Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 192, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 December 1930 — Page 13

t)EC. 20, 1930.

Murder AI Br idee /Slv A y/ ANNt AUSTIN .au&knfcyfc’' THE Black PIGEON TANARUS•) ‘y hE AVENGE

OB—, begin here todat , SPECIAL INVEHTIOATOR DUNDEE, ‘/5??L t iE. >,!r £* he murdfr at bridge of £L ANITa EELIM, telly District Attorney SANDERSON his findings: Possible susPcts Include LYDIA CARR, the maid; DEXTER BPR.AGUE. JOHN C. DRAKE. JUDOE MARSHALL. Nltas landlord, to whom she oald no rent, and owner of the gun and silencer with which she was shot; POLLY BEALE and CLIVE HAMMOND, who were In the solarium together: FLORA MILES JANET RAYMOND and RALPH HAMMOND. Sorague came early to the party, went upstairs to the room he used and shaved. Lydia followed hltn. told him he would have to clear out and stayed .behind to clean up after him. Sprague went down, out the back, and around the house. - Flora Mile* idmlta she was la Nlta's closet reading a note which the thinks is from her husband TRACEY, but which is reallv from Sprague. _ NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN (Continued) But those who sought to take adtantage of his good nature in the courtroom found themselves up against as keen a lawyer and prosecutor as could be found in the whole state, or even in the middle west. “Well, boy!" he greeted Dundee genially but with an undertone of solemnity. ' Looks like w’ve got a sensational murder on our hands. It’s not every day Hamilton can rate a headline like ‘Broadway Belle Murdered at Bridge.’—to quote a Chicago paper. . , . But I'm afraid there's not enough mystery in it to suit your tastes.’* Dundee grinned wryly, “I’ve been pretty down in the mouth all mornjng beoause there’s a little too much mystery’, chief.” “17'AIRLY open-and-shut, isn’t r it?” Sanderson asked, obviously surprised. “New York gets too hot for this Selim baby—probably mixed up with some racketeer. “Louis Dunlap offers her a job to organize a Little Theater In Hamilton—which the fair Nita certainly would have described as a hick town and which she wouldn’t have been found dead In if she could have helped it”—and the district attorney grinned at his own witticism—“but Broadway Nita jumps at it. Her racketeer sweetie has a long arm, however, and Nita gets hers. Justly enough, probably, but I wish to the Lord she had chosen some other town to hide in. Lois Dunlap is the finest woman in Hamilton, but she’s .too damned promiscuous in her friendships. “As it is now, some of the best iriends I have in the wwld are mixed up in this mess, even if it is only as innocent victims of circumstance ” Until then Dundee had let his chief express his pentup convictions without interruption, and indeed Sanderson's courtroom training had fitted him admirably for Jong speeches. But he could keep wlent no longer. “That is what has been worrying me, chief,” he interrupted. Captain Strawn has given the papers very little real information, but the truth Is I am afraid one of your friends was not an innocent victim of circumstance.” District Attorney Sanderson sat down abruptly in the swivel chair at his desk. ‘Just what do you mean, Dundee?” “I mean I am convinced that one of Mrs. Selim's guests was her murderer, but I’d like to tell you the whole story, and let you judge for yourself.” “My Gods” Sanderson ejaculated. Slowly he drew out a handkerchief and moppeu freckled brow. “If X hadn’t had a good many years of experience with criminals, Dundee, I’d say it is obvious on the face of ■ft that none .of those four men— Judge Marshall. Tracey Miles, Johnny Drake, Clive Hammond—could have committed such a cheap, sensational crime as murdering a hostess during a bridge game. . . . “Not that I haven’t wanted to • omrnit murder myself over many a bridge game,” he added, with the irrespressible humor for which he was famous. Then he groaned, the rueful twinkle still in his eye: “I’mafraid we re in for a lot of gruesome kidding. Why. last night, in the club ar of my train, three tables of bridge players scarcely could play a hand for wisecracking about the dangers c.f being dummy! “Well, boy. now that I've talked myself past the worst shock, supiiose you give me the lowdown. But T warn you I’m going to take a powerful lot pf convincing.” Painstakingly, and in the greatst detail, Dundee told the whole "ory. He was interrupted frequently, of course, scoffingly at first, hen with deepening solemnity and Aspect on the part of the district attorney.

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“Let me see the plan of the house again,” he said, when Dundee had finished. “Also that table you’ve worked up showing the approximate time and order of arrival of the four men. . . . Thanks! . . . Hnira! . . . Hmm!" ana “"XT OU see, sir," Dundee repeated I at last, “the list of possible suspects includes Lydia Carr, Dexter Sprague, John C. Drake, Judge Marshall, Polly Beale, Flora Miles, Janet Raymond, Clive Hammond.” “But Polly and Clive were in the solarium together all the time!” Sanderson objected. “So they were,” Dundee agreed. “But It is a very short trip from the solarium by way of the side porch into Nita’s bedroom. And either Polly Beale or Clive Hammond could have made that trip, on the pretext of speaking to Nita about Ralph! “Motive: Murder to end blackmail. Naturally such a theory would not Include both of them, but if one of them was being blackmailed and made use of the pretext of warning Nita of Ralph’s overwrought condition ” “Sprague’s your man!” Sanderson interrupted with relief. “Motive: jealousy because Nita was ditching him to marry Ralph. ... As for the gun and silencer, it seems pretty clear to me that Nita herself stole it from Judge Marshall, and that Sprague got it away from her. “You say the maid. Lydia, went upstairs to tell Sprague he had to pack his things and take them away —for good! .. . Very w ? ell! Sprague goes down the back stairs with the gun in his pocket, through the back hall into Nita’s bedroom, shoots her, bumps into the lamp, goes out by the back door, and comes around' front to join the party, “You say yourself he has admitted everything but the trip to Nita’s room and the shooting—even to sneaking back to get his bag, which I believed also contained the gun until he had a chance to dispose of it on his way to his hotel into Hamilton.” Dundee shook his head. “I’d like to agree, chief, but I believe Lydia is telling the truth. She says she was in the upstairs bedroom with Sprague and remained behind only two or three minutes at most, to put is shaving kit into the packed bag. and to clean up the bathroom basin. On her way down the backstairs she say she heard Lois Dunlap's second ring and went to answer it. Sprague and Janet Raymond, with whom Janet says he stopped to talk a minute on the front porch, were in the dining room before Lydia entered it. “I'm convinced Lydia hates Sprague and would be glad to believe him guilty . . , No, Mr. Sanderson, I don’t believe Sprague did it, but I do believe it was Sprague’s revenge that Nita was afraid of when she made her will Friday night. “Naturally she figured she'd have time to tell the persons she was blackmailing that she was through with, him or her—but I believe Sprague and Nita were lovers, even partners in blackmail, and that she feared he would kill her when he knew she was going to marry Ralph Hammond and give up their source of income.” Sanderson considered for a long minute, puling at his full lower lip. “Well, thank God for those precious footprints Strawn is building on! “Don’t think I fail to follow your reasoning that the crime must have been committed in the bedroom, and not from the window sill, but those footprints may save us yet, and certainly will get us through the inquest. “You agree, of course, that none of all this you’ve told me must even be hinted at the inquest? . .>. Good! Let’s be going. It’s nearly 10 now.” CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Bonnie pundee s whole soul revolted at the very thought of the barbaric farce of an inquest—the small morgue chapel crowded to the doors wtih goggle-eyed, bloodloving humanity; the stretcher with its sheeted corpse: reporters, avid for sensations and primed with questions; news photographers with thir insatiable cameras aimed at every arriving person connected with the case in any way. Mercifully, this particular inquest upon the body of Juanita Leigh Selim promised to be quickly over. For Coroner Price, in conference with District Attorney Sanderson,

special investigator Dundee and Captain Strawn of the homicide squad, gladly had agreed to call only those witnesses and extract from them only such information as the authorities deemed advisable. Lydia Carr, whose black veil had defeated the news camera leveled at her poor, scarred face, was the first witness called by Coroner Price, and she was required for the single purpose of identifying the body as that of her mistress. To two perfunctory questions—- “ Have you any Information to give to this jury regarding the cause and manner of the deceased’s death?” and “Have you any personal knowledge of the identity of any person, man or woman, of whom the deceased stood in fear of her life?” — Lydia answered a flat "No!” and then was dismissed. Karen Marshall, looking far too young to be the wife of the elderly ex-judge, Hugo Marshall, was the second witness called. Dr. Price guided her gently to a brief recital of her discovery of the dead body of her hostess, emphasizing only the fact that, so far as she could see, the bedroom was unoccupied except by the corpse at the time of the discovery. He then handed her the photostatic- copy of a blueprint of the ground floor of the Selim house, with a penciled ring drawn around the bedroom. Karen falteringly identified it, as well as the pencil-drawn furniture, and immediately was dismissed—to the disappointmeent of the packed rows of spectators and reporters. nan DR. PRICE himself took the stand next and described, in technical terms, the wound which had caused death and the caliber of the bullet he had extracted from the dead woman's heart. “I find, also, from the autopsy,” he concluded, “that the bullet traveled a downward, slanting path. I should add, moreover, that I have made exact mathematical calcultions, using the position of the body and of the wound as a basis, and found that a line drawn from the wound, and extended, at the correct slant, ends at a point 51.8 inches high, upon the right-hand side of the frame of the window nearest the porch door.” And he obligingly passed the marked blueprint among the jury. When it was in his own hands again, he added: “It is impossible to state the exact distance the bullet traveled more nearly than to say the shot was fired along the line I have indicated, at a distance of not more than fifteen feet and not less than ten.” Captain Strawn rose and was permitted to question the witness: “Dr. Price, that blueprint shows that the bedroom is fifteen feet in width, doesn’t it?” “That is correct.” “Have you also measured the height of that window sill from the floor?” “I have,” the coroner answered. “The height from floor to sill is twenty-six inches.” ‘Now doctor, from your calculations, would it be possible for a man crouching in the open window to fire a shot along the path you have calculated?” “It would,” Dr. Price answered. “But as I have pointed out it is impossible for me to say at exactly what distance from the body the shot was fired.” But Strawn, of course, was amply satisfied. And so were Dundee and the district attorney, for it suited their purposes admirably for the public to be convinced at this time that an intruding gunman had murdered Nita Selim. Captain Strawn, sworn in, told briefly of his being called to the scene of the crime, of the activities of Carraway, the fingerprint expert, and of the exhaustive search of his squad of detectives. “Did you find any person concealed upon the premises, that is, within the house itself, or in the garage or on the grounds?” Dr. Price asked. “No, sir.” “Did you or your men discover the weapon with which the deceased was killed?” “No, sir.” “Did you question all persons in the house at the time of the crime, as to whether or not a shot had been heard?” “I did. The answer in every case was that they heard no shot.” nan A ND you also questioned every person present in an effort to place responsibility for the death of Mrs. Selim?” “I did. I couldn't find that any one present had anything to do with it.” “Who were these persons?” Dr. Price then asked. (To Be Continued)

'Sticklers’ Will Be Found on Page 14 Today

TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE

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Dilecta's eyes scanned the faces of the prisoners for some sign of Praeclarus, as she leaned forward from her seat in the loge. She did not notice a man who entered quietly and sat himself down beside her. “He is not there,” said the man. The girl-burned toward him quickly. “Fastus!” she exclaimed. v ■' ' ' ' A

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS

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WASHINGTON TUBBS II

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SALESMAN SAM

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'The fate of Maximus Praeclarus is in your hands,’* said Fastus. “Give him up and promise to become my wife and I will see that he is not forced to appear in the arena.” “He would not have it so,’’ said the girl. “Your answer.’* said Ftetus, “concerns your father, mother and FestMtas as well as Praeclarus.”

—By Ahem

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With this enigmatic warning the rat-faced prince turned and left the loge of Dion Splendidus. Then the games started. Beneath fluttering banners and waving scarfs, the cruel, terrible, thousagd-eyed thing that is a crowd looked on amid the din of trumpets as men and animals faced each other to fight to the death. A

OUT OUR WAY

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—By Edgar* Rice Burroughs

Sublatus was a showman as well as an emperor. He knew that the most interesting performer in the arena would be the giant ape-man, and he hoped to use him throughout the week So on this first afternoon of the games Tarzan found himself thrust into the arena, unarmed, with ampler unarmed man, to do battle.

PAGE 13

—By Williams

—By Blosser

—By Crane

—By Small

—By Martin