Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 273, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 March 1928 — Page 1

MURDER OF 3 IS CONFESSED BY CHAUFFEUR Two Women and Girl, 13, Beaten and Stabbed to Death. HIDES CRIME FOR WEEK Room in Which Bodies Are Found Shows Evidence of Grim Struggle. "Bey United Pres* SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas, March 12.—Newton Burns, chauffeur, today confessed to murdering Mrs. J. W. Juergens, her daughter, Myrna, 13, and Mrs. Juergens’ mother, Mrs. Rosa Schirra, Sheriff Frank Flippen announced. The three were beaten brutally and stabbed to death a week ago Saturday night at their home at San Angelo. Burns had been employed by the Juergens several years. He came here with the family four years ago from Pittsburgh, Pa. Although the three women were believed to have been killed a week ago. their bodies were not found until yesterday, when a neighbor, finding no one at home, called police. The room in which the bodies were found was in the utmost confusion. Walls, floors and furniture were spattered with blood. The daughter, after having been stabbed and mutilated, had been impaled on a bed post. The two elder women had been hacked with a hatchet. The home had been ransacked in what police believe was an attempt to cover the motive for the murders. Both Mrs. Jurgens and Mrs. Schirner were scantily clad. The girl had been stabbed more than a dozen times near the heart with an ice pick. The daughter was called from the playground of the Academy in the Immaculate Conception by Burns on the afternoon of March 2, schol authorities said. They said she left so suddenly thet they did not have an opportunity to question her. J. W. Juergens, father and husband, employed at Big Lake, Texas, was notified and informed police he was returning here immediately. Juergens spench March 2 with his family and returned to Big Lake. He told police by phone that he had tried several times last week to phone his wife, but that each time he failed to get an answer.

DRIVER OF DEATH CAR GOES ON TRIAL TODAY Elbert Johnson, 22, Faces Charges of Involuntary Manslaughter, Elbert Johnson, 22, of 27 S. Euclid Ave., is on trial in Criminal Court for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of James Daugherty, V 29, who was run down by Johnson’s automobile aj, Washington and Delaware Sts., Aug. 2, 1926. The trial opened this morning before Judge James A. Collins. The prosecution, through Deputy Paul F. Rhoadarmer and Deputy Judson L. Stark, put police officers on the stand to tell how Daugherty was dragged thirty feet by the car. Evidence showed Johnson drove through a safety zone in which Daugherty was standing waiting for a street car. Headied in city hospital a few hours later. HURT BY MODEL PLANE South Suffers Badly Mangled Thumb in Miniature Propellor. Frank Mesch, 17, of 1011 S. Harding St., nursed a badly mangled thumb today. He realized that a miniature airplane propeller turned by a rubber band for a motor offers danger to those attempting to stop its flight. Mesch was taken to the city hospital, where the injured hand was dressed and then returned home by police. ENGLISH FLIER KILLED Seaplane Crashes in Attempt to Set World Speed Mark. By United Press CALSHOT, England, March 12. Lieut. S. M. Kinkead, royal air 'force, was killed today when his seaplane crashed at sea while he was trying to break the world speed record. ARREST 105 PERSONS Liquor and Vagrancy Charges Numerous Over Week-End. Police arrested 105 persons. Liquor and vagrancy charges were placed against two-thirds of the number. Twenty-eight each w'ere charged with public intoxication and vagrancy and ten were slated on blind tiger charges. Fifteen traffic arrests were made. * " PLATE LUNCH, 35c. NOON AND EVENING specialty. FLETCHER CAFETERIA, Basement Fletcher Trust Bldg. 10:30 a. m. to 7:30 p. m.—Advertisement.

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The Indianapolis Times Unsettled tonight and Tuesday with probably rain; somewhat warmer tonight, colder Tuesday afternoon or night.

VOLUME 39—NUMBER 273

CRADLE FLAPPERS

Tiny Girls Rouse Police, Firemen

A LICE JEAN SMITH. 2, likes to travel faster than her "kiddie car’’ will take her. When her mother, Mrs. Emory V. Smith, left her alone for a few minutes in front of their apartment at 2625 Central Ave., this morning, she decided to abandon that means of locomotion and see the world on her own two feet. When the mother came out the "kiddie car’’ was still there, but the child gone. She remembered some rough looking men had passed in a dilapidated Ford a few minutes before and, fearing her baby had been the victim of kidnappers, called police. Police found Alice Jean at Twenty-Fourth St. and Central. Her tiny feet had safely carried her across Twenty-Sixth, TwentyFifth and Twenty-Fourth Sts. All heavily traveled.

POISON THEORY IN MYSTERY ILL CASE

Play Ball! First play-by-play detail of the Indians training season games will appear in The Times Pink edition this afternoon. Eddie Ash, sports editor, will describe the IndianBaltimore game from Auburndale, Fla., in today’s pink. Read The Times Pink for the first play-by-play ' description this season.

TWO KILLED AS TRAINSCOLLIDE Nickel Plate Freights Crash . Near Tipton. "••it 04 Pres* j.- 'TON, Ind., March 12—Two trainmen were killed and two were injured, when the second section of Nickle Plate train No. 64 crashed into the first section here today. The first section of the train was supposed to have been parked on a siding at the time but could not reach the extra track because of a switch engine working, blocking the entrance, trainmen s„id. The dead are George Howard, brakeman, 28. and W. H. Maish, 46, conductor, both members of the first section crew. Howard lived in Lafayette and Maish in Tipton. The injured: Fred Reese, engineer, second section, and Guy Newton, firemen, second section. Both are expected to recover. Thirty-Five Cars Crash LA PORTE, Ind., March 12. Thirty-five cars of a Pennsylvania freight train piled up in a wreck near Grovetown today. It was believed no one was injured, although valuable consigments of radios, automobiles and tires were damaged. The cause of the wreck has not been determined. 9 HURT IN CRASHES Toll of Accidents Taken Over Week-End. Thomas Hall, 319 E. St. Joseph St., was injured seriously Sunday afternoon when an automobile driven by Gill Brandt, 526 Division St., crashed into a transfer truck on which Hall was riding at Ohio and Illinois Sts. Hall suffered a compound fracture of the left leg and body bruises. Brandt was arrested. Mrs. Eliza Johnson, 1904 *V. Michigan St., flagman at the Belt railroad crossing at W. Michigan St. for more than eleven years, was injured by an automobile driven by James Board, 2005 W. Vermont St., Saturday night. Edward Cox, 1112 E. Tenth St., was injured by an automobile driven by George Shearer, 2338 Roosevelt Ave., at Tenth St. and Massachusetts Ave., Sunday. Other week-end traffic victims: Edward Bush, 234 E. St. Joseph St.; Herbert Greer, 1140 Oliver Ave.; Miss Emma Daniels, 2105 Boulevard PL; Mrs. Catherine Walker and Virginia Hayden, 9, both of R. R. 1, box 47.

The carnival was a glittering glory of tents and sideshows. Barkers screamed their wares and performers did their turns with speed and gaiety. In a small tent Princess Lilia reigned, amid imitation Oriental splendor. Softly she intoned, “I see tragedy close —so close—.” And then the storm broke, with death in its wake. ‘Shillers’ ran for safety; carnival capers were forgotten in the mad scramble for exits. Tents billowed in the wind like unmanned sails on a derelect schooner. A roar of wind—the ccnterpole snapped like a match in the fingers of a giant. Slowly the wet and soggy canvas settled on two struggling figures. Princess Lalla beat the canvas with her delicate

WHEELS of Criminal Court justice clanked to a quick stop today because a 20-months-old baby was locked in the bathroom. The baby is the daughter of Deputy Prosecutor Paul F. Rhoadarmer. who was trying a' manslaughter case in Criminal Court. A hasty conference with Judge James A. Collins, and a hatless prosecutor was off for his home, 3720 N. Pennsylvania St. The fire department was called, but the frantic mother induced a small boy to climb through the window and a sensational rescue was effected. The boy unlocked the door. Rhoadarmer ran. panting into his home, to find the baby safe. The trial was resumed this afternoon, after judge, attorneys, jurors and witnesses took a threehour recess.

Report on Analysis After Death of Michigan City Child. By United Press MICHIGAN CITY. Ind., March 12.—Given their first intimation of the possible cause of the mysterious malady which has brought death to two persons here, and is threatening a third, physicians today renewed attempts to save the life of William Sims. Simultaneously, police began an investigation in an effort to learn circumstances surrounding deaths of Orvilla and Richard Bohle, aged 2 and 4, niece and nephew of Sims. They said they were working on a poison theory. Baffled by both the cause and nature of Sims ’illness, the physicians endeavored for almost a week to diagnose the case. The two children died a few days previously, under almost the same circumstances. Second Death in Few Days When Orvilla died, doctors attributed her death to an ordinary intestinal disturbance, Richard died a few days later and the cases were so similar physicians refused to sign a death certificate. Richard’s internal organs were sent to Rush medical college in Chicago for examination. Then Sims was taken ill. His Illness was accompanied by severe dysentery, which practically all means known to medical science failed to check. The doctors were forced to await the Rush report to learn the cause of the disease. Poison Kept In Home Today is was said that a “poison” had been found in the boy’s intestines. A quantity of the same poison, police said, was found in the Sims’ home. Mrs. Sims, according to police, said she used the poison as a cleaning fluid. Physicians announced the poison was of a type which would serve as a cleaning fluid. Coroner Charles Mayfield said he was considering exhuming of the body of Orvilla, but that he was forced to await return of the little girl’s parents, who are out of town, before acting.

BANDITS SENTENCED Five Youths Given Terms by Judge Collins. Five of the Butter Crust Pie Company bandits were sentenced by Criminal Judge James A. Collins today, the sentences ranging from one to ten and from five to twentyone years at the Indiana State Reformatory. Robert Cline, 20; Charles Menges, 18, and John Schilling, 19, were each given one to ten years for the pie company holdup attempt. A similar sentence was given Cline and Menges for holding up W. D. Lesh, a Standard Oil filling station attendant. Both robberies occurred last December. The pie company watchman captured the bandits there after a gun battle. James Dicks, 21, and George Adams, 21, each received five to twenty-one-year sentences on both counts. All had entered guilty pleas.

CARNIVAL GAIETY, TRAGEDY, LOVE—ALL BLEND IN ‘NOBODY’S GIRL’

INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY, MARCH 12,1928

VETERAN CITY POSTAL CLERK HELDINTHEFT Accused of Taking $8,500 From Money Orders He Handled. 38 YEARS IN SERVICE Shortage Covers Period of 10 Years; Small Amounts at Time Obtained. George T. Cortleyou. 59, employed at the Indianapolis postofflce for the last thirty-eight years and assistant money order cashier since 1923, is in Marion County Jail today awaiting trial on charge of stealing $8,500 from postal money orders which passed through his hands. He was held to the Federal grand jury under $5,000 bond by United States Commissioner John W. Kern when arraigned after an alleged confession of the theft had been made to Postal Inspectors A. C. Garrigus and W. C. Ela. The $8,500 shortage was found in a check-up of Cortleyou’s books and is said to have covered a tenyear period: An ingenious me nod was used to secure the money, inspectors said. It was taken In small amounts from money orders sent in from "classified stations,” which are the sub-stations affiliated with the local postoffice. In taking the amounts he would announce that it was money to be recorded on the previous month and thus suspicion was allayed, they declared. - Popular among fellow employes, Cortelyou planned on taking his life when he learned Saturday that he was to be arrested, it was said. He secured a bottle of liquor, “to give him courage.” and entered a vault at the postofflce with the liquor and a gun. He came out, however, without firing a shot and made the alleged confession in the office of Postmaster Robert H. Bryson. As assistant cashier in the moneyorder department, Cortelyou drew a salary of $2,600 annually. He w r as not married and had no dependents Inspectors say that in the confession he stated that he used the money stolen to “buy booze.”

WINKLER PLEADS Disqualified Dry Deputy Confers With Commission. George L. Winkler, deputy dry administrator for Indiana, who recently received notice of failure to qualify for reappointment- under civil service, today was in Washington, D. C., conferring with the civil service commission. Winkler filed a request for reconsideration of his case a week ago, asking to appear personally before the commission. Since Winkler's disqualification was announced, dozens of influential Indiana citizens have written letters to the commission asking that he be given favorable reconsideration. Several Indiana dry agents also disqualified under civil service are understood to be planning to ask reconsideration. GREET “RAJAH’S FIANCEE U. S. Girl Arrives at Sacred City for Hindu Convention. Pi! United Press BOMBAY, India, March 12.—Miss Nancy Miller, the American girl who soon will marry the former Maharajah of Indore, was expected to arrive at the sacred city of Nasik today for the ceremony marking her conversion to the Hindu faith. The ceremonies will be Tuesday. Difficulties arose as the hour of the conversion ceremony approached. Orthodox Hindu Brahmins contend that no one can be a Hindu “unless born a Hindu.” Varioys sentiments are observed among the various classes of the Hindus. Nominate lowan Judge Bjt United Press WASHINGTON, March 12.—The nomination of Representative William Green of lowa to the judge of the Court of Claims. New York, was ordered favorably reported today by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

hands, her robes a sodden mass of cheesecloth and sateen strips. 4 An expensively dressed New Yorker crawled through the wreckage toward her. “I know you,” he shouted, “you are Sally, the little orphan girl!” “No, no,” the Princess screamed, “I didn’t, murder him, it was—.” But then you can read the entire story in “Nobody’s Girl,” starting Thursday in The Indianapolis Times. Read how Sally, the orphan girl, pitted her slight strength against the world. You will be thrilled when David, her sweetheart, says “I love you,” just like millions have said it before in hundreds of languages.

Special Judge

W ! ‘ ' ISSF JT jM

Paul G. Davis, Indianapolis attorney, who was chosen today as special judge In the bribery case of Councilman Boyton J. Moore.

BRIBERY TRIAL JUDGENAMED Paul Davis Agrees to Hear Councilman Moore Case. Paul G. Davis, attorney, 1117 Fletcher Savings and Trust Bldg., was chosen special judge today for the bribery trial of City Councilman Boynton J. Moore, starting Thursday. Davis accepted. With the acceptance of Davis, Prosecutor William H. Remy and Special Assistant Emsley W. Johnson see the removal of the last barrier to the start of the trials of the four councilmen and one realty dealer now under indictment. Harry Yockey accepted Saturday to serve as special Judge in the trial of Councilman Walter R. Dorsett, starting March 22. Davis was selected from the fourth list of three eligible judges submitted by Criminal Judge James A. Collins. The indictment on which Moore will be tried this week is one of five pending against him. All charge bribery.' The one to be tried charges specifically that he solicited and accepted SIOO from the then City Controller John (Jollins, in connection with the attempted city council Impeachment session of John L. Duvall, who resigned as mayor. INTRODUCE _ REUEF~BILL Measure Calls for $75,000,000 for Strike Regions. By United Press WASHINGTON, March 12.—An appropriation of $75,000,000 for relief of children of unemployed in the coal strike regions and in agricultural sections was provided In bills Introduced in the House and Senate today. Hourly Temperatures 6a. m.... 42 10 a. m.... 56 7a. m.... 43 14 a. m.... 60 8 a. m.... 47 12 (noon). 64 9 a. m.... 54 1p.m.... 66

Tourney on Air With the "standing room only” sign hanging by the door of the new Butler field house for the State basketball tournament the Indianapolis Times has arranged to bring the tournament right into your home. With the aid of Blythe and Tommy Hendricks, premier radio announcers of sports. The Times will broadcast every play of the tournament over WFBM, Indianapolis Power and Light Company station. From the time the first whistle is blown until the final gun booms. The Times and WFBM will give Indiana basketball fans a minute play-by-play description of each game just as they have for the past four years. Tune In Friday morning on WFBM, Indianapolis Times and Indianapolis Power and Light Company station.

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postofflce, Indianapolis

MELLON RESIGNATION IS DEMANDED AS G.O.P. IS LINKED WITH OIL SCANDAL

Frantic Attempt Made to Pay Back Petroleum King Revealed. THREE TO BE QUIZZED Chairman Butler Also to Face Questioning on Strange Silence. BY PAUL R. MALLON United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON. March 12.—The story of Harry Sinclair’s Republican campaign contribution was told in detail to the United Press today by a responsible authority. The revelation came just as the Teapot Dome committee prepared to summon for tomorrow Chairman William M. Butler of the Republican national committee; former Chairman Will H. Hays, and Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, to find out what more they may know about the matter. In 1923. according to this first connected account of the Sinclair contribution. Butler called on Hays to help raise money for the campaign deficit of $600,000 or $700,000. which Hays had incurred in electing President Harding in 1920. Hays Goes to Sinclair Hays was unable to obtain all the money from the usual sources and went to Harry Sinclair, the recently Indicted oil magnate. From Sinclair he obtained $260,000 in Liberty bonds, as he has testified. Then came the Senate committee’s expose about Sinclair’s “loan” of $233,000 to former Secretary of Interior Fall, from whom he obtained a lease on the Teapot Dome naval oil reserves. Hays did not know about the Fall affair when he dunned Sinclair for a contribution, according to this Republican informant. When he did find out about it, he made every effort to raise $260,000 to pay Sinclair. He did raise SIOO,OOO, It was said, but was unable to pay back the $160,000, because none of the wealthy Republicans wanted to pay for an old campaign with the new 1924 campaign coming on. Asks Wealthy Men to Aid Hays then went to several wealthy men of the party and attempted to get them to take over the remaining bonds from Sinclair. He is said to have seen Mellon, Butler, former Secretary of War John W. Weeks, the late John T. Pratt of New York, Senator T. Coleman Dupont of Delaware and others. Mellon has announced he refused to accept $50,000 which he says Hays wanted him to take. Pratt took $50,000. Dupont handled $75,000 and Weeks absorbed $25,000. Butler's action in the matter is not known. Some of the men are said to have taken the bonds at first and then, when the Teapot Dome investigation later began making exposures, they refused to handle the bonds and turned them back.

New Oil Fund Found Bey United Press NEW YORK. March 12.—1n a copyrighted story in the New York Evening World today, Basil Manly says that a mysterious new fund of more than four million dollars, managed by H. S. Osier, Canadian president of the Continental Trading Company, has been discovered here. Manly says that the fund was ac. cumulated and distributed between July, 1921, and December, 1922, at the time the naval oil leases were being made in Wyoming and California. Although Manly does not link the fund directly with the Teapot Dome scandal, he says that "there is evidence Indicating a direct connection with the oil deals.” The fund is said to have been deposited through a brokerage house In the Dominion Bank of Canada and converted into 3’i per cent Liberty bonds. 1,127,497 Russian Communists Bp United Press MOSCOW, March 12.—Membership in the Russian communist party on Oct. 1, 1927, totaled 1,127,497, Including 629,690 workers, it was officially announced.

The lights of the sleeping carnival winked in the distance as the two looked up at the warm round moon; they reclined under a friendly tree in Wordless awe too thrilled to speak. But it’s not all love and gay carnival life. There is bloodshed and there are fights. Sally and David battle against heavy odds for *life and happiness. And through it all there runs a note of mystery and love that will hold your interest and attention to the last word. An unexpected event turns the entire trend of the tale before you are through. You’ll want to read it all. Start “Nobody’s Girl," by Anne Austin, Thursday in The Times.

Hit by Expose

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Andrew Mellon

Will Hays

•FOX’ TO START TERM Hickman Will Be Taken to San Quentin Tuesday. By United Press LOS ANGELES, March 12.—The doors of San Quentin penitentiary will close behind William Edward Hickman Tuesday. Hickman, under sentence to hang April 27 for the murder of 12-year-old Marion Parker, will be sentenced to life imprisonment, before entering the penitentiary, for the murder of Ivy Toms, druggist. Welby Hunt, his former pal, was convicted with Hickman Saturday for the murder. Life Imprisonment was recommended for the pair, but Hunt will not be sentenced until his motion for anew trial and appeal are heard. NORRIS BILL IN SENATE Twenty Amendments Offered for Muscle Shoals Measure. By United Press WASHINGTON. March 12. Twenty amendments to the Norris Muscle Shoals resolution were urged upon the Senate today as debate started under a rule limiting each speaker to fifteen rflinutes. Senator Harrison (Dem.), Mississippi* asked adoption of his amendment providing for equitable distribution of surplus power from the Tennessee River project to cities within transmitting distance.

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Secretary Admits He Knew of Sinclair Donation to Campaign. ASSAILED BY NORRIS Contribution Is ‘Price of Republican Treachery,’ Says Robinson. By United Press WASHINGTON. March 13.—A demand for resignation of Secretary of Treasury Mellon and a Democratic denunciation of the Sinclair contribution to the Republican party as the price of “Republican treachery to the nation,” came in the Senate today as a result of recent Teapot Dome disclosures. The swift series of developments Included; 1. A statement by Senator Norris, Republican, Nebraska, that President Coolidge should have asked for Mellon's resignation as soon as he learned of Mellon's Saturday night admission of knowledge of the Harry Sinclair contribution. 2. A speech to the Senate by Senator Robinson. Democratic floor leader, declaring the Sinclair campaign gift of $160,000 could not be atoned for by restoring the money to Sinclair, because the contribution represented the price of Republican treachery to the nation.” Summoned as Witness 8. Formal summoning of Mellon Will H. Hays, former chairman oj the Republican national committee and William Butler, present chairman, to appear before the Teapo* Dome committee tomorrow to testify as to their participation in the contribution affair. 4. Announcement by Senatot Borah of Idaho that he is progressing with his movement to have Republicans make up a fund to repay the Sinclair contribution. Ona wealthy Republican who could pay the whole amount has communicated with him, Borah said. Robinson’s speech went unanswered in the Senate.

Trust Betrayal Charged Robmson recounted what he 1 called “the betrayal of public trust by two cabinet officers, Secretary Fall and Attorney General Daugherty; and gross incompetence and asinin# stupdity of Secretary of Navy Denby.” He recalled also that Col. Robert - W. Stewart, of the Standard OiJ Company of Indiana, had refused to testify fully before the Senate investigating committee. “What can be said of the standard of business integrity exemplified in the re-election of Stewart as chairman of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana and of Sinclair aS a director of the American Petroleum Institute?” he asked. "The latest chapter in the story so humiliating to the country is that Sinclair’s efforts to corrupt wera not confined to Cabinet officers and captains of industry, but extended also to the national political organization of the Republican party. Hays Is Arraigned W’ill H. Hays, chairman of the j Republican national committee in ' 1920, and in that capacity responsible for a large deflet in the party funds in an orgy of spending, scarcely exampled in the history of party partisan Institutions, received $160,000 from Sinclair. “Hays secretly received $85,000 in Liberty bonds from that chief beneficiary in the fraudulent transactions by which the naval oil reserves were bartered away and proceeded by methods common to crooks with efforts to exchange the bonds with prominent Republicans for cash. “Such records as were kept warrant the conviction that the whole transaction was corrupt.” Mellon over the week-end had admitted that Hays, on behalf of the Republican national committee, had sent him $50,000 of Sinclair bonds to convert into cash, but said he had returned the bonds, later making a $50,000 cash contribution to aid in clearing the Republican campaign deficit. ~ Duty to Speak “It was Mellon’s public duty to speak out.” Norris said. “He must have known that the naval reserves had been leased to Harry Sinclair and that criminal conspiracy cases had been instigated against the oil man. I can not see how he could, in duty bound, remain silent while all these developments were occurring.” Norris also said he believed Mr. Coolidge should have acted as soon as he learned Mellon knew of the Sinclair contribution. Senator Walsh, of Montana, said he had no intention of introducing a resolution demanding Mellon’s resignation. “I will content myself with developing the facts,” Walsh said. Walsh had communicated with Hays and Butler, and both have said they would be present tomorrow morning for examination.