Ohio, C-D, 1882-1974, Undated

- the killer,” the sheriff said, measuring
visually the distance to the house.

folk “She was probably trying to get to
her car to get away. But the murder-

odly er caught up with her and killed her,

r0t- just before she reached it.”

ate- “Yes, that’s probably the ‘way it

lies, happened.” Dr. McDonald spread a

nan sheet over the body of the girl.

He looked into the car and saw the
irl’s ignition key still in the lock. “She’d
ion, ‘ probably just left it,” he reasoned,

“and was walking toward the house
when she saw the killer coming with
a gun—”
“And she turned and ran _ back,”
‘om

Sheriff Icenhower finished, “but the

a 7. 2 oker: a “ips

%. Forrest McCoy was happy
: pepereg a holiday dinner when’
tragedy struck her happy, pros-.
-perous home (above) and a whole _

amily was wiped out...

‘and closed the door.

killer was too fast.” The
sheriff looked at the hired
man. “You said on the ‘
phone that you found
them all. Where’s the body of her
father?” c

The witness pointed toward the
barn. “Out there.”

The sheriff and coroner walked to
the barn. The group of spectators,
growing every moment, crowded after
them.

“Allef you stay outside,” the sheriff
ordered. He nodded to the employe,
“You come in with us.” :

The three men entered the barn
They walked
across the floor to where McCoy lay
dead.

“This is just how you found him?’
_ “Yes.” °

- Dr. McDonald knelt.beside the body
for his examination.

“Killed the same way as his daugh-
ter,” he said—‘one shot’through the
back of the head. Here are powder
burns, too. The killer evidently stood
right behind him.”

The sheriff, kneeling beside him,
noticed a cigar stub clamped between
the teeth of the dead man. “He was
smoking when the killer got him. That
certainly indicates he was taken un-

?

awares. There’s another curious thing,
Doctor.” He pointed to the dead man’s
spectacles. “I happen to know that
McCoy never wore glasses except for
reading. Could he have been ‘reading
something when he was shot? I don’t
see any papers of any kind around.”

“Has he got a flashlight in his
hand?” the hired man asked suddenly.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Mr. McCoy never came out here
after dark without bringing one. He
never used a lantern because he was
afraid of fire.”

But there was no flashlight in the
dead man’s hand, nor anywhere else
in the barn; nor was there any other
source of illumination.

Why, then, was the murdered man
wearing his reading glasses? . Since
McCoy would hardly have come to the
barn in the dark, the killer must have
taken any flashlight or lantern away
with him.

“He must have been lured out here,”
the sheriff theorized, “by somebody
he knew and trusted. But that’ still
doesn’t explain the mystéry of those
glasses.”. aie

HE three men went to the house
to inspect the body of the last vic-
tim of the triple-murderer.

This was the most ghastly crime of

all. Mrs. McCoy had been shot, not
once but nearly a dozen times. One
of the bullets had entered her head;
-the others -had“-riddled-her body.

Dr. McDonald stood up from the

corpse, looked about the blood-spat- —

tered porch, and shook his head.
“Whoever killed this woman,” he
said, “did so with insane fury. Any
one of those shots was enough to kill
her. The first one evidently caught

43

-
TL SO doit SA ROI Ae ath AEH Pe


her in the head and knocked her down.
Then the killer stood over her and.

fired more bullets into her prostrate
body. must have been a madman!”

“Mad with rage, no doubt,” said the

sheriff, é

’ Sheriff Icenhower,ia rugged, thick-
set man, began examining the scene
carefully, seeking the inevitable clue,
which, experience had taught him, ev-
ery murderer leaves behind. He saw
that the murdered woman held a dish-
towel in one hand, and in the: other
hand she clutched something that in-
stantly struck him as significant,

She, was clutching a pair of spec-
tacles!

What fatal connection was here?
Had she;- like her-husband, been. on
the point of reading something when
the murderer killed her? What docu-
ment were they going to read? Was
this the cause of the triple killing?

Baffling questions! The sheriff made
a mental note and went on with his
inspection. He noticed the fragments
of the broken china plate lying near
the body, indicating that the woman
had been drying the dish with a cloth
when killed. But what about the spec-
tacles in her other hand? Had she
been about to put them on to read

' some message?

As Dr. McDonald moved the body,
Sheriff Icenhower bent downward
suddenly and picked up.a small metal
object.’

“This bullet went through the body,”

he said. “It’s a thirty-two caliber

steel-jacket.” He moved slowly about
the porch and stopped before a fresh
crack in the wood of the door frame.
With his jack-knife, he pried a second

bullet from the hole.

2

He uttered a sharp exclamation,

“This is a lead bullet and was fired
by a thirty-eight,” he said. “We've
got at least a two-gun killer on our
hands!”

YHlLe the physician was prepar-

‘ing to remove the bodies to the
morgue where an autopsy would be
performed, the sheriff questioned the

hired man about every detail which .

the latter could recall.

“I admit I thought at first that this
was murder and suicide,” the sheriff
said. “It seemed more than likely
that one member of the family had
done all of the shooting. But since
there i$ no weapon anywhere, that
obviously is out..

“I want you to tell me everything
you know about this case.”

Eagerly, the man related recent
events pertaining to the crime. His
home, he said, was only a few hundred
yards farther down the road. He had
been sitting in his living room, read-
ing a newspaper at about 9 o’clock
the night before—on Thanksgiving
Eve.

“I heard'a single shot,” he said. “I
thought that Mr. McCoy must have
shot a rat and didn’t get excited about
it. Then a car went past my house
and the driver blew the horn twice
and I knew that that was Mildred
McCoy coming home. She always
signalled that way.”

“That first shot probably was the
one that killed McCoy,” Sheriff Icen-
hower said. “What happened next?”

The worker said that several min-
utes after the car had passed, he had
heard another single shot ‘coming from
the direction of the farmhouse. He

-

- had looked out, he related, and could

see the headlights of the car where

it stood in the yard.

“That shot killed Mildred,” the
sheriff said grimly. “The killer prob-
ably was on his way from the barn
to the house when she drove in. He
turned back and fired. Go on.” |

“There was a whole lot of shooting
all of a sudden,” the man said. Re-
membering the number of wounds in
the body of Mrs. McCoy, the sheriff
nodded. “I was scared,” the hired
man said. “It didn’t seem right that
Mr. McCoy would be firing so much
at just rats but somehow I had. got
that thought in my mind and it stuck.

“I watched the house for a while
but all the lights stayed on. There -
wasn’t any more noise and finally I
decided that things must be all right.”

The sheriff rubbed a big hand over ©
his chin. “Then you walked over here
this morning, found things this way
and called me, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

Further questioning revealed that
Mildred had been graduated that year
from Ohio State University. Since
then, she had been teaching high
school in Drake County, Ohio. She
was an attractive girl. The sheriff
pondered: Was a blighted romance
the cause of this wholesale killing?

If the parents had objected to the
attentions of .a suitor and the girl
had acquiesced ,to demands that a
courtship be terminated, a love-crazed
‘man could have been driven to such
action. But nowhere could he find
corroboration for such a theory. Mil-
dred had had no serious romance and
her principal interest had been in her
teaching work, ;

Neighbors, in response to question-
ing, made more tangible disclosures,
Elmer McCoy had been a highly suc-
cessful farmer. He had prospered
with the years and had been sufficient-
ly well off to indulge a hobby of spe-
cializing in the raising of Poland

China hogs. Some believed he was
worth upwards of a hundred thousand
dollars.

Robbery, thought the sheriff, seemed
a more likely motive. He headed for
the doorway after first calling to Dr.
McDonald to join him.

Inside, the men inspected the tele-
phone and the severed wire. Sheriff.
Icenhower bent and picked up a pair

a
-
, ]


ght that
30 much
had. got
t stuck.
a while
There
anally I
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nd over
ver here
his way

‘led that
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Since
ig high
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~ riff

nce

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the girl

that a
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to such
he find
ry. Mil-
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nin her

uestion-
closures.
hly suc-
rospered
ifficient-
1 of spe-

Poland
he was
-housand

‘, seemed
aded for
g to Dr.

the tele-
Sheriff
ip a pair

of household scissors which were ly-

ing on the floor beside the table.

“He must have used these,” he said,
slipping them into his coat pocket.
“Let’s see what else—say, look here!”

On another nearby table lay a man’s
billfold. The sheriff picked it up and
flipped it open. A thick layer of green
swelled the wallet. Silently, the sheriff

‘counted $140.

.Dr. McDonald had. been looking
about the room while the sheriff

‘counted the money. Now he held out

a woman’s purse. “There’s eighteen

‘dollars in this, too,” he said.

~

figure.

“That takes care of the robbery the-
ory,” Sheriff Icenhower said ruefully.

- “Revenge is the only thing .. .”

A STEP on the stairs and the ap-

pearance of a figure in the door- -

way caused him to pause and look up.

A stooped elderly man had entered |
and the official’s face softened.  §

. “Hello, Mr. Collett,” he said. “1
want you to know I’m terribly sorry
about this.” :

James Collett, the brother-in-law
of the slain woman, seemed a tragic
He nodded and shook hands
silently. ‘The eyes behind the spec-
tacles held questions which he ap-
peared hardly able to put into words.

“The bodies have been removed,”
the sheriff said. “They’ve been prop-
erly-identified and it will not be neces-
sary for you to see them now...

Collett brought himself to speak.
“We were coming here today for
Thanksgiving dinner,” he said. “We
all planned to be together and

‘now ...” His voice trailed off.

Sheriff Icenhower wisely decided to
pin the conversation on action. “Did
your sister-in-law or brother-in-law
have any énemies?” he asked. “This
seems to have been a revenge killing.”

Collett shook his head. “No, they
had no enemies that I know of,” he
said,

“Well, had they merely aeiidted
with anyone?”

The relative seemed to be trying to
recall. At last he looked up. “Elmer
has had half a dozen hired men in the

_last few years,” he said. “But I don’t

know—”

Sheriff Icenhower scented a vital
clue. “That’s quite a turnover. Was
he a strict boss?”

Mr. Collett nodded. -“Very strict.
If things weren’t done just right, he

‘would let a man go, even with help

as hard to get as itis now. Of course,
he could afford to pay good wages.”

“But—especially if the wages were
good—these men bitterly resented
being fired?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Icenhower and McDonald ex-

changed glances. Here was something

to go on, something they could check.

The sheriff immediately: went to
work on this lead, aided by County
Prosecutor John B. Hill, another able
detective. By the next day, through a
process of elimination, they had nar-
rowed the number of suspects to four.

But, when each of these former em-
ployes was found, checked and dou-

ble-checked, they had to be elimi- .

nated. It was proved beyond doubt
that none could have had any connec-
tion with the murders. All had been
far from the McCoy farm at 9 p.m.,
on November 25.

Acting Coroner McDonald, mean-

while, had performed an autopsy and

held an inquest. He found that fa-
ther and daughter had each been
killed by a .38 caliber revolver and
bullet and that the mother was slain
by bullets of .32 and .38 caliber.. He
returned a formal verdict of murder
by a person or persons unknown.

Two days after Thanksgiving, on
Saturday, November 28, the funeral
was held for the murdered family.
More than 1,800 people attended. The
three victims were buried in a single
grave.

Sheriff Icenhower and special depu-
ties moved silently through the
throngs at the cemetery. One strange
move, a fragment of a spoken sentence

might give them the clue they sought. -

But nothing suspicious transpired.

Disappointedly, the sleuths saw the
crowd thin out.

ESIDENTS of the area left the

cemetery whispering nervously.

among themselves. A tense feeling of
fear was in the air. That night and
the following day, Sunday, this feeling
spread. ~

“There’s a madman in this countyi®
was the word that passed. “Where
will he strike next? Whom will he
kill? He may break into any of our
homes and wipe out another family
with his guns!”

Some persons were afraid to leave
their homes at night. ‘They stayed
inside, with doors and windows bolt-
ed. That the mad mass killer might
be one of their neighbors, wholly un-
suspected by any of them, only height-
ened their terror. The Fayette Coun-
ty commissioners offered a $2,000 re-
-ward for capture of the slayer or slay-
ers.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Icenhower and
Prosecutor Hill worked tirelessly try-

ing to get to the bottom of the mys-.

tery, but with no success. They turned
up two more suspects. But these men,
like the others, were quickly able to
establish alibis.

On Monday, the fifth day alte the
murder, Icenhower, . Dr. ‘McDonald
and County Prosecutor Hill sat in the

‘(Continued on page 85) -

45

SSR

Ls ee.
Sen cee

=

ere ee

Be i AE a SEE


Bonacci shuddered as he heard
both bodies contact the steps on their
.way down. His knees sagged asa gun
blasted four times and flame and
smoke belched up from the aperture.

Then there was a final thud as the
bodies struck the concrete basement.
. Bonacci pulled his own flashlight
and reluctantly played it into the cel-
lar. The sight made him flinch. Kozera
and Monaghan lay there, both bathed
in blood.

The door opened upstairs again.
“Vince, do you need any help?”

This time Bonacci answered. “Yeah,
call the police,” he directed.

When two carloads of reserves
Teached the boarding house they
found Inspector Monaghan seated on
a pile of logs. Detective Bonacci was
bathing his face. A partly emptied
revolver lay at his feet. .

Just at the foot of the stairs Mat-
thew Kozera was stretched out. Still
in his hand was Al Lorch’s pistol. But

Matthew Kozera would never shoot:
- another officer. He was dead with four

of Monaghan’s bullets in his heart!

TIMELY DETECTIVE CASES

Detective Albert T. Lorch was
avenged. Not by one of his own col-
leagues in the county bureau, but by
another gallant officer, who had taken
a.police killing as a personal matter.

Aside from a few bruises which re-
quired minor hospital treatment, In-
spector Monaghan :had escaped un-
scathed from a struggle with One of -
the most desperate criminals in Pitts-
burgh’s history. The whole city ac-

claimed him.

Two of Kozera’s cronies, Janis and
Swiderski, have been held for trial in
connection with the Bondi Tavern
holdup. At this writing they have not

yet gone to trial. A jury is still to de-
cide their guilt or innocence. All
others in the case were absolved.

By coincidence, Matthew Kozera
died at 10 P.M. exactly nine days to

the minute after he had fatally”

wounded Al Lorch. His book was
closed by Monaghan’s steady nerve
and unflinching courage. But it ended
with a bloody chapter that few law
enforcement officers in the Pittsburgh
area will care to remember long.

FEAST OF HORROR

(Continued from page 45 )
latter’s office, discussing the case.

“We've searched every inch of the
grounds on. that farm,” Icenhower:
‘said. “There isn’t a clue. If we could
only have gotten there before the
crowd ruined all footprints—”

“Tm interested in the angle of the

reading glasses,” Hill put in. “With
McCoy wearing a pair, and Mrs.
McCoy holding hers as-if she had been
or was about to read something, it cer-
tainly looks like a clue.”
’ Sheriff Icenhower stood up. “I’ve
thought of that often,” he said. “There
was nothing in the kitchen but there
still may be other papers in the house.
Let’s go out and search trunks, closets
and bureau drawers.”

Instantly, the other men were on
their. feet. A short time later, they
drove into the McCoy yard. The
house, when they entered, had the
quiet chill of death. Methodically, the
investigators began the difficult task
of locating a document which might
shed some light on the case.

An hour sped by while they read old
letters, pored over receipted bills.
Sheriff Icenhower opened a thick en-
velope which he had unearthed from
an upstairs trunk. He read, in silence
for a few minutes, then called the oth-
ers.

“This is interesting,” he said. “This
letter claims that the McCoys never
rightly owned this farm—that it be-
longs to another man.”

“Another man? Who?” Hill asked
sharply.

“James Collett,” Sheriff Icenhower
said. “Collett claims that the McCoys
owe him rent for the last twenty
years.”

“That’s preposterous,” Hill said. He
paused. “But it could be very impor-
tant,” he finished meaningly,

“Whoever killed the: McCoys was
known to. them,” Sheriff Icenhower
said, almost as if thinking aloud. “He
was allowed to come into the house
where he had a chance to pick up a
pair of scissors and cut the telephone
wire. Elmer McCoy went out to the
barn with this man .. .” ;

Dr. McDonald was following the
theory closely. “With the entire
McCoy family wiped out,” he said,
“the property would go to the nearest
relative. Collett...” .

“Collett seems to have done some
writing about the matter,” Icenhower
interrupted, tapping the pages he held.
“It seems his claim is that his mother-
in-law left the farm jointly to his wife
and her sister, Mrs. McCoy.”

The investigators were sufficiently
experienced to know the brooding

bow to deal with

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56

SERS rere val
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of Mildred’s 64-year-old mother, Forrest McCoy!
A tiny rivulet of congealed blood ran from beneath
the woman’s body toward the spot where Spires fell.
He half rose, then he gathered his wits: enough to
rush through the house to the’ front room where he
knew he would find a telephone. :
Sick with shock and fear, Spires reached for th
handle of the old-fashioned wall instrument, whirled
it rapidly for several seconds before he glanced down

to see the wires had been cut.
4%

Alibi of suspect, based on automobile
mileage, failed to exempt him from the
most feared walk of all—the last mile

Ten minutes later Jeb Crane,
Spires’ nearest neighbor, was walk-
ing toward his barn when he saw
the latter come running toward
him, his face white and twisted with
horror.

“The McCoys... they’re dead...
murdered and lying in their blood!”

“What? Elmer McCoy and his
family?”

At mention of his employer’s
name Spires was conscious for the
first time that he had seen nothing
of the husband and father of the
women whose bodies he had dis-
covered. He started to speak again,
but Crane was already running to-
ward his car. ‘Nearest phone’s a
mile down the road,” Crane called
back. “You better round up some
of the neighbors while I call the
sheriff.”

A score of farmers were gathered
in front of the McCoy home when
Sheriff W.-H. Icenhower, accom-

‘panied by Dr. E. H. McDonald, the
acting Fayette County coroner, ar-
rived half an hour later from Wash-
ington Court House.

Among the group staring in awed
silence toward the house were two
men carrying loaded shotguns. They
told the sheriff they had arranged to
go hunting with McCoy that morn-
ing and had arrived a few minutes
before, presumably while Spires
was off to get help.

“You’ll find Elmer’s body out
there in the barn, lying propped
against a stove where he must have
been standing when someone put a
bullet through his back,” the first
hunter told Sheriff Icenhower. “The
cows haven’t been fed and there’s
no fire in the stove. He’s probably
been lying there since sometime last
night. The wicks in the lamp out
there have burned to cinders.”

Examination of Mildred’s body
revealed a .38-caliber slug. had struck her in the back
of the head and gone through to lodge in her right
cheek. Her gloved left hand was in her coat pocket,
indicating she had been taken completely by surprise.
Death, the coroner said, must have come instantly—
at least ten hours earlier.

There were eight bullet holes in the screen of the
porch, indicating the killer, or killers, had stood in the
yard outside and fired upon. Mrs. McCoy as she ap-
proached the door to answer a (Continued on page 66)

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WHY KILL ALL THREE?

(Continued from page 56)

summons. Four .32-caliber slugs—
fired from an automatic pistol, judging
from the fact that the shell casings
still lay in the yard outside the door—
had entered Mrs. McCoy’s body. In
addition two larger bullet holes, prob-
ably from a .38 revolver, were found
in the head, along with two leaden
slugs in the wall behind her. An oil
lamp, with the wick nearly burned
down, was still lit in the kitchen.

Three .38-caliber bullets had en-
tered the back of McCoy’s head. There
were powder burns on the collar of
his work jacket, evidence that he had
been felled by someone who stood
behind him and fired from a distance
of less than four feet.

“But there’s no place for a killer to
have waited in ambush, if he were
that close when he fired,” the sheriff
pointed out. “And nothing to indicate
that either McCoy or his womenfolk
put up any resistance.”

Those circumstances, Icenhower be-
lieved, pointed to a person or persons
who were acquainted with the victims.
There was the added fact that McCoy’s
own loaded shotgun was found just
inside the screened-in porch. Had he
been expecting trouble he would sure-
ly have taken his gun to the barn
with him when he went out to meet
sudden death sometime between 8
and 10 o’clock on the night before,
the authorities reasoned.

The three deaths had taken place

at about the same time and Dr. Mc-:°

Donald expressed the opinion it would
be almost impossible to determine
their sequence. Meanwhile, the sheriff
took a detailed statement from Spires,
who said he had last seen McCoy alive
at dusk the night before.

“IT finished my milking around 6
o’clock,” Spires related. “Mr. McCoy
was still in the barn, cleaning up when
I took my half-gallon portion and
started for home. On the way I stopped
by the house and Mrs. McCoy came
to the porch with some meat she was
sending over to my wife. I got home
about 6:15 and had supper. After-
ward, Mrs. Spires and I drove over
to Yatesville to do some shopping. We
got back about 7:30 and I sat on our
front porch smoking-when I saw a
sedan drive into the McCoys’ and ex-
tinguish its lights.”

Mrs. Spires took up her husband’s
story, telling how they had seen Mil-
dred’s coupe arrive at the house, and
the light go on in the barn, after which
came a single shot.

Jeb Crane, their nearest neighbor,
stated, “At about 8:15 I stepped out
onto my porch to get some coal and
I heard a single shot from tHe direc-
tion of the McCoy barn. Like Spires, I
figured he must be killing himself a
bird for Thanksgiving. About 9, my
wife went onto the porch for some
milk. She heard two volleys of shots
and a few moments later saw a red
tail light as a car left from the front
of the McCoy house. Later there was
a single shot from the same direction.
I thought it was a late hunter, just as
we thought the others were hunters.”

Crane added that even had they
not suspected hunters on the McCoy
property, they would have hesitated
to investigate. Elmer McCoy was a
churlish, unfriendly man who did not
welcome interference.

As the sheriff finished his question-
ing of the neighbors the slain_man’s
sister and her husband, James Collett,
arrived from their home in Clinton
County, 38 miles to the southwest.
The family had been informed of the
tragedy by neighbors of the McCoys.

Collett, a 60-year-old, slim, be-
spectacled man with a thick thatch of
slate-gray hair, had been born and
brought up in Fayette County near
the farm on which Sheriff Icenhower
spent his boyhood. They were old
schoolmates and friends of long-stand-
ing. After’ the sheriff expressed his
sympathy to Collett and his family,
the Clinton County farmer informed
him his brother-in-law was reputed
to have kept large sums of cash about
the place. Elmer was as distrustful of
banks as he was of his neighbors. He
kept cash on hand, however, so as to
be ina i at to pick up farm mort-
gages which would net him easy prof-
its at the expense of his less fortunate
—and less industrious—fellow citizens.

A search through the house quickly
revealed that the old-fashioned safe
where McCoy kept his money was in-
tact. When this was opened later, of-
ficers found nearly $2000 inside. Mil-
dred McCoy’s. purse, found in her
automobile, contained $100 in cash and
there were several hundred dollars
in a table drawer in the living room.
Obviously, robbery must be discarded
as.a possible motive for the crime.

Beside the $100 found in Mildred’s
purse the sheriff discovered a letter
written by a soldier stationed at Camp
Crowder in Missouri and dated the
week before. In this the writer spoke
of plans for their forthcoming mar-
riage and asked whether she had as
yet informed her father of their en-
gagement.

A strange circumstance was uncov-
ered with the discovery of the keys to
the girl’s car, found lying on the
kitchen table. Clearly, she had been
inside the house after arriving. Ex-
amination of the car failed to reveal
anything mechanically wrong, and the
investigating officers were at a loss to
account for the fact that the hood
had- been raised.

The fact that the slayer had cut the
telephone wires, presumably with a
part of pliers, led to the belief he had

een in no hurry. There was nothing
to indicate a search of the place had
been made, and efforts of the sheriff
to find fingerprints on the lamps and
other furnishings were unavailing.

During the 48 hours following dis-
covery of the murders a score of farm
workers in the vicinity were ques-
tioned by Sheriff Icenhower and Fay-
ette County Prosecutor John B. Hill.
It was known the murdered farmer
had frequently had trouble with his
hired help. Rarely had a hand stayed
with him more than a few weeks.

In every case those questioned were
able to furnish air-tight alibis for the
period during which the slayings were
presumed to have taken place. The
coroner’s report confirmed that the
bullet which took Mildred McCoy’s
life was fired from the same .38-cali-
ber revolver as the three which pene-
trated her father’s head...

On Saturday funeral services for
the family were held at the Grace
Church in Washington Court House.

That same day the county commis-
sioners voted a reward of $2000 for
information leading to the apprehen-
sion of the slayer or slayers.

Meanwhile county officials spent
hours in going over the scene of the
crime, but found little to aid them.
The car which was seen by Spires
driving up to the house had left no
tracks in the crushed gravel lane. No
footmarks or fingerprints other than
those of the victims were discovered
in the house, the barn or on the
daughter’s automobile. Other than the
cut telephone wires, nothing had been
touched in the house, it appeared to
the county officials.

It was easy enough to trace the
pretty daughter’s movements from the
time she had left her teaching job
at Pitsburg High School in Western
Ohio late Wednesday afternoon. With
her at the time had been another
teacher, who arrived in Washington
Court House on Monday and told
Sheriff Icenhower of her last trip
with her late companion.

“Mildred offered to drive me to my
home and we arrived about 7 o’clock,”
she recalled. “She telephoned her
mother from my house immediately,
saying she would stop for dinner and
reach home about 8.”

“Make any mention of her boy
friend—the lad she had planned to
marry?” questioned Icenhower.

The teacher said her friend had ap-
peared worried because her father ob-
jected to the marriage. “Said he in-
sisted she repay him for her college
tuition before she went ahead with
their plans,” the girl related.

Upon receiving this information the
sheriff put through an immediate call
to the army camp—only to learn the
prospective bridegroom had been ill
in the base hospital for the past three
weeks. The young soldier, a former
fellow student of Mildred’s at Ohio
State University, was called to the
telephone and told Icenhower he was
sure she had had no other beaux.

“You’d better check up on the old
man’s activities—he had plenty of
enemies if everything Mildred told me
about him was true,” the soldier ad-
vised Sheriff Icenhower.

“Ever mention any name?”

“No, they were mostly neighbors,
other farmers who’d had to borrow
money from him when times were
bad, from what Mildred told me. Guys
who were overdue in their pee
to him, and who claimed McCoy owed
them for work or materials.”

After talking with the youth both
Sheriff Icenhower and Prosecutor Hill
agreed: that neither the daughter nor
her mother, a kindly woman well
liked by her friends and neighbors,
had been the direct object of the slay-
er’s murderous intentions.

Worth about $70,000 in property and
reputed one of the closest men in the
community when it came to financial
matters, McCoy had certainly been
generally disliked. But even those
who admitted to that dislike were
willing to admit he had been scrupu-
lously honest. To Icenhower and Hill
it seemed incredible that anyone could
have wiped out the entire family sole-
ly because of a quite natural dislike
for the old man.

“We know someone drove up there
in a car about a quarter of an hour
before the first shots were heard,”
Hill stated in going over the known
facts in the case. “It may be pre-
sumed that whoever this was went
directly to the barn, had words with

ae

ir iu i eens.

McCoy and ended k
“After that he mu:
house and seen Mp
ran from her ***-
porch upon h
the barn. He
search the house Io1
ing her, and gone on
to cut the telephone
not be disturbed.
was interrupted by
dred. He heard hex
probably by the fro
the kitchen and pu
table.”

“And right theng
sheriff, “he must
only hope lay in do
girl. She may have
body out there on tr
him with it—if he
tance of the famil
been surprised to fin
to begin with. In ar
ably followed her c
-from him, and shot
get into her car, He
hood of the coupe
' the car so it couldn
someone should sto)
his crimes before h:
get away.”

“Yeah, get away
| alibi for the period
‘| spent at the house,’
‘| possible, too, that i
he was planning to
} enough to set the ste
| like the work of a
| was interrupted by
Both Icenhower a
‘| vinced there was b
j| although two guns
‘| believed the most 1)
| vengeance. An inve
4 dead man’s financie
period of several y:

#
i

SEcnerrorenes

: of his money ~-~- n
} home farm, ¢ g
4 eral small n g

properties at une wl
| During the next
and cry that had b
4 murderer’s capture \
| by the question of v
|the McCoy wealth,
j close to $100,000. E)
1 Forrest had been fou
| their only child died
peared the estate w
jrelatives on Elmer’:
rest’s relatives.

But under Ohio
order of deaths cou
it would be presum
simultaneously. In 1
the entire estate wo
nearest kin. Only if
that McCoy died be

jand daughter, woul
jtives share in the es

From the beginn

jhower had not ove
{sibility that the big
jhave played some r¢
for the killings. Nc
becoming widespre:
jthe probate judge’s «
jmined to question ex
jheirs on his activiti
jing Eve. All their al

jof a distant park

ypossibly have been
jthe time of the slay:
_jtime, had had fina
jwith McCoy.
/ McCoy’s sister hi:
farm home all day


. . ee th cate ahs a |
a eee bhatt wetiintainiiti si

McCoy and ended by killing him. “ Sei for ri army ber Seedy
mmis- §- “After that he must have gone to the wo planned to join them for Thanks.

= ~zu00 for | house and seen Mrs. McCoy as she &lving Day dinner. Her husband, make BIG MONEY
‘he apprehen- | ran from her kitchen to the back James Collett, had worked on the | . :
yers. | porch upon hearing the shooting in farm during the day with their son, with amazing new
fficials spent the barn. He may have planned to who lived about a mile distant. At. v) a
scene of the search the house for money after kill- 7 o’clock the son went to his own ( | | j |

te aid them. | ing her, and gone on to the front room home but returned about an hour later wy) ral

en by Spires to cut the telephone wire so he Wie pag ne oa et go ng reste While

2 \ not be disturbed. In an event, he returning he had seen his father’s car r
sat Poe No was interrupted by the atrival of Mil- pass on the highway leading toward Jackets and Shoes!
ts.other than dred. He heard her enter the house, Harveysburg. ‘ = TTT Tn,
re*® discovered probably by the front door, go out to The elder Collett said he had left . : |

1 or on the ~ the kitchen and put her keys on the his home at 7:30 to go to Harveysburg,

ther than the table.” four miles away, for some chicken

ling had been “And right then,” interrupted the feed. He had arrived to find the feed

eared to sheriff, “he must have realized his Store closed, and Started back home
reg oe only hope lay in doing away with the when his car developed motor trouble

to trace the girl. She may have seen her mother’s a mile out of town. a
ents from the body out there on the porch and faced Collett got out, “jostled” the wiring
teaching job him with it—if he Was an acquain- and managed to get the motor run-

| in Western tance of the family she’d not have ning again. Tired from his day’s work
ernoon. With been surprised to find him in the house he climbed into the back seat where
een another to begin with. In any event, he prob- he dozed off for a few moments, A

Washington ably followed her outside as she fled war, 2pProached from the direction of
ay and told © from him, and shot her as she tried to Wilmington, the driver stopped, awoke
er last trip | get into her car. He’d have raised the Collett and asked if he needed help.

hood of the coupe then, tried to fix ollett replied in the negative. But “
ve me to my the car so it couldn’t be used in case when he tried to Start his car once &
ut 7 o’clock,” someone should stop by and discover more he was unable to do so.
‘phoned her his crimes before he had a chance to Another machine stopped ten min-
immediately, get away.” : utes later, pushed Collett’s car a quar-
c dinner and . “Yeah, get away and establish an ter of a mile until it started and

alibi for the period during which he left him at the junction of Route 73
of her boy spent at the house,” Hill agreed. “It’s and Route 380, Tt was then that he

planned to possible, too, that instead of robbery saw his son while the latter was on
lower, he was planning to remain there long his way home. He arrived back at
end had ap- enough to set the Stage to make it look his own house shortly after 9 o’clock
or father ob- like the work of a stranger, when he and learning a mare was ill telephoned
Said eet ee fe reped by ene ., . y/ilmington bs ore tela at ieee
her college oth Icenhower an ill were con- id not leave his ome again that ;
ahead with vinced there was but a single killer, night. QUICK CASH IN SPARE TIME!
ted. although two guns were used. They While the sheriff and county prose- Same Type Subzero Insulation As In
rmation the believed the most likely motive one of cutor went carefully over the alibis U.S. Arm Coldbar Suit!
me call ~ vengeance. An investigation into the presented by those most interested in s y ;
to the dead man’s financial dealings over a the disposition of the McCoy estate, i AC HROA
‘ad —__ ill period of several years showed most _ three men living in the vicinity of se
€ past three of his money was now tied up in the Wilmington came forward with evi-

rt, a former home farm, although there were sev-
1’s at Ohio eral small mortgages held on other
led to the properties at the time of his death.

wer he was During the next few days the hue At 7 o’clock on Wednesday evening,

r beaux. and cry that had been raised for the a garage mechanic jn Harveysburg
on the old murderer’s capture was overshadowed said, he saw Collett park in front of
plenty of by the question of who was to inherit

h
red told me the McCoy wealth, estimated now at ab
soldier ad- close to $100,000. Elmer and his wife

orrest had been fourth cousins. Since cutting the hair of a woman who had
e?” their only child died with them, it ap- asked him to hurry so she could be
neighbors, peared the estate would go either to at a Grange meeting by 8 Collett
to borrow relatives on Elmer’s Side, or to. For- stopped at his shop and asked if the
-imes were rest’s relatives, feed store down the street was open.
d me. Guys But under Ohio law, unless the Upon hearing the barber’s story, the
"payments order of deaths could be determined, sheriff couldn’t help wondering just

‘eCoy owed it would be presumed all three ‘died why Collett had not

youth both the entire estate would go to McCoy’s it was still open. Why, indeed, unless
ecutor Hill nearest kin. Only if it could be proved

} provi e had some reason’ for wanting to
ughter nor that McCoy died before both his wife establish

1b ; his whereabouts at that par- indefinitely! Outdoors.men will buy all TH Rue

oman well ee daughter, hates we the wife’s rela- ticular hour? 190 OTHER Money-makers!
neighbors, ives share in the estate. As it had already been established You have 190 OTHER fast-selling shoes, jackets to help you
f the slay- From the beginning Sheriff Icen- _ that the cCoy family was murdered and jackets: Renoouge® business! EVERY products el
hower had not overlooked the pos- Sometime Detween 8 and 10 o’clock, it complete Jacket in Veg seamen gee, sort work in @
operty and sibility that the big inheritance might nonetheless appeared evident that e Tostan en of sizes, widths thananystoreinyronio,e
men in the have played some part in the motive Collett could not have driven the 76 pen: owl receive PREG estat away rush the cocpon
oO financial for the killings. Now, with the talk miles from his home to the McCoy makngiuding 10-second Air Cushion demons How-to-
inly been becoming Widespread as a result of farm and back—and stil] found time startmakings SH PROFITS ene else youn need to

ven those the probate judge’s decision, he deter-
slikg were mined to question each of the possible
on ‘Scrupu- heirs on his activities on Thanksgiy-
rand Hill ing Eve. All their alibis sounded good.

to run over to Harveysburg—during
that fatal period,

MASON CHIPPEWA Face O ERT, MAGST
It was the story of a farmer living

; on the Harveysburg road which con-

yone could Relatives of the slain wife, residents vinced the sheriff Collett might not Mr. Ned Mason, Dept. MAG667 I
‘mily sole- of a distant part of the state, had have been completely accurate in his I Mason Shoe Mfg. Co., Chippewa Falls, Wis. J
ral Yislike ‘pent Thanksgiving Eve with a score account of his movements on the night ] uiaaroncmnn to be pie thin Mason cars and make |

of friends in their home. None could of the murder, however. This farmer l Insulated Jackets g Se Rush my FREE Sales Kit! |
> up there possibly have been in the vicinity at volunteered that he had been stand- ij i
fan hour the time of the Slayings. None, at any _ ing in front of his place a mile outside Rt wideetasieennnt seunetsauerenneecieaneceasine jm
‘Genes | time, had had financial transactions Harveysburg when he saw the Collett IIE vasnetgennccahannenensnsecrecenecena.. D
he m with McCoy, car speeding by at a high rate of speed. I :
’ ~~ , McCoy’s ‘sister hag Stayed at her That, to Icenhower, just didn’t fit. Le errs Slate |
fer Fi farm home all day Wednesday, pre- Why would a man in so much of a 67
ords w

es

if North ‘Andasers. SoTRe: blink hy Ther ‘there's. nyersation he} plant at -Middiebr neh, died at Aul- {tinue 4
eal stale, Highway | rh ®. MeAnauey, hle wife’shitan hospital Sanday gight and hts tor. trial to. Idaho. e
‘board.'and amounté to $12,848.44, bee be" you think -he showed, pre-| remains were taken! {0 Seesholtz’s iS :
ae his amonnt the’ ‘county. “wil Sane nreditation. by tellihg ber she. would} morrie, from when place the funeral -*
peat Mateand > Pel pe ts i never mart¥. another. Ban? Cornet: was held Monday afternoon “at 4

: tun, tor alt ‘that-i¢ Known, mak have} o'clock. The funeral “ceremonies took
and” ‘a. halt. anilen of road Wil) eant’ by.that’ ntatemont thot -he waxi place at St. Peter's church and tater
Ake matter ot WAUOR) eoing ty eontent ‘the salt’ fc f_dixgree] ment followed :to the cemetery ¢on-
reais eutirely with The State i eh tet’ had Been filed -acuinst, chim, ~j nected with that church, > The man’s }°

: “rTben waw there any: “premedita:| body. was terribly cut and torn” in
oe wala Comiatesiones | Pion shown by’ GCorne}iog. taking “his{ places, the intestines protruding from.
i Hondas morning “s Jn P teO Little children: to: shrere?. The bed Sia in ae Stuer ea hea
iol Rate & i ta te abo ba jane Bated: ‘tnoftensively fn “this” as, r, jets
“An uth, 8 nat: Domoceat ey? ms Other acte he committed: bef) ts eke! %
m Say at itraes ee Sgr | fore the: erties We “hadn't” more}. Ree age ae
F sian 7 News Democrat tt8t gol to Shreve with hit children} _ HEE Bs
tekinc Co,. pablishing times art than he Called uff uta wife aad asked i §° aA ; _|Louisvitle: ‘Man e
DeWing common pias court, $is.xn: Ale 16° tome to. hls patents’ KoA Brie ’ fe wh
Salts beech fen MSs pins een sere Pha ea tity cae me Name Be “Unusual Accid
Mehing times of holding <irenit cone: FEE 5 i
339,40: Ohic- Votka~ Zeltung ® pans ON NS De MIA wife cto “got Five Men Caught int Debris “To Canton
Ysbing mation $156 GO; M: Ww “Obke. | PShreve- and ¢are for me stualler. eblle e
Maw vettiement with school districts: ee es ot Pat Apa Of The: Building — oe - Four Toane makecae ya
and. Ming er same, —$1x5: Barrett: [oda The tghteot prog * er with bis parents eatew
Droge ‘kupplies for. probate - OMign) #8 Dig mative LWhat object had hat © Thought To Be Dead: “| met with a severe-s
FETS: Wiliiom Carnahan, hauling 1 might say there has never been a dent Monday... He &
CS pes, SP Interurban ©-Tottet Sup-} ase Of this kind where preniedita: Dee 0.) Nec, 3amA. -P.=~The | Kerin’s ahale-pit at
<S ghy Lo. LLAAs Joseph Ryan, sery-EOn and deliberation Rays be £9 three story hutiding on Me set street, ir culeyille, Monday
ices jn rips xiine case. 96: Lexington | Gstensibly, absent. ng AT Fused bie eevtdurnaé by Sunivel Wag. tates eco! shale diri
thwnship thistecs, planking - bridges ks Holds: Liqaor Responsible: og [Ree collupad this afternoon © ; Wes" cud lorils Sistk:

“a Levingtcn. 1owhshty. PTP40) Ly What owas” responslble SOR. the). Five ‘carpenters, repairing the left‘arm. ° The ar
John Wilson, tinal estimate dn brider hale Affair ts Hoshi televe | that butldini¢, were caugnt beneath “Tti- | severed midway bets
Sand sburment ip Lexington towhship, bin tte absence of: whisky .% erjme ber and bricks TRE fyeman Jotated and shovider,-as ci
ae, 3 hr B  Cise) ded Pontius. services Ang; puld have been’ tommitted. “Walone man.but-the. others are thought butchers cleaver.

Sera Horner tase. $8: Marret? Bros YhwMieks. aleohal. poison and qapa diy ae be paces fron: mn Roration: igne |) <A Starkcar war
iS pplics oa. sherif © SizocNews arog from firatto lant’ : time and the victim
= : ‘ thane. pone She RF. Witson, nti hie ao “Wsrthere:& omy d4 the jury. hax, Canton, where the ec:
; ¥ i oh wenite @ in Cotnelivs case, $4,515; ji whowcah RAY. Corpelias Was. aber har | Miller & Biachard's :
\ { : ; . RF Wilson, serving ventrein Cor { tatal Moniiax) nornaing? : Vittyow ao was taken to Aultmabe
‘ . Dr. A. BS Walker,

nets care $2650 Risk, WHson, | -FOu-Ret Ht ‘tram the tenttioduy of. om:
Serving Nehire in Cornelins ©: case. cor Statler and Mra: Bracher, Batt Dri. Hamilton; of Lo»

Ailes; Review Publishiog. Coc-rates! there "wae a police BMest™ who sald a ATE: ‘Tupen Bim. Otherw
Ohta rating, for sheritt's proclamation {te ihageht Cofaclins was nat. drank} (+ a © hurt. He is-single.
ee tittes holding COUP FIST SNE Uris. kame war Baltin, “tHe. tould BAY {ors Ts. a ’

é YeMtam ‘Booyiiie, byilding dilwert at / the defendant had not ees drinking ” ‘

i moh cit Ma ta sete i aor Corselice wat shows xpnctuatyely r= Or D IED IN Tr

bes 4 , that. -Cors oe wa rene 8 d : :

. pet hh ehitwert ee eet mpte ang. Modder: eee eyes vet aca — iow Fire Chief} Word was secetre

mee Ciley Den RESee oo Lamsan tp | LAnks iabicves Ventict,” fesnar Expected To Bring [Rounding the deat

ne “$2 ey. ¥82 Witiam- Beoritie.: repairing, seit eat the jury, when a4 1g of Joseph Quinian, a
rach: hea? Bolten Shetior's varies $9 ine Started  dotibar ‘ations © “Fas this ie Desired Results. pital,’ Junction City,
S Bur ar Creek township, $58.5% 5 3 Hite: tebe er yourrsctyhs he Actuated > a4 : ceased ts a son of”

s og f; = —_-- : i
‘tm Beene, plactne pipe onlvert: ati Ihe’ desire tn ald riaghe tobe the 3 Seicieeicg: habe Oe pichtar a A eri tac

Ieee ster: 380-305 Review ng tind tale Sind the defendant: to, tender ateonhned ia hin home, Jax Saath Wal-4
: i bren teous’ nod honest: Vveratet which. | ser Street for nev éral © @ays,.An op. ee pd cae ‘a
“han ‘after earn Aviilv-niwars Rive SON Feration “wae performed an. iim! Man. Caintain ky ag
: % jeNding. faith An. your, decftion.* <2 basy tor ning by Dre CoE, Extine and Pec a er ee
ae ‘These, Ae att, owere the ~ closing Tot Lander oT he prysictane feUnd fond Rt rae od 4 ot
mf, cy A fe ay we wen of Attorney: Welte's armument, ft. teceksurs te Operate: 01 ORE Ihe by ae { i sate 4 ate £2
sentehy: ented et ohont 2 2, OF6ch Mon- tween the Kurc and apkte, nbs iowa era th
‘atler ay entire. nord- whith’ x wound ‘was: récetved some.» Pe ie PE nal
itt g oF constant talking, udirrhsad weeks Hap, “while the ehier WAs thak-
11 both the. coert and dury itr. tia Ing: A UR te a! fice” ~1io Was feared ANTON M
* wiknk ot hat. there terence of another. trowded’’ ‘sours, SeMErdte aconit reanit. Dr Fuline

e birh aweniad so fa tn a din (ret, Wa eae a {RA That the oneratlon waa SulCensta} a
‘ Mh Faber tating Eo é Be Lies Weighi of Bridancd aes Se Bad be wad poattive nat thea’ log Wanton: ub. Dec. 3,
teen : of “3 my re. bate Provem thet hfs igan Sento be Kared, providing the wound $ trrtecten aaliy ws
had” been a. heey: attinker: and. Vint Nan teef ‘property: HE thinks © the Cabvage, set pop rene B
er é iis * ety tn August, hacky tw i aenee win Secoker yapldty-. > Crirken, Be tec ps
6 pie 3 te) : gear Cont tit’ pate Rirkfag. ‘atch! He a Sey ea ie ae

tonal” geting Were. ORY Shag t : baie ie ete Potatoes, 4 per b

: ig Me : f Pa Chragy cake “ena tw the plattering a {hk xn hatha Tents, 48¢ per bu. p
, : _E : n Welecte ; Weeterpi Miexcand’ ayia: Phi: He F ba a Sat aaa : Appies, 36 Apel ia
eo CAS Be Honig Hide me a "Leather OY af We Tenn te ree. #0.) Ail peieriner te ibe

td otha ie  Rettonty “ott whe sen rot Jag reatity

a Ten ee nt Fan cites * len ainay ” eee :
eke : <r ay 3 ; 2 fhe: ta i ; Stisoeeas E
et fore fx) us x iy bole | Bet
bes ee im

Pas Ths per dk
Pol ators, 450 per
Sweet. potatoes. 26
7 ( Oniona, €6 6 Fee per
tw hite irakil nuts, hd Lied
if were: Haid « out: an the general vagiten metas ve;
dng’ Morphine: eae at the A PL ge by the adi“ tase: natn sho per

Be tG Trke the iite it much a ‘tor'erigntfny anthority:.s He aid nat} Almonds. 2h eee ;

7 ‘ ; 3 exe UM Fe PAS Bt eT EOD f ; ; ‘ think. wounctl Mould talge ‘any “ohjecy 1 Gpineck, t 3
{ } ee isee xe Pree “ys Page Keg % | Mons” MT re'tands “or. Ate bourd- are Ferince Tah pe
\ P 4 Bea 5 elas: fAx Ae dace Ati f 2 ‘Vedic bs 5, 4eud-di vided into. about” Affien Ort Apples, ste per be

wenty fundi,2in ite of to pleas he Flour, winter, 3% 40

r, 4 st.508
 }eRMIning 5. abt. gut hylthe state Ret» POWTH SPT SE 3658 F
*Spartrient) but what “atthority § have eS Ee vi
‘a they tn thie =matter.” The -rode -sayx Degrera pay she fe

> Mat there shall: ac q

a


PRO the deed WAT it
teo ded murdering hie. wife “atc the
tine, he went 10: the hose be would

{ end “attempted. the > Shon ide when
here: whe he atter witness. >"
SThin RLY thing about Corseltue

MDE Weaswn “fs pare hongertte,: f
“ail have bed to grops Ayal

in then theres, ‘the. conversation 1
haa with: Mira Mcananey, bia wife's
sinter; Da_you think ke showed ‘pre-
medization by tellfag bet. ede. would
never marry another ant Cornd
F ‘tes Por al that.is known, may Have] ove
‘LA meant by thet atatement thyt he wae
€) going to onatest the seit for stirprce

cree had deen Aled amainst hina.
fF

> 4"Pbeg was there any premedita:

“fee jittie: ehiidrén: te Roreve? The

ad
iy ladisidyat tor ‘tomething. a
t Cornelias, fo:

pasted adoGt tri the’ cellar Woking |:

Hane 8) one Ume or another}:
bees, Se ho

| have entried some: weapan “eith him}*

James: Gf ards U maa. ¥
of eS arms pulled from’
‘gt the Diamond Portiand
tebrhi

wan” yf
oretock, “The: tuderat’ ceremo:

place kt St, Peter's chureli and Jotere| |
thent: fovowed., ip the cemetery com :

mat eharehy ie

(Aton shown by. Gernetias taking Bis} ‘

a [i make arte’ Inoffensively® fp this f as ee

bwedt x other ects. he committed ‘a
Bi the erime.jcHe ~hada't mote

Pekan Rot to. Sureve with bls ehidrent:
$ ighan, he calles tip-pin wite acd asked) -

Ul her fo ome té his’ pacents’s home.
‘} Then - cha raco: ta. Canton:
LE ipresante ‘of Plotence’ and bint sob,
*T Ross, he begs chta. wife” “te* a. “te
oh Spreve aad care tor the wmnier rh

: ee has never ‘been 8
sae where’: “premedlta-

ceifme
oe is

Sn. tbe:

“PRpon kim. 5

Washin Deg.
‘The supreme eoartt

pw: canes “Maser, Haywood,’ Pet f.

tibone, the Tepresentatived’. of”:
‘extern’ Pedefation of: Miners,

det witha severe
dept: Monday. He wascat work, im

way, guddenty, . ‘etrthing him on © the
sevited: ant w ay: bet week: the (elbow

pbiteher'g cleaver. 9

oc A Stark tar, iwea “passing: at ‘twa |
tine: apdithe’ Witla whe burried. ve

Anton, where the ent-was “Wet ©
Miller &: Blachard's ambulance: ;
whe taken.te’ Auliman”

; bhp gs Ae: th singles:

‘of tes

bQuintan, at Port Ritey hoa-

cased <is ® beige of. Michael Qatnlen

Biates tony decided the. habeas sore $

og
A} you: were bome.”
‘3 gThatn over.”

sh: Jone, Baker, « douse man ett

with: big: parents ‘saat: of ¢ ; Laalavilte’
Rod abianal acete; tine of the past.

Ketm’s shalt pitrat Mevinty, east off
Aulerviiie, Mondsy: morning, when 9
laree Jot of shsie ‘directly apave gave

tere arm. The arm wee completoly

Jana ahtovlder, ge cleanly p ae if, by:

Rnb set
Ms yDr.cA, ie Walker, of thie? welts, abt.

} De: Hamitton. of Loutstitle, operates
onier wae ae Wag ot

Sword. ‘waa gece: ory io eaten an-
néwncing the death Monday moraing

jusetion. Citys: Kas. <. The ae-

Bh
iS

; a aheee

a aan a

ter! with ber deadly design, {
% take: her at.ac great disadv
‘a possibie. The callee keeps '

she haz’ ‘put ber. best ¢iothes

3 wardly excoriating the Fates
“the parter fen't' dusted, and dm

<] upon cher visitor with am ange

: me a heart of wrath.

visitor, sits” on oe ‘eds

43. minutes, ‘admires th
ture: “and the view. from the -
and departs with an ootward, “
eee aa

‘The catlee 1s, then rt ;
tt: ‘he doesn't xet Dack with!
AP tata time’ her friends dDesin tg
4 hee: ax it she had Joat. stepped E

“8 bs refrigerator.

» Friendship among women ha
‘we @ staple article of .co
Perhaps. when it.fe the call w
We can on
Sor, ES eta sb 2)

eet peek ae ua
s ¥ Shipwrecked.
Morning same Bod still th
sighted no ship
; oy guess it
Fathi ie
jerk" ; ,
Worte - than” ., that, c
x -ehuckied the daffoan sea cook
ore oh our, last. bootlegs”
Dally, some, =e Ga

in After vias:

: Smtth—When Green was
that young widow # quple o
ago he declared he. — iW
out. ber. 5

TJonew—And: did ge marty

Smith—Tes, and adv be
ito get a divoree on the grono
4 ffs impeasibie” to; dye, with
| Caleege Datly News.

iA Weutdn't Do.”
"Parmer Foddershucks — Ww
soins ter Lait: oar "eity const

all up,” said th
“We are on c

sree anal to make a formg .
7 theese

or Walting for ten-of 15 minvt 35

| OFFICER OF. THE HOUSE. 2

os itn.

department learned (ret
ae: Mahdbyé mornlog.: t4

| + Absolute Defense. ae

Against First And Second |
| Degree: Murder tder Charges.» eae

Testimony Claimed To Show
res Accused Was Unbal:

“Théieate of first) degree. murdee

i jaeatnat James W. Cornettos for. me
4kiiling pf: his. wtfe,. Estella, Septeni<_

ber fast) ty atriking her ofer the.
head with R heary window © wetght..
teaches the. jury Tate Monday after _
neon,’ srcording to statements’ made

"Aw 8900 ‘a8 Attorney, Tera sae
concluded hia ar@ument Monday. at->
ternoon. Indge Harter, who-has been
hearing the case, which started sar-

‘ V erat. Werks ags, Ordered Promecuttng =)
4 Attorney Upham to proceed with. the: fae

cloving.. argumaat. The ptosecutér cR
planned to talk! from an Ronr end #
half to two touts, After he finished ™

@ itt remained for the ¢ourt to charges

he Jury na to tnweWoThie tt wae ex-
Wil take about. ai houf. ©): -
1en “court cotvened Affe otha
Monday, Attorney, Welty Haider vi }

hiv arzument which be - ate

9:16 ovrlock In the ous A 2


Tternoon, saage Harter, wie a3 Deen
“. {hearing th: ‘cage, which /atngted Bet.
<b eral weeks. ago, Ordered Prosecuting ©
| Attorney Upham to proceed with the °
“1 closing argument. ‘The . prosecutor
»{ planned to talk! {rom an-hove, and &
‘Shalf-to two Hours. . Afver he finished
8s jt remained for: the courtito chakee™
© A the jury an to law. This it wor ex
The! pected. will “take about an hou. :)
- eWhen enurt convened after lanch,
Nondar, Attorney Welty ‘Snished “1
» {hie argument which he catarted * af,
Q:10 o'clock th the morning. = 6
vAttorney Welty‘s Argument...
:| Lin continning-his arcament, “Mor
‘jiay, morsing, ‘from “the closing «s
“inion Of the week last Friday’ after
now, Attorney Welty. defending Car
néling, declared- that ‘drunkenness
an absolute defense against murder
in the first and, second degree pr
yous bors. viding auch ‘a: condition "was.
fin penitentiary sentente, <r reached ® with-a view of. performing ~
Rong ioe teri gr A pie sete | (he deed: {Hé maintained that the:
: eaeat Ss oe th “>loni¥v- chetge which could be: proven:
[mayor's but was up to the membere) nat a defendant who was s chrome
af:the board as the engineer's aivins | ; : i real
ys y Ahad see ~ . tie dleohotte was’ manslaughter.
Apion war ander. thelf authority,» S mrgta: Shui: Prove | Guin. oc
Ais dot seare Xo RAYe these men “Gentlemen,” bo weld. I'do not de
J} jose thelr jobs oF kity, -otherae Jose] | et mbt ms

, aoe ae : aire the “hllty to go unpunished. At

their: places... D'T “the ; dgpariment torney MeCulloch sald daring bts are 7

must have men to. de the work," #914) yoment “Read “between the »-iines,":
Turnbull. = oo eosin Sapte’ het Dleke WOO g ait you havd to do isto

{oo atethis-Junetute,: Bachman. 819 read onthe lines. “sf -the defendant: ~

that heawould not. want the matter), sufityitta for you to say: in cased <:

di

were pried of with & wed

boxed in éach, Instance were, found

before they were broken Open ws
Sanday worning ciel
“Postmaster Clark said he did not
know, whether Wt was’ the work of,
professional crooks, who make a bus-
Inesa -of Dox, tapping, of of mischiex

Ors. The offense carries “with

a geet

ter’ atriv:
tion ‘Discussed. * > a
tuation >was. dis-{~

cen acti

ie, "| Demanded
pl

i yo is 2 not. yo
¢ altuation in the
he; .exciusion © of
*publia achocis at-
bildren. = He satd,
eves the presest
tually aie out and
huletiy, settle itsetr.
Renpvated. ;

Ss

* «City Engineer Sarvers”
ONE ‘NEW ASSISTANT
Asked In‘Their Place—Se

“ere Wil Ack Wednesday —
Lauffer Objects To May-”
a ha) : rs eer that pe

ae

ron S

ervers. By

ace—Setv-

settied naw, and when Munter, offer-

J} ed:aiimation "to accept the commune

cation tt. faited, of 2 pecond.~: Bueh-
man ‘aid tt should da laid over nati!
Wednesdard.. orgy ge tes tl
Sh At Wednseday, ‘
“guchman declarod that: the coef
‘peers’.oMce has the same amoatnt of
help it atwhya had. aod Engineer
Garver said’ hia department waa get-
Atog further, hehind each year, Laut:
ter declared that he would! not yote
for Ue new proposition “lo pyr ins
sewer Inspector at $7 per month
Rarver, had put the new. appointee dn:
der the head of a sewer fnspector, #0
could. draw hia. pay from that

Ahandted with Intelligence.

gich a6 this tne, presumption is al+ fh
wose with the defendant: tothe des
gree: Of proof which must be higher
thau-in any other charge, 50)
“Tie ts b case which needs to be
‘The jury >
should analyze and. think, nit tts °
trie: the dofendant was tn the habit...
of using alephol-all the time he ts &.
abject for pity, tort there fa anys
thing ~¢ should be thankttl for itis.
ranson Take, that. element. away’
ffer we and We would want to die >:
os Attarks Daughter's Testimony 6-5,
)"E ati ahink thet) Piorence, the.
denenter; bas noe givon reliable tee?
timony 4uthia cose. She saye that

a members -found).-
tumxtetiant shape), .
Nastas te the)
a thoroughly ren:
e and out during
looks aa/clean and:
All of the com:
“yeeelved a tbor-
‘the picturce bare

he ; cham-

» or's Interference.
ete ee ase three "blows with the awitdow weight
ee : Were Atyuck .upon thy deceased's ~
heads, tt “(a Ukely, that owe blow ©
would haye:heen enot¢h to have tett
the some trace, ax three. Florence’
hae admitted that the Gefendant ts.”
i einem 8 ker eneiny, that: they have: 7
“Svtower Misston Christmas haxar et | rorde, sad tat they ‘were wot of
‘yeailence (of; MEBs OFLU GA speaking terms. (Tho girl ly contra”
W.Tase,, from dicted by theproeecalion itself inher”
Sa ee statements regarcivg Ross bring At | %
break faet when’ dhe enme dowostairs
resents, cpick | Mondax arurning..Teclianiny Bnoee
them away [Rech had kit the botee for work, °°
“Stnart hi > Qeediions State's, Gants Fe dat
SRP New et, ts take, The case Of he
sinle and kee ifthe. was a deliberate 6
murders MRCHUneh Nae argued Oka ey
Soe is Ayous gentiomen; that Coragitis want
mm of § : , , mat { “hie wife’ to,eome pore, Theses:
{Tw hate he dod Fonte rom Beteres, |
the Sines. Bcannot’ ee aby. remive fo
Mibehiad the detevde sts pegbegt tabi
Sienenn roe ti i ka te RS
te ; “pe-uptte the family,
ye and decent mouy ee;
lun > anflered. - fret”

»{tand. bit: waa thed! agreed “by.7 the
en Act ene So Tes) | onetieer to put Heise nanie in ae’ s
“ta the rooms of the board of pubs draughtsman, but Latter oshook | hie
We service Monday ‘niorning City Kits} ead, Howat finaliyidecided that the
gineer Barver, made o.3- “demand, | matter should cote up Wedatsday

Pe ad Se ont iy f

t) Ba- ‘morntrs.: ete: its

“New ap to. date ets ‘and aide
hoards tor Chrtetiis

‘em ont bow abd we'll |
el

Tt tethe intet
1 $25 ger wont:

er aw ato.

Der pacstate clatios he BremedtaXts,

done Qeqds that this 8% iedicated ©
ej ahem he asked bis wile for 4 th |

ye + rt

‘the time.
Decemwer 914064


oy camp ne PTR Ea a a a A tes

OOKS, Harry E., white, 5, elect
m October 29, 1909. : - és lee pcunahongeornage (Montgomery county)»

that ee ed.
the chpetus lon
fiseirinent af ‘ie
ee Cas “tp bile so

hin asi


;
'
{
}
as
;
'
;
[
'
‘
H
H
H
i
'
£

ca cienan ma Bem Meet


22 ‘YOUN W. COWAN,

preewy - —y

keep me from going out to see. All hell scetned to fill

ees my woul; and a few moments saw my wifo and her off-
noting in etermily, 4

e were in the kitchen at the time. The axe lay
on the mantlepicce; EF seized it and struck her before

knew what F was about, As soon as the first blow was
atrck, my reason rotumed as sound as itever was, But
Thad gowe too far to recede, and ft followed up my blows.
> Dwtewek ber, EP believe, eight tines, Just as she was
~ about to recive the last blow, she exclaimed—' Oh, John!

oe © Tam guilty! ‘The blow was on her throat—the blood

ahead ont ty torrents, her eyes tolled down, and the
shiver of death passed over her frame.” Tam told that
she did not die for twenty minutes. “1 left her, and
struck my little daughter one fatal blow on the left and
forward part of her neck. She died in an instant. It
seemed as thongh every drop of her blood gushed ont at

once. She fell on her right side, My little son Tf gave .

two blows: the first, aimed at the throat, took him in the
face, occasioned by his throwing down his head. In an
instant it was repeated on the front and right side of the
neck. He died instantly. ee

“PF remember that when Thad struck my wife three
blows, Miss Virginia Boss ran down stairs to my back
door, and then ran back, execlaiming—! Mother, te has
killed them allt! Her mother gave the alarm out of the
frot windows. The whole time did not excced half a
minute; and when FE was retreating throngh the back
door, U stopped for several seconds and gazed upon the
horrid scene, It was agony too great to be borne, ‘I
heard some one kicking or striking at the front door, I
still had the axe in my hand, and threw it, as [ pasard
out of the back yard, into the stable. LE passed out of the
back gate. went up Dunseth alley, then down Reynolds
street to Frout, down Front to Walnut, down Walnut to
the river, and then along, undef cover of the hank, to
Race, where F took the centre of the turmpike down the
river. & had not gone more than four hundred yard.
from Race when Tet Me. Lippincet, coming up.” Te
was in pursr.it of me, and had passed me going down,

sores

vi

Fm

when'l was wnder the *
stort distance he stopped am ahead Ait laiog te a

1 replied, 'T work down here ona mf.” He thew soho ate :
swered in the negative ; and he then pared polar “a,

the city. Two women were sweeping the

wpon the back of my right hand, the po sy | Eb ¥
wae mpon me. ‘This, I believed, must have been the,

blood of my infant danghter.

“ About an hour after Mr. Lippincot met me the first time, eon:

I saw a crowd of horsemen com fier
another pi of snuff, and at eg “ , what haan

se lloyd aver, whether to fight and get killed on the

“ During the last three years and a half 8 have mdr
several attempts at suicide. Once B had a heavy biruled
musket with a slow match attached t the wed the

cremate goes ha person, and was jst in the 2: of

j
.
‘


ae allt nadine pe 8
yf :

ees a

Nes ting from a spell of sickness; bt
: “a: ata mpeg Wen health. Isaw him
ue the honse frequently, aad kare quit my work for

and

years married.
ay fonachotd matters always kept me poo

.

250 “YOUN W. COWAN.

that she never spoke to him when she met him. Nothing ©
of consequence passed between him and me on that occa- %

sion, for he immediately left the house. When he was
» my wife and Uhad a severe quarrel, which termi-

nated in an agreement to separate. We had parted twice
before, She went to her father’s in Ashtabula county, ©
and I, without informing her of my determination, took

xeage for Cincinnati.

“Ry what means she discovered my residence I never
knew, but Ehad not been in Cincinnati but a short tine, |
before E received several letters from her, describing her-

aclf and the child as being in the most deplorable state of

verty. Twas again prevailed upon to join her, which
Maia LA Ashtabula, Shere ; pormained: Grins es
at. This year was spent in constant quarrels.

she wis highly dixeatistied wih Ashtabula, but we had
not the means to leave it until the 1th of May last, when
we act out again for Cincinnati, where we arrived ou the

= @mh. We purchased furniture and took a house the first

week. This was the sixth time that we had commenced
housekeeping, and we had been but little more than five
These frequent derangements ig our

.
“ Smewhere about the lattcr end of July, Me. BR-

7 ed my honen and called in to ace us. I treated hia with os.
ne 2a kindness, but he only remained a few minutes.
CU was aware of his visiting my house fi

aheence, but this was the first time I

rR, prepared myacif with wea i
detect him with my wife, for I was con t that an im-
an intimacy existed between them. Rut Uo pever
could catch him in my house until, one night, a very
whert time
Rinen and

were sprinding the evening with us.

an to the commission of my crime, Mra.
daughter, who lived + Ahoy above us,
y requested ma

to get some beer; but, just asf was starting for, i, Mrs.

a

vently in my — s
ad seen him ~
| myeelf since our arrival in Cincinnati. He told us that

ln ender wo

Resch

eo es
5 j
*

JOIN W. COWAN, =. Rs igsy

Boxs reconnnended ee getting some good brandy in pre- te

ference, in order, as she proposed, to make a stew. I got”

a half-pint of brandy at Lucas’; and they made the stew,

which we drank. | then went out for a short time, and,
on my return, which must have been about half past
eight, F found the door fast and the light out. My wife

* opened the door, and, as I entered, f received a blow from

amne one on the left check, near the eye, which brought
nic to the ground — As soon as he struck, he leaped over

me and ran off. f arose as quick as possible, and pursued > |
him to Front street, where | lost him. | am alinost con

fident that it was the same man who has worked me so
much evil; but, the night being dark aud cloudy, I can-
not speak with perfect certainty. Ou my return, my wife
and f had a severe quarrel about it, but we did not couse to

blows. I was determined to take his life, aud, for that purse
pose, purchased a large dirk knife at Lucas’; and quit -

my work in order to watch for him. 1 did not intend to
go to work again until E should have a deadly revenge. 1
watched for him on Thursday and Friday, but could wet
see him in any part of the city.

“On Saturday morning, about half past seven, my wice
and Mrs. Boss went out. They did not say where they
were going or what they were going for. i mton my |
coat and told them that, as it was Natunday, | woul! ge.
to work in order to get some money iu the evening. They
went out the hack way. Instead of going to my work, |
tured and hid myself in the stable and closed the door.
Here T watched for their return. In about a half an hour,
Mrs, Boss came in at the back gate, but mnaceompanied
by my wife. In a few minutes my wife came in at the
front door, passed through, and went some steps up xtaisx.
She spoke something to Mra. Boss, and then retumed to
the front door, aud opened and shut it tolerably hard. 1
remained in my hiding place nearly ten minutes, aind
then stale in very quietly. When Pf jumped down in the
perch, PE heard her speak, and he was just coing out, aud
she turned the key and met me at the midklle dour |
asked ber whe that was that weul out, She mplied
that it was nene of my business, and then flew at mx ww


; lisa grec:
Jed expertd
were not re!

“no Marshall

: ‘Continued on Page 2, Columa?: tion is correct: and that position is} >

Republic had: |litical party.’ I think:I reflect the

}’ , broken off political talks with -

Success a: spokesman® for® the ..|{ous. to accept* his invitation: to}.
Palestine Arab Higher Commit-
tee condemned an Israeli sugges-:

tion for an exchange-of popula-.
* tiofis’ and accused Israeli forces
., of numerous atrocities. [3:1.)
President Truman’ designated
the former chief of the Office of

4

Priee Administration, Faul A.

Porter, to take charge of the

tive of th Sern, as

~ “We: found: ourselves in: agree-|-
ment that in a place-as:critical as|

this, the United States: has to be goal

in. conformity: to: solemn: agree-|
ments, it cannot: properly in this}
Gay and time back up from it.” ©
_ Questioned on: whether his frea- wh
ence at Governor Dewey's farm for
today’s conference: meant: that he

‘Continued om Page 2, Column 6! Continued’ : Page 8, Colonia 3

|Ex-Convict Killers of Six Trapped;|

One Slain, Other Surrenders Meehly Souioaon at tenes pete

_|to Bertin. He added t :

Special to Tas Maw Yous Tuts.

VAN WERT, Ohio, July 23—cutors and Sheriffs from three

_ |Ohio’s fourteen-day reign of terror|Ohio counties that he and West:

{by two ex-convicts, in which six|were responsible for six slayings,

the agreement on the @

persons were slain and two seri-jbut claimed personal credit as the Germany that was ace

4
H
3

g
g
g

He
a,
F
E

2aA
piel
§

f

ea

i
» &


"THE NEW’ YORK TIMES,

THRARING DEFERRED WORK OP BOLIVAR
ON REFUSE DUMPING) FOR PRAGE HAILED

Residents of Marine Park Area|Liberator> Cited: ae Example
Deride. City: Argument: That: |for World at Ceremon y on E i
- Remedy Has ‘Been Started. | of 165th Birth Anniversary’
= prooklyn's earnest:fight against _ Gen: Simon. Bol ivar, the’ Ven-
three: city commissioness« for: al-/ezuelan» whose: genius Hibderated

ee jieged failure-to. control the. un-|South ~ America,: was» acclaimed

* |plesant odors from refuse: dumped / yesterday: as &
in Marine Park: failed to move voted to the fight for freedom. “
ner: C.: Surpless: postponed. action see iiss ate cca prea (Ne
on summonses: against the city Versary: ; pefeons WOee
officials until: next. Thuraday: in| gathered at the Bolivar’ statue:in
Eee a Conan eee eee oes Sc rwenic pa representatives OR
cerca ones wreaths at the base of the monu- ey?

as well as the nwu
for freedom. .. . | prem

Be: ESR PE as aig pele a reap ee chaiip Par
sola: though none of the commis- erioanism; to expound his phi-
Robert Murl Daniels (left) in the custedy of Sheriff Roy Shaffer|sioners was present—their repre- losophy of moral power, to

blue]
Two em- of Van Wert, Ohie. 2 “| qesactated Preas Wirephete jsentative was Assistant Corpora- the extremes of popular will and

o, 52 A tion Counsel. Saul Moskoff—the Fe toe he here toward dic!

J. @ ee eg court was crowded with residents| ships,” Dr. Ackerman said,
Tacucci, 21, PAIR Wi when the officer, Shi einen of the Marine Park area, members “Ie the time ever ‘comes, :

on, were re- | son submachine gun in d3,!of the Flatbush Chamber of Com-|political leaders everywhere fellowi9@
merel Hos-| ordered West to get out of the cab.| merce, a representatiye of the Dis-|Bolivar’s example, nations ag@it

hock and ex- TRAPPED. NE ) Sheriff Shaffer had climbed up on|trict Attortiey’s office and many|Peoples will be on the read. to}

wrticatanees J thetrailer::. 4. o  loeall [peace because the pen, not. the}

firing af Mr. Niebe)
danghter,- Phyllis, 21,, iext,

i

F BBaE
PEEREE
Ad
A :
‘

etgtas

tatit
ret

s of the court
residents. of the} Americas, to be
x one iq

8 : oue atetae


y ,; holding fast to
:: ay 4 ba “ mech ioe sup eptee A
‘Nolanda: net KO° Yaats.. |Highway,:. returned: the fire:.
x Aer (ienen 52, laste: ‘| was: struck: squarely between: the
said that: West did the] eyes and fell unconscious.
_ the two slayings near| With: the= automobiles. on. the
last. night He® said\ both}trailer: barring: his» view: of* what
in a July 9 holdup: of the| Was» happening, Sheriff: Shaffer
of Earl C: Ambrose: in Co-|marched Daniels along the runway
» Ohioz Mr: Ambrose: was|to.the grounds... e
‘and a woman patron injured.| “At first I didn’t know Conn had
«said he: believed a. bullet} been hit.” the: Sheriff said. “He
"a gun: killed Mr. Am-|Was: sitting: there® beside the cab,
“while his.own gun wounded|#lumped: down: a: little;, but: still
woman... ae poldnesis cule ss ae
els denied emphatically t) <. ~ Sergeant: Conn’ and: Mr:
or West hed aayurneits Friemoth: were: in’ the: Van: Wert
- with= the holdup-slaying = of |County Hospital® tonight. Physi-
Kerech) a middle-aged tour-| cians: said: Mr. Friemoth was shot
. ins. Wayne|in the right side of the chest; but
Mich., July 10. Authori-| that the bullet: had entered at an
ey) were. convinced he|#ngie: and come: out. under the
s truth on this point.| Shoulder: without: striking: a: vital
: Daniels’: story and: from |*Pot: Sergeant Conn was in a criti-
the authorities pieced cal. condition, . however, and ‘was
the final chapters of: the
“of the slayers.. =.
The two men drove from

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«about: an. hour

urist | county: jail... 2 - 8
[> Throughout: his: questioning: the
‘to smartly dressed: Daniels showed no

-.-.,{ sign® of: remorse:= He displayed

4
held® in» Vans. Wert's* red-brick

his: sojourn: as an: inmate: of: the
Ohio. State: Reformatory, . saying
that: his real objective in going to
the reformatory. early Wednesday
was to “get” Red Harris, a guard,
whom he profanely described as
“a bully.” He said he régretted
not having dqne so.
With. an oath he asserted he
would shoot everyone at the re-
formatory if he had a chance.
Prosecutor Webb Tone of Van
Wert County said he would hold
Daniels until] he was certain
whether Sergeant Conn and Mr.
Friemoth would recover. If they

- Ambrose: slayi
was “too hot.” They. selected one
driven by James® Smith; 25, a
farmer, who was accompanied by
his wife, Rita, as the couple drove

yout of a Tiffin park. and headed
north on U. S. Route 53.
About three miles-north of Tif-

air,jof the road and stop, demanding
the|dis driver's license. Daniels said

at

approached from the
side and shot Smith in the
-Of the head. = ne
‘Woman Flees to Safety
Daniels ordered Mrs. Smith into
seat of the Smith: car.|'

out but broke away
acreaming toward
residence of W. W.
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- the|Plaster’ contractor, has: a - police
.jrecord that dates back to 1941

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oie 0 v toeney Lea) aH JOq Coedere
the city from dumping was.
ing in the Brooklyn Supreme

and would be heard Aug. 3. He said
Mayor O'Dwyer and Borough Pres-
ident John Cashmore had conferred
with the city o*‘icials and remedial
steps: had bee: instituted. is
> The courtroom: audiertce: greeted
his: plea: with: laughter. Benjamin
King,. executive: secretary: of the
Flatbush: Chamber: of Commerce,
told the court: the: problem:was old,
and that as the stench grew worse,

brighter: His office; he added,: re-
ceived. fifty. telephone: complaints
yesterday morning, some from per-

area: =. mE ge oe

~ After agreeing: to postpone ac-
tion on the summonses; M rate
Surpless= said: that: if conditions
were» not: improved’ the: residents

plaints: againat:.the: commissioners
any time until next.Thursday. He
said he did not think it wise to rely
on:<the possibility: of action: from
the Supreme Court to get:results,
adding’ that: it: might be: psycho-

complaints drawn.

-- In’ the: corridors: of: the:: court
building,’ the: residents* of the
Marine: Park: area surrounded: Mr:
Moskoft* and pressed: him with
stories: of sick: children,: peeling
paint: and tarnished: silver. Mrs.
Ann‘ Karlin; president: of the Ma-
rine: Park* Tenants: Associatian,
co

might be moved to hold a mass
demonstration at City Hall. Others
indicated they might dig up ref
matter, put it in boxes and deposit
them on the steps of City Hall and
Brooklyn's Borough Hall. aS
The Rosedale Civic Association
in Queens reported that -Depart-
ment of Sanitation dumping at
243d Street and Brookville Boule-
vard was creating a health hazard
_ here nak h. The association
been campaigning
fruitlessly since November to ban
the dumping of garbage in their
community..." _ peas oe

FEARS WAR, KILLS HIMSELF

17-Year-Old Queens Youth Uses
* oe : (a2 ‘Caliber. Rifle $ oe na

Found Dead in His Plant”
* Julius Neiger; 65 years:

of

sons: living: three: miles: from: the}:

logically. advantageous to have:the|-

old, of}:

“J know. that.
would: be pleased if
how. the spirit. of: c
dependence: ie which:

the promises: of. city: officials grew | Pe

Dr.. Pocaterra= 3
“that the
is being realized.

xten

could draw: formal: criminal. com-| b@8€3

SMOKER GETS ‘

divorcee. who - - abo
father of her 4-year-old t

Street last May 2.

in an. ,
Kighty-eighth

ASPCA Calls Out Harbor Squad to Save Cat;

"BMT ROBBERY OR NOT
nsisting’ of the: families of 800} == — og ae
veterans, said~ her organization}:

of: the
will o aA}

& re

BQ:
ag: 3O¢

ab

See

ATE SATE

Vie

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f

*to drive-to the side
road and stop, demanding
ver's license: Daniels: said
-atanding on the: right: side
car, examining -the: license;
: » approached: from: the
wide and: shot: Smith: in: the

ii]

F SEES
ga
Hs

‘ I;
EERE
g

rf

sof the head: .

joman:Flees'to Safety
els:ordered Mrs: Smith into
e: rear: seat: of the: Smith’ car.
She stepped: out but. broke* away.
and: ran: screaming toward the
near-by residence of W. W. Mar-
tin, a high. school: principal... The
'|Slayers did not fire-at her or pur-
her: Instead they sped: north
their own car,. Authorities, sum-
ed» by Mr; Martin, found: Mr.
Smith dead in)his car...
|. About. nine; miles: north of Tif-
wo. oo {ft the: slayers: halted: at a. state
* about: & park, where; Orville Taylor, 24, of
where the} Niles, Mich.,; was: sleeping: in the
waky, ex-|cab» of an-automobile: transport.
y, truck:. He was:en route from: South
Bend, Ind., to Welch; W. Vaie-with:
four’ new. Studebaker automobiles:

GE
4

af

=» Daniels? opened the: doorv of; the Parkeraville; W. Va:: He was:con-|

truck=‘cab,: awakenedTaylor: and’
~ 8 "1 told: him to’ get: out:: According: to
=| 1 Daniels; West volunteered to.‘take
old Navyicare- of ‘this guy’: and promptly
,000° bail] marched the driver into bushes and
action inj shot: him::. tei |
fat
s infant! after midnight. by deputy: sheriffs
ears old, eighbors who heard

*1 Mr. Taylor's body was not’ im-
mediately identified because the
slayers stripped it of documents,
including his driver's iicense, later
found on West's body.

bt a Daniels and West abandoned
YY “Qitheir gray Pontiac at the scene of

‘ jain,/Taylor's slaying. Deputies who
M4 &l found it discovered evidence link-
ound theling its former occupants to the
4). |Niebel and Ambrose killings, in-

23, whol cluding

,-jnot having: dqne so...

~ ‘Taylor's body-was found shortly|:

whom: he: profanely: Geacribed: as
“a: bully.” He: said: he: regretted

> With: an: oath: he asserted: he
would: shoot: everyone: at. the: re-
formatory if he: had a chance:

Prosecutors Webb»: Tone: of Van
‘Wert County: said: he: would: hold
Daniels: until. he was certain
whether: Sergeant: Conn: and: Mr.
Friemoth would: recover:: If they
recover,: he: said; Richland» and

‘| Seneca» Counties« can:"‘fight" for

the® prisoner: Murder: in: Ohio: is
punishable. by death in the electric

police

when he. was sentenced to the Boys
Industrial. School. at Lancaster,
Ohio,: for automobile theft: =
- He was: sentenced to the reform-
atory at Mansfield in 1943 after
conviction on an unarmed robbery
charge: at Waverly, in. southern
Ohio. His two companions in the
robbery told officers: Daniels: was
“kill crazy.” and: that: they had:to
talk: him: out of. killing: the store
owner.: Daniels:drew a sentence of
1: to 25). years:
Sept: .25, 1947.2"

and) was: paroled
West: was-a former: resident: of

\victed-of grand larceny. in: Akron
and. sent: to» the: reformatory in
1947: for a. 1-to-7-year: terms He
was: paroled last April:1...

-. ~~ Faces:-Crowd at. Jail

. VAN WERT, Ohio, July 23° P)
—Stortly after: his: capture; Rub-
ert Mur!) Daniels stood on the step
of the Van Wert jail, flanked by
policemen. and cenfessed six mur-
ders to a crowd of 300 angry cit-
izens, oe ae peas

-When he first appeared the cit-
izens shouted: “Lynch him" and
“Kill him.” To this the gunman
shouted: “Go to hell.”

The heavy police guard whisked
him inside the jail for a few min-
utes: and when he was brought
back to the steps the crowd was
quiet and. he told his story. He
smoked a cigarette while he talked.
- Van Wert police let the crowd

. |see him and hear him to thwart

any possibility of the indignant
citizenry attempting to storm the
jail.. Daniels’ appearance’ calmed
them and they dispersed soon after
he had been locked up...

>) Prisoner Is Shifted =~”.

~ VAN: WERT, Ohio, July 23 UP)

ferred: to the Mercer County: Jail
twenty-five miles

{in Queens»reported: that: Depart-

record that: dates: back: to 1941

|Helen,.155

demonstration at: City Hall. Others
indicated they might dig up refuse
matter; put it in boxes and deposit
them on the steps of City Hall and
Brooklyn's Borough Hall... «  ~
_ The: Rosedale: Civic: Association

ment: of* Sanitation dumping~ at

243d Street: and: Brookville Boule-}| .

vard was:creating a health hazard
in that: borough: The: association
said: it» had. been campaigning

fruitlessly: since: November: to ban|i

the dumping: of garbage in: their
communityecc) =: Osco See

: FEARS WAR, KILLS. HIMSELF gi

 22:Caliber Rifle.

BLOOMINGDALE,. N. J.,. July
23: UP—A. 17-year-old: New: York
youth; fearful» that: the: United
States was heading for war, killed
himself: today: with: a .22. caliber
rifle, the'state police said.

. DreGeorge W. Surgent, Passsic|

County* medical» exammer,. issued
a.certificate: of suicide.. The boy
shot: himself: =the. heart,
Dr. Surgent said
The: youth; William® Fischer: of
Ridgewood; Queens;* was: found
dead‘on an: army. cot in his sum-
mer home®= here

nit gay

"Found Dead:in His Plant:

~ Julius-Neiger, 65° years-old, of{ ° *
Broadway, owner’ of the}. —
Katherine’ Embroidery © Company}

3681

at 830 Avenue of the Americas,
was found dead at 9:45 A. M. yes-
terday, hanging from a water pipe

in the company’s plant, the police}

reported. He was the father of
four children, the police said. ..De-
tective Thomas Finnegan of the
West Thirtieth Street station listed
the cause of death as “apparent

The.i

yesterday in
General Sessions under a suspended
She had pleaded sane dan

suicide.”

There were no notes, he/i

~ apartmen
Eighty-eighth Street lest May 2.

ASPCA Calls Out Harbor Squad to Save Cat;

Wank
Soa

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@ Beek

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Peter Horgen and Fred Von Tham-|g
mer launched a rowboat from the},

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q


10se guns and get down,”
fugitive who crouched!
You’ve got me,” was
xploded from the front.

Pa
:

the

imber. Captain Glenn’

of detectives, tall, >

iered, came in.
ience.
worst kind of killers,”

They j

im They’re trigger-
killing.”
imly
” Hoffman asserted,
them first.” He
have much to work
and frowned.
all vacations,”
need every man in
this job.”
ft, Detective Miller
puzzled look.
Hildreth yourself?”

acel

VaS a

heard a car come up
out 50 yards beyond

‘ said a neighbor

>

~“Give me a chance to

reports on thel>

‘47 Pontiac?”

But his smile quickly

“That license number was issued for
a 1936 Chevrolet sedan to Robert Murl
aniels of 211 West Norwich Avenue.”
Sheets leaned forward.

.“Has it been reported stolen?” he

Pasked.
‘ed. “They don’t shoot}

“Not in the last three months. The

‘Tecord room is still checking.”

Sheets looked up thoughtfully.
“See if there’s a police record under
that name.”

Miller was back shortly. “Listen to

this,” he said, reading the following:

Robert Murl Daniels, twenty-four,
paroled from the Ohio State Re-
formatory at Mansfield last Sep-
tember 25th for robbing a grocer at
Waverly. Served three years and
two months. Also served a year in
the Boys Industrial School at Lan-
caster in 1941 for car theft.

Sheets gave the information to Hoff-
man. Detectives were sent to the Daniels
address and to question neighbors. Soon
Sheets reported to his chief: ;

“His father is a respectable con-
tractor. The parents said their son sold
the Chevvy on June 20th and left home
that day. They said they haven’t seen

slick my hair down,” begged the dapper killer, as he swa
gave way to a panicky look when angry mutterings. s

him since then. Neighbors confirmed
he hasn’t been around.”

“T’ve ordered some pictures of Dan-
iels run off in a ‘hurry,” Hoffman said.
“Lef’s show them to witnesses.”

Later that afternoon, as the two were
conferring, the phone rang.

“Yes,” answered Sheets. As he lis-
tened, he straightened in his chair. He
put back the receiver and turned to
Hoffman.

“We’ve got one of the killers identi-
fied,” he announced. “Clyde Ambrose,
Nagel, and the waitress, Maxine Whit-
taker, picked Daniels out of a stack
of forty pictures.”

“Now we've got something to work
with;” Hoffman said crisply. “Let’s keep
going. Let’s get fifty pictures of Daniels
for the state highway patrol, near-by
sheriffs, and our own men. Then a
thousand more with circulars for all
big city police departments and sheriffs.”

Meanwhile, the record room had dug
up a report of a 1947 Pontiac torpedo
sedan, gray, two-tone, exactly as de-
scribed by Hildreth, which had been
stolen from a downtown lot on June
22nd. The license number was D-4351.

“The killers must have figured their
own license was safer than one that had

ggered out and posed for the photographers.
welled to cries of, “Lynch him!

Kill him!”

been reported stolen,” Sheets
mented.

“The way they had things planned
out,” Hoffman added, “parking in the
alley that way, that license never would

have been spotted if Hildreth hadn’t

com-

. come along just then and made the

turn,”

Recalled from vacation, Detective Ser-
geant George Baker, in charge of the
day robbery detail, was- assigned to
screen recent robbery reports against
the descriptions of the Ambrose killers.

A road blockade by police and sheriffs’
cars on Saturday night halted many
cars resembling the two-tone, gray Pon-
tiac. Scores of suspects were picked up
over the week-end and released. Rogues’
gallery photos of men thought to re-
semble the killer with glasses were
shown to witnesses but in vain.

“We can’t pick up a single lead on
Daniels,” Sheets remarked to Captain
Hoffman as they reviewed the case on
Monday. He told him about a sugges-
tion by John Donahue, recently pro-
moted to detective.

“He has located a distant relative
of Daniels, a night watchman. Daniels
frequently visited him at his plant shack.
Donahue thinks (Continued on page 82)

39

| “What caused the shooting?” Sheets
asked Clyde. “Did your brother ‘try to

esist?”
Clyde shook his head vigorously.

“He didn’t try anything. He never
had a chance. I was at the bar talking
o Ted Remello. I looked up and saw one
ellow behind the bar with a gun. Just
then a shot sounded back of me, about
ee feet away. I heard a groan. Then
ee more shots came fast. I turned, saw
My brother on the floor and then saw
or the first time the other.man with
he two guns.”

He turned his face away as tears col-
lected in his eyes. He composed himself
And resumed. ‘ :

“He said to me, ‘Get your hands on
op of the bar, you-—’” here Clyde
Mentioned the lewd insult reported at
Joe’s Grill. “‘One move and you’ll get
your brains blown out.’”

-He paused, swallowed hard, and went
on.
“The man at the register dumped the
‘coin box on the floor, picked up the
bills underneath, and snapped, ‘Let’s
get going.’
‘the side door. The one who had killed
Earl called out, ‘Better not make a move
{for ten minutes. First one who sticks
his head out, I’ll blow it off” I crawled
to. the kitchen, got my gun, and when

ten minutes. First
ther told Detective
investigate slaying

ered, followed in

other _ officers. i got outside they were gone.”

the wounded _ A serious looking, medium-sized man,
fied as Mrs. Ruth identifying himself as Victor Castrillo,
Fort Hayes Bar- of 51 King Avenue, who also had been

recently discharged from the Army, told
fSheets he had brought Mrs. McBurney
+to the tavern.

_ “We were in the booth,” he continued.
e‘She’s had a lot of tough breaks lately.
‘She was feeling rotten. Suddenly I
heard a cracking sound. I looked up
fand saw this man with the two guns.
-Then there was an awful change of ex-
Pression on her face. She said, ‘Oh,
{7m hit.’ I got up right away—those guys
ewere gone pretty quick then—and I
called an ambulance.”

= Ted Remello, a builder, of 1333 North
Fourth Street, explained he had dropped
Hin to pick up a newspaper.

“I wasn’t here a minute when it hap-
pened,” he said. “I’d been at my moth-

homicide detec-
ck accounts of
ng from several

owell V. Sheets,
ide Bureau, ar-
vlurphy told him
old-up and the
the bandits. As
detectives and
As they went
ts, photographs
ination, Sheets
sses.
im that the two
the side entrance
- end of the bar,

le to Earl Am-
nter table. 4
beer,

the one q
two guns and Ls
nds on the bar

of forty, tall,
es, standing at
into space.

brose, Earl’s

‘l\yde had been

run the cafe
y service in the
{1 given up his
vred. Earl was
the Army, had
erans, had op-
tavern twelve
ds of baskets
and Christmas,
borhood place.

Though wounded, Sergt. Conn - (left)
turned defeat into victory. Said Capt.
Hoffman (right), “This is a job for all
Ohio. Now we have got to find them!”

The two of them backed to °

er’s, I left there at eleven-thirty. I
was talking with Clyde when I saw this
fellow at the cash register with the
gun. He was slicked up. He said to me,
‘Lay your hands on the bar,’ and he
called me the same thing the other one
called Clyde. I just saw the back of
the other one. He was about five feet,
eleven, slim, slightly stooped, with dark
brown hair.”

Remello went on to say that he saw
Earl Ambrose look up from the news-
paper, sight the gunman at the register
but not the second man who was still
in the alcove. Ambrose rose and took
two steps backward. Then the other

. gunman was out of the alcove. He fired

instantly, without a word of warning,
and Ambrose pitched sideways a little,
his arms groping for the wall.. The gun-
man stalked him and pumped three more -
shots into his victim.

Mrs. Jane Ambrose, the proprietor’s
wife, Sheets learned from Clyde, had
been in the kitchen where the safe was
kept.. It contained $20,000 drawn from
the bank for cashing paychecks, Clyde
revealed.

The killers had actually gotten less
than $400 from the register.

As the body of Ambrose was taken
out for an autopsy at the University
Hospital morgue, a’man of about thirty-
five entered and asked for the officer
in charge. .

Identifying himself as James Hildreth,
a bus driver, of 355 Twelfth Street, he
told’ Sheets he had been driving home
with his wife and had slowed at the

corner to turn when he saw two men

with guns dash out of the tavern and
into the alley alongside. '

“I made the turn into Fifth Avenue
and saw a car speed out of the other end
of the alley. The men inside looked like
the same ones. They pulled in front of
me. At Fourth Street their car was held
up by traffic. I got excited and stalled
my car. Before I could get started,
they were gone.”

‘Did you notice what kind of a car
it was?” Sheets asked.

“Yes, sir. A ’47 Pontiac, two-tone

gray, torpedo sedan.”
“Are you sure?”

“It worked,” reported Detective J. M.
Donahue (left). “The pal’s name _ is
Johnny West.” Detective Kenneth Miller
(right) linked pair to cornfield murder

“I know cars, I couldn’t be mistaken
on it.”

“Notice anything else?”

“The license number. It was L-4190.”

Sheets immediately called head-
quarters to put all police and sheriff’s
patrol cars on the lookout for the car.
He also ordered a check on the license
number. ;

“Undoubtedly it’s a stolen car,” he
conceded, “but I want to get a check
on it as quickly as possible.”

Sheets left the tavern at 1:13 a.m.
and drove to White Cross Hospital. After
witnessing the fifty-minute, emergency
abdominal operation on Mrs. McBurney
and receiving the extracted bullet, he
drove to University Hospital, noting
that it was a few minutes before 2:30
A.M., the closing time for taverns. At
the hospital morgue, Dr. Mitchell A.
Spyker, Franklin County coroner, told
him he had found entrance and exit
wounds for four bullets in Ambrose’s
body. ‘

“One of the bullets that passed
through Ambrose must have hit Mrs.
McBurney,” Sheets observed. “All
agreed that only four.shots were fired.”
' At headquarters, he learned that no
trace of the two-tone Pontiac had been
reported. He dismissed his men at 4:30.

“Let’s get a few hours’ sleep,” he told
them. “The killers have holed up by
now.” .

Sheets was back in his office at 9 a.m.
He checked the hospital on Mrs. Mc-
Burney. Her condition was reported
critical. He asked Detective Kenneth
E. Miller, secretary of the detective de-

“Cover me while I disarm Daniels,”
yelled Sheriff F. Roy Shaffer (above),
but he was shocked to hear his com-

I’m hit too”

panion reply, “I can’t.

37


| DRIVE-A:WAY. CO.
| Cc NcKeee ic
¥ 0

Ly

First indication of the tragedy was received when the
call came: “I’m at Niebel’s home. The family is miss-
ing. Something’s wrong!” (Above) Supt. Niebel and wife

“Keep your hands away from those guns and get down,”
Sheriff Shaffer instructed the fugitive who crouched
in upper car. ‘Don’t shoot. You’ve got me,” was
man’s plea. Suddenly gunfire exploded from the front

“Cive me a chanc:
But his smile qu

partment, to- get the reports on the “That license n
Pontiac license number. Captain Glenn g 1936 Chevrolet
C.. Hoffman, chief of detectives, tall, Daniels of 211 W:
alert, broad-shouldered, came in. They Sheets leaned
went over the evidence. “Has it been
“These are the worst kind of killers,” asked.
Hoffman commented. “They don’t shoot “Not in the la
to get out of a jam. They're trigger- record room is

es ‘ : happy. They enjoy killing.” Sheets looked

“Dm afraid to think what may have Sheets nodded grimly. “See if there’s

happened here,” said the sheriff as “They'll kill again,” Hoffman asserted, that name.”

he noted ominous signs in the room “unless we can get them first.’ He Miller was bac

of pretty Phyllis Niebel (above) paused. “We don’t have much to work this,” he said, r
with.” He stood up and frowned.

“I’m going to cancel all vacations,” Robert Mur!
he announced. “We need every man in paroled from
the department on this job.” formatory at

In emer (above) lay three Shortly after he left, Detective Miller tember osth for
bodies. It’s hard #0), COMCERVE came in wearing a puzzled look. Waverly. Ser\
of minds so twisted they could “Did you talk to Hildreth yourself?” two months. A
do this,” said Sheriff Robinson he asked. the Boys Indus:

Sheets nodded. easter in 1941

“He was sure it was a ’47 Pontiac?”

“Definitely.” Sheets gave the

Miller shrugged. man. Detectives

address and to qu
Sheets reported
“His father
“About 1:30 A.M. we heard a car come up tractor. The par:
the road and stop about 50 yards beyond the Chevvy on Ju
the Niebel home (left),”’ said a neighbor that day. They


Blood Crazy |

(Continued trom page 39) this fellow
might know where he is. He’d like to spend
some time with him.”

Hoffman promptly gave his approval.

“Let’s relieve him of all other assign-
ments.”

Sergeant Baker of the robbery detail
meanwhile reported that the killers had
been linked by victims to three recent
robberies.

“The first was at 9:50 p.m., June 23rd,”
he reported. “Daniel Lenihan, the Sohio
filling station attendant at 20th Avenue and
Summit Street got a bad beating on the
head. He was patched up at University
Hospital.”

“There was no sense to the beating,”
Detective Glade Reeder, Baker’s aide,
added. “Lenihan didn’t make a move to
resist.”

“They got seventy-five dollars,” Baker
resumed, “and a half-hour later they held
up William Lane, of 508 Lexington Ave-
nue, at another Sohio station at Cleveland
and 16th Avenues. They got fifty dollars.”

Three days later, on June 26th, Baker
went on, the pair had held up the Idle Hour
Cafe, 2319 Cleveland Avenue. They got
more than $600 from Oscar O’Dell, the bar-
tender.

“The one with the glasses,” Reeder added,
“didn’t like O’Dell’s long face and told him
he better look happy or he’d get his head
‘bashed in,’ ”

“The pattern is clear,” Baker summed
up. “Sounds like this Daniels picked him-
self up a nice little playmate with an itch
to pull a trigger. He sold his car on June
20th. Three days later the two stole the
Pontiac. That night they pulled a couple
of small stick-ups. Three days later they
graduated to a cafe hold-up. And now
they’re bigtime killers.”

“Yes,” agreed Hoffman, “with $4,000 in
cash and a good, fast car. We've got to
stop them before they do more killing.”

Tuesday afternoon detectives were as-
signed to check on five girls named as
friends of Daniels by members of his
family and neighbors, who were still un-
aware of his new crime career. The fol-
lowing day, the investigations eliminated
three of the girls.

“They admitted dating him casually,”
Sheets told Hoffman, “but they haven't
seen him for some time and didn’t seem to
know much.”

“That leaves two.”

“One of them moved. The boys are try-
ing to trace her. I expect to hear from
the other one pretty soon. She’sa respect-
able girl and I understand the Daniels
family liked her pretty well.”

‘

A little later Sheets had the information
for Hoffman.

“Here’s the story. The girl saw Daniels
the night before the Ambrose killing. He
and a pal met her on the street. The pal
fits the description of our man with the
glasses. He introduced him as ‘Johnny’ and
suggested a double date. She didn’t like the
other man’s looks and excused herself.”

Hoffman drummed fingers on the desk.

“Maybe she’d be willing to call the
family,” he suggested, “and try to get an
idea where he might be.”

During their conference the next day,
Sheets reported on the girl’s call.

“At first they told her they didn’t know
where he was. She kept on asking where
she might be able to locate him and finally
she was told the last they had heard he
had gone to Parkersburg, West Virginia.”

“That doesn’t seem to help much,” Hoff-
man commented. “How is Detective Dona-
hue doing with the night watchman?”

“The old fellow seems suspicious. He’s
trying to pump out of Donahue what the
police have on Daniels. He’s polite but at
the same time he’s beginning to show he
doesn’t like the idea of him hanging around
the shack all the time.”

Detectives meanwhile were pains-
takingly tracing Number Five on the list
of girl friends. On Friday, Sheets got a
telephone report and informed Hoffman:

“Remember the girl who moved away?
We've located’ her mother. She said the
girl got married and left town. She claims
that Daniels gave her daughter a.raw deal.
Then she mentioned that she saw Daniels
on Friday afternoon, July 9th, the day of
the killing.”

Hoffman looked up sharply.

“It turns out the mother takes in wash-
ing,” Sheets continued. “Daniels took her
two bundles earlier that week. He wanted
it done in a hurry. She didn’t want to be
rushed and he gave her an argument... Said
he had to have it by Friday at the latest.”

“Sounds as though he might have been
preparing for a getaway,” Hoffman re-
marked. ;

“That’s not all, Chief. My men got to
talking with her about what was in the
bundles. She said both packages had some
fancy shirts of similar brand and style with
embroidered initials on the pockets. One
lot had Daniels’ initials. The other initials
were J. W.” ;

“You've checked our records for anyone
with those initials?”

“We found several. One of them used to
be a pal of Daniels. But there’s no re-
semblance and we checked on all of them.
They’re in the clear.”

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82

“smat Parkersburg tip may not be a bad
steer,” Hoffman mused aloud. “Why not
play our hand with the watchman for all
it’s worth? Have Donahue let on to him
that he’s tagging Daniels because he’s try-
ing to locate his pal, Johnny. With the
J. W. and the Parkersburg information to
play with, Donahue might get him to talk.”

Saturday afternoon Sheets and Hoffman
briefed Donahue, who was to spend the
night at the watchman’s shack,

At 4.a.m. Sunday, July 18th, the phone at |

the home of Sheets rang persistently. He

lifted the receiver. The call was from

Donahue. .

“It worked,” he reported, excitement in
his voice. “The pal’s name is Johnny West
from Parkersburg. They met in Mansfield.”

The Columbus record room had no in-

formation on West. Sheets phoned the |
Parkersburg police. In a return call be- |

fore noon, Parkersburg authorities in-
formed him they had no record on him

and no one by that name was known to the |

West families of that city. After notifying
Hoffman, Sheets and Detective Ernest Moss
left early in the afternoon for Mansfield.

| be reformatory records described John
Coulter West as six feet, one and one-
half inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, with

a pimply face and dark brown hair. He had “

been arrested three times in 1946 in Cleve-

land, was twice released after questioning :
and the third time, on Oct. 28rd, received |
a suspended sentence for burglary and 4
larceny. He was turned over to Akron =
where in January, 1947, he was sentenced : 4
to from one to seven years in the reforma- |
tory for stealing truck tires and tubes from P|
the Weaver Trailer and Body Company. #
He had been released on March 12th, 1948. §

He was twenty-three.

The reformatory psychiatrist’s report :

listed him as a moron.

Returning to Columbus, Sheets and Moss |

had some difficulty locating witnesses to

.the hold-ups, They traced the Schechters |
to the Excelsior Club, where they found §

them at the swimming pool.

As Sheets shuffled a stack of fifty photos, }

Schechter looked on apathetically, having

been through this routine several times. |
When West’s photo appeared, he caught his 4

breath.

“That’s him,” he exclaimed. “You've got §

him now.”
Given the photo test separately, Mrs.

Schechter unhesitatingly picked West out }

of the stack.

Oscar O’Dell, the Idle Hour Cafe victim,

was the next witness located by Sheets.

“That’s the cookie,” he exclaimed as

West’s photo came into view.

Sheets called Parkersburg police and 4
gave them the address of West’s mother. |
She had recently moved there, the Mans- 4}

field report revealed.

On Monday, while detectives kept phon- 4
ing in to Sheets that witness after witness.
unhesitatingly identified West, photos and #

descriptive circulars were being run off at
top speed for wide distribution.

Parkersburg police reported that West §-

had left his mother’s seven-acre farm, six

miles from town, on June 22nd, after al

visit from Daniels.

That day, July 19th, Captain Hoffman }
ordered release of the names and photos

of the killers to the newspapers.
“We've merely identified them,” he as-

serfed. ‘Now we've got to find them. They #

may be a thousand miles away. They may
be here in Ohio. Wherever they are, they’re}

a menace to innocent people. They’ve #

beaten one victim, shot another, killed
Ambrose and wounded a woman who got
in the. way of a spent bullet. They’re
trigger-happy. They’ll kill again unless we

get them first. Let’s put the heat on. Let’s
get their faces known as widely as pos- |

wi sible.”

While sheriff's
uniformed police
Franklin County
of the killers, Hof
1,000 photo-circula
Patrol’s 336 men
county sheriffs of (
departments and s
out the country.

HE following m<

21st, at 9:30, De
Humphrey was
Daniels and West o
just been delivered
jail, facing the pul
sixty-five miles :
when the phone ra:

The call was fy)
assistant to John E
of the 1,600-acre O

“Tm at Niebel’s
missing. Somethin

Humphrey hurri:
vate office in the re
Sage.

Sheriff Frank EF

finishing his seconc
well acquainted
chief. Niebel, wide
administrator, was {
a heart condition.
a pleasant, mother];
ty-year-old, auburn-
lis, had been one of
graduated from M
worked as a billing
textile plant, and w
as a warm-hearted,
in 4-H work.

The sheriff pressex
tor along the six-mi
home, a two-story,
a hill overlooking t
ings.

Allarding met hirr
“Niebel was due :
he said. “I thought }
He explained that
living a quarter-mil<
had stopped at the
o’clock to pick up ;
the doors open, th:
about; he saw signs
that the cars of Nie
both in the garage
Glancing about th:
son observed a wom
of a chair and four <

into the carpet.

On the center tal
dining-room, were a
purses, a girl’s dress

“Those are Nie
Allarding. “The bil
driving license is m
an open buffet draws:
kept some guns the)

The sheriff bent d
stubs were mashed :
carpet.

“That’s what won
Allarding said. “The !

ROsRTAON phoned {
Hildebrand to con
Harold Marvin and (
also called Paul Marti
lice Department’s Be
the latter’s suggestion,
reformatory to summ:
and officers. The state
asked to send some
two then went upsta
In the first bedr«
Niebel’s shoes and s
foot of the bed, his pajéz
bedclothes. A woman’
things were piled up
The second bedroom
one made up, the oth:


a

ROBERT MURL DANIELS AND JOHN COULTER WEST (Ohio)
"A KILLER WINKS AT GORY CRIMES"

"In the fortnight beginning July 10 two subnormal young men
named Robert Daniels and John West murdered six people in the
state of Ohioe West killed a Columbus saloonkeeper, a farmer and
a truck driver. Daniels shot down the family of John C. Niebel,
the farm superintendent of a reformatory where both Danieiss and Wes:
had served sentences, When the police finally intercepted the slay:
ers, West was killed by Daniels surrendered. A few days later
Sheriff Roy Shaffer, who captured him, interviewed Daniels for
Movietone News, In the dramatic film sequence Killer Daniels re-
peated his confession, and, winking at the audience, boasted that
he got his ‘share! of the victims,"

Captions underneath photographs: "secoscel didn't mean to kill

(the Niebels)...-eef wanted to find out about another ZUYeccecoce

the information, I_knew it was too hot to leave him goes I took him

out to tie him upe TI didn't have any rop@eesc.+e+-eS0 I had to bump

Hhime-ccocoeel'm sorry that they (the wife and daughter) had to be

along and to get killed...o...+.+eeAfter I got my score settled, I

Was ready to diee..ooel Baven't got it settled yet, but I guess I'm

goingercccoveerto die anyhows..eeThe Niebels I killed = I regret it

because they, well = they didn't deserve killingoe..-+eNiebel did,

but his wife and daughter, they didn'teecere(but)ecoeelL got three a

of the six = my share}"

LIFE MAGAZINE, Auge 16, 1948

Page 30


KOLERT MUBPL DANIELS ANB JOHN COULTER WEST . _ (Ohio)
! ef ; |

"They were. nothing but punks -,callow, sulleny foul-mouthed youths,

Tuberculous, bespectacled. Johnny: West was 22; he had a thiny bony body,

a big nose, a.girl's wouth, and a mind as weik and erratic as a.bat$s,.
Stocky, thick-li,pped “obert Daniels,was 24; there was alook of dull
animal vigor about bim and he loved flashy clothds,. but he had a
psychopathic impulsiveness, an inability to consider conseaquencese

rf "“Euey met in Ohio's gloomy, overcrowded Mansfiold Reformatorye
After they were paroled, FAAP FOLRS SORORE RTT accumulated an arsenal
and stole: a 1947 Pontiace:;' ‘ ‘

"Gne nighticarly -this. outs ehays walked drunkenly into a Columtus
tavern, yenked out uwuutometic pistols and took {800 in cash and checks
from the till. elf an hour later they walked into another bar and
beyoi ghootinge They killed the owner, wounded .a woman customer,
jubitontly scocped up another $400¢

"Then they were seized with a magnificent idea. why not go beck
to wensfiold snd kill some reformetory guards? At 1:30 one morning
last week they parked their bar below the home of the reforiatory'ts
fern superintendent, a burly, mwiddledaged man nemed John E. Niebele
They reng the doorbeél,

"uen Niebel looked out, Daniéls politely asked permission to use
the telephonee Then he stepped inside, apis aie his pistol, snarled:
'This is a stickpu.! While Yest covered the perintendent, Daniels
Went upsteirs, got Niebel's dumpy wife andj sn uc redheaded 22-
year-old déughter Phyllis out of bede The two killers gloated over
their frightened victims like vicious children; deinanded that Niebel
order «a aba named 'Rad! Harris to cone to tue house.

"Waebel cefuseds. The pair ordered the big farmer and the two
walbestuedd women outside and into the car, told them to teke off
their clothese The automobile moved off through tne derkness, Finally
puiled up beside a cornfield. Daniels forced the Nievels to walk out
amony vbhe rustling stalkse 'Knegel down,! we orderede They knelte-
naked, Shivering, sick with terrore West shot Mrs. Niebel in the
Stomactie wis pistol janmede Paniels shot her in the head. Ue fired
twice more, «ind Niebel and daughter toppaesd over dyinge The two gunmen
walked hace to their cur and drove awaye

"Tie text evening Johnny west began asserting himself. He forced
m sedan to the side of the road in the hope of getting false identifie-

cation and & new getaway car. He leaped out, looked in at a man and
woman, said: 'Yourte driving too fast —- give me your driver's license.!
The driver, 3 Carmor named James Smith, refused. Jotnny west pulled
&@ RRNX pistol, shot him through the head,

Yas tha tillers roared away, still without a new car, they began
Guarreling bitterly. Daniels, suddenly fearful, railed against west!s
Wild stuviditye but West was still snarling with braggadocio a few
minutes later when they spotted a perfect getaway cur - a big Dodge
haulsway truck with four new Studebskers on its rear decks - parked
in Some trees near the town of Tiffine The truck driver was asleepe
vest said: 'tI'1ll take care of him,! and yaked out his pistol againe

"Johnny Wost pushed the truck driver into the bushes, shot
him ia the Head and chest, climbed bouind the truck's wheel. Daniels
got into one of the new canvasedraped cars in the rear. ‘hey rolled
on unchdllenged through one of Onio's greatest man huntSe

"at $:45 in the morning, six miles northeast of tine town of
Van Vert, west brought the big bhaulaway rig jolting anda hissing to a
Stope There was a police car across the Bighwaye Van Wert County's ae

grizzled Sheriff Fe Roy Shaffer called: 'You got any passengers in
back?! est said: 'None that I know of.!

Shaffer hesitatedg Then,-while « policeman ‘named Leonard
Conn covered him with a:iTommy gun, he jumped up on the truck's frame-
work, liftod tho canvas which shieldcd Yangiels. tayougkh had five
pistols and three rifles heside ‘hime | But he called, !Bon't shoots
Tell me what to dot! and chimbed out ‘trembling, |

. "“Jobnny west hearde He !openad the cab ‘oor, Shot Conn in

the lungs and ait a game protoctor named okreandtoFriemoth in the shoul-
dere But as Conn sank, his Tommy gun cut loase.e. West toypled out to
the pavement, dying, bis face a hloody pulps

"Daniels hardly looked at the bodys Yo pleaded; 'Give me my
credid for my share of the dead onese!" t

a

TIME MAGAZINE, August 2, AQ4B ‘Pages 1 and 15.

*


i. a ee

T WAS
July 21,
three nt
few mil
tims were
E. Niebel, }
ter, Phyllis

The trip
vengeance
intendent !
disciplinari
tion at Mar
for the pa:
pects were

Coulter We
and obviou
crime. Th
ing been ic
weeks befc
Ambrose, <
Frank Kre
Detroit.

The Law
terror. Ar
after a sta
cent years.
killers had
sons. West

wounded s
Boastfully !

during the

himself. Ar

the Van W
captured,
him!” Offic

The layc
this spread
tional case

TRIPLE REVENGE SLAYING—
Members of one family pictured here—Mr. and Mrs. John
E. Niebel and their daughter Phyllis were among victims.

SLAUGHTERED

13-Day Death March of the
Ohio Reformatory Parolees

Le?

WOUNDED OFFICER—

REMOVIN(
>» #$Frank Friemoth, who was wounded Officers
: m as he helped round up the killers. where she

58 HR

CRIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE,
Nevember, 1948

SE Re,

adel ci Bak Pao x ae a cena BS

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RY JON Me MILLA SF
\shapere of Parreimee Poet ree
tk etpeated ther cree a wer Wises First
te eS PoP we gua te eee carr ing
tefacted be 4 bint testrwmes! led tigen trom the: 4
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papers were toade eat Cree which
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heen ast Coiemaes |

tthe rome woece F
were gites neler tank eee
jpn
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Deviag towed
» Rete comets Pore Bath wes were)

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, \his waist, legy and head at 9:03. at!
divians Ot 2-08; 9:046 the guard stepped back, rapped Whe
: lon the @eor leading to the roomn:

arg the switches

7» mm, Thursday.

: James Coleman. 14 elionnd,/ a
“Sheepy”  seetned. te be nerrous acd:
had te be led into tat death chat j
_presouncrl dead. at)

and he was ex2

Kyle, > prison physician,
Staker and anotber phy-
dead by |:

i son's chest
iDr, George
pri; Cy

wen were left in solitary curl siciah. He was declared
the penitentiary watil | theme physicians at 9205. Hin body |
under! waa then removed from the chait,
} to &and turned ever to. the whitaxker |
mnber. feolored undertaking company. rH

2 Coleman zain ;

At 0:10 the door leading to the}
more opened
by the two! paige.

La

i

bac
te adont 15 feet

ii

3

weary wire
tate t

K

the
with a chsit
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fe
F

séated be i
artekied |

Gollier, about ® Yoar-| fire ald trvelsment,

7 Republicans Having
Swrisg men peed ome Getting Campaign Manager As

Result Of

RY DAVID
Copyright, 1928, by
ASHINGTON, July 6A
cot well ox yot with Floorcr cam
The peodlem of

‘e,

*., Rt
art, a wen of the t

way die ing attention ta the Maria wemes
cVifford | sod daring the groera! fight ee
apd Dean enauéd, Metiuire, who te paid 16 hare
# Metvin, enacted the role of peacemaker, Was
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pele and be wee EVED

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ponded to a call

1 eisncipsecloncbeste

“the officers hastened to the bow pt tat.
dincioned thas!  Bhéritf Bd Canter sintted the PS”

tanarnenmes wt! ae

Difficulty

ee enna

Check On Finances

..-Says David Lawrence

LAW RENCK y
The Daily Times) |

msde by seach polities! party ths

wirhin 30 days after the campege be

gine sad every 20 dase (hereafter

pedlic recor! will be Qiacloned of “ae

p pais routribetimea: Aiso titre

eastern and! Jefinite. pledge that Bo deficrt, «1D >
dif) incurred.

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after the ele

cepted the managem
and eastern bewdquarters res

Jt is wnderstoo! that dtr
already made large perena!
in devoting hie time te the pee-cooyven:
tiog campaign and thie is the ptiserpal .
yeaton why he was not able io coms: |
airmasship. The iden

onee) Virg! VWowler. esa |

pedy at &:17/ There wae ® yery slight;

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hatred which can’ build up through
many years to explode in just such a
murder as had happened on that ill-
starred farm.

“This murder occurred on Wednes-
day night,” the sheriff said. “I know
that every Wednesday night for years
Collett attended the Clinton County
Grange meeting over in Kingman.
Let’s go back to the office. I'd like to
do a little checking on an attendance

’ record.”

A telephone call that night to the
secretary,,of the farm organization
brought news which fitted perfectly
into a solution that was forming from
‘the jig-saw bits of clues.

. For the first time in three years Col-
lett had missed a meeting. - It was the
murder night. :

“That does it,” the sheriff snapped.

' “Pve a few questions to ask Mr. Col-
lett—and this time I won’t be so sym-
pathetic!” ;

THE sheriff and prosecutor drove to
Collett’s: farm near Wilmington,
Ohio, on Tuesday morning; Novem-

': ber 30. The thin little man greeted

them cordially: “Well, fellows, have
_ you found anything?”

“Yes, Collett,” said the sheriff, “we
have. We’ve found the man who mur-
dered your brother-in-law, your sis-
ter-in-law and your niece.”

Collett blinked behind his glasses.
“You have?” he inquired incredulous-
ly.. “Who is he?” :
~ “Ym looking at him right now,”

(Continued from page 21)

the phone. “It’s about your wife,” he
said. “She’s met with an_ accident.
We'll be right over.”
- Face strained Parent was waiting

impatiently at the front door of his
home at 13 Oak Street as Chief Mc-
Kenna raced up the steps.

“Tell me? What is it?” The frantic
‘husband begged before the police

were even inside the house... “I know.

something terrible’s happened.”

“It’s a bad accident,” said McKenna,
hesitating to break the news too
abruptly. . ~

Wilfred Parent gripped his coat
sleeve in tense fingers. ns

“Tell me! Tell me! Is she... is
she dead?”” g

McKenna nodded.

The husband stepped backward,
sobbing, “I-was afraid of that. Was
it an auto?”

86

TIMELY DETECTIVE CASES

said the sheriff, staring steadily into
the little man’s eyes.

Collett stared back at him, looked
at Hill, then back to the sheriff again.
“Are you trying to be funny . . .” he
started to say.

“There’s nothing funny about this.
Get your hat and come along to my
office. We'll talk it over there.”

At the sheriff's office Collett pro-

_ tested, at first jokingly, then angrily,

at the bare suspicion that he could be
involved in the murder of his three in-
laws. :

. “You must be crazy,” he stormed,
“to think such a thing!”

“Where were you last Wednesday
night between seven and nine
o’clock?” the sheriff demanded.

Collett gave an elaborate account of
his movements on that night. One by
one, the sheriff and the prosecutor
knocked down his explanations as fast
as they could be checked.

The sheriff went back to his ques-
tioning: “You still insist you're tell-
ing the truth?”

“Absolutely! Why shouldn’t I tell
you the truth? I have nothing to
hide.”

“In that case: you would have no
objection to taking a lie detector test?”

' “Of course not. Bring on your ma-
chine.” :

The nearest lie detector was in the
police crime laboratory at Toledo.
That same night, Sheriff Icenhower
and Prosecutor Hill went to that city
with their prisoner.

The next morning Collett was
placed before the lie detector. Con-
fident at first, he soon appeared fright-
ened and confused as the needle of
the polygraph ‘showed him to be tell-
ing fabricated alibis.

Suddenly, he rose from the chair.
“Take this thing off of me,” he cried,

Back in the Fayette County jail:

James Collett was a broken man. Un-
der new questioning by the sheriff, he
began to offer a confession.

“Yes, I did it,” he said. “I went to --

Elmer’s farm that night and we had
an argument.. .”

“Over rent for the place?”

“Yes. I figured they owed me
twenty thousand dollars for rent over
twenty years. I figured our mother-
in-law left the farm to me as much as
to Elmer.” “

“So you gave them a bill to look at?”

The sheriff still wanted to solve the

mystery of ‘the reading glasses.

“Yes. Elmer and I went to the barn. -

We got into an argument and he
picked up a pitchfork and swung at
me. There was a gun hanging on a
nail on the wall and I took it and shot
him.”

The prisoner refused to tell where
he had hidden the gun or admit that
he had an extra weapon. He also
amazingly declared that he had not
slain Mrs. McCoy or her daughter but
had fled after killing the farmer.

The Fayette County Grand Jury,
however, indicted him for all three
murders and he is now awaiting trial.

.

TWO TIMING WIFE

McKenna’s voice was husky. ‘No,
we found her body just off the Batter
a while ago.. She was murdered.”

“Murdered?” Parent’s incredulous
tone was pathetic.

‘It’s a terrible thing for you, I.

know,” said McKenna, “but you must
try to bear up and help us. And first
I must ask you to identify the body.”

Wilfred Parent’s face was blank
with shock as he walked into the
white vaulted morgue room with
Chief McKenna. He steeled himself
for the ordeal, but he was unprepared
for the horrible sight that greeted his
eyes when an attendant pulled out a
tray and lifted a white sheet.

“Lillian! My God!” The husband
stepped back and crumpled as though
struck. ‘The chief’s arms encircled his
shoulders.

“Buck up,” he cautioned. “Think
of your children.”

Parent was led gently back to the
police car and driven home. With
sympathetic insistence the police
pressed their questions.

“When did you see your wife last?”

“Nine o’clock last night. She was
celebrating her birthday. It was im-

possible for us to go out together be-

cause of my mother, so she went out
alone. She said she was going to see
Mrs. Jean Farrell and would be back
before midnight.”
- “Did your wife have any enemies?”
“None.” .
“Do you know of anyone who might
have done this?” -
“No.” '
“Did she wear a coat last night?”
“Yes. She wore a chinchilla coat
when she went out.”
Mrs. Jean Farrell lived at 103 Taylor
Street. When contacted, she told of
Mrs. Parent’s actions the night before.

ee ia

/

(5) Lesson }


we -A

COLLETT, James W.,

top, to shoot rabbits
triple murder. One victim, found slumped

bus. “I’ll open the gate.”

rabbits,” he said as he climbed back into the car.

land,” commented one of the hunters,

gate, They may want to pull out,”

i Four hunters coming to Bin erous Oak View Farm,
YY} st Thanksgiving stumbled upon a

. , ainst a piece

{ of farm machinery in the barn, was Elmer cCoy, above,
/| ‘By DAVID KEAN

d/ HE four rabbit hunters were in high spirits as

they turned off the Columbus-Washington Court
House, Ohio, hi way and onto a less traveled
¢ Toad, It wasa little before 9 o'clock Thanksgiving morning, 1943,
(/ and it was a perfect day for hunting, clear and bracingly cold.

“Oak View Farm. This is it,” called John Ducey, of Colum-

As he swung the wooden’ gate back the car moved into a
narrow lane leading to a cluster of farm buildings beyond.
Elmer told me his back pasture and the wo6d lot are alive with
“You're lucky to have a friend who'll let you hunt on his
__. “Say, we'd better run off the lane and park about here,” Ducey
directed. “There’s another car parked by the kitchen garden

STARTLING

STARTLING DETECTIVE, August, 1944

The men
and game bz
lane continu:
the parked «
beside that
The men
knelt beside
exclaimed.
The slend:
of her head
“Look at
walked up tc
The sight
would chill
there on th
bullet woun:
expectednes:
her glasses
Ducey nx
thing or goi
I'll go get t
McCoy’s lan
McCoy’s :
a hushed gr
soon return
Claytor was
He pound
McCoy!”’ Ir
.stopped and
Ducey, wi
posture slun
was a bullet
more clearly
Claytor w
McCoy was
terrible thin;
“We'd bet
like to go in
knob with a

NSIDE, 1
surprise.
"swung free.
wires still la
The men «
gested, “I’ll
The tena:
friend. I th
fields to the
Ducey jo
man’s long
ground.

By the tir
nard Icenhoy
arrived, a nt
veteran she:
the restless
ated them. $
not likely th:

A quiet, «
Sheriff Icen
near-by fenc
investigatior

In the ba
Fayette Cou
city editor
Herald, wh«
purposes.

“Dead at

Then the
and picked a
“There’s the
“Came out tl

“A good
wound.

“Whoever
well or was

DETECTI\


View Farm,
mbled upon a
Salnst a piece
lcCoy, above,

| Spirits as
gton Court
8 traveled
rning, 1943,
\cingly cold,
', of Colum-

oved into a
igs beyond.
e alive with

lunt on his

re,” Ducey
1en garden

ARTLING

The men clambered out of their car and carrying their guns
and game bags started toward the barn, back of which another

lane continued to their hunting grounds. But as they approached

the parked car, Ducey suddenly cried, “Look, someone’s lying
beside that car.”

The men ran forward. Ducey, who reached the car first,
knelt beside the still form. “Why, it’s Mildred McCoy!” he
exclaimed. ‘“She’s dead. Shot through the head.”

The slender girl lay face down and the bullet hole in the back
of her head was visible.

“Look at this!” called one of Ducey’s companions, who had
walked up to the screened porch.

The sight that the hunters encountered on that porch
would chill any man. Mrs. Forrest McCoy’s body lay
there on the bloodstained boards, literally riddled with
bullet wounds. A string dish cloth, evidence of the yn-
expectedness of the attack, was still clutched in one hand,
her glasses in the other.

Ducey motioned them back. “We'd better not touch any
thing or go inside. If you fellows will stay with the bodies,
I'll go get the tenant farmer. He lives in the house on
McCoy’s land down the road a ways.”

McCoy’s friend sprinted off while the hunters stood in
a hushed group near Mildred McCoy’s parked car. He
soon returned with Dewey Claytor. Like the hunters,
Claytor-was aghast at the terrible sight.

He pounded off to the barn shouting, “Mr. McCoy! Mr.
McCoy!” In the open doorway of the barn he suddenly
stopped and after a moment backed out.

Ducey, who had followed him, saw McCoy in a kneeling
posture sltmped against a feed mixing machine. There
was a bullet wound in the back of his head. It was even
more clearly apparent because of his thinning gray hair.

Claytor was obviously shocked and saddened, “Mr.
McCoy was a good man,” he said simply. “This is a
terrible thing.”

“We'd better phone the sheriff,”: Ducey said. “I don’t

like to go in or disturb things, but we can hold the door- Fayette County, O., Prosecutor John B. Hill holds the sctssors used to™<
shear the McCoys’ telephone wire. Lovely Mildred McCoy, a teacher,"

knob with a handkerchief.”

ns FN en Se Ea NT Pe PEE ecco

: hower added. “Look at that—a cigar still clenched in his teeth

and a measuring tape in his hand.”

“The killer was close, all right,” the doctor affirmed. “There
are powder burns.”

The officials next examined the body of 22-year-old Mildred
McCoy, a home economics teacher at the Pittsburg High School
in Drake County on Ohio’s western border. The beautiful young
girl was lying face down close beside her car, the door of which
was open. As the photographer again recorded the position of
the body, the sheriff noted the similarity of her wound to the
one that killed her father. Since the killing had occurred after
dark, the bright light on the corner of the house and the porch

had no warning of doom when a killer stood behind her with a gun.*

pustos: the two men were confronted with another
surprise. When Claytor picked up the telephone, it
"swung free. The scissors that had been used to cut the
wires still lay on the little table.

The men exchanged puzzled glances. Then Ducey sug-
gested, “I’ll drive you in to Washington Court House.”

The tenant farmer shook his head. “You were his
friend. I think you'd better stay. I’ll just run across the
fields to the Pott’s farm. It’s not far as the crow flies.”

Ducey joined his friends and watched Claytor. The
man’s long legs carried him rapidly over the uneven
ground.

By the time Sheriff W. H. Icenhower, Deputy May-
nard Icenhower and Acting Coroner Dr. E. H. McDonald
arrived, a number of farmers had joined the hunters. The
veteran sheriff reflected that had there been any tracks
the restlessly milling group would probably have obliter-
ated them. Since the ground was frozen, however, it was
not likely there had been clues of that nature.

A quiet, dignified man with an authoritative manner,
Sheriff Icenhower soon had the onlookers ranged along a
near-by fence, where they would not interfere with the
investigation.

In the barn, the sheriff and coroner were joined by
Fayette County Prosecutor John B. Hill and B. E. Kelley,
city editor of the Washington Court House Record-
Herald, who immediately, took photographs for record
purposes.

“Dead at least ten hours,” commented Dr. McDonald.

Then the sheriff moved the 59-year-old McCoy’s head
and picked a bit of metal out of the dirt floor of the barn.
“There’s the bullet,” he said, handing it to the coroner.
“Came out through a nostril.”

“A good shot,” the doctor remarked examining the
wound, 5

“Whoever killed Elmer McCoy must have known him
well or was a good stalker. Unless he was moved,” Icen-

DETECTIVE


, SRE ee

2
‘

light must have been turned on, though they were no longer
burning. Even so, the killer must have been close behind his
prey. Like her father, she appeared to have had no warning of
disaster. One of her hands was in her coat pocket. The other
clutched a small package which she had probably just taken from
the car seat before she fell.

The sheriff passed a hand over his lined face. He was a
kindly man and keenly aware of the tragedy of this situation.
Here lay the corpse of a friendly and very lovely girl, a girl who
had only recently completed her education at Ohio State Uni-
versity and begun her teaching career, a girl who was respected
and liked by everyone.

The doctor turned the girl’s head and her auburn hair glinted
in the morning sunlight. She had been beautiful. The sheriff
wondered if this could be the revenge of some rejected suitor.
“Bullet’s lodged under her right eye,” explained McDonald.

Icenhower followed the doctor to the bloodstained porch.
Sixty-four-year-old Forrest McCoy had been shot half a dozen
times. Several of the bullets had gone completely through the
body.

Dr. McDonald looked up from his examination in perplexity,
pointing out that the body had been moved. Ducey assured him
that no one had approached any of the bodies since the party of
hunters arrived at about 9 a. m.

“IT wonder if Mildred could have come home and found her
mother like this,” the physician theorized, “turned her over and
then been murdered herself ?”

“You're quite sure she was moved?” Ducey asked.

The acting coroner explained that the blood on the woman’s
dress, the holes in the porch floor corresponding to her wounds
and the blood on the boards proved she had first lain face down
at that spot. Then she had been turned over and a shot fired into
her abdomen at such close range that the flesh and clothing were
powder burned. -

“Count Mildred out,” commented the sheriff. “She wouldn’t
be taking gift packages out of her car if she’d just found her
mother murdered.”

“There’s no blood on her hands, either,” added Prosecutor
Hill. “I noticed that.”

Icenhower agreed that no one could have moved Mrs. McCoy
when those terrible wounds were fresh without getting blood

on his hands, Another thought occurred to the veteran official :
The other two had each been killed by a single shot, but into this
woman more bullets had been pumped than had been necessary
to snuff out life. Could it’be possible that someone loathed her
so much that the killer had stood over her in frenzy of hatred,
firing bullet after bullet into her helpless body ?

The sheriff pried two .32 caliber bullets out of the flooring ;
two more had passed through the wood. “Those bullets must

-be imbedded in the earth under the perch. Get them out, May-

nard.”

The deputy moved aside a wooden grating and slid under the
porch. In a few minutes he emerged with the two bullets. The
sheriff examined them and passed them over to Hill; his voice
was grim when he commented, “Elmer and Mildred were killed
with thirty-eight caliber bullets—lead. These are steel-jacketed
thirty-two caliber buttets.”

“A two-gun killer,” the prosecutor exclaimed. “Odd that the
woman should have been killed by an entirely different gun.”

Icenhower noticed a piece of splintered wood on the door
frame leading from the porch into the house. He cut a .38 caliber
lead bullet out of the wood. “Fired at her with the same gun but
missed,” he commented as they entered the house.

The McCoy home was in perfect order and only the cut tele-
phone cord echoed the scene of violence outside. The furniture
shone. Mrs. McCoy, a good housekeeper, had prepared her
home for the holiday, the day which had now become a holiday
for murder. The dining room table was extended by extra
leaves and was already set for ten. The big turkey platter lay
ready for use on the sideboard.

“Looks as though the McCoys were planning festivities for
Thanksgiving,” remarked the prosecutor.

The household scissors with which the telephone wires had
been cut were carefully wrapped for future examination. A
possible robbery motive for the murder seemed to be ruled out
when a billfold containing $140 was found in the desk drawer

-.

Perseverin
Sheriff W.
obtaining «
conviction

close to

laying wit

of the de:
“It’s n

. scared an

“Sometin
that.”

“T don
bullets ir
sheriff lac
tenant far

Ambul
House we
the subd
drew Cla

HE !
Coy’s
outlined |
in detail.
“After
I startec
Took me
I shaved
“How
Icenhow
“Abot
poured r
would b
tail light
and ope:
later a
lane.”
The tk
He had
“Kno
asked.
Clayt
there’re
a little j
round t!
it was fT
thought
The
was rot
“Wel
and a |
close tc
kind of

DETE

eteran official:
t, but into this
een necessary
ne loathed her
nzy of hatred,

t the flooring;
e bullets must
lem out, May-

slid under the
9 bullets. The
Till; his voice
ed were killed
steel-jacketed

“Odd that the
‘rent gun.”

on the door
ita .38 caliber
same gun but

y the cut tele-
The furniture
prepared her
ome a holiday
led by extra
ey platter lay

‘estivities for

ne wires had
mination. A
be ruled out
desk drawer

“ARTLING

1

-.

_ scared and left without his loot,” said Hill.

Persevering, intelligent investigation by
Sheriff W. H. Icenhower, above, resulted in
obtaining evidence which brought about the
conviction for murder of the man at right.

close to the telephone. Mildred’s purse,
laying with her car keys and gloves on top
of the desk, also contained currency.

“Tt’s not robbery unless the thief got

“Sometimes a punk on his first job does
that.”

“T don’t think any thief put all those
bullets into Mrs. McCoy,” answered the
sheriff laconically. “I’ll have a talk with the
tenant farmer and with McCoy’s neighbors.”

Ambulances from Washington Court
House were arriving when the sheriff joined
the subdued group of men at the fence. He
drew Claytor aside for questioning.

"TH hired man told how he found Mc-
Coy’s body and at Icenhower’s request
outlined his movements of the previous night
in detail.

“After milking I went into Yatesville and
I started back home about eight o’clock.
Took me ten minutes to drive home. Then
I shaved—” ?

‘How long did that take?” interrupted
Icenhower.

“About three minutes. Then-I went out to the kitchen and
poured myself a cup of coffee. I sat down by the window. That
would be about eight-fifteen. I saw an automobile with two
tail lights stop at the gate. A man got out—not a very big man—
and opened the gate. Then he drove on in, About half an hour
later a second car with only one tail light drove into the
lane.”

The tenant farmer had heard no shofs from the McCoy house.
He had listened to the radio for a time and then retired.

rh a anyone that might have it in for McCoy?” the officer
asked.

Claytor smiled. “If you’re as successful as Mr. McCoy was,
there’re bound to be people who are jealous of you. But I guess
a little jealousy doesn’t often lead to murder. There was a story
round that he kept a good deal of money in the place. I suppose
it was robbery and maybe the family recognized the thief so he
thought he had to kill them.”

The sheriff’s eyes were keen. “I don’t think we’ll find this
was robbery. Have you any other ideas?”

“Well, Mr. McCoy was a good farmer. He owned two farms
and a lot of fine Poland China hogs. Folks say he was worth
close to a hundred thousand dollars. A farmer can’t make that
kind of money without being good. He worked hard all his life

DETECTIVE

RENE 2 TO RIT ae

and‘he expected other folks to do the same. Some folks don’t
work like that.”

Icenhower learned that McCoy had had difficulty at times
with hired men for he was firm in the way he wanted his property
kept. He had mentioned, too, that a couple of the hired men had
threatened to beat him up. He had carried a gun for quite a
while for protection. -

“How did you get along with McCoy ?” asked the sheriff.

“Why, fine. You see, I like things done right and so did Mr.
McCoy,” the man answered simply.

The man’s gaze was level and open, his voice steady. Strong
character and plenty of hard work were recorded in the lines
of his Lincolnian face and calloused hands. An honest, up-
standing, conscientious farmer, Icenhower decided.

The officer closed their interview with the request that he
“ask Mr. Potts to step over here.”

Asa Potts related that he heard a single shot about 8:30 when
he went out on his porch for some coal the previous night.
Twenty or thirty minutes later Mrs. Potts went out to the milk
house. She called her husband when she heard a series of shots
and a woman’s scream. A moment after Mr. Potts ran into the
barnyard in answer to her call there was one more single shot.

[Continued on page 47]

23


be married,” he

_ “I got burned up

-\th my hand. She
e car and I’m not
d after that.”
nind flashed the
ie bloodstains
at the pretty girl
ked down, Bleed.
‘ravel road, then
d in desperation
murderer to the
had been found
was attempting

hat happened?”
1t you remember
1k and slugging
time? Don’t you
down?”

ted, as though
uld make us i
tvidently he de-
ecause suddenly

recital of taking
to marry to the
ck, striking her
fist. Then, when
had slugged her
vy crank handle
1scious, partially

er to the brow
her bodily out
This explained
een found lying
the lonely
ithout any

_ | Elizabeth
alive, he had

omplete state-
n by a stenog-
r guard at the
y into cleaning
ase,

imson_ stained
ere Allan had
ively identified
his, because he
vith a hacksaw.
de note in his
ing a girl,

3 Our case was
rsons testified
to “get rid” of

Skystrup had
$500, and con-
“Or an imper-
ed, then flatly
ind finally re-
the slain girl
| Allan would
_to prove that
tormer co-ed’s
re,
srald assigned
leys Ameglio
Perrin to try
. uperior Judge
ose. After a
ctual trial got

evidence, re-
y of murder in
n March 16,
tenced to San
of from five
ng of pretty
acefsy] Alum

argess are
mated were in-
estigation.—The

HOLIDAY FOR HATE

[Continued from page 23]

“There must have been half a dozen
shots in the big flurry,” he concluded.

Questioned about why he had not im-
mediately gone to the McCoy farm to in-
vestigate the shootings, the neighbor
explained that when he heard the single
shot he thought “Elmer got a rat.” When
they heard the scream and the flurry of
shots the neighbors decided that McCoy
had been shooting chicken thieves, who
had been operating in the vicinity re-
cently. They figured that Mrs. shape
might have become frightened at the ris
her husband was running in driving out
the thieves, who might also be armed.
Elmer McCoy was a man who minded
his own business and preferred that his
neighbors do the same. Therefore, they
had hesitated to interfere.

By this time the ambulance men had

laced the bodies of Forrest and Mildred

cCoy in the cars. The blanket covered
body of Elmer McCoy was just being
carried through the hgh when a green
sedan pulled up back of Mildred’s car.
with a squeal of brakes. Icenhower rec-
ognized it as the Collett family’s auto-
mobile and was glad that the two women
had already been placed in the ambu-
lances. The news itself would be hard
enough for Mrs. Laura Collett to bear,
since Elmer McCoy was her brother,
without her having to witness the hor-
rible scene that confronted the hunters
on the once pool farm.

James Collett, a Berkshire hog breeder
of ee Clinton County, stepped
out of his car and approached the sheriff.
There were tears in his eyes as he spoke:
“Some of the boys down by the gates told
us. This is a terrible thing.” He looked
after the stretcher bearers and bowed his
head. “And to think we were geo =
here to have Thanksgiving dinner wit
Elmer and Forrest. The sight of those
rn was a terrible blow for my
wife.”

He had known this neatly-dressed, slen-

bi)

c cuEnaaipiasintnalinenmaess

cates omens
—

der Grange leader for a good many years «
and he could well imagine the sorrow of
the Colletts, but it was his duty as a law
enforcement officer to ask questions.

“IT wonder if you could give me some
help in this matter, Jim?”

THE elderly farmer squared his shoul-

ders and replied ire. “If there’s
anything I can do to help'clear this thing
up, Sheriff, you just tell me what it is and
I'll do it.”

“T thought you might know of a mo-
tive,” Icenhower suggested.

“Eimer always believed in keeping a
good deal of ready cash in the house. He
was a man who would try to protect what
was his.” :

When Icenhower rejected the robbery
motive, mentioning only the untouched
$140 in the drawer as his reason, Collett.
told a story of trouble with hired men
and tenants not unlike that the officer had
heard before. Since he was not only a
relative but also a close friend of Elmer’s,
Collett was able to give a fairly complete
account of these troubles,

The farmer explained that McCoy had

takeh on some help that he would never
have considered before the war and the
consequent ‘manpower shortage. McCo
considered them shiftless and didn’t hesi-
tate to find fault with their work. One of
them, a Carl Slessor, had been on the
McCoy place only a couple of days. He
had been the worst of the lot and he had
a violent temper. They quarreled over
the man’s treatment of the stock and
McCoy had ordered him off the farm.
McCoy finally threatened to call the sher-
iff irl order to get rid of him.
- Meanwhile Slessor’s son, a strapping
*teerl-age nag who was similarly given to
fits of rage, had managed to quarrel with
amidble rs} McCoy. The Slessors,
father and son, had roundly threatened
the McCoys when a left and Elmer
had carried a revolver for protection for
some months thereafter.

Beyond these circumstances, Collett
could give no information that might be
of “gs to the officers. He and his wife
soon left for town te make funeral ar-
rangements for the McCoy family.

The acting coroner and the prosecutor
also returned to Washington Court
House, where Dr. McDonald was to com-

lete his examination before turning the
odies over to the undertaker, Leaving
his deputy in charge, the sheriff drove to
the nearby Whaley farm.

Charles Whaley had little to add to
Asa Pott’s account. He, too, knew that
McCoy had had trouble with his’ hired
men. He mentioned that McCoy had a

uarrel with a former tenarit on his other
arm, which was west of Oak View.
Whaley had no idea where the hired man,
Slessor, could be found but thought the
tenant, Pat Reade, had rented a farm
near Georgesville. F

Asked about the gunfire, Whaley re-
plied, “When I was at the pump, I heard
a couple of shots, then two single shots.
I don’t hear anything from McCoy’s
place unless the wind is this way,” he
added.

“Notice anything else?” the sheriff per-
sisted. “Hear any cars coming and
going?”

“I did notice that big light out back, or
maybe it was the porch light, go on and
then off again a little later, I figured
McCoy got after some chicken thieves.
We've had trouble with them around here
lately.”

As the sheriff drove back to the Mc-
Coys’ Oak View Farm he reflected that
the matter of chicken thieves had been
mentioned by two of the neighbors. It
was barely possible that a chicken thief
had shot Elmer McCoy and then in a fit
of panic killed the two women, But the
body of Elmer McCoy had not looked
like that of a man killed.in action and
there had been no gun near him.

Icenhower wondered if:the body could
have been dragged into the barn for con-
cealment.

He decided he would have a crime
laboratory expert examine the photo-
graphs of McCoy’s body.

Icenhower was curious about the cars
seen by Claytor. The second car, with a
single tail light, was probably Mildred’s.

He wondered whether the first had been
Elmer McCoy’s sedan or a car belonging
to the killer.

Back at Oak View, the sheriff learned

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47


that another Thanksgiving dinner guest
had arrived. This was Private First Class
James McCoy, nephew of Elmer. The
young man was a member of the Veterin-
ary Army Specialized Training Program
and he looked trim and fit in his uniformas
he strode up and:‘shook Icenhower’s hand.

“T’d like your permission to move Mil-
dred’s car back to the barnyard,” he
explained. “There are some sacks of
potatoes in the back. I thought I’d put
them in the shed and take those few pack-
ages in the house.”

HE sheriff nodded. “We've got the
position of the car recorded on film, so
I guess that'll be all right, James.”

Several other deputies had arrived and
a thorough search of the farm and build-
ings was made to locate the murder
weapons. No guns were found.

As James McCoy was about to leave,
Icenhower took him aside and asked him
if he knew of anyone who might want to
kill Elmer McCoy. The young man
could suggest no motive.

“Did Mildred go around with anyone
that you know of?” asked the sheriff.

“Why, I guess she went around with
Dick Venno, from over Bloomingburg
way at one time.”

“Break up, did they?”

“I don’t know,’ McCoy shrugged.
“Guess they just didn’t have much in
common after Mildred left for Ohio
State. I imagine they just drifted apart.
Don’t believe it was ever serious, any-
way.”

Although McCoy evidently didn’t think
the friendship between Mildred and
Venno had been a serious relationship,
the sheriff added the young man’s name
to the list in his notebook. Together with
the two Slessors and Pat Reade it added
to four persons to be questioned so far.

As he drove slowly back to his office,
the sheriff tried to sort out the facts he
had gathered and his own observations.

Several of the neighbors had said that
Mildred tooted twice in greeting as she
passed their homes. They all agreed that
it was nearly 9 o'clock. That meant the
girl arrived home at 9, and she was killed
almost immediately, since she was un-
loading her car. That fixed the time of
the killings between about 8:30 and 9:10
p. m. The story told by the neighbors
concerning the gunfire differed as to time
and as to the number and order of the
shots, but Icenhower knew that such
discrepancies were to be expected when
several witnesses told about an event
which they had not recognized as im-
portant when it occurred.

The sheriff was in hopes that the order
in which the McCoy family had been
killed might be determined. This would
be important with regard to the disposi-
tion of the property. It also might shed
some light on the motive. Because of the
brutality of the attack upon Mrs. McCoy,
Icenhower was inclined to list the Slessor
boy as his first suspect. He was the only
person known to have quarreled with her.

Dr. McDonald’s report was already on
the sheriff's desk. An autopsy was
deemed unnecessary since the cause of.
death in each case was apparent.

Icenhower’s next move was to drive to
Georgesville with a deputy in search
of Reade, He had no lead on the where-
abouts of the Slessor family and it would
be difficult to trace them on a holiday so
that would have to wait. The proprietor
of a cross-roads gasoline station directed
the two officers to Reade’s farm. The
family was just sitting down to their
Thanksgiving dinner when the sheriff
arrived.

48

Reade readily admitted that he and

Elmer McCoy “just didn’t get along.”

‘ But he denied wishing the man any harm.

He said he had been hunting the previous
afternoon with a neighbor, and that he
had accompanied the man home that
evening to help him repair a cream sep-
arator,

The officers drove to a near-by farm
house where Reade’s story was verified.
It was evident that Reade must be
crossed off their list, leaving three per-
sons together With the doubtful chicken
thief lead.

Ignoring the holiday celebration of his
own family in order to hasten the solu-
tion of this shocking case, the con-
scientious sheriff next headed his car
for Bloomingburg and an interview with
Dick Venno,

At the Venno place the sheriff learned —

that Dick was now in the Army. Ac-
cording to his father, the boy had not
been home since his induction and was
not expected. He said his son had ac-
companied Mildred McCoy to a few
school affairs but had been “going
steady” with another girl for almost a
year. He gave the sheriff his son’s camp
address.

On the return trip to Washington
Court House, Icenhower commented,
“Doesn’t look as though we’ve got much
there. I'll send a telegram to the com-
manding officer at the camp to make
sure. Then I think we'd better knock off
until tomorrow.”

The following day the sheriff received
a telegram from the commander saying
that Dick Venno had been in camp for
the past three months and that he would
have no furlough until Christmas. Icen-
hower went to Prosecutor Hill’s office to
apprise him of the progress so far.

When he finished his verbal report,
the sheriff handed Hill the telegram from
the Army camp. “We're down to two
suspects,” he said. “I have several men
trying to locate the Slessor family. I
think they’re still in Ohio. And. consider-
ing their quarrelsome ways, I imagine
some local marshal has made their ac-
quaintance already. I’m asking the state
police to put it on the wire.”

Hill nodded, “It’s narrowing down.
I've talked to Captain Arthur Eggert, of
the Toledo crime laboratory. He has
agreed to examine our photographic
evidence. Has the telephone been
checked?”

“Yes. Whoever handled it apparently
wore gloves. There are no prints on the
scissors, either.”

Late that afternoon it was learned that
Carl Slessor. was working on a farm near
a_ town forty miles from Washington
Court House. The following morning
Icenhower paid the man a visit. Slessor’s
employer assured the sheriff that the man
had not. been off the place the night be-
fore Thanksgiving.

Slessor’s son; however, was missing.
After a quarrel with his father the boy had:
run away, saying he was going to get him-
self a defense job and forget about farm-
ing, which he disliked.

The search for young Slessor continued
but the investigation appeared to be at a
standstill. Over 1,800 people attended the
McCoy funeral on Saturday, November
28. The three membets of the family were
buried in a single grave at Bloomingburg.

Fayette County farmers were becoming
alarmed. “What if this killer comes to my
place?” asked Saturday. shoppers in
Washington Court House. “I’m afraid to
leave my family alone a moment,” mut-
tered others. The situation was tense
and the prosecutor and sheriff felt the
pressure,

-

The County Commissioners suddenly
offered a $2,000 reward for the capture
of the:slayer or slayers. It was hoped that
this money might encourage someone
who had seen the killer, or seen a car leav-
ing the McCoy place after 9 o’clock, to
give information. The reward. brought no
results.

Meanwhile, the time of Mildred Mc-
Coy’s arrival at home had been definitely
fixed by Miss Katheryn Wead, a friend
who had ridden from Xenia to her home
with Mildred. Miss McCoy had dined
with the Weads after telephoning her
home. She started for Oak View Farm, a
distance of thirty miles, a few minutes
after 8. This meant she would arrive at
about 9,

The following Monday, Icenhower re-
ceived a call from a Columbus detective
informing him that the Slessor boy was in
jail in that city and that he had been there
for a week. The youth had injured an-
other worker in a cafe brawl. This elim-
inated the last of the grudge suspects.

A report from the Toledo crime labora-
tory, also received Monday, indicated that
neither the body of Elmer nor Mildred
McCoy appeared to have been moved.
There were some conclusions about E]l-
mer McCoy's death that interested the
sheriff and he re-read them. These were
that Elmer McCoy had been stooping
over at the time he was shot and that he
had been totally unaware of impending at-
tack. The position of the body was cited
and some marks in surface dust caused
by the shoulder as the dying man pitched
forward, were also mentioned.

For a long time the sheriff sat thinking
about the report. He recalled the cigar
clenched in Elmer McCoy’s mouth, the
measuring tape in his hand and now there
was the report by experts that he had been
stooping over when he died—unaware of
danger. There was the fact that Mildred
lay close beside her partially unloaded car
with a little package in one hand, the other
hand nonchalantly resting in her pocket.
The dish cloth and glasses in Mrs. Mc-
Coy’s hands indicated that she hastily
rushed out onto her lighted porch from
the kitchen where the partially washed
dishes still lay. He recalled the chair
pulled up beside the drain board near by
as if someone might have sat there talk-
ing with her as she worked.

Icenhower reflected that the Pieces of
the puzzle were beginning to fall into
place. Investigation was cutting away the
extraneous, There was the telephone cord,
not ripped from the wall as a robber or
even an angry man might do the job, but
cleanly cut with. the scissors laid care-
fully on the table. The untouched money,
the house in good order—all these things
told parts of a deliberately plotted story.
This was no revenge killing. Somebody
must profit by this coldly calculated
slaughter.

The sheriff went to the probate record
room in the courthouse and examined a
will filed the previous April. It was the
will of Martha McCoy, Elmer McCoy’s
mother. Then he headed for his car, driv-
ing to the home of Private James McCoy.

“When you unloaded Mildred’s car,
James, did you find any luggage?”

The young man shook his head. “It’s a
funny thing, Sheriff. I’ve been thinking
about the luggage. In fact, I decided to
see you the next time I was in town. One
of her suitcases was in the-dining room,
just inside the porch door, The other, a
small overnight case, was on the stairs. I
can’t help thinking Mildred was shot by
someone helping her unload her car.”

The sheriff smiled grimly. “That would
mean somebody who knew the McCoys
pretty well, wouldn’t it?”

“It sure
agreed.

“And wha:
were used tc
Were they u

phone
Mc pr
were Pn

the kitchen t
orderly, you !
who cut tho:
the kitchen.”

“That's abc
Icenhowe*t ag
door.

The sherifi
Clinton Coun
way of the Cx
side door.’ M
dially,

Icenhower
her everyone
cluding the re

“I wanted
mother’s will
tice that Oak
and Elmer M
last spring. }
ment about t
argument ab«
receive, once
erated belong

The kindly
you thought
with the Mc(
Well, we didr
between the t
cordial. My ar
Elmer, was s
assure you of

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“Tt sure would,” the younger man” over-land motive. He was sure she was ames W. Collett, who had been absent

suddenly agreed. telling the truth when she spoke of -her rom Grange meeting’ the night before
«shi bin or “And what about those scissors that relationship with her brother. But he Thanksgiving, and he took the protest-
s hoped that were used to cut the telephone wires? wasn’t so sure he had the wrong suspect ing man to the Fayette County jail for
ige pre go Were they usually kept beside the tele- in mind. Icenhower didn’t know it then questioning.
ri A en pee phone?” but no man would have been likely to Collett was confident and cocky, but he
db ot to McCoy considered. “No, I think they guess the bizatre and warped motive that was vague about his whereabouts be-
rought no were the ones my aunt always kept in moved that person to murder. tween 8 and 9:30 p.m. the evening of the
Mildred M the kitchen table drawer. She was very ~ He rose. “Is Jim “around?” triple slaying. He agreed to go to To-
con detais a orderly, you know, and I'll bet the fellow “No, he went to Harveysburg. He'll be ledo for a lie detector test, saying he'd
ead. a tren’ who cut those wires got the scissors in back in half an hour or so. Will you like to “clear this thin up.” : ;
pots ne the kitchen.” wait?” On December 1, Collett was given a lie
h “ dined “That's about the way I had it figured,” “No. [think I'll come back and ask him —_ detector test, which indicated that his an-
y h ad dined Icenhower agreed as he moved towardthe =a few questions later on.” swers to. questions about his whereabouts
P Ww Fe her door. on Thanksgiving Eve were not accurate.
tow antactie The sheriff drove over to neighboring While’ talking with Lieutenant George
bing minutes Clinton County. He pulled into the drive- “pHs sheriff drove to the Grange hall Eckerman, of the crime laboratory, Col-
arrive at ’ way of the Collett farm and tapped on the and checked attendance records for lett asked if the officer knew of any re-
side door. Mrs. Collett greeted him cor- the ip of Wednesday, November 24. cent ruling regarding inheritance in cases
vag oe re- dially. Then he drove to the near-b farm of | wherea whole family dies simultaneously.
tb detective Icenhower cxpiined his visit by telling © Howard Hurley, a neighbor of Collett’s. He further asked the lieutenant if he
oe boy was in her everyone who knew the MeCaxs, in- Hurley told the officer that James Col: thought Mrs. Collett would inherit the
' | been there cluding the relatives, had to be questioned. _— lett had mentioned the McCoy family to McCoy estate. When left alone in a small
m ieee an- “Tl wanted to ask you about your him shortly after the April death of Mrs. room in which he could be observed by
A elim- mother’s will,” he said pleasantly. “I no- Martha McCoy, his wife’s mother. “I the officers by means of a special panel,
© suspects. - tice that Oak View Farm was left to you = guess I remember it because it sort of Collett, thinking he was alone, slapped
crime labora- and Elmer McCoy jointly when she died shocked me,” explained the neighbor. “He — the arm of his chair and commented, “Jim,
indicated that last spring. Has there been any disagree- said, ‘If it weren't for the girl my son you've gone too far this time.”
pis Mildred ment about the terms of the will? Any would fall heir to the McCoy estate.’ I After hours of questioning by Captain
een moved. argument about what return you. should knew he was pretty fond of his son, but Eggert of the laboratory and Prosecutor
ns about El- receive, once half of the farm Elmer op- it didn’t seem like the thing to say or a Hill, Collett finally confessed to the slay- ,
nterested the erated belonged to you?” friendly way to speak of his niece, Mil- ing of Elmem McCoy. He claimed self-
. These were The kindly looking woman smiled. “So, dred.” : defense, saying: “Elmer and I saw each
stooping you thought we might have quarreled As the sheriff returned to the Collett other and walked into the barn discussing
{ that he with the McCoys about land or money? farm, he reflected that here was a hew my wife’s share of her rent money, think-
nding at- Well, we didn’t, Sheriff. The relationship motive, a motive so cold blooded, so ter- ing we could all get together the next day
say was cited between the two families has always been rible that it seemed pons Here, too, and make arrangement for settlement.
: dust caused cordial, My arrangement with my brother, was a man who could get close to his “Elmer became very angry and picked
: man pitched Elmer, was satisfactory to both of us. 1 — victims under the guise of friendship and upa club or fork handle and swung at me,
ed. assure you of that.” relationship, and here was a man who but missed, and at the same time reached
: sat thinking Watching this straightforward woman, knew the workings of the McCoy house- for his gun. Then I aon sr a gun from
led the cigar the sheriff realized he had made a mis. _ hold intimately. the nail tie and shot him in the back. He
LA reo Se take in the possibility of a quarrel- Sheriff Icenhower arrested 60-year-old fell between the feed grinder and the
at he had been “
|—unaware of

a

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that Mildred
‘ unloaded car
and, the other
in her pocket.

in Mrs. Mc-
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tially washed
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sat there talk-

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the pieces of
z to fall into
tting away the
elephone cord,
.s a robber or
lo the job, but
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plotted story. ,
ig. Somebody 7 oa "hy Pharmaceutical Div., MENNEN Co.
lly calculated Newark, $on Francisco, Toronto

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James McCoy.
Mildred’s car,
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vy.

4 ae
:

D
Brother-in-law James Collett who was
50 questioned as to possible motives

ee oo :

HE beagle trotted up the winding’ frozen driveway of Oak View Farm
on the Columbus-Washington Court House, Ohio, highway, ahead of
the hunters. John Ducey of Columbus, owner of the hound, was idly

watching the dog.

Ducey had obtained permission from his farmer friend, Elmer McCoy,
to hunt over his wood lot. The back acres of the farm were described
by their owner as “alive with rabbits.”

As the animal approached a car parked
in the winding driveway near a path
leading to the side porch, he suddenly
sniffed the tang of the sharp November
air, howled dismally and raced back to
his master in obvious agitation.

“What’s the matter, boy?” asked
Ducey, squinting at the empty sedan. It
was this automobile, occupying the one-
car width track, that had caused the
hunters to leave their sedan beside the
gate rather than eontinue along the
driveway to a wide parking space in

front of a cluster of outbuildings.

As he walked around the car, Ducey

noticed what seemed to be a bundle of
clothing lying on the ground and another
on the porch. The dog’s attitude and the
inert look of the bundles aroused his
curiosity. When he reached the parked
automobile, he saw Elmer McCoy’s at-
tractive daughter, Mildred, lying face
down, the thin morning sun glinting on
her lovely auburn hair.

Sensing that the twenty-two-year-old
girl was dead, he quickly knelt by her


’ Farm
ead of
is idly

IcCoy,
‘cribed

ildings.

Ducey .

nodle of
‘nother
ind the
sed his
parked

y’s at- —

2 face
ing on

‘ar-old
oy her

and in a moment saw that she had been
shot through the back of her head. He

called to his companions who approached |

on the run,

One of the men hastened to the porch.
“Look at this!” he called out,

The body of Mrs. Forrest McCoy lay on
the porch flooring. She also*had been
shot,

Ducey motioned his friends back si-
lently. It was decided that he should
summon the hired man who lived in a
tenant house on the McCoy estate some
distance away. The others stood watch
over the bodies.

McCoy’s hunter friend soon returned
with the hired man, Dewey Claytor, who
piled at the sight and ran through the
house calling his employer. When Mc-
Coy did not respond, the hired man
raced to the barn shouting, “Mr. Mc-
Coy!” .

From the barn door, Claytor motioned
for the others. As they approached, they
saw that he was deeply agitated. Elmer
McCoy was kneeling on the barn floor
with his shoulder grotesquely propped
against a feed grinder, He, too, had been
shot through the back of the head.

“We better call the Sheriff’s office,”
suggested one of the hunters,

Entering the house through the open
porch door, Ducey reached for the tele-
phone, only to find the wires cut. A six-
inch pair of scissors stil] lay on the small
table beside the useless instrument.

Claytor then ran across the fields to the
neighboring Potts’ farm where another
telephone was available, while the others
stayed with the dead.

Although Sheriff W. H. Icenhower and
his son, Deputy Mayrniard Icenhower,
and Deputy Frank Grubbs, and Acting

.
2

Coroner Dr. E. H. McDonald raced to
Oak View Farm, a number of farmers
and their holiday guests from neighbor-
ing land had collected at the scene of the
crimes before their arrival, However,
the Sheriff was fairly certain that, be-
cause of the frozen ground, the crowd
would not have obliterated any. tracks
useful to the investigators, but he was
not sure that some tiny unnoticed object
that might have been dropped by the flee-
ing killer had not been tramped under-
foot.

Sheriff Icenhower, a rugged man of
long experience in the law-enforcement
field, gray-haired and dignified in ap-
pearance, quickly took charge and re-
quested the onlookers to withdraw to a
near-by fence where they would not
hamper his work,

Dr. McDonald examined the body of

— . ie came ty

Mildred carefully. He stated that she
had been shot from close range. Her
hair and scalp showed powder burns,
Claytor, who had returned from Potts’
house, now led the group to the barn
where the physician examined the dead
farmer.

In the barn they were joined by John
B. Hill, Fayette County Prosecutor, and
B. E. Kelley, city editor of the Washing-.
ton Court House Record-Herald. The"
Prosecutor announced that two ambu-
lances were on the way to the farm.

Dr. McDonald gave as his opinion that
McCoy had been dead for at least ten
hours. Considering the identical prog-
ress of rigor mortis in the fifty-seven-
year-old farmer and his daughter, he
concluded they had died at the same time,
He pointed out powder burns on Mc-
Coy’s hat and, using a sheet of Paper,
scooped the fatal bullet from the barn
floor. It had passed through the victim’s
head, issuing from his nostril,

“Pretty accurate shooting for night-
time,” commented the “Sheriff as he put
the bullet into an envelope.

The hired man, who had been looking
around, commented on the fact that no
flashlight or electric lantern was near
the body.

“Mr. McCoy never used an oil lantern
for fear of fire,” he volunteered. “If he
was killed out here at night, his electric
lantern should be around here some
Place; if he just came out on a quick
errand, the flashlight. But I don’t see
either of them.”

“Probably carried off by the gunman,”
remarked one of the deputies.

The Sheriff had been quietly consider-
ing the scene for several minutes, There
was nothing about the position of the

body to indicate that McCoy had been
alarmed, yet the killer had fired at close
range., He commented on the cigar still
clenched in McCoy’s teeth and the meas-
uring tape dangling from the fingers of
his right hand, :

The officials instructed Kelley to take
photographs of the body from all angles
so that this evidence could be submitted
to a laboratory expert for study.: The
group then returned to the body of the
girl to take additional photographs.

“The gunman did an almost identical
job on father and daughter,” commented
the Prosecutor.

“TI suppose those lights were on.” The
Sheriff indicated the porch light and a
powerful bulb installed in a fixture at-
tached to a rear corner of the big white
farmhouse and evidently designed to
light up the barnyard and outbuildings.

rel

Fayette County, Ohio’s, Sheriff W. H.
Icenhower who directed investigation

Once more the Sheriff considered the
surprise element. There was no indica-

tion that the daughter, Mildred, had had-

any warning of danger. One hand lay in
her coat pocket and the other gripped a
small package by the string. Evidently
it was somethirig she had just taken from
her car, the door of which still stood
open. Mildred was a recent graduate of
Ohio State University, and had appar-
ently returned home for the holiday from
Darke County where she taught’ home
economics at the Pitsburg High School.

When the doctor moved her head, he
found that the bullet had lodged under
her right eye after Passing ‘through her
skull ‘

“Beautiful girl,” commented the pho-
tographer,
Icenhower rubbed his lined face

She did not see the figure with the gun as she stepped from the car.’

thoughtfully in an habitual gesture: “I.

wonder-if some rejected suitor could have
done this in a fit of rage?” ,

He followed the physician to the large
screened porch where the third victim

lay. Forrest McCoy, sixty-two-year-old .

wife and mother, had been shot six times.
The attack on her had been particularly
savage. In death her right hand clutched
a dish towel, her left a pair of eyeglasses,

Dr. McDonald said that the body had
been moved. The position of the wounds
in relation to certain bloodstains on the
boards and bullet holes in the flooring
showed this. :

The spokesman for the hunting party
assured McDonald that from the time
they had discovered the bodies every
precaution had been taken to see that no
one disturbed them in any way. “Wasn't
any point in (Continued on page 84)

Sop oy ol eiimeenutnetineatetlame, ee ae eT a I te eee it tet et Se : a sinetnieie ee an cate ee

re

i.


ee

weatherboard inside the barn. .The next
thing I knew, I was on my way home.”

Collett “couldn’t tell how I killed the
two women.”

The holes in his self-defense story were
obvious. Mrs. Collett had said there was
no trouble about money between herself
and Elmer McCoy, a statement she later
repeated from the witness. stand. The
position of McCoy’s body proved that he
had not been in the act of attacking any-
one. Finally, intimates of the McCoys
testified that only a shotgun was kept in
the barn, not revolvers.

Although Collett steadily refused to
tell what he had done with the murder
weapons, he was brought back to his Clin-
ton County farm by Toledo and Fayette
County officials. A search of the Collett
and McCoy farms was without result.

Since Collett had expressed concern
about his personal safety should he be
returned to Washington Court House,
where feeling was running high over the
triple slaying, he was secretly lodged at
the Madison County jail at London, O.

Meanwhile, a rumor spread through the
county that the murder guns had been
hidden in one of the McCoy caskets by
the chief mourner, Collett. S. E. Cox,
one of the undertakers, said it was pos-
sible since close to 2,000 people filed past
the open caskets.

Prosecutor Hill and Sheriff Icenhower
discounted the theory but explained that
a check would be made when the bodies
were exhumed for an autopsy. Since it
was apparent that Collett would claim
that he had not killed the women, it
seemed advisable to undertake a complete
post mortem and an examination of all
bullets involved in the case.

Collett, charged with first degree mur-

der, was arraigned on December 23, 1943.
He pleaded not guilty before’ Judge
Harry. M. Rankin, /

On January 7, 1944, the bodies of the
McCoy family were exhumed from the
guarded grave and returned to Washing-
ton Court House: Dr. Horace Davidson,
of Columbus, conducted the post mor-
‘tems, assisted by Coroner N. M. Reiff.
Although the bodies of Elmer McCoy
and his daughter were examined briefly,
the body of Mrs. McCoy was subjected
to a minute examination in order to locate
another bullet believed to be lodged in
the body. An X-ray examination of her
body was made in the office of a local
physician.

Authorities decided that both the heirs
of Mr, and Mrs. McCoy should share

equally in the wealthy farmer’s estate. ~

A physician, the brother of Mrs. Forrest
McCoy, and Mrs. Laura Collett, sister
of Elmer McCoy, were named co-admin-
istrators.

Ox FEBRUARY 28, 1944, James W.
Collett went on trial for the three
murders. On the witness stand, Collett
made no attempt to claim self-defense. He
claimed he had not gone to the McCoy
farm Thanksgiving Eve and repudiated
his confession.

Prosecutor Hill told the jury that the
McCoy murders were premeditated and
that Collett knew he would have to wipe
out the whole family so that his son
could inherit the estate. He said that the
slayer first went to the barn, killed Elmer
McCoy as he bent over to measure space
for his feed mixing machine. Then he
hurried to the house to see if Mrs. McCoy
had heard the shot. When he found she

had not, he quietly cut the telephone
wires so that no alarm could be raised
and then visited with the dead man’s wife
until Mildred arrived.

Later Collett went to the car to help
the girl carry in her luggage and then
fired the single shot into her head. When
Mrs. McCoy ran to the porch to see what
was wrong, he whirled and fired several
shots into her body. She reeled and fell.
Then the merciless killer flopped her body

‘over and put a final shot into her ab-

domen,

Robert M. Zimmers, an’ FBI arms ex-
pert, was a surprise State’s witness. He
testified that one of the bullets taken
from the body of Mrs. Forrest McCoy
after it was exhumed was a .38 caliber
lead bullet, and that it had been fired
from the same gun as the bullet that
killed her husband. This testimony es-
tablished the fact that the gunman who
killed Elmer McCoy, a murder Collett
had confessed, also killed Mrs. McCoy.
It weakened the claim that two gunmen
had cofnmitted’ the murders.

The jury voted one ballot on each of
the three counts and found the defendant
guilty on each without recommendation
of mercy. When Collett heard the verdict
tears streamed down his face and he
cried, “My God! Not me.”

Convicted on Friday, March 10, Collett
was sentenced to death in the electric
chair on March 29, 1944, after his plea
for a new trial. was denied by Judge H.
M. Rankin. He is now in death row at
Ohio State Penitentiary awaiting execu-
tion, which is scheduled for July 26, 1944.

(The names Pat Reade, Carl Slessor and Dick
Venno are not real in order to protect innocent
persons from embarrassment.—The Editor.)

RIDDLE OF THE
SHOELESS CORPSE

[Continued from page 26]

Lynch nodded and asked if he might -

borrow a shovel. A few moments later
the sheriff stood on the corner of East
Allen and Bailey Streets, digging into the
snow. Then he did a peculiar thing. He
dropped to his knees upon the spot where
he had been digging and peered at the ice.

He straightened up, returned the
shovel and walked briskly over to Chief
Barber’s house.

Barber was at breakfast. Lynch asked
and obtained permission to telephone
Sergeant McKenzie, telling him to report
to the chief’s home immediately. A short
while later the three officers were
gathered in the Barber living room.

“T think,” said Lynch, “I can take you
to the man who killed that fellow in the
funeral parlor.”

Barber and McKenzie stared at him.
“Do you mean,” said Barber, “that you
know who the killer is?”

Lynch shook his head. “I haven’t the .

slightest idea who he is. Any more than
I have who the dead man is. But, if you'll
come along I think I can take you to
him.”

The three men piled into Chief Barber’s
car, and at Lynch’s direction drove out
once more to East Allen Street. There
they disembarked.

50

Lynch led McKenzie and Barber along
the ashen path, He turned the corner at
Bailey and walked alongside the house
on East Allen Street. The trio passed the
evergreen shrub where the ashy trail
diverged for a moment, then followed the
gray track into a sharp right turn which
brought them to a basement door at the
rear of the house. There, the scattered
ashes camé to a complete stop.

We put his left hand on the door
knob. His right rested on the butt of the
revolver in his holster,

“We won’t bother knocking,” he said
as he pushed the door open and the three
men thrust themselves into the room.

They found themselves standing in a
living room bare of furniture. Barber
looked around, then glanced down at his
feet. He took a deep breath and said
grimly, “Look!” /

He pointed to the floor. There was a
huge brown stain upon the boards.

“That looks like blood,” said Mc-

Kenzie.
- Lynch said nothing, His lips were set.
He strode resolutely across the room.
The others followed him into the kitchen.
The unpleasant odor of burning feathers
assailed their nostrils,

Bent over the stove was a broad backed
man, He was busily engaged in stuffing
feathers into the ‘stove. At his feet was
a bloodstained pillow slip. Feathers were
strewn about the room.

The man at the stove whirled around

' suddenly and faced the officers. His face

was hard and there was a twist to his

rs His eyes were bloodshot and a smell
oO

cheap whiskey exuded from him.
“What do you guys want?” he snarled.
“You,” said Lynch.

“For what?”

“Murder.”

There was a moment’s silence during
which McKenzie walked over to a door
opposite the stove. He stood on the
threshold of the bedroom. That room was
a complete shambles,

“What’s your name?” snapped Barber.

The man hesitated for a moment. Then
he said, “Brown, Leo L. Brown.”

“Who was the man you killed?” de-
manded Lynch.

Brown stared at him, He laughed
suddenly but there was no mirth in the
laughter.

“Man I killed?” he repeated. “I didn’t
kill anybody. Just a cat, that’s all.”

“Where's the cat’s body?”

“Outside on the rubbish heap. I killed
the cat on the bed. That’s what messed
things up. Always meowing and rubbing
against me, it was. I got peeved and I
killed it.”

“Take a look outside,” Lynch asked
McKenzie. “You probably won’t find any
cat but we'd better check.”

McKenzie left the room. He returned a
moment later wearing a puzzled ex-
pression, “There is a cat there,” he an-
nounced, “A big gray-blue Angora and
it’s plenty cut up,”

“See?” said Brown, “I told, you.”

“Maybe that’s so,” said Barber, “but
you killed a man, too. Get your coat on
and come along with us.”

Still protesting he had done nothing
more than kill his cat, Brown donned his
hat and coat and accompanied the
officers. He was taken at once to the
Chittenden County jail in Burlington and
booked on suspicion of murder.

There, in spite of several hours of ques-

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(Continued from page 51)

moving them,” he said, “so we left them as
they were.”

“You're absolutely certain Mrs. McCoy
was moved?” asked Hill.

The doctor indicated the holes in the
flooring. “She’s been turned over, all right.
First she was shot in the back a number of
times. Then she was turned over and an-
other bullet pumped into her abdomen at
such close range that her dress and skin
show powder burns. Strange thing. The
others were each killed with a single well-
placed shot. But the fellow went wild when
he attacked Mrs. McCoy.”

Sheriff Icenhower leaned down and pried
a couple of .32-caliber bullets out of the
flooring. Indicating two holes where others
had passed through the wood, he asked his
son to dig them out of the earth underneath.

The deputy soon emerged with two bul-
lets-which he handed to his father after
replacing the grillwork panel in the porch
foundation.

“These are steel-jacketed .32-caliber bul-
lets,” the Sheriff said as he gave them to
Hill. “McCoy and Mildred were killed by
.38-caliber lead bullets.” ¥

The Prosecutor stared thoughtfully at the
death-dealing bits of metal. “So we have a
two-gun killer on our hands? Strange that
he would use a different gun to kill Mrs.
McCoy.”

“Could be two gunmen,” suggested the
deputy.

“It’s possible,” the Sheriff admitted.

As the party was about to enter the house,
Icenhower noticed some splintered wood in
the door frame. Investigating, he cut a
.88-caliber lead bullet from the wood and
held it out to Hill.

“He must have fired at Mrs. McCoy with
the same gun he used on the others,” said
the Sheriff, “and missed. Then he fired from
another gun to finish her off.”

“And he sure did a thorough job,” re-
sponded the attorney.

As they filed through the porch door into
the dining room, the men noticed that the
table was covered by a snowy linen cloth
and that it was set for Thanksgiving din-
ner. On the sideboard a turkey platter was
ready for use. In the well-kept house,
only the severed telephone cord suggested
the incredible scene of violence that must
have shattered the quiet on the remote
farm the previous evening.

“Here’s a purse that may have belonged
to Mrs. McCoy,” said Grubbs, pointing to a
leather pouch lying on a desk.

“There goes our robbery theory,” re-
marked Hill, rifling through it. “This is
Mildred’s purse and there’s more than
twenty dollars in it.”

*

“About a hundred and forty dollars here,”
replied Deputy Icenhower, ' indicating a
man’s billfold lying in the top desk drawer
which had been slightly open.

“Sometimes a fellow on his first job gets
scared and leaves without the loot—espe-
cially if he’s killed somebody,” observed the
Sheriff. “But all those wounds in Mrs.
McCoy’s body look like malice to me.”

From the sink drainboard he picked up
a small piece of paper on which had been
written “20X1000=20,000.” He studied the
figures for several minutes. They seemed
meaningless, for they were not accompanied
by any modifying symbols to identify them.
He wondered if it could have been some
estimate of bushels or acreage or dollars.
Although it seemed to have no connection
with the crimes, he pocketed the paper.

As ambulances from Washington Court
House arrived, Icenhower drew Claytor
aside for questioning. He told him in detail
of being summoned to the farm: by the
hunter, of finding his employer’s body, of
trying to use the telephone, and of his trek
to the neighboring home from which he
contacted the Sheriff.

“What about last night? Tell me exactly
what you did and the time as near as you
can place it,” suggested Icenhower.

“I finished milking here. That was my
last chore. Then I went home and washed
up a little and drove into Yatesville. I left
the village about eight and it didn’t take

more than ten minutes or so to drive home.

Then I shaved.”

“That take you long?”

“Not more than a few minutes. I went
to the kitchen, poured myself a cup of
coffee, and sat down by the front window. I
was pretty tired. Must have been about
8:15. In a few minutes I saw a car with
two taillights stop at the gate. Somebody
opened the gate. It was so dark I only saw
a moving shadow. Then the driver went
on in, leaving it open so that a second car
about a half hour later just drove right up
the lane without stopping. The second only
had one taillight.”

Claytor said he had heard no shots from
the McCoy home, adding that the wind,
which was fairly high the night before, had
not been in the direction of his house. He
said he had listened to his radio for an hour
or so and then turned in.

When asked if anyone had a grudge
against Elmer McCoy, he smiled grimly as
he explained that no one could be as suc-
cessful as the dead man without causing a
little jealousy.

“That kind of jealousy doesn’t usually
lead to murder,” objected the Sheriff.

“There was a story around that he kept
money in the house. Fella asked me about
it once. I guess it was a robbery. Maybe
the hold-up man figured he’d been recog-
nized so he killed them all.”

“Who. was the man who asked about Mc-
Coy’s money?”

“['d rather not say, Sheriff. The man
died last summer. Guess he didn’t mean
anything by it.”

“T don’t figure this as robbery,” the officer
observed quietly. “Any other ideas?”

* * * * *

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES said:

"Sin has many tools, but a lie is
the handle which fits them all."

* * * * *

td Aa gee OE

Claytor swung himself up onto the fence
He broke up a piece of straw between long.
muscular fingers, considering carefully be-
fore answering. Then he explained how
McCoy owned two rich farms and made
a hobby of raising prize-winning Polané
China hogs. He told how people claimed
he was worth a hundred thousand dollars
or more. He also described Elmer McCoy
as an exacting man—an efficient farmer who
worked hard and expected others to do
the same.

“Some folks are shiftless. Some just
aren’t very rugged or as smart as he was.
So he had some trouble with his tenants
and hired men over the way they kept his
land and the way they did their chores.”

“Was this trouble ever very serious?”

“Serious enough so Mr. McCoy carried 2
gun with him all the time for several
months after he ran one of the hired men
off the place. The man threatened to come
back and ‘pound him to. a jelly or blow
him sky high.’”

“Did you get along with McCoy?” asked
Icenhower casually. - ’

“Sure did. We saw eye to eye on how
a farm should be kept.”

The Sheriff was favorably impressed with
Claytor’s candor and honest manner. His
lined face showed character. His calloused
hands told their story of faithful work.

Among the onlookers, the officer singled
out Asa Potts, nearest neighbor to Oak
View Farm. “Hear any commotion over
here last night?”

Potts nodded. “I went out on my porch
to bring in some coal about 8:30 or a little
later; heard a shot from this direction.”

The neighbor continued his account,
stating that half an hour later his wife
went to the milk house. She summoned
him because she heard half a dozen reports
and a woman’s scream. When he rushed
into the yard, he heard one last shot.

“Why didn’t you go over and investi-
gate?” asked Icenhower.

“When I heard the first single shot, |
figured Elmer got a rat. When we heard
the others, we guessed Elmer had been
shooting at chicken thieves. We've been
bothered with chicken thieves lately, a:
you know. Elmer vowed he’d put a stop
to it.”

The neighbors came to the conclusion that
Mrs. McCoy had screamed because of her
»often-expressed fear that the thieves would
be armed and would return her husband:
fire. The owner of Oak View Farm wa:
known to be a man who preferred to mind
his own business and brooked no interfer-
ence from his neighbors. For these reasons.
they decided not to go to the McCoy place.
They also felt reassured when they saw
that the barnyard light was turned off
shortly afterward.

Another neighbor, Charles Whaley, added
little to Potts’ story. He had also heard
of McCoy’s trouble with hired men ané
knew a few of the details of a bitter dis-
agreement the dead man had with a former
tenant on his second farm.

“What’s the quarrelsome hired man’:
name?” asked the Sheriff.

“Fred Wells. I don’t know where he
went.”

The official jotted the name in his note-
book. “How about the tenant?”

“Al Seager,” said the neighbor. “TI think
he rented another farm over near Georges:
ville—on the hill road.”

Whaley, too, had heard gunfire from the
McCoy farm, for the wind was in the righ
direction to carry. the sound toward hi:
land. He claimed to have heard several
shots close together and then two singlk
reports. He had seen the bright yard ligh:
on and assumed his neighbor was drivin;
out the chicken thieves who had been op-
erating in the vicinity recently and agains:
whom Elmer McCoy had uttered repeateé
threats,

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Meanwhile, the three victims had been
removed to waiting ambulances. Before
they pulled out of the parking space in
front of the barn, a neat green sedan rolled
up the lane, after halting briefly at the
gate, and stopped back of Mildred’s car.
The little group of officials and neighbors
exchanged glances. They were ,glad the
bodies had already been removed, for they
all recognized the automobile as belong-
ing to relatives of the McCoys, the James
Collett family from adjacent Clinton
County.

Mrs. Laura Collett—unobtrusive, kindly,
and esteemed by all who knew her—was
the sister of Elmer McCoy. Her husband,
a lean little silver-haired man, was a
Grange leader and expert Berkshire hog
breeder. His animals had won nearly as
many prizes for excellence in their breed
as his brother-in-law’s Poland Chinas
had in theirs. ‘

OLLETT had known Sheriff Icenhower

for many years, and he came im-
mediately to him with his hand extended.
“My wife thought those ambulances were
milk trucks until the boys at the gate told
us what happened,” he said, his face tense.
“This is terrible.”

“There’s not much anyone can say,” re-
plied Icenhower quietly. “We're all of us
sorry and we’ll do all we can to find those
responsible for this.”

As the Sheriff talked with Collett, he
learned that McCoy employed hired help
he would have never allowed on the place
before the war-born manpower shortage.
Considering them lazy and inefficient, he
frequently criticized them or fired them.
Since he paid high wages, they usually
resented being fired. The worst of these
itinerants had been Fred Wells, who was
not only inefficient—according to McCoy’s
standards—but also of an ugly disposition.
His temper was described as extremely
violent and he quarreled repeatedly with
his employer about the treatment of the
stock. The elderly farmer ordered him off
the place, but he was forced to threaten
summoning the Sheriff before the man
would leave.

McCoy had also employed Wells’ son, a
powerful youth of limited ability, on the
farm part-time. The boy had unreasoning
fits of rage and had even quarreled with
mild and kindly Mrs. McCoy. When the
Wells family moved out of the hired man’s
house on Oak View Farm, leaving it ,in
poorer condition than they found it, they
uttered sinister threats against the McCoys.
Afraid they would burn his barn or stage
a surprisé attack against him, the farmer
had carried a revolver about with him for
several months following their departure.

After giving what information they could,
the Colletts left for Washington Court
House to make funeral arrangements for
their relatives. Dr. McDonald also re-
turned to the county seat to complete his
examination of the bodies before ‘releasing
them to the undertaker.

Soon after the Colletts drove away, an-
other Thanksgiving -guest arrived. Icen-
hower recognized the trim young man in

' the uniform of a private, first class, as a

nephew of the McCoys who was a member
of the Veterinary Corps of the Army Spe-
cialized Training Program.

Additional deputies arrived to search the
buildings and land for the murder weapons
while the Sheriff talked with young Mc-
Coy. The youth was unable to add any-
thing to the information already supplied
by others. -

Since the position of Mildred’s automo-
bile had been recorded on film, Icenhower
suggested that the youth drive it back to
the barn and unload some farm supplies
that were in the trunk compartment, after
putting the few packages still on the seat
in the house.

¥

YOUNG MAN
YOURE
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WATURALLY../ JUST
HAD A FRESH
STAR SHAVE!

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As the soldier was about to leave, the
Sheriff asked a seémingly casual question.
“Do you know whether or not Mildred was
going with anyone?”

“Heard she went around with Bob
Jones.”

“Where's he live?” asked Icenhower, for
there were several families of the name
of Jones in that region.

“Just outside of Bloomingburg.”

“Did they break up?”

The young man did not know the out-
come of his attractive cousin’s friendship
for the farm boy, but he hazarded the
guess that they had little in common after
she left home to attend the university. He
felt that their friendship had always been
casual,

Driving back to his office, Icenhower tried

,to sort out the information he had obtained
-so far: The activities of chicken thieves had

been mentioned twice by neighbors of the
slain family. He knew that in his office
there were a number of complaints about
their depredations. It was possible that
a thief had shot McCoy to, save his own
life and then .in panic murdered the wit-
nesses. However, the position of McCoy’s
body as found indicated he had not been
killed in action. It seemed improbable that
the dead man was dragged into the barn
for concealment and then hoisted into such
an odd kneeling position—especially when
the other two victims were left in the open.

The two automobiles described by the
hired man interested the official, He fig-

ured the second car with the single tail-
light was Mildred’s. Some of the neighbors
from up the road claimed that she had
tooted twice in greeting as she drove past
their homes. All agreed that the time was
about nine o’clock. Since she was unload-
ing her car when she met death, he esti-
mated that the murders must have been
committed between 8:30 and 9:15 p.m.

There was no way of telling whether
the first vehicle entering the lane had been
Elmer McCoy’s sedan or a car driven by the
slayer.

He recalled discrepancies in the stories
told by the neighbors about the shots. Since
they had not considered them important
at the time, this was to be expected. He
hoped the Coroner would be able to de-
termine the order of the deaths. He felt
that this point was not.only important from
a legal standpoint with regard to the dis-
position of their property but that it also

‘might have a bearing on the motive.

HERE were four suspects listed, in

Icenhower’s notebook to be investigated
immediately. Because of the apparent
malice shown in the attack upon Mrs. Mc-
Coy, Wells’ son was listed first. Only this
violent boy had ever been known to quarrel
with her. —

Back at his office, he examined records
of all those who had ever been convicted
of chicken thievery in the county. Several
of the men had left the community and one
was deceased. From the list he added one

85,

°?

name to his four suspects. Calling the
sheriffs of neighboring counties, he re-
quested that they send him the names of
any known chicken thieves in their districts

who could not account for their activities.

from eight to ten on Thanksgiving eve.

Recalling that several of McCoy’s ac-
quaintances had described him as a “strict
man,” the Sheriff gave some thought to
the possibility of a frustrated suitor having
committed the murders. It seemed that the
thrifty farmer might well have opposed all
but the most promising of young men as a
prospective husband of his only child. With
this theory in mind, he talked with Colum-
bus and Pitsburg authorities, requesting
that Miss McCoy’s friendships be investi-
gated.

Ieenhower learned that the Coroner did
not consider an autopsy necessary, since
the cause of death was evident.

He decided to visit the county’s one re-
maining known chicken thief at once. A
couple of miles beyond the town limits, he

pulled into a rutted track, parking beside .

a ramshackle one-story house whose gray
siding retained no trace of paint. Stepping
over a clutter of broken farm equipment, a
rusted bicycle frame, and some frayed bags,
he shooed off a couple of lean, growling
dogs and pounded on the door. Judging
by the appearance of the place, it would
seem chicken stealing or whatever the
owner was now doing was not paying off
very well.

A sharp, unshaven face surveyed the offi- ,

cer from a window and its owner joined
him on the dilapidated porch.

“If anybody’s been taking chickens
around here, it isn’t me,” he protested,
taking the offensive. “I got a new job.”

“They’ve not only been ‘taking chickens,’
they’ve also been murdering people,” re-
plied the official evenly. “Where were you
last night between eight and ten?”

“I was playin’ cards and I can give you
the place and names of the fellows I was
with.”

The man mentioned a roadhouse where
he said a group of five had played poker
at a rear table until midnight. —

“T’d advise you to stay inside the county

until I. can check this,” remarked the

Sheriff.

Driving back through town, he picked up
a deputy, who told him the search for the
missing weapons at Oak View Farm had
been unsuccessful. On a highway beyond
the town they located the small roadhouse
mentioned by the former chicken thief. It
was closed for the holiday, but the officers
found the owner in his living quarters in
the rear. He recalled the game and.so did
his daughter who waited on tables in the
place.

To be sure that this was not an arranged
alibi, the officer telephoned a dairy farmer
of impeccable reputation who was among
those named as card players. This man
also verified the story of the game. It was
apparent that the reformed chicken snatcher
was innocent.

“Let’s drive over Georgesville way and
see if. we can locate this Al Seager. I
sure wish I had some lead on the Wells
family. ‘I’d a lot rather talk to that pair
than Seager,” the Sheriff observed.
~ The investigators stopped at a gasoline

station at a cross roads near the village -

and, while having fuel put into their tank,

; inquired whether or not the proprietor knew

the*whereabouts of the Seager farm. He
directed them to a near-by house on a
side road where they found the McCoy’s
former tenants sitting down to their
Thanksgiving dinner of roast goose.
Seager, a tall muscular man who spoke

in a loud and definite tone, explained,:

“That’s right, everybody knows I didn’t get
along with Elmer. But I sure didn’t wish
him or his any trouble. I just wanted to
see the last of him so I got off his place.”

.the-Army. Said his father,

“Where were you last evening?” asked
Icenhower.

“Over on the next place,” he pointed to a
neat cluster of buildings farther along the
road. “I went there to help Walt fix his
cream separator.”

At the neighboring farm the officials
learned that Seager’s story was true. He
had arrived about seven o’clock and had
worked with his friend until nearly eleven
patching up the broken dairy equipment.
Prior to that time the two men had spent

’ the afternoon hunting.

The Sheriff ‘ignored the holiday in order
to push the investigation of the shocking
multiple murders, but he dropped the
deputy at his home so that he might
have at least a part of the day with his
family.

Reviewing his list of suspects, Icenhower
noted that the Wells, father and son, and
Bob Jones remained, together with a pos-
sible unknown chicken thief.

Arriving at the Jones’ farm near Bloom-
ingburg, he learned that the youth was in

UU
LOST: TWO SHERIFFS

humming around

Things were
Columbus, Ohio, hotels. The banquet
rooms were all in use. County com-

missioners, auditors, sheriffs, re-
corders, dog wardens and coroners
were all having their conventions.

A pair of county sheriffs arrived
with tickets for the sheriffs’ banquet.
They tendered their tickets to a door-
man who took them to the wrong
room. Inside they found seats and
made themselves comfortable, subse-
quently enjoying a round of speeches
and group discussions.

What the two officers did not know
was that they were there by mistake
and were attending the county com-
missioners’ banquet, while in another -
part of the building their colleagues
were wondering what had become of
them. The two lost lawmen sat
through the entire affair without dis-
‘covering they were at the wrong
convention and expressed their satis-
faction with the proceedings. Which
goes to show that all conventions have
much in common,

NUL

“Why, Bob’s
been at camp since last August. I don’t
expect he’ll get a furlough until Christmas
—maybe not then.”

“I understand he used to go around with
Mildred McCoy,” observed Icenhower.

The farmer looked at him sharply and
then smiled grimly. “I’ve heard of the
killings. News like that travels fast, Sheriff.
But you needn’t give Bob another thought.
Never anything serious between them. Just
took her to a few school affairs. He’s been
going with another girl for almost a year
now.”

The officer nodded. “Wonder if you could
give me his military address?”

Back in town, Icenhower sent a telegram
to the camp commander, querying him as
to Jones’ whereabouts. There was always
the chance that the youth had gone AWOL
and, unknown to his family, was in the
neighborhood. Before leaving his office for
the day, he requested the State Police to
put a description of the Wells family on
the wire. He suspected that with their
quarrelsome ways, the family would have
come to the attention of some marshal or
other law-enforcement officer if they were
still in Ohio.

The next morning the Sheriff's office re-
ceived a. telegram from the camp com-

ee see id i oe So

| SPEER

mander that young Jones was definitely
with his company and that he would have
no furlough until Christmas.

To the reporters from all parts of the
State who were converging on Washington
Court House, Prosecutor John B. Hill gave,
a morning interview saying, “There is no
motive for this slaying except revenge.
We are. hunting four men.”

Icenhower, questioned by the newsmen
while on his way to the Prosecutor’s office
with his report and already aware of the
fact that several of the suspects had been
eliminated, gave a more tentative statement:
“No one appears to have any idea as to
why these people were murdered. They
were apparently well-liked by practically
everyone.”

Telling Hill of the telegram from the
army camp, the Sheriff observed that they
were down to two suspects. He also re-
ported that the telephone and _ scissors
showed no fingerprints and that the killer
or killers had probably, worn gloves.

“I’ve contacted Superintendent Arthur
Eggert of the Toledo crime laboratory,” ex-
plained the prosecutor. “He has agreed to
examine the photographs of the bodies
and any other evidence we care to send
him.”

“I only wish we had more to send,” ob-
served Icenhower. “The guns, for ex-
ample.”

That night a report was received from
a law-enforcement official that a man an-
swering Fred Wells’ description and known
as Fred Wellen was working on a farm out-
side Williamsport, some forty-two tiles
from the Fayette county seat.

The next morning, Icenhower and his son
drove to the farm and interviewed the
owner who stated that his hired man had
not been off the place the night before
Thanksgiving. He had paid the man some
extra money to help him mend farm equip-
ment in the evening after his regular work
was done.

Wells claimed he had changed his name
slightly for fear his former employer would
hear where he was working and tell his
new boss that he was not a good workman.
He denied ever having any intention of at-
tacking McCoy, saying he had threatened
him in a fit of anger.

“Where’s your son?” asked the Sheriff.

“I can’t tell you. We had an argument
an’ he lit out. Said he was gonna get
himself a defense job. Didn’t like farming
anyhow.”

The case seemed to have reached an im-
passe until the last of the suspects could
be’ located. Clamor for a quick arrest of
the guilty person or persons, however, in-
creased hourly. Farmers attending the
McCoy funeral or in town for Saturday
‘shopping collected in little groups and dis-
cussed the crime. The men admitted they
were afraid to leave their families alone
even briefly and said'they kept their guns
at hand. Most people believed a dangerous
homicidal maniac was on the loose. The
officials felt this pressure of public opinion.
They attended the funeral with watchful
eyes, hoping to detect a sign of guilty
knowledge on the part of somebody who
attended.

Approximately two thousand people paid
their respects at the McCoy funeral on
November 28th. As the three members of
the family were placed in a single grave
at Bloomingburg, Reverend J. H. Baugh
said, “Tragedy stalked across our peaceful
country-side and struck down three of our
finest God-fearing citizens.”

In view of the rising concern in the coun-
try—especially among those living on iso-
lated farms—the county commissioners
called an emergency meeting, pledging a
$2,000 reward for “information leading to
the capture of the slayer or slayers.” The
authorities hoped this large reward would
encourage any eccentric or anti-social

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I-don’t-want-to-mix-into-anything type of
person, who might have seen the killer in
the vicinity of Oak View Farm, to reveal this
information. However, the reward brought
no immediate response.

After the funeral, Miss Catherine Wead,
a friend of Mildred McCoy’s, came to the
Sheriff’s office. She definitely established
the time that her chum would have arrived
home. Miss Wead had ridden from Xenia
to her home, which was located thirty-
three miles from the McCoy place, with
Mildred. After dining with the Weads,
Mildred telephoned her mother and then
started for the farm at approximately 8:05
P.M. This meant that she would have
reached Oak View Farm at about nine,

“Mildred drove slightly over thirty miles
an hour,” explained Miss Wead. “She
never exceeded the thirty-five-mile-an-
hour speed limit.”

Wee’ the Sheriff arrived at his office
on Monday morning, he found a report
from the laboratory expert, Eggert, of
Toledo, in his mail. It stated that the bodies
of Elmer and Mildred McCoy appeared not
to have been moved after death.

The report further indicated that McCoy
probably had been stooping over when he’
was shot and that he had been unaware of
any danger. Marks in the surface dust and
the position of the body as shown in photo-
graphs from various angles were cited to
support these conclusions. The marks in
the dust were believed to have been caused
by the victim’s shoulder as he hunched
slowly forward.

Icenhower reread the report several
times, for it substantiated some suppositions
of his own. He thought of the cigar
clenched in the dead man’s teeth and the
measuring tape clasped between his
stiffened fingers. A man didn’t hang onto
a measuring tape when he was suddenly
called upon to defend his life. As for Mil-
dred, he recalled the hand in her pocket
and the little package—a gift for her mother
—clasped in her other hand. It looked to
him as though she, too, had died unaware
of danger.

Then there were the towel and glasses
in Mrs. McCoy’s hands. He took two worn
leather eyeglass cases from his desk
drawer and looked at them thoughtfully.
The name of the local optician was stamped
on each and the Sheriff tucked them into
his pocket. At the optician’s office he
placed the two pairs of glasses’ on the
counter. “You made these for Mrs. Mc-
Coy?” he asked. ‘

After a brief examination the other nod-
ded. “She was a good customer. Not hard
to please—always pleasant,” ’

“What’s the difference in these two pairs
of glasses?”

The optician explained that the nose
glasses were for reading, sewing, and other
close work while the spectacles had dis-
tance lenses and were for general wear.

“Thanks,” said Icenhower and left the
store.

He reached his office just in time to re- °

ceive a telephone call from Columbus, Ohio.
He was not very Surprised to learn
that the Wells boy had been in jail there
for over a week, He was accused of in-
juring a fellow worker during a café brawl.
The last of his original Suspects was now
eliminated, but he had a new suspect that
he wasn’t mentioning to anyone—yet,
The tedious and at times seemingly hope-
less investigation had gradually stripped
away the false front, the misleading super-
structure of the crime. He was just now
reaching the essentials. Even the minor
facts—such as the scissors laid carefully
on the table, the undisturbed money, the un-
ransacked house, and the cut telephone

cord-—all fitted his new conception of the
triple slaying. That telephone had not been
ripped from the bell-box as an angry and

Tun

excited man or as a robber pressed for
time might have done the deed. It was
carefully cut. Despite the many shots
pumped into Mrs, McCoy’s body, he was
now convinced this was no revenge slay-
ing. It was a coldly calculated slaughter
for profit.

The official went to the probate record
room and examined a will filed the previ-
ous April. As he read the terms, a tight
smile twisted his lips. This was the will
of Martha McCoy, Elmer McCoy’s mother.

Icenhower’s next move was to drive to
the home of the McCoy’s nephew, the youth
who had also been invited to Thanksgiving
dinner at Oak View Farm.

“Did you take any luggage from Mil-
dred’s car when you unloaded it?” he asked.

Thée*soldier shook his head. “No. One of
her bags was inside the porch door in the
dining room. The other was at the bottom
of the stairway.” .He stroked his chin
thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, Sheriff,

it looks like Mildred was shot by somebody -

who was helping her take the stuff out of
her car.”

“Guess that would have to be someone

who knew the family pretty well?”

“That’s right.”

“Where were those scissors we found on
the telephone table usually kept?”

The young man explained that his aunt,
a very meticulous housekeeper, always kept
them in a kitchen drawer. He hazarded a
guess that the person who cut the wires
had secured the scissors from that drawer.

“Just keep this to yourself for the time
being,” the Sheriff said, and went out to
his car.

Icenhower drove to the Clinton County
farm of the Colletts about twelve miles
distant, where he was greeted in friendly
fashion by Mrs. Laura Collett. As she lead
him into the living room she commented,
“I was expecting you.” °

Seeing his surprise, she explained that
her husband had told them that the police
would question all of the McCoy relatives
as it was the usual procedure, :

“What about your mother’s will?” he
asked, watching her closely. “I’ve learned
that Ouk View Farm, that most folks thought

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belonged to Elmer, was really left to you
and your brother jointly by your mdther
when she passed on this spring. Only the
old place that he rented out belonged to
Elmer alone. Have you people had any
disagreements about the return you should
have from Oak View?”

The pleasant-spoken woman looked at
him directly as she replied, “No, Sheriff,
we've never had an unkind word with
Elmer and Forrest over money or land.
I can assure you that my agreement with
my brother suited both of us.”

Listening to this frank woman and know-
ing of her reputation for scrupulous hon-
esty, Icenhower momentarily began. to
doubt. Maybe he was on the wrong trail,
after all, for apparently there had been no
quarrel about land and money between
these two families,

Before leaving the house, he inquired
about Collett’s whereabouts. His wife ex-
plained that he was in Harveysburg on an
errand. She suggested Icenhower wait,
as she expected her husband’s return in
less than an hour. The Sheriff declined
and went to his car.

“T’ll see him later,” he called as he pulled
out of the barnyard.

He drove directly to the Grange Hall at
Kingman and carefully checked the at-
tendance records for Wednesday, Novem-
ber 24th. Next, he stopped to see Howard
Hurley, one of the Collett’s neighbors,

, ow farmer, who was an old friend of
Icenhower’s, said that James Collett had
talked to him often of the McCoy family
after the death of Mrs. Martha McCoy in
April. “Frankly, Jim shocked me. He said,
‘If it weren’t for the girl my son would
fall heir to the McCoy estate,’ Everybody
knew he was fond of his son and that he
bragged about him a lot, but that kind
of remark seemed a pretty shabby : way
to talk about his niece.”

“Does seem odd,” agreed the Sheriff.

“T figured if his son ever heard him talk
that way, it would be just too bad. He’s
a nice young fellow who wouldn’t want to
profit at anybody's expense or wait for
dead men’s shoes.”


ee ae

As he drove back to the Collett farm,
Icenhower thought over the evidence which
pointed to a calculating killer who would
profit from the deaths and who knew
the victims so well that he could approach
them without rousing their suspicion. This
scripture-quoting little dandy, who had al-
ways seemed to be a family-loving, church-
going, Grange-leading, model citizen, was
the man. Yes, he could not be mistaken—
especially in view of what Howard Hurley
had just told him. That clinched it.

Sheriff Icenhower that day arrested
James W. Collett, the sixty-year-old
Grange leader who had been absent from
meeting the night before Thanksgiving.
Under protest and evincing great indigna-
tion; the hog breeder accompanied him to
the Fayette County Jail for interrogation.

The suspect was confident to the point of
cockiness, an attitude commented upon by
the newspapers. However, he could not
give a clear account of his whereabouts
between eight and ten o’clock the night
of the crime.

When it was suggested that he take a lie-
detector test in Toledo, he replied, “Sure,
let’s clear this thing up.”

The results of this test, which was given
on December Ist, showed he was not telling
the truth in his replies concerning his move-
ments on Thanksgiving eve.

Then a thing happened which would have
been humorous if it had not concerned
such a tragic happening. Collett asked Lieu-
tenant George Eckerman of the Toledo lab-
oratory if he knew of “any recent ruling
regarding inheritance where a whole family
died simultaneously.” Eckerman looked at
him in blank astonishment. Collett then
asked whether he, the lieutenant, thought
“my wife will inherit the McCoy estate?”
The lieutenant had no thoughts on the
subject. :

The officers now decided to leave Collett

ae $ ROR

alone in a small room, the interior of which
could be observed through a cleverly rigged
panel without the occupant knowing he
was being watched. Being left strictly to
himself, after a time, Collett slapped the
arm of his chair and said, “Jim, you’ve
gone too far this time.” That was all he
said.

Later, steady questioning by Hill and
Eggert resulted in a confession to the mur-
der of Elmer McCoy. It seemed from this
confession that, while his wife was satis-
fied with the financial arrangements with
the McCoys, he was not. He had worked
out a fantastic theory of what was due him
in which he estimated that he should have
rent money for all the years the McCoys
occupied Oak View Farm, rather than a
settlement based on the time the place was
willed to his wife. The alternative to his
$20,000 proposition had been death.

While he admitted killing McCoy, when
questioned about Mildred and Forrest, he
insisted, “I don’t know. I can’t tell you how
I killed the two women.”

It was evident that Mrs. McCoy had used
her reading glasses to examine Collett’s
unreasonable “bill for rental” amounting
to $20,000, and her attitude may have sealed
the family’s fate.

The confessed slayer refused to divulge
the hiding place of the murder guns. He
was forced to accompany officials when they
again searched Oak View Farm and also

-examined his land in an effort to locate

the weapons. He gave no sign that he knew
where they were and the search was a
failure.

Approaching his father during the hunt,
Collett’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Thomas,
asked, “Dad, is this true, what came out
in the papers?”

The prisoner answered, “Well, it’s true
about Elmer but I don’t remember about
the women.”

Even the Toledo officers, long accustomed
to viewing tragedy, were moved by the
sorrow of this clean-cut youth.

The authorities feared that Collett might
be subjected to mob action if he were con-
fined at Washington Court House, for
feeling was running high among the many
friends of the slain family. He was secretly
bo to the Madison County jail at London,
Ohio.

Charged, on December 3rd, with first-
degree murder in the triple slaying, he
pleaded not guilty before Justice of the
Peace George Worrell the same day and
en bound over to the Fayette County grand
ury. :

A rumor came to the attention of the
Sheriff that the two guns used in the mur-
ders had been hidden in the McCoy coffins
by Collett. One of the undertakers gave
as his opinion that this macabre theory
was possible since thousands of people had
filed past the open caskets.

Prosecutor Hill branded the story a fan-
tastic rumor, but said that the caskets would
be searched when the bodies were exhumed
for an autopsy. It was believed that Collett
would claim he had not killed the women,
so a complete post-mortem .and an ex-
amination of the bullets now seemed neces-
sary in order to prevent the claim that two
gunmen were involved in the crime.

The killer retained a prominent Columbus
attorney, James N. Linton, as chief de-
fense counsel. The lawyer immediately
sent Dr. George T. Harding and Dr. H. M.
Brundage to the jail to examine the suspect.
Although no statement was made by the
defense, this indicated a plea of insanity
was contemplated. It was never entered.
The attorney and the physiciaris refused to
comment upon the results of the examina-
tion.

Mrs. Collett visited with her husband for
the first time after his arrest two days

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ae name esi! _ ” ee . a »« set Oe —— ~ >


C..-nt~el

By Ted Neal

ON THE porch of this farmhouse Jay
a@ woman with seven bullets in her body,
a dish cloth clutched in her hand.

HANKSGIVING was a day of days at the 160-acre showplace

farm of Elmer McCoy, five miles north of Washington Court
House in south centra! Ohio. His relatives and his wife’s came
for the traditional turkey dinner, and it was unthinkable that
Mildred should not be there at Oak View.

However, Mildred was coming Wednesday night, driving
down from the village of Pitsburg, 75 miles to the northwest,
where she taught home economics in the local high school. The
others, her aunts and uncles, would assemble on Thursday
morning.

At 9 o’clock on the night before Thanksgiving in 1943, Mildred
McCoy’s sleek coupe streaked up the highway to Oak View farm.
She honked twice as she whizzed past the tenant cottage occupied
by Dewey Claytor and his wife, then tooled the car skillfully

INSIDE DETECTIVE, August,

We, white, elec. OHIO (Fayette)

pA e (nC
Anril 20, 1945-6

AN INVE:
grinder wt
farmer hax
range. Hi:

COMING HOME from her first teaching job, lovely
Mildred McCoy walked into a deadly ambush. Later the
sheriff learned that Mildred and her mother had argued
about a young man. Was this the motive for triple murder?

into the drive leading to the big house a quarter of a mile back
from the road.

It was good to be home. This was Mildred’s first teaching
job and she’d been working hard all fall, Switching off the head-
lamps and the engine, the pretty, dark-haired girl wondered why
no one had come out of the lighted house to meet her. Then she
remembered, smiling to herself. Her dad would be down at
the barns to see that his prized dairy cattle were properly cared
for ; and her mother undoubtedly was in the kitchen, laying her
plans+for the culinary miracles to be performed there on the
morrow.

Mildred skipped up the steps, entered the living room and
shouted a gay “Hello!” to which, surprisingly, there was no
reply. With a little frown she dropped her purse, hat, gloves and

1947


before Christmas when he was arraigned. According to the reconstruction of the
He pleaded not guilty before Judge Harry crime outlined by the prosecution, Collett

M. Rankin.

The McCoy grave had been steadily
guarded from the time the relative made
his confession until the bodies were ex-
humed on January 7th, 1944. At Washing-
ton Court House, Dr. Horace Davidson of
Columbus conducted the post-mortems,
aided by Coroner N. M. Reiff. Only the
body of Mrs. McCoy was examined minutely
in order to locate an additional bullet which
the doctors believed to be lodged in the
body. An X-ray examination was made
in the office of a local physician.

Meanwhile, legal authorities working on

the inheritance angle of the case decided
that both the heirs of Mr. and Mrs. McCoy
should share equally in the McCoy estate
which amounted to between $87,000 and
$90,000. Dr. J. A. McCoy, Mrs. Forrest
McCoy’s brother, and Mrs. Laura Collett,
Elmer McCoy’s sister and wife of the ac-
cused, were named co-administrators.

D*: McCOY retained’ W. P. Schrock, a
Columbus safe and lock expert, to open
the wall safe in the living room at Oak View
Farm. The sealed will of Elmer McCoy,
drawn in 1928, was found in the safe.
Previously it was believed that he had died
intestate. ;

The small safe also contained $1,950 in
currency. :

When James Collett came to trial on Feb-
ruary 28th for the three murders, he de-
clared that he had not gone to the McCoy
farm the night of the killings and repudi-
ated his confession.

He claimed Toledo officers “guaranteed”
his punishment would be only a year in an
insane asylum if he confessed. If he did
not confess, his family would be “framed”
according to his childish story. He also
maintained that he had been subjected to
physical abuse.

The defendant carried on a sympathy
campaign to impress the jury. During
the trial he wore a plastic collar with chin
rest although jailors said he did not wear
it in his cell. Considerable testimony was
devoted to his ailments, including the neck
injury which had resulted in his purchase
of the chin-supporter originally. The Prose-
cutor, however, pointed out that none of
these injuries or illnesses affected his trig-
ger finger. The accused also sobbed fre-
quently as he answered questions.

Defense attorneys attempted to establish
a time-schedule’ alibi, placing Collett in
Clinton rather than Fayette county at nine
o’clock on the night the murders were
committed.

They produced a number of witnesses who
had seen the dapper little farmer in Har-
veysburg earlier in the evening. The alibi
was broken by the testimony of a Wilming-
ton farmer, R. S. Kirk, who said he saw
James Collett in Sabina on the Washing-
ton Court House road some ten miles from:
Oak View Farm that night. The defend-
ant had already testified that he was not
in Sabina Thanksgiving eve.

A veterinarian, mentioned in the alibi,
testified that Collett had indeed telephoned
him about an ailing animal but stated it
was at least ten o’clock when he received
this call.

Collett had later reminded him of the
call, saying that.everyone connected with
the McCoys would be questioned about their
movements the night of the murders.

The prosecution was ably handled by
Prosecutor Hill, assisted by Simon L. Leis
of Cincinnati, a state vice investigator. Hill
stated in his opening speech to the jury
that the McCoy slayings were premedi-
tated and that the defendant knew he would
have to destroy the entire family so that
his son could inherit the estate and have a
“good home.”

went to the barn upon his arrival at Oak
View Farm and shot Elmer McCoy while he
was measuring space for a feed mixing
machine. He then went to the house to
see whether or not Mrs. McCoy had heard
the shot. Since she had not, he surrepti-

tiously cut the telephone wires and then

talked with her until the daughter, Mildred,
arrived.

He also showed Mrs. McCoy his absurd
rental calculations, and then, pretending to
help Mildred unload her car, he put a gun
to her head and fired. When the startled
mother rushed out onto the porch, he
opened fire upon her. After she had fallen,
he approached, turned her body over, and
fired a final shot into her abdomen at close
range.

Surprise testimony was introduced by
the prosecution to establish the fact that
the gunman who had killed Elmer McCoy,
a crime Collett had confessed, also mur-
dered Mrs. McCoy. This testimony by Rob-
ert M. Zimmers, an FBI arms expert, weak-
ened the defense claim that two gunmen
had committed the crimes. Zimmers re-
ported that one of the bullets extracted
from the body of Mrs. McCoy after it was
exhumed was a .38-caliber lead bullet which
had been fired from the same gun as the
one that killed her husband. .

Leis eloquently summed up the prosecu-
tion’s case: Pointing to Collett, he said,
“This self-appointed executioner of the
family of Elmer McCoy has the steel nerves
of a professional killer. The defense goes
so far as to accuse innocent people in order
to save the worthless life of that defendant.
... He got on that witness stand and told
that impossible story, that he was the vic-
time of a frame-up. He’s. tried to crucify
every public official connected with this
case. Who lied on the stand? None other
than this defendant.

“He’s cunning; he’s shrewd; he’s hard; he’s
calloused,” concluded Leis as he demanded
the death penalty for Collett whom he
called a “sneaking criminal,” :

Voting only one ballot on each of the
three counts, the jury found the defendant
guilty on each without recommendation of
mercy—a verdict rendering the death pen-
alty mandatory. When the egotistical killer
heard the verdict he exclaimed, “My God!
Not me.” Tears of self-pity streamed down
his cheeks..

From his cell Collett issued a statement
which follows, in part: “I have been trying
to pray an unselfish prayer that I may be
delivered from this net in which I am en-
tangled for a crime that God in heaven
knows I did not commit, not only for my
sake but for my boy’s sake that I love so
well, his mother and his family... . I had
no doubt that when the truth was known
I would be allowed to return to my home,
the dearest spot on earth to me, and con-
tinue to be with and work with my boy... .”

Pn days after his conviction,
Judge H. M. Rankin sentenced James
Collett to death in the electric chair on
July 26th, 1944. At the same time he de-
nied a plea for a new trial.

When Sheriff Icenhower left Collett at
the Ohio State Penitentiary, the prisoner
offered his hand,‘ saying, “Let’s be friends
like we used to be before all this happened.”

He continued to read his Bible in death
row and was in every respect a model pris-
oner. After all appeals had failed, the
condemned man was executed. He walked
to the death chair with an unfaltering step.

Nore: The names Fred Wells, Al Seager
and Bob Jones as used in this story are not
the real names of the persons concerned,
These innocent persons have been given
fictitious names to protect their identity,

It’s hard enough to get 1 man
to agree ona pipe style, much
less 36! That’s why LHS
has always designed a wide
range of handsome models

to suit individual tastes,
and pocketbooks. But

one thing all men agree
on—and that’s the i
quality of LHS pipes. f
A good pipe is an invest-

ment in daily pleasure.


ching job, lovely
mbush. Later the
1other had argued
2 for triple murder?

‘yr of a mile back

I's first teaching
ing off the head-
rl wondered why
et her. Then she
vuld be down at
e properly cared
chen, laying her
ed there on the

iving room and
y, there was no
hat, gloves and

AN INVESTIGATOR points to the

STUDY OF A NEW inheritance law in Ohio helped Sheriff
W. H. Icenhower (standing, right) and Prosecutor John Hill
in their solution of the mysterious crime at Oak View.

Evidently the killer had learned about the statute.


6. a
fe ee

3 at

"GUILTY!" was the verdict of the lie de-
tector, whose telltale record of a. suspect's
reactions to questioning is here being ex-
amined by Toledo crime laboratory experts.

5 | a caren on eR esd Be a

car keys on a table and turned slowly back.
to the porch to get her overnight case out
of the car. Her mother, she supposed, must
be at the barn with her father...

She did not see the shadowy figure of
a man stalking her as she walked to her
expensive, maroon coupe. She had no

warning, as she reached for the auto
door, of the shot that stabbed through the
night. Lovely, 23-year-old Mildred McCoy
never knew what hit her as the revolver
bullet slammed into the base of her brain.

Early the next morning Dewey Claytor, _

coming up the drive to begin the milking,
saw her body sprawled beside the car, her
tousled brown-tressed head beneath the
running board.

He stooped over hér briefly, noting the
ugly wound in the back of the skull, then
lumbered heavily toward the farmhouse,
calling in terror for the McCoys as he ran.

By habit he went to the back door.
There on the. porch off the kitchen he
found the body of Forrest McCoy, Mil-
dred’s mother. She, too, ‘had been shot to
death: there were several wounds in her
body. :

Claytor plunged on into the house and

picked up the phone. Only after he had”

tried frantically for several minutes to get
the operator did he notice that the wires
were cut, rendering the instrument useless:

The tenant farmer ran through the
frosty morning to his home, whence he
and his wife drove to the neighboring
farm of Charles Griffeth. Mrs. Griffeth
telephoned Sheriff W. H. Icenhower in
Washington Court House.
‘ By the time the sheriff arrived, together
with Fayette County Prosecutor John B.
Hill and Acting Coroner E. H. McDon-
ald, several other persons had also gath-
ered on the premises.

In addition to the Claytors and Mrs.

BEATEN by the polygraph. the gray-
haired slayer signs a confession. He
died in Ohio's electric chair for the
heartless slayings at Oak View farm.

Griffeth there were at Oak View the rela-
tives who had been invited for Thanks-
giving dinner but arrived to find a feast of
Death. instead. These were: Dr. J. A.
McCoy, a well-to-do veterinarian from
Washington Court House and a brother of
Mr. McCoy; Mrs. Sylvia. Atkinson, a
sister of, the dead woman; Mr. and Mrs.

James Collett, and Mr. and Mrs. Delbert

Hayes. Mrs. Collett was a sister of El-
mer McCoy; the Hayeses were cousins
of the’ wealthy cattle and hog breeder.

’ Dr. McDonald paused beside the corpse
of the dead girl, who only the year be-
fore had been graduated from Ohio State
University at Columbus. He had known
Mildred all her life; it was all but: im-
possible to realize she was dead, the victim
of murder.

It took but a glance to satisfy the act-
ing coroner of the cause of death. He
went on to the kitchen porch where the
body of Mildred’s mother lay, stiff and
cold.

Blood had left black stains on her face,
head, clothing and the flooring of the
porch. “n one rigid hand she still held a
dishcloth, while the fingers of.the other
were frozen upon a pair of broken eye-
glasses. A green china bowl lay on the
porch in fragments. There were seven
bullet wounds in her corpse.

Dr. McDonald arose, a horrible suspi-
cion beginning to grow in his mind.
Everyone knew that Elmer McCoy was
an irascible old fellow, apt to lose his
temper rather easily. But could he have
slain his wife and only child? The acting
coroner turned to Dr. McCoy.

“Where’s Elmer?” he asked.

The veterinarian nodded toward the big
barn some 200 feet to the south.

“Why isn’t he up here?” the coroner

_demanded.

ees SE Ph
A puzzled look clouded Dr. Mclv. wa eat apes at
face. “Didn’t you know?” he queried. he’ sive “anh

“Elmer’s dead, too. A bullet through his .
head—just like Mildred. Come, I’ll show
ou.”
The body of the 54-year-old farmer, clad
in overalls and a drab.canvas jacket, was
wedged face downward between a feed
grinder and the barn wall. His teeth were
clenched upon the stub of a cigar; McCoy
had smoked a great deal. A steel tape
measure was clutched in his hand. The
slug had struck him in the back of the
skull and come out his forehead. There
was a powder burn around the entrance

_ wound.

Pakee PERSONS SLAIN on the day
they were to have entertained their near-
est kin at a joyous reunion! Both Sheriff
Icenhower and Prosecutor Hill, shocked
at the magnitude of the crime, realized
that nothing must go amiss in their in-
vestigation.’ This was a case that would
make newspaper headlines from coast to
coast. It was one of the worst massacres
in the history of Ohio since the bloody
raids of the Shawnees and Delawares in
Colonial times.

Both officials were admittedly nervous,
but together they faced their task with
courage and began appraising the circum-
stances of the case in a levelheaded, me-
thodical manner. ;

“Elmer was well fixed,” the sheriff ’
said. “Offhand, robbery would seem the,
most likely motive.”

However, a search of the premises
weighed against this initial supposition.
For not only was Mildred’s purse un-
touched, although it contained a sizeable
sum of currency, but a billfold with $140
in it was found in plain view on a living
room desk at which Elmer McCoy ap-
parently had transacted his business.

The ‘telephone wires were neatly cut
about 30 inches: from the wall box.

“I wonder why,” the prosecutor said.

“Probably to prevent investigation on
the part of anyone who rang here and got
no answer. With the wires cut, the
operator would report the phone tempo-
rarily out of order. Nobody would con-
sider that strange enough to come out
for a look.”

Hill was thinking of the powder burn
around the wound in McCoy’s head, of
the single bullet that killed Mildred, of
the seven slugs in. Mrs. McCoy without
a single badly-aimed missile’s marring the
clapboards at the back of the house.

“All close range shots,” he summed up.

“Yes,” agreed Dr, McDonald, who had
been busy making more detailed exami-
nations of the victims, “and there may
have been two killers. At least two guns
were used, one a .38-caliber weapon, the
other a .32. Mrs. McCoy was slain with
the .32. The heavier gun killed Elmer and
Mildred.”

“That steel tape measure,” Sheriff Icen-
hower recalled. “I would say Elmer was
in the act of measuring the feed grinder
for a new pulley belt—it needed one, I
noticed—when the murderer, standing di-
rectly behind him, fired into the back of
his head.

“Mrs. McCoy may have heard the shot
and have come out on the porch to find
out what was going on. She ‘was evidently
handling a dish that she’d been drying.

came up from
outside the kit
a volley. Seven
automatic.

“It’s a cinch
wouldn't have
grinder with
beforehand. A:
just after her
the victim of a
she was not a
shot. There'd
struggle if she:

Both Hill a
wholly with tl
constructing th
And this was
Icenhower que
tenant farmer

Claytor said
of shots betw:
“night before, |
more than tha
rats. McCoy o:
declared.

“He kept it
his light truck
ago when El!
hunting. It wa

Claytor eve:
shots he had h
single report,
succession an¢
This, he said,
passed his hx
to the big hoi

He knew it
in at about ‘
honked twice
other car, nov

“What othe:
demanded.

Claytor sai
drive sometin
say when it }
not recognize
driver.

“Well, there
dismissing th«
rived say arc
then Mildred
off, too. He
around, so his
than robbery
folks who can
they’re not g&

“It strikes 1
with a wry
whodunit my
are found. Al
around, by h
we were stor
ask a few qu
killer.”

“Not amon:
contradicted.
would have {
inherit * the
$100,000. Enc
But consider
looks like. $
wife and dau:

“* be the only

they? Doc
if you think
them...”

“T don’t,”
pen to know
for one thin
possibly com:
the way. Th«
the Hayeses

OLLETT
gave the «
had trouble
years,” he s:
can rememb
(C


-r

the chores.” Spires had been working for the 59-year-
old breeder of Poland China hogs for only three
months, but he understood the other man. That was
why he had lasted longer than any of his numerous
predecessors. For, if Elmer McCoy was a prideful,
cantankerous man, he was also an honest one. He was
willing to work as hard as any hand he hired on his
place.

Mrs. Spires took a seat beside her husband and the
two continued to stare out across the snow-covered
ground toward the house across the road. They saw
the lights of the sedan go out, but no light came up in
the big white house and there was no sound of calling
or knocking at the door. They were unable to see
whether anyone alighted from the car.

“Wonder what they’ll be having for dinner,” Spires
mused, “Elmer didn’t kill a turkey this year.”

Mrs. Spires settled back in her chair. A few minutes
later they saw a light flash on in the big barn 150 feet

behind the McCoy home. Almost immediately after- -

ward there came the muffled report of a: small caliber
firearm.

“Guess the old man’s decided to kill one of those
prize birds of his, after all,” Spires observed with ‘a
chuckle.

That was when the second car slowed and swung
into the McCoys’ gravel driveway.

“Why, that must be Mildred, horne for the holiday.”
Mrs. Spires was frankly fond of their neighbor’s pretty,

22-year-old daughter. Like other residents of that .

rural district northwest of Washington Court House in

Central Ohio, she was also very fond of matronly, be-

spectacled Mrs. Forrest McCoy, the girl’s mother.
“Yes, that’ll be Mildred, in her new Ford coupe.”

'

“

Police thought Mrs. McCoy was riddled when she came to door of sereened-in porch to answer a call

Spires laid aside his pipe and rose to go inside. Some*
time later he was about to fall asleep when he heard
several gunshots fired in rapid succession. It occurred
to him that if the shooting was on his employer’s 160-
acre tract, some late hunters were asking for trouble.

Bill Spires spent a restless night. He awakened be-
fore his alarm clock went off at 7 a.m. He prepared
coffee for himself, then ‘started through the chill dawn
toward the home of his employer, a hundred yards
across the road. i

The sedan was no longer in sight, but Mildred
McCoy’s coupe had been pulled around behind the
house on the curving driveway. Spires noted with
some surprise that the hood had been left raised, al-
though light snow had fallen during the night. It
struck him as strange, also, that there was no sign of
life about the place. McCoy was usually at the barn
before him, feeding the cows in preparation for the
morning milking. :

Passing the east side of the house, Spires reached
the milk shed, picked up his pails and stool and con-
tinued toward the path leading to the barn. His route
took him past the parked coupe—directly to the spot
where auburn-haired Mildred lay, face-upward and
rigid in death.

The girl’s legs were bent back beneath her body
and her dark silk dress was pulled up above her knees.
Her brown cloth overcoat was unbuttoned and a dark
crimson splotch stained the frozen ground where the
snow had melted beneath her shoulder-length hair.

For a moment the farm worker stood horrified, star-
ing down at the still form. Then he turned and ran back

. to the big frame house, thrust open the unlocked door

to the screened-in porch—and tripped over the body


a eis alii R

ledo, where he was quickly strapped
to a lle detector.

Interspersed with innocent queries
about politics and the weather, ex-
perts asked Collett questions on de-
tails closely linked with the triple
slaying. The feed grinder. The measur-
ing tape. Elmer McCoy’s .32 automatic.
Mrs. McCoy washing dishes. Mildred
McCoy pulling up the drive at Oak
View after her trip from Pitsburg.

On all of these delicate points, Col-

‘lett maintained his innocence, but the

polygraph needle proved him a liar
and the investigators told him so.

«“You might as well confess,” Hill
said.. “The machine has _ practically
confessed for you.”

Jim Collett suddenly went to pieces.
He wept as he confessed the murder
of Elmer McCoy. He tearfully claimed
that McCoy had owed him $15,000 in
rent for séveral years,

“T went to talk to Elmer about that,”
he said, “You know what a terrible
temper he had. Well, he got mad and
grabbed a pitchfork—came at me with
it. I couldn’t defend myself—not with
my back the way it is. There was a
revolver hanging on a nail on the barn
wall, I grabbed it and shot him. The
next thing 1 remember, I was on my
way home.” :

Collett claimed that his mind “went

-

barely warm, making it apparent that
the slayer had at least an hour’s head-
start.

“There’s only two ways he could
get out of here,” he said. “He’d cither
have to take to the, road and hope to
hitch a ride, or else hide out in the
Everglades.”

Florida’s Everglades section is the
most fearsome and impenetrable jungle
area in the United States—a vast ex-
panse of swamps, rivulets and ham-
mocks, It is a sinister place in which
men have been drowned, sunk in
quicksand, or hopelessly lost for days
until they starved. In addition to all
this, it teems with poisoned moccasin
snakes, alligators and saw-toothed
vegetation that can rip human flesh
like a knife.
~ A man would indeed have to be des-
perate to take refuge in this dangerous
wilderness. Captain Seneff reasoned
that the chances were that the killer
must be skulking along the highway
somewhere, and if he was, he would
soon be captured.

Patrolman Daniels’ hat. was found
among the ferns a short distance from
the smashed patrol car, making it ob-
vious that the killer had thrown it

1 i tat AiR oh

RT aS ee eS bs ai t

blank” after he shot McCoy. He could
remember absolutely nothing, he said,
of the shooting of Mrs. McCoy and
Mildred. Nor could he recall using any
other weapon, or what had become of
the two guns used in the massacre.
The questioners took all this with
several grains of salt. James Collett
was a cunning man, and he was obvi-
ously paving the way for a plea of
selfedefense followed by temporary
insanity. But. Collett could not explain
why he had laid his elaborate alibi

about attending the grange meeting if °

he had no thought of murder in his
heart. Nor.could he explain how it
happened, if McCoy was advancing
toward him, he was shot in the back
of. the head.

“The grange and sick cow alibi shows
plenty of premeditation,” Prosecutor
Hill told Icenhower. *“I’m convinced
that Collett drove to Oak View and
accomplished exactly what he intended
--to murder the three members of the
family so that he could get rich on the
inheritance.”

Collett stuck grimly to his story, His
wife, who had never dreamed of the
plot he had laid, was utterly appalled
at the revelation of his guilt.’

A determined search was made for
the two guns used in the murders, but
they were never found. Several wild

- DEAD OR ALIVE!

(Continued from page 43)

away as he fled from the scene. While
Seneff kept in contact with the officers
manning the roadblocks, Captain Bar-
ker pulled up in his car and walked
over to the wrecked machine with his
fingerprinting equipment.

@ BARKER SOON FOUND several :

prints matching those he had already
lifted from the Plymouth, making it
certain that they were those of the
killer. On the highway not far from
the wreck, one of the officers picked
up an Ohio driver’s license issued to
one Henry Prah]. A small photograph
was attached. to the license, along with
a physical description and a Cincin-
nati address.

“Maybe Prahl’s the killer,” Seneff
reasoned, “and then again maybe this
thing was dropped by some innocent
person. In any case, we’ll want a fast
check on Prahl.”

Captain Barker headed back to
Miami carrying an assortment of clues
—the slayer’s prints, the .45 shell, the
driver’s license and Daniels’ hat. He
found no record of the fingerprints in
the local files, so he dispatched those
of the killer to the FBI. He sent a
wire to Ohio authorities asking for an

AE

rumors circulated in Fayette County,
one of them to the effect that Collett
had slipped the two weapons into one
of the coffins during the funeral cere-
mony and. that they were now interred
underground with the victims. Prose-
cutor Hill, however, reasoned that he
had plenty of evidence to convict the
prisoner, gun or no gun.

Collett was promptly indicted on
three counts of murder. Still persisting
in his “self-defense” and “blackout”
story, he was brought to trial in March
of 1944. A jury composed mainly of
farmers listened to the evidence and
found him guilty of first degree mur-
der. There was no recommendation for
mercy, which made the electric chair
mandatory.

One night in the middle of July,

James Collett, stiff as a ramrod be-
cause of the brace on his back, walked
into the death room at the state peni-
tentiary at Columbus. Who knows, as
the fatal switch was thrown, whether
his last mental image was of three
faces—persons who had thought him a

friend but found him a blood-lusting
killer?

Eprror’s Note: To prevent embar-
rassment to an innocent person, the
name Ed Solent, as used in this narra-
tive, is fictitious. :

~
immediate investigation of Henry
Prahl. Then he scrutinized Daniels’

hat.

Clinging to the sweatband were two
long, black hairs. Barker knew Dan-
iels had black hair, but he was quite
sure the slain patrolman’s hair was
shorter. ‘Barker was not satisfied
with being quite sure. He took sam-
ples from Daniels’ head and compared
them with the long hajrs under the
microscope. They were decidedly
different.

That proved that the killer had
long, black hair and was probably in
need of a haircut. The description of
Prahl given on the Ohio driver’s license
merely said he had “dark” hair, leav-
ing Barker wondering just how dark
it was. There was nothing to do but
wait for the report from Ohio on that.

Meanwhile, Sheriff D. C. Coleman
of Dade County and his chief investi-
gator, I. R, Mills, had been going over
the facts in the case. On the theory
that Patrolman Daniels might have
been the victim of a vengeance plot
engineered by some criminal he had
previously arrested, Mills examined
the record of Daniels’ arrests.

“Here’s a possibility,” he said, pull-

. nahi ud j

‘ing a ca.

named Vi
him with .
served tin
“A bad
“We figu:
stolen car
that stick
and he
There’s a
investigati
Brack
Miami, a:
were assi:
it was no
was arou:
to come ¢
Plymouth
identified
told of I
realized t!
indirectly
‘T’m te
never, ne:
again.”
“Did ye
who stole
questionc:
She shi
get the ca
know.”
"You w
had anoth
—one issu
“No,” t}
only .my «

‘body nam:

impatient.
fully late,
Investig
almost ph
looked a
There wa:
tive brun:
“Tm su
before,” |:
‘TI wou
Mills,” sh.
met you |
“l’m no
served.
any time’
“Me!” ;

“not! Wha

m IT WA
“resented |

have a |
sure, Cap
in his offi:
all right.
Boston a:
on a nm
grand la:
aliases.
Withou'!
showed !
flushed a:
“All ris
been in t:
see there’
last three


COLLETT, James W., Ohio
April 20, 1945

Why Kill all three ’

HE DIDN’T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT SHOOTING

Elmer !
hated h

ee

| —_OR WHEN TO STOP FIXING UP HIS ALIBI

BY HAL WHITE

NOW, AT DUSK, muted the sound of gunfire that
had echoed over the countryside since dawn.
Thanksgiving was just a day off and Bill: Spires knew
there were many hunters still afield, hoping a final,
illegal shot might yet bring a bird or rabbit for their
holiday dinners.

Spires had finished his chores at the farm of his
wealthy neighbor across Dill Road half an hour before.
It was now well after dark and he sat quietly smoking
his pipe on the front porch of his home facing the big
white frame house owned by Elmer McCoy. Mrs. Spires
was back in the kitchen, preparing their own Thanks-
giving fowl.

Holidays meant little to the hard-bitten man for
whom he worked, and Spires was resolved to get to
bed early that night so he could get an early start next
morning and have his work done by noon. At 7:55 he
glanced at his watch and started to rise to go inside.
aes The sound of an approaching car halted him and he
ia looked out to see a dark sedan, with lights dimmed,
turning into the McCoy place. From behind him Spires
heard his wife open the door and come onto the porch.

“Tooks like they’re going to have company over
there for the holiday,’’ he commented.

“Well, they don’t have guests often,” replied Mrs.
Spires. “And now I suppose you'll have to-do Elmer’s
share of the work in addition to your ewn. Guess we’d
better plan on eating late tomorrow.”

“No. Mr. McCoy’s an exacting man, but he’s fair.
He’ll not let company prevent him doing his share of

Mildred McCoy phoned that she’d be home at 8 and although
she was late a few minutes, she wasn’t late enough to live

Elmer McCoy was disliked by many people but who
hated him enough to shoot him down coldbloodedly?

hough
to live


rbreek Ory ‘Goods | “tompaay,
pws Sonat V8 6,306, ‘The! fo or pln 04
y, devote his cise

rveyer Q.: L,.. Biekafo they
meee, ‘explained 8 ‘drawing. rap
the smmedi-

tate, vicinity in Routh
4Mise Florence * Cornelias, x
_]ot-the-dead woman, andthe only ere
‘{witnems to the tragedy. wan: thed * Glew otted do we hearwors
“| placed 00 tbe stand.) “Mies Cotnelths | ssems aa though roy back wo
ie 1 Siyeara of age.” “She was interto-, ar“*Don't speak to me, T 3m
ei gated On what occurred at the house | porta”? These sigu hein wees seg
ag Bae “Afor ® périod beginning with the Mon- oes — a lon
Fics Degree } ‘oT day bight one week — preceding“ the |S oath Or ait Yow and 450"
% Serge statute of the'state toy that killing of Mrs. ‘Cortelius to the Sime Siu sabes or Jstervicclare
dwhoerér obt of premeditated purpoee/ og ber death. * 2 re of] mag be caused by disetacd &
Kile another ts guilty of murder ta) oor Daaghter ‘Oa ons - La} some derangement’ ot (th
oftet degree. Tis you can ee] On the Monday night one week He-| Natare requires axs.stancr #4
that dn thie charge. tt must be shown fore the killing; Mise Cornetlog eal peak terpenes
$y) pany presented “The Ragged Measen- there wan purpese, Intent, accompan-| that with her mother she had’ one
that geet st The Grand Tuesday night, A ‘by premeditated ~ malice Gecond/ ypetairs, leaving Cornelius" lying on ae rear age tg te
183 | eomnedy ” drama, wth a inve plot pt qree murder mreans that “der tp the jounge. downstairs.” She ~ said Inselligent American women
Ré:} appealvand eirength. “The - Rageed must yeeult through mtans of put-/that he called her mother in 204} years, and the vest jadiges
+ Messenger” pleased ibcroughiy. The pone” aod ‘enitice: wpadsiaughter 4 downetairs and thai Mra,” Corneifus ft ia: the {most / maiversal!
\pjaysethical value wad well browant when: pomeone’ ate another oe and the witness both weni down.” sa) seme for wamot * ils
, Du} by the eMcient cast of characters, Patty 21G)) “Hevaaked mother.where the te Bent tha gonvine! ing test! Fi
\ _ f Pa). isnd es Ress Jahs.. Morton Creston] >" Runes ‘Btrong Drink,” solver was.” satd the. witness. “she Mra. Holmes aad Mrs Cate fe
* i Cigrke wan convineing. and won the

wii be shown fo you tbacCor-tto told Rim that ft-was in the creek and! yey @ Holmes, of Tari
\ whole-hearted “srmpethy Of hie #U-1
|

ae Cather tt secretary of ike rabeeall

NALS fe

Pleased ‘Audience. At The
Grand—Creston Clarke a:
ed Conviticing : Actor.

es * Beiore Bn: audteane of good, mre, {>
182 Creston Clarke and @ tapadlé. ‘com-

pelius was matried in28$9, fen (at tthe Wanted ft be would have Dakota, Writes:

Séitere. 2 The production “was. welt ‘ghildren) were doen. the! wite hadjtq’ go and ket it. He then told ‘me :

$9 “phaneed given bith to. another’ ehild “foot; to en to” hed and: mother sald 1 Py et aie ne ibe =
years previously, oxet’ Ber weilork should iS Pane ene Se and female troubie- I let the tr

oP ened peten sch a X
w}th Cormelias was the first. Cot? Calin The Ea Se ‘ gerd pe ite an hey ‘edly ere

nelfus was born and raised In Warne Btiekiog his Anger under my BOs*isenmmeuced to use. Lydia Pui:

Mas. erdynd for ‘the plex. ¢
Teousty) He ts a contractor py: octur, he ordered ‘me to. and gaid that] table Componnd.. If Vo only
pat Ave ee

rt VAUDEV 3
ges U ILLE TEAM | pation. gleaye bas he had a repita-[he would slap. me if. ¥ did not ER] ot rete. help BS

Bs ReLVENS eS FROM TOUR ‘tton for Porking hard, but “vnfortus refused and he atrack’me in the [ACe) weeks’ treatment mads|me wel
(a Mr and} Mra Herry E. Herman. nately he. became a victins of the U- twice. I ran ont of the house and My berkaches aad beatachae air
Sate heve arrted in ‘this chi to remain ‘qauor habit We expect. the proof to; called. the “potice**:/ Misa Cornstias Rose? Seetore t woke wie |
sata tor the Wigter. with Sr. Herman's show: that: Higen, canned ne: whole told how her mother ahd hereejt and | Vegetable Compan | sulern]!
~¢) parents, Mr, @h¢ Mrs, dohs “Po Hor- or ip ts

oF her brother Rost aged 16:Feare, had} Mra Em-ns Cotredy, 10% at ;
gen, of 1424 Hart Fourthistreet, af-}) Only Ove ‘Coane! at: pone

ate-| #iept.in one TOORT: ‘during aueeeroes Stieot, New York City, writ fog
“the; ter closing ait extensive and success: “am the petition fot divorce which nighis’: PE Deer Mrs. Mirkham :— +

t pep 2 fUt tour tm vaudertie through New the wife Sled there was only one pa aes <n Pe foe ibs Told Thay tome es ;

eT! '¥ork and many of the. prominent wharxé of cruelty. <3t avorred / ‘that “Repository People’s ‘Columa Aas.

feels! leastorn cities. On account ofthe TH-{ Adguat 15, aamonth before the erime, ‘Adverse, Ese ob AF oh Ask Bre, Piakhen's atid *
' nega of Mr. Hermaz, thetr plage ca-| Cornelius took nls wife bY the erni,{, xn Sat 2

pRoft.i
are #11 he Ciscontinaad | for 2a, ta-] squeezing and wrenching tte It wil!
, be shown that this was the deceased's

Max cere! Leite
pihel <1 “1 aworn statement. Bh ‘tid acon ise
wep e 1 toxteations bowever. oop
: Te cusal t 4 oS” owed Wite and Pani gs
Peay | stanton. ‘Pay Nov, 3—-AL P| “Cornelius loved hia wife end fam-
anid. Presideet W.-H. Trvesdal, ot t58) ny df he is the demon the prosset-
< Ne] Dee rarer: Lacka weet and Westerd] ton’ grtempts to paint Bim, -he> cary]
teas faltroad today ancadaced + that “the taloiy had plenty. of. tiene to Kill “nis
cofspany will ‘grant & feo-hout, ‘day wite when no one es ‘around,’ the
bye tonal trajnmes: in sts émpios: This} prootiwtil show that \ the” cbosbapd
‘ ‘pont “concesmion which already er ‘heed frank whisky. br the: quart and gab
; ar © granted the acgincers and ‘sittchwen Jon’ prior ta the’ time of’ the: deed,
‘ ; eats: hernsid, wilt be made epptirabi@to all When trouble” and Aleappoioimént
; _s other employes and the order wit be tana he frank more end more, 2,
| romde effective ao far ae fe posainie C promised :
z bach he a Faftroad.

sitged, with settings that:
tthe eve and found & es peek

aha

ee ef erne e nae a ener en temren econ (oni mae in gmat Spree ae

\Gan You Ret

We wit, joan you “enough: money to meet ati sour outs! fee
you “need for the winter. necessities, “Wa. wilt Joan 0% ars yt
“pods, ptand, Axtires, horses. of wagons, and teave pamie fn é

EWE: ORIGINATE—31 14 os tha xeckiy, pryment O88 “ge es
the prepertion.-OTHERS IMITATE.
te AWG “eet mary, toans' to those who hase polhattel ©
jadtom
te Itowe Seuptiat ‘sattefy you: At wii be Gecioes’ to try «ls:
“Dorer. New Faladerptis. Alitance. Salem, Aricheyitie: and £

: 3 Patter teoking’ ie Pi ‘weal a
ga arén to. the bone ol A pareats” “
e ROOTERS’ CLUB ‘MEETS Shreve, Le rboiy 8 ssaursan te :
t Bia Ss Ae ee FeIN Caxton Butdey, He pica ng
pang z * ieee to have the divores matters adjusted,
aye a Bhtaye: dod’ Ciat be would "Rat
is whalr on per Head” When de
reat io home. nds, his purpose) i —
{was mot: to, quarrel 2 Heo wanted, te}!
pet sthes ns he waa! ap

mee PHONE esa, 2 SP oN
BELL. Yep “dace a sine 2 par ees

i Lewy te Got Weights: 0%
: ; oe ays right i ‘keep
bs gen t ness A LBD]
Di 2 8 broke wauet of the doors.
wWaile, in’ the’ tours sey arentng:
F ae


EN WHILE ON ISTHMUS OF PANAMA

mw ree St ne os

ee

enue Death of Carroll” * Coun
Woman. While on Visit T¢. Dangt
ai ter In Cantons,
| RPeumatic fever veel. ‘the death|
or} of Mra. Kate Sui cetywite of Atidrew
| SPisety, a prominent. Carrol county}
hraraer. atthe ‘residence of Mr. and! =
-4 ee! John Waseem 696 Linden are
‘nue. about midnight Tuesday night.
ce ME and'Mre Solvelr were paring al
tat rhe home of their “daughter | der case against. James W) Cornelins,
“tat the time of her death. acd ‘her, of this city, for the killing of bia wife,
_ palfhent #as of onty {wo week's, duya-
7 { Mon, Wy et |

cat the derased was $5 years of ge,| welght, was inipanneled,
‘She was-the mother of Aftomey A-A./ mornings at 10:20) o'clock,

Character
izes Crime As Hest Cold-

¢

1¢

after at
1
ue Water, of 496 Lindon > arenu,} | parual juror, needed to fll the pare.
is| na Mie: Velrba a irynies Aas COMPLETING THE PANEL,
} Frankl etraet:. >>
‘e texhansted § .precmptury .chatlonges,:
the gtate 1” Betore Kotecting Jaco

the | ‘last yenire had. Darn: ox fo

or, pebet name follow: yrog- Kirk
4 chtiptian Weilatier, JM. Howenatine,

Theodore: Ebersole, 3. HD ger F

A. Hasna ‘and Job a: Ako,

Over. a Hunilerd Semmoneit,

ahs pounty
 Thireé Worker Killed’ By,
jawoand “heat! mony bh ad mo

ae The Cornelia Jory. 2
<Thke sary, fotlows: Kd ‘Na

bans ae Reddy

: Desi ¢ For} tev!

The jury tm the first degree wars,

In forming ‘the. panel, the: Aofense patty.

‘ralled on akweatrey:
before both sides were: content: with
the. Pwelve: en In“whose Wanda lees
ate,. seach. Juror attopting

iei-

partial verdict etter havtog heard at

Canton: aie

rgibath Tighor Maver bia
Moctays Cotte Manier. Sarah Corns

stired by Coltnty. Progeratye Cobars,
i Making hin openitg yemaraa
pthe Jary. expisiniog the piocres Ae
64u Jeading “up fo the confemed kit; =
PSSA plat Of ihe interior of the
retident® wag tatrodaced © for.
gary * henett. while, laytng on
Ue proeecutor's jefe
Laht hoary tas of tony, she Instrument
that “brought CEPR, ae Sy
; tors Haterent, rf
STNé nedareator related fytly Ee

i gad oa version of the --crime:/)ob4
told how Corneticd had beon aged for
FGivorce three weeks before Uh fatai-
ie, op the groucds-of” cruelty? x84

i Aenoken pew for three years: how the
trushana ton the fwo small chilérvas
Yte his’ parents’ Rowen Shee Ing”

(Saturday hefore tha-crime which “Oke

Feurred: Monday. Sentember 172 ober |
i the defendant recerasd tn Canton
Rusday, forctag dig way tutto!
shore Ke kicking down b rear anor, as he
his wife would Rot Permit hict 19 wht.)
ter : ;
ig ovina Griine Wes ‘Committed. :
Preeecetor. Uphain bontinted te tée

cstella, on September 47. by: striklon are. pow Cor Telling went Inte the ¢et-
her sboat: the: bred jwith 9 wiadww jar sitidal nleht for pamething white!

+ [iinw weights: how! on Monday 2

Saively, of, Carcotiton: Mra- Carrie. hour had beén spent. sechring an in- wrorting Cornelis dejared:

ramp to aut iInyerlf where %

et oo nobody etd utter the

tt don icare what rms do 8
Ong AS You don't Barra me eee
phéer abree dime cupen © “the

a ‘Paliner- veestttant 2 ecaahier of fhe. the heary weight Jn the

“| Wilmot, Oj bank) as the twelftt jue, . hisestepdatghtérs how he + Mase

of, peren, electors tallied Jato estirt.on the house, going tnta a grocery store”
i whore he haueht. ciearn, calmty

pearing that-be hat had trouble
Phis house and had killed~ his
thowshe Reve himself wp a few Sari
Hotes titer to the: police 1A ow

his: ces without Hes

,

15 “The tee troony Laat” wow
etinie.to have heen comm! tied wit
teieisoe and: premeditatinn jamais. %
ptiybore been canterinisted tor stone? o>
j fald Prorecten Ughadi. «S405.
how,’ hevremarked, “that Gar”

retin wite had “Deen aftald th fi
wiih ims 2 When ail testinwny re in:

end osc swe ed Be ait pak ed

pnd pon have jistened:to tt must aa “3


tri

Spabbcliers Ne

u : oe p .
Canal Fulton;
© Rochester, N. x * Nov. n sory P.} TH: SPathae:

=~ fatal accident occurred today at] '* “Brutal,

varesenas
bien were killed: -eightikerious:
». Py talured ‘and wis stightiy bart. One vom NO. J. Wednesday”
‘ ot the. ‘dead has Deen identified “a8! Prosecutor’ Uphaii ai
pf} dames: Horas, of Rochectér, ahd abs) Watiy, “counsel. tor the
ot ms Bart Cleveland, @t-Aubyen. soRANe
sO The. “men were at work ona wate? Toward the
fold” feac. theo top pf a two Mory
Paliding which ig one Of etght bulldst
$8ES in course pt construction at Kos),

Attorne

Emiulsfon building and was eanstructs|

ed-ol Meet, rancrere and brick -

jae Aa Rerty examination of the wreck |
‘eves!

Anat ibe principal cause of on, rethirds of the court, but thie on
dept was-the temoval of the Hoa wah averrated,

ersefethe foora, before the fy.

had property set -About 26; ohh K_AARLS OF DEFT: XSF
és were cathe eitpper. eral} 5
When the top floor gave awhy. Red i Morements. that rme of thy

. Seading polats of the defense, wil
UT he Soot and walle teppted “in with)
eragh of Koncrete afd bricks and) bring) upon testimony < tenting “ts

¥ Reel girders: The wen were; 5 2 :
ea into’ the debris. falling shoo 1 an uncontrollable ‘desire for agrink

feet. Tt was known ehat at

Stark county... The Hefense ogc

Tiere | carried .in the hospitals in’; ; .
embulances, AS the mrhoworked dy By Peshience: on South Market: wtreet

Romberethe infured cannnt be iden] AL OVER FIFTY WITNESSES,”
tihed cant!) (ihe contractors jook up! 5
thé Rames ant the numbers! in their) 27 witneanes VOL ARE number ‘only

foe the Tile: and Cotstruciion itom-; COFPtiion, a otyrenty.sear old deck

ial Marlboro town-j.
faghy bt

; dre Kodak park works, in which cs Within “the” cortig nt aa. want}
th: auditors: a8 conld squeeze int” oar

~t Wee ascertained trom Attorney;

[show that the defendant wre given tn: Libs.
TO ASeC theae saymptams of Mine welt ag:

cma grew wteadily for week be fore® 6)
three meu were Killed whlia’ the crite wat committed, at the fam-:

; hobke Sire Done-owas- an eyewitzes te the deed ta
rr Most ofthe Anlured” men “worked | "pick Cornelius confersea— Flores eS Sk ting waa avant In Inblh Atsevasion

pany of Detroit. wha had @ contract: Perot the dereased: Corneitus wae ertito thé «tcdy Peter Ute sot Jens

tiig-work tn the butidit her srep-tather In the iiet ere Maye: Cntirt Pig
foe Ie oe, wMnes mee obor Van Nest aed Chief ot Po lice Taek! BR re pene
* Wapeal (Rh hctaact bar, Of. Woonter Alone wiih tour Hike | E Notire,

Wilt “he voars “if soa buy an EN! et persons trom the Wayne spunty) WV, Mores, whoohas heed fon.

Sten: all teetimeany:
e istesed to if earétatty
ptfowrly, oT wip ak. She”
or ® verdict ander tte ple
t CREASE, Woeity’s Pe ek

e wife: oncorntene his Astiaak? ite.
ws ard: ater Gaughter “ormte «Jarred
‘Corner Veawee Iripelled: 1 aprons

state ttislats aA aSnOpss: Oh the” ;
infin polute broneht onein Attorner
Welty open iny atetemenr.: Oe te Wiens ak oie

i
‘4

orning.; sure which Comarenced, 5 aha Iis13>

¥) o'tloek, eadiok iat tss0. The canre

Actendsnt.” nad allowed an bovr ant, alice poate!

nanched inte the opesing. Btatemonta. | tere, for luncheon
lose of the states pre: | $i ge “No Sneha Perec

{gentation. ‘the PrARecutOr BAIA ‘to thy!

fury?) “Gentiemed ! think the tes. rihie CD28, honing in -simeceay or

timony * WUL show, tooyor thar 4 Inny he Mone eatiefactoryeta at} lors
' Spy y ciae te
ak (park It was cknown ‘aa: thé! critic. was the moat CSI hlooded tha earch eobnse] heean.:

drotah: murder: ever perpetrated tn iment is Too lmarinc in the frat Mopres

“We apprauch the lavesitgation wee

¥S

nt dor the RUling Pt deletia Cornating,

pia, have then. remaths’ irjeken from Ath RR proof Kite shawn ou faat nie

“{ there WAL 00

+
7 per dneeine sewn ioe

rat Seiivaint 3

} Leonel edie pie bea Bake

i “YITAL TOPIC cL LASS.

LB The Vital emia. £ ada ot yr a M.
LG A. apeld & ned tvs) TuekAay -erohe
Phere mers abont 25 prewnt
idena ihe: PVening As “en iornble ag te?
Met ies Three Othe

fepectivaly hy. “AATOD. aid ‘orl » 4,
pRétiers and. T Pench “Fe Sto-

ei pte ‘af the Otharwias Ban,” ve Ng la
i far othe state hae sa bpoeniied | “Dykes was Unlereatingiy “peiated a ae

prea by F. £fgodetg andor”
hensh, Pe Arsh half heer Ae “a

end fan seshad halt howewar vigvete:

é ieee Iwate” fds:

TAlatbdl te

Asai tn Connection art Tenake te 2"

pois. The “Risin &° Hotei

o
‘

peat NES A atl. Slat 3

Mdeing 84 6Hod |
K Phonagcarh. Cash or easy par-;camitel who-perronally kndir portions  Steting atition 4

: cA Piano, Hxchinge Propaiick

hap Con Cf COrmeltaa® pant Bre whieh will Hei es aad Erocétlcg Col ner owe
“gr, Riven at tostimony during the teak} Tuscarawas ortrect ox4 Hrawn pte”
Ligh residente” of Bhreve,. ithe are: Unic. PANS CHO Thal he hay onreh acag

7 id sqeare planes and organs ax: | Aefenéant,”
Fey a ekd for new mpright planes, Ark,

rs feo —yeretated’ to the  detecdant: amonc:
te “tbs Pl on ‘ be i rem Jehta father Janae KH Carne
or ory @ oupiie ‘ot Miss Ginevra Brown i Muse The Hat of ce neeaee for’ both

foros give an eshibitian of thair work Higend fotiows: a4
ti the nd-decorated citing at the ntudia, w ttetenes foe State. is

‘lovrner at Marriet and Linden ayer’ aia Frank - McCaysland, Ampel

‘fnoes Thursday and FTN aX Nov. S21 Meate, Moyar Von Nest) chief Loin:
Ei aot 23, fromid 12. 46 b. Ar 10F:) or David Greist,: Atbert Peter” Mrs
Hes invited. ae oar IL Albert! Peffers Mrs <wcoattiew Clark,
¥ popevmnnrenss —— “cy | Bert Veringtor, Willara Smith Oop
“Beawti{nl Anverteao Ortental Mug | Brave, 2.°D Barcus, 3) He Geewmian,

ed Naw khipment Just arrived. Rlees OS WB oMilin ALL > Peters: Wilitam
BS; RTROG in, to OxTE toot. Price §3 40! Hufler- 3. tT. ‘Bucher, Henry Warbert,
aa lees tists aod Hedelwan ties A. Warbert, Jonsie Kenney’ Fle.

is Ses} renee Corneliga. Rowe Cornetivs,
asi fin Spry nant “Syeph  Baltin,
e438 : eed, Hub Raed, Louta Bmit
phould not fail to. via the Paras ¥eF Wy Tdwell Dr JF, Marchand,

Shura; ne: drapery and wall paper; 5.
f. “ Kieia & nx pan} a Wy, Pata bri: hey Hetmond.

mn

cae : aie

‘Teod working saat? fer, te, Men's
849° Tee

Ea te for. 8

Now 31 (4oe-

Palsg siata, Witt eesoe who kndhee, the; he. PONITh SlOeK of rd e ion gt 146

od Bot wand) cornes af Wo Nortn e

The inetense bas eudpiesned” A gy SPOR aN Ole yela ba Revue, aad
ave about ty Te Keto de Hafelman’ Wifhesree, Four of that munaber ore SUMt LOR Glick HIM be wold at anes
t ‘

Uta besinniig  sonte i, The. ft-
tar ea is She Matar gzo< ary way ale
be etd,” ; PAs yenn

oe oa emai aes : as *

New Line moth tog
All #inee WAG eolore ~ Salendid wake.
Gag 33.78 to ¥ Tie KiciA-& Heffel-
PRR bee: ead ‘

Peete ae

Ne arena,

of Our giadors help yeu to ace Haht,

Boyhe Op inal cr C4 We Torn te
ope Cowriland histal : : 183
% pow | Seal AM eeaee eT Mita he a
7H WEATHER,
“Goverpmest Fo: Forecast ioe Ohi.
Katy fe Woutk, raln ey snow te ROTTS |
portion wate apd TAAtar

ma ier he inact
Yesterday, s a Be

4 perce. | Va
pa See Cra Ye

Ses

fea rteht “and nae of rigar ; sxe uh


2.

_Bx-Canton: ‘Realdent..
Md, Putte seen

| formation. ta.”

*} Coaghlia, aged ate -years,; who @tce
: sieht of the {jafts at noire ahd
ani }

«Coughlin was: at: ohne tie

<P @ent‘of Canton and has = ter,

in. the“ Lancaster < and:
Cleveland: workhouse. NO trRCe: at

{int 0 could ‘on found ta ‘tate ely 4,

‘2 Motion to Quash, >. “
he” \detenes haa jn enrt,- the i ig
yorce. petition Med: by © tha’). wifes

Fava cet: the hosband about « mon.B

before the. killing. _Dorneliur ‘es

Sl feharged with, ctuelty. and babitast:,

: i drunkenness” The wife dapokes’ an<)
paer the. name’ of Anna %.  Corselize.”
alt As understoad: howéter,-that the:

degree: murder tise amatost Jas.
Corneltsa,” at thie hie Paste ‘ iea o
fessedistayér of his é
With the: chief ole iv 4 the @9-
fense. pared’ bpon “atulements that ‘the

; detendatt Watand bad heen ‘Rdgietadte
ite the lighor Habit, Attorney: Weity.

who i9 eo-colinned for: Corpelliis, 34)

: Saking a ee tee fight against: tar~

tastitiony. which “the

Lt Nag tha Agor-casing which his tathhe ©”

sate bay beveral felactyes_of the. de
ceased Rnbpoetiaed for: Che. purpose

Stor showing thar. Eatelta was the cor.
stréet-mame,: “Should the defease gela

Kis end, however, the Indierment, if is
thought, would be wenwened, mater
tistly. and it is altogether Hkely that
pmition te quash wowld le Med. %
When <¥ourt ‘opened ‘Thursday
morning, Judge Harter, upon owtion .
by. Attorney. Welty, instructedy. 4he->
‘parors ot; e Kiva any aftentian ‘to
the nowspaper. feporte of “the: trish,
After. Florence, Corneltns, the defen:
dant’s ftepdanghicr, had been ques

trolied over the accused, she was ex:

. cheed for. the time. being and “her

ster, broéthet Rosa, 245 ypearé of age,

toe thé witnoss stand. ak
Repair’ ot Door Casing,

jehind ‘Rakes & Bammer and ‘Fopate-

hat Broken ) Ly féreing. hia “way Inte -

Zl the’ house ‘after ibe witness. and bik =

ba‘l muther had barred both doora’ On y

‘trina, Ros’ declared “hia father told

. bing. that: “he nag only.” ‘one - Gap

angers on pars )

S eae a i

tioned farther: as to hey knowledaa
"Of thé. fafiyence’ ‘which Vqdor «"ton-

He. teotified that on Audday neat wt

PSunday: eynping. the night before the i

ppt tance

She nad

Soar)

Nba dba


tener, she granted namediately

fele that Leeouht not lve. without

‘

JOUN W. COWAN,

wees

first introduced to Miss Sinclair. My acquaintance with”
female society was very slight, and nothing but the deepe >
rooted aflection Thad conceived tor her could have chabled=
me to overcome ty natural timidity sufliciently to address”
her with success. ‘There was a young gentleman, a

saddler, paying his addresses to her at the tune, and had”
cheaged her to marry hin, in nineteen mouths. at Which
time lis apprenticeship would expire, “This engagement?
had the sanction of her father; but Eo never kuew of it
vntil after my marriage, when ny Wile informed me ot”
ite "The day after my marriage he called to sec us nh
took a glass of wine with us, Wishing us much joys bute
mined that day he and Ehave never spoken to each other.
He continned to visitmy wife jtil within three days of &
her wedding, when she distuissedd him. Elid previously 9
told her that she must decide between us, and. she pres
ferred me. He doved her sincerely, guid) was almost
heartbroken at hee decision. He kissed her at parting, ©
assuring her that Le never would marry anothers and >”
then lett the house Apparentiy ithe deepest despair. As as
soon us he liad gene, | sepped across the street. and shes
told tne what she had done. Pspentan hour or two in” :
deep reflection on what hivd passed, WE had not loved |
her as man seldom ever loved: woman —amore than my
own lile—E should not have married her. | placed the
matter meevery heht, and save at all the consideration |
was capable of; but the more ft retleeted the more. |
her And we were

married, el

Our courtship will prove uninteresting to many; but
sul there are some who aay wish to read my description
oft. On the mghtof the lth of January, N20, she RYT
Diook a wath for ebout three quarters of an hour, through
the streets; and pou our return we Stopped for a few
minutes at the front deers and Ethen requested Ler pare
Missionde paymy addresses to her. "Phis. in the hindest”
Qu the next evening |
renewed my visit. or rathey. having seen her standing gat
the door, Derossed thie sipeet ainbeouversed with ber a fey
migtles, but did net enter the house, wihough she urged

:
=

_Oue conversation tured Upon mnatrinony, upon

.

JOHN W. COWAN,

me frequently. TE did not see her again for three or four >!
Weeks, iny rival occupying the time pretty much himselfs% .
though he kuew nothing about me for months afterwards.
TDnext met her ata neighbo.'s house, where | enjoyed her
couversation for nearly two hours. We spoke principally
Upon religious subjects. © watted pon her home, and
found her all that bE could Wish. She was young —-only
seventeen —handsome--of Very slight but graceful figure:
her long black hair was the ost beauttul, | thotehe, i
had ever seen: her eyes were jet black, and it sevmed to?
me that nothing could be brighter or lovelier than Ulaery. aa
Her skin was slightly dark, but the ‘regularity of her
feitiives and the sweet Capression of her countenanee, her
easy and graceful manners, her Hehe and active: person,
and, above all, her excellent geod sense, forced nie te re.
gird her as one of the sweetest: and most beautiful of
God's creatures. A few evenings after Penjoyed al walk
with her of nearly three hours. it being a delightful
evening and the moon atthe full and Shining brightly.
Which
E felt emboldened to make her
an oller of my hand; but she declined giving a definite
answer, She, however, consented to favor me with her
society ina walk, whenever she Was not otherwise ene
gaged. We also concerted a mutual signal, by Which, as
our residences were opposite cach other, we could ascer-
tain when we could enjoy cach other's society without
interruption. ‘This was by holding a handkerchief in the
left hand between the light of the house and the door of
the one opposite. When we nest Walked together, we
met her beau, but he and | were Srancers to each other,
and did not speak. Tle followed us. however, wherever
we went, and finally watehed us home. The next eve.
ning he filled my place. tn our next Wilk. Eagan prexs-
ed heron the subjeet: of lharrinve, aud stevessfully, for
she consented to beeome my wile. Ter other admirer
ras sul very attentive to” her: thenueh SUppose he
thought that all was not right, but he knew not whom
to blame. As PF said before, he loved her sinecrely ; and
I beheve that she loved him better than me. The teuth

she conversed very freely.

Pp re
=.

Tw oe

SR a gig
=

a tet oe

; id not drink
ee eead, and still seriously believe, was to make

Su Sha a cocaine a Ae

| JOUN W. COWAN.

them, it might have a favorable effect upon her disposi-.

tion, Previous todisclosing my project to her, a Me. ——=,

ittsburgh acquaintance, called to sco Us, After

Pe ine sath uae asked him to take a walk, to er
he assented. Wea visited several cotTce-houses, at all 0

which Udrank freely, but I observed that he was cautions

hate asmuch as I. ‘Tho object, as f

in which he was more than half successful. 1
ee hun vart by himself for my house, and made after
him; but he arrived there a fow minutes before ne
Every thing, however, passed smoothly ; and in iy shor
time . took his leave. 1 felt determined to awe ae
cation, and to keep a rigid watch upon the conduct

Mr. ——— and my wife. Next morning I ahi mare
ket, and on my return found my wife ina very il vy
She said sho was determined to go to | ittsbu h; and the
day was spent in uarrelling, Inthe evening Mr. = Fee

turned. | offered him some liquor, and drank rather an
myself. 1 became intoxicated, and lay down to sleep.

was awakened out of a short doze by one of my xhop-

mates, who told me that my wife was Just going on

of a steamboat along with Mr. —— in erder to take pee
sage for Pittsburgh. T started up, puta large dirk kni
into my bosom, and followed them down towards the river.

i . bia
‘hey saw me, and turned into a house on Colum ;
Kaas where we had formerly boarded. My wife re-

ined there two days. She told the people of the honse
att wat on a * A and that she would weveuyae to
housekeeping again in Cincinnati, On the second day I
called to ace her, and told her if she was really determined

« to Pittsburgh, | would sell off our furniture and go a8
with her bal Accordingly, U took every art
~ ing to my house to suction and had it sold the same
day. Temployed a man to finish my jobs for me, aettled ©
with my employer, a b —_ o'clock the third day, »
we were under way to Pittsburgh. i Ade
as In Wheeling f determined to remain a while, and com- ee
~ menced work at pattem-making. While there et aes

came several times to the shop to see me.

*

* JOUN W,. COWAN, ee

re 249. ig

prospect of business, and every thing appeared to be
going on finely, when, all at once, my wile signified to —

me her determination to go to Pittsburgh. She had no

relations living there, her father having previously re- oy
moved his family to Ashtabula, but go she would; and, ©

as f did not wish to hear her tongue, I consented. She
packed up clothes enough to serve herself and Thomas, —
our boy, and took passage in the stage for Pittsburgh. i eh,

Mr.

after she left. In three weeks she wrote to me

to send her some money, stating that she and the child —. .

were in the utinost misery. She requested that, if Leould

not send the money, F should go to her. 1 was too fond «— ~

of both her and the child to hesitate; so I started and

reached Pittsburgh late at night. When J arrived, [2
found that my wife had gone out into the country about
fourteen miles, to an uncle, with the intention to remain ~~.

there. [started from Pittsbargh at one o'clock and reach- ——
ed my wife's residence carly next morming. "They were —
all well. IT remained a day and night, a |

to Pittsburgh and commenced work. On the day of m
return I saw Mr. —— pass, and asked him when he left —
Wheeling. He said he left the same day he saw me last. ©
My firm opinion is that he was the cause of her leavin
me at Wheeling; for I was in a profitable business, a
she could not have had any motive arising from domestic
want, to leave me. In three weeks after my arrival in
Pittsburgh we went to housekeeping again; in fact,
our married life had been but a sucéession of separations —
and unions. In less than three weeks we n to
quarrel again. My wife never was at home more than
three hours in the day. Where she passed her time, or
what was her business, was a profound secret to me.

“In this way matters continued for ten months. One
morning | started to go to the mouth of Bull-Creek,
twenty-one miles from Pittsburgh, but st 1 at the
Two-mile Ran tavern, where I stayed all day, and re-
turned home in the evening. On entering my house [
found Me. —— and my wife sitting together im very
familiar conversation. She had frequently told me before

remained behind, closely engaged at work. I did not sce)

then retarned


244 ¥ JOUN We COWAN,

was, though | owas ignorant of it, she was then engaged
tu both of wae aid had he been out of his apprenticeship,
Daneeertam she would have aarried hing in preference
toe. “Phere wis alee ie peuns ventlenaat, st house ear
ponter, Whe came very near defeating us both. But this
Was kept at profenid secret fer nore than a yearcafter I
Was tnaried, When he weeidentally disclosed it at my
Trove, P tleens squiited sate the gatlicie more particularly,
Sd dhacovered the whole tain ef crenustanees, at which
othe laughed heartily p but, ales, to mie, 1s new
soiiee cot derge aud abide stile.

8 bt was nearly a year from the tine E tigst became ace
Sepuriuted with my wise until banaricd ber We were just
Jour tnenths engaged. Phe weddiig took) place on tlie
Serul af December, PSdh and bwas then abowt twenty-four
years eld and any wile was enhitcen. During the whole
pened of any courtslap. P was net in her father’s house
oore Hig seven oremht tines, and iy Visits were gene

but herself. Our concerted signal of the haudkerchiel
Secuabled ux ta enjoy one iiterviews mm privacy. When
she, iy wile, asked her father's consent, which was
only about three weeks previeds to our marriage, he ob-
jeeted at first, alleging that she ought, an duty, to marry
her other lover, to whom she bid been engaged, wid who
would soon be outof has tine, But having intimated to
the oll gentleman that it was our determination to be
Sanarried with of without his consent, he finally agreed to
it, My wile. even then, confessed to ine: that she dul
pot knew which of her lovers ale preferred.

© My wile and myself commenced housekeeping, in the
month of January. costing our nierriaige,, with Japlit
hearts: and, for otee any lite, b fele gayisell happy.
We were both aeexccllont health aud spirits with a her
prospect of fon und peacetul lives. My first child was a
note atiods a sweet som t<-but le is an beaivtl hows sent
Sthere ae his uitaney by an miuctured father ble: wis
born ain Prisburgh. and was called Thomas Cowan. is
birth occurred onthe 2hdof November, ESshe and he wis
> nearly four years vid on the day of has deat After the

erally tiade on Sundays, when ne person wits at howe |

ee an) : es x
a ‘ .

JONN W. COWAN, 248

birth of Thomas, we removed to Ashtabula village, in the ~~
county of that name, in the state of Ohio, Here my wife ~ ok
had her second and only other child, on the 9th af Octo.”
ber, ISL: of course, she was exactly one year and part”

ofa day old when she died, Her name. was Sarah
Cowan.

“During the first year of our marriage, every thing
priser’ with me. Never did man and wife live more
mppily. Wewere industrions and laid up money. We
still resided in Pittsburgh, and had made our caleulations
that, as soon as we were able, we would buy usa small
home. But a feeling of jealousy, whether ill or well
founded, at first, for F eannot pretend to decide upon it
now, seized me, and taid the foundation of all our subse-
quent misery. |

“A young gentleman (FE will not name him) was in
the frequent habit of conversing with my wife. PT remon-
strated with her on the impropriety of her conduet, and

she promised to avoid him in future, She did not, how. ”

ever, observe her promise; and [resorted to stratagem in
order to detect her. A tew days after my conversation
with her, on this subject, | was looking out of the window
of the shop in which | worked, and saw this young
gentleman casing the windows of the Masonie Hall
Coffee House, on the corner of Smithfield and "Third
streets, A few minutes afterwards my wife eame along
Third street, Edrew my head in and observed her closely.
When she arrived at the spot where he was at work, she

stopped and remained in conversation with him for nearly

halfan hour. His employer coming up separated them.
He went to his work, and she passed along the street.
On returning home in the evening, after laughing and
talking on indifferent subjects, Eaxked her when she had
geen the young earpenter. She declared, by every thing
gncred, that she had not seen him nor heard of him sineo
the time E had remonstrated with her upon the impropriety
of associating with him. ‘This was a palpable lie, as my
dwn eyesight bore me witness; but knowing the quick-
ness of her temper, I forbore to make any further remarks
21*

jae BR (a te pe ip eam Si aasieny a iemeenmetemicte sie
1h 3 3 panes r OEE y:

Sa 4


JOHN W. COWAN,

time. The honest truth is, 1 loved her so de-

ot ily at that moment, that 1 could not find it in m
heart to give her pain. 1 also loved my child; and,
thougt: all the fires of jealousy were burning in my irae
I chose silence rather than a quarrel. That evening
went to a billiard room, and played and drank liquor
until late. The playing amused me, and the drinking
excited me; I forgot my griefs; but when the rye
were ended and the effect of the liquor had subsided,
was as unhappy, aml rather more unhappy and “
than before. In all my experience I never knew a g —<
of liquor to do me good. It may have made me. fee
reckless for an hour of two; but it uniformly left mo
morose and ill-tempered; and the more I drank the more

a rN I became. ,

ay a short time after this, I discovered a marked cold-
ness in my wife's conduct towards me. I attended to ad
business industriously, and endeavored to support a fair
character, but she soon became. so ill-tempered that m

~ anger became ungovernable, and I treated her with equal,
if not greater, unkindness. This only made her wore;
and our domestic hearth became an earthly hell. In
these moments of bitterness and fierce ion, I ought to
have left the house until her better feelings had obtained

the ascendency. But [I did what too many husbands do; ~

I staid to quarrel with her, although it cost me many a

an fterwards. Afier these domestic broils, | have gone ~
a age and begged her pardon in the most abject manner; and

lways readily promised to reform; but she was a
suldy pace anal we neither a good Christian nor a

wise philosopher. She neglected to attend to her house- —

hold duties. My meals were not cooked regularly, which

= necessarily caused me to lose time af my work. When I ati,

remonstrated with her on her conduct, her reply was—
‘If you don’t like me, get some one that will suit you
better.” There then appeared but one way to make my-

‘aclf happy; and that was to drown my griefs in liquor. I~

became a sot and a brute. On one occasion, when I came

ae home drunk, we had a severe 5 Higriae and she snatched
up the child, declaring she wou
Rae Maes a :

d live no longer with me,

*

JOHN W. COWAN.

and ot to oo eae The father had me seized and | ©
committed to jail. In the morning, after ing my 4 .
T went home, and found my wife her a ba oid me
brother, busily engaged in packing up the furniture, in ~
order to remove it. They were rather surprised at my —
appearance, and left the house at my desire. I then com-. :
menced packing up the furniture myself, when my wife ©
came back and made every concession in her power; -
assuring me that she never would be cross to me again,
and that she was heartily sorry for her conduct. She
pspresented to me, so forcibly, destitute situation in ~
which our little Thomas would be, in case of our separa- ~
tion, that my heart melted, for I remembered my own”
friendless childhood. I consented to receive her back
again, on condition of her leaving her father, who had
previously advised her to apply for a bill of divorce, and
go with me to Cincinnati. I inmediately had all my
things carried down to the wharf, and placed them on
board the steamboat Boston, which left the next morning,
with myself, my wife, and child.

‘It was on the 10th day of April, 1832, that we arrived
in Cincinnati, where I remai until the latter end of
August. I drank tolerably hard during that summer.
My suspicions in regard to my wife were not, by any
means, abated, though I saw nothing to confirm them.
One night, in the month of June, U remember taking a
drunken frolic, or a spree, as it is called, and when re-
fused admittance into the house by the landlord, [ tookea

- out of a dray and broke every pane of glass in the

ower story. The landlord pre the ‘alarm, and [ was
seized by an officer and conducted to jail, where I lay

- until the second day, when I was liberated upon my pay-

ing $15 fine and costs, besides &9 for the damage done
‘to the windows. I left the house the next day.

“About the latter end of August, after having spent
the summer in quarrelling with my wife, and living as
unhappily as a man could do, I determined upon removing
up the river towards Pittsburgh. IT thonght that her in-
creased ill temper was occasioned by her living so far
from her friends, and that, possibly, if she could rejoin


fenders:

charges

. oy, Alfred. &. D
‘@-new. law: under: which: police--
_ men: can: hail juvenile: speeders:
| before: municipal courts:
-@ealt with like adults) =
©, It has’ been’ the: practice: to!
=, | treat young lawbreakers: gently,
¥ nob _them= private hearings:
-juvenile court judges: :
covsehsih caser mal add
-] for. publication

The new law

A 12-year-old boy war
critical’: condition--last- night +-at
St. Clare's Hospital: after. having
been: struck: by, an® automobile) at
Seventh: Avenue: and. Forty-fourth'
| Street. The accident: drew a large
number: of persons in: the heavily
crowded: Times: Square: area. ~
~ The boy. was identified as James
Willy of 248° West: Sixty-fourth
_|Street. At the hospital it was said
‘neithat he had suffered a fracture of
an elbow and a possibly fractured
skull. The driver of the: auto was
described as William Young, 38, of
Hamden, Conn., a real estate in-
He. was. booked on
third-degree assault
land leaving the scene of an ac-

vestigator...

West Forty-seventh Street

oli 3

of

Chester)" We

Others Are Overcome While|Local
in Cesspool: in Jersey: Workers, CIO, which

the: names of of-

; was recommended -
by police officers and civic lead-:
“ers. who - constitute, the: Gover-.
“ nor’s conference: on juvenile de--
: Mnquency.:. The: conference: said

| it founda tendency among juve-
“niles to disregard traffic laws,
‘tonfident that.

nalties: would.

GAS FATAL.TO 2. ‘won in

ver Greys. followers of Millard
Fillmore; the Whig President, the
story of the Cardiff giant, Ameri-
ca’s No. 1 historical fake, the days
jof the Erie-Canal, the:founding of |
the. Oneida: Community;
Herum and state geography were
among the highlights of the meet-
ings: on: the: Syracuse» University

~ Robert J. Hayrack: of the’ Syra-
cuse history department: related
the story of the:Silver Greys; who
banded together. to support: Fill-.
more’s: policy of : compromise: to
maintain peace between: Norih and
Louis: J. Wilner: of Homer;: the:
home: of: David Harum; popular
character:in: the story of that title,
told the story: of the Cardiff giant..
|The geographical approach to state
|history-was discussed by Dr. Eric
Fargle, Mrs... Katheryne> Thomas
Whittemore;: Mrs. Isabelle K. Hart
and others

| ADMITS: THREE SLAYINGS.
‘| Daniels: Is: Arraigned in Case of
‘Mansfield Reformatory: Family:

MANSFIELD, Ohio; July: 30:
—Robert’M. Daniels, a participant
in’ the= slaying ~ of. six. persons,

{

members= of= the® Niebel- family
when: arraignedhere’ today before

Schiettlers =: pb ors
Daniels entered. the® courtroom
unshaven: and: sullen... He. looked
swiftly about and faced the bench.
Judge Schiettler asked him if he
pleaded guilty to all three charges
of first-degree murder. :
2.“J don't. know. their names.
There were three of them, though,”
Daniels replied. = = ge
Judge Schlettler read the names
of the three victims—John Niebel,
superintendent of the Mansfield
Reformatory Farm; his wife, No-
landa, and their daughter, Phyllis.
Daniels then pleaded guilty. The
Court bound him over to the Grand
Jury without bond. cs

a raffle because his church
- gambtling.” © Officials: of
600. United Automobile
raffle, said the car would be sold

land the proceeds given to its be-

David |&2

pleaded: guilty® to. slaying. three:

Municipal, Court: Judge: H: H:iin9 estate-up,to about $60,000,

ile|the harpist, who

- David J. Kidney, formerly in ch
of Divisiona:: at . Combustidles
Fire. Prevention,. to. command: tit
divisions.::: Ses
Antonie Z. Petronelli- formérly
commanding: Richmond, to com

eens. © ' Boe ge a oe
Michael? F’ Powers; formerly. com-
manding the Thirteenth: Division: in
the Jamaica. section: of Queens, to
command Queens.:: : ; e

George: Schulz:. formerly. deputy
chief: in» charge~ of Brooklyn’
Queens, to command: Brooklyn.
William H. Taubert. formerly com-
manding the Second Division in lower
Manhattan: to command: Richmond.
“John:J. T. Waldron, formerly com-
manding: the: Fifteenth: Division in
the Brownsville: section of Brooklyn.
to command Queens.» =
~ Henry. C. Wehde. formerly: com-
manding the. First: Division io lower
Manhattan, to command: the: Bronx.

HOARDED $45,330 IN. CANS

Widows of. Minnesota’ Farmer

_ HASTINGS, Minn.,: July 30 UP
A hoard of $45,330 :in cash was
found in the basement of the home
of. a. woman’ who: died: here: July
14,: it. was. disclosed «today: The
woman was» Mrs: Mary: Eckert,
about: 75, widow of Valentine: Eck-
ert. a retired farmer.
~ The: currency’ was. found: hidden:
in cans by relatives after Mrs. Eck-
ert's death. One can contained $30,-
580, another $9,835 and « third $4,-
|915.. Bonds and bank: funds bring
ac-
cording. to. Frobate Judge: E. J.
Hiniker2* 30 8 ae
- Mrs: Eckert's will leaves.the en-

ties,” without naming any organi-
ations: : "survivors: inciude three
brothers. ae ioe ee

BANKER KILLS HIMSELF
Brooklyn Dime Savings Official
Dies by Gun at Woodstock
WOODSTOCK, N. ¥., July 30

old, assistant secretary of the
Dime Savings Bank in Brooklyn
and a leader of drama and art
groups, killed himself outside his
summer home here today.

Coroner Ernest. A. Kelly © re-
ported.death by & self-inflicted
bullet wound. . Mr.

eard: the :
He was dead on arrival at the hos-|

e A: native: of Stoneham. - Mass.,
Mr. Parker had served as: presi-
dent of the department of dramatic

art at the Brooklyn: Institute: of |

two: were pushed ‘against.

dent: James»
Twain, Eugene- O
borough: and many more’ notes

tire estate to “missions and chari-|

(P-—Clinton W. Parker, 59 years)

‘tonce more because : she

Parker wasi:.
found by his wife, Mildred Dilling,|
h shot.

flight of stairs to a
where: chairs were

baby grand piano and & table

dined, was quiet.
sic receiver. over:
Strauss waltz.: =. =
“Mr. Carra- walked:

hall, into a deserted,

lobby. A man was at the
a woman at the swi
they weren't busy. ~

is Mrs:. Natowski,
er,” Mr.’ Carra: said,

» “The:
Mrs: : A aN
employes. also. I
but they. liked:
home.”
“Thirty” guexr

=
ra

eae

’

versity Place and. Ninth Street)."trogterm
As she spoke, Raymond. An- at
drieux; manager of: the es

French accent.
“You can’t kill a place
very easily when it has been
this long,” he said. “Reservations }-
keep coming—people don’t know.| mreseritt. 3
Only the other morning a lady in| The t
France wrote, asking for & specific! of tte:
floor, a specific room. Now if she] there’ am
comes she'll be disappointed. - ig
“I get a lot of other letters, and
all of them tell us geopie” are
sorry. Last Sunday a 95-year-old _
She wanted to see the Brevoort/tion to

had been :

married here.” :

long time and it didn't mean much
to tell them that the Brevoort had

: fe eQe a A = : a
: fathers "dokes; wil be easy,
"Em in the Aisles case ot asec
ST ee eee ~~ Jother day &@ man
yelled that:the joke had just been | who had read


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CONTENTS
THE THIRD DEGREE.............0 The Old Sleuth
HIS NAME IS JESSE JAMES... * vau'eece¥ dnl Bennett Wright
HOOK AND BULLET......... John Hightower
INSIDE INFORMATION......000000000 Larry Roberts
INSIDE PHOTOGRAPHY........ weseess.Norris Harkness
| DIE, MY GYPSY PRINCESS!....... Edward S. Sullivan
IRENE’S WAS A GUILTY LOVE......... Harrison T. Carter
FABLE OF THE PROWLING GHOST.......__ John N. Makris
CRIME OF THE JILTED SUITOR........... William Clark
RENDEZVOUS WITH A LADY OF DOOM........_. Hugh Layne
GREEN INK MARKS A KILLER........ Judge Pat Lawson
THE KANSAS EXPRESS. MYSTERY... William Burke
FACING THE LENS... (Pictures)
MARY WALKED WITH MR. BLUE SUIT......___ Eloise Cooper
MURDER COURTS A SISTER ACT........_ Stuart Whitehouse
CASE OF THE SILENT WITNESS... Charles R. Smith

Cover Photo by Pagano

ued Under New Method

new method of issuing safe life ipsur-
by mail, without doctor’s examination,
been adopted by a well-known St. Louis

\GENT WILL CALL.
tu&l policy is mailed to the applicant for
ays’ free inspection. No agent is per-
-d to call.
» company features a low cost special
¥ which sells for only’ $1.00 a month
ke regular rate first 5 years), then $2.00
hth for 15 years. Policy is then fully
up. It is straight life insurance of the
\w life type with double indemnity fea-
and also liberal cash and loan values f
ed by approved securities deposited
+3 Surance Department for the pro-
\ policyholders, wherever they
‘cy will be issued to any per- t
alth age 1 day to 55 years.

NG IS BELIEVING!

t -giving name and address, date of birth,
t, weight, race or color, occupation and condition

NO AGENT WILL CALL! a

s new policy has been created for the benefit of b
who can think and act for themselves, and save

of one of the bloodiest, most Savage crime
sprees of modern times... -

self an
Daniels killed or helped to
kill at least six persons and
wound two -others in a two-
week rampage before the two
desperadoes were brought to
bay by road-blocking officers
near Van Wert.

brutal, the result of pure blood
lust. To see a picture of one
li of the two mad dog slayers—
West was killed in a gunfight
at the end of the death trail—
‘any. NO DOCTOR'S EXAMINATION, | in the pose of a hero sur-
rounded by reporters, some-
how offends The Old Sleuth’s sense of the’
fitness of things.

reason,
Robert Daniels,
heroics before sensation-hungry reporters,
was a whimpering rat only a short time be-

in the road, he came crawling out of a car
with his hands up, screaming to the cops

They saved him instead for the electric chair.
At this writing, it looks as if he will go there.
* * ew

NOW we'll say a word about another kind
will be mailed you for free inspection. of picture entirel

deeb cool and collected.” So the caption
described the photograph of Robert

porters surrounded him on the courthouse
steps at Van Wert, O., to hear his account

With John West, like hime
ex-convict, young

The murders were senseless,

New York 15,

We are reproducing the picture for a
It is to remind our readers that

f MAYBE.  we'r
for all his swaggering

sort, a movie.

ore this photo was taken. With his pal dead

hat they couldn’t kill an unarmed man.

With magnificent restraint, they didn’t. after adding a

y. If you own a camera—
nd the odds are you do—then surely you'll
e interested in InsIpE Derective’s brand

ail. _No_doctor’s examination. Write NOW!
an Life & Accident Ins. Co., 232-B American
dz., St. Louis 8, Mo.

new feature Inside Photography, which ap-

Daniels (arrow, in Photo) as newspaper re- including The O}
their hobby mor
will be written
Harkness, in addition to conducting a daily
column on Photography in the New York
Sun, has written a few highly
successful books on the sub-
and has penned other
magazine material in the past

on the taking and making of
pictures.

w
formance of an ol
and let it go at that.
in the first scene you'll watch a murder .as
it is committed. And then you'll be treated to
a strange, tingling hour of suspense that no
ordinary whodunit flicker ever achieved.

See you next. month.

detective

o o 2 & PP

10
14
19
20
22

26°

30
33
34
38
48

OCTOBER, 1948

POSTMASTER: Please send no-
tice on Form 3578 and cdpies
returned under Label Form
3579 to 261 Fifth Avenue,
New York 16, New York.

]

INSIDE DETECTIVE, Volume 95,
No. 10, October, 1948. Copy-
right_1948, by Dell Publish-
ing Co., Inc., George T. Dela-
corte, Jr., President; Helen
Meyer, Vice-President; Albert

. Delacorte, Vice-President.
Published simultaneously in the
Dominion of Canada. Interna-
tional copyright secured under
the provisions of the Revised
Convention for the Protection of

iterary and Artistic Works.
Published monthly. Office of
publication at Washington and
South Avenues, Dunellen, N. J.
Executive, editorial and sub-
scription offices, 261 Fifth
Avenue, New York 16, N. Y.
Chicago advertising office, 360

. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
1, Ill. Printed in the U. S. A.
Single copy price 15¢. Sub.
scription in U.S. A., $1.80 per
year; elsewhere, $2.80 peryear.
ingle copy price in England 1s
6d. No Canadian subscriptions
accepted. Enteredassecondclass
matter, January 15, 1935, atthe
Post OfficeatDunellen,N.J., un-
derthe ActofMarch3,1879. The
ponent accepts no responsi-
ility for the return of unsolicited
material. All manuscripts should
€ accompanied by stamped,

self-addressed envelope.

4 The Third Degree

Pears for the first time in this issue,
Designed to help all amateur shutterbugs—

d. Sleuth himself—to enjoy

e fully, the monthly column

by Norris Harkness. Mr.

ject,

Turn to Page 9 and read

“Inside Photography.”, We
think you'll like it.
*

*x *

If there are any particular

Fs Be

*

problems—about photography
——on your mind, we'd like to
hear of them.
your 7
Editor
Box 125, M urray Hill Station,

, and we'll do what we

can about answering them. :

Just address

nquiries to the Camera

of Inside Detective,

* *

€ picture-happy this month.
But our final word will be about still another

Alfred Hitchcock has a new technicolor
crime-suspense feature ready for release. We
saw Rope recently and we can say that it’s
got something no other picture ever had.

We'll give you this much of the story,
ord of praise for the per-
d favorite, Jimmy Stewart,

When you see Rope,

THE OLp SteutH

Haire

uf

Fo
alr
ma
for
fac
for
are
fro
Noz
and
over
won
AS

whe
aod

ri


rose oi Var) By Bey ge, DT. F
am 7 : a Blatt, Hérbert: E. Bragg. Dr.) the necessary two-thirds mas}
aeprosoutt Allen O. Whipple and. Dr. ilmer: jotity. of both houses: of Congress.

Barrows; (00 This was: done: by Democrats join-;

on om

Accuses - Head ~ of’ Omaha i
aed Locat—Biames: Michael: Quill z|

ential] OMAHA, Neb; Sept. 17: (UP)—
: John A. Cassidy, 47, a member of
DrTrow, | the. international’ executive: board,
Coe of: the: Transport): Workers: Union,
owa,/| CIO, was beaten by a fellow: union
ne poe rat here: today® while=“‘about
: other: union: men: st “by:

would|watched. me avoogeryrend

en > Mr; Cassidy, who was:
had] of the Nebrasia Wallace for] Presi.|padiy. needed, the editorial” said
e Mu-|dent : Committee} untile lasts June:|, entrenched government has no ine
dcasttsuffered- a blackened= eye,” face | tention of abandoning: any field: it
Srrow]| lacerations, and lost: two teeth: The| "85 entered, so to accomplish any;
disputesreportediyemvol eds senior- apprecene iret wie Fe:

| rights: of: stree st "| quire’a form:of surgery which can

Cousidy: Loh Sa oy lake only: be executed: by . new- leader-

ms |president: of LocalsNo.. 223). TWU, | stip; by. amt administration that fs
te of aaminiatering:the-beatingel: Haver, andiwaterlogesd with
White| He ‘ tonight; that]! : Ne ee ae
je thatthe pontine hacrapdetinitevcannes: “The philosophy which President
The tion with his opposition’ to Michael *hapatati ra te aoa have been
pT Quit of New York, international OUPWiNE wey tt atce and
cee et a pear ~ 418 | ny. the individual. For Texas,: this
ed: by! . policy. endangers the much-needed
cf revenue: which, our public: school

weakens us abroad. ss
“One disturbing situation= at
Washington: is that, our: Federal!
Government. has. become a. stag=
nant and swoilén patchwork of un-
ne_essary agencies: and. bureaus,
during sixteen:years of. unchanged |
control." = oN it
© Asserting that an overhauling is

t

get» from« tideland}> ee
ee ee - MANSFIELD; Ohio, Sept. 17 (2)!
-|—A. 24-year-old. former® convict, |»

forced: him to do 60. © :

~NS| WOLCHOK CHARGES ‘DEAL’

orxers}Store Leader Says McFettridge
ree

Yugoslavia:
home: with: f
licity in the: Yugoslav: press.

day's: issue.of the: newspaper Po- ee
litika - devoted: three. of © ites fivepaceo
front-page: columns© to Tanyug{

News: Agency.

Yugoslav: apprentices. and their. in-
structors, police

trial centers in Czechoslovakia and

finally the isolation of young YUgo-}

slavs:from ‘their diplomatic: repre-
sentatives in Prague. =
~ The: affair. of, the: Yugoslav: 8p-
prentices-~-has=.-conveyed « to the
Yugoslav public: the full import: of
the: atate: of” relations: with: the
Cominform:world

“KILLER OF 3 GETS CHAIR:

Youth: Found : Guilty: of: Slaying
= Familysin Ohio Cornfield:

accused of killing six persons in a
fourteen-day crime orgy, must die
in the electric chair Jan. 3. .

Robert M. Daniels of Columbus]
received the death sentence from]. -

-  SIFTR AVENUR o@ 41st ST,

a three-judge Richland County
Common: Pleas Court today
shouting protest:

“If I actually remembered shoot-

ing the Niebels and seeing them] -

fall, I'd deserve the chair,” he

yeThe judges, G. E. Kalbfiesch,|

dispatches from Se

Prague, reporting the arrest of:159]

attacks_on Yugo- fos
slav apprentices studying in indus-}-~.

in|
-“ @ARREN STREET o B'WAY .
é oe tq Boston:
_ (FREMONT ST. of BROMFIELD SR,

SINCE 1676

THIRTEENTH ST. @ BWA

ae

Chester Pendleton and H. E. Cul-} © See a

bertson, agreed unanimously in

pronouncing. Daniels “guilty as|~
of the murders of a penal/|-

charged"
official, his wife and daughter.

Since they did not recommend
mercy, the death penalty was

;

cEaw,

pe ac
ate

ag
Fe


Deary again confronted Razzone.

“ - hy didn't you tell me you had this
gun?" Y

Razzone was worried. “I didn’t even
think about it. I forgot I had it.”

Deary turned the gun over to Crow-
ley, who quickly fired a test shot into
the bullet-recovery box. Then he re-
trieved the slug, placed it under the
comparison-microscope with the slug
taken from Casey’s body. He brought
both slugs into focus, peered intently—

“I haven’t seen him in a long time,”
~ said. “I didn’t even know he was in

Hundreds of copies were made of the
Vanasse photo. They were dispatched
to police departments throughout the
East. An eleven-state alarm was sent
out; Boston, particularly, was alerted,
because of the anonymous letter that
had been sent from that city.

But Barry had a different idea. “His

then shook his head.

T= riflings on the slugs did not line
up. Razzone’s gun was not the
murder gun.

“Okay,” said Deary when he received
this negative report. “That puts Raz-
zone in the clear. Turn him loose.”

This was the evening of March 8. No
Suspect, now, and Deary was devoting
much thought to the writer of the let-
ter. He doubted that it had been sent
by a crack-pot. He felt, rather, that
here was the killer, the man who had
fled from Casey’s room, seeking now to
cast suspicion on another.

But how to catch up with this letter-
writer, with the man who identified
himself only as “The One Who
Knows”?

At this juncture Lieutenant Barry
entered Deary’s office and said slowly:

“I think maybe I can get us a lead on
this chap. I’m almost certain that I
ran across him during my work with
the auto squad.”

calmly.

in the
ith you. I’ve
since I heard

Barry
didn’t go to his home. | Instead he spent

He would know the
man, he was sure, if he could see him
or his photo again.

Hours passed without the wanted Pic-
ture making its appearance. But Barry
persisted, hoping for a break.

And he got that break—at ten a. m,,
March 9.

He came up with the picture he had

seeking—of a man with gray hair
and a deeply lined face, a man still
wanted for an automobile theft and
who had a long criminal record.

HE WAS identified on the back of

the photo as Onesine Aldor Va-
nasse, alias Adelard Vanasse, alias Jo-
seph LeClair. He was 52.

Vantasse! The same name as the vic-
tim! What did this mean? .

Barry rushed to Deary’s office,
tossed the photo on his desk. “There's
our man,” he said quietly.

Deary looked it over. “Vanasse!” he
said. “The girl’s name! That's good
work, Barry. But why didn’t we find
this man’s record when we looked up
the dead girl?”

Lieutenant Barry had an explanation
for that. Vv

her husband
Police realized
Timi

the time of the killing: thus they had
not looked in the files for a Vanasse by
name at any time.

Mrs. Ridings definitely identified the
picture of Onesine Aldor Vanasse as the
man she had seen running from Casey’s
room the afternoon of the murder.
Wilfred Vanasse, husband of the dead
woman, cleared up the puzzle of the
eg Onesine Vanasse was a cousin
Oo! i

overcoat and without a hat. He went
through to the center of Worcester.”
Barry reported back to Headquarters
and was sent by Deary to Worcester
with Detectives Healey and Creegan.
The investigators took several hundred
pictures of the wanted man with them.

T= Worcester police were cooper-
ative. Detective Lieutenants Andy
F. O’Brien and James J. McTiernan

H

and said, “We

aurant proprietor.

TIVE STORIES under
Slaying.”

to Freedom.”

salesman, in a holdup.
actual death shot, was

1948, OFFICIAL.

Up to the Minute

IS bare feet touching the tile floor. a strap tight around

his chest, Robert—Bat—Battalino complained, “First you
try to freeze me, now you want to choke me to death.” Then
he grinned at the prison guards who were leaving the room

er of Michael H. Randolph, Denver
The story of Battalino’s capture was
described in the November, 1947, issue of OFFICIAL DETEC-
the title, “Solving Denver's Red Scarf

Also executed, but in the electric chair, was Robert Murl
Daniels who, with a companion, killed a reformatory warden,
his wife and daughter and three other persons in a crime
spree in Ohio last Summer. Daniels was put to death in the
Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus: his partner in the kill-
ings, James West, was killed when he tried to blast his way
out of a police ambush at the time Daniels was captured. The
November, 1948, OFFICIAL carried this story. “Seven Bodies

Three different courts in Philadelphia failed
upon the penalty for the murder of H
James P.

g‘s cousin and companion, received
ten to 20 years imprisonment from a jury and Jacob Wright,
driver of the escape car, eight to 20 years in the third trial.
Gallagher's mother, Mrs. Irene Fleming, wrote the story of
her boy’s life and his capture for the October, 1948, OFFICIAL,
“Bandit Slays Salesman—But My Son?”

Also in Philadelphia, Joseph Simmons was sentenced to
life imprisonment for the slaying of Jesse Matthews, Western
Union clerk, in an argument over a money order Simmons
wanted to buy. “I Think He's Killed Me,” the detective story
behind this case, was in the November, 1948, OFFICIAL.

Harry Strom, Gary, Indiana, gang leader, served out his
life sentence in less than half a year when he collapsed and
died of a heart attack six months after he had been found
guilty of the murder of Harold Whiteaker in an underworld
quarrel. “Scorpio: Today Not Propitious for Murder,” the
story of the detective work in this case, was in the December,

“oT :
‘ado State Penitentiary gas’

ing. who fired the
ife sentence by one court.

record shows that he spent a lot of time
in Worcester, Massachusetts,” the Lieu-
tenant pointed out. “And he’s a short-
pag cook. Maybe he’s headed for that
city.”

Armed with a picture of Vanasse,
Barry went to the bus terminal. He in-
terviewed drivers on the Worcester
run, showed them the photo.

“We think he went to Worcester the
evening of March sixth,” he said.

“I took him,” a driver said. “‘That’s
the fellow, all right. Dressed in a brown

were assigned to work-with the Provi-
dence investigators.

“Here’s what we want,” said Barry.
“A check of every restaurant in town.
Our man is a short-order cook, and the
chances are he got himself a job with-
in the last couple of days. It may be a
long assignment, but it’s the only way
we can go about it. We’ve got to move
fast as possible, too.”

“We'll manage somehow,” promised
O'Brien.

Every Worcester patrolman was sup-

Va

plied with a photo of Vanasse. \
cester detectives, also armed
photos, proceeded from restauran
restaurant. They had one questio
ask at each establishment: “Have
seen this man?”

The night of March 9 passed 1
out a break. Then the mornin;
March 10, It was four days after
-commission of the murder and B
was worried. Was Vanasse still in V
cester? Or had he taken off?

Then, the afternoon of March 10,
phone rang in O'Brien’s office at H:
quarters. He listened intently, t
said, “We'll be right down.” He cra
the phone, got to his feet. “I think
have Vanasse placed in a downt
restaurant.”

O’Brien and the three Provid
officers were met at the restauran:
a detective. “The boss says he h
this fellow only yesterday. He co
to work at six tonight.”

T= Proprietor, who said Van:
had given the name of Paul Lal
agreed to let the detectives hide in
kitchen.

The next hour was one.of the lon;
try’s experience. Was this n

stand still. It was m
than possiblé, Barry realized, t
Vanasse had left the city,

The minutes ticked past—and it \
six p.m. But no sign of Vanasse. T)
6:05, then 6:Y0.

And then Barry whispered, “Here
comes!”

Walking
way into
Barry.

“Hell6, Vanasse,” said the detecti
“We were waiting for you.”

The little man went rigid, and
anced wildly about. Then, quite si

lenly, he collapsed.

“All right,” he muttered.
you'd get me sooner or later.”

At Worcester Headquarters, Vana
was questioned. by Barry, Deary a
Sergeant Créwley, who came on fr
Providence. He made a complete co
fession. .

Speaking in a low voice, he said ti
only a few weeks before he had n
Mrs. Vanasse on the street by accide
When she told him she was separat
from her husband, he asked her fo1
date, and she turned him down.

Finally he discovered where she liv:
On the afternoon of March 6 he went
her apartment. She was surprised
see him, said that she was going sho
ping, that she had left the infant in t
care of the man downstairs. At th
minute, Casey came into the roo
Enraged, Vanasse pulled his gun a)
fired

Pidly, Vanasse pushed
e kitchen and the arms

“I kn

Mrs. Vanasse fled to Casey’s room :
the second floor. He followed, hurl
himself against the door and broke t)
bolt. Mrs. Vanasse was cringing behi:
the door when he shot her twice.

He told investigators he had reload:
his gun after each shooting.

Yes, he admitted, he had written t)
letter involving Razzone, and hi:
slipped over to Boston to mail it. }
had seen Razzone with Mrs. Vanasse
one occasion and learned Razzone
name.

HE HAD disposed of the gun, }
added, but was unable to reca
just where. The weapon never w:
recovered.

He waived extradition and on tl
following day, March’ 11, 1948, he w:
arraigned before Judge Luigi DePa:
quale in Sixth District Court in Prov
dence, where he pleaded not guilty to
first-degree murder charge.

In Superior Court in Providence, o
November 15, 1948, Assistant Attorne
General Francis J. Fazzano allowe
Vanasse to plead no contest to tw
second-degree murder charges.

Judge Robert E. Quinn sentence
him to two terms of twenty-five yea:
in the State Prison, the terms to ru
concurrently.

The names Martin Carpenter an
Peter Razzone are fictitious.
4


y not be a baa
ud. “Why not
tchman for all
let on to him |
‘cause he’s try-
iny. With the |
information to~
et him to talk.”
s and Hoffman
to spend the |
ck. }
h, the phone at’ |
ersistently. He
call was from

excitement in ,
is Johnny West |
t in Mansfield.”
om had no in-
ts phoned the
return call be-
authorities in-
record on him
is known to the
After notifying
ve Ernest Moss

for Mansfield.

described John
one and one-
10 pounds, with
vn hair. He had
1 1946 in Cleve-
ter questioning
23rd, received
burglary and
over to Akron
was sentenced
in the reforma-
and tubes from
3ody Company.
arch 12th, 1948.

iatrist’s report

sheets and Moss
ig witnesses to
the Schechters -
ere they found

of fifty photos,
etically, having
several times.
i, he caught his

d. “You’ve got

eparately, Mrs.
icked West out

ur Cafe victim,
d by Sheets.
exclaimed as
Ww.
irg police and
West’s mother.
1ere, the Mans-

ives kept phon- |
ss after witness |
est, photos and |
eing run off at
tion. }
rted that West |
-acre farm, six!

22nd, after a)

_ptain Hoffman |
nes and photos}
papers.
them,” he as- |
find them. They

ray. They may
hey are, they’re
ople. They’ve!

another, killed
voman who got
yullet. They’re |
again unless we |
> heat on. Let’s |
widely as pos-

While sheriff’s deputies, detectives and
uniformed police combed Columbus and
Franklin County on Tuesday for a trace
of the killers, Hoffman and Sheets got out
1,000 photo-circulars to the state highway
patrol’s 336 members, the eighty-eight
county sheriffs of Ohio and big city police
departments and sheriffs’ offices through-
out the country.

bor following morning, Wednesday, July
21st, at 9:30, Deputy Sheriff Glenn C.
Humphrey was studying the faces .of
Daniels and West on the circulars that had
just been delivered to the Richland County
jail, facing the public square at Mansfield,
sixty-five miles northeast of Columbus,
when the phone rang.

The call was from George Allarding,
assistant to John E. Niebel, superintendent
of the 1,600-acre Ohio Reformatory Farm.

“I'm at Niebel’s home. The family is
missing. Something’s wrong.” /

eres hurried to the sheriff’s pri-
vate office in the rear and relayed the mes-
sage.

Sheriff Frank E. Robinson, grayhaired,
finishing his second four-year term, was
well acquainted with the reformatory
chief. Niebel, widely known as a humane
administrator, was fifty, and suffered from
a heart condition. His wife, Nolanda, was
a pleasant, motherly woman. Their twen-
ty-year-old, auburn-haired daughter, Phyl-
lis, had been one of the most popular girls
graduated from Mansfield High School,
worked as a billing clerk in a Mansfield
textile plant, and was known to Robinson
as a warm-hearted, vivacious girl, active
in 4-H work.

The sheriff pressed hard on the accelera-
tor along the six-mile drive to the Niebel
home, a two-story, white frame house on
a hill overlooking the reformatory build-
ings.

Allarding met him on the porch.

“Niebel was due at work at 6:30 a.o.,”
he said. “I thought he might be ill.”

He explained that Willis Harris, a guard
living a quarter-mile beyond the Niebels,
had stopped at their house about eight
o’clock to pick up some keys. He found
the doors open, the lights on, no one
about; he saw signs of disorder but noted
that the cars of Niebel and Phyllis were
both in the garage.

Glancing about the living-room, Robin-
son observed a woman’s slip on the back
of a chair and four cigarette stubs ground
into the carpet.

On the center table in the adjoining
dining-room, were a billfold, two women’s
purses, a girl’s dress and some eyeglasses.

“Those are WNiebel’s. glasses,” said
Allarding. “The billfold is empty. The
driving license is missing.” Pointing to
an open buffet drawer, he added, “Niebel
kept some guns there.”

The sheriff bent down. Three cigarette
stubs were mashed into the. dining-room
carpet.

“That’s what worried me the most,”
Allarding said. “The Niebels don’t smoke.”

ges hep phoned for Deputy Ralph H.
Hildebrand to come out with Deputies
Harold Marvin and Charles Wheeler. He
also called Paul Martin, the Mansfield Po-
lice Department’s Bertillon expert. At
the latter’s suggestion, Allarding called the
reformatory to summon a group of guards
and officers. The state highway patrol was
asked to send some officers to help. The
two then went upstairs.

In the first bedroom, Robinson saw
Niebel’s shoes and socks lying near the
foot of the bed, his pajamas on the rumpled
bedclothes. A woman’s dress and under-
things were piled up on a near-by chair.

The second bedroom contained two beds,
one made up, the other in discrder. Two

‘dolls were propped against the pillow

of the unused bed which looked neat ex-
cept for two depressions along the inside
edge as though it had been sat on heavily.

On the other bed, the covers were stuffed
into one corner, with a girl’s housecoat
on top. The pillow was in the middle.
Near it was a ring, recognized by Allarding
as the class ring Phyllis had been wearing.
Near the: hamper, between the two beds,
the sheriff saw four more cigarette stubs
ground deeply into the carpet.

His face darkened. In a: low voice he
remarked to Allarding: “I’m afraid to
think what must have happened here.”

The sound of cars stopping brought the
two officials down. The sheriff instructed
deputies, officers and guards to search the
grounds and outbuildings, Martin started
his quest for clues inside the house. The
sheriff and Allarding left him to call on
the Niebels’ sole neighbors*within a quar-
ter-mile, about sixty yards north across
the road. ; :

The neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Lowell J.

‘Snyder, immediately showed concern.

“About 1:30 a.m. we heard a car come
up the road and stop about . fifty yards

beyond the Niebel house,” Snyder revealed.:

“It was pretty hot and we were still up.
It parked there a while, turned around and
came back and backed into the Niebel
driveway. I saw the porch light gé on
but I didn’t see~anyone get out of the
car. There’s shrubbery there.”

“See anything after that?” the sheriff
asked. .

“No. We did look over there about fifteen
minutes later and the porch light was out.
Everything looked all right. The Niebels
frequently had visitors on reformatory
business at odd hours.”

Bn you see who was in the car?”

“ 0.”

“What did the car look like?”

Snyder’s eyes lit up.

“That I'can tell you. I saw it in bright
moonlight. It was a late model Pontiac
sedan, the torpedo kind, and one of those
two-tone models. In the moonlight 1
couldn’t tell whether it was gray or blue
or some such color.” .

When Robinson went back to the Niebel
house the searchers had reassembled; look-
ing baffled and dejected.

“We've gone over every inch,” Deputy
Marvin reported. “Not a sign of anything
anywhere.”

More fingerprint experts, Everett Mc-
Savaney, with aides from the Ohio State
Mobile Crime Laboratory and Corporal
M. G. Basilius of the State Highway
Patrol identification department, arrived to
join Robinson and Martin in a search for
clues in the house.

[" WAS 1:45 p.m. when the roar of an

approaching siren drew the sheriff out-
side. He met Deputy Hildebrand returning
from the county jail office. The deputy’s
face was somber.

“Humphrey just got a call from Fleming
Falls Road,” he told the sheriff. “Three
nude bodies have been found in a corn-
field on the R. B. Gardner farm.”

As he sped across backroads to the
field, six miles away, the sheriff got addi-
tional details from his deputy.

The call had come in.from the Rev.
Herbert W. Veler, who was leading sixty-
five teen-age boys from a near-by United
Lutheran Church camp on a hike. Robert
Zoeller, eighteen, group counsellor, had
caught sight of the bodies from the road,
entered the field, quietly informed the
minister, who made a brief explanation
to the boys, and continued the hike 1,000
feet to the nearest home, occupied by Mr
and Mrs. John Winger.

Sheriff Robinson, Martin, the deputies
and Highway Patrol Corporals E. F. Hahn

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84

and J. R. Lezak entered the rain-soaked
field between rows of four-foot-high corn.
Sixty feet from the road they came to a
sudden stop and stood transfixed.

The three nude bodies, faces horribly
disfigured by wounds, lay within a seven-
foot span, with Niebel almost touching his
daughter, the mother four feet away.

The only articles on the bodies were a
wristwatch on Phyllis’s arm and white
canvas playshoes on the mother’s feet.
Both women had curlers in their hair.

The officials were joined by Theodore
Lutz, Richland County prosecutor, and Dr.
D. C. Lavender, coroner.

“Phyllis was shot in the back of the
head,” Dr. Lavender told Robinson and
Lutz after his examination. “There also
are black-and-blue marks on her face and
shoulders. Niebel and his wife were shot
on top of the head. Niebel’s head also
shows some bruises.” -

His lips quivered as he spoke. He
paused for a moment ard resumed.

“Mrs. Niebel was shot twice. The other
bullet wound is in her abdomen. There
is a cut on her face.”

He gestured to the disturbed ground
around the mother’s body. “Apparently
she lay writhing in agony after she was
shot.”

Martin, joined by McSavaney and
Basilius, studied the bare footprints clearly
discernible in a path from the road to
the scene of the horrible crime. Along-
side these were visible footprints of two
men.

AS THE bodies were being taken to an
ambulance, Martin picked up from under
them four’ empty .25-caliber shells from
an automatic.

Detective Sergeant Lawrence W. Heisch-

man and Detective Miller of Columbus ~

drove up. They had been at the reform-
atory when the switchboard girl lifted
the receiver, became pale, and bursting
into sobs, exclaimed:

“They’ve found the bodies of the Niebels.”

“The Niebels were my friends,” Sheriff
Robinson remarked softly to the Columbus
officers at the slaughter scene. “It’s hard
to conceive of minds so twisted that they
could do this.”

Heischman and Miller gave the sheriff
details of the viciousness and blood lust
exhibited by Daniels and West in their
Columbus crimes.

Miller said, after the sheriff told them
about the car seen by the Snyders: “That's
them—they were driving a Pontiac.”

Robinson nodded.

“They’re unquestionably the ones,” he
agreed. “But, nevertheless, in the meantime
we'll investigate every possible angle.”

Additional fingerprint men from the
highway patrol, the London Prison Farm,
and the reformatory arrived to aid in ex-
ploring all avenues of scientific detection
of evidence at the Niebel home and the
scene of the massacre.

“It’s a stupendous job,” Martin told Rob-
inson. “There are hundreds of fingerprints
in the house. We’re checking on the ciga-
rette stubs, the bullets, the footprints, tire-
marks, everything. But all that takes time.”

Miller and Heischman reported to Cap-
tain Hoffman at Columbus by long dis-
tance.

“It’s Daniels and West, all right.”

Hoffman’s call to Colonel George Mingle,
superintendent of the Ohio State Highway
Patrol, reached him just as he got through
talking on the phone at his Broad Street
headquarters with Sheriff Robinson.

“This,” Hoffman concluded, “is a job
for all Ohio.” ; hy :

Colonel Mingle started at-once to mobilize
all forces of law for a state-wide man-
hunt. Surrounding states were asked to
maintain vigil at Ohio’s borders. ‘By tele-

4 ‘ yes

type highway patrols and the powerful
radio station, sheriffs of the state’s eighty-
eight counties, police chiefs’of every city,
railroad police and village constables were
requested to post. 24-hour patrols on all
major highways. Members of his own force
were ordered to leave stations in south-
ern Ohio and to report to Columbus for
further assignment. All officers were cau-
tioned that the killers were heavily armed
with extra guns and ammunition taken
from the Niebel home.

At Mansfield on Wednesday evening Cor-
oner Lavender reported to the sheriff that
Dr. John V. Horst, reformatory physician,
had assisted him in the autopsies on the
Niebels.

They discovered that Phyllis had been
the victim of a vicious attack and gross
indignities.

As news of the murder of the Niebels
replaced earlier reports of their mysterious
disappearance, a wave of shocked horror

‘swept through the state.
The Richland County commissioners at.

SHE PROVED IT
SCIENTIFICALLY

» A young lady appeared at the
sheriff's office in Miami, Fla., and, after
a heartrending account of a marriage
broken by a jealous husband, pleaded
for a lie detector test.

When the desperate girl sobbed, “I
love him, I want him to come back to
me!” Deputy Jim Hawkins, Chief Inves-
tigator Claude High and State Attor-
ney Glenn Mincer took her to Deputy
R. W. Howdown, the department's lie-
detector expert, A few minutes later
she sat in the sheriff's office, answer-
ing the questions Howdown asked her.

“Did you have an affair with Mr.
Blank?”

NG - i »

“Have you had relations with any
man but your husband?”

“No.” i .

The instrument had given its verdict.

Deputy Howdown removed the paper
from the machine, wrote an analysis,
and handed it to the grateful young
bride, who dashed down the court-
house steps carrying-proof, as far as.
the latest scentific detection apparatus
could determine, of her fidelity to her
husband.

' —Walter Barnes

an emergency meeting the following day
posted a $5,000 reward for the slayers.
The Mansfield’ News-Journal added $250.

Aroused ‘citizens deluged police lines with
alarms and tips. Calls to the Columbus
Police Department came in by the. score.
A report that Daniels and West had staged

a hold-up at Broad Street and James Road, .

brought seventeen squad cars and’ six

motorcycles with nearly fifty police officers

to the scene. It was’a false alarm. . Before
noon on Thursday, a Columbus army gen-
eral depot employee spotted two men re-
sembling the killers at Seventh Street and
James Road. Soldiers 6f the Second Army
stationed at the Depot searched the camp
grounds.- Police combed the area, The men
were not found,

“In Cleveland, as in nearly every city in
Ohio, police tried to run down all tips.
When -a woman” told’ Patrolman Louis
Kovar that two young men in seats next
to her! in the, downtown State Theatre
looked like the killers, six cars filled with

‘detectives undér the command of Lieu-

tenant Richard B. Wagner surrounded the

“exits and waited: until the pair emerged. .

ve

Though resembling Daniels and West, they
quickly established their identities.

At Lisbon, ninety miles east of Mansfield,
an unprovoked attack on a dishwasher,
Jasper Hute, by two men in a light gray
Pontiac, later found abandoned and
equipped with a newly bolted back license
plate, drew scores of officers into the area.
After Lisbon Police Chief Dalton E. Pike
and Columbiana County Sheriff George
Hayes obtained information that a pick-up
Dodge truck had been stolen from near the
abandoned Pontiac, hundreds of citizens
joined in an unsuccessful search for the
suspects. ©

In Tiffin, fifty miles west of Mansfield,
Sheriff George Steinmetz of Seneca County,
cautioned his deputies to be especially alert
after a tourist-cabin operator reported
that two men resembling the killers and
driving a Pontiac sedan had spent several
hours there late Thursday afternoon, leav-
ing before she could give the alarm.

And at Columbus, Captain Hoffman on
Thursday evening issued high-powered
rifles to every man in the department and
posted patrols near the homes of the judge
before whom Daniels had been tried, also
ot bcm acal and the witnesses at that
trial.

T 10:25 p.m. Police Chief Harold Fraley

of Tiffin received a phone call. As he
lifted the receiver and listened, the muscles
in his face tensed into hard lines.

“A man has been murdered here,” a
voice said. “This is W. W. Martin, principal
of Columbus High School. The victim’s
wife is in my house. I believe the killers
were Daniels and West. They got away.”

Chief Fraley got the location, the vic-
tim’s name—James Smith and the address
of a Tiffin relative, then phoned Sheriff
Steinmetz. ;

Sending Deputy Sheriff Leopold Grover
ahead with other deputies, Steinmetz went
to pick up the victim’s mother-in-law,
Mrs. Robert Strausbaugh.

On the five-mile ride, Mrs. Strausbaugh
told the sheriff that her daughter, Rita,
twenty-one, and her son-in-law James
Smith, twenty-five, had spent the evening
at her home.

“We had such a nice time. We played
cards, Then we had cake and ice cream.
They left about ten o’clock.” :

Crying softly, she said her daughter had
been a June bride two years earlier. The
couple had rented a sixty-acre farm seven
miles north of Tiffin and used their savings
for farm equipment. Smith, strong, hard-
working, friendly, also helped his father
who worked a farm on shares,

Near Martin’s home, Sheriff. Steinmetz
was met by Chief Fraley and Deputy
Grover.

“It’s Daniels and West, all right,” Fraley
told him. “They wanted Smith’s Buick.
They had his wife in the back of the car
and threatened to kill her. She got away
when they switched back to their own
ear. She was plucky but the reaction has
set in.”

The sheriff took Mrs. Strausbaugh in-
side. The girl he saw in Martin’s living-
room was young, pretty, but obviously on
the verge of collapse. She fell into her
mother’s arms with a convulsive sob.

“Oh, mother. They killed Jim.”

Martin told him, “I heard a shot. Then
the girl’s screams. It was dark out. She
came running here.”

Gently the sheriff asked the girl a few
questions. Her descriptions of the killers
left no doubt as to their identities.

“They crowded us off the road. They
asked Jim for his driving license. He
showed it but wouldn’t give it up. The
one with the glasses didn’t wait an instant
or say a word. He just fired.” :

Steinmetz went out to the black ’46 sedan

4

which was sur
Sprawled on the fr

husband, his face ;

splotches on the s
plained why the |
their own car.
The sheriff told
“They'll be loc
They’ve spotted
know the Pontiac
someone else. Let’:
They’re not far a\
Refusing to let ]\
band’s body before
with it, Steinmetz d
to his office in T
of Daniels and W
confirmed the ide:

HE sheriff phone
headquarters at (
the fifth murder ir
iels and West. “Th:
away very far,” }

“We've got 100
area now,” he w
“We'll bring in m
your county surri
very quickly.”

Reports from dé
dicated that the sv
the latest slaying 2
were loose in the
roads of traffic.

The sheriff’s pho
it was Deputy Gro\
urgent.

“I’ve found the |
doned,” he reporte
a roadside park alc
from the scene of

» nine miles from Ti

Steinmetz notific
- headquarters and
to the park. Withi
deputies and officer

The sheriff inspe
It was seventy-five
rounded by dense
solitary house, dar

Not disregarding

» killers might hav:
'y- into a peaceful hi
» the house surrou:

cautiously, knocke:

The lights came
admitted by Ber:
once joined by his

“See or hear a
night?” Steinmetz

“We heard two
“A few minutes af
that we heard a
We'd seen a Soh
earlier. Many truc!
sleep. We heard it
up the road.”

Steinmetz ordere
In a minute the p
holes of light as «
police officers, hold
dispersed.

A shout halted :

“Here’s another

About seventy-fi
tiac, a beam of lig!
revealing the body
two bullet-holes i:
.. The pockets yiek
tity.

“Looks like th:
Grover remarked
others studied the

A brief inspectic
ear disclosed Nie}
the windshield a
original license pla

Arranging for
follow, Steinmetz :
he called Colonel ?
finding of the new


“Keep your hands away from those guns
and get down,” Shaffer instructed.

Daniels started to move. Suddenly gun-
fire exploded. It came from the front of
the transport. .

The sheriff, perched insecurely on the
upper deck girders, kept his gun on Dan-
iels. He saw that the firing came from the
left side of the cab but was not in position
to see West, now out of the truck, using
the door as a shield.

Almost that same instant he saw Conn
crumple to the ground, felled by a bullet.

Catching a fleeting glimpse of Friemouth
at the edge of the road, he tossed the rifle
to him.

“Cover me while I disarm Daniels,” he
snapped.

“I can’t,” he heard Friemouth call out.
“T’m hit too.”

As the sheriff, too awkwardly balanced
and too exposed to risk a sudden change
of position, strained to catch a sound or
glimpse of West, his eyes widened in-
credulously. Conn was raising himself. He
was gripping his gun. There was a burst
of fire. And almost simultaneously the cab
door swung wide open as West pitched for-
ward and lay still in the road. ‘

Swiftly, Shaffer maneuvered Daniels
down and slipped handcuffs on him. A
glance at West showed he had been hit
between the eyes and was dying.

Conn had crawled and struggled his way
into the police cruiser and was radioing
for assistance. In a few minutes, squads
of highway patrolmen and deputies began
arriving.

Conn and Friemouth were taken to Van
Wert County Hospital. A bullet had pierced
Conn’s lung. Friemouth had been hit in
the arm and shoulder. :

Within a few hours, Captain Hoffman
and Detective Sergeant Sheets of Colum-
bus, Sheriff Robinson and Prosecutor Lutz
of Mansfield, Sheriff Steinmetz and Chief
Fraley of Tiffin, and many of the other
officials who had worked on the case, as-
sembled at Van Wert.

The victim found in the park was iden-
tified as Orville Taylor of Niles, Michigan,
father of four children, aged three to
seven. He was the driver of the motor
transport on which the killers. had been
captured.

West died within a few hours. In his
confession, Daniels told how he and West,

unable to locate a reformatory guard they

planned to beat up, went instead to the
Niebel home, got the drop on their former
warden, took the family in hight clothes
to the cornfield, gave them. three minutes
in which to. pray and shot them as they
knelt nude on: the ground.

Asked who had shot the various victims,
he jerked the cigarette from his mouth,
ground it viciously into the ash tray in
Sheriff Shaffer’s. office, and snapped:

“You can give me credit for the Niebels.
Johnny got the others.”

He glowered when questioned about the
gross indignities to the Niebel: family,
especially to the young daughter before he
murdered her, and refused to talk about it.
It was very evident that, being guilty on
that score, he was determined to avoid
the subject.

In telling how he and West had ‘splurged
$500 a day on trips to St, Louis, Missouri,
Nashville, Tennessee, and other cities after
the Ambrose killing, Daniels looked about
him with a knowing smile.

“Before we met,’ West was just a small-
time burglar,” he said in a deprecating
tone, He looked up jauntily. “He became
plenty tough.. He’d do anything I told
him.” .

HE smiled broadly as though struck with
a sudden amusing thought. “He was so
darn ugly that he hated anything good-
looking or beautiful—except me, of course.

_He copied me in just about everything

he could, with ties, shirts, and even girls.
He drove to St. Louis one time just to buy
a bathrobe like mine. And he’d rather
shoot than talk.”

When Prosecutor Lutz kept coming back
to discrepancies in his several versions
of the Niebels slayings, Daniels smiled
with obvious relish.

“You'd certainly give something to know
thes answer to that one, wouldn’t you?”
he taunted with a patronizing air.

Going over some of the killings, he
blamed the victims.

“Ambrose was a fool,» He shouldn’t have
made a move, And the driver of the Buick
was a fool, All we wanted was his car.”

He said Taylor had been asleep in the
haulaway when they crept up on him. “J
told him to get out,” he explained matter-
of-factly. “He got out and Johnny said,
‘ll take care of him.’ He marched him
to the bushes and shot him twice.”

Daniels looked around arrogantly at

Lutz, Robinson, and the other officials, and
his mouth curled into a sneer when his
eyes came to rest on Sheriff Shaffer.

“If I hadn’t been caught sleeping,” he

‘said, “I’d have killed you and every copper

around.”

Shaffer calmly informed him that many
news photographers were waiting outside.
Daniels beamed.

“Give me a chance to slick my hair
down,” he smirked. He extracted a comb
from a pocket of his natty, brown, double-
breasted jacket and combed his hair, fin-
ishing off by patting it carefully into place.

As flashlight bulbs were fired around
him, he swaggered, posed obligingly, stuck
his chest out, beamed in unmistakable de-
light with what he felt was his importance,
and made cocky remarks to the photog-
raphers.

Several hundred residents of Van Wert
had gathered before the jail and were
watching. As the dapper killer, showing
no trace of discomfiture or remorse,
preened before the cameras, their angry
mutterings swelled to cries of “Kill him!”
and “Lynch him!”

The killer’s smile abruptly gave way to
a panicky look. He scowled viciously and
burst out with vile cursing. The sheriff
quickly led him inside.

Sergeant Conn underwent an operat’on
and was given blood transfusions. He re-
covered in time to attend the trial. Frie-
mouth and Mrs. McBurney also recovered.

At the Richland County jail in Mans-
field one night several weeks later, Daniels
aroused guards with a series of maniacal
screams. Prosecutor Lutz commented:

“He’s trying to put on an act.”

Waiving a jury, Daniels pleaded in-
sanity at his trial for the first-degree mur-
ders of the Niebels before three judges
in Mansfield. Three psychiatrists testified
he was sane. Prosecutor Lutz, for the
first time in his career, asked for a death
sentence. On Friday, September 17th, Pre-
siding Judge G. E. Kalbfleisch sentenced
Daniels and he died in the electric chair
at the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus
on Janary 3rd, 1949.

EpitTor’s NOTE:
Photograph of Robert Murl Daniels

appears at top of page 35; that of John
Coulter West in center on same page.

The Fearful and the Guilty

(Continued from page 7) profits amount-
ing to nearly half-a-million dollars.

Crumm made full restitution, paid his -

fines, and pleaded guilty to perjury. Fol-
lowing that, the United States Bureau of
Internal Revenue had its inning with
Crumm. Unlike the State, Federal law
deems tax evasion a felony. When he had
finally been told the worst, Crumm felt
like a crumb.

In another .case, the fire department
caused an obstruction that New York State
Deputy Tax Commissioner Nathan H.
Mitchell will not soon forget. Actually,
the fire department wasn’t to blame. It
was all the fault of a tax dodger whose
guilt feelings tortured him at an inop-
portune moment.

It happened early in 1946, when several
large-fry merchants were undergoing in-
vestigation for tax fraud. One gf these
chose to repent in the nick of time, arriv-
ing late in the afternoon with a bulky
package. He opened it on the desk and
piled fat stacks of currency under the

Deputy Commissioner’s very startled gaze.
“What’s this?” the latter demanded.
“My income tax—should have paid it, I

know—just an oversight, see—count it.

One hundred thousand dollars.”

Special Agents swarmed in to see what
few had ever seen before-in all their lives
—$100,000 in cash. Offenders usually proffer
checks, but this man, for reasons of
his own, had no checking account, and had
withdrawn his conscience money from a
safe-deposit. box. No-—it wasn’t con-
science. It was fear.

Strange as it may seem, there is no safe
in the Centre Street bureau. Tax officials
didn’t want to beheld responsible for
so much cash, and the man refused to
take it back. _-He begged and pleaded.
At last, the Tax Bureau asked its neighbor
on Centre Street, the New York Police
Department, for a motorcycle escort.
Mitchell and the taxpayer got into a cab,
while in front. of them a police siren
warned traffic out of the way. The scream-
ing persisted until they reached City Hall.

There, they were stopped to a dead halt.
The fire department was holding a show,
demonstrating all its equipment and
prowess.

Shining red-and-brass apparatus blocked
every cross-street; acrobats of the hook-
and-ladder companies were performing
with consummate skill to the applause
of huge crowds. A break-through was
out of the question. Inside the cab, the
taxpayer and his guardian sat with the
stacks of money between them and nothing
to do but watch it. The motorcycle cops,
stalled, glowered moodily. through their
goggles.

It was forty-five minutes before they
could get around into lower Broadway,
and it was only because of police radio
communication that the bank vault man-
ager was kept waiting after hours for a
black-market dealer’s tax arrears.

Thus do the fearful and the guilty re-
veal their acts.

Eprtor’s NOTE:

The name Crumm, as used in the fore-
going story, is not the real name of the
person concerned.

(Continued from
and brought in fc
all were able to
ments at the time

On November 2

mitted to talk to I

give them no inf

who hurt me,” s!

an effort.

That night, the
Rita Ames, an <
had spent the «

Norristown and

when she prepar:

men accompanied
that they would
terrorized the co
glad of their pr
reached her hor
Bridgeport she as
all right. Howev:
ing her to the d
had let herself ir
on the light in he

Rita went along

get a glass of milk
house was dark

moment a little t
her so that she hi
And then quite sv
noise and turning
in the doorway b

“What do you w
are you doing her
toward the kitche
sheer terror that
too, that the kitch
was trapped in th
fiend who was 1
rowed beady eye

“You know,” hi

Rita tried to get
fumbled with the
scream but could
saw him coming
great cast-iron fr
terribly choked s
on her head.

Her mother, w
heard the commot
who found that ;
forced and that
had fled through |
As the harassed
assault, the fien:
family had retire:
and waited in the
to come home.

“T never saw h

Listen to

LUC

“M
F

Every Frid

Read Luc
De


nd West, they
tities.
t of Mansfield,
1 dishwasher,
a light gray
ndoned and
1 back license
into the area.
alton E. Pike
neriff George
hat a pick-up
from near the
is of citizens
earch for the

of Mansfield,
eneca County,
specially alert
ator reported
ie killers and
spent several
ternoon, leav-
ie alarm.

1 Hoffman on
high-powered
»partment and
s of the judge
en tried, also
resses at that

Harold Fraley
> call. As he
.d, the muscles
1 lines.
sred here,” a
irtin, principal
The victim’s
ve the killers
ey got away.”
ition, the vic-
id the address

4
|

|

‘honed Sheriff -

eopold Grover
‘teinmetz went
nother-in-law,

. Strausbaugh
laughter, Rita,
in-law James
it the evening

1e. We played
ind ice cream.

os

- daughter had

rs earlier. The

ore farm seven

d their savings

, strong, hard-

sed his father

res,

riff Steinmetz
and Deputy

right,” Fraley
Smith’s Buick.
ack of the car
She got away
to their own
1e reaction has

rausbaugh in-
lartin’s living-
t obviously on
fell into her

lsive sob.
Jim.”

1 a shot. Then
lark out. She

the girl a few
of the killers

identities.
e road. They
g license. He

ve it up. The
wait an instant
red.”

black ’46 sedan

|

which was surrounded by deputies.
Sprawled on the front seat was the young
husband, his face shot away. The crimson
splotches on the seat and dashboard ex-
plained why the killers had returned to
their own car.

The sheriff told his deputies:

“They'll be looking for another car.
They’ve spotted the road patrols. They
know the Pontiac is hot. They may corner
someone else. Let’s check every highway.
They’re not far away. And be careful.”

Refusing to let Mrs. Smith see her hus-
band’s body before morticians were through
with it, Steinmetz drove her and her mother
to his office in Tiffin to look at photos
of Daniels and West. She immediately
confirmed the identification.

| ee sheriff phoned the Highway Patrol
Aheadquarters at Columbus and reported
the fifth murder in thirteen days by Dan-
iels and West. “They couldn’t have gotten

away very far,” he said.
“We’ve got 100 of our men near your
area now,” he was promptly informed.

“We'll bring in more men and we’ll have
your county surrounded with roadblocks
very quickly.”

Reports from deputies checking in in-
dicated that the swiftly spreading news of
the latest slaying and fear that the killers
were loose in the area had cleared many
roads of. traffic.

The sheriff’s phone rang again. This time
it was Deputy Grover. His voice was sharp,
urgent.

“I’ve found the Pontiac. It’s been aban-
doned,” he reported. He gave the location,
a roadside park along Route 53, four miles
from the scene of the Smith killing and
nine miles from Tiffin.

Steinmetz notified the highway patrol

‘headquarters and Tiffin police and raced

to the park. Within fifteen minutes, fifty
deputies and officers joined Deputy Grover.

The sheriff inspected the Pontiac briefly.
It was seventy-five feet from the road, sur-
rounded by dense foliage. Near by was a
solitary house, dark. .

Not disregarding the possibility that the
killers might have terrorized their way
into a peaceful home, Steinmetz ordered
the house surrounded and, approaching
cautiously, knocked on the door. ;

The lights came on promptly. He was
admitted by Beryl Price, who was at
once joined by his wife and mother.

“See or hear anything suspicious to-
night?” Steinmetz inquired.

“We heard two shots,” Price answered.
“A few minutes after eleven. Right after
that we heard a truck motor start up.
We’d seen a Sohio truck parked there
earlier. Many truck drivers park there to
sleep. We heard it rattling a quarter mile
up the road.”

‘Steinmetz ordered a search of the area.
In a minute the park twinkled with pin-
holes of light as deputies, detectives and
police officers, holding guns and flashlights,
dispersed.

A shout halted the search.

“Here’s another body.”

About seventy-five feet from the Pon-
tiac, a beam of light stabbed into a ravine
revealing the body of a young man with
two bullet-holes in his head.

The pockets yielded no clue to his iden-
tity.

“Looks like the picture of Daniels,”
Grover remarked after a long look. The
others studied the features and nodded.

A brief inspection of the inside of the
car disclosed Niebel’s driving license on
the windshield and, in the trunk, the
original license plates, D—4351.

Arranging for the corpse and car to
follow, Steinmetz returned to Tiffin where
he called Colonel Mingle and reported the
finding of the new victim.

“Tll call you back,” he told him, “as
soon as we determine whether it’s Daniels.
Meanwhile we don’t know whether West
is alone or if the two are still together.”

“We've set up two and three blocks on
all main highways around your county,”
Colonel Mingle told him. “We’ve got 200
members of our patrol’ converging on
Tiffin. We've also got railroad detectives
and highway maintenance workers helping
in the blockade. We'll stop every car
and truck.” ’

It was 3 a.m. when Steinmetz phoned
Sheriff Robinson at Mansfield and told
him of the new killings.

“Can you ‘identify Daniels?” he asked.

“No. But I’ll bring someone who can.”

Robinson phoned McSavaney, the mo-
bile crime laboratory expert working on
the Niebel case. McSavaney picked him
up and drove the fifty miles to Tiffin. They
pulled up at the A. A. Turner Funeral
Home, at 4:35 a.m. McSavaney took the
dead man’s fingerprints.

“It’s not Daniels,” Steinmetz phoned
Colonel Mingle shortly before 5 a.m.

Teletypes, police radios, phones and mes-
sengers passed the word to hundreds of
police officers, sheriffs, deputies, railroad
police, highway maintenance workers and
state highway patrol members manning
three tiers of roadblocks.

“Stop every vehicle. Don’t let them get
away.”

Seventy miles west of Tiffin, two officers
in the outer cordon of the blockade, near
the Indiana-Ohio boundary, guarded the
junction of Routes 224 and 637.

The man who waved down the cars with
his flashlight was Sheriff F. Roy Shaffer,
tall, grayhaired veteran of forty years
in police work. .

The officer who from the side of the
road gave him coverage with a sub-ma-
chine gun was Sergeant Leonard Conn,
39, of the Van Wert city police force.

The two had stationed themselves at the
crossing,’ six miles northeast of Van Wert.

At 8:40 a.m. Frank Friemouth, county
game protector, drove up and got out.

A VEHICLE appeared in the distance. As

it approached it was seen to be a truck
cab hauling a two-level trailer. carrying
four new cars.

“Going to stop it?” Friemouth asked as
Shaffer moved to the road.

“We're stopping everything,”
Shaffer. ‘

Rifle loosely in his left hand, the sheriff
raised his right. Conn’s machine gun
was trained on the driver. The transport
came to a halt.

“Where are you coming from?” the sheriff
asked the driver, whose face was in shadow
inside the truck. cab.

“Tiffin,”

“Are you alone?”

“Yes,”

The sheriff's eyes fell upon a torn flap
in the canvas tarpaulin covering the two
top cars. :

‘Wait, ”
around. ”

Quickly inspecting the. two cars on the
lower level, he climbed to the upper deck,
propped the rifle against the car, took his
holster gun, pulled the tarpaulin aside,
and looked into the end car.’ He thrust the
tarpaulin farther away and poked his flash-
light into the last car and stiffened in-
stantly.

On the rear seat was a man’s hat.

He edged precariously to one side for
a wider view. His-gun came up swiftly.

_Crouched on the front seat, two guns
near him, was Daniels, instantly recognized
by Shaffer,

“Don’t shoot,”

replied

he ordered. * want to look

came the, quick plea.

.“You’ve got me. I’ll do whatever you tell

me to.”

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85


~

HEADQUARTERS

DETECTIVE

comb every clump of brush, every
haystack, every outbuilding until we
find them,” Inspector Felty vowed.

Every phone subscriber within a
30-mile radius of Tiffin was asked to
watch for the fugitives. , Commercial
radio stations broadcast details of the
manhunt with the repeated request
for all citizens to be on the watch for
Daniels and West. Motorists through-
out the Midwest were warned to pass
up all hitch-hikers. -

“T don’t see,” said Felty, “how they
can possibly get through now.”

But Friday, July 23, dawned with
the two desperadoes still on the loose.
Tired, haggard men all through north-
ern Ohio watched the day break with
hope. Now their search would be
easier. Somewhere in that prairie
land West and Daniels had to be. This
was the day when the cops would
smoke them out, they hoped.

N VAN WERT COUNTY, some 80

miles west of Tiffin on U. S. 224,

Sheriff Roy Shaffer and Sergeant
Leonard Conn of the Van Wert city
police force, were manning a road
block at the intersection of Routes 224
and 637, about seven miles northeast
of the town. ;

As cars and trucks came down
either road—U. S, 224 was the more
heavily traveled — Sheriff Shaffer
stopped them. He advanced to in-
spect the vehicles and their occupants
while Conn covered him with a tom-

mygun., :

At 8:40.0’clock the officers saw a big
automobile driveaway truck lumber-
ing east toward them on No. 224.
Frank abe gee 55, a county game
warden, had just driven up. and was
talking with the two officers.

‘“Going to stop that one, Roy?” he
asked. aman

“‘I'm_ stopping ’em all,” Shaffer
grunted. ‘He signalled the driver to
pull up, and the truck came to a halt.

Walking toward it, Shaffer saw it
was a truck owned by the Bolin
Driveaway Company of Cleveland.
Four brand new Studebakers were
stacked atop it. Shaffer was instantly
suspicious.

e Studebakers, he knew, had been
manufactured in South Bend, Indian
somewhat more than 100 miles west o

. Van Wert. A driveaway truck should '
be carting them away from South-

Bend, yet here was one traveling west
instead of east. Why?

“Watch this one,” he called back to
Sergeant Conn. “Pye got a hunch.”

The driver was a_ bespectacled
young man with a wild crop of hair.

“Where you from?” Shaffer asked.

“Tiffin,” came the reply. “En route
to Fort Wayne. What’s the matter?”

y enn with you?” the sheriff in-
quired.

“Nope.”

. “Tll take a look.”

“Go ahead.”

Shaffer climbed aboard and lifted
the tarpaulin. covering the new ma-
chines. His flashlight flicked into the
interiors of the two lower cars; they

gq were empty. He clambered up to the

ORGY OF THE BLOOD-MAD BUTCHERS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE (3

upper tier. There in the foremost of
the two autos, he saw a man’s hat.
Then his flash picked up the guns in
the rear—three revolvers and a rifle.

Quickly he edged along to the last
new car. Inside he saw Robert Dan-
iels, shaking with terror.

Daniels glimpsed a‘ gun in the
sheriff's hand. ‘Don’t shoot!” he
whimpered. “Tell me what to do, but
don’t shoot!”

“Get out of here and down on the
road,” Shaffer ordered. Turning to
Sergeant Conn, he shouted, “It’s them!
Watch the guy behind the wheel.”

Conn instructed the driver to get

‘ 4s

out.. West obeyed without a word.
Deliberately he opened the door of the
cab. It swung between him and Conn,
like a shield. When West stepped
from behind it, there was an Army
rifle in his hands. /

It spat one, twice. Conn, struck b
a slug in the chest, stumbled forward,
slipping to the pavement, Friemoth
also was hit.

Sheriff Shaffer, watching Daniels
closely, saw the two men go down but
could do nothing. The truck was be-
tween his gun and the murderous
monster with the rifle. Then, as he
watched, Shaffer saw a miracle.

o Ca

HE LIVED BY VIOLENCE, AND HE DIED BY VIOLENCE—

Killer John C. West, one of the two mad-dog murderers. His ‘carepr of crimé
and death came to an end when he was pumped full of bullets from a tommy gun.

\


4

DNVE'AWAY

KOR ee 956)
TACO Hen

DANIELS AND WEST WERE TRAPPED IN THIS TRUCK—~
In this auto haulaway truck, blazing police guns brought to an end the careers
of the two maniac-murderers whose reign of terror was marked by seven killings.

“This field’s jinxed,” he said. “Five
people have died in it now. The
Niebels and those two in the plane
that crashed a couple of years ago.”

J. P. Miller, a reformatory guard
who had served under John Niebel for
ten of the 15 years Niebel had been
superintendent, remembered seeing
the Niebels in their ear the night
before: ©

“Phyllis was driving,” he said.
“What a sweet little girl she was.”.

Prosecutor Lutz was thinking of

the thirst for revenge which seemed
the only logical motive for the triple
murders. “Were they afraid of any
of.the inmates?” he asked.
_ Miller shrugged. “When you work
in a reformatory,” he answered, “you
never know when you turn your back
what will happen next.”

Loyal Niebel, one of the superin-

tendent’s two sons—both of whom
lived away from home—said that his
sister and mother were sometimes
afraid. “I’ve heard Phyllis say she
was scared, especially when Dad had
to go out nights,” he said.
. owever, there was no evidence to
indicate that Niebel had feared any
particular inmates, nothing to point
to any threats which had been made
against him. ;

There was a story running through
the crowd in the cornfield that Niebel
had recently “roughed up” an in-
mate. But a check at the reformatory
showed that all prisoners were ac-
counted for on that night.

There’s nothing definite to connect

West and ‘Daniels. with this crime,”
Lutz said. “Nothing but the gray
Pontiac sedan and our knowledge
that they were inmates under Niebel.
But my bet is that they’re our killers.
We've got to stop them now. They’re
hot, and they know it. They’ll kill
and kill again unless they’re appre-
hended promptly.” f
An urgent alarm on the fugitives
was flashed to all peace officers in
the state. Authorities in Parkers-
burg, West Virginia, kept a close
watch on the home of John West’s

mother there, in the event that he

tried to hide out.

In city after city special bulletins
were issued on the pair. They were
well armed by now. At the Niebel
home they had taken a shotgun, a
rifle and a revolver.

All through Wednesday night and
Thursday the statewide search con-
tinued, but nowhere was the gray
Pontiac spotted.

“They’ll probably try to get an-
other car,” Colonel Mingle broadcast
to the more than 300 members of his
state force. “That torpedo job is too
easy to identify. They must know by
now that every cop in Ohio is looking
for it.” :

Still Thursday passed without
further word on the killers. Had they
holed up somewhere safely out of the

reach of the law? Or were they.

merely in temporary hiding, plan-

ning their next move? ;
Thursday evening, at a few min-

utes after 10 o’clock, James Smith and

Not since Dillinger had there been such a wave
of killings as this one, engineered by two of
the most vicious murderers ever to hold a gun

his wife, Rita, were driving north-
ward out of Tiffin, Ohio, toward their
farm home about five miles away.
The 24-year-old farmer and _ his
pretty, young wife had spent the
evening with her mother in Tiffin.
About four miles out of town a gray
sedan bore down on them from the
opposite direction and crowded Smith
off the road. .

Both machines stopped. A tall
young man climbed out of the gray
auto and walked to Smith’s car.

“You were going too fast,” he told
the farmer. .

Smith protested; he had not been
speeding. :

“Let’s see your driver’s license,” the
youth demanded.

Smith withdrew it from his wallet.
The young man snatched it and began
to walk away.

“Give me back my license,” the”

farmer called after him. “It’s okay
to look at it, but you can’t keep it.”

The youth turned slowly. Too late
the Smiths saw the gun in his hand.
Its muzzle spurted flame, and Smith
fell over with a bullet between the
eyes. Mrs. Smith began screaming.

A second: young man had climbed
from the gray Pontiac. He ran to the
Smith’s car—a 1946 Buick sedan—and
wrenched = ae? the doot. He, too,
held a pistol. Its muzzle was trained
on Mrs. Smith.

“Shut up!” he snarled. “Get in the
back seat with me. And one more
yap out of you, and you'll get what
your husband got.”

Paralyzed with fear, Mrs. Smith
obeyed. For nearly 15 minutes she
sat with the killer’s gun against her
side while the two youths debated on
their next action. Finally they: de-
cided to go on in the Pontiac. They
turned it around and left Mrs. Smith
there.

Hysterical, she dashed from her car
to the nearby home of W. W. Martin,
principal of the Columbia High School
in Tiffin. Hammering frantically at
his door, she cried, “Help! Oh, my
God, help! My husband’s been shot!”

Martin took her into the house and
telephoned Police Chief Harold Fraley
in Tiffin. Fraley called Sheriff George
Steinmetz of Seneca County, and
within ten minutes half a dozen cars
were at the scene.

No sooner had Mrs. Smith told her
story than both Chief Fraley and
Sheriff Steinmetz recognized the
killers. They were Daniels and West.

Mrs. Smith said that the taller of
the pair had shot her husband. That
would be West. The slayers had
ga north on Route 53 toward Old

‘ort.

“They’re trying to ditch that gray
torpedo sedan,” said Deputy Sheriff
Grover Leopold. “I’ll bet it’s been
abandoned by now. I’ll head north
to look for it.”

As Leopold sped away, Sheriff
Steinmetz telephoned headquarters of
the State Highway Patrol at Colum-
bus. ‘‘We’ll need help,” he said. “All
the help we can get.”

Captain J. W. Kirchbaum, who had
been directing the state police in
their search for the killers, promised
the Seneca County officers that help
would be given immediately.

“They’ve been flushed!” the captain
told Patrolman H. H. Kellenberger,
who was on duty at headquarters.
“This is the first time we’ve been
really close behind our killers. And
bb time we're not going to lose

em.”


He called Colonel Mingle, who
reached headquarters in less than a
quarter of an hour. Sergeant H. W.
Sowers, a veteran officer who’d
worked on the Dillinger case 15 years
before, took over the task of setting
up highway blockades to hold the
fugitives within a relatively small
area until other officers could close:
in and take them.

For hour after hour’ Sergeant
Sowers sat gripping a microphone,
directing the movement of the state
troopers. ‘Nearly 100 cars were in
use in the road blocks, bearing in
them more than 200 heavily armed
members of the state force. Only a
skeleton patrol was held back to
police the rest of the state.

Captain Kirchbaum phoned In-
Fp gg U. C. Felty and Lieutenant
loyd Moon, in charge at the scene
of the latest killing, and gave them
permission to enlist whatever force
they could in the manhunt. Kirch-
baum got in touch with all railroad
offices in the state, asking that rail
detectives check trains and watch the
rights-of-way for the slayers.

The state highway department or-
dered its employes into the search.
Every available sheriff, deputy, po-
liceman and constable was impressed.
The. state conservation department
put its game wardens into the field.
Nearly 1,000 men joined in the great-
est manhunt Ohio had ever seen.

At 11:15 P.M., while the state
police authorities. still were moving
their teams in the great game of
chess, Deputy Leopold came upon the
much-sought gray Pontiac. It had
been abandoned in a state park near
Old Fort: Leopold quickly radioed
for help.

ITHIN a matter of minutes the

area was covered with officers.

Spreading out, they circled away
from the gray Pontiac, searching for
tracks, while crime laboratory experts
went over the torpedo sedan in a hunt
for clues. + :

Less than thirty yards from the
abandoned machine, Don Aldrich, a
game warden from Fremont, shouted,
“Here’s one of ’em!” ;

Other officers rushed to his side.
There in the bushes they found the
body of a young man, a youth whose
appearance closely matched that of
Robert Daniels. He had been shot
once, through the heart. -A ballistics
man recovered a_ .32-calibre bullet
from the ground beneath where thes
dead man lay.

“It’s Daniels, all right,” one of
Sheriff Steinmetz’ deputies said.
Several of the officers nodded in
agreement. A fingerprint man went
to work immediately to certify the
identification. .

But if this was Daniels, why had he
been slain? By whom? And where
was John West, his partner in the
vicious blood-lust crimes? ;

There was no answer to any of
these questions in the gray Pontiac,
although the crime lab men found
much else there.

_ John Niebel’s driving license was
in the glove compartment. Red and
green ladies’ slippers, undoubtedly
those which Mrs. Niebel and Phyllis
had been made to shed before their
deaths, were in the rear. }

Also in the car were clothes like
those the men who killed Ambrose
had worn, and coin wrappers from a
church near the scene of the Ambrose
murder in Columbus.

Also in the back seat was found a
.25-calibre Mauser automatic pistol.
This was the gun used in the Niebel
killings. F

However, as important as these dis-
coveries admittedly were, they did
not help in solving the immediate
‘problem before the great force of
searchers. What had — here
at the roadside park? nd where
was West? .

Mr. and Mrs Beryl! Price, who lived
almost across the road from the park;
said they’d heard a shot about 11
o’clock, but they had figured it was
the backfire of a big truck’s motor.

The truck—they believed it to be
a gasoline tanker—had rumbled
slowly out of the park, headed west,
a moment or so after the sound of
the gun.

“There’s only one way I can see this
picture now,” said Inspector Felty,
upon hearing the Prices’ story. “West
and Daniels knew their gray Pontiac
was very hot. They came upon the
truck parked here by the road. West
wanted to ditch the torpedo sedan
and take the truck, but Daniels—the
smarter of the two—refused to give

up a fast car for a very slow truck.

“They quarreled,” the inspector
continued. “West shot his partner,
then forced the truck driver to take
him away.”

There was one serious flaw in the
inspector’s theory, however. Colonel
O. H. Cornwell, chief of the identifi-
cation bureau at the London state
prison farm, who was on the scene
with the crime lab men, quickly re-
ported that the prints of the dead
man were not those of Murli Daniels.
' .“This man must be their sixth or
seventh victim,” he said. “He prob-
ably was the driver of the truck.”

A new alarm was flashed to all
personnel working the road blocks,
to the hundreds of manhunters con-
centrated in northwestern Ohio.

The primary blockade was strength-
ened on a 30-mile perimeter with
Tiffin as the center. A secondary
network was strung still 20 miles
farther out, reaching into Toledo,
Sandusky and Cleveland. City forces
manned bridges and important inter-
sections. Out in the country teams of
officers were everywhere.

“We'll (Continued on page .64)

CLIMAX TO A CORPSE-STREWN RAMPAGE OF DEATH—
Still insolent, Robert Daniels (center) glares at the cameraman. Just before

att Be po Ae ®t

this photo was taken, he cursed the angry mob of spectators in the jail yard.


Though gravely wounded, brave
Sergeant Conn pushed himself upright
in the road. .The snout of his tommy-
gun came up, and he fired.

The wicked little weapon bucked in
his hands as it sprayed lead into the
door of the truck. It was a quick
burst, but it did the job. John West
pitched forward on the highway with
a bullet between the eyes and half
a dozen other slugs in'his body.

Behind him Daniels was screaming,
“Don’t shoot! You don’t dare shoot an
unarmed man.”

“Shut up,” snapped Sheriff Shaffer.
“You're not going to get it here.
There’s a chair waiting for you down
in Columbus.”

Shaffer slapped handcuffs on his
prisoner, then turned to flash a radio
message on the capture. To his
amazement he saw Sergeant Conn
pulling himself erect at their squad
car, his hand seeking the radio but-
ton. But the effort was too much for
the plucky cop. He slid back and
collapsed in the roadway. Shaffer had
to make the call.

NOT EVEN THESE FIREARMS COULD HELP THE FUGITIVES—

ORD of the bloody gunfight near

Van Wert brought state and local

officers converging. on the little
city. Planes and fast cars brought
newspapermen and photographers
from a dozen cities.

West’s body was taken to a local
mortuary. Friemoth, not badly in-
jured, and Sergeant Conn, gravely
urt, were in a hospital. Robert Dan-
iels was held in the county jail.

There, within two hours of his ar-
rest, the handsome young killer
changed completely. Gone were his
quivering nerves. He assumed an ar-
rogant, swaggering pose. With a score
of officials listening, he dictated a long
confession.

In it he admitted all but one of the
crimes attributed to the bloodthirsty
pair. They had robbed Joe’s Grill, he
said, taking $8,000, Between them, at
the time the chase ended near Van
Wert, they still had about $1300.

They had slain Ambrose. Daniels
said West killed the cafe proprietor.
But they had not pulled the tourist

camp job in Michigan.

+
is, ia

Sheriff Roy Shaffer of Van Wert County, Ohio, who spearheaded the capture of
killer Robert M. Daniels, exhibits the arsenal of weapons used by the slayers.

“We were in St. Louis then,” Dan-
iels said. “Having a good time.
was playing my guitar in the gin mills,
and we had a couple of babes.”

This story was found to be true. In-
deed, the music-loving murderer had
carried his guitar with him all the
way. It was found in one of the Stude-
bakers atop the driveaway truck.

According to Daniels, he and West,
after a week of revelry in St. Louis,
returned to Ohio. They had one plan
in mind—to visit the reformatory at
Mansfield and take revenge, not upon
Superintendent Niebel, but upon a
certain guard whom Daniels accused
of brutality during his stay at the in-
stitution.

“We hung around Mansfield for four
hours looking for him,” he said. “We
couldn’t find him. So we decided to
take it out on Niebel.

“We went to his house and rang the
bell. We said we wanted to use the
phone, and he let us in. I monkeyed
with the phone a bit. Then Johnny.
pulled a gun and covered Niebel. I
went up and got the old lady and the
girl out of bed. j

“We drove right through the center
of town with them in the car. We
made ’em take off their nightclothes
and throw ’em away. At first we in-
tended just to rough ’em up good for
all the hell we’d caught in stir. But
when we got out to that cornfield, we
decided to kill ’em.

“I told them they had three minutes
to make their peace with the Lord.
Niebel talked tough, but he told the
women not to fight. Finally I made
’em bow down and shot them in the
head. Johnny pumped one into the
old lady’s stomach, too.”

Daniels bragged of killing the Nie-
bels, but said West had shot the other
victims. Meanwhile, the dead man
found near Old Fort-was identified as
Orville Taylor, 25, of Niles, Mich., the
nrg driver of the Bolin driveaway
ruck.

Daniels said that he and West had

~ decided to steal the truck because they

id= they could pass police block-
ades in such a vehicle. They found
Taylor sleeping in the cab, so West
took him into the bushes and shot him
in cold blood. }

Back in Niles, Taylor’s widow and
four children—the oldest only 8—

‘ could not believe the tragic news of

the senseless murder. Fellow truckers
all over the Middle West began
gathering a fund’for the family of the
murdered driver.

“Daniels was quickly taken from the
jail at Van Wert to the lockup at
Celina when a mob formed and a
lynch party was threatened.

But before he was whisked away he
posed for photographers and paraded
before reporters, to whom he brag-
gingly repeated his confession, like a
hero instead of the rat he was.

Van Wert County officials at first
announced they would hold him end-
ing the outcome of Sergeant Conn’s
wound. But when the sergeant im-
proved, the Van Wert authorities re-
leased Daniels to Richland County,
where he was taken under heavy
guard to be charged with the Niebel
ES.

“P]] burn,” he said. “Maybe it'd
vie been better if they’d shot me
00.”

In Mansfield, he pleaded guilty at a
preliminary hearing to three charges
of murder. He was held without bail
for trial. There seemed little doubt
as to what the verdict would be.

THE END


ae

eee

‘Aneel And Pray While
| Ravish Your Daughter’

(continued from page 41)

‘They seemed to know that we'd have
a lot of money around for cashing weekly
paychecks,’ Joe Schlecter, the owner,
pointed out. ‘The one with the guns
grabbed my wife, held a pistol at her head
while his pal leaped over the counter and
ordered me to empty the safe.”

After filling a paper bag with the cash
and checks, the robbers left. But the
cowed patrons were unable to say
whether the pair had a car waiting out-
side. Captain Murphy called headquar-
ters, ordering an alert sent out to all patrol
cars to stop and check suspicious-
appearing persons and vehicles. He also
suggested that beat men keep a close
watch on establishments with money on
hand to cash weekend paychecks. With
the attention of the robbery detail con-
centrated on the job already done at
Schlecter’s grill, he reasoned the gunmen

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might strike again while they were hot.

Ten minutes later, as he cut across the
North Side through an area in which were
many taverns catering to factory work-
ers, Murphy’s radio boomed out the code
numbers for a shooting and robbery at
Summit Street and Fifth Avenue, less
than three blocks away.

He reached that intersection at exactly
11:58 to find a small group of excited men
and women outside Ambrose’s Tavern
on the northeast corner. Ernest Nagel,
the aproned bartender, ran to Murphy’s
car as he braked to a stop.

‘“*You're just five minutes too late,”
said Nagel grimly. ‘‘The two gunmen
who held us up, killed Earl Ambrose and
shot a woman customer. Then they ran
outside to a car that had been left with its
motor running and headed toward Fourth
Avenue.” 2

“Both of ‘em tall and thin, dressed in
dark clothing?’’ quickly inquired the
police captain. ‘‘One wearing glasses?”

‘Yeah. That was the one who emptied
his gun into my boss.”

Murphy reached for his radio and con-
tacted headquarters before joining the
dozen other officers already piling from
police cars and hurrying toward the
tavern entrance.

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Inside, they found the body of Ear,
Ambrose, the 42-year-old proprietor, on
the floor in front of the bar. Kneeling over
the corpse was Ambrose’s widow, weep.
ing hysterically. She said the tall, thin
man who shot her husband was wearing
glasses and was in his mid-20s. As police
continued to question her, an ambulance
arrived to take Mrs. Ruth McBurney, a
patron who had been standing near the
bar when the killers entered, to Univer
sity Hospital. One of the four bullets
fired at the proprietor had entered her
abdomen.

While fingerprint experts and photo
graphers worked, Detective Sgt. Lowel
V. Sheets of homicide arrived to take
over the questioning of witnesses. The
bartender related that two gunmen had
come in the side entrance and ordered
beer. At the end of the bar, they had beet
invisible to Earl Ambrose, who was going
over accounts at a table in an alcove.

‘‘When I brought the beer one of th
men, a sneering fellow wearing glasses,
pulled two guns and told me to put ‘em
up,’’ the bartender said. ‘‘Just then,
Earl's brother stepped forward. The nex!
thing I knew the shooting started and|
ducked behind the bar.”’

Clyde Ambrose, 48, the slain man't
brother, took up the story at that point,

‘*Earl never had a chance,” he said. “!
was at the bar talking with Ted Remello
when I looked up and saw one fello¥
slipping around toward the cash registe!

-with a gun in his hand. Then a sho

sounded behind me. Earl had come up,
evidently, just in time to hear the first guy
order the bartender to stick up his hands.
When I turned, I saw him fall. 1 heard!
groan and then the gunman sent thre
more slugs into his body. He swum}
around and said to me, ‘Get your hand
on top of the bar, you’—.’ ””

Clyde Ambrose mentioned the sam
obscenity that had been used repeated)
by the gunmen during the earlier robbery:

(continued on next page)

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Meanwhile the bandit at the cash regis-
ter had dumped the coin box on the floor,
picked up the bills underneath and
shouted to his pal, ‘‘Let’s get going.’’ The
pair then backed toward a side door. The
one who had murdered Ambrose called
out, ‘‘Better not make a move’ for ten
minutes. First one who sticks his head
out, I'll blow it off.’’

A man who had brought Mrs. Burney
to the tavern said they had been sitting in
a booth when the shooting started. One of
the slugs that passed through the
proprietor’s body continued on to fell his
companion.

Ted Remello, who had been talking
with Clyde Ambrose when the shooting
started, added, ‘‘I wasn’t in here two mi-
nutes when it happened. Earl came in
from the alcove. He didn’t say a word
when the guy with the glasses raised his
gun and fired. Then I heard him say,
‘No... no...’ He was pleading for his
life as he fell, but the gunman kept fir-
ing."

Mrs. Jane Ambrose, the proprietor’s
wife, said she had been in the:kitchen
where the safe stood containing $20,000
drawn from the bank for cashing
paychecks. But the robbers apparently
were in ignorance of that fact. They took
less than $400 from the cash register.

A middle aged man who identified him-
self as James Heldreth pushed his way
through the crowd as Sheets questioned
the weeping widow.

“I got here just as the robbers ran out-
side,” he volunteered. **Both had guns in
their hands. They ran toward a two-toned
Sedan parked in the alley beside the
tavern. They got in and headed toward
Fourth Avenue.”’

+

“Sure about the car?’’ inquired the
homicide chief.

“Yeah. I know automobiles. It was a
two-tone Pontiac sedan, 1947 model. The
license number was L4190.”’

Sheets ordered an immediate check on
the license number, although he felt cer-
tain the killers had been driving a stolen
vehicle. Meantime an alert was put out
for the car and roadblocks set up
throughout the area.

Half an hour later Dr. Mitchell A.
Spyker, the Franklyn County coroner,
revealed that four .25 caliber bullets had

entered the tavern owner’s body. Three.
were recovered, The other had passed |

through Ambrose and gone on to strike
Mrs. Burney. The woman, reported hos-
pital physicians, would probably recover.

Back at police headquarters an hour
later, Sheets learned that no trace of the
killers or their getaway car had been
found. He reported to Capt. Glenn C.
Hoffman, detective chief, that the license
on their car had been issued to the owner
of a 1936 Chevrolet, according to infor-
mation received from the motor vehicle
bureau. Efforts were being made to learn
whether the Chevy had been reported sto-
len. Meanwhile, detectives had been un-
able to locate the owner of the Chevrolet
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“‘Well, check the guy'‘out to see
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robbery would stick his own license
wes on a car stolen or borrowed for the
job.

Sheets replied that it was impossible to
follow the reasoning of thugs who killed
for no reason. ‘‘These guys are the worst
kind of killers,’’ he said. “They don't
shoot to get out of a jam. They're

(continued on next page)

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—‘Kneel And Pray While
| Ravish Your Daughter’

(continued from page 43)

trigger-happy. They enjoy killing.””

“And they'll probably kill again, if we
can’t get to them first,’’ agreed the detec-
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we clean this thing up.”

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to whom the Chevrolet’s license plates

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had been issued. He was Robert Murl
Daniels, 24, paroled from the Ohio State
Reformatory at Mansfield the previous
September 25 while serving three years
for the robbery of a Waverly grocer.
Daniels had also put in a year at Boys
Industrial School at Lancaster in 1941 for
car theft.

Detectives dispatched to Daniels’
home at 211 West Norwich Avenue were
told by the young man’s parents that the

and left the same day for “‘parts un-
known.”

Within an hour of learning of Daniels’
police record, the police had him iden-
tified by half a dozen witnesses to the two
tavern robberies as the thug whose be-
spectacled partner murdered Ambrose in
cold blood. Meanwhile it was learned a
1947 Pontiac sedan answering the de-
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len from a downtown parking lot two
weeks before. Police theorized that the
two young robbers had replaced that
car's license with the plates Daniels took
from his own car before disposing of it.

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bery detail, soon came up with three mor
jobs attributed to Daniels and his uniden-
tified pal. On the day after the Pontia
was stolen, the Sohio service station a
20th and Summit Streets had been taker
for $50 after an attendant, Daniel
Lenihan, was badly beaten. Again, it wa
the be-spectacled thug who did the beat
ing, and for no reason, according to hi
victim.

Half an hour after the filling statio
robbery the same pair held up Willian
Lane at another Sohio gas station a mik
away, getting $75. Three days later the
entered the Idle Hour Cafe on Clevelan
Avenue and threatened the bartendet
Oscar O'Dell, with ‘‘quick death”’ if &

failed to smile while they relieved th
cash register of $600. O'Dell managed)
grim smile and escaped with his life.

While detectives questioned friend
and neighbors of the Daniels family
thousands of circulars were broadcast tt
police stations, sheriff's offices am
highway patrols throughout the. Midd:
West. It was learned that Daniels ha
been keeping company with a girl livin
near his parents’ home. On the secon
day after the murder of Ambrose, Dete
tive Sheets was told that the young sut
pect and his companion had tried to dat
this girl and a friend a few hours befon
the slaying. 3

‘*Bob introduced his friend to me#
‘Johnny’ and I arranged a double-date fa
that night,’’ Daniels’ girlfriend tok
Sheets. ‘‘But when my girlfriend sa
him, she refused to go through with i
There was something about his face, thi
and mean and with a sort of crazy lookt
the eyes behind the heavy spectacles ¥
wore, that warned her off.”’

The girl’s mother told the detecti¥
that young Daniels had left some laundt
for her to take care of. Included were t¥
shirts bearing the initials “‘J.W.”” ,

A week after Sheets talked to th
girlfriend of the suspected robber anothe
detective, John Donohue, came up witht
name to fit those initials. From a distat
relative of Daniels, Donohue learned tht
the young man had recently been joint
by a former reformatory mate whos
home was in Parkersburg, W. Va. Th
man had been introduced to him as Job
West. The relative said West answert
the description of the bespectacled killet

The next day, July 21, Heischman aft
Miller were dispatched to the reformé
ory north of Columbus to check on Jol
West. They arrived to learn that an #
tomobile similar to that in which t
tavern killers were seen had been spottd
outside the home of the murdered Niet
family within hours of the triple slaying

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slugs taken from the corpse of Earl Am-
brose, these were found to have been
fired from the same weapon.

Meanwhile, it was learned that both
West and Daniels had been heard by fel-
low convicts to voice threats against the
reformatory superintendent because of
disciplinary measures taken against
them.

_West, a six-footer weighing 140 pounds
with myopic eyes and pimply face, was
listed as a moron in the prison
psychiatrist’s records. Arrested three
times in 1946 in Cleveland, he had been
twice released after questioning about
robberies. On October 23 of that year he
received a suspended sentence for burg-
lary and larceny. He was turned over to
Akron police the following January and
later given one-to-seven years for stealing
a truck. At the time of his release from
Mansfield on March 12, 1948, he was 23
years of age. ;

As news of the latest slaying spread, a
wave of shocked horror swept the state.
Back in Franklin County, detectives and
uniformed police intensified their search
for the two suspects as other witnesses
came forward to identify West and
Daniels as the trigger-happy bandits. Ina
special session at Mansfield, meantime,
the Richland County commissioners
posted a $5,000 reward as aroused citi-
zens deluged sheriff's offices and police
Stations with alarms and tips.”

In West Virginia local police went to
the home of West’s mother, five miles
from Parkersburg, only to learn that the
pair had shown up there briefly in their
stolen Pontiac about ten hours after the
slaying of Superintendent Niebel and his
family. They were believed headed back
toward Ohio, but reports came froma half
dozen other parts of the country that the
car had been seen.

While the search continued, a call to
the office of Police Chief Harold Fraley in
Tiffin, a city of 20,000 some 30 miles
Northeast of Mansfield, sent every avail-
able peace officer in that area converging
on a farm. The call came at 10:25 p.m.
from a man who identified himself as
W.W. Martin, principal of Columbus
High School. ;

“‘A man has been murdered near
here,”’ said Martin succinctly. ‘‘His wife
'sat my place now. I believe the men who
killed him were the bandits Daniels and
West. They got away.”

’ Before ringing off Martin revealed that
the dead man was James Smith, a
25-year-old farmer who lived five miles
forth of Tiffin. Within 20 minutes Chief
Fraley, accompanied by a dozen local
and county officers, was at the Martin
residence. There he found the slain man's
Pretty wife, Rita, 23, being treated by a
Physician for shock and hysteria. Lying
On the front seat of the couple’s car out-
Side the house was the blood-spattered
body of the girl’s husky young husband.

His face had been shot half away.

Because of the wife’s condition, it was
some time before the officers learned
what had happened. Meanwhile fresh
alerts went out and residents of the entire
area were wamed to beware of picking up
strangers or allowing anyone into their
homes.

The Smiths, it was finally determined, |

had been driving toward their home only
two miles from the Martin farm when a
small two-tone sedan overtook them and
crowded their car off the road. Inside the
sedan were two tall, dark men. One,
wearing heavy spectacles, had a gun in
his hand as he leaped from the sedan and
came tothe driver's side of the Smith car.

“OK, fellow, give me your driver's
license and then get out,’ the gunman
ordered, according to Rita Smith.

‘*My husband took out his license but
hesitated about giving it to this man,”’ the
girl said. ‘‘Then the man stepped back
and raised the gun. There was a shot and
Jim fell over against me. He cried out
something that sounded like ‘Wait, wait!”
but the man kept shooting.”

Martin, inside his home 100 yards dis-
tant, had heard the shots and had run to
his porch, flicking the light switch at the
door. Seeing the light flash on, the fugi-
tives abandoned their evident intention of
commandeering the Smiths’ car. Turn-
ing, they ran back to the small sedan for
which police throughout the entire Mid-
dle West had been searching for days. As
the wife of their latest victim jumped from
her own car and ran toward the Martin
home, the two thugs sped off into the
night.

Before midnight the stolen Pontiac was
found by Deputy Sheriff Leopold Grover
at the edge of a roadside park bordering
Route 53 and four miles from the scene of
the Smith murder. The vehicle was out of
gas and Grover concluded the killers
could not have gone far as the motor was
still warm. A radio report to search head-
quarters established in Tiffin, nine miles
distant, brought hundreds of police and
armed citizens rushing to the area.

While a dozen officers went carefully
over the abandoned car, a man who iden-
tified himself as Beryl Price walked up.

‘I live in that house just the other side
of the park,”’ he said. ‘‘About halfan hour
ago I heard two shots. Right afterward I
heard a motor start up. It sounded like the
motor of a large truck. My wife and I
looked outside, but saw nothing. In the
distance, we heard the rattling of a heavy
vehicle as it sped down the road.”

Price added that earlier in the night he
had noticed a gas truck parked at the edge
of the park. Often, he explained, truck
drivers stopped there to sleep. A shout
interrupted Price’s words at this point,
and the dozen officers gathered about the
abandoned Pontiac turned as Grover
came running from behind a clump of
bushes a dozen yards inside the park.

‘*There’s a man’s body back there!"*
cried the deputy. *“There is no identifica-
tion on him, but he must have been the
driver of a truck that pair hijacked. Who-
ever it is, he hasn't been dead an hour.
There are two small-caliber bullet holes
through the head.”

Grover explained that he had followed
a double set of footprints back into the
park after finding the slain reformatory
superintendent's driver's license in the
glove compartment of the abandoned
sedan. In the car trunk, he added, there
was a set of license plates — D-4351, the
original plates issued for the stolen car.

While roadblocks were being set up
around the area, a score of police cars
cruised the dark countryside in the hope
of catching up with the gasoline truck in
which at least one of the fugitives was
believed to be riding.

As dawn approached on that mid-
summer morning of July 23, teletypes,
police radios, phones and messengers
passed word of the latest developments to
hundreds of police officers, sheriffs,
highway patrolmen and others manning
roadblocks throughout the region. Orders
= out to stop and search every vehi-
cle.

One of the most distant check points
was near the Ohio-Indiana Boundary, 75
miles west of Tiffin at the intersection of
Routes 224 and 673. There Sheriff F. Roy
Shaffer, a tall, graying veteran of 40 years
as a peace officer, waved down approach-
ing cars as Sgt. Leonard Cohn of the Van
Wert city police covered him from the
side of the highway.

At 8:40 that morning, this pair was
joined by Frank Friemouth, a county

(continued on next page)

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45


eas

es

Astsi

‘Kneel And Pray While
| Ravish Your Daughter’

(continued from page 45)

game protector who had volunteered his
services. A few minutes after that a vehi-
cle appeared in the distance. As it came
closer the three officers saw it was a truck
cab hauling a two-level trailer loaded with
four new cars.

**Not going to bother with that one, are
you?" inquired the game protector as
Sheriff Shaffer stepped into the roadway.

““We're stopping everything,”’ ans-
wered Shaffer, slightly raising the muzzle
of the rifle he held loosely in his left hand.
At the side of the road Conn’s sub-
machine gun was trained on the driver of
the cab as the vehicle slowly ground toa
halt.

‘**Where from?’’ demanded the sheriff
peering toward the shadowed face inside
the truck cab.

‘Tiffin,’ came back the muttered
reply.

“*Alone?”’

“Yeah, alone.”

The sheriff's eyes went toa torn flap in
the canvas tarpaulin covering the two top
cars. A movement inside the cab warmed
him that the driver was about to start up
the motor. *‘Wait!"” he cried. ‘*l want to
look around.”’

Shaffer quickly inspected the two cars
on the lower level of the transport. Then
he climbed to the upper deck, propped his
rifle against one car and freed his holster
gun. Pulling the tarpaulin aside, he looked
inside one of the two cars on top of the
trailer truck. His slight body stiffened as
he saw, in the beam of his flashlight, a

man’s hat on the rear seat of the new car.

Edging to one side, Shaffer's gun came
up swiftly as he narrowed his eyes for a
better look. Then he recognized the man
crouched down in the front part of the car
as Robert Murl Daniels.

The ex-con raised both hands and
cried, ‘‘Don’t shoot!”’

“Get back down there,’ Shaffer or-
dered.

In that same moment he heard a blast of
gunfire from below. Perched insecurely
on the upper deck girders, the sheriff saw
that the firing came from the driver’s side
of the cab. But he was unable to see the
man who had been in the front seat. The
next moment he spotted Conn, though.

The 33-year-old Van Wert policeman
crumpled to the ground at the roadside as
Shaffer tried to keep one eye on Daniels
and at the same time learn what was hap-
pening below.

Then he caught a glimpse of Friemouth
at the edge of the road and tossed down
his rifle as he realized the other held no
weapon, saying: ““Cover me while I dis-
arm this one up here.”’

“IT can’t; I’m shot too,”’ the game pro-
tector replied.

As the sheriff strained to catch a sound
or glimpse of the other killer, his eyes
widened incredulously. Conn was raising
himself, his service revolver still in his
right hand. There came a burst of fire
from the weapon and simultaneously the
cab door swung wide below him and the
bespectacled gunman, West, pitched

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forward and lay still in the road.

Quickly Shaffer maneuvered Daniels
down and slipped the cuffs on him. A
glance at West showed he had been hit
between the eyes and was already near
death. Conn, meanwhile, had crawled
and struggled back to the police cruiser
and was radioing for assistance.

Minutes later police cars roared up
from opposite directions and soon un
formed men were swarming over the
scene. Conn and Friemouth were rushed
to Van Wert County hospital, the former
with a bullet in his lung, the latter with
slugs in his arm and shoulder. Both wer
to recover eventually.

But Johnny West, the mad dog killerd
six innocent persons, was already dead
by the time help reached the trio of offic
ers at the lonely roadblock. His last vic
tim, the driver of the car transport in
which he himself died violently, was later
identified as Orville Taylor of Niles,
Mich., 34-year-old father of four chil
dren. F

Like all the other victims, Taylor had
died pleading for mercy that never wa
given. In the confession made by Daniel
after he was taken to a cell in the Vat
Wert County Jail, he admitted that his pd
West ‘‘done all his talking with his gun.”

‘After that first murder in Columbus,”
Daniels said, ‘he just didn’t seem to care.
When we went out there to the reformat
ory, we planned to beat up a guard wht
had had it in for both of us. But Johnny
insisted we go to the superintendent's
home first. There we got the drop of
Niebel and decided to take him and his
wife and daughter out to the corn field
work ‘em over.”’

But once in the corn field with thei
naked victims, the pair had assaulted th
girl then murdered her parents as thej
knelt, pleading for their lives. f

**You can give me credit for helping te
take care of them,”’ Daniels said coldly a
he told of the indignities heaped upon th
helpless trio. ;

In telling of their cross-country tour d

crime and violence, Daniels described hit’

slain pal as a small-timer who had “‘gottet
plenty tough after | broke him in on th
big stuff.’’ Robberies and crimes of viot
ence in Missouri, Tennessee and Ohi
were described as he boastfully toll
police: j

“‘Johnny was so darned ugly that lt
hated anything good looking — excep
me, of course. And he did what I told hia
to do. He learned to shoot quick and ast
questions afterward. It didn’t do thos
people a bit of good to plead for thel
lives. I guess Johnny was pleading for hi.
own, though, before it was over.”’ I

Robert Murl Daniels, the callous kille
who boasted of his power over tht
weaker willed fellow-convict who did hs

bidding, also pleaded in vain for his lift

before he died in the electric chair o
January 3,
murders.

OO TAIN a RYR A MweC Rat hones cies chen ta cnns ta tipenerer inte 18 1G ik MEE kA Cltidar TTR DTD |

1949 for his part in the 1 \

‘T Just Smoked A Cop’

as Talbott Village and on ‘The Meridian
Strip’’, a half-mile stretch of North Meri-
dian Street. Police contacts in the drug
world reported that Vaughn had a
**$100-a-day-habit’’.

The investigators learned that a man at
The Meadows gave Vaughn a “‘fix’’ for
Wednesday. But where would he get the
next one? One possible way to flush him
out was to dry up his supply points. IPD
narcotics officers met in the parking lot of
a restaurant and then spread out to find
every drug user and drug pusher that they
knew. One man they stopped was carry-
ing a syringe and other injection
paraphenalia. They took it all and said to
him, ‘‘When Rickey Vaughn shows up,
we'll give it back.”’

Even though the net around The
Meadows was lifted on Wednesday,
police continued checking dozens of
places that Vaughn might be and followed
up dozens of tips and leads. The police-
men in uniform wore black armbands and
their patrol cars flew black pennants;
both symbolic of the fallen Officer
Schachte..Lt. Michael Popcheff and Lt.
Erwin G. Russell established a roving
command post. Russell stated: ‘We are
hitting dope houses and talking to junkies
and queers. We got a lot of information on
4 lot of things, found a lot of stolen guns
and radios and locked up a few people,
st no one would admit to seeing Vau-
ghn.””

One important point that was learned
was that between | and 1:15 on Tuesday
afternoon, Vaughn allegedly purchased
heroin from a pusher on a street corner
four blocks from the scene of Schachte’s
death. Deputy Chief Raymond J. Strattan
stated: “‘Schachte probably found his
(Vaughn's) dope during a routine search.
That is what we feel started the shoot-
ing.”

As police continued to talk to people
who knew Vaughn, one statement kept
Cropping up from the ones who admitted
aVing been in contact with him: Three

; (continued from page 23)

different people reported that he told
them ‘I smoked a cop”’.

About 5 p.m. on the 23rd, an anonym-
ous phone call came into headquarters.

» The caller said that Vaughn would turn
himself in toa retired black police captain
who had once arrested Vaughn. The cal-
ler said that if the captain would come,
unarmed and unescorted, to a location on
the northwest side of town, Vaughn
would surrender.

AIlIPD cars in the area received orders
to leave. The captain went to the ren-
dezvous spot at 5:25. At 5:45, a Mustang
arrived and parked in front of the
captain's car. The captain got out and
started walking toward the Mustang. A
man who appeared to be Vaughn got out
of the car. Just then, another car drove
by. Upon seeing the third car, the uniden-
tified man jumped back into his car and
sped off.

The retired captain, who had served 22
years on the force, had done his part to try
to bring in Vaughn. If the motorist who
had briefly appeared was actually Vau-
ghn, he may have thought that the uniden-

tified car contained other policemen who
would ambush him; or, at least, **work
him over’’.

On Thursday, Vaughn's stepmother
and Mark W. Shaw, the attorney who had
represented Vaughn on the pawnshop
burglary, met with Chief Hale. After the
meeting, all three appeared before TV,
radio, and newspaper reporters. The
stepmother, who said that she had raised
Vaughn since he was 11, tearfully ap-
pealed: ‘‘I beg of you to give yourself up
for the sake of your father, whose health
is getting worse and worse since this hap-
pened. He has asked you to give yourself
up. You won't be harmed.”*

She called Vaughn ‘‘a lovable kid who
was always quiet and never rowdy ,”* and
expressed surprise about his drug addic-
tion and alleged role as a female imper-
sonator. Chief Hale said he would allow
Shaw and the stepmother to meet pri-
hegte with Vaughn to work out a surren-

er.

After the news conference, Shaw re-
ceived an anonymous call saying that
Vaughn would surrender at 8:30 p.m.ata
church if Reverend Andrew J. Brown, an
influential clergyman in Indianapolis’
black community, were present. Brown,

Shaw, Hale, and Deputy Chief Strattan ”

(continued on next page)

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47


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G

COLLETT, James W., white, 61, elec. Ohio (Fayette), April 20th, 1945,

| fr
/f
J + Garurgie Public Gibrary
WA Washington Court House
lA Ohia

Sept. 22, 197)

Dear Mr. Espy: :
The information you inquired about could not be xeroxed,
most of it being on microfilm.

First and only execution in Fayette County was G. W. Smith
in 1867 for murder of John Gray. Smith was hung in jail yard.

Leo Halterman sentenced to death for killing of his half
brother Charles Halterman, Dec. 23,°1926. Mrs. Charles Halterman
was also slain, but he was tried only for the brother. Confessed
he killed because of riff between he and his wife which was caused
by Wis Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walterman. Buried at Beaver Ohio.

Everett Jones, killed pool room owner Robert Lindsey on July
uth, 1937, during robbery attempt. Companion in crime Walter Barnes
sentenced to life in prison, later released, now leading model life.
Everett Jones had served nineteen of his thirty three years in
prison. He confessed to the murder on the witness stand. After
electrocution he was buried at the penitentiary. No one ever
claimed the body.

James Collett-Murdered Mr. and Mrs. £lmer McCoy and daughter
Mildred, Nov. 22, 1943. Collett a farmer from Wilmington, Chio
was a brother in law to Mr. McCoy. His wife and Mr, McCoy were
brother and sister. Motive-money and land. His wife was next in
line to inherit. Blectrocuted April 20, 1945.

The above facts were gathered from the Washinston C. H, Record
Herald newspaper.

We hope we have been some help to you. If you should need
any more information please write to us

Yours very truly

sip G-Class
: Librarian

KA? jc


— Carnegie Public Library

7

'
A

Washington Court House
Ohia

Oct. 8, 197):

Dear Mr. Uspy:

“e xeroxed the G, W. Smith information out of the Dili's
History of Fayette Co, The charre will be eliOd.

With respect to Leo alterman he shot Charles Salterman
with a gun, and then used the bore of the eun to bent irs.
Halterman to death. Leo tialterman worked for his brother on
the farm.

James Collett used a gun to kill Mr. and lirs, MeCoy and
their daughter Mildred. Mr. Collett was a farmer, also Mr,
MeCoy.

If there is any other information we can help you with
please let us know.

Very truly yours,

asp bewes | = LAA
Librarian C\
KA rf j Cc


=
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a
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feed
@
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9
oO
Fr

head partially

LAYTOR’S whistling of
ning board o

kin? Mama came to an

ilk pails dropped
Her eyes were glassy,

legs rigid. A sing]
her head from the rear.

Coy was dead.
that she must

abrupt end. The m
from his nerveless fingers an
on the frozen
“Miss Mildr
Claytor cho
lumbering t

ked out the wor
the figure of a young

e driveway. He have lain in her aw

auburn-haire
She lay on

BY JOHN L. BOWEN

ee

concealed under the run-
f the expensive maroon

her arms and

e bullet had pierced
Mildred Mc-

kward ‘position
e chill night that preceded
Thanksgiving Day,

POO anes dandsans sib

POUT UP f
ICTIVE, March, 1944

hood half raised,
d stone driveway
hite frame McCoy

the barn nearly 200. feet to

The car, with the

. that separa

home from
with sick fear in his
wept the build-
leus of peace-
e 160 acres

Claytor arose

formed the nuc
w farm, whos

f Washington

ful Oak Vie
was a showp
side five mi
Court House.

les north o

cer looking on, the cag
s a fingerprint card
arters, where
he lie detector.

With an offi
suspect sign
lice headqu

Where v
wealthy o
girl? Whe
ran for the
Oh, Mr. M

Roundin
on his Ww:
stopped sh

Stretche
dried and
Elmer M
clutched
gripped a
head were
a green b
drying he:

Claytor
to his own
of the M
communic:
wife. The
family cal
Charles G
phoned Sh
county jail

When Ic
a few min
surprised °
ing with n
McCoy fa:
Dey eo A.
narian of \
a brother

Mildred
home for
when the
fired a b:

more it seemed that someone aimed to profit ple

room. “Hello!” she calléd out cheerily.

There was no answer. That was a little puzzling, but
possibly her mother was out in the barn helping her
father. Mildred left her purse, gloves and car keys on the
living room table, then walked out to the ¢ar to get her bag.

It will never be known whether Mildred McCoy sud-
denly realized she was in danger, but the evidence indi-
cates she did not. As she was about to ‘open the car door,
a shot rang out and she collapsed to’ the ground.

m= EARLY ON THANKSGIVING morning, Dewey Clay-
tor watched the sun come up over the horizon as he
trudged up the driveway heading for the barn, where he
intended to start the milking. But the cows had to wait
to be milked that day, for Claytor discovered murder.

He saw Mildred’s red coupe parked near the house, and
then he saw Mildred. She was lying on the ground, her
head behind the front wheel. There was a wound in the
back of her skull. ~ .

Claytor turned and ran for the back door. “Elmer!” he
shouted hoarsely. “Elmer——”

He came to an abrupt stop as he gained the back porch.
On the porch lay Mrs. McCoy, her stiffened fingers clutch-
ing a dish towel. There were several wounds in her body,
and she was unquestionably dead.

Utterly horrified, Claytor acted largely on instinct. He
did not stop to think that a killer might still be skulking
about the place. His calls for McCoy went unanswered, so
he ran into the house and picked up the telephone.

“Operator!” he bellowed, jiggling the hook. “Operator
—give me the sheriff in Washington Court House!” —

Somehow, he couldn’t seem to get any response. The
line appeared to be dead, and it was only after moments
of frantic effort that Claytor realized why. The wires had
been cut.

Claytor plunged out of the house and ran all the way
to his cottage. There he picked up his wife and drove to
the adjoining farm of Charles Griffeth, where they finally
managed to call the sheriff.

Sheriff W. H. Icenhower had Thanksgiving plans of his.

own that day, but they were to be unrealized. He quickly
informed County Attorney John B. Hill and Acting .Cor-
oner E. H. McDonald of the news, then headed for Oak
View. The officials reached the farm to find a group of
horror-stricken people waiting for them.

The Claytors were there, with Mrs. Griffeth. In the
meantime, Dr. J. A. McCoy, a prosperous veterinarian
from Washington Court House, had also arrived. Dr. Mc-
Coy, a brother of Elmer McCoy, was to have been one of
the guests at the family Thanksgiving celebration that
day.

Icenhower and Hill listened to Claytor’s story of the
discovery while Coroner McDonald examined the two

Prosecutor Hill (seated) and “Sheri

murder clues in a sick cow and a newly revised law.

na
A
ciax®

Be

with stock, was estimated to be wor

rn ements

‘Oak View farmhouse wasn't fancy, but the entire place,
th a cool $100,000. .

nty by massacring the McCoy family...

ff lesliuewer found

RO A

fe oan ae ee

;

pened tr Row

=

aaa


‘

*
fe
5

the feed grinder for a new pulley belt,”
he said. “See—the old one’s just about
gone.”

“As I see it,” Hill said, “McCoy must
have been shot first. If he had heard
the seven shots fired at his wife, he
wouldn’t have remained here in the
barn. The killer shot McCoy, then
went over to the house. Either he
called to Mrs. McCoy or she came out
wondering about that first shot. After
murdering her, he must have waited
for Mildred to return to finish his hor-
rible work.”

“T think you’ve got something there,
John,” Icenhower said. “According to
Claytor, he heard the first shots
around 8:30, meaning that the killer
must have waited about a half-hour
for Mildred to show up. He must have
known she was coming.” :
“And if he knew she was coming,”
Hill mused, “it indicates that he was
mighty familiar with the McCoy \fam-
ily and their plans and movements.
I’d say it would also just about elimi-
nate any robbery theory. A robber
would have cleaned out the place and
got out of there fast.”

Hill’s theory was bolstered by a
search of the house, undertaken with
the help,of the relatives. Nothing was

see ws 4 missing—no drawers opened, no sign
aly ts ; of ransacking. On a living room desk
sata ‘q which Elmer McCoy used to keep his

» head- ’ accounts, lay a man’s wallet, uncovered
‘ pi and perfectly visible. It contained

already 1 $140—certainly a rich prize for a bur-
, able to a glar to pass up. Nor had the slayer
it Sane 4 made any attempt to loot Mildred’s
lepurted a purse, which lay on the table and con-
ad tained almost $30,

Collett i The sheriff and prosecutor examined
oecdae the telephone, whose wires were neatly
ie sheriff cut about two feet from the wall box.
1 that he “He was even careful to knock out
the phone and thereby slow down the

hunt,” Icenhower said. “Everything

Perk Bis was planned. The killer came here
fu ties : deliberately intending to wipe out the
; pe whole family. Why?” i

fg oc She = HILL SHOOK HIS HEAD. “Ven-
ae poe I geance, perhaps,” he suggested. “Elmer
beauititial had a temper and he might have made

oar teat enemies. although that hardly seem-
: a reasonable motive to murder the

: horrilste entire family. Then there’s profit, of
hak hie course. Somebody’s going to inherit
he vinited this farm and property, and it’s worth
of Elmer 4 plenty.” ‘
an’s right a “Let’s follow that out. Elmer was
nie Bike 4 killed first, so according to law the
rolled up 4 property would pass to his wife and
tain Saale daughter. With them gone, it. would i
& tata fox a to ery ig ea hy Mea Bs : d , ; ;
cCoy an rs. inson. e sher- . : H H sion.
seen if looked unhappy. “We can forget Investigator looks on while slayer affixes signature to his confessio

=

~2?

€

Two experts scan the record sheet of a lie detector. It

MURDER'S NO WAY TO GET RICH

bodies. Mildred, he found, had been
slain by a single bullet that entered the
base of the brain. In Mrs. McCoy’s
‘body; on the other hand, were no less

than seven bullet wounds. The dish’
towel in her hand, and the shattered.

fragments of a plate on the porch be-
side her, made it apparent that she had
been doing dishes when she walked
out the door to be mowed down by a
hail of bullets. ;

Dr. McDonald shook his head sadly,
He knew the McCoys—had known
Mildred since she was a pretty pig-
tailed schoolgirl. Elmer, now ... He
was sometimes pretty hot-headed. It
didn’t seem possible that he could have
gone berserk in this way, and yet...

“Where's Elmer?” McDonald asked.

“He’s over in the barn,” Dr. McCoy
said heavily.

“Why isn’t he here?” the coroner

‘demanded.

The veterinarian looked puzzled. “I
guess you didn’t know,” he said. “El-
mer was murdered too—a bullet in his

head.”

@ AGHAST, Dr. McDonald went to
the barn. The body of Elmer McCoy,
clad in overalls and a faded denim
jacket, was wedged face downward be-
tween a feed grinder and the barn wall.
The stub of a cigar was still clenched
between his teeth. A bullet had struck

‘him in the back of the head, making its:

exit in the forehead. Powder burns

continued

around the wound made it apparent
that the gun had been fired from only
a few feet away.

The remaining guests invited to the
McCoy Thanksgiving festivities had
arrived in the meantime, to find that
triple death had come before them.
They were: Mrs. Sylvia Atkinson, a sis-
ter of the dead woman; Mr. and Mrs.
James Collett and Mr. and Mrs. Del-
bert Hayes. Mrs. Collett was a sister
of Elmer McCoy, while the Hayses
were cousins of the farmer. Utterly
dazed, these people gathered in the liv-
ing room and talked in low tones while
the officers proceeded with their in-
vestigation.

Sheriff Icenhower meanwhile had
found the purse, keys and gloves which
Mildred had left on a table in the liv-
ing room. It proved that she had come
into the house, found no one there, and
gone out again to her car, where she
was struck down. Dewey Claytor told
how she had gone by his home very
close to 9 o'clock.

“She honked her horn twice, like she
always did,” he said.

“How about the shots—you must
have heard them,” Icenhower declared.

“Well, yes, I did, but I didn’t think
anything of it at the time. Elmer had a
gun, and I thought probably he was
shooting rats. The big house is quite a
ways from my place, but I heard the
faint sound of some shots around 8:30,
then another one just after 9.”

eaOncT Sc A . wii MM , WSN, 2 salt «alll

Investigator points to spot where McCoy's body was
proved a man was a liar, and consequently also a killer. found wedged between feed grinder and the barn wall.

“That was the one that killed Mil-
dred,” the sheriff nodded. “Did you
notice anyone go in the driveway be-
fore Mildred got there?”

Claytor had. He had seen the head-
lights. of a car going in the lane some-
time after 8 o’clock, but it was already
dark then and he had not been able to
see the car; nor had he noticed it leave,
though it might easily have departed
while he was otherwise occupied.

Sixty-one-year-old James Collett,
the graying, slightly-built brother-in-
law of the slain farmer, took the sheriff
aside, Collett seemed so moved that he
had difficulty in speaking.

“Just imagine it,’ he said. “All us
folks coming out here for what we
thought would be a fine Thanksgiving
get-together—and we find this! Sheriff,
I’ve been close to the McCoys for 30
years. When Mildred was a baby, 1
used to. bounce her on my knee, and I
watched her grow into a_ beautiful
woman... . I know you'll do your best
to get the person guilty of this horrible
thing.”

The. sheriff assured him that he
would, With Prosecutor Hill, he visited
the barn and saw the position of Elmer
McCoy’s body. In the dead man’s right
hand he found a metal object—a 25-
foot steel measuring tape that rolled up
automatically when a _ button was
pressed. The sheriff pondered this for
a moment, then nodded.

“Elmer must have been measuring

Weer ee db al

the feec
he said
gone.”
“As ]
have b:
the sex
wouldn
barn.
went <
called +
wonde:
murde:
for Mil
rible w
sed th
John,”
Claytor
around
must |
for Mi!
known
“Anc
Hill m
mighty
ily an
I'd say
nate i:
would
got oul
Hill’:
search
the hel
missing
of rans
which
accoun
and p
$140—
glar to
made
purse,
tained
The
the tel:
cut ab:
“He
the ph:
hunt,”
was p
delibe:
whole

m@ HII
geanc:
had a
enemi:
a rea
entire
cours¢
this f:
plenty

“Let
killed
prope:
daugh
Pass t
McCo:
iff lox


Pretty Mildred McCoy—she headed for the family farm,

never dreaming she would keep a rendezvous with horror.

dhe

MURDER'S

The more investigators dug into it, the

m IN FAYETTE COUNTY, in south central Ohio, 54-
year-old Elmer McCoy was widely regarded as a shrewd,
hard-working farmer and also as something of a char-
acter. The first estimate was borne out by the fact that by
dint of his own labors McCoy was sole owner of Oak View
Farm, a 160-acre place five miles north of Washington
Court House, where he raised fine cattle and prize hogs.

Though McCoy’s holdings were reputed to be worth at
least $100,000 and he could easily have gone into comfort-
able retirement had he so desired, he wasn’t that kind of
man. Farming was his life and he loved it, and he kept
the place going with the help of one tenant farmer, Dewey
Claytor, who lived with his wife in a cottage on the edge
of the farm. ,

Like many self-made men, McCoy could be sharp and
hot-tempered at times, but those who knew him best
realized that this was a superficial trait. Underneath, Mc-
Coy was warm-hearted and kindly. He was fond of his
wife, who had the unusual but pretty first name of For~y
rest, and he simply doted on his only daughter Mildred.
A 23-year-old brunette beauty, Mildred had graduated
from Ohio State University the previous year and now
was teaching school at Pitsburg, a village 70 miles to the
northwest. F

Thanksgiving was a very special occasion at Oak View,
and invariably the nearest relatives of the McCoys as-
sembled at the farm for the day. Mrs. McCoy always per-
formed miracles with a plump, 20-pound turkey, as well
as pickles, pies, and all the other fixings, and it was Elmer
McCoy’s custom to put on his dress-up suit and open the
festivities with a prayer that was short but came from the
heart.

This same sort of gathering was planned for Thanks-
giving of 1943, and Mildred McCoy was looking forward
to it as she drove her smart new coupe along the highway
toward Oak View on Wednesday night. She had enjoyed
the leisurely drive from Pitsburg through the snappy
autumn air. In the morning, she knew, all the relatives
would arrive and the place would be filled with fellow-
ship, good cheer, good food. —

As was her habit, Mildred honked her horn twice as she
passed Dewey Claytor’s cottage; then turned into the long
drive leading to the farmhouse. No doubt her mother
would be busy stuffing the bird about now. Her father
would be there to help her get her things into the house,
and then Mildred could pitch in with the cookery prepa-
rations, a chore she always enjoyed. :

She stopped the car by the big front porch. There was
a light on in the kitchen and also in the dining room but,
strangely, no one came out to grect her. Well, perhaps
her father was busy with his precious stock, and heaven
knew her mother had her hands full.

Mildred skipped up the steps and walked into the living

‘ Ne ey re Pea i ul ee i
ot ee ~~ A) ee

more

Be. ‘Blectrocuted | After
coe, Lee

Bede g |

= Tek De-

: eects ton

Colnmbue. On June 2 2 7a (Spectaly | :

Janey Cornelius will. be olectro-
shortly after midnight tonight,

8o?. Harris retuses to interfere, —
‘Qovernor Harria tn afnounclar his
grtston rhade-) the following» btate-
tiv'l dave gone over. very care-
dn this case and
reat alk material parts: of tho testi-
mony taken upon tho trial. Tho facta
sarrognding the homicide are undia-

aif “The ¢ defense Satara: the sey and

i Janis ‘OORNELIUS,

In Step With The Music Of Fi
Thousands Swung Merrily Be
Spectators—Variety And Un

— est Fo Lodgemen's Pageant-
‘Wound Its Way In Triumph

Sr tpn omen sene nem ema a eapmmone me me

~ EARLE PARADE PR

Prizes were awaitle for the ‘Kaa z
A. Leggett, W. LL. Seolzenbach and da
aa follows:

Aerio having the greatest. anareg
accompanied by band of not lesa than f
Qeveland Aerie, No. 185, with 210
Aerte No. 100, with 149 men, on
>> Aerie having most: aniquely-c

“men fa parade—first, 625, chaead |
Aerie. - 3
: ‘Aerto making beat
adelphia Aerie. y
Aerie having most untqne apper
East Palestine cena,

we

Fa aos nt the time-of the commission
of the crime he aia know ab cet from
“wrong, tN Sj sie

gK Fae ny “Bantty Presumed. Pane
“Sanity is presumod, and.the bur-

preponderance of. the evidence his
mental irresponsibility. That “ques-
Hion wag submitted to the jury” and
tt route against {t. I am forced to
the conclusion that tho Jury is, justi-

athe: arguments since in behalf ot:
eet dgfendant-were that he had useg
? See Re-terench an: “extent for the
fonr or. five: years as to impatr
toiid to-suoh eatent that ha Was
sila © EH DEt ate and gether te

Reew Tighe From W rong:
‘physicians: were called -ag ex-
three for the state and three

Since thet time the court has over

fied in returning ‘the verdict ft did.

ruled -a. “motion for a now triak..
=. Ne Reason to Laterfere,
“The Clrealt court has reviewed ‘the |
caso and affirmed. the judgiment.. The
supreme court found no error and the
board of pardons discovered no rea-
son to interfere with the execution of
the sentence, and

den waa on the defendant to show by}

r=

The Earip parade wit a
will ve in the minds of Can

ngs)
organizations vieing 0 every varie
ical make-npsa, and courtless other
over a half hour in peesing one po
was proud.

tho Canton firs department! = pie

‘decked fn resos and other dower

sf on their heada, in oa

VARIETY THE SPICE.

OF EAGLES’ PARA? «

The Eagle parade. it will be

id a
since that timo ‘7 1m the minds of many Canjo

| Started its ling of march on- at

qfor the defense. One of them teatined act minute—11 o’ciock, On a

atin “his: opinion the defendant at Must Enforce the Law.
oe fimg-of the commission of the act!" ‘Whatever my personal opinion on ollghtieeate Natit 4 geen
capital punishment magebe, and Rows yiaves a Bagi of the colu:

ever deeply I may feel the responsi; he Ainiquenesa of many

bility resting upon me, I must en- turnouts was striking. Th:
foree the law aa I find t. The execus ‘

Rube band of Zancsville--tr
tion of the ‘Sentence will not be dis-
: ‘i turbed.! eae BLAKE. i lous makeup; an organ gr

s On GES hat headed the

nothing material had developed.

rwo testified his mind wag {m-
ed from the. use. of _Hanor, and


CLO. ae HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

“ You will hear by the papers to-day or this evening of the Rodsa family,
: at Deerfield, being murdered.” Another witness, on ‘the same morning, had
‘ heard of the murder from Harrison McNeal. An: acquaintance of the defendant |
Be hed a living at Middletown testified that on Saturday night Coovert told him that He
was going to the ball. The witness was at the ball; but Coovert was not; and
afterward, told witness that he had business at other places. The witness
a -*-had a conversation with Coovert about the murder‘on the Wednesday after it
~  oceurred. He said the man who committed the murder must have been awk-
Rerhitos SR dt ce heme ee aS ward, or have had a dull hatchet, as he struck Mrs. Roosa a glancing blow and
a etieas Say earn ths mi killed tho child accidentally. He said the Doctor and Coroner had come _
ue eat vies La ara . to the conclusion that the murder was dono by a left-handed man, but. tues nee
: Be cen Coote sie were keeping it a secret in order to find out the murderer. © ~ va
* eae ae . The defense in the first trial was an alibi. ‘The prisoner's brother-i in-law —
ne: ; ee Ee Ae eat sister both testified that he was at home in bed on the night of the mur. |
ak cag ee Coes ea ‘ied Bante der. This testimony was found to have so little weight, that it was not intro- 2
arta ae Ot atk, Cand Papel a : wee duced on the second trial. ee
Peak ist ; The conviction of the arderoe was Ge largely to the skill and ability ye
beepers Sec Bo be - with which the prosecution was conducted by George R. Sage, who brought to ~
eae the trial a thorough acquaintance with all known facts concerning the commis-
: lives: ae ee ‘sion of the crime and a deep conviction of the guilt of the prisoner. Coovert
: SEP UN Lee gs tee ae maintained that he was innocent until the last, and all efforts to secure a con-
' Shor phi fession of his guilt were unavailing.* His sister. Mrs. McNeal, also asserted
pg \ Pept <a" his innocence, and continued in her efforts to save her brother until he was
Fe tek grea PEE Lotus: i executed. The testimony was sufficient to satisfy the great mass of the people
Baie i a of the county of his guilt. and in the sixteen years which have elapsed since -
the trial, no new fact has been discovered to throw a doubt aon the ee
of the verdict. ow bors $2
A scaffold for the execution of Coovert was aiieie in tho ard of tho jail. :
The execution took place August 24, 1866. At 12 o’clock, the doomed man *
was taken to the scaffold. He seemed very weak, but quite calm. Standing
; ; Gt tects ; - on the trap. door soon to fall beneath him, with only a moment or jtwo between
2 He ST Tea eh es . him and eternity, in response to the Sheriff's “question whether he’ had any
= eas ae Ne heart remarks to make, hw said in a steady voice: ‘%
ae ae be Bre “ Gentlemen, I am about to leave this world I have had two droadful
: “{ ‘AERC trials. I have been treated justly so far as I know, asto the jury and Judges, but
as to the witnesses, I cannot say that they were just. While my end is near, I call _
God to witness that I never murdered that innocent family. - As to the evi-
eh dence of my speaking of it on Tuesday, I hope I nevor may see God ifLheard of —
CAL ea See Foie it till the Thursday following. I hope that we may all moot i in the next world. —
bane ene ys a8 That is all I have to say.”
Be x He sat down and Rev. J. E. Snowden, of the Mothodist Protestant Chureb,
his spiritual advisor, approaching him, said: a
“ In the awful realities of this hour, are you othe to moot J esus? ” — e
om & am.’? . £ a ye Bor gh pe at
“* Jesus is your friond—do you trust in Him? % “S
“J do, indeed.” ai,
: Mr Snowden then made a short, prayer, saying: a= aa aS i
ae Eye : EG fae He “Qh, thou Search >r of all hearts, we beseech Thee to Dok own upon us in
Leer ae ere tender mercy, in this awful moment. A soul is about to be hurried into eter- —
nity— prepared or unprepared, Thou alone knowest.. We pray that Thou have
Poa, - __.-.—-mercy upon thatsoul. His declarations of innocence are before God and man, but
Thou alone knowest his heart. We commond his soul unto Thee —back to the
- God who gave it tohim. We pray that Thou will pour ont upon him a BY
spirit. and give him strength for this awful crisis. Amon.”

«
Me BSS, EP
AGAR, oe te

ius Pte
sar a ee


UNION TOWNSHIP. 719
er in the first degree. It is worthy of note that eleven members of the jury,
which agreed to this verdict, had stated in their examination that they were
on-principle opposed to capital punishment, but that they believed that their
v'..vs_would not prevent them from rendering a verdict in accordance with the
law aux cue testimony. A new trial was pr anted the defendant, on tho ground
that one ofthe jurors had expressed an opinion as to the guilt of the defendant
before the trial. ~The second trial commenced on June 6, 1866, continued
five days, and also resulted in a verdict of guilty of nurder in the first degree.
The briefest summury of the evidence by which the guilt of the defendant was
proved to the satisfaction of two juries, is all that can here be given.

Mrs. Roosa and Jeannette, the sole survivors of the trage dy, gave, on the
witness stand, their recollections of the horrible scene. The former testified
that sho had been awakened by a blow on the head, and became unconscious;
ufterward she saw the murderer standing in the door, with a light in his right
hand and a hatchet in his left hand; he came toward her, and, as she thought,
struck her again. She described him as a tall man, with a light moustache
and pretty long hair. ©When told to look at the prisoner, she said: “ He looks
like the man; his eyes look to me like the man’s; they have the same staring
look; I notice it every time I look at him.” J eannette described the man as
tall, with light hair and a red moustache, white shirt and black pants. She
said the prisoner looked like the man. She had escaped with her life by hiding
under the bed; she had heard her sister pleading with the murderer that he

have to.

The testimony of several witnesses was introduced to ‘show that a heres
kept in a stable not far from the saw-mill in which Coovert worked was found
covered with mud on the morning after the murder. A man on horseback had

early in the night of December 26; and one going in the opposite direction had
been met by a party of four young men about 3 o’clock the next morning.

one Coovert had used in the saw-mill, and there was on it the smell of oil,such
as is used in lubricating machinery.

It was shown that Coovert was left-handed, or ambidextrous, and a phy -
sician gave it as his opinion that the blows on Mrs. Roosa’s head had probably
m@ been struck with the left hand.

ball in Middletown on that night enabled many witnesses from that place to
fix definitely the time of events concerning which they testified. Perhaps the
strongest evidence of the guilt of the defendant was that which showed that
both Coovert and the family of Harrison McNeal, his brother-in-law, knew of
the murder in Midddletown on the morning after it occurred. Miss Mary
Shaffer, who lived in Middletown with her step-father, who kept a hotel, tes-
tified that she was at the ball; the next morning, after breakfast, went to the
house of Harrison McNeal; Mrs. McNeal and the children were in; afterward
Samuel Coovert came in, and his sister said: “Sam, how did you say that
murder was last night?” Sam said it was the awfulest murder that ever
was; that there was an old man killed, and a woman and a young lady; that
the young lady threw up her hands and begged not to be killed; that the
hatchet was so dull that when it struck Mrs. Roosa’s face, it glanced off. Wit-
ness asked him how he heard it, and he said a man had told him about it. Put-
ting his hands to his hips, he said he felt pretty stiff; that he had been at a
party the night before, and rode there on horseback.

a, AS AO bee testified chet on the morning after the ball, Coovert had said:

would not kill her, and his reply that he did not want to kill her, but he would —

been seen on the Shaker Hill, going in the direction of Lebanon and Deerfield —

The handkerchief found near the Roosa house was shown to be like the —

Monday, the 26th of December, had been observed as Christmas, and a—


UNION TOWNSHIP. Zs T DY)

Coovert “Amen, amen.’

Rising from his knees, Mr. Snowden said:

* And now may the blessing of Gud, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost rest

ao + yuu. Samael Maud Coovert. — Amen.’
Coovert ‘“Atuen.””

Mr. Snowden then said: ‘Good bye, Sa:a. I will meet you at the judy.

“guent seat. and then all bearts will be known.”

To which Coovert responded: ‘ Good bye.” aN

After this, the Sheriff, Joho Butler, ordered Coovert to rise. He obeyed
with quiet resignation. His death warrant was then read to him. He listened
ty it attentively and manifested no emotion. The Sheriff then passed around
ta the other side and while fixing the noose, Coovert’s eye caught that of David
Hicks, of Cincinnati. the man against whom he had sworn out. a warrant for
the tourder of the Roosa family, on which ground he had been sent.to the
penitentiary on the charge of perjury. and he said in clear and'‘distinet tones:

* Dave Hicks, you will forgive me?” Ree

Hicks responded: “‘ Yes, Sam. I bear no malice in the world against you.”

The black cap was drawn over his face, and just as the cord was being
sitached to the hook above, he said:

** An innocent man, gentlemen,.I am.’’

‘God bless you, Sam Coovert;. good-bye,” said the Sheriff.

‘* Good bye,” responded Coovert.

Then the lever was muved, the door fell, and Samuel Coovert was in
Ao nity.


The death-dealing "Pup

y and the man who claimed he found it

ata church and left it ona rooftop, according to police

just got out of the penitentiary last
February. Served a term for robbery.”

“He might be in some kind of trouble,”
said O'Hara. “Did he visit you on Fri-
day afternoon?”

“No. I wasn't home,” Mason said.
“He might have stopped by here think-
ing I was in and then left again when
he saw I had gone to work.”

“Where does Cosby live?” asked
Roberts. ‘‘We want to talk to him.”

“Over on Bryant Avenue,” said
Mason. “I don’t remember the exact
number but I know the house.”

Cosby’s home on Bryant Avenue was
dark when the detectives arrived. Mason
pointed to the second floor.

“Joe lives up there.”

After returning Mason to his home,
O'Hara and Roberts summoned a dis-
trict patrol car. O’Hara and Roberts
went to the front door and posted the
patrolmen outside to watch the rear and
side doors of the home.

“What do you want at this hour of
the morning?” The landlady was sleepy-
eyed and cross when she came to the
door. But her eyes widened as the
police badge flashed in the dim light on
the porch and O’Hara said: “We want
to talk to Joe Cosby.”

“Yes, sir. Right up those stairs. Ne
don't want any trouble.”

Cosby was sleeping when the detec-
tives opened the door of the room and
swung the flashlight into his startled
face.

“What's the big idea of busting in
here at this time of the morning?” he
demanded.

“Get up and get dressed,” ordered
O’Hara. “You're going downtown. We
want you to answer a few questions.”

As Cosby dressed, the two detectives
searched the room. They found no
trace of a gun or a weapon of any kind.

At headquarters, Cosby steadfastly
denied any knowledge of the slaying and
said he knew nothing about a bag of sil-
ver. He was ordered held for investiga-
tion.

Captain Kerr reviewed the report on

Cosby with interest that morning as he

conferred with Detectives Kaiser,
Nightwine and Davidson.
“Cosby sounds familiar,” he said.

“I think somebody by that name was
convicted on a homicide charge a few
years ago.”

The files bore out Kerr's memory.
George W. Cosby, Joe’s father, was serv-
ing a life term in the Ohio penitentiary
for the slaying of a Quincy avenue mer-
chant in 1945. Was his son following in
his footsteps?

The questioning of Cosby was re-
sumed later that morning. He con-
tinued to deny any knowledge of the
slaying or of the bag of change which
he was reported to have exchanged for
bills. And he had an alibi for the time
of the shooting .

“I was baby-sitting for the woman
downstairs until two-thirty that after-
noon,” he said. “After that I went to
the dry cleaners and then I talked to
some people here and there on the street
and in a couple of places.”

For two hours Cosby stuck to this
Story. Finally, Kaiser said: “Cosby, we
know you changed some silver for bills
at a market the day of the shooting.
Why don’t you tell us where you got that
bag of money?”

“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “I did
have a bag of change. But I didn’t have
anything to do with that shooting. I
found the bag when a fellow left itata
church that afternoon.”

“Let's have it from the beginning,”
said Davidson.

“Well, I was walking along One Hun-
dred and Fifth Street near St. Clair
when I saw this fellow running north.
Near Helena Avenue, he ran across the
Street and ducked behind the steps of
the church there. Isaw him put a green
bag behind the steps and I got kind of
curious when he ran on down Helena
Avenue,” said Cosby.

‘What happened then?”

“I went over to the steps and picked
up the bag. It was full of change and
there were some bills too. I guess there
was nearly fifty dollars in the bag.

“I didn't know why he left it there,
but I figured I could use the money, so
I picked it up. I walked down to Holly’s
service station at Bryant Avenue and
changed ten dollars in silver for bills. I
changed another ten dollars’ worth of
Silver for bills at Jack’s bar and then
got twelve dollars more at the market.
That's all there was to it.”

“What about the man you saw put
down the bag by the church steps?”
said Kaiser. “Did you know him?”

“I didn’t see him too well. But I think
it was Fred Hicks.”

THE detectives looked at one another.

Hicks’ name meant nothing to any
of them. It was the first time it had
cropped up in the case. Was it another
big step—perhaps the one that would
lead them to the killer of Raymond
Mack? The trail of silver was paying
off.

“All right, Cesby,” said Davidson.
“Let’s take a ride out to the church and
you can show us where you found the
bag. And maybe we can find Fred Hicks
out there too.” ‘

The investigation now began to move
on two fronts. While Cosby was show-
ing the detectives where he had found
the money, his baby-sitting alibi was

being investigated. In a tour of the
neighborhood, including several taverns
and pool halls, Cosby was unable to
point out the man he had seen drop the
bag of money. A city-wide pickup order
went out for Hicks,

The detectives who were investigating
Cosby’s alibi returned to headquarters
to report that Cosby had indeed been
baby-sitting for his neighbor on Fri-
day. But she said Cosby had left the
house at about 12:30, not 2:30 as he had
told the officers. If this were so, where
had he spent that missing two hours?
And if he had lied in his alibi could he
have lied in the rest of his story?

The questioning of Cosby was re-
sumed by Moss and Harney when they
returned to duty at 4:30 Pp. m., but he
simply repeated the Same story he had
told earlier.

The detectives still were talking to
Cosby when Patrolmen Higgins, Philip
DeLaine and Donald Kuchar came in
with 27-year-old Fred Hicks, the man
Cosby said had dropped the bag of silver
by the church steps. Moss and Harney
broke off their questioning of Cosby
and turned their attention to Hicks,
who had been picked up with his girl-
friend, Marie Watson.

(Continued on page 49)

39

They found Ray Mack dying here, close to the paper bag that had cost him his life.
Recording the scene is Photographer John Hughes of the scientific investigation unit

decided to have the woman witness view
him in a line-up the next morning.

Detectives sat with the woman as the
men paraded out under the glaring
hghts. Finally she pointed at the stage.
That's the one,” she whispered. “That's
the man I saw coming out of the store.”

It was Harding.

But Harding stuck firmly to his story.
“That woman is wrong,” he insisted.
“I was in the pool hall that afternoon.”

Two detectives were sent to the pool
hall to investigate his story. Meanwhile,
arrangements were made to have com-
parison tests made with his fingerprints
and those technicians had found at the
aeath scene.

The owner of the poolroom was not
certain that Harding had been in the
afternoon of the shooting. “Harold
comes in almost every day, and he prob-
ably was here,” he said. “But I didn't
make a point of noticing it. I've got
other things to do.”

E PROVIDED the names of several

other habitues of the place who
might have noticed whether Joseph
Earding was there Friday afternoon,
and the officers set out to try to locate
the men.

Meanwhile, other detectives contin-
ued to run down the alibis of the re-
maining suspects.

Tuesday morning Captain Kerr called
another conference. “So far our only
lead is Harding, and all we’ve got on him
is that woman’s identification,” he be-
gan. “The lab boys reported back that
his prints don’t match anything they
picked up from the store.”

38

His own disappointment was reflected
in the faces of the listening officers.

“But remember, that doesn’t elimi-
nate him. The bandit might have worn
gloves, and those prints could have been
made long before the killing. The boys
are still trying to check his alibi.

“Now, I’ve been thinking about some-
thing else. Of course, we have no way
to trace the money that was taken. But
that bag of change might help us. No-
body is going to carry around fifty dol-
lars’ worth of silver for any length of
time. I want you to. canvass the mer-
chants on the East Side, within a few
blocks of the holdup, and find out if
any of them took a lot of change in
payment or gave anyone bills for
change. And I'll have some of the uni-
formed men canvass the banks. It’s a
prettly slim lead, but it’s worth trying.”

Teams of detectives worked that
angle all day, and when evening came
new teams took over.

Moss and Harney, who were working
together on the canvass, arrived at a
market near East 105th and St. Clair at
about 8:40 p.m.

Frank Moss began his routine ques-
tioning, but this time instead of the
negative shake of the head he had be-
gun to expect, the proprietor nodded.

“Yes, a fellow came in here Friday
with a lot of change and asked if I’d
give him bills for it.”

“How much change?” Moss asked.

“Twelve dollars’ worth—a little more
really. A couple of pieces rolled under
the counter, and he didn’t even pick
them up. Just took the twelve bucks.
He had the change in a green bag.”

“Had you ever seen him before? Any
idea who he is?”

The man shook his head. “He was a
stranger to me. I asked him if he lived
around here, and he said he was visiting
his brother-in-law up on Earle Avenue.”

“Do you know this brother-in-law?”
Moss asked.

“Not unless he meant a fellow every-
body calls ‘Brother-in-Law.’ He lives
on Earle.”

THE businessman gave them Brother-
in-Law’s address, and the detectives
hurried back to their car.

“Let’s call in Dimperio and Hospodar
and take a run over to this Earle Avenue
address,”’ Moss suggested.

The officers planned a rendezvous,
and at 9:15 the four detectives arrived
at Brother-in-Law’s home, the first
floor of a duplex. No lights were on, and
no one answered their ring. After a
moment, they pushed the bell to the
second-floor apartment.

“What is it?” The man who answered
was visibly surprised when Moss flashed
his badge at the door.

“We just want some information
about the party who lives downstairs,”
said Moss. “Perhaps you can help. Can
you tell us his name?”

“Ben Mason lives there. But he won't
be home until after midnight. He works
at a bakery and doesn’t get home until
late,” the man replied.

“Is this Mason also known as
‘Brother-in-Law’?” asked Moss.

“Yes, that’s right,” said the man.
“Most everyone around the neighbor-
hood calls him that. I don’t know why.”

we

Below, Captain David E. Kerr,
homicide chief, who told
his men to expect some change

“Thanks. I think that takes care of
it,” said Moss. “And we'd appreciate
your not saying anything about our
having been here tonight. We simply
want to talk to Mason.”

The detectives returned to the street
and held a brief conference. They
agreed that the questioning of Mason

, about where his brother-in-law picked

up the bag of silver would be left to
O’Hara and Roberts on the following
shift.

At 1:30 a. m. Wednesday, these two
detectives picked up the trail at the
Earle Avenue home of Ben Mason, who
had arrived only a few minutes before
the detectives.

“Is your brother-in-law. around?”
O'Hara asked.

“Brother-in-law?” Mason repeated
in a surprised tone. “I don't have any
brother-in-law. I’m afraid I can't help
you.”

O’Hara and Roberts looked at one an-
other and then back to Mason, be-
wildered.

“If you don’t have a brother-in-law,”
said Roberts, “why does everyone in the
neighborhood call you ‘Brother-in-
Law’?”

Mason grinned. ‘That's on account
of my girl-friend’s brother. He started
calling himself my brother-in-law and
I guess some people think he is. Any-
way, it was like a joke and next thing
everybody started calling me Brother-
in-Law.”

“What's this fellow’s name?”

“Cosby. Joe Louis Cosby,” replied
Mason. “He isn't in any kind of trouble,
is he? He's on parole, you know. He

Her et Ca

a SE ne tw nea

i Charlie Brubaker, the Californian who murdered

to mi

Ne BAND

usic, now faces his, own death in silence

Up to the Minute

will play, no one will sing when Charles Brubaker

is taken to the little green room in California’s San Quentin
prison to die by gas. In contrast, when Brubaker was throttling

, | to death Mrs. Irene Morey and her nine-year-old son, Craig, in

Los Angeles,

titled “Song
!

The

OrriciaL Detecrive Stories Magazine. _
mt in ss ee

a@ phonograph was playing a number called, appro-

priately enough, “Endless Sleep.”
The search for the killer and the significance of the phono-
graph record in that search were the subjects of a story en-

of a Strangler,” in the November, 1958, issue of

Ty

- In Ohio, another killer has been condemned to die—
this one in the electric chair. He is Joe Louis Cosby, who
was found guilty of first-degree murder in the holdup
slaying of Cleveland shoe-store-manager Ray Mack.

police investigation of Mack’s death and the

subsequent arrest of Cosby were told in the March, 1959,

} . issue (“Nobody’s Brother-in-Law”),

— Sanne sare S ee
ae eae

: Billy Junior Nunn, who has been awaiting execution in the
/

Ai last of three

September, 1

Point was

Thed

f

F

| cago, appeare:
{

} of practicing

Frank.” -

Oregon gas chamber, has had his sentence commuted to life
imprisonment by Governor Robert D. Holmes. Nunn was the

death-row prisoners to have his sentence so com-

‘ muted. He had been condemned to die for the murder of four-:
ini teen-year-old Alvin William Eacret (“Find Alvin—Or He Dies,”

956).

Within a few minutes after 21-year-old Robert
.. Washington dashed out of the Waterbury, Connecticut,
drive-in bank branch, the $19,000 he had heisted at gun-

back where it belonged. Washington had put

the loot in a paper bag which burst during his pursuit
and the entire amount was picked up where he dropped it
in a parking lot. Now, Washington, who pleaded guilty,
Hi is back where he belongs, spending seven to ten years in
; prison for his brief affluence, :

etective work which led to Washington’s arrest,

| after an innocent youth nearly was accused of the rob-
bery, appeared in a “Never Chase a Bank Robber” in the
; January, 1959, issue.

An exclusive first-person account by Nurse “Mary Lou
Pearce of how she exposed a dangerous phony doctor in Chi-

d in the December, 1958, issue of OFFICIAL. At that

time the bogus physician, whose real name was Peter Frank—
although he used many others—had been indicted on charges

medicine without a license, possession of nar-

cotics and confidence-game activity.

He has since been brought to trial, found guilty on all the
charges and sentenced to five to ten years’ imprisonment.
; Miss Pearce’s story was entitled “The Return of ‘Doctor’

That day, Joe and Ronald had emp-
tied wastebaskets and carried their re-
ceptacle to the basement between 2:30
and 2:40. They were the last of the boys
who were assigned to the chore; just
ahead of them had been two other
boys, Chris Stoller, nine, and Robert
Gagliardi, ten, who were on the way
back to their classrooms.

“We'd better get back, too,” Joe said.

“Wait a minute,” said Ronald. “I
smell something different. Do you smell
it?”

“Yeah, I do now,” Joe said, sniffing.
“Say, it smells like smoke. There must
be a fire down here.”

At that moment the janitor appeared.
“Call the fire department!” he cried.
“The school’s on fire!”

TREY ran into the rectory, where the

housekeeper, Mrs. Nora Maloney,
told them to go into the church. She
said she already had called the fire de-
partment. Soon after that, the boys said,
the school fire alarm sounded and first-
floor pupils filed hurriedly out of the
school building. Then the fire trucks

came.
Neither boy had seen the start of the
fir

e.
. Detective Cleary noted their names
and addresses and rejoined Sergeant
Brown and Detectives Grady and Col-
lins, who were talking to a group of
firemen.

“It will be at least an hour before the
commissioner will let you go in,” one
fireman said.

“While we're waiting,” said Brown,
“maybe we can talk to the janitor. Do
you know where we can find him?”

“He was burned and his hands were
cut,” said the fireman. “We took him to
the Garfield Park Hospital.”

_ “He should know how this started,”
Brown said and motioned to his squad.
“Let’s go over and talk to him.”

The janitor, James Raymond, was in
a state of shock, but the detectives were
permitted to question him briefly. He
said he had been at another building
and was returning to the school when
he noticed the fire near the basement
Stairs.

‘“‘What time was that?” Brown asked.

“It was twenty after two. I remember
I looked at my wrist watch.”

Sain didn’t you try to extinguish the

eo”

“It was no use. It was going too
good.” .

‘You're sure about the time?”

“Yes, but my watch could be five
minutes slow.” '

Raymond said he ran into the rectory
and told the housekeeper to call the fire
department.

The janitor said he went through
several classrooms and broke windows
with his fists. He didn’t recall much
that happened after that. Weakened
by loss of blood and smoke inhalation,
he was picked up by one of the ambu-
lance crews. He remembered resisting
them, then he blacked out and woke up
in the hospital.

Because of the janitor’s condition, no
— effort was made to question

As the detectives returned. to the
school, one thing kept going through

* Brown’s mind: Had there been a@ delay

in reporting the fire?

Assuming that Raymond's watch was
five minutes slow and that he had dis-
covered the fire at 2:25, there still was
a lag of fifteen minutes before the first
alarm was called in. How had this hap-
Pened? Had the janitor been mistaken?

When they reached the school again,
it was five o’clock. Commissioner
Quinn, Mayor Daley and Archbishop
Meyer were entering: the first floor of
the building. The arson detectives fol-
lowed them.

The mayor stood at the foot of the
stairs leading to the second floor and

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Five minutes later the detective was
back

“Make the hair a little bit darker and
the bottom of the nose a trifle wider.
Outside of that, it’s perfect.”

In another ten minutes, after making
bo slight changes, the artist was sat-
isfied.

Several hundred copies of the sketch
were made and rushed to the Bronx
and to men in Upper Manhattan pre-
cincts.

At the start of the four-o’clock tour
Sunday afternoon, November 16, every
uniformed policeman and detective in
the Bronx received a copy of Kenehan’s
sketch, together with a printed descrip-
tion:

“Wanted by the 42nd Squad in con-
nection with homicide:

“One male white, twenty-five to
thirty years of age, five feet eight, 150
pounds, thin build, curly hair, good
looking, clean shaven, good features.

“Wearing light gray fedora hat, and
light gray top coat.

“Clothing may contain bloodstains.”

Police in uniform and plainclothes
stopped scores of men who resembled
the wanted man in one way or another.
However, in each instance they found
at least one facial characteristic that
varied sharply from the artist’s sketch.

TR roundup resulting from the search
through the D. D. Nineteens had
failed utterly and Inspectors Walsh and
Anderson now leaned toward the theory
that the apartment-house killer had no
local criminal record. With only nega-
tive findings from the canvass of clean-
ing establishments and public places,
the officials knew that their one hope of
cracking the case depended on Patrol-
man Kenehan’s drawing ability.

And, time after time, Kenehan had

said that his sketches were only as good
as the memories of the witnesses with
whom he worked. ;

Would it work now?

At ten p. m. Patrolmen Zane and
Kelly, who had been the first to arrive
at the scene of Mrs. Martus’ death, were
cruising along Bergen Avenue near East
149th Street in their radio patrol car.

Pe wed said Zane. “Gray hat and
coat.”

He pointed to a man standing on the‘

corner.

“Sure,” Kelly replied. “I never saw so
many gray coats.”

“Take a good look at his face,” Zane
insisted. ‘

“I am,” Kelly said. “I’m interested in
his: build, too.”

The two policemen had memorized
the description of the hunted man;
they knew every detail about him that
the women witnesses had been able to
supply from their fleeting glimpse of
the man.

The patrolmen brought the car to a
halt and Zane and Kelly got out of their
vehicle. Before the man could realize
— was happening, they were beside

m.

“What're you doing around here,
buddy?” Kelly. asked.

“Waiting for somebody,” he replied.

“What's your name?”

“Marcelino LeBron.”

“Where do you live?”

“East One Hundred Forty-fourth.”

LeBron’s apparent age differed from
the description supplied by the two
women. They had said the man they
saw was younger. .

“How old are you?” Kelly inquired.

“Thirty-six. What’s this all about,
anyway?”

For reply, Kelly said, “Get into the
car. We're going for a little ride.”

Nobody's Brother-in

He vehemently denied any connec-
tion with the crime or any knowledge
of the bag of money. Confronted with
the statement that he had been seen
leaving the bag near the church steps
following the shooting of Raymond
Mack, Hicks refused to change his story.

“I had nothing to do with the shoot-
ing or robbery,” he said. “And I don’t
know anything about any bag of money.
I was nowhere near the store when
Mack was shot. As a matter of fact, I
was with my girl-friend. She’ll tell you
that.”

Hicks, who had been picked up several
times as a burglary suspect, was un-
shaken by. further questioning. And
Marie Watson, questioned concerning
his alibi, supported his story.

When they failed to shake Hicks’
story, the detectives held a strategy
meeting to plan the next step. It was
decided to bring Hicks and Cosby face
to face.

Hicks was seated in the interrogation
room when Cosby was led in. The
two men faced one another a bare six
feet apart as the question was put to
Cosby:

“Is this the man you saw place the
money by the church steps?”

“Yes,” said Cosby, slowly. “That’s
the-man. He put the money by the
steps, then. he ran down Helena
Avenue.”

“That’s a lie!” shouted Hicks, leap-
ing to his feet and lunging toward
Cosby as he spoke. He swung viciously
at Cosby and the detectives quickly
stepped in to separate the two men. The

_ blow glanced off the shoulder of ‘one of

the detectives as his fellow officers
grabbed Hicks arms and thrust him
back into the chair. i

As the two men glared at one another,
Cosby continued: “Fred and me were in
it together. But the robbery was his
idea and he had the gun. He shot

. Mack!”

It was another unexpected turn in the

story. The detectives had planned the
meeting as a psychological shock de-
signed to force a story from one or the
other of the suspects. But the outburst
by Cosby and Hicks’ furious reaction
was more than they had hoped for.

Which one was lying?

“Cosby’s story has been falling apart
every time he opens his mouth,” said
Moss as the two suspects were led out
again. , ‘

“Maybe the last story is the truth,”
Harney said. ‘“‘They could have been
in on it together.”

Let’s: wait :till we can go into
Hicks’ alibi more thoroughly tomorrow
and then question both of them again,”
Moss suggested.

The next day, Thursday, just 24 hours
short of a week since Mack had been
shot down in his store, Cosby again was
questioned by the team of Kaiser,
Davidson and Nightwine.

“Cosby, you said last night that you

“were in on the shooting and robbery

with Hicks,” said Davidson. “Let’s go
over that again and come up with an
explanation for that earlier story you
told us about finding the bag of change
by the church steps.”

Cosby sat sullenly in the chair, nerv-
ously twisting his hands. It was cool
in the room but a trickle of sweat rolled

down Cosby’s brow, furrowed in a deep.

frown. Then the words came out in a
rush, .

8 ‘| WAS lying last night,” he said. “I

The trio rode to the Morrisania’ sta-
tion. Walsh, Anderson, Deputy Inspec-
tor John V. Halk, Detective Lieutenant
Frank E. Weldon and Assistant District
Attorney David Getzoff. were notified.

LeBron’s topcoat was stained, whether
from blood or something else the officers
could not determine without a labora-
tory analysis. ;

Asked. where he had been Friday
night, November 14, LeBron said he’d
had a date.

“Where did you go?” Walsh asked.

“Around—a few places.”

But he couldn’t name any specific
spots. Finally he admitted that the
woman hadn’t shown up. He’d gone to
a tavern about 10:15 and watched
fights on television.

He could not remember the names of
the fighters he claimed he had seen.

D=EZECTIVES went to the bar and to

his home on 144th Street, some
eight blocks from where Maria Martus
had been slain.

Nobody in the tavern could verify
LeBron’s alibi.

In LeBron’s room, detectives found
clothes that bore spots which could
have been made by blood. They also dis-
covered a knife with a brass handle and
a seven-inch blade. These, the officers
took back to the police station.

Officers went to the apartment house
on 151st Street and took the two women
witnesses to the police station.

There, both women ‘pointed to Le-
Bron and insisted he was the man they
had seen running down the ‘stairs on
Friday night, the officers claimed.

Assistant District Attorney Getzpff

ordered LeBron booked on a homicide.

charge, and the stained clothing and
knife were sent to the police laboratory.
LeBron had no previous record.

Law (Continued from page

some of the silver for bills,” Cosby said,
according to the officers. “Then I
pawned the watch at a place on Cedar
Avenue.” _ :

“Pawned it where?”

“It was the EZ Loan Company at
East Ninety-Seventh and Cedar. It’s in
the name of James Henderson.”

Detectives Kaiser and Nightwine took
a car and drove to the service station
at 105th and Bryant. .

A steel ladder attached to the wall led
to the roof of the station. Nightwine
climbed slowly, rung by rung, and then
scrambled rapidly up the last few feet
at the ladder creaked a warning and
chips of concrete fell from the side of
the wall.

Cosby hadn’t lied. There on the roof

" was a green bag. Nightwine brought it

wasn’t in on it with Hicks. But I -

figured he did it because when I found
the bag of silver there was a gun and a
watclrin with the money. | I was pretty
= the stuff had been taken in a rob-

Another change in the story. The de-
tectives looked at Cosby expectantly.

“What happened to the gun and the
watch?” ‘

“I threw the gun on top of the roof
of the service station at One Hundred
and Fifth and Bryant where I changed

down. Inside was a .22-caliber revolver
¢ — make. One shell had been
red, :

Kaiser and Nightwine sat in the
cruiser for a moment examining the
gun. It was a German “Puppy,” widely
sold by mail-order houses, originally
designed as a blank pistol. Later models
have been altered with rifling for target
use. It is a short-barreled weapon,
barely a handful, but big enough to kill
a man if it hits in a vital spot.

“It’s a good bet this is the death
weapon,” said Nightwine. ‘The slug re-
covered from Mack’s brain was a
twenty-two. Ballistics can give us a
comparison on it pretty quickly.”

Next, the detectives drove to Cedar
Avenue to the pawnshop to ask about
the watch Cosby said he had pawned

‘there in the name of James Henderson.

The pawnshop owner remembered the
watch. \

“Yes. It was brought in here Friday
afternoon,” he said. “Here it is.”

Kaiser quickly wrote out a receipt for
the watch and turned to Nightwine, who
was examining it. The watch matched
exactly the description of the one
stripped from Mack’s wrist after he had
been shot.

Arraigned later before Magistrate
Nicholas F.. Delagi, LeBron was held
without bail pending a hearing. His at-
~torney objected vigorously to a long ad-
journment and demanded a hearing
within 48 hours. Magistrate Bayer
eventually set an unusual date, Sunday,
November 23, for further argument.
Seldom in New York is a hearing on a
homicide charge fixed for Sunday.

The two women witnesses provided
the same information they had given
before. Patrolman Kenehan also went
over their descriptions in minute detail.
The police laboratory returned its re-
port on repeated analyses of the stains
on the knife and the clothing.

The Bronx county grand jury was
called into session and the panel of 23
members listened to the evidence.

On Friday, November 28, Bronx
County Judge William Lyman received
a report from the grand jury. It was an
indictment on a charge of first-degree
murder and alleged that Marcelino
LeBron “did strike, cut, stab and kill”
Mrs. Maria Martus.

LeBron was remanded to the Bronx
County Jail pending further action.

As for Patrolman Kenehan, a na-
tionally recognized cartoon-teaching
institution offered him a full three-year
scholarship. And Police Commissioner
Stephen P. Kennedy summoned him to
headquarters, promoted the sketch
artist from patrolman to third-grade
detective and assigned him to the
bureau of criminal identification.

At the time this story was written,
further legal proceedings against Mar-
celino LeBron still were pending.

Peter Kraus was absolved of any con-
nection with the crime.

The name Peter Kraus, as used in this
story, is fictitious.

39)

Returning to headquarters with the
watch and gun, which were turned over
to laboratory scientists for examina-
tion, the pair ordered Cosby again
brought before them for questioning.
Detective Davidson joined them.

Cosby apparently had had enough
time to think over the situation. The
officers claimed he broke down and said:

"I did it. But it was an accident. I

went into the store intending to rob it
but when I came in I noticed a burglar
in the rear of the store with the man-
ager. I took out the gun and fired at
the burglar, but the shot hit Mack in-
stead. I didn’t mean to shoot him. I
meant to shoot the other man. It was
an accident.” ‘
‘According to the officers, Cosby
claimed this burglar ran out of the
store and he was unable to stop him or
to get a good look at him.

THEY quoted him as saying: “I saw the

bag of money lying on the floor and
so I picked it up, took the money from
the cash register and ran out.”

Further questioning brought from
Cosby the admission that he had
brought Hicks’ name into the case only
in an effort to divert attention from
himself, the officers said, and that Hicks
was innocent of any connection with
the shooting or the robbery.

Meanwhile, officers succeeded in
verifying Joseph Harding’s alibi for
the afternoon of the shooting and he
also was cleared.

Chief Police Prosecutor Bernard
Conway filed first-degree murder
charges against the 23-year-old Cosby
the next day, exactly a week from the
time of the shooting. The Cuyahoga
County grand jury returned an indict-
ment on the same charge.

- As this story was written, Cosby was
being held without bail pending trial.

The names Jack Randall, Joseph
Harding, Ben Mason, Fred Hicks and
Marie Watson are fictitious in this story.

49


939 Ohio

From the evidence it appears that Elmer
Cornett visited his uncle, the defendant, on
the morning of December 2, 1947, that dur-
ing the day the robbery and death. of
Thomas Wilson was planned. That the de-

fendant’s residence is at 1517-19 Race -

Street, Cincinnati, and that Wilson’s place
of business is located at 1521 Race Street,
Cincinnati. That the defendant supplied
his nephew with a black jack, flash light,
‘and glove, that the defendant took his
nephew to Wilson’s cafe, that he in detail
described how he could effectively strike
Wilson by requesting a bottle of beer,
which would require Wilson to lean over
in securing it from an ice chest, that he
cautioned his nephew that Wilson’s death
was necessary, since he had met the nephew
in the defendant’s presence, that the neph-
ew came to the defendant’s room after com-
mitting the crime and was transported by
defendant in his automobile out of the City,
that the defendant received $63 from the
nephew, a little more than half of the
proceeds of the robbery, which the de-
fendant expected would produce some $20,-
000, it being thought that Wilson was a
miser and had at least that sum on his
premises. The evidence fully justified the
conclusion of the jury and the degree of
proof required was fully met.

In this appeal the defendant has present-
ed ¢ight assignments of error. The sev-
enth and eighth only require comment. No
error, prejudicial to the defendant is found
in the incidents of the trial and the pre-
liminary proceedings covered by the first
six assignments of error.

[3,4] The seventh assignment of error
is concerned with the refusal of the trial
court to give certain special charges. Un-
der the law governing criminal procedure
in this State, the defendant is not entitled
as a matter of right to have the court give
such charges. As mere requests for in-
struction in the general charge, it appears
that the court covered in its general charge
those instructions to which the defendant
was entitled.

The eighth assignment of error is con-
cerned with the refusal of the court to
present to the jury a form of verdict for
murder in the second degree. The evi-
dence in the case justified only three pes-

84 NORTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

sible verdicts:—(One) guilty as charged;
(two) the same, with a recommendation of
mercy, and; (three) not guilty.

[5] It is impossible to conceive how the
defendant could have been found guilty of
murder in the second degree, involving
under its definition, Section 12403, G.C., a
purposeful, malicious killing, without  re-
quiring necessarily the conclusion that the
defendant was guilty as charged, in view
of the fact that the robbery was clearly
proved. The only possible justification for
such a verdict would be that the jury be-
lieved that the defendant conspired with
his nephew merely to unlawfully and ma-
liciously kill Wilson, but not while perpe-
trating a robbery. Such a finding would be
directly contrary to the evidence in the
case. It will be noticed that in Section
12403, General Code, the crimes discussed
in “the next three preceding sections” are
excluded from the application of Section
12403, General Code. Section 12402-1,
General Code, was not in effect when Sec-
tion 12403, General Code, R.S. § 6810, was
enacted, and is therefore not included in
such “three preceding sections”. The trial
court committed no error in refusing to
submit a form of verdict for murder in
the second degree. The general exception
did not present any error in failing to sub-
mit other forms of verdict. Todor v.
State of Ohio, 113 Ohio St. 377, 378, 149
N.E. 326.

It is the conclusion of this Court that
the defendant had a fair trial before an
impartial jury and that no error, prejudi-
cial to the defendant, intervened.

In the second) appeal, the action of the
trial court in refusing to grant a new trial
on the ground of newly discovered evidence
is advanced as error, prejudicial to the
defendant.

In an opinion of the trial court the evi-
dence submitted upon the motion for new
trial upon the ground of newly discovered
evidence is reviewed and is supported by
the record.

Judge Morrow states:

“A self-confessed murderer, now in
death row, retracts his previous account
of the crime wherein he had named his
uncle as an aider, abettor, and fellow con-

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7
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STATE vy. CURNUTT

Ohio 233

Cite as 84 N.E£.2d 230

spirator. Accordingly, this court is asked
to grant a new trial on newly discovered
evidence, in behalf of the uncle, now also
in death row, and who was convicted as
such aider, abettor and fellow conspirator,
in a trial wherein the self-confessed mur-
derer (and nephew) testified against his
uncle. —

“The nephew has spoken and written
rather often concerning this crime. Evi-
dence of the prosecution indicates as fol-
lows:

“He told a girl in Kentucky he had com-
mitted murder; he admitted the murder to
police officers in Arkansas, and he involved
his uncle when conversing on a plane en
route to Cincinnati from Arkansas. When
in the Hamilton County Jail after arrival
in Cincinnati he wrote a twenty page ac-
count in his own handwriting again involv-
ing his uncle, and which was given to a
detective for the Prosecuting Attorney.
He was questioned in the Prosecuting At-
torney’s office in the presence of his uncle
by the Prosecuting Attorney, his Assistant,
and also by Detectives. During this oral
examination he again involved his uncle
by his statements, and as an aider, abettor
and conspirator. As noted above, he tes-
tified twice against his uncle after his
own conviction of the murder, and he made
remarks to the criminal bailiff indicating
his uncle’s guilt as an aider, abettor, and
conspirator.

“Burthermore, as noted above, he ex-
pressly denied in writing a statement set
forth on the wall of the Hamilton County
Jail ascribed to him whereby it was made
to appear that his uncle was innocent of
participation in the crime.

“Uncle and nephew since early April
have been imprisoned in the same cell block
in Columbus, and since that time this re-
traction of previous testimony the
nephew has occurred. It appears from an
affidavit of'a Penitentiary guard that com-
munication between the nephew and uncle
has been possible since the time above men-
tioned.

“The affidavit by the nephew Elmer on
the 20th of April, repudiating his previous
testimony and statements, and as expanded
by his testimony on the stand on the 21st
of May, is an extraordinary effort.

84 N.H.2d—15'%

by

“Tor the first time since December 2nd,
the night of the murder, we learn of a
new actor,—a George, ‘whose last name
Gs something like Warfield’, who said he
was from the nephew’s birthplace, Catliff,
Kentucky. He now appears as an arch-
villain. ITe it was who butchered the vic-
tim while Elmer held the flashlight, and he
it was who compelled Elmer thus to par-
ticipate in the crime, by threatening his
life and the life of his mother. He also
threatened the same penalty if Elmer told
on him. So Elmer now states.

“The uncle, Elmer says, knew nothing of
the murder—had nothing to do with it.
Not until April 20th in his statement of
retraction did Elmer say a word to any-
body about George. He claims he started
to tell the Arkansas police but they abused
him and would not believe him. The
Arkansas police deny this. He claims he
also tried to tell Cincinnati detectives who
came to Arkansas for him, but they paid
no attention. This is also denied. Elmer
testified on the 21st day of May, 1948, that
the lawyers appointed to defend him were
never told by him about George, and no
relative or friend or well-wisher since
Elmer’s conviction has been asked by EI-
mer to locate George.

“Tn short, until the 20th of April Elmer
has kept locked in his bosom the informa-
tion that he was an unwilling participant
in the murder, and that George did it.
The information supplied by him up to
that time included a confession that he
himself robbed and did the victim to death,
and at the instance of his uncle who helped
him escape, and with whom he divided the
loot obtained from the victim.

“Elmer’s past statements, that is to say
prior to his repudiation, are explained as
follows:

“(1) He was threatened and abused by
the Arkansas police immediately after his
arrest;

“(2) He was alternately threatened and
made false promises by the Cincinnati de-
tectives who brought him from Arkansas,
and who thereby procured him to state his
uncle was his aider and abettor ;

“(3) He made statements on the stand
in the two trials of his uncle at the instance

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STATE v. CURNUTT

pai, SS aetna BA ee cee ints:
i

Ohio 931

Cite as 84 N.E.2d 230

demurrer, and under the provisions of Sec-
tion 12400 and Section 12380, G.C., is an
indictment of the defendant for the crime
of murder in the first degree.

(2) Under the criminal procedure in
this state a defendant is not entitled as a
matter of right to require a trial court to
give special instructions as is the rule in
civil cases. If the trial court incorporates
in his general charge the substance of such
special instructions so requested, which
contain correct statements of law applicable
to the facts in the case, no error prejudicial
to the defendant intervenes by the refusal
of the trial court to give such special in-
structions, independently of the general
charge. .

(3) When a new trial is sought upon
the ground that a witness subsequently
states that he gave perjured testimony, the
question is, When did the witness tell the
truth? Recantation by an important witness
of his or her testimony at the trial does not
necessarily, or as a matter of law, entitle
the defendant to a new trial, the determina-
tion of such matters resting in the sound
discretion of the. trial court, whose action
will not be set aside except for clear and
manifest abuse.

——~<—_—_———_

Ova B. Curnutt, alias Ova B. Cornett,
was convicted of murder, and he appealed
to the Supreme Court, which, 83 N.E.2d 70,
150 Ohio State 491, dismissed the appeal.
From the judgment of conviction and from
an order overruling a motion for new trial,
the defendant appeals to the Court of Ap-
peals—[ Editorial Statement. |

Judgment affirmed.

Carson Hoy and Samuel Rubenstein,
both of Cincinnati, for plaintiff-appellee.
Chester R. Shook and Stanley A. Silver-

steen, both of Cincinnati, for defendant-
appellant.

ROSS, Judge.

Two appeals on questions of law are
presented :—the first, an appeal from the
iudgment of the court of common pleas of
Hamilton County, in which the defendant

is sentenced to death; the second, an ap-
Ohio Cas. 83-84 N.E.2d—24

ie oe fe! ae

peal from an order of the court of common
pleas of Hamilton County overruling a
motion for new trial, upon the ground of
newly discovered evidence. Both appeals
were considered at the same time by this
Court and will be disposed of in this opin-
ion.

[1] The indictment upon which the de-
fendant. was convicted and sentenced
charges that “Ova B, Curnutt, alias Ova B.
Cornett, on or about the Second day of
December in the year nineteen hundred
and forty-seven at the County of Hamilton
and State of Ohio, aforesaid, did aid, abet
or procure one Elmer Curnutt to unlawful-
ly, purposely and in perpetrating a robbery,
kill one Thomas Wilson, then and there be-
ing, contrary to the form of the statute in
such case made and provided, and against
the peace and dignity of the State of Ohio.”
This indictment clearly charges the de-
fendant with the crime of murder in the
first degree, as defined in Section 12400,
General Code, for by the provisions of
Section 12380, General Code, an aider and
abettor “may be prosecuted and punished
as if he were the principal offender.” The
defendant is not only charged with aiding
and abetting the principal in the commis-
sion of the robbery, but also definitely
charged with aiding and abetting the prin-
cipal in killing the deceased.

No Bill of Particulars was requested by
the defendant. The trial court did not err
in refusing to quash the indictment upon
motion of the defendant.

[2] The principal evidence in the case,
sustaining the conviction, involves a con-
fession of the defendant and the testimony
of his accomplice, Elmer Cornett, the prin-
cipal in the crime, each of which sustains
the verdict beyond any reasonable doubt.

The defendant on the stand denied that
he had at any time made any admission of
guilt. The confession was testified to by
at least four police officers, who agrecd
upon the main points of the statement. At
the time Elmer Cornett, nephew of the de-
fendant and his accomplice, testified, he
was under sentence of death, having been
convicted as a principal in the commission
of the crime of which the defendant is
charged as an aider and abettor.

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934 Ohio

of detectives who had threatened him, and
who also led him to believe ‘They would
help him when the time came,’ if he in-
volved his uncle. -_

“The above is a resume of the situation
presented to the trial court at this time by
the retraction of Elmer, the nephew.

“The Court of Appeals approved Elmer’s
conviction.

“We are asked to grant a new trial to
one named as an aider and abettor by the
self-confessed murderer, and who now re-
pudiates such statements. The self-con-
fessed murderer is facing imminent exe-
cution, and it is submitted that he is a
penitent facing death.

“Elmer states he gave perjured testimo-
ny at the trial wherein his uncle was con-
victed. The question in a case of this sort,
whercin a new trial is asked on the ground
of such newly discovered evidence, is:
When did the witness tell the truth?

“Tn effect, we are asked now to deter-
mine whether the nephew told the truth at
the trial of the uncle, the story then stated
being plausible, and, furthermore corrobo-

rated by admissions of the uncle and other .

circumstances; or are we to believe the
story the nephew now tells, which is so
improbable in view of its background as
to be almost incredible, and which not only
exculpates his uncle entirely but the nephew
himself as well.”

In some respects, the evidence given by
the nephew upon hearing of the motion
for new trial complied with the specifica-
tions applicable to evidence justifying the
granting of a new trial. It could not have
been ascertained before or during the trial
since the nephew did not divulge his re-
pudiation of his testimony given at. the
trial until some considerable time there-
after. It might have affected a verdict, if
submitted upon retrial. It was competent,
material, relevant, and not merely cumula-
tive. The recanting witness could not be
prosecuted for perjury, since he was exe-
cuted shortly after making his statement
of repudiation. The question here pre-
sented is did the trial court commit error
by refusing a new trial under the circum-
stances set forth in the record? Is the
trial court bound to grant a new trial

84 NORTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

simply because of the repudiation by a
principal witness of testimony given at the
trial; the new evidence meeting the re-
quirements applicable to newly discovered
evidence, or may the trial court exercise a
sound discretion in appraising the value of
the new evidence in determining the right
to a new trial? If he cannot so exercise
discretion, then any conviction is subject
to attack, and such conviction must be set
aside merely because a critical witness
tells one story at the trial and another con-
flicting story upon motion.

It must be remembered that while the evi-
dence given by the nephew, a fellow con-
spirator with the defendant, was most ef-
fective in securing a conviction of the de-
fendant and was repudiated, still the state
had introduced the confession of the de-
fendant as well as other incriminating evi-
dence. The probable effect of the absence
of the nephew’s testimony upon the case
of the state is speculative and problemati-
cal.

If the nephew had made pre-trial state-
ments similar to those for the first time
presented on the motion, he would certainly
not have been called as a witness for the
state. He might have been presented as a
witness for the defendant.

In 39 Am.Jur., p. 175, “New Trial’, sec-
tion 169, it is stated: “In a criminal prose-
cution, recantation by the state’s witnesses
will support an application for a new trial.
It has been said to be the duty of a trial
court to grant a new trial where a witness
at the original trial subsequently admits on
oath that he committed perjury, or even
that he was mistaken in his testimony,
provided such testimony related to a ma-
terial issue, and was not merely cumula-
tive.”

This question is not a novel one, and has
been considered by courts of last resort.
Such discretion in refusing a new trial has
been sustained in Bolton v. State of Indi-
ana, 223 Ind. 308, 60 N.E.2d 742, 158 A.L.R.
1057, wherein it is stated in the syllabus:
“Recantation by an important witness of
his or her testimony at the trial does not
necessarily, or as a matter of law, entitle
the defendant to a new trial, but the deter-
mination of such matters rests in the sole

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feet eight
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Solving Frank Krech’s murder

wasn’t easy for Michigan State Police,
especially

when an extra pair of killers

became involved

an odd hat, like a baseball hat. Tried to rob me. He was
nervous, awkward. . .”

Pain stopped him. He waited, then went on. “Car was
near highway—dark sedan. I think another man was in
it, waiting. Not sure. . .”

Flat: Rock has one of Michigan’s 40-odd state police
posts. Cpl. Ben Garton and Troopers William Koleh-
mainen and Lyle Tucker got to the Krech home swiftly
where they were joined by Flat Rock’s Officer McTaggart.

After talking to Mrs. Krech, the troopers radioed back
to their post the description of gunman and car, but
even as their own radios picked up the general alert they
knew it was futile. A thousand cars an hour were moving
on U. S. 24-25 that Saturday night.

While Corporal Garton calmed the nearly hysterical
women, the troopers and Officer McTaggart poked flashes
over every inch of the Krech porch where the shooting
had occurred.

They found one spent .32 caliber slug. It apparently had
passed through Krech, spent itself against the house and
fallen to the porch. Trooper Tucker put it in a small
envelope. [Continued on page 61]

Flown in from Tulsa, the killer first con-
fessed his crime in this police plane.

Detective Anthony Spratto, one of the
crack two-man team that solved mystery.

Detective Howard Seiler was in at the

finish in the capture of the murderer.


HEADS OR
TAILS... YOU
LOSE

[Continued from page 31]

“T think I know what kind of*watch
that is,” Chief Guy spoke up. “Let me
have it. I'd like to do a little checking
on it.”’

He studied the timepiéce carefully, then
put it in his pocket. He had an idea, which
he was keeping to himself for the moment,
that the slender indicators of the time-
piece might ultimately point accusing
fingers at the savage slayers of the cab
driver, At the moment, however, he was
interested in finding something else.

“Look,” he said, “if these two killers
are the frightened amateurs that the
sheriff thinks they are, what would be the
first thing they would do after the killing?
Wouldn’t it be — — —” ;

“To get rid of the guns,” Swoverland
finished.

“Exactly. And where would be the most
likely place, in the course of their flight,
for them to ditch them?”

“T see what you're getting at!” Osborn
exclaimed. “The stream! You think they
might have thrown them in there.”

“Right. They’re probably lying in the
mud bottom where they crossed e
brook.”

The idea was put into executféon at’

once. Two young boys from a neighboring
farm started ‘diving into the wWaist-high
creek and groping about its botfom. First
one would go under, and then {the other.
Twice they came up empty-hakded. But
the third time one emerged wavirlg a black
object in his hand.

It was a German Luger!

The others watched with breathless in-
terest as Chief Guy “broke” open the

. water-soaked weapon.

Four bullets were missing! And four
bullets had been fired into the body of
the murdered chauffeur! '

There was a shout from the second boy.
He held aloft another gun, a .22. An ex-
amination, however, showed it was un-
usable because of a broken firing pin.

The guns were rushed to the ballistics
expert of the Detroit Police Department,
so that a comparison could be made of
the German gun's slugs with those re-
covered from the body of the slain man.
There was no doubt in the officers’ minds
that the Luger was the death weapon. The
experts’ report, made the following day,
showed this to be so.

The shrewd deductions of Sheriff Os-
born and Chief Guy had already brought
important. results. But neither Osborn,
Guy, nor the others engaged on the case
were resting on these laurels. Under the
direction of the sheriff, a “spot” was
placed on the shop of every shoemaker in
Willow village, the suburb toward which
the killers had fled, on the possibility that
the one who had lost the rubber heel

‘would have it replaced.

Following this, Osborn decided to
check on the Luger, figuring that, if the
killer had stolen it, there might be a pos-
sibility of finding out from the legal
owner something which might be of help.

Luck was with him. The list of stolen
property maintained by the Detroit Police
Department included the Luger which
had been found in the little streain. And
a maid in the burglarized house had gotten
a glimpse of one of the two prowlers. She

rn |

‘

Y

described him as about 21, tall, dark and
with a shock of black hair combed straight

-back. She was not sure, however, that she

would be able to identify him if she saw
him again.
In the meantime Chief Guy had been
making inquiries concerning the watch.
“It’s an Army watch,” a jeweler in
Dearborn told him. “It’s only sold to the

soldiers at Army posts.”

The next step was obvioys, But the
commandant at the Army post was dis-
couraging. “Those records are kept in
Washington,” he explained, “and they'd
have to go through millions of names to

‘find ont who lives, or lived, in Dearborn

and Willow village. It would take weeks

to dig out the information you want.”
What had looked like an excellent lead

had seemingly petered out. But Chief

Guy’s hopes were revived when he re-
turned to his headquarters and learned
_ from Inspector Forman what Sheriff Os-
born had told him about the theft of the
Luger.

“If that prowler is the one who killed
Andrews,” the chief commented, “it cer-
tainly proves Osborn’s theory that the’
killers were young. But the very fact of
the burglary shows he might be wrong in
another respect.” : ‘

“You mean that they were also inex-
perienced?”

“Right. And since this burglary was
committed over a year ago, indicating

that this fellow had been on the prowl for -

at least that length of time, isn’t it rea-
sonable te assume that he might have—?”

“T get you,” the inspector interrupted.
“You mean the reformatory.”

Almost before the sentence was comm-
pleted, Guy was on the telephone and
connected with the superintendent of the
state reformatory at Ionia. “Would your
records show which boys had been in the
Army, either before or after they came to
your institution?” he asked.

The superintendent assured him the
institution’s lists would show the former
and parole records the latter. He agreed

to furnish the chief, as promptly as pos-
sible, with the names of such boys, whose
homes were either in Willow village or
adjoining towns.

An hour later Chief Guy had this infor-
mation, There were only three. And of
these, a telephone check with their fami-
lies showed that two were overseas.

The remaining one was Kenneth Basha,
21. After serving a year in Ionia he had
enlisted in the Army—only to be dishon-
orably discharged about fourteen months
later for theft, insubordination and other
misconduct. His present address was un-
known, but that of his parents was given
as Melvindale, a suburb of Detroit.

But again the chief and his inspector

ran into a dead end. For Basha’s parents —

said he had left home a year or so before,
and that they had no idea where he was
living.

“Do you know of any boys he was
particularly friendly with?” the chief per-
sisted,

The father thought for a moment.
“Only one,” he replied, “a fellow of 16 or
17 named Swartzman, or Swarthout, or
something like that.”

“You’re certain that the first part was
‘Swart'?”

“Yes, I’m sure of that.”

Once again the chief phoned the Ionia
institution, only to run up against another
barricade. For, while there were several

Sehwartz’s” on the reformatory’s books,
there Were none with names sounding like
the one givén by Basha’s father.

“He said the friend was only 16 or 17,”
the inspector reminded. “Maybe he was
under 16, That Would make him eligible
for the — — —’\

“Of course it would!” Chief Guy inter-
rupted. This time hg called Wayne County
Training School. The response was al-
most immediate. Yes, several years ago

they had a boy ndmed Swarthout, Willard

Swarthout.
“The-tast address we have,” the super-
endent concluded, “is that of a relative

in the Norwayne housing project.”

The day, one of frenzied activity for
Guy and Forman, had slipped by on
wings. It was now approaching three in
the morning. But the officers were giving
no‘thought to sleep. At just about that
hour they rang the bell of Swarthout’s
relative, who opened the door, blinking
sleepily.

“Yes, Willard’s here,” she said. “Has
he been getting into any trouble?”

“T don’t know,” Guy answered, “but I'd
like to talk to him alone.”

“All right, he’s in that room.”’

Swarthout, a not-unattractive-looking
youth of about 19, was still asleep. When
the chief shook him he opened his eyes,

gazed uncomprehendingly at his two vis- ,

itors, and then, as the chief introduced
himself, ‘sat upright in bed. Every line of
his face indicated panic. Never, Guy
thought, would there be a more opportune
moment to question him.

“Why did you do it, Willard?” he
asked, in a tone which indicated there was
no doubt whatever of the pre-supposed
fact.

“T didn’t,” the youth answered, a semi-
hysterical undertone in his voice, “I
swear I didn’t. Kenneth did.”

“Tell us about it,” the chief urged
softly.

Like a suddenly-released flood the stor’
came boiling out:

“Basha killed him. I didn’t even know
he was going to do it. We had agreed just
to stick up the driver to get some money.
We called up that taxi place for a car.
We met the cabby outside the Gay Haven
place and told him to go to Ypsilanti.

:


‘Ons that twisted
that burned his
e throes that al-
h. She had lived
‘m intensely and
Chompson knew
ad he tasted. No
tered his system,
1a broken light
: cut his finger.
longed fantastic
ng only in the
ing Edith.
e S. S. Morea
ard the ship was
ional. If Edith
his actions, she
creased passion
- she yielded to
v him alone on
it for the most
earful that her
suspicious. She
one letter, des-
e deadly series.
O use great big
great big love

' do big things.
m on the night
plied evasively
ousy. Angered,
Bywaters left

Anne's Res-

n that after-
. —uller’s Shop
€ was seen to
id leave a half

e murder plot
:, but evidence
1 not know at
uld be spend-

cht that night
nd got off the
ing from the
ig walk down
me. The walk
ighted. High
‘ds of some of
nd others had
high hedges.
emed gay as
arms around

o yards from
ut of a hedge
d in the rays
‘e first thrust
back of the
nd the next
10ulder. The
{ter time the
the assailant
ipson, like a
lotion, spun
‘ms outflung,
ilk in sitting
all. As Edith,
iouth gushed
orward. She
and ran for

sses for what
was of little
is already
2y arrived.
e place the

murder occurred, told of hearing ‘his
neighbor Edith scream, “Don't. Oh,
don’t,” but if these ‘words were to indi-
cate that she did not want the killing to
happen, there were all of her letters to
indicate otherwise. The other witnesses
could only testify that murder had been
done, a fact that was already obvious.

Sergeant Walter Grimes of K Division
of the Metropolitan Police talked to
Edith at her home where she had been
taken after the removal of the body.
“They wouldn’t let me stay with him,”
she moaned. “I could have helped him.
I could have eased his hurts.” When at
last it became clear to her that her hus-
band was beyond pain, she named By-
waters as the murderer before she knew
what she was doing.

It was not until the next day, however,
that Edith Thompson awoke suddenly
to the realization that her dream play had
reached its tragic finale, and that the
dead man would never again rejoin the
cast. He was dead with a desperate final-
ity, murdered, and she and Bywaters were
held for his murder. Nowhere and at no
time, had her dream play called for any-
thing like this. '

Bywaters was arrested at the Graydon
house on the morning of October 4. He
had gone there to see what they had to
say about the murder, and expecting that
Edith would be there, too, seeking the
comforts of her parents. Offering no re-
sistance when arrested he showed no
signs of surprise. He told the officers that
he was in complete ignorance of what
they were talking about, but was always
glad to cooperate with the law. The next
day, however, he made a full confession,
the only fabrication being that he had
acted in self-defense.

The trial began on December 6, 1922,
in Central Criminal Court. The Hon.
Justice Shearman was the judge. Sir
Thomas Inskip headed the prosecution
while Edith Thompson's defense was un.

der the leadership of Sir Henry Bennett.
Bywaters was represented by a team
under Mr. Cecil Whitely. In spite of pro-
tests, the two were tried together. :

An autopsy proved conclusively that
no poisons or ground glass -had ever en-

tered Thompson’s system. Sir Henry Ben-:

nett. conveyed a convincing picture of
the dream world in which Edith lived.
But the difference between the dream
world in which she wished to live with
Bywaters with no Thompson around to
bother them, and the real world in which
she was perfectly content to keep By-
waters as an exciting lover and Thomp-
son as a serviceable husband was too in-
tangible to be grasped by the jury. Both
were equally guilty, and were sentenced
to death by hanging.

The verdict created a sensation that
still brings about repercussions. Just a
few weeks ago Sir John Anderson, Home
Secretary at the time of the trial, came
under fire in Parliament during a debate
on the abolition of capital punishment
for not having pardoned Edith Thomp-
son. At the time street parades were held
and men and women alike carried plac-
ards announcing that if Bywaters and
Edith were hanged, the judge and jury
were likewise guilty of murder. But all
protests were to no avail.

On January 9, the day slated for their
deaths, Bywaters walked unaided to the
gallows in Pentonville Prison. Edith
Thompson, in a fainting condition if not
already unconscious, was carried to the
gallows at Halloway Prison at the same
time as her lover was being executed.

A strange footnote was added to the
hanging on August 20, 1924, two years
later. John Ellis, the hangman, after a
lifetime devoted to his craft, became so
unnerved at the hanging of Edith
Thompson that he hardly spoke again,
and on that August day he tried to forget
it all with suicide. The attempt failed,
but he was hever the same man.

Gunmen and the
Crossed Trails

[Continued from page 17]

Moving off the porch, they searched
vainly for footprints. Then Officer Mc-
Taggart’s light glinted on something in
a vine on a porch trellis. Dangling .by
an ear piece was a pair of heavy-lensed
glasses.

“Frank didn’t wear glasses,” Mrs.
Krech said.

The gunman, leaping from the porch,
apparently had brushed the vine which
snatched the glasses.

So when Detective Cpls. Anthony
Spratto and Russell Moore arrived from
state police district headquarters 20 min-
utes later to assume charge, that was all
the case yielded—spectacles, a misshapen
spent bullet, a description, a voice and
a dark sedan.

Nor was a careful daylight search
next day, and extensive questioning
of neighbors near by to unearth any

more. One person had’ seen a car
pull away from near the Krech place
about the time of the shooting.

“It looked like a sedan... but it was
dark. It could have been a coupe... .”

Detectives Spratto and Moore went to
question Krech, himself, at Wyandotte
General Hospital. He was weak and fail-
ing and could.add nothing to what his
wife had relayed.

“He has one chance in 10,” Krech’s doc-
tor said. “Three bullets entered . the
abdomen. One pierced a kidney, another
the stomach. He’s sinking rapidly.”

Early the following Monday, Frank
Krech died.

As the case changed from robbery to
murder, Detectives Spratto and Moore
were at their home base in Detroit, pre-
paring to start a day of work. They were
a good pair of crime fighters—superbly
trained, matured by experience, agile,
imaginative and patient. Normally they
were cheerful men—but not this morn-
ing.

Saturday night and all Sunday there’d
been a faint chance, with luck, that their
long-shot early efforts would pay off.
Michigan has an ubiquitous police radio

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61


DANIELS, Rebert Murl, wh, elec. OH (Richlard) Jan. 3, 1949

Bens Detroit and Toledo, two big cities of vigor and
violence, lies the hamlet of Flat Rock, Mich., a sparkle of
neon astraddle the swift, broad superhighway that is both
U. S. 24 and U. S. 25. There is nothing sinister about
Flat Rock. It is a bright village that feeds off 1,000,000
swiftly-flowing cars a month, but it pursues a homely, easy-
going pace.

Frank Krech, one of Flat Rock’s 1,467 souls, had been for
many years a minor bank official in Detroit. Cautious, con-
servative and precise, he had saved wisely and invested
cannily. Now he owned and ran a good tourist and trailer
camp. From the big road, it lured for him a cozy annuity;
at 52 he was tranquil and content.

Flat Rock was no place for violent gunfire, nor Frank
Krech a likely prospect to absorb it.

But he did, and it left Michigan State Police only a
pair of spectacles, a voice in the night, a figure in the
gloom, the inevitable dark sedan and a spent and shape-
less .32 slug with which to solve a murder.

Police were sidetracked
in their search for the
killer, at right, because
the glasses he dropped
were similar to those
worn by John West, left,
a fugitive involved in
six wanton murders.

BY ALFRED GATES

To make it even tougher, a few of fate’s queer caprices
and coincidences were tossed in, stirring up a potage of
crime so gooey that it took nimble wits, shoe leather and
an airplane to strain it.

It started as Flat Rock’s neon lights began to sparkle in
deepening dusk the bustling Saturday night of July 10,
1948. Frank Krech, an amiable, broad-faced man, relaxed
at home with pipe and paper as his wife, Ethel, and two
old Detroit friends, Mrs. Phyllis Prater and her daughter,
Mary Alice Prater, busied about the kitchen.

Outside a car stopped and a man came onto the Krech
porch. From the kitchen, Mrs. Krech got only a glimpse
of his form as he asked from the darkened porch, “Have
you a double cabin?” Mr. Krech went out to tend the
patron and the women paid no further attention.

The four shots sounded like firecrackers, and it was only
six days after the Fourth.

Not until Krech staggered back into the house, white-
faced and clutching his abdomen, did the women realize
that Flat Rock’s tranquillity had been jangled. After that,
everyone lost track of time until police and an ambulance
came.

Calmest during the wait was Frank Krech. He knew he
was badly hurt. He summoned his wife to the bed to which
he’d tottered.

“I may pass out,” he said carefully. “Tell police
the man was about 30, dark, chunky, five feet eight
or nine, probably 170 pounds. Wore brown suit and

(in article)

was

an odd ha:
nervous, a\

Pain sto
near high
it, waiting

Flat Ro
posts. Cp]
mainen al
where the.

After ta
to their |
even as th
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They fc
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Flown in
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TRUE POLICE CASES, Sept. 1949

eee ee

{
}
|
t

did they fail to answer their phone?

Obtaining an official car, the two men
drove to Niebel’s attractive frame house
on the outskirts of town. Allarding
parked the machine and hurried up the
walk, followed by the doctor.

The front door was open and they
went inside, surprised to find lights
burning though it was a bright, sunny
day. Allarding’s call brought no an-
swer except the hollow echo of his own
voice. An unmistakable aura of dis-
aster clung to the empty rooms and
transmitted itself to the tensely wait-
ing men. “Something’s wrong here,”
Allarding muttered. “Those burning
lights . . . and look at the cigarette
butts! Nobody in this family smokes!”

In the dining room Warden Niebel’s
empty wallet lay on a table. Two
women’s purses were on a nearby chair.
Bureau and table drawers had been
pulled out and their contents dumped
on the floor. Allarding went to the
phone, then backed away. “Might be

Grazed by bullets in the telling
finish, Game Warden Frank Frie-

mouth recovered in the hospital.

fingerprints,” he said, and looked at his
watch. The time was 8:30 a.m. “Let’s
get out of here,” Dr. Horst suggested
uneasily. “We’d better call the police.”

Word of the mysterious disappear-
ance of Warden Niebel and his entire
family spread through the little town
like flood waters. Police officials and
identification men hurried to the home
and examined everything with a thor-
oughness born of experience. Loyal
Niebel, a married son who lived near-
by, asserted that his parents and sister
would have no reason for leaving home
without advising him of their where-
abouts.

Bodies In Field

“What’s more, they didn’t leave will->
ingly,” Loyal declared, putting into
words the fear which was nibbling at
every officer present. “The beds are
mussed, which means the family re-
tired for the -night. And those ciga-
rette butts . . . even if there had been
guests here, they wouldn’t have thrown
their cigarettes on the floor.”

A further search of the home dis-'

’ closed that a shotgun, a Mauser re-

volver and a_.22-caliber rifle were
missing from the premises. But iden-
tification men were unable to raise a
single fingerprint on the furniture or
doors.

_“Niebel and his family were ab-
ducted,” Assistant Superintendent Al-
larding said emphatically. “And only a
disgruntled ex-convict would have any
reason to pull a stunt like that. We
have 250 trusties who sleep out. All of
them will have to account fer every
moment of their time.”

“That won’t bring back my parents
and sister,” Loyal Niebel said flatly.
“Poor Phyllis. She was always afraid
that something like this might happen.
But Dad was so sure it never would.”
Throughout the day the search con-

ae ~.*

eres ES BT NN LY OR “s
A grim cargo of death, one of the three bodies found in

a cornfield six miles from Warden Niebel's home, is trans-
ferred to waiting cars. Officials vowed quick reprisal.

PASAT seat
Me dks ASA Are
* PRN 4

oe
i ». satan .

tinued, gathering momentum as _ the
scope of the investigation spread. A
statewide radio alarm was broadcast
but Warden Niebel, his wife and daugh-
ter, had vanished without a trace.

Not everyone, however, was con-
cerned with kidnaping, law enforce-
ment or penal .institutions. Robert
Zoeller, 18-year-old church camp coun-
sellor, was one of these. At 3:30 in the
afternoon Zoeller was leading a group
of 65 boys on a hike, six miles out of
Mansfield. They tramped along noisily,
singing, shouting, enjoying the warmth
of the midsummer sun. To the left of
the road a field of corn rustled in a
breeze. Zoeller glanced toward it,
stopped, and looked again. Then he
turned and swung his arms. “Keep
moving, boys,” he shouted. “I want to
talk to Reverend Veler.”

The youngsters marched on down
the highway oblivious to the emotion
etched on their leader’s face, but Zoel-
ler waited until Rev. Herbert Veler
approached. “Over here, sir,” Zoeller
told him. “Take a look in that. corn-
field!”

The minister followed the direction
of the youth’s pointing finger, then
swayed and nearly collapsed as- his
glance focussed on the youth’s discov-
ery. “It can’t be,” he murmured. “Three
of them! Three naked bodies!”

- Zoeller, speechless now with the
sheer horror of his find, waited, white-
faced, for instructions.

‘Don’t let the boys see this,” Veler
counseled. “I'll keep them on the
move. But you run to the nearest
farmhouse and phone the police. They’ll
know what to do.”

The group of boys was out of sight
and the dusty road was bare when
police cruisers and ambulances swept
down the highway in the wake of wail-
ing sirens. This was the call which had
been both feared and expected.

This truckload of new cars concealed far more interesting
freight when officers checked it. Their find loosed a bar-
rage of lead that was halted only by death of the driver.

s


gage he had harbored for a number
pars, led Robert Daniels (left) to

vicious two-man crime spree.

following in the wake of his
th partner, John West (below)
t a relentless volley of fire.

Third victim in the triple
murder that set off a state-
wide hunt was Phyllis Niebel.

BY JOHN KEITH

O 2100 inmates of the Mansfield, O., reformatory, July 21,
Tris was just another day. At 6:30 in the morning these

drably uniformed men, forgotten by time, shuffied out
of their cell blocks and lined up in long queues for daily
roll call.

Prison officials, however, were tense and uneasy; not
because of any subtle crosscurrent of discontent, vaguely
felt or half suspected. That in itself would have brought
forth immediate precautionary action on the part of the
guards. No, the incident which prompted their unease
seemed even less significant than that. But men who
mingle daily with case-hardened law-breakers inevitably
become abnormally sensitive to the slightest variation in
routine. And on this particular morning Warden John E.
Niebel had failed to arrive at the prison on schedule.

Niebel, a strict disciplinarian, practiced the same punc-
tuality in his private life as he enforced upon the men
under his charge. Attached to the reformatory since 1928,
he had served for the past 15 years as superintendێnt of the
institution. It was his custom to attend roll call each morn-
ing and his record of attendance was perfect. Certainly the
warden would have telephoned if he had expected to be
unavoidably detained.

Although worried about Niebel’s inexplicable absence,
George Allarding, assistant superintendent, carried on as
usual. He issued instructions for the day and then called
Dr. John V. Horst, reformatory physician, into his office.
“Y’ve tried to get the warden on the phone,” Allarding said.
“But there’s no answer. It’s just a hunch, but I think
we'd better get out to his home.”

Horst nodded briefly. Niebel might be ill, but the man
lived with his wife and 22-year-old daughter, Phyllis. Why
hadn’t one of them called the prison?: Why, even now,


They stopped at the cornfield where
Zoeller was waiting. Mutely he pointed
out the bodies, only partially concealed
by the waving fronds of greening:corn.

Within minutes the area was the
scene of efficiently organized activity.
The three bodies were quickly identi-
fied. George Allarding’s hunch had set
in motion a statewide search which
the young church counsellor’s sharp
eyes had ended. The whereabouts of
John Niebel,: his wife and daughter
was known and thus was introduced
the worst tragedy in the history of
Richland County.

There was little to go on at first.
Crime detection men picked their way
through shoulder high cornstalks, mea-
suring footprints which were found in
the field. There were five sets of these,
two made by men wearing shoes, un-
doubtedly the killers, plus a line of
prints left by the three barefoot
victims.

State troopers threw a rope cordon
around the scene -to hold back the
crowd which had gathered with un-

i : fe ‘ee

§ §6believable rapidity. Word

. flashed that federal inves-
tigators were coming in
from Columbus and State
Welfare Director Charles
L. Sherwood reported that
the state’s mobile crime
laboratory was on its way.

Sheriff Frank E. Robin-
son took one look at the
bodies and hurried to his
radio equipped car where
contact was established
with reformatory officials.
“This must be the work of
a grudge killer,’ he said
tersely. “Have you ac-
counted for all inmates?”

Allarding, already advised of the
tragic discovery, was quick to respond.
“Nearly all,” he said. “I'll let you know
if we find anything wrong.”

Back at the cornfield, Coroner D. C.
Lavender was making his examination.
The three bodies were stretched out
neatly and the soft, cultivated ground
bore no signs of a struggle. “Niebel
and his daughter were both shot
through the back of the head,” Laven-

der reported. “They never knew what .

hit them.”

“I’m glad for that,” someone mut-
tered. “What about his wife?”

Mrs. Niebel had not died an easy
death. There were signs of. tortured
writhing and several cornstalks had
been broken down by her flailing arms
and legs. The coroner, aécustomed as
he was to scenes of violent death, was
obviously upset. ~

“They shot her through the stomach,”
he said. “She didn’t die right away. I
don’t know how long she had to wait
before someone put a mercy bullet
through her brain.”

Soa ne ict Sateen a Da sai haa SS

The publicity that accompanied This lethal array, under guard
Daniels’ arrest was sop to the of Deputy Sheriff Harry Henry of
brazen death dealer. He posed Van Wert County is the arsenal
willingly with Sheriff Roy Shaf- and part of the loot recovered
fer, but whimpered with fear from the desperadoes following
when the gates closed behind him. their final brush with the -law.

It was estimated that death had oc-
curred sometime during the early
morning hours. Grim-faced officials,
attempting to reconstruct the crime,
decided that John Niebel and his fam-
ily had been kidnaped from their home
and hustled into a waiting car. Some-
where along the way they were forced
to. disrobe. At the cornfield, sadistic
captors marched their victims to the

place of execution. A number of dark

bruises on the daughter’s shoulder indi-
cated an earlier struggle, but otherwise
there had been no resistance. Nor
were there any clues, with the excep-
tion of the footprints and scattered

empty cartridge cases from a .25-caliber »

automatic.

While the bodies were being removed
County Prosecutor Theodore Lutz, a
personal friend of the family, tried to
digest the scope of this crime. “Why
would they bring them way out here?”
he murmured, half aloud. “What was
the: advantage when they could have
shot them at the house!”

“There must be a jinx on this field,”
R. B. Gardner, whose farm was the
pride of the county, said nervously. “A
plane crashed here once and killed two
men. And now this!”

Dangerous Job

An overalled farm boy shuffled his
feet and looked at the ground. “I’m
scared,” he said plaintively, and his
words seemed to crystallize the feeling
of many of the spectators at the scene
of horror. ‘

Law enforcement officials were

everywhere, asking questions, making ~

plaster moulages in the soil. Had any-
one heard the murder shots fired? Had
anyone seen anything during the night?
But no one (Continued on page 90)


DANIELS, Robert Murl, white, elec.

re

h

;

‘

}

Slated for death on an impulse, War-

} “den John Niebel and wife (above) were

j given no quarter by the ruthless pair.

i ,

|.” Here at the juncture of Ohio's Routes
637 and 224 {right) the reign of ter-

ror was brought to a blazing finish.

| al

Skt tere.

he DETECTIVE,
NiVEMDER

eh


D

h of the
Parolees

1s wounded
the killers.

T WAS a minister of the.gospel who on
July 21; 1948, made the ghastly discovery—
three nude, battered corpses in a cornfield a
few miles from Mansfield, Ohio. The vic-

tims were Ohio State Reformatory Sup’t John

E. Niebel, his wife, and his 22-year-old daugh-

ter, Phyllis. The girl had been ravished. .

The triple slaying looked like an act of
vengeance to the officers of the Law—Super-
intendent Niebel had been known as a strict
disciplinarian—and all inmates of the institu-
tion at Mansfield were checked, also all parolees
for the past six months. The two prime sus-
pects were Robert Murl Daniels, 22, and John

Coulter West, 24, who had been released in 1947
and obviously had paired up for a carnival of
crime. They were already fugitives after hav--
ing been identified as the stickup slayers—two
weeks before the Niebel murders—of Earl Cc.
Ambrose, a Columbus nightclub operator, and’
Frank Krech, who ran a tourist camp near

Detroit.
The Law went all-out to end Ohio’s reign of
terror. And they ended it, on Friday, July 23,

after a statewide manhunt unparalleled in re-
cent years, though by that +time-the -mad=dog ———
killers had slaughtered ‘two more innocent per-
sons. West was shot dead by an officer whom he
wounded. seriously, and Daniels was captured.
Boastfully he admitted all the blood-lust killings
during the 13-day death march of West and
himself. An angry crowd milled around outside
the Van Wert County Jail after he had been
captured, and. some persons shouted “Lynch
him!” Officers quieted the crowd, however.

The layout of International News Photos on
this spread gives the high-lights of the sensa-
tional case.

REMOVING BODY—

Officers carrying slain Mrs. Niebel from field

where she was shot with husband and daughter

DRYEAWAHY CO

RCM OSC SR
TACO Viet

KILLERS CORNERED HERE—

—$athis auto haulaway truck; blazing police guns ended
the killers’ careers. (Daniels captured, West shot dead.) i

oN

BRROUSED CROWD— :
ANGRY citizens gathered around the Van Wert County
Jail after the capture of Daniels, the surviving killer.

RECITES CATALOGUE OF HORROR—
Calmly, 24-year-old Robert M. Daniels (facing camera
as he puffs cigarette) tells reporters of death march,

°

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room and stabbed him. After I went
back to the hall I saw Lynn Ann move.
So I stabbed her some more.”

Police probed for a motive, reluctant
to accept the joke story. There was,
however, no doubt about the validity

of the youth’s murder confession. The .

bayonet was recovered from the exact
spot where he advised police to look—
behind a chair in a bedroom of his
home.

Just fourteen days after the double
slaying, Kenneth Chapin was charged

with the murders of Lynn Ann Smith
and Steven Goldberg, and entered a
technical plea of not guilty. On March
19th, 1955, he was convicted of the
charges against him, with no recom-
mendation for mercy. Judge Charles
Fairhouse sentenced young Chapin to
execution in the electric chair. Except
for Governor Herter’s intervention, he
would have died June Ist, 1955.

That intervention was made, however,
and Kenneth Chapin‘s sentence was
commuted to life in prison. *

NUDE CORPSES IN THE CORNFIELD
(Continued from page 29)

sneered. “You got to make them die a
little before they die. Now we finish
them off.”

West's face gleamed with eagerness.
He leveled both guns at the three help-
less figures on the bed. Daniels caught
him by the arm. “Not that way,” he said.
“We do it slow.”

The slow way was to force father,
mother, and daughter to strip off their
clothing. Then, prodding their bare flesh

cruelly, the gunmen marched them
down the stairs, out of the house to a
nearby field.

“Kneel!” Daniels told them. “Get

down and say your last prayers!”

HEY found the Niebels by mid-

morning the next day. Sheriff
Frank E. Robinson had been told by
Niebel’s assistants at the reformatory
that the superintendent had failed to
appear at his office at six-thirty that
morning. With Assistant Superintendent
George Allarding, the sheriff went to the
Niebel house to check. He found a wal-
let on the dining room table—empty.
Near it were a girl’s dress and pajamas.
In the living room were feminine under-
garments, on the floor. Mashed into the
carpets of both rooms were cigarette
stubs.

“That's Niebel’s wallet, probably his
wife and daughter’s clothes,” Allarding
said. “And none of them smoke!”

The sheriff, peering about the rooms,
reconstructed what had apparently hap-
pened there. “From the number of cig-
arette butts I'd say two men stood here
smoking, for quite a time. They evident-
ly forced the two women to undress.”

Upstairs the picture was the same.
Clothing apparently belonging to No-
landa and John Niebel lay on the bed.
In the girl's room four cigarette stubs
were pressed into the carpet, suggesting
that one of the men had stood there
waiging. The pillow was in the center
of the bed, the other bed clothes pushed
into a corner. Near the pillow was a
high-school class ring, property of
Phyllis Niebel, and an open-out house-
coat. Without doubt, Phyllis Niebel had
suffered rape.

Sheriff Robinson went downstairs and

instructed his deputies to search the
grounds for clues, and to inquire at the
homes of Niebel’s neighbors. One neigh-
bor said he’d heard a car stop at one-
thirty that morning. It had been a two-
tone gfay or blue Pontiac torpedo sedan.
No, he hadn’t heard gunshots. What was
wrong?

Highway Patrol Corporals E. F. Hahn
and J. R. Lezak arrived at the Niebel
house, now, to advise exactly what was
wrong. They told Sheriff Robinson that
three bodies had been found in a corn-
field near Fleming Falls Road. The
sheriff and other officials rushed to the
field, to find Coroner D. C. Lavender
examining the nude corpses of John,
Nolanda and Phyllis Niebel.

“The girl was shot once, in the back
of the head,” Lavender reported. “She
was apparently punched brutally about
the face and body, and then sexually
assaulted. Niebel was beaten over the
head, badly, and shot once, in the top
of the head, probably while he kneeled.
The older woman was shot twice. Once
in the abdomen. The killers let her
squirm and kick from the agony of that
wound, judging from the marks on the
ground. They finally shot her in. the
head, too.”

Searching the area, police found four
discharged 25 caliber shells. At the
Niebel home, technicians were check-
ing for fingerprints. Detective Sergeant
Lawrence W. Heischman, of Columbus,
arrived to join with the sheriff's forces
in the investigation. He was particularly
curious about the description of the au-
tomobile seen near the Niebel home by
a neighbor. He advised Sheriff Robinson
that a pick-up alarm was out for two
men driving a similar auto—a two-tone
Pontiac—and that both these fugitives
were killers: Johnny West and Robert
Daniels. Mention of the two names
brought immediate reaction from As-
sistant Superintendent George Allarding.

“Only a few months ago we released
two inmates named Daniels and West,”
Allarding said. “The rape of the girl,
the humiliation before the execution. It
all suggests a revenge motive. It’s pos-
sible Daniels and West held a grudge
against Niebel, and came here to kill
him.”

Detective Sergeant Heishman bitterly
counted off the score. “Earl Ambrose,
and the three Niebels—that’s four. If we
don’t catch these guys, it'll get worse.”

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

Law agencies throughout the state of
Ohio joined in one of the most intense
manhunts in the Midwest. Shocking de-
tails of the rape and triple murders were
broadcast on the radio and headlined in
the papers. Descriptions of the two gun-
men were on the lips of every cop.
Patrols watched all highways and back
roads for the 1947 Pontiac. A reward
of $5,000 was placed on the killers’
heads.

The pressure that patrols were putting
on the escapees forced the next disaster.
Men like West and Daniels, smart in the
way of crime, turn to violence to protect
themselves. Aware that the Pontiac was
a “wanted” car, Daniels decided to steal
another vehicle, and it fell the fate of
James Smith and his wife to come by
at the wrong time. Five miles outside of
Tiffin, Ohio, Daniels spotted Smith’s
1946 black Buick and forced it off the
road. Before Smith could get out, the
two guns of Johnny West were pushed
into his face. Daniels demanded to see
Smith’s driver’s license, and Smith pro-
tested. .

“Show him the license!” West order-
ed, fingers whitening from curling tight
around the triggers of his weapons.

Smith squared his jaw. “I don’t show
my license to anyone but a policeman!”

The trigger-fingers of the gun-crazed
moron squeezed all the way. He
squeezed and squeezed, in deadly fury.
He all but blasted James Smith’s head
from his shoulders. The driver fell for-
ward against the wheel, dead, as his
pretty wife screamed with horror.
Daniels grabbed the girl, then hurled
her back in her seat.

“We'll take her with us,” he said.
“Leave the Pontiac and let’s take this
Buick. Let’s get out of here!”

James Smith, murder victim, stopped
them. In death, he was to stand be-
tween the murderous, rapacious gunmen
and his wife’s safety. His slumped
corpse, his life’s blood, blocked the kill
crazy pair from entering the auto.

“That front seat’s a mess,” West said.
“Let’s forget the Buick and get back
to the Pontiac.”

Johnny West, who couldn’t stand the
sight of his own bloody work, started
quickly toward the two-tone gray car.
Robert Daniels started after him, looked
back at the girl. The rapist reached in-
side the Buick, grabbed the girl again
and hauled her out. “You come with
me, sweetheart!”

Though in a state of shock and panic,
the terrified girl tore from his grasp,
ducked behind the black car, then dart-
ed off into the darkness. Daniels shouted
for her to come back, aimed his gun
at her—then lost her in the night. She
ran on along the road to a farm house,
where she pleaded for medical help for
her husband. James Smith, when an
ambulance and a police cruiser arrived,
was beyond mortal assistance. He was
number five in the murder spree of West
and Daniels. The intern cursed.

News of the latest slaying was flashed
to the Highway Patrol headquarters at
Columbus. Sheriff George Steinmetz, of
Seneca County where Smith was killed,
organized deputies and volunteers into a

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

manhunt party of more than one hun-
dred men. The sheriff and members of
the state highway patrol blocked off all
roads leading from the area. When these
roadblocks were in position, the search
party began to close in. They could not
close in fast enough to save Orville Tay-
lor, a long-distance truck driver who
lived in Niles, Michigan, and’ was asleep
in his parked truck on Route 53, only
four miles from the scene of the James
Smith murder.

Taylor awakened to a tapping on his
cab window, and saw Daniels and West,
and their ready guns. He stepped out, as
ordered, and West jabbed both auto-
matics into the man’s back.

“T'll take care of this one, Bob,” West
said.

He marched Taylor at gunpoint into
a thicket. There was one shot. West
came out grinning. “Right in the head,”
he said.

Daniels backed the Pontiac off the
road into the woods. Both men climbed
into the truck, an automobile carrier,
and headed down Route 53 away from
Tiffin, leaving victim number six behind
them. 4

EPUTY Sheriff Leopold Grover,

making a manhunt patrol, spotted
the Pontiac, then found the corpse of
Orville Taylor. He radioed news of the
latest murder to manhunt headquarters
at Columbus. In a desperation move to
stem this tide of death, state officials
drew heavily upon lawmen in all sur-
rounding areas, throwing up blockades
in three deliberately spaced rings around
Seneca County. In order to get out, the
slayers would have to pass three road-
blocks, no matter which direction they
took. All autos were stopped at each
line of defense. Motorists were ques-
tioned, searched, and held under con-
stant threat of armed policemen.

Daniels and West, throughout the
night, somehow managed to pass the
inner two circles of blockades. At dawn
they were between the second ring and
the outer ring, heading toward Indiana.
The lone blockade between the deadly
sharpshooters and the state line was
located at the junction of Routes 224
and 637, and was manned by Sheriff F.
Roy Shaffer and Sergeant Leonard
Conn, of the Van Wert police force. At
eight-forty that morning County Game
Protector Frank Friemoth drove to this
barrier to check their report. As he
stepped out of his car and hailed the
two officers, Sergeant Conn motioned
sharply toward a truck rumbling up to
the barrier. are.

“We've got orders to stop everything,”
Conn said. He slid the safety off his
sub-machine gun and trotted to a posi-
tion at the roadside. “You check this
truck out. I'll cover you from here,” he
shouted to the sheriff.

Shaffer raised his hand in the tradi-
tional stop gesture. As the air brakes on
the big vehicle hissed, he edged around
the truck, hand on his holstered sidearm.
His voice rang out sharply.

“Where you coming from?”

“Tiffin.”

Sergeant Conn held his Thompson

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61


j a Fog

Thirsting for blood and revenge,
two reform school ‘graduates’ pay a mysterious visit
to their old ‘alma mater’

ed WERE AN odd pair. If you had seen the two of
them together at the Ohio State Reformatory Farm at
Mansfield you would have been at a loss to understand how
two such different men could pal around together. One of
them was handsome, self-assured, clever and as tough as
“cons” come. He was in for auto theft and armed robbery.
The other one looked and acted the way you’d expect an
inmate of such a place to look and act. His face was thin
and ugly. You’d have spotted him as a not-too-bright guy.
You'd be right. Prison psychiatrists rated this second guy a
moron. That’s what made people wonder what the first felon
saw in him. The weaker one was only a small time thief.
That's as far up the ladder of crime as he had climbed.

Hero worship makes strange palships, however. That was
the tie that brought those two men together. The weak one
worshipped the stronger to the point where he imitated his
idol as far as a man can in prison, affecting his every man-
nerism. Later, the second con was to outdo his idol in one
department: murder.

His talent in that direction became apparent, first, to a
tough bartender in Columbus, Ohio, during a holdup. The
thin, ugly man came in with his handsome pal, neither wear-
ing masks, and held two heavy .45s across the bar.

“Hands on the bar,” he hissed, “or I'll kill you!” .

The way he said it would have been enough,but he added
to his warning with a shot from each gun.Glass shattered
behind the bartender, and he quickly placed his hands top-

o- NUDE
CORPSES »
IN THE
CORNFIELD

side, flat, as the thin thug demanded. But elsewhere in the
tavern no one was taking the robbery attempt seriously. One
drunk shouted waggishly. Another tossed a beer bottle at
the gunman. And the bartender, mindful of two tense trigger-
fingers, ducked for cover.

The two automatics didn’t explode. The thug did. Quiver-
ing with restrained rage, he shouted: “Get up! Come out
from there or I'll kill you! I ought to kill you anyway!”

The other holdup man eased around the bar, ordered the
bartender to stand, then opened the register and ransacked
it of $8,000 in cash and checks. The pair backed out of the
tavern. Just as they fied, the thin gunman glared back
bleakly and muttered. “I ought to kill somebody!”

He didn’t, but police who arrived in response to the
alarm felt certain that he would, unless caught quickly.

Parolees held Phyllis Niebel’s fate in their hands.

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

Keer Cort theaging Melt Men /972

a,
HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE MAG AZINE, FEBRUARY,

——— te

Were Supt. John Niebel and his wife “revenge”. victims of former prisoners?

Captain William Murphy and Detective Sergeant Robert
Weideman obtained descriptions of the pair and had them
flashed on the police network. That was at eleven-forty P.M
Before midnight a new alarm came blaring over the police
captain’s car radio. Two armed men had just held up a
tavern at Summit Street and Fifth Avenue, killing the
owner! The descriptions matched exactly the wanted alert
out for the earlier holdup men.

The story at the Ambrose Tavern was a repeat of the first
robbery—with murder added. Earl Ambrose had been seated
when the gunmen entered. Startled, he had stood up instead
of putting his hands up and the thin gunman promptly

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

pumped a slug into him. The thug then walked to the fallen
man, stood over him, and drilled three more bullets into his
back. A ricochet had struck a woman seated nearby and,
though not critically wounded, she had been rushed to White
Cross Hospital upon arrival of the police. Captain Murphy
called in the night commander of the Homicide Bureau,
Detective Sergeant Lowell V. Sheets. For the murder of
Ambrose, the sleuths quickly discovered, the two gunmen
had earned themselves $400 in loot from the register—and
had missed $20,000 in a secret safe.

Inquiry among the patrons revealed that the bandits had
escaped in a 1947 two-tone gray Pontiac torpedo-style sedan.

27

*6iét € Axenuee uo (puexYyoTY) oTYO peqnoorqoeTe feqtum *Taey queqoy *STHINVG


Robert Daniels was a leader in prison.

The license number was L-4190. An immediate check by
Motor Vehicle Bureau clerks was requested by Sergeant
Sheets. Robbery Division detectives checked through stolen
vehicle reports for a car and license plate that matched the

John West imitated his idol, Daniels.

information they now had. All vacations were cancelled by
the chief of detectives, Captain Glenn C. Hoffman. The
license number and car description, plus descriptions of the
gunmen, were flashed to all local patrol units as well as
other law enforcement agencies in the Franklin County area.
A pick up was requested, with the warning that both men
were armed and extremely dangerous.

While this widespread dragnet was being pressed into
action other sleuths were attempting to determine the iden-
tities of the fugitives from justice. The Motor Vehicle Bureau
reported one advance in the case. The plate number L-4190
was that of a 1936 Chevrolet sedan owned by a Robert
Murl Daniels of West Norwich Avenue. Sergeant Sheets,
directing the probe, asked the Record Room manager to
check police files for a possible run-down on Robert Daniels.

Putting aside all other requests to work on the priority
case, the Record Room swiftly furnished Sheets with in-
formation on Daniels. He was a 24-year-old reformatory
parolee with a record of car theft, in 1941, and robbery.
He had served three years, plus two months, at the Ohio
State Reformatory Farm at Mansfield. His description match-
ed that of the handsome partner of the thin-faced killer.

The Record Room also provided mug shots of the suspect,.

and these were shown to witnesses at both tavern holdups.
Robert Murl Daniels was unhesitatingly identified by every-
one as the handsome gunman.

Detectives now contacted officials at the Mansfield re-
formatory. Did Robert Daniels have one special sidekick
while imprisoned there? Superintendent John Niebel made a
check of prison files, after linking a former inmate named
Johnny West to Daniels by interrogation of certain prisoners
and questioning of guards. The files described West as thin-
faced, dark, bespectacled. He had served slightly more than
a year at the farm for theft of auto parts, and had been
released on March 12th. Superintendent Niebel had photo-
graphs of West dispatched to Columbus police immediately,
and when these were shown to tavern holdup witnesses the
identification of both gunmen was complete. Johnny West—
rated a moron by prison psychiatrists—had been the intense
triggerman partner of Robert Daniels.

His photo and description was added to those of Daniels
and sent to all law agencies in the surrounding territory. A
tremendous drive was afoot in an attempt to prevent these
reckless killers from further violence. Fear was high. Law-
men were convinced they could expect the worst. What
actually happened far surpassed anyone’s fears or expecta-
tions.

HE date Frankiin County will never forget is July 20th,

1948. The incident that made the day infamous in Ohio
crime history is perhaps the most hideous crime in recent
years. The car that carried the destructive force was the 1947
two-tone Pontiac which police were searching for. Robert
Murl Daniels was at the wheel, heading toward Mansfield
as his thin-faced partner sat beside him sliding clips ot
ammunition in and out of the butts of his automatics.

“Sometimes I think you'd rather shoot than talk, Johnny,”
Daniels said.

Johnny West grinned bleakly, peered out at the darkened
landscape. “We headed for the farm?”

Daniels nodded, and West quickly pumped the slides on
his .45s, chambering bullets into each gun. “Going back
there, huh? Then I got a score to settle with a wise guy guard.
I got a bullet for his head.”

“You don’t think I'd be sap enough to drive right up to the
reformatory gate and ask for a guard, do you?” Daniels
snapped. “Maybe he deserves to die—but this car is hot and
so are we.”

“T want to kill that guard,” Johnny West said.

“You'd just pump a slug into him,” Daniels said. “I don’t
like to kill that way. I like the guy to know what it’s all
about before I give it to him. I like them to die a little
before they die. We could easy get into Niebel’s house—it's
off the compound area and not guarded. We could kill him
slow, and really settle the score.”

“Niebel!” Johnny West sighed. “He’s even a bigger shot

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

nen po

ta Ng iS ER

than the guard. Okay, we'll do it your way, Bob. I'll do just
what you do.”

They drove on in silence toward the 1600-acre Reforma-
tory Farm. Superintendent John Niebel lived with his wife
and daughter in a large white frame building overlooking
the reformatory buildings but not within the confines itself.
There were no guards to prevent the Pontiac from gliding
up silently in the night. There was no warning at all for
John Niebel. He simply heard his doorbell buzz; at about
one-thirty A.M., and got up from bed. His wife, Nolanda,
and his red-haired daughter, 20-year-old Phyllis, slept on as
John walked down and opened the door.

The two killers burst in on him, guns out and ready to
shoot. Niebel backtracked, his hands coming up over his
head slowly. “What's this?”

“Remember me?” Johnny West leered. “I’m one of the old-
timers in this joint. I just got the urge to gun you.”

Daniels told the eager triggerman to hold it. He said a
quick bullet wasn’t the way to kill. “We do this one my way,
Johnny. I like to have people know what's what before I
shoot them. We'll go upstairs and visit with Niebel’s wife
and daughter. I hear the kid’s a real looker.”

Niebel moved suddenly to intercept the gunmen as they
headed for the staircase. He fell to the floor, on his knees,
as West lashed out with his gun barrel and smashed Niebel
across the head. Crouched, guns at each hip, West was
ready to kill.

Daniels spoke quietly, told him to wait. They forced
Niebel to climb the stairs ahead of them, went into the
master bedroom. Nolanda Niebel was awake now, her eyes
wide with terror. Johnny West snapped his two automatics

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

a : oe ro acee re eT ie? ee :
Coatless multiple murderer leaving Richmond County jail to stand trial.

down on her as she lay in bed. “Quiet, lady. Screams make
me nervous. I shoot when I’m nervous.”

From the next bedroom came a husky feminine voice
with a note of alarm in it. “Is anything wrong, father?”
Phyllis Niebel asked.

The next instant a shapely red haired girl appeared in the
door to the master bedroom, fastening a robe around herself.
She was entirely unprepared for Robert Daniels’ open hand
as it smashed her in the face. She staggered back, stunned.
Daniels moved forward, caught her around the waist. “You
keep these two in here,” he instructed West. “I’m going next
door with the girl—and don't want interference. Understand
Johnny?”

West grinned insanely, and Daniels dragged the girl out of
the room. John Niebel lunged at him, but was beaten back
by a sudden blow across the skull from West’s gun. He
struggled to his feet, and both he and Nolanda leaped toward
the thin gunman in a desperate attempt to prevent the rape
of their daughter. _

Johnny West moved like lethal lightning. The butt of one
45 pounded against Nolanda’s head; the other slammed
Niebel a second time. Both parents were stunned with the
sudden pain; shocked and dizzy. West, in a raging fury
to kill, lashed out again and again until both mother and
father collapsed on the bed, their heads and faces bloody
and battered. From the next room came laughter, and
muffled screams.

Sometime later Robert Daniels pushed Phyllis into the
master bedroom, shoved her down onto the bed beside her
parents. She lay there sobbing hysterically.

“Like I said, Johnny,” Daniels (Continued on page 60)

29

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Reporting within the next half hour,
the constable stated that all he could
learn was that Mildred had left the
high school at 3:30 the preceding after-
noon. She told acquaintances she ex-
pected to pick up a friend she was
driving to Xenia. The identity of the
friend was not established, and while
Mildred was known to date several
young men about Pitsburgh, she re-
portedly was concerned seriously with
only-one of them. He was the son of
a prosperous farmer south of Pitsburgh
with whom Mildred reportedly had
quarreled recently and broken an
engagement.

Hill considered it essential that the
identity of this youth be learned at
once. “The fury of a woman scorned
is one thing,” he told the sheriff. “The
fury of a man scorned is another. It
frequently leads to murder.”

"You fellows probably need some
outside help,” said the man who
is pictured here at headquarters.

After telephoning the sheriff at Day-
ton and requesting a check on Vern
Shaw, Icenhower sat down with the
prosecutor, and the two submitted the
known facts in the McCoy massacre to
a microscopic examination. The result
was far from satisfactory. There were
no clues linking the crime directly to
any one person.

“We'll never get anywhere until we

_ find the motive,” Hill said at last. “And

the motive must lie somewhere in the
McCoys’ lives. The relatives may be
able to help us.”

Throvghout Friday morning and af-
ternoon, while the sheriff was absent
on a search for Vern ‘Shaw in the

vicinity of Dayton, the prosecutor in-
terviewed more than half a dozen of the
slaying victims’ relatives who resided
in or near Washington Court House.
They included Dr. McCoy, Mrs. Atkin-
son, the Hayes family and Jim Collett.

The last-named, a slender, gray-
haired man of 60 who wore a steel and
leather brace on‘his neck as the result
of a fall from a hay wagon several
years earlier, insisted emphatically that
each and every one of McCoy’s former
tenants be checked upon in the probe.

Recalling one .of them by name, a
Lloyd Nicholas who he said now lived
near Louisa, Ky., Collett declared,

“Elmer told me time and again about ,-

the trouble he had with that fellow.
Elmer threw Nicholas. out and the man
threatened to come back and get even.
Check him close, John. The fiend who
did this must pay. Why—I—I—” Col-
lett’s voice faltered. “I had already
bought Christmas presents for
three of these poor folks,” he finished
brokenly.

The man extracted a cigar from the
cluster in his lapel pocket, lit it with
a trembling hand and then said to Hill,
“If you need outside help, all of us
relatives will chip in to hire a detective
from Columbus, Toledo or anywhere

- you want to get one. I'll contribute

$100 myself right now.”

Hill smiled. “I wouldn’t want to con-
fess yet, Jim, that the case is too big
for us, but it’s nice to know that you'll
give us help if it’s needed.”

After interviewing the relatives, the
prosecutor waited patiently for Icen-
hower to return, but it was long after
6 o’clock when the sheriff telephoned
Hill at his home. Shaw, Icenhower
said, had been gone from the farm out-
side Dayton for about ten days. No one
knew his whereabouts.

“l’ye got a line on some of his kin-
folk in the hills along the Ohio River,”
the sheriff said, “and I’m going down
there in the morning.”

Hill told his colleague about Collett’s
account of the man Nicholas, who had
threatened McCoy.

Attend Triple Funeral

“T'}] kill two birds with one stone
tomorrow,” the sheriff promised. “If I
can’t locate Shaw, I'll drop on down
to Louisa. Someone there may have a
line on Nicholas.”

On Saturday morning Hill drove to
Pitsburgh, where he made a searching
investigation of Mildred McCoy’s ro-
mantic, teaching and social life. i
quickly led into a dead end. Locating
the youth with whom Mildred. had
broken her engagement, Hill learned
that he had spent the whole of Wednes-
day evening with friends in New Leb-
anon. He couldn’t possibly have had
any connection with the crime at Oak
View. ‘
The prosecutor learned additionally
that Mildred’s appointment Wednesday
afternoon had been with a girl friend,

Miss Kay Wade of Xenia. According to
Miss Wade, the two drove directly to
Xenia, Mildred had dinner with the
Wades and left for Oak View shortly
after 8:15 o'clock. Under ordinary cir-

¥ -

cumstances she would have arrived at
Oak View right around 9 o’clock.

Hill returned to Washington Court
House certain that he had been on a
wild goose chase.

He found. the town full of visitors
from outlying points in the county, most
of whom were acquaintances in town
to attend the triple McCoy funeral,
scheduled at 2 p.m. in the Grace Meth-
odist church.

Icenhower had delayed his trip into
the hills to attend the services.

He and Hill occupied a special pew
in the church that was jammed to ca-
pacity and spilling over with a crowd
of 1,800, which broke all records for
church services in the small Ohio town.

Collett and his wife led the proces-
sion of mourners into the church, and
throughout the services they occupied
a front pew near the three silver cas-
kets. Studying the throng as the Rev.
J. H. Baughn described the crime as
committed “in foul, fiendish, diabolical,
satanic fury,” the sheriff saw Collett
grit his teeth and clench his fist.

“He must have thought pretty much
of Elmer and his family,” he whispered
to Hill. “Jim’s taking this awfully
hard.”

“T think,” the prosecutor replied
softly, “that he was extremely fond of
Mildred. He even offered to hire an
outside investigator to help us clear up
the killings.”

Icenhower’s eyes widened at this
intelligence.

Outside the church after the services,
Collett approached the sheriff and Hill.
“Any clues.to the killings?” he asked,
adding before either man could reply,
“You fellows don’t seem to know much
more about the case than you did
Thursday morning, do you?”

“Sounds almost as if he’s daring us
to solve the case,” the sheriff remarked
as Collett walked away to join his wife
in their car at the curb.

Hill smiled. “After all, W. H., we're
on the spot. It’s our case. It’s up to
us to break it, and in my opinion it’s
going to take plenty of work.”

Rarely have small town or metro-
politan authorities worked harder to
crack a murder mystery than Icen-
hower and the prosecutor labored
throughout the next two days.

Hill checked over every detail in the
business life of the wealthy hog breeder,
seeking hidden facts that might point
to a solution. Icenhower, assisted by
his son Maynard, scoured the hills of
southern Ohio for McCoy’s former
tenants. They turned up one after the
other, including Lloyd Nicholas, the
Kentuckian who had moved to Louisa,
but every man had an ironclad alibi.

Vern Shaw voluntarily appeared at
the sheriff’s office and explained his
whereabouts on the night of the kill-
ings. His story was satisfactory; it was
‘proved in every detail.

On Monday afternoon Probate J udge

Otis Core settled an imposing legal —

problem created by the annihilation of
the McCoy family by naming Mrs.
Collett, Elmer McCoy’s only sister, and
Dr. J. W. McCoy, brother of Mrs.
McCoy, as coadministrators of the es-
tate valued at (Continued on page 44)

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“been touched in here—not a thing.”
“Except the phone,” Dr. McCoy cut
in. He picked up the instrument from
the table near the desk and showed two
loose ends of the cord dangling to the
floor. They had been sheared clean
about 30 inches from the wall. A pair
of scissors lying on the desk obviously
had been used to snip the wires.

The prosecutor was puzzled. “I won-
der why the killer went to that trouble
after bumping off everybody around
the place. Certainly he wasn’t afraid
of Elmer, his wife or Mildred calling

for help.”
Trouble With Tenants

“It might have been his method of
delaying the discovery of the crime,”
Icenhower observed. “He cut the wires
so no one could call in. If one of the
family had phoned and got no answer,
he might have become suspicious and
driven out to the farm before the killer
could make his getaway.”

“That’s an idea,” Hill agreed. “And
it’s all the more reason why I think
this job was done by someone familiar
with the McCoys. The killer shot each
of his victims from close range. Each
of them was caught unawares when he
or she was shot down. By the way,
doc, who lives on the place beside
Dewey Claytor?”

“No one that I know of,” the veteri-
narian replied.

“Elmer usually had two or three
tenants, didn’t he?”

“Oh, yes, there have been a dozen
or two here in the past two years,
but...” McCoy cleared his throat.

“What doc means,” Icenhower put
in, “is that Elmer has had trouble
with most of his renters. He was what
you'd call extra particular, hard to
satisfy. It’s been said he could get along
with few of his tenants. It was just
last July that I came out here with a
couple of deputies and evicted a fellow
he was having trouble with. .Elmer said
he was just a ‘triflin’ hill-billy from
Kentucky.’ The man wouldn’t leave
when Elmer told him. to, and we had
to throw him off the place. I’m darned
if I can remember his name.”

“It certainly will pay to find out
quick,” Hill said. “It’s just such a thing
that might break this case. These are
vengeance murders, out and out.”

Icenhower stepped into the yard and
signaled to Claytor who was talking
to Asa Potts, one of the McCoys’
neighbors.

“By the way, Dewey,” the sheriff
asked, “do you recall the name of that
renter we evicted in July—the one
Elmer had so much trouble with?”

“No; I don’t, sheriff,” the tenant re-

, “excepting that it seems his first
I'd -only been here
a short time then, and I didn’t know
the man hardly at all. You'll probably
find his name in Mr. McCoy’s books.
He kept good accounts.”

Icenhower started toward the house
but stopped. He turned back’ to Clay-

was one report of a gun, then a lot of
shots in a row. That was before Miss
Mildred drove up the lane. I’m sure
there was one more shot fired after she
got to the house. I didn’t pay any
attention because I thought Mr. McCoy
was shooting at rats or something. He
usually carried ‘a .32 in the glove com-
partment of his truck, along with a
flashlight and a handful of cigars.”

The sheriff swung around and headed
for McCoy’s small garden truck, parked
near the end of the barn where his body
had been found.

Icenhower opened the truck door and
stared at the glove compartment, from
which the panel apparently had been
torn some time previously. The sheriff

rammed his hand into the compartment”

and withdrew a handful of dry corn-

Two experts of the
Toledo police lab-
oratory study the
lie detector chart
after the suspect
had a long quiz.

husks. Mingled with the shucks was
the broken end from a cigar of the
type McCoy had been smoking when
shot to death.

Icenhower dropped the cigar tip into

his pocket and probed the compartment |

a second time. There was no gun, no
flashlight nor any whole cigars. .

He rejoined Claytor and Potts. “Are
you positive McCoy ‘kept a .32 in his
truck?” he asked the tenant farmer.

“T’m sure it was there the first day
of the hunting season, about a week
back,” Claytor said. “I saw it when
Mr. McCoy and Mr. Collett went
hunting.”

“Dewey’s right,” Potts interposed.
“Rlmer had several altercations with
his tenants, you know. He once told
me he kept the gun handy just in case

Near the
his barn,
indicated
investigai
searchers
the farmer

any of them
‘Awhile . -
Claytor, “You fi
ing up the lan
ers it was?”
“Oh,” Clayt
honked lee
house on the we
Mr. and Mrs, M.
were expectin
About 9 pid
honked twice, |
horn. She was
thet had pulls
a °
of her.” pulled }

Ano}
se m
‘You mean,”

- ~“that a machin
© place ahead of ME

“Well, not righ

4 tenant explained.

tor. “Dewey, you must have heard
/ those shots last night. There were at
3 least ten fired.” .
1-5 “T did hear them,” Claytor'said even-
ly, to the sheriff's surprise. “First there -

"Here's the confession in the
McCoy case," says Prose-
cutor John B. Hill (left)
to Sheriff W. H. Icenhower.

that went up th
» the pla vr Se
y o'clock.” a half-}
me Tt was ia
B- : t
I heorized, that the

26


£ raised,
driveway
e McCoy
)0 feet to

‘ar in his
the build-
of peace-
160 acres
n) country-
Vashington

\ the cagey
int card in
rs, where he
lie detector.

Where was Elmer McCoy, Oak View’s
wealthy owner and father of the dead
girl? Where was Mrs. McCoy? Claytor
ran for the house, yelling, “Mr. McCoy!
Oh, Mr. McCoy!”

Rounding the screened-in side porch
on his way to the kitchen door. he
stopped short, faced with a new horror.

Stretched on the porch in a pool of
dried and blackened blood was Mrs.
Elmer McCoy. One of her hands
clutched a dishcloth and the other

‘gripped a pair of spectacles. Near her

head were the shattered fragments of
a green bowl; obviously she had been
drying her dishes: when shot down.
Claytor turned on his heels and raced
to his own tenant cabin 500 yards west
of the McCoy showplace. There he
communicated the awful news to his
wife. The two of them leafed into the
family car and drove to the home of

Charles Griffeth. Mrs. Griffeth tele-

phoned Sheriff W. H. Icenhower at ‘the
county jail in Washington Court House.

When Icenhower reached Oak View
a few minutes after 9 o’clock, he was

surprised to find the barnyard swarm-

ing with neighbors and relatives of the
McCoy family. Among the latter was
Dr. J. A. McCoy, well-to-do veteri-
narian of Washington Court House and
a brother to Mrs. McCoy.

Mildred McCoy had just returned
home for a Thanksgiving weekend
when the cunning: mass-murderer
fired a bullet through her skull.

, Already a third chapter in the bloody

- carnage had been unfolded. After Icen-

hower had made a peremptory exam-
ination of the women’s bodies, Dr.
McCoy directed him to the barn. Just
inside the door, wedged face downward
between a feed grinder and the wall,
was the corpse of Elmer McCoy.

The 54-year-old farmer wore ordi-
nary overalls and a canvas jacket.
Between his teeth was the stub of a
cigar. His fingers grasped a steel tape
measure..A single bullet had:penetrated .
his head from the rear and emerged
through the right nostril.

A Tragic Reunion

. “Shot without warning,” the sheriff
reflected. “Looks like a .38-caliber slug
did the job. McCoy must’ve been mea-
suring the grinder pulley for a new
belt. The killer probably was standing
directly behind him. Judging by the
powder burns, I’d say the gun was right
next to Elmer’s head. What. does that
indicate to you, doc?”

The slender veterinarian studied a
moment. “It looks like the killer was
someone Elmer knew,” he said. “Some-
one he trusted enough ‘to allow in the
barn with him. But even if somebody
had a grudge against Elmer, I don’t
know why they killed the two women.
Mildred was as nice, quiet and harm-
less a girl as ever lived.”

“You're right, doc,” the officer said
meditatively, recalling the years during
which he had watched Mildred McCoy °
grow from a gangling farm girl in pig-
tails to a softly beautiful young woman~
of education and refinement.

It was an occasion of family celebra-
tion in January, 1943, when Mildred
was graduated from Ohio State Uni-
versity in Columbus. She joined the
faculty of the Pitsburgh, O., High
School as a home economics teacher
and; in the parlance of the countryside,
was “doing right well.” Presumably
she had come home for the holiday

. weekend. 5

- Icenhower and Dr. McCoy stepped
out of the barn just as Fayette County
Prosecuting Attorney John B. Hill and

Acting: Coroner Dr. E. H. McDonald

arian taringgy MIMI lp Lk ccs

drove up in the former’s car. The
sheriff had called Hill before leaving
for’ Oak View, and the prosecutor had
picked up the coroner on the way.

The prosecutor, disconcerted by the
large crowd, nonetheless waved a
pleasant greeting to Dr. McCoy. Indi-
cating the group of McCoy relatives
gathered near the side porch—which
now included Mrs. Sylvia Atkinson, a
sister of Mrs. McCoy; Mr. and Mrs.
Delbert Hayes, cousins of McCoy, and
Mr. and Mrs. James Collett, the last
a_sister of Elmer McCoy—Hill said,
“Looks like a family reunion, doc.”

“It really was to have been a re-
union, John,” the veterinarian said.
“Elmer invited all of us down for
Thanksgiving turkey today. Everybody
was supposed to be here at 9 o'clock,
and it looks like they’re all on schedule.”

Hill and Icenhower followed Mc-
Donald as the physician made his
examination of the bodies, revealing for
the first time that while: Elmer and
Mildred McCoy had. been slain by a
single .38 bullet, Mrs. McCoy had been
shot six or eight times with a smaller
gun, probably a .32.

“Maybe there were two killers,” the
prosecutor mused. “Let’s take a look
inside.”

The officers and Dr. McCoy entered
the living room of the farmhouse, ex-
pecting to find the place in a shambles.
They were dumbfounded by the neat-
ness and orderliness of the entire
downstairs.

On a table in the center of the living
room lay Mildred McCoy’s hat, purse,
gloves and car keys, arranged in such
a manner as to indicate that she had
been perfectly at ease when placing
them there. In a nearby corner stood
a small writing table with many pigeon-
holes containing ‘canceled checks, bills
of sale, checkhooks and other papers.
A set of ledgers on top of the table was
undisturbed. Glancing idly through the
contents of the desk’s center drawer,
Naeem found a billfold containing

“This knocks out my first theory,”
he said to Hill. “I had an idea robbery
was behind the killings. But nothing's

WHO COULD HAVE SLAIN THE LOVELY TEACHER

AND HER RICH PARENTS ON THEIR OHIO FARM?

ca

1e shucks was
, cigar 0 the
smoking when

was no gun,
cigars.

an Potts. “Are
ept a 32 in his
. tenant farmer.
are the first day
1 about a wee

ty saw it when
r. Collett went

Potts interposed.

altercations W1
ww. He once to

n

cutor JO w. H. Icenhower: |

to Sheriff

vets ti

yandy just in case

; fess
“Here's the con
"says

McCoy pong al

ion in the

*
py

Near the door of
his barn, at spot
indicated by the
investigator, the
searchers found
the farmer's body

any of them got too far out of hand.”

“Awhile ago,” the sheriff reminded
Claytor, “you mentioned Mildred driv-
ing up the lane. How did you, know
who it was?”

“Oh,” Claytor explained, “she always
honked twice when she passed my
house on the weekends she came home.
Mr: and Mrs. McCoy had told me they

were expecting her home yestérday. °

About 9 o’clock a car passed and
honked twice. I recognized it as her
horn. She was going so fast I was
afraid she might swing into the auto
that had pulled into the barnlot ahead

| of her.”

Another Car

“You mean,” Icenhower snapped,
“that a machine drove into the McCoy

’ place ahead of Mildred?”

*Well, not right ahead of her,” the

® tenant explained. “There was a car
| that went up the lane and turned into

the place a half-hour or so before 9
o'clock.”
_ It was logical to assume, the sheriff

/ theorized, that the slayer had arrived

This is the house on
Oak View Farm, five
miles from Washing-
ton Court House, O.,
where a: killer struck
on Thanksgiving Eve.

at Oak. View in the auto ahead of Mil-
dred’s, If he was a family acquaintance,
as the officers presumed the killer must
have. been, he would have had ample
opportunity to shoot the unsuspecting
hog breeder and his wife in the half-
hour before the daughter got home.
Possibly he had been trapped by the
girl’s arrival and had slain her to si-
lence a witness-to his double crime.

That theory coincided with the ‘single
shot, followed by the series of shots
and then by a final shot heard by
Claytor.

To Icenhower’s disappointment, the -

tenant farmer was unable to describe
the first auto, other than that to say it
looked “big and black.”

The sheriff returned to the living
room to confer with Hill, who already
had thumbed the pages of McCoy’s
ledgers and made a list of the tenants
who had come and gone from Oak View
during the past year. Besides dating
their arrivals and departures, McCoy
had characterized each of his tenants.
Behind one man’s name was the word

_ “thieving”, behind another “shiftless”,

and behind others such uncomplimen-
tary terms as “a stinking drunk” and
“a miserable polecat.”

The prosecutor pointed to a line con-
taining the name of Vern Shaw, against
which McCoy had written “triflin’ hill-
billy. Evicted by sheriff.”

“He’s evidently the fellow you were
thinking of,” he said to Icenhower.

“He is,” the sheriff agreed. ‘And
what’s more, there’s a warrant on my
desk right now for his arrest. His
wife’s charging him with nonsupport. If
I’m not wrong, he’s living somewhere
around Dayton.--I’ll check on him the
first thing.” ;

Icenhower told the prosecutor about
his futile search for McCoy’s gun in
the glove compartment, and his con-
versation with Clayton regarding the
machine that drove into the farmyard
before Mildred arrived.

Hill groaned. “With a half a dozen
cars pulling into the lot today, we’ve
got a fine chance of spotting the killer’s
tire tracks. And how could we pick his
footprints from the hundreds that have
‘been made this morning?”

As soon as the bodies had been re-
moved to a Washington Court House
undertaking establishment and _ the
crowd had been largely cleared out,
the two officers went over the premises
inch by inch. Dr. McCoy and James
Collett, the McCoy brother-in-law,
assisted them.

The thawing earth, now a quagmire,
yielded nothing in the way of helpful
evidence. From the planks of the porch,
however, Icenhower dug out five slight-
ly flattened .32 slugs.

'“They: went right through Mrs. Mc-
Coy’s body,” he commented. “I can’t
understand why the killer shot so many
times at her, and fired only one bullet
each at Elmer and Mildred. It looks
as though he might have hated her even
more than the others.”

Offers To Hire Sleuth

“I was thinking the same thing,” Col-
lett interposed. “You probably don’t
know it, but Mildred and her mother
had been having some trouble lately.
Slight trouble, I’d say, yet trouble
nonetheless.”

Dr. McCoy looked astonished. Hill
and Icenhower gazed inquiringly at
Collett, waiting for him to explain.

“I understand,” the brother-in-law
continued after a pause, “that Mildred
had recently become engaged toa
young fellow who didn’t meet with the
approval of Forrest—that’s Mrs. McCoy
—and Mildred broke off the engage-
ment to keep peace with her mother.”

“So?” Icenhower said. “Maybe the
young man came out here last night
to square accounts. What do you think,
John?”

“It was undoubtedly a revenge kill-
ing,” Hill agreed. “A disfavored suitor
surely would be a likely suspect.”

Back in his office, Icenhower looked
up the nonsupport warrant for the
former McCoy tenant and learned that
Shaw resided on a small farm outside
Dayton.

The prosecutor telephoned the con-
stable at Pittsburgh and asked for a
quick check on Mildred McCoy.


he queried.
+ through his .
yme, I’ll show

d farmer, clad
is jacket, was
tween a feed
lis teeth were
‘igar ; McCoy
A steel tape
3s hand. .The
: back of the
ehead. There
the entrance

N on the day
ied their near-
Both Sheriff
Hill, shocked
“ime, realized
; in their in-
se that would
from coast to
rst massacres
ce the bloody
Delawares in

edly nervous,
eir task with
g the circum-
elheaded, me-

* the sheriff
uld seem the,

the premises
supposition.
S purse un-
ied a sizeable
old with $140
w on a living
r McCoy ap-
: business.

re neatly cut
vall box.
secutor said.
vestigation on
: here and got
ires cut, the
phone tempo-
ly would con-
to come out

|
Y

powder burn
‘oy’s head, of
d Mildred, of
cCoy without
’s marring the
he house.

ie summed up.
nald, who had
stailed exami-
nd there may
east two guns
r weapon, the
vas slain with
led Elmer and

’ Sheriff Icen-
iy Elmer was
» feed grinder
needed one, I
r, standing di-
o the back of

heard the shot
porch to find
‘was evidently
been drying.

“Re are still a few on the drainboard at
the sink unfinished. Either the gunman
came up from the barn, or’his pal met her
outside the kitchen door and cut loose with
a volley. Seyen shots—it must have been an
automatic. : P

“It’s a cinch McCoy was killed first. He
wouldn’t have been. at work on the feed
grinder with all that shooting going ‘on
beforehand. And I’d say Mildred arrived
just after her parents were slain, and was
the victim of-an ambush set for her. Surely
she was not around when her, mother ‘was
shot. There’d have been some marks of a
struggle if she’d have sensed her danger . . .”

Both Hill and the acting coroner agreed.

wholly with the sheriff’s deductions in re-
constructing the order of the three murders.
And this was somewhat borne out when

-Icenhower questioned Dewey Claytor, the

tenant farmer. :
Claytor said he had heard the faint sounds
of shots between 8:30 and 9 o'clock. the

“night before, but thought nothing of them

more than that McCoy might be shooting
rats. McCoy owned a gun, the tenant farmer
declared.

“He kept it in the glove compartment of -

his light truck. I saw it a couple of weeks
ago when Elmer and Jim Collett went
hunting. It was a .32 automatic.”

Claytor even recalled the pattern of the
shots he had heard the night before. First a
single report, then several. shots in quick
succession and later another lone gunshot.

This, he said, was shortly after_Mildred had °

passed his house and raced up the drive
to the big house. i

He knew it was Mildred who had driven
in at about 9 o’clock because she always
honked twice as she sped by his home. That
other car, now... 5

“What other machine?” Sheriff Icenhower
demanded.

Claytor said a sedan had rolled up the
drive sometime after 8 p.m. He could not
say when it had been driven away. He had
not recognized it; nor had: he. seen. the
driver.

“Weil, there we are,” Icenhower said after
dismissing the hired hand. “The -killer ar-
rived say around 8:30, shot the old folks,
then Mildred came up and he knocked her
off, too. He left. quite a lot of money
around, so his motive must have been other
than robbery. I guess we better talk to the
folks who came for the Thanksgiving turkey
they’re not going to get.”

“It strikes me,” Prosecutor Hill remarked
with a wry smile, “that we’ve got a real
whodunit mystery setup here. Three bodies
are found. All the relatives and servants.are
around, by habit or previous invitation. If
we were storybook detectives, sheriff, we’d
" a few questions and then point out our

er. ;

“Not among these folks, John,” Icerihower
contradicted. “The only reason any relative
would have fot such a crime would be to
inherit ‘the property. It’s worth a good
$100,000. Enough to be tempting, all right.
But consider this: Elmer was killed first, it
looks like. So the’ property’d pass ‘to his

‘wife and daughter. Forrest’s blood kin would

be the only ones to benefit: And who are

they? Doc McCoy and Mrs. Atkinson, and_

if you think for a minute either one of
thems: ;

“T don’t,” the prosecutor smiled. “I hap-
pen to know where both were last night,
for one thing. For -another, neither could
possibly commit this. crime. You’re right, all
the way. The Colletts live 40 miles off, and
the Hayeses are only cousins.”

OLLETT, the brother-in-law. of McCoy,.

gave the officers their first lead. “Elmer’s
had trouble with his tenant farmers for
years,” he said. “Claytor’s the only, man I
can remember who got along well with
(Continued on page 36)

‘South Carolina and

m Banned in Boston: Beantown police no
longer have to read all the new novels to
see whether they’re obscene. From now on
it’s up to the courts
where an_ allegedly
obscene book gets a
jury trial. Contrary.
to popular belief only |
five of all the books
banned -in Boston |
since 1900 were ever |
formally charged |
with obscenity in the.
Bay State: Three ;
IVeeks, An American Tragedy, Lady Chat-
terly’s Lover, Strange Fruit and Forever
Amber. The long list of other titles were
banned by the mere threat of police action.

@ What every detective knows: Despite a
suspect’s calm_and cool exterior a handshake
with the law may be @ giveaway to his actual
state of mind. Under mental tension the
temperature of a person’s fingertips drops
from five to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

@ Pity the poor policeman patrolling his post.

He may measure half an inch shorter at night
after a day on his feet; his spinal tissues
have been under such a continual pull as the
result of his upright posture. That is why
sacroiliac strain is a common occupational
hazard. a :

@ According to Dr. Gregory Zilboorg, cele-
brated psychiatrist, the killer type and the
suicide type of personality are often so
closely related that one can quickly change
into the other. That. is what happens when
slayers attempt suicide in their cells. By
the same token, it is advisable that any indi-
vidual who tries to commit. suicide be
watched and subjected to psychiatric treat-
ment. There are too many cases on record
where depressed persons turned slayers fol-
lowing unsuccessful suicide attempts.

\
.@ The size of a footprint left at a crime
scene is deceptive; the print is generally
larger than the shoe that made the impres-
sion. The discrepancy is the result of two
factors—the pressure and the movement of

the foot. That is why, contrary to popular -

opinion, investigators don’t base their com-
parison on exact size alone.

™ Agin the law: Pocahontas and John Rolfe

couldn’t be married. today in five states—
Louisiana, Nevada, :
North . Carolina,

Virginia where
American Indians
are separated as a
distinct race.

@ Take it from Aus-
tin H. MacCormick,
top U.S. penologist,
the three P’s of the
penal process are
Probation, Prison,
Parole — one more
chance to make good
for the first offender, a cell treatment for the
repeater, followed by supervision under a
trained parole officer for better readjustment
to society.:

@ Inside Chicago: The lights were burning
night and day in Windy City divorce courts
throughout ’46. Two thousand decrees were

IN]

BY’ LARRY

ies cs UM GRO GEA adie + s,s ig
ROBERTS

issued in suburban Chicago Heights alone.
There the marital strife netted the local
court clerk a neat $30,000—at a $15 fee per.

@ In Virginia the parole board has the power
to grant reprieves and commutations in death
sentences.

M@ Inside Tokyo: Brigadier General P. H.
Tansey has the responsibility of keeping .a
watchful eye on the greatest haul of hot ice
ever assembled under one roof. The loot
reposing in the vaults of the Bank of Japan
is set by rough calculation at 20 billion yen
($1,333,333,333). Current world market quo-
tations place the value of a one-carat dia-
mond at between $665 and $1,250.

m@ Orange blossoms :. The Jacobsons’ wedding
service was read by. Father John J. McCaf-
frey, former Sing Sing prison chaplain who
on numerous occasions had performed his
offices in condemned felons’ cells. The bride
—“Cherie” to Sing Sing cons in the Twenties
and Thirties—was born inside prison walls
in 1922. She was Joan-Marie Lawes, the
noted warden’s third daughter.

@ It is not uncommon for chronic cocaine or
morphine addicts to show the stationhouse
desk sergeant se-
vere mutilations
and insist on filing
charges against al-
leged assailants,
Experienced offt-
cers know better,
however. Cokie Joe
makes the wounds
himself trying to
dig out the little
animals he imag-
ines are burrowing there in his hallucina-
tions,

m The National Sheriff’s Association dis-
closes there are 35,000 children under 16 in
jail in this country today—a national scandal
in the opinion of the administrators respons-
ible for their custody. According to the keep-
ers, who ought to know the score, jail is no
place. for anyone under 18. Such prisoners
should be removed at once to some place of
detention more suitable for impressionable
adolescents.

@ For the record: The first policewoman
ever to pilot a plane in any department’s
aerial force was Cora Sterling of Seattle. At
the time of her appointment in July’ 1934
Miss Sterling was 20 years old.

@ In Argentina sex delinquents don’t go to
jail. It’s Mi Descansa instead—a rehabilita-
tion center for wayward girls under 30. Here
unwed. mothers find a fuxury they never
dreamed of being able to afford for- their
babies—the facilities of a bathroom with
modern plumbing.

M Inside Atlanta: Warden Sanford points
with pride to the following letter he re-
ceived recently. It speaks for itself. “dear
warden sanford, last winter i was in Grady
horspital and liked to died the Drs had to
give me a lot of -blud to save me the Dr. told
me most of the blud come from the men at
the federal peniltenshury becuz i only had
mi woman to give for me warden will u
thank them men for saving mi life. i am
sinserely (S) Manuel Hill.”

21


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“Collett simply wished to make his wife
a present of the McCoy estate, intending
to enjoy it himself once she received it,”
Prosecutor Hill declared.

Poor Mrs. Collett, as the officer expected,
was shocked by the revelation of her hus-
band’s guilt, never having dreamed of the
plot hatching in his graying head.

The Fayette County grand jury promptly
indicted James Collett on three ‘counts of
murder and he was brought to trial early
in the spring of 1944, after preliminary
arraignment in a lower court in December.

A jury made up chiefly of farmers heard
the evidence against him and solemnly voted
a verdict finding him guilty of first degree
murder—without a recommendation of mercy.
This meant the chair for Collett.

The death sentence was pronounted, and
in the middle of a July night in that same
year, Collett was taken from his cell in the
death row at Columbus through the ominous
little door that swings but one way for
killers. A few minutes later his body was
taken from the grip of the electric chair.

Eprtor’s Note: To spare possible em-
harrassment to innocent persons, the names
Lem Newton and Vic Sicbler used in this
story, are. fictitious.

_ Very Peculiar
Man

(Continued from page 13)

detectives were collecting the articles for
laboratory examination, Thordsen studied the
two youths quizzically. “I suppose you both
know about Purse’s will,” he said.

Priestman shook his head; Petroci said
nothing. They seemed puzzled by the police
investigation. “Nobody's told us anything
about it,” Priestman said.

“Didn’t you know that Purse was consid-
ering a change of beneficiary ?”

_ “It’s news to me,” Priestman replied.

Other pertinent questions occurred to the
captain. Did Purse actually discuss changing
his will with anyone? Or did he dismiss the
entire matter after leaving the lawyer’s of-
fice? If he did there remained little possi-
bility of any motive for murder.

Thordsen returned to headquarters and re-
ported to the chief. '“Hirstein is taking the
bottle and glasses over to the laboratory,” he
concluded. “Outside of that we haven't
picked up a single lead.”

“Keep checking,” Phillips urged.

The captain called at the Palmer school
and interviewed the professors. He learned
that Priestman: arrived there at 8 a.m. on
Friday morning. Petroci attended his 9
o’clock class. Both these facts agreed with
their statements. ‘

Thordsen ‘went back to the Tremont Ave-
nue neighborhood and questioned the resi-
dents. Nobody recalled having seen anyonc
enter or leave the house between the hours
of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on the day Purse died.

He spent the rest of the afternoon unsuc-
cessfully trying to locate the druggist who
had filled Purse’s prescription for the seda-
tives which had caused his death.

On Tuesday morning Thordsen called at
the chief’s office for further instructions.
“Maybe McCarthy’s hunch isn’t so good,
after all,” Phillips mused. “That business
about changing the beneficiary might have
been Purse’s idea, and may never have gone
any further.”
his forehead. “We can’t work on the basis
of a hunch that’s disputed by all the evi-
dence.”

Thordsen drove out to Tremont Avenue
where Detective Mielke was still working

He brushed his hand across °

on the case. “Anything new?” the captay
asked. .

“Nope. The only person who’s gone near
the house is the mailman.’ He just stopped
there a few minutes ago.”

The captain decided to explore one more
possibility. “Let’s collect the ashes on that
rubbish heap in the back yard. Perhaps
Purse burned that’ ‘blank document he’ got
from the lawyer.”

They parked the car in front of No. 609
and headed toward the back yard. As they
passed the porch, Thordsen noticed a bulky
envelope extending beyond the slot in the
mailbox. Curiosity prompted him to exam-
ine it more closely.

It was addressed in an almost illegible
scrawl to M. McCarthy. The street and
number had been so carelessly written that
neither could be deciphered.

A red arrow had been stamped on the face
of the envelope. It pointed to the printed
return address at the lefthand corner which
read, “E. L. Purse, 609 Tremont Ave., Dav-
enport.”

Just below the arrow was another post
office stamp. In large block letters were the
words, “Return to Sender.”

Thordsen murmured, “I wonder if... .
He lifted the flap of the envelope and re-
moved a sheet of foolscap. The script read
“Last Will and. Testament.” The document
directed that the entire Purse estate be left to
a sole beneficiary. Scrawled in a youthful
hand, the same hasty writing that appeared
on the envelope, was the name of the legatee.

It was Stephen Petroci. But there was
no signature on the line which the maker of
the will would be required to sign.

The captain turned to Mielke. “Pick up
Petroci right away,” he said excitedly. “I
think we’ve got a lead. Ask Priestman to
come along if he will.”

”

eoRDsEys prediction proved to be ac--
curate. When the two young men were
ushered into the chief’s office the unsigned
document and the envelope, addressed by
Petroci, were lying on the desk.

Priestman, who was interviewed first,
gasped in amazement when Phillips showed
him the will naming Petroci as sole benefi-
ciary. “Why, I thought Steve was kidding
me!” he exclaimed.

“He told you about this will?”

“Sure. That was after the detectives left
the house yesterday. Steve said the police
were probably trying to find evidence which
could be used to disinherit him. He asked
me not to say anything about it until the will
was probated.” The student glanced again

‘.at the document. “I just laughed it off. It
. sounded like another of Steve’s pipe dreams.”

”

Phillips said grimly.
“Bring in

“This one wasn’t,
He signaled to an assistant.
Petrock”

The dark-haired youth insisted that his
original statement had been true. “Mr. Purse
was lying on the couch, asleep, when I left
the house last Friday morning,” he said.

Phillips picked up the document. “What
about this ?”

“It’s legal, isn’t it?” Petroci queried.

The chief didn’t answer that question.
“This is your handwriting on the envelope,
isn’t it?” he asked casually.

Petroci admitted that it was.

“And you signed your name as_ benefi-
ciary ?”

Petroci nodded. “Yes. Then Mr. Purse
signed it, sealed the envelope and gave it to
me to address and mail to the lawyer.”

The chief smiled grimly. “Purse fooled
you,” he said. “He'didn’t sign the document.
It’s not legal.”

Petroci looked at the blank line at the bot-
tom of the foolscap. His lips trembled.

“You murdered Purse after you thought
he had named you as his beneficiary,” Mc-
Carthy said sharply. “And you made his
death look like suicide.”

id

Petroc
didn’t,” h
how he

Phillip
motioned
jailed pe:
same tim
in no wa

Phillip
County .
order in
permissic

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find trac:

Later
detective:
the presc
told Phi!
the elder
“The you
it in his
he was t!

The ch
too. Its
of those

The on
the care
Purse’s
not harn
noon, aft
Phillips :
complete!

While
statement
After Pu
Petroci ;
sealed er
elderly n
prescripti
pocketed

Two d
for scho
found Pu

Petroc:
en, open:
powder a
bottle of
even mor
obtained
he also
a glass o
Then he
be there

Questi
landlord

ing him,

bulk of |
I though:
than they
The y
test that
Purse’s «
of Count
friends
were nar
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Petroci's
The fc
before Px
and forn
first deg:
held wit!
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never en
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The fu
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as a cru
his cell.
He lef
to relatiy
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suffered
Petrocis,
The ot
prisoner
which P:
his crime

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Massacre at
Oak View

(Continucd from page 21)

Elmer. You fellows know how his temper
was.” -

“I know,” Sheriff Icenhower nodded. “In’
fact I was out here only last July with a
couple of deputies to evict a man for Elmer.
He called this fellow a “triflin’ hill-billy from
Kentucky,’ and ordered him off the place,
but the tenant would not leave. We had to
force him to go. But I’m damned if I can
remember his name.’

“There. was another one, too,” Collett

volunteered. “Man by the name of Lem

Newton. Came from down around Louisa,
Ky. Elmer fired him off the place and he
threatened to come back ‘and get even.”

The brother-in-law of the murdered hog
breeder suggested to the sheriff that he
search through McCoy’s ledgers for clues
in the crime, “Elmer put more’n just figures
in his books,” Collett asserted.

In continuing interrogation of the rela-
tives, the investigators also unearthed an-

other possible lead in the case. Mrs. McCoy -

and Mildred, it was reported, had recently
disagreed upon the eligibility of a young
man with whom the daughter had been
keeping company for some time. In any
quarrel over a romance, the sheriff well

‘| knew, the secds of murder could easily find

fertile ground.

McCoy's ledgers were in his desk. Icen-
hower and Hill pored over. them, smiling
occasionally at_some of the. notes entered
by Elmer McCoy. It was true, as James
Collett had hinted, that the wealthy farmer
kept more than prosaic accounts and _ bal-
ances in his books. With each transaction
between himself and another person, McCoy
had inscribed some personal observation.

One of his tenant farmers McCoy had
characterized as a “stinkin’ polecat.” A bus-
inessman was an “old tightwad.” Finally
Icenhower pointed to an entry describing a
“triflin’ hill-billy.”

“There's the man I meant,” he said. “Vic
Siebler. He lives over in the direction of
Dayton. Come to think of it, I’ve got a

‘warrant on my desk for him right now.

His wife is charging non-support.”

Before leaving Oak View farm, Sheriff
Icenhower visited McCoy’s truck and hunted’
in the glove: compartment for the pistol that
Dewey Claytor had seen.there.

It was not there. All the compartmerit
contained were a few cornhusks and about
a quarter of one cigar. Icenhower absently
thrust them into a pocket. Then he and
Hill returned to the county seat to follow
up the leads in their possession. Dr. Mc-

Donald remained to superintend the removal

of the three bodies to a mortuary in Wash-
ington’ Court House. The relatives dispersed
to their homes.

Icenhower sent a request to county officials
in Dayton, asking them to search for Vic
Siebler. Next he phoned the town constable
in Pitsburg.to check on Mildred McCoy’s
activities there—particularly to try to learn
something about her romantic attachment, if
one really existed.

No trace of Siebler was found in Mont-
gomery County. The Pitsburg ° constable
reported that Mildred McCoy had left there
the afternoon of her death with a friend, but
he did not know who this person was.’ As
for the boy friend—there had been one. An
engagement had been rumored, but now ‘
was said by Mildred’s' friends that she ha
broken it off recentl

Icenhower and Hill drove to Pitsburg,
where they, discovered that Mildred had
driven ‘away the day before Thanksgiving

with a girl who lived in Xenia, which Wz
on the way to Oak View.

The former fiance was located. He ad-
mitted having been deeply disappointed when
Mildred broke off their engagement, but he
had an indisputable alibi for Wednesday
night.

Enroute back to Washington Court House
the two officers stopped in Xenia. Mildred
had dined in her friend’s home there on
Wednesday evening, leaving for Oak View
at 8:15. This would have enabled her to get
home by 9 o'clock.

On Saturday afternoon funeral services
were held for the three victims in Grace
Memorial church in Washington Court
House. After the rites Jim Collett sought
out the sheriff.

“You're not making much headway with
this, are you?” he asked with a note of
bitterness in his voice. “Maybe it’s too
much for you boys here. Maybe we ought
to get a private detective from Columbus,
or Cincinnati or Toledo: The relatives will
foot the bill. I'll start it off with $100
myself.”

Icenhower studied the gray-haired little
man who stood so erect because of a brace
which had supported his spine and neck
since a bad fall years before. There were
tears brimming in Collett’s blue eyes; the
sheriff remembered that the uncle had been
particularly fond of Mildred.

“Maybe you're right, Jim,” he said gently.
“But John Hill and I will handle the job
for the present. If we fail, we'll call in
outside help on our own hook. But we’re
going to crack this case. You can bet your
— or any other amount you’ve got on
that.”

On Sunday the sheriff got a tip that Vic
Siebler was living with relatives in the
hills of southern Ohio along the Ohio River.
On Monday he set out with his son Maynard
in search of the former tenant farmer at
Oak View, intending also to look up Lem
Newton across the river in Kentucky.

Siebler was not to be found, but Newton
was located and offered an ironclad alibi
for the previous Wednesday night.

Then, when the Icenhowers, father and
son, returned to Washington Court House,
they discovered that Siebler had come in of
his own accord.

“T read in the papers you were a-lookin’
for me,” he said, ot wart to clear myself.
I'll take what’s comin’ on my old lady’s
complaint, but as for- murder, why, I never
harmed a soul in all my life thataway.”

His alibi was unbreakable. The only three
possible suspects uncovered to date were
undeniably in the. clear.

“It looks,” (Sheriff Icenhower told Pros-
ecutor Hill, “as if about the only people
we could suspect would be the ones who
were out at the farm the other day. Like
you said, in a mystery book .

“TI was merely kidding, and you know it,”
Hill rejoined. “By the way, Elmer didn’t
leave a will. While you were gone, Probate
Judge Core named Mrs. Collett and Dr.
McCoy as administrators of the estate. So
it seems as though no one person is going
to inherit the whole estate. There goes a
possible motive up in smoke.”

CENHOWER nodded. He was thinking

of Jim Collett’s suggestion that an outside
detective be: employed in the. case. Perhaps
this would be the wisest move, after all.
Frankly, he did not know where next to turn.

Collett came into the sheriff’s office the
next day to talk again about the advisability
of .retaining some high-caliber investigator
from one of Ohio’s large cities.

As he sat talking with the prosecutor and
the sheriff, he pulled a handful: of cigars
from his pocket and dropped one on the
floor in making a selection. He lighted up,
restoring the others to the pocket—including
the one he retrieved from the floor.

Hill was :;
request for
Icenhower
“T’'ve got
Hill believe
his voice. “
crack this
more time,
noon.”
Collett to
tioningly at
thing up y
is it?”
“Not up rn
‘He bent to
a strand of \
pocket, not
run out to
Claytor aga
Icenhower
to remember
the .32 auto
of his emplc
“About a
Claytor sai
went huntin
after the se:
“Was Co
and Thanks;
“Not that
Icenhower
and they g
returned to
told what
floor after (
“A wisp
that I saw
a whole ci:
one. I'll bet
desk. Alon;
They came
hat truck
vas kept.”
“You thi
killer?” Hil
he’s been tr
“By givi:
reminded. ‘
private dic!
innocent if
His wife w
sure she ha:

knew about
once she in!
pretty...
The sher
with some |
“The only

deaths. Mc
daughter. 7
folks in linc
“T wond
“There’s a:
provides thz
be in doubt,
party died f{
descend as
might have
Jim Colle
He could h:
the barn, c
McCoy wit
attention. T!
to within in
farmer bent
Then, ac
struction of
automatic f)
the house.
the back px
had no caus«
She did not
a dish and
late...
Finally C
arrival, kno
before Than
have been «
Jim Colle
of Kingmar
drove there

eT ICT RT ESAT ty

te

. "i wot he,
a, which sais’

~ Hill was about ready to accede to Collett’s

ated. He ad-
ppointed when
ement, but he

Wednesday

Court House
enia. Mildred
ome there on
or Oak View
led her to get

neral services
ims in Grace
ington Court
Collett sought

headway with
th a note of
rybe it’s too
ybe we ought
om Columbus,
relatives will

ff with $100

y-haired little
ise of a brace
ine and neck
. There were
ue eyes; the
ncle had been

he said gently.
iandle the job
we'll call in
ik. But we're
can bet your
ou’ve got on

a tip that Vic
atives in the
1e Ohio River.
s son Maynard
ant farmer at
look up Lem
centucky.

1, but Newton
ironclad alibi
ght.

‘s, father and
Court House,
iad come in of

were a-lookin’
, clear myself.
my old lady’s
why, I never
thataway.”

The only three
to date were

ver told Pros-
e only people
the ones who
ther day. Like

you ‘know it,”
Elmer didn’t
gone, Probate
lett and Dr.
the estate. So
erson is going
There goes a

was thinking
that an outside
case. Perhaps
ove, after all.
re next to turn.
‘iff’s office the
the advisability
er investigator
5S.

prosecutor and
idful of cigars
‘d one on the
He lighted up,
cket—inel uding
» floor.

request for a special investigator, but Sheriff
Icenhower stubbornly shook his héad.

“I've got a hunch,” the sheriff said, and
Hill believed there was a new, icy note in
his voice. “I think maybe we'll. be. able to
crack this one ourselves. Give us a: ‘little’
more time, Jim. Come back, say, this after-
noon.

Collett took his ‘leave. Hill looked ques-
tioningly at his colleague. “You've got some-
thing up your sleeve,” he charged. “What
is it?”

“Not up my sleeve, John,” the sheriff said. -

‘He bent to the floor and carefully picked up
a strand of yellow material. “In Jim Collett’s
pocket, not up my sleeve. Let’s make a fast
run out to Oak View and talk with Dewey
Claytor again.”

Icenhower asked the tenant farmer to try
to remember exactly when he had last seen
the 32 automatic in the glove compartment
of his employer’s truck.

“About a week before the—the murders,”
Claytor said. “Jim Collett was over and
went hunting with Mr. McCoy. It was just
after the season opened.”

“Was Collett around between that time
and Thanksgiving ?”

“Not that [ know of,” Claytor replied.

Icenhower motioned to Hill to follow him,
and they got back in the sheriff’s car and
returned to town. On the way Icenhower
told what it was he had picked off the
floor after Collett’s visit.

“A wisp of cotnhusk,” he. said. “Before
that I saw the cigar Jim let fall. It wasn’t
a whole cigar. Just about: three-fourths of
one. I'll bet I’ve got the other quarter in my
desk. Along with some bits of cornhusk.
They came out of the glove compartment of
chat truck. Where the missing .32 pistol
was kept.”

“You think maybe Jim Collett is our
killer?” Hill could scarcely believe it. “Why,
he’s been trying to help us all along.”

“By giving us bum steers,” Icenhower
reminded. “By offering to help pay for a
private dick so he’d look all the more
innocent if anyone began suspecting him.
His wife was a sister of Elmer McCoy. I’m
sure she had nothing to do with it, or even
knew about it. But maybe Jim figured that
once she inheritéd the estate he’d be sitting
pretty awe

The sheriff paused, obviously wrestling
with some problem. Then he spoke again.

“The only thing wrong is the order of the
deaths. McCoy first, then his- wife and
daughter. That would leave Mrs. McCoy’s
folks in line to inherit...”

“l wonder,” the prosecutor broke in.
“There’s a new law on that in this state. It/
provides that where the order of death may
be in doubt, it is to be presumed that neither
party died first and the estate of each shall
descend as if he were the survivor. Jim
might have known about this new law.”

Jim Collett was, indeed, a prime suspect.
He could have been with Elmer McCoy in
the barn, could have stood directly behind
McCoy without the farmer’s paying any ,
attention. Thus he could have raised a pistol”
to within inches of the victim’s head as the
farmer bent over the feed grinder.

Then, according to Icenhower’s recon-
struction of the crime, Collett took the .32
automatic from the truck and went up to
the house. Mrs. McCoy had come out on
the back porch after hearing the shot,. but
had no cause for alarm as Collett approached.
She did not see the gun, as she stood with
: dish and towel.in hér hands, until too
ate 2s

Finally Collett had waited for Mildred’s
arrival, knowing she was coming the night
before Thanksgiving. To ambush her would
have been easy

Jim Collett ‘had lived near the little town
of Kingman, O., for 23 years. Icenhower
drove there and talked with his neighbors.

At 7 45 the ‘previous Wednesday night,
the Fayette County sheriff learned, Collett
had left home saying he was going to attend
a grange meeting. However, he did not
show up there, but was seen driving his big,
black sedan northeast toward Washington

“ Court House, instead.

Collett’s movements thereafter could. not
be traced until around 10 o'clock. At that
time he had phoned a veterinarian near his
home town, asking the doctor to’ come to
his farm to administer to a sick cow, The
veterinarian had said he would be out in the
morning, and Collett told him to let it go.

ACK in Washington Court House. ‘ the.

sheriff and prosecutor made: their deci-
sion. Jim Collett would be arrested | and
charged with the massacre at Oak. View. -
The spicy, gray- -haired little man came to
the sheriff's office ear'y that evening, six
days after the crime. ‘|...tily he- complained
of having called pope My oid of having waited
in vain for the sheriff.
“You fellows about ready to give. in?"

he snapped.
“No,” Icenhower answered bluntly. “Are
you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

The sheriff told -him. Collett angrily de-
nounced the officers, shouting that he was
being framed because he had shown up the
incompetence of the probers in their conduct
of the investigation.

They let him rave. Once he had simmered
down, Icenhower and Hill begdn questioning
him, calmly and with directness of purpose.
But it availed them nothing. Jim Collett
still angrily insisted that he had no guilty
knowledge of the triple murder; he dared
them-to-make public news of his arrest, to
prove a single damaging fact: against him.

“We're prepared to do that,” said the
sheriff. “But we'll have to go up to Toledo
to do it.”

“You've heard of the lie detector, haven't
you? The Toledo police use one. If you're
innocent, as you claim, you have nothing to
fear in taking a test.”

Collett was so willing that for a time
both Icenhower and the prosecutor feared
athey had the wrong man. But they rushed
him to Toledo, where experts strapped. him

‘to the polygraph and the test began.

He failed miserably. Informed that the

,machine accused him of the terrible crime,

Collett simply went to pieces.

He confessed, signing a statement in the
presence of witnesses. Collett said he drove
to Oak View the night before Thanksgiving
to talk with the farmer about $15,000. which,
he claimed, McCoy had owed Mrs. Collett
in rent over some 20 years.

“You know Elmer’s temper,” he. said. “He
flared up at me. He grabbed a pitchfork
handle ‘and swung. I couldn’t fight back—
not with my hurt back, I couldn’t.. There
was a revolver hanging on a nail in the
barn. I grabbed it and shot hjm. The next
thing I knew, I was on the way home.”

- Collett claimed he could remember nothing
of the shooting of either Mrs. McCoy or
a9 ah of whom he had always been:so
on

He said he did not know what had hap-
pened to the weapons, although later a story
gained some credence in the Washington
Court House region ‘that he had _ slip
them into one of the coffins at the triple
funeral.

While they were positive he had killed
the three persons at Oak View farm, officials
were unsatisfied with Jim Collett’s. version
of the slayings, or the only one of them
which he described.

Elmer McCoy, they insisted, had been
shot while entirely unsuspecting his danger.
The bullet wound in the back of his head
and the powder burn around it proved this,
they contended.

ee

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37

County Commissioners offered a reward of $1,000 for the detection and con- ie Z
-Viction of the perpetrator of the crime. Many were the theories advanced.
.' The Prosecuting Attorney had become convinced that the man who had ~~
dastardly sought by perjury to fasten the crime upon an innocent man was’ ~~
_ the murderer of the Roosa family. ‘There were, however, difficulties in. the

718 : HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

hatchet belonged to the house. Dispatches from Dayton in answer to those

- sent from Lebanon stated that Mr. Roosa was still in the asylum, and was not
- absent at the time of the murder. The excitement in the community was in- |

tense. Volunteer detectives swarmed in from all directions. Several persons

_were arrested, and no evidence being found against them, were promptly dis-

bd

charged. Soo Bese Some
- Immediately after the discharge of one who had been arrested on suspicion
and held for preliminary examination, Samuel Coovert came to Lebanon, and ~~

- sought an interview with the Prosecuting Attorney. He had come from Mid-

dletown to Deerfield, his former home, a few days after the murder, and had re-
mained at his old home until the time of the interview. He stated that he
knew the murderer; that David Hicks, of Cincinnati, had confessed to him the
commission of the crime. George R. Sage, now, a distinguished member of

the Cincinnati bar, was then Prosecuting Attorney of Warren County. After
_ carefully listening to the story of the stranger, and having it repeated, the sus-

picion arose in the lawyer’s mind that the narrator himself had a guilty know]-
edge of the crime. . The story of the confession was in itself improbable, and

“in giving the details of the alleged confession, the murderer’s work was de-

scribed so minutely and circumstantially, that it seemed hardly possible that the _ 3

_ description could all be fabricated. -The informer was permitted to sign and —

make oath to a declaration charging David Hicks with the murder; the accused
was sent for, and steps also taken to secure the arrest of the accuser, on the
charge of perjury. Hicks, on coming to Lebanon had no difficulty in showing a:
that he was in Cincinnati, at the time of the murder, and in fastening upon *~
Coovert the guilt of perjury. Of this offense, Coovert was afterward found :
guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for five years. “989

The detectives continued in the work of ferreting out the murderer. The ~

way of this theory. Samuel Coovert, though a native of the vicinity of Deer-

field, and well aquainted with the Roosa premises, was at the time of the mur-
der liying in Middletown; where he worked in a saw-mill. It was known that ©.
he had been seen in Middletown, on the evening of the day on which the myr- . ~
der was committed, and also early the next morning, and that he had worked

in the saw-mill the day before, and the day after the murder. The distance

between Middletown and the Roosa farm; by turnpike, is eighteen miles. A 2h

horse’s tracks had been seen near the Roosa house, on the morning after the

murder. Had the murderer rode on horseback thirty-six miles, committed a ee
_Yobbery and murdered four persons, in the hours of darkness of a night be-

tween days both passed in hard labor? Link after link in the chain of evi-
dence, which seemed to establish this theory was discovered, and Coovert
was indicted for murder. The Legislature passed a law to meet this case, |

authorizing the removal of a convict in the penitentiary, against whom anin-

dictment for felony is pending, for trial in the county in which the indictment
was found. Coovert was brought from the penitentiary at Columbus, ahd his
trial on the charge of murder commenced at Lebanon, March 1, 1866. Judge
George J. Smith presided on the bench; the prosecution was conducted by
George R. Sage and David Allen, the latter having succeeded to the office of ~
Prosecuting Attorney; the aftorneys assigned by the court for the defense of
the accused were J. Kelly O’Neall, J. M. Smith and Thomas F. Thompson.

The trial continued for several days and resulted in a verdict of guilty of mur. a :


qe . ¢ : | ;
 _, COOVERT, Samuel, white, hanged Tebanon, Ohio, 8-26-1866,

ay

UNION TOWNSHIP. T17

ANCIENT FORTIFICATIONS AND MOUNDS. Mey oie

Dr._S.-S.-Scoville, of Lebanon, who has given considerable attention to
the archeology of Warren County, writes as follows :

‘The only ancient works of defense in Union Township, so far as is known, are situated #
adjacent to the village of. Deerfield, on the farm of Mr. D. Hufford. As seen at the earl
settlement of the country, theyconsisted of two circular inclosures.. The Lebanon an
Deerfield road passes through the smaller circle, where portions of the embankment are ae ee
still visible. A little'to the west of these works are two mounds. They are some thirty tr,

- rods apart; both have been explored, but nothing found In them worthy of note. East of y
Deerfield, on the farm of J. M. Hayner, there is a small mound. On the west side of Turtle [ “ie, Mega ale ‘ =
Creek. about one anda half miles from its mouth, there is quite a large mound. Fifty eee mien ike a tT Re le
years ago, it was some twelve feet in height, and thirty-five fect in diameter. It is now ~ /| Ae aia | a ae
only about seven feet high. Many years ago, Mr. John Randolph made an excavation in ac <
one side of it, and found human bones and several copper rings. In 1879, Dr. D. D. T.
Dyche, and the writer, explored this mound, and found the skeleton of a child. It was : o
situated at the center of the mound, on a level with the orjginal ground. The bones were. ees Ji eens eae.
most of them, in an advanced state of decay, although the situation and character of the eee sa yo Sa
mound were very favorable to the preservation of such remains, it being situated on an
clevation which slopes off in every ‘direction, while the upper part consists of burnt clay,
thus rendering it impervious to water. Near the northern boundary of the township, on
the farm of James White, and about half a mile west of the Lebanon and Deerfield road,
there is a mound of considerable size. There is another situated on the east part of J. 8.
Totten’s farm, about half a mile east of the road just mentioned. It was explored some
thirty years ago, and some copper rings and fragments of pottery were found. F

$
’

APOE edu wens tts “THE ROOSA MURDER. ace bat Me
On December 26, 1864, near the hour of -midnight, at the residence of
John W. Roosa, one mile from Deerfield, was committed one of the most hor-
rible murders in the annals of crime. It was followed with the only case of
capital punishment in the history of Warren County. The occupants of the
Roosa house on the fatal night were Mrs. Roosa, three young daughters, an in-
fant at the breast, and an old man hired upon the farm, named Jesse Couzens.
Alice Bello, aged fifteen; Francis, a younger sister; the infant by its mother’s
side, and Jesse Couzens, were all killed with the same hatchet, and Mrs. Roosa,
with her head horribly gashed, was left as dead by the murderer. Little Jean-
nette, azed about seven years, was the only person in the house unhurt, and she
_remained with the dead and dying until daylight, when she went to a neigh-
bors for assistance. John W. Roosa, the father, was at this time an inmate of
the Lunatic Asylum at Dayton, where he had voluntarily gone on account of
monthly attacks of lunacy, in the intervals of which he was sane. He was a
respected farmer, and was Treasurer of Union Township.. He had recently
written to his wife to sell their barley crop of eight hundred bushels, and to
keep the money in the house for the purpose of paying orders on the township
treasury. This letter, committed by Mrs. Roosa to a friend, had been read in
a store at Deerfield, in the presence of a number of persons. ‘The publicity, ——
innocently given to this letter is-believed to have been the cause of the murder,
by arousing the cupidity of the perpetrator of the crime, robbery and not mur-
der, undoubtedly, being the purpose with which the house was entered. Only
about $20 however, were found and carried away. Ay Mame a Best eae
‘Tho horrors witnessed by the neighbors, who, on Tuesday morning, Dec-
ember 27, first arrived at the scene of the tragedy, need not here be described.
Three persons lay dead; Francis was still living, but unable to give any ac-
count of the crime, and not long after died; Mrs Roosa was found with many
marks of the murderer’s hatchet, and from her face the blood had spurted to the
ceiling. Serious as were her wounds, she finally recovered. No clew of the ——
murderer was found, except a red silk handkerchief, picked up on the walk near
the house, and prints of a horse’s feet by the hitching-post. The bloody —

SrtA ad A agree LSet Sats Ae TE ase

uldn’t be done? Then, immedi-
fter the slaying
recording of that spee
innocent man,
doesn’t keep his eyes 0
check the exac
actions. And why,
Collett said that
veterinarian at 9:
vet set the ti

On the day
ence Hill and

g to risk his
ered roads

rush that he was willin
life—speeding
—have stoppe
a few minutes before?

Then the vete

s, had a second
dometer listed?
Hill realized,
n the clock to
f his various
he wondered, had
he had called the
15 o’clock when the
t an hour later?

following their confer-
Icenhower returned to
With them_ they
ic. While the
talk with the
ther, the man
f the suspect’s

over ice-cove
d to doze in his car only

n came forward

had been after 10
e received the call
about the sick mare—not 9 as Collett
had declared.

On Thursday aftern
after the slayings,
in Wilmington an
e where Collett freque
air work done.
farmer had le
e Thanksgivin
d. At the time

heriff arrived
d went to the ga-
ntly had re-
d the elder-
ft his car there the
g to have the
the mechanic
the speedometer mileage
ervice record and
Collett, however, had
keys to his car so it
change the oil. Re-
e farmer said h
job done later
get back home

brought a local mechan
two officials went in to
slain Mrs. McCoy’s bro
made an examin
dark green Chevrol

Fifteen minutes late
for them when they cam

“Cable leading to the
has been disconnected wi
week or so,” the mecha
s been connected a
doubt it was disc
can tell by the fresh
liers on the grease-
1. as the clean
the cable was pulled

d Hill returned to the
waiting. They
hhanic’s story.
they continued. to

oil change
had checked
on Collett’s s
showed 11,667.
gone off with the
was impossible to
turning later,
would have to have the
as he was in a hurry to
with his groce
Questioned
fied the gara
that on the
he had gone
House in conne
gation and wh
oil changed in
It was a ma
utes for the s
h the mec
He also had
speedometer
11,712 against the.
‘A comparison of t
that the car
miles from the
slaying until th
was a 76-mile roun
McCoy and
ently prove
Collett car ha
The day the
out Sheriff Ice
conference with th
He felt sure thei
solving the case lay
evidence already gathe
exhaustive check
taken, and throug
in the va
gathered, ge
of the mystery.

r he was waiting

speedometer
thin the past
nic reported

there is no
for a time. You
marks of the p
’ coated leads,
places ‘where

about this, Collett veri-
eman’s story and
after Thanksgiving .
Washington Court
ction with the investi-
ile. there had had the
a local garage. j
tter of but a few min-
heriff to confirm this
hanic who changed
checked the
and marked
mileage entry.
he records showed
en driven just 45
afternoon before the
e day afterward. As it
d trip between the
this appar-
bility of the

Icenhower an
house where Collett was
repeated the garage
Then for two hours

Collett farms
d the impossi
ving been involv d
se facts were
nhower had another
e county prosecutor.
r only chance in
in going over the
red, making an
ery statement
h some discrepancy

on sale at all
ands September 29th

tting a clue to the solution i
estion the man whose wife had
hance of becoming the sole heir to
the slain man’s estate.

Collett never chan

hese murders,” Icen-
d to the prosecutor,
iar with thé McCoys. Prob-
friend:=And I’m con-
one with whom we’ve
d. Someone who has car-
-laid plan for murder.
ll humans, is fallible—
little error that will
ole plot if we can only

hower ex
“was fami
ably a trusted’
his speedo
already talke appear guil
ried out a deep
But who, like a
has made one
shatter the wh

tor Hill, lookin
half-dozen statemen
activities of Collett a
port on the man’s sp
struck by the
lett had apparently
Others questi
heir moveme
produced witnesses
d let it go at

the other hand, had
ut of his way to get
most every min-
g which he
imself somewhere other .
the McCoy farm.
Was it, the prosecutor
sheer coincidence t
taken his. car In
changed—an
ed—only a few
der? And carrie

g down at the
olving the
long with the re-
eedometer, was
th which Col-
covered his ac-
oned had been

able to explain t
few words—had
to back their stories an

Collett, on
seemingly gone 0
some witness for al
ute of the

ent was to be di-
o children; b
d the rentals
Collett’s wife her

led with him about
ere the night. be-
an effort to get
interrupted the

erty on w
vided between her tw
that McCoy had co
and never = given

eriod durin
that—went over th
fore Thanksgiving in
him to pay off?
' prosecutor.”
‘ Collett-shoo

wondered,

to have the oil k his head vigorously.
eedometer check-
hours before the mur-

d off his key so the ©

+ “Jim,”, the sheriff sugg
you think it would be a’
you to submit toa lie-

ood idea for
etector: test?

That'll prove once and for all whether *

we have grounds for suspecting you :
in this awful thing.” :
Indignant at the suspicions being

VIOLE ID

cast against him, the slight, elderly |
farmer instantly agreed. He would ~

even pay for the . test himself, he —
vowed.

Arrangements for the use of the
crime laboratory at the Toledo Police /
Department were made and early in §
December Collett arrived there with

- (Continued from pay

“So it could be ra
nearly any sort of mc
“This case is just ©

turned to Bornmahn.

Sheriff Icenhower and Prosecutor Hill. |
The test was made in the poly- |

graphic room the night of their ar-
rival by chee Arthur Eggert and |
Lieutenant

got to talk to people

“Lots of people.” :
So the endless* ro

various canvasses, *

eorge Eckerman. of the © of friend

Toledo Detective Bureau. At its con- §
clusion the results were shown to the &
elderly suspect and fifteen minutes @

later Sheriff Icenhower announced §
that Collett had confessed to the mur- :
der of his brother-in-law!

neighbors, residents
the gravel pit, your
have owned .22
even suspects drag;
by overly imagina
state detectives plo

The man was firm in his denial that :
he had had anything to do with the, |

slaying of Mildred McCoy and her

this patiently, kno\
point along the way
across that insignif

mother. He did admit, however, that @
he had taken two guns to the McCoy &

farm when he went there to plead

could blow the m)
they didn’t find it.
The newspapers a

with McCoy for his wife’s share of #
the inheritance left by her mother. He
said he had gone to the barn where |
McCoy was putting the cattle in their §
stalls, argued with him for fifteen 7
minutes and opened fire only when
the other man lost his temper and §
threatened to attack him with a pitch- ;

fork.

During the ten-day trial before
Common Pleas luce Harry M. Ran- §
kin in Washington

the vicious slaying
eye until after the
Sharp, on Septemb«
|. this publicity whic
the police their firs’

A man recalled t
along the Bridgetor
in question and that
answering Alberta
tion walking alone
an automobile on t!

ourt House three #} the road from her,

months later, in February, 1944, Col- x
lett retracted his confession. He swore | ©
he had been tricked by the police into

making: his earlier statements, and §
stoutly reaffirmed his first story to #

dark-color«
walking toward h
seem like he was
car,” -he told the off

The pol'- ‘let;

account for his actions on the night of 1

the murders. ;
The authorities had not only sug- }f

alive agai:

leave, pol

gested what he was to say in his #
“confession,” but had, with romises, §

pene him to say it, Collett testi- |
ed.

-ities in Washingtc
any sailors who ha
Jefferson area had
on or about Septe)
tion, the Motor V

“It’s the cheapest and best way out.

One man I knew received only one

at the state ‘capi
alerted to check its

year and three months in an asylum #

after his statement,” the prisoner §
quoted a Toledo officer as telling him
at the time he signed the confession.
Finally, ‘“‘too paralyzed from the neck
up to think,” he had told his inquisi-
tors: “Well, go ahead and write some-
thing. I'll sign it.”

A jury of three women and nine
men heard the confession read in the
courtroom, listened to the evidence of
witnesses rounded up by Sheriff Icen-
hower, and after deliberating for 45
minutes found the defendant guilty
of the first-degree murder of Mr. and
Mrs. McCoy and_ their daughter.
Throughout the trial Prosecutor Hill
stressed the point that Collett had

piennee the murder of McCoy in cold
lood, later had been forced to erase
the two witnesses to the crime in
order to carry out his original scheme.

Still protesting his innocence, James
Collett went to the electric chair in
Ohio State Prison on April 20th of

colored Ford coupe
tered under addre

The navy deli

_ They not only he
sailor who’d been
around September
the gob off a batt]
him to the state po

4 racks. Questioned.
mitted having se
on the murder nig

: “She walked rig
hellg;to her, thoug
Bornmann, “I gue
weight and Alber
And I can tell y«
. that car, the one *

What the youn;
say corroborated

+ that the car had
| what he added by
/ mation suggested
been driven the

1945 to pay with his life for one of §
the most brutal crimes ever to strike #

yassed this
ine of vision«whe

the quiet farming community where |

he had spent the three score years of
his hitherto uneventful life.

on. It was facing
made a U-turn a1
in the direétion

Eprtor’s NOTE:
The names, Bill Spires and Jeb
Crane, are fictitious.

_ The sailor’s ans
tions indicated hi:
in the case and


GOOPER,. Johny, black, 2, eleces: Ohio (Franklin) 9-30-1921,

4 ay .

? =

hy

B, ‘THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, —-4921—

ee ee a

¥ ‘i ae = s

sont . aang

ea -

gen eet .

“ a hats tS “there
Uocan't 3t F

Voliva Hs Disheliever® pemn't
in Law of Gravitation M tured it,

qf heavier .
: —towtring-of =

Pn of Zion, 1, Uses Book, .§ certain ¥
it wWFaeathersend Brick to Dem- 4) **tUe. ;

fe athe

-unnetrate His “Proof2 ---—— _femiube
* 4 it bes

- : Z bats

LES. SEPTo oy wen”

— eee en “« =

a Shots taieeen oa br ok 38 -
“dn his cell_at the ‘Ohio ear Sia tek, Weoryr Glew Veter over. roa
a John Cooper, colored slayer of C. Fe. seer aie Zinn: set mien den - fetta 3
So “Tilier, Columbua patrolman, ‘WAS PFe- jp. dizticen Re eas s ts Le Boy -
a rartng Thursday to die in the electric | objects fii iewause they wte- Julied: BR ey ; me
sa be Chair early Friéay morning. He as iny gravity teward th: center uf the ?
Bot -siven 1) hope of a reprieve_ana- HOS iearth ~ - . Rowse oe
Ra aluvady @tstrivuted his few Dbelong- | Thiers —.- 44, $50 Thing e- e”
eS janes ameng the -occupanies. of ibe lrew. of SET AY TON viaoel DAE
cH a Medes is ~"§ ae Lett colin. smUCET RS Tore Aose-nNacihe? shew «ty WS. vi ee
. 4 When Protestant Chaptain Ty. O. i gice nis Pssatait tthe “The WaT Fe. “adgacd ‘ UU iwieee™: om Fees
| Reed brought Cooper's wife t© -®ignd Matt fh Ls Mee tte : ea si eS
e Or | him Thursday morning. the prisone® night a. ess in Naiich abet: ae ee eee Oks “i

res Ft

jdeltained tim Jong enough to aak. “They @iiie bovnan Hn-2 t*e°7
3 what -dispasition could be made of | gravitate sige <n =F
a sa Pa ‘body snd to tell what he -winted ay. smuch cuing dlieow as Tt BA ee

ook pad his dast meal. Cyuoper requested jaw aos ray.’ 5? tet: peas A AARe: ive Berg YS igen? at ib mit oie pes

Eas: hai fe 46 without funde. aia RS,
fp aan rout Trea ayer. rina SAYS His, Prescription | pees
“S, of .chreken—-temonude and ~ cake were ;

4 iwniten on ithe piece of paper arhich |

jihal the chaplain dispose of his body | Foe i pias ie ERS PO gr eek es

! Cooper handed the chaplain fo: é ty
ing to custom,. Miss ; one inate!
b= ip. E. Thomas, awwife of the warden?) 0° 7 ae | Ph oe peta ae st Ala ce
ge tht wit) attend personalty to buying this Dh e oe ae yer 8
hei fou, if at. | caa-be purchased on focal | wh a ranger

imarkets. eis g 5 eda eens len Be Ny ae
{ Coupes 10 42 yearn old, and wns te! apy meet oh genic a ee Wey
am “| ceived at the anetituuon March 24, tha teerstin_ “tt he = = 1) See a SRR oe
Beli. 12621, with the ysteied perenne A Ars, Leste
a Tere FIPOCUTION set i July 35, He reveived (oo acclee. Se Ee es
B Vice :@ Stay of execution from the nmourt of free [1.0 Fg tire L vabes
. died Appeals. “The ocrime for which he ered sie: Le Mee
‘M1. iwill die was committed in a Wert TUS Bs
“thre pane: treet malo When Patrolman mea 09 cepa Hass - teat te.

-
; % Ti ler attein; ond ta (examine a hiswezee tf Sith ee ts
t
k
$

ey Sebel, Cooper waa, AAS IDE ome - sh 2 ed Ei S818 sect Te
FOr beition of mate Grew, ~ ye ae ques 5
sie ROLTH PORTLAND, SE. Gee a arg a So tk
Fi 2%.-Jamales of the State Rehoo! for : He Treely | TES SS
ne) Heys, a reform inatitution. are Pusid- ae pelinteds
car ring sath thous for ‘thems lyes “aa ef urcetg® .
the! They dux the <eier, inst tne eylferera every
., piers poured concrete Lor the foun- reno comaechs yhee xy
- dation walls.and pisoed heavy teams PSNI soe
% 1 His PosItion. Now they Bre Going the sseanity wetn “tae ee
v.i more advenerd work on theiy brieksthry wit Tretie Py eee Pi ae
pa Seitding. using blue srinte under tie MONey BM Un Rm SE Re eR eamapae a Seri Pe

vurds: @luts “he: ; SS eden ee ae ites us

SBperyision -of a Mason ang a Cute. i AG : PPS: po ee ie

ptaente sr.) Biers ee Ee j ste a Wy oe
28 enecerm:- ; j


nd she
‘ingia”
nN avenge, this city) At $ o'clock
) day morning funeral services
‘atthe home in which she
"elock In the ‘afternoon.

“Wilk be held at the home ‘of |
Behior, "after which her . re.

ve

be taken -to  Westlawn
Mrs. Umstead was. walt
| IDS SIGNED. ©
Tieadas) morning Mayor Turnbyit
nd City Auditor: Ashbrook ‘affixed
ett signatures to: $15,000 -warth of}
ast was = street~. paving.
onde. The bonds have been soit
) Haya ier & Co., of ae

nd, and the.money will be fn ten
‘ow days. BiH Bs a6 ce

Cee apa recmaczermewree Se ete NS.
Maine Clef Justice Dead.
Boston. Dee 4-1 4. P.)-—Chiet
ustice Andred P. Winwell; <of
aint supreme court.’ died. suddenly
tthe’ Hotel Totratne im ‘this ‘rity
“heart-disease. Judge Wis-
ely. and hig wife had heen staying
t the hotel for about « week. He

in, Chief justice since 1900. x

Ga; to: Mentgos, 1136 W. Tse. 8t.
Xmas hand-painted china, tt

We

Buffets “from $16 ta $300: easy

prime oF cash Stuart's, 323 &. Tusc.
x eta et pe oman ee
& sage areata

+} Offense: contained iz. Andict- .
HE Sid dahertihan om om cog if Crobaugh ‘of

‘} must heproven. The:

the}

: «SE haveing fh :
againat the tefendant,” sald he.c\"t
have doné-In-this case, simply what
the - people. of Stark: county elected.
me to anne geese POM RN, rps
dade Charge.
‘ Jtidge Harter’s charge lasted. a Ut-
ile ower halfan hour, He sata there
were two issues of fact in the case:
PF iret, Ja the defendant guilty. of
first) degree’ murder oa he stands
Charged; secondiy, 4¢- not igutliy of
that degree In hé guilty of any other

meptt®) 2
, fet tay What. 3
_fiThe law. presumes the !
to. be innocent,” said the court, and
‘that presumption “conUnues until the

State Must Prove. ©

‘be bevond a:reasonable doubt before!

: jury’ must
look to the evidence.
judging accordingty.

‘ hee E
t)STestinony regarding the’ defend-
pnt's drinking has heen: admitted
during tha trial)’ Drankenneas 4 no
excuse Tor erilme however.’ A drank-
en malicets as wicked as a sober png.
In. first. and “second degree murder
eases, though, testimony as to the
defondant’a intoxicat(on Ip admitted
for the
Bd Sora” sare Or, cg ee
tas crime of first dagres murder
ean only be done.bdy. a. free agent
one who is free 3 do or not te Ao:

Xew edition af Bapust Cook Rook
i wale at church: bazar, Thursday,
yidayand Saturday) os) y

, ;

ore eo Wednesday afro:
and avosing, Dec. 6: The wate
“Mnrlude. fancy -artices, — aprons
Rolle. 8 ‘good: .

Mei

bY,

‘The tosanity test ia whether the ae.

fendant: tiad mental powerd to know

the “ifference’’: between ~ ‘right ‘ahd

ny and, if he had, whether’ he

sed auMistegt. will power/te re-

from doling wrong.f ob) Fo aw
Tbe Insanity Pea.

i

enm

4, featings |

4 ALR Sa
‘defendant.

& Yerdict. of ‘first or) second degree}
murderean be asked. In a verdict of |<
manslaughter all essential elementa| /

“exelustvely, |

purpose of showing what he!

tution’s chef and Mra.
of ‘the. superintendent,

from the wilds ‘of Canade as
ofa hunting expedition ‘by
Auditor Oberlin and: 4x.
Alliance, | hives
ee pe

=e

state has proven otherwise. It-maat | -%

' Coubty Treasurer loch stated
Tuesday morning that about 25 sa-
tconista in the county had pata thelr
second semi-anrnal assessment oF
$560 andet the Aiken Jaw. Last May
285 xalonns ‘continyed © busineas | 19
this county under te $1,006 licenga,” ’
ralsed from $300.0° 0° s> oo So Bel ta
"Retal) ilqvor dealers baye unl. ¥
December 10°to “PAY > thetr > asresy-)

ments,” sald the treanurer. "Te.

assessment should have been ‘paid ty:

thé fast Monday in Oetoder, bur tne”

Ure wae extended for the reason thes ¥
under the old law ifs December as-2--
sCPHMeRT Was Mol fortheiming Unt}
Derenber 12> ce ; 3 ‘é pa aie ‘ at

=
re

a _ eee CE eS
“The Fitet Preabyterian churcy wil

j[ ROMA Nasaar all dav: Weduesdag,.

Dede ja thee Bunda neha) cose
Hupber witl be servetite the tyening |
. Sat ag: “eee s {3

iy ¥ Ne Sen


ted
segitran’ ned
: Jett: rai ta-

a

Injuries Received 1 tA: ‘Game a

TAcaioat Bulldogs Held

Reece. tow. Prolericasburg o.!

f state that Doniel Weogard. who dt e

tt with the tocthall team of

‘S| place ogsinat the Canton a. C.. In one
p fet: the early. matékes, diedy “Prighie
4morping, supposedly’ {roma

‘Mnjirtes

>? Eststeined in the ‘contest. |). Wenrerd

‘Sjed Onto State university,

es ber “The
plived the whole Fale. Canton won
; che: bene. RR te a. ¢ Pay Bae

wasa achoot teacher, paving: attend:

= played. eft guard. > He

if the game against, Ceiten:it

os

; tae ‘frst’ Srarkd ‘murder (ne!
Febarnéd jn the imdictmenc. ‘was -the

<tyerdiet of the jary in the trtah-of

Jas W, Careclius, charged with Ktil:]
ing his wife September 17 at: their
heme in Soeth - Market street | by.

yetriking her with @ window - weight.
A The jary reported to Jwtae AoW.

Harte at 2:20 o'rlock

- BO ASKNKW TRIAL.
the Jory wns then ‘potted, { and

fey asked if thet was) hia veritict

gy pox Jeror: reaponded in: the

* i Saher Proaente

{new trial,”
; ehectrte: thatr.

“Panter tt. waa

Riccar be petitions pace wor
The veriiict, whlesa re,
versed, carrice wth. it, death in the

m

a SHOWRD. ‘oO EMOTION.

CE, oCornetine: wan. ‘Drought lato the
chites toom by. acti ote, an, BOO

[McCulloch were
cess A ‘Corneliug Ustened, intently }™
an she gh eg but’ Sf shh eed Amotion |

Welty then gave woe}

rv Upham and Aa{ %,

RS = ri
é i

C ¢ soksaian tert: ‘pot eae of, the
erimeon the. stoun és: ah Thasnit;

Peis the fery had teff the room, -

Judke: ‘Harter informed ‘Provecuta®

Wotam that) duriog the tris’, tenti-
tony had’ been: “\receti ad. sbowtas :
that the Nqoor laws of the state had
been violated,:. and. anked that the

‘Pproaeeutor dnvestixate: the. matter for

the, purpose of <preesmfing the’ ae
‘of ocapeey upakiee Abe ext eshacnse

rh , od es v2
| DECEMBER eR MEETING es

*
ri
#
"=>
:


a

Could a bag of money trap the seventh killer
to stalk the streets of Cleveland's East Side?

HE minute he stepped inside the
shoe store, Ralph Fleck knew
something was wrong. St. Clair

Street in Cleveland, Ohio, was jammed
with trucks and autos; the sidewalks
were teeming with the usual Friday
afternoon crowd of shoppers at three
o'clock that bright October 10.

But the shoe store was ominously
quiet.

The customer spoke. “I waited here
nearly five minutes before I went after
you. Nobody’s around.”

Fleck, manager of the adjoining book
and card store, frowned. He had become
well acquainted with 24-year-old Ray-
mond Mack since he became manager of
the Thom McAn shoe store the previous
January. He was pretty sure the young
man wouldn't have gone out on an
errand without locking the door of the
store.

“Wait a minute,” he said to the cus-
tomer. “Let’s look in the back room.

36

Maybe he’s back there checking stock
and didn’t hear you come in.”

He walked to the rear of the store and
turned the corner into the stockroom.

The color drained from his face and
he recoiled in horror.

Young Mack lay sprawled in the
doorway to the washroom. A dark Pool
of blood was spreading slowly over the
linoleum floor from a small hole in his
temple.

“Good heavens!” Fleck cried. “He’s
been shot!”

He grabbed the telephone and with a
trembling hand dialed the police oper-
ator.

After he gave the report, he turned
back to his wounded friend. Nearly im-
perceptible breathing showed that Mack
still clung to life.

Soon, the high-pitched wail of a
siren slashed through the hum of traffic
and a cruiser car skidded to a stop at
the curb, its flasher light whirling

OFFICIAL DETECTIVE, March, 1959

brightly. Two uniformed patrolmen
leaped out.

A crowd was gathering on the side-
walk outside.

Fleck directed the patrolmen to the
rear of the store and stood back while
they examined the wound in Mack’s
head.

“Looks like a small-caliber gun,” Pa-
trolman David Higgins told his Partner.
“No sign of a struggle—somebody must
have surprised him back here and shot
without warning.”

As Higgins spoke, the shrill of sirens
filled the street again and the Police
ambulance and two more cruisers nosed
to the curb. Patrolmen Alistair Bruce
and Stanley Slivka and Detective Ser-
geant Ted Carlson entered with the
ambulance crew.

“Back here with that stretcher!” Hig-

- gins called. “It. looks pretty bad!”

Fleck, dazed by the horror of his dis-
covery and the ensuing rush of events,

This is Ray Mack and the shoe store
he tended until the afternoon
a "customer" exchanged lead for silver

edged against the wall as the ambulance
crew gently picked up Mack’s nearly
lifeless body, placed it on a stretcher
and, stepping carefully around the pool
of blood, carried it out to the waiting
ambulance.

The sergeant moved in to take com-
mand of the investigation. “Are you the
man who made the call?” he asked
Fleck.

Fleck nodded and told the officer the
circumstances of his discovery.

‘Did you hear anything that sounded
like a shot?”

Fleck scowled in thought. Then, “I
heard a loud bang around two-thirty.
It seemed to come from here. I thought
it was the trap door slamming.”

He explained that the cellar of the
Store was reached by a trap door, which
sometimes dropped down with a sharp
bang.

Carlson turned to the man standing
beside Fleck. “Now you’re the one who
found the store empty?”

“That’s right.”

“What's your name?”

“It's Jack Randall. I just came in here
to look at some shoes. When I didn’t
find anyone I went next door and asked
Mr. Fleck about it. I didn’t look in the
back.”

“Was anyone leaving the store as you
came in?”

Ja

“No, sir.”

A hurried survey of the store led the
officers to the conclusion that Mack had
been surprised by a holdup man and
shot down when he attempted to duck
back into the rear stockroom. The regis-
ter had been rifled.

“He kept all of his extra change in a
pag on a stockroom shelf,” Fleck vol-
unteered.

One of the officers looked. ‘‘Nothing
there,” he reported. ‘The thief must
have got that, too.”

ARLSON told the men that he had
asked Fred Podmore and John
Hughes from the Scientific Investiga-
tion Unit to come to the scene. ‘Maybe
they can pick up some prints from the
register and that shelf in the back,” the
sergeant said. “Meanwhile, there's not
much more we can do here.”

He posted two patrolmen in the store
and ordered the other men to fan out
through the neighborhood to try to find
a merchant or passerby who had seen
the bandit leaving the store.

Then, knowing that Mack's life was
hanging by a thread, he called in Detec-
tives Frank Dimperio and Steve Hospo-
dar of the homicide unit and asked them
to follow up the case at the hospital.

The detectives got the call as they
were patroling the northeast section of
the city at 3:45 p. m.

Hospodar swung the unmarked
cruiser around in a tight turn, pushed
the accelerator down and whipped the
car through traffic toward the hospital,

ae
z

a scant three blocks from the scene of
the shooting.

They were met in the emergency room
by Doctor Pedro Guinto, who told them:
“The man has a wound of the head. The
bullet entered the left temporal area.
It's still lodged in the brain. There’s not
much hope, I’m afraid.” :

“Do you have his personal papers?”
Dimperio asked.

“Yes. The nurse there will give them
to you.”

Dimperio picked up the wallet and
thumbed quickly through the papers,
jotting down the victim's vital statistics.
Mack's identification cards showed that
he lived with an aunt, Mrs. Mae Ru-
zicka. She was notified of the shooting.

After the homicide men had learned
all they could about the victim at the
hospital, they joined the officers at the
store, where the lab men had nearly
completed their search for fingerprints.

Captain Louis Monter of the sixth
district also had arrived on the scene to
direct the work of the uniformed pa-
trolmen, while detectives were scouring
the neighborhood for someone who
might have seen the bandit enter or
leave the store.

Asa result of this canvass, one woman
witness was found who had seen a man
hurrying from the shoe store at a time
she could estimate only as between two-
thirty and three o’clock. She had been
window-shopping in front of the store
and got a good look at the man, al-
though she had no reason to be suspi-
cious of him.

Detective Robert Nightwine scaled the frail iron ladder
at the left to find the be gun being examined above

by Detective Carl Roberts an

She was asked to go to headquarters
the next morning to view the rogues’
gallery photos in the hope that she
might recognize the bandit.

None of the other merchants or
pedestrians in the area had seen or
heard anything suspicious that after-
noon.

A final tally of the money taken in
the robbery came to about $137, not in-
cluding the unknown amount of change
Fleck said would have been in a bag on
the stockroom shelf. Nothing appar-
ently had been taken from Mack’s wal-
let, but the wrist watch he customarily
wore was missing.

At HEADQUARTERS the window
shopper pored over page after page
of pictures of hard-eyed men, some with
records of armed robberies, others with
convictions for petty theft or strong-
arm robbery.

Finally she decided that one picture
resembled the man she saw hurrying
from the shoe store. “I’m almost posi-
tive this is the man,” she said.

The man she picked. was Joseph Hard-
ing, a 35-year-old ex-convict with a
record for burglary, robbery and nar-
cotics violations.

Two officers sped to the last address
shown for Harding, but he was not at
home. They began a canvass of the
cheap restaurants and poolrooms where
he was known to hang out, but by late
evening he had not been found.

At 11:55 p. m. the telephone in detec-
tive headquarters rang. It was a nurse
at the hospital. “Raymond Mack just
died,” she said. ‘He never recovered
consciousness.” ;

Now it was officially a case for the
homicide detectives.

Sergeant Ted Carlson

On Sunday morning a conference was
called in the office of Captain David
Kerr, homicide department chief and a
veteran of 24 years’ police work. In
addition to Dimperio and Hospodar.
Detectives Frank Moss, Harrison Har-
ney, Adelbert O'Hara, Carl Roberts.
William Kaiser, Harry Davidson and
Robert Nightwine were assigned to the
case.

The detectives were divided into four
two-man teams to pursue the investiga-
tion on a round-the-clock basis.

Mack’s death was the second holdup
slaying of a businessman on Cleveland's
East Side in less than two months. the
seventh homicide in the district in the
past year.

On August 26 Louis Burkhart, a 53-
year-old.owner of a bicycle shop, had
been beaten to death in his store on
Superior Avenue. The other five victims
had been residents of the East Side
who lived alone. None of the crimes had
been solved.

As tension and indignation over the
latest slaying mounted, a police dragnet
of district patrolmen and homicide de-
tectives rounded up suspects from tav-
erns, rooming houses and pool halls in
the neighborhood. Each was subjected
to rigorous questioning and asked to
account for his time on Friday after-
noon. But by late Sunday afternoon
nearly all of them had been cleared

That night Joseph Harding was
picked up when he returned to his home.
At headquarters he vehemently denied
Knowing anything about the holdup
shooting and insisted he was in a pool-
room about seven blocks from the scene
on Friday.

No amount of questioning could get
him to change his-story, so the officers

By Upton Williams Special Investigator for OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES

37

9380 Ohio

wholly within the discretion of the jury
and it does not appear from the record that
the damages awarded were given under
the influence of passion and prejudice, or
were excessive.

8. The defendant does not point out or
argue in his brief any errors under this
assignment of error, and consequently the
same will not be considered.

For the error of the court, above mcn-
tioned, in submitting to the jury plaintiff's
special request to charge No. 2, the judg-
ment will be reversed and the cause re-
manded for a new trial and further pro-
ceedings according to law, at costs of
plaintiff.

Judgment reversed.

JACKSON, P. J., and MIDDLETON,
J., concur.

° KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

aAums

84 Ohio App. 101
STATE v. CURNUTT.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Hamilton County.
Oct. 11, 1948.

1. Homicide C-138

Indictment charging that defendant did
aid, abet or procure his nephew unlawfully,
purposely and in perpetrating a robbery, to
kill a certain person, sufficiently charged

defendant with first degree murder. Gen.
Code, §§ 12380, 12400.

2. Homicide @253(6)

Evidence that defendant and nephew
planned robbery of deceased by nephew,
that defendant supplied nephew with black-
jack, that he told nephew to strike deceased
with blackjack and kill deceased, that de-
fendant took nephew in automobile to and
from place of robbery and murder, and
that defendant received part of proceeds
of robbery, sustained first degree murder

conviction. Gen.Code, §§ 12380, 12400.

3. Criminal law ©824(1)

A defendant is not entitled as a mat-
ter of right to have the court give special
charges.

CURNUTT. Elmer, white, 21, elec. Ohio (Hamilton) 7-16-1918,
84 NORTH EASTERN REPORTER, 24 SERIES

4. Criminal law ©=829(1)

If trial court incorporates in its gen-
eral charge the substance of special instruc-
tions requested by defendant, and the gen-
eral charge contains correct statements of
the law applicable to the facts, refusal of
special requested instructions is not preju-
dicial error.

5. Criminal law C—814(3)

Where evidence in murder prosecution
justified only a verdict of guilty as charged,
a verdict of guilty with a recommendation
of mercy, and a verdict of not guilty, trial
court properly refused to submit a form of
verdict in the second degree. Gen.Code, §§
12400, 12402-1, 12403.

6. Criminal law €=942(2), 1156(3)

The recantation by an important wil-
ness for the state of his testimony at the
trial does not as a matter of law, entitle
defendant to a new trial, and determination
of such matter rests in the sound discre-
tion of the trial court, whose action will
not be set aside except for clear and mani-
fest abuse,

7. Criminal law ©=942(2)

Where nephew originally made oral
and written statements that he committed
murder and that his uncle aided and abetted
him, and in murder prosecution of uncle
the nephew testified against the uncle, and
then, after conviction of uncle and while
nephew was awaiting exccution, nephew
recanted and stated that uncle had no con-
nection with the murder, trial court did not
abuse its discretion in denying uncle a
new trial on ground of newly discovered

evidence. Gen.Code, §§ 12380, 12400.

Syllabus by the Court.

(1) An indictment which charges that
“Ova B. Curnutt, alias Ova B. Cornett, on
or about the Second day of December in
the year nineteen hundred and forty-seven
at the County of Hamilton and State of
Ohio, aforesaid, did aid, abet or procure
one Elmer Curnutt to unlawfully, purpose-
ly and in perpetrating a robbery, kill one
Thomas Wilson, then and there being, con-
trary to the form of the statute in such
case made and provided, and against the
peace and dignity of the State of Ohio.” is
not subject cither to a motion to quash or

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CROSS, Charles, black, elec. Ohio SP (Cuyahoga 1-20-1921,

"LANDLORD KILLER ELECTROCUTED: VICIOUS PRISONER ASKS. GOD'S MERCY
AS HE GOES TO CHAIR.

"Columbus, Jan. 20 = Charles Cross, 27, at 12:07 this morning gave
his life in the electric chair at the Ohio penitentiary for the
murder of Jacob Bernstein, his landlord, in Cleveland last Octo-~
ber.

"While he apparently held no hope for a reprieve or in any way
being saved from paying the supreme penalty for the crime, Cross
had constantly refused to admit his guilt. He said that he was
intoxicated and remembered nothing of the killing of Bernstein.

At times during his confinement he became violent, twice trying to
escape by kicking through the steel door of his cell, and on
another occasion biting a Buard on the arm,

"When offered the choice of a menu for his last meal 1KX#X last

night, he expressed no preference and a chicken dinner was
served. He ate it in silence," B8LADE, Toledo, Ohio, 1-21-1921.


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+



1eriffs and
sly, The
er’s vague
s unlikely
e getaway
hazy. But
He might
la fender
n to him-

e lugging.

ut of Flat
a tourist
on where
stopped,

id Moore
happy.

from De-
| moodily.
grunted.
stared at
e dab of
ik before
he added,

lug that’s
rder gun,
d straight
1 check a
iore than

times un-
heck,”
iily he
opera-
- Jpratto
tk ahead,
lerts and
resemble
ining for
»metimes

e Moore
enderson
Hender-
d now he
waiting

set type
> Shuron
Che man
ted, with
well. He

narrow

’’ Moore

g if he
smiling.
it glasses

re pair?”
irry!”

was less
»pticians
1 records
rints he
ly’s file—

2nderson

., orbal,”
t means
le, orbal-
am. The
simple.
s 2.25.
cts for
tism is

something else. One optician might
record it minus 2.75, minus 75 x 180.
Another would transpose figures and call
it minus 3.50, plus 7 x 90. Still another
would read it minus 3.25, plus 50 x 90.
It’s all in the way you choose to calcu-
late.”

“How nice.” Moore said dryly. “That
means it would be almost impossible to
check old records in this area and put a
finger on the right one.”

“It would be a staggering job. It would
take weeks. And in the end there’d be
hundreds, perhaps thousands of prescrip-
tions that might fit.”

Detective Moore did the next best
thing. He called the Detroit News, the
Times and the Free-Press and asked them
to work into the Krech story a plea to
prs to be alert for a man seeking
glasses with the corrections Dr. Hender-
son had given. The three papers, he
knew, would circulate not only the whole
immense Detroit area, but much of Mich-
igan and parts of northern Ohio.

Then he went wearily back to head-
quarters—and found it simmering with
excitement.

Detective Spratto had dug a red hot
lead out of operations files.

The night before the Krech shooting,
two gunmen had held up a tavern in
Columbus, O., murdering the bartender,
Earl Ambrose. They'd fled in a gray
Pontiac sedan. An alert citizen had spot-
ted the license number—L-4190.

The Pontiac had been stolen earlier
the same night in Columbus; that license
had not been issued for a Pontiac but
for a Chevrolet, owned by one Robert
Murl Daniels, a young, deadly ex-con
who was promptly and emphatically fin-
gered by witnesses of the stickup.

Columbus police, working swiftly, had
produced photos of Daniels’ known pals,
and got a second identification: fens
Coulter West, another ex-con more trig-
ger happy than Daniels.

Spotting a similarity of descriptions,
Spratto telephoned Capt. Glen Hoff
man, Columbus chief of detectives.

“Our information had ‘em headed
your way,” Capt. Hoffman said. “West
fits the description of the man who shot
Krech. He’s five-nine, weighs 165 and
is chunky and dark.”

“Does he wear glasses?”

“Yeah—thick ones. He's near-sighted.
But he’s a dangerous man with a pistol.
He and Daniels have at least three guns
we know of—two .38s and a .45, all auto-
matics. We've tied ’em to stickups that
have netted $8,000 in the last two weeks.
They're moving fast.”

Michigan’s swift, efficient radio net
moved Tau All over the state sets
crackled with new alerts—this time
carrying precise names and descriptions
of men and car.

So as to alert citizens, as well, Spratto
gave the information to Detroit's papers.
A million eyes soon would watch for a
gray Pontiac sedan, License No. L-4190.

All day and night and next mornin
the manhunt went on. Spratto ah
Moore were kept busy, digging for in-
formation, about Daniels and West,
checking tips and leads, swept along in
the taut suspense.

On Tuesday, Lieutenant Bowen of
Detroit's detective bureau telephoned. a
new lead that poured gasoline on the
Daniels-West flames. Someone had re-

orted he had seen the stolen Pontiac.

e gave Spratto and Moore the -name
and address and they raced to a parking
lot on State Fair Avenue.

“The men acted funny,” an attendant
told the officers, “and I noticed they were
driving a gray Pontiac. After I read the

‘Free-Press this morning I was reminded

of those men. I checked the parking
ticket stubs on which we jot down the
license numbers of the cars, and, sure
enough, it’s the one you're looking for.
Here’s the stub with the number—
L-4190.”

Detective Moore looked at it. The
man’s “1” in L-4190 could have been a
“7" but Moore remained silent. Instead
he took out half a dozen mug photos.

“Either man among these?”

The attendant studied a long moment,
then pointed hesitantly at one of the pic-
tures. “That looks like the driver.”

He was pointing at a picture of Robert
Murl Daniels.

Sure now their quarry had remained
in the area, Moore and Spratto applied

the torch. Radios chattered. All police ’

agencies were alerted. Daniels and West
became two red-hot cookies.

But not nearly as hot as they were to
become in a short time.

Had he been gifted with deep insight
or intuition, Detective Moore might have
again muttered, at that moment, “Fate is
sometimes unkind.” It would have been
a masterpiece of understatement for this
was the point where the caprices and co-
incidences of fate reached their incred-
ible high water mark. It was the last
weird confusing break bestowed upon a
bespectacled murderer.

At 4:30 that afternoon two alert
troopers 200 miles northwest of Detroit,
in Michigan’s fishing country, spotted an
Ohio license plate. It was L-4790, not
L-4190, but was affixed to a gray 1947
Pontiac sedan in which rode two men.

Carefully, the troopers halted the car.
It was loaded with fishing and camping
gear. Its occupants were bewildered.
They produced credentials. They were
detained long enough for the troopers
to phone Detective Moore back in De-
troit.

“Ask if they stopped at a parking lot
on State Fair Avenue in Detroit yesterday
afternoon,” Moore suggested.

They had.

“Their car registration check out with
Ohio records?” Moore asked.

“It does. So do their credentials.”

“You're satisfied they're okay?”

“Yes,” came back the answer. “These
are not the wanted men.”

“Let 'em go,” said Moore, wearily. For
a long time he sat staring moodily at his
drumming fingertips, thinking
After a bit, Spratto came in.

“Let’s go eat,” Moore said. “We need
to kick this Krech case around a little.
We need to look a gift horse in the
mouth.” ‘

Over coffee an hour later they kicked
it around. “Let’s throw Daniels and West
out of our case a moment,” Moore sug-

hard.

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63

If the burglar who broke into Dr. Nelson
A. Young’s office decides to come back
again for further treatment, he might get
$5 back. Scorning narcotics, valuable in-
struments and cash, the intruder divested
himself of a plaster cast from his arm to
re-dress the member with clean bandages.
He left a $20 bill as payment. Dr. Young,
telling Los Angeles police about it, com-
mented: “The price of the treatment
would've been only $15.”

A Spring Valley, New York, hotel “guest”
showed police how a man can live in
luxury such as few people have ever en-
joyed. Robert Palloy entered a tempo-
rarily closed summer hostelry through a
cellar window and found himself in a
room containing cases of canned goods
and whiskey. For weeks, Palloy lived high
on the tinned foods washed down with
copious draughts of good liquor. At last
owner Harry Bader caught the man. Life
in the basement was so rich, Palloy wist-
fully told the police, that he’d bathed in
seltzer water and shaved himself daily
using strained vegetable soup!

The black eye his wife got was not in-
flicted by his fist, the defendant earnestly
told Judge John P, Scallen in a Detroit,
Michigan, courtroom. His wife had been
frying a chicken, the man explained, and
the contraction of the chicken muscles
in the heat of the skillet caused a piece
of the bird to leap up and sock her. Judge
Scallen agreed it was a foul blow; none-
theless the story had laid an egg. Guilty
of assault and battery, the unimpressed
magistrate cackled, putting the man on
probation for six months.

It didn’t take long for Policeman A. C.
Maclin, of Fort Worth, Texas, to punch
a hole in a suspected prowler's alibi. He'd
just returned his fiancee to her home, the
man offered righteously, after a date.
‘‘Where does she live?” Maclin inquired.
When the man pointed to a house, Mac-
lin made the pinch. Tt was Maclin’s own
house.

George Hatfield is alive, police of Sault
Ste. Marie, Ontario, claim, because he has
bullet-proof teeth. He put the barrel of
a .22 calibre rifle in his mouth and pulled
the trigger. The slug hit the teeth and
roller-coastered around until it shot out
of his mouth. Hatfield’s only injury was
a cut tongue. The teeth were false.

One Phoenix, Arizona, motorist thinks
the service at police headquarters is just
dandy. Inside to pay his $2.50 overtime

4

a

parking fine, he stayed to register a few
gripes. When he emerged, he found his
car all shined up. He re-entered head-
quarters with apologies and a broad smile.
The police let him keep his illusions.
They could've given hit a second ticket
for parking his auto in a restricted zone—
where an industrious jail trusty had mis-
taken it for an official car and cleaned it
up—but didn’t have the heart.

Sacramento, California, police are seek-
ing the biggest dip on record. An 88-year-
old man came to them and said he was

crossing the street when a car whipped .

by and ripped off part Of his coat, “pick-
ing his pocket” of $102.

Though absent from his beat for half
an hour, Police Sergeant F. F, Miller pro-
tested to his London, England, superiors
against their reprimand. Miller had gone
to investigate some noises in a building,
he said, and had climbed a wall to look
into a window. Jumping down, his belt
had caught on a protruding spike, leaving
the sergeant to dangle helplessly a foot
from the ground. It required half an hour
to free himself. Therefore, he insisted, he
actually had been hanging around all
the time.

The Cleveland, Ohio, judge sentenced
the ‘prisoner to thirty days in the work-
house for begging in the streets even after
hearing the man lament he didn’t have
a penny to his name. His name was Earl
Money,

There wasn’t much the Scottsville, New
York, sheriff's deputies could do with the
culprit but let him go, despite the fact
that they’d caught the thief with the
stolen goods, Nor did the guilty: one offer
a word of thanks. Laverne Fishbaugh had
reported to the sheriff that $38 had been
stolen from a desk drawer of his home.
Investigators came and soon discovered
the pilfered bills at a spot near the back
door—carried there by Fishbaugh’s beagle
hound to its favorite resting place.

Percy Gardner didn’t have much appe-
tite one day, and it cost him a year and
a day in federal prison. While stealing
a letter from a Chicago mailbox, he was

seen by Ruben Lee, a postindn. Gardner .

fled, trying desperately to chew down his
leot, but was caught before he could
cram it all in, Sobbed, Gardner, “Guess
I wasn’t hungry enough.”

And by the way—don’t eat peanuts in
church in Massachusetts. It’s illegal.

net that reaches state police, sheriffs and

‘city departments simultaneously. The

net had rattled with the killer’s vague
description for 86 hours. lt was unlikely
that a prowl car might spot the getaway
car since its description was so hazy. But
the killer might have stumbled. He might
have run a red light, or bumped a fender
or otherwise attracted attention to him-
self and the gun he might still be lugging.

The gunman hadn't.

Nor had troopers fanning out of Flat
Rock in both directions, found a tourist
camp, restaurant or filling station where
such a car and such a man had stopped,
before or after the shooting.

Now it was up to Spratto and Moore
to dig him out. They weren't happy.

“That car might have come from De-
troit, or Toledo,” Spratto mused moodily.

“Or Timbuctoo,” Moore grunted.
“Nobody saw the license.” He stared at
the pair of spectacles and the dab of
lead which decorated the desk before
him. “At least we've got clues,” he added,
with acid humor.

“Sure,” Spratto replied. “A slug that’s
no good until we find the’ murder gun,
and a pair of specs that will lead straight
to the killer—as soon as we can check a
few oculists. There can’t be more than
200,000 in the U. S. A.”

“Fate,” Moore said, “is sornetimes un-
kind. I'll toss you for the spec check.”

They tossed. Moore lost. Gloomily he
picked up the glasses. “You'll be in opera-
tions, eh?” he asked, going out. Spratto
nodded. He had a day’s dull work ahead,
checking dispatches, alarms, alerts and
reports for a pa tern that might resemble
the Krech job. It was like panning for
gold in a worn out crgek—but sometimes
there were nuggets. . .

Half an hour later Detective Moore
was closeted with Dr. Norman Henderson
in a big Detroit optical firm, Dr. Hender-
son had examined the glasses and now he
peered through his own at the waiting
detective.

“These are known as Shurset type
frames,” he said, “made by the Shuron
Optical Co., Rochester, N. Y. The man
who wore them is very near-sighted, with
astigmatism in the left eye as well. He
has a rather wide face, with a narrow
nose.”

“How will he do without 'em?” Moore
asked.

“He'll bump into something if he
drives,” Dr. Henderson replied, smiling.
“His eyes are pretty bad. Without glasses
he can’t see across the street.”

“And if he doesn't have a spare pair?”

“He'll need new ones in a hurry!”

Detective Moore suddenly was less
porte He knew vaguely that opticians

ept accurate lens records. If such records
were as distinctive as fingerprints he
might pull a killer from somebody's file—
presto!

The records weren't, Dr. Henderson
quickly informed him.

“These lenses are 42 by 46 mm., orbal,”
the optician explained. “That means
they're 42 mm. high, 46 mm. wide, orbal-
shaped. The nose bridge is 22 mm. The
correction in the right lens is simple.
Any optician would record it minus 2,25.

“But the left lens, which corrects for
both near-sightedness and astigmatism is

something else. O1
record it minus 2.7
Another would trans
it minus 3.50,
would read it

It’s all in the

late.”

“How nice.” Moo
means it would be
check old records in
finger on the right ©

“Tt would be a stay
take weeks. And in
hundreds, perhaps t
tions that might fit

Detective Moore
thing. He called tle
Times and the Free
to work into the }
opticians to be ale
a with the cor
son had given. T
knew, would circul:
immense Detroit ar
igan and parts of n

Then he went
quarters—and four
excitement.

Detective Spratt
lead out of operat
The night befor
two gunmen had
Columbus, O., mu
Earl Ambrose. 1
Pontiac sedan. An
ted the license nu
The Pontiac h:
the same night in |
had not been isst
for a Chevrolet, «
Murl Daniels, a
who was prompu)
gered by witnesses
Columbus polic
produced photos «
and got a “*77"
Coulter Ws
ger happy !
Spotting a sun
Spratto telephon
man, Columbus «
“Our informa'
your way,” Capt
fits the descriptio
Krech. He's five
is chunky and da
“Does he wear
“Yeah—thick
But he's a dange
He and Daniels
we know of—two
matics. We've t
have netted $8,0(
They're moving
Michigan's sw
moved a Al
crackled with
carrying precise
of men and car.
So as to alert
gave the inform:
A million eyes :
gray Pontiac sec

All day and }

the manhunt

Moore were ke}
formation abor
checking tips a1
the taut suspen:

gested. ‘They looked mighty good at
first, but we ignored little things.”

“Such as?”’ Spratto asked.

“Guns, for one. Daniels and West have
big automatics—two .38s and a .45, we're
told. Our man used a light .32. It had
to be a revolver. An automatic would
have ejected shells on or around the
porch. There were none.”

“And?”

“Daniels and West pulled several Ohio
jobs. They were heeled with at least eight
grand. They'd killed a man and were hot
in Ohio. If they'd gotten out of Ohio,
up here, would they advertise their pres-
ence with a petty stickup when they
already had plenty of dough? They
aren't amateurs.”

“$0?”

‘Krech said the man who held him up
was both nervou§ and clumsy.”

Spratto drained his coffee and took a
long drag on his cigar, letting the smoke
trickle out slowly. He’d caught his part-
ner’s pitch with the first point. He'd
stoked the conversation to stir up his
own thoughts. Now his mind was swiftly
rearranging the whole case and probing
for new approaches.

“In that case,” he said, thinking out
loud now, “we're probably after one of
our own hoodlums, someone right in this
area.

“Probably,” Moore agreed.

“You'll have to work on those spec-
tucles some more.”

Moore made a wry face. The owner of
the glasses was hidden in a huge hay-
stack. But he knew, like Spratto, that it
was the only real clue they had. It had
to be worked. “I'll circularize every op-
tician in the state with a picture and
detailed description of the specs,” he
said. “I'll take some men and check the
ones in Detroit personally. What else?”

“We'll apply some heat where it will
do the most good.”

Moore grinned. “Among the hoods?”

“Exactly. If a local boy pulled that
caper, I’ll bet 50 hoods right now know
who did it. They'll be bleeding him.”

Moore knew exactly- what Spratto
meant. Long ago he’d learned to laugh
at the simple soul who coined the phrase,
“Honor among thieves.” Moore had
never found it. What he had found
among hoodlums was savage jungle law
—kill or be killed, dog eat dog. And he'd
seen the underworld jackals at work—
wise little bloodsuckers who figured
things out and fastened themselves, like
leeches, to crime-fattened bankrolls.

They had bird-dog noses and rat-
shrewd minds, these jackals. They kept
track of things. They read crime news.
They watched hoodlums move, and lis-
tened to their boasts. In his mind, Moore
could envision what might have followed
the Krech murder by a day or two when
the first jackal reached the gunman. He
could hear their talk:

“Dicks been askin’ around about that
Krech guy.”

“So what?”

“They know it’s a local caper.”

“Why tell me?”

“Save that guff for the dicks, Mac.
You might need it. You got a sawbuck?
pe awful short, and I got a heavy

ate...”

The best part of it all, Moore knew, |

was that when the parasites had bled
their victim white they'd talk readily to
police if it was advantageous.

Next day, as Moore went back to his
staggering work on spectacles, Spratto
went to his old friend, Inspector Bran-
ton of Detroit's city police homicide
bureau, for help.

“We'll stir things up,” Inspector Bran-
ton promised.

TRUE POLICE CASES

- Se

oy

64

2599, Be NBR EET ER = Tr

Soon Detroit’s plainclothesmen, mov-
ing through ‘hadiaen hangouts, began
asking pointed questions about the
Krech murder. They let it be known
plainly they expected to find the killer
in Detroit.

Spratto wasn’t idle, He went through
Detroit's identification bureau with In-
spector Branton’s help and extracted a
list of known criminals who wore glasses.
One by one they were picked up, and
quizzed at length about their activities
the night Frank Krech was killed.

The pressure on Detroit's underworld
got’ firmer.

Detective Moore and several troopers,
meanwhile, were sifting: through dozens
of leads culled from cooperative op-
ticians’ files. It was dull, plodding—but
necessary—work.

The hunt for Robert Murl Daniels
and John Coulter West hadn’t slackened,
meanwhile. They were, after all, still
wanted for murder and robbery in Ohio
and there remained a faint chance they
might also have killed Frank Krech.

Unhappily for five others who soon
would be murdered, that manhunt failed.

The early afternoon of Tuesday, July
20, Daniels and West, still in their gray
Pontiac but with different license plates,
were rolling toward Mansfield, O. Back
in Detroit, Inspector Branton telephoned
Spratto.

“We got a rumble on the Krech case,”
he said. “Better run over here.”

Spratto told operations to radio De-
tective Moore to meet him in Branton’s
office and then hurried to Detroit head-
quarters. Moore got there a few moments
later and soon both were closeted with
Branton who said:

“One of our men contacted an in-'

former who told him the Krech killer’s
name is Mettles, or Meadows or some-
thing like that. He’s supposed to live in
Lincoln Park. If the information is any
good, you might pick up something out
there.”

’ “Let’s go,” said Moore. He was a little
weary of opticians and grateful for new
action, But even as he and Spratto drove
south out of Detroit toward Lincoln
Park, a cozy little suburb near Ecorse, he
realized suddenly that their best bet
would be an optician if Lincoln Park had
one.

Lincoln Park did, and the detectives
promptly sought him.

“Do you have a patient named Met-
tles, or Meadows?” Moore asked.

The bespectacled eye doctor frowned,
thinking. “The name is familiar. Wait!
I'll check the prescription files.” He
flipped through a file to the “M’s” and
extracted a card. ‘“Here’s a Robert Lewis
Meadows, handing Moore a card with
the name and address. Would that be the
man?” :

Moore took a deep breath, then said
slowly, ‘Read me Meadows’ lens correc-
tions.”

“Right lens minus 2.25; left lens minus
3.25 plus 50 x by 90.”

“And the size of the lenses?”

“They're 42 by 46, orbal.”

“The nose bridge?”

“It's 22 mm.”

Moore grinned happily. He took out

the killer's glasse
“Could these be }

The doctor e
quickly. “They co
just guve you
frames like thes

“Sometimes,”
softly, “fate is kin

At the address
tician the detectis
Meadows had pac}
week ago. Moreov«
returned to Detr
1948, after having
a prison term in 7]

In Detroit, R
worked sporadica!
On July 2, he'd in
ment on a Croslc
chased in Birming
troit.

On the Sunday
was shot. Robert
clothes. He told h
ing Detroit for u
better career. Sir
ceived a brief carc
her to arrange to !
general delivery, (

The two detecti
post office and as
mediately if any
Southwest for Mrs

At the telephor
made a similar re
distance calls.

From the Mich
reau, they obtaine
EJ-63-69—and full
ows’ cream and gr
wired it to Okls
and Nebraska stat
ing them to broa
order.

It was nearly 1!
ished.

“Now we wait
place,” Moore

“He will,” S
know we're thi:
tact with his fam

As he waited
tective Moore wo!
the right track at]
that way, and av
West. He fell aslec
Ohio pair—where
were doing.

At almost that ]
Murl Daniels an
were brutally anc
three persons—J«
superintendent at
formatory, his wil
daughter, Phyllis.

At 9 next mon
postmaster calle
“There’s a letter
City for Mrs. Me:

The detective
Mrs. Meadows. °
Meadows asked h
current payments
a ring. He said he
he now had a job
road and would s
job somewhere in
stored his car anc
a parking lot.

Ne ee ee ee ee
ari

a


lothesmen, mov-
hangouts, began
ons about the
et it be known
> find the killer

fe went through
bureau with In-
and extracted a
vho wore glasses.
picked up, and
: their activities
vas killed.

»it's underworld

several troopers,
through dozens
ap cies op-
. plodding—but

Murl Daniels
adn’t slackened,
after all, still
obbery in Ohio
int chance they
rank Krech.
hers who soon
manhunt failed.
{ Tuesday, July
ll in their gray
t license plates,
“Geld, O. Back

n telephoned

uc Krech case,”
here.”

ms to radio De-
m in Branton’s
» Detroit head-
a few moments
» closeted with

ntacted an in- °

’ Krech killer's
dows or some-
sosed to live in
rmation is any
something out

He was a little
ateful for new
| Spratto drove
»ward Lincoln
rear Ecorse, he
heir best bet
ncoln Park had

the detectives

t named Met-
asked.

»ctor frowned,
amiliar. Wait!
on files.” He
the “M’s” and
Robert Lewis
e a card with
uld that be the

ath, then said
vs’ lens correc-

left lens minus

3?”

He took out

ittisiaabiniaciDY ot sae -

the killer’s glasses and showed them.
“Could these be Meadows’?”

The doctor examined the glasses
quickly. “They could, if those figures I
just gave you jibe. I handle Shurset
frames like these.”

“Sometimes,” Detectivé Moore said
softly, “fate is kind. Let’s go, partner.”

At the address given them by the op-
tician the detectives found that Robert
Meadows had packed up and left over a
week ago. Moreover, they learned he had
returned to Detroit early in January
1948, after having served four years of
a prison term in Tennessee for robbery.

In Detroit, Robert Meadows had
worked sporadically—mostly in garages.
On July 2, he'd managed the down pay:
ment on a Crosley station wagon, pur-
chased in Birmingham, northwest of -De-
troit.

On the Sunday morning after Krech
was shot. Robert had packed all his
clothes. He told his mother he was leav-
ing Detroit for the Southwest to find a
better career. Since then, she had re-
ceived a brief card from Wichita, asking
her to arrange to have his pay check sent
general delivery, Oklahoma City.

The two detectives hurried next to the
post office and asked to be notified im-
mediately if any mail came from the
Southwest for Mrs. Meadows.

At the telephone company office they
made a similar request regarding long-
distance calls.

From the Michigan auto license bu-
reau, they obtained the license number—
EJ-63-69—and full description of Mead-
ows’ creain and green station wagon and
wired it to Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas
and Nebraska state highway patrols, ask-
ing them to broadcast a general pickup
order,

It was nearly 10 p.m. before they fin-
ished.

“Now we wait for him to show some
place,” Moore said wearily.

“He will,” Spratto said. “He doesn’t
know we're this close. He'll stay in con-
tact with his family.”

As he waited for sleep that night, De-
tective Moore wondered if they were on
the right track at last. Everything pointed
that way, and away from Daniels and
West. He fell asleep wondering about the
Ohio pair—where they were, what they
were doing.

At almost that precise moment, Robert
Murl Daniels and James Coulter West
were brutally and senselessly murdering
three persons—John E. Niebel, farm
superintendent at the Mansfield, O., re-
formatory, his wife and their 22-year-old
daughter, Phyllis.

At 9 next morning, the Lincoln Park
postmaster called Detective Moore.
“There’s a letter here from Oklahoma
City for Mrs. Meadows,” he said.

The detective delivered the letter to
Mrs. Meadows. Together they read it.
Meadows asked his mother to make the
current payments on his car, a watch and
a ring. He said he would repay her, since
he now had a job with the Santa Fe rail-
road and would soon leave for a grading
job somewhere in Kansas. He said he had
stored his car and most of his clothes in
a parking lot.

“I'll write again as soon as I get a per-
manent address,” he concluded.

Detective Moore hurried back to head-
quarters and explained the latest devel-
opment to Capt. Lawrence Meehan, sec-
ond district commander. “He may still
be in Oklahoma City,” Moore concluded.
“We'd better try to get him.”

Captain Meehan. telephoned Capt.
C. T. Ryan, chief of the Okiiloma City
Detective Bureau, and sketched the case,
pepe on what new information Moore
iad gleaned from the letter.

“Move as quietly as you can,” Captain
Meehan requested. “He doesn’t know yet
we're atver high,”

At 5:35 p.m., Lieutenant White, of the
Oklahoma City bureau, ‘called back.
Meadows had, he said, hired out with
the Santa Fe, using his own name and
social security number—383-14-1707.

“He shipped out with a section crew °

for Florence, Kan., two days ago,” said
White. “But he didn’t report for work
when he got. there. That’s an old trick,
an easy way to get a free ride. You may
find him working around Florence,
though. Why don’t you try Kansas State
Police? They've got a crack department.”

Captain Meehan did. He called Col.
Hugh F. Edwards, the Kansas state police
commander, immediately and sketched
his needs.

“We'll do the best we can,” Colonel
Edwards promised.

Ie got more tense as night fell. Near
Tiffin, trying to switch cars, Daniels and
West killed James Smith, a young farmer.
When Smith's wife fled, screaming, they
sped away, still in the Pontiac.

Somewhere near Fremont, O., heading
east, they parked at a popular truck stop.
When Orville Taylor, of Niles, Mich.,
father of four children, got into his big
van carrying four new automobiles, they
got in with him, flourishing guns. At a
lonely spot further on they forced Taylor
out and coldly shot him.

Then Daniels climbed up into one of
the new cars and hid. West drove—bluff-
ing through roadblock after roadblock
because the heavy van was the last place
in the world cops expected to find two
kill-crazy men.

At dawn they were pushing toward the
Indiana line. Outside Van Wert, they
ran into another roadblock. This time,
ne! than the rest, Sheriff Roy Shaffer
climbed up to look inside the new cars.

From the truck cab, West came out
with a rifle blazing. He felled Sgt. L. D.
Conn and Game Warden Frank A. Frie-
moth with serious wounds before Ser-

geant Conn, despite his injury, put a

machine gun bullet between his eyes.
Daniels crawled meekly from the new
car, hands upraised.

Learning of the capture, Captain
Meehan sent Detectives Moore and
Spratto to Van Wert immediately,
“Daniels is talking his head off,” Meehan
said. “If he and West had anything to
do with the Krech killing, he’ll tell us.”

That afternoon Ohio authorities took
the two Michigan detectives to Daniels’
cell. They asked about the Krech murder.

“Wrong number,” Daniels snarled.
“We took off for the southwest the night
West killed that bartender. We were

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AT YOUR
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Two Mad Dogs

(Continued from page 27)

had, and officers shifted the scene of their
investigation back to the Niebel home.

This second search for clues was made
under the direction of crime experts at-
tached to the state’s mobile laboratory,
but it proved valueless. The discarded
cigarette butts were retained for analysis
and it was assumed that the lack of finger-
prints indicated the killers wore gloves.

No one knew how Niebel had been per-
suaded to open the door of his home. He
must have seen his callers in the glare of
the porch light and if they were ex-convicts
bearing a personal grudge, which was the
accepted theory, why had he permitted
them to come inside?

“He must have recognized them and con-
sidered them harmless,” Sheriff Robinson
opined. “John Niebel held a dangerous
job. He wouldn’t welcome strangers in the
middle of the night.”

“He knew them all right,” Prosecutor
Lutz said forcefully. “And the men who
did this knew just where Niebel lived .. .
and how to get to that cornfield after
forcing their victims into a car.”

The car! That was the answer to their
riddle! If only someone had seen it; if
only someone had glimpsed the. ill-fated
procession as it left the house. If only...

“I saw a car,” Lowell J. Snyder, a neigh-
bor, said with mounting excitement. “My
wife and I were up late last night, canning
fruit. It was about 1:30, I guess, when
Niebel’s porch light went on. The house
was dark until then, so I looked out the
window to see what was going on. The
porch light went out but the living room
lights stayed on. There was a gray sedan
parked outside, a Pontiac, I think. I told
my wife something must have gone wrong
at the prison.”

Sheriff Robinson bolted upright at this
bit of news. “That’s it,” he said. “That‘s
it, all right. A Pontiac sedan! One of those
torpedo jobs. We had an alarm on one
today!”

The gray Pontiac also had a special sig-
nificance for Robert Humphries, agent in
charge of the FBI office in Columbus, O.
Humphries and his federal men entered
the Niebel case on the basis of the original
kidnaping charge, and remained to help
solve what had proved to be a triple
kidnap-murder.

“That gray sedan sounds interesting,”
Humphries remarked. “Columbus had a
killing on July 9 when Ambrose, a tavern
operator, was shot to death during a rob-
bery. The murderers scooped up $800 and
fled in a gray Pontiac. So far we haven’t
found a trace of them.”

Two men were known to be implicated
in the Columbus slaying and homicide men
had managed to obtain reasonably accurate
descriptions of the pair from witnesses on
the scene. But what connection could
there possibly be between the murder of a
tavern operator and the shooting of War-
den John Niebel and his wife and daughter?

“There may be no connection at all,”.

Allarding agreed. “One thing I’m sure of,
the men who committed this crime had a
personal grudge against Niebel.”

“In that case they were probably ex-
inmates of the reformatory,” Prosecutor
Lutz interrupted. “And, since they were
already stuck with the Columbus murder,
they came out here to get the warden and
his family.”

This deduction was logical, and prison
records were scanned on the following day.
Allarding’s earlier check had placed all

were literally thousands of men who had
been given their freedom or placed on
parole. Had one of them harbored a grudge:
of murderous proportions? At

Matching rogue gallery photos of these
men with descriptions of the two murdererg.
as supplied by Columbus officials, was
heartbreaking and virtually impossible.
task. But-feeling against the brutal slay.:
ers, was pitched at fever heat. Warden:
Niebel had been a man held in high respect
by both prisoners and coworkers. His wife,
too, had won the admiration and liking of
all who knew her and their daughter,
Phyllis, was a quiet girl, known for her
kindness and gentle manner.

Two Men Sought

Even the reformatory inmates were~<#-
stumned by news of the triple tragedy. They
agreed to report any prison gossip which %
might assist the officers in their efforts to 2

identify the slayers. For it was generally

accepted now that only a vengeance-bent

ex-con could have built up a grudge

against the warden who had a reputation —

for being fair and square.

The meager descriptions of the Columbus
‘killers could have fitted any one of a hun-
dred or more ex-convicts then at large.

Photos and records of dozens were re- %
moved from file and turned over to George =

Allarding. It was his job to sort out from

among them the men whose records indi- “,
cated a sullen and uncooperative attitude ~

during their period of incarceration.

One after another,
were eliminated until only John Coulter
West and Robert Murl Daniels remained.

“These are the fellows we want,” Hum- .;
phries, the FBI man said, after a close .
comparison of prison records and police ~
“Tll stake my reputation on ~

descriptions.
that.”

The record showed that Daniels, 24 years ~
old, dapper, tall and proud of his good »'
looks, had been sentenced to Mansfield ~
reformatory on January 28, 1944, on charges 5.
of armed robbery. His I.Q. was high, but —
he was known to guards and inmates alike = |
as a “wise guy.” During his incarceration, ©
Daniels was in trouble a number of times -
although he had never evinced any oe :
stead, guard Willis Harris was the chief ©
object of his hatred. But on September ©
25, 1947, Robert Daniels was released from -

ticular enmity toward the warden.

custody when a parole board decided h
had paid his debt to society.

West and Daniels were pals during their 4
prison terms which they served simulta- <

neously. But John West was listed by the
reformatory psychiatrist as a moron. Six
feet two, slender, wearing glasses, West
had a long record of arrests in both Akron
and Cleveland. On October 23, 1946, he

was sentenced to one to seven years on .
grand larceny chages. A parole board re- ~

leased him on All Fool’s Day, 1948.

“The pattern is familiar,”
said thoughtfully. “Take a vain, egotisti
cal man like Daniels, give him delusions
of grandeur, mix with a moron like West

who will follow his leader blindly and you:
have a team of mad dogs who stop at*.
nothing. We'd better catch this pair quick;
murder means nothing to them now. Four:

Agent Humphries’ words were to

a

ve.

potential suspects © |

Humphries |

ahah

eer ae

eo hOrs

ies ae

tragically prophetic, but law enforcement

in Ohio, police chiefs, sheriffs, homicid

detectives and FBI men organized a mah:

dadadae as
since J
1934.

patrols

en who had
' placed on
‘ed a grudge

tos of these
o murderers
cials, was a

in; sible
bru lay -
at. arden

high respect
rs. His wife,

nd liking of =

r daughter,

ae

4
so:

¢

ad P daa geen

ywwn for her =

; x

mates were
agedy. They
ossip which
‘ir, efforts to
as generally
geance-bent
> a grudge
a reputation

1e Columbus
ne of a hun-
en at large.
iS were re-
er to George
ort out from
‘ecords indi-
tive attitude
ration.

ial suspects
ohn Coulter

pee

Is remained. ~

rant,” Hum-
fter a close
; and police

eputation on,

iels rears
of Z00d
fo) nsfield
4, on charges
as high, but
nmates alike
ncarceration,
ber of times
ed any par-

varden. In- .-

as the chief

1 September © ;

eleased from.

| decided he ee

during their

ved simulta- -

listed by the
moron. Six
lasses, West

. both Akron ©

23, 1946, he

en years on...

le board re- |

7, 1948.
Humphries

ain, egotisti- 2.

im delusions

on like West®

adly and you. |

who stop at

is pair quick; «

n now. Four
d these men
‘ecuted once.

yersons they:
id

Rr binsedcig'a

wth
So Sed

fugit the equal Ol wnicn nad Nol veel seen
since John Dillinger invaded the state in
1934.

But the two mad dogs had tasted blood
and their back hair was up. On the day
following discovery of the Niebel tragedy,
within just a few hours of their identifi-
cation and the beginning of the manhunt,
they struck again.

Word of this second atrocity came from
Tiffin police.

On Route 53, six miles outside of the
Ohio town, a 1947 Buick was forced into

the ditch by a gray torpedo Pontiac.

Twenty-five-year-old James J. Smith and
his wife, Rita, 24, were in the Buick. Smith
waited with controlled anger as two men
climbed out of the Pontiac and walked
toward them. One of the pair, dressed
neatly in a light gray suit, with a white
shirt, necktie, and hair combed sleekly
back, smiled disarmingly. “Show us your
driver’s license,” he requested.

Smith pulled his wallet from his pocket
and held it out. Still smiling the gray
suited man looked it over, then stepped
back and shot the young farmer through
the head.

The scream which started from Mrs.
Smith’s throat never emerged. The killer’s
companion had approached her side of the
car and said threateningly, “Get in the
back seat and shut up or you'll get the
same thing!”

Weak with fear and horror, the woman
crawled in back and watched while the
body of her husband was callously dragged
from behind the wheel and rolled into a
ditch.

“Tll drive our car down the road and run
it into the brush,” the dapper killer said
calmly. “You follow in the Buick and
pick me up. And be sure to keep that dame
quiet.” ;

The tall, bespectacled youth to whom he
spoke grinned once and waved his pistol
again at the near hysterical young woman
in the rear seat. But as he turned to step
in the car Mrs. Smith leaped out and ran
screaming down the road. She didn’t even
notice when the Buick drove off without
giving chase.

Tiffin police had gone into action even
before the anguished young woman fin-
ished her story. Orders were issued to all
radio cruisers; teletypes clattered. The
huge manhunt gathered ‘steam, focussing
its strength now. in Seneca County. An
ambulance and police cars raced to the
scene where Smith’s bullet pierced body
still lay in the ditch. Road blocks were
established and the killers were effectively
bottled up within a comparatively small
area.

Another Body

The fugitives were hot now. Red hot.
And they knew it. Two mad dogs in a
new Buick, circling desperately to escape
the dragnet which hemmed them in,
plunging wildly in an effort to break
through the grim cordon of officers who
surrounded them.

They had to get rid of the car, that was
certain. The Buick was as conspicuous as
a flea on a bald head. But where would
they strike next? The death toll already
stood at five. Would the. blood-crazed
killers be able to boost that tally before
peace was restored to the terror-fraught
state? Police fought frantically against
this possibility, but every moment that
passed was loaded with potential death.

Smith’s death gave the desperados pos-
session of his automobile for little more
than an hour. At the end of that time the
machine was found abandoned in a ditch
near Old Fort, 12 miles from Tiffin. Police
patrols took over the car while other

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ended with the finding of a body in a clump
of weeds at the roadside.

The hapless victim was a young man
dressed in work slacks and shirt. But his
wallet and other papers, which might have
led to immediate identification, were miss-
ing. The marks of the mad dogs were
clearly visible; this sixth victim had also
been shot through the head with a .25-
caliber automatic.

Nearby highways literally crawled: with
police cars. Radios crackled constant
warnings, excitement and anger ran high.
Ohio was virtually in a state of siege. But
the killers were well disguised mow. No
one knew the make, model or license num-
ber of the car which had most certainly
been stolen from the young man whose
unidentified body now lay in a nearby
morgue.

Officials shuddered at the possibilities
latent in this new turn of events. In the
guise of legitimate motorists, it would be
possible for them now to bluff their way
through the roadblocks which barricaded
every road. No one knew the direction
in which the death-dealers were headed
nor from what vantage point they might
appear next.

Evening came, then night with the man-
hunt growing in intensity with every min-
ute. Thousands of motorists were stopped,
questioned and made to produce incon-
trovertible proof of their identity before
being permitted to proceed. Traffic was
jammed for miles. But when dawn streaked
across the horizon, the murderous duo was
still at large.

By now pictures of the killers had been
supplied county sheriffs and police officials
in big cities and small towns and the state
highway department had 300 troopers con-
centrated in the immediate area of the
latest attack. But it was apparent that
the blockade had been ineffectual and the
boundaries were broadened immediately.

At the junction of Routes 224 and 637,
near Van Wert in the western part of the
state, Sheriff Roy Shaffer and Police Ser-
geant Leonard Conn erected a roadblock
and prepared to inspect approaching
traffic. The barricade was set up at 3:30
a.M. and for the next five hours the two
officers went through a now familiar
routine, one that was being duplicated, op
highways all over the state.

As each car stopped, Sheriff Shaffer
approached with drawn revolver, while
Sergeant Conn remained in the back-
ground, covering the sheriff’s advance with
a submachinegun. Shaffer stood to one
side, out of the line of possible fire, asking
his questions and checking license and
registration cards before permitting the
drivers to go on their way. :

By daybreak a large crowd had gathered
to watch the proceedings. Among these
was Game Warden Frank A. Friemouth,
who arrived at 8:45 just as a carrier truck
with a load of new Studebakers aboard
rumbled to a stop at the blockade.

; “This is the sort of thing I’d try to escape
in if I were in their place,” Friemouth said
jocularly. “Look it over, Roy.”

Sheriff Shaffer smiled grimly. “I look
them all over,” he replied.

Approaching the rig, he glanced sharply
at the ealm-faced, bespectacled youth who
lounged carelessly behind the wheel. “You
alone, Mac?”

“Yeah.”

“Where from?” ,

“Tiffin.”

The driver extended his cards and the
sheriff returned them after i sure
that everything was in order. But still he
hesitated. “Keep me covered, Conn,” he
called. “I’m going to look this thing over.”

Aue Lassick Wad a LWU-UCEK alla, Withsce
cars piled atop one another. Clambering ?
up the steel rigging, Shaffer lifted the
canvas tarpaulin which covered each ma-~
chine and peered _ inside.

machine, on the upper rack nearest the
cab, he saw a man’s hat on the rear seat.
The sheriff cocked his revolver and peered
more closely. Huddled on the front seat=.
of the car was a youth with three loaded 2
pistols beside him. 2.
“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” he pleaded,
weakly. “I’m through!” as
“Watch that driver!” Shaffer yelled. © |
“We’ve got our men!” s
Sergeant Conn swung his machinegun ao
into position, but before he could touch S|
the trigger a volley of shots came from the *
cab. Both Friemouth and Conn were ~
struck by the rain of bullets. But the ser- .
geant, writhing in agony from a wound in |
his chest, managed to pull up the machine- -
gun and train it on the cab of the truck .
just as the door opened and a man emerged.
The concentrated fire power of the vicious- Ei
ly effective weapon virtually shot away the -
truck door. The man, later identified as :
John West, stumbled and fell to the road- 2
side, shot through the head. i
Sheriff Shaffer, still clinging to the truck 2
and keeping the other youth well within ©
range, waited until the sound of the shots -
had died away. “All right, you,” he ordered =.
hoarsely. “Climb out of there with your :
hands up or Ill let you have it!” &
The cowering killer, recognized as Robert -
Daniels, complied, and Ohio’s mad dogs of |
murder had at last reached the end of their
death-studded trail. 5
Both desperados and the police officials,
as well as Frank Friemouth, the game
warden, were removed to nearby hdspitals
where Sergeant Conn rallied. John West
died within two hours after confessing in
full to six murders.

Story of Crime

His dapper friend and example, however,
was cut from different cloth. Unrepentant,
Daniels’ only regret was that he had not
made good his escape. “Give me credit.
for the Niebels,” he said, when told that
West had confessed to the killings. “I shot
them all!”

In a full confession, Daniels insisted that
initial plans for his crime career were made
while he was an inmate of the Mansfield
reformatory. “I vowed then Fd come back e
and kill that screw, Harris,” he declared. ©
“And I meant to do just that!” :

Proud of his dubious cunning, Daniels |
told of contacting West, his former cell- |
mate, in Parkersburg, O., on June 22, 1948. :
He persuaded the pliable youth that he, --
Daniels, possessed the brains to engineer a
crime. wave which would land them both - j
on easy street. 2

West, impressed by his friend’s confi- E
dent manner, agreed to join him. They -
left town together and pulled off two~
Apri at various cafes for a total of ©

800.
“That was swell,” Daniels recalled. “We'd ©
never had so much money before. So we”
went to Columbus and held up the Am-')
brose Cafe. That netted us $800 but we.
killed the’ proprietor.

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deck affair, with
ther. Clambering

Shaffer lifted the <

covered each ma-
ie. Three of the

But in the fourth s

rack nearest the
t oy >» rear seat.
vol and peered
on the front seat
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hoot,” he pleaded,
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recognized as Robert
-Qhio’s mad dogs of
ched the end of their

1 the police officials,
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s after confessing in |

Crime

1d example, however,
cloth. Unrepentant,
was that he had not
e. “Give me credit.
said, when told that
. the killings. “I shot

‘Daniels insisted that -

ime career were made |

1ate of the Mansfield
4d then I'd come back
Harris,” he declared. |
ust that!”

ous cunning, Daniels
lest, his former cell-
, O., on June 22, 1948.
liable youth that he, .
e brains to engineer a
vould land them both ©

»y his friend’s confi-
i +o join him. They-
ahd pulled off two
cafes for a to of

Daniels recalled. “We'd
mbney before. So we
and held up the Am-.
1etted us $800 but we
r. After that neither.
ppened. So we headed.
ding to bump off that:

ldeduplistening officers |
ur f John Niebel,
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‘cell door clanged.

home to ask him for _— directions:

“First I told him our car had broken
down and we wanted to use the phone,”
Daniels bragged. “The warden was sus-
picious but didn’t know me. Then he saw
West. I guess he recognized him because
he started to close the door. But I pulled
out a gun and made him let us in the
house.

“By that time his wife and daughter had
come downstairs so we just decided to take
them along with us. I never did like the
guy and West didn’t either. We figured
this was our chance to pay him back for
all the time we spent in his lousy jail.”

While West guarded the trio of prisoners,
Daniels ransacked the house and brought
out the three guns he had found. One of
these, a .25-caliber Mauser, was the weapon
used in the slayings. Ironically enough,
Niebel was shot to death with his own
gun.

The driver of the automobile carrier, in
which they had made their’ last desperate
bid for freedom, was identified as Orville
J. Taylor of Niles, Mich. Taylor had pulled
to the roadside and was asleep on the seat
of his cab when. the two harried killers
came speeding down the highway in their
hot Buick which had cost the life of James
Smith less than an hour before.

“I figured this was our chance to get rid
of the Buick,” Daniels related without emo-
tion. “We stopped the car and saw Smith
sleeping in the cab. West shot him through
the head, and we dragged his body into a
clump of bushes. He never even got
awake.”

“Did you know,” Sheriff Shaffer asked,
“that the man you killed so ruthlessly had
a wife and four smal! children?”

Daniels shook his head and grinned.
“So what?” :

So what? So what would happen now?
Newsmen asked that question as they
streamed into the little county seat for first
hand information on one of the greatest
local news stories of the decade. Daniels,
impressed by his momentary importance,
swelled up with pride. “Gee,” he ex-
claimed, “I’m famous!”

But the fanfare and publicity soon sub-
sided. Colonel George Mingle, head of the
state highway patrol, did much to deflate
the calloused killer, who took considerable
pride in comparing his infamous exploits
with those of John Dillinger.

“There is no similarity between them,”
Mingle declared. “Dillinger and his gang
were more mature. With them, crime was
a business. West and Daniels were just a
couple of punks with a grudge who went
gun crazy. Where Dillinger and his gang
planned every move they made, West and
Daniels never planned a thing. Even the
Niebel killings weren’t planned.”

There were other things which the two
mad dogs failed to take into consideration.
John West, for example, didn’t plan to re-
ceive a bullet -between his eyes.
Robert Daniels most certainly didn’t figure
the electric chair in his plans.

But that is where he may be slated to go,
though friends and relatives of the six
innocent victims know this will never re-
pay the vicious killer’s debt to society. Oo

In the white light of publicity, Robert
Daniels smirked and posed. But when he
was arraigned on July 26, 1948, and charged
with first-degree murder, he sang a differ-
ent tune. Perhaps he recognized the grim
road on which he ‘was traveling—and from
which there is no turning back.

“I’m going to burn,” he whimpered, as the
“Maybe it would have
been better if I’d been shot, too.”

And there were those who agreed that,
had it happened early enough, it would,

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Probably Elmer sent Collett to the truck
to get the flashlight. |

Icenhower was silent for a moment. He
sat watching his colleague.

“Are you keeping up with me, John?”
he prodded. “Well, Collett, who had seen
McCoy’s gun in the glove compartment
when the two were hunting on November
20, stuck the .32 in his pocket. He: also
took all of Elmer’s cigars. Then he went
to the barn, held the flashlight for Elmer
and while McCoy was busy with the tape
measure, he shot him through the head
with his .38. Mrs. McCoy heard the noisé
and left the kitchen. Collett walked to the
porch and banged away at her with the
32, using all the bullets in the chamber.
That’s the way I dope it out.”

Hill leaped to his feet. “W. H., you’ve hit
it on the head! Mildred drove in a few
minutes later. Without realizing anything
was wrong, she put her hat and coat and
keys in the living room and went out look-
ing for her mother and father. She met
Collett. in the barnyard. While they were
talking, Collett plugged her in the back
of the head with his .38.”

“And then tried to throw suspicion from
himself by insisting that we bring in an

outside investigator,” Icenhower “said
crustily. © - :

The prosecutor ‘banged his fist on: the
sheriff’s desk. “It’s a perfect theory, W. H.,”
he said, “but we’ve got to prove it..And
we've got to supply a motive.”

Icenhower shrugged. “In some form or
another we’re going to find that the mo-
tive is plain, downright love of money.
Collett stood to gain plenty by what his
wife will inherit.” :

“I’m not sure of that,” Hill countered.
“I believe that in a case of this sort the
order of death determines the descent of
the estate. For example, if it could be
proved that Mrs. McCoy was the last to
die, her blood relatives would inherit the
bulk of the estate—Doc McCoy and Mrs.
Atkinson. Only a minor share would go
to Mrs. Collett.”

Icenhower got up and put on his hat.
“T’ll leave the legal stuff to you, John.
Right now I’m going out to check on Jim
Collett’s whereabouts Wednesday night.”

Five hours later, he reported back to
the prosecutor with the results of an in-
vestigation in which he had received the
unwitting aid of a number of Jim Col-
lett’s neighbors in the community of King-

ee {Stns tre Beets atte pve seesaw tomewree hic

man, where the suspect had been known
for 33 years.

Takes Detector Test

Collett, the sheriff discovered, had left
home around 7:45 o’clock Wednesday eve-
ning, telling his family he intended to go
to a regular meeting of the Grange in
Harveysburg. He did appear at a feed
store around 8 o'clock, but a check with
the Grange master showed that he hadn’t
attended the session. :

Nothing could be learned of Collett’s
whereabouts after he left the feed store
driving north in his heavy black sedan
toward Washington Court House. He re-
appeared at home around 10 o’clock, called
a veterinarian in a neighboring town and
asked him to come look at a sick horse.
The veterinarian replied that it was too
late and that he would be over in the
morning. Collett told him to let it go.

“In other words,” Icenhower said, “un-
less Jim Collett can account for his where-
abouts between 8 o’clock and 10, I’m going
to charge him with murder.”

Hill shook the sheriff’s hand. “Nice
work,” he complimented. “I’m stringing

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fa A MORROW MYSTERY

‘Side

r with your . While you were gone, I
descent of property. A new provision of
the code reads as follows: ‘When there is
no evidence of the order of death in which
the death of two or more persons

to have died ‘first and the estate of each
shall pass and descend as though he had
survived the other.’ ” :
| The prosecutor sighed. “In layman’s
| language,” he said, “that means the major
| portion of the McCoy estate will go to

| Jim Collett’s wife, Elmer’s sister and only

' blood relative. I’ve got an idea Collett was

well. acquainted with the law on descent
‘ when he made up his mind to wipe out
the McCoys and present his wife with an
estate which he expected to enjoy himself.

as shocked as anyone else when she learns
what Jim has done.”

On Tuesday evening, Sheriff Icenhower
es
B an ustery, y -hai
farmer denied for hours that ig Bi had
any connection with the killings, but’ his
spirits ed rapidly once he became fully
enmeshed in his own web of contradictions
over his whereabouts at the time the mur-

ders were committed.

Still playing the game of innocence, he
consented to take a lie detector test at
Toledo police headquarters.

He was rushed by auto to Toledo early
Wednesday morning and after a breakfast
of coffee, cinnamon rolls and rolled oats,

-| he entered the laboratory for the test.

Collett went to pieces under interroga-
tion with the lie detector’s straps bound
around his arms. Soon he confessed to the
murder of Elmer McCoy, and signed such
a confession, according to Prosecutor Hill.

However, he professed not to remember
what had happened when asked about the
slayings of Mrs. McCoy and Mildred. “Oh,
those poor women, those poor women!” he
monies when questioned about their

The killer said he went to the McCoy
home from his own 80-acre farm about 40
miles from the murder scene on Thanks-
giving Eve. He quarreled with the wealthy
hog er, Collett said, over $15,000 he
claimed McCoy owed Mrs. Collett in rent
over a period of 20 years. a

“Elmer became angry and picked up a

swung at me but missed, and then

for his gun. I grabbed another ‘gun from
a nail tie and shot him in the back. He
fell between the feed der and the
waterboard inside the . The next
thing I knew, I was on my way home.”

James Collett was returned to Fayette
County and lodged in the jail. On Decem-
ber 18 the grand jury. returned an indict-
ment containing three counts, each deal-
ing with one of the murders. He was ar-
raigned on the indictment on December
23, and pleaded not guilty. Trial was set
for early spring. 4

Then a jury of his peers from among
the solid, hard-working farmers and in-
dustrious small city folk in southwestern
Ohio will decide whether Collett exter-
minated the McCoys because of greed, or
whether he is innocent.

The murder weapons were not found.
A story gained some popular credence
that Collett, while pretending to mourn
at the biers of his victims, slipped them’
into one of the caskets. Prosecutor Hill
stamped that report as “hardly possible.”
However, he indicated that he might ex-

obtain other of the bullets which killed
er.

Eprror’s Nore: To spare possible embar-
rassment to innocent persons, the names
Vern Shaw and Lloyd Nicholas, used in
this story, are not real but fictitious.

theory.
looked up the Ohio code relative to the.

occurred,
no one of such persons shall be presumed .

I feel sorry for her, poor thing. She'll be -

club or pitchfork handle,” he said. “He
reached

hume the body of Mrs. McCoy in order.

Mr. Miller’s
_ Fantastic Swindle

‘ ‘(Continued from page 33)

' ability to handle it. Miller, who still lived

in the $35-a-month apartment and used
very little of his new-found wealth on
himself, wife or child, was spending mo

re
“and more time around the office, taking

care of every detail. He sought a way
out of this.

Finally an oe blossomed. He would
get a manager—if necessary a partner—
someone who would lift the administrative
details from his shoulders. In casting
around for such a man, his search took
him to Wall Street, where months earlier
—it seemed like years—he had admired
many sharp operators from the sidelines.

One of these was a nattily-dressed, su-
premely suave individual named Ernest
Schechter who, Miller decided, would
make an ideal front man for his enter-
prise. He talked Schechter into joining
him, though it is not believed that the
wily Wall Street operator, once he was
able to size up the character and magni-
tude of the scheme, needed much per-
suasion. :

The new front man at first came in for
a small percentage of the take, but it was
not long before his proclivities for black-
mail came to the surface. Realizing the
criminal nature of the enterprise, he began
to horn in on a bigger cut, until he was
raking in 50 per cent of the business.

Miller grudgi y gave it, for he was
et cowed by his aggressive part-
ner, who held over the money magician’s
head the constant threat of exposure and
police action.

Thereafter each night, the pair would
equally divide the day's receipts. Miller’s

' share would go into the bank, toward pay-

ment of the inevitable dividends, but
Schechter let it be known that he was
salting his away against the foregone day
of more, Hr which, though Miller did not
seem to sense it, was drawing closer and
closer. :

Having thoroughly investigated Miller’s
520. per cent proposition, the newspapers
became convin it was an out and out
fraud, a borrow-from-Peter-to-pay-Paul
situation. They discovered that Miller
never invested a dime of his clients’ money
—though the youth himself later said he
took one plunge with disastrous results—
and thus his operations came under the
head of em ement.

The press began: to open up on him
again. Too, the nationwide coverage of
Lowry’s market report through the mail
had come to the attention of the postal
inspectors. In addition, there were com-
plaints to the police, filed by certain dis-
gruntled customers who heard Schechter
refer to them as suckers. Their suspicions
were aroused at last.

Both Miller and Schechter began to feel
a change in the direction of the wind, so
they hurried to the advertising agencies
which were handling their newspaper copy
to ask for an opinion on. its legality.

“What you two boys need,” they were
advised, “is a good lawyer. I'll dig one
up for you.”

A few days later the two operators were
sent to see Robert Ammon, a sleek, affable,
though blustery, Wall Street fixer. For
years this mian had been an adviser in
many shady enterprises.

Called “The Colonel” by his intimates,
Ammon possessed many qualities Miller
and Schechter lacked. Certainly the latter
revealed some astuteness in contrast with
his partner’s dull, trusting, ready accep-

clients’ sch!
decision “"

“Your pe
their mone

“Certainl)
for a smal)
money, but
stock in ret
tion on pa)
the news a
you a bette

Within a
cate emerge
printed gilt
lure for fu
himself wit
the benefits
rated for $1]
offering pri:

Lowry’s |
tention to se
market issu
Franklin §&
mount abou

The date
set by Mil!
the stock w
public. Thir
middle of N
settled ove:
144 Floyd S

50 clerks an
investors cli
Miller fell vi
He stuffed <
a satchel, |
going to the
for Ammon’:
on Nassau ‘
York financ'
Dashing ir
ter there. "
debate with
back like a
chops, took
ricious glea:
had been tr:
turn over hi:
out success.
‘T’ve just
lawyer addr:
Lowry have
County gran
of everythin
you. is that
to me and
with t
law—if this :
Schechter »
grimace, and
hiding place
$175,000 into
steamer to C

oe

a a ne

rere Deere es eap i oe
= t e

perenne are

ata

HISTLING a cheerful tune,
the hired hand strode briskly
along the country road and
turned in at the gate of Elmer Mc-
Coy’s big Fayette County, Ohio, farm.
The morning of Nov. 25, 1943 was
crisp and bright and the worker was
happy. It was Thanksgiving Day and
after a few chores he would be
free.

Between the gate and the farm-
house, he noticed the parked automo-
bile of McCoy’s pretty, auburn-haired
daughter, Mildred, 22, and as he drew
nearer-he noticed that the car’s door
was open and the lights on. Auto-
matically, he reached in and switched
them off.

Then as he started away, he stopped
short in horror. A girl lay on the
ground in front of the car. It was
Mildred McCoy and she was prone in
a crimson pool. There were stains on
her dress. She was dead.

The man’s breath came in a ragged
gasp. His first thought was that some-
how her death was connected with
her position in front of the car. But
why hadn’t her father or mother seen
her?

With feet that stumbled heavily, the
man hurried to the farmhouse. He
stepped up on the side porch and this
time his heart seemed almost to stop.

Mrs. Forrest McCoy, the 64-year-
old mother, was slumped grotesquely
just outside the doorway. Blood
spread over the boards and beside
her outstretched right hand lay a
smashed dinner plate.

Through the numbed brain of the
shaken man now came a memory of
strange sounds he had heard coming
from this house of horror the night be-
fore. It had seemed like shots and he

42

elece

Ohio SP (Fayette)

had thought when he heard them in
his nearby home that McCoy was
shooting at rats or possibly chicken
thieves. But now—where was Mc-
Coy?

“Mr. McCoy,” he called. Though he
tried desperately, the cry came thin
and weak in the ghostly stillness.
There was no answer. He peered in-
side the house. Lights were burning
yellowly but there obviously was no-
body within. ;

Gathering his faculties, the witness
of sudden and mysterious death made
his way to the telephone. The instru-
ment lifted too easily. A glance
showed that the wires were cut.

Now the thoroughly terrified em-
ploye ran frantically through the
rooms in search of the farmer. He
dashed across the yard to the barn.
On the floor between the wall and a
feed mixer he made his third horrible
discovery. The body of the 59-year-
old McCoy was crumpled there and
his clothes, too, were splotched with
blood.

The man dashed for his home where
there was a telephone whose wires, .
he hoped, were still intact. ,

Sheriff W. H. Icenhower of Fayette
County lost no time in getting to the
scene with Dr. E. H. McDonald, act-

ing coroner, but such is the speed of
news in a rural community, that more
than a score of curious countryfolk
already were there.

These people, milling excitedly
about the farm, had trampled foot-
prints and tire marks, but, fortunate-
ly, they: had not touched the bodies.
These lay exactly as the hired man
had found them. i

Dr. McDonald bent over the girl’s
body first. After a brief examination,
he looked up.

“She was shot in the back of the
head. At close range, too, judging by
these powder burns.” ~
“She must have been running from

‘gi :

“When. comely Mildred’ McCoy
_ arrived home for-Thanksgiving
killer awaited her. He
2 bad piready been. slain
ove. barn.

*

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there investigate the ball player, Taylor.
Des Moines police soon learned that the

| man was Clarence Higginbotham. They

went into action at once.

However, the slayer must have sensed
his danger, for he fled to Sioux Rapids and
holed up in a house. Police found
him in Sioux Rapids two days later. He
readily admitted his identity and was

taken back to Des Moines.

Police soon learned that he had been
married in East St. Louis, Ill, in 1937.
They questioned his wife, who admitted
she had known who he was, but said she
was convinced her husband was innocent
of the Lambert killing. |

Higginbotham was subsequently returned

| to Alabama and to prison.

Thanksgiving
Massacre

(Continued from page 28)

approximately $100,000 in lands and live-
stock.

Collett, driving his wife to Washington
Court House Tuesday morning from their
home near Kingman, stopped in to see
Icenhower. Hill was in the sheriff's office.

“I judge,” Collett said reprovingly, “that
the mystery is ‘still unsolved. You fellows
probably need some outside help.”

Icenhower took the rebuke good na-

turedly. “We'll keep on trying,” he said.

| “We're not ready to yell ‘uncle’ yet.”
Collett

reached with his gloved fingers

for a cigar in his lapel pocket. In fumbling

| for one,

he pulled out three, two of which
fell to the floor. Collett proceeded to light
the cigar in his hand and then casually
picked up the others and replaced them
in his pocket.

‘When he had departed. " sheriff leaned
forward in his chair.an eyes on’
Hill’s face, which had yore flushed.
“John,” he said, “did it ever occur to you
that someone in the McCoy family might
be a bona ak og! those ae

sat t upright. “Mecning who?”
he demanded.

Recalls Cigar Stub

Without moving from his chair, Icen-
hower bent and picked a sliver of a dried
cornhusk off the floor at the spot where
Jim Collett had been standing.

Count Telegraph Wiresinthe Distance

makes objects

yards away appear as 100 yards dis-
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than 1 ft. Spot

Planes. ships, sporting events,
etc. Has large 50 mm. Jens (2 inches in
diameter) something usually found only
in higher priced telescopes. 20 a AY
FREE T TRIAL. Try for 20 days at
risk! Return if not completely ratlafied
SEND NO MONEY. Just pay postman
2.99 plus few cents postage. Cash or

tion of s may be curtailed as it has been on binocu-
ae vo Yolewwese Co., 7759 &. Halsted, Dept. K-103,
jeago

WHY DON'T YOU WRITE?

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ge it up, he went on. “When Jim | rour

Collett dropped those cigars, this husk
fell with them. What’s more, one of the
cigars that fell to the floor was broken. off
at least three-quarters of an sage from the
end.” He paused, reached in his pocket
and pulled out the broken end of a cigar.
fe passes a it be ahor p

“I foun in the glove compartmen:
of Elmer McCoy’s truck,” Icenhower maid.
“Iwas told that Elmer kept his 32 auto-
matic, his flashlight and his cigars in there.
On Thursday morning the gun, flashlight
and the cigars were gone. This stub was
among the cornhusks in the glove box,
and unless I’m wrong it fits the end of the
cigar that fell out of Collet’s pocket.”

“Tf that’s true,” Hill exclaimed, “Collett
is the killer!”

“Of course,” the sheriff said. “That's
what I’m driving at. Collett went to Oak
View Wednesday night with his own gun,
a .38, to kill Elmer McCoy, Mrs. McCoy
and Mildred. The girl bane arrived by
the time he got there, but he knew: she
was due to spend the holiday at home.
He deliberately planned to wipe out the
whole family. More than likely McCoy
asked him to go to the barn, where he in-
tended to measure the feed grinder pulley.

4

. WE PAY THE
FREIGHT
Reckdale Menument
Company,

Dept. 139, Joliet, Ii.

SEND NO MONEY

TEST LOUS OFM SIGEY at Home with our 95

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TRIAL OFFER mtg that wy
wevilsetondere panes Shae perpen
fund every you bey us. 448

U 8. EVE-GLASSES co. Bbsy meseouse Avene

Probshly 3 ner
to get the flashli
Icenhower was
sat wat hi:
“Are you Keep
~ Pirodded.
cCoy’s
when the ta
= Fang the .32
ook all of Elmer
to the barn, held
and while McCoy
measure, he shot
with his 38, Mrs.
and left the kitch:
porch and _bangec
32, using all the
That’s the way I «
leaped to hi:
it on the head! }
minutes later; Wit
was wrong, she pu
keys in the living r
ing for her mothe
Collett in the barr
talking, Collett ph
of the head with }
“And then tried
himself by insistin

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MONTHLY CHEC
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Accident and Hospital ;
is issued by a-big stron;
000.00 in cash benefits t:
TIME. Don’t take a ch
you buy this policy. Sa

STERLING

¢


Prosecutor Hill und the two officials
went into a huddle.

“We drew a blank,” the sheriff said.
“The only two suspects we’ve had have
been proved innocent. We’ve combed
the entire ‘county for other leads—
investigated McCoy’s business dealings,
checked all of his friends—and haven't
turned up anything else. What do we
do now?”

“We're right back where we started,”
Hill admitted. He paced the floor of his
office, looked out the window at the
bare-branched trees on the courthouse
lawn. “As I see it, it leaves us with
only one theory—the theory that ‘the
McCoys were murdered by some rela-
tive who hoped to gain their property.
We've already considered that and
rejected it.”

. “We have,” Icenhower agreed in dis-
couragement. ;

There was a pause as the two men
pondered what they knew to be the
greatest challenge of their official
careers, They had ‘labored hard and
long on the case, They had investi-
gated every possibility they knew of,
and had even looked into many leads
so faint and nebulous that less con-
scientious investigators would have
ignored them. Yet they had gotten
nowhere. They hated to admit defeat,
and yet... :

“Maybe the thing to do,” Icenhower
said reluctantly, “is call in outside
help. A new investigator might bring
a fresh point of view. Even if he got
no farther than we have, it would
make the people of the county rcalize
that everything possible is being done.”

There was a knock at the door and
Jim Collett clumped in, stiffly ercct as
always because of the brace on his
back. He peered keenly at the two
officials through his spectacles.

“Howdy,” he said. “Any arrests yet,
gentlemen?”

“Not yet,” Hill replied shortly.

Collett pulled a couple of cigars out
of his vest pocket and offered them to
Hill and Icenhower, both of whom re-
fused. Collett thrust a cigar into his
own mouth, then discovered it was
broken off at one end. He tossed the
broken cigar in the general direction
of the cuspidor, then lighted another
one.

“I ain’t aiming to be nosey,” he said,
exhaling a cloud of blue smoke. “I
just want to help if I can. Now, any
fool knows that murder ain’t common
in Fayette County—in fact, nobody
can remember a murder here for years.
You fellows can’t be expected to be
experienced at that sort of | thing.
That’s why I think you ought to call
in somebody else.”

Icenhower was yazing at Collett with
new interest. The elderly farmer
flicked ash from his cigar and pro-
ceeded, .

te Nee whe Aetalnilibn +

“If it’s a question of money, and
the county won’t pay for it, well, the
relatives will foot the bill. I'll start it
off with $100 myself.”

He drew two fifties out of his wallet
and offered them to the sheriff. Icen-
hower shook his head.

“Keep your money, Jim,” he said. “I
don’t think we'll be needing any help.
Give us another day and I think we'll
have this case solved.”

Collett looked surprised. “All right,”
he muttered. “I just hope you boys
know what you’re doing, that’s all.”

After Collett left, Icenhower bent
down and retrieved the broken cigar
the visitor had tossed away.

“You seem awfully sure of yourself

all of a sudden,” Hill remarked in some |

puzzlement. “What’s on your mind?”
“I’m suspicious of Collett, John,”
Icenhower said bluntly. “There’s some-
thing cold-blooded about that man.
He talks like a sorrowing relative, but
there’s a hard light in his: eyes.”

= FROM HIS OWN vest pocket the
sheriff took the quarter of a cigar he
had found in the dash compartment
of Elmer McCoy’s truck. He fitted it
together with Collett’s broken cigar.

“The two ends ‘join perfectly,” he
said. “It doesn’t prove anything, ex-
cept that Collett was poking around in
McCoy’s truck. He’ll say it just hap-
pened while he was out hunting with
McCoy—but I have a hunch that it
was Collett who snitched McCoy’s .32
automatic.”

“It could be,” Hill agreed. “Collett
has seemed mighty anxious for us to
get outside hélp on the case. That
would make him look all the more
innocent if suspicion should turn his
way.”

‘Both.officials knew they had no evi-
dence against Collett. Furthermore,
there was the question of motive, for
there had been no report of any trou-
ble between McCoy and Collett, and
Collett could not hope to profit by
inheriting the farm and property.

Icenhower drove out to Oak View,
where he talked once more with
Dewey Claytor, the tenant farmer.

“Just when was it you saw Jim Col-
lett out here hunting with Elmer Mc-
Coy?” the sheriff asked.

“Well, let’s see. It was right after the
season started. Must have been about
ten days ago.”

“Was Collett here between that time
and Thanksgiving?”

“Not so far as I know.”

“Did you hear Elmer mention any+
thing about his gun being missing?”
the sheriff pressed.

. “He didn’t say anything about it to
me,” Claytor replied.

Icenhower went to the barn where
Elmer McCoy had been shot through
the brain as he took measurements

Co Cane ar { a

lil: en iam. alll

eri ae se

for a new pulley belt, He sized up the
layout. The powder burns on McCoy’s
wound, had already indicated that the
gun was held no more than ten feet
from his head. That meant that the
killer stood right inside the barn. Mc-
Coy must have known he was there—
probably was chatting with him, un-
suspecting, as he bent to take measure-
ments.

So the killer was a friend, someone

McCoy trusted. That fitted Collett, all

right. The sheriff was more sure of
himself now, and he got a cold chill as
he pictured in his mind the events
that had followed.

Jim Collett, walking out of the barn,
hiding the smoking gun under his coat.
Mrs. McCoy, walking out on the porch,
dish towel in her hand. She must have
seen Collett approach, perhaps asked
him what caused the explosion. Then
Collett, at point-blank range, whipped
out the gun and fired seven times, For
an instant before the first bullets
struck, Mrs. McCoy must suddenly
have realized the awful truth,’

Then Collett had waited a half hour
so he could send a bullet through the
brain of pretty Mildred, the girl he
claimed to be so fond of’...

It was all a pretty theory, but it
would take more proof. The sheriff
drove back to his office, where he was
joined by Hill.

“I’ve been doing a little investigating
on my own,” the prosecutor said. “In
books. I find there’s a new inheritance
law in Ohio. It provides that where
the order of death may be in doubt, it
is to be presumed that neither party
died first and the estate of each shall
descend as if he’ were the survivor.”

“Meaning that Jim Collett, through
his wife, would inherit part of the
estate?”

“Meaning exactly that. Collett may
have known about this new law.”

“Then there’s our motive,” Icen-
hower nodded.

™ BOTH OFFICERS knew that Mrs.
Collett was entirely above suspicion.
Without any knowledge of her hus-
band’s heinous plot, she would inherit
a large part of the property—and Jim
Collett would be able to sit back and
enjoy that, inheritance himself.

“The next thing,” Hill said, “is ‘to
find exactly where Collett was at the
time of the murders.”

Icenhower drove to Kingman, where
Collett had ‘lived for 23 years. By the
time he had talked with a dozen people
there, the sheriff had a clear picture
of just what had happened.

At 7:30 on the evening of the mur-

‘ders, Jim Collett had left his home,

saying he was going to attend a grange
meeting. He never arrived at the
grange meeting. No one present saw
him there. He was next heard from

shortly :
phoned .
“He t
from th
his cow
ported.
didn’t t
and it
the mo:
I didn’t
all righ:
Sheri!
perfect]
sick at
sought:
bolster
Kingma
and 10
to Oak
then s}
It Wa
to Was
was WwW:
discuss
they |h
James
They
their 1
mornin
lett sai
“You
solved
cealed
about t
“Not
“Are y
Coll
ting at
“Jus:
murde
“Me'
like a
fellow:
you're
you w:
“Wh
meetin
sheriff
Coll:
yelled.
folks,
For
defian:
them
dared
of his
“Vo
ty!” |
“All
last. *
you s!
& lie
have
to go
UV oO
suspec
now.”

@ HI
the i:
they

mista!

os
UD bes

ed up the .

. McCoy’s
| that the
. ten feet
that the
barn. Mc-
is there—
him, un-
measure-

, someone
‘ollett, all
e sure of
id chill as
he events

i the barn,
‘y his coat.
the porch,
must have
aps asked
sion. Then
», whipped
times. For
st bullets
suddenly
uth,
. half hour
irough the
1e girl he

vy, but it
‘he sheriff
‘re he was

vestigating
r said. “In
inheritance
hat where
n doubt, it
ther party
each shall
survivor.”
tt, through
art of the

‘ollett: may

. that Mrs.
» suspicion.
f her hus-
ould inherit
cy—and Jim
it back and
nself.

said, “is ‘to
was at the

»man, where
vars. By the
lozen people
‘lear picture
d.

of the mur-
‘t his home,
nda grange
ved at the
present saw
heard from

ee eee bis

wn sca a Br a Sg

shortly after 10 o'clock, when he tele-
phoned a local veterinarian...

“He told me he had just got home
from the grange meeting to find one of
his cows sick,” the veterinarian re-
ported. “After some talk, he said he
didn't think the animal was too bad
and it could wait until morning. In
the morning he called again and said
I didn’t need to bother—the cow was
all right.”

Sheriff Icenhower understood that
perfectly. The cow had never been
sick at all, The cunning Collett had
sought: through this telephone call to
bolster his alibi that he had been in
Kingman all evening. , Between 7:30
and 10 p.m., Collett had time to drive
to Oak View, commit the triple slaying,
then speed home. :

It was late when Icenhower returned
to Washington Court House, but Hill
was waiting for him, After a brief
discussion, the two officials decided
they had enough evidence to arrest
James Collett on a charge of murder.

They didn’t have to go out and get
their man. At 10 o'clock the next
morning, six days after the crime, Col-
lett sauntered into the sheriff’s office.

“You said you’d have the case all
solved by today,” he said with uncon-
cealed sarcasm, “and I have my doubts
about'that. Are you ready to give up?”

“Not at all,” said Sheriff Icenhower.
“Are you?”

Collett scowled. “What are you get-
ting at?”

“Jyst this: I’m arresting you for the
murders.”

“Me!” Collett snarled. “Don’t talk
like a fool! Just because I showed you
fellows how incompetent you are,’
you're trying to embserrass me. Well,
you won't get away with it!”

“Why weren't you at that grange
meeting last Wednesday night?” the
sheriff demanded coolly.

Collett paled. “I was too there!” he
yelled. “I just didn’t mix with the
folks, that’s all.”

For an hour, James Collett shouted
defiance at Icenhower and Hill, dared
them to prove anything against him,
dared them to make public the news
of his arrest. %

“You'll be laughed ,out of the coun-
ty!” he shouted.

“All right,” Prosecutor Hill said at
last. “If you’re innocent as you claim,
you should have no objection to taking
& lie detector test. The Toledo police
have a lie detector. Are you willing
to go with us there and take the test?”

“You bet your sweet life I am!” the
suspect snapped. “I’m ready to go right
now.”

= HE APPEARED so confident that
the investigators began to wonder if
they had somehow made a ghastly
mistake. But they rushed him to To-

™ YES, TH

Mrs. Mildred Burke, 44, of Cc
cessful than most women at
do it? Well, she went to jai
as she appeared in 1946,
Bottom photo shows her
lighter.

losing excess weight.

{
{
4
}
t
}
'
'

ESE before-and-after photos show the same lady—
hicago—who was far more suc-
How did she
1, Top photo shows. Mrs. Burke
icted in a real estate swindle.
in 1950 at her release, 55 pounds

~~

Seb EASE AEB

¥ m

"Elmer

MURDER'S NO WAY TO GET RICH

about that.”

“Of course we can,” Hill agreed.
“Both of those people are the salt of
the earth.”

Dewey Claytor, consulted once more,
said that Elmer McCoy had owned a

. 32 caliber automatic pistol.

“He kept it in the glove compart-
ment of his pickup truck,” Claytor
said. “I saw it a couple of weeks ago
when Elmer and Jim Collett went
hunting.”

Sheriff Icenhower went out to the
shed where the truck was parked and
looked in the dash compartment. It
contained a grease-stained road map,
a box of: matches and the broken-off
quarter of a cigar, which the sheriff
put in his pocket. There was no gun.

_ The sheriff thought nothing of that

severed piece of cigar at the time, for
Elmer McCoy was known as a con-
firmed cigar smoker.

1 ali ai Ta

came at me with a pitchfork," said the killer. "I protected myself."

continued

Coroner McDonald’s preliminary re-
port, given a few minutes later,
seemed to complicate the case.

“It may be that there were two
killers instead of one,” the physician
said. “At any rate, two guns were used,
one of them a .38 caliber weapon, the

other a .32. Mrs. McCoy was killed’

with the 32.: The larger gun killed
Elmer and Mildred.”

“All fired from close range?” Prose-
cutor Hill inquired.

“I’m sure they all were. The powder
burns prove it in Elmer’s case. In the
case of the two women, the accuracy
indicates it. Only one bullet was fired
at Mildred and it struck her in the
head. Seven bullets were fired at
Mrs. McCoy and they all struck her.
None missed or we'd have signs of
them in the porch wall. That kind of
shooting couldn’t be done from any
distance.”

ily were carefully questioned to learn
whether they knew of any discord that
might have existed between the Mc-
Coys and some other party.’ Only
gray-haired James Collett had a lead
to offer in this direction. Collett, who
owned a farm 35 miles away near the
village of Kingman, had injured his
back in a fall some years earlier, and
wore a brace on his spine that kept
him straight as a ramrod.

“You know, Elmer was a little hot-

headed at times,” Collett said. “Dewey
Claytor got along with him fine, but
‘before Dewey came here there was an-
other man helping Elmer, and they
quarreled out. Elmer finally fired the
man, and there was a little trouble.
Seems to me it was only last July or
so.” :
Sheriff Icenhower remembered that.
In fact, he recalled that McCoy’s hired
man had refused to budge from the
cottage, and McCoy had finally called
the sheriff to evict him. There had
been some bitter words, but eventually
the man had packed up and gone.

“Who was that fellow, and where
was he from?” Icenhower asked.

“I can’t remember his name,” Collett
said. “Seems to me he came from down
in Kentucky somewhere.” He pon-
dered a moment, then his face lit up.
“Tell you what: Elmer kept mighty
careful records of all his business
transactions—kept ’em in a big ledger
book in his desk there. He had a habit
of jotting down remarks about some
of the people he dealt with. You better
look in that ledger.”

m™ ICENHOWER AND HILL spent a
quarter-hour poring through the worn,
cloth-bound ledger. Here there was
ample evidence that Elmer McCoy had
accounted carefully for every cent of
income and disbursement—undoubt-
edly one of the reasons he had been
such a successful farmer. But there
was more, Now and then in the book
appeared’a crisp characterization of
some person with whom McCoy had
dealt. A certain banker was described
as-“a fine, honest man, but too damned
cautious.” A business man was “a
skinflint if I ever saw one.” Another
merchant was “not too bright but good
as gold—I want to give him all the
business I can.”

But it was an entry made during the
previous July that drew the investi-
gators’ attention. It referred to Ed
Solent, the tenant farmer whom Mc-
Coy had discharged, in this fashion:

“That man’s a_ stinking polecat.
Wouldn’t get out when I fired him.

Kind of man (Continued on page 69) +

,
fy

The relatives of the murdered fam- ~

Accordinc
troubles «
215-pound
“was given
He allege
bit = eighi
~cers who

T H

ae

*


pa-
on-
\ler,
was

and
{ at

bout
most

was
‘hese
d to
le of
hers

she’d

‘cha-
: her
cape
uno-=

the
‘ould
mory
awry

went
bOMMAS
have
nih on
fovuanach
r and
ument

—e

at but 4
‘lever
sions,

vanies,
> she
3 bul-
ie had

who
ag her

embar-
m, the
in this

as soon put a bullet in you as not. Had
to call the sheriff for help.”

Solent’s home address was given as
a farm near Louisa, Ky., a place the
officers determined to visit as quickly
as possible. ;

One other possible lead was derived
from questioning of the relatives. While
teaching at Pitsburg, it was learned,
pretty Mildred McCoy had kept com-
pany with a young man who lived near
that village. They had been frequent
companions, and then about a week
before the murders, MiJdred—for what
reason was not known--had_ broken
with him definitely.

Could the jilted lover have found
his way to Oak View, bent on venge-
ance? Thwarted love affairs have
caused many a tragedy, and this pos-
sibility would have to be probed.

At length, the bodies were carried
away to an_ undertaking parlor in
Washington Court House, the sorrow-
ing relatives went their separate ways,
and Sheriff Icenhower and Prosecutor
Hill were left with a triple’ murder
mystery to solve. It was a case of such
callous ruthlessness that it was des-
tined to be headlined in newspapers

from coast to coast the next morning. -

In quiet Fayette County, officers: were
seldom called to cope with anything
more serious than small-time theft or
an occasional brawl. Now they had
murder on their hands -three murders
that fairly cried out for justice.
Though Icenhower and Hill lacked

the experience with homielde found
among big-city investigators, both
were exceptionally able, tenacious

men equipped with a large fund of
common sense. They knew that unless
they solved this case, and speedily,
they would be the objects of wide-
spread local criticism. That meant lit-
tle to them. What moved them was
their own personal sense of dutrage at
this crime, their own driving urge to
bring the guilty to justice. -

The sheriff and prosecutor drove to
Pitsburg, where they talked with sev-
eral school-teacher friends of Mildred’s
and learned the name of her ex-boy
friend.

“He’s a nice enough young man,” one
of them said. “I don’t think Milly really
quarreled with him. I think it was
merely that he was too romantic, too
possessive, and he began to think Milly
was his own private property. Milly
didn't care for him that deeply, so she
let him go in a nice way.”

If he was “romantic and possessive,”
maybe he was furious even though
he had been “let go in a nice way.”
With the help of the Pitsburg town

MURDER’

(Continued from page 48)

constable, the two officers located the
young man at his home. .

He seemed genuinely aghast when
told of the triple tragedy. Not only that
—he proved, with the aid of, a half-
dozen reputable witnesses, that he had
been bowling from 8 to 10:30 on Wed-
nesday night when the murders oc-,
curred. It was clear as crystal-that the
young man was innocent.

= ICENHOWER AND HILL traced
Mildred’s trip home. She had left Pits-
burg at about 5 o'clock, taking with
her a school-teacher friend who lived
in Xenia, on the way to Oak View.
Mildred had stopped at her friend's
home in Xenia and had dinner with the
family. She had seemed perfectly calm
and untroubled, and had talked in joy-
ous anticipation of the traditional
“family reunion” dinner she expected
to attend on the morrowthe dinner
that had been canceled by death.
Mildred had left her friends in Xenia
at 8:15 and driven off alone, giving
her plenty of time to arrive at Oak

View at 9 o’clock for her unsuspected ~

date with a murderer,

No—it appeared that if the slayings
were committed by an enemy, the ene-
my was not Mildred’s. Since Mrs. Mc-
Coy was widely known as the most
amiable and friendly of women who
would never quarrel with anyone, it

seemed that the enemy must be Mc-
Coy's. ‘

A request had already been sent to
the Kentucky authorities to locate and

hold Ed Solent for questioning.’ Word
came in that Solent could not’be, im-
mediately found. He had recently
moved, but the hunt for him was con-
tinuing. ;

Icenhower and his deputies spent the
next day in a canvass of farmers living
in the vicinity of Oak View. Many of
Elmer McCoy’s neighbors: had known
him for most of their lives and were
well acquainted with his alternating
moods, his tempers and his kindnesses,
the little arguments he sometimes had.
All of these people were questioned
closely on the chance that they might
recall something that might be a clue
to murder.

Several of them recalled minor dis-
agreements McCoy had had with oth-
ers, but they stoutly defended his
character. Sure, he was touchy at
times, but underneath his surface
snappishness Elmer McCoy was as kind
as they came. Each one of these ‘minor
disagreements” was thoroughly inves-
tigated and found to be exactly that.

On Saturday afternoon, funeral ser-
vices for the three victims were held

nid >

aN AERO RRR i eed

S NO WAY TO GET RICH

in Grace Memorial Church in Wash-.

ington Court House. After the cere-
mony, Jim Collett clumped into the
county attorney’s office where Icen-
hower and Hill were discussing the
case.

“What a sad thing!” he exclaimed,
shaking his head. “I never thought
I'd live to see the day when’ we'd be
buryin’ Elmer, Forrest and Mildred
all at the same time. I don’t think any-
thing ever happened in Fayette County
quite as bad as this.”

He gazed keenly at the county at-
torney and sheriff. ““You boys made
any arrests yet?”

“No arrests,” Icenhower admitted.
“We're investigating several possibili-
ties.”

“Possibilities,” Collett repeated skep-
tically. “We’re not goin’ to get any-~-
where with possibilities. What we need
is to get the killer behind bars where
he belongs. I been thinking about this
thing. Seems to me in a case like this

you ought to call in outside help—_

maybe hire a private detective from
Columbus or Cincinnati.”

Neither Hill nor Icenhower had got
much sleep since the murders, and they
were a little nettled by this gratuitous
advice. Yet they realized that Collett
could hardly be blamed for his impa-
tience; a man who has had three rela-
tives. murdered in one fell swoop is
not likely to be diplomatic,

“We understand how yeu feel, Jim,”

Icenhower said. “We feel pretty
strongly about it ourselves. Let us
work on it If we fail, then we can

start thinking about getting help.”

= LATE ON SUNDAY, word came
from the Kentucky authorities that Ed
Solent had been located not far from
Louisa and was being held for ques-
tioning by the Ohio officers. Early
Monday morning, Sheriff Icenhower
and his son Maynard left for Louisa.
Arriving there, they found Solent to
be a burly, black-haired man of 35
who admitted he had “quarreled out”
with McCoy but stoutly insisted he
had not been in Ohio for weeks. After
leaving McCoy’s farm, Solent had
found employment at a small Kentucky
distillery, where he had a good record.
Not only that. Solent had been do-
ing a little drinking on the Wednesday
night before Thanksgiving. Several
merchants and other responsible citi-
zens had seen him on the town’s main
street during the evening. So ent’s
alibi was airtight, and he was released
while the sheriff and his son returned
to Washington Court Tlouse.
There Sheriff lcenhower sought out

69


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‘Seems ‘Of Another World—
Convincing Players. eae

Aeceased. then’ See that ‘bis sis-/ .* has Upton Sinciair's: “novel been

rhe: ‘nad ever. ;
‘Ei the “hame ‘whieh’
= Baid the ©

Denied aa Hkewise purged'and renovated ds oe:
he der that tt might succeed: :

«W hether: or not the ® play ey well
cted? whether the plot, is buh

: Beet: chance’ to rejoice thatcevil.. is
©1 the. jexcepulon: “rather than ‘the ‘yule:
bens Sinclair bas!

| painted Mt) -seemaof ‘another ‘world;
i* ATpHon: Ethier, as Jargis, ‘was at
the earlier part.of th
 particalarly in the © tho-

*} diséomfiture otis simple dridegrooni.

Ihsie Sadler, fs Marija, was a mato-
he . \e parts’ ot Valen-
‘were well, taken.
eridan was an “elective are |

ma eae 1 the ©
said tN
rear oe elt

uy Taele at Packingtawn: underwent. aie
: housecleaning ‘upon the © publication }
of reports Ot federal investigations, ;%

Rients in whith he was portraying ae

pats

nessa

REE PO 18 nz DEVE IMO

toonlat; of this’4
in -that. county f&
ing drinks Into &
ship, at the time
Stark County, L!
thefr annual ou
lake last summe
other: member of Fe
rested: -shortly @
the same ‘charge,
Loft te’ said that
wil! have aJhea
Judge ‘Pardee Fr
2 Money
SNew York, No

000 to San’ Fran

hs ‘Repository Ww sh

qcustomers

Philip ats

“opitechnically, cortect,: tbe Lumber

scafee ‘stops ta. taquire,” The!
ej play te onvineing, seemingly. true to}
-titfe; and wives the Amerlan theater:

2 geo LANE

By

WANTED an
$ tek Nope ander
Serer oe

i FOR RENT—Bt
Block,: corner Ch
conveniences. Fe
Cali at a ee .
(Stark 336}

LOST—eaturds
S40 and ee tees
mato

porWethuok conta
tacal; pew, on
reward tors re
Rope qwered to ite te
Se vat at 10883 3

as Akrou ‘and

Ess sult f
$18 buys it thie ” ‘
Jey Dioek.

(WANTED ny Bed
‘tending echacl,
pte Dieder work

te ce A
hive FOR Sab sae

irs ay

“SALT SM

a trate Rene Morell
7 expenkes to .etar

rence unnecks
far oFaledo,

oR RENT.

sub-treasury todaliee

A ikg aaeeee Months belcire he: kifled

+ ao disensed: the: mind ot: “Jamon ‘Cor:
| netius, that he'did aot: possess ade:

| quate ¢ontrof over his nétipos, / 4 —

3 B2,362 for aur
4a 25 follo

charges prewediiation, which oa:
be 2a ing eign and gtrirey

. pa Upham bad tafsed an opjed-

| & parsin dtd before a crime ag.the
{defense of druukenness: mutt ba est k
j tablished at: thd’identical | time “the
‘Veritas was committed? The proséeu:

| gor held that Sheree the No fenton, F

Reyes

2 -Tble ds \the claim ‘Attorney “welty)
irmnade: ‘Friday morning befare’ Jodge
} Marter ‘andi the gory. < He hopes te

ton, claiming It.matiered Ittle What

ite immaterial.

o-TeQuires ena
pores * 4
2 bs shows: that}

must he An evolution. of

“effect sinking intexicat-

fection whieh Toon uD, thairemainder ne

pfore’: attempting “thet.

coger pone aero taos anata Aten rct meernan sateen ve erN tS

ehr ‘Judge Harter
ae Junch. The sets an

{the moshing had éexatolacd. te

the Hartert: Srathers,
oath, Marge: Fe,

i sient ie. i

Effling: Theodore ‘Stwbldss tee

Pye Hejng Uiree cmblew north:

pillon, then centined: that

hat sMeved. at his Taro from Marto
‘Sepiainder 8. Corpellls was engatid q
‘eonstracting : * county site: 2. Mos, se :
the’ time thé than wlepi ty the: bard:
When Attorney Went: Faeked. the

ids regardini: nis Knvavelod :
quénfity of drink. (Cer

P Prosventor Uphan |

ot “SS

‘ a Shorey. after (en o'ttck tne “pines:
shad. presented Si tte: teettmoty. : “Poe
2) Mee Officers “Tidwell and) Battig. te

1} fitted, Gokrnboraling Officer Rriter 3:

=f testimony ‘Thursday afternecen. ‘Taras

keys Reed, ‘nt, the: S prisons: ‘sty

iig’the morsing, ts abe intetvio#
antares five. miptités* Before ‘hn

a tet

bs #eT. B maak 6

~Goruelign x”

‘phy wibeder, eed that fro was ‘actts
Sthd bat tal oF

day” ‘morning, “ha

‘wold be required to ranbenit ail pont Bit: 9

ony, tor, the detente, ‘givfed that:
uments would Bot he: Feache?t bee
10ne “Monday? attergoon or: wendy j
ig. This tinie was @amed,
; Mec saderh antag
L $a wonld be .pernaitt od
Mpdauty expert testtnony remare->
‘the defeudiat's mental condittos,
& polnt etitt tn dlepute ‘Friday aftores.

DON, wher. ‘avpumenta were heard


f
oun outbreak such a4
“ot Almost, dally oceurs}
» In the lowet house
-dnring tho, -de-

‘| about three! wee
dent kitted her
the head with &

times ‘with the

gradually ‘wabsided ‘and
was resumed,

ere atarted at!
dga Harter ‘read, 10
of -instryetions

wiring? all
panip thelr’ cars so thet 7
f thé carw ina) tratos sual

1:39 o'clock}
r} thegury,. a pamber
feceived> from "Atto

accuned. man’s. counsel
natructions werd tothe eect) 2 |
preot in & criminally —
5 ® cipit hone: | The,
“fhat“ine a civil case mere:

eit shas :
4 the sites end. limba of Ub. f that the degree of
and the welfare of 7 f
em for Support

a Ae

a

ie taoe criminal:
‘qpnat bé Ser. more,

emnfzed atthe country Mf
And Mrs. Jeseph J. Stare, Thuiretar .
evening at @ o'clock, . when their
danghter, Stella’ B..was married .to*
Clarence E. Greenho, Rey, Polirs. of
Canton, ofetating, 2 he es
“<The couple were attended by Misa %
-pattle Carper, of Hactvitleand Eloy. “
met Staver, brother “of. the bride Vets
The bridal party, fad by Mire Veros .
Starér,.a4 flower gir, slater of the.” 3
 }peiie, enteted “the? parlor. to the
Tatraing of! the “Paanhauser’” ~~ wexl- 2
4 ding toarch, playet “by Mies, Maud
| Ream, of Hartyiiie, 0% Be
“About sisty Invited © gnests were”
present from Akrom, Canton and ‘oth- -
ee pincens eee ee are
after the ceremony wediing dinner 7
dwas served. The bride received J
many presents, ThE groom iwengag- 4: tien
od In thé insiruction of tuste In te) “nt

“Upyblic schoota ot Green’. townsbip. mA
S.A gamit county. A Pee Ba
ie Catter: awhort wedding trip “ther aid
wilt be at home with the bride's -pa- fo: ae
vente 2 RR Nn et OS ease
‘ BS 603 ae CE ae et ee

Le reek at to Te . "eB Wee i

ae osied t ‘entity. i
© Gucramenta, Cale” Nor... 20-—-CA-
Py At- the requmt “of “Attorney |,
Heaey, Got. Pardee has pargoned”
| Steffens and Wyman, the ballot bow (©
stuffers ta order that tbey may tasti=*
ty-agains: Abraham Ruef and Neots 2°.

Pehmite of fan Fraactses..
feet Sawa eae
Select Your Rug Now, ©

+ Largest selection in tha city, The
Kleta @ Hemeiman Oo Oo ‘
St ni aE * oh “ oe »-§

2. Christmas: OUI Sp,

“gk “St Joseph's churck )
f ‘ Be Pua, Seeks e 28-4 re.

Ud
*

as sais B
pers APs o3? »

prean- ee A

AN

ae

7 RTT r
tANOIT) WHO :
rate service “tol”
bey of An-
m attack on}.
Borris formerty{ -
ene: ‘Herries, a} &
eat,” A {force}:
th .engagedtn} ”
Idtag, and Jt:is} *
snwerd, killed.
ed ne«’ 1Ospes.
é4 tm the house
juence of the
noes Bye Fite ek
‘Harris

‘ey. ‘Ralsigh- ts
. Ment: comman-} ©
ehta “are bethg|~

cons

sae pA Te he Se eeciants

shoe oe

if isn

A Abe | Btate
“giv

_ cong: seek eet

epubdlican - sexndidese’ an
election:  poara: 4
itin hearing: eMonden| Me

teat mie

at bens ie ‘protest Js based! upos' ©

a

eoding what © mere és

bef
f esors ‘S| the profound realisation: of. what
Tht i ohf alt of us have had before us. E want
a ‘Sto prélace my remarks: dy. taying:

ae Seninst this defendant,”

the belief that a perfoct case has been:
ie being proven and: ‘corroborated agai |
_ fend agatas >

“} Cornelits union owas. formed sixteen

“J eult of the: marriage:

not be couvicled of first degree wnt-|.”
could tn helping the proseention off
this'case 1 have heen touched: with).

that the: prosecution: hag deen where!
the facts against the defendant have; +
benk ‘proven Aw they: Mars: ery ee

ty hits

Call's Rtate’s Case Perfect.

i

eee

is bys 3 ae te : ¥+

es. entiemen, yours is a desire. “0.

4 serve the state and defendant arigbt THROWN

at It fe not pleasant to sit apon & jury se et

i ‘Jot this kind, We, too, have: comes Regains Cons

here with a duty. We never “knewy:

‘| Beteélla or James Cornelius before the}. fore Train R

crime came up.’)'As we enter hpon &
discussion of the facts, we do so with

Fires At Th

eee

West Point, N.
P. en Ciydé Fyater
Pa., night operator
ratiroad Station, he
Musly astaulted tar

< ‘ ; who evidentls. inte
years ago... They raised five childregs) any:

Two have died.. One was not the re-

made, link -by ink Of the ‘teatimony

Cyst he's vig Me ‘Family's History,
“very family has its Aistory, The

‘During. the = Byster. war, atrit
A oat 1}
course of-this trial no, testimony. har} Be tisesd icars

{been presented tending to reflect up-/
fon the character of the decéared aa
1a wife and mother. She did her duty

~~ | glways.: On'the other. hand we find
“tthe defendant was a heavy drinker
Bx: and that three weeks previous tothe
“{ crime the: wite filed petition for df
yorce, inding it= impossible to live

S.ulted.atrain eH
Byater” regained
time to saya. hinse
der the. wieeta

pher had. been “at.

Pdra wer,
Whes Eyater re
mnéss he drew hist

Affirmed:

By, Physicians ‘Tes|

2+ with hha.any topger. She had fully} shonting, but. the
“bmede up her mind to ‘separate ‘from i jumped through |
pher husband forever...

pWe will ‘ad-) eaped mahurt, FP)
rmit, for thermoment, that Cornelis, gured.
after the ‘papers had been filed, wos: There was Fone!
begging the womau te feconsider.| the station, duet:
That furnishes: ‘two beliefs=Corne-} dreds “of tieketr’ {
Hus was-sané). and Wasn't xoing to usty football am:
t3oae his-wifec. There was jealousy. } dicré are searching
He said she would never iiss: BF monr-

ry-anothersman. : * :
<The Only Eyewitness,
“ SAWOaG w week hefore the bimiet

“| the wife urganasted her daughter)

Florence fo stay with her: *Plorence)
fg. the only eve wittesa of What took} .
place” during thet atime. For. tne: a
feat, ve have (to read betwoed’ the.

Jinen, for the ips are sealed. When. - 5% sonia of the

“utying For ‘State—Instruc- atie, went to ‘the howne to stay: Flot: Fitday, bids were ©
ance found her mother sleeping, With of the 2,006 000-8
Hong To Jury By Judge. bedroom. Agpr barricaded.” Epemip, which har!

Rete oe

eee pions ies re ense against

amhenced the ateuments in

chy Continue to Monday. ‘ Fwater works pum!
LM 9 n'clock the asaiatant prowecut- nner of yearn.

3 or was stil delivering his ergumed! 1p, furrher nee. °
{He plan

. st :
nh fe sherboon: ler 1430

to talk for about an hour tdotng duty. roel.

aud 9 half, although (a a first dosrees.4 jay roliows: <

' case arguments ate uniltalts | cone, $208,600. 1
of: Raney ae motaaliy st wads tears 3565, Oeori

thin “before the” arguments ste edt thm anton,

Following, MeCulioch, Joao” Al: [ley fade comps

bough will talk, sold the pump to |

hai! ‘It Was. expected tbat « Prosecutor | Lang At willbe rene

Upham and. ey. Welty would! ‘inte,

tit argos until. Monday, no ponrt, oa

ing held Saturday, ts

Sete |

gs

_ IA My i


LIFE AND CONFESSION

OF

JOUN W. COWAN.,

Tue following particulars respecting the life of John W.
Cowan are extracted from his confession which he made
While in prison, six days previous to his execution.

*Powas born on the lothof June, 1806) in Alleghany
connty, about nine tutes from Pittsburgh, on Pine Creek,
Peon. My pareats had three children. One died while
no babe, leaving myself and a sister. - Ina very few years
after my birth my parents, from some cause or other,
separated; my father retaining me, and my mother my
sister, My qnother having been persuaded by some of
her friends to send my sister to school, my father took us
both and placed us ata school about twenty miles above
Vittsburgh, on the Monongahela, Here we remained
nhout a year when iny mother came and took me home ;
but my father heard of it, and forced her to resign me to
him. ln a short time after this, I was sent down the
river. ina tat boat, to live with an uncle, a brother of
my father, at Maysville. © My sister was sent to an aunt,

my father’s sister, Both the unele and the aunt wero’

Homarricd, Soon after my arrival, my unele sent ine to
school in Westunion, Ohio, where E remained nearly a
year About this time my father left Pittsburgh to ree
Imeve to Shawnectown, in the state of HMlinois, On his
way down the nver, he stopped to see me. 1 remember
well the delightful nature of my emotions when, after so

long an absence, | again saw my parent. | sincerely

loved hin; and young as 1 was, absence but stren

mgthen-
ed the feeling. ae

My f@her remained with me buta short time. Le
promised that T should: see ny mothe
me seine preseuts of sweetmeats, and

ariel PT wept until E thought my little heart would break ;
and the hady of the house took a switth and Whigyud me
into silence!” his taught me cireumspeetionn LE had
been tauzht.--severely taught —that to regret my father's
absence was a fault; and, as beould not restrain iny feel.

ings altoxether, LE was forced to iidulse them by stealth, o>

Pused to creep behind the house, of into some’ secret”
place. and there ery for hones, My uncle sometimes
came to see ine, and at sueh times appeared to be kind.
tome: but there was a yearning im my soul to see my
parents and iny sister, and | would not be pacified.

“TL lived this heart-broken kind of life tor two years,
and then my father sent for me to Join him at Shawnee.
town. Reader, you, perhaps, have been tenderly reared,
and may never have expericaced the destitution of paren-
tal and fraternal affection which wasiny lot; bat, if your
heart was ever formed to throb in sympathy with the joys
or the sorrows of your fellow beings, you will certamly ©
indulge me in recalling that happy moment—happy ! tow”
happy, it seemed to me then—when LE received my father's
Blea haae to see him: and to see, as Lfondiy, but vainly,
toped, iny mother and my sister. Twas sent down to
Shawneetown, but my father alone received me. Al-
though the measure of my anticipated happiness was not
complgte—for the presence of my mother and sister was
sll necessary to render it so—T would be doing but im-
Justice to my father did FE not admit that his Kinduess

soothed inany of the pangs that PE had eXperienced since

his separation from iny mother. DL often tortured hinn—
for now TE know it must have been focture-—with qpnestions

about my absent mother and sister, to all of whieh he

replied evasively, and endeavored to direct my attention
to other subjects.

About three mouths afier my arrival at Shawneetown,
a letter from my mother, directed to my father, reached
the post-ollice of that village. ‘The ollice was the next

he would return soon, and then left ime overwhelmed with

COWAN, John W,, hanged Cincinnati, Ohio

"Cincinnati, Ohio, Nove 2, 1836. = John W. Cowan, the miserable wretch who so in-
humanly butchered his wife and two children a short time since in this city, was
arraigned for trial on Saturday last, before the Court of Common Pleas, Judge Este
and his Associations presiding. He pleaded guilty to the charge of murder in the
first degree, and pertinaciously refused the aid of counsel, When the Court asked
him if he knew of any cause why sentence of death should not be pronounced against
him, he replied that he was willing to abide by the laws of his country. The
Prisoner received the sentence of death with perfect composure, and smiled as it

was pronounced. ‘We understand that he states his purpose of destroying his wife was
conceived three years ago, but that he never could put it in execution until the per-
iod of the fatal catastrophe, He also continues to justify his crime, A more
cold«blooded and heartless villain we have never heard nor read of in the annals of
wickedness and depravity. As there is not the slizhtest sympathy excited in his
behalf in the bosom of any portion of this people, he will unquestionably be exe-
cuted at the time appointed, and will go to the grave unwept, execrated, and dispised
by the whole community, - WHIG," REGISTER, Raleigh, NC, Dic. ly 1835 ()):1.)

JOUN W. COWAN,

wes cee eee

— © door to my father’s store, and the postnaster g@ve me the

letter, which Ehanded to my father, as he was standing |

‘in the door of his store. ‘The effect: produced pou him
has never been erased from my memory. He swooned,
and fell into the street. Several persons ran to his assist-
ance; among whom was Mrs. Marshall, wile of the post-
Inaster, Who picked up the letter, When he recovered he

easked me for the letter; and, on applying for it to: Mes.
Marshall, § found her reading it, and heard my mother's >

hame mentioned. ~ E trust none but the callous hearted
will condemn my curiosity, when PE acknowledge that I
endeavored to learn from Mes. Marshall the whole of its
© contents; and none, certainly, ean wonder at the childish
= exultation with which U repeated my newly gained know:

ledge to my father. My whole soul was absorbed by one

delightful -antieipation-—and that) was, that my father
would send for my mother and sister, whose residence |
shad learned from the letter, and permit us all, once more,

to live together.

-— were, and he sternly bade me to sit down.

came more collected he told me that E must never expect
“to see my mother or iny sister until PE should) become a
“man. He also prohibited me, under the severest penalties,
from saying any thing on the subject of my mother to any
person. Many of the citizens of the village interrogated
me about the letter which my father had received, and

about my mother and sister, but, in accordance with his —

we

commands, | maintained a resolute silence. a

“PT remamed with my uncle until my fifteenth year,
and went to school during the whole time, as E believe at
his expense.’ "The union of my parents, and my own
restoration to a sister's society and love, were the all-

engrossing feclings of ny heart; and though carefully’
hid my sorrows in the darkness of my bosom, they “were
My good, kind uncle is still living, ©

not the less poignant.
but a few, a very few days will introduce his nephew at
the bar of Omuipotence. A brief struggle on an ignomini-

ous seatfold wall, in one short week, liberate the immortal -
mind that now indites these lines from the erring flesh —
Bs

But my father had his reasons’ for »

crushing my hopes and my happiness, whatever they ©.
When he be- ©

aE he soem eed

‘ber of the Methodist: Episcopal Chureh, aud as ne jana

JOUN. W. COWAN,

Geeees coewss eceets sce tees cee eecees

with whith, for twenty-eight years, it has been conjoined a
and permit it to receive that uncle, who F ought ty have gs
loved so well, in the realms of eternal bliss. : a
“My uncle bound ime out as an
John Smedley, in Harrodsburgh, Wy., te bears thee Desie)
ness of cabinet imaking. My master was an exellent,
workman, and a good and: pious man. He was a meme

apprentice to a Me,

had ever been taken to furnish me with a religions eduene_
Hon or to cultivate industrious habits inime, and preferrmy.
to indulge my natural or acquired gloomy feelings. ino”
solitude and idleness, Mr. Smedley was mduced vr: end Pirie
me back tomy inele. fia few days, however, my unele
made an arrangement with “Thomas §. Mefiowan, of
Lexington, for me to leam the trade with hin. We was)
7 fe that E should stay six months on trial, and then,”

if both parties were satistied, P siould be indented nati
the age of twenty-one, My master was exeerdingly hind 2).
to me during these first six months, and. feeling wrfertly
satisfied with my situation. PE consented, willingly: ter be
bound for the remainder of the term. Bat PE soon pers
ceived a change ino iny master’s conduct: towards mece
lustead of being petted, as had been my tuck during my
siX mouths of trial, Pwas made adrndge, and condemned
toa constant and systematic appliention of the cowhide.
Po supported my fate with tolerable patience for three:
years, and then, one Sunday morning. took my departire,
Without leave. for Danville. the ‘residence of my unele
where Parrived early on the following day. My nnete
rax exceedingly vexed at my conduet. and wished me te
return, to which Leave a positive refusal, and went to
work inoone of the shops of the town. Lo was then
eighteen years old.

“Fo Denville f remained untii some tine inthe winter,
When an irresistible desire to see my mether and sister ine
duced me te visit Pittsburgh. Leannet deserihe By Keg.
sitions, when, after se nimay years obsenee. Pagam saw
the enty in whieh. as Pbeheverl, the twe beinus so dear te
mie resided. “Wve Stare sYeopogwed nm fiew tee: orppe ests ontn @ “oocnl
UQaNl, curd UP stemocd com ex erect Npon the smoky piles below


JOUN W. COWAN,

me, with feelings which none can understand gave him
who, hike me, a wandering and a friendless young man,
is returning to visita parent from whom. in infancy, he
had been ruthlessly severed. tna little time § found my
sister, who kept a sort of clothing store, She was a
widew, and, hke me, had nothing but her own industry
to depend upon. Of eontse she had no reeallection of me;
nor slrentte have known her through any other means
than my inquiries in the neighborhood. After buying a
few articles, and asking ber seme questions about her
father and her brother, my feechuys overpowered me; f
could maintain” my intended disenise ne donger, but
snatched her te my arms in one long embrace of love and
Happiness. Fo will say ne mere ateout this interview. f
Will not speak of the tenderness and joy that presided at
this reunion of tive beings whe had beer so long esirang-
ed. and who were still so dear to each other.” That fatal
artofiny life, which has placed me in this dungeon, has,
perhaps, induced those whe have heard of me to believe
that Pan a mnonster, bereft of every generous sentiment.
Pkuew not how te eonvinee them otherwise, nor shall I
itempt todo so: bat the Ged of Natgre, whe formed ny
heart, and hiows both its merits and its errors, will know
Voeont Taco ter jradszes anes, 9
* My mother hyved bat a square anda half from my sister,
DP will say nothing of my menting with her She had heen
Gaudty. it as trie. cad batterty: breve my life been made to
pay the penalty of her errors, but still’ she wasim y mother
sny poor need. afflicted, repentant mother. Even she
sb not hneew me. pen my relations § learnt that my
Citterr had died in Patterson, New Jersey, ignorant of the
sittintion of his Canily: having seen none ofthem but ine
since he had first lett Pisburgh. fe saw ine in Dm.
Villecatimy onele'’s, as he passed through on his Way to
Patterson. He never sawime after, Mis death occurred
iia Ese, es
"On the 23th of Oetober, but a short time afier my
arcivel in Pittsburgh, my poor mother Was @alled to be -
last account: and the pions eatmness whichamarked her

Last moments warrants me in the Drastaatole assurance, that,

JOUN W. COWAN,

a holy an& benevolent Ciod had been pleased to nerept
her repentanee as an atonement for all her transgressions,
and that she now enjoys a blest immortality in the mane
sions of her Heavenly Father. :
“ My sister's residence, at which | resided a while, in
Pittsburgh, was on Wood street, between Sth street and
Virgin alley. Right opposite to us was a honse numbered
12. When the doors of one house Were open, a person >
mizht stand in the other and see thronczh it, On the day ay
that L arrived, U saw in the Opposite house the Unfortunate
girl that TE afterwards married, IP was struck with her
Aprrarance. and applied to my. sister for information —
respecting her, By her § was informed. that her ane
was Mary Susannah Ninelair —that the house opposite
belonged to her father, whe was an industrious, respeetn-
ble, and pious, man, and hy trade a saddler-—that Mary
was an amiable and industrions girl, of excellent reputae.
tion, and was then learning to be a mantua-maker—that-
her mother was dead—with a Variety of other particulars
not necessary to repeat. FE was so pleased with her pre
pearanee, and with the account my sister gave of her, ©
that I immediately determined, could | ever be fortunate |
enough to effect it, to make her my wife. “ies
“Tt then went to work in Alleghanytown : but finding —
myself ignorant of many of the different kinds of work
executed in Pittsburgh, ‘ee the propriety of fixing my-_

sclf Permanently in some shop, in order to perfect myself

inmy trade, For this purpose, T proposed myself to Mr.
Henry Bears, at the corner of Third and Smithfield streets,
to stay with him six months, fora small eilary, Me ob. |
jected to so short a period, and insisted on MY seevinee
him a year, to which assented. Articles of agreement,
to this effect, were drawn up by Esquire Lowry, in whose
presence we signed them; and T immediately commenced
work with him, and served my time ont faithfully ane
honorably. He treated me like a zontleran, and PE have
always felt grateful to him for his Kindness,  f staid with
Mr. Bears altogether three years,

“It was in the month of December, 1820, when I was

21


‘* DANIELS, Robert M., white,

GO = fect OR ee ++

cay

‘THE: NEW: YORK. TIMES: - THURSDAY, SULY. 2, ‘19

BANKER IS F TILED. | IPRISON OFFICIAL SLAIN

WITH WIFE, DAUGHT: ER

Ge lara

=_ihe nude bodies of John E. Nie-
. . superintendent: of

anFautosens ‘said that. the
in the corn-

i

e

i

veolm A./being sought for questioning in the

yder Road, Man: July’9 killing of Earl Ambrose,
operator of a tavern in Columbus.

Robert Murl Daniels, 24, and

:

Hol

Ee

freee an | ‘box springs vis 44, 50 each, and for th
twin: ize mattresses and box springs, 34.50 each.
rercaso shave: highly. tempered. innerspring. :
unit covered with stitched sisal pads; deep. layers: al
: of ¢ cotton felt; rolled edges; button tufting; ACA. : : i
: ticking. Box: springs have: hand- tied coils. and 2

~ covering: to. ‘match mattress. 2 weeks delivery

3

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Fabs

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REF


DANIELS, Robert Merle, electrocuted, Ohio, (Richland), on Jan. 3, 199.

"In the early hours of 20 July 1948, a car pulled up in front of the house
of the Superintendent of the Ohio State Reformatory Farm. Two ex-convicts,
Robert Daniels and John West, burst into the house, where John Niebel, his
wife and 23-year-old daughter had been sleeping. While John West pistol-
whipped Niebel and his wife, Daniels beat the girl in another room, then
raped her, Then all three were made to strip, and marched into a nearby
field. They were made to kneel, and then shote Mrs. Niebel was shot in
the stomach, and allowed to writhe on the ground for a while before she
was dispatched with a bullet in the head,

"Che killers were at large for another 24 hours, but escape was impossible.
As soon as the bodies were found - early next morning - road blocks were
thrown up around the whole county. During their flight, Daniels and West
committed two more murders: one of a car driver, one of a truck driver
asleep in his cab. Stopped by the police at a road block. West tried to
shoot his way out and was killed; Daniels was arrested and later executed.
"At first sight, there seems an abyss of difference between this case and
Shere Ali's (an Indian case described earlier). West and Daniels hoped to
escape, and nearly succeeded. But on closer scrutiny, it becomes more
problematic. West was a near-moron; but Daniels was described by the
prison psychiatrist as 'brainy', Yet a few hours before the murder of

the Niebels, they committed two tavern robberies in Columbus, Ohio, in

the second of which they murdered the owner. Daniels was driving his own
car, and its make and number were noted by customers as the bandits fled.
Knowing there was a state alert out for them, they drove to the Niebels',
and parked the car in front of the house, where it was observed by a
neighbor. If Daniels had really been determined to escape, he would have
taken elementary precautions - such as wearing a mask in the two hold-ups,
using a stolen car instead of one registered in his own name, and parking
some distance away from the Niebels' house. Every stage of fhe operation
Was conducted in a manner that made their capture inevitable, and the two
extra murders in the course of flight - both completely gratuitous -
strengthen this view...Daniels and West thought only of the supreme
satisfaction of revenge; they took no interest in what lay beyond it, be=
cause their planning of the operation made it certain that only death lay
beyond it. In the sense already defined, Daniels and West were assassins
rather than murderers,"

ORDER OF ASSASSINS: The Psychology of Murder, by Colin Wilsons; London:
Rupert Hart- Davis, pp 25-26.


SARC at or BOLT wei amen ag

RES

STATE vy. CURNUTT

Ohio 935

Cite as 84 N.E.2d 230

discretion of the trial court whose action
will not be set aside except for clear and
manifest abuse.”

Again, in People v. Shilitano, 218 N.Y.
161, 112 N.E. 733, L.R.A.1916F, 1044, it is
stated in the 5th and 6th paragraphs of the
syllabus:

“Evidence of recantation on the part of
a witness is newly-discovered evidence,
and, therefore, of a character which would
justify granting a new trial, but it cannot
be said, as a matter of law, that a new
trial should be granted whenever an im-
portant witness against the defendant shall
make an affidavit that he committed per-
jury in his testimony, since there is no
form of proof so unreliable as recanting
testimony. The question in such case is
whether the evidence of recantation which
is presented is of such a character and
weight as to justify this court in setting
aside the judgment entered upon the ver-
dict of the jury.

“The recanting statements presented a
question primarily for the trial judge, who
had seen and heard the witnesses upon the
trial, to determine whether they were of
such weight as to justify him in setting
aside the verdict, and in:view of the char-
acter of the evidence offered to impeach
the judgment, and the decision of the trial
judge denying the motion for a new trial,
the case fails to present a situation in
which this court should substitute its judg-
ment for that of the jury and the trial
judge.”

In People v. Smallwood, 306 Mich. 49, at
page 58 of the opinion, 10 N.W.2d 303, at
page 306, 147 A.L.R. 439, it is stated: “The
motion was mainly based on a claim of
new testimony—that the girl had later re-
pudiated her former testimony. We have
frequently looked with disfavor on later
admissions by a witness that he or she had
committed perjury in the trial, as a ground
for granting a new trial. There was no
abuse of discretion by the trial court in the
case at bar in denying the motion. Plainly,
a new trial (if one were held) would re-
sult in acquittal, if the complaining witness
should adhere to her subsequent repudia-
tion of her testimony. Under quite similar
circumstances, this court upheld the lower
court’s denial of a new trial in People v.

Van Den Dreissche, 233 Mich. 38, 206
N.W 339.”

Bolton v. State of Indiana, supra, is fol-
lowed by annotation in 158 A.L.R., at page
1062. It is stated editorially therein: “A
study of the cases in the original annota-
tions and those decided subsequently in-
dicates that the courts, with their experi-
ence with witnesses, generally pay but lit-
tle regard to the statements of a recanting
witness, and only in extraordinary and
unusual cases will a new trial be allowed
because of the recanting statements.”

[6] And, again on page 1065: “When
a new trial is sought upon the ground that
a witness subsequently states that he gave
perjured testimony, the question is, When
did the witness tell the truth? Recanta-
tion by an important witness of his or her
testimony at the trial does not necessarily,
or as a matter of law, entitle the defendant
to a new trial, the determination of such
matters resting in the sound discretion of
the trial court, whose action will not be
set aside except for clear and manifest
abuse. Moore v. State, 1939, 59 Ga.App.
456, 1 S.E.2d 230; Bolton v. State, [223
Ind. 308, 60 N.E.2d 742], 158 A.L.R. 1057;
State v. Zeilinger, 1938, 147 Kan. 707, 78
P.2d 845; State v. Wynn, 1934, 178 Wash.
287, 34 P.2d 900; State v. Snyder, 1939,
199 Wash. 298, 91 P.2d 570.”

To the same effect is the case of Hender-
son v. State, 135 Fla. 548, 185 So. 625, 120
A.L.R. 742, where it is stated in the 9th
and 10th paragraphs of the syllabus:

“Motion for new trial is addressed to
sound judicial discretion of trial court, and
presumption is that he exercised such dis-
cretion properly.

“Generally, unless it clearly appears that
trial court abused its discretion, trial
court’s action on motion for new trial will
not be disturbed by the appellate court.”

In the instant case, the trial court was
presided over by an experienced judge,
who had spent many years upon the bench.
It may be presumed that he knew that the
justice of a sentence of death was before
him, and that the heavy responsibility at-
tendant upon his continuing to sustain such
sentence was fully apprehended. He had
before him the witnesses whom he had

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93 Ohio

opportunity to observe when giving their
testimony at the trial. He patiently lis-
tened to the new evidence in which there
was, as hereinbefore noted, ‘much to refute
the repudiation by the principal in the
crime,

[7] It cannot be said in view of all
the circumstances in this case that he
abused his discretion in refusing a new
trial.

The judgment is affirmed.

MATTHEWS, P. J., and ROSS and
HILDEBRANT, JJ., concur in syllabus,
opinion and judgment.

° KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

sums

84 Ohio App. 89
MALLOW v. MALLOW.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Hamilton County.
March 22, 1948.

Divorce €=245(2)

A remarriage of the husband furnished
no authority for a change in an alimony
decree theretofore entered where other
circumstances remained the same.

ne os

Action by Harvey M. Mallow against
Marion Mallow. From an order modify-
ing a final judgment for alimony payable
in installments, the defendant appeals.
[Editorial Statement. ]

Order reversed.

Carson Hoy, of Cincinnati, for plain-
tiff-apptilee.

John M. Renner, of Cincinnati, for de-
fendant-appellant.

84 NORTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

MATTHEWS, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from an order modify-
ing a final judgment for alimony payable
in instalments. The divorce was granted
to the wife because of the aggression of
the husband and he was ordered to pay
$11.00 per week. The order appealed from
reduced the alimony to $8.00 per week.

The bill of exceptions discloses that no
substantial change had taken place in the
earning capacity and financial condition
of the husband since the award of $11.00
per week was made. Neither had there
been any substantial change in the situa-
tion of the wife. The only change mate-
rially affecting the husband’s ability to
pay results from his subsequent remarriage.

The appeal, therefore, presents the ques-
tion of whether the remarriage authorizes
the reduction of the award.

By the great weight of the authorities,
the remarriage of the husband furnishes
no basis for a change in an alimony decree
theretofore entered. Myers v. Myers, 62
Utah 90, 218 P. 123, 30 A.L.R. 74; Cropsey
v. Cropsey, 104 N.J.Eq. 187, 144 A. 621,
64 A.L.R. 1266; Kirkbride v. Van Note,
275 N.Y. 244, 9 N.E.2d 852, 112 A.L.R.
243, at page 246 et seq., and the Ohio
case of Nash vy. Nash, 77 Ohio App. 155,
65 N.E.2d 728, 729, the second paragraph
of the syllabus to which is as follows:

“The changes in the circumstances of the
parties that may be considered in sttch a
request for modification, must be material
and not purposely brought about by the
complaining party, and must be considered
on the basis that the judgment sought to
be modified was proper when made.”

As no change in conditions justifying
a modification of the alimony was shown,
the order appealed from is reversed.

MATTHEWS, P. J., and ROSS and
HILDEBRANT, JJ., concur.

HO}

Court

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“What caused
sked Clyde. “Did

“He didn’t try
ad a chance. I wu
o Ted Remello. | }
ellow behind the !
hen a shot sound:
hree feet away
ree more shots ca!
my brother on thé
for the first time *
e two guns.”

“He said to mé«
top of the bar.

Tracks of getaway car in alley are ex-
amined by Capt. Snyder. “The license
number was L-4190,” police were told

He paused, swa
n.
“The man at the
coin box on the
bills underneath
get going.’ The tw

“The one that killed Earl called out, ‘Better not make a move for ten minutes, First
one who sticks his head out, I’ll blow it off!’ ” the dead man’s brother told Detective

a Fee

-

36

Earl Ambrose, shot down
by desperadoes. “He
never had a_ chance”

Clyde Ambrose: “A shot
sounded back of me.
Then three more shots”

Bandits overlooked Mrs. *
Earl Ambrose (above)
and safe holding $20,000

Sergeant L. V. Sheets (right), who was called at midnight to investigate slaying the side door. Th:

arms and began to sob convulsively.

Murphy turned to Weideman.

“It’s eleven forty-five. They may try
another stick-up. I’ll get the word out
fast.”

Weideman nodded.
check the crowd.”

Murphy relayed the descriptions to
the police broadcasting room with in-
structions for cruisers to patrol taverns
cashing paychecks. He cut across to
the North Side and slowed down to
look into a High Street cafe.

The radio boomed. The sharp, urgent
call giving the code numbers for a
shooting and robbery sent him racing
three blocks to Summit Street and Fifth
Avenue. The filling stations on three
corners were closed. It was 11:58 P.M.
He pulled up at the side entrance of the
Ambrose Tavern on the northeast corner,
ran in and was met by Ernest Nagel,
the bartender.

“You’re just five minutes too late,”
he announced grimly. ‘Two gunmen
held us up. They got away. They killed
Earl Ambrose and shot a woman cus-
tomer.”

Murphy followed Nagel around the
counter through the side alcove into the
barroom where he saw the motionless
figure on the floor, a woman bent over
him weeping hysterically.

“That’s his wife,’ Nagel said.

“What did the gunmen look like?”
Murphy asked.

“We'll stay and

“The one that shot Ambrose was thin, .

tall, with glasses. The other one had
one of those white-collar-ad faces. Both
were about twenty-five.”

He gestured to a wall booth in the
adjoining room straight across from the
archway where the dead man lay.

“That’s where the woman was shot.”

Patrolmen Sylvester Bauer and

Charles E. Hill, Jr., entered, followed in
quick succession by other officers.
Ambulance men took the wounded
woman, who was identified as Mrs. Ruth
McBurney of near-by Fort Hayes Bar-
racks.

Pending arrival of homicide detec-
tives, Murphy got quick accounts of
the robbery and killing from several
of the twenty customers.

Detective Sergeant Lowell V. Sheets,
in charge of the Homicide Bureau, ar-
rived at 12:10 a.m. Murphy told him
about the Joe’s Grill hold-up and the
identical descriptions of the bandits. As
Murphy left, homicide detectives and
fingerprint men arrived. As they went
to work on fingerprints, photographs
and other routine examination, Sheets
began to question witnesses.

The bartender told him that the two
gunmen had come in at the side entrance
and ordered beer at the end of the bar,
where they were invisible to Earl! Am-
brose who was at the center table.

“When I brought the beer, the one
wearing glasses pulled two guns and
told me to put my hands on the bar
and keep them there.”

He pointed to a man of forty, tall,
straight, with fine features, standing at
the bar, staring vacantly into space.

“That’s Clyde Ambrose, Earl’s
brother.”

Sheets learned that Clyde had been
helping his brother, Earl, run the cafe
since his return from army service in the
Pacific, for which he had given up his
defense job and volunteered. Earl was
forty-eight, had a son in the Army, had
aided many returned veterans, had op-
erated the neighborhood tavern twelve
years, distributed hundreds of baskets
every Thanksgiving Day and Christmas,
and kept a clean, neighborhood place.

Earl called out, ‘Be:
for ten minutes
his head out, I'l) !
to the kitchen, 2
I got outside the
A serious lookin
identifying himse!}!
of 51 King Avenus
recently discharg:
Sheets he had b:
to the tavern.
“We were in th:
“She’s had a lot
She was feeling
heard a cracking
and saw this ma:
Then there was a:
pression on her
Tm hit.’ I got up:
were gone pretty
called an ambulan
Ted Remello, a |
Fourth Street, ex;
in to pick up a née
“T wasn’t here a
pened,” he said.

Though wounded
turned defeat into
Hoffman (right).
Ohio. Now we hay

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66

across the Mississippi when your boy was
shot.”

“You sure?” Detective Moore asked.

“Why should I lie, Mac?” Daniels re-

lied. “I’m goin’ to the chair for these
other killings. If I did it I'd tell you.”

Satisfied, the detectives went back to
Detroit, and back to waiting for Meadows
to show again.

On July 25, Colonel Edwards tele-
phoned that his men had checked Flor-
ence, Kan., thoroughly and found no
trace of Meadows or his station wagon.

The next morning the telephone com-
pany called state police headquarters.
“We just put through a call from Tulsa,
Okla., to Mrs. Meadows’ number,” an
operator said.

Detectives Spratto and Moore raced
swiftly to the Meadows home. Mrs.
Meadows had just finished the call.

“It was Robert,” she said. “He asked
me to send the title and all the papers
for his car so he could sell it.”

“Where to?” Moore asked.

“To him, General Delivery, Tulsa. I
... 1 told him he should give himself up.”

“What did he say?” Spratto asked.
Moore had closed his eyes in quiet pain,
muttering something that sounded sus-
piciously like, “Fate is sometimes un-
kind.”

“He said he didn’t know what I was
talking about and to send those papers
right away—today—airmail.”

Spratto was thinking hard. Meadows
knew, now, that police were on his trail.
Once he got rid of the distinctive station
wagon, he'd be hard to find. He'd be
smart enough to sever all ties with. his
family and Detroit. “You prepare that
letter,” he told Mrs. Meadows. “We'll
come back and take you to the post office
to mail it.”

He and Moore got in their car and
raced toward headquarters. “We've got to
beat that letter to Tulsa,” Spratto said.

“This may be our last chance. We ought

to be on deck, working right with Tulsa
police.”

“Airmail travels fast,” Moore said.

“So does our state police plane,” Sprat-
to grinned.

“Hey—that’s right!”

But if Detective Moore had any ideas
of making the trip, he had to abandon
them. When he got back to headquarters
he learned that his wife’s father had died
suddenly.

Arrangements for the plane were made
swiftly after Captain Meehan telephoned
Commissioner, Donald S. Leonard and
explained the new urgency of the case.

At 11 a.m., Detective Spratto and De-
tective Sgt. Howard Seiler, who replaced
Moore, took Mrs. Meadows to the post
office, then back home. They went
straight to a Detroit airport-where Lieut.
William Watkins, who was also a pilot,
met them.

By dusk, the trio was at Hannibal, Mo.
At 10 next morning they landed at Tulsa
and were met by’ Tulsa officers who'd
been contacted by telephone.

At headquarters they discussed the case
with J. D. Hills, Tulsa's chief of detec-
tives, who assigned Sgt. A. M. Smith,
Lieut. M. M. Level and Detective I. C.
Fusher to work with the Michigan of-
ficers. He also arranged to have all radio

cars and patrolmen watch for the Crosley
station wagon.

The detectives went first to the post
office where they learned Meadows’ letter
hadn’t yet arrived. Nor had he inquired
for it. Two detectives stayed at the post
office to wait until closing time.

Neither Meadows nor his station wagon
appeared that day. By next morning
Spratto was getting nervous. By noon the
letter had arrived at the post office—but
Meadows hadn't called for it.

The day waned, and the three Michi-
gan detectives grew more restless.

“He's figured this out and moved on
ayain,” Detective Spratto said pessimisti-
cally. He was sure of it when the post
office closed at 6 p.m., the letter still un-
claimed.

“We'll wait one more day,” Lieutenant
Watkins decided.

That night, soon after 8, the Michigan
officers got a call at their hotel. “Better
come down,” Sergeant Smith told them.
“We've spotted the station wagon and
put a plant on it.”

Thirty minutes later, with Detectives
Ray Jones and James Lang of the Tulsa
department, the three Michigan officers
were lurking in scattered spots around a
cream and green station wagon that still
bore its telltale Michigan license.

At 10 p.m., two couples came out of a
near by theater and walked to the Cros-
ley. Spratto recognized Meadows and
signaled the other officers, who closed in.

“Hello, Meadows,” Spratto said. The
young man turned, startled. Then he
shrugged and smiled wryly.

“Cops?” he asked.

“Yep!”

“Michigan cops?”

“Yep!”

“I thought so. Okay—let's go.”

The girl and other couple with
Meadows were quickly released. They
knew nothing of the Krech murder, nor
of: Meadows’ background. They'd met
casually in Tulsa.

Meadows waived extradition and next
morning he climbed nervously into the
state police plane with the trio of officers.
All night he had denied the Krech mur-
der. A search of his rooms, luggage and
car revealed no guns.

But somewhere over the Ozark moun-
tains between Tulsa and St. Louis he
changed his mind. He confessed—and
thus became the first murderer in Michi-
gan State Police history to make an aerial
confession. When they reached Detroit
late that afternoon, he signed a written
confession.

“I was alone,” he said. “I needed
money. I figured this tourist camp guy
was easy. Ipstead, he lunged at me. I
started shooting. That's all. I didn’t get
a cent out of it.”

He had dismantled the gun, he said,
and dropped pieces of it along the way
on his trip west—some in the Mississippi,
some in the Missouri, some along the
road,

On Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1948, in
Wayne County Circuit Court at Detroit.
Meadows was found guilty of second de-
gree murder by a jury that deliberated
only 90 minutes. Sentence was deferred
pending a probation department report.

—

Secret of
CX

[Continuc

that night. You:
later and give mi:
added bitterly, ‘*

The glances of
tered Detective

on the youth bef
thing te him
accurate, well-tra
boy said, “You a
memory kicked
scarcely percept
Kraemer, who se
from the room.

“What's your
Kraemer asked.

“Carl Holly!”

Lieutenant Ni
seen you before, !

“IT suppose,” )
surly now.

“Sure—you rar
year. Went to Ch
a burglary scrap
right now, aren't

“Tam, and I
didn’t have any
murder,” Holly :
nervous outburs
convincing.

Neiderkorn 1
else. “You go t
school don’t you
the odd call C
traced to the sc}
appearance,

“I do,” Holly:
to do with it?”

The lieutena!
“And the night !
had a date witt
for her.”

“Sure!”

“Where were \
korn asked soft!
that afternoon?”

“At the libra
studies.”

That, the offic
ossible to che
nave seen Holly
member, with c]
time and date :
weeks had pass
Holly counted o

The question
sisted his spat w
night had been
gotten. “We m
said. “It wasn’t
it seems impor
happened.”

To the officer:
of odd circumst
around Holly's h
him to a cell and
They corrobora:
about the trivial
also insisted th
enough about P

Nevertheless,
tain Kraemer, a


ppy. They en-

true too often

the money out
registers.”
ike?”
vas tall, thin,
glasses. He
tr one

wonder

explained.
The one with
ritten in his
He just

eatured

Clen-

haha ane

“My pal was so darn ugly he hated cany-
thing good looking, except me,” this man

boasted. “He’d do anything I told him”

“After killing Smith, they had his wife
in the back of the car and threatened
to kill her. She got away when they
switched to their own car (above)”

of whiskey on the- back counter a few inches from me.”

“What happened then?”

“I ducked. Some cute guy in the back cracked, ‘Who
threw that firecracker?’ The two-gun artist yelled, ‘Come
out of there or I’ll blow your brains out.’ Just then his pal was
around back of the counter. He had Mrs. Schechter in
front of him. He made me get up and open the back
register. She opened the middle one. She saved Joe.”

“How?”

“The two-gun guy kept teasing Joe with pretty bad names.”
In a lowered voice he mentioned a viciously obscene insult.
“He kept repeating, ‘I don’t like you. I ought to kill you.’ ”

“What did his wife do?”

“You see, the customers in the booths stayed there. The
flashy-looking guy herded the rest toward the back. Some-
body threw an empty beer bottle at Four-Eyes (that’s what
he called him) in the front. It landed on a shelf. That two-
gun rat went crazy. He started saying the rottenest things
I ever heard. That’s when Mrs. Schechter called out,
‘Everybody do as you’re told.” She told Joe to open the
safe. She told Four-Eyes, ‘Nobody’s going to make trouble.
Take the money. Please don’t shoot him.’”

“Any idea who the hold-up men are?”

“No,” Clendenin replied. Murphy glanced around at the
circle of listeners. They shook their heads.

“Where is Mrs. Schechter?” he asked.

“The minute they left, she fainted,” Clendenin told him.
“The waitresses are with her in that back booth.”

Murphy and Weideman found the proprietor’s young-
looking, winsome wife at the booth table, pale, taking short,
rapid breaths.

“Those two weren’t just hold-up men,” she said. “They’re
killers. Especially the one with the glasses. The lust for
blood was in his face.” She shuddered. “And the way he
talked. It was awful! Oh—” She buried her head in her

“This one with the glasses had murder
written on his face,” said an onlooker,
describing the two-gun bandit (above)

“He’d rather shoot than talk,” stated
the gun-mad killer’s companion. Arsenal
(above) in car trunk bore out his claim

\'
\
‘
.
.
.
.

=+.— Son


_

DANIELS, Robert M., white, elec. OH& (Richland County) January 3, 1949

ee

34

“These are the worst killers. They don’t shoot to get out of a jam.

A LIGHT FLASHED on the switch-
board in the telephone room at the
Columbus, Ohio, police headquarters,
a few blocks from the dome-covered
capitol. It was 11:33 p.m., Friday, July
9th, 1948. The girl operator plugged in.
The man’s voice sounded out of breath.

“There's a hold-up at Joe’s Grill, 891
West Broad Street. I saw a man with
two guns through the window.”

The message, relayed to the police
broadcasting room instantly, sent cruiser
and detective cars racing to the address.
Patrolmen Thomas Gleason and Stephen
Tigyer in West Side cruiser car No. 3
were first on the scene

Guns drawn, they reached the door,
gave it a hard, sudden push and were
greeted with a hubbub ot excited voices,
each trying to give directions.

“You might catch ’em yet.”

“They haven't been,gone a minute.”

“Which way did they go? What kind
of a car?” Gleason snapped.

He met blank glances and bewildered
looks

“By the time we looked out,’ came
from one man, “they were out of sight.”

by Herman Bonchek

Police Captain William Murphy swung
through the door, followed by Detective
Sergeant Robert Weideman, in charge
of the night robbery detail, Detective
Paul Fulton, his aide, and cruiser patrol-
men.

The voices of about 150 customers,
mostly young and -middle-aged couples,
dinned angrily. Many jammed the space
between the thirteen wall booths on
the left and the long counter on the
right. The excited voices were loudest
in the rear, where the cafe opened into
an adjoining dining-room.

“Some of the girls fainted,’ the bar-
tender explained as Captain Murphy
sent an inquiring glance in that direc-
tion. “They’re O.K. now.”

Murphy and Weideman turned to the
tall, heavy-set man behind the _ bar,
the proprietor, Joe Schechter.

“There were two,” he told them, draw-
ing a deep breath. ‘‘They took the first
two seats at the bar near the door
Bert,” he indicated the bartender,
“served them beer.

“Suddenly one of them stood up with
two guns. He kept threatening he’d kill

Max (G49

me. The other one took the mones
of the safe and the
‘What did they |
“The one with two guns wa
sort of stooped, and wore glasse Hie
had a nasty, ugly fa (
was tall, too. He
Both, I'd say, were at
“How much did the ge
“About $8,000 alf ( Dp
cashed paychecks all gl
“That’s a good-sized i
you look all done
‘It isn't that S«
It was the viciousness The one
the glasses had murder writter
face He was aching to He
missed killing Bert by inches.
Murphy turned to the clean-teature
military-looking bartender, Bert Cler
denin, of 46 Cypres
“Why did he shoot l
“T laughed at him he: 10
say, ‘Put your hands on the c¢
don’t move’ and saw olding \ ;
guns, I couldn't beheve 1t wasnt a )oKé K
‘Are you kidding?’ I said Nex } b
I ; t

I knew, a bullet

Thev’re trigger-happy. They en-
} ge PP) :

joy killing and theyll kill again!”” exclaimed Capt. Hoffman. His prediction came true too often


Slaughter

Seven corpses marked the trail of the diabolical assassins, and

™,
E LAY crumpled in a spread- road through the flat, rich Ohio They ordered drinks, and then, as
ing pool of his own blood, on farmland. Stretcher bearers leapt. the bartender served them, they sud-
5 the concrete highway. He from ambulances, lifted the two ’ denly whipped out guns and backed
* was a tall, slender youth with wounded men inside. Then the him to the till.

an unruly shock of hair and

‘dull, owlish eyes now sightless

behind big _ shell-rimmed spec-
tacles. : : : < :
His partner stood quaking a
dozen steps away, handcuffs on his
wrists. There were two other men
outstretched on the road, too, but
they were not dead. One wore the
blue garb of a policeman; his in-
ert hands still held the stubby sub-
machinegun which five minutes

earlier had blasted the life out’ of

one of the most fiendish human
beasts the country had ever seen.
Sirens came screaming up the

x

sleek machines dashed off for the
hospital. ;

Sheriff F. Roy Shaffer of Van
Wert County flicked on the radio
in his car. “You can notify the
state police,” he told a subordinate
at his headquarters, “that the
chase is ovér. The mad dogs have
killed for the last time.”

HERE were more than a dozen
patrons in Joe’s Grill, on Broad
Street near Belvidere ‘Avenue in
Columbus, Ohio, the Friday night of
July 9, 1948, when two young men
strolled in and took places at the bar.

Almost before the startled cus-
omers realized what had happened,
the snarling young bandits had looted
the register and were gone. Phoning
police headquarters, the barkeep re
ported the theft of more than 8000.

With squad cars screaming into the

Oe ae aes the gun-toting pair
do

ged east on Fifth Street and
paused at Earl -Ambrose’s cafe at
No. 1320. Here they casually saun-
tered up to the bar, and when Am-
brose brought two beers he found
himself staring into the ugly muzzles
of revolvers in the two youths’ hands.

“Back up to the cash. register!”


BosBra Shaws

1oreo eo Taxpai

2” OQ

;
i
¢
i
‘

lived across the street, that at about

2 o’clock in the morning a gray two-
tone Pontiac torpedo sedan had been
parked in front of the Niebel place.
After a while it had backed into the
Niebel driveway. The porch light at
the Niebel home had blinked on and
off. However, Snyder had seen no
one enter or leave the house.

A two-tone gray Pontiac torpedo
sedan! Back in Columbus, no sooner
did Colonel Mingle of the State High-
way Patrol read the report on: the
disappearance of the Niebel family
than he remembered the pickup order
on John West and Murli Daniels. He
phoned Captain Hoffman.

“Both men served time at Mans-
field,’ he said. “John Niebel was
known as a tough disciplinarian, and
both West and Daniels got into
trouble occasionally. Niebel treated
them fairly—he. was fair with every
inmate—but he didn’t coddle any-
body. I’m afraid we'll find that West
and Daniels were seeking revenge.”

No trace of the Niebels was found
until late Wednesday morning when
some 65 boys from a Lutheran church
camp outside of Mansfield were

swinging along Fleming Falls Road six ,

miles east of the city. Their marching
song rose joyously as the hikers swung
up the dusty road beneath the blaz-
ing sun. At their head marched Rob-
ert Zoeller, an 18-year-old counsellor
from Chilicothe, and the Reverend
Herbert Veller of Stony Ridge, a
former Mansfield pastor who was in
charge of the camp. :

Ke ius fy J © ie cee -

LETHAL WEAPONS OF THE MAINAC-ASSASSINS—

Deputy Sheriff Harry Henry displays the arsenal and part of the loot recovered
by the officers from the stolen auto haulaway truck the killers were caught in.

Zoeller’s eyes swung to the left as
the column passed a cornfield, green
with broad-bladed stalks nearly waist
high. Suddenly he fell out of the
line, motioning Reverend Veler to
join him:.:

“Go-on,” he called to the boys.
“Keep your march right back _ to
camp.” To the minister the counsellor
said, “There’s something white over
there in the corn. Looks like a body
from here.”

Veler peered through the corn,
“Most likely a dead dog,” he said.
“But possibly we’d better see.”

They pushed through the corn till
they came to the spot where the
white object lay. Pushing back the
thick green leaves, the young coun-
sellor and the minister looked upon
a scene of horror such as few men
ever have viewed.

There in a row lay the three mem-
bers of the Niebel family. None wore
a stitch of clothing. The father and
the daughter had been shot in the
back of the head. Mrs. Niebel had
been shot in the head and in the ab-
domen. Apparently she had died not
quickly but in a lingering agony; her
bare feet had dug up the soft earth.

Zoeller and Reverend Veler stood
speechless. From up the road they
heard, growing fainter by the mo-
ment, the song their boys were sing-

ing. They were thankful the lads had
been spared the grisly sight in the
cornfield. Reverend Veler murmured
a prayer. Zoeller backed away, then
sprinted to a phone.

IS ALARM brought out virtually

all the police power in Mansfield.

Guards and officers from the re-
formatory hastened to the scene.
State troopers came roaring up be-
hind the white mobile crime labora-
tory stationed in Mansfield.

There was little to be done there in
the cornfield other than to make casts
of the footprints in the plowed-earth.
These tracks, leading in from the
road, showed where two men had
herded their three barefoot victims
into the field and assassinated them
in cold blood.

One gun had killed all three. It
was a .25-calibre Mauser, a ballistics
expert later reported after examining
the bullets recovered.

Prosecutor Theodore Lutz visited
the scene. “I can’t understand,” he
said, “why they were brought so far
to be slain. The job could have been
done much nearer their home. Who-
ever brought them here surely knew
this part of the countryside.”

To Robert Gardner, who owned the
farm on which the murders had oc-
curred, this tragedy recalled another.


SLAIN BY GUN-CRAZY EX-CONVICTS—~

ie Phyllis Niebel, 22, who was kidnapped and killed °
along with her parents, Mr, and Mrs, John Niehel,

TRAIL’S END FOR ONE KILLER—

Prosecutor Walters (left) and FBI Agent
Foss examine the dead body of John West,

Blood-Mad Butchers

still they were on the loose. Where would they. strike again?

/
growled one of the bandits. “No fun-
A aa or this little cannon will’
talk.”

Ambrose backed away a step.
Then suddenly he lurched around the
end of the bar, reaching for the near-
er of the robbers, a handsome young
man with a bold sneer on his face. '

Guns roared. A woman in the
rear screamed. Ambrose buckled as
the slugs struck him, and he slowly
crumpled on the floor.

Without a word the bandits
whirled and fled. One of the patrons
saw them dash to a two-tone gray
Pontiac sedan in which they rock-
eted east on Fifth Street as another
tpentiet in the cafe telephoned po-
ice,

Ambrose was dead when the offi-

cers arrived. From descriptions of the
killers, obtained from several wit-
nesses in both taverns, detectives
knew the bandits were those who
had held up Joe’s Grill less than half
an hour before. In the morning, they
knew even more.

The man who called Detective Cap-
tain Glenn C. Hoffman at headquar-
ters would not give his name.

“I was in Ambrose’s place,” he said.

“I know those two. Served a stretch
with them at Mansfield. They got out
not long ago. I’m trying to. play it
Straight, cap, but I can’t get mixed
up in this. But these two are bad
monkeys, believe me. Get out your
cards on Johnny West and Bob
Daniels.”

There was a card on Robert Murl

By JOE ROBERTS

Daniels in the Columbus Police
mi. arta gallery. Twenty-four years
old, the youth had a criminal record
dating back to 1941 when he had been
sent to the Boys Industrial School
for auto theft. In 1943 he had been
sentenced to the reformatory at
Mansfield for unarmed robbery. He
had fled from an honor camp while
serving this time, later giving himself
up in Columbus, and had returned to
the reformatory. He had been paroled
in September of 1947.

From the State Police, Captain
Hoffman obtained a similar dossier on
John Coulter West, 23, of Parkers-
burg, West Virginia. West had a long
record for thefts and had been paroled
from the Mansfield reformatory in
March of 1948.


10

“A queer combination,” Hoffman
said after studying full reports on the
pair, “Daniels comes from a godd
family here in Columbus. He is
about five feet ten, slender, good look-
ing, wears good clothes. e has a
high I.Q. est, on the other hand,
is listed as subnormal—almost a
moron. He’s a little taller than
Daniels, also slender, wears glasses.
A smart crook and a stupi punk
teamed up together. It could mean
a lot of trouble before théy’re caught.”

Photos of both Robert Daniels—
called Murli by his pals—and John
West were shown to witnesses in the
Ambrose slaying and in the robbery

at Joe’s Grill. The two parolees were
identified positively as the murder-
ing bandits.

Members of Daniels’ family in
Columbus had not seen him in several
weeks. They had not heard from the
youth, they said, since late in May
when he was visiting a girl in James-
town, N. Y., a young woman to whom
he was reportedly engaged. ;

Police in Jamestown questioned

this girl. Bob Daniels, she said, had

been there on May 23. She had snap-
shots she’d taken of him at the time.
She had not heard from him in more
than two weeks.

In Columbus, Colonel George Min-

| MET DEATH DURING THE SLAUGHTER ORGY——
John E. Niebel, 50, Superintendent of the Ohio State Reformatory, and
his wife. Was revenge the motive of the ex-convicts who killed them?

CROWD THAT FLOCKED TO JAIL YARD—
Aroused and angry mob that gathered around the Van Wert county jail
after Robert Murl Daniels, 22-year-old killer, was finally arrested,

——— ame

3

13

Wy

isan

440

gle, head of the State Highway Patrol,
put out an interstate pickup order on
the two wanted men. Captain Hoff-
man, in. checking through stolen car
records, learned that a two-tone gray
1948 Pontiac had been taken from a
parking lot in downtown Columbus
late in June. It belonged to a Colum-
bus woman, and had not been recov-
ered.

On July 11, two days atter the Am-
brose murder, two youths whose de-
scriptions closely matched those of
Daniels and West, murdered Frank
Kretch, an elderly tourist camp
operator, in a robbery near Flat Rock,
Mich., and the search for the pair
turned toward the north:

Nothing further, however, was
heard from the ” spp

“With the eig
Joe’s,” said Captain Hoffman, “they
should be in clover for a time. I
can’t understand their killing an old
man up in Michigan for a‘ few bucks
when they had all the dough they
“ae here in Columbus.”

The search continued. Knowing
that Daniels was an excellent guitar-
ist, who frequented taverns to strum
his instrument and sing, bars all over
the Midwest were watched, but no
trace of the killers was turned up
until July 21, a Wednesday.

N THAT DATE, at 8:30 a.m. in an-
0 other part. of Ohio, in Mansfield

to be exact, Lawrence Harris an
employe at the state reformatory
there, was paying a visit to the home
of John Niebel, the reformatory sup-
erintendent, to borrow some twine.
Niebel’s home was a short distance
from the reformatory.

Harris was surprised when no one
answered his knock, and he was mys-
tified at finding the back door of the
large, white house open, a light burn-
si Fa the kitchen.

arris entered the house, calling
for Niebel. But Niebel wasn’t there.
Neither was Niebel’s wife, Mrs.
Nolanda Niebel. And Phyllis, the
Niebel’s 22-year-old daughter, who
worked as a billing clerk at a fac-
tory in Mansfield, was also missing.

Since-there was no one in the house,

‘Harris went outside and looked

around, but he saw nobody.

Going back into the house, he no-
ticed something which struck him as
very queer. Although none of the
Niebel family smoked, there were
half a dozen cigarette butts in saucers
and ash trays on tables in the kitchen
and living room.

Harris then returned to the reform-
atory, but Niebel was not there. He
had not been there at all that morn-
ing. .

After hearing Harris’ story, several
officers visited the superintendent’s
home. A close inspection of the prem-
ises indicated that the house had been
ransacked by burglars. Two empty
purses and a billfold lay on the din-
ing room table. The wallet was iden-
tified as Niebel’s.

Upstairs, two beds had been used
the night before, those in the Niebel’s
room and in Phyllis’ bedchamber. Be-
hind a door in the daughter’s room the

searchers. found a pair of glasses

which Mrs. Niebel always wore.
There was but one conclusion which
could be. drawn from the’ circum-
stances. Niebel and his family had
been kidnaped by robbers who visited
the house during the night.
Questioning the neighbors, the offi-
cers learned from Lowell Snyder, who

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directly on the truck cab. The sheriff,
noticing that the two top cars were
covered with canvas, told the driver to
wait. He drew his revolver and climbed
on the trailer. Reaching the top deck of
the trailer, he pulled the canvas aside.
Behind that cover, in the front seat of
the car, sat Robert Daniels. He was
immediately under pressure of Shaffer's
gun.

“Don’t shoot!” Daniels begged, mak-
ing no move toward two guns on the
seat beside him. “I'll do whatever you
say.

“Get out—slow,” Shaffer snapped.

Johnny West, the moron, the carbon
copy killer, elected at this moment to de-
part from his routine of imitating Robert
Daniels. Instead of surrendering, as his
idol had, West whipped up his two .45s
and snapped an incredibly swift volley
of shots at Sergeant Conn and Frank
Friemoth standing at the roadside.
Conn was cut down. His feet flew out
from under him, he crashed to the
ground upon his sub-machine gun.
Friemoth was hit solidly. The heavy
slug knocked him back a step, then he
slowly crumpled forward, onto his
knees, finally pitching flat upon his face.

With his cover men shot down sud-
denly, Sheriff Shaffer was now in tre-
mendous peril. He still stood upon the
upper deck, revolver in hand, but now
he was between the thin two-gun man in
the truck cab and the other thug, who
had two guns at his disposal and was
inside the top car. If West shifted and
eased the cab door open, Shaffer would
be a pointblack target. Possibly he could
down West, maybe not. He definitely
would lose control over Daniels, who
might find courage enough to shoot him
in the back as he faced West. The cab
door suddenly opened, part way, the
black spouts of Johnny West’s deadly
-45s creeping out around the edge.

There was a startlingly rapid series of
shots—and Johnny West pitched face
forward out of the truck, smashing
heavily upon the pavement, his auto-
matics clattering away from _ lifeless
hands. Sheriff Shaffer, his gun still held

on Daniels, turned his head to see Ser-
geant Conn at the road edge.

The sergeant’s shirtfront was a blot
of red blood. His face was contorted in
pain. But the smoke drifting up from the
muzzle of his sub-machine gun told the
story. Courageously, against tremendous
torment from his wounds, the heroic
officer had brought his heavy weapon
up to firing position and riddled the
truck cab with an accurate burst. Conn
dropped his gun, and sank forward
weakly. He had saved the sheriff's life,
and ended that of a kill-crazy punk,
Johnny West.

Daniels, a chalk-white faded copy of
his once arrogant self, got down from
the top car and walked over to where
West lay in the road. He looked down
at his dead lackey with contempt.

“He was just small-time until he met
me. He got tough then,” Daniels said,
“but he'd always dd anything I told
him. He copied me like a kid—wore
the same kind of suits whenever he
could. The one thing wrong with Johnny
was that he'd rather shoot than talk.”

Talking, it developed, was one of
Daniels’ own strong points. He spilled
On every subject but the triple murder
of the Niebel family. In the sheriff's
office, however, the brash gunman final-
ly said: “Johnny got all the others, but
you can credit me for the Niebels.”

At his trial, Daniels tried to plead
insanity, but was proved sane. On Sep-
tember 17th, with recovered Sergeant
Conn and Frank Friemoth in the court-
room watching, the killer was found
guilty of the triple slaying and sentenced
to be executed in the electric chair at
the Ohio State Penitentiary at Colum-
bus. The man who liked to make his
victim die a little before he killed them,
rather than shoot quickly like his slain
partner,, had his chance to die slowly in
Death Row. By the time they sat him
in the chair, on January 3rd, 1949, he
was already dead, despite the fact that
life, technically, existed within his body.
Throwing the switch was a meré formal-
ity in the matter of destroying the once
cocky, handsome gunman.

STRIKE THE GIRL DOWN

(Continued from page 8)

two blocks away from here, the cap-
tain said. “And you didn’t hear any
scream?”

“No,” Mrs. Ward sobbed.

Captain Bartkowiak sent out a squad
of men to question the nearby residents
and find out if any of them had heard
an outcry shortly before noon. The re-
sults were negative.

HE mail carrier was sent for and
he reported that he had deposited
the mail in the cluster of boxes on Irwin
Road at about 10:30 that morning. He
stated emphatically that he had seen

no one and had heard nothing. After
depositing the mail, the carrier had
driven on to his next stop.

Detective Captain Ralph Murphy of

the city homicide detail was assigned
to the case and he reported to Bartko-
wiak for briefing. While this was going
on Captain Kwiatkowski came in to re-
port that the lab men had found traces
of blood beneath Mary Jolene’s finger-
nails. In addition, Kwaitkowski said,
there were several long brown hairs
clutched in the dead girl's fist.

“The girl probably scratched her as-
sailant while trying to defend her honor
and her life,” Bartkowiak said.

“Chances are,” Murphy put in, “that
the killer has had his eye on this girl.
The indications are that he prepared an
ambush for her. It stands to reason

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

eo

"Ld

‘that he knew Mary Jolene’s habits. Per-

haps the girl mentioned some guy who'd
been watching her or giving her trou-
ble when she went for the mail on
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Per-
haps Mary told her aunt about some
local fellow who was interested in her.”

“I don’t think so,” Bartkowiak coun-
tered. “I questioned Mrs. Ward on that
point and she said her niece hadn’t
mentioned any man or boy. Mrs. Ward
told me that Mary was new in the neigh-
borhood and didn’t date much anyhow.”

Acting on the theory that the killer
was a local man, Bartkowiak detailed
Deputies Allen and Reed to the task of
making a census of all males in the
Holland area. The captain felt that most
of those on the list would soon be able
to clear themselves by providing an
alibi for the time of the murder. The
remainder would come in for careful
scrutiny.

Other deputies were assigned to comb
the thickets, woods and ditches in the
area in search of the murder weapon,
which, Coroner Hohly reported, had a
blade about six or seven inches long.
In Toledo, steps were taken to round
up and bring in for questioning all
known sex offenders. Announcements,
detailing the circumstaces of the crime,
were broadcast on the radio. Listeners
were urged to report any man or boy
who had scratches on his face. The po-
lice also requested that listeners report
any suspicious strangers seen in the
Toledo, Holland or Sylvania areas.

At 5:30 Friday morning the operator
of a fruit stand west of Toledo, about
four miles from the murder scene, re-
ported that he had come upon a man
about 22 years old trying to hide behind
the stand. A search was made, but n¢o
trace of the man was found.

On Friday morning Mary Jolene’s
foster mother in Sylvania got an anony-
mous phone call. Between repeated ob-
scenities, the caller, a man, warned the
parent to, “be careful,” and then hung
up.

At noon on Friday the investigation
suddenly focused on Schwamberger
Road in a neighborhod about two miles
from the murder scene after residents
there reported having seen a young man
in denim jeans and T-shirt sneaking
through the fields shortly after 1 P.M.
on Thursday. Teams of sheriff's depu-
ties combed the fields but could find no
trace of the suspicious youngster. In the
course of the search, however, Deputies
Allen and Reed picked up one interest-
ing bit of neighborhood gossip. It seems
that there was a young man who lived
in the area and had quite a reputation
as being “girl-crazy.” Several teen-aged
girls had complained to their’ parents
about him.

The youth was questioned and failed
to provide a satisfactory alibi for the
time of the murder. The young man had
no police record and despite his denials
that he had ever even laid eyes on Mary
Jolene Friess, he was taken to head-
quarters in Toledo for further question-
ing.

That afternoon the caretaker of
Shady Cove Park, 15 miles from To-

HEADQUARTERS DETECTIVE

ledo, noted long scratches on the face
of a man who stopped in his car and
asked directions. The caretaker had
gone inside on the pretext of looking at
a map but had instead phoned the po-
lice. The park employee had then gone
out and had tried to stall the suspicious
stranger until Sergeant Eugene Nus-
baum could arrive from headquarters.
But the scratched motorist had driven
off and the caretaker pursued him all
the way into Toledo where he reported
the events to the first patrol car he
came to. The scratched man was ques-
tioned and he was able to prove that
the scratches had been incurred while
he was moving a refrigerator.

A laundry owner phoned the police
to report the discovery of a pair of
bloody overalls in one bundle. The
laundry was traced and the owner ques-
tioned and quickly cleared. A super-
market employee with a scratched face
was turned in by a tipster, but he, too,
was able to clear himself. :

A 19-year-old youth with scratches
on his face was stopped as he tried to
enter a movie house in Napoleon, about
40 miles from Toledo. He was able to
prove that another girl had marked his
face.

An ex-convict in Defiance, Ohio, out
on parole after serving a prison term
for felonious assault, went to a priest
and confessed to killing Mary Jolene
Friess. The police were summoned and
they questioned the would-be confessor.
There were so many holes in the ex-
con’s story that the police were con-
vinced that he was mentally disturbed.
He was held for psychiatric observa-
tion.

Fingerprints of the youth with the
bad reputation from the Holland neigh-
borhood were compared with those
lifted from Mary Jolene’s bike and
found ‘not to match. The “girl-crazy”
youth was given a lie detector test which
he passed. Hairs from his head were
compared with those found clutched in
the dead girl’s hand and found to be
completely dissimilar. The youth was
released.’

O* Sunday afternoon a ten-year-old
girl hysterically told her mother
that a man had attempted to attack her
in a park on the western outskirts of To-
ledo, only about four miles from Irwin
Road. Captain Allen Relyea investi-
gated and took the girl to the park
where he was led to a small cave near
which, the girl said, the attempted at-
tack had taken place. In the cave the
captain found luggage, cooking equip-
ment and a quantity of obscene photo-
graphs.

A stake-out was put on the cave and
three hours later the police nabbed two
youths, one 20 the other 16, who ad-
mitted that they had been living in the
cave for the past two weeks because of
some trouble at home. Neither of the
young men was the man who the ten-
year-old said had attempted to attack
her. Both were held for questioning in
the rape-murder of Mary Jolene Friess.

Early on Monday morning, a house-
wife in the Irwin Road neighborhood

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AVISH YOUR DAUGHTER’

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by HAROLD DUSEN

Tie Rev. Herbert W. Veler knew just what to do after one of the senior Boy
Scouts in the group called him to one side, whispered briefly and pointed a
trembling finger toward the roadside field. He turned to the double line of
teenage hikers and said, “Boys, go on to that farm down the road. Bob and |
will rejoin you in a few minutes.”

Then, turning back to Robert Zoeller, he demanded incredulously, “Are
you sure that it was three nude, human bodies you saw lying there between
the rows of corn?”

The white-faced youth nodded. ‘‘Positive,’’ he said. “I almost stumbled
over the man, a big, gray-haired fellow with blood all over his face. There’s a ¢ 3 E 3 :
young girl next to him; an older woman a few yards away. That one’s i ys Pas es , . : = S0UN ® \
kneeling... as though in prayer, Reverend.” * 7 *; cht Ye,

YEAWWIY C0. Se

The pair tried to escape police in this transport truck. One died in a gun battle; the other was captured.

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‘Then it must be that prison official
and his wife and daughter whose disap-
pearance was on all the early news bulle-
tins,’ the pastor of the United Lutheran
Church at Mansfield, O., said, glancing
across the rolling countryside. A mile
away was the 1,600-acre prison farm of
the Ohio State Reformatory. A three-
story, white farm house on a slight rise
overlooking the brick disciplinary bar-
racks reflected the hot rays of the noon-
day July sun. This was the house from

A prison psychiatrist described him as a moron. And i
that wasn’t enough of a handicap, he had.a face that
would stop Father Time himself. But he had an even

worse problem—killing people in cold blood.

which 50-year-old Supt. John E. Niebel,
his wife, Nolanda, and their pretty,
blonde daughter, Phyllis, had disap-
peared the previous night.

Hurrying to the nearby farm home of
R.B.Gardner, the clergyman put through
a call to the office of Richland County
Sheriff Frank E. Robinson. While he
waited for the connection to be made he
recalled the details of those early radio
bulletins...

At 8 o’clock on that sweltering Wed-

4

q

Harris, a guard at the prison farm, st
ped by the superintendent’s home to pi
up some keys while on his way to re
for duty. He found the doors open,
lights on, no one about. He noted signs
disorder, but observed that Niebel’s af
tomobile and that of his 20-year-d
daughter, employed as a billing clerk i
Mansfield textile plant, were in the gar
behind the house.

Continuing on to the prison, Hai
learned that his superior had failed to
port in as usual at 6:30 that morning.
superintendent’s assistant, George
larding, was aware that the widely kno
prison administrator suffered from
heart condition and thought he might
ill. But on receiving Guard Harris’ re
his concern turned to genuine appreh
sion. He put a call through to the sheri
office and a search was inaugurated.

nesday morning of July 21, 1948, e

charges were preparing for their outif [%
that morning, the sheriff visited t
Niebel home with other prison offic

Game protector Frank Friemouth
joined the posse that was trying
to capture the two young killers.
He was wounded in the show-
down that ended the terror spree.

puties observed depressions along the
edge, as though it had been sat upon heav-
ily. On the other bed, the covers were
stuffed into one corner with a girl's
housecoat on top. The pillow was in the
middle. Near this was a ring, recognized
by the assistant superintendent as the
Mansfield High School class ring of the
missing Phyllis. Beside a clothes hamper
in the room were four more cigaret stubs.

While the deputies continued their
search, Allarding went to the home of the
Niebels’ closest neighbors, Mrs. and
Mrs. Lowell J. Snyden. There he was
told, ‘‘About 1:30 a.m. we heard a car
come up the road and stop about 50 yards
beyond the Niebel house. It was pretty
hot and we were still up. The car parked
there a while, turned around and backed
into the Niebel drive. We saw the porch
light go on, but because of the masking
shrubbery we couldn't see whether any-
One got out of the car.””

In the bright moonlight the Snydens
had recognized the car as a late model,

(continued on page 41)

There they found a woman’s pink s
draped over the back of a chair in th pected foul play. While Sheriff Robinson
living room. Cigaret butts were grout Organized a search of the prison grounds,
into the carpet. On a center table in th Deputies Charles Wheeler and Harold
adjoining dining room were a billfold, tW Marvin started through the rest of the
women’s purses, a girl’s dress anda pd house. Inan upstairs bedroom they found
of eyeglasses. The billfolds had bet Niebel’s shoes and socks lying near the
emptied and the superintendent's drivid foot of his bed: his pajamas were on the
license was missing. Missing, also, wf ™mpled bedclothes. A woman's dress
the gun he usually kept ina buffet drawe! 4nd undergarments were piled on a chair
Aware that none of the Niebell nearby.

smoked, the authorities instantly su! A second bedroom contained twin

4 beds, one made up, the other in wild dis-

| Order. Two dolls were propped against
the pillow on the unused bed and the de-

}

Phyllis Niebel, 20, was the victim
of a vicious sex assault before
getting a bullet In her head.

| Van Wert County Deputy Henry

Poses with the arsenal of

weapons seized by police after

the mad-dog twosome’s careers
were brought to an end.

nena roe:


The Family That Slays Together
‘Stays Together

(continued from page 39)

‘Then Hawkeye drove onto the
Freeport bridge, and Mike and I dumped
Sherrard over the rail into the water,”
Ives said calmly.

‘Did anyone at the hotel see you leave
with the unconscious Sherrard?** Gamble
asked.

“I don't think so,’ Ives said. ‘‘We
waited until the clerk left his desk before
we carried him downstairs.”

“What did you do after you got rid of
Sherrard?’ Gamble asked.

“‘We returned to our rooms,”’ Ives
said. **We were all scared, and decided to
leave the next morning.

“I gotjittery, "Ives said. *‘I knew | was
going to get the same treatment Sherrard
did. So when the cops stopped us at the
roadblock. | took a chance and got away
from them.”

Confronted with Ives’ confession, the
grim, bespectacled Juanita was anxious
to talk. The Cash murder, she said, was
not premeditated. After Sherrard saw
Ives had shot Cash, she told the officers,
Sherrard became erratic and kept talking
about the shooting. Ives was afraid that
Sherrard would squeal and wanted him
killed. The others agreed.

Coolly, the tall, angular woman said
she was very fond of Sherrard, a former
inmate at the Sonoma State Home for the
Feeble Minded, but wanted a merciful
killing. She admitted that when all at-
tempts to get rid of Sherrard at the picnic
had failed, the suggestion that they put
knockout drops in Sherrard’s whisky
seemed a good idea.

**T liked young Sherrard,”’ the Duchess
said, stoically, of the frail 19-year-old
youth. ‘‘And I wanted him to die easily.””

Further questioning of the Duchess
proved Ives’ fear that he was destined for
a demise similar to Sherrard’s was not
without foundation. The Duchess admit-
ted that they had talked about getting rid
of their triggerman. They were afraid that
Ives would go to the police.

Asked how she was going to get rid of
Ives, the Duchess said with cold indiffer-
ence:

“LT had planned to drug him and stick a
long. sharp hairpin into his’ ear and
through the brain.”*

The graying Juanita denied vehemently
that she was the leader of the gang. She
was alternately defiant, then tearful when
questioned. Throughout the interroga-
tion, she insisted that she had stayed with
the gang only in terror of Ives and fear for
the safety of her children. She said that
Ives often had threatened to place Gypsy

40

in an Oriental hop joint.

Ethel Leta Juanita Spinelli, born and
raised in poverty in Detroit, had as-
sociated often with people on the wrong
side of the law. She said she had fled to
San Francisco in 1937 to get away from
the vengeance of Detroit's Purple Gang.
The gang had suspected her as the
finger-woman for killings in the laundry
racket, and they were out to get her. She
claimed that her husband, a Red Cap gang
member, was killed in a gang war.

A year after she arrived in San Fran-
cisco, Juanita was stranded and broke
and the Traveler's Aid Society helped her
and her three children to return to De-
troit.

Then early in that year of 1940, the
Duchess hitchhiked to San Francisco.
For her protection on the trip, Simeone
gave heragun, the same one that was used
in the fatal Cash holdup. From her ex-
perience with the Detroit underworld,
Juanita recruited Ives, Sherrard and
Hawkins to form her own gang in San
Francisco. Then she sent for her children
and Simeone.

Of the four held for questioning on the
two murders, Mike Simeone, 31, had the
least to say and was the most resigned to
the consequence of the gang’s opera-
tions. He admitted having cased the Fat
Boy stand the Sunday before it was held
up. But he insisted it was Ives who
wanted Sherrard killed for fear that the
witness to the fatal Cash shooting would
squeal. And to protect the gang, they all
went along with Ives.

When questioned on his part in the
murders, Hawkins readily admitted his
connection with the gang. His assign-
ment, Hawkins said, was to steal au-
tomobiles and drive the getaway car. In
the two weeks prior to his arrest, he told
police, he had stolen nine cars for the

* gang’s use.

The night before the Cash holdup,
Hawkins said, the Duchess had ordered
him to steal an automobile. On Sunday
morning, he stole a black sedan, the same
one which eventually led to their arrest
when it was spotted by the California
state highway patrol in Truckee.

He thought they were out to stick up
parked cars ina lovers’ lane, but Ives had
instructed him to drive into the parking
lot of the Fat Boy barbecue stand and
wait for them. A few minutes later, Haw-
kins said, he heard a shot. Then Ives and
Sherrard dashed back to the car and told
him they had shot a man.

Three days later, Hawkins said, he

drove Ives and Sherrard to Sacramento,,
Sherrard, unnerved by the shooting, be:
came very talkative and Hawkins and
Ives were afraid that Sherrard would go
to the police.

When the Duchess arrived at the hotel,
Ives told her of Sherrard’s behavior,
Hawkins said. The Duchess and Mike ag
reed with Ives that Sherrard had to bk
disposed of.

After Simeone had carried the drugged
Sherrard down to the car, Hawkins said
he drove the victim, Simeone and Ives to
Freeport, a tiny farm community on th
river ten miles from Sacramento. He
drove over the Freeport bridge, an
Simeone and Ives threw the unconscious
Sherrard over the railing after changin
his clothes to a pair of maroon colored
swimming trunks.

‘But | know under the law I'm guilty
with the rest of them for the killings,"
Hawkins said, regretfully. Then he added
wishfully, ‘‘Gee, I wish it was me they’
chucked into the river instead of Sher
rard."*

At the sight of the tearful Gypsy bein
taken in for questioning, Hawkins said,
sympathetically:

“Lay off her; she ain't done nothing,”
a statement which was later verified to
the satisfaction of the police.

Gypsy tried to comfort her mother a
the interrogation. The young girl told the
police that she had nothing to do with th
gang and said she was in Reno at the tim
of the Cash and Sherrard murders.

The next morning, following the alt
night questioning session, Highway Pat
rol Investigator Harry Hendricks and
Sacramento Detective Percy Emerint
took Ives and Hawkins to the Freeport
bridge where the pair demonstrated how
Sherrard was tossed over the railing into
the river. On the bank nearby, officer
found Sherrard’s clothing where they hat
been told it had been scattered.

At the same time Sacramento polict
massed all available equipment to drag
the river for Sherrard’s corpse. Six boats
manned by city police, sheriff's deputies
and commercial fishermen began work
ing around the bridge area. The search
went on into the afternoon while onlook:
ers speculated that the body would nevet
be found at the spot. They believed the
swift current had carried it down rivet
into Yolo County. But the police kne¥
the water under the bridge was deep and
believed the body was still in the area
inasmuch as it had not had time yet t
surface. :

By late afternoon, the police proved
they were right. Seth Barry, a commet
cial fisherman helping the Sacramento
police, working approximately 500 yards
from the bridge yelled, ‘‘I think we've go
it!”

All within hearing distance of mart:

(continued on next page) °*

3
§

MIA LaRytarwtonnt bees thre chen pecatere Papumenet weit ie as Mb ich Ob eh die TRTaT eT T ID ,

anxiously watched him manipulate the
dragging equipment. The spindly body, in
maroon colored trunks, surfaced and was
dragged ashore.

At the Sacramento city morgue, Dr.
C.H. McDonell, county autopsy surgeon,
made an extensive examination on
Sherrard’s body. He found no sign of
physical violence, but there was water in
the lungs. This indicated that Sherrard
was still alive when he was thrown into
the river. Dr. McDonell concluded that
Sherrard had died of drowning.

“He was not dead,’’ Dr. McDonell
said, ‘‘but probably was unconscious be-
fore he was in the water.”’

Sherrard’s stomach content was ex-
amined by Dr. A. J. Afleck, Sacramento
county chemist. His analysis showed
there was a trace of hypnotic drug in
Sherrard’s stomach, an amount which

could have caused unconsciousness.

The Duchess, Simeone, Ives and
Hawkins were charged by Sacramento
County District Attorney Otis Babcock
with the murder of Robert Sherrard
shortly after Sherrard’s body was reco-
vered. The San Francisco grand jury in-
dicted the four for the murder of Leland
Cash, but it decided to let Sacramento try
them first in the Sherrard murder.

On May 20, 1940, the four went on trial
before Superior Judge Raymond T.
Coughlin’s court in Sacramento. At the
trial Juanita lost her composure. She
wept bitterly and insisted that she was
deadly afraid of Ives and had planned to
turn him over to the police before their
arrest.

But District Attorney Babcock labelled
her a cold, cruel and scheming woman.
Nine days later, on May 29, a jury of

seven men and five women returned a
verdict of first degree murder and refused
to recommend leniency.

Hawkins, Juanita and Ives entered in-
sanity pleas. Later, Juanita and Hawkins
withdrew their pleas, but Ives stood trial.

On June 5, Ives was found insane by
the same jury which had convicted him on
first degree murder the week before. Ives
was committed to the Mendocino State
Hospital.

On November 21, 1941, after three re-
prieves, Juanita Spinelli, with pictures of
her three children and a grandchild taped
on her chest, went to the gas chamber, the
first woman to be executed in California’s
history. A week later, Hawkins and
Simeone also paid the extreme penalty
for their part in Sherrard’s murder.

‘Kneel And Pray While ©
| Ravish Your Daughter’

(continued from page 27)

gray and blue Pontiac sedan. At about 2
a.m. theyyhad looked toward the Niebel
home agai and noted that the car was no
longer there and that the porch light was
extinguished.

While Sheriff Robinson organized a
widespread hunt for the missing family,
Cpl. M. G. Basilius of the state police
arrived to check the house for finger-

’ prints. Two hours later the sheriff's office

received the clergyman’s call and a score
of searchers converged on the corn field
. Fleming Falls Road where the bodies
lay. :

_ The faces of all three victims were hor-
tibly mutilated. On the older woman's
eet was a pair of white canvas shoes.
There was an inexpensive wristwatch on
the girl’s arm. The hair of both women
was in curlers.

Dr. D. C. Lavender, the coroner,
Tfeached the scene with County Pro-
Secutor Theodore Lutz soon afterward.
He reported the auburn-haired girl had
been the victim of a vicious sexual assault
during which she suffered ‘gross indig-

nities."’ Shot once in the back of the head, -

she lay prone with bruises and cuts cover-
ing most of her body.

A single slug had entered the top of the
Superintendent's head. His face was cut
and bruised, as was that of his wife. Mrs.
Niebel also had received a slug through
the top of her head. A second bullet had
entered her abdomen. There was a deep
Slash across the face. Dr. Lavender sug-
Bested the parents had been ina kneeling
Position, possibly pleading for mercy,
when the fatal shots were fired.

Bare footprints were clearly discerni-

ble between the road and. the
17-square-foot area in which the bodies
lay 50 feet back in the corn field. There
also were the shoeprints of two men. Be-
neath the bodies police discovered four
empty .25-caliber shells.

Allarding, the slain superintendent's
first assistant, returned to the prison of-
fice while preparations were made to re-
move the bodies to the Mansfield mor-
gue. Accompanied by Sheriff Robinson,
an old friend of the slain family, he ar-
rived to learn that two Columbus, O.,
officers were waiting in Niebel’s office.
“They want to get some information ona
couple of former inmates,” a guard in-
formed Allarding.

“Didn’t you tell them that our superin-
tendent and his family have been mur-
dered?’ demanded Allarding impa-
tiently. ‘‘Can’t they understand that
every available man is out hunting for the
killers... that every moment counts?”

The two visitors stepped from the ad-
joining room as Allarding spoke. ‘‘We
might have a line on that same pair of
killers,"* Detective Sgt. Lawrence W.
Heischman interrupted in a soft voice.
“The men we came here to ask about
were last known to be driving a two-tone,
1947 Pontiac sedan. One of them’ had a
.25-caliber automatic.”

Overcoming his amazement at the
words, Allarding led Sergeant Heis-
chman and his partner, Detective Ken-
neth Miller, into the © slain
superintendent's office. There he and
Sheriff Robinson suggested that the visit-
ing officers ‘‘start from the beginning” in
explaining their arrival at the prison 67

miles north of Columbus within moments
of the discovery of the triple murder.

The ‘‘beginning,’’ commenced
Sergeant Heischman, had been less than
two weeks before — at exactly 11:33 p.m.
on Friday, July 9, when a light flashed on
the switchboard in Columbus’ police
headquarters a few blocks from the
dome-covered capitol.

“There has been a stickup at Joe's
Grill, 891 West Broad Street. 1 saw aman
with two guns through the window,” said
a husky voice.

The message, relayed to the communi-
cations room, sent police cruisers in the
area racing to that address. First to arrive
were Patrolmen Thomas Gleason and
Stephen Tigyer. Guns drawn, they
pushed inside to find the crowded grill in
wild confusion. Several women among
the 150 persons in the place had fainted
after two unmasked men entered, drank
some beer and then robbed the safe of
$8,000 in cash and checks.

The pair, one armed with two pistols,
fled moments before the police arrived.
Each was described as about 25 years old,
tall and thin, dressed in dark clothing.
The man with the guns — ‘‘a sneering,
bespectacled neurotic with murder writ-
ten all over his sallow face,"’ according to
witnesses — had fired a single shot at the
head bartender, Bert Clengenin.

The bullet, missing the bartender’s
head by inches when Clendenin laughed
at the other robbeg’s demand to open the
safe, had smashed a bottle behind the bar.
After that the unarmed robber’s instruc-
tions were promptly obeyed.

Capt. William Murphy, accompanied
by Detective Sgt. Robert Weideman of
the robbery detail, arrived as other wit-
nesses told of a running cross-fire of obs-
cene language between the two gunmen
after they ordered the proprietor’s wife
and women customers to’ remain quiet.

(continued on next page)
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