Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 21, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 June 1930 — Page 1
Fight Blaze at Creosote Plant
Firemen from a dozen companies early this afternoon battled flames raging in vast stacks of freshly creosoted railway ties adjoining the plant of the Republic Creosoting Company, Minnesota street and Tibbs avenue. Dense clouds of black smoke belched from the blazing stacks of ties while firemen approached as near as intense heat would permit to save the creosoting plant, approximately 150 feet to the south of the blaze.
The ties were stacked in piles 35 to 40 feet high, the rows extending a half-block long and about 150 feet wide. Sparks from a locomotive were believed to have started the blaze. Firemen penetrated between rows of the embers in their effort to stifle the blaze. City hospital ambulances joined Are companies at the blaze when a second alarm was sounded. Heat from the creosoted timber melted the wires of the West Indianapolis street car line and melted
WmsTWlyes\ IBY ARTHUR SOMERS KOCME
CHAPTER ONE 'JpESSIE CURWOOD shook her opulent blond curls. The string ot uncut emeralds about her fleshy throat suggested something more than mere solvency. Upon one substantial shoulder glittered a circle of diamonds; one arm—the arm with which she gestured more frequently—was a solid mass of gems for five inches abo\e the wrist. Kaffirs had sweated, armed camps had been maintained at Kimberley. Orientals had chaffered, great liners had been greeted by scores of detectives, strikes had been quelled, investors had been bilked, affairs of state had been made subservient to the machinations of stock gamblers, and all that Tessie Curwood should advertise the cost of her winning. Stripped, begauded, and painted, t o fat, too coquettish, she made eyes now at Dean Carey. That affluent bosom rose and fell with counterfeit emotion. She made Eleanor Sanver think of a fat-breasted but barren pigeon, perched upon a cornice, promising seductions that never would be fulfilled. Sterile! Os wit, of understanding, of the gentler things of the heart, and of those children whom her luxurious body should have borne—barren! H' w did Rannie Curwood endure her, with her affectation of a lisp, her selfish-
ness, hear aimlessness? Good old Rannie sat Inconspicuously back in the box, and eyes flickered with /ride at the mouthings and gestu rings of the woman whom he five years ago tremblingly led to the altar. Didn’t Rannie know how uteerly worthless Tessie was ? Didn’t he realize that the only place h c occupied in Tessie’s life was that of 'the provider of emei*'ds, of yachts, and of Palm Beach villas? Was that everything that a man required ©f a woman? When the first flush of passion had ebbed, was a man satisfied with a signpost pointing at his material success? Didn’t he want children and sympathy and someone who sometimes shared and did not always take? Right now the papers were filled with Rannie. True, they spoke hastily of Tessie's husband; said he was responsible for certain turmoils in Latin America; but at least there was something big about Rannie’s ruthless financial forays into far-off lands. No mere captain of industry. Rannie, but a field marshal. And Tessie Curwood, married to a man who was. for all his good humor, a feudal baron reborn, was content to play a minor part in Curw'ood’s life. * ELEANOR, leaning back in the comfort of the * upholstered chair, cynically appraised Mrs. Curwood. Five years ago she had been slim and graceful, and the shallowness of her blue eyes had not been so obvious. Apparently she had been in love with Randolph Curwood, and people who knew her had felt that his fifteen years' seniority would tend to balance her flightiness. But she never had comprehended her husband, never known what he was all nbout. She flaunted a beauty already slightly shopworn before every attractive man. Lord, if her coquetries had meaning, were anything more than the preening of a bird, Eleanor would appreciate and condone. But Tessie would not permit a man even to touch her hand. She simply cheapened Rannie by (Torn to Page 51 LOWER RATES OFFERED Reduced Fares Provided to D. A. R. Convention at Wabash. Delegates to the fifty-second annual state O. A. R convention at Wabash next week will be given reduced rates of 12.68 on traction lines, it was announced today at statehouse headquarters. Previously It had been announced the delegates would travel on the Big Pour railroad, but it was impossible to aecurt low rates.
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The Indianapolis Times Generally fair and continued warm tonight and Thursday.
VOLUME 42—NUMBER 20
telephone wires on Minnesota street. The wind, from the south, aided firemen in battling the blaze, blowing flames away from the plant buildings. Intense heat, however, leaped the gap and threatened to fire the structure, while firemen sent a wall of water between the flames and the buildings to prevent spread of the flames Firemen abandoned efforts to fight the fire' in the timber, confining work to preventing spread of the flames The creosoted ties are valued at $1.25 each and 6,000 were involved In the blaze.
BISHOP CANNON STILLDEFIANT •Issue Your Subpena,’ He Cries at Walsh. R 'WASHINGTON, June 4.—Bishop James Cannon Jr., told the senate lobby committee today it was “none of the committee’s business” to whom he gave the unaccounted for $48,000 contributed by E. C. Jameson, New York insurance executive, for use in the 1928 anti-Smith campaign. More defiant than during Tuesday’s hearing, the Methodist dry leader shook his crutch In excitement and cried “issue your subpena” as he persisted in his refusal to answer questions relating to his activities during the campaign. Senator WaLh (Dem., Mont.), acting as chairman in the absence of Senator Caraway (Dem., Ark.), said privately he intended to lay the question of Cannon’s refusal to answer before the committee for a decision. After the meeting, Walsh and Blaine admitted they had reached an impasse in Cannon's examination. Senators Borah (Rep., Ida.), and Robinson (Rep., Ind.), had flatly refused to attend committee meetings, although the presence of either would comprise a quorum and enable the committee to proceed. MRST OWEN AHEAD Well in Front of Wet in Primary Voting. Bu United Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 4. Congressman Ruth Bryan Owen was well ahead of her wet opponent today as returns from Tuesday’s Democratic primary election came in slowly. Early today she had a 6,000 lead over De Witt Dean, her fourth district opponent The vote was: Owen, 8,952; Dean. 2,076. Hourly Temperatures 6a. m 68 10 a. m 82 7a. m 70 11 a. m 83 Ba. m 76 12 (noon).. 85 9a. m..... 81 Ip. m 85
•WETS* AND DRYS’ BATTLE OVER COURTHOUSE FISH POND ISSUE
BY EDWARD C. FULKE GOLDFISH, fresh water spray, rubbish and a wire fence are pertinent question in the “wet" and “dry” issue bubbling over at the county building today. The eighteenth amendment and sparkling cocktail glasses are of no concern to either side in the local fight. All that really matters to combatants is the operation and appearance of the traditional
SEEK TO OUST CANDIDATE IN JUDGE RACE First District G. 0. P. Chiefs Want Princeton Man to Quit Field. BARNES BOOM STARTED Cass County Offers 1932 Governor Choice to State Convention. BY BEN STERN First district Republican leaders organized this afternoon to attempt to force T. Morton McDonald, Princeton, to withdraw from the three-cornered race for nomination for supreme court judge, from the First district. VcDonald • declared he will not withdraw. First district men say that the candidate \yill get only a corporal’s guard of delegates from his own county, and Pike count* and the rest of the district will be split between Benjamin Willoughby, Vincennes, incumbent, and Thomas B. Coulter, Knox circuit judge. Marion county leaders support Willoughby, but it is understood that a trade is under way to gain Coulter support for Alex Cavins, deputy United States district attorney, appellate court candidate. Out to Get Remy With 200 delegates known backing him, George V. Coffin is in an excellent position to swing trades for Cavins. The Marion county “boss” avowedly is out for defeat of Judge Charles F. Remy, incumbent, and Schuyler Haas, Seventh district chairman, was busy in the Severin today arranging negotiations. Simultaneously with the arrival of the vanguard of the 1,957 delegates to the state canvention, a boom was inaugurated to nominate James L. Barnes, Cass county chairman, as Governor in 1932. This movement, two years ahead of time, surprised party leaders who could discern no motive for the Barnes announcement. Cass County delegates have been instructed to work for Barnes. Friends of Frederick L. Landis, Logansport editor, who was a candidate for the nomination for Governor in 1928, hailed it, however, as an attempt .to block a similar move in 1932 on Landis’ part; Barnes, as Cass county chairman and through virtue of a prior announcement, could claim the support of the Eleventh district delegation in 1932 and leave Londis without home StrengthCharges “Crossing’* “This substantiates our views that Barnes crossed Landis in the 1928 campaign,” declared one Landis supporter. With only three contests looming and these for offices which, in the public mind, are comparatively unimportant, delegates feel the convention Thursday relatively will be quiet. Coffin’s attempt to defeat Remy is an attempt to Coffinize the state organization and the state ticket, Remy’s friends declare. The Marion county boss is said to have boasted openly that he knew nothing against Remy’s reecrd as a judge, but he wrs against him and hopes to obtain the jurist’s defeat with Cavins. Remy’s friends say Coffin’s opposition is based largely on the animosity the boss holds as a result of his prosecution by William H. Remy, the jurist’s son, on a charge of attempting to bribe former Governor Warren T. McCray. Prosecutor Remy obtained the indictment of former Governor Ed Jackson, Coffin and Robert I. Marsh, but the trio escaped conviction by pleading the statute of limitations. The fight of the Indiana AntiSaloon league upon the attempt of Willoughby to win renomination also is a focal point of interest. Two Oppose Willoughby Willoughby was one of the three judges who declared the late Dr. E. S. Shumaker guilty of contempt of court, sentenced him to sixty days on the state farm and levied a 8500 fine. Os the two* Coulter is expected to carry the greater strength. Three candidates for treasurer are button-holing candidates. They are Harry Nichols, Madison, Fourth district chairman and runner-up in 1928, who is said to have the edge; Caleb Williams, Pendleton, and Sol Sudranski, Greencastle. Frank Richards, I* Grange, present deputy, has announced he will not be a candidate. Morgan L. Sterrett, Rensselaer, Jasper county school superintendent, is the only candidate out against Roy P. Wisehart, Union City, state superintendent of education. Arthur L. Hyde, secretary of the department of agriculture, who will be the keynoter, will arrive here | Thursday morning.
north lawn of the courthouse square Bleak and dry, the fountain stands today a monument to county commissioners of two score years ago. If the “drys” have anything to say about it, the fountain will remain forever bleak and dry. * * * IF the wets carry the balance of power, the fountain will gur i forth showers of water, and will contain gold fish, moss and what-
INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1930
Murder Mystery Clew
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Above—ls raincoats could talk, this one in the hands of detectives investigating Indianapolis’ torch murder probably, would have much to say. Found with a blanket on a pile of boxes in the rear of the Service Truck Sales Company, 26 South Senate avenue, today, it was identified as that worn by a man believed to be Harold Herbert Schroeder, missing Mobile (Alruj radiator manufacturer, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Friday. w„ Holding the coat and blanket are, left to right: Chauncey Manning of the state department of criminal investigation and identification and Robbin Taylor and Jack Stump, city detectives. Below—Harold Herbert Schroeder, the central figure in the High School road torch murder mystery. This photograph is one taken of Schroeder during the World war while he was in training for aviation at Kelly field, San Antonio, Tex. Schroeder today is described as heavier, weighing about 175 to 180 pounds, and with his face pock-marked, either the result of small-pox or mustard gas.
ZEPPELIN IS IN MID-ATLANTIC Huge Dirigible Passes Over Azores Islands. Bu United Prcss HORTA, Azores Islands, June 4. The dirigible Graf Zeppelin, en route to Seville after a flight to Brazil and the United States, flew over Fayal Island at 7:30 (central standard time). The dirigible reached the midAtlantic islands after a rapid flight from New York. Fayal is the western island of the group, which lies slightly more than 1,000 miles from the coast of Portugal. The Graf Zeopelin had flown some 2,500 miles from New York since early Monday night. Her average speed was around eighty miles an hour. Good tail winds helped the ship’s five motors maintain a high average speed, and there were indications that the Graf Zeppelin might break Its own record crossing of fifty hours twenty-four minutes, for a distance of 4.200 miles from Lakehurst to Freidrichshafen, established last year. CITY MAN CAR VICTIM B. O. Leatherman Injured Fatally in Geneva (111.) Crash B. O. Leatherman, 2506 North Alabama street, was injured fatally in an auto accident near Geneva, HI., Tuesday, according to word received by relatives here today. His mother, Mrs. Margaret'Leatherman. lives at the above address.
not. But it must operate, the wets contend, a commemoration of beauty, botany, and industry. Numerous persons have urged board of county commissioners to start the fountain once more. Appeals have been made in person and by mail to end the two-year vacation during which only dust and dry stones marked the once Eden-like oasis.
SPLIT ON TIME OF TARIFF VOTE Coalition Blocks Move to Pass on Report. Bu United Press WASHINGTON, June 4.—An attempt to fix a time for voting in the senate on the tariff bill conference report was blocked today by leaders of the Democratic independent Republican coalition. An agreement to vote either Thursday or Friday may be reached later in the <lay, however, it was indicated. Senator McNary (Rep., Ore.), assistant Republican floor leader, asked unanimous consent to vote at 4 o’clock Thursday on the first of the two conference reports pending before the senate. Senator Borah (Rep., Ida.) and Simmons (Dem., N. C.) objected to this proposal and suggested McNary make another later today. Attempts to fix a time for voting on the other conference reports apparently were meeting with little success because of the desire of Senator Barkley iDem.. Ky.) to make points of order against it. HALTS SUICIDE EFFORT Reports Wife Threatens to Make New Poison Attempt^ Wresting a bottle of poison from his wife to prevent her taking it following a quarrel today, Euclid Bayse, 309 North East street, reported to police the wife, Mrs. Ruth Bayse, 24, ran from the house vowing to get more poison. She had not returned home early this afternoon.
Expense to the county of about $l5O a year to run the fountain is not of first importance. The big thing, dry commissioners say, is to prevent children from throwing rocks and rubbish at fish in the pool. That is the reason the water flow was discontinued’. The wets maintain the evil may be halted by fencing the circle. Operation without the fence is impractical.
Entered an Second-Clas* Matter at l’ostOffice, Indianapolis
TORCH CAR OWNER SPENT $75 FOR AIRPLANE RIDES ON DAY BEFORE KILLING
Schroeder Believed to Have Left City by Air Saturday Morning; Traced to Hotel With Two Women. WINKLER WILL ASK INDICTMENT Sheriff on Way Home to Lay Facts* Before Grand Jury After Making Probe in Alabama. Harold Herbert Schroeder, 35, Mobile (Ala.) business man, sought in the High School road tcrch murder mystery, spent $75 for airplane rides last Friday afternoon at the Capitol Airways, Inc. airport, and it is believed left Indianapolis Saturday morning under an assumed name by airplane. Identification of Schroeder as a passenger who spent $75 from a large roll of bills for air rides after the Speedway races last Friday, ten hours before his olazing car was found with a charred body in it on the High School road near Rockville road, was made today by officials o 1 the Capitol Airways. A check was under way to determire whether Schroeder was one of the Chicago-bound passengers on the EmbryRiddle plane leaving here at 5:30 Saturday morning.
Two women accompanied the plane passenger when he registered at a downtown hotel, Friday night. Photos of Schroeder were identified by clerks at the hotel as that of the guest and they said, in addition, that he had black bushy hair, a characteristic of Schroeder, and was pock marked, another characteristic. , The man, Embry-Riddle air field records show, called the field from I the hotel early Saturday morning and made reservations on the plane for Chicago. At the hotel the man registered i under a name believed fictitious as j did the two women who entered | with him. The tfomen did not take air passage fpr Chicago with him. Raincoat Is Identified The Indianapolis Times secured j identification this morning of a blanket and raincoat, found in the rear of the Service Truck Sales Company at 26 South Senate avenue, as property of Schroeder. Finding of the blanket, in which several holes had been cut or eaten by acid, and of the raincoat, which bore the initials, S. A. H. S., and a large variety of designs similar to those found on coats worn by high school or college boys, established the fact that Schroeder turned south on Senate avenue the morning of the torch murder, after leaving a car driven by Jack Allen of Clayton and Miss Ruby Blue, 715 North Delaware street. He had been given a ride to the city from the vicinity of the burning car by the two, and carried a blanket and wore the raincoat at the time. Search to date has failed to reveal his lodging place while in the city. Today it was believed that a dark complexioned man of coarse features, appearing much like an Italian, may have been in his company during his stay here. Indictment to Be Asked That the man, who figures closely in the mystery, came here from Mobile, Ala., at the time of or prior to Schroeder’s arrival, was regarded as probable. It was with this man and another male and a woman companion that Schroeder engaged in heated argument at Mobile prior to his departure for Indianapolis. The same man is believed to have purchased the five gallon gasoline can seen in Schroeder’s automobile at the Speedway last Friday, and which was found near the blazing car on the High School road. Sheriff George Winkler, en route to Indianapolis from Mobile by rail, will ask immediate indictment of Schroeder here on charges of murder of an unidentified man and of conspiracy to defraud insurance companies. Identity of the torch murder victim remained uncertain today. Check was being made on disappearance of a legless beggar, seen at the Speedway Friday and missing since that time. Took Many Plane Rides Officials at the Capitol airport today said that a man corresponding with Schroeder’s description in every way, accompanied by a dark complexioned man. took many rides In airplanes following the rsices last Friday. “The picture positively is that of the man, who with a dark-com-plexioned companion, took the
“SOMETHING will be done about it, but the fence doesn’t appeal to me,” Commissioner John E. Shearer, a “wet” declared. “It might if the county had a tew monkeys,” Shearer said. "Monkeys or no monkeys the fountain will not operate without a fence,” is Commissioner George Snider’s interpretation.
rides here Friday night,” said E. H. Jose, Capitol Airways president. “The man with the large roll of bills was heavily jowled, had a broaij forehead and in other respects tallied with the picture.” Jose declared the man, now believed of certainty to have been Schroeder, was hatless, combed his hair pompadour and wore a light suit of plaid or herringbone weave. The man’s hair was lightly streaked with gray, thinning in front, and he was growing a mustache, Jose said. Passengers Are Jovial On two of his three rides, the man was accompanied by his swarthy companion. On his third ride, when the companion refused to accompany him, he picked out a stranger from the crowd. Jose did not see what kind of car they arrived or departed in. Luther Dillon, Brooks Bushong and Charles Hack were the pilots who took the strangers aloft. Hack’s flight was the longest, an hour and ten minutes. With each of the pilots, the man believed to have been Schroeder stood up in the cockpit, signaling the pilots to swing lower over the speedway. The man knew aviation, for he gave the pilots signals used ordinarily only by pilots. When mention was made of returning to the airport Saturday, the two said they couldn’t do it—“we won’t be here.” Making a telephone call to a woman during their stay at the airport, Schroeder’s companion was heard to tell the party he called: “Yes, we’ll be there in a little while; we’re going to take one more ride.” Neither Jose nor the pilots smelled liquor on the men’s breath, but suspected, from their jovial behavior, they had had intoxicants, or, more likely, drugs or some other stimulants. Pilot to Be Questioned A passenger on the Embry-Riddle plane when it left here last Saturday morning for Chicago may have been Schroeder under an assumed name. The pilot of the plane will attempt to identify photographs of Schroeder. The man telephoned the field early in the morning, giving his address as Evanston, 111., and making reservations. Employes of the Service Truck Sales Company went into the yard in the rear of the shop this morning for the first time siince Saturday and found the blankets and raincoat there. Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Fouts, 15 East Sixteenth street, positively identified the raincoat as that worn by Schroeder when they were parked next to his car at the speedway races. They said the blanket “looked like” the one he used there. Reconstructing the crime, investigators pointed out that Schroeder’s car was seen in the vicinity of the High School road scene of its burning eight hours before Jack Allen of Clayton and Miss Ruby Blue of 715 North Delaware street, while driving, discovered the fire. They did not discover the body in the burning car, deputy sheriffs making the find when sent to the scene after Allen had reported. Believed to Be Schroeder Allen and Miss Blue gave a lift into the city to a man they believed a hitch-hiker whom authorities now are convinced was Schroeder leaving the scene. He carried a blanket similar to the one he carried in his car, over his right arm and hand during the entire time he was wish the couple in the car coming to the city. He left the car on Washington street near Senate avenue. That the blanket covered a burned hand, sustained when he fired gasoline with which the man’s body and car had been soaked, was belief of authorities today. The High School road scene of the car burning is reached easily from the Speedway, where Schroeder was seen during tta# races. Police believe the body of the dead man may have been in the car at the time Schroeder was seen driving near the High School road eight hours before the car was burned. That the dead man may have been a Speedway race spectator and have been picked up by Schroeder (or a “ride’ into town after the races was believed possible.
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MOBILE MAN STILL ALIVE, WIFEBEUEVES Sweetheart Also of Opinion Schroeder Did Not Die in Torch Car. BY HEZE CLARK Times Staff Correspondent MOBILE, Ala., June 4.—A wife and a sweetheart today united in belief Harold Herbert Schroeder, 35, Mobile radiator dealer, is not dead, but has disappeared after burning his car at Indianapolis, believing his insurance would be paid his wife to educate his two children. Mrs. Leah Schroeder, 40, his wife, declared she would make no attempt to collect the $25,000 insurance on his life until “it is positively established the man’s Charred body found in my husband’s burning car at Indianapolis is that of my husband.” “Do you love Schroeder?” was the question asked Miss Gertrude Kitrell, 19, his sweetheart. “I hope to tell you I do,” was her free admission. Bewildered, the wife declared she had no intimation her husband planned to disappear. On the other hand, the girl, of whom Mrs. Schroeder had complained to Mobile police before her husband disappeared, admitted she knew of his desire to drop out of sight. “Worth More Dead” “He told me, ‘I am worth more dead than alive’ several times,” Miss Kitrell declared. “He said, ‘lf I am found dead, my wife would have what she always has wanted—the money from my insurance.’” “I would like to disappear completely,” she quotes him as saying. “She could educate my boys and send them to college if she collected my insurance.” Her evidence to Coroner C. H. Keever and Sheriff Winkler of Indianapolis, who interviewed her today, indicates Schroeder laid deliberate plans to carry out his disappearance on his trip to the Speedway race. That his plans may have included participation of two men and a woman with whom he was seen in heated argument May 20, the day before he left Mobile in his car, is belief of Mobile police and of the Indianapolis authorities. Miss Kitrell’s evidence proved, Indianapolis investigators declare, that Schroeder had laid plans for disappearance befor he left Mobile. Had Fight at Home “Harold told me he had a fight with his wife and with Ray McMahon, his shop foreman and a boarder at his home, the night he left Mobile,” Miss Kitrell declared. “He begged me to go with him. I did leave Mobile two days later, but went to New Orleans and did not meet him.” Identifying the coat found at the scene of the torch murder at Indianapolis, Mrs. Schroeder and Miss Kitrell both declared cloth taken from trousers of the charred corpse found in the car was not similar to anv worn by Schroeder. They also declared the belt buckle and scrap of shirt found with the corpse were not Schroeder’s. Denies He Owned Rosary “That’s not Harold’s. He was a Baptist,” Mrs. Schroder declared when shown a rosary found in scraps of the burned clothing. Miss Kitrell also declared he did not own a rosary. Mrs. Schroeder is a slightly-built woman with long blond wavy hair. She wore a black dress with white lace .collar and a necklace of green stones when interviewed. “Will you claim the remains?” she was asked. “No, if it is not my husband,” she declared. “I will not claim the insurance until it is established my husband is dead. I know nothing of his finances and little of his insurance.” Heated Argument Schroeder engaged in a heated argument with two men and a woman the day before his departure, investigators have found. The two men and woman attempted to purchase a car and met Schroeder, after a telephone call, two blocks from his radiator shop. Schroeder seemed nervous as he talked to the three, witnesses told Mobile police. “If you come here to see me you’re going to ruin everything,” he Is quoted as saying. He talked to one of the trio who called himself Jack Snider. They argued heatedly, witnesses said. “Well, you can’t do anything without an automobile,” the third man is quoted as saying. Snider replied “The h 1 I can’t.” CONTRACT IS AWARDED Sanborn Firm Will Build Bridge at Village of Epileptics. Contract for construction of a bridge at the Indiana Village for Epileptics, near Newcastle, was awarded to the Albert B. Hash Construction Company of Sanborn today by ‘.be state highway commission. Contract price was $9,994.12.