Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 9, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 May 1930 — Page 9

Second Section

MUSICIAN WAS SLAIN, CLAIM OF [MOTHER California Man Demands John C. Robinson’s Body Be Exhumed. CITIES MURDER CLEWS Man Was Killed, Thrown Into River, Belief of Relative. Demand that the body of John C. Robinson, 30, Indianapolis musician, be exhumed for autopsy was to be made today by J. Russell Robinson, Los Angeles, who oelieves his brother was murdered. The body was found late in the afternoon of May 8, by two youthful canoeists in the edge of White river, at the foot of a steep embankment north of McClure beach. Coroner C. H. Keever said Robinson died from drowning, probably u suicide. Police and his mother, Mrs. Mark Robinson, 3158 Fall Creek boulevard, believed despondency over an a/rest for driving while Intoxicated led him to kill himself. Arriving here from Los Angeles, Russell Robinson, however, scouted the suicide theory, and immediately picked up several clews, he says convince him, that his brother was slain, and the body carried down the bank to the water’s edge, where it was deposited with the face in the water. Blood Found in Testa On the sole of the right shoe the elder brother said, he found three shreds of red hair, obviously B woman’s. On both shoes he declared he found stains that Dr. R. IL Harger, Indiana university school of medicine toxicologist, tested and discovered to be. blood. Other tests by Dr. Harger indicated the legs had not been in the water, while a box of matches in a coat pocket, and other evidence on clothing, led both the physician and Robinson to believe only a small portion of the body was in the liver. Coroner Keever said the lungs fexpelled water, and other evidences of drowning were so apparent he did not perform an autopsy. He Said he would hear Robinson’s reasons for exhumation of the body, and then refuse or grant permission for it to be taken from its grave in Memorial Park cemetery. Arrested After Crash With another man and two women. Robinson was driving an ailomobile which crashed into a milk truck about 2 a. m. Wednesday, May 7. Police charged Robinson with driving while intoxicated, and he later was released on $2,000 bond, supplied by Donald Underwood, professional bondsman. In payment for the service Robinson gave Underwood $25 in cash, fend a watch, to be redeemed for sls. The watch later was returned by Underwood to Mrs. Robinson, ftnd the sls rejected. Wednesday afternoon Robinson hiet a friend, Arthur Carey, downtown. Carey said John seemed in good spirits, and left him. boarding a north-bound Illinois street car. He was not seen until two boys found the body the next afternoon. Bruises on Head w A wallet John carried when he Conferred with Underwood early Wednesday and which is believed to have contained only 30 cents and a door key, was not among effects on the body, and has not been found fcince, Russell Robinson said. Employes in the Shirley Brothers’ Undertaking establishment to!d the elder brother that the body bore several bruises and gashes on the bead. These clews Russell Robinson said he will present to the coroner and to detectives today, insisting on action to trace them down.

8A Graduates of School 38

Arthur Nooe, Lonnie Fenter, John Zimmerman, Richard Thomas, Walter West and John MinateL

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Glendola Lancaster. Mary Mclntosh, Frances Yule, Martha Schowe, Evelyn Montgomery and Edith Jackson.

Fred Bolander, Myron Berber, Riley Garner and Franklin Reynolds.

M*it& Cawthorn, Jeanette Baldwin and Myrtle Graves.

Fall Leased Wire Service of the United Pres* Association

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Those Civil war veterans may be getting along in years, but they still have modern ideas when it comes to picking beauty. And you’ll have to agree, after seeing Mary Snyder, above, of Lubbock, Tex., who has been selected as sponsor-in-chief for the annual reunion of Confederate Veterans at Biloxi, Miss., June 3 to 6. Miss Snyder is granddaughter of General R. A. Sneed of Oklahoma City, commander-in-chief of the confederate veterans.

QUIZ CURTIS’ SON ON ‘SALE’ OF JOBS

Fees Paid Vice-President’s Kin to Get Contracts, Builders Assert. Bu Vitilrd Prr*B CHICAGO, May 21.—Harry E. Curtis, son cf Vice-President Curtis, was questioned at the state’s attorney's office today concerning complaints of Chicago contractors that they have paid fees to Curtis with promises of government building contracts. Curtis declined to comment on the case. Pat Roche, chief investigator for the state’s attorney, ordered Curtis to his chief’s office after he had taken into custody Mike Malloy, said to have acted as a go-between in deals where contractors said they had paid various sums to Curtis on promises of government contracts. One of the contractors, M. 6. Devon, charged he gave Curtis a check for SSOO and was promised a government contract within thirty days in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Indiana, or his money back. Carl Thorgerson, head of a building company, also said he paid Curtis SSOO and was promised contracts in several towns. He did not get his money back, he told Roche. Angelo Zucco, architect, said he paid Curtis SSOO and was promised the job of designing the new postoffice in Ottawa, 111. Max Kovarsky, roofing contractor, said he was premised the job of roofing the proposed new Chicago pcstofflee and paid Curtis SSOO. Zucco and Kovarsky received $350 back from Curtis, they said, to split between them. Mathais Grenning, president of the R. & SI Printing Company, said he was approached by Malloy and told that by retaining Curtis as attorney he could obtain a big printing I contract.

The Indianapolis Times

BOY IS AIR MINDED AT AN EARLY AGE

Tommy Cunningham, 5, Just Can’t Get Enough Flying. Tommy Cunningham, 5, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cunningham,

48 North Dearborn street, “took wings” early in life. The boy is enthusiastic about aeronautics and asks his parents for a “hop” every time he sees a ship in the air. He is shown in a ship at Mars Hill airport after his second flight. At every opportunity, the youngster climbs into the

Tommy

cockpit and he no sooner is on the ground than ho is ready for another flight. RELEASE BOYS HELD FOR STEALING AUTO Youths Turned Over to Cincinnati Officers After Investigation. Two boys, one 17 and the other 13, charged with the theft of an automobile in Cincinnati, last Wednesday, and arrested in Connersville, were turned over to Cincinnati probation officers this morning. The boys had been committed to jail here under SSOO bond pending an investigation of their record in Cincinnati. Howard S. Young, United States commissioner, before whom they were arraigned, refused to bind them over to the federal grand jury because of their age.

$4,200 FOR BOMB QUI2

Marion City Council Approves Bill and Any Further Expense. # MARION, Ind., May 21.—Expenditures of $4,200 by local police in investigating recent bombings in Marion were approved on Tuesday night by the city council. Support was assured for any additional expense which further investigation may cause. The council voted that the ini vestigation should be continued, but several members expressed the opinion that fewer private detectives be hired. James E. McDonald, president of the police board, said there was more evidence at hand which may result in clearing the bombings, which took the lives of five men. Os the total expenses thus far $3,900 was paid,to a detective agency.

INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21,1930

INDIA'S ‘JOAN’ IS ARRESTED IN SALT RAID British Cops Lustily Wield Clubs on Volunteers in Rebellion. HUNDREDS ARE INJURED More Than 2,000 Take Part in Demonstration at Dharasana. BY FRANCIS LOW * United Press Staff Correspondent BOMBAY, May 21.—The British government tightened its grip on the Indian passive resistance campaign today when it arrested Mrs. Saropini Naidu, poetess successor of Mahatma Gandhi, as she inspired her followers in a raid on the Dharasana salt works. The raid was one of the most violent yet staged by the passive resistance campaigners. More than 2,000 volunteers rushed the longthreatened Dharasana salt pans, and were met by a police charge. The police used their bamboo sticks lustily, and injured more than 200 volunteers. Many of them were bleeding profusely. The arrest of the woman who has become known to her followers as India’s Joan of Arc was the climax of prolonged attempts by Gandhi’s volunteers to make the Dharasana salt pans the focal point of the Indian rebellion. The volunteers had declared only Tuesday they would take mass action at the salt pans today in an attempt to force matters to a head, and the British were ready for them. Besides Mrs. Naidu, many of the other leaders were arrested. Mrs. Naidu herself did not actively join in the raid, but she inflamed the volunteers in a fiery speech only a few minutes before they marched away to the salt pans. Later, she went to the works herself along with thousands of spectators, and was arrested as she watched. Only last week Mrs. Naidu began an active role as leader of the independence movement when she led a small body of volunteers towards the Dharasana fait works, intending to raid them. The group was met by native police when they had gone only a half mile from the volunteers’ camp, and both sides sat in the roadway for twenty-six hours in an impasse. At the end of that time, the patience of police was exhausted and they removed the Volunteers, escorting Mrs. Naidu back to her camp in an automobileSOLDIERS SLATED TO PASS THROUGH CITY Four Batteries of Field Artillery Are Coming June 6. Four batteries of the Sixty-first coast artilllery will pass through Indianapolis June 6 on a 1,150-mile march from Ft. Monroe, Va., to Ft. Sheridan, 111 The regiment, which will include ten officers and 300 men, will be accompanied by a police escort and form a marching line almost a mile in length. Itinerary for the march, which started from Ft. Monroe, May 14, will include the following Indiana cities: Jeffersonville, June 3 and 4; Scottsburg, Seymour, Columbus, Franklin, Greenwood, Indianapolis, June 6; Crawfordsville, June 9, and Hillsborough and Covington.

Dick Byrd Just Will Not Rush, Says Chic Sale Everybody in the world likes Admiral Byrd, because he’s so natural and human. No matter where he is, Panama or

an ywhere, if somebody wants to look at his new uniform he’ll stop over and spend a few days until every one sees it. You take a feller that’s been fishin’ and caught a whop per. On his way home he will walk through town car-

ryin' it on a string. That’s how Byrd is cornin’ back from the South Pole. He’s been on the way for months now, because if anybody grins at him he stops to talk. And talk about cameras, Byrd ain’t a’raid of anything. Forty or sis .y photographers can attack and he jest smiles and shakes hands with somebody. When he landed on American soil and the big navy guns fired the admiral’s salute fer him he jest fixed his cap. He thought it was flashlight photographers. Well, sir, Eyrd’s been to the North Foie and he’s been to the South Pole, and he’s a mighty fine feller, but if I was in a hurry i’er a loaf of bread I would hat? to send him to the grocery ssore. vSoA. (Copyright. John F. Wile Cos.)

Radio Wins Roxy From Movies; Genius of Air Weary of ‘Mob ’

Applause of Crowds, Once j Thrilling to Rothafel, Has Palled; Likes to Please Children of Nation. BY PAUL HARRISON NEA Service Writer NEW YORK, May 23.—The radio is winning Roxy away from the movies. Samuel Lionel Rothafel, spectacular genius of the theater and the air, gets more kick out of being a mere man behind a microphone than he does in presiding over the world’s greatest “cathedral of the motion picture.” There are plenty of reasons for this attitude of Roxy’s. Tne least of them is money; the greatest is the astonishing fact that Roxy now hates crowds. For twenty-eight years he sought the spotlight, and found a pot of gold at the end of it. Roxy was a showman. He was the only showman who projected his own personality on such a scale of grandeur. Long before he built his $10,000,000 theater people were jamming other houses to watch Roxy’s show, hear Roxy’s music and see Roxy’s pictures. He loved the crowds and their acclaim. Avoids the Mob “But now,” he declared, “the metamorphosis is complete. I find myself, every chance I get, avoiding the mob. I want more and more to be with just a few intimate friends. “You wonder how I can feel this way and still be more enthusiastic than ever about the radio, which represents millions of people instead of thousands? Well, I don’t tfilk to the mass; I talk to individuals. I love people, separately, especially those of the great middle group. And I get almost my biggest kick out of pleasing children. “When Roxy and His Gang go on the air over the National Broadcasting Company’s network, and everybody in the studio is pepped up, and“rehearsals have been OK, I’m really happy. “When I sign off with ‘Goodnight, pleasant dreams, Good bless you’— and they swamped me with reproachful letters on the only two occasions when I failed to use that phrase—l’m talking to the unseen friends who have liked us. “Made Me Old Man” “But not to the crowds. I’m not yet 48 years old. but the crowds already have made an old man of me.” Roxy doesn’t look like an old man, nor act like one. You question, as he becomes enthusiastic about radio, that he even feels like one. Enforced seclusion, he admits, has brought him better health. „ He has more time now for golf and handball, both of which he plays well, and vociferously. Roxy likes argumentative banter among the inmates. Strangers have a hard time believing that his sarcasm and bitter invectives are all in good fun. He is short, not too heavy," and has a slightly florid face. P'riendly, smiling eyes make you forget the cold firmness of his mouth. Sam Rothafel was born in Stillwater, Minn., went to New York with his parents in 1894 and was obliged to start working as cash boy in a department store at the age of 12. He was a house-to-house book agent by the time he was 17 and a year later joined the marine corps. Did His Hitch With Marines There, despite the fact that he refused to drink liquor and had to bear the nickname of “Sodywatsr” through his seven years of service, Rothafel acquired the reputation of being “plenty hard-boiled.” There, too, he observed the efficiency of strict discipline and, as a marine corporal, learned how to establish it. He now is a major in the marine corps reserve. After leaving the service he went to the coal fields of Pennsylvania and in 1907 at Forest City, made his first venture into the moving picture business. Even with a flapping screen, a crude projector and poor lights, Rothafel made money—enough money to get married, buy better equipment and transfer his activities to Minneapolis. Later he went to Milwaukee. Wins Way to Top So successful was he in the west that New York soon heard all about j him. In 191,3 he went to Broadway ■ as manager of the Regent theater, where he originated the idea of the atmospheric prologue for feature films. When the Strand theater was j opened—it then was the largest mo- ■ tion picture house in the world Rothafel became its managing director. He occupied similar posi- J tions at the Rialto, Rivoli and Capitol theaters. He was the first theatrical director to interest himself in radio, and the first to sponsor broadcasts from a stage. At the Capitol he organized a group of entertainers known as “Roxy’s Gang,” and the broadcasting sessions became a permanent institution. It was radio that gave him the name which now is dearer to him than the one he was bom with. “En-ing a program one night,” he said, “I casually mentioned that ‘people who like me call me Roxy.’ I’ve never been anything else to them since then.” HIGH COURT ADMITS SMITH TO PRACTICE Petition of Attorney Sentenced to 1 U. S. Prison Granted. W. Lee Smith, Indianapolis attorney who was sentenced to federal penitentiary in connection with an automobile theft ring, today was readmitted to the bar by the supreme court. His petition, which bore the ap- , proval of the state attorney-general, set out that he had been readmitted to practice at the Marion circuit bar. He was admitted to the supeme court bar first in May, 1921, and resigned Oct. 31. 1928.

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Samuel L. Rothafel (pictured above) has had a long and spectacular theatrical career, but says he now is experiencing his greatest satisfaction through his radio broadcasting. Roxy, as he is nationally known, was the first to bring the radio to the stage.

LAKE CO. Will PROBEVOTING Sensation Is Predicted by Prosecutor Starr. By Time a Special GARY, Ind., May 21—Thorough investigation and prosecution of vote fraud charges following the primary election here May 6, are promised by Oliver Starr, Lake county prosecuting attorney. “There will be some convictions; there will be some thus far undisclosed sensations. I don’t believe a prosecutor who means business should tip’ off his hand before any case comes up for trial,” Starr declares. James M. Ogden, Indiana at-torney-general, is said to have been pointed in denying that his office intended to have a special prosecutor to handle the election case. Hearings for nine persons, three men and six women, arrested on election day, have been set for Tuesday in city court here before Judge Herman Key. ROSS TO HEAD BUYERS Elected President of Purchasing Agent Group at Luncheon. The following officers were chosen at a luncheon Tuesday in the

Sever in, by the Purchasing Agents Association of Indianapolis: Ralph , Wr Rcss, president; Frederick W. Bakemeyer, vice-pres-ident; Paul H. Keller, secretary; Frank Peters, treasurer; Louis M. Fehrenbach, national director, and Dallas C. Murray, alternate national director.

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Columbus Rotarians Elect

A./ Time* Special COLUMEUS, Ind., May 21.—New officers of the Rotary club are J. Dwight Wetz, president; Judge Julian Sharpnack, vice-president; Ernest D. Snider, treasurer, and Walter Nugent, secretary.

8A Graduates of School 13

Chestine Miller, Jack Marker, George Fischer, James Jay, Curt Guelden and Floyd Hicks.

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Thelma Foster, Mercedes Phillips, Alma Croak, Martha Es’.ew. Mary White and Clara Cartmel

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Mary Cartmel, Edith Sonth. Clara Poggemeyer, Virginia Russett and Lena Sansone.

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Sara MbElreath, Plczant Roberts,

Second Section

Entered as Secord-Class Matter at Poatoffiee, Indianapolis

Probe Court Records on Rain Baby’ Close scrutiny of records of the divorce trial of William B. Breedlove of Bloomington and Mrs. Sally Marie Breedlove, mother of the Indianapolis roadside “rain baby” was started today. Miss Bess Robbins, attorney, assigned by the Indianapolis Bar Association to defend Mrs. Breedlove in juvenile court May 28 when she will be charged with child neglect for abandonment of the baby on the roadside here, went to Bloomington today to review the divorce records. Try to Prove Parentage The examination is in preparation for attempts to prove the “rain baby” is the legal son of Breedlove, who has denied parentage. Breedlove will be charged with contributing to child neglect on the theory his failure to provide funds for the “rain baby” caused the mother i/O abandon it. A fund of $2,000 was deposited in the Continental National bank Tuesday afternoon by a North Side widow “for the rain baby.” A gift of S2OO from a woman giving the name “Mrs. Wood” was placed on deposit in the Indiana National bank for Mrs. Breedlove's personal use. Wants to Buy Home Told cf the gifts today, Mrs. Breedlove, in her cell at county jail, declared she would use the money to “buy a little home” if she is released and given custody of the “rain baby” and his brother. She declared she would never wed again. Mrs. Wood and a farmer offered work and a home for Mrs. Breedlove and the “rain baby,” Robert Eugene, one year old. In addition, both were willing to provide a home for Vernon Lee, 3-year-old son, now in custody of Mrs. Breedlove’s mother. The “rain baby” is held at the Marion county children’s guardians’ home as a ward of juvenile court pending the trial of the mother May 28.

DEATH DRIVER INDICTED Alleged Drunkenness Basis of Charges Against Washington Man. j Bu 1 nitrd Pres* WASHINGTON, Ind., May 21. The Daviess county grand jury today returned two indictments charging intoxication and driving while intoxicated, against Cecil Gillatt, 28,

PRISON TERMS FOR 15 AIM OF MUNCIEMAYOR George Dale Asserts He Has ‘the Goods’ in Paving Graft. DICTAPHONE EMPLOYED Official Declares ‘Pay Off’ Man Also Heard by Six Persons. * fly Time* Special MUNCIE, Ind., May 21.—Mayor George R. Dale demands a grand jury Investigation of charges that graft has played a part in awarding of improvement contracts since he assumed office. At the same time he made public an alleged conversation between himself and William Morrison, Muncie supply dealer, in which the mayor says Morrison admitted that graft flourished under the preceding administration. Morrison unknowingly talked into a dictaphone, the mayor said, and their conversation was heard also by six one of whom recorded it in shorthand. “I have the goods on several persons and they are going to the penitentiary,” the mayor said. “I am going to send fifteen of them to prison.” Contract Canceled The charges grew out of the action of the board of works in canceling sixteen contracts awarded by the Hampton administration to two Muncie contractors, Curtis & Gubbins, and the William Birch Company. The contracts all were relet to the Andrews Paving Company, Hamilton, 0., and Injunction suits are now pending in circuit court as a result. The city originally filed fraud allegations in the action, based on the conversation the mayor had with Morrison, although this was not made public at the time. The contractors made a similiar answer, charging that the Andrews company was paying 25 cents a yard in graft to the present administration. A ‘Sold Out’ as Ruse The mayor declared that he “sold out to Morrison” in order to get the information he wanted concerning the action of the contractors, whom Dale refers to as the “paving trust.” According to Dale, Morrison admitted that he was the pay-off man. Details of the alleged graft payments were not made public by the mayor. The cases will be set for trial after next Thursday when arguments cn issues are scheduled to be heard by Circuit Judge L. A. Guthrie. Prosecutor Joe H. Davis is expected to ask for a session Os tire grand jury within the next few days. G. 0. P. GROUP TO MEET Special Committee of Veterans to Gather on Thursday. A special committee of the Republican Veterans of Indiana, Inc., will meet Thursday night in the office of Schuyler Mowrer, unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for congress in the primary, to decide on a program of recommendations for reform of the primary. " ) The committee is composed of Dr. Simon Reisler, State Senator Joe Rand Beckett, Mowrer and Howard M. Meyer. BOND BID IS ACCEPTED Thomas D. Shcerin Awarded $166,• 000 Issue for Street Work. Thomas D. Sherrin. security broker, Fletcher Savings and Trust Company building, today was awarded the $166,000 bond issue for resurfacing fourteen city streets. Sherrin was high bidder w.th a premium $5,625. Five other companies bid.

Washington, following its investigation into the death of Charles Connaughten, 38, here Thursday night. Connaughton, acting town marshal of Montgomery, six miles south of Washington, died after he fell, or was pushed from the running board of Gilliatt’s automobile while he was trying to arrest him on a drunken driver charge.