Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 1

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THH ENytUUKR VOL. XXX No 300. BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1927 CITY EDITION PRICE THREE CENTS mm JL THE mm ST FLOOD ITERS HER Series of Spring Heavy Damage Storms Cause and Loss of Life BELIEVE KEHOE WORKED ALONE FOR WEEKS PREPARING TERRIBLE DEED. Thirty-seven Children and Six Adults Now Listed Among the Dead, with 44 Others in the Hos-v pitals, Many of Them Reported As in a Serious Condition. CATHOLIC PAPER DENIES HINTS OF WIFE OF KEHOE FIRST VICTIM OF MANIACAL FURY YESTERDAY.

SCRIM NATION STORY AGIST HOUSE OF DAVID Mrs. Ruth Swanson Tells Jury She Believed in Teachings Of "King" Ben. TELLS OF A SECRET DOOR Insists Purnell Made Hasty Exit Through It Called Her A She Says. (By the Associated Preasl Courthouse, St. Joseph, May 19.

Mrs. Ruth Swanson of South Orange, A. with her husband C. L. Swanson, was a member of the House of David in 1924 and who testified for the state yesterday, again took the stand in the state's receivership suit against the colony this morning for cross- examination by the defense.

At torney W. J. Barnard, chief of House of David counsel, was pre pared to attack the credibility of the witness who yesterday accused "King" Benjamin Purnell of im proper conduct with her when she was employed a clerical position in Shiloh, the cult's headquarters. To Point Out Door. The House of David attorney announced before the opening of court that he would demand that Mrs.

Swanson be taken to Shiloh and point out to the court the trap door in the floor of Shiloh office which she alleged Benjamin used on one occasion to make a hasty exit. Before the witnesses was turned over to the defense for cross-ex- (Continued on Page 15, Col. 2) MONTANA RANCH SCENE Walter Hill, Son of Late RaiU road Magnate, Marries a Follies Beauty, (By the Associated Press) Livingston, May 19. Montana ranch was the scene today of the third honeymoon of Walter Hill, youngest son of the late rail road magnate, James J. Hill, follow ing his divorce from his second wife and his marriage to a former Zieg-feld Follies girl here yesterday.

The wealthy ranched obtained divorce from Pauline Hill in district court here after approxima tely nine months of litigation in which both sought separation decress in charges of cruelty. Within a few minutes after formal approval of the divorce, he married Milded Richardson, daughter of Mrs. C. R. Meyers, of Long Island, N.

Y. Her father, W. E. Earl Richardson, is a prominent Canadian financier. THE WEATHER MIIAG KILLED.

WIFE BEFORE HE Beat Her to Death and Threw Body in Home That Was Then Reduced to Ashes. SCENES MOST PATHETIC Governor Appeals to State for Aid Village in Dire Distress Group Funeral Friday. Bath, 19. The death of Mrs. Blanche Hart, 30, a teacher in tiie intermediate grades, brought tjie total number of deaths from the explosion to 44.

(By tlie Associated Press) Bath, May IS). The niasnilude of the horror that befell this little village yesterday when a demented farmer blew up the consolidated school, killing nearly two score children and several adults, continued to grow today. Up to noon 37 pupils and six adults were numbered in the death list. Forty-three others were seriously injured, some perhaps fatally. A group funeral has been planned for Friday.

Stricken not only by death, but by debt as well, the village of 300 population w-as in dire straits. At Lansing Governor Fred W. Green issued a proclamation calling for state-wide aid in raising funds for relief of the stricken families one fourth of the children of" the village were killed in the blasts and the rebuilding of their school. Killed His Wife First The fafe of Mrs. Andrew wife of the treasurer of the school district, and perpetrator of the crime, was definitely established today when portions of her body were found in an outbuilding on the Kehoe farm.

Before touching off the blasts at the school building, Kehoe dynamited his home, barn, and wagon shed, and the buildings were destroyed by subsequent fire. Indications were that Kehoe had killed his wife and thrown her body into the outbuilding, for the skull was crushed. Governor Appeals for Aid The death toll mounted to WRECKED 1 OUT OF HOMES Area from 100 to 150 Miles Northwest of New Orleans Is Being Rapidly Abandoned. RESCUE WORKERS ACTIVE More than 5,000 Persons in Territory Inundated by a New Rush of Waters. (By the Associated Press) New Orleans, May 19.

Residents of the vast west Atchafalaya basin were gathering their posses sions today and fleeing from their homes because of omnious flood warnings Issued by federal weather authorities and John M. Parker, state relief director. Their homes are from 100 to 150 miles northwest of New Orleans. Mr. Parker had a score of telephone operators at work urging the Inhabitants to get out of the path of the spreading waters.

The section Is on the route of the Gulf of Mexico expected to be followed by waters from the Bayou Des Glalses levee breaks and torrents pouring through crevasses in the Atchafalaya river at Melville, from which 1,000 men, women and children have departed. More than 5,000 Affected A sudden Inundation of an additional portion of St. Landry parish, sending several feet of water Into Beggs, Garland, Duboisson, Whlte-ville and Into country surrounding Bunkie was reported. More han 5,000 persons were estimated to be In the inundated territory. Rescue workers were busy.

Conditions were reported to be growing steadily worse in the section around Bunkie. Rescue workers said that the stubbornness of the Inhabitants In sticking, to their homes was causing much trouble Rescue workers at Opelousas were kept busy last night and today an- (Continued on Page 15, Col. 2) DAM GOES OUT, EIGHT LOSE LIVES IN IDAHO Flood Waters Continue to Men ace Several Communities Today; List May Crow. (By the Associated Press) Idaho Falls, Idaho, May 19. Na ture has restored the topography of the upper Gros Venture river valley to a semblance of its original appearance at a cost of at least eight lives and today flood waters released by a "slide" dam continued to men ace several communities.

The "slide" dam, created when Sheep mountain shifted several feet in June, 1925, to send an avalanche of rocks, dirt and trees across the Gros Ventre river, collapsed yesterday to send a wall of water down the sparsely settled valley. Although the death list stood at eight, others were unaccounted for. NEWSPAPER MAN DIES (By the Associated Press) Detroit, May 19. The death of John E. Sanford, E0, former widely known Detroit newspaper man, at his home in Fredonia, N.

was reported here today. Mr. Sanford was a member of the editorial staffs of several Detroit papers. He re tired a year ago on account of ill health. Outlaw Returns Rob Two Banks; (By the Associated Press) Beggs, 19 Paying a return visit to his home town, Matthew Kimes, notorious outlaw, and his gang yesterday robbed two banks here of nearly $18,000 and shot their way out, leaving the town marshal dead, and a woman, who apparently frustrated the robbery of a third bank, probably fatally wounded.

Officials of both looted banks said the leader of the bandits undoubtedly Klmes, elusive young desperado whose sensational exploits have been a modern parallel to the careers of Jesse James and Al Jen nings. Dashing into the little town In three motor cars, the nine members of the gang divided into groups and drove up to the three banks. Two of the banks, the Farmers' National and the First National, were invaded immediately. 11 (By the Associated Press) Bath, May 19. Officials today had practically abandoned the theory that Andrew Kehoe, demented farmer, received assistance in laying his plans for destruction of.

the Bath consolidated school. Charles Lane, state Are marshal, said he had reached the conclusion that Kehoe had worked quietly for perhaps weeks setUng the wires and dynamite charges in the school house. Kehoe was described by his neighbors here today as a man of few friends. The Kehoe-farm had fallen into such neglect, they said, that he was unable to obtain $10,000 recently when he attempted to sell it. Eight years ago it cost Kehoe $12,000.

Mr. and Mrs. David M. Harte, the farmer's nearest neighbors, today said they never had been able to feel friendly toward Kehoe, and that he had few friends elsewhere. DE LA HUERTA FACES Former Provisional President Of Mexico Stands Accused Of Arms Shipments.

(By the Associated Press) Tucson, May 19. Adolfo De a Huerta, former provisional president of Mexico, today faced with four others charges of conspiracy against the United States and of exporting arms and munitions Into Mexico in violation of a presidential embargo. At least four shipments of arms and munitions were traced, department of justice agents alleged. Warrants had been issued for De Alfonso Gomea Moren-tin, and Enrique Breceda, alias W. B.

Hamilton, of San Antonio, all of whom are in Los Angeles. The other two, Louis Gayou, alias M. and Francisco Ferriz, alias Francisco Ferris, were held in the county jail here following arraignment yesterday. Bail was fixed at $5,000 each. De La Huerta is alleged to have issued papers authorizing furtherance of revolutionary plans.

De La Huerta from his home In Los Angeles last night issued a general denial of the charges brought against him. FROM TUBERCULOSIS Maurice, Idol of Two Continents, Fought the Disease For Several Years. (By the Associated Press) New May 19 The career of a boy from the sidewalks of New York who became the dance idol of two continents is over. Maurice is dead. The end came in Lausanne, Switzerland, of tuberculosis which he had fought for years.

At his side was Eleanore Ambrose, his wife and dancing partner. Maurice, Oscar, Louis Mouvet, to use his full name, was born in 18S9 of Belgian parents in the tenement distric't of New York's West side. At the age of IS he became Maurice, the dancer. He danced in Paris, Vienna and Monte Carlo. In 1911 he returned to New York and attained Immediate success.

Marriage of his partners was the bane of Maurice's life. He lost four. TO CANCEL DRIVING PERMITS IN ASYLUMS Michigan Institutions to Be Investigated to See Who Holds Licenses. (By the Associated Press) Detroit, May 19. Inspector Gustav Schink, director of traffic of the local police department, yesterday an nounced that he will ask the secretary of state, to investigate Michigan Insane Institutions and to cancel all automobile driving licenses held by inmates.

Addressing the safety department of the Detroit Automobile club, Inspector Schink deplored the finings of the club's safety committee that one third of the inmates of one Institution for the insane are holders of driving licenses, (By the Associated Press) Chicago, May 19. Peoria, 111., and Indianapolis, were hardest hit in the latest of a series of spring storms which lashed through port-Ions of Indiana and Illinois lata yesterday. Several persons were believed to have drowned at Peoria where six inches of rain fell within a few hours, flooding downtown streets and basements, tielng up railroad, automobile and street car traffic and sending Farm creek on a rampage. Government boats were sent Into the lowlands of East Peoria to rescue 300 families driven from their hemes by the rising creek. Damage was estimated at nearly $733,010.

More PAROLE BOARD SEEKS RELEASE FDR M'CRAY Former Governor of Indiana Likely to Cain His Freedom in August. (By the Associated Press) Washington, May 19. The federal parole board has recommended that Warren T. McCray, former governor of Indiana, sentenced to the Atlanta penitentiary for 10 years, be paroled in August when he becomes eligible for that clemency. Attorney General Sargent said today he had received the recommendation and would take It under immediate consideration.

McCray was sentence to the penitentiary In 1924 for using the mails in furtherance of a scheme to defraud in connection with his obtaining loans on cattle paper. BERTAUD WONT MAKE FLIGHT OVER OCEAN Owner of the Bellanca Says That Another Navigator Will Be Secured. (By the Associated Press New York, May 19. Lloyd Ber- taud definitely will not make the Paris flight in the Bellanca monoplane with Clarence Chamberlain. and his successor is already selected, Charles A.

Levine, head of the company backing the flight, told the Associated Press this afternoon. Levine's announcement followed tardily on an almost night long conference at the end of which Bertaud had said that all difficulties had been Ironed out and that he would go on the flight as navigator as originally planned. The Byrd and Lindbergh planes as well as the Bellanca were held back from starting by continued bad weather voday. WOULD CHANGE DRY LAW Medical Association Recommends Changes in Limitations. (By the Associated Press) Washington, May .19 The house of delegates of the American Medical association adopted a resolution Wednesday authorizing the framing of a bill for the amendment of the Volstead law as it relates to limitations on the amount of medicinal liquor prosecribed by physicians.

SEEK TWO NEGROES (By the Associated Press) Cordon, May 19. Heavily armed posses started search for two negroes who shot and probably fatally wounded City Marshall R. C. Tyson, here. His condition is reported serious.

to Home Town to Marshal Killed "Throw up your hands," came the command almost simultaneously in the two banks, and employes and others in both institutions complied. Both bandit groups then began a systematio search for money. Mrs. Charles Campbell, a shopper, left her children in an automobile and ran into a pool hall crying an alarm. M.

C. McAnnally, marshal, went immediately to Farmers' National bank, arriving just as the robbers emerged. McAnnally opened fire on the racing figures, and a hail of bullets answered him, one piercing his breast and killing him Instantly. Mrs. Campbell was struck in the head by a bullet and is bellied to have been fatally wounded.

The three bandits who had parked their car in front of the American State bank fled when the shooting started without attempting to rob the Institution, than one hundred persons were Injured in Indianaplola. sen seriously, when an 80-mile an hour wind struck that city, flattening a number of houses just outside the downtown area, and blowing down a gospel mission tent while services were in progress. Telephone and telegraph wires throughout the city were crippled. The storm damage was estimated at $3,000,000. Washouts at a number of places In the two states played havoc' with railroad schedules, and near LaFon-taine, three trainmen were killed when a Big Four freight train crashed into a creek the bridge over which had been swept away by flood waters.

The engine and six cars piled into the water. Hundreds Took Advantage of New Law Prices Show Beverages to Be Reasonable. (By the Associated Press Windsor, May 19. Sale of permits for purchase of liquor ras begun here yesterday and hundreds of citizens took advantage of the novel procedure to line up for certificates. Officials at the government office were kept busy throughout the day supplying patrons, w'ho will be un-able to negotiate their purchases until the last of the month when the liquor stores open.

Although It had been semt-offi-dally announced that tourist permits would be placed on sale yesterday, it was decided to await opening of the liquor stores before giving out the non-resident tickets. No announcement was made as to the probable -price jat. leverages, but It was the concensus of persons in terested that beer and ale will be sold at $2.50 a case of 24 pints. Whiskies and brandies, It was believed, will cost from $2.50 a quart upwards. STRIKE IS AVERTED ON PERE MARQUETTE Six Thousand Employes at Work Today As Result of Eleventh Hour Settlement.

(By the Associated Press) Detroit, May 19. Six thousand Pere Marquette railway employes of eight branches of the service were at work today, an eleventh hour settlement having prevented a strike scheduled. Announcement that the strike had been averted was made shortly after 5 o'clock this morning by W. A. Paddock, assistant grand chief of the Brotherhod of Locomotive Engineers.

Terms of the settlement were withheld but Paddock said all negotiations had been completed amicably with only a few minor details to be worked out later by arbitration. The federal board of mediation figured in the settlement, although to what extent the statements of both Frank E. Alfred, president of the Pere Marquette and of Paddock failed to reveal. From several present at the conference it was learned that, the settlement was something short of what the workers had expected but that more concessions had been made by the company officials than had seemed possible "The officers of the railroad company" said President Alfred, "are gratified, as no doubt the representatives of the men are that a strike has been averted." TO SEEK DIVORCE Jack Pickford and Marilyn Miller Have Agreed to Separate. Los Angeles, May 19.

Marilyn Miller, musical comedy star, and her husband. Jack Pickford, motion picture actor, will seek a divorce ln Paris early in June, Pickford admitted here late last night. Incompatablllry, he said, was to be alleged. WON GOLF TITLE New Castle, County Down, Ireland, May 19. Mile.

Slmone Thlon De La Chaume, 19-year-old French golfer today captured the British women's open golf championship, defeating Miss Dorothy Pearson of Tunbrldgo Wells, Kent, England, five up and four to play in their 36-hole final. (By the Associated Press) Bath, May 19. Mrs. Andrew Kehoe, wife of the maniac who yesterday turned loose a reign of dynamite-laden terror here, was the first victim of his fur-, it was established today. Portions pt her body were found in the ashes of one of the outbuildings on the Kehoe farm.

Her skull was crushed. Kehoe evidently murdered her before casting her body into the building to be burned. The discovery was made by Boy Cole, a deputy sheriff. 43 with the discovery of the woman's body and the death in a Lansing hospital of Cleo Clayton, 8, one of the pupils. With the issuance of Governor Green's proclamation, Red Cross workers arrived fom Lansing and St.

Johns to map out a campaign of relief for families hardest hit by the disaster. Vengeance of a Maniac A heap of death-laden debris and the smouldering ruins of a homely farm house steod today as the sym-boys of a maniac's vengeance upon society. This village of 300 with death In many of its homes, was bowed In grief. Thirty-seven children who yesterday romped through its streets, and six adults lay still and white in death. The sorrow extend ed out into many homes of the countryside where laughter of children had been stilled.

Andrew Kehoe, unpopular, crafty. middle-aged farmer, after he had killed hjs, invalid wife, blasted himself and 41 others, most of them children between the ages of 6 and 12, to death when explosives he had planted wrecked the Bath consolidated district school Wednesday morning. Forty-three others were injured, some of whom may die. Only a whim of fate prevented destruction of the entire village. Thought Taxes too High Because school taxes were "too high" and lie thought the tax burden prevented him from meeting a mortgage on his farm, the demented Kehoe mined the school the pride of the township with dynamite and gunpowder.

He installed an elaborate system of electrical wiring and connected It to a time clock. At the appointed hour he drove to the school to watch his plot take Its toll. One section of the building was blown to bits: another escaped. One of the wires became short circuited and the electric spark failed before it completed Its course. The wing of the school containing the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades was torn to pieces.

Another part in which more than 130 pupils were studying escaped, sustaining only severe eddies of the shock. State police removed more than 500 pounds of dynamite and several sacks of gunpowder planted under the spared (Continued on Page 10, Col. 1) troit. That may have been the reason he was so In debt and in danger of losing his place through foreclosure of mortgage. I'm sure I don't know." Mrs.

Rose related that yesterday, when word came of the catastrophe, two sisters of Mrs. Kehoe, residents of Lansing, she said, spent the day in Jackson looking for Mrs. Kehoe in that city. The woman, they had been Informed, was been taken there for treatment in some hospital. (Continued on Page 10, Col.

8) GOVERNOR GREEN AND WIFE EARLY ON SCENE, ASSISTING IN RELIEF WORK. 'By the Associated Press) Bath, May 19. Governor and Mrs. Fred W. Green visited the scene of the Bath school house explosion late yesterday Governor Green threw aside his coat and assisted the crews pulling on long cables attached to the shattered walls.

Mrs. Green aided nurses and friends who were working over the injured and offered her sympathy to the Brief-stricken Defends Republican Victor in Baltimore, Mayor-' alty Election. SIGNIFICANT UTTERANCE Declares Vote Result Was Not Indication of Intolerant Attitude. BY MARK SULLIVAN Washington, D. May 19.

The wide dissemination of despatches saying that a democratic candidate for mayor of Baltimore was defeat ed on May 3, because he was a Catholic, has evoked a significant utterance from the Baltimore Cath-olio Review, a weekly paper edited by priests and having a relationship to the church. This Catholic organ flatly contradicts the despatches. Inasmuch as inferences from the original news were made all over the country, there is importance in repudiation of the charge of discrimination by the organ of the church supposed to be the victim of it. Charge Is Denied The facts about the election were that the republican candidate by about 17,000 over the democratic candidate, under conditions of regis tration and precedent which had indicated a normal democratic victory by about 60,000. Instantly the charge was made that the shift was due to the fact that the democratic candidate was a Catholic while the successful republican candidate wa a Protestant.

It is this report that the Baltimore Catholic 'Review denies with. heat. It sayst, "The citizens of Baltimore, catholics and Protestants alike, have been presented before the people of the country as residents of a city in which Intolerance is rampant, and in which a man who is a Catholic has no chance to obtain high political office. This is a slander upon our non-Catholic citizenry. In defense of their good name, above (Continued on Page 7, Col.

5) The List of Dead (By the Associated Press) Bath, May 19. Forty-three persons lost their lives and 44 others were Injured, many seriously. In the blast which wrecked the Bath consolidated school yesterday, according to a revised list prepared here to day by William Searle, Clinton coun ty prosecutor. Most of them were children between the ages of 6 and 12. The list of dead follows Emory E.

Huyck, 30, superinten dent of schools. Glen O. Smith, 35, Bath postmaster. Nelson McFarren, 70, Smith's fath er-in-law. Hazel Weatherby, 20, school teach er.

Andrew Kehoe, 50, who planned and carried out the blast. Mrs. Andrew Kehoe, invalid wife of Kehoe. School Children Arnold Bauerle, 8. Henry Bergan, 14.

Herman Bergan, 11. Amelia Bromund, 11. Robert Bromund, 12. Floyd Burnett, 12. Russell Chapman, 11.

Cleo Clayton, 8, died in hospital today. Robert Cochran, 8. Ralph Cushman, 7. Earl Ewlng, lL Catherine Foote, 11. Marjorle Fritz, 6.

Carlyle Gersenhaver, 9. George Hall, 8. Willa Hall, 11. Iola Hart, 12. Percy Hart, 11.

Vivian Hart, 9. Galen Harte, 13. Robert Harte, 9. Stanley Harte, 11. Francis Hoeppner, 13.

Lorn Hunter, i4. Doris Johns, 8.. Thelma MacDonald, 7. Clarence McFarren, 13. Emerson Metccff, 9.

Emma Nichols, 13. Richard Richardson, 13. Elsie Robb, 11. Pauline Shurtz, 11. Elizabeth Witchell, 8.

Lemoyne Woodman, S. Lucille Witchell. 10. George Zimmerman, 9. ZJoxd Zimmerman, U.

Sister, Living Here, Blames Fall Years Ago for Demented Man's Act Mostly cloudy tonight and Friday; not much change in temperature. THE TEMPERATURE Max. Min. Today 60 46 Yesterday '3 61 A week ago 52 44 A year ago 63 33 The Enquirer and News recording barometer falling, which indicates cloudy and warmer with unsettled weather. Today 30.00 Yesterday 30.00 Normal 29.27 Sun rises at 6:23 and sets at (sun time).

Moon sets at 6:10 a. m. Weather Influences (By the Associated Press) East Lansing, May 19. The weather still continues mostly cloudy and rainy over the eastern half of the country. The pressure is low from the middle Atlantic states southeastward to New Mexico but it is high in the middle northwest.

No decided change is indicated in this section during the next 34 hours. WHERE TO GO TONIGHT POST Post Players present Poll with a Past. BIJOU-ARCADE Pat Mallcy In Watch Your Wife; Keith vaudeville and screen attraction. Battle Creek Camp Fire Girls REUENT Milton Sills in The Sea Tiger: 1 Collegiate. Trumpet Quartet in semi-classical and popular numbers; 2 Usual short reel subjects.

GARDEN Dorothy Gisu in London, and usual short reels. STRAND William Boyd in The Yankee Clipper. NEW MAJESTIC Tom Mix and Tony In The Lost Trail. REX Jack Holt in The Mysterious Rider. LIBRARY Wlllard Memorial library open until 9 o'clock 'for circulation of books.

Reading rooms open until 8 o'clock. Circulation and reading rooms open Saturday nntil 8 o'clock. Closed. Eundasa V. Andrew Kehoe, maniac who dynamited the schoolhouse at Bath, has three sisters living In Battle Creek, one of whom had left this morning for the scene of the tragedy.

They are: Mrs. J. L. Rose, 278 East VanBuren; Miss Agnes Kehoe, 31 Harvard; and Miss Margaret Kehoe, of whom the latter Is prostrated and at the home of Mrs. Rose.

'This terrible thing has made us nearly Mrs. Rose said. "For us it came out of a clear sky, although Andrew has not been the same during the last 15 or 16 years- "About 1010 he suffered a severe fall while attending an electrical school at St. Louis, Mo. He was Bemi-conscious for nearly two months and It seemed as if he never made a proper recovery.

Added to that," about three or four years ago he received a dangerous scalp wound while cutUng down a tree on his farm. "He's had trouble enough to drive any person Insane. He and Mrs. Kehoe, who was the niece of the late Senator Price of Lansing, have always been deeply in love with each tther. It seelhed.

But she -had been an invalid for many years. He spent a large sum securing treatments for her in hospitals around the state, Jndndin the Ford hoookal at De.