Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 235, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 February 1929 — Page 1

E SCMPPS- HOWARD^

GRIM DRAMA TRAILS GANG FIRING SQUAD \ Pen of a Maurine Watkins Needed to Relate Ironical Beer Massacre Sequels. ‘POLACK JOE’ GOES FREE And Aldermen Welcome Back City Dad Convicted as Booze Baron. BY EARL J. JOHNSON. United Press Staff Correspondent CHICAGO. Feb. 19.—Chicago today was staging one of the most intense of its ironical dramas, common here since the profits of beer touched off the bloodiest gang war in the history of any American city. New material for a Maurine Wat- , bins or a Bartlett Cormaek, authors of plays dealing with the law’s failure to cope with the Ch icago underworld. was being produced with amazing rapidity. Probably the most ironical of the developments was the police department’s search within its own ranks for the firing squad which mowed down seven members of the “Bug” Moran beer running gang with machine guns last week against the brisk wail of a north side garage. Failing to find the mass murderers in any of the thousands of jspeak-easies and beer flats which have been closed since the massacre. William Russell, police commissioner. called for all detectives and their squad cars to question the former and examine the latter on the theory that policemen themselves may have taken part in the crime. The Case of Joe Saltes

One report of the massacre said two of the killers were in police uniform and that they, rode in a detective bureau squad car equipped with a gong. Russell ajso sent to Florida for John Stege, his deputy commissioner in charge of detectives, who was vacationing not far from the Palm island estate of Scarface A1 Capone, when the gang massacre occurred here. He ordered Stege to take the first train back to Chicago to assume charge of the gang inquiry/ The scene shifts now’ to the Eridew’ell where “Polack Joe” Saltis, cock of the south side beer walk and to whom some of the city’s most brutal gang murders are attributed, is just completing a sixty-day sentence for carrying a concealed weapon. At 7:30 a. m. two squad cars drove up in front of the prison. Joe, occupying a front cell in an upper story window, spies the car. He throws open the window and calß out: ‘ Hey, you! What the hell do you want me for now?” “We don't want you. Joe. We re here to protect you.” calls back the driver of the first car. Welcome Home, Alderman A few minutes later “Polack Joe” walks out the door, blinking jovially at the booming of photographers’ flashlights. He is met by two of his henchmen, surrounded by policemen and escorted to his home. “Me for Florida.” Joe tells the newspaper men who push their way through the ring of blue coats. “The beer business ain't worth while anymore. I'm going down south and get some sunshine.” Thus, the man known as the most dangerous character in the beer war, has paid his penalty for the only charge the law ever has pressed against him successfully and he goes on his'way smiling broadly. The next scene is the chamber of the city council. The aldermen are meeting to consider a suggestion by John A. Swanson, state’s attorney, that they offer a reward of $25,000 for the capture of the latest gang killers. Several of the aldermen walk over and shake hands with a dark-eyed, carefully dressed aiderman sitting in a. center row. Welcome back,” says one. “Glad to see you,” says another.

The dark-eyed alderman is Titus Haffa, froh the Forty-third ward. Ke was convicted in federal court recently as the head of a $5,000,000 liquor ring, sentenced to two years in Leavenworth and fined SII,OOO. And More Machine Guns He has decided not to resign from the council and npt to have his name taken off the ballot for reelection until the appeals court has decided whether his conviction was valid. His brother aldermen turn down the state's attorney's request for fluids out take no action to unseat Haffa. While those scene* are passing across the Chicago stage, an undermanned police force spares two squads and sends them to the west side to hupt for two men in a blue sedan who pointed a machine gun at a triffic policeman. The excitement attending the gang massacre seems not to have discouraged the class of citizens who roam the city streets armed with machine guns. Returns for Dinner Pail; Killed B-! VnHal Prug ASHLAND, Pa.. Feb. 19.—John Susckoie. 30. of Mt. Carmel is dead because he returned to a mine where he was working to recover a forgotten dinner pail. A fall of coal fractured his head.

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The Indianapolis Times Mostly cloudy tonight and Wednesday, probably some snow; colder tonight, lowest temperature 0 to 5; warmer Wednesday night.

VOLUME 40—NUMBER 235

l lron Man of South', Fights to Stay on Air

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W. K. Henderson

‘BRACE AND BIT’ SUSPECT HELD Believed Responsible for Score of Robberies. The “brace and bit burglar,” W’ho is blamed for more than a scorfe of grocery and drug store burglaries in the last month, was trapped early today, police believe Finding six holes in a rear door of a Piggly Wiggly grocery at 1533 North Illinois street at 3 a. m., a police squad in command of Sergeant Frank Reilly followed departing footprints in the snow to a shed in the rear of the store. In the shed they found the alleged burglar, who gave his name as William E. Sorrell, 24, of 1424 East Thirteenth street. The alleged burglar’s wife, Mrs. Laura Sorrell, admitted her husband had been out of work for three months, and said he had been seeking employment every night in an all-night restaurant. In the looted store police found the burglar’s unique tools, a brace and bit and a hammer, #which he had deserted in his apparent haste. Several special police squads have patroled the north side for a week in search of the marauder. Sorrell was booked on a vagranay charge and his bond set at $5,000. Charges of burglary will be filed against him later, detectives said.

‘POLITICS PLOT’ CHARGE IN SHUMAKER CASE DENIED

Deni? I was made today by E. A. Miles, Indiana Anti-Saloon League 'attorney, that he sajd “a man high in politics in Indianapolis was behind the movement to send Dr. E. S. Shumaker, league superintendent, to the penal farm.” * The statement, alleged to have been made by Miles before the South Bend-Mishawaka Ministerial Association Monday, was carried in dispatches from South Bend. ‘1 made no mention, either publiely or privately, of such a matter,” Miles said when he returned here today. “I only told them that a reformed bootlegger, who sometimes visits the league office, and who knows a good deal v/hat the bootleggers are doing, tcid me the wets wanted to see Dr. Shumaker go to the state penal farm. “This reformed bootlegger did tell me that a certain official was anxious to see Dr. Shumaker go to the farm, but I did not say so "at South Bend.” The attorney refuged to divulge the official's name.

ROBBED OF GRAVE EARNED IN LIFETIME BY WRONG DEAD MAN

BY RAY TUCKER Times SUB Correspondent WASHINGTON, Feb. 19. John Connelly. 75 years old. recently was robbed of the six feet of earth he had saved fsr at the rate of 25 cents a week for fifty years, and the old man. friendless and fundless, has asked for help in a letter written from the almshouse ward Of’tlte Brooklyn state hospital. He wants congress to help him in getting back the grave in which the body of another lies.'Ns well

‘Oil Barons’ Seek to Grab Wave Length; Takes Battle to Capital. BY JOSEPH H. BAIRD, United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.—“ The iron man of the south” will appear before the federal radio commission Wednesday to defend his radio station against the “oil barons.” The man is W. K. Henderson of Kenwood, La., whose wit and fire have gone through the ether to a million radio sets during the last few years from his station, KWKH. Armed with what he forecasts as “a baggage car full of letters and telegrams” from station fans, Henderspn will fiht the petition of Station KVOO, controlled by the Skelly Oil Company of Tulsa, Okla., for his wavelength, 850 kilocycles. Blasts Commission Radio listeners in Washington today told story after story to illustrate Henderson's colorful personality and programs. These fans say: He often begins his programs with the salutation of “Hello, world. This is station KWKH. How about a. drink?” Though dependent on the federal radio commission’s favor for his station’s life, he often berates it severely over the ether. When he appeared before the commission in October. 1927, to ask an increase in power, he brought a box of fan telegrams six feet high. It required three or four muscular men to bring it into the committee room. Used “Canned" Music Back in the days before the radio commission required stations to announce the fact when they broadcast “canned music,” or phonograph records, Henderson used to stri, e up to the microphone and say: “Paderewski will now play for us” (or perhaps it was “Caruso will sing”) and then play a phonograph record of the artist. This performance brought the radio commission many fan letters praising the station for its excellent programs. An interesting political angle of the fight for frequencies between Henderson, millionaire iron foundry man, and the Tulsa Oil Company was pointed out here today. Fans Take Part The head of the Skelly Oil Company is Republican national committeeman from Oklahoma, while Mrs. J. N. Grimmill, wife of Henderson’s chief counsel, is national committeewoman from Louisiana. The impending fight between Henderson and the Tulsa station is prompting thousands of fans to write to the federal radio commission, some expressing heated disapproval and others glowing praise of the Louisiana broadcaster.

RAPS BORAH'S STATE Wet as New York, Declares Senator in Rum Debate. By United Pr t css WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.—Prohibition conditions in Idaho, the home state of the dry champion, Senator Borah, are worse than in wet New York, Senator Bruce, the Democratic wet of Maryland sought to show the senate today, resuming the three-day forum dispute over merits of the dry’ act.

Miles also denied announcing plans for a banquet in honor of Shumaker April 5, the day after he is released from the penal farm, where he is serving a sixty-day sentence for contempt Os the Indiana supreme court. “League leaders have been considering having a banquet in honor of Dr. Shumaker for the last three years. He is the oldest league state superintendent in the country, having served twenty-two years. VETERAN LAWYER DIES Walter R. Fertig oi Noblesville Had Practiced Fifty Years. By Times Special NOBLESVILLE. Ind.. Feb. 19. Walter R. Fertig. 75. oldest member of the Hamilton county bar. died at his home here today of influenza. He has been a practicing attorney here for fifty years and was widely known among lawyers of central Indiana.

as the SBOO that was spent in providing another John Connelly with decent burial. The living John Connelly faces and fears a burial in Potter’s field, after a life of hard work and scraping. His misfortunes began when he was advised that he had earned thirty years’ retirement pay as a laborer in the Brooklyn navy yard. He quit work, but when he discovered that he was six months short of the required thirty years, and that premature retirement

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1929

STOP ARMORY BUILDING, TO BE PROBEREPORT Senate Committee Will Urge Ban on Present Plan of Construction. •PREVENT BANKRUPTCY’ Delayed Survey Will Be v Presented This Week or Early Next. “Stop building armories under the closed corporation plan or you vail bankrupt the state.” Tersely put, such probably will be the recommendations made by the senate armory probe committee when it reports to the senate late this week or early next week. It was learned today by The Indianapolis Times that the investigators’ report not only will, give statistics regarding construction of armories under auspices of the state armory board during the last four years, but will contain very specific advice.

Urge Rentals Be Paid This will be that the “closed corporation” plan of armory construction be halted forthwith and that no more buildings be erected under the system that prevailed throughout the Jackson regime. To keep those buildings already built and protect bondholders who have purchased securities as tax exempt and bearing 4% per cent interest, the committee will recommend‘that sufficient appropriation t* made of the adjutant-general to pay the lease rentals. Under the "closed corporation” plan these lease rentals pay rent and interest on bonds as well as canceling the principal over a fifteen-year period and making the armories finally the property of the state. Report Delayed The buildings now are owned by holding companies, called trustees, built by the Ostrom Realty and Construction Company and financed through the Peoples State Bank, parent institution of the contractors. Under the investigation resolution the report was due in the senate Monday, but more time was granted upon request of Senator Alonzo H. Lindley, chairman of the committee. He is having additional data on various armories gathered by the state board of accounts and also seeks more information from Adjutant - General William H. Kershner, he said.* President Felix M. McWhirter of The Peoples State Bank and President Henry Ostrom of the construction company have appeared before the investigators and upheld" their construction and financing methods. Free Competition Provided Lindley already has introduced a bill which would prevent such a system ever again prevailing in any governmental department, since it calls for free and open competition on public work done by holding companies, with all affairs under direct supervision of the state board of accounts. The bill was favorably reported out of committee today and advanced to second reading. Should the senate accept the committee recommendations to halt armory building under the present plan, the Lindley bill will not be necessary to bring the matter to a close for no appropriations would be made to further construction.

SINCLAIR PLEA FOUGHT Government Opposes Appeal From Contempt Sentence. Bit United Press WASHINGTON. Feb. 19.--The government opposed in supreme court today Harry F. Sinclair’s appeal from a three-months’ jail sentence for contempt of the senate, arguing that the senate by at least four resolutions had authorized the Teapot Dome committee to investigate the entire oil reserve situation/ HOOVER IS IN CAPITAL Back in Washngton to Make Plans for Inauguration. By United Press > WASHINGTON. Feb. 19.—Resi-dent-Elect Herbert Hoover arrived in Washington at 1:17 p. m. today from his Florida fishing vacation prepared to devote the two weeks before his inaugural on March 4 to rounding out his cabinet, revising his inaugural address and cleaning up routine details.

had deprived him of any pension, he fell sick and was taken to the hospital. He refuses to move out when the time came for discharge. He had no place to go, he told the hospital authorities. a a a THE old man's letter to represaatative Emanuel Ciller tells the rest of the story, and how he hopes congress will make up for life's ironic treatment by granting him his retirement y*y:

Alchemy With Posies BELIEVE it or not, below is the picture of a laboratory, showing an experiment being conducted. In place of the test tubes, acids, gasses and what not so frequently associated with the word laboratory, this work shop is filled with beautiful flowers, which are the object of experiment. Dr. W. P. Morgan, professor of zoology at Indiana Central college, is shown making the experiments with the freisias he has developed so well he won the grand prize at the national flower show. The small girl, her arms filled with freisia blossoms, is Betty Ann Morgan, Dr. Morgan’s 7-year-old daughter. Dr. Morgan develops his flowers in a greenhouse near the college campus owned by Elder Brothers, wholesale florists.’

CAREFUL PLAN!' .t ~ j Seven Others Refi | Remain in Cells ii 1 1 i im . I Four Carmel Higfi School J

TWO MAY DIE IN CAR CRASH Four Carmel Hiot School Boys Are Injured. When their automobile skidded and crashed into a parked'trufck on State Road 31 this morning, four Carmel high school boys were injured, two of them perhaps fatally, and one man and one youth were hurt seriously. The youths were en route to attend a legislature session in Indianapolis as part of their school history course. Those who may die, are: Paul Ely, 18, who suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries, and Merritt Murphy, 16. whose chest was crushed. Both live on farms near Carmel. The others injured are Wililam Hendricks, 15, serious head injuries, and Howard Middleton, 16, shock and severe cuts and bruises. Elmer Haas, 31, pf New Albany, operator of the truck, received a fractured left leg and a severe injury to his left side. He was taken home. •Clifford Hinshaw, 17. driver, was hurled clear of the wreckage and was not hurt. Haas, en route to Indianapolis, had parked his truck half way off the road and just had finished clearing his windshield of snow’ when the skidding car crashed into the truck, pinning him between the two machines for a moment and then hurling him atop the truck radiator.

COLO TO CONTINUE Further Drop in Mercury Is Predicted. The cold wave from/the northwest brought from an inch to nearly two inches of snow and a low temperature of 13 above zero to Indianapolis this morning. The snowfall which began about 8 p. m. Tuesday varied over the city, according to J. H. Armington, United States weather bureau head. A total of 1.9 inches fell in the eastern section, but only .9 inch was recorded downtown. A further mercury drop tonight was predicted by Armington. A low temperature of from zero to 5 above will be reached, he said. There also probably will be some more snow, he said, and the first relief from the cold wave likely will come Wednesday night with a slowly rising temperatur* All the north central portion of the country’ had below zero temperatures this morning. Armington said. The coldest point was Bisir.ark, N. D., where 42 degrees below iero was recorded.

“I was transferred to Kings county and they put me in the Broooklyn state hspital. There was another John Connelly upstairs who died; they notified my family that it was me. they took him and buried him with my insurance that I paid for fifty years. “He is in the grave that was to be mine. “I located a nephew who I hadn't seen in twenty-five years, and he got busy on the case and found the other John Connelly's sons, but they refuse to remove

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis

MARRIAGE WITH BATHING BEAUTY LEADS TO GRIEF, ALL OVER PAIR OF SHOES

Taxi Driver and Bride Parted After Month Get Divorce. Shoes shooed Cecil Eddleman and his wife, Maty,. out of their home less than a month after their marriage, according to testimony Eddleman gave today in superior court four in the divorce suit against his wife. , According to Eddleman, a taxi driver, his wife had taken part in amateur bathing beauty activities at municipal bathing beaches. It happened that they were married during the busiest part of the bathing season, to wit: July 21, 1927. One evening Mrs. Eddleman appeared at home with a pair of shoes her husband didn't recall buying for her. “Where did you get those shoes?” he testified he asked her. “You didn’t pay for them and it’s none of your business.” Eddle.man told the court she replied. So they separated Aug. 10, 1927, and today he w r as awarded the divorce. Eddleman also charged that she “continually ran out nights, attending public dances in-company of strange men.” Court records gave her address as 531 East Pratt street and his as 40 Jackson place.

ENVELOPED BY FLAMES, WOMAN SAVES OWN LIFE

Fighting flames which enveloped her clothing and severely burned her hands, arms and neck. Mrs. Della Carpenter. 34. of 1310 Villa avenue, saved her life this morning by wrapping herself in a table cloth. The fire started when a basin of naptha which she was using to clean a sweater of her daughter’s, Miss Catherine Carpenter, 18, was

the body or to put a small amount of money in trust for my burial. mam "TN the name of God. please try J. to give me what I worked thirty-one '.'ears for. Let me end my few days in a little happiness. ...” Besides seeking to obtain retirement pay, Representative Ceiler has taken up the question of mistaken identity of the body and issue of policy payments with the insurance company.

PAT M’DERMOTT, KEY MAN IN MELLETT MURDER CASE, ESCAPES FROM OHIO PRISON % Five Convicts Saw Bars, Walk Across Roof, Slide Down Rope and Make . Getaway in Darkness. - CAREFUL PLANNING IS INDICATED Seven Others Refuse to Take Chance, Remain in Cells After Their Companions Gain Liberty. Bu L nitvd Prestt . , COLUMBUS, 0., Feb. 19.—Working with cloek-like precision and apparently by pre-arrangement, five convicts—among them three killers—broke out of t h e state penitentiary here at dawn today. The five sawed their way from their cells, then tied through a ventilating corridor, the door of which had been left unlocked for them. From the corridor, they climbed to the prison roof and Slid to the ground on a rope improvised from an old mat-

Mustn't Touch Cei United Press DES MOINES. la., Feb. 19. —Every male between the ages of 14 and 30 will be asked to take a dry pledge in questionnaires to be distributed by tpe W. C. T. U. through churches, high schools and colleges, Mrs. Ida B. Wise Smith, vice-presi-dent of the national dry organization, said here.

ESCAPES KIDNAPER Fifth Attempt at Seizing Girls Fails. The fifth attempt to kidnap school girls within the past two weeks was reported to police. Mary Rebecca Gordon, 7, daughter of Mrs. Gilby Gordon, 1036 West Twenty-eighth street, a pupil at School 41, Thirtieth artd Rader was today’s intended victim. The child was walking home from school for lunch, police were told when the man approached her, seized her arm and said, “Come with me little girl. I w’on’t luyjt you.” The girl • jerked away and ran home.

ignited by friction. The daughter was asleep in an adjoining room. After smothering the flames, Mrs. Carpenter awoke her daughter. They ran to a neighbor’s and called the fire department. The house blaze was extinguished with an estimated damage of SI,BOO. Mrs. Carpenter was given emergency treatment and left at home. Her condition is not dangerous. BURNS FATAL TO CHILD Girl Succumbs After -Three Days of Suffering. Ethel Viola Armstrong. 7. of 30 North Oxford street, died this morning at city hospital of bums received at her home Saturday, •when her coat caught fire when it brushed against a stove as she was removing it. i „ Hourly Temperatures • 6 a. m 14 10 a. m 13 7 a. m 13 ll a. m 13 8 a. m 13 12 (noon).. 13 Ba. m..... 13 Ip. m 11

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fress. Among them was Pat McDermott, the red-headed trigger man who helped ambush and assassinate Don R. Mellet, crusading editor of the Canton Daily News, two and a half years ago. The others escaping were: William W. Young, 36. Marietta, serving life for his part in the minder of Policeman William W. Boyd; committed June 23, 1925. James A. Walton. 28, Cuyahoga Falls, serving ten to twenty-five years for robbery; committed Dec. 23. 1927. Mike Jacko, 19, Cleveland, serving life for first degree murder; committeed Sept. 27, 1927. Joe Russo. 23. Cleveland, serving ten to twenty-five years for robbery; committed Oct. 12, 1926. Seven other prisoners in the same cells with the men refused to leave, but one of them admitted he played a jew’s harp while his fellow-prison-ers cut through the cell door bars with a hack saw’. Clerk Discovers Break The break was discovered by a prison clerk. Fifteen minutes later posses of prison guards and police, organized under direction of Warden P. E. Thomas, started a man hunt which many fear may end in death, McDermott—described, as one of the most insolent killers ever con* victed—never will be captured alive, in the opinion of prison officials. The delivery was brought about with inside help. Warden Thomas declared. He said an investigation revealed that two prison guards—,J. B. Isaacs and Charles Schibley—entrusted a convict plumber with the key to the door of the prison ventilator Monday. It was through this that the prisoners made their way to the penitentiary roof. The door hafi been unlocked for ,lhem. Two of the prisoners were confined on tier three. It was here that me convict with the jewsharp played soft lullabys while his companions sawed.

Saw Way Free From tier three, the two prisoners made their way to tier six, where McDermott and two companions were. The latter three already had sawed the cell doors and the five then made their way to the door of the ventilator. Making their way through the ventilator shaft, the convicts climbed to the roof, then walked across the roof to a point above Warden Thomas’ quarters. There one of them produced the rope, which had been fashioned from a cell mattress, suspended it from a jutting spike, and one by one they slid to the ground. It was dark. Three inches of snow coated the ground and snow was still falling, muffling any sounds the prisoners may have made. Thomas believed McDermott engineered the delivery. has conducted a tenacious battle for freedom, but the state board of clemency repeatedly has turned him down. Considered Dangerous He was considered one of the most i dangerous prisoners in the penitentiary. Two guards and the prison- : er plumber will be subjected to lni tensive questioning. Thomas said the guards would be dismissed. Thomas said the two guards had not ■ satisfactorily explained their whereabouts while the delivery' was under way. The prisoners supposedly were counted as usual at 6 a. m., but none was reported missing. McDermott was convicted In December, 1926, and was sentenced to life. Although he was known to be the “key man” in the Mellett assassination. he stood trial and received sentence without a word. The state had offered him leniency and friends and relatives implored him to confess. McDermott surrendered at his home in Nanty Glo, Pa., tltrough his brother. He was alleged tQ_ have been one of the gunmen hired by Ben Budner. son of a millionaire junk dealer and a powerful force in the Canton underworld, to slay Mellett, who was conducting an anti-vice crusade In the columns of his paper.