Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 82, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 August 1928 — Page 1

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TIMES SQUARE, BUSIEST SPOT . IN WORLD, GRIPPED BY PANIC AS 14 DIE IN SUBWAY WRECK * Train Carrying* More Than 2,000 New York Workers ‘Split Switch’ While Running at High Speed in 5 o’Clock Rush. 109 INJURED TAKEN TO HOSPITALS t : Terror Follows Crash in Darkened Tube When Light Wiring Burns Out; Two Hours Taken to Remove Lifeless Victims. BY MORRIS DEHAVEN TRACY United Press Staff Correspondent NEW YORK, Aug. 25. —In the last twenty years millions have ridden New York’s subways. Thousands have wondered at one time or another, what sort of tragedy it would be should one of the great steel trains, carrying more than 2,000 persons and running at breakneck speed, be wrecked. It never happened until Friday night. New York still is dazed and timid. A ten-car steel train, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company’s new Lots Ave. express, bound for Brooklyn and carrying 200 or more persons packed tightly into each car, was wrecked.

The wreck occurred in Times Square, reputed to be the busiest spot in the world, at 5:10 p. m.—the hour when New York’s skyscrapers pour into the streets and send scurrying to the subway entrances, thousands upon thousands of workers. Early today the best figures available from police and hospitals, recorded fourteen killed, four dying and 105 so badly injured that they required hospital treatment. A report, at least partly confirmed, says that the switch which stands just where the lights of the Times Square Station merge with the gloom of the tube to the south of it, had been reported working badly. An inspector was sent to look at . He tried running an empty ain over it. The train passed without trouble. A filled train was moved slowly across it. Again it worked well. It was decided the switch would function long enough to pass the rush hour traffic before repairs would be imperative. Train “Splits Switch’* So 5 p. m. passed and 5:10 p. m. approached. The downtown express roared into the station. Hundreds thronged around its doors, jostling each other, talking back at guards, pushing and shoving. The roar filled the station as the ten steel cars whirled along the tracks gathering speed; five, ten, fifteen miles an hour. The crowd composed of those who could not get on and the hundreds pouring into the station down every subway entrance, milled about awaiting the next train. The New Lots train was just a twinkle of white and red lights glowing out of the darkness of the underground tunnel, when it hit the switch which stands perhaps a block from the end of the platform. Seven cars passed over it in safety. Then came the eighth. It “split the switch.” A hundred feet farther on it crashed into one of the great, steel pillars which keep the street above from tumbling in upon the tunnels. 2,000 Persons in Terror It sheared off the pillar, tore loose from the forward seven cars, split itself in two, and while part of it hurled forward, tossing pas- . sengers against stanchions onto the Vrack, under the wheels of the cars, against the sides of the tunnel, and piling them up in masses on what was left of the car floor. Some 200 feet below the stanchion it finally stopped. Behind, the rear section telescoped into the front of car 9 and car 10 and pounded the telescope home from the rear. A piercing shriek went up. Men fought, but hardly could strike, so closely were they packed one against another. Women fainted, but they

BYRD’S SHIP TO SAIL TODAY ' FROM NEW YORK ON POLE TRIP

Ell United Press ' ' NEW YORK. Aug. 25.—An noon today Commander Richard E. Bryd’s Antarctic expedition begins formally when the 'City of New York, ice-breaker of 500 tons displacement, swings away from its Hoboken dock and starts down the bay toward the open sea, carrying thirty-one members of the expedition to the coldest and most dangerous land in the world. In the holds of the ship are 200 tons of supplies vital tc the expedition. Commander Byrd will stand be- ' side Capt. Frederick C. Mevlille until quarantine is reached. Then the will proceed under the comleutenant. with only a few Hperattng stops between it and its Hirst base. Dunedin. New Zealand, HI2OO miles from New York.

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The Indianapolis Times Mostly fair tonight and Sunday. Somewhat warmer Sunday.

VOLUME 40—NUMBER 82

could not fall, so firmly were they wedged in their places. There was a hiss and a curl of blue smoke as short-circuited wiring burned out. Men in the rear cars and those ahead began smashing windows, climbing through them, dragging others after them. The injured writhed and groaned in pain. Along the 200 feet of track between the broken stanchion and the spot where the tangle which had been a big, steel car finally stopped, there were injured men and women and here and there the body of one who lived no more. An arm, a leg—yes. even a severed head —was in that shamble. Fight Way to Safety And along it all the hundreds of, people who escaped uninjured but shaken with terror, walked, ran and fought their way back towards the Times Square station. Up on the station itself there had been heard a sudden crunching and crashing or twisting, breaking steel. Then came the curl of blue smoke and with it a terrifying shriek—the frightened shriek of 2,000 people. The crowd surged in the direct tion from which the terrifying sounds and smoke had come, after the manner of crowds. Then it turned and fought towards the exits. Squad after squad of police and company after company of firemen massed in Times Square and crowded through the throngs into the tubes beneath the ground. A dozen ambulances and then another dozen, wh*rled up. Rescue groups were at work in a twinkling. Five priests and police, worked through the panic-stricken crowd, quieting them, the priests stopping to minister here and there to those whom they feared might die. Ten Blocks Roped Off In a moment, it seemed, ten blocks around Times Square were roped off. On the sidewalk a first aid station was in operation. About 2,000,000 people live in thi Metropolitan area, which includes nearby New York and New Jersey Hardly a one of these is without a friend or relative who rides a sub way between 5 and 6 p. m. each day. When these friends or relatives were late in their home-comings telephones began to ring, and until 9 o’clock exchanges worked at a mad pace to keep up with the flood o ' calls. By the theater hour, which % 8:30, the closed area around Times Square, which is the heart of New York’s life after the sun goes down, was reopened. Two hours after the accident the last of the dead and injured had been removed. Then 250 men, with picks and bars and blow torches, went underground and began cutting away debris of what had been the eighth car of the ten-car train and the heavy steel stanchion which it had struck.

Conscious that their relatives aboar dthe ship are going on the greatest and most risky adventure of their lives, to the South Pole where twilight reigns . for six months and sudden winds cut through protective garbs bringing the sting of temperatures nearly 100 degrees below zero, fahrenheit, many sympathetic members of the crews’ families will sail down the bay in a second craft. Paul Siple, Erie (Pa.), member of the expedition, will be cheered by his parents and forty members of the Boy Scout troop- of which he was a member in Pennsylvania. The city of New York sails from a land of coming autumn .to a land of late spring. After forty to sixty days of Atlantic and Pacific voyaging the craft is expected to reach

Loot Radio Store; Get $1,514 Haul Radio thieves looted the Stewart Brothers radio shop, 654 Fairfield Ave., during the night and carted away radio sets and storeroom furnishings valued at $1,514.50, the proprietors reported to police today. The burglars enter. J by jimmying a front door.’ The loot consisted of one Fada radio set, $187; six Atwater Kent sets, $840; one wall tapestry, $7.50; one rug, S3O; one Oriental rug, $100; ten loud speakers. $350. The shop was opened recently and the loot was not insured, the owners said. In the rear of the store police found an abandoned radio set and two traveling bags, one of which bore a bill of sale for anew Chrysler automobile made out by E. O. Whitmer, Grand Rapids, Mich. Police believe the burglars stole the Chrysler in Detroit and used it to haul away the loot.

BUTLER LOSES EXTENSION OF CAR SERVICE Board of Works Rescinds Order for Forty-Seventh St. Line. Transportation facilities to the Butler University stadium and field house at Fairview today remained a problem to Butler and Indianapolis Street Railway officials following abandonment of the proposed Forty-Seventh St. street car extension. he board of works has rescinded action on the order for rerouting of the Illinois Fairview line north on Boulevard PI. and west on FortySeventh St. to the Butler campus. Residents fought the proposed extension on Boulevard PI. and FortySeventh, the Fairview Park Civic League members leading the fight. The board's order is attributed to Mayor L. Ert Slack, who has voiced objection to the Forty-Seventh St. route. The mayor viewed the district and objected to the board's plan to use Forty-Seventh St. * Keep Present Facilities Under present plans the Butler student body will have only present transportation facilities this winter to the university’s new Fairview site. The present Fairview line runs west on Forty-Second Stnorth to Fairview, looping on the west side oi the campus. A bus feeder is operated from ThirtyFourth and Illinois Sts. north on Kenwood to Thirty-Ninth, west to Capitol and north to Fifty-Second St Jftmes P. Tretton, general superintendent, and Michael E Foley attorney, represented the street railway and Arthur V. Brown and ilton U. Brown, trustees and. J. W Atherton, executive secretary, represented Butler University at a conference with the board Friday. Merle N. A. Walker, attorney represented property owners who remonstrated the present plan. Tretton declared the street railway company was willing to built the line or operate busses in accordance with the wishes of residents and the board’s order. Extension Cost $70,000 Tretton declared the present four-minute service on the Fairview line will serve the Butler student body for the present, but provides no transportation for the field house five blocks away. Tretton said service on the old Fairview line will be increased if needed. The proposed extension of the line was to cost about $90,000 and was the first extensive street car line extension considered for several years. Arthur V. Brown, Butler board president, said the college made no recommendations to the works board but expected the street railway to furnish transportation. Brown estimated 2,000 to 2.500 students will attend the Fairview university this winter, about 90 per cent depending on autos or street cars to reach the school. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 persons will attend some of the games in the new stadium, calling for adequate transportation.

the port of southern New Zealand where it will be rejoined by the second ship of the expedition, the Chelsea, which will carry the trimotcred Ford plane, the Fokker, and ,he specially constructed Fairchild plane, now being tested. Books, candies, cookies and other marks of esteem were being carried aboard the City of New York early today to cheer the crew on the long voyage South and West. Commander Byrd will not see the City of New York again until he reaches Dunedin. He, Bernt Balchen, Dean Smith. Harold I. June and the scientists who are to go on the antartic adventure will sail at a later date aboard the Chelsea. Byrd himself may not leave until later than that, from a‘ Pacific port, aboard the Larsen.

INDIANAPOLIS, SATURDAY, AUG. 25, 1928

SHERIFF RESIGNS ON DEMAND AS DEPUTY ATTACKS PROBERS OF MYSTERY DEATH IN FLAMES Circuit Judge Forces Steuben County Official to Quit —Aid Arrested After Rough. Treatment of Newspaper Men. BELIEVE VICTIM IS THOMAS BURKE One Theory Holds He Was Gerald Chapman Gangster—Girl, Absent While Zimmerman Was Away, Refuses to Talk. By Times Special ANGOLA, lnd., Aug. 25.—Developments in one of the most sensational death mysteries in Indiana’s history, started Wednesday when the charred body of a man was found in the ruins of a barn burned near Fremont, are: Resignation of Charles Zimmerman, Steuben County sheriff. Attacks on newspaper men investigating the case by a deputy of Zimmerman. Possibility that the fire victim, identified partially as Thomas Burke, may be a man known as Turk Brennan, member of the notorious Gerald Chapman bandit gang. Identifieation of a revolver found in the dead man’s car as the property of Zimmerman.

Zimmerman quit at the request of Judge C. C. Carlin of the Steuben-Lagrange Circuit Court. The judge announced tie acted to meet public opinion and to “protect the Republican party.” He is directing *a probe of the death, and also of Zimmerman’s unexplained absence from bis office from Tues* day until Thursday. Girl Aid Refuses to Talk Miss Nellie Cofeman, 24, clerk in the sheriff's office, who was missing at the same time as the sheriff, refuses to talk. She said when she left Tuesday she was going to Chicago to attend a wedding, but it has been learned she did not go to that city. Zimmerman supposedly was visiting his brother, Otto, at Portland, but he was not there, and, now declares he was at a cottage at Colon, Mich., a resort town, during his absence. Zimmerman and Miss Coleman returned here Thursday night on the same train. Russell Eckert, deputy sheriff, faces hearing today on an assault and battery charge as a result of attacks on newspaper men Friday. Charges were filed by Michael Fielding of the Chicago Journal. He was pushed out a door of the sheriff’s office and the door closed on one of his hands. A photographer for the same paper was also thrown out as was William H. Hackett, of the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel. Some authorities and newspaper investigators believe Burke really is Brennan, declaring it has been known that members of the Chapman gang had been in northern Indiana recently. It also pointed out that the slain man under the name of Bliss obtained automobile license plates at Muncie. which for a time was headquarters of the gang. Charges “Frame Pp" Zimmerman says “frame up” when confronted with the fact that his revolver was found in Bliss’ car, asserting the weapon must have been stolen from his office. The car was found in the sheriff’s garage Wednesday as was a traveling bag belonging to the dead man. Zimmerman himself was at first believed the fire death victim, friends declaring he had been active in enforcement of the prohibition law. In some quarters it is believed the slaying was the result of a rum runners’ feud, but among those believing Burke is Brennan, this is discredited, it being asserted Chapman gangsters would not "lower” themselves to dealing in liquor. New York Stock Opening —Aur. 25 Allied Chem 197% Am Can 107 ’,4 Am Car Fdry 92 Am Smeltlnß 239% Anaconda 72 Armour “A” 21% Beth Steel 61% Curtis 112% ChRO & Northwestern 84% Chrysler 98*/i Dodße 19'/a Gen Electric 158 Gen Motors 1944/ 194% Goodrich 81 % Goodyear 64% Hudson Motor 1 81% Hupp Motors 64% Kroaer 112% Kenn Cop 97% Marland 38 Missouri. Kans & Texas 40% N Y Central 170% N. Y. N. H. & H 59 Vi N C R 81 Pan Amer Pete B 42% Packard 83% Paiße 41% Radio 190% Rep Iron & Steel 64% Rock sland 123% St. Paul Pfd 51V, Sears-Roebuck 150% Sinclair 1 27% So Pac 124 SONY 36 % S O N J 45% Stew Warner 98% Un Carbide & Carbon 170% U S Rubber 34% U S Steel 151' Westinßhouse 101% Willys Over 22V, Warner Bros 88% Wrieht 172 Hourly Temperatures 7 a. m 56 9 a. m 65 Ba. m.... 58 10 a. m 67

‘SLEUTH’ JAILED IN LIQUOR PLOT Accuse Self-Styled Detective of ‘Framing* Motorist. Herman Hill. 40. who represented himself as a horse thief detective, faces blind tiger charges today as the result of an alleged attempt Friday night to “frame” Edward Wise, 31. of 911 E. Merrill St., on a bootleg charge. Hill failed to produce his horse thief detective credentials. He called police to New York and Adelaide Sts., and said that Wise, sitting in his automobile at the comer, had liquor In the car. Police found a package containing a bottle of liquor. Wise, according to Sergt. Le Roy Bartlett, declared the liquor was left in the machine by two women for whom he was waiting. By this time Hill had disappeared, according to Bartlett. Wise charged that Hill was a bootlegger. Two Indianapolis salvage corps members told w>lice that they had seen Hill talking to two women before police arrived. Police found Hill driving on the Pendleton Pike with one of the women Wise said had been in his car. Hill took them to his residence, in the 5400 block E. Thirty-First St., where they found three dozen bottles of beer, according to police. When slated on a blind tiger charge Hill gave his address as 2117 Tacoma Ave.

PUSH FLIERS' HUNT Three Nations Aid Search on Greenland Coast. By United Press COPENHAGEN, Aug. 24.—Three nations continued their search along the Greenland coast today for traces of the airplane Great Rockfofd, in wnich Bert Hassell and Parker D. Cramer started from Cochrane, Ontario, to Mt. Evans, Greenland. Belief was expressed that the aviators had landed some place in Greenland after reports reached here saying that citizens of Liechtenfels and Fiskenaesset had seen a plane passing ove rthe two towns Sunday morning. Advices here from the governor for Greenland and the sheriff of the ice cap island said that the plane circled over the two towns, the aviators were seen peering over the side of the cabin with binoculars, and that later the plane was seer, flying eastward. The two towns are well off the course for the flight from Cochrane to Greenland. New York Curb Opening —Aug. 25 — Am Gas .172 Am R Mill 90 Bancitalv 133% Cities Svc 65% Corn oil ; 16% Durant 12% Gulf Oil 125 Humble Oil 79 Vs Imp Oil 68 Int Pete 38 Vi Mormon 44% Ohio Oil 61% Prairie O <fc Gas 46% Prairie Pipe 184% Servel Inc 13% Stutz 16% Stand Oil Indiana 75% Stand Oil Kansas 22 Stand Oil Ky 127'/, United L&PA 24% Vacuum Oil 82V->

In the Air

CONDITIONS VI :30 A M 1 Compiled toi X'be limes b.v Government Weather Observer J H. Armington and Donald McConnell Government aeronautical noser"er > Ceiling unlimited: visibility 7 milts; barometer 30:21; wind, east, ll miles per hour.

Steve Will Carry Appeal to Coolidge in Freedom Fight

Called in Prison Probe

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Some "famous prisoners” will be witnesses when a special congressional committee begins testimony in Cleveland, Ohio, on charges of favoritism and laxity in Federal prisons. Representative John G. Cooper (3) of Youngstown. Ohio, is chairman of the committee. Others shown above, who are to be called as witnesses, are: (1) Dorothy Knapp, actress; (2) Earl Carroll, Broadway producers; 14) ex-Governor Warren T. McCray of Indiana, and (5) Gaston B. Means, witness in the Daugherty investigation who was released recently from Atlanta prison. Miss Knapp is said to have visited Carrol while he was confined there.

TWO CONFESS THEFT OF MANY CHICKENS

Pair Also Is Quizzed in Connection With Holdups of Filling Stations. Chicken thefts, resulting in loss of hundreds of dollars to Marion and Morgan County farmers, are said to have been confessed to police today by two men arrested Friday night by Deputy Sheriffs Charles Bell and Bale Brown. The men arrested and charged with robbery and grand larceny are William Basey, 30, of 6565 Pendleton Pike, and Walter Gastetter, 45, cf 3145 N. Illinois St. The stealing is said to have been done with Basey’s Auburn sedan used for transporting the birds. Grilled in oldups The detectives are questioning Basey regarding several filling station holdups in which they declare an open war. similar to one recently disposed of by the allegedly confessed chicken thief, was used. Both men are held under 6,000 bonds. Gastetter has a long record and has served time in stretches up U six months at the Indiana State Farm and county jail. He is known as “the man who will steal anything with feathers on,” having been, arrested at v> ious times for stealing chickens, pigeons and canary birds

V. F. W. COUNCIL CONVENES TO MAP CONVENTION POLICIES

The council of administration of the Veterans of Foreign Wars convened today at the Clay pool to outline national and convention policies of the V. F. W. in reparation for the opening of the twenty-ninth annual national encampment of the organization Monday. The council is the governing body of the V. F. W. between conventions and meets three times a year, once before the convention and twice at Kansas City, Kan., national headquarters of the organ*, zation. Frank T. Strayer. nationl commnder. presides over council. Political action at both the council meeting and sessions of delegates during the convention will be taboo, said Strayer. Only V. F. W. matters will be handled. The conventio nwill open offi-

Entered us Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis

He also steal potted plants and flowers, the police allege. Canary Birds Favorites Canary birds are his favorites, however, and when the deputies went to arrest him at his home they found a flock of them there. He told Brown and Bell that if they would be linient with him he would give them each a canary bird. Gastetter is said by police to be a soft spoken person, who walks with a swagger and dresses Immaculately, wearing many diamonds. His arrest grew out of a confession of Basey in which he told the deputies that Gastetter was his partner in a daylight chicken raid at the Gill farm, Sunshine Gardens, three miles south of the stockyards, last Tuesday. SHIP SINKSiJAVE 21 French Steamer Collides With Barque. Pji United Press DUNGENESS, England, Aug. 25. —The French steamer Daphne sank rapidly today after a collision with the German barque Passat. The twenty-one members of the crew of the Daphne were rescued.

cially with annual memorial services at 3 p. m. Sunday, in the National Guard Armory on N. Pennsylvania St. The session will be open to the public. The Indianapolis Community Orchstera will play a prelude and wall be followed by the massing of colors and "Hail to the Chief." Strayer will open the services. The Rev. Onen W. Fifer, superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church, will pronounce the invocation and the Rev. Claude G. Beardsluee. national chaplain, will direct the V. F. W. memorial ritual with the assistance of national officers of the Ladies auxiliary and V. F. W. The Rev. Mr. Beardslee will give the opening prayer, and the Rev. Father M. W. Lyons, of Our Lady

NOON

Outside Harloa County S Cents

TWO CENTS

Executive Order Will Be Asked for Parole of 90 Days. RENEWS PLOT CHARGE ‘Conspiracy Waiting at All Turns of Road/ Says Brief of Lawyer Moore. By United Press GARY, Aug. 25.—Plans for appealing to President Coolidge for an executive order paroling D. C. Stephenson from State prison for ninety days were announced here today by Robert Moore, one of the battery of attorneys seeking eventual freedom for the former grand dragon of Iloosier Klansmen. The appeal will ask Stephenson's parole for ninety days that he may perfect the appeal of his conviction in the Noblesville court, which brought him a life sentence for minder. It will be based on alleged violation of Stephenson's constitutional rights, Moore said, or a claim similar to that made in the haveas corpus petition filed in La Porte Circuit Court early this week and on which action was halted by a Supreme Court writ of prohibition. The plea will ask Stephenson’s parole “under the observance of United States marshals to secure his safety to the Government and his safety against conspirators,” according to Moore. In a statement today. Moore claims lawyers not of Stephenson's choice have filed hostile briefs in his case and that the former dragon's own lawyers never have seen transcript of the Noblesville trial. His attorneys are handicapped by “a conspiracy waiting at every tuj-n in the road,” he alleges. KILLED IN HOTEL FALL Chicago Salesman Drops Ten Stories to Death. B,y United Press PITTSBURGH. Aug. 25.—8. D. Thomson, 50, of Columbus, Ohio, a salesman for the Mason Fiber Lumber Company of Chicago, was killed early today when he fell from the tenth floor of the Roosevelt Hotel, according to a report from the Allegheny County morgue. DEMOCRAT IS NAMED Clay Britton Appointed to Post In Street Commissioner’s Office. Charles Grossart, street commissioner, today appointed Clay Britton, Democratic party worker, as clerk in the street commisisoner’s office. The salary is $1,500 a year. He replaced Henry Republican, who resigned. Heads Piano Department By United Press CRAWFORDSVLLE, lnd., Aug. 25.—Merl Maupin, Wabash College graduate and pianist, will leave here early in September for Hastings, Neb., where he has been chosen to head the piano departmeht ad Hastings College, Maupin has appeared with the Crawfordsville Music Club. He was engaged In Chautauqua work during the summer. Escapes as Train Hits Truck By United Press BLUFFTON, lnd., Aug. 25.—Morris Emrick, truck driver, escaped death when a westbound Cloverleal freight train struck his truck at a crossing north of here. The engine hit the truck, scooping the body from the chassis. Emrick stopped the chassis a few ieet from the scene of the crash.

of Lourdes Church, will give the memorial address in honor of veterans of all wars. The local Convention City post of the V. F. W. composed of J. C. Shortwell, Carlos Jones. R. W. Allred and Carl Wilson will sing a selection. The Rabbi Morris Feuerlicht of the Hebrew Congregation will give the address in honor of SapnishAmerican War veterans. The Rev. Homer C. Boblett of the Linwood Christian Church, will speak in honor of World War veterans. Mary Traub Burch of the orchestra will sing “Sleep, Soldier Boy.” The assembly will sing “America.” and Dr. J. Ambrose Dunkel. D. D., of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, will pronounce the benediction. Taps by the National Musicians will close the services.