Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 265, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 March 1931 — Page 1

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SCHROEDERIN ‘BIG HOUSE,’ AT END OF TRAIL Prisoner Is Bitter During Lung, Cold Auto Ride to Michigan City. 'I’M NOT TOUGH BIRD’ Man Convicted of Torch Slaying Brands State’s Witnesses Liars. state* prison. Michigan CITY, Ind.. March 17.—Harold Herbert Schroeder this afternoon Rave up his identity and the world outside a prison cell to become Prisoner 14504 for from two to twenty-one years. Obviously broken by dread of imprisonment, Schrocdcr’s farewell to Sheriff Charles (Buck) Sumner and newspaper men was: “I’ll be seeing; you again.” BY EDWARD C. FULKE Times Staff Corrcspondrot MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., March 17.—-In the shadow of the walls of; Indiana state prison Harold Herbert Schroeder ate his last meal “on the outside." After a chilling four-hour drive from the county jail at Indianapo- i lis, Sheriff Charles (Buck) Sumner j gave the torch car convict his last j opportunity to eat without the em- j barrassment of handcuffs, within a j block of the prison where he must j eat for at least the next tw r o years j under the pyes of guards. Schroeder will serve a two to ! tw'enty-one-ycar term on his conviction for voluntary manslaughter by a Marion county criminal court jury. The conviction came in the state’s case in w'hich the former Mobile garage man was charged with murder for the alleged slaying and burning of an identified man ui his sedan on High School road early May 31. Schroeder ‘Pans’ Companions As Schroeder stepped from the car in front of the small restaurant near the ‘‘big house" today, Sumner took off the handcuffs which the prisoner had worn on the auto trip. Sumner jerked his thumb in the direction of the gray walls. “That’s the joint over there, Harold,” Sumner said. Schroeder glanced toward the prison, grunted and passed scowling into the restaurant. Throughout the trip, Schroeder smoked innumerable clgarets and “panned" The Times reporter and Ralph Hitch, deputy sheriff, because they made no secret that they were cold. “Just a couple of big ’he-men’ from the big city,” Schroeder said. He sat in the front seat with Sumner and the reporter. Hitch sat in the rear. Mentions His Son Schroeder didn’t discuss his family on the long trip, but, hatless, as always, stuck his head out of the car window several times and remarked that “one of my boys sure would like to see these snowdrifts.” Schroeder talked volubly, but jumped from subject to subject, even touching on the Muscle Shoals question in congress. Except for the reference to his boy, he did not mention any other members of his family. Talking about his case, he said: “I’m just a victim of circumstances, that's all. It’ll all come out In the wash some of these days.” He was bitter in condemnation of George Winkler, former sheriff, and Judson Stark, former prosecutor, who. he said, “lied about me.” He branded Detectives Jack Stump and Clarence Goldcr in the same manner. ‘Not a Tough Guy’ "The only thing itt hat I don’t dant to be stuck in jail with the hard guys up here," he said. “If they just let me alone, I’ll get along all right. I ain’t hard, even though you newspaper guys said I w’us. I'm not a tough." * He turned in the scat. A cigaret dangled from one corner of his mouth. "And as for you," he said, addressing The Times reporter, “I'll get you sure as hell after I get out of .this place. Yoa’rc one oi the guys that tried to make me a tough bird." After his lunch, Schroeder was to be taken to the prison to trade his name for a number. Tonight he will meet the man or men with whom he may “pal" behind bars for at least the next two years. Will Be Given Job Arid, within a few days, he’ll hav* a regular job in the prison, which he may hold his term if Ids behavior is good. Behind are Schroeder's wife, Mrs. Leah Schroeder. and two sons, of Mobile; a mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Schroeder of Clarion. la.; four sisters and a brother who fought side by side for the accused man’s freedom. Schroeder’s last long ride under guard of authorities, was longer than the one of today, but the destination was no less certain. That was last June 23, when Schroeder was captured in a Mobile weed patch, and returned to Indianapolis to begin his fight against a murder charge. From that time until Feb. 23. Schroeder waited in jail to be tried. Then, after fourteen days of presentation of evidence, twelve of Schroeder's peers weighed his guilt. ( Hourly Temperatures 6a. m..... 33 10 a. m 34 7a. m 33 11 a. m 35 ga. m 33 12 (noon*.. 36 8. a. m 34 Ip. m 37 *A * * "* * *

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The Indianapolis Times Partly cloudy tonight probably becoming unsettled Wednesday; lowest temperature tonight slightly aloove freezing; somewhat warmer Wednesday.

VOLUME 42—NUMBER 265

118 Win Fight for Life on Ice Floes After Ship Blast

.66 A LL HANDS were settlinfi away for the night . . . some lying in their berths smoking and some singing hymns.”

SURVIVOR TELLS STORY OF TRAGEDY

BY HENRY BROWN Survivor of the Viking disaster. ICoDYTieht. 1031. by United Press) HORSE ISLAND. Newfoundland, March 17.—(8y Radio to St. John) —All hands on the sealing ship Viking (lying off Horse island) were settling away for the night—some lying in their berths smoking and some singing hymns—when the ship trembled as if w r e had been rammed by a, powerful steamer and there was a roar like the exploding of a hundred torpedoes. The men along the main berth section midship to forecastle were thrown out of their berths. Others w r ere knocked down. We were all dazed by a terrible crashing sound and the ship dipped. The lights went out. We were dazed for a moment and then there were screams on all sides. We straggled to make our way to deck. We w'erc all out on the ice soon, and then w r e realized what had happened. We saw all the after part of the ship blown to pieces, and everything movable scattered about the ice.

PRISON BAND RIOTS AT REHEARSAL; 6 INJURED

BROTHERS AIRS IN JURY CHOICE Lingle Slaying Evidence May Begin This Week. By United Press CHICAGO, March 17.—Leo V. Brothers discharged his indifferent attitude today and became active in directing examination of prospective jurors for his trial on charges of murdering Alfred J. Lingle, Chicago Tribune crime reporter. With the blond defendant leading the examination, the probability grew that the jury would be completed by the end of the week. The defense accepted three jurors tendered by the state and agreed tentatively to a fourth. Brothers apparently was responsible for his attorneys stressing the $25,000 reward offered by the Tribune for Lingle’s slayer, the imposing array of legal talent, and the columns of publicity given to the announcement of the defendant’s arrest. A family reunion under strained circumstances before court opened brought together Leo, his father, Harry Brothers, Chicago barber; his mother, Mrs. Rose Jessen, Webster Grove, Mo., and his sister, Mrs. Esther Dick, St. Louis. Mrs. Jessen walked directly past her former husband, without a glance toward him, and pulled Leo into a corridor for a pvivate greeting while a deputy sheriff held back the curious. THIEF STAGES GUN BATTLE WITH SELF Reflection in Mirror Starts Shooting, Plunges Through Window. By United Press CLEVELAND, March 17—The burglar who staged an impromptu gun battle with himself in the Frank Fraiberg music store today evidently was so thoroughly disguised that he did not recognize himself. After rifling the cash register of SSO. the robber confronted his own image in a full view mirror, as he turned around. Apparently mistaking it for an interloper, he 'fired three shots at the reflection, plunged head first through a plate glass window to the street and escaped amid a fusillade of shots fired from an approaching police car.

MISSING CAMERAMAN ON VIKING WILL RETURN, SAYS MOTHER

NEW YORK, March 17. After a night of sleepless suspense Mrs. Antoinette Frissell gave brave assurance that her son, Varick, movie cameraman, is safe and helping injured survivors of the Viking disaster. Frissell was with the Viking filming the seal hunt. “He has been in danger before,” she said, “and he always came back and he will come home again this time, too." “I see no reason for feeling unduly apprehensive nbout Varick’s fate." she went on. “He is in good health, he knows the north, and I really believe he is safe and helping the injured.”

66 a ROAR LIKE the exploding of a hundred torpedoes . . . the men were thrown out of their berths ... a terrible crashing sound.”

By United Press STATEVILLE PRISON, JOLIET, 111., March 17.—Part of the Stateville prison band started a riot during rehearsal today, battling among themselves for a quarter of an hour with chairs, instruments and music stands before quieting down of their own accord. After the fight six of the convict-musicians were taken to the prison hospital, five of them cut and battered severely and one slightly. One other of the musicians was thrown into solitary confinement for questioning as to the cause of the disturbance. Fearful of another serious riot like the one last Saturday in the old prison on the edge of Joliet, Warden Henry C. Hill hastened to the aid of his chief deputy, Frank Kness, as soon as word of the outbreak was flashed to his office. He arrived, however, after the battle was over.

First Always First on the air. First in the air. That sums up The Times basketball service. The Times today prints the complete dope sheet on eight of the state high school cage teams which will play in the state tourney here Friday and Saturday. The first eight appeared in Monday’s sport pages. Dick Miller, riding in Dick Arnett’s Waco-Stinson plane, covered the sixteen cities represented in the tournament in two days, giving Times readers far faster service than ever before has been accorded basket fans of city and state. The Times leads, on the air and in the air. Competitors follow'—far behind. So remember—tune in on WFBM Friday and Saturday for the annual Times broadcast of the state cage tourney.

VISION MANY JOBS 1931 Highway Program Will Give Work to Many. When the 1931 state highway department paving program is in full swing the surplus labor problem in many Hoosier villages through which the highways pass will be solved largely, state highway officials believe. Thomas H. McDonald, chief of the federal bureau of roads, estimates that three-fourths of every dollar spent in road building goes to labor. Indiana will have contracted for 272 miles of paving and 28 miles of heavy grading after the next letting of bids. Officials also point out that the annual purchase of 1,750,000 barrels of cement from Indiana mills also will aid in solving the unemployment problem.

RECALLING earlier adventures of her son, Mrs. Frissell said: “There was a time two years ago, when he went up the Labrador coast to make the first shots for the picture, ‘White Thunder.’ “One day he got caught in what they call an ice pan. He was in real danger of losing his life. But his big New Foundland dog Cabot came to his rescue and saved him. “When he returned home he brought Cabot along and announced to us that the dog was going to live in the house. “ ‘My goodness,’ I remonstrated. ‘You can’t keep a big animal like that in heif .’

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, MARCH, 17, 1931

Among the wreckage we could see bodies lying motionless and other men struggling to get out of the wreckage. They were moaning and calling for help from all sides. The aft part of the vessel almost had disappeared except for the wreckage strewn on the ice. A fire started in the engine room and also from the second deck abaft the forecastle. Some closely packed ice kept the forward part of the ship from sinking right away. Some of the men tried to get back between decks to get food and clothing. They couldn’t get much. We helped the injured men to get out of the wreckage. Some of the men w'erc killed and others were maimed and died soon. Some others died on the w'ay to the shore. Most of the missing were killed in their berths, and went dowai with the ship. I think some of the injured will reach shore, because their shipmates are sticking by them.

Th* first Kness knew of the rioting was when a guard sighted a convict limping toward the hospital. From him the guard learned the prisoners had been battling in the bandroom and the remainder of the score of convicts w'ere rounded and herded into their cells. Guards Can’t Hear Fight The story of the rioting as pieced together by Kness, who has been on duty day and night since Saturday, was that the musicians began arguing among themselves about staging a riot as soon as the bandmaster left the room for a special St. Patrick’s day concert. Part of the score set upon the convicts w'ho demurred at rioting. Fists, chairs, music stands and instruments flew in the melee. The convicts, most of them young men in the prison for minor offenses, surged and battled back and forth in the band room. Guards stationed nearby, but outside the room, did not hear the‘disturbance. After fifteen minutes or so the convicts quit of their own accord and the injured ones started toward the hospital. Blames General Unrest Kness and Hill said while several j of the men were cut guards were unable to find any knives. Apparently the convicts fought with saxophones, trombones, drumsticks, or whatever weapons they could lay their hands on, Hill said. Hill attributed the riot to the general unrest iri the two prisons, four miles apart, after the more serious rioting last Saturday. Only Sunday Kness unearthed a plot for a wholesale break, confiscating six saw's and a code message which contained plans for the break. PRISON RECORD IS~ SET Michigan Institution Lists 5,500 Inmates for High Mark. By United Press JACKSON. Mich., March 17. Michigan state prison today had the largest population of any in the United States. The figure rose to 5,500, setting anew mark in Amer--1 ica.

“Varick, however, insisted, and of course, we gave in at the end. They were inseparable.” * * n DR. LEWIS FRISSELL, the father, maintained an air of cheerful optimism. “The boy has been through all this before,” he said. “He had a similar experience while taking another picture on Greenly island, off Labrador, two years ago. That was the island, you remember, on w'hich the German plane, Bremen, landed.” Varick is the only son. but there is a daughter Antoinette. Captain Bob the man

66W E WERE * * all out onthe ice soon . . . they were moaning and calling for help on all sides . . . the ship was in ruins ”

COUNTY TO CUT RELIEF COSTS

Council to Survey Plans of Charity Officials.

Recommendations of charity heads and county officials for reductions in Marion county's poor relief expenditures w r ere to be reviewed by county council this afternoon preparatory to curtailing the spehdiifg of $75,000 to SIOO,OOO monthly from county funds. The former grup met at luncheon i nthe Chamber of Commerce to discuss a plea to trustees to pare all expenses in relief of poor persons, and to consider $400,000 in unpaid bills that have accumulated since December by the nine township trustees. Continuation of the present relief scale will increase property tax in the county 25 cents on each SIOO, County Auditor Harry Dunn disclosed to the council Monday. Alleged loose methods of administering relief were criticised by councilmen Monday. Councilman Roy Sahm urged trustees to investigate applications for aid and to purchase food supplies at lowest possible costs. Councilman Frank S. Fishback reprimanded trustees for awarding grocery contracts to only thirtytwo of 400 grocers in the county. BOOK WAR TO BEGIN Fight on School Text Bids Will Be Reopened. Battle to reject all bids received on public school textbooks last December will be reopened Mond ~ when the, state board of education sits as a school book commission to consider contracts. Following a meeting of the education board Monday, George C. Cole, new' superintendent of public instruction, said the board will reconvene then. L. M. Hines, president of the state teachers’ college in Terre Haute, who first attacked the bids as too high, 1$ expected to return and begin his fight again. None of the books now in use was cut in price in the bids, which are for five years. Giant X-Ray Tube Made By Unit ’d Press PASADENA, Cal.. March 17.—A giant X-ray tube, developing 600,000 volts, has been developed at the Califomii Institute of Technology, for treating cancer patients, a statement issued by the institute announced today.

who “took Peary so close to the north pole you could almost touch it,” told today how he became a movie actor for young Varick Frissell on a former expedition of the sealer Viking, and how the first picture would have been good enough if Hollywood had- let it alone. nun “npHEY would not like that picture as it was, taken as we of the fishery took it.” Barlett said, “so the lad had to be going off in the vessel again and add something to it. And now there s been an accident. “And now', if you ask me, all the

6i COME DIED on the way to shore ... I think most of the injured will reach shore because their shipmates stuck by them.”

Twenty-Five Aboard Viking at Time of Explosion Still Missing; Heroic Stories Told by Sealing Vessel Survivors. BY JOHN T. MEANEY United Press Staff Correspondent (CoDyrisht, 1931. by United Press) ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland, March 17.—The survivors of the wrecked sealer Viking’, half starved, suffering from exposure and many of them injured, were cared for by the inadequate facilities of barren Horse island today, while a full estimate of the tragedy surrounding them slowly was being pieced together by radio from the island. The latest word said 118 survivors had struggled across the treacherous ice floes to the island since Sunday night when the sealer blew up and burned. The remaining twenty-five of the 143 persons aboard were missing and it was feared they were dead.

They included the thro* Americans Varick Frissel, New York explorer; Henry J. Sargent, Boston, explorer, and A. E. Penrod of New York and Connecticut, cameraman. The news from the island was being sent out by Miss Ottis Bartlett, the operator of the feeble Horse Island transmitter. The first coherent statement by Captain Abram Kean Jr. of the Viking, w r ho is on Horse Island badly injured, w'as sent out today. Kean expressed the belief that the three Americans w ere killed in the explosion. He was in a critical condition, awaiting arrival of relief ships with doctors and medicine and painfully made the following statement: “I am unable to account for the cause of the disaster. It was due, in my opinion, to an explosion in the magazine w'hile the boatswain and men were opening a powder keg for the next’s day’s use. That merely is surmise, of course. Radio Operator Lost “I think all the men in the cabin section were killed outright by the explosion. They included Frissell, Sargent, Penrod, the engineers, w'ireless operator, navigator, cooks, cabin steward and boatsw'ain. The mate had a leg broken and I don’t think he will survive.” Previous unconfirmed reports had suggested Frissell, a kinsman of Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania, was seen alive on the ice after the disaster, but grave fears were felt for his safety in view of the captain’s statement. The Viking carried 138 sealing men, the three New Yorkers and two stowaways. The explosion tore the after part of the ship in pieces on Sunday night, killing and maiming those within range.Rescue Ships on Way The survivors fled from the burning ship to the ice, without time to get adequate provisions or clothing, and since then have been making their painful way across the floes to the island. The steamers Foundation Franklin and Sagona with food, medicine and doctors, were making a slow passage to the island through heavy seas and ice. The Foundation Franklin was expected to reach the scene late today. Horse island, sometimes called St. Barbe island, is a small body of land about sixteen miles off the northern coast of Newfoundland and some 225 miles by air line in a northerwesterly direction from St. Johns. A group of seven survivors who were the last to reach Horse island on Monday night said that several

experts of Hollywood will be trying to buy that film.” Bartlett feared Frissell had been hurt because “if he was not injured, he would be the first across the ice with the news for the world.” “He is that way,” the captain said. st u u Frissell was bom at New York, and at the age of 27 attained a reputation as an explorer and motion picture promoter. He spent a vacation crossing Labrador by dog sled before he entered Yale university, where he took part in water polo and rowing and was a member of the glee club.

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of the wounded in their party had collapsed en route. Some of the seamen in the party had refused to leave the exhausted men and w r ere standing by at the risk of their own lives, although they would have been able to continue to safetly had they desired. The man had been exposed to cold and had been without food since 9 p. m. Sunday, w'hen an explosion—probably caused by the dynamite which sealers carry to break ice blockades, but perhaps by a defect in the boiler —destroyed the fifty-year-old Viking. The radio operator at Horse island heard the rumble of the blast and saw a great sheet of flame leap into the sky. The aft part of the ship was WTecked, the survivors revealed later, and virtually all of the men in the cabin were killed. The blast hurled wounded and dying on to the ice and the others escaped from the burning ship only to be stranded on the treacherous ice. Start Eight-Mile Trek They were all in a pitiful condition from shock and W'ounds as they began the . eight-mile trek across the ice to Horse island. The flames from the ship lighted their path at first, but later they fought on in the darkness, aiding those W'ho w r ere too exhausted to go on. Part of the struggle was witnessed from the shore where watchers could see men slip and fall to the ice or into the w'ater. Men from Horse island, accustomed to the rigors of an ice-locked home, w'ent out on the floes to aid in the rescue, but the difficulties of crossing the ice hindered their efforts. Late Monday morning, the first group of fifteen survivors staggered to the shore, exhausted and incoherent. There was a lack of medical supplies to care for them and there w’ere no doctors to attend to the dying. Heroic Stories Told Physicians and nurses will not reach the island util the steamer Sagona makes its way there through the ice. The survivors were given every possible attention on the island, but several of them were unconscious and others were in urgent need of professional medical care. Some had been exposed to cold ur eighteen hours or more after falling Into the water in the scramble to escape from the sinking Viking. Several were drowned at the side of the ship. Several members of the crew suffered loss of arms or legs in the explosion. Most of the deck and topside of the upper structure was hurled into the air and scattered over the ice, where the bodies of some members of the crew also were hurled. . The ice held the ship to the surface until it had burned almost to the edge of the water, and then it sank. The fire could be seen in villages thirty miles away. ASKS DIVORCE: SAYS WIFE’S ‘CAGE CRAZY’ She Neglected Home Seeing Basketball Games, Claims Hubby. By United Press NOBLESVILLE, Ind.. March 17. A divorce complaint befitting this season in Hoosierdom, is on file here today. Robert H. Hines charges that his wife Mahala attends so many basketball games that her household duties are unpardonably neglected. They have been married since-last May.

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STRIKERS TRAP OFFICERS; FOUR SHOT IN FRAY Deputy Sheriffs Wounded When Ambushed at East St. Louis. EXCHANGE 400 BULLETS Squad Attacked While orr Way to Meet Nonunion Metal Workers. By United Press EAST ST. LOUIS, 111., March 17. —A squad of special deputy sheriffs was trapped in ambush today by nearly 100 striking metal workers. who opened fire with shotguns ana revolvers from behind a semicircle of twenty-five automobiles, exchanging about 400 shots with ! the officers, four of w-hom w r ere wounded. • The strikers were driven off. carrying several wounded with them, when a group of workers, armed with shotguns, came to the aid of the deputies. The deputies were on their way to a Mississippi river ferry landing to give protection to St. Louis laborers employed by a construction concern when they drove into the trap. Catch Officers in Cross-Fire The strikers w r ho had protested the importation of the St. Louis workers were lying in wait in a hollow' near an abandoned farm house. They had parked their cars in a semi-circle across the road where they could catch the deputies in cross-fire. When the deputies’ car reached the trap, the strikers leaped up from a weed-filled ditch alongside the road, and let loose a volley of shotgun slugs and revolver bullets. The deputies stopped their car and returned the fire of the strikers as they ran for cover. The shots were heard by laborers working on a nearby rai road embankment. They armed themselves with shotguns and went over

the embankment. Before they were within shooting distance the strikers re-entered their cars and raced away. Deupty Chief Wounded Jack Johnson, chief deputy, was wounded' slightly and E. C. GofT. John Watkins and Thomas J. McMurray also were wounded. The St. Louis laborers the deputies had been detailed to guard were hired by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company for tank construction ‘ work at a Phillips Petroleum Company tank farm near Monsanto, 111 John L. McCarthy, secretary and business agent of the ironworkers' local union, said his organization had objected to the employment of nonunion iron workers on the tanks. He declined to comment on the attack, saying he didn’t “know anything about it." After he had received treatment for his wounds Johnson gave an account of the battle. Ordered Behind Cover “I told the other deputies to get behind cover and to shoot to kill. About 400 shots were fired, the fighting lasting between ten and fifteen minutes. All of us who were wounded got out at the first volley. I think. “Most of them were using shotguns. We used revolvers. I couldn't tell how many we hit, but I saw them place at least one wounded man in an automobile. I think we hit others.” The firing ceased for a minute when the other workers appeared with shotguns. Goff took advantage of the lull to run for a railroad embankment. One of the strikers stepped from behind a tree and shot him. “I’m Shot Already” “I fell over the railroad embankment,” Goff said later. “The fellow who shot me ran toward me. “I pleaded with him. ‘l’m shot already, don't shoot any more.’ He took my revolver and went off.” The attacking party then withdrew to their automobiles. They drove off toward Cahokia, yelling, "scabs, scabs, scabs,” cursing and firing into the air. Later Johnson and some of the other deputies went to the ferry landing and escorted the non-union workers to their jobs. Extra deputies armed with riot guns were placed on duty about the tanfcs where the non-union men continued their work. MAYOR WEARS ‘GREEN’ Spray of Shamrock, Clay Pipe From Ireland, Are Gift. A spray of shamrock adorned the. coat of Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan today in his observance of St. Patrick’s day. The insignia of old Erin was presented to Sullivan by James E. Deery, city attorney, along with a white clay pipe that had been sent Deery by a friend in Ireland.

Play Golf Fourth and last contest for free golf lessons is on. The ten girls who won in the third Times contest started their contest Monday night at the Smith-Nelson Golf academy. They will take their second lesson Wednesday night at 6 o’clock. Deadline for the essay contest, of 150 words, on “Why I Would Like to Take Up Golf?” is Wednesday, March 26, at midnight. Get your essay in now and enter the race for six free golf lessons, starting Monday, March 30.