Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1909 — MOTIVE LICKING IN AUTO PUZZLE [ARTICLE]

MOTIVE LICKING IN AUTO PUZZLE

Indiana Sheriff in Chicago to Prohe Demotte Mystery. 6IRL FIGURES IN THE CASE \ ' —— Owner of the Car Refutes to Say Anything Further Than That He Has Re. ceived $4,750 In Payment For the Machine That Wat Destroyed and Parts of Which Were Thrown In River—Member of Jewelry Company Denies Being In Party of Joy Riders.

Chicago, Nov. 26.—Sheriff Thomas Grant of Lake county, Ind., and Detectives Conick and Culhane of Chicago believe they have learned the identity of the man who hacked a $5,000 automobile to pieces and hid parts of the machine on the farm of Mrt. Christine Jostedt near Demotte, Ind. add hauled the tires and other pieces of the motor car ten miles and pitched them in the Kankakee river. The man, it is believed, w'as one cf the four passengers of the car on Us mysterious night trip from Chicago. The other persons in the car included two men and a young woman.

Mrs. Jostedt, after telljng Sheriff Grant of at least three visits of the alleged owner of the machine to her farm in company with other unknown persons, fled with her daughter, Toots, •ixteen years old, who lives with her on the barren farm, and it was learned the pair were in Chicago. Mrs. Jostedt told the sheriff that the young woman in the automobile was her daughter, Mrs. Lottie Hopkins, a stenographer whp lives in this city. S. R. Smalley, manager of N. S. McGillivray & Co., jewelers, who says he is the owneK.of the dismantled machine, refusdfl to tell the police more of the trip jfhich he asserts “friends of his’’ tooMEdown into Indiana, where the maehijp~wae wrecked. "It wa£siuie ride,’ and the machine got smashed,” he explained. “The automobile was taken by a friend of mine, and be had an accident. He paid me for it, and that is all there is to it.” Smalley said the man who had the machine was wealthy, and had paid him $4,750. N. S. McGillivray, managing owner of the jewelry company which employs Smaller, denied that he was a member of the automobile party. "There’s a motive deeper than mere accident for the destruction of that valuable machine.” Sheriff Grant said. Mrs. Jostedt says that the auto party included beside her daughter, her son Tony, her daughter’s fiance, Fred Gage, a chauffeur, and two other men, one named Woods, the owner of the automobile, and a jeweler who said has name was McCarthy.