known sex
offenders also got underway.

“We -know this girl was dragged to the
cottage,” Aumon told a detail of troopers.
“That. means she was slain elsewhere—per-

haps in a car. I want all garage and car ©

cleaning establishments posted. Watch for
bloodstains on the upholstery or floor of
every car that comes in.”

Identification men were also doing a job
with the killer’s footprints found in the
mud at the Harnish cottage. The moulages
were too rough for identification, but tem-

perature readings for the murder date were
obtained and experts accurately estimated
the consistency of the half frozen soil. By
measuring the size and’ depth of the’ foot-
prints they were able to state with a fair
degree of accuracy that the murderer was
tall, heavily built and probably’a young and
active man.

Meanwhile, outraged citizens, anxious to
lend every support to the killer hunt, were
pouring tips into headquarters. The first
definite lead came from a neighbor who
lived several doors beyond the Weaver
home.

“This may not help much,” she said. “But*

on Tuesday, about 5 o'clock, my 8-year-old
daughter told me she saw Marian come out
of the house carrying a suitcase. She said
she got into a car with a man who wasn’t
Ed ”

“Could she describe the car at all?”

“Only that it was a coupe.”

Aumon questioned the youngster at length
but his slowly rising hopes plunged like
a. lead weight in water as he discussed
this latest development with Sergeants James
Haggerty and V. E. Simpson.

“She must be mistaken,” Haggerty argued.
“Unless the killer was shrewd enough to
reset his victim’s wristwatch and then de-
liberately break it, Marian Baker had been
dead for several hours when this child
thought she saw her.”.

“And don’t overlook the medical report,”
Simpson remarked. “Analysis of her stomach
contents indicate - the: victim died within
three hours after eating her last meal at
noon.”

“We can’t get around that,” Aumon ad-
mitted. “But 1 do have a hunch about the
watch.”

A phone call to Mrs. Weaver established
that Marian customarily wound her wrist
watch at approximately 7 a.m. before leav-
ing for work. Aumon then ‘phoned officials
ot the Hamilton Watch Company in Lan-
caster.

“Would it be possible,” he asked, “to
check the spring tension of a watch and
find out how long it has ryn since last being
wound ?”

Assured that such a procedure was entirely

feasible, the sergeant sent in the broken
watch for testing. If it had run seven and
a half hours, the time of death would be
confirmed. If longer, then -the killer was
cagier than was thought.

By Monday morning none of the lines out
had brought in a nibble. Edgar Rankin de-
scribed his fiancee’s missing engagement
ring as a small diamond in a gold setting
with baguettes on either side. This informa-
tion was passed on to pawnbrokers in
Lancaster and nearby towns on the off
chance that the killer would attempt to cash
it in.

Friends and acquaintances of the’ victim
were brought in for questioning and then
released. Anyone without an alibi for the
time of death was under suspicion and
suspects were a dime a dozen. Captain Kirch-
ner and President Distler swelled this num-
ber when they reported 175 students were
absent from their classrooms on the previous

- Tuesday. .

“Talk ‘to those who had girl-trouble first,”
Aumon ordered. “We'll get to the rest later,
if necessary.”

The absentee students were processed
quickly, but out of the welter of statements,
one fact stood out from all others. Marian
Baker had eyes only for Ed Rankin. Donald
Mylin, treasurer of the college, recalled that
she had gone out with a pre-med student
who was graduated in June, but-it was noth-
ing serious. Many students frankly admitted
an interest in the pretty girl, but all declared
their advances had been firmly declined.

A phone call from the Hamilton Watch

Company v
watcn still
which mean
it was br *
But A’
the prog)
a girl whe .
to be marrie
So she’s giv:
But why aid
an off-trail

go.

“I think
Captain Kir
tip, John, th
Marian Bak
She’d been :
to surprise

“Of cour
amazed by t
back road, a:
practice. Nx
for that. W

“T wish J
one not con:
stand, but 1:
If only the ¢

“We'll fin:
“Someone k:
or you cou)
simply a ma

The quest
abandoned a
finding the
Marian Bak

In the mi
man who i
mortician 1
Aumon.

Que:

“It’s abou
said nervous!
it takes a bo
much about
murder, wel
touch with >»

“Good Lo

Captain |
student li
in the c!
moment.
the afteruoor
movie with s
“Morbid «
agreed. “Wh
“Not much
now we're
chap who da
saw him int
he might ha’
“Might as
said. “The n
was teaching
He was 1
hustled a t
“Here’s some
the sergeant
Aumon st
twisted his h;
with an unc
liams,” he <
truck here in
“Sit down,
“Well, I.
Baker pretty
was teaching
The sergea
“T intendec
liams said. ‘1
for the man \
So I thought
didn’t do it.”
“Right no
Aumon said ;
hope for your


d everyone,
. as a rule.

ate was less
: graveyard.

dead and in all Lancaster town only her murderer knew it.
But four days later the whole town knew; the whole state,
the whole nation knew. Marian Baker’s body was found under
a wooden saw horse, covered by a piece of rusty, corrugated
roofing, beneath the porch of a summer cottage on Mill Creek;
a cottage the owners visited almost by accident; a discovery
made only because two peculiar marks, like those of dragged
heels, roused the curiosity of Mrs. Francis Harnish.

In the failing light of day the yard was roped off and the
girl’s broken body was removed from its makeshift grave for
Dr. Charles Stahr to make his preliminary examination, State,
county and city police made casts of the footprints found in
half frozen mud and studied the crooked path left by the killer
as he pulled the victim under the house. |

Like -wind-fanned flame, word spread over the campus that

‘Marian Baker, whose disappearance four days before had be-

come the main topic of talk, was found; that she was dead and
that her killer was not known.

The report had snaked its way across town without missing
an ear by the time the glum procession that followed the am-
bulance was back in town. :

“We have to crack this and crack it fast,” Commissioner
Fred McCartney said. “This case is front page throughout the
East. Up-until now it was a missing person we wanted—today
it’s a killer. Where are the records on the girl’s disappearance?”

The file on the week long search for Marian Baker was
voluminous, but unrevealing, At the time the body was found
a 13-state alarm was in effect and state police, city and county
officers were making every effort to locate the missing girl.

Marian had left the college shortly after 1 p.m. on Tuesday,

_ January 10. She went first to the Farmer’s Bank & Trugt

Company and deposited canteen’ funds in the amount of $75,

“We traced her from the bank to the post office,” Captain
John Kirchner said. “She mailed a registered letter, then
picked up her engagement ring which had been left at a jewelry
store for repairs. At 2:15 George Crudden, a newspaperman,
saw her downtown, Judging by the time her wrist watch
stopped, she was killed exactly 20 minutes. later. But that’s as
much as we know..”

Marian had been reared by an aunt and uncle who lived a
few miles from Lancaster. After: getting a job at the college
she boarded with friends. .

“Nothing there for a clue,” Captain Kirchner said. “She had
a 5:30 appointment at a beauty parlor on Tuesday—which was
never kept. Fellow workers closed her desk when she failed to
come back from her noon errand at the bank.”

“No motive and no suspects,” McCartney said. “What about
her fiance? We have to start some place.”

"| Can't Believe It"

Edgar R. Rankin, the 21-year-old youth to whom Marian
Baker was engaged, had already spent four. sleepless nights
aiding in the search for his sweetheart. News of her death had
nearly shaken him loose from his reasoning.

“TI just can’t believe it,” he said. “I just can’t believe it.”
But the lifeless body with the crushed skull that lay on the
morgue slab was not to be refuted.

Rankin repeated his original story that he had not seen his

fiancée since the previous Sunday when he left her at her’

rooming house following a date.

“There’s a lover’s lane neat’ the cottage where the body was
found,” Sergeartt John Auman pointed out. “Do you think she
might have gone there with someone else? A college student,
maybe ?”

“No, sir!” Rankin’s temper flared at the suggestion. “Marian
wasn’t dating anyone but me.” /

Rankin was sure of this, but the troopers weren’t. The girl
had vanished from the crowded streets of a comparatively large
city. No one could have forced her into an automobile without
attracting attention.

“My guess is she went out with someone else,” one of the
troopers said after Rankin left. “A last date with some mooning
suitor after she announced her engagement, But the guy was
jealous and refused to call it quits. It’s happened before and it
will happen again.”

Following this theory, a visit was paid to the Weaver home
where Marian had resided. The girl had been considered a
guest rather than a boarder. She and Mrs. Weaver went
to grade school together and were (Continued on page 50)

ike we

"How long does it take a body to decompose?” This
man asked the question. A week later he was jailed.


“

er date were
‘ly estimated
zen soil. By
of the’ foot-
with a fair
iurderer was
a young and

;, anxious to
r hunt, were
s. The first
eighbor who
the Weaver

he said. “But
ny 8-year-old
‘lan come out
ase. She said
1 who wasn’t

at all?”

ster at length
plunged like
he discussed
cgeants James

rgerty argued.
‘d enough to
and then de-
ker had been
n this child

:dical report,”
* her stomach
ied within
st meal at

” Aumon ad-
ich about the

er established
nd her wrist
. before leav-
1oned officials
pany in Lan-

i¢ asked, “to
a watch and
nce last being

‘e was entirely
a the broken
“un seven and
ath would be
he killer was

f the lines out
ar Rankin de-
Zz engagement
a gold setting
This informa-
wnbrokers in
s on the off
ttempt to cash

of the victim
ting and then
alibi for the
suspicion and
Captain Kirch-
‘led this num-
students were
yn the previous

\-trouble first,”
the rest later,

ere processed
of statements,
others. Marian
tankin. Donald
e, recalled that
-- ned student
it was noth-
dy admitted
__. all declared
ly declined.
amilton Watch

Company verified the time element. The
watcn still had 35 hours running time left
which meant, if it was wound at 7 A.M.,
it was broken at 2:35 P.M.

But Aumon was far from satisfied with
the progress the case was making. “Here’s
a girl who doesn’t date,” he said. “Engaged
to be married, learning to cook—everything.
So she’s given a ride by someone she knows.
But why did she go out to Mill Creek? That’s
an off-trail spot where only young lovers

0.

“I think I’ve got the answer to that,”
Captain Kirchner said. “I’ve been given a
tip, John, that might -be’worth looking into.
Martan Baker was’ learning to drive a car.
She’d been taking lessons secretly, planning
to surprise her friends.”

“Of course, of course!” Aumon was
amazed by the simplicity of the -solution. “A
back road, away from traffic, where she ‘could
practice. Nothing better than Mill Creek
for that. Who was the instructor?”

“I wish I knew,” Kirchner said. “Some-—

one not connected with the college, I under-
stand, but no one can give me his name.
If only the girl hadn’t been so secretive .. .”

“We'll find him,” Aumon said confidently.
“Someone knew about those driving lessons
or you couldn’t have been tipped off. It’s
simply a matter of time.”

The questioning of absentee students was
abandoned ‘as investigators concentrated on
finding the man who had been teaching
Marian Baker to drive. ,

In the midst of this flurry of activity a
man who introduced himself .as a local
mortician requested an interview with
Aumon. .

Question Alerts Mortician

“It’s about a student,” the undertaker
said nervously. “The boy asked me how long
it takes a body to decompose: I didn’t think
much about it at the time, but since’ this
murder, well, I thought I’d better get in
touch with you.”

, ‘poed Lord!” Aumon said. “Who was
he ?”

“His name is Alvin Edwards.”

Captain Kirchner went through the
student list' to learn whether Edwards was
in the clear. “No dice,” he said, after a
moment. “Edwards has an air. tight alibi. On
the afternoon of the murder he went to a
movie with some friends.”

“Morbid curiosity, I suppose,” Aumon
agreed. “What else have we got?”

“Not much,” the captain admitted. “Right
now we're looking for Jim Withers, the
chap who dated Marian last June. Someone
saw him in town a week ago and I thought
he might have looked her up again.”

“Might as well forget Withers,” Aumon
said. “The man I want .is the fellow who
was teaching Marian Baker to...”

He was interrupted by a sergeant who
hustled a total stranger into the office.
“Here’s someone you'll want to see, John,”
the sergeant said.

Aumon studied the tall, thin man who
twisted his hat nervously and looked at him
with an uncertain smile. “I’m Ben Wil-
liams,” he said quickly. “Drive a bread
truck here in town.”

“Sit down, Ben. What’s on your mind?”

We tis
Baker pretty well. In fact, I’m the one who
was teaching Marian Baker to...”

The sergeant kept his face blank. “So?”

“I intended to keep out of this,” Wil-
liams said. “Then I heard you were looking
for the man Marian was taking lessons from.
So I thought. I’d better let you know I—I
didn’t do it.”

“Right now you're an A-1_ suspect,”
Aumon said gravely. “If you are innocent, I
hope for your sake you have an alibi.”

you see, I knew Marian |

’

“I think I have,” he said. “Last Tuesday
I delivered bread all day.”

“Marian Baker was picked up, driven
to Mill Creek and murdered—all within 20
minutes,” the sergeant pointed out. “Your
alibi isn’t tight, mister! Suppose you were
driving around in a bread truck. There .was
nothing to keep you from taking this girl.
out to Mill Creek!”

“I covered a rural route that day,” Wil-
liams explained. “At the. time of the murder
I was at least 15 miles from town in the
northern part of ‘the county. What’s more,
I can take you to every stop I made.”

Aumon felt his best lead slowly col-
lapsing from. under him. “We'll give you
a chance to prove that,” he said, but
mentally he crossed Ben Williams from his
list. The man’s alibi was too good to be
faked, and in a matter of time the driver
was given his freedom, and cleared uncon-
ditionally of any complicity in the slaying.

“That leaves us with Jim Withers,” Aumon

said bleakly. “Perhaps Kirchner isn’t so.

far wrong as I thought.”

That evening, Major William Hoffman,
commander of the Philadelphia state police
barracks, arrived in Lancaster to assist with
the investigation. Hoffman had been watch-
ing the case closely and was much concerned
over the last lead that had blown up in
their faces. ;

“We simply must get results,” the major
insisted. “Everything indicates ‘a local man—
someone known to the victim.’ Find him!”

“Jim Withers’ seems to be our best bet,”
Aumon assured him. “We're cooperating.
with Captain Kirchner and his men. So far
we've learned that Withers left Philadelphia,
heading west. He stopped in Lancaster to
visit friends and was here until last Tuesday
evening. He left then, intending to drive
at night and avoid traffic. But no one seems
to know his destination.”

“Did you get the make and license num-

ber of ‘his car?”
. “Not the license,” Aumon admitted. “We
have a description on the teletype now, and
the number will go out as soon as the
license bureau opens in the morning.”

“What about students?” ,

“All but 20 checked out okay. The re-
mainder are being questioned.”

No one wanted to admit it, but the
Withers’ lead was actually a forlorn hope.
True, he had dated the girl six months
previously, prior to his graduation. But
there was no record of his ever having tried
to get in touch with her again—and no
reason for him to have returned to town
with murder in his heart.

“We're going to find him,” Aumon pre-
dicted. “But he’ll have an alibi. What
then?”

The pawn shop alert had netted nothing ;
no one had attempted to dispose of the
diamond engagement ring. Nor did any
bloodstained cars show up in local garages.
And one by one the 20. students were being
alibied and released.

On Wednesday morning, Corporal James
Kane sought out Alvin Edwards, the student

who had asked about decomposing bodies.’

Sensing that the murder of Marian Baker
was fast heading into the limbo of unsolved
crimes, Kane was determined to crack it.

"Not My Idea”

“l’'m curious about that remark son,”
he said mildly. “Why did you ask how long
it takes a body to decompose?”

Edwards, a clean cut youth. and excellent
student, smiled sheepishly. “Actually, it
wasn’t my idea,” he admitted. “One of
the seniors asked me and I was curious
enough to try to find out.”

Corporal Kane almost swallowed his
tongue. Here, it seemed, might: be one of

ever’ AUTO
MECHANIC
an TO KNOW.

 *.

5! i 2 ee Zs Spetie
gy How to fit pistons—How

to locate engine knocks—
How to fit connecting rod
bearings—How to service
main bearings — How to
recondition valves ~How
to time valves—How to
adjust fon belts—How to
adjust carburetors
chokes—How to rebuild a
clutch—How to service
{ automatic transmissions—

How to service brakes-
} How to adjust steering gear
{ —How to cope with ignition
, troubles-How ta service dis-.
tributors-How to time ignition—
How to “tune up" an engine, 2
This Big Practical Book gives full information
with working diagrams covering the principles,
construction, ignition, service and repair of
modern cars, trucks and buses.
Diesel engines, Fluld and Mydra-matic drives fully explained.
A complete Guide of 1800 poges, with over
1500 illustrations showing inside views of the
working parts, with instructions for service jobs.

4 COMPLETE - PAY ‘1 A MO.

TO GET THIS ASSISTANCE
FOR YOURSELF SIMPLY FILL
IN AND MAIL COUPON TODAY.

Step up your own skill with the facts and Sgures of
your trade. A ucele Mechanics Guides contain Prac-
tical Inside T Information in a handy form,
Fully illustrated and Easy to Understand.
Highly Endorsed. Check the book you want for
7 DAYS FREE EXAMINATION.
Send No Money. Nothing to pay postman.

owe ae CUT HERE mm oe Og

MAIL O

AUDEL, Publishers, 49 W. 23 St., NEW P nc a9

ranted meow sesae te hese tem kee

Raa 34 Inf goove ony geeh Nook, atk or Sss tht

have paid price, otherwise | will return them,

(1 AUTO GUIDE, 1:00 rages. 54
DIESEL ENGINE MANUAL, 400 Pages... . 2
WELDERS GUIDE, 400 Pages ... .....
MACHINISTS Handy Book, 1600 Pages .. .
POWER PLANT ENGINEERS Guide, 1500 Pages.
ENGINEERS & FIREMANS EXAMS, 528 Pages.
PUMPS, Hydraulics & Air Compressors, 1658 Pgs.
MARINE ENGINEERS Handy Book, 1280 Pages
ENGINEERS & Mechanics Guides (8 Book Set). 1
Answers on Practical ENGINEERING, 254 Pages
ELECTRIC WIRING DIAGRAMS, 210 Pages .. .
ELECTRICIANS EXAMINATIONS, 250 Pages.
ELECTRICAL DICTIONARY, 9000 Terms . . .
ELECTRIC MOTOR GUIDE, 1000 ee wie
HANDY BOOK OF ELECTRICITY, 1440 Pages
ELECTRICAL POWER CALCULATIONS, 425 Pgs.

Oe ee or

“ELECTRIC LIBRARY, 7000 hy ake Book Set). 18
Vols.1, 11,111, 1V, V, V1, Vil, VIN, 1X, X,X0, XH

OIL BURNER GUIDE, 384 Pages...
HOUSE HEATING GUIDE, 1000 Pages . . .
CARPENTERS & Builders Guides (4 Book Set).
PLUMBERS & Steamfitters Guides (4 Book Set).
MASONS & Builders Guides (4 Book Set). . .
BLUE PRINT READING, 416 Pages... .
PAINTERS & DECORATORS MANUAL, 450 Pes.
GARDENERS & GROWERS Guides (4 Book Set).
REFRIGERATION & Air Conditioning, 1280 Pgs.
SHEET METAL WORKERS Hand Book, 388 Pgs.
SHEET METAL PATTERN LAYOUTS, 1100 Pgs.
AIRCRAFT WORKER, 240 Pa

PO et ANN OOD re

Name.


CRAZY KILLER
(Continued from page 15)
for there were signs which poised ©
an intermediate wiaks tet sian se
isted of diggings in the af
oa uns some thirty yards Rehity
the Harnish a Esa Res trune
diggings ha
baruse hedges. using what prea
had been a spade, had been apy
by a network of gnarled, resisting sa s.
Having given up the attempt ‘i sm
his victim, the killer greeny 1
then, perhaps in panic, thrust the y
in the cottage excavation and covere
with whatever was at hand.

breathe?
ery with
nervous.
of danger.
sices and

t and gas.
ur bowel
& White
ite Tablet
bloat and

i ing the find-
N the morning following t a
ing of Marian’s bodys fear
State and Lancaster oe pric s Aes
in direction the inv
Sood ake. They —— ser ye
leaving the post office the da
ie prs tad areet 3 ee hi
college. They believed she had |
Oifered : lift by someone who said
was going that way. In — Ne ou
iti nd in view of the fact thé
} Prarian tad a wide acquaintanceship
among the college students, the oe
believed that her killer would probably
be found in the college penny ak
Informed of this reasoning, bie x
Theodore Distler of Franklin an > aa
shall agreed it had merit, and o ie
the authorities every possible coop -
tion. This offer took eh form : .
es
afternoon, when, at the requ
yal, dtice, the college paneer ar
compiled two lists. One a ite
names of all students who owned aut F
mobiles, and the other ~~ a seeiil
students who had been :
fron scheduled classes, or whose pro:
rams called for no classes on the : ae!
Soon of the murder. When comp “i ,
the lists contained over two Sas
names, and presented a cons! eh
task to the authorities, who immediate y
assigned every available man to ques
i listed.
ae er day, Monday, age 9
Matt turned to a different avenue 0 i
uiry. This was to canvass all pe ‘a
cocablishments on Highway 20 es
tween the dirt-road intersection a
Lancaster for any information possibly

Neighbor.
yedies that
on. Magay
or return
EY BACK!
order with
you 50 on
ielay relief
~ 80 N.Y

AS!

Toblets in
Sverantee
a 5 duys.

$3.00
so

|

|

\

\

— tt
wLY $2.50 |
|

\

|

\
'

rk 17, nN. ¥.

—$—<$—<—<—<—<———

24 HOURS relevant to the crime. When Matt —

95 highway gas station operated Dy
15 : a “Eb he ran into an intriguing
LOW ® red Erb, h " Detec-
AS.. situation. “I’m glad to see tex weed
\EEDED tive,” Erb greeted the o :

il marvel at this rev-
: old plates, we will
irs, Missing teeth are
ia dane on an absolu

minutes ago, I cleaned out a drain in
washroom, and I found this in 7 .
handed Matt a woman ; ane e ik : 8
k, and Matt realized it j
psec of Marian Baker’s engage

address to
nes If your
iem before du-

st, Dep. 94 Chicage 2, MH.

ment ring. Apparently the killer had
tried to dispose of it by flushing it
away.

But Erb, understandably, had not the
least idea of who might have done so.
“Hundreds of people stop by here in
the course of a week,” he pointed out.

At about the time that Matt was at

Erb’s gas station, two other men
were holding a significant interview at
Franklin and Marshall. One was the col-
lege president, and the other was an un-
dergraduate who had requested a con-
fidential talk. The student, apparently
much disturbed, reminded Dr. Distler
that his father was an undertaker, and
went on to speak of some curious con-
versations he had had with a fellow-
student during the days immediately
following Marian Baker's disappear-
ance,

“This fellow seemed to think I know
a lot about dead bodies, and he kept
asking me these funny questions—
questions about how long it takes for
a corpse to disintegrate—stuff like that.”

“His name?” Dr. Distler asked.

“Gibbs—Edward Gibbs.”

Dr. Distler immediately telephoned
Lancaster police headquarters, and a
very few minutes later, Detective-Cap-
tain Kirchner was in the president's
office, listening to Distler’s account of
his lately concluded interview. At the
end of it, Kirchner referred to a copy
of the lists his men were checking. Ed-
ward Gibbs’ name was on both. ’

Before many hours had passed, in-
formation gleaned by detectives work-
ing on the campus and data made avail-
able by the college authorities served
to provide Kirchner and other officers
with a fairly complete dossier on Ed-
ward Gibbs. He was twenty-five years
old, an ex-GI, and married to an at-
tractive young woman, with whom he

lived on the campus in East Hall.

Gibbs home town was in New Jersey,
and his family were the most Prominent
members, of the community there. In
high school, he had been an outstanding
athlete, a fact due in Part, no doubt, to
his strong, burly build. On the college
campus, he was regarded as a little-
below-average student, but was general-
ly liked. No untoward moral conduct
had been ascribed to him, and his repu-
tation was that he was not interested in
women other than his wife. __

Kirchner considered the report’ long
and carefully—and then made a decision,
“This fellow will keep,” he told De-
tective Matt and Corporal James Kane,
of the State Police. “If he’s our man,
he won't run. I bet he’s sweating it out
—wondering when we're going to ques-
tion him, the way he knows we've

official, and a dark, burly young man

stared at them wildly for a split-second,
and then burst into a torrent of excited,
sometimes disjointed speech. “I saw you
looking over my car,” he cried, “but you
didn’t come near me. And you ques-
tioned everybody else on the campus—
but you didn’t bat an eye in my direc-
tion. And here I’ve been waiting and
waiting for somebody to ask me about
her death. I tell you, I couldn’t stand
the suspense any longer. My nerves just
wouldn’t take it. Yes, I killed Marian

Baker—and I guess you want to know
how it happened...”

AX? so Edward Gibbs confessed. He
previous Tuesday, he said, and offered

+

questioned many of the other students.
Let’s let him simmer until tomorrow.

Then, if his nerves are getting weak,
we'll make them weaker.”

UN™ mid-morning the next day,
Tuesday, January 17th, detectives
on the Franklin and Marshall campus
made it quite evident that they were
questioning students by the dozen, but
none of them made any move in the
direction of Edward Gibbs. As the hours
passed, a sense of ominous anticipation
began to pervade the college grounds.
Then, shortly after eleven, Detective
Matt and Corporal Kane approached
the, entrance to East Hall. Parked in
front of the building was a 1947 Chev-
rolet, which they knew from the license
plate, belonged to Edward Gibbs. Mak-
ing no effort to conceal their interest,
they circled the car slowly, carefully
looked inside, and then entered the
building. They made their way to the
basement. A search of its dark corners
yielded a spade, the edges of which were
encrusted with dried earth.
The officers quickly located the
building’s janitor, who shook his head
when they showed him the implement.
“I don’t know who was using that,” he
declared, “but it wasn’t me. I put that
away spanking clean last fall.”
As the detectives were about to leave
East Hall, Matt was summoned to the
house telephone. He picked it up and
heard a voice say: “This is Max Han-
num, in the public relations office, Ed-
ward Gibbs is with me, and there’s
something he wants to talk about. You'd
better come right over.”
Matt and Kane reached the admin-
istrative building simultaneously with
Captain Kirchner, who had also been
alerted to this new development. The
three entered Hannum’s office together,
and found awaiting them the college

who paced the carpet frantically.
The youth turned toward them,

Marri: is an event in anyone's lif.
you're woking forward to the day, or |
(with or without regrets), you'll go fo
. ” view of bride and groom. |
sight for those who can still profit
insight and hindsight. So set your sights
revealing experience!

FULL-PAGE CARTOONS

MARRIAGE MISCHIEF
new, devilishly indiscreet,
inal full-page cartoons. «
tricky as wedding champagr
keep you gagging through
of marriages. And talking
here's a whopper ! Gi
RIAGE MISCHIEF :
ding or anniversary
Try it also on your s
intended.

FEATURES
1” What Every Bride bt” Honeymoons
Should Know tional and ¢
b Counsel for the & Hazards of |
Bewildered Groom First Night
4 The Truth About & The Bachelor
Trousseaux 4 The Weddin
& From Smoker to Bedroom
And many more Provoking topic

ORDER ON APPROVAL

g
R
8
g

mediate refund of complete pur-
chase price. -

MAIL COUPON T

PLAZA BOOK CO. DEPT. A168
109 Brood $t., New York 4, N. Y.
Send MARRIAGE MISCHIEF in phi
Per. Hf n0¢ satished, I may return it in
refund.

had met Marian downtown the

O Send C.0.0. 1 will pay postman See phe:
Ci I enetose 960—seond postpaid,

Pee2ee2ee2e2enu
2
H


As

GUARANTEED TO HELP YOU GET-
THE THINGS YOU WANT IN LIFE

—or it costs you nothing!

66 i

A remarkable way to reach the major objec-
tives in your life—now offered to you for
FREE EXAMINATION:

The Power of |
Positive Thinking &

by Norman Vincent Peale

Here are the actual methods and techniques that have brought new achieve-
ments, happiness and success to thousands . . . a realistic plan for getting
what you want out of life.

Learn these Simple, Scientific Prescriptions
for Successful Living ... They Really WORK!

These methods will bring you greater success in business, a happier marriage, im-
proved physical and mental health, larger earnings, a better chance for advancement.
We stand ready to back up that statement with this generous guarantee:

HERE 1S Send for 10-day FREE-Examination Copy; after you have looked
a ease elther pay oer the book or return it. Then... Saat! —
within one year, you are not convinced that the book has

OUR OFFER helped you, retura it and we will return your money in full!

Why do we make this offer? Why does one of the world’s largest publishers take the risk of sending
out thousands of books under this unusual guarantee?

. .. because ‘The Power of Positive Thinking” is a unique combination of the modern
science of psychiatry with the age-old wisdom of religion. It will show you:

faith ia yourself makes good things pen to you.

pare caged iy test tek "

hee the wi babit, with @ simple 10-point formula.

to

THE Power Or
Positive
Thinking

NORMAN VINCENT PRALB §

to like le
nergize peer iife''—te give yourself the vitality and Initiative needed te carry out

hopes.
‘ prescriptions for thinking the kind of thoughts that lead you to a fuller life and material gaia.
the

SECOND Py hniques and hods given to you in this book have been used successfully
by others. You will see in ‘“The Power of Positive Thinking” actual case histories

that show exactly how Dr. Peale’s prescriptions have worked. For example:

@ Howa walk though a cured a busy executive's nervous tension.

e a ag ption for hearteche'’ actually used by Arthar Godfrey, a boy ian Koree and Dr. Peale

mself.
@ How a junior executive conquered his inferiority complex and won a promotioa ia bis firm.
mary simple ** that Md for Heary

@ An extreord "success plan J. Kaiser and other business
leaders.

. .. Only a few weeks after publication, this book was on tke national best-seller

THIRD lists; more peel ot coptes have already been sold—end hundreds of people

their lives:

"Couldn't put the book down and yet wanted to save some
te read the next day."'—Mrs. R. M., Binghamton, N. Y.

"*Each chapter | read presented a source of encouragement
and seemed to have just the answer | was looking for In
order to solve my problems.’’—R.K., Lyndora, Pa.

*"1t's @ book that makes you feel like a new person laside,”’
—I. E., Enon, Ohio.

have written to tell us how it

Here Are Your Step-By-Step
Techniques for Happiness
and Saccess

Believe in Yourself.

A Peaceful Mind Generates Power.
How te Have Constant Energy.
Try Prayer Power.

How to Create Your Own Happiness.
Stop Fuming and Fretting.

Expect the Best and Get it.

1 Don't Believe in Defeat. r———-— — FREE TRIAL and GUARANTEE- ——— 4
How to Break the Worry Habit. . 3
Power te Solve Pervencl Problems. | | PreetierHell. lne., Dept. T:SMG- 754 |

You can puc these simple yet powerful methods to work
in YOUR life. Let us prove that they will give you greater
happiness ... help you get what you want.

The coupon below will bring. you a of “The Power
of Positive Thinking” for 10 days FREE-Examination, backed
by our ONE-YEAR Guarantee. Mail it today.

How to Use Faith in Healing. | ” ie r men sa sin 1
When Vitality Sags, Try This Health | ING, de luxe edition, for 10 days, FREE-Examination, Within |
Fermuia. | 10 days I will either send .9 plus postage, or return the

pay ivilege 0¢ retursin Ke ad toad fear wiihen one
taRow of Mow: thenghts: Con eA arg Reg i eo : |
Remake Yeu. | |
Relax for Easy Power. BiB ob oF Nee lees occ ckeen cde sda sateantnes tesbie |
Hew te Get People te Like Yeu. | P {
P beldsin tec: Meénstoche, IEEE oc tise y sccsies be nsp eae e 60s casey BeBAAMA eh ibapie’ 6+
Hew te Draw Upen That Higher cs: AE Zons..... .Btate.........66. |
Power. | wn ne ee

bn ote ees ce cao ceee ew omens = oe

‘ther a ride back to the campus. Since it

was a beautiful day, he suggested they
drive into the country for a few miles,
and she did not object. When they
reached the dirt-road leading to the
Harnish property, he turned into it and
parked the car.

“We sat talking for a few minutes,”
Gibbs went on, “and then something I
can't explain happened to me. I had this
impulse to choke her. I reached over to
her, but she got out of the car and start-
ed running. I ran after her, and got my
hands around her neck. In a little while,
I could see that she was unconscious.
Then I knew I had to kill her.

“I got the lug wrench from the car,
and hit her over the head with it, until
I was sure she was dead. I left her there
and went back to East Hall for the spade.
I guess you know what happened after
that. 1 tried to bury the body, but I
couldn’t get through the roots. So I put
her under the house and tried to cover
her up with what I could find. Later,
I threw her purse and the lug-wrench
in Conestoga Creek, and got rid of the
ring in the service station.”

To his listeners, the confession of
Gibbs had an authentic ring, but they
believed it was deficient in one im-
portant respect: the motive for the
murder,

Gibbs did not enlighten them. “I
just don’t know why I did it,” he de-
clared. “I didn’t try to attack her sex-
ually, and I didn’t want to rob her. All
I can say is that this impulse came over
me, and I followed it.”

At his trial for murder in the first
degree, held in March, 1950, Edward
Gibbs stuck to his contention that no
criminal assault element had a part in
his attack on Marian Baker.

However, the state’s position, ex-
pressed by District Attorney John
Ranck, was different. He admonished
the jury to recall the condition of the
girl’s clothing. “It is the state's conten-
tion,” he said, “that Gibbs tried to make
advances to Marian Baker as they sat
in the car... Don’t believe there was no
sex involved in this case. The defendant
had plenty of time in which to concoct
this story of an uncontrollable, unsexual
impulse,”

The jury brought in a verdict of
guilty, and Edward Gibbs was sentenced
to die. His counsel exhausted every
avenue of appeal, without success, and
on April 23, 1951, Gibbs was executec
at Rockview Prison.

Note: The name Harry Murrow ts
fictitious to avoid unnecessary embar-
rassment to a person innocently in-
volved in this investigation.

FAITHI--~ |
to find a sy
Worm after five ,
evening.

[N the meantime,
Deputy Round:
Cations in Creston,
said she and her }
Friday. They questi
banker, the mercha
usually traded, grais
stock men. Most of
ing with Mrs. Worm
had ‘seen or talked w
Finally, Rounds su
Olivia Parsons, a dist
Missing man. “I kno
Dorothy always stop
ba they were in |
askey; “J
7 ie f anyone sa
The middle-aged w
Was not surprised to se
when Rounds explainc
the call she nodded br
heard Tom was missi
they would be around
admitted. Dorothy had
day afternoon, burt sh:
ag not seen Tom Dor,
€ was at
could nor cota ies
“But you kn
Rounds sch aie
‘Not for sure,” was 1
thy was upset. She ha
and a lot of thi e
little sense. The n
thy and Tom hac ..50 re
thing. Dorothy said “s
were gossiping about hx
she and Tom were goin
She asked’ the woman to
been there with her if an)
asn’t that a
her % make?” Mesias i
Course,” the é
Couldn't see any sence
lie about it, and I told
Worm left a few minutes |
Tom would probably sto

they left tow 4
around, m, bur he di:

“What abo
Caskey asked.
“Just 80ssip,” the w
quickly. Mrs. Worm wah
woman, and there were prob
OF Persons envious of her y
like tO Cause trouble, the y
pilav. Tom was in love Wit

Owever, and would
unfaithful. ™ tea
A few minutes later, C

Rounds were approached by
businessman as they walk

ut this gossi


»dy and the shoeprint of a kille

E GIRL FLASHED a big smile
I as the jewelry store clerk reached
into the small manila envelope
and extracted a ring, its significant
diamond twinkling.
“I’m so glad you were able to fix it,”
the tall, attractive brunette exclaimed
as she paid for a minor repair to her
engagement ring. “I didn’t want my
fiance to notice the setting was dam-
aged. After all, I’ve only had it a
few weeks.”
Glancing at her watch, the girl hur-
ried out of the store and bundled her
fred plaid coat around her to ward off
the chill. It was January 10th, 1950, in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the tem-
perature hovered near freezing even
though the winter sun shone over the
historic old college town.
Marian Baker then walked quickly
through the downtown section of Lan-
caster to the post office on Prince
Street. It was 2 p.m. and she was shortly
due back at her job in the treasurer’s
office at Franklin and Marshall College.
The post office was a regular lunch-
time stop for Marian, who was in the
habit of doing some of her office er-
rands in this period. Earlier she had
stopped at a bank to deposit some
checks payable to the college. At the
post office she mailed a registered let-
ter to a Canadian bank and prepared
o leave. As she passed through the

MASTER DETECTIVE, March, 1957

| GIBBS, Edward, wh, elec. PA (Lanca,ter) April 25, 1951

by ROBERT BENTON

lobby, a clerk at one of the stamp
windows waved to her and Marian re-
turned the greeting. Then she disap-
peared into the flow of pedestrians on
Prince Street.

At 4 p.m., the supervisor of the col-
lege treasurer’s office looked up,
checked the time and frowned. Marian
Baker’s desk was empty, as it had been
since lunch. Her fountain pen still lay
on top of a sheaf of vouchers and her
umbrella was still in a rack nearby.

The supervisor was frankly puzzled.
Marian Baker, a 5 foot 9 inch, 130-
pound brunette had been a good and
dependable employee for four years.
Now 21, she was regularly entrusted
to make the college’s deposits and with-
drawals in the local bank and had a
fine record for promptness.

The supervisor glanced out the win-
dow and across the tree-lined campus
in an effort to spot the tall, slim,
bareheaded girl with the close-cropped
brown hair. Since Franklin and Mar-
shall is an all-male college, Marian
would have been easy to sight, but she
was nowhere in view.

Reluctantly, the supervisor crossed.to
the treasurer’s office and reported the
stenographer’s absence to Donald M.
Mylin. The college official was sur-
prised and concerned. He knew of
Marian’s lunch-time visits to the bank
and often had accompanied her when

DEAD GIRLS
ASK NO QUESTIONS

Had a killer’s impulse caused the murder of the campus secretary

or had he planned to silence her all along?

She had dated only one man for two years

there were large amounts to be de-
posited or withdrawn. But today there
was only $75 in checks to be deposited
and nothing to be withdrawn, so he
had permitted her to go downtown un-
escorted.

Mylin picked up his phone and called
the bank. He was informed that Mar-
ian had been there a little before 2 and
had given no hint of her plans for that

Ta ott

The drag marks led under the rear porch of the cottage,

where police uncovered the brunette’s body and the shoeprint of a ki

ASK

Had a kil

ller

E GIRL FLASHED a
as the jewelry store cle)
into the small manila
and extracted a ring, its

diamond twinkling.

“I’m so glad you were

the tall, attractive brune

as she paid for a minor ic;
engagement ring. “I didn’t
fiance to notice the setting

After all, I’ve only

Glancing at her watch, th:
ried out of the store and bi
red plaid coat around her t
the chill. It was January 10
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an
perature hovered near fre
though the winter sun shon
historic old college town.

Marian Baker then walk
through the downtown sect)
caster to the post office

Street. It was 2 P.M. and she
due back at her job in the
office at Franklin and Marsh
The post office was a reg

hecks payable to the colle
post office she mailed a reg
er to a Canadian bank ar
o leave. As she passed 1

ee PES RTT ITT antl

Pi BPC

sis AS! AMEE tpt KI.

brought Captain Frank J. Gleason,
Sergeants John Ammon and V. E.
Simpson, Corporal Leonard Maza-
kas and Private Paul Schappert.
Although the body was found be-
yond the Lancaster city limits,
Detective Captain Kirchner, and
Detectives Al Farkas and Frank
Matt came to help in the inquiry.

The metal sheets were removed
and the officers could see that,
although the body was fully
clothed, lustful hands had torn
the girl’s skirt and slip.

Deputy Coroner Charles P.
Stahr, pointing to livid marks on
the throat, said, “The killer put
his hands around her neck and
tried to choke her, but I think it
was the head injury which caused
death. She was smashed over the
skull with something heavy.”

-Kane was looking at the girl’s
wrist watch, the glass of which
was smashed. “The hands stopped
at 2:37,” he pointed out. “Very
probably, that was: the time of the
murder. But was it 2:37 in the
afternoon, or 2:37 a.m.?”

This was but one of the many
questions that would have to be
answered before the case was
solved. The clues were _ few.
Marian’s engagement ring and
pocketbook were missing and a
search in the waning daylight
failed to turn up the bludgeon
used by the killer.

Tracing the scuff marks to a
spot close to the narrow road, the
cops came upon a button which

46

had been torn from her coat, a spot
of blood, and the blurred imprint
of a man’s shoe. Obviously, the
body had been dragged from the
road to the hiding place under the
house. The lack of any sizeable
quantity of blood indicated that
Marian had been slain elsewhere.

“Either that,” Kirchner sur-
mised, “or in an automobile. One
thing is sure. Dead or alive, the
girl was brought here in a car.”

Leaving a detachment of troopers
at the scene to continue the search
for clues under portable arc lights,
the chief investigators went to
Lancaster for there—they were
sure—lay the solution to the grisly
riddle. It was there that she had
vanished and it was there that she
had probably accepted a ride back
to the college from somebody she
knew.

Kane and Kirchner took the
smashed wrist watch to-a jeweler.
Examining the timepiece, the
jeweler told them that it had been
wound seven hours before the
hands were stopped at 2:37.

“In that case,” Kane said, “the
watch must have been~ smashed
in the afternoon.”

Kirchner, whose mind had been

‘working on the same problem,

nodded. ‘People usually wind
their watches in the morning when
they get up. The Baker girl prob-
ably’ wound hers at half- past
seven, since it: ran-about seven
hours. That seems. reasonable.
Now, if the’watch stopped at 2:37

-

Body of beautiful girl is removed
from hiding place beneath summer
cottage where killer (below) had
hidden it after fatal bludgeoning.

in the morning, it would mean
that it had been wound at. about
half past seven on Tuesday eve-
ning, more than five hours after
the girl disappeared. That wouldn't
make sense.”

By this cogent reasoning, the
officers were able to pinpoint the
murder and actually fix it between
two on Tuesday afternoon when
Marian Baker walked out of he
post office and 2:37 that same
afternoon when the watch crystal
was smashed.

It was on those 37 minutes,
therefore, that the ensuing in-
vestigation was focused. On the
assumption that: the pretty sec-
retary was bludgeoned to death
by someone who had offered her
a ride back to F. & M., the search

‘for the killer was concentrated on

the students at the college. The
officers decided that the student
they were looking for owned an
automobile or had access to one
during the crucial 37 minutes, and
either he had no class during that
period or had been marked absent.

With the cooperation of the“col-

lege officials, the detectives began .

making a methodical study of the

student rolls. They made. lists of.

the young men who owned cars.
They compiled the names of those
students who had no classes during
the time in question. They itemized
the names of men who did have
classes at the time but who had
been- absent. Then they began in-

tegrating the lists, weeding out the

students who didn’t fit
categories.

The autopsy was p
Lancaster General fF
Sunday by Dr. Georg:
cording to his findin
Baker had died of a
fracture of the skull :
to the brain stem, the |
ably having been inf
thin metal bludgeon of
The girl had not been
she had been dead th
days when her body
covered.

At the scene of the
search of the area
Troopers, making a {
inspection, came to :
trees some 40 yard:
house. There in the v
ened soil they found
marks. Someone had
.ging in the frozen s
given up the attempt

“It looks like the ki
to dig a grave to bur
Kane told Kirchner,
the going too hard.”

“How about the shov
Kirchner wanted to |
he use one belongi
Holeys?”

Kane shook his h
have one in the gar
shows no traces of
Besides, it doesn’t fit
sions. It’s a different

Where did the kil)
shovel? Such a ute
something ordinarily
automobile. Had he
from the college? The
F. & M. were alerted t

lookout for all such

Soil specimens from
scene were taken to
up with those on any s
at the college.

The investigation at
went into full swing .
Officers went about |
asking questions. Stv
had tried to date Me
were carefully screen
of men who owned
and either had no cl
been absent from clas
to three hours on T
imposing. One by one.
checked out.

Kane, Kirchner, and
dnspected the automot
suspect group. They
the tedious chore of i)
automobiles. They w:
watch for students
scratch marks on thei

Betty Garvin came fc
a tip which, for the mo:
ed to offer a break in
student who had often

to, talk with Marian, a

Betty, had a deep scr.
cheek. She said she h:
on the campus the da
disappearance and hac
red, inflamed mark. W
ficers checked the stud


onas Bayer

heeled shoes and carried 130

pounds. of provocatively | dis-
tributed weight.

“See you in about an hour,” she
said. ‘‘Meanwhile, keep the wolves
away from the door.”

Picking up her black leather
pocketbook, she briskly left the
Administration Building and never
returned.

By late afternoon, Mr. Donald

‘Mylin was frankly worried by the

unexplained absence of his sec-
retary. Could Marian have been
waylaid because of the cash she
had been carrying? He telephoned
the bank and the cashier in-
vestigated. Among the afternoon’s

deposit slips he found one from-

F. & M. College. It showed a cash
deposit of $75 and bore the usual
teller’s time-clock stamp: 1:55
p.m. January 10th 1950.

So Marian Baker had reached
the bank safely enough. A call to
the post office revealed that she
had been there, too, shortly after
leaving the bank. The clerk at the

- registry window, who knew her

well from past visits, remembered

registering a letter for the pretty ©

brunette at about 2 o’clock. Marian
had been his first customer when
he returned from lunch.
Perhaps, the treasurer told him-
self, Marian had taken the balance

Shattered crystal
stopped the victim's
watch at 2:36, the
exact time of the
deadly attack on her.

of the afternoon off to do some
shopping around for her -trousseau,
although it was unlike her not
to let him khow.

When she failed to report for
work on Wednesday morning,
however, Mr. Mylin became gen-
uinely alarmed. A call to the home
of Mrs. Nellie Sampson on
Reynolds Avenue, where his sec-
retary roomed, only served to in-
crease his anxiety.

“Tm _ worried, too,” the land-
lady told him. “She didn’t come
home last night, and just a few
minutes ago I received a call from
Marian’s beauty parlor. She had
an appointment for five-thirty last
evening, and didn’t show up. They
wanted to talk with her about
making a new appointment.”

Donald Mylin called Lancaster
police headquarters described the
situation to Detective Captain John
Kirchner. Kirchner agreed that the
disappearance of the. 21-year-old
secretary had ominous overtones.
She was young, beautiful, and

deeply in. love with the man she.

was soon to marry. She had a good

‘job. Would such a girl voluntarily

vanish without a word of warning
to her boss, her fiance, her land-
lady, or her friends? Inquiry re-
vealed that none of these persons
was able to explain her absence.

Accompanied by Detective Al
Farkas,. Kirchner went to Rey-
nolds Avenue to look over the
girl’s room. Her .belongings and
clothing were there intact, her
two valises were in the closet, and
her bed had not been slept in. A
call to Hugh Welles, Marian’s
fiance, brought the young man
promptly from his job in nearby
Conestoga. He, too, was mystified
by Marian’s disappearance.

“She called me at noon, yester-
day,” he said worriedly. ‘She was
excited about picking up her en-
gagement ring at the jeweler’s. I

‘was to see her tonight. I haven't

spoken with her since.”

The jeweler confirmed that
Marian Baker had picked up her
ring at about half past one on
Tuesday afternoon. From there
she had apparently gone to the
bank, and then the post office.
No one was found who had ob-
served her after that. Seemingly,
she had walked out of the post

office at 2 o’clock, and vanished

into thin air.

To Kirchner’s way of thinking,
the Lancaster police were faced
with something far more serious
than the usual run-of-the-mill
missing persons case.‘ The mys-
terious circumstances seemed to
add up to foul play. He handled
the matter accordingly. A 13-state
alarm was sounded. With the col-
laboration of the Pennsylvania

‘State-Police, the girl’s description
_ went clacking over the teletype

network. Her photo and descrip-

’ tion were incorporated.into a flyer

~

which was hurriedly distributed
throughout Pennsylvania and
neighboring states.

Kirchner organized an intensive
search of Lancaster itself. City
cops, in a block-by-block search,
went through vacant lots, cellars,
alleys, backyards, and empty
buildings. Officers checked the
local bus and railroad depots. In-
quiries were made at hospitals and
morgues. State troopers extended
the search to the surrounding
countryside.

Much of the investigation cen-
tered on F. & M. College. Al-
though Marian was not the type
of girl to pick up a ride with
strangers, it was possible that one
of the students she knew had of-
fered her a lift back to college
after she left the post office. Many
of the young men at college had
often, in the past, tried to date
the attractive secretary. It was
an inevitable situation for a
beautiful young girl who worked
in the midst of a swarm of
healthy, boisterous, unattached
young males.

A team composed of Detectives
Farkas, Frank Matt, and pretty
Policewoman Alice Rubincam
questioned students on the campus,
paying particular attention to those
who had no classes at the time
the girl disappeared.

Yet, in spite of their all-out
activity, the cops were unable to
turn up a single lead. The fate of
lovely Marian Louise Baker re-
mained a mystery.

Four days passed. Then, on
Saturday afternoon, January 14th,
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Holey, of Lan-
caster, decided to pay a brief visit
to their summer cottage, some two
miles south of Lancaster. The
couple was about to make a trip
to Florida and wanted to be sure
that everything was all right at
the cottage before they left.

Driving along U. S. 222, they
turned off on the narrow lane
which took them to the cottage on
Mill Creek. It was about four when
they reached there, and still light.

Everything seemed in_ order,
and then Mrs. Holey noticed
strange scfiff marks in the dirt
and followed them to the back of
the cottage which was raised on
log pilings. She noticed that
several sheets of corrugated roof-
ing metal had been dragged under
the house. Something was under
the metal and she raised the
sheets for a closer look. She saw
a red coat, a pallid face, and a
mass of blood-smeared hair!

Frank Holey called the State
Police from the home of a neigh-
bor. Corporal Frank Kane, the
first trooper to arrive, took one
look at the corpse and was certain
that it was the missing Marian
Baker.

Soon the area was swarming
with officers, as State Police ‘cars

45

cap |
ds


jirl is removed
beneath summer
ir (below) had
al bludgeoning.

ig, it would mean
en wound at. about
n on Tuesday eve-
an five hours after
r»ared. That wouldn’t

‘ent reasoning, the
ible to pinpoint the
tually fix it between
ay afternoon when
walked out of he
id 2:37 that same
n the watch crystal

those 37 minutes,
it the ensuing in-
as focused. On the
iat the pretty sec-
jludgeoned to death
who had offered her
) F. & M,, the search
was concentrated on
at the college. Fhe
ed that the student
oking for owned an
r had access to one
ucial 37 minutes, and
_no class during that
been marked absent.
yoperation of the“col-
the detectives began
tthodical study of the

. They made lists of.

yen who owned cars.
2d the names of those
had no classes during
uestion. They itemized
f men who did have
1e time but who had
Then they began in-

lists, weeding out the

students who didn’t fit both major
categories.
The autopsy was performed at

‘Lancaster General Hospital on

Sunday by Dr. George Heid. Ac-
cording to his findings, Marian

_ Baker had died of a compound

fracture of the skull and injuries
to the brain stem, the blows prob-
ably having been inflicted by a
thin metal bludgeon of some kind.
The girl had not been raped and
she had been dead three or four
days when her body was dis-
covered.

At the scene of the death, the
search of the area continued.
Troopers, making a foot-by-foot
inspection, came to a clump of
trees some 40 yards from the
house. There in the winter-hard-
ened soil they found fresh shade
marks. Someone had started dig-

.ging in the frozen soil but had

given up the attempt.

“It looks like the killer wanted
to dig a ree to bury the girl,”
Kane told Kirchner, “but found
the going too hard.”

“How about the shovel he used?”

Kirchner wanted to know. “Did .

he use one belonging to the
Holeys?” . :

Kane shook his head. “They
shave one in the garage, but it
shows no traces of being used.
Besides, it doesn’t fit the impres-
sions. It’s a different shape.”

Where did the killer get the
shovel? Such a _ utensil is not
something ordinarily kept in an
automobile. Had he obtained it
from the college? The searchers at
F. & M. were alerted to be on the
lookout for all such implements.
Soil specimens from the murder
scene were taken to be matched
up with those on any spades found
at the college.

The investigation at the college
went into full swing on Monday.
Officers went about the campus
asking questions. Students who
had tried to date .Marian Baker
were carefully screened. The list
of men who owned automobiles
and either had no class or had
been absent from class from two
to three hours on Tuesday was
imposing. One by one, they were
checked out.

Kane, Kirchner, and their aides
dinspected the automobiles of the
suspect group. They went about
the tedious chore of investigating
automobiles. They were on ‘the
watch for students who bore
scratch marks on their faces.

Betty Garvin came forward with
a tip which, for the moment, seem-
ed to offer a break in the case. A

student who had often dropped in ©

to, talk with Marian, according to
Betty, had a deep scratch on his
cheek. She said she had met him
on the campus the day after the
disappearance and had noted ‘the
red, inflamed mark. When the of-
ficers checked the student’s name,

‘Edward L. Gibbs, against those

on their suspect list, they found
that his was among them. He
owned an automobile, and had no
class for the crucial period. Gibbs,
a husky guy of 25, was a married
student and lived with his wife in
East Hall. A war veteran, he was
taking a business and economics
course under the G. I. Bill of
Rights.

Gibbs was brought before Kirch-
ner and Kane who asked him
about the scratch on his face,
which was still visible.

“T got it playing basketball,”
he told them.

“When?” Kane asked.

“Last. Monday night,” the stu-
dent said. “A week ago.”

“That was the night before Miss
Baker was killed,” Kirchner said.
“If you can prove what you say,
you’re in the clear.” -

“I. can prove it,’ Gibbs said
confidently. “I’m on one of the
East Hall teams. We had a game
on, that night. I got roughed up
in one of the plays. All the guys
knew about it. The player who
scratched me was warned by the
referee.”

Young Gibbs admitted that he
had hung around Marian Baker,
and that he had even driven her
to and from town, on occasion.

“Lots of the fellows gave her
rides,” he said. “She was a real
looker and popular. But I didn’t
give her a ride on Tuesday.”

Briefly examining the student’s
car, the officers found nothing
suspicious. They talked with the
other players on his team, and the
young men all recalled the fracas
in which he had received the in-
jury to his face.

By Tuesday morning, the officers
had whittled their list down to
three possibilities. Leon Morton,
Willis Lindow, and Bernard Stack-
owitz fitted the general specifica-
tions and had no alibis. There were
other students in the group with-
out alibis, but the three in ques-
tion had the reputation of being
unflagging woman chasers who had
tried again and again to date the
pretty secretary. Both Morton and
Lindow admitted to being in town
on the afternoon of the murder,
but could offer no proof of their
activities. Stackowitz claimed he’d
gone driving into the country with
a married woman, and stubbornly

refused to divulge her name.

“I wasn’t with the Baker gal,”
he said, “and you can’t prove I
was.”

Then, on Tuesday evening, De-
tective Matt found a spake, flaked
with soil, in the basement of one
of the dormitories. The spade was
concealed behind the furnace in
East Hall.

Tests quickly proved that the

spade fitted the imprints at the
death scene, and the soil specimens
on the spade matched the soil near

the cottage.
Referring again to their suspect
list, the officers found that the only
resident student of East Hall was
Edward Gibbs.
“Maybe we marked him off too

’ fast,” Kane said. “Just because he

proved that he got that scratch
in a basketball game, we assumed
that he was in the clear. He could
still be the guy we're looking for,
even if he did get that scratch in-
nocently.”

Concentrating now on young
Gibbs, the cops began asking di-
rect questions about him of the
other students. One of them, a
pre-medic, told them of an odd in-
cident.

“My dad’s a mortician,” he de-
clared. “Last week, Gibbs stopped
me 6n the campus. He asked me a
lot of queer questions like how
long does it take a body to de-
compose, and if they can take
fingerprints off human skin, and
whether a body can be identified
months after death.”

“When did he ask you all this
stuff?” Kane asked.

“Last Thursday or Friday.”

That had been after the murder
and before the discovery of the
body.

Even more startling, was the
statement of another student. He
recalled seeing Gibbs sneak into
the basement of East Hall on the
evening of January 10th, the night
of the murder. Gibbs, to the stu-
dent’s surprise, carried a spade!

The cops were now certain that
they knew the identity of the
brutal slayer who had bludgeoned
Marian Baker to death. Making
no further attempt at secrecy, they
kept Gibbs under open surveil-
lance.

“Let him worry,” Kirchner said.
“Let him see we're hot on his
tail. Maybe the guy will crack.”

In line with this policy, the
officers again inspected Gibbs’
automobile on Wednesday morn-
ing. The car was parked outside
East Hall. Kane took the tools
out of the trunk and closely
‘scrutinized them, one by one.

“Take a look at this,” he said
suddenly to Kirchner, showing him
a lug wrench.

Kirchner looked it over, seeing
nothing suspicious. Then, abruptly,
his eyes sharpened. “Of course,”
he said softly, “it’s brand-new!”

The lug wrench was in spotless,

shining contrast to the other tools, —

which were rusted and grimed
with oil and dirt. Why had Gibbs
procured a new lug wrench? What
had happened to his old one?

As the two officers were dis-
cussing the possible implications,
Kane quietly nudged his colleague.
“Take a look up there,” he said.

Kirchner’s eyes rose to a second -

floor window of East Hall. A white,
frightened face was peering down
at them.

47

See

See

= > ~

a Ss BP 2
POLED TELS Se:
“S

RE TSE

.

~

TEP a
3 Sa

a
ry: Se

i

RA

es

sere See

ee
See

AC an


“Gibbs seems scared to death,”
Kirchner said. ta GS

“He has good reason to be,”
Kane replied.

Leaving Detectives Matt and
Farkas on guard by the car, Kane
and Kirchner called on every
available officer they had to make
a canvass of automobile accessory
shops and garages where Gibbs
might have purchased the lug

wrench. By one in the afternoon, —

a state trooper found the shop in
Conestoga where the purchase had
been made. Gibbs had bought the

wrench on January 12th, two days
after the murder. The proprietor
identified the tool readily.

Kane and Kirchner came back
to the campus with the lug wrench.
From his window, Gibbs saw them
with the tool: He hurried down-
stairs, made his way through a
side door and ran to the office of
Dr. Theodore A. Distler, president
of the college.

“Pm the man,” Gibbs babbled
out to the astounded college pres-
ident. “I’m the man the police are
looking for!”

Soon the police were there, tak-
ing down the frenzied student’s
confession.

He revealed how he had offered
to drive Marian Baker back to the
college when he saw her leave the
post office. Once he had her in the
car, he drove her to the cottage on
Mill Creek. Suddenly, he said, on
a mad impulse, he reached over
and tried to choke her. She broke
away and ran screaming from the
car. He caught up and started
choking her again and she fell
down. Gibbs said that he thought
she was dead, but knew that if
she wasn’t he had to kill her. He
got the lug wrench and clubbed
her with it. He drove back to col-
lege for the shovel and tried to
dig a grave but couldn’t. Then he
hid the body under the cottage.
He took her bag and diamond
ring. Taking out the fourteen dol-
lars the bag contained, he threw
the bag and lug wrench over a
bridge on his way back to town.
He disposed of the ring in a drain

of the lavatory of a gas station.

He insisted that he did not know
why he killed the girl, and that he
made no attempt to rape her in
spite of the condition of her cloth-
ing. The police thought otherwise.

The bag, the lug wrench, and
the ring were recovered from th

ing witch h
“So what?
a murderer.”
“Maybe it s.’ Stokes thrust
his face forwapd until it was with-
in six inches/of\the prisoner’s.

the fact that an emapty witch hazel
found near the corpse?”
shrugged. \‘‘You’re the

»

2

‘ some of his cal

do\you account for .

detective,” he said. “
Stokes ignored that. “And ac-.

count for the fact that your finger-

prints are all over that bottle.”
For the first time, Taylor lost

. His face paled.

illed her.”

his advantage.

“All right. I

Stokes presse
“Why?”

“]’d known her for about a week.
She wanted to get married. I ain’t
the marrying kind. We had a fight
about it. I was full\of that witch
hazel. I didn’t know what I was
doing. I only meant \to scare her,
but suddenly I realized that I had
killed her.”

When the confessi had been
duly written and witne§$sed and the
prisoner led away, Mutray said to
Stokes, “What do you mean—
fingerprints on that b ttle? The
sand and the sea had wiped every-
thing off.”

Stokes grinned. “Taylor didn’t
know that.”

Indicted on a charge of first-de-
gree murder, Taylor went on trial
before Judge Joseph F. Quinn in
Superior Court at Salem on
October 10th, 1937. /

The trial lasted for ten hours,
and after a two-hour deliberation
the jury brought in a verdict of
guilty of first-degree urder.
Taylor was sentenced to death in
the electric chair. He was/executed
at the state prison at C

EDITOR’S NOTE: T name, Hal

Marks, as used in the above story,

is not the actual name of the per-

son used. This

given a fictitious/name in order to

spare him possible embarrassment.
THE END

Trouble Is My Business

a long narrow box about seven feet tall
in which a prisoner had to stand erect
for hours, the box being too narrow for
him to sit down. Little air came into
the box which was kept out in the blaz-
ing sun. After several hours, with all
muscles cramped and strained from
the efforts at standing upright, the
prisoner was released, usually thor-
oughly cowed and willing to abide by
rules rather than go through the same
punishment again.

The detective was greatly disturbed

at the sight of the torture chamber, but /
was assured that sweat boxes were in/

existence in all convict camps, an om
dinary form used for corrective’ meas-
ures. But when he asked to look at the

‘body the guard informed him that a

local physician and the coroner/ both
had termed the death a suicide and
that there was no need for any/ further
inquiry. Gasque, however, refused to
be satisfied with this, and upon further
inquiry, discovered that an/undertaker
already had gone to work embalming
the body for burial. /

Even the undertaker’s
could not disguise th
prisoner had died froyh strangulation—
which, of course, waé in keeping with
the report. But maflers concerning the
“suicide” were moving too rapidly at
the camp to siiif Gasque, who became

art, though,
fact that the

’ definitely suspicious that something

was wrong. On his orders the body was
removed to the morgue at Jacksonville,
and Gasene asked the autopsy surgeon
-for th ounty to make a separate ex-
amin. ,on and report directly to him.

Ti physician agreed with the ear-

e/ body could not have been in-
on himself by the youthful pris-
He also was puzzled by peculiar

arge enough for a head to be
poked through, with leather thongs in-
side to hold it in place. The barrel
once had contained turpentine. The de-
tective could\not figure out any legiti-
mate use for\the strange contraption
and knew bette than to ask any of the
guards about it.

Sending them \to various spots on
fake errands, the \detective hurried to
the cells and began\questioning the in-
mates. He soon gained their confidence
and from them learnéd that the pris-

oner had aroused the akger of Captain:

Jones because he had complained that
he was sick and couldn’t\work with a
road gang. . ; P

The guards had forced hin to work
anyway, and whenever he had slowed
down they had beaten him. ,At\the end
of the day, barely able to walk and
obviously ill, he had been mé ched

back fo the prison camp and forced in-,

to the sweatbox where he had to stay
during the hot, muggy night.

* It rained the next day, which pre-
vented the prisoners from going out on
the road to work, but the guards still
were not finished with the prisoner.
They rigged up the barrel. as sort of
wooden kimona placing it over his neck
and forcing him to march about the

Stand in front of a mir
hard look at the top of
you have as much hair as
Do you see any new hair

If your answer is no, it
that you take steps toda’
hair you now have. If y
you may be able to reve:
on your head. You may
grow new hair faster tha
ing out. Doesn't that mc
to you? Wouldn't you lik
in the mirror a year from
see more hair on your he
see now? Why lose you
don't have to?

CAN YOU SAVE Y

Every year thousands
go bald — needlessly —
infection. This scalp infe:
rhea. Doctors say that |
cause seborrhea: staphy
sporum ovale, and micrc
tack the sebacious glanc
selves. If not checked,
The hair follicles atrop!
new hairs. The result: p

You can easily tell if
you have itchy scalp, dc

‘scalp, the chances are t

these symptoms and you

Treat your scalp to W
medicine quickly contro
loss it causes.

Here

I must admit I didn’t have n
faith in it, but I hadn't been u
Ward's one week before I could
it was helping me. I could fee!
hair getting thicker.

E. K., Cleveland, (

Out of all the Heir Experts I +
to, I've gotten the most help {
one bottle of Ward's Formula

C. Le M., Philadelphia.

Male pattern bal
great majority of ¢
sive hair loss, fo
treatment nor any


yund Old
. clutened
‘illiam A,
ma few

that night
‘zard was
‘heatland,
pot where
: body of

his way
avenue in
ar struck
he ditch.
usness to
king him.
sed about

‘ibing the
e William

ley’s most
memory.
zs I found
oth cases
my juris-

Farrell.
Vheatland
complete

in from
Fish of
n terms to

DARING

forget boundary lines and stay on the
Turner case until it was cracked.

“Old Bill was my friend,” said the
mayor. “Whoever killed him is going to
burn. But we’ve all got to work together.”

The dragnet was out for all suspicious
persons so I jumped into the police sedan
and headed for West Middlesex. Within
the next 10 days the car covered more
than 3,000 miles. At the borough station
I met County Detective William H.
Taylor, Constable Gilkey and Coroner
McGarth. While Coroner McGarth and
Dr. J. A. Hunter performed the
autopsy the rest of us looked over the
murder scene by daylight.

“A New Castle man, L. D. Specht,
came upon the body last night purely by
accident,” the constable informed me.
“He was going home on highway 18
when his car froze up. He pulled into
Turner’s to thaw it out. Noticing the
broken glass in the door he lighted a
match and peered inside. What he saw
made him forget about his car. He ran
to a neighbor's and I was called at once.”

Constable Gilkey went on to describe
what he had found at the gas station.
The body was lying on the floor near
the door, face down in a pool of crimson.

“Doc Hunter said he’d been dead a

DETECTIVE

couple of hours when I found him. I dug
a slug out of the back wall. Looks like a
.32 but it’s pretty well smashed up.”

Then he told me something of Old Bill.

“Saturday was his last day. Old Bill
was on the shady side of 70 and he
was looking forward to a well earned
rest. All his regular customers paid him
a farewell visit and the coroner found
$101 in his pockets.

“They never gave him « chance to use
‘little Annie.’”’ Gilkey handed me the
tiny .22. “McGarth found it in his right
hand under his body.”

The station offered little help to us.
We examined the bullet holes in the door,
the broken glass and the hole in the rear
wall. The day’s proceeds in Old Bill’s
pocket were ample evidence that the
killer or killers immediately fled the
scene after the killing.

“Let's have a talk with the neighbors,”
I suggested. Gilkey led the way to a
nearby house within clear view of the
station. A 9-year-old boy admitted us.

“T’ll bet you’re detectives,” he grinned.
“T’ heard those men last n ght when they
broke the window. I looked out and saw
two men running away. | called mother

or ~~ s

Glowering Mike Weiss, above,
parked his car in the side road
shown at top before staging the
ruthless shooting of an old man.
The arrow points to the sign ad-
vertising Old Bill Turner’s gas
station. With his murderous com- |
panion the robber slipped toward |
the station through the field be-
hind the car.

33


en ass | oh den _ DAG (Maraar) Ortnhar 1925
JEISS, Micha#l, whites, elec. PA® (Mercer) October 26, 1925.

After a holdup resulting in the
savage murder of Bill Turner the
crimson killers left their license
plates at the spot indicated by the
lower arrow. The second arrow
shows,the place where the bloody
overcoat was found. Captain Sam
Fleischer, above, played an impor-
tant part in the capture of the mur-
derous fugitives.

i

as tO

LD Bill ‘Turner took a last glance
O around the little rural gas station

on state highway No. 18 just
outside of West Middlesex. . For a
moment he admired the neat row of oil
bottles, the tools hanging in their rack
and the clean, scrubbed floor, But he
was not sorry to be closing up for the
last time. When a man works hard all
his life he has a right to retire and take
things easy.

With gnarled fingers Old Bill opened
the cash register and drew out $101.
That wasn’t a bad day’s receipts,

He patted “little Annie” thoughtfully.
Since his station was held up in January
Old Bill had kept “little Annie” on hand
for a similar emergency but the old .22
had merely accumulated dust.

“It’s a good thing I never had to use
you,” he murmured. He switched off the
lights and opened the door.

Two figures lurched toward him
through the blizzard. Ripping aside his
coat, Old Bill groped for “little Annie”
as he slammed the door.

A pistol barked with machine gun
rapidity, There was the sound of crash-
ing glass and Old Bill sank to the floor,
his life blood spurting from four ugly
wounds,

Some two hours later, Constable A. G.

Weg (727

Gilkey, of West Middlesex, found Old
Bill dead. “Little Annie” was clutcned
in his right hand. Coroner William A.
McGrath arrived from Sharon a few
moments later.

At almost the same time on that night
of March 1, 1924, the icy blizzard was
blanketing another crime in Wheatland,
Pa., a scant 3 miles from the spot where
tender hands were placing the body of
Old Bill into an ambulance.

Mike Jessano was fighting his way
through the gale on Council avenue in
Wheaton when a careening car struck
him and hurled him into the ditch.
Stunned, he regained consciousness to
find two men beating and kicking him.
Again merciful blackness closed about
him,

An hour later he was describing the
attack and robbery to Constable William
Heasley.

That was the Shenango valley’s most
tragic Saturday night in my memory.
By 9 o’clock Sunday morning I found
myself up to my neck in both cases
although neither was within my juris-
diction as police chief of Farrell.
Officials in Sharon, Farrell, Wheatland
and West Middlesex work in complete
harmony and cooperation.

The robbery report came in from
Wheatland-and Mayor Fred Fish of
Farrell told me in no uncertain terms to

DARING

RT


HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

I thought the fellow would turn in
when he reached the liquor store
door, but he didn’t even glance at it.
Instead he came on toward us until
he was abreast of us. Then he saw us.

He started at once to run, and I
yelled, “Grab him!” Officers pounced
out on him. He was scared stiff.

“What’re you doing here?” I de-
manded, holding a flashlight beam in
his face. Before he could answer I
recognized him—Stephen Baranetski,
a small-time hoodlum with a record
for Been robberies.

“Nothing! Nothing, honest!” he
cried. “I was just walking through
here, honest.”

“What’d you run for?”

“I was scared. Who wouldn’t run,
with a bunch of guys gr 4 in an
alley and jumping out like that and
yelling?”

I left the other officers on the scene
in the hope they might snare someone
else, and took Baranetski to my office.

There I looked up his record.

Nine months before he’d been sen-
tened to 2% to 5 years for burglary.
Two weeks ago he’d been paroled.

I questioned the boy for hours, but
he stuck to his story.

But as the hours passed and no
other men turned up at the liquor
store, I became more and more con-
vinced that Baranetski was the would-
be bandit. But I couldn’t prove it.

Naturally we tested the burglar
tools, and found plenty of prints on
them. But they were the fingerprints
of Cunningham and the two officers
I had sent over in the first place!

Baranetski insisted he’d mn home
asleep the entire night before, and
since he lived in a roominghouse and
could come and go at any time with-

out being seen, we couldn't pin it on

him that way. :

We held him,: anyway, because I
was firmly convinced, in my own
mind, of his guilt, but we didn’t have
a case that could stand up in court.

T was the day after, Monday, that I
thought of something that should
have occurred to me before, and I

called at once for Baranetski’s coat
- and trousers to be brought to me. If
Baranetski is our man, I thought, he’ll
probably have traces of cement, plas-
ter of paris and asbestos—the stuff of
which safes are made—on his clothing.

I looked at the coat first. I found, in
the fabric of the shoulder, tiny specks
of white powder. Then in the cuffs of
the pants I discovered tiny lumps of
what appeared to be flaked cement.

I quickly summoned Buckmaster,
the county chemist. I told him what
I’d found and what I needed. And in
a matter of a few hours he had taken
samples of dust from the smashed safe
and had compared them chemically
with the particles found in Bar-
anetski’s clothes.

“There’s absolutely no doubt,” he
reported. “The flecks of powder in the
coat and the lumps of cement in the
trouser cuffs came from the safe.” ©

Verzella made enlarged pictures for
me.

We went to court then and got a
conviction. Baranetski got 10 to 20
years—and this time with a recom-
mendation that he not be paroled.

It is the only case I know of where
a conviction resulted from only one
item of evidence. But that evidence
was all-incriminating.

Perhaps it had something to do with
Baranetski’s fate—he got a pretty stiff
sentence for robbery—but anyway,
soon after that thug was sent up to

. process,

Western Penitentiary, our liquor store
robberies changed. Up to that time
liquor store robbers had cracked the
safes on the premises; now they began
to tote the safes away—and with them
they’d tote vast quantities of state-
owned liquor.

In case No. 4 we got a good lead
following two successive robberies of
liquor stores at 5840 Forbes Street and
5934 Baum Boulevard and succeeded
in trailing a truck, which we suspected
of being used by the robbers, to a

aoe in Egina Way, in East Pitts-
urgh.

Two detectives rented a room in
Lyman Street, overlooking the garage,
and took turns watching the place.
They quickly noted that only two men
seemed connected with the garage.
These men came and went irregularly.
They were recognized as Edward Du-
gan and Thomas Irwin, both ex-con-
victs with long records. We could have
struck then, but we held off awhile,
hoping to catch them red-handed. We
didn’t know yet what was in the
garage, except that the truck was
there.

After a week of watching, we
sprung the trap. In the garage was
about $10,000 worth of stolen liquor,
the suspicious truck and an assort-
ment of shotguns, pistols and burglars’
tools. We found $4,100 cash in Irwin’s
pockets,

It was open and shut, because of the
records of the two men and because
of the stolen goods, the guns and the
tools. But we didn’t, yet, have evi-
dence linking the two men to any one

cific robbery, and they failed to
oblige us by confessing anything.
They only claimed that they’d been
hired by a man they didn’t know to
break open the two safes in the
i ar pe safe from the Baum

ulevard store, the other from the
Forbes Street store.

HE story of how we pinned the
Baum Boulevard robbery on them
is interesting.

Immediately after the robbery of
the Baum Boulevard store we had
found in it a short plank with a barely
perceptible heelprint on it. The print
was so faint it was almost invisible.

We gave it to Verzella, and by
Lacie, gen it and using a filtering

e made ‘a clear black-and-
white photograph of it. We then had
it checked against the shoes of em-
ployees of the liquor store, but could
not match it. So we filed it away for
future reference.

Then, when Dugan and Irwin were
taken in custody, we checked the print
against the shoes they were wearing.
We couldn’t make it match. So next
we confiscated all the shoes we could
find in their rooms and we found one
pair of Dugan’s shoes that matched

the print exactly. It was clear, un- |:
astalla For THRILLS

ble proof that Dugan had been
in the rob liquor store.

Dugan got 20 to 40 years; Irwin
12% to 25 years.

Sometimes it’s photography that
sends them “up the river.” Sometimes
it’s chemistry and perhane ballistics,
but whatever it is the men of science
are not only continuing to play their
role in the solving of crimes as they
have done in the past, but everyday
are becoming more and more in-
valuable to our  crime-enforcing
agencies.

Eprtor’s Nore: The names Dr. San-
ders and George Perry are fictitious
to protect the identity of innocent
persons.

eee ee nana arene eer

Bctricit>

COYNE ELECTRICAL SCHOOL, Dept. 51-46,
Chicago, Iiinois

$00 South Paulina Street . «

Many Finish in 2 Years

Goasrapidly as your timeand abilities per-
mit. Equivalent to resident school work—

on request.

completed. Single eubjec: . Free Bulletin
"American Scheel, Dept. H-556, Drexel at S8th, Chicage

6
$1. Pos extra if C. O. D.

FREE.

LODESTONE

Live and Strong, $1 per pair
ith and 7th Books of Moses $1. 7 ke’ oo Zoner

Charms, Powders, Oils, Herbs, Novelties. Catalog

‘D. SMYTHE Co.
Box L, Newark, Mo.

Black

Suffer Varicose ;

IF you suffer pain and misery of Varicose
ecnd a’ at once for Pee
“THE L PE MieTHGDS R HOME USE.”

|. Praised en
doreed by thousands. Liens Methods) Dept, E-ss,

iG oreee cucmed by

Easy to use Viscose Home Method. Heals many old
leg congestion, varicose veins,
swollen } pores or no cost for trial if it
fails to results in 10 Gays. DeserBe your
trouble and get a BOO.
H. D. VISCOSE COMPANY
140 North Dearborn Chicago,

cushion shoes like magic, >
Be the MASON
Manufacturer established

"© tee

Ad
y

Sie ek Wie he Puan

Learn P

in
es
\ee

THE

rotitable Protession
O days at Home

of Mes. on

ramen

rcs si et sees Seen,
a

vr 30 E. Adams St., Dpt. 509, Chicago

‘GET THE LATEST

MYSTERY

FOR ONLY

OF THE MONTH |

MURDER STOPS
THE CLOCK

A BIG
FULL-LENGTH
MYSTERY NOVEL | Cc

NOW ON SALE AT ALL NEWSSTANDS

NOVEL

Seances errr


/\

60 HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

quiiy and Vick was sentenced to
ve years in prison.

That the conviction of Vick Smith
really has marked a new era in Har-
lan—has proved a crime deterrent—
is open to question that time alone
can tell.

HEADQUARTERS

DETECTIVE

areas. ‘
“But it could be blood, couldn’t it?”
Brubach continued.

So now Brubach went to the car
and carefully scraped those portions
of the cushion which, according to the
photograph, were stained. These
scrapings he submitted to F. Cc. Buck-
master, t,
and Buckmaster’s epost, Teturned to
us qui , Showed t the stain had
been made by human blood! And of

A—the same type as Frances

The rest was easy. Gray was ar-
rested. He denied his guilt’ until we
told him about the bloodstain evi-

fused to change her mind about going
with other fe lows, he had kill her.

He got a life term for that crime.
He might have gotten away altogether
if it hadn’t been for infra-red pho-
tography.

Photography in criminal detection.

Photography—t
craftsman. It isn’t just a matter of
dashing out, snapping a picture or two
when a crim dashing back
to develop whatever happened to fall
within range of the lens. Nor is it
a matter of making only what are
commonly known as “mug” shots—
those front and profile Fovtares of
criminals accumulated by

in ce files. If that sort of hotog-
raphy

No, the police Photographer must
be a master craftsman, skilled in mak-
ing both still and motion pictures.

ET’S go (in case No. 2) to a Pitts-
burgh courtroom. The date is Octo-

house.
The case is unusual in one
Ginyard confessed once, only to re-

The year 1940 closed with forty
homicides in the county, the lowest

called for detective work as in the
case of Magdalene Middleton. They

were all cases in which witnesses to
the actual gun play.came forward and
testified, or, as in the unusually rare
—for Har ase of Cecil Dean in
which he entered a Plea of guilty to
manslaughter for the killing of Joe
Napier.

CAMERA FIGHTS CRIME

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37

pudiate his confession and plead not
oy later.

Now the camera ‘shifts inside.
‘Walker walks to the warehouse

office at the front of the building and .

forces employees there to hold u
their hands. Ginyard goes to a bac
room where there is a safe and sur-
prises employee’s there.

At this moment two policemen run
into the place. Thomas Cox dashes in
the front door and captures and dis-
arms Walker. Patrolman Conway
comes in the back door and finds him-
self face to face with Ginyard.

th men fire seemingly at the
same instant. Conway grasps his
stomach, doubles up and crumples
into a heap on the floor. Ginyard, firing
two more warning shots into the ceil-
ing, leaps to the doorway and vanishes.

That’s all there is to the film. But a
clearer portrayal of homicide has sel-
dom been seen.

The prosecutor then explained that
this was merely a re-enactment of the

crime, photographed in detail by Ver-

fellow officer playing Conway’s role,
immediately fo

confessed wr crimes, to use in just
such cases 0 repudiated confessions.

The nage | thing the camera failed to
show in this case was what occurred
outside the warehouse immediately
after Ginyard and Walker, guns in
hand, entered it, A woman, noticin
that a holdup was in progress, ha

ed Conway and Cox, who hap-
pened to be down the street investi-
ating a traffic accident, She didn’t

Ow she was summoning Conway to
his death.

Walker, who leaded guilty and
turned state’s evi ence, got a life’ sen-
tence. Ginyard, all hope gone after his
grim movie portrayal had been shown
to the jurors, was sentenced to die
and on Jan. 29, 1940, was electrocut
at Rockview Penitentiary, Pen -
vania. '

And now case No. 3.

HAPPENED to be in my office one
| Sunday afternoon in November,
1936—the 29th to be exact—when a

telephone call launched one of the

most interesting cases in Pittsburgh

e standpoint of solving a crime
through purely scientific methods.

The call was from William Cunning-
ham, manager of a state-liquor store
on Wood Street Pittsburgh.

I was alert the instant I heard the
words “liquor store,” for liquor store
robberies had been increasingly fre-
quent. Liquor stores do a whale of a
business over week ends, icone
in winter, and are a lot easier to cra
than banks, And since banks close at
noon Saturdays, they keep .a lot of
money in their safes over week ends.

Anyway, Cunningham reported that
he had gone to the store that Sunday

rnoon to take care of some busi-
—_ and had found evidence of rob-

mers, crowbars, acetylene torches and
other burglar and Safe-busting tools.
I was curious and surprised.

neered you get that stuff?” J
as

“At the liquor store,” the officers
said. “By the safe. It was all torn up
but not cracked open. This stuff was
on the floor.”

“But, hey! Wait a minute,” I ex-
oe “All these tools left there?”

“ ea id

“Well, trot it back there quick then!”
I was angry. “Those boys are comin,
back. They didn’t finish the job an
hoe fh probably Planning to come
back. Probably ‘toni me

We put all the too back, as nearly
as possible the way they were left by
the safe-busters, i i

hidden. We had others across the
street. We had still others in the

obvious the yeggs had entered the
Store the first time by the rear door
and it was likely, if they planned to
return, they’d return that way.

We waited for several hours. Dusk
came. Then night. About ten o’clock
I began to figure maybe I'd made a
bum guess, but no—there was some-
—* the alley, at the Oliver Avenue
end!

I could t just barely see him. He was
e walked slowly along
Oliver Avenue past the entrance to
King’s Way. Then he reappeared and
came slowly down King’s Way toward
us,
Hovering there in the black shadows
we hardly breathed e were well

hidden, but had a clear line of vision.

mst mA ~

MO ct ot

©3532 srooup


-_

GOODWIN, WALTER E., WHITE, HANGED WELLSBORO, PA., June 9,1898.

Oe ; +4 ot Vy ie
four acre gt tas

“Ke SSK FHS”

Car JE

i kcal
%

ined
$
i

CGI BC a”

Sentimental supporters of the death pen-
alty offen romanticize earlier times when
murderers were executed, usually hanged,
near the county jail. They claim that much
of the deterrent effect of capital punishment
was lost when the site of exccution was
moved to a stale prison because the public

ld no longer “‘caperience’’ capital
Piishment; that is, feel its full emotional
force. They could no longer see for them-
Seives the conscaucnces of ftaling to con

trolone’s murderous impulses. Most social

scientists disagree with such thinking, ar-

guing instead that capital punishment-—es-
pecially if carried out at the local level—
has a brutalizing effect. Instead of instilling
respect for life, it prompts disrespect; in-
stead of creating a fear of violence, it pro-
motes a fascination with it; and ultimately,
instead of deterring violence, it encourages
a fatalistic acceptance of it. These photos
provide a glimpse of the emotional force
surrounding a loce! ticaging. The execution

described occurred on June 27, 18%, in a

0147-20178 110901-0019$01. 75/1
© 1961 Trensaction, Inc.

Vo Cre fe

The jury

small, rural community of northern
Pennsylvania.

On September 3, 1897, in the hamlet of
Mansfield, Pennsylvania, a young woman
was found shot four times in the head with
a 32 caliber weapon. She was identified as
Eftie Goodwin, the estranged wife of
Walter Goodwin. No one witnessed the
murder, but the next day her husband was
amested and placed in the county jail.
Thouyh he steadfastly proclaimed his inno

cence, within a month he was taken to trial

= oe an Aa
TRY Car

f 4.4%
iS (Set (

it oe a

i

re OR LESS

werner

x
ree ater

x

a ee

ats 4
+
a Ae

7
hy

eden

2, RPA ROOT ‘
pA le Raia nae els Rae SS te a.

Judge Mitchell

Pe,

es

eG TORS

Ailes nalts a xe

Deputy Sherif Veil (the hangman) and Sherifi Johnson

During the trial, a fourteen-year-old girl
named Gertrude Taylor testified that she
‘as with Goodwin on the night of the mur-
der. According to Miss Taylor, Goodwin
had fallen in love with her and in his mad-
ness had shot his estranged wife so he
could be free to marry her. Two deputy
sheriffs testified that, from a hiding place
above the jail cell, they had heard Goodwin
try to convince Miss Taylor to provide an
alibi for him. Despite his repeated claim of
innocence, Goodwin never testified in his
own defense. Instead, his defense attorneys
argued that there were no witnesses, that
the evidence presented was questionable,
and that there had been insufficient time to

prepare a defense. Nonetheless, Judge John
J]. Mitchell charged the jury to deliberate
and deliver a verdict.

The all-male jury consisted of nine far-
mers, a Carpenter, a merchant, and a
wagon-maker. After just two and a half
hours they handed down their verdict:
guilty of murder in the first degree. One
week later, Judge Mitchell ordered Good-
win to be executed. His attorneys appealed
the verdict to the Pennsylvania Superior
Court, but to no avail. While awaiting
execution, Goodwin spent most of his time
playing solitaire, reading the Bible, and
drawing a detailed picture of his home.
During the evening he was often heard

strumming on a banjo whi.e singing **Rock
of Ages.””

During his imprisonment he gained a
good deal of sympathy from Sheriff George
Johnson. At one point, the sheriff halted
public visitations to the jail because of the
large number of morbialy curious individ-
uals filing past Goodwin s cell simply to
stare at him, or taunt him. When an over-
whelming number of persons sought to
obtain tickets to attend the hanging, the
sheriff restricted the number to fifty. The
sheriff took special measures to insure that
the best quality rope was purchased for the
hanging so there would be no chance of an
““accident.””

During the few days prior to his execu-
tion, Goodwin spent much time simply
listening to the sounds o. the construction
of the gallows as it was quickly put up be-
side the jail. On the morminy of his execu-
tion he ate a light breakfast, bat with ap-
parent relish, and then he donned a new
blue suit and combed his hair.

In his death march to the gallows,
Goodwin was accompanied by Sheriff
Johnson and his spiritual advisor, the Rev-
erend Mr. Warren. A large crowd stirred
around outside the enclosure; some
screaming ‘‘hang *im,”’ others yelling “‘in-
nocent.”” Some hugged the fence, hoping
to hear the drop from the scaffold; others
peeked through knotholes in the fence,
hoping to glimpse the final moment. Upon
entering the enclosure, Goodwin gracefully
nodded to those about to witness his
execution. Among the fifty persons present
were his brothers-in-law, three brothers,

oodwin being taken to the gallows

visiting lawmen, a host

Deputy

the twelve
of reporters—-and the hangman,
Shenff Charles Veil.

A local newspaper, the Wellsboro
Agitator vividly described the execution,

welding Goodwin's calm proclamation of
‘ cence from the gallows.

Valter
strong voice he said: ‘‘Gentlemen, 1 want
to say to you that I feel that 1 am about to
fall into the hands of a just God; I fear not
what man can do to my body. Gentlemen
are you all prepared, as near prepared as I
am?”’ Then he hesitated, and the Sheriff
told him to take his time, for he thought
that Walter ought not go into the next world

jurors,

raised his eyes and in a steady

without having a chance to express himself
fully and truthfully. He then asked Walter. if
he had anything more to say, and Walter
replied, “‘Nothing,’’ but just then Deputy
Sheriff Veil began to buckle the heavy
straps about Goodwin's
knees and ankles. He did not appear to be
uninerved at this, but looked smilingly up in
the Sheriffs face as he asked, “‘You will
give me a few more minutes, won't you,
just to think?"’ Sheriff Johnson, with his
eves full of tears, willingly granted the re-

arms, wrists,

quest, and for a moment all stood there in
silence. It was evident that the Sheriff de-
sired that Walter make a complete confes-
sion, and he so told kim in an under-

ae

“Gentlemen, I want your attention a
moment, please. The awful crime charged
against ric Lam notactually guilty of. The

ahha saa . greg ge Bone mM ERY aeerente ri Fin all hadi il IEE RR ETI 7
Preyer ee ee a Sf eee, ek wet

very act or deed-the firing of the shots
which killed my poor wife was fired by
Gertrude Taylor. This is no lie; | could not
face death and tell a lie at this time. No-
body with any kind of a mind would say
that I could tell a lie at this time. | would
say to the peuple here that l was implicated
in this crime, but I did not do the actual
deed."’

Rev. Mr.
Goodwin, and he spoke again as follows:

Warren then whispered to

Touring the gallows after the hanging

hae eee
i

oe ity pe

Sage oot

3 gph Ceti eeey

PS PT Pee ee Rare

Be Rte Sempre gee ane

ak oe NS SISO EVAN ernie

“Gentlemen, it is the power of Christ
which gives me strength now, 1 can see
light; 1 can see Him. 1 hope to meet you all
* To all out-
ward appearance Goodwin was at that

moment the coolest man in the yard.

where we will part no more.

Comparatively few people believed
Goodwin's final statement, but it did raise
some doubts. The Reverend Mr. Wanen
became convinced of his innocence. After
the execution, the crowd “‘toured’’ the
yallows and soon began to celebrate the
execution. As noted in a local newspaper
account, ‘‘People seemed to regard the ex-
ecution as a holiday and a time to get
drunk. The borough lockup was filled early
in the aftemoon. Eight arrests were made,
and the number might well have been dou-
bled.”’

Within two years, the crowd had an op-
another
It is not recorded, but it would

portunity to ‘‘celebrate’’ yet
execution.
be interesting to know whether or not Isaac
Bimllo, the next person who was executed,

had attended the Goodwin hanging.

Gale Largey is professor of sociology at
Mansfield State College and the author of
numerous books, including Life in
Wellsboro, 1880-1920.

diol tl Spon he ahs wad ote edhe ae Bae ‘ ~

4 ot

4

Letty te cahesiee pees -

Sr

Sai pct Ee pide GT hg orgie eee ee ohare.

ee ok

wer
SN tr Ce ee ean Tie ee ee eet

pe Og in a

wsilie’s
‘ewd in
n their
corres-
ome of

noughts

iticipa-

didn’t
about
t only
keteers
‘Ss. She

pened
never-
bank
t that
ceteers
sweep
\ were
houses
in the
iiders’
il her
aceled
them

‘m to
> 78)

TLV LLIN g

‘ea

HOOVER

7:11:00 A.M, on July 19,°1947, Joseph Neugebauer, an
elderly farm worker, was plowing a field in the rear of
an Academy where he was employed at Baden, Pennsylvania,
when he was accosted by a, fellow-worker, John William

rty-six to/forty-eight hours, and that his
murderer had sprinkled talcum powder over the body and

G.cover up the stench of the
stayed in his room. with

grounds after murdering

bound for Ambridge, Penn-
‘P.M. on July 19.

$250.00 Reward

In cooperation with J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigati Derective WorLD, as a
— service, offers a rew' of $250 to readers of

ive Wortp who supply the information or lead
resulting in the capture of the wanted person. This offer
is subject to the following conditions:

The reward is payable to the first person who identifies
the photo on this page, and whose information directly
‘ leads to the wanted person’s apprehension.
yoo Notification to Derecrive Wortp by the person seeking
ae the reward must be made by letter, mailed within 24 hours

ae after applicant has identified the wanted person’s photo
4 in Derecrive Wor.p.

Police officials who directly or indirectly arrest, aid in,
or cause the arrest of tha wanted person are not eligible
for the reward. This oger is effective for six months only
from the date of publication of photo, -

The decision as to the merit of any claim for reward
is reserved entirely to Derecrive Wor.p, which shall have
ee the sole right to judge whether the evidence submitted
by the claimant entitles him or her to the reward.

Any person having information which may lead to the
arrest of the wanted person is requested to immediately
notify the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
U. S. Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., or the
Special Agent in Charge of the Division of the Federal

Sore oouhaha? en rn DA 2p ( Re
JON ". ; WIlg GS Low @ de Ld md he LJ

Givens, Givens attacked Neugebauer with a heavy sharp- .
edged weapon, brutally beating him about the head until

MfJuly 19, 1947, and was last,

'» FBI WANTS

JOHN WILLIAM

GIVENS
For unlawful flight
to avoid prosecution
for MURDER

Description

John William Givens, with aliases: William J.
Givens, Joe Greenlee, John William Todd, Wil-
liam Young, “Nip.” Age, 50, born November 13,

1897, Fayette City, Pennsylvania; Height, 5 ft., |

9 in.; weight, 158 pounds; build, medium; hair,
brown—graying; eyes, brown;. complexion, florid;
race, white; nationality, American; education,
grade school; occupations, farth hard, hospital
orderly, miner; scars and marks, left arm slight-
ly deformed from having been broken, scar above
left eye; tattoo, woman’s head on right arm near
shoulder. Criminal Record: Givens’ criminal
record since 1929 includes arrests for the crimes
of robbery and grand larceny.


between the
prosecution
ad, that An-
Jl, a dupe in
5 murder.
sion, Circuit
Mrs. Brown’s
had on more
murder her
him.
words of an

aeld without
‘ee murder of
iverly, Tenn..,
on aS an ac-

anelle Brown
orridor. The
urned quickly
her eyes, and

on murmured
her courage,

$e

on the head.
and Aliquippa
iny connection
f word of the
naniacs a
=< was solved
i confession of
iployed laborer
sstioning damp-
vas in any way

zators clung to
ealing with an
yne who had
» might be hid-
ords. “There’s a
tective insisted.
1 horrible crime
tions.”

es, police turned
sctive Recd had
ther. Had any-
efore, he asked.
uspicious-looking
1ood recently ?

_ “No, I haven’t
i. Then she bit
_ slowly, “there’s
inger. He knows
his mother for
» isn’t something
has some sort of

is chair. “Who's

ik said. “He lives
He used to be
with his mother

and left to make
ssard. The results
> very interesting.
alesman who had
int marine out of
loughed the previ-

ous May. He had been twice married and
twice divorced. ;

His address made the lead even hotter. It
was 164 Jackson Street, just five doors from
the Mauk home, just 150 feet from the spot
where Karen’s hat had been found!

Next came a. check of. old county court
records. In 1935, Reed learned, Gossard had
been arrested for rape and adultery. The
rape charge had been dropped for an undis-
closed reason, but he had pleaded guilty to
adultery and served 90 days in the county
jail. In 1941 he had done another nine-to-18
month sentence for burglary after he’d been
arrested in Chicago for mail theft.

“Here’s somebody who undoubtedly knew
Karen,” Reed told Chief Feék’o later. “Some-
one she might have recognized. and trusted.”

Questioning Gossard was another problem.
A cautious inquiry revealed that he and a
brother-in-law had left Conemaugh the night
after. the murder, supposedly: to pick up a
second-hand car from his sister in Philadel-
phia, that he wasn’t back yet but. was ex-
pected momentarily.

On the night of Sunday, October 31—
three days after little Karen was murdered—
state police got a report that Gossard had
returned and was at a relative’s home in
East Taylor Township, where. St. Petka’s
cemetery is located. He was arrested immedi-
ately. :

Gossard, a bespectacled, 200-pound  six-
footer, was taken secretly to Johnston’s public
safety building. Not certain that they had the
right man, investigators didn’t want the news
to leak- out in view of the public’s fever-
pitch mood. :

Questioning dragged on throughout Mon-
day, November 1, even while Karen’s body
was lowered into a grave at Forest Lawn
cemetery. But Gossard’s only answer to ques-
tions about the murder was: “I don’t know
anything about it.”

He refused to take a lie detector test.

Detectives, meanwhile, had checked the
plaster casts from St. Petka’s cemetery with
Gossard’s tires. The match was perfect.

Stunned when he learned this, Gossard
opened up a bit. “Yes, 1 took the girl up
there to the cemetery,” he said, “but I didn’t
kill her.” .

Gossard was placed in a line-up now and
confronted by the high-school girl who’d been
grabbed a few hours before Karen was killed.
“He's the one,” she said.

Gossard dropped his guard even more a lit-
tle while later. Alone with a state trooper, he
admitted what he termed “responsibility” for
Karen’s death and concluded with a remark-
able. request. “This is just between you and
me,” he said to the trooper. “I want you to
promise you won’t tell anybody.”

Still the investigators had no clean-cut ad-
mission. “Let’s take him up to the ceme-
tery and get his reaction,” Chief Fesko de-
cided. '

Handcuffed, Gossard was led among the
cemetery’s tombstones to the overgrown area
where Karen’s body had Jain. As they stood at
the spot, the officers saw sweat break out on
his brow. His shoulders hunched, he clenched
his manacled hands hard.

The chief pointed to the clump of tram-
pled weeds. “Is this where you killed Karen
Mauk ?” he asked.

“Ves.” Gossard muttered. “Yes... yes...”

The breaking point was past. But before he
would make an unqualified written confession,

hands and looking up. “There was no malice.”

Gossard asked if he might’ talk to his-minister.

-After a long talk with the clergyman, he
signed a full statement. © 95

He met Karen the night of the murder near
the garage where her paper hat was ' later
found, he said.. He offered her money as a
“treat” and persuaded her.to get into his car.
He. drove her out to the cemetery. The girl
began to struggle. He began to strip off her
clothes.c.c..ccc PRR eens ; anion

But there was still one major question un-
answered. How had Karen’ died? :

The answer was starkly,’ horribly simple.
The little girl’s breath had been crushed out
of her by the sheer weight of Gossard’s 200-
pound bulk, = - : ,

For this Gossard had a strange explanation.
Under questioning he had complained of a
back injury which was making him ill. Officers
found he, was’ wearing a brace, and got him
medical treatment. - - yes) 7 ‘

“J slipped because of my back,” he told
them. “I fell on her. It was accidental.”

%

HE other circumstances he spoke of made

his interrogators doubtful. Aes}

listened for her pulse and heartbeat,”
Gossard said. “But I couldn’t hear anything,
so I got in the car and drove home and...
and went to sleep.” fat
» When the questioning was over, Gossard
collapsed in tears. “It’s the. first time I’ve
cried in 20 years,” he sobbed. 2S

The next day, pale and trembling, he was
rushed through an unscheduled arraignment
before Justice of the Peace Stephen McGanka
in Conemaugh, with police attempting to avoid
a public demonstration. Gossard waived a
hearing and, his head buried in his hands, he
heard the charge read—that he “did felonious-
ly kill and slay one Karen D. Mauk with
malice aforethought.” .

Only the last phrase seemed to penetrate
his mind. “No,” he said wearily, dropping his

Said Mrs. Mauk after the arraignment:
“Only a madman would commit such a crime.
My heart is full of grief, but there’s still room
for sadness for that poor man’s mother. l’ve

PAA ee 888 RELIC DM

_ [S THE TIME TO
_PREPARE FOR

"W. C. DeVRY

Here's a wonderful |
chance to prepare for a good job : :
‘er your own business in one of America’s
great opportunity fields—TELEVISION.
You get the same wonderfully interesting,
effective training method at home that
has enabled thousands of men to begin
earning GOOD MONEY ... and te enjoy a
REAL FUTURE. Men 17 to 45 preferred.

¥ EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

After completing your training, our
effective Employment Service HELPS
YOU GET STARTED in this field

ail coupon fer surprising facts.

DeVRY TECHNICAL INSTITUTE-Dept
4141 Bel t Ave., Chicago 41, Minois
i Without obligation, tell me about Television.

i NAME + ___AGE

| ADDRESS.
____ STATE.

Leen eee eee

DFL

Nolsy Neighbors? Barking Dog?
, i Trafee? Airplanes? Kids? Radio?
NERVOUS SLEEPERS, factory workers, daysleepers
here is THE BEST sound deadener on the market.
Used by top movie stars. A simple Sittie gadget you
stip In your ear. Medically approved. Soft rubber. You,
won't even know they're there. For a good night's
snooze send for your pair of ear stopples. ONLY $f25
Post Paid. Sorry no C.0.D. Money-Back Guarantee.

known her for a number of years and she is
really a very lovely person.”

Gossard was hustled under heavy, guard
into the county jail in Ebensburg to avoid
trouble with Conemaugh residents. “Our people
are in.an ugly mood,” warned one of. the
volunteer firemen who had searched for Kar-
ern’s body. |

Behind bars, Gossard brooded under 24-
hour ‘guard, waiting for the grand jury to
consider his case in December. But before a

“WESTERN WORLD PRODUCTS, Dept. 7

2611 Tilden .Ave., Los Angeles 64, Calif.

Cash In On EVERY Occasion

with MIDWEST Greeting Cards —

Easter,

pay Cards, p!us

‘Well assortments,
Secre'

few days had passed, it was clear the. police
were far from done with him.

On November 6, state troopers from Lan-
caster, Pa., arrived to question him about the
unsolved murder of 22-year-old Margaret
Keota near Phoenixville, in April, 1954.

The girl had been forced into a car near
her home and her body was found several days

later in the cesspool-of an abandoned school. |

Phoenixville is near Philadelphia, Gossard’s
home port when he was a seaman, He re-
portedly was on leave from his ship at the
time of the Keota killing. The officers from
Lancaster, however, declined to disclose what
sort of questions and answers transpired.

Regardless of other crimes, Harry Gossard

| POST YOURSELF! IT PAYS! rxamine the

MAY HAVE

$1000

WTO
AY Hy
Ute
“ff Hoth had a coin for which I

R Wate $1000, Mrs. Adams, a ticket seller
in a movie theater, noticed a silver dollar minted in 2m,
1804. This silver dollar lists up to $2600, 1t was really 63)
apenny from heaven toJ.D. artin of Virginia whom Woe
I paid 200 for a copper cent. A Florida man received
for an old coin that he obtained from an Indian.

money in your pocket, Who knows—you may finda ¥
coin that may be worth from $200.00to 000.00 oreven
more to you, Iam looking for old coins, bills, stamps.

"LL PAY $100 TO $300 FOR A DIME
1894 §. Mint. Send 4c for a Large Illustrated Coin

sits in jail now, waiting to hear his fate from
a Cambria County judge and jury on the
charge of murder in the death of Karen Mauk. |

Folder and further details, It may mean much profit
to you. Other amazing prizes for coins, Write now.4

B. MAX MEHL, 413 Meh! Bldg. FORT WORTH, TEXAS
(Largest Rare Coin Establishment in U. 8.)

bh an

75


ti
i
ra
: i
f i
a
2
if
iit

74

imine — silt be

Become an
ACCOUNTANT-
Expert Bookkeeper—C. P. A.

The demand for skilled accountants—men who really
know their bustness—is increasing. National and state
legislation is requiring of business much more in the
way of Auditing, Cost Accounting, Business Law,
Organization, Management, Finance. Men who prove
their qualifications in this important field are pro-
moted to responsible executive positions.
FREE SAMPLE LESSON

Knowledge of bookkeeping unnecessary. We train you
from ground up, or according to your individual
needs. Low cost: easy terms.

Send name and address on the lines below for free
Sample Lesson and 48-page book describing the
LaSalle “accountancy training and the opportunities
in this highly profitable field.

LASALLE EXTENSION UNIVERSITY
A Correspondence J ited.
417 S. Dearborn St., Dept. 248H, . Chicago §, Hl.

FREE FOR ASTHMA

If you suffer with attacks of Asthma and choke and
gasp for breath, if restful sleep is difficult because
of the struggle to breathe, don’t fail to send at once
to the Frontier Asthma Company for a FREE trial
of the FRONTIER ASTHMA MEDICINE, a
preparation for temporary symptomatic relief of
paroxysms of Bronchial Asthma. No matter where
you live or whether you have faith in any medicine
under the sun, send today for this free trial or
buy Frontier Asthma Medicine at your druggist.
FRONTIER ASTHMA CO. 792-W FRONTIER BLDG.
462 NIAGARA ST. BuFFALO 1, N. Y.

new Catalog of 3000 Novelties

for i | of 5
Send 10¢ gifts, live animals, hobbies, fun
makers, planes & boats, magic tricks, joke
> articles, unusual seeds, gadget timesavers,
cameras, optical goods, projectors, movies,
Lpta jewelry, disgui coins, i
radios, auto & bike ies, banks, kere’
artists’ supplies, printing \sets, motors, knives, billfolds,
guns, sports, books, games, music, scientific supplies,
plants, fireworks, office & household items, etc., from
all over world. Rush name, address & 10c now!

JOHNSON SMITH CO., Dept.920, Detroit 7, Mich,

HANDSOME RETURNS

In Mail Order, Start on a shoe string and earn a sub-
stantial income. Details, ideas, know-how in ‘*HOW To
START YOUR OWN MAIL ORDER BUSINESS.'’—PRINT-
ER'S INK: ‘‘A Well Organisee m, and Practical
Guide.’ KIPLINGER'S aca ay “  . . presents @

t:

made to order are A to the shy but resourceful
gee ae . . 2! FORBES MAGAZINE: “. . , Shows how
start with a minimum capital outlay. a

nly $2.00. Refund eelwihes e.
BOND BOOK CO., Dept. 1-192
43 W. 6lst St., N.Y. 23, N.Y.

RUPTURE

RELIEF ...0R YOUR MONEY BACK
Simple, easy to wear truss
made by old surgical house.
You risk nothing. Write for
free booklet. Don't delay.

Dept. OM-2 = Hagerstown, Md.

Don't mistake eczema
for the stubborn, ugiy
embarrassing scaly skin
disease Psoriasis. Appl
non-staining “BDermorts
Thousands do for scaly
spots on or scalp.
Grateful users. often after
years of suffering.

the scales have gone, the

r generous
trial bottle to make our famous *'One Spot Test.’’ Test it
yourself. pewulss may gaeaet you, Shand today for yo

ri

ont iy as directed, Pri
xe Sold by Liggett and Walgreen Drug
ruagists. LAKE LABORATORIES, Box

plainly. Don't di
tores and leading

392% Strathmoor Station, Dept.+9406, Detroit 27, Mich, -

a confederate maneuvered the ball with a
magnet.

“T’ve seen him win $1000 a day that way,
she said. *

The prosecution next brought William Otto
Farrington to the stand. He repudiated his
confession of the murder of William An-
derson,

“The TBI agents forced me to. confess,” he
cried, Under brutal treatment, he said, he had
agreed to everything they said.

TBI Chief James Thompson stated that
Farrington’s original confession had come from
him willingly, after he had been met at the
door to the TBI Nashville offices by Mrs. Ja-
nelle Brown, who was just leaving, and she
had told him: “The jig is up. You'd better tell
the truth because I have.”

When Farrington had looked at her angrily,
she had said: “The time has come for us to
stop lying, because he deserves to be in hell.”

Photographs were introduced by the defense
attorneys, showing Nichols, Farrington, Mrs.
Brown and Anderson in friendly poses on the
steps of the Nichols’ property in question, pur-

”

porting to denote the friendliness between the
victim and the accused. But the prosecution
contended that they showed, instead, that An-
derson was being set up for the kill, a dupe in
a scheme designed to end with his murder.

In his statement before decision, Circuit
Judge William Puryear reviewed Mrs. Brown's
revelation that the elderly suspect had on more
than one occasion threatened to murder her
and her son if she testified against him.

“That does not sound like the words of an
innocent man,” he said.

He ordered Claude Nichols held without
bond on a charge of the first-degree murder of
William Sailer Anderson in the Waverly, Tenn..
jail, with William Otto Farrington as an ac-
complice.

Mrs. Jane Anderson and Mrs. Janelle Brown
met for a moment later in the corridor. The
former employe of the accused turned quickly
to her husband, with tears in her eves, and
was led away.

“God bless her.” Mrs. Anderson murmured
to'a friend, “Were it not for her courage,
Sailer might never be avenged.”

' The Devil’s

Own Trick

continued from page 49

“That's confusing,” the coroner admitted.
“She was suffocated.”

“You mean strangled?”

“Not at all,” the coroner said. “There are
no marks on her throat. But from an accumu-
lation of mucous in her mouth, and the con-
dition of her lungs, it seems she was smoth-
ered, There’s no way of knowing just how.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes,” he said. “The girl was alive when
she fot to the graveyard,.and she put up a
fight. There are pieces of grass clenched in
her: fingers.”

The clues were meager. Investigators soon
rounded up ten suspects, including hitch-
hikers who said they were just passing through
town, All were questioned and then cleared
and’ released. : :

Publicity of the murder threw a mantle of
fear over the city. The pre-holiday game of

‘trick-or-treat came to an abrupt halt. Women

refused to walk alone on the streets after

nightfall. -.

' ’ ROUSED civic organizations, businesses
and labor unions, including the steelwork-

ers’ union to which Karen’s father belonged,

posted $460 in rewards.

‘Fresh fear. developed early the next night
when a small girl, returning home from her
grandmother’s, was grabbed by a man on a
street in nearby Lower Yoder Township. She
broke free, and’ police who rushed to the
scene -made a fruitless search of the area.

The ‘same night a man from nearby Wind-
ber was arrested for molesting a ten-year-old
girl. He was grilled for six hours but denied
any knowledge of Karen Mauk’s death.

Then, the next morning, a. second girl was
found murdered.

The nearly-nude and ravished body of 16-
year-old Helen Bryant was found not far
from her home, in. the town .of Aliquippa, 70
miles northwest of Johnstown, under a shroud
of autumn leaves. She had last been seen five
days before,.on her way. to school. She had

been stabbed and bludgeoned on the head.
Police from both Johnstown and Aliquippa
strove to learn if there was any connection
between the two murders, or if word of the
Mauk case had spurred sex maniacs in the
area to commit other offenses.

But Helen Bryant's slaying was solved
within a day by the arrest and confession of
Elijah Thompson, Jr., an unemployed laborer
and neighbor of the victim. Questioning damp-
ened any probability that he was in any way
implicated in Karen's death.

Still, the Johnstown investigators clung to
the theory that they were dealing with an
habitual sex offender—someone who had
struck before, and whose name might be hid-
den right among their own records. “There’s a
history to this man,” one detective insisted.
“He didn’t work up to such a horrible crime
without some previous indications.”

Working with almost no clues, police turned
back to Karen’s family. Detective Recd had
a talk with the dead girl’s mother. Had any-
one tried to molest Karen before, he asked.
Had the woman noticed any suspicious-looking
men lurking in the neighborhood recently ?

Mrs. Mauk shook her head. “No, I haven’t
seen any strangers,” she said. Then she bit
her lip. “Of course,” she said, slowly, “there's
Mr. Gossard. But he’s no stranger. He knows
our family, and I’ve known his mother for
years. I just wonder if there isn’t something
odd about him. I heard he has some sort of
criminal record.”

Reed leaned forward in his chair. ‘‘Who’s
this Gossard?” he asked.

“Harry Gossard,” Mrs. Mauk said. “He lives
about half a block from here. He used to be
a sailor, but he’s been home with his mother
for quite some time.”

Reed thanked Mrs. Mauk and left to make
an immediate check on Gossard. The results
of his check turned out to be very interesting.

Gossard was 39, a former salesman who had.

been working in the merchant marine out of
Philadelphia until he was furloughed the previ-

Me ee ee eee ee ee wee

ous May. He !
twice divorced

His address
was 164 Jackso:
the Mauk home
where Karen’s

Next came
records. In 193
been arrested
rape charge hac
closed reason,
adultery and s¢
jail. In 1941 he
month sentence
arrested in Chic

“Here’s some
Karen,” Reed t:
one she might

Questioning (¢
A cautious ing
brother-in-law
after the murd
second-hand
phia, that he
pected moment:

On the nigt
three days alte
state police go
returned and
East Taylor
cemetery is loc
ately.

Gossard, a
footer, was tak
safety building
right man, invé
to leak- out 1
pitch mood

Qusstioning
day; Novembe
was lowered
cemetery. But
tions about th
anything abou!

He refused t

Detectives,
plaster casts {
Gossard’s tires

Stunned wt
opened up a
there to the c
kill her.”

Gossard wa:
confronted by
grabbed a few
“He’s the one

Gossard dro
tle while later
admitted whai
Karen’s death
able request
me,” he said
promise you

Still the in)
mission. “Let
tery and get
cided.

Handcutffed
cemetery’s tor
where Karen’:
the spot, the
his brow. His
his manacled

The chief
pled weeds. ‘
Mauk?” he a

“Yes,” Goss

The breakir
would make <

the child’s

trickster.

Joctor, tele-
e Cambria
od returned
cers

‘r.’ the doc- 3
e examined
re was evi-

had been

Fesko drove
tell Karen's
d that their

‘Oh God,”

she heard.
I had made
sollapse and

ed

‘ rain had
vorried that
n the ceme-

on Ebens-
rreensburg
réa

rey found

viously not

and me. I want you to promise that you won't tell anybody.”

> ORO CR,

FIRES OTST SNE LIES:

Volunteer fireman Steve Steffish (left) who found body
finds it hard to find words of comfort for Karen’s father.

those of the firemen’s truck. The tracks
seemed fresh and the officers hurried
to complete plaster casts before the rain
made them indistinct.

“Chances are the killer is someone
local,” Fesko said, “or he probably
wouldn’t have known of a place like the
cemetery.”

He arranged with state police to set
up immediate roadblocks around Johns-
town and with the Pennsylvania Rail-
road police to check all departing trains,
on the assumption that the killer might
try to leave the city.

Before dawn the investigation was in
full swing, under the joint direction of
Fesko, Chief County Detective John W.
Reed, and Sergeant James “A. Blair,
Ebensburg state police commandant.

It wasn’t long after when one of the
volunteers who had helped search for
Karen earlier showed up in the Cone-
maugh Borough Hall—headquarters for
everyone working on the case—carrying
a tattered paper hat.

.He’d found it near a garage in Coulter
Alley, he explained, about 100 yards
from Karen’s home. The hat -was iden-

tified as the little girl’s—the one she had
worn for Trick-or-Treat.

“That does it,’ Detective Reed said,
laying down the hat. “She never left the
neighborhood by herself. Someone either
lured her there or kidnaped her.”’

“What about the man who tried to
grab the high-school girl?” Chief Fesko
asked. “We'd better try to identify him.
He could be a sex nut who failed with
the first victim he went after and then
went around looking for another.”

Early that afternoon, the coroner
came to headquarters with his autopsy
report.

“The girl wasn’t raped, but she was
definitely molested by a sexual at-
tacker,” the coroner said. “She appar-
ently died about 8:30 or 9 p.M., an hour
or so after she left home.”

‘What was the cause of death?” he
was asked. (Continued on page 74)

One of the neighbors shows spot where child’s hat was found,

tye arn

Police at first thought murder of Helen
Bryant was linked to that of Mauk child.

49

—_ ad


x days, her body was found in a thicket. Her father, Earl Bryant (r.) and her uncle.

After searching for missing girl for si
th schoolgirl took each morning. At bottom of hill, near tracks, killer made a grave

Outside modest home men retrace pa

42


Saeco Sand

I.
q
id

b>

7

;
3

t

E

i
ke

LL ROT RT

= “counsel's claim of technical error in the.
~ records, saved Williams from the chair. It

was the first of a long series of delays as

;

switch was thrown, and Pete Williams’

* desperate’ gamble to thwart justice was

*~ itself thwarted. j

one appeal after another was fought.”

through court after court.

But at long last the day of reckoning

“ could not be postponed any longer. Pete

. Williams’ last appeal had been made and

tejected. On April 4, 1960, precisely at
midnight—once again a fateful hour in
the ill-starred career of Edward Leon
“Pete” Williams, the tall, swarthy
murderer found himself strapped into the
electric chair at the state prison. The

In more than four years of repeated
delays and the manylegal recourses it had

& allowed the killer, the law had shown in-

finitely more mercy than this murderer

+ had shown to his innocent victim, the
~ trusting young preacher about whom

Pete Williams had callously admitted:

“He didn’t have a chance,”

In a way, those unfeeling words are, in
and of themselves, a starkly graphic ser-
mon to those overly solicitous souls who

bleat so loudly about the rights and.
privileges of criminals and killers, ap- |

parently considering these more impor-
tant than the rights and privileges of inno-
cent, law-abiding citizens. $44

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Reverend Leslie Arnold, Jeb Mar-
cus, Millie Garese and Fred Campion
arc not the realnames of the persons so
named in the foregoing story. Fic-
titious names have been used because
there is no reason for public interest in
the identities of these persons.

: Halloween Rapists’
Trick-Or-Treat Murder

as he said it, but in his heart he was
frightened and concemed. It was then

. half-past nine. He was sure that if Karen

(Continued from page 35) 4

Police immediately questioned the
family who owned the garage, but they
were mystified by the hat’s presence
there. None of the family members had

’ seen or heard anything unusual that even-

had actually gone to her cousin’s home, :

the Wecklunds would have seen to it that

the child had gotten home long before’

\

this.

As he feared, Karen was not there.
Roused from sleep, little Jackie said that
he had left Karen near his house just
before he came in after their rounds of
trick-or-treating. That would have been
about 7:30, his parents said. The place
Jackie said he left the little girl was no
more than 100 yards from her own home,
and she was walking in that direction
when he last saw her, clutching her bag
of “loot,” the boy added: when he ‘was
questioned further.

His relatives joined Karen’s father in a
hasty canvass of the homes af neighbors
up and down the street. No one had seen
Karen since she had come to their doors

, early in the evening, wearing a kewpie .

. doll mask and a purple coat.

A little more than an hour later,
Karen’s father reported the child missing,
and, at 11:15 p.m., the town’s fire siren
shattered the nocturnal stillness of the
small community, summoning members
of the Conemaugh Volunteer Fire Com-
pany to join policeina search for the pret-
ty tot who had vanished.

As word of the child’s disappearance
spread, Boy Scouts and local citizens
poured out of their homes to swell the
ranks of the search party to more than 150
persons. Starting point for the search was
the short stretch between Karen’s home
and that of her cousin. From this area,
men fanned out with lanterns and
searchlights, checking back yards,
behind trees and shrubs, under porches
and cellar bulkhead doors. They missed

* no secluded spot or niche where a small
‘child might conceivably be hidden.

Fifteen minutes before midnight, they
found Karen’s costume hat. It lay on the
concrete apron in front of a private gar-
age in Coulter Alley. The spot was less
than 100 yards from the child’s home.

68

ing, either near the house or by the gar- .
age.

Although he did not tell this to Karen’s
father, Police Chief George Fetsko
already had strong reason to fear that the ©
worst might have befallen little Karen
Mauk. At 7:30 that evening, which was

-just about the time that Karen was

presumed to have disappeared, a
teenager had been attacked on First
Street, only a few blocks from.the Mauk
home. The victim, was a 14-year-old girl,
who reported that a tall, husky, shabbily
dressed man with a scar on his cheek had
leaped on her as she was walking home.

The girl screamed at the top of her
lungs and fought her assailant furiously.
She finally managed to escape his grasp.
Chief Fetsko believed that he might have
been frightened away when the girl's »
shrill outcry brought nearby residents to
their doors. When her parents reported
the incident, the chief's men sped to the
area and searched it thoroughly, but they
could find no trace of the attacker.

; Nw Chief Fetsko wondered if the

man might not have chanced upon Karen
a few blocks away as he was fleeing, seiz-
ed her and carried her away. With this in
mind, the chief spoke to George Peyton,
veteran. president of the volunteer fire
company.

“Get some of your boys to scout
around the outskirts of town,” Fetsko
said. “If he’s got the kid ina car, they may
still be out on some lonely back road.”

The volunteers selected for the assign-
ment swiftly piled into their own cars and
headed for the outer perimeter of the
town. A few minutes after midnight, one
of these cars, manned by two of the
fireman volunteers, drove slowly up a
narrow road which climbed steeply to the
rear service gate of St. Petka’s Cemetery
at the top of the hill two miles west of

-Conemaugh.

From the windswept crest, the men
could look down upon the lights of the
town. The spot was a popular lovers lane
for local young people, but the twin

beams from the car’s headlights showed

the spot to be deserted at the moment.
“No one here tonight,” one of the men

said. °

Nodding silent agreement, the driver
shifted into reverse and started to back up
to turn around. The car's headlights
described a circular sweep as he
maneuvered the vehicle, when suddenly
his companion cried out. : 4

“There! Over there! In the grass!”

The driver pulled the ‘car closer,
stopped, and the two men got out. There
was no mistake. There was no need to
look further for the pretty little six-year-
old with the curly hair.

Karen Mauk lay in the brown field
grass just off the dirt lane. Her tiny body
was stripped. Her kewpie doll mask and
her clothing were strewn beside the
pathetic little body. Her trick-or-treat
bag of goodies also lay nearby, part of its
contents spilled out. An apple, a few
cookies and a few pieces of cellophane-
wrapped candy were scattered within in-
ches of her curls. -

One of the firemen drove back down
the hill to report the discovery of the

‘ child’s body. The other stood vigil over

the dead girl with a flashlight, but he shut

it off after a few moments because he

couldn’t bear to look at her.

Chief Fetsko ordered the narrow lane
cordoned off some 200 yards distant from
the body before he approached with a
few men. Deputy Coroner Richard P.

_ Wilkinson conducted an on-scene ex-

amination of the slain tot. He said she had
not been raped. She had died of suffoca-
tion.

voice grim.

“No, it wasn’t strangulation,” the cor-
oner replied. “I'd say something like a
blanket or a coat was wrapped around
her face so tightly she was smothered.”

The autopsy which was performed :
later supported this preliminary observa-
tion. Coroner Joseph Govekar said signs
about the child’s mouth and other marks
about her body indicated she had been
roughly handled by her killer. And
although the child had not been raped,
the post mortem report said indications
has been found that she was sexually
molested.

Chief Fetsko’s first move was to

“Strangled?” asked Chief Fetsko, his “

}
&
&

‘a

*y

; broadcast an alert for the big, shabbily

dressed, scarfaced man who had at-

|. tacked the 14-year-old girl earlier that

night. The chief was keenly aware that
the available information about that man
was extremely sketchy, but he was the
only immediate suspect he had.
Pennsylvania State Police Sergeant
James A. Blair rushed to Conemaugh
with five troopers to lend their assistance
to the local police. So did Cambria Coun-
ty Detective Chief John W. Reed, who
came with several of his top investigators.
Examination of the body of little
Karen left no doubt that she had been
taken alive to the hilltop and slain there.
This was established by the fact that

several blades of grass were still clutched

in her tiny fingers. More than one of the
veteran officers at the scene had to fight
back tears at this evidence that the little
wisp of a girl had tried to fight off her at-

tacker. : : /

Sneak Blair was encouraged by the
“|. discovery of one solid clue at the murder

scene, a clue which conceivably could
clinch the case against the murderer and

' send him to the electric chair when the
_ time came. This clue wasa clear set of tire
» tracks left in the bare earth, which was

still moist after recent heavy rains. The
tracks were clearly distinguishable from

_ the tracks left by the car of the firemen

who had found the body.

What's mipre, no other tracks had been
left in the road since the rains; hence there
was no doubt in the minds of detectives
that these were made by the murderer’s
automobile.

Corporal David A. Drenning of the
state police carefully made plaster casts
of the tire prints and was able to lift ex-
cellent impressions. Sergeant Blair set up
field headquarters for the probe in the
Conemaugh Firemen’s Club. This was
where he held his first meeting with Chief
Fetsko, Detective Chief Reed, Coroner
Govekar and District Attorney Fred Fees
to map plans for the investigation thev
vowed would bring Karen Mauk’s killer

* to justice.

As a result of this first conference, a

', network of roadblocks was thrown up on

the few highways leading out of the area
across the mountains. Police swarmed
through the railroad yards rounding up
itinerants, who were hauled off to jail and
grilled. Sex offender files were culled and

all men with records also were picked up |

for investigation. Police Chief Charles R.
Griffith took’ similar measures in
Johnstown, a couple of miles to the south.

Detective Chief Reed went to Con-
emaugh High School on Friday moming
and questioned the 14-year-old girl who
had escaped the clutches of the scarfaced
man who attacked her the night before

around the time Karen Mauk had dis-

appeared.
“He passed me several times,” the

teenager told him, “then all of a sudden he

IF YOU CAN READ, YOU CAN MASTER THE
THEORY OF EVEN THE MOST CLOSELY
GUARDED OF ALL NINJA SECRETS,
THE ART OF INVISIBILITY.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU
Now, regardless of your size, strength, or
bulld, you can protect yourself and your
loved ones from ANY ATTACKER under
ANY CONDITIONS. Even while sleeping,
an adept NINJA can utilize these devastat-
ing techniques.
HOW NINJUTSU WORKS

Through NINJUTSU you learn to utilize
and draw on the enormous physio-mental
powers which now lie dormant in your own
body. THE SECRETS OF NINJUTSU will
show you how to take advantage of the
fundamental laws of natural movements, >
and the all important time-lag-factor, which
are Instrumental to the art of disappearing.

NINJUTSU IS UNBEATABLE . . . Better than
JUDO, Quicker than KARATE, more
Efficient than KUNG-FU!

NINJA were the deadliest of fighters who
were unbeatable in unarmed combat. They
mastered an incredible array of weapons
and could kill with their Stars of Death, or

thelr deadly Retrievable Stone.

These fighters were unsurpassed in their
ability to ove e all of their 5
They employed magic and stealth, could
utilize everything around them as weapons.
knew the secrets of invisablilty and com-
bined physical, mental and emotional tech-
niques against their antagonists in an all
powerful system of self-defense.

Included in THE SECRETS OF NINJUTSU

VLETEACH YOU
POWERS OF. THE DEADLIEST

\

/~ =

THE SECRET

KILLERS IN THE ORIENT
WITH OVER 100 ILLUSTRATIONS!

Ne ae CR et erent ine se |

complete, nothing else to buy. | C. P. EXPORTS, Dept. RS-1669 |
* Invisable Men With Secret Weapons | 380 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017
in es none Stars Of Death | RUSH me THE SECRETS OF NINJUTSU. I'll be completely satistied |
of Stealth and y . or Vt return the manual within thirty days fore refund of tne |
« The Deadly Retrievable Stone | purchase price with no questions asked ! promise to use the deadly |
° The NINJA'S Special Techniques of invuiner- SECRETS OF NINJUTSU only for defense and that I'll never useit as an
ability — Even While Sleepi aggressor. | enclose $5 in [) Cash, [) Check [) Money Order |
* Close! ag eiragy rites of Atemi-Waza | (Add 60¢ for postage and handling). SORRY, NOCOD.'S |
* How To Attain Lightening Reflexes and Lethal
fencien 1 ADO SALES TAX. TOTAL $ ——— |
secneone : siksae |
1 ADDRESS.
|
H! CITY. STATE zip t
0009000 0nbe3"00s4snnnnanncaverererecerarsraravarceer nn cash <ate aah ean apn tieslamnh Vlipstiehishiinnmramer see onemeamiommmtoe etal

(ak Vac MOL

3-D CasT, Screen Print

Make it yourself! 1000 profit angles. Packaging, signs, stick-
ers, magnetics, rubber cast, metallics products for pennies.
Models, parts, trim, logos, moids, statues, plaques machines,
materials, instructions. Low volume prices. Free information

Write: NATIONWIDE, Dept. CG 4200 Panamint, Los

Angles, California 90065.

e re, Cuts All

120 Volt House Piug-
ulld-Repair, Most Any-
-Factory-Home. me

Wel:
Metals
inl Muttinest.
th jor

se Ai

‘elding Instructions
No Experience
(cash, Ch, Mo.)

- Needed!

SEND ONLY $2.00 (om, Mo) gat per pout
send $14.99 for PP Del in USA. Lifetime Berneut
RR

WIPE OUT DEBTS

Little-Known Law Helps You!
FREE REPORT tells how little-known Federal
Law gives relief. Used by thousands. $600 to
$25,000: in as little as 90 minutes... legally!
Stops garnishments, lawsuits, bankruptcy. Free
yourself of debt and clear your credit in a few
days. Free money secrets; get business capital,
loans, grants, cash to start a business. Send no
money .:. Details Free:

NATIONAL COUNSELOR REPORTS,

Dept. 44, Kerrville. Texas 78028

NO PREVIOUS SKILLS REQUIRED

Be a DETECTIVE

INTRIGUING! REWARDING! BIG DEMAND!
Learn modern detection methods frem
former Federal Agent for pennies
per day. Eosy monthly payments.

SEND for Free Book & Lessen 8

INTERNATIONAL DETECTIVE
Box 4352 (0.D.) Washineton. D.C. 20012

Powerful electronic detector

finds buried gold, silver coins,

etc. Write or call for free

Catalog. Dealer inquiries
invited.

Financing Available
Phone day - night (713) 682-2728

RELCO, dept. ovss
BOX 10839, HOUSTON, TEX..77018

TRAINING SCHOOL Ost. 1932
EXTRA» INCOME! Make $]
SELL ENGRAVED METAL SOCIAL SECURITY PLATES.

= =) Millions of new prospects every year!
— Raa] No investment. SEND FOR FREE SALES KIT!

State SE

ENGRAVAPLATES,DEPT 584

BURIED TREASURE

Locate from a LONG DISTANCE!
with Ultra-Sensitive D/RECTIONAL Locator
SEND FoR FREE inrormative BROCHURE

CARL ANDERSON
TAMPA FLORIDA 33671

BEtaSONGS or POEMS
A HIDDEN “HIT”?

FOR FREE DETAILS & ROYALTY INFO

SEND YOU ONGS OR SONG POEMS TO

MAJOR LABEL RECORDS
6760 SELMA AVE., #11
SUITE 711, HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. 90028

Pear elite Overt eParerere iit erect U Ghalore trer’ SG lercot 8 Se el eet oe sect seen r se ooo bee Se LEDS

Knowing the .

means MONEY to YOU. Today. it pays to know the
“rules’—the LAW. Basic principles explained. illus-
trated by authoritative texts. study ards, self-tests. etc
(Not a correspondence course) Send for interestung
FREE booklet, “The People vs. YOU" and full details
No obligation

BLACKSTONE SCHOOL OF LAW Dept 309

209 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago |i! 60601

69


-

WELT TN ye

Be

we

oT Sia anit BN caer bao

ee, car

4

"jumped at me. But I got away. He'saman
* [never saw around town until a couple of

days ago.”

The detective chief obtained from her
an accurate description of the man, in-
cluding the color and distinctive features
of his shabby clothing. Then he question-

* ed some half a hundred other high school

students, both male and female, to see if -

- he could find anyone else who may have
_ seen the girl's attacker. He was surprised

at his own success.

Chief Reed found nine girls and three
youths who said they had seen the man,
and they described him so accurately
there could be no doubt they were telling
the truth. Their sighting of the suspect

, had occurred within the past three days, it
- was leamed.

At noon on Friday, state police picked

‘up a husky young fellow; he was trying to

hitchhike a ride near Johnstown. He wasa
brash “smart-mouth,” and would give

nothing but insolent, wise-guy answers to -

the troopers’ questions. He finally told
them his name was Bill Jones, but hé
refused to give a home address.

The troopers took him to Sergeant
Blair’s field headquarters, where a search

_ of his pockets turned up papers iden-

tifying him as Arnold York. He was 18
years old, but he could have passed for 22
or 23. His insolence quickly changed to
frightened cooperation when he was in-
formed that he might be a suspect in the
murder of a 6-year-old girl, a slaying
which had thrown local steel workers,
railroad men and others into a lynching
mood. ¢

. His story was a familiar one. He wasa
runaway from his parents’. home in

- Pittsburgh, which he had fled that mor-

ning after swiping $20 from his father. If
he was telling the truth, he could not have

been in Conemaugh when Karen Mauk -
was murdered. Blair ordered him held in ;

a cell pending a check of his story.

In the meantime, everyone in the
Mauks’ neighborhood had been question-
ed numerous times and police were still
keeping a tight surveillance in the area.
On Saturday morning, Chief Fetsko
received-a report that one of these
neighbors was leaving town. He was
Harry Gossard, 39, an ex-seaman who,
since the previous May, had been living
only a few doors from where Karen's
Halloween mask had been found.

Grssard was a six-footer, weighing
about 200 pounds. He had been married
and divorced twice. He was a mild-
mannered, round-faced, bespectacled

man who had been a salesman before go; °

ing to sea after his second marriage ended
in divorce.

Chief Fetsko and Detective Chief
Reed went to Gossard’s home and
questioned members of his family. They
learned that Gossard had been planning
to go Philadelphia for more than a week
on an errand for his sister. He had left that
morning. They also learned that he had

come to Conemaugh to convalesce at his’

family’s home after a severe back injury
sustained while working on a tanker 'the
previous winter.

“He still has to wear a brace,” a
relative told the officers.

Gossard didn't seem like much of a
suspect; a man with a bad back is not apt

to engage in any sort of action which re- Ry

quires the exertion of strength. His trip to
Philadelphia seemed to be routine, but
purely on principle, Chief Fetsko
ordered a record check on Harry
Gossard; Fetsko was a lawman who took
nothing for granted.

Admittedly, however, the chief was

surprised a few hours later when he was ;

handed the report he had requested. He
called Sergeant Blair with the news.
“Harry Gossard,” the chief said, “has
five arrests on his sheet. Two were on sex
complaints!” ‘
For Pennsylvania’s two Halloween
week girl-murders, that Saturday is

recalled as a climax. Back in Aliquippa, ,
Chief Zvonar had been waiting im- :

patiently for Saturday morning. His
probe during the week had failed to tum
up any sign of the missing Helen Jean
Bryant.

But on Saturday, with his regular
force of men augmented by more than
100 volunteer searchers—men who had
the week end off from their jobs—an

inch-by-inch search of the hill where the*

Bryants lived was launched.

The chief deployed this force in along
skirmish line at the base of the hill, with
the men positioned six feet apart as they
advanced up the slope. The tension
mounted as they slowly moved forward,
checking every gully, ravine and depres-
sion in their path. At around 10:15, the line
of men came within sight of that bare
knob atop the hill and the Bryant home

came into view. To many of ‘the +

searchers, it was a discouraging sign;
most had felt that Helen Jean, if she—or
her body—was on that hill, would be

THE BEST OF TRUE DETECTIVE

New’ Jersey detectives had to do a lot of digging, but
they finally uncovered proof of a heartless murder com-
pounded of classic motives—greed and lust...

JAZZ REQUIEM FOR
A VANISHED BRIDE

70

Another Classic in TD’s Golden Anniversary Series—
watch for it in the January issue of

TRUE DETECTIVE

*****1t’s on sale now at your favorite newsstan

MOTEMESS MYSTERIOUS MASSAGE PLLA Watts

ix****

found nearer the bottom, farther away

: | from her home.
. |, Suddenly a shout went up from aman

in the line. “I’ve found her! I've found
her!...Oh, my God!” ;
The man who had called out was
Warren Crawfin of Clark Manor. “I
almost stepped on her,” he kept saying
| over and over as the other searchers rush-
_ ed to the spot.

The girlish body of Helen Jean Bryant
lay partly exposed in a shallow grave
within sight of her home. The actual dis-
tance, when it was measured later, prov-
ed to be mere inches less than 100 yards.
i “I can’t understand it,” one of the

this spot when we were searching up here
Wednesday and we never saw a sign of
| her.”

Chief Zvonar rapidly determined
why the girl was missed in the earlier
search. The signs were clear to the chief's

cealed the body with a light covering of
dirt and leaves. But last night, Friday,
there had been a torrential rainstorm, ac-
companied by high winds.

“The wind blew away the leaves,”
Zvonar said. “The rain, and water run-
ning down the slope here, washed away
. the dirt that covered the girl.”

Deputy Coroner Margaret Saunders,
| summoned to examine the body, stated
: that Helen Jean had been bludgeoned to
death, apparently witha heavy stone. She
had also been stabbed in: the face and
| neck. Her forehead was crushed by the
| battering, and her face bore additional
| bruises, possibly inflicted by a fist.

The appearance of the body left little
| doubt in the minds of observers that the
| pretty teenager had been raped, either
| before or after she was slain, but this cir-
' cumstantial conclusion would be revised

. _ later. Helen Jean’s short coat had been

| pulled down from her shoulders, pinion-
| ing her arms. Her white blouse, and the
| bra she wore under it, had not been dis-
| trubed, but her skirt was hiked above her
|, waist and her panties had been pulled
‘down around her ankles. One foot was
bare, the other covered by a sock. The se-
cond sock and one shoe were located by
searchers in a clump of brush not far
away, but the second shoe could not be
| found. Her schoolbooks and pencils were
| discovered only a few feet away from the
| Shallow grave.
| Searchers also found in the immediate
\ vicinity of the body the blade of a com-
, mon, short-bladed paring knife. It had no
; handle and from its appearance, no han-
\'dle had been‘attached to it for along time.
With only the short metal shank fora grip,

‘ lit did not appear to be a very likely

| murder weapon.

The wires hummed between Aliquip-
pa and Conemaugh when word of the
| discovery uf the Bryant girl’s body reach-
jed probers working on the murder of
Karen Mauk. Speaking off the record,

“fone investigator said to reporters:

searchers exclaimed. “We came right by.

trained eyes that the killer had con- .

“There’s no telling yet what we'll find, but
it has to be checked out. The kids were
murdered eighty miles apart, but after all,
the MO was pretty much alike in both
cases, and there’s no doubt the motive
was the same.”

If the police had any solid suspect in
mind at this time, they were being close-
mouthed about it. But there was no
hesitancy in naming a suspect on the part
of a young girl who lived in the vicinity.

“It’s that fellow down the hill,” she
said through her tears, pointing to a
‘dwelling on the steep slope about 75
yards below where Helen Jean’s body
had been found. “We were all afraid of
him,” she added. “He used to come out
and shake his finger at us when we went
by. We always ran till we got beyond
where he lived.”

The man she! named was Elijah
Thompson Jr., a jobless 22-year-old who
lived with his parents and brothers in a
house just off the hillside trail.

Piz found Thompson at home,

wearing a four-inch gauze pad taped to
his head. In his bedroom they found a

* pair of bloody pants lying crumpled on

the floor of a closet. Thompson’s head
wound and_ bloody clothes, however,
proved to be far less incriminating than
they first appeared.

“I went over to my wife’s Monday
night,” Thompson explained to detec-
tives. “I wanted her to fetch the kids and
come back to me, that’s all. I had an old
knocked-down .22 rifle. I meant to scare
her a little. Nothin’ more.

“Then she lit into me and made me
mad. I hauled the rifle out of my pants
leg, where I was carrying it, and I guess I
blazed away two or three times—at the
wall though. I wasn't shootin’ at nobody.

“This neighbor, he came in somehow.
He grabbed in the gun away and batted
me one on the head. I don’t remember
good after that, but they say I fell through
a window and that’s how I cut my arm so
bad.”

Thompson rolled up his sleeve to
show a heavy bandage that covered
almost his entire forearm. “Anyway,” he
went on, “that’s how I came to wake up in
the hospital. They wanted to keep me
there, but I signed a paper and left by
myself. That’s where the blood on my

, pants came from.”

State Police Sergeant John Krzton and
Chief Zvonar took Thompson to the sta-
tion house and detained him while they
checked his story. They found witnesses
who corroborated his story. Also, it was

. borne out by police and hospital records
in Rochester, where the incident had oc-
curred.

Thus, what had looked like damnmg
evidence pointing to the slayer of the
teenage girl was explained away beyond
question and Elijah Thompson Jr. seem-
ed to be in the clear.

Questioned about the slaying of Helen

neighbors,

WE GUARANTEE |
| THAT. YOU CAN

TUcN EVERY
$1° INTO $3°%

IN 30 DAYS OR LESS!

Easiest, fastest way to make big money,
spare or full time! Just show friends,
others The National Gem
selection of superior Jewelry at remark-
ably low prices, Looks worth 2 or 3
times its actual price — giving you fast
“*first-sight” orders with no hard selling!

And we guarantee your first order!

Unless it sells out fast and pays you
high profits, return any unsold jewelry

within 30 days, and we'll refund every
cent you paid for the jewelry returned!

You take no risk at all!
Make 200% Profit . . . or More!

Fabulous profits for you! Every National

Creation costs you only 1/3 of the low

suggested retail price . .

. or even less,

Jewelry that sells for $15 costs you $5 or
less and pays you $10 or more profit. Pay
only $10 or less for Jewelry you sell for
$30, and pocket $20 of more profit.
Taking orders at these low prices, you
triple your money, at least!

Over 250 Money-Makers!

We send you — FREE - a big full-color
48-page Jewelry Presentation Catalog
which offers over 350 sell-on-sight Crea-
tions for men and women — Rings,
Pendants, Earrings, Pins, Tie-Tacs, Cuff-
links — many featuring the brilliantly
luxurious Endura Dia-Jewel which can
fool all but the trained eye of a jeweler,
but sells for only a small fraction of a
genuine diamond's price. Also lovely
simulated star sapphires, and genuine
gems — jades, tiger eyes, onyxes, Opals,
etc. — expertly crafted in designer mount-
ings — but priced low for instant orders!

Money-Making Kit ... FREE!

To help you start making big profits im-
mediately, we'll send you — absolutely
FREE and entirely without obligation —-
a big money-making Presentation Kit
containing everything you need: the 48-
page full-color National Gem Presentation
Catalog, full-big Profit details, special
donus-profit starting offers, and all order-
taking equipment. Everything comes to
you by return mail. Send no money...

fill

! The National Gem Co., Dept.X-94

681 Hamilton Street

Somerset, N.J. 08873

FREE, prepaid, and entirely without

obligation, rush me complete money-

making National Gem Presentation Kit.
(PLEASE PRINT BELOW)

Omr. Ons. Onrs.

Name

Address

City

State . Zip

In Canada: Gem Company Canada
2585 Bates Road, Montreal 251, Que.

in and mail the coupon today,

5


APES.

ER EN TREE OY SPW LS

SO peng terrae geo ot

i
it

* “Doesn't anybody have a dime?”

hpi

Jean Bryant, Thompson had said, “You
can’t mix me up in that killing. I had

- nothing to do with that. No, sir!”

He admitted that occasionally he had
shaken an admonishing finger at Helen
Jean and other girls as they scurried down
the path to school.

“But I didn’t mean nothin’ by that,” he
added earnestly. “I was sort of kiddin’
’em about being late for school.”

Thompson's explanation sounded
reasonable, but before releasing him,
Chief Zvonar and Sergeant Krzton decid-

’ ed to do one more thing. They went to

Thompson's home, taking with them the
paring knife with is handle missing which
had been found near Helen Jean’s body.

Later they announced that members
of the family had identified it as one from
their kitchen.

In renewed questioning, Thompson
resisted all attempts to get him to confess
to the killing of the Bryant girl, insisting
that he was innocent and knew nothing of
the teenager’s murder.

It took a scientific report to turn the
tide...a lab report which showed that the
blood on the pants found in his closet was
not of the suspect's blood type. The
police also had learned that those were
not the pants Thompson had been wear-
ing when he was brought to the hospital
after being injured at his wife's place.

72

Confronted with this information,
Thompson's last shred of resistance
crumbled. His shoulders sagged. After a
long moment of silence, he spread his
hands back ina gesture of futility and said
wearily:

“Yeah. I done it.I don’t know what got
into me. I just couldn't help myself.

“I watched that girl day after day,
young and pretty and fresh-looking, with
her red hair, running down the hill. Last
Monday she was alone. I came up behind
her with a stone andhit her on the head.”

Helen Jean fell to the ground un-
conscious, Thompson said. He dragged

> her about 30 feet of the footpath she

used as a short cut to the school bus, and
there he tore at her clothes and attempted
to rape her, but he was unsuccessful in
this.

Thompson's statement on this point
jibed with the autopsy report, which
revealed that an attempt to rape had been
made, but had not been successful.

Continuing his statement, Thompson

said he then ran to his house, only a short /

distance away, where he went to the
kitchen, got the knife without the handle,
rushed back to where he had left Helen
Jean, and slashed the girl’s throat and
tace. He also said he tried to strangle her.

Afterward, Thompson said, he stuck
the knife in the ground and fled in panic.

-iliary police, regular officers,

Police had not revealed that the knife was
found with its blade imbedded in the
ground.

In another development, Thompson
was immediately eliminated as a suspect
in the killing of little Karen Mauk. His
condition after leaving the hospital on

Wednesday would have made the trip to* :

Conemaugh impossible, doctors told
police. Also, witnesses accounted for his
presence in Aliquippa at the time Karen
was slain. The probe into the Mauk slay-.

‘ing continued without letup.

Sunday night was Halloween, but for
the first time in memory, there was hardly
a youngster to be found out trick-or-
treating in that part of Pennsylvania. In-
stead, the streets were patrolled by aux-
and
members of veterans’ groups.

On Monday, Harry Gossard was pick- ~

ed up when ‘he returned from

Philadelphia. Brought to Sergeant Blair's ,

field headquarters at the firehouse, he
was questioned by Blair, Detective Chief
Reed, Chief Zvonar, and the other in-
vestigators. His back brace forced him to
sit stiffly in the chair,

Gossard’s manner was calm and un-
ruffled. He disclaimed any knowledge
about the murder of little Karen Mauk.
Reminded of his past sex offenses, his
composure crumbled only slightly.

house.

| makeshift

“I—I—well, I admit I’ve had a little
trouble in the past, but not that kind of
thing,” he said, shuddering. “I coildn’t do
anything like that, not in this world. Why I
knew Karen...she was a sweet little
thing. She lived right near my mother’s

As the questioners took him repeated-

} ly over the same ground, discrepancies

began to appear in Gossard’s story, but he
never wavered in his protestations of in-
nocence of any complicity in the brutal
slaying of the pretty little six-year-old.
The atmosphere in Sergeant Blair's
headquarters suddenly
became charged with an electric excite-
ment, however, as Corporal Drenning
entered the room.

“Has he confessed?” Drenning asked
Sergeant Blair. ;

Wez sergeant shook his head
negatively, Drenning reached into a car-
ton he was carrying and took out the
plaster cast of the tire tracks found on the
hill near Karen Mauk’s murdered body.

With slow deliberation, he placed the |

moulage on the table directly in front of
Gossard.

“You can lie till you're blue in the face,
Mister,” Drenning said evenly, “but these
don’t lie. It was your car—up there

on the cemetery hill—the night the little’ .

girl was killed.”
Gossard paled. He put his elbows on
the table, cupped his forehead in his

hands, and stared at the floor. For what

seemed like an eternity, no one uttered a

' word. Then Gossard looked up and asked

if he might talk to his minister. The
clergyman was summoned and was
allowed to speak ‘in private with the
suspect. A half hour later, the minister in-
formed officials that Gossard was ready
to talk to them.

They found Harry Gossard weeping
unrestrainedly. His first. words were,

“This is the first time I have cried in twen--

ty years.”

He pulled a handkerchief from his
pocket, dabbed at his eyes, blew his nose
and then related the events leading to
what local newspapers decribed as “one
of the most fiendish crimes in the annals
of Cambria County.”

“I can’t tell you why I did,” Gossard
began. “I offered Karen money to get in

‘| the car with me. She thought it was just
‘| more loot for her trick-or-treat bag. Then

I drove out, up on top of that hill...”
That was where he left the child’s nak-
ed body lying in the grass, but Gossard
disclaimed any intent to kill the little girl.
“I slipped and fell on top of her,” he said,.
attempting to explain how Karen died.
Taken to the cemetery, Gossard
pointed out to the police the spot where
the tragedy occurred. District Attorney

Fred J. Fees held a news conference at

which he announced:
“We have obtained an unqualified
confession. This was an extremely dif-

ficult case to crack, and the officers surely
deserve a great deal of credit for their
work and patient investigation.”

By weird coincidence, the same legal
procedures occurred only hours apart
with the suspects in the Halloween week
killings in Aliquippa and Conemaugh.
Arraigned in Aliquippa on Monday
before Justice of the Peace Rudolph
Schwartz, Elijah Thompson Jr. waived a
preliminary hearing on a murder charge
and was ordered held for the grand jury.
In Conemaugh, Harry Gossard was
arraigned on a murder charge before
Justice of the Peace Stephen McGanka.

Harry Gossard reacted strongly when
Squire McGanka read from the informa-
tion: /

“...you did feloniously kill and slay
one Karen D. Mauk. with malice
aforethought.”

“Oh, no!” Gossard protested. “There
was no malice!”

He was orderéd held for action by the

./grand jury and spirited to an unspecified

place of confinement because of the
fever of public outrage which was run-
ning high in the community.

The Halloween week slayings, from
the very beginning, had been marked by
a strange series of coincidences, and there
were still more to come.

Both slayers elected to plead guilty to
murder instead of facing a jury. Elijah
Thompson Jr. entered his guilty plea in a

‘formal hearing before Beaver County

Judges Robert E. McCreary and Morgan
H. Sohn on January 7, 1955. On January
2lst, he was sentenced to die in the elec-
tric chair.

Harry Gossard entered his plea of
guilty to the murder of little Karen Mauk
before three judges in Cambria County
Court. The judges decided the crime was
first-degree murder and sentenced him to
death.

It was only after the death sentences
had been passed that the two Halloween
week killers met, and that meeting took
place in the Death House at Rockview
Prison Farm in Bellefonte. There is no
record of what they had to say to each
other.

Elijah Thompson paid with his life for
the murder of Helen] ean Bryant when he
was executed in the elctric chair on July
25, 1955. Harry Gossard won a series of
stays which delayed his execution in the
same electric chair until June 4, 1956.

The two murderers will long be
remembered in Pennsylvania as the men
who brought real horror to the traditional
make-believe grotesquerie of a children’s
festival. oe

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Jackie Wecklund, Arnold York and
Warren Crawfin are not the realnames
of the persons so named in the forego-
ing story. Fictitious names have been
used because there is no reason for
public interest in the identities of these
persons.

YOU DON'T HAVE TOE
CARRY A GUN TO BER E
PROFESSIONAL

. Enjoy Top Pay, Security as

TECHNICIAN

TRAIN AT HOME IN SPARE TIME!

You are needed now to work “behind the scenes” in
crime fighting! You can make a fine salary with excep-
tional job security in the field of Scientific Crime De-
tection and Fingerprint Identification. You will be part
of a professional team that apprehends the vicious
criminal by building an airtight case that sends him
to jail! You don’t carry a gun—you are the vital “in-
side” man! Your job is exciting and important. With
the constant increase in crime, the need for you
becomes even more urgent.

I've helped hundreds of ambitious, dedicated .men
get into Crime Investigation and Fingerprint Identifi-
cation. [can help you, too! At your home in your spare
time I will revéal the many secrets of this exciting
Profession...Police Photography, Firearms, Hand-
writing Identification, the art of “Shadowing” and
other skills you will be using in daily assignments.
Your past experience is not important. Your ambi-
tion and will to succeed ARE important

Our graduates are leaders in this vital work. Over
800 Identification Bureaus around the world employ
IAS graduates. IAS is accredited by the National
Home Study Council. Rush the coupon. We employ
no salesmen; everything will be rushed to you by
mail. Learn now about this opportunity; decide for
yourself if it is right for you. No obligation.

G.1. BILL

over 800
APPROVED American Bureaus of
identification employ
EF Fe Looe E u 1AS Graduates
Read the famous
Blue Book of Crime

i
Filled with little known crime facts!
and famous criminal cases. Tells
how you can find success and secur
ity in Crime Investigation and Fin- |
gerprint - Identification. Frect Just |
mail coupon. No salesman will call
INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCE i
ac School F: in 1916

Dept 784B 1920 Sunnyside Ave., Chicago. III. 60640

CLIP AND MAIL COUPON. NOW

| INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCE |

Dept 784B 1920 Sunnyside Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60640 | _

Send me FREE the latest edition of the Blue Book of Crime ]
and information on opportunities in Crime Detection and
| Fingerprint Identification. |

| Name Age !
Address |
[oe Se |

FINGERPRINT

fgte
hown in the custody of
explain away the presence of his car near the Mauk slaying site

her home. So Helen Jean, still annoyed by the trivial argument of

a few moments before, picked up her books and departed for

school by herself. The time, when she walked out the door of her
|). parents’ home for the dast time, was 8:15 a.m. :

“ee It was generally around four o’clock when Helen would
arrive home from school in the afternoon, but four, five and six
o'clock came and went on that fateful Monday, and Helen Jean
Bryant had not returned to the house on the hill. For a very un-
derstandable reason, her mother was not unduly concerned. For
one thing, she knew that Helen had about three dollars in her
purse when she left that morning. For another, she simply assum-

* night with her grandmother, which the teenager did from time to
time. :
Helen’s sister went looking for her when she returned to

SER RSET

Helen Jean. The latter’s home room téacher said she had marked
| her absent, and she frightened the younger sister when she add-
i» sed: * ; :

“She wasn’t here yesterday, either. Is she ill?”

The younger girl went to her own classes, but when she could
not stop worrying, she left school at noon time and hurried home
to tell her mother what she had learned. A call was made im-
mediately to Corapolis. Helen J ean had not been there for more
than a week. When the girl’s father returned home from his job-
hunting and was told about the girl’s disappearance, he lost no
time in reporting to police that Helen Jean was missing.

)

| MD DOUBLE-LENGTH FEATURE

» wasn't too well supplied with cash to set out on her own.” >

Sgt. Blair (r.), Harry Gossard couldn't

t ed that her daughter had taken a bus to Corapolis to spend the °. might have become infatuated and decided to elope. Moreover,

school the next morning, Tuesday, but she could find no sign of ~

Hopewell Township Police Chief Matt Zvonar obtained a
detailed description of the young girl and the clothes she was =
wearing when she left home the day before. Then he promptly
broadcast an alarm up and down the Beaver Valley com-
munities. He also put the information on the teletype to th
Pittsburgh Police Missing Persons Bureau. _ Lieutenant William
Hildebrand undertook the task of back-tracking the ‘girl's
movements from the time she left home on Monday morning at
quarter past eight. ec

Hildebrand drew a complete blank when he questioned the
driver and youngsters who had ridden the school bus that mor.
ning. Helen Jean had not boarded the bus, everyone said, “©

“Are you sure?” the lieutenant asked the driver. “You know
the girl I’m talking about?” ,

“I sure do,” the driver replied. “So do the kids. She’s the pret
tiest girl who rides this bus. All the kids know her too. She's very
popular. A nice girl, always smiling and friendly and crackin
jokes, but not fresh, like a lot of them.” se

Chief Zvonar raised the possibility that Helen Jean might
have decided to run away from home ,when Lieutenani
Hildebrand reported what he had learned. * a

The lieutenant said he was inclined to doubt that. “She might
have missed the bus deliberately if she really intended to ru
away, but on the other hand, it would have been a free rid
downtown, and I don't think she’d have passed that up. Sh

s

Hildebrand went back to Iron Street on a new round 0}
questioning of residents and business people. He could find no+
one who had seen the pretty teenager on Monday. Next, he mad
the rounds of Helen Jean Bryant’s classmates and school friends. :
The answer was the same. Then he interrogated the high school
principal and the girl’s teachers. ag

After consulting the records, the principal told the officer: =
“She maintains a high B average, and she’s a good girl and a good
student. She’s never been involved in a disciplinary report.” ~

Helen Jean’s teachers said much the same. “A lovely child and
a fine student.” “An extremely well-mannered girl, courteous and /
respectful of her elders.” “A wonderful sense of humor, but
serious about her school work. She was determined to: make
something of herself.” ;

These were typical comments about the missing girl from her | ji the fog.
inst rs. Unfortunately, although they wer lowing ~~ pe Sy PEL Oe ES = ;
Samenein Helen ean og etaniny i eave no on . wheres oy ... - a Seth ~ _ tant to accept this as a fact. “I cant

, oe y it, he said. “As Bill Hildebrand has already pointed
she may have gone or what may have happened to her. © put, why should the girl have passed up a free ride downtow

Lieutenant Hildebrand’s persistent efforts to delve into the | jhe school bus, even if she didn’t intend to go to school? Also "fog
gels mona ie wer egal umpc. ofan hcl fo. the il wat tn prety tomo smaled—socone
-| “Plenty of enone wit be " ilable Sat a oy :
careful interrogation of personnel at the railroad depot and bus ae : hey're all off work,” the hist sdided "Mf doce pt sa
terminal convinced the investigator that Helen had not left town” > then, we'll gather a force and really ‘sweep that hill.” ee

¥ :
In the meantime, however, he continued to press the search

Las?

Z 2 ~ aabamc

,

a methodical search of the entire township. In the end, they
te forced to conclude that if Helen Jean had indeed passed
hrough town_on Monday morning, she had gone unrecognized

by means of any of the conventional forms of transportation. =~
“Let's run a search on that hill where she lives,” Chief Zvonar hr Helen Jean Bryant with the limited forces at his dispos lb
decided when Lieutenant Hildebrand reported the results of his “ar the most part, about all they could do was sac =
investigation. | © Bstigative measures already taken.

The chief assembled a search party comprised of regular of-« _ |, Even as this phase of the search for the Bryant girl was un-
ficers and auxiliary police, and led them on a hunt through the ‘/Prway, the second tragedy of that fateful Halloween week oa
woods and ravines around the hill on which the Bryant family’s # the making some 80 miles to the east, in Cambria County, j st
house was perched. Neighbors and relatives also joined in the © orth of Johnstown. Jae be
search, but no trace of Helen Jean Bryant was found. 4 7 In the little steel and rail city of Conemaugh, in one of the

“When the search had failed to turn up any sign of the missing /“Rlleys of the Allegheny Mountains, the Mauk family lived ina
girl, teams of Chief Zvonar’s men went up and down Iron Stree fuse in a quiet residential neighborhood. Five of their six
quizzing the merchants again, as well as residents, workers, \o hhildren lived with their parents; an older son had been recently
shoppers, and children of all ages. Other officers were assigned» lucted into the Navy and was presently at boot camp in Bain.

: . : idge, Maryland. The father worked in the Franklin Mills of the
tthlchem Steel Company.
Karen Mauk, the family’s pretty little six-year-old daughter.
ust into the living room around 7 o'clock on the evening of
Pursday, October 28th. She was out of breath from running up
: front steps, and she was bubbling over with excitement.
Can I go trick or treat, Mommy?” she pleaded. “Can I,
fase?” she repeated over and over again. ;

Fe 80 FN a i ha Rea a 29 +

Helen Jean's ravished body lay hidden in reeds at left fe)
'S pointing to hilltop cemetery site,.a popular lovers lane area, where volunteers discovered Karen Mauk's body

photo). Man at right .

Her mother gently explained that Halloween was not until
Sunday night, but the child was not to be put off.

But I was out once already!” she protested. “You let me go
out Monday night. Can't I go out tonight?”

Her mother patiently explained that she had been allowed to
go out on Monday because that was her birthday. But Karen
pleaded for Permission to go trick-or-treating again.

“Jackie's going out, right away. All the kids are. Just a little
while. Please, Mummy...”

All week long, the neighborhood youngsters, costumed and
masked, had been scampering from door to door filling their
bags with candies, apples, cookies and the usual childish
delicacies that make up Halloween “loot.” If Jackie Wecklund
Karen's six-year-old cousin who lived up the street and with
whom she had been playing for the last hour, was going trick-or-
treating, the girl's mother decided, she supposed it was all right
for Karen to go, too.

; She helped the child into her colorful costume with the kew-
pie doll mask and walked with her to the door, telling her not to
stay out long.

Then the girl’s mother had to busy herself with preparations
to rush to a PTA meeting, leaving her husband to sit with the
baby and the other children. When she got home from the
meeting shortly before 9:30, her husband was sitting in the living
room reading a magazine. They exchanged a few words, then the
mother automatically went to the bedrooms to check on her
children. A moment later she was back in the living room, her
face a plae, frightened mask, asking where Karen was,

The girl's father said he thought she had been in bed, sleeping
for hours. When he learned that Karen had gone out trick or
treating with her cousin, he grabbed his coat and told his wife not
to worry, that the child had probably gone home with her cousin
He'd run over there and fetch her home at once, i

He tried to sound convincing (Continued on page 68)

35


right. I knew them by sight. One was
) Jerry Burns. I bought her a couple of

drinks, showed her my roll and she.

agreed to come with me when the place
closed.

“I suggested we drive around a little,
and when we passed that vacant lot I
drove into it and stopped.

“We—well, we necked -for a while and
talked about different things. We were
both having a good time, till we got into
an argument about something. I don’t re-
member what. I’d already begun to feel
sort of disgusted with myself for picking
up a woman that way and parking in a lot
with her.

“I must have grabbed her roughly, be-
cause she began to struggle. I don’t know
what came over me, but suddenly I
thought of the knife I had back of the
seat. A big knife that I used for opening
paper candy cartons.

“T grabbed up the knife and tried. to

stab her, She was strong. We wrestled
and fell out of the car. On the ground I
stabbed her half a dozen times or so until
she stopped struggling.

“When I was sure she was dead I took
her clothes off and put them in the car.
I guess I thought it would delay her iden-
tification. Then I drove around town to
cool off. I threw the clothes away some-
where in the Hollywood hills. At day-
light I went out to a place where I had
credit for gas and filled the tank.

“I drove straight down to Tia Juana.
Then I figured I would be better off in
the United States, so I came back to San
Diego. I read in the papers there that the
girl’s body had been found but not identi-
fied. I slept in the car that night and
abandoned it the next day.

“I got a job washing dishes, and I’ve
been in San Diego ever since. I met
Walter Hadley at a bar and I’ve been

rooming with him,”

Reavis was brought back to Los An-
geles and formally charged with murder,
Making a more detailed confession, he
told Capt. Edwards that Hadley had
known he was the killer of Jerry Burns,

Los Angeles police asked for Hadley’s
arrest on a charge of harboring a fugitive,
but when San Diego officers went to the
apartment house they found he had fled,
“In Santa Anas they found his wife’s
home had been hastily deserted. At this
writing, Hadley is still being sought.

Reavis repeated his confession several
times, adding principally that he had been
very drunk at the time of the murder. He
reenacted the murder for the benefit of a
police movie camera and sound recorder,
while a policewoman posed as Jerry
Burns. At this writing he is scheduled to
go on trial Apr. 12.

(Editor’s note: The name Ruth Malden“as used

in this story is fictitious to protect the identity of
an innocent person.)

Deadly Triangle and the Double Slayer

It still was possible that Shannon, an
-ex-convict, had maintained his criminal
contacts and had been shot by a revenge-
ful lamster, but one thing prevented me
from leaping at the obvious theory of a
gang killing.

That one thing was the role the blond
girl had played in the affair, Clearly, she
had been the bone of contention. She
could have been a gangland lure, and her
bearded companion a hired triggerman,
but I thought it more likely that she was
the feminine point of another love triangle.-
Also, it was reasonable to believe that
Shannon had known his attacker well at
some previous time. The gun in his pocket
indicated that the other man might have
threatened Shannon at some previous
time.

“We can only hope that Shannon will
have enough strength to tell us who the
man was,” DuBois said. “All we have to
go on is this hat, which isn’t much.”

“Let’s go over to the hospital now,” I
suggested. “Perhaps we can learn some-
thing.”

\ X 7E WENT to the hospital and con-

tacted the surgeon who had per-
formed the operation. He called us into
his office and held out a small tray.

“I found three bullets in him, Sheriff,”
he said. “Two steel jacketed and one
lead. The lead bullet was removed from
his knee while the others were taken

‘from a spot near his ‘spine. I doubt if he
will live another forty-eight hours.”

“I suppose we can question him for a
minute or two?” I asked.

The doctor nodded and we went into
the small room where Shannon lay. He
turned his head as we entered and then
closed his eyes wearily.

“What do you want?” he croaked.

“Look, Shannon,” I said, “who was the
man who shot you?”

“T don’t know,” whispered the wounded
man. “He came into the tavern last night
and started an argument. I kicked him out
and he promised to return and finish it.”

“Who was the girl who went with
him?” asked Attorney DuBois.

“I don’t know that, either,” whispered
Shannon. “I don’t know a thing. The
man just shot me.”

68

[Continued from page 21]

“Then why did you want to stop her
from going?” I demanded. “Come ‘on,
Shannon, why not tell us about it? You
won't gain by keeping your mouth shut.”

Shannon merely shook his head wearily
and finally we left. Now we had two
clues, the hat and bullets. Yet even with
these, we were farther from a solution
than’ before.

There still were two ways in which we
could view the wounded man’s refusal to
speak. I was positive that the girl played
an important part in the affair. She was
either the tavern proprictor’s sweetheart,
caught in another love affair, or she was
part of a gang. Shannon’s deliberate si-
lence on the identity of the other man
could not be interpreted definitely as evi-
dence of either possibility. Shannon had
been trained too long in the school of

» crime. He would respect the gangland

code by not squealing in either case.

I next contacted the sheriff of Lincoln
county. He had already questioned sev-
eral persons known to frequent the other
tavern where the girl had been seen and
after a lengthy grilling had learned that
her name might be Kaye Unger, address
unknown. Another source indicated that
her name was Mary Stamber and that
she lived in the vicinity of Eau Claire.
Despite the fact that two men identified
the girl by two names which I quickly
took as aliases, it seemed odd that they
could not give the name of the man. They’
did give us a complete description of the.
car he was driving, however. Both de-
scribed the gunman minutely, and one of

them gave me the first three numbers of -

the license plates on the car.

Back at my office I checked on those
numbers and found that they belonged in
Oneida county. I could only guess at the
remaining numbers, but the ones I had
were better than nothing. I sent out an
announcement that any car whose plates
bore a Wisconsin number in that series
to be halted and the driver questioned.

Shortly afterward, a hotel proprietor
at Tomahawk came in and told that a man
answering the gunman’s description had
made reservations for a party of six early
on Wednesday evening. The most im-
portant part of the statement was that
the man had mentioned going to the Lone
Pine tavern to get the rest of the party.

What did this mean? Had the gunman
planned to go into hiding at the Toma-
hawk hotel with others, a gang, to plan
some banditry? Was the shooting of
Shannon part of their planned operations?
The reference to the Lone Pine tavern
suggested this, but what about the girl?
Was she a tool of the gang, working with
the bearded gunman, or had their rela-
tionship: been formed outside of gang-
land circles? Finally, did the pair have
any connection with the underworld at
all? I searched the hotel but the old ques-
tion remained unanswered.

Back at the office, State’s Attorney Du-
Bois had already made arrangements
to photograph the three bullets, the pic-
tures to be distributed throughout the

northern part of the country in the hope ~

that the gun might turn up. Minnesota
authorities were conducting a painstak-
ing search throughout the state as were
officials in Illinois and Michigan. All

_— arteries were blockaded during that
ay..

DuBois and I returned to the Lone
Pine tavern. : The deputy on duty in-
formed us that no one had stopped during
the time he had been there.

First, we inspected Shannon’s car which
was parked in a small lean-to near the es-
tablishment. : Both the front and ‘rear
license plates had been bent down and
someone apparently had tried to wrench
them from the brackets. F

“Someone must have wanted those
plates badly and didn’t have time to take

~ them off,” ‘mused DuBois. “Maybe the

girl had been given orders to remove
them.”

“But what would the motive be?”

“Use them on the getaway car,” replied
DuBois.

We inspected the graveled area where
Shannon had fallen and where, our wit-
nesses had_ stated, the gunman had
pumped four shots into the helpless man’s
body.

“We can only account for three bullets,”
I said. “Six shots were fired in all, two

‘while Shannon was still standing. We

— be able to find at least two of them
ere.”
A half hour’s search netted us nothing

although we

. a foot.

Next, we
interior of t!
just off the:
able clue. L:
scured by sc
an’s purse.
dumping th:
bed that sto:

There wei
lipstick, hai:
file. DuBois
as I probed
small side p«

. graph ofa si

“Here’s sc

HERE -
upon the
enough. Thx
ciphered but
Eau Claire,
“Stebinea:
the window
Stamber sou
“Almost t
attorney.
“Now, if t
the one who
mean that +
continued. “
Eau Claire a
girl has any
It was al:

- rived once 1

the assistanc
-a few minute
‘we were sea:

His reacti:
picture of tl
we wanted t
that he was
name, he sa:

She and |
stopped at |
shooting, bu
visit.

“Still, Ik:
to do with
clared. “She’
mixed up in
would stop ;
involved in <
_ I waved tl
she’s marric
name?”

“Wilson.

Asked for
girl’s relativ
tion, effecti
bearded gun
the pair had
but he was 1

DuBois an
on the last p
son already
trying to c
bearded gun:
to tell us o
tioned going
stay, but he
with us in t
him a letter.

. We retur:
meéssage fro
A couple dri
registered a
name of M:
Evidently th
fled a few n
to question
seen the car
of habit had
Although th


< to Los An-
with murder.
onfession, he
Hadley had
Jerry Burns,
for Hadley’s
ng a fugitive,
, went to the
he had fled.
d his wife’s
rted. At this
g sought.
ssion several
he had been
murder. He
benefit of a
ind recorder,
‘d as Jerry
scheduled to

Maldenas used
the identity of

the gunman
the Toma-
ng, to plan
shooting of
operations?
Pine tavern
ut the girl?
orking with
their rela-
e of gang- -
> pair have
lerworld at
1e old ques-

ttorney Du-
‘angements
ts, the pic-
aghout the
in the hope
Minnesota
i painstak-
te as were
higan. All
luring that

the Lone
1 duty in-
ped during

s car which
var the es-

and rear
down and
to wrench
ted those
ne to take
faybe the
o remove

be?”
,’ replied

rea where
. our wit-
man had
less man’s

e bullets,”
n all, two
ding. We
‘o of them

s nothing

itl

ee See a

lie AMOS. caren stoae

ae

although we dug into the soil more than

. a foot.

Next, we turned our attention to the
interior of the tavern and in a small room
just off the main bar I came upon a valu-
able clue. Lying on a small shelf and ob-
scured by several magazines was a wom-
an’s purse. Eagerly I pounced upon it,
dumping the contents onto the rumpled
bed that stood in a corner.

There were the usual things: compact,
lipstick, hairpins, rouge and a small nail
file. DuBois was inspecting each article
as I probed deeper into the lining. In a
small side pocket I came across the photo-

. graph of a small girl about four years old.

“Here’s something, Orville,” I said.

HERE was a barely readable scrawl

upon the back of the picture but good
enough. The first word could not be de-
ciphered but the others read, “Stebineau,
Eau Claire, Wis.”

“Stebineau,” I murmured, looking out
the window. “Orville, does the name
Stamber sound anything like this?”

“Almost the same,” agreed the district
attorney.

“Now, if the girl we’re looking for was
the one who left this purse here that must
mean that she worked for Shannon,” I
continued. “Well, we had better start for
Eau Claire again and see if this Stebineau
girl has any relatives living there.”

It was almost 6 o’clock when we ar-
rived once more in Eau Claire, but with
the assistance of the sheriff it took only
-a few minutes to locate the man for whom
we were searching.

His reaction when we showed him the
picture of the wanted girl told-us what
we wanted to know. He readily admitted
that he was a relative of the girl. Her
name, he said, was Mary.Stebineau.

She and her bearded companion had
stopped at his house on the night of the
shooting, but had left after only a short
visit.

“Still, I know she didn’t have anything -

to do with the shooting,” the man de-
clared. “She’s married and has never been
mixed up in any brawl. Do you think she
would stop at my house if she had been
involved in a shooting scrape?”

I waved this objection aside. “You say
she’s married. What is her: husband’s
name?” :

“Wilson. Russell Wilson.”

Asked for a description of Wilson, the
girl’s relative complied without hesita-
tion, effectively tagging him as our
bearded gunman. He also admitted that
the pair had been riding in a tan sedan,
but he was not sure of the make.

DuBois and I knew he spoke the truth
on the last point. His description of Wil-
son already had proved that he was not
trying to conceal the identity of the
bearded gunman. Our informant was able
to tell us only that the pair had men-
tioned going to Arizona for an indefinite
stay, but he promised to communicate
with us in the event that the girl wrote
him a letter.

. We returned to Rhinelander to find a
méssage from Minneapolis awaiting us.
A couple driving a tan Pontiac sedan had
registered at a hotel there giving the
name of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Wilson.
Evidently they had sensed danger for they
fled a few minutes before police arrived
to question them. The hotel clerk had
seen the car at the curb and from force
of habit had looked at the license plates.
Although they were from Iowa he had

\

reported the matter to the authorities as
a precautionary measure.
This meant that Mary Stebineau and

_ her companion had changed plates some-

where between Minneapolis and Eau
Claire and were aware of the chase. Once
again the information we had garnered at
Eau Claire went out. Arizona authorities
were warned of the pair as were police in
other states.

Attorney DuBois and I returned to the
hospital bent on questioning Arthur Shan-
non again. We still hoped to arrive at the
true motive for the shooting and to learn
the gunman ’s identity. But we hoped in
vain for Shannon again refused to divulge
his name.

“T don’t know who he was,” he said. “I
saw him only a couple of times at the
tavern and he caused trouble each time.
Then he started to mess around with my
waitresses and I didn’t like it.”

“Why didn’t you tell ts Mary Stebi-
neau worked for you?” demanded Attor-
ney DuBois.

Shannon was silent. He still clung to
that squealer tenet of the gangland code.

“If you don’t know the man maybe a
description of him, will help,” I said
finally.

The wounded man brightened up then
and gave us the description we had heard
a half dozen times before. That was all.
He insisted that he did not know the
man’s name.

When we left the room Attorney Du-
Bois said, ‘““There’s just a chance that this
gunman was a pal of Shannon’s while he
was at Waupun penitentiary. We'll run
up there and look over their photo
morgue. Perhaps we can learn some-
thing.”

At the penitentiary we finally selected
one picture that fitted the description of
our man more than any other. He was
Albert W. Gregg, released from the insti-
tution on Feb. 15, 1937. He had served
six years of a minimum term of seven
years for armed robbery. Prison officials
said that he had been a companion of
Arthur Shannon.

I REMEMBERED the words eyewit-
nesses said the gunman had_ used
when he pumped four bullets at his victim.
“I’ve waited four years for this....” Yes,
Albert W. Gregg, Shannon’s fellow pris-
oner at Waupun, might well be our man.
Russell Wilson could be Gregg under an
alias. An old prison grudge, a wife who
was a waitress in the tavern of an enemy
sige 4 liked her too well—the parts seemed
to fit.

I contacted all the persons questioned
in the shooting and when they were
shown the picture they identified Gregg as
the callous gunman. Now another report
went out for Albert Gregg, but this time
he was wanted for murder. For at 9
o’clock that Saturday. evening Arthur
Shannon alias Arthur Morgan died from
his wounds.

DuBois and I placed a lot of faith in
those reports, and this time we broadcast
them all over the country. Common sense
told us that Gregg had by this time fled
far from Wisconsin. He would hide out
for a while and then he would try to take
up his old criminal trade. He was a cool
customer, apparently, and one who took
very few risks. Sooner or later he
would come out into the open and some
alert patrolman or detective would spot
him. We counted on it and sent out more
flyers.

While the search spread far afield I

QUICK CASH

IM SICKNESS OR Accipeny
nce TAMER Ieee

Sips
ai

SS

SAFE INSURANCE AT COST

More than 97,000 people are disa- $5,000.00

bled every day! Be prepared. Safe sdeleegss Fecastong

insurance at cost in this 34-year-old $5 000.00
’

reliable Association pays you and com case ai aan

your family cash when needed most.
$5,000.00

ONLY $1 PER MONTH
FOR LOSS OF FEET

$1 a month covers all costs. The

Minnesota Commercial Mén’s Asso- $5 000 00
J .

ciation isowned by its policyholders.
Hence, there are nodividends to pay. *°® +058 OF EYES

Select: risks are insured at cost! $1, 250. 00

FOR LOSS OF HAND,
FOOT OR EYE. sees

MILLIONS PAID POLICYHOLDERS
This safe, dependable Association
has paid over $4,000,000 to members
and beneficiaries. Don't delay. Get
free information. No agent. No med-
ical ination. Mail today! Bip Misttrery
(etal Disability)

SEND NO MONEY... MAIL NOW!

m PAUL CLEMENT, SECRETARY =
MINNESOTA COMMERCIAL MEN’S ASS'N NO AGENT
257 PILLSBURY AVE, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN, “WILL CALL pp

Mail at once FREE information and application blank, telling haw Lead
ae can obtain health and accid at cost. No obli :a

mm NAME

a
r
ADDRESS a
SEP ELLE rye ere eed it |

$100.00

MONTHLY

Sewarea oF ma KIND OF MAN'S SHOE 4%
SENSATIONAL MONEY-MAKER
Make ales sad prot tater than pos ever

thought possible with the “Chippewa
Clipper". ZIPS ON and ZIPS OFF in a “jiffy”

@ Let me send you a fine all-wool union tailored

FREE Or ONE PENNY COST, Just nowy
easy plan and show the suit to your friends. PP aad

to $12 in a day easily. Partial Payment - Ne
experience—no h

Send for Samples—FREE OF cost

Write today for FREE details. ACTUAL SAMPLES
i. sure-fire’ money-getting plans. Send no money.

H. J. Collin, PROGRESS TAILORING CO.
S. Throop St., Dept. F339, Chicago, Ilinois

U. $. Government Jobs
START $1260 TO $2100 A YEAR!
MEN—WOMEN. Common
Education usually sufficient.
Write immediately for free
32-page book, with list of
many positions and particu-
lars telling how to qualify
for them.
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE

Dept. D221 Rochester, N. Ye

WANTED!
Gripping stories of actual crimes. Reporters,
police officials, special investigators, free lance
writers, write to The Editor, DARING DE-
TECTIVE, 1501 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Home-Study

‘Business Training

Your opportunity will never be bigger than your
preparation. Prepare now and reap the rewards of
early success. Free 64-Page Books Tell How. Write
NOW for book you want, or mail coupon with your
name, present position and address in margin today.

OHigher Accountancy O Business Mgm’t

O Mod. Salesmanship O Business Corres.

O Traffic Management OExpert Bookkeeping
OLaw: Degree of LL. B. OC. P. A. Coaching
OCommercial Law OEffective Speaking
Olndustrial Mgm’t OStenotypy

LaSalle Extension University

ORRESPONDENCE
Dept. 657-R, * “ONSTitUTION Chicago
69


Another frue scoop!

Here, for the first time, is the sensational
stoty of what goes on in Hitler’s concen-

tration camps for women! Amazing de-
tails of Nazi brutality are revealed in this
exclusive article, written by beautiful Frau
Lenhard, woman scientist, who was a Nazi
victim,

\» Don’t miss this story! It’s one of many

“hard-hitting and authentic stories in the
new issue of ~rue, America’s most exciting
magazine.

The June issue, now on sale, also brings
you “PAPA DIONNE’S AMAZING FAN MAIL,”
the story Winchell said couldn’t be printed ;
“RIDDLE OF THE RAVISHED BEAUTY,” a grip-
ping fact detective story in which relentless
police track a fiend to his lair; “JUNGLE AT-
TACK THROUGII ZONE X,” a breath-taking true
adventure story of an “enemy” attack on the
Panama Canal; and many more.

Get rue today. It’s a real“man’s maga-
zine, from cover to cover!

“A FAWCETT/

PUBLICATION

70

continued to work on the various angles
in Oneida county. It was then, too, that
I was informed that Mary Stebineau had
written from Denver to‘her relative in
Eau’ Claire. Denver authorities were
notified while I tried to substantiate
rumors that Albert Gregg headed a large
band of bank bandits. My efforts failed
to produce results. Bandit rumors were
far more numerous than actual bandits in
my district.

The FBI, meanwhile, had been investi-
gating the Charles Mattson kidnaping. A
girl had seen a tall, dark-skinned man near
the spot where the small lad had last
been seen alive. She had drawn a mem-
ory picture of him in an effort to aid the
G-men. I had such a reproduction in my
office, and because there was some resem-
blance between the sketch and my photo-
graph of Gregg, I sent this information in
to the federal bureau. But first and fore-
most I looked for plain Albert Gregg,
slayer of Arthur Shannon.

HEN a series of bold robberies were

committed -throughout the middle
west and the plunder taken went into
the thousands of dollars. Banks, mercan-
tile establishments, poultry stores were
ruthlessly invaded, in most instances by a
lone gunman armed with a nickle-plated
revolver. A tan sedan was seen near
several of the places that had peen held
up. And then a big department store in
Chicago was held up by a lIcne bandit
two months later. He was tentatively
identified as Albert Gregg. I began to
feel optimistic. Gregg might or might
not be operating as a bandit’ or kidnaper,
but police everywhere were looking for
him. The flyers were working.

Shortly after this a woman resembling
Mary Stebineau-was apprehended in Cali-
fornia. Questioned at great length, she
finally admitted that her former home was
in Wisconsin. Confident she was the girl
wanted in connection with the Oneida

county slaying, the police held her in the -
hope that her companion would appear

on the scene. \

Then robberies became fewer. The
lone bandit disappeared from the news.
Two weeks later a Philadelphia grocer,
‘locking uo hic store at a late hour, was
forced to hana over his day’s receipts at
the point of a gun. Once again the dark-
compiexioned gunman was blamed. Phil-
adelphia police tightened their belts and
went to work.

On Oct. 15, 1937, they made a quick
thrust: and bagged Charles Widmer of
the notorious Bird gang. For a long time
these desperados had victimized hundreds
of Philadelphians and were suspected of
engineering the Weyerhauser kidnaping.
Widmer was questioned hours on end by
the G-men in connection with the snatch
and also concerning Albert Gregg and the
Mattson kidnaping. But Widmer, who
was arrested on a murder-robbery charge,
denied that he knew anything about either
Gregg or the kidnapings.

Philadelphia seethed with suddenly
active police investigating hundreds of
tips concerning the Bird gang. One week
went by, then ten days.

At 3:40 p. m., on Oct. 25, just ten days
after Widmer. had been captured, there
was much activity, in.the John Wana-
maker store, famous for many years as
one of the country’s leading mercantile
establishments.» A‘ lithe, dark-skinned
man, §auntered into the cashier’s room on
the eighth floor.' Whistling merrily, he
winked slyly at the cashier in charge of

the cage. The girl smiled back impul-

sively and bent her attention to her work.

again.

At that instant the stranger jumped
upon a bench and vaulted inside the small
enclosure. Ignoring the large, neat stacks
of $1 and $5 bills, he strode directly toa
large board which held currency of larger
denomination. He scooped them into a
small bag and as calmly as he had en-
tered, he vaulted out.again, going east
toward the ..stairway leading to the
seventh floor,

The cashier had been taken completely
by surprisé but she had the presence of
mind to press the alarm button resting
under her right foot.

Sirens screamed throughout the store,
mingling strangely with the sweet strains
of the pipe organ in the grand court,
Customers who had gone there to see
the store’s: regular afternoon concert,
turned-and stared about fearfully. A few
women scréamed and fainted. Almost all
of them: knew what the dread signal
meant. Somebody had robbed the cash-
jer’s cage.

The lone bandit had reached the seventh
floor now and was racing for <he stairway
leading to the sixth with two store detec-
tives in hot pursuit. George Eberle, in
charge of the furniture department, saw
the bandit running toward him. Grasp-
ing a chair, Eberle hurled it at the man
just as he reached the liead of the stair-
way. The force of the blow unbalanced
him and he went hurtling down the stairs.

A girl who was not aware of what was
taking place ran up to him.

“Are you badly hurt?” she asked solicit- |

ously. “Here, give me your hand.”

The bandit rose, the hammer of his
revolver drawn back. With a piercing
scream the girl toppled to the floor in a
dead faint. °

Stepping over the prone figure the gun-:

man was about to continue his mad dash
when a handsome young male customer
stepped in front in an attempt to block
the escape. There sounded the sudden,
savage bark of a gun and the customer
fell to the floor. A red stain crept rapidly
just above his beltline.

The bandit, now unimpeded, raced
down the remaining flights of stairs, go-
ing out through the 13th street doors.
Leaping into’a taxi the desperado prodded
the startled driver in the back with his
still-smoking gun and ordered him to
speed across*Market street to the inter-
section of 13th and Filbert streets. He
leaped out of the cab at this spot and ran
into City Hall annex.

ON DUTY at the intersection stood
Traffic Patrolman John F. McSpar-
ron, who viewed the bandit’s mad dash for
freedom with puzzled expression. He
turned and saw the two Wanamaker de-
tectives come plunging across the street.
A half-dozen shouted words told the story
of the holdup. Scarcely pausing to listen,
Patrolman McSparron drew his gun and
gave chase to the man. who had disap-
peared into the maze of pedestrian tunnels
under the huge pile of architecture which
forms the city hall.

It was an almost hopeless chase, for
City Hall is built at the wide intersection
of Market and Broad streets. The num-
erous entrances, corridors and by-passes
for pedestrians made it an ideal maze for
the bandit to lose his pursuers. But
Patrolman McSparron plunged onward.

Once he sighted the fleeing man as he
doubled back on his tracks through the

Annex to (
back to Fi
a few pac:
plunged in
is the entra
Just insi
27, a bellb<
running ba
pursuit, Ju
the revolvi:
foot in a sl:
of the con
merized, he
gun and le\
But Henn
slot, checki
In anoth
behind the
wrenching
pushed his
to Hennes:
“Nice w
At City
police and
was thorot
ridges wer:
another w:
the Wana:
pocket ano:
Smoking
identified h
stated that
only a few
where his
mained for
identify hi:
“Little M«
force, Cap
George O’!
for questi
started De:


*k impul-
her work

r jumped
the small
eat stacks
ectly toa
- of larger
‘m into a
- had en-
oing east
s to the

»mpletely
esence of
mn resting

the store,
‘et strains
nud court.
re to see

concert,
ly. A few
\lmost all
ad_ signal
the cash-

1e seventh
> stairway
ore detec-
Eberle, in
nent, saw
1. Grasp-
t the man
the stair-
nbalanced
the stairs.
what was

-ed solicit-
and.” .

ier of his
a piercing
floor ina

e the gun--
mad dash
customer
: to block
e sudden,
customer
pt rapidly

ed, raced
stairs, go-
‘et doors.
»o prodded
with his
d him to
the inter-
reets.’ He .
ot and ran

ion stood
. McSpar-

ddashfor .

sion. He
maker de-
the street.
| the story
: to listen,
s gun and
rad disap-
an tunnels
ure which

chase, for
itersection
The num-
by-passes
| maze for
uers. -But
1 onward.
man as he
rough the

ataalibee  N

ee

eels

Annex to Commerce street, to 13th and
back to Filbert. With McSparron only
a few paces behind him, the gunman
plunged into the revolving door which
is the entrance to the Vendig hotel. ‘

Just inside stood William Hennessey,
27, a bellboy on duty. He had seen the
running bandit with McSparron in close
pursuit. Just as the bandit sprang into
the revolving door, Hennessey placed his
foot in a slot and trapped the man in one
of the compartments. As though mes-
merized, he saw the trapped man draw a
gun and level it at him thtough the glass.
But Hennessey still held his foot in the
slot, checking the revolution of the door.

In another second McSparron stepped
behind the gunman and grasped the gun,
wrenching it from his grasp. As he
pushed his prisoner into a taxi he turned
to Hennessey.

“Nice work, lad,” he said.

At City Hall station, headquarters of
police and detective divisions, the bandit
was thoroughly searched. Twelve cart-
ridges were found in one pocket and in
another was $1,200, booty taken from
the Wanamaker store. In an inside
pocket another $45 was found.

Smoking a cigaret, the man calmly
identified himself as Albert W. Gregg and
stated that he had been in Philadelphia
only a few weeks. He also refused to tell
where his hideout had been. But it re-
mained for Detective Albert Granitz to
identify him. Capt. Jgmes Ryan of the
“Little Mob,” City Hall's famed police
force, Capt. Richardson and Detective
George O’Brien had taken the bandit over
for questioning. Just as the grilling
started Detective Granitz, who had been

staring at the prisoner, suddenly uttered
an exclamation.

“T’ll bet this is the man wanted in
Rhinelander, Wis., for the murder of
Art Shannon, Captain,” he said. “Sheriff
Hans Rodd of Oneida county sent us a
notice about him.”

“T’yve never been near Wisconsin,”
snarled the prisoner.

But Detective Granitz was not satis-
fied. He went out and soon located: a
tan sedan which bore Wisconsin license
plates. A thorough search of the machine
revealed a number of snapshots of a man
and woman. The man was the prisoner,
the woman was unidentified.

(BRAN ie returned with his prizesand
the gunman was confronted with
them. Finally he admitted that the wom-
an had been his companion on a tour
throughout the middle west and who had
been staying with him at tourist camps.

“Then this is Mary Stebineau, isn’t it?”

“No. I got rid of her. This is another
woman.”

“But you’re the man who shot that
tavern owner in Wisconsin,” insisted the
detective.

“No,” answered Gregg, calm again.
“The Stebineau girl was with me and I
can prove I didn’t have anything to do
with that shooting.”

Granitz played his trump card. He
brought forth a letter upon which was
written the name, Russell Wilson.

“Now deny it,” he said. “We've been
looking for you for a long time, Gregg,
and you finally fell right into City Hall.”

Gregg admitted that he often used the

alias but stubbornly refused_to identify
the woman in the picture as Mary Steb-
ineau, nor would he tell where the woman
was staying. A thorough search of likely
places proved futile and it was later
learned that she had fled from the city
shortly after Gregg’s arrest.

About eight hours after the capture,
Philadelphia police notified me that they |
had Gregg in custody; also that the re-
volver he was carrying was a .38 caliber.
They promised that photographs of test
bullets fired from this gun would be sent
to me promptly so that we would be able
to compare them with those we had.

On Oct. 27, the promised pictures ar-
rived and a quick check proved that the
bullets which, killed Shannon had been
fired from the revolver taken from Gregg.

“This is the man I’ve been looking for
the past five months,” I reported back.
“If you haven’t a charge that will hoid
him I’ll send a warrant. He’s wanted
here for murder. Photographs of test
bullets compare with those we have.”

The charges against Gregg in Philadel-
phia were as good as mine. C. Morgan
Knight, socially prominent young broker
who had been shot in the Wanamaker
store when he tried to prevent the ban-
dit’s escape, died on the day I mailed in
my report. Now a second murder was:
charged to Gregg.

He readily admitted that he was the
one responsible for the numerous hold-
ups throughout the country and checkups
proved that he told the truth. He also
admitted that he had held up the depart-
ment store in Chicago. But he continually
denied the murder of Arthur Shannon.

Federal agents grilled him for days

"\ MAKE SUR

a)

Epps
WHOLESOM eas

GRAND TAST, Nae

B)

EACH BOTTLE

) 0
yee cule OUNCES!
Ny woe

GOOD NEWS FOR HOSTESSES

It’s easy and economical to entertain when
you have Pepsi-Cola in the house. The
handy home carton holds 6 big bottles—
and each bottle holds 12 full ounces.

71

fe