Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 5, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 May 1929 — Page 1

ESCRIPPS- HOWARD {

GRAFZEP, IN DESPERATE PERU IN STORM, BEING DRIVEN OUT OVER M

Commander Eckener Makes Heroic Efforts to Land Crippled Airship. TOSSED LIKE TOY CRAFT Troops and Trained Ground Crews Wait to Aid in Southern France. BY RALPH HEINZEtf T oiled ?*re** Correspondent PARIS. .May 17. The (.Tippled dirigible i.raf Zeppelin, driven helplessly Jn a storm towards the Mediterranean sea, was in desperate peril tonight with her eighteen passengers and crew of forty-one. The single hope seemed to be that the gale would blow the dirigible o\er Toulon, on the southeast roast, where troops and a trained land crew waited at the airport to land her. Otherwise, it appeared inevitable that the dirigible must be blown cut to sea. The airship was twelve miles north of Marseilles at 7:10 p. m. • 12:10 p. m. Indianapolis time). Only one of the craft's five motors was operating. Dr. Hugo Eckener. the ship's commander, appeared to be trying to head towards Toulon. He insisted by wireless that he feels able to land at Toulon. Passed Like Toy Balloon The Zeppelin made its second unsuccessful attempt to land at, the Ist res airdrome, twenty-five miles northwest of Marseilles eight miles from the coastline. The attempt failed because of the violence of the wind. The dirigible continued towards Marseilles, struggling to avoid being blown out to sea. The dirigible was being driven with the speed of the wind and vapidly neared the Mediterranean. Shortly after 7 p. m. She had drifted over carpentras, in the department of Vaucluse. Observers at Carpentras saw the Zeppelin tossed like a toy balloon. She was turned completely around several times. The wind had almost gale force. The crowd at Carpentras stood bewildered, expecting to see the vast ship break in two as it spun, toplike. in the storm. She finally disappeared to the south. The ship was last reported at Malissard. south of Carpentras. still drifting towards Toulon and the Mediterranean, going almost directly south. Dr. Eckener fought desperately to maneuver the ship, her steering gear and fins still unimpaired, but. the wind made it difficult. Landing Attempt Fails The wind was from the northwest, and the Zeppelin had no choice but to let herself be driven towards the southeast and Toulon. Through her wireless and by dropping notes over the countnside. the Zeppelin kept France informed of her condition. Troops were mobilized everywhere. Dr. Eckener made a desperate. attempt to bring the ship down at Ancone. southeast of Monteling. bu* failed and had to make altitude to prevent a crash. The French, mindful of the fate of their dirigible Dixmude when it was lost over the Mediterranean several years aec. mobilized every source at hand. Dr. Eckener. gave up his gallant fisht- to steer the dirigible towards her home port of Fnedrichsha fen at 5:30 p. m. (10:30 a. m Indianapolis time) and informed the French government he would attempt to come down at Montelimar, on the Rhone river as scon as possible. Unable to Turn However, at 6:15 Dr. Eckener. with ♦he motors shut off and the dirigible drifting rapidly, found he could not turn toward Montelimar. He dropped a hand-written note announcing his intention of landing at the Cuerf airdrome at Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast. Tire wind was taking the dirigible in that, direction, and Eckener evidently felt confident he could steer his ship to the airport. France, which in wartime feared Zeppelins as deadly enemies, was carer to help the German passenger liner, which was forced by engine trouble late Thursday to turn back near Gibraltar while on her second trans-Ariantic voyage. Population Set at 18.244 fu Tim- * .'p. rial BLOOMINGTON. Ind.. May 17. This city’s population is estimated at 18.244 on the basis of a school census showing 4.561 persons between the ages of 6 and 21 years.

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The Indianapolis Times

VOLUME 41 —NUMBER 5

Derby Dope Post positions of the entrants in the historic Kentucky Derby classic to be run at Churchill Downs, Louisville. Saturday afternoon, will be found on Page 25 of this edition. For complete information of the classic, of the American turf Saturday, read The Times Pink, cn the streets immediately after the race, with complete details of the big event.

WHEAT LOWEST IN FIVE YEARS Flood of Selling Forces Grain Price Down. If u I v if < and Frc#* CHICAGO. May 17.—A flood of selling orders coining from all parts of the country today forced wheat deliveries to the lowest prices registered on the board of trade in more than five years. No new factor affected the decline, the break coming when evening up sales over the European holidays wore through the market's thin support and uncovered numerous stop loss orders. Later in the day May wheat was selling at $1.02h. July $l.O6 I s, and September $l.O9 3 i. WHITEMAN TO PLAY AT SPEEDWAY RACE Famous Band Will Paraoe Before Start Memori'! Day. Paul Whiteman, rotund “jazz king " and his thirty-piece Old Gold band, will circle the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at a five-mile pace with “all horns hitting" immediately preceding the start of the 500-mile race Memorial day. Whiteman’s band will begin its circuit, of the two and one-half-mile oval in a direction opposite to that taken by the 1.500-piece band that provides the fanflares for the annual classic. The circuit completed, the moving platform bearing Whiteman's band will move into place before the grand stand and Reinald Werrenrath. famous concert baritone, will sing “My Country’ 'Tis of Thee.” Then the race will start. In the afternoon. Whiteman’s band will play a concert in the infield.

100 PERISH IN FIRE Flames Destroy 250 Hornes in Polish City. Bu United Pn gs LONDON. May 17.—One hundred persons were killed in a fire which destroyed 250 houses at. Iwie. eastern Poland, during th. night, an Exchange Telegraph dispatch from Warsaw said today. Five hundred families were made homeless. Flames could be seen for thirty miles. DAVIS ACCEPTS POST Ex-Secretary of War Will Govern Philippines, Bv United Pres, WASHINGTON, May 17. Dwight F. Davis, former secretary of war. accepted the governorgeneralship of the Philippine Islands, it was learned here today. AWAIT 10.000-FOOT LEAP Clear Stout Field for Parachute Jump From Plane. National guardsmen this afternoon were ready to clear Stout field for the expected 10.000-foot parachute leap of Jack Cope. Chicago. from a plane. Cope was flying from Chicago with several thousand American Legion membership cards which he was to deliver to natiorfal headquarters here before sundown in order to get credit for Illinois in the national contest. LESLIE TO ATTENDIIACE Governor Will Occupy Special Box at Speedway. Governor Harry G. Leslie and Mrs. Leslie will attend the *OO-mile speedway race Memorial day. the Governor said today. Miss Dorothy Cunningham. Republican national committeewoman. and her brother Fred Cunningham, will be in the Governor s party.

Increasing cloudiness with possibly showers

Grocer Is Lynched After Gun Battle Fatal to His Wife Mob Takes Prisoner From Jail and Riddles Body With Bullets; Angered Over Shooting of Chief of Police.

Bv United Press LAKE CITY. Fla.. May 17.—N. G. Rorney, a. grocer, w r as taken from the city jail and lynched today after a gun duel Thursday night in which his wife was killed and Police Chief John F. Baker was w’ounded. The bullet-riddled body of the grocer was found in a ditch beside tne highway. An inquest was held but the verdict was not announced. Romey was placed in jail Thursday after the shooting, which started when he was ordered by Chief Baker to remove rubbish in front of his store.

CHAPTER 1 AT o o’clock of a sunny, crisp November day Nan Carroll was happy. Not just content, or happy in a pallid, negative sort of way. but happy with the upswinging of the spirit which is akin to ecstasy. And yet no man. opening the outer door of the suite of | three offices—a door hearing the dignified sign, “John Curtis i Morgan, Attorney-at-Law"—and peeping in upon her could | have discovered any outstanding reason for her happiness. jJust a pretty young stenographer or private secretary, and a | busy one at that, he might have thought. But if it had been a girl who had peeped in and seen Nan’s ! flushed, pretty face, she would have deduced instantly that l Nan’s happiness was born of the consciousness that she looked | extremely well in her new fall dress of russet silk crepe, a simple little slip of a dress whose short skirt dipped demurely [ just over the caps of rounded, slim, knees. Certainly Nan had reason for happiness over the fact that j russet silk crepe was almost exactly the color of her bobbed brown hair, that the velvet of her narrow brown pumps was subtly matched in the \ el vet of her round brown eyes. Such harmonies ape not accidental, but with Nan they were S instinctive,-and not sufficient reason for the joy that had sud- | denly flooded over her so that her small body almost visibly i vibrated with it as she sat erect in the narrow-backed chair before her typewriter.

Her ringless hands played rapidly over the keyboard of the machine, as if endowed with a consciousness and intelligence of their own, for certainly there was nothing in the legal document she was typing from shorthand notes to bring that high luster into her brown-velvet eyes and that joy-flush into her cheeks. * a a THREE o'clock!” She glanced at her tiny, octagonal white-gold watch as she reached the end of her shorthand notes. With an expert twist of her wrist she took the crackling sheets of legal-sized bond paper and carbons from the machine sorted them swiftly, combined them with the other pages of the brief, -wanned their flawless typing proudly. then added clips froih a little box that had its place in the meticulous ohreh of her top desk drawer. And as always, whenever she touched it. her finger tips caressed the exquisite little box, which John Curtis Morgan, attorney-at-law, and her employer for three years, had given her as a Christmas present the first year she had worked for him. He had laughed at her for using it as a clip box. reminding her that he had expected her to add it to her dressing table knicknacks, and she had defended herself lamely, unable to tell him that she kept it here in the office because her heart was here, rather in the furnished room she rented by the week. “He said three o'clock, but that means any time before half past,” Nan reflected indulgently, as she added the original copy of the brief to the stack of letters she had typed earlier in the day. “Court had adjourned early. That means that the prosecution 'rested' before Mr. Morgan expected them to—He’ll be dreadfully tired and all keyed-up. Maybe—" and oddly enough her eyes sparkled and her flush deepend at the thought— “he’ll want me to work tonight. So much to do—last minute stuff; witness to subpena; his notes to be written up—” nan T 7 NTERING the office marked “Mr. Morgan"—the other office of the suite was shared by the middleaged clerk and the young lawyer who worked for Mr. Morgan on salary—Nan deposited her tray of finished work on the desk, made even straighter a neat stack of unfolded letters received that day; cast a measuring glance at the heavy onxy ink well: blew a few grains of dust from the shining surface beyond the spotless new green blotter; adjusted the window shade so that the slant-

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY. MAY 17, 1929

| Finally agreeing to remove the rubbish. Romey later was said to have telephoned Baker that he had replaced them. “Come back and try to make me move them again,” the grocer dared the policeman. When Baker returned to the store an argument began and Mrs. Romey emerged with a pistol. She fired three shots at Baker, who returned the fire. One shot took effect- in Baker’s shoulder and Mrs. Romey was struck by five bullets. She died about midnight.

ing rays of the November sun should not strike into the eyes of the man who would soon sit at that desk, a spread palm over the concealed radiator to make sure that heat was coming up— She was interrupted by the sound of the outer door's opening and closing. In a flash her small body was across the room, her hand upon the knob of the dividing door. “Hello, Nan! Blake back yet? Did Preston call?” The very tall, very thin man tossed his hat upon a knob of the “tree” and shrugged out of his gray tweed topcoat. His black hair, winging upward in a natural pompadour from an extremely high and broadforehead, was shot through with threads of silver. Nan never saw' a silver fox pelt without thinking with a sharp contraction of the heart, of that silverflecked mane of John Curtis Morgan's. His black eyes shone now' with the brilliance of fatigue and excitement. Nan Carroll thought—and had thought since the day she first saw' him—that he w'as the most distinguished-looking man she had ever seen. “Mr. Blake isn't here yet,” Nan answered eagerly, her eyes sweeping over him and noting every sign of fatigue. “He telephoned from the sheriff's office, where he's waiting lor Buck. I telephoned Mr. Preston when I had not heard from him by 12 o'clock, and made an appointment for you for half past sou here,” she added triumphantly. “I knew you'd be tired" A humorous smile zigzagged across Morgan's thin face, twitching the wide, sensitive mouth, and settling in his deep set eyes. There was tender. teasing friendliness in his deep voice as he answered: “Good girl! I don't know how you do it. I honestly believe you'd make Cal Coolidge come here if I happened to want to consult him about something, busy, important man like Preston Oh. this is splendid. Nan! I didn't think you'd have time to finish this brief before I got back. That clears the decks for us to work on this mass of stuff (Tnrn to Page Seven) POLICE GUARD ASKED Woman Declares Prowler Tried to Enter Home. Mrs. June Bolavolderauer. 469 Inolda street, asked police protection for her home today. Mrs. Bold- 1 volderauer told police today an un- j identified man tried to gain en-1 trance to her home last night by j prying at a rear door. The man fled j when other occupants of the house discovered him.

late tonight or Saturday; warmer tonight.

DEATH THREAT SHADOW STILL OVER CLINIC Rescue Workers, and Ail Others Escaping, Under Doom Cloud. NO TRACE OF MANY Gas Effects May Take Toll of Score More Lives. BV CLAIRE M. BURCKY Inited Press Staff Correspondent CLEVELAND, May 17. The | threat of death hung like a DamoJ cles sword over a score of persons today as funeral plans were made for the 123. whose lives were snuffed by poison gas and fire in the Cleveland Clinic disaster. Patients, doctors, nurses, all those i still alive who were in the Clinic Wednesday when three explosions starting in the X-ray room sent yellowish nitrogen dioxide fumes swirling through the building, were marked on the danger list. They, with firemen, policemen and volunteers who carried victims from the blazing structure, were ordered to report for medical treat* | ment to drive gas poison from their lungs and blood corpuscles. Many Unaccounted For With eighty patients of the Clinic unaccounted for. and fortyfive more in hospital here, it was feared that many more may be added to the death toll. ! The eighty unaccounted for paj tients are persons who were regis- | tered at the Clinic Wednesday when j rite explosions occurred. What hap- : pened to them is unknown to offi- ! cials here. Funeral services for the victims of Cleveland's greatest and most 1 sorrowful tragedy since the Collinwood school fire of 1908, which took J the lives of 167 small children, will, | for the most- part, be private. Mayor John D. Marshall today : proclaimed Saturday a period of mourning and asked that all public | and other business be curtailed as a mark of respect to all who died in ! the disaster. j The vast destruction of human life in an institution erected to preserve life was believed probably due to two steamfitters’ blunders, each ordinarily excusable. One of the steamfitters, a young man named Buffery Boggs, was held in technical custody after he told his story, between nervous puffs of many cigarets, to Coroner A. J. Pearse, police and county officials. Leaves Hot Pipe Unguarded He said he had been called to repair a leaking steam pipe in the basement X-ray film room Wednesday morning. Removing the fireproof covering, he had found the pipe too hot to touch. He went back to his shop, leaving the pipe to cool off. Ninety minutes later he returned, to find smoke in the room and ; steam dripping from the pipes. He seized a fire extinguisher and ! played it against the ceiling, where j the smoke and hissing steam j seemed centered. Almost immediately the first explosion knocked him to the floor. Thereupon, he crawled from the room and was seeking safety when the second explosion flung him through a window. His error, if such it might be called, lay in leaving the steam pipe unguarded. P. F. Ferric and M. F. Gross, city j 1 fire wardens after studying Boggs’ statement and that of Riley A. Mul- ! linneaux, chief engineer of the Clinic, said they believed the heat i spreading from the unprotected pipe and escaping steam had j caused spontaneous combustion j among rolls of highly inflammable j X-ray film stored in the basement j room. Error of Years Ago Nitrogen gas given off from the j film combined with the oxygen in the air to form nitrogen dioxide gas ; —sure death for those who breathed j it deeply. But this gas never would haw escaped from the filmroom to the floors above except for the error of the second steamfltter, a man as yet unidentified. Years ago this man put a steam pipe, separate from the one Boggs j worked on. in the wrong place. It j protruded from the ceiling and pre-! vented the automatic closing of a i fire door in the filmroom. Bodies of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Busby. 1128 East Thirty-fifth street, victims of the Cleveland Clinic disaster. have been identified positively and will be brought to Indianapolis j at 7 this evening. Upon arrival here, the bodies; nere to be taken to the Edward j E Timer undertaking establishment, j 328 West Thirtieth street. Funeral j arrangements have been set tenta-! tivelv for Sunday afternoon at the North Park Christian church, „

Entered as Second-Class Matter at I’ostofTfoe. Indianapolis

‘RACKET CZAR’ AND AID ADMIT GUILT ON CHARGE OF CARRYING WEAPONS

Gang Lord ‘ Takes Rap'

SKEW

GIRL'S SUICIDE NOTE ON LEG Jilted Miss, 16, Lives After Death Attempt. “I am awful sorry I met you. : and I hope our love will cea-se after j this.” This brief message, laboriously penciled on the calf of one of the legs of Miss Vickey Pursley, 16, waitress. 607 Birch avenue, told her motive for an attempt to end her live with poison early today. Patrolmen Orval Hudson and Harry Smith investigated an ambulance call to the Birch avenue address at 2 a. m. They found Miss | Pursley in a serious condition. They questioned her. “He has been making dates with other girls,” sobbed tire girl, men- | tioning the name of a 22-year-old j roomer at the same address, and she I pointed down to her leg to tell the I rest of the story. “I want to die. T want to die,” | screamed the girl. City hospital i doctors said they believe she was ; brought to them in time to save her I life, however. | The girl got the poison from a j neighbor, saying she wanted kill ! some rats. DERBY ROUTE CLEAR f | U. S. Road 31 Best: All Paved, No Water. Flooded streams in southern Indiana will not interrupt traffic from | Indianapolis to the Derby at Louisville, Ky., Saturday, the state hieh- ! way department, said today, j United States route 31, through | Franklin. Columbus, Seymour. Scottsburg and Jeffersonville is not blockaded at any point by high water, it was announced. It furnishes the most direct route ] to Louisville, is paved all the way; and free from detours. The distance is 115 miles to Jeffersonville, opposite Louisville. Hourly Temperatures 6 a. m 46 10 a. m 56 7a. m 48 11 a. m.... 59 Ba. m 52 12 (noont.. 62 fl a. m 54 ip. m.... 64

A1 Capone

'BOY, 9, IN 'RAFT' RIDE. RESCUED Ventures on Old Door Into White River. Michael Dugan, 9. of 153 Blake street, today had a tale of his thrilling rescue from White river late Thursday, to tell his schoolmates, while he nursed a slight cold resulting from getting wet and very, very frightened. Mike and his playmate, Isaiah Edtvards, 9, Negro, 119 Blake street, poking about the end of Market street at the river, discovered an old 'door, washed up by the flood waters of the last few days. Mike, like a modern Tom Sawyer ventured out on it. Isaiah gave it a little push. The swirling waters caught it and before Mike and Isaiah could think what to do Mike was far out in the rushing stream. The Negro boy told nearby workmen, who called police. Meanwhile. Mike scrambled down on the door and lying fllat was rushed toward the Mississippi. Piling of the Pennsylvania railroad bridge, half a mile downstream, j ended the journey, but not the adventure. By the time police caught up with , the derelict. Harvey Castetter, 249 : Eastern avenue, railroad fireman, j had seen the lad. and secured a rope. Police let him down with the rope tied around his -body. He clung to j the piling and tied the rope around the boy. Police pulled the lad up. then lowered the rope and rescued the! rescuer. EXTRA: MAN BITES NAG Teamster Fined $lO for Chewing Ear of Balky Horse. Bu United Press NEW YORK. May 17.—Philip Funzinella, 51 -year-old Brooklyn teamster, paid $lO to a court here today when charged with biting a piece out of his horse's ear. He explained in broken English that the horse was balky. Jail Prisoner Cats Finger Joe Schmidt. 33. prisoner at the county jail, severed the index finger on his left hand Thursday while operating a bread cutting machine at the jail. Schmidt is serving a term for bootlegging.

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Sent Up With Body Guard for Taking Revolvers to Philadelphia. PEACE PACT SIGNED Chicago Man Had Reached Agreement With ‘Bugs’ Moran. Bu United Pres PHILADELPHIA. May 17. “Scarface AT’ Capone, "who carries a gun because “I’m on ! the mark, you know—marked I for death,’’ was sentenced to- ! day to serve one year in the ' county prison, because he brought his revolver to Philadelphi.i. The notorious Chicago gangland ; leader and his bodyguard, Frank ! Cline, pleaded guilty to the charge |of carrying concealed deadly j weapons, after which both received sentences of a year's imprisonment. Judge John E. Wash sentenced ! the men in the criminal division oi i municipal court. j The plea was taken after the men j conferred with their attorneys, I Bernard L. Lemisch and Cornelius Haggerty Jr. Previously they had ' been advised to “stand mute” and Judge Walsh directed a "not. guilty” plea be inscribed upon the official court records. Sign Peace Treaty The indictment and sentencing of ! the men occurred about thirteen I hours after their arrest here. Their prison sentence was the j maximum under Pennsylvania statutes for this offense. Judge Walsh also could have fined them ■ SSOO each. Lemuel B. Schofield, director of ! public safety, announced that Capone had signed a treaty of peace in Atlantic City Thursday with “Bugs” Moran, his rival for the ! gangland throne in Chicago. Schofield said Capone told him, “I met ‘Bugs’ Moran and two other men in Atlantic City after we previously determined to declare a truce. We talked things over for a week and finally agreed to certain conditions.” What the conditions of the peace pact were or any details, Capone refused to reveal to Schofield, j “The gang war. or at least the I feud between Moran and myself, is ended for all time,” Capone was said to have told Schofield. Schofield said he interrupted A1 to ask, “Did you drive a good bargain?” “I'm satisfkd," Capone smiled. Justice Moves Swiftly The grand jury and police court machinery functioned swiftly in ! bringing Capone and Cline to trial. The proceedings went ahead so rap- ! idly that defense attorneys registered vigorous protests at what they called “railroading” of their clients. Capone had been confident he could “beat the rap.” He said he had never been molested when visiting j Philadelphia and boasted that “no | charge was ever brought against me | that hasn’t been squashed.” The gang leader offered no hesitancy in producing his weapon when approached by detectives Thursday night. Asked why he carried a gun. Capone replied: “I'm on the mark, you know. Marked fqr death, that's why.” There was no delay in putting Ca- ! Pone and Cline in city hall cells. They were marched straight past | a cell containing a table and chair, .and placed in rough boarded cells I with only the most meager of equipj ment. Bail was set at $35,000 and although attorneys appeared here as i if by magic a short time after the arrests, the amount was not forth- : coming. We re Not Afraid of You' During the hearing before Magisj trate Edward Carney this morning, j Carney looked severely at Capone ana remarked: I “Mr. A1 Capone, authorities in 1 other cities are afraid of you. We are not afraid of you in PhilaI delphia.” Capone replied: “And I am not afraid of you.” John Monaghan, district attorney, who came into prominence during the winter in his conduct of a special grand jury investigation which unearthed crime and bootlegging conditions in Philadelphia, ordered I,cuis B. Wise, indictment clerk, to rush through the indictments. The May grand jury heard testimony of the arresting detectives and returned their indictments promptly. The jury to try the Chicago pair then was selected.