Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 242, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 December 1935 — Page 3

DEC. IS. 1935

MURDER OF EDITORIAL FOES OF OLSON IN CRIME-RIDDEN CITY TERMED ‘COINCIDENCE’ Minnesota Governor Bitterly Attacked by Slain Journalists, But They Also Made Enemies in Underworld, Writer Says. RV FORREST DAVIS lime. Sp.eia! Writer MINNEAPOLIS, I)ec. 18. —Floyd P>. Olson is the threetime Governor of Minnesota. A Farmer-Laborite, although hp began his political career as a machine Democrat, Mr. Olson still is regarded by prudent members of the Citizens Alliance as a “red radical." JI is followers affectionately dub him “the big Swede.” lie is a “native radical,” not a Marxist, and his career bears a charmed life.

Gov. Olson, the idol of tim- ' orous radicals elsewhere who shrink from the iron laws of Marxism but long for revolution, has erected a personal political organization upon the substructure of the old Non-Partisan League and the Farmer-Labor Association. The Olson supra-party organization is known as the AllParty Union. It would be nonsense to say that the Olson party employs murder as a political weapon. Rational Americans could not conceive of a political movement using force to eliminate journalistic critics. Much less could they believe that an enlightened, humane intellectual such as Gov. Olson might sanction a purge” of his enemies. Yet, by some coincidence, within 15 months two anti-Olson editors have been shot down in Minneapolis and the freedom of the press in this bailiwick of radicalism has b*en curtailed immoderately by firearms. Guilford Slaying Recalled One night in Sepl ember, 1934, Howard Guilford, editor of a small, prying newspaper known as the Saturday Press, announced over the radio that he intended to publish disclosures affecting Mr. Olson's relations to the underworld while he, Mr. Olson, was prosecuting attorney of Hennepin County, of which Minneapolis is the county seat. Mr. Guilford, whose ethical canons were said not to be irreproachable, j was shot down the following night as lie left a fruit stand after buying Ihe breakfast oranges and exchang- \ ing small chat with his friend the proprietor. Shotgun shells tore off his face. No one ever was prosecuted. It soon was forgotten. Last week Walter W. Liggett, a burly, combative journalist, who had ranged far in pursuit of his trade and finally settled in his native state 1o run a weekly and take a hand in politics, was slated to make a speech before tlie Minnesota House of Representatives. Mr. Liggett was to have been invited to the floor in the role of a citizen with a grievance. That is a privilege accorded citizens of Minnesota. Sought Olson Impeachment Mr. Liggett had his speech prepared. He intended to demand the impeachment of Gov. Olson. For 20 consecutive weeks he had voiced that demand in his paper. The speech was to be the detonator of a political plot. When Mr. Liggett had finished, a dozen members were to arise, demanding the floor. Oiip, it was thought, would succeed in introducing a resolution calling foi Mr. Olson's impeachment. But on the preceding Monday night. Mr. Liggett, extricating his bulk from behind the steering wheel of Ihe family car. was riddled with /machine gun bullets in the alley back of his apartment home as his wife and 10-year-old daughter helplessly looked on. A leading citizen of Minneapolis was reading the latest issue of Liggett's green-paper sheet, the Midwest American, when a secretary phoned him the news. He had finished with a strongly worded article which demanded the ouster of Mr. Olson or the indictment of the editor for criminal libel. Good Citizens Shocked “My God!” he said to his wife, reverting to the Guilford case, "the mortality rate for editors in this town is getting high.” The two murders were not precisely on the same footing. Their principal likeness’, 1 indeed, lay in the fact that both victims were editors and both had been attacking Gov. Olson with the threat of more to come. Mr. Guilford's paper only a little while before had changed its emphasis, minimizing the dirt about which citizen had been observed in t lie sompany of which town blond and concentrating its fire on political corruption. Mr. Liggett never conducted a scandal sheet. A veteran of the Non-Partisan League movement in North Dakota and Minnesota. Mr. Liggett returned to his native state in 1933 after a roving career as a crusading journalist. He worked on solid New York newspapers. For a time he was managing editor of the Socialist Call in New York. He exposed the lax enforcement of the prohibition laws in a series of articles for the magazine Plain Talk. He wrote a book debunking Herbert Hoover. Help Found Movement When he settled in Minneapolis in the fall of 1934 and began to publish the Midwest American here, he was returning to his old stamping ground. As one of the founders of the radical movement in the Northwest. with A. C. Townley, Charles Lindbergh Sr. and others, he believed h§ had a right to his say about t lie way it was being administered by Mr. Olson. Mr. Liggett was no carpet-bagger in radical Minnesota. He assumed to speak for ihe Non-Partisan League "old guard.” which believed that Mr. Olson's all-party coalition had deprived them of influence. He regarded himself as a factional leader. His little newspaper, published in an outlying residential section. attacked Mr. Olson. It also lambasted the underworld, the "reformed" bootleggers dominating the liquor situation, and the mobsters who had organized the slot machines, gambling, night clubs and prostitution into paying enterprises. Spears Aimed at Olson r But his headlong crusades against the underworld were aimed ovpr the underworld’s head ai Gov Olson. The purport of his weekly exposures was that Oison had a perversed

simon pure Northwest radicalism; that in building a political machine based on the Twin Cities and Duluth, Gov. Olson had made practical trades with the underworld. Mr. Liggett's spear never wavered from Gov. Olson's breast. The darts were for the mobsters. The death of Mr. Liggett—a peculiarly poignant end to a city of home-keeping citizens, inasmuch as the editor when shot was reaching lor a namper of groceries in the back of the car—aroused Minne- ■ apolis. Asa rocket, it illuminated the scene. And in the light, the half million residents of this tow r n and the numerous neighbors in St. Paul observed a situation ! slightly more shameful than exists in other American cities. Authorities Pass Buck All cities have gangs and mob violence. They are American phenomena. But nowhere else, not even in Chicago during the hilarious heyday of Al Capone, have the authorities been so brazenly, so stolidly apathetic to crime. The murder of an editor elsewhere w'ould have brought at least the conventional expressions of regret and aroused moral indignation from state and city officials. Here, for one week, the authorities industriously passed the buck, speaking of the shocking crime with amazing caution. Gov. Olson, expressing his regret in guarded language, twice appealed to the Federal government for help in ferreting a local homicide. He was rebuffed. The county attorney and the attorney general decorously disputed among themselves as to which had jurisdiction. Minneapolis Is Aroused But Minneapolis, the sensitive, articulate part of Minneapolis, lias awakened. The town ordinarily is indifferent to criticism, for reasons which shall be taken up in subsequent dispatches, but the challenge of the Liggett murder will not down. The coincidence is too remarkable; the demonstrated arrogance of the underworld, in the opinion of responsible citizens, bears investigation. Atty. Gen. Homer S. Cummings called the Twin Cities the "poison spots" of American crime. The epithet weighed lightly at the time. But Minneapolis grows thin-skinned about, its reputation. "They can't kiss off the Liggett case.” one hears. A change may be at hand. Cann Faces Indictment By I nih il Prrss MINNEAPOLIS. Dec. 18.—Indictment of Isadore <Kid Canm Blumenfeld in connection with the murder of Walter Liggett will be sought before a grand jury Friday, prosecutors said today. Authorities originally had planned to present their evidence to the grand jury today, but additional developments prompted them to seek a delay. An automobile driven by Cann on the day the crusading editor was shot down has been impounded and was to be viewed by witnesses today. The editor's widow and Wesley Audeve.seh have named Cann as the slayer. State Senator George P. Wolfe revealed yesterday he was at Ihe scene of the slaying a few' minutes before Liggett w'as shot and saw a car in the alley. All will appear before the grand jury.

OFFICIAL WEATHER .United States Weather Bureau

Sunrise 7:02 I Sunset 4:22 TEMPERATURE —Dec. 18. 1934 7 a.m., 31 I p. m 39 —Today—-fi-a. m 28 10 a. m. 28 7 a. m 28 II a. m. .29 8a.m... 29 12 Noon 29 9 a. m. 28 BAROMETER * a. m. 29.84 Precipitation 24 hrs. ending 7 a. in. .01 Total precipitation since Jan. 1 . 37 01 Deficiency since Jan. 1 1.59 OTHER CITIES AT 7 A. M. Station. Weather. Bar. Temp. Amarillo. Tex Clear 30.20 32 Bismarck. N. D. .. Clear 30.06 22 Dos ion Clear 29.72 20 Chicago Cloudy 29.82 28 Cincinnati Clear 29.80 30 Denver Clear 30.16 28 Dodge Citv Kas Clear 30.20 28 Helena. Mont PiCldv 30.30 18 Jacksonville. Fla. . PtCldv 30.16 38 Kansas City. Mo. .. Clear 30.02 30 Little Rock. Ark. . Clear SO 02 32 Los Angeles Clear 30.02 56 Miami. Fla Clear 30.12 46 Minneapolis Snow 29 86 18 Mobile. Ala Clear 30.16 42 New Orleans Clear 30.22 44 New York Snow 29.86 30 Oklahoma Citv ... Clear 30 16 30 Omaha. Neb .. Clear 30.02 26 Pittsburgh Cloudy 29.80 30 Portland, Ore. . Clear 30.22 36 San Antonio. Tex. . PiCldv 30.22 40 San Francisco .... Clear 40.04 46 St. Louis Clear 29 92 32 Tampa. Fla. Cloudv 30.18 42 Washington. D. C. Cloudv 29.90 38 SENATOR M'CARRAN ILL Confined to Chicago Hospital With Stomach Ailment. By I'nitnl frets CHICAGO. Dec. 18 —Senator Patrick A. McCarran. 59. of Nevada, today was a patient in Presbyterian Hospital suffering from a stomach ailment. Mrs. McCarran. who arrived last night from Washington, sad the Senator was stricken in Chicago Monday while en route to Washington. GIVES KOREAN PAPERS Former Student Presents Classics to His University. SEATTLE. Dec. 18.—A collection of 200 Korean classics, written in Chinese characters by Korean 'cholars from the fifteenth century to the present day. was presented to the University of Washington library by Ralph Corey, former student. j V . ... 7

Season’s Qreetings from the Quins

WS i' MB i ?|| I r ~ , Copy rich t. r>P.:.. N K.V Service. Ine.

Ao streeter Christmas greeting will f/o out this season than the one the Dionne quintuplets send you here. Yvonne, Cecile, and Entilie, their innocent child-faces franted in Christmas wreaths, wish you Christinas joy and the greetings of a season dedicated to the story of another Babe, born in Bethlehem so many years ago.

WOMAN KILLED IN AUTO MISHAP County Toll Hiked to 148, 10 in Excess of All of Last Year. Marion County’s death roll from traffic accidents stands today at, 148. which is 10 more than for all of last year. Mrs. Margaret B Long, 458 N. Goodlet-av, died yesterday afternoon in the admitting room of City Hospital as a result of a skull fracdure incurred a few traffi r minutes earlier IKAFFIC when S he was DEATHS struck at Concord i:u its and Michigan-sts 1 I®, by a car driven by Dec. is .. otis Ijeei 22. of 333 N. Elder-av. She was 68. Mr. Lee was not held. He told police Mrs. Long walked against a side of his car. Her death was the third traffic fatality in the county in 18 hours. Mrs. Long, widow of Edward Long, had spent most of her life on the West Side. Survivors are four daughters, Mrs. Dellia Stradtman, Mrs. Mary Wilson, Mrs. Julia Hamant. and Mrs. Marie Treaey, and four sons, Leo, Joseph, Francis and Thomas Long. Her husband died 20 years ago. Fracture of the right wrist was incurred yesterday by Bruce White. 15, of 1516 Sheldon-st, when an automobile struck him w’hile he was riding a bicycle at New' Jersey and Ohio-sts. He was taken to City Hospital by Ralph Wyon, 810 N. Illinois-st, driver of the car. Mrs. J. F. Evans, 31, of 735 E. Maplc-rd. w'as treated at City Hospital for leg injuries received when struck by a bus yesterday at Ohiost and Capitol-av. N. S. Burrow's. 42. driver of the bus. ow'ned by the Indianapolis A Southeastern Lines, was not held. Daniel W. Elder. 26. of 605 Springst, assistant city chemist, is suffering from a four-inch gash on his face, incurred last night while he w'as driving his automobile on New'

mH-fticir £<<&/ ’ [soooLinenAA/Kerchiefs t Regular 29c Hand-Appliqued f f now y 2 price |PA tl jl Months^ ago we persuaded a leading importer to sell I | j * Jj \ \ before*'ChrirtmlT We goMhiXeak bec"a Uwe're I. J ForWmen \ / jjL "Vj / wcfcl—p buysnl * Misses qualities at their regular, high* \ j.. will be no morel Be here earlyl /f/ dfjockt \l Ha-’dserchief Deparfmtnf, Sheet Flsor.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

398 Clothed Up It Goes Toward 500 Mark—Do Your Bit in Drive!

Individual donors clothed 398 children Mile-of-Dinies $1660.00 Office Cash 828.94 Men who work near forge fires and around steel castings know what frosty w-inds do to boys and girls of school age. In their furnace fires they see the reflection of the faces of needy children and today, heeding that call, the employes of the National Malleable and Steel Castings Cos. lifted Clothe-a-Child of The Indianapolis Times to within two children of the 400 mark. Who'll make it 400? Their Christmas gift w ; as a request to dress 22 boys and girls. Five hundred children., assured warm clothing for the school days to come, nears. New' donors, bringing the total to 398 children garbed, follow': Employe* of National Malleable & Steel Castings Cos., II boys and J 1 jfirls. In memory of Helen, girl. Mothers Club. Oak Hill Kindergarten, *irl. Sequoia Club. girl. Filling Station Employes Union, No. 18,990, girl. Day Side. Composing Room, Indian* apolis Times, two children. Continental Optical Company Employes eared for five children and took two more. Office of Standard Grocery Cos., girl. Sigma Delta Kappa fraternity. Gamma chanter, boy. Employes of Van Camp Milk Company, hoy. York-st between Pine and David-son-sts. He told police some object w'ent through the windshield, making a small hole, and struck him in the face. He w'as treated at City Hospital.

OPEN DRIVE TO CUT ACCIDENTS U. S. Calls Parley to Map Campaign to Reduce 100,000 Fatalities. Bn I titled Press WASHINGTON, Dec. 18.—President Roosevelt today promised to back to the limit the decisions to be made by Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper's safety .conference in a nation-wide effort to save American life and limb. Mr. Roosevelt received conference leaders in his office and chatted with them informally. He said the government w'ould do its full part in furthering any accident prevention program arrived at by the conferees. Representatives of Governors of 25 states and a score of national safety organizations, large newspapers and magazines and accident experts are scheduled to attend a brief session of Commerce Secretary Daniel C. Roper's accident prevention conference today. Subcommittees then will take up such problem* as highway, industrial and home accidents. Admiral Cary T. Grayson. American Red Cross president, is scheduled to open the meetings. Mr. Roper then will detail the history and problems of accident prevention confronting the conference. “While the highway accident situation is overwhelming in the public eye,” Mr. Roper said prior to the conference, “other types of accidents will not be ignored by the group. It is estimated that during 1934 about 101.000 persons w'ere fatally injured in the following types of accidents: Motor vehicle, 36,000; home. 34,500; public, 17.500. and occupational, 16.000. Additionally, 9.720.000 are estimated to have been temporarily or permanently disabled, home accidents alone disabling approximately 5,100,000 persons.”

POLICE GUARD TRUCKS TO CHEVROLET PLANT Troubk* Threatened Despite Word of Labor Settlement. Despite reported settlement of a j labor dispute, police guard has been : enlisted for trucks hauling material I for construction of the new' Chevrolet Body Cotp. plant, White Riverblvd and Henry-st. Police went on duty last night after reports that men in two automobiles were threatening to blow' up ; trucks of the Ready Mixed Concrete Cos., 1100 Buraal-pkw'y. Aid was asked by Ernest Horn, concrete company manager, who de- , dared the labor dispute had been settled. STEPMOTHER IS FOUND GUILTY Fort Wayne Woman Faces Life Term in Poison Death of Girl. By In itcit Pnns FORT WAYNE. Ind., Dec. 18.— Found guilty of the poison murder of her 13-year-old stepdaughter, Mrs. Laura Doermer today faced a sentence of life in prison. A jury of ten men and tw'o women deliberated four and one-half hours before accepting the state’s contention that Mrs. Doermer killed the girl, Bernadine, by putting arsenic in a dish of cottage cheese last April 3. Mrs. Doermer showed no emotion W'hen the verdict was announced. Bernadene died April 11. Her sister. Imogene, 16. who also ate a portion of the cheese, recovered after a critical illness. Defense counsel said they would file a motion for a new' trial Dec. 23 and if necessary would appeal the case. The jury found Mrs. Doermer guilty of second-degree murder.

HOFFMAN BARES DOUBT ON CRIME Lindbergh Kidnaping Not Solved Completely in His Opinion. By l nilrit Press ALLENTOWN. Pa., Dec. 18.—Gov. Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey "has some doubts" that the Lindbergh kidnaping has been solved completely, it was revealed here today. “I have not yet found a person who feels positive that the last chapter in that crime has been written.” he said. “Nor have I found a person w'ho is wholly without doubt that the entire story has been told. “I say that without any reflection upon the able court and jury that tried Bruno Richard Hauptmann. found him guilty and sentenced him to die in the electric chair. “The point is, there still is much to be cleared up. I. in common with just about everybody I speak to. would like to see it cleared up. "What is going to be done about it? Well, I do not know." Surprise Witness Hinted By I nih'ii Pn s TRENTON, N. J.. Dec. 18.—Bruno Richard Hauptmann may have a surprise witness before the Court, of Pardons, the condemned man's spiritual adviser, the Rev. John Maithieson, said today. The surprise witness is a lawyer whom the Bronx carpenter consulted long before his arrest as the Lindbergh baby kidnaper, the pastor said. Hauptmann asked *he attorney how he should go about disposing of the effects of his friend. Isador Fisch. who died in Germany. “I did not ask Hauptmann w'ho the lawyer was.” the Rev. Matthiesen said. “I am his spiritual adviser. not an investigator.” Defense counselors will visit the condemned man today to confer with him about his plea for a "lie detector” test.

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POLICE REFUSE TO GIVE UP IN TODD MYSTERY Admit They Are Dissatisfied With Results So Far in Investigation. (Continued From Page One) No. no, no. no. Thelma, Thelma Todd, your flittle Hot Toddy. Get ahold ol yourself. Toots!’ No on* but Thelma ever used the nickname. Little Hot Toddy. She said she was bringing over a surprise guest in a half nour. She never came. At 7 ociock. George Baker, an assistant director and a iriena of Thelma >. got worried. He called her home at tne beach. The man who answered said he hadn t seen Thelma all day. Perhaps everything would be cleared up if this mysterious person Thelma intended to bring to my party would step forward and explain." Capt. Bert Wallis ol the homicide squau said he mienoed to question some of the guests, who waited in vain for Tnelma to appear and take over her role as the life of the party.” Another phase of the police inquiry swung back to the trip Thelma macie from tne Case Trocadero to her apartment above Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Case," four miles beyond Santa Monica on the road to Malibu Beach. Ernest O. Peters, the hired chauffeur who drove Miss Todd to her tryst with death, was requestioned by police, who asked him how be was able to make the trip and return to his stand in Hollywood so quickly. Miss Todd was afraid because she had been the target ot an extortion plot, which caused the arrest of two men in New York, that she might be kidnaped or slain by gangsters," Peters answered. "Sne had told me to drive at top speed and not to make boulevara stops. On the way to her case I drove between 65 and 70 miles an hour." Peters said he left the actress outside her case. He saw her start to mount steps leading toward the garage. Then he drove away. A theory is held that. Miss Todd w'as unable to enter her apartment because she had no key. Roland West, part owner of the Todd case and for some time her companion about Hollywood, told detectives he informed the actress before she went to the Trocardero party that he w'ould lock the place at 2 a. m. West’s Wife Interviewed West said he locked up about the scheduled time and retired about 2:30 a. m. Police last night interviewed Jewel Carmen, wife of West, who confirmed his statement that she owned property on which the garage is located. Miss Carmen said she was motoring all day Sunday and learned of Miss Todd's death w-hen she returned to Hollywood. “I read of it in the newspapers,” she said. "It was a terrible shock to me.” HUNT STORAGE PLACE City Officials to Select Site to Keep Valuable Papers. Selection of a place for safekeep* ing of valuable city papers, including insurance policies, was to b* made today at a meeting of Mayor Kern and various city department, heads. It is probable she documents are to he stored in the. Controller’* office.