Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 132, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 October 1931 — Page 1

CHAIN STORES TAX LAW CASE DENIED REVIEW Way Paved by U. S. Court for State to Receive License Millions. REFUSE MCKSON’S PLEA School Aid Fund Deficit Is Likely to Be Wiped Out by Decision. Several millions of dollars in back faxes and additional income of more than $1,500,000 a year was assured the state today when the United States supreme court refused to reconsider its decision in the Indiana chain store license tax case. Before adjournment last spring the highest court held constitutional the Indiana law, passed in 1929. Vote was 5 to 4. Rehearing had been petitioned by Chester H. Jackson, executor of the estate of his father, the late Lafayette A. Jackson, owner of the Standard grocery chain. The case had been instituted by Lafayette A. Jackson and fought, for the state by the staff of Attorney General James M. Ogden.

Slain by Bandits Lafayette A. .Jackson was murdered by bandits in one of his stores in the interim. Collection of the tax is in the hands of the state tax commission. When the supreme court decision first was made it was announced by Chairman James E. Showalter of the tax board that Lewis O. Johnson who has had many years service with the state administrative offices, would be in charge of the tax collections. Room has been prepared for a staff of collectors at the tax board offices at the statehouse. Back tax to be collected will include those for 1929 and 1930. Under the law's provisions, state aid for schools will get $250,000 of the 1929 tax, $550,000 in 1930, $500,000 in 1931, and $300,000 thereafter. To Wipe Out Deficit These revenues are expected to wipe out entirely the state aid deficit. George E. Cole, superintendent of public instruction, predicted that! 'he sums will be sufficent to leave state aid balances for the first time! in history. License fees provided under the I laws are: One store, $3; two to five, $1!) each; five to ten, sls each; ten to ! twenty, S2O each, and over twenty, j $25 tor each adidtional store. With the revenues from the chain ' store tax going into the state general fund, it may not be necessary to take $2,000,000 from the state highway department to keep the state tax levy at 29 cents.

CREDIT POOL ORGANIZED Directors to Be Named as Incorporation Is Made. Bv United Press NEW YORK. Oct. 12.—Names of directors of the National Credit Corporation, the $500,000,000 credit pool organized at the suggestion of President Hoover, were expected to be made public today when the corporation is scheduled to be incorporated under the laws of Delaware. The new corporation is expected to put in circulation many millions of frozen assets by discounting, sound securities for banking houses which lhev are unable to discount at, the federal reserve banks. EDISON BATTLES ON Om)tor Believes Inventor Is in Last Week. lip United Press WEST ORANGE, N. J., Oct. 12. —Thomas Alva Edison, extremely weak from effects of uremic poisoning, diabetes and stomach ulcers, today began what may be the last week of his life. Dr. Hubert S. Howe, his physician, said he did not believe Edison ran live more than a week, although the 84-year-old inventor has shown “amazing vitality” and there appears to be no immediate emergency. Edison sat up in an armchair for two hours Sunday afternoon after eating a few spoonfuls of stewed pears, but by mid-afternoon again fell asleep. MAC DONALD 65 TODAY Britain's Prime Minister Observes Birthday; Future Problematical. J}a I'nitcd Press LONDON, Oct. 12.—Prime Minister J. Ramsay MacDonald observed his sixtyififth birthday today. a national hero, but a political outcast. MacDonald's future appears as obscure as when he left a little fishing hut at Loissiemouth to enter politics. He ends his sixty-fourth year riding the crest of a wave of popularity. When the wave breaks, he may become mere political flotsam, find safe refuge in the House of Lords, or be caught up in another wave of popular enthusiasm. Hourly Temperatures 8 a. m 43 10 a. m 51 7a. m 43 11 a. m 52 ta. m 47 12 (noon).. 56 9a. m 50 Ip. m 56

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The Indianapolis Times Mostly cloudy and somewhat warmer tonight and Tuesday, probably with rain.

V OLUME 43—NUMBER 132

Accused and Accuser Meet at Picnic Death Trial

3—SSSHBESSfissssssis

When Mrs. Carrie Simmons, alleged poison murderer, posed for this picture --the best one of me in years”—last week, she.did not realize it would be strong evidence against her. Looking at this photo in his pharmacy Saturday. Charles W. Friedman. Indianapolis druggist, identified it as one of the woman who had bought a. bottle of strychnine in his store June 18, three days before the fatal picnic Today he accused Mrs. Simmons as the poison purchaser before the jury trying her for the strychnine slayings of her daughters.

NATION IS URGED TO HELP FREE MOONEY

21 Murders A woman who waited for her husband's return from work was the victim of a clubber. That was but six months ago; the most recent of twentyone unsolved murders in less than ten years in Indianapolis. Read about this slaying and others on that long list of city crimes never balanced in the scales of justice,,in the last of a series of three stories on Page 2 of today's Times.

LIFE TERM FOR BOY MURDERER Perry Swank Changes Plea to Guilty. Py Times Special CROWN POINT. Ind., Oct. 12. Perry Swank. 15-year-old slayer of an elderly filling station attendant, changed a not guilty plea to guilty today and was sentenced by Judge Martin L. Smith in Lake county criminal court to life imprisonment. The Lowell schoolboy, who had confessed he shot Eugene Duckworth, 70, to death ta get $45 and had given $44 of his loot to a young unwed mother and dropped the ether dollar in a church collection plate, was unconcerned as the brief trial progressed. He grinned happily at the sentence, congratulated his attorney. John Haller, and thanked the jury. , MINERS BACK AT WORK 27.000 Return to Jobs as Strike in Pennsylvania Ends. Ba I nited Press SCRANTON. Pa.. Oct, 12.—Twen-ty-seven thousand miners of the Glen Alden Coal Company returned to work today after a strike of more than two weeks.

JAPAN READY TO DEFY U. S. AND NATION’S LEAGUE

BY MILES VAUGHN Prfss Staff Corrfsnondfni TOKIO. Oct. 12.—Increasing indications that Japan is prepared to defy Washington and the League of Nations were evident today, after publication of Tokio's reply to the league note on Manchuria. The tensest atmosphere was created in government circles as thp reaction of the United States and the league was awaited. The note, reiterating Japan's position in Manchuria and disclaiming territorial ambitions was dispatched in time to reach an urgent session of the league council in Geneva Tuesday.

Country-Wide Demonstration Is Sabbath Feature; Letter Asks Boycott. By Tinite.d Press SAN FRANCISCO. Oct. 12. Grey-haired Tom Mooney, imprisoned and branded a felon, saw his fifteen-year battle for freedom climaxed today with a demand for nation-wide action against injustice and “framed evidence.” All the public opinion aroused by Mooney’s famous case was centered Saturday on the man behind San Quentin walls when San Francisco led the nation in acclaiming the Jiour for his pardon. Mooney him- . ?lf sounded the call for action in a; letter advocating a world-wide ooycott against California until he is out of prison. An audience of 9,000 at the Mooney anniversary convention arose in a mass to cheer his message urging adoption of the same methods that the Mahatma Gandhi used to “bring the most powerful empire to its knees.” “I suggest that all athletic and sports representatives refuse to come here in 1932 to the Olympic games as long as I, an innocent man, remain in prison.” wrote Mooney. “Governor Rolph has no more intention of freeing me than he has of taking his own life.” he said. “He has been Governor for ten months. Instead of giving me a hearing, he has been stalling.” Mooney was not alone his own advocate. Rupert Hughes, author; Fremont Older, San Francisco editor; Lincoln Steffens, liberal writer and editor; Fred Moore, defense counsel for Sacco and Vanzetti; Oscar Ameringer. Oklahoma labor editor; John D. Berry. San Francisco writer, and Judge Franklin Griffin, who presided at Mooney’s trial, all urged his pardon. “The hour for the pardon is at hand,’’ said Dr. Robert Whittaker of the American Civil Liberties Union. Mrs. Rena Mooney, wife of the convicted man, made a dramatic appearance. “I heard my husband sentenced to death,” she said. “I am here only because Frank Oxnam, the main witness against Tom, was not used against me. If Tom is guilty, I. too, am guilty.

As the hour for the meeting drew near, it appeared evident that Japan will stand her ground, should active intervention in Manchuria be attempted. The most hopeful attitude was maintained, however, in the belief that Japan’s reassurances of a desire for peace would quiet the situation. Government authorities indicated that if the league and Washington accept the Japanese view of the Manchurian crisis, they will be able to publish Japan's minimum demands for a settlement. These already have been indicated in a general note to the world powers and dealt chiefly with the antiJapanese boycott movement in China.

INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY, OCTOBEPv 12,1931

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Upper Left—Charles W. Friedman, proprietor of a pharmacy at 1002 south Meridian street, is shown standing at the soda fountain counter in his store, where he says, Mrs. Carrie W. Simmons, alleged poison murdered of her daughters, talked with him after

DEFENDANT IS IN PANIC WHEN DRUGGIST HURLS CHARGE OF POISON SALE

BY STAFF CORRESPONDENT LEBANON, Ind., Oct. 12.—Stilled by a master stroke of the prosecution, a crowded Boone county courtroom today hung on the words of Charles Friedman. Indianapolis druggist, as he accused Mrs. Carrie W. Simmons, alleged daughter poisoner. of buying strychnine from him June 18. Entering the court which had been occupied by humdrum testimony in the closing stages of the state's case in the Simmons' trial. Friedman was the target of the eyes of the jury and spectators. Like lightning, word flashed through the court that the state's star witness, brought forward by The Times, was going to tell the most sensational story of the trial. Hushed and aw-ed spectators stood on chairs and leaned on each other's shoulders, ready for the statements of the Indianapolis pharmacy owner. Mrs. Simmons, seated with her family, became nervous and pale and whispered to first one and then another of the group assembled about her. She collected herself a few minutes later and whispered to her husband John, who sat beside her, and other members of her family, grouped close by.

Defendant Is in Panic Her husband dashed to the defense table for a whispered conversation with attorneys, and, w'hen he returned, he comforted his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. Calling Mrs. Wilbur Small, wife of the county sheriff, to the stand after Friedman stepped dowm, the state asked her one question. “What., did Mrs. Simmons say to you after Friedman left the jail Sunday?” "She told me. It seems like I've seen that man and heard him talk.” Friedman, immediately after taking the stand, launched into the details of his testimony that he had sold poison to the murder suspect in his store at 1002 South Meridian street. Indianapolis, three days before the fatal Memorial park picnic here. He said he noticed her expression and remembered her face, when, during the last, two weeks, he has seen several pictures of her in Indianapolis papers. Asks Woman to Stand Turning abruptlv. Prosecutor Ben Scixres asked Mrs. Simmons to stand. Weaving slightly and supporting herself with her hands, Mrs. Simmons rose from her chair.

All Photos bv Virginia Edwards. Times Staff Photographer.

buying strychnine June 18. Friedman, Tinder oath, has identified Mrs. Simmons as the purchaser of the poison. Upper Right—Friedman as he appeared today when he told his astounding story to the jury in the Boone circuit court.

Her eyes w'avered from Friedman to other parts of the courtroom and then returned to the surprise witness. “Look at her, Friedman," Roy Adney, special prosecutor, said. “Do you know r her?” Friedman looked directly at the accused woman. Her eyes dropped. “Yes, I know her,” Friedman answered. “She is the lady to whom 1 sold the strychnine.” Recovered partly from the testimony, defense attorneys ripped into Friedman, attempting to show that he could not remember selling poison to one person, in view of the large number of people who came daily into his store. He said, though, that he remembered Mrs, Simmons and the expression on her face. Doesn’t Know Woman “Are you acquainted with Mrs. Simmons?” defense attorneys asked. “No,” Friedman replied. “Are you sure Mrs. Simmons is the woman?’’ “Yes.”

“And you couldn’t, be mistaken?" “No: I’m sure it is she.” Friedman repeated his conversation with the poison buyer again and then told how he had mentioned the sale to his wife and friends "several times since the picnic.” He told that he first, talked to state’s attorneys Saturday and his meeting in The Times office with newspaper men and the prosecution counsel. He told the defense attorneys and jury that he had been in the jail and viewed Mrs. Simmons Sunday, when he posed as a "Mr. Scott of Cincinnati.” who had been involved in an automobile crash on State Road 52. Has Story Repeated Drawing the curtain again from the drug store conversation. Charles Tindall, defense attrnev, had Friedman repeat his actions and talk w r ith Mrs. Simmons. Friedman said there was another woman in the waiting room of the county jail when he talked with Mr. and Mrs. Simmons, but that he aid not know who she was. "Were you trying to deceive the sheriff by giving the name of Scott?” Tindall asked. "No." "Who told you to give that name and who arranged for you to come to the iail?" "That fellow' over there," Friedman answered, pointing to The Times correspondent at the trial. For several minutes the defense grilled Friedman on w'hether he

Lower—This is the exterior view of the South Meridian street pharmacy of Friedman’s where The Times learned Mrs. Simmons is purported to have bought enough strychnine to kill 100 per sons.

could remember how Mrs. Simmons was dressed the day he said she was in his store. He said he could not recall the color or style of her clothing and said all he rembered was “the expression of her face.” “You can’t remember how she was dressed, but you know it was Mrs. Simmons, and she bought the poison?” “Yes.” “And you're sure of that, aren't, you?” “I am.” “What did she do after you talked to her in the store?” “She went out.” “Did you see how she left?” “No. She was alone when she walked out the door.” “Where was the poison?” “I don’t know. The last time I saw it she was holding it in her hand after she gave me the 25 cents.” Mrs. Small was not cross-exam-ined by defense attorneys and Mrs. Agnes Todd, 15 West Thirty-fourth (Turn to Page Page 6i

Sworn Accusation Made in Picnic Poison Case

State of Indiana, County of Boone, ss: My name is Charles W. Friedman. I live at 2427 North Alabama street in the city of Indianapolis. I am a druggist and own and operate a drug store at 1002 South Meridian street in said city of Indianapolis. I am a registered pharmacist. I was in the store on June 13, 1931. In fact. I had been there all morning, from 7 a. m. until noon. Along about 10 a. m. a lady came into the store and told me she wanted to buy some strychnine. I then showed her a bottle of strychnine sulphate, which sold at retail at 25 cents. She purchased the bottle of strychnine and paid me 25 cents for it. I w'rapped up the bottle and gave it to her and informed her that strychnine was a very deadly poison and that she should be very careful how she used it. I told her that if she got any on her hands to be sure to w r ash her hsnds, as it was very dangerous. We had a little conversation about this poison and she told

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Fostoffice, Indianapolis. Ind.

MRS. SIMMONS BOUGHT POISON, DRUGGIST SAYS South Side Store Owner Declares He Sold Strychnine to Defendant in Picnic Murder Trial. IDENTIFIES PRISONER AS PURCHASER Tells of Suspicions After Seeing Pictures;] Finally Decides to Ask Help of The Times in Slaying Mystery. BY STAFF CORRESPONDENT LEBANON. Ind., Oct. 12.—Mrs. Carrie Simmons, alleged poisoner of her two children, purchased sixty grains of strychnine—enough to kill 100 persons—for 25 cents in an Indianapolis drug store three days before the death of her daughters at the tragic family reunion picnic, according to charges sworn to. This was learned by The Indianapolis Times when Mrs. Simmons was identified positively by Charles W. Friedman, druggist of 1002 South Meridian street, as the poison purchaser. “She’s the woman who came into my store on .Tune 18 and bought a one-eighth ounce bottle of strychnine,” declared Friedman, after viewing Mrs. Simmons at the Boone county jail.

With the identification—the state’s last link in the poison murders that shocked Bpone county as well as the state—Friedman was rushed to the witness box in Mrs. Simmons’ trial here, to tell the story of the poison purchase which he recited to The Times. All ether testimony of the state was shelved today for the dramatic recital in the court room of the strychnine “buy.” The purchase was made on a day when Mrs. Simmons is known to have been in Indianapolis. Bought Strychnine “She came in the store about 10 o'clock the morning of June 13. I was alone in the store at the time,” calmly related the druggist. “‘I want some strychnine,’ she said to me. I got a one-eighth-ounce bottle containing sixty grains of strychnine sulphate and showed it to her. She said, ‘l’ll take it.’ ” “I warned her,” continued the druggist, “that it was a deadly poison. She told me she wanted it to kill vermin that had been killing her chickens.” “My men folks said it might be rats, but I think it’s a weasel that’s killing my chickens,” the pharmacist quoted the poison purchaser as saying.

“She asked me what was the best way to use it and I told her to put it on meat,” the druggist asserted. Warned by Druggist He warned her to be sure to w’ash her hands after handling the strychnine. “She was very calm while I was talking to her. Her voice was low. I wrapped the bottle of strychnine for her. She paid me and left. I didn’t see how she came to the store or how she left. From her conversation, I gathered she lived on a farm,” Friedman related. Friedman said he thought no more about the purchase until after the death of Alice Jean and Virginia Simmons and the poisoning of five other persons at the Sim-mons-Pollard reunion. “I saw a picture of Mrs. Simmons and thought she resembled the woman who bought the bottle of strychnine. I told my wife of the resemblance. She told me to not get mixed up in anything like that. So I said nothing,” Friedman explained. “During the last w'eex I saw another photograph of Mrs. Simmons

me that some vermin were killing her chickens. She said the menfolks thought it was rats, but she thought it was a weasel. I suggested to her if she was going to use it to kill rats or weasels, that she put it on meat. She left the store and I don't know how she went away. At that time there was no one else in the store. I had not sold a bottle of strychnine before that day for several years and I have sold no bottles of strychnine since June 18, 1931. I never saw the woman above, referred to before that day on June 18, 1931, and I never have seen her since, until today, when I saw her in the Boone county jail. I saw her with a man who is said to be her husband, and I learned her name was Carrie Simmons. CHARLES W. FRIEDMAN Subscribed and sworn before me this 11th day of October, 1931. ROY ADNEY. Notary Public. My commission expires Jan. 29, 1933.

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in The Times. The resemblance was more striking. ‘I believe that’s the woman,’ I told my wife. I told, of my beliefs to several friends and they urged me to tell authorities. Then The Times man called on me and I asked his advice,” Friedman said. After Friedman's recital of the woman's appearance in the store three days before the poison deaths, The Times got in touch with Ben Scifres, prosecuting attorney of Boone county, and Roy Adney, special prosecutor. Scifres and Adney checked each detail of Friedman's story. Convinced of its veracity, and that it was not one of the innumerable false clews that have cluttered j the Simmons poisoning case up t,o now, they brought Friedman to the Boone county jail to verify his I Photographic identification of Mrs. I Simmons. Mrs. Simmons and her husband John had been in her cell when Friedman arrived at the jail. During cleaning of the cellroom Mis. Simmons and her husband were taken by Sheriff Wilbur Small into a jail ante-room, 'where Friedman sat. Simmons talked with Friedman. Mrs. Simmons sal, on a sofa as t’ne man who accuses her of buying poison eyed her.

Sure of Identification Several times Friedman stooped to pat the sheriff’s dog that squatted at his feet, and each time he raised his head he looked into the face and eyes of his alleged customer. He sat for ten minutes in the jails anteroom studying the facial characteristic of the Hancock county farm mother. The low hum of radio music and the few words he said to Simmons were the only accompaniment for the denouement that hushed a court room today. He left the fail. Later, in the office of Prosecutor Ben Scifres, and as Special Prosecutor Adney and a Times reporter listened, he told w r ith assuredness of his ‘identification.’ “It’s her. No one could mistake that mouth and those eyes. Tim mouth has a straight, set, determined line, and the eyes are shifty. The woman who was in the drug store had that mouth and those eyes. She’s thinner than when she came to the store—her face isn’t as full.” Health Was Failing But she has that same pale look as the woman who purchased the poison,” Friedman declared. “The woman who entered the store and bought the poison didn’t have very much rouge on, if anv. She looked like she’d been sick” Friedman said. Mrs. Simmons has not worn rouge since the inception of her trial or prior to it, observers say. Her face is pallid.

Scifres and Adney declared evi- ! dence win show that Mrs. Simmons had not been in the best of health prior to the administration of the poison to her children and their subsequent deaths. A sworn statement telling of the details of the poison purchase and firmly identifying Mrs. Simmons as 'ne buyer of the huge dosage was | signed by Friedman. "Well, that’s off my mind,” he said I as the ink dried on the legal docuj ment. First Bottle Sale in Years The positiveness of Friedman s identification and the exact date of the poison purchase was due to the fact that it was the first bottle of strychnine he had sold in five years. “We sell it in tablet form ani small doses, but it was the oniv whole bottle Id sold in several years, and that’s what made me notice it more. I haven’t sold a bottle of strychnine since that purchase on June 18,” he said. “I fixed the date of the sale because on everything that’s sold ou* (Turn to Pate Page 6)

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