Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 December 1950 — Page 49

TTT ELEANOR TIBERIAN

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"began to learn how to run one myself.”

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Editorials g World Report

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At Least One of Original Panel Regrets Murder Conviction Vote

By NOBLE REED IF THE D. C. Stephenson trial were held over again with the same jury it would be deadlocked without a verdict or would result in a manslaughter cénviction instead of the life sentence. This change in the voting status of the jury 25 years after the trial in Noblesville was disclosed this week in a

poll of eight of the 12 members of the Stephenson trial panel still living around Hamilton County. P One member of that jury that sat in the Hamilton County

~ Court House for many weeks in 1925 hearing the sensational

evidence against the former Indiana Klan dragon has long since changed his mind about his vote for a Jife sentence for the murder of Madge Oberholtzer, Thdianapolis stenographer. He is Cash Applegate, now 69. who lives on a farm along White River in southern Hamilton County. # » » » » ” “IF I HAD it to do over again,” said Mr. Applegate, “I would ‘have held out for a manslaughter verdict even if I had to be sitting there yet. “All during the trial I was for a manslaughter verdict carrying two to 14 years pepalty, but since all the other 11 members of the jury held out so long for the life sentence for first degree murder, I finally switched over,” he said. “But I've regretted it ever since and very soon after the trial I wished I had held out against a life sentence.”

‘Crazy About Trains'—

e Indianapolis

imes

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1950

same

William H. Lel SR prison,

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had enou oly! lus 1s

Ut. 1 A=) rig L108 Mr, Te was the juror who refused to stay locked up in the Courthouse during the trial because of his unattended livestock on his farm, During the trial the judge sent a court bailiff home with Mr. Applegate every night to see that no one talked to him or that he di4n1.liave. the county... FORTRAN

SEV EN OTHER members of the jury tterviewsd this week all said they had not changed their minds about their vote for first degree murder and the life sentence. However, under the law all jury verdicts must be unanimous and if Mr. Applegate had held out for manslaughter he would have hung the jury hopelessly or swung the others over to manslaughter. “All the jurors intérviewed said they thought Stephenson, who was paroled last March but now is being held for parole violation in Minneapolis, had served enough time. None of them expressed any desire to have the former Klan dragon kept in prison the rest of his life. William H, Lehr, now 75, who owns a farm northwest of Noblesville, said he had never once changed his mind about his vote for first degree murder and life sentence. “I think he (Stephenson) had had enough time in prison

She’ s A 46-Year ‘Railroader’

i Mrs. Maude Frank ’ Began in 1904

By CARL HENN ONE of the staunchest

“failroaders in Indiana sits

in the agent’s chair at New Augusta freight station five days a week. The agent, a railroader since age 16, is a woman. Mrs, Maude Frank has been & New York Central Railroad ‘ employee since 1904. When she began, agents worked 12 hours & day, seven days a week. Now she hardly knows what to do with herself on Saturday and Sunday. “I'm always glad to get back to my job on Monday,” said Mrs, Frank, “I don't know

“what I'm going to do with my

time when I retire.” She and her husband, Lee Frank, expect fo retire together. Mr. Frank, a telegraph operator

-at-Glen Tower, near: Zionsville;

began railroading in 1902. The two met and married at where . Mrs. Frank was originally Maude McDaniel, daughter of Harry McDaniel, New York Central agent.

FJ ” » : “eI GUESS. I was crazy about trains and railroads from the

“time I could walk,” Mrs. Frank © sald.

“I was always hanging the agent's office, watching my Dad operate the

tele, h key. That's where I graph oY place, it went out. So I went

through the whole thing again. After I relit it the second time, it went out again. “Every time I went -up and down the pole, I carried ‘that heavy lantern in my teeth. “Finally, the third and last time, it stayed lit. If it hadn't,

At 16, Maude realized her

ant agent under her father and began to carry mail, keep an eye on freight and otherwise pick and carry. She worked so faithfully for

$15 a. week that B. C. Byers, then NYC trainmaster at Indianapolis and later general manager of the entire system, fired a drunken ‘operator at ‘Beaverville, Ill, and put her in his place. ° That was in 1909, when she

was 21.

FOR A "OMAN alone in such a job the responsibility was heavy. Also hard to bear was public opinion which, in those days, was much less favorable to women in men's work.

{ The job was not easy. Besides the heavy freight of

I ‘couldn’t have gone up the pole again. I don't see how I made it as often as I did.” s na » PASSING messages to speeding trains was a daily adventure, still seen today in some freight stations. Mrs, Frank used to receive the messages on telegraph, write them out, place them in a container on a bamboo hoop and stand alongside the track, holding the hoop aloft.

18 1820 21 u 3

Mrs. Maude Frank . . . railroads are her life.

. showplace which has taken many agricultural and stock awards at exhibits. It lies on Rodabaugh Road, between 71st and 62d Sts. Mrs. Frank comes from a railroad family, . In addition to her father and her husband, her brother, Floren, also was an agent. The same for her husband's brother, George, and for Harry Ely, who married one of the Frank sisters, Then, too, there are a couple of cousins who work for the NYC. It was George, Mr. Frank's brother, who used to make Mr, Frank very angry in the days when Lee and Maude chatted on the telegraph wire. “George would sit outside his own station, which was on our--wire,Y Mrs. Frank said, easy... “and tell the fellows sitting around what we were saying on morning he would pump his the telegraph key.” way back. 3 8 88 . During the afternoon and MRS. FRANK has known

hundreds of railroaders in her long career beside the iron rails, One of her delights was to play a é of poker occaslimbated dh off-duty train ¢rewmen. She 1¥ acquainted with . innumerable

The job was not always

: thiaugls the ihe s¢ = "the C1

D. C. Stephenson Jury Verd

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Zeno Mundy . . . "The murder verdict was right.’

but I still think the first degree murder séntence was right in that case,” Re said

LEOTUS NEESE, 75, a farmer near Clarksville, also said he still believes his murder conviction vote was right. “Stephenson has done a lot of talking and has done a lot of things that were not right since the trial and I haven't heard of any new evidence or reasons since then for changing my vote for first degree murder,” he said. “His lawyers did everything they could to keep him from testifying at the trial and I wanted to hear what he had to say. He never defended himself.” Another juror, W, O. Inman, 74-year-old farmer living north of Noblesville on Highway 31, also indicated he was influenced by Stephenson's failure to testify. “I would have liked to have heard him testify in his own defense,” Mr. Inman said. “However, 1 have never changed my mind about the life sentence verdict. I haven't heard of anything since that would Nave hanged my vote.”

ZENO E. MU NDY, 60-year-old farmer Tiving southwest of Noblesville, said he had never changed his mind about his vote for first degree murder and the life sentence.

Giarevineees

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tor changing my vote

“I think he (Stephenson) has served enough time according to what others have been serving for similar offenses but I still think the murder verdict was right,” he said.

Frank H. Clark,

77-year-old farmer near Westfield, said he

had heard a lot of talk and court proceedings on the part of Stephenson to get free in the last 25 years but had never changed his mind against the life sentence verdict,

“All the so-called new evidence and circumstances Ive heard

since" then. have never changed Clyde Clark, 70, who is a

my mind a bit,” he said. nephew of Frank Clark and lives

© near Westfield, is now an invalid paralysis victim.

He also said that he had verdict. i

never changed his mind on the

“I would vote for first degree murder and a life sentence again today if I were called upon to do so,” he said.

» = ~

” s »

THE EIGHTH juror, Ralph Finley, 58, has moved out of Hamilton County and now lives in Anderson. Mr. Finley said he was in favor of reducing Stephenson’s term years ago and “spent a lot of money’ to help him get out but has

changed his mind now.

“I think the verdict for a life sentence was correct now,” he

said.

and favored a parole for Stephenson.

“I voted for the life sentence but later changed my mind

But he did some things

later that weren't right and I have nothing more to say on the subject other than I haven't changed my mind about the old

verdict.”

Other members of the old Stephenson jury who are either dead or have moved away were W, A, Johnson, the jury foremapg;

Arlie Huffman, I. H. Linsmyer

and Samuel Gerard.

Arrest of Teen-Agers Spurs Lawrence Drive For Community Juvenile Recreation Building

Youth Boosters Head Campaign.

By LEON W. RUSSELL _. FOR A LLONG time, Lawrence residents had watched a dozen or more of its young people tread a dangerods path. The town dreaded what would happen, but was powerless to prevent it. And the town was sorry, for everyone is important in a place with a population of 2000. A couple of weeks ago it happened. Ten teen-age boys were arrested. Authorities said they had confessed to 37 burglaries. must not happen again,” the town of Lawrence said resolutely. Steps already had been taken, but they didn’t come soon enough to save the 10 boys,

AFFINE new juvenile center will rise next year. Lawrence hopes ‘it will give the young people a place for wholesome, constructive recreation, so they won't be tempted by dangerous and destructive excitement. = fawrence Youth Boosters, Inc. is well along with ts plans for a T72x84-foot onestory building which will, in effect, belong to the young people themselves. A large room, 48x72 feet, will be flanked by a large kitchen, shower rooms and several small meeting rooms. The latter will have folding doors so that several can be combined. All will open onto the large center room which can be used for plays, movies, roller skating, dancing and conventions. : Adequate athletic facilities are offered in the Lawrence school, so the juvenile center will not have a gymnasium. In the yard, however, will be a cement multiple-use eourt for tennis, skating and outdoor dancing.

it - will look, An. attractive model is on display in the electric appliance store run by Norman H. Brinsley. Mr. Brinsley has had plenty of experience with youth; he has been Scoutmaster of Troop No. 100 for the last seven years. ‘The building will be worth $25,000 to $35,000. But it won't cost Lawrence that much. It is a community project. Everyone is pitching in. Carpenters and bricklayers will donate their labor. Materials are being furnished at cost by civicminded merchants, Those who can't give goods or services can buy their way Into the project, with cash contributions of anything over a quarter.

” » . TWENTY-FIVE cents will buy a building block. For $25 the contributor can have his name placed on a block which will be buitt into the walls for

» ” » . CONSTRUCTION will start next spring, and by next fall the juvenile center will be

ready for use. : Lawrence already knows how

everyone to see. Or for $1 a man of woman can buy membership in the Boosters, Which is open to.everyone. Mr. and Mrs, Walter H. Bars bour, prominent farmers, have . contributed a 200x150-foot lot at the northern edge of town

for a building site. Adjoining

land will be available in the future to give Lawrence a 640x270-foot plot which the town hopes will become a memorial park some day. In the park will be planted a tree for every Lawrence boy killed in World War II and in the Korean War.

” - . The Boosters already have $1200. They ratsed it by paper and scrap drives, popcorn sales and at last summer's Centennial celebration. ” - ~ THE BOOSTERS started in 1948, to support the Lawrence

Norman H. Brinsley, Walter H. Barbour, Mrs. Ted K. King ond Mr. King (left to right} study 2 model for the proposed new Lawrence juvenile center,

Boy Scout troop. This year its articles of incorporation were amended and its scope was widened - to include all youth activities.

Fred Hulgren, long active in Scouting, is president. Ted King, contractor and originator of the juvenile building idea, is vice president. Mr. Brinsley is secretary-treasurer. The Boosters will hold their annual meeting Dec. 28. At that time they will map plans for a more vigorous financial drive to underwrite the cost of their building. ’ Nearby towns of Castleton and. Oaklandon will join in the project. Their . young people will share in the fun. | = And thé fun will be plentiful, Mr. Brinsley predicts. = “We'll keep them so uy he says, “they won't have time to get into trouble,” :

'Bring Christ Info Christmas’ Is Pupils’ Slogan

RING CHRIST into Christmas—have a crib in every home. That's the theme of a campaign being conducted by the children of St. Philip Neri Catholic School through the mail, by telephone, by posters, by personal appeals, and by prayer. The crusade, designed to promote thousands of individual prayers for peace through appeals to Christ, King of Peace, will carry on by radio, too, if a spon- Sister Mary Regina suggested sor can ‘be Tama, % calling the stores to request STARTING in the seventy, ih2 that eriba: be. set, up ad pubije grade at St. Philip Neri, the i ome : movement spread quickly school. : telephone en masse. When more > Christ Eh began sea: Can ih than 100 calls at lunchtime to splays’ near the schoo stands at 544 ae

them were ‘painted cribs with angels nearby in adoration, and

the slogans to be remiembered: -

A oop Jr Ine, which handles the ad--vertising d

“Bring Christ ito Christmas r

a elas uaa

one of the large downtown de- u ‘brought

a all