Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 236, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 February 1928 — Page 1

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GIRL IS SLAIN BY RELATIVE; BODYMISSING Brother-in-Law Admits His Guilt; Victim Choked to Death. f [TWICE TRIES SUICIDE Ohio Killer Is Held Under Heavy Guard as Search Is Pushed. IP.'/ United Press NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio, Feb. B.—The belief that William D. Herron, New Philadelphia painter, dismembered and buried the body of his 23-year-old sister-in-law, Viola May, was expressed by Coroner J. L. Lewis, this afternoon, after the finding of two hlood-stained undergarments buried near Dover. Since his arrest yesterday, Herron Farce has attempted suicide, first by hanging and the second this morning by slashing his wrists with a razor blade. He told Laird he was determined to kill himself. Searchers concentrated on the [gravel pit near Dover after Miss May’s slippers and a fragment torn from her coat were found. Herron told officers he attacked the girl there. Police were powerless to lodge a charge against the accused man until Miss May’s body is found. John May. Viola’s aged father, was leading the search. He said Viola "never had cared for Herron" and that because of this feeling, she seldom Visited her sister. Herron admitted choking the girl to death when she resisted his advances, according to County Prosecutor James Patrick. He then drove to a bridge spanning the river at Dover, and dropped the girl’s body into the water, he declared. Miss May and a girl friend. Evelyn Fretz, visited the former’s sister (Herron’s wife) Tuesday night. The attack on Miss Day took place after Herron had driven Miss Fretz to her home and was en route home [With Miss May. Herron said he drove to a gravel pit on the Dover-Canton highway and parked. He then attempted to attack the girl, and a violent quarrel ensued, according to Patrick. Enraged, Herron choked the girl, then drove to the Dover bridge, where he dropped the body into the fiver. Stories in Conflict The murder took place Tuesday night. Herron appeared at the John Henig farm near here at 2 a. m. yesterday and told how two armed men had attacked him and kidnaped the girl. Conflicting details developed in his story during the day and after intensive questioning he broke down and confessed, Patrick said. “I choked her.” Patrick said Herron declared. "I guess I choked her too ldng.” The sheriff's office was called after Herron showed up at the Henig farm. His automobile was found, abandoned. Buttons from Miss May's coat, a ragged piece of her skirt and her glasses, the lenses broken, were found in the bottom of the machine. Herron’s story of the supposed kidnaping, followed. Girl's Slippers Found After hearing Herron’s story, police went to the gravel pit. The girl’s slippers were found, but darkness forced them to delay further search until today. If Herron threw Miss May’s body Into the river, it probably was washed rapidly down stream, officers fear. Herron attempted suicide shortly after he was lodged in jail, according to Sheriff Abe Laird. He said he had a terrific battle with the man before he subdued him. Herron’s shoulder was dislocated during the fight, Laird declared. Prosecutor Patrick said he would lodge a first degree murder charge against Herron when Miss May’s body is found. Herron is a painter and paper hanger, and the father of four children. Miss May’s sister is his second wife. Miss May. one of twelve children, was employed at the John G. Senhauser home here. John May, her aged father, worked until after midnight with searchers, hoping to find the body. Buying Auto Forbidden fiU Times Special COLUMBUS. Ind., Feb. 9.—Orden Drake is left SSOO by the will of his grandfather, John E. Gilliland, on condition that the money shall not be used in buying an automobile.

GONE A horse, wagon and harness that belonged to Frank White, 2062 Martindale Ave. HORSE AND WAGON—lncluding harness: cheap for quick sale. 2062 Martindale. * Mr. White sold them thru the above want ad in The Times. You can sell everything from bulbs to buildings if you write a good ad and place it before more than 250,000 daily Times readers. CALL MAIN 3500 ORDER YOUR AD 6 DAYS FOR THE PRICE OF 5

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VOLUME 39—NUMBER 236

Artist Gives Impression of Courtroom in Jackson Trial

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JOHN D., JR., ILL TESTIFY IN OILPROBE Accepts Subpoena for His Appearance Saturday Before Committee. BY PAUL R. MALLON United "‘Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, Feb. 9.—The Senate Teapot Dome committee issued a subpoena today for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to testify at its hearing Saturday. Rockefeller accepted service by telegram at New York and notified the committee he would be present Saturday. Senator Walsh of Montana, conducting the investigation, thought at first he would not call Rockefeller in view of the fact that his testimony had been received by correspondence. Rockefeller had written Walsh that he had urged appearance of Robert W. Stewart, chairman, of the Standard Oil of Indiana before the committee, and that Stewart had told him several years ago the Standard had no unworthy part in the mysterious 1921 deal of oil men. Rockefeller wrote he had counselled Stewart to tell all he knew of the deal. Committee members, however, suggested that Rockefeller should submit his testimony under oath as every other witness has done, so the subpoena was issued. Stewart was arrested under a Senate warrant when he declined to answer all questions of the Teapot Dome committee. Decision on habeas corpus proceedings subsequently brought by Stewart is now pending. NEW YORK, Feb. 9.—John D. Rockefeller Jr. will accept the subpoena of the Senate Teapot Dome committee alohtugh he has no information which he has not already submitted he said in a statement issued here today. TRAVEL BY AIR MAIL Launch Passenger Service on City Route. Passenger service has been opened on the Cincinnati to Chicago by way of Indianapolis air mail route, Postmaster Robert H. Bryson announced today. Two passengers have been carried on the route. Rates announced are: Chicago to Cincinnati, $35; Chicago to Indianapolis, $22; Indianapolis to Cincinnati, sl7. Thursday the pilot carried a package sent by the Marmon Motor Company to Los Angeles, the postage on which was $l7O, Bryson said. VOICE ONION MEN PLEA Higher Protective Tariff for Products Are Demanded. B,y United Press WASHINGTON, Feb. 9.—America’s big onion and garlic men are on the warpath. They came to Washington today to demand a higher protective tariff lor the products they grow. They were to appear before the tariff commission and plead that unless duties are raised an old popular song will be changed to “Yes, We Have No Onions.”

By United Press NEW YORK. Feb. 9 Chances were roughly 1 to 6 that Col. C harles A. Lindbergh would crash before he completed his goodwill tour of Latin America. For days and weeks, while the 26-year-old flier hopped from capital to capital in the Central American republics, flying over unfamiliar and sometimes unexplored territory, millions of persons back home v'atched his steady progress with anxiety.

Lee Williams, Times artist, drew this sketch of the courtroom in which Governor Jackson is on trial on charge of conspi racy to offer a bribe.

Ike Will Pick Winner “He who laughs last laughs best,” you know; and here is a chance to get that last laugh—maybe “Off the Backboard,” conducted by Norman Isaacs, assistant sports editor of The Times, will carry his selection for the State high school basketball championship Friday. A columnist has the edge over the correspondent. He always can get the “last crack” in a verbal tilt. But here is a chance for readers of “Backboard” to the last word and the last laugh. Isaacs will name his choice for State contest winner in black and white in Friday’s Times. There will be no alibis. If he loses—you get the laugh, but if he wins—that PROVES he’s good. Don’t miss the selection Friday.

FIGHT OVER BURIAL

Parents Wage 2-Year Legal War

A TWO-YEAR-OLD legal battle over the burial place of a 19-year-old boy. between his divorced parents, each of whom has remarried. was drawing to a close today in Superior Court One. The mother brought suit to prevent the husband from interfering with removal of the body from where it was buried two years ago, to a lot of her own. The mother is Mrs. Carrie Vande, 1515 College Ave. She brought the suit against her former husband, George L. Day, and his wife, Florence Day, and the Memorial Park cemetery. Final disposition of the case was due this afternoon before Superior Judge James M. Leathers.

WATSON PUT IN PRESIDENT RING # Indiana Congressmen Give Indorsement to Him. By Times Special WASHINGTON. Feb. 9.—Senator James Watson's candidacy for President was launched here today, although without a statement from him. Nine of the ten Republican Congressmen from Indiana met and unanimously adopted a statement "heartily endorsing” Watson for the Republican nomination for President. The sole absentee was Representative Andrew J. Hickey of the Thirteenth District, who is in Indiana. It is understood that he is for Watson, however. Representative Johnson of Terre Haute; Representative Updike, Indianapolis, and Representative Rowbottom. Evansville. concurred in the action. The statement follows some weeks of planning by Watson and his advisers, including Burt Thurman, collector of international revenue, who was here for some days conferring with Watson. It is understood an active campaign, to obtain “Watson for President” petitions, will begin soon. It is also understood Watson has an agreement with former Governor Low'den of Illinois that the latter will stay out of Indiana, and a tentative understanding with supporters of Herbert Hoover that the latter will not contest the Indiana primary with Watson. The resolutions adopted today "call public attention” to the “brilliant and useful public services of Mr. Watson during a period of thirty-three years.” PASTOR FACES THREAT Texas Police Guard Minister Warned of Death. B-n United Press TEXARKANA. Texas, Feb. 9. Police today guarded the Rev. L. O. Orr, Baptist minister, who was threatened with death unless he left SI,OOO in a specified place by Friday night. The death threat came in a letter left on the minister’s doorstep yesterday.

LINDY BEATS 1 TO 6 CHANCE ON CRASH IN GOOD WILL TOUR

But when Lindbergh climbed out of the cockpit at Havana yesterday, completing his 8,235-mile tour, he had flown a total of more than forty thousand miles in the Spirit of ,st. Louis without the slightest accident. Figures obtained by the United Press today from statistics of the air information division of the Department of Commerce reveal that Lindbergh stood only a fl-to-1 chance of finishing the

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, FEB. 9, 1928

Mrs. Vande’s suit, filed in September, 1926, alleges the son, Russell Edward Day, waif buried en the lot of Mbs. Calrinda Wolf, his grandmother on his father’s side, with the understanding that the body could be removed when the mother purchased her own lot. It was the son’s request, the suit alleges, that he be buried beside his mother. Due to the death of Mrs. Wolf, the father of the boy fell heir to the lot, and he is contesting the right of the mother to move the body. He is represented by Maurice Mendenhall, while the mother is represented by E. C. Snethen. Contrlct of the cemetery company with its lot purchasers also enters the case, due to a provision that a body cannot be disinterred without permission of the company, of the nearest kin, and the owner of the lot in which the body was first buried. Judge Leathers indicated the right of the mother to claim the body of her son. in view of his request to be buried on a lot beside her, probably will take precedence over the refusal of the father to relinquish the body. IN BLAZE Woman, 75, Taken Unconscious Out of Home. Mrs. Mary Dame, 75, of 858 Parker Ave., unconscious from smoke, was rescued by neighbors when the story-and-a-half frame bungalow in which she lived alone caught fire this morning. Mrs. F. R. Fortune, 1121 N. Jefferson St., had started a fire in the stove lor the aged woman at 7:30. She returned at 8:30 to find tlv house filled with smoke and found Mrs. Dame unconscious on the floor. She called Rome Houser, 854 Parker Ave., who carried the aged women from the house. Firemen revived her and she was taken to city hospital, in serious condition from effects of the fumes. The flames, believed started by the stove, did only slight damage to the house. “Lot of Bologna” Stolen By United Press NEW YORK. Feb. 9.—lt was a lot of bologna that had been * stolen mysteriously from the window of Mrs. Annie Hewer’s delicatessen. Policemen watched closely and arrested two men using a hook and line to pull it over the transom.

tour without wrecking his famous plane and possibly injuring or killing himself. ana OURVEYS conducted by the commerce department in the last year show that there is one fatality in the ranks of licensed pilots for each 1,026,363 miles of flying. But only one crash in four is fatal to the pilot. Out of 165 crashes in one period covered by the Government sur-

HICKMAN CASE TO REACH JURY BEFORENIGHT Final Arguments Started to Decide Gallows or Asylum Fate. By United Brcss COURTROOM. LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9.—Richard Cantillon, youthful Los Angeles attorney, made a final plea for the life of William Edward Hickman in Superior Court here todaq. Cantillon urged the jury hearing Hickman's trial for the murder of Marion Parker to return a verdict holding him insane at the time he killed the little girl and dismembered her body. Asa Keyes, veteran district attorney of Los Angeles, was to follow Cantillon with a demand that the jury vote a verdict of sanity and prepare the way for Hickman to be sentenced to the gallows. After Keyes finishes his closing argument, Judge J. J. Trabucci will follow with his instructions to the Jury and the case will be placed in the hands of the eight men and four women late today. Jury Th.?n to Act The jury then will be called on to decide whether Hickman was sane or insane when he kidnaped Marion. dismembered her body, and threw the remnants to her father, who had paid him $1,500 ransom. If the jury finds him sane, Hickman will be brought before Judge J. J. Trabucco within five days for sentence to the gallows or to life imprisonment. If the jury decides Hickman did not know the difference between right and wrong w hen he committed the crime. Judge Trabucco must order him confined in an asylum. Alienists Confuse It was predicted the jury might disagree, in view of the detailed technical testimony of alienists, w-ho in the last few days of the trial have done much to create confusion in the minds of those connected with the trial. Assistant District Attorney Forrest Murray opened the prosecution’s arguments yesterday. He centered his talk around the fact that Charles Edwards, former police chief, of Kansas City, was one of close friends of the Hickman family, yet had refused to brand Hickman insane. , Murray contended that Edwards probably knew Hickman as well as anyone and that Edwards’ refusal to term the slayer insane was conclusive proof of Hickman's sanity. Murray was followed by Jerome Walsh, chief defense counsel. POLITICAL BOSS DEAD J. S. (Frank) Kelly Passes Suddenly at Baltimore Home. BALTIMORE. Feb. 9.—John S. (Frank) Kelly died suddenly today in his West Saratoga street home. The political leader's death came twenty-nine days after the evening, when sitting in the dining room of the Rennert Hotel, surrounded by 400-odd Democrats, he heard himself proclaimed “the leader of the Democratic party of Baltimore.” John J. Mahon, his senior in years j and leadership, was ill in a room i above him at the time and is still | ill. Hourly Temperatures 6 a. m 30 10 a. m 31 7 a: m.... 31 11 a. m.... 32 8 a. m.... 31 12 (noon).. 34 9 a. m.... 32 1 p. m.... 33

veys, forty-two pilots were killed, thirteen were injured seriously, thirty-eight suffered minor injuries. and sixty-two escaped injury entirely. The causes of the 165 accidents were, in twenty-three cases, weaknesses in the planes’ structure; in forty-one cases it was motor trouble, and in the remaining one the blame was distributed among the pilots, unsafe landing fields and unknown factors.

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, ludianapolis

Gas 95 Cents, Prospect for Auto Owners ANOTHER oil gusher was brought* in today. With a roar and a lunge at the top of its derrick, the stream of “black gold” was let loose

to swell the total of 2,500,000 barrels that this country is taking from its soil every twenty-four hours. But in a few years this derrick, and many thousands like it. will bes tan anding in barren fields. The oil wealth of the nation will be nearly spent. Foreign companies that now buy our oil will be selling theirs back to us—at prices that will make the small car owner gasp. Gas may be selling as high as 95 cents a gallon. Rodney Dutcher’s articles on the oil crisis will start Friday in The Times. They tell the true story

of a vital national problem, a problem which affects you. individually.

PLEA FILED ON TROLLEY FADE Extension of 2-Cent Transfer Period Asked. Extension of the permit to charge 2 cents for street car transfers from March 1. when the present privilege expires, was asked of the Public Service Commission today by Robert I. Todd, president, for the Indianapolis Street Railway Company. Todd declared that the same financial emergency which necessitated the increased revenue from transfers when first granted Sept. 18, 1925, still exists. The petition sets out that even after the increase from 1 to 2 cents for transfers in September. 1925, the gross receipts for 1926 decreased $17,575 under 1925. The petition says receipts for 1927 dropped $104,123 under 1926. In 1925 there was a surplus of $41,175, as compared with deficits of $203,514 in 1926 and $155,344 in 1927, the petition says. MATRON STILL LIVES Mallet Wielder May Face Murder Charge. Mrs. Helen Kirk, matron of the State Boys’ School, remained unconscious and in critical condition at Methodist Hospital today, where she was taken Tuesday night. She was beaten on the head with a mallet by Anson Hafer, 16, prisoner. who escaped. Hafer, captured at Brazil, Ind, after forcing a taxi driver to take him from Plainfield at the point of a gun. is in solitary confinement in the Hendricks County jail at Danville on a temporary charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. If Mrs. Kirk dies he will be reslated on a first degree murder charge, authorities said.’

The figures revealed further that if by chance the flier had crashed, the odds would have been 1 to 4 that he never would have escaped alive. tt u HE would have stood less than a l-to-3 chance of escaping with injuries from which he could recover. But on the other hand, Lindbergh would have had more than a l-to-3 chance of emerging from the crash unscathed.

HOPE OF FILLING JACKSON JURY BOX TODAY FADES AS SEVERAL ARE THROWN OUT New Line of Questioning Thins Out Rank% of Talesmen at Rapid Rate in Governor’s Trial. STATUTE IS RELIANCE OF DEFENSE Offense Charged Against Executive Has Been Outlawed, Contention of His Staff of Attorneys. Possibility of obtaining .a jury today for the trial of Governor Kd Jackson in Criminal Court receded, when defense attorneys opened anew line of questioning. The new questions resulted in answers which made it certain that some men regarded as almost definitely picked for the jury would be thrown off, cither for cause or through peremptory challenges. Whereas at one time Wednesday afternoon it. appeared that nine men might definitely have been approved, both defense and State struck off men so rapidly this morning that by noon only six were left who were passed by both State and defense and each of these was subject to peremptory challenge by cither side at any time.

Jackson is being tried on an indictment charging he conspired to bribe former Governor Warren T. McCray with SIO,OOO and a promise of immunity from conviction for his' financial troubles in 192 J if be would appoint James E. -McDonald prosecutor of Marion County. Special Judge Charles M. McCabe is presiding. The trial began Wednesday. Governor Impassive The Governor was impassive through the morning session, in contrast with a lively interest, colored with smiling appreciation of sallies of lawyers and talesmen shown Wednesday. Jackson sat motionless most of the time today, solemnly and intently watching the talesmen. He rarely joined the whispered conferences of his attorneys. He did not heartily greet the men at the press table, as he did Wednesday. Jackson’s attorneys indicated in the new line of questioning that his chief weapon of defense will be the contention that the statute of limitations on the alleged offense had expired before the indictment was returned last September. The attorneys indicated that they also would attempt to prove that there was no positive act of concealment of the alleged bribe offer, which would have operated to extend the time of the alleged conspiracy so that it would have come within the statute of limitations. First addressing Talesman Ivan Fowler, Defense Attorney Silas C. Kivett outlined that the alleged bribe offer was made, according to the indictment, on or about Dec. 15, 1923, whereas the indictment was not returned until Sept. 30, 1927. Quizzed on Concealment “Will you accept as a matter of law that it will be necessary for the State to prove that there were specific, positive acts of concealment by which Governor McCray kept the alleged offer’secret?” asked Kivett. The statute of limitations provides that if an indictment is not returned within two years after the date of the alleged crime the defendant is exempt from prosecution. The State attempted to get around this in drawing the indictment by charging that part of the alleged conspiracy was the concealment of the bribe offer by McCray, through fear of the power of the defendants, until The Indianapolis Times disclosed the alleged offer last July. The talesman replied to Kivett’s question that he would accept that theory. Draws Out Jurors Kivett then went around the jury, attempting to draw from each the opinion that proof of concealment is an essential element of the crime in this case. By agreement with the State and court, peremptory challenges may be used at any time, even up to the time when both sides temporarily have accepted all men in the box. "The big thing to do is to get a fair jury,” said Judge McCabe. The six men who had been passed by both sides and who can be challenged now only peremptorily were: H. O. Hoffman, farmer, Bridgeport: Elmer Geiger, farmer, Greenwood: Orville E. Baker, iron worker,

If something had gone wrong with his plane, in two cases out of three it would have been trouble with the motor. Weaknesses in a plane's structure, which result in the crumpling of a wing or the snapping of a control wire or brace, are only half as frequent as stalled engines. Those computations, hold not only for Lindbergh, but for any experienced, licensed pilot who has flown a plane more than 40,000 miles without a mishap.

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315 S. Taft St.; John M. Mendenhall, Merchants National Bank employe, 3746 Ruckle St.; Samuel H. Colbert, Negro, truck farmer, R. R. F, Box 156; Ira A. Minnick. president National Dry Kiln Company, 3828 Carrollton Ave. Six Others in Box The"six others' in the box at noon adjournment, subject to challenge either for cause or peremptorily: David F. Porterfield, salesman, 3616 Salem St.; E. S. Penn, salesman, 801 Drexell Ave.; H. B. Hostetter, official of the Presbyterian church State organization, 344 Leslie Ave.; Hubert Adams, truejt farmer, R. R. 8.. Box 204; Ivan Fowler, farmer. R. R. D.. Box 233, and Ace Berry, Indiana Theater manager, 40 W. Twenty-First St. During the morning the State challenged C. W. Field. 315 N. Alabama St., on the ground he admitted he could not change his opinion that the defendant is innocent, and he was thrown off. The State peremptorily challenged Walter L. Shirley, funeral director, and succeeded in removing W. H. Abraham on the ground of a fixed opinion. The defense dismissed one talesman during the morning, peremptorily. He was Walter C. Boetcher. Each side had used three of its ten peremptory challenges. Told Not to State Law As the defense neared completion of the morning questioning, Kivett was directed by the court not to state the law to the jurors, but to frame his questions so they might learn the law on their own investigation. Y' upheld the objection of Special Prosecutor Emsley W. Johnson to the procedure. Johnson asserted Kivett was telling the jurors what the law was and then asking them questions. Kivett changed his questions to ask “if the law” was this and that would they follow it? When the court session closed Wednesday afternoon, the defense turned the jury' over to the State, that five jurors might be examined. This was the first time the defense passed the jury. Seven men in the jury box had been accepted for the second time by the State. Originally, the State, passed nine, but two were removed after further questioning by defense counsel. Will Speed Trial “We aren't going to waste any time at all,” Remy stated. During the course of jury ex- * amination by the State, two jurors were asked whether they knew W. Lee Smith, former Indiana Klan dragon. Answers were negative. Only in this way was the Klan referred to. It. is expected to be brought up several times during the trial. However, prospective jurors’ names were being checked against Klan records by the State, it was understood. State’s attorneys re- * fused to comment on this. Governor Jackson and Marsh sat in the courtroom throughout the day’s tedious proceedings. Marsh seemed ill at east at times, when the questioning became tiresome. The jurors in the box had luncheon in custody of Bailiff Clarence Clegg. They were directed not to talk of the case at adjournment by Judge McCabe, and were permitted to go to their homes for the night. As soon as the jury finally is selected the jurors will be kept at night in a downtown hotel. McCabe announced a change in his previous order for holding court sessions. He said he altered his plans and will not go to h!s home at Crawfordsville each night. He is staying at a local club. This will throw court sessions in the regular hours from 9 until 12 in the morning and from 1:30 to 5 in the afternoon. Special Prosecutor Emsley W. Johnson will make the opening statement for the State immediately after the jury is obtained. The statement, it was announced, will be brief, dealing only with the facta alleged in the indictment and the law touching upon them, and will be devoid of oratory.