Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1919 — “HARDBOILED” SMITH HAS RIVAL IN HOOSIER OFFICER. [ARTICLE]

“HARDBOILED” SMITH HAS RIVAL IN HOOSIER OFFICER.

New York, Dec. 9.—Another court martial involving charges of brutal treatment accorded members of, the American expeditionary forces will begin tomorrow at Governor’s Island, in which Captain Karl W. Detzer, former Fort Wayne, Ind., newspaper man, will be the defendant. Evidence, it is declared, will eclipse even the sensational developments at the trial of Lieut. “Hardboiled” Smith. Detzer was attached to the 308th military police company and had charge under provost marshal, of all criminal investigation in the Le Mans area, the largest American concentration center in France, through which more than 1,000,000 soldiers passed. It is charged that by various methods of “torture” he sought to extort confessions from prisoners in order that he might win favor in the eyes of his superiors by the number of convictions he obtained. Special investigation of the charges was ordered by Secretary of War Baker and the case was handled Sy Major General Frank Mclntyre, assistant chief of staff. More than one hundred witnesses have been brought here from France and virtually all the states in the union, and officers directing the prosecution estimated today that not less than $26,000 had been expended. Methods which Detzer and his subordinates are alleged to have employed to wring “confessions” from their prisoners resulted, it is alleged, in sending many men to the hospital for a period of several weeks. Officers of the judge advocate’s department admitted that many of the men they had handled were “desperate characters,” often with long criminal records. The methods are said to have included orders to stand at attention for 36 hours, ten minutes on and five minutes off; withholding food and drink from prisoners until they acknowledged their “guilt;” pulling prisoners to their feet by the hair, striking them in the face and threatening them with pistols. It also is charged that once Detzer compelled Private Marcello Gonzales to swallow a lighted cigarette which he was smoking against orders. In all, Detzer faces 28 specifications under charges of assault and conduct unbecoming an officer, and general charges. If convicted on all counts, Major William E. of New York, judge advocate, declared he faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The offenses with which Detzer is charged are alleged to have been committed over a period of several months, beginning last February.