Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 215, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 January 1928 — Page 12
PAGE 12
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(Continued front Page 1) criminal investigator. Hie praise which was constantly accorded him, however, was highly distasteful to him; for, being a man with a keen sense of honor, he instinctively shrank from accepting credit for achievements not wholly his own. The truth is that Markham played only a subsidiary part in the majority of his most famous criminal cases. The credit for their actual solution belonged to one of Markham’s very close friends, who refused, at the time, to. permit the facts to ba made public. This man was a young social aristocrat, whom, for purpose of anonymity, 1 have chosen to call Philo Vance. Vance had many amazing gifts and capabilities. He was an art collector in a small way, a fine amateur pianist, and a profound student of aesthetics and psychology. Although an American, he had largely been educated in Europe, and still retained a slight English accent and intonation. He had a liberal independent income, and spent considerable time fulfilling the social obligations which devolved on him as a result of family connections; but he was neither an idler nor a dilettante. Vance was not yet thirty-five, and, in a cold sculptural fashion, was impressively good looking. His face was slender and mobile; but there was a stem sardonic expression to his features which acted as a barrier between him and his fellows. He was not emotionless but his emotions were in the main intellectual. I kept a fairly complete record of the cases in which Vance participated, little thinking that I would ever be privileged to make them public; but Markham, after being as you remember, on a hopelessly split ticket at the next election, withdrew from politics; and last year Vance went abroad to live, declaring he would never return to America. Asa result I obtained permission from both of them to publish my notes in full. Vance stipulated only that I should not reveal his name; but otherwise no restrictions were placed upon me. I have related elsewhere the peculiar circumstances which led to Vance’s participation in criminal research, and how, in the face of almost insuperable contradictory evidence, he solved the mysterious shooting of Alvin Benson. The present chronicle deals with his solution of Margaret Odell’s murder, which took place in the early fall of the same year, and which, you will recall, created an even greater sensation than its predecessor. A curious set of circumstances was accountable for the way in which Vance was shouldered with this new investigation. Markham for weeks had been badgered by the anti-ad-ministration newspapers for the signal failures of his office in obtaining convictions against certain underworld offenders whom the police had turned over to him for prosecution. Asa result of prohibition a new and dangerous, and wholly undesirable, kind of night life had sprung up in New York. A large number of well-financed cabarets, calling themselves night clubs, had made their appearance along Broadway and in its side streeets; and already there had been an appalling number of serious crimes, both passional and monetary, which, it was said, had had their inception in these unsavory resorts. At last when a case of murder accompanying a hold-up and jewel robbery in one of the family hotels up-town was traced directly to plans and preparations made in one of the night clubs and when two detectives of the homicide bureau investigating the case were found dead one morning in the neighborhood of the club with bullet wounds in their backs, Markham decided to pigeonhole the other affairs of his office *tnd take a hand personally in the intolerable criminal conditions that had arisen.
Sunday, Sept. 9 On the day flowing his decision, Markham and Vance and I were sitting in a secluded corner of the lounge-room of the Stuyvesant Club. No Stomach Pains or Backache Now Eats Heartily, Without Distress. Sleeps Soundly, and Is Full of Pep. Folks who drag themselves around; suffering from backache and stomach distress, will enjoy reading a letter recently written by Mrs. C. Larson, 917 Tenth Are., Rockford, 111. She says: “For ten long years, I had severe stomach and kidney trouble and chronic constipation, and I suffered agony nearly all that time. After eating, gas formed, my stomach bloated, and I became nauseated. My kidneys pained me dreadfully, and were very irregular. I often had dizzy spells and headaches, and trouble with my eyes. My constipation was very bad for years. I had no appetite at all, and was so weak, nervous, and all worn-out that I really despaired of ever being well again.” “But what difference Viuna made in me. I heard people talking about this wonder medicine and finally I decided to try it. Now I can eat a hearty meal and not have any of the old gas, pain or bloating. It helped my kidneys wonderfully, too. The backache is all gone and I sleep fine all night. I am rid of the dizziness and headaches, and the constipation is greatly relieved. I feel well and strong all over, and it is simply wonderful to be in good health again.” Viuna acts promptly on sluggish bowels, lazy liver and weak kidneys. It purifies the blood, clears the skin, restores appetite and digestion, and brings new strength and energy to the wnole bod w . Take a bottle on trial. Then if ;on're not glad you tried Viuna, your money will ue refunded. sl. at druggists, or mailed postpaid by Iceland Medicine Cos., Indianapolis, lnd. ft VIUNA few pLi J
We often came together there, for we were all members of the club, and Markham frequently used it as a kind of unofficial uptown headquarters. “It’s bad enough to have half the people in this city under the impression that the district attorney’s office is a kind of high-class collection agency,” he remarked that night, “without being necessitated to turn detective because I’m not given sufficient evidence, or the right kind of evidence, with which to secure convictions.” Vance looked up with a slow smile, and regarded him quizzically. “The difficulty would seem to be,” he returned, with an indolent drawl, “that the police labor under the notion that evidence which would convince a man of ordin’ry intelligence, would also convince a court of law. A silly notion, don’t y’ know. Lawyers don’t really want evidence; they want erudite technicalities. And the average policeman’s brain is too forthright to cope with the pedantic demands of jurisprudence.” “It’s not as bad as that,” Markham retorted, with an attempt at good nature, although the strain of the past few weeks had tended to upset his habitual equanimity. “If there weren’t rules of evidence, grave injustice would too often be done innocent persons. And even a criminal is entitled to protection in our courts.” Vance yawned mildly. “Markham, you should liave been a pedagogue. It’s positively amazin’ how you’ve mastered all the standard oratorical replies to criticism. And yet, I’m unconvinced. You remember the Wisconsin of the kidnaped man whom the courts declared presumably dead. Even when he reappeared, hale and hearty, among his former neighbors, his status of being presumably dead was not legally altered. The visible and demonstrable fact that he was actually alive was regarded by the
DIANA'
BEGIN HERE TODAY When Diana Farwell’s mother overhears talk of love between her daughter and a schoolboy friend, she Is fearful that Diana will go wrong, like her sister, Vivian, who ran away from home four years before. So the mother hastens a marriage of Diana with Arthur Vance, some years older, a successful San Francisco lawyer. Diana is only 18 and goes into marriage believing ‘‘Arthur is so different from other men he always will be satisfied with merely spiritual love." He respects her reserve, as a young girl’s natural shyness, at first. But, after months of loveless wedded life, ne tells her she has wrecked his life because of her continued insistence upon what he calls ‘‘this unnatural relationship.” Some time after her mother dies, Diana leaves Arthur and finds her long-lost sister, Vivian, preparing for a trip to New York. Diana rents a roam at the home of Mrs. Burton, widowed friend of Diana’s mother, and enrolls in Seton’s School of Acting. After a .month she ’eceives a letter from Arthiir, begging htr to return. She is desperately lonely, but writes him that she will never go back until she can be the kfnd of a wife he wants her to be. Within a few months she has pro?:ressed so well with her work that she s taken by Shepherd Seton. head of the school, as his personal pupil. In a few weeks he has aroused in her. in the impassioned love scenes they rehearse together, sensations she has never had before. Diana falls passionately in love with Seton and decides to aks Arthur for a divorce; * Arthur flatly refused to divorce her. When she returns to the studio. Seton her his wife has gone east for six That night Seton did not call and when Diana phoned to tell him goodnight, he was obviously annoyed. Next day Seton’s explanation that he feared his servants might be cvesdropping infuriates Diana and she cannot go on with her lesson. Twentv-four hours later she has recovered her poise and Seton’s friendliness makes her forget her humiliation over the phone call Seton and Diana visit a roadhouse together. Diana decides to ask Arthur for a divorce. Diana comes Into Seton’s office to Ana him making love to his own wife. Diana and Seton call off their frlend--5 S*he leaves Seton to enter Klasalek’s class wheu someone rushes in with the information Seton has been shot. Vivian later confesses to Diana that she shot Seton. asthma jps* No cure for it, but welcome ™ w relief is often brought by— VICKS W vapoßub Peer 17 Million Jar Ufd Ymarly
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court as an immaterial and impertinent side issue. . . . Then there’s the touchin’ situation—so prevalent in this fair country—of a man being insane in one State and sane in another. ... Your layman, swaddled in the darkness of ordin’ry common sense, would say that a person who is a lunatic on one bank of the river would still be a lunatic if he was on the opposite bank. And he'd also hold—erroneously, no doubt—that if a man was living, he would presumably be alive. “Why tiffs academic dissertation?” asked Markham, this time a bit irritably. “It seems to touch rather vitally on the source of your present predicament,” Vance explained equably. “The police, not being lawyers, have apparently got you into hot water, what? . . . Why not start an agitation to send all detectives to law school?” Markham grunted. “I’d hardly endear myself to the people of this country if I answered the current strictures against me by recommending law courses for the police department.” “Permit me, then, to suggest the alernative of Shakespeare’s butcher: ‘Let’s kill all the lawyers.’ ” “Unfortunately, it’s a situation, not a utopian theory, that has to be met.” “And just how,” asked Vance lazily, “do you propose to reconcile the sensible conclusions of the police with what you touchingly call correctness of legal procedure?” “To begin with,” Markham informed him, “I’ve decided henceforth to do my own investigating of all important night-club criminal cases. I called a conference of the heads of my departments yesterday, and from now on there’s going to be some real activity radiating direct from my ofcce. I intended to produce the kind of evidence I need for convictions.”
Her former husband comforts her and later she calls on Seton to find him nearly recovered. Vivian runs away leaving a note telling Diana they probably will never see each other again. Diana takes luncheon with Arthur and forgets they had agreed to see an attorney about a divorce that afternoon. Thiy part and Arthur asks Diana’s permission to call that evening. While Diana, in a romantic frame of mind waited for Arthur to arrive he phones and gives a business appointment as the reason for his inability to keep their appointment. Diana suspects an affair with the woman he had spoken to that noon in the restaurant Arthur plumes Diana to ask her to accompany Parker, an attorney, and himself to lunch so they can discuss their livorce with him. No mention of their divorce is made at the luncheon. Arthur objects to Diana’s mixing marriage and a career and a reconciliation is avoided because Diana refuses to give up her career. Diana accepts her friend, Beachy’s, invitation to visit her in her new home. On her way home from Beachy’s. Diana meets Arthur in a restaurant with his mysterious feminine friend. Diana buys a smoking Jacket for Arthur's Christmas present. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORE Clutching the soft parcel as if it symbolized a dream, Diana hurried DIAMOND JB’ 8 kt ~ ' VH,TE Special my #/f $22.50 eSjy Kay Jewelry Cos. EOT 137 W. Wash. St. Finest and Largest Stock of Pocketknives in the State. Also a complete stock of other fine cutlery. VON N EG UTS E 3-Pc. Bed Outfit Wood tone Bed, com- $ I sortable Spring and I II .: Cotton Mattress. * V lomplete WEST-SIDE COMPANY 6 438 WEST WASHINGTON ST. ■HBBPOTBnnmHVf BUSINESS WANTS YOU Prepare definitely and you can go to work at once. For particulars see, write or telephone Fred W. Case, Principal Pennsylvania and Vermont, First Door North Y. W. C. A.. Indianapolis
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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Vance slowly took a cigaret from his case and tapped it on the arm of his chair. “Ah! So you are going to substitute the conviction of the innocent for the acquittal of the guilty?” Markham was nettled; turning in his chair he frowned at Vance. “I won’t pretend not to understand your remark,” he said acidulously. “You’re back again on your favorite theme of the inadequacy of circumstantial evidence as compared with your psychological theories and aesthetic hypothesis.” “Quite so,” agreed Vance carelessly. “Y” know, Markham, your sweet and charmin’ faith in circumstantial evidence is positively disarming. I tremble for the innocent victims you are about to gather into your legal net. You’ll eventually make the mere attendance at any cabaret a frightful hazard.” Markham smoked a while in silence. “Why this sweeping depreciation of circumstantial evidence? I admit that at times it may be misleading; but it often forms powerful presumptive proof of guilt. Indeed, Vance, one of our greatest legal authorities, has demonstrated that it is the most powerful actual evidence in existence. Direct evidence, in the very nature of crime, is almost always unavailable. If the courts had to depend on it, the great majority of criminals would still be at large.” “I was under the impression that this precious majority had always enjoyed its untrammeled freedom.” Markham ignored the interruption. “Take this example: A dozen adults see an animal running across the snow, and testify that it was a chicken; whereas a child sees the same animal, and declares it was a duck. They thereupon examine the animal’s footprints and find them to be the webb-footed tracks made by a duck, is it not conclusive,
from the store. She felt almost deceitful . . . but tremendously happy. In the privacy of her apartment she gloated over it. It had cost much more than she really could afford to pay. But it was so beautiful! And he would look so handsome in it . . . She slipped It on over her own slender shoulders. Stepping before a mirror, she laughed at the limp droll effect. Laughed until the sound became a sob. Diana flung herself across the bed and w r ept wildly. A tear fell on the smoking jacket. She rose and removed the coat, still sobbing. “This gift to him must not be spoiled,” she said. Diana had told herself she would Glasses /^V '-.;r fc fvt ) t jrcrgj |(fl9EriHioSTT| All the Credit You Want at Cash Prices PENNSYLVANIA TIRES Consumers Tire Cos. 301 V. Delaware St. SHANK New Fireproof Storage 1430-32 N. Illinois fit. MAln 8038 Best facilities for storing and crating household goods in the city. Everything new and up-to-date. We will be glad to send our man to your home and give you an estimate on cost of storage, crating and shipments to any part of the United States. Shank Storage Cos.
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then, that the animal was a duck and not a chicken, despite the preponderance of direct evidence?” “I’ll grant you your duck,” acceded Vance, indifferently. “And having gratefully accepted the gift,” pursued Markham, “I propound a collary: A dozen adults see a human figure crossing the snow, and take oath it was a woman; whereas a child asserts that the figure was a man. Now, will you not also grant that the circumstantial evidence of a man’s footprints in the snow would supply incontrovertible proof that it was, in fact, a man, and not a woman?” “Not at all, my dear Justinian,” replied Vance, stretching his legs languidly in front of him; “unless, of course, you could show that a human being possesses no higher order of brains than a duck.” “What have brains to do with it?” Markham asked impatiently. “Brains don’t affect one’s footprints.” “Not those of a duck, certainly. But brains might very well—and, no doubt, often do—affect the footprints of a human being.” “Well, according to your highly and peculiarly developed processes of reasoning, would the circumstantial evidence of those masculine footprints indicate a man or a woman?” “Not necessarily either,” Vance answered; “or, rather, a possibility of each. Such evidence, when applied to a human being—to a creature, that is, with a reasoning mind—would merely mean to me that the figure crossing the snow was either a man in his own shoes, or a woman in man’s shoes; or perhaps, even a long-legged child.” “I’m delighted to observe,” said Markham, "that, at least, you repudiate the possibility of a duck dressing itself up in the gardener's boots.” Vance was silent for a moment; then he said: “The trouble with you modern So-
Y j&TIDA HURST' Author of “THE SNOB” (Copyright, 1927, By Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
send Arthur's smoking jacket to him by messenger. She got a tremendous thrill out of knowing she had a present for him and was afraid she would be too embarrassed delivering it in person. But at 8 o’clock she w r as ordering a taxi and with a fluttering heart preparing to take it to him herself. She hoped Arthur would be at home. Quite illogically and unreasonably she hoped! In fact, all during the taxi ride she worried over the possibility of his not being there to receive her gift. She felt that it would spoil everything if he were not. She might worry too much about where he was. . . , But Arthur was out and Diana MONEY TO LOAN —ON—MORTGAGES STATE LIFE Insurance Cos. 1335 STATB LIFE BLDG.
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lons, d’ye see, Is that you attempt to reduce human nature to a ‘formula; whereas the truth is that man, like life, is infinitely complex. He’s shrewd and tricky—skilled for centuries in all the most diabolical chicaneries. He is a creature of low’ cunning, who, even in the normal course of his vain and idiotic struggle for existence, instinctively and deliberately tells ninety-nine lies to one truth. A duck, not having had the heaven-kissing advantages of human civilization, is a straightforward and eminently honest bird.” “How,” asked Markham, “since you jettison all the ordinary means of arriving at a conclusion, would you decide the sex or species of this person who left the masculine footprints in the snow?” Vance blew a spiral of smoke toward the ceiling. “First, I’d repudiate all the evidence of the twelve astigmatic adults and the one bright-eyed child. Next, I’d ignore the footprints in the snow. Then, with a mind unprejudiced by dubious testimony and uncluttered with material clews, I’d determine the exact nature of the crime which this fleeing person had committed. After having analyzed its various factors, I could infallibly tell you not only whether the culprit tyas a man or a woman, but I could describe his habits, character and personality. And I could do all this whether the fleeing figure left male or female or kangaroo tracks, or used stilts, or rode off on a velocipede.” Markham smiled broadly. “You’d be worse than the police in the matter of supplying me legal evidence, I fear.” “I, at least, wouldn’t procure evidence against some unsuspecting person whose boots had been appropriated by the real culprit,” retorted Vance. He became suddenly serious. “See here, old man; there are some shrewd intelligences at pres-
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was forced to leave her precious burden and return to her waiting taxi. Christmas eve! The city was ablaze with red and green light. Houses were beautiful with Christmas trees, holly wreaths, candles and colored lights shining in the night Children coming home, breathless laughter and hushed excitement as little stockings were hung. .. . (To Be Continued) The Original Sf Payment* aa Low a $1 a Week THlf UNION TIRE CO. Geo. Medlam, Pre*. MA in 8278 Cor. S. HI. and Georgia St. Open Till 8:00 p. m.
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ent allied with what the theologians call the powers of darkness. The surface appearances of many of these crimes that are worrying you are probably deceptive. Personally, I don’t put much stock in the theory that a malevolent gang of cut throats have organized an American comorra, and made the silly night clubs their headquarters. The idea is too melodramatic. It smacks too much of the gaudy journalistic imagination; it’s too Eugene Sue-ish. Crime isn't a mass instinct except during war-time, and then it’s merely an obscene sport . . . Markham, old dear, don’t let this romantic criminological idea lead you astray. And don’t scrutinize the figurative finger prints in the snow too closely. They’ll confuse you most horribly.” He sighed deeply, and gave Markham a look of bantering commiseration. / “And have you paused to consider that your first case may even be devoid of footprints?..Alas!-What, then, will you do?” “I could overcome that difficulty by taking you along with me,” suggested Markham, with a touch of irony. “How would you like to accompany me on the next important case that breaks?” “I am ravished by the idea,” said Vance. Two days later the front pages of our metropolitan press carried glaring headlines telling of the murder of Margaret Odell. (To Be Continued)
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Can Stolen Love Bring Happiness?
NEVER would Lucy forget the day when she suddenly awoke to the fact that she was in love with another woman's husband. And what was more amazing, more thrilling, he was in love with her. What should she do? She knew that she was desperately unhappy — tied apparently for life to the cold, silent man whom she had thought she loved when she married him. STILL she might have accepted her unhappy lot and hid her tears, as women sometimes will—had an ironic fate not brought Bert Thomas into her life. But as they were thrown more and more together, she found in his kindness, gentleness and tender sympathy all those things that her heart had been starving for. And now he wanted her to run away with him —to go to some far away place where they could be happy together always. Love, she had often heard, is a law unto itself. Should she answer its call sacrifice home, honor, every-
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Contents for Fehmary The Beast in Men The Supreme Test of a Man's Devotion For Love of a Woman A Spurned Woman's Revenge The Man I Might Hav* Married My Romantic Madnesa Onb Courageous Woman When the Past Calls Captain of Her Soul When Society Sins And Several Other Storlet