Stevens Point Journal from Stevens Point, Wisconsin • Page 1

trait fat i tmm Dial Dl 4-6100 Dial Dl 4-6100 SIXTY-THIRD YEAR FULL LEASED WlKfc SEKV1CK OF THE ASSUUATED PRESS STEVENS POINTWISCONSIN, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1957 COPY 6c TWELVE PAGES Sheriff Believes Mary Hogan Also Victim Thinks Head, Face Storm. Coats Roads Here; Four Dead In State IP weather dealt destructive blows to broad areas in the South and mid-continent yesterday. Tornadoes, snow, rain and windstorms pounded many areas. Floods menaced some Southern states, forcing hundreds of persons from their homes. Deaths attributed to the violent Among Remains MADISON (AP) Portage County Sheriff Herbert Wanserski said today that "we think we have found the head and face of Mary Hogan" among the 10 human skulls discovered at the home of a gentle-mannered Mrs.

Hogan, 51, disappeared from her blood-stained tavern in the Town of Pine Grove in Portage County late in the afternoon of Dec 8, 1954. The tavern is about six miles north of the Plainfield farm of Ed Gein, recluse who admitted the murder of Mrs. Bernice Worden, widowed Plainfield hardware store operator, Monday. Wanserski made his statement to newsmen as Portage and Waushara County authorities brought Gein to the State Crime Laboratory today for a lie detector test. They wanted to check his statement that although he butchered Mrs.

Worden last Saturday, the 10 heads found in his secluded farmhouse all came from looted graves. Mrs. Hogan's disappearance was similar to that of Mrs. Worden, 58, from her hardware store at Plainfield last Saturday morning. Mrs.

Worden's body, decapitated and eviscerated and strung up by the heels like an animal car cass, was found in Gein's woodshed Saturday night. 7. him. Thomley was crushed to death. Frank Schadel, 84, suffered a fatal heart attack today while shoveling snow at his home in Marshfield.

The body of Mrs. Ralph Seldon, 60, was found by her husband when he returned to his rural Chippewa Falls home Monday night. Mrs. Seldon apparently suffered a heart attack while shoveling snow near the garage. James S.

Hill, 75, died of a heart attack late Monday while shoveling snow at his La Crosse home. Meanwhile, all roads In the Eau Claire area, including U.S. Highway 12, were blocked all Monday night and through this morning. At noon, crews were just getting the road cleared. Crews worked on the main federal and state highways today and Indicated they would not even be able to start on the secondary roads until tonight or Wednesday.

With the exception of Rocky Mountain areas, the 15 Inches of snow on the ground at Black River Falls today was the deepest in the country. Danbury had 14 Inches and La Crosse 12. It was the most snow ever recorded in La Crosse in a 24-hour period in November. All schools in Jackson County were closed today, as well as those in the Sparta district and in the Trempeleau, Whitehall and Blair regions. Few county roads in western central Wisconsin were open and State Highway 108 near La Crosse was closed to traffic.

The amount of snow tapered down to one inch in the Madison and Oshkosh areas, with only a trace at dawn today at Milwau The center of the investigation into the macabre findings at the Edward Gein farm southwest of Plainfield shifted to Madison today. Gein was confronted with a polygraph test of his story of killing Mrs. Bernice Worden of Plainfield and robbing graves of human heads. The lie detector test by the state Crime Laboratory may give investigators a lead on whether more than one murder is involved. Portage County's Sheriff Herbert J.

Wanserski and Dist. Atty. John J. Haka spent the day in Madison, planning to question Gein about the disappearance of Mary Hogan, Town of Pine Grove tavernkeeper, on Dec. 8, 1954.

RETURNS TO SCENE Ed Gein, right, 51 -year-old farmer, leaves county jail at Wautoma handcuffed and escorted by Sheriff Art Schley. He is taking tire sheriff to his farm near Plainfield, where he said he "had something to show him." Portions of ten bodies were found In his house. Gein's Statement Under Questioning WAUTOMA (AP) Waushara County Dist. Atty. Earl Kileen has released the following stenographic record of a Inside Gein's House statement made by Edward questioned by county authorities, kee, Kenosha and Racine.

But light snow was falling throughout the state at mid-morning. High winds were rapidly piling the snow in drifts across highways. Driving conditions in the entire area north and west of Madison were described as generally poor. All main highways were snow packed and rough with many stretches of one-way traffic. TORNADOES, FLOODS LAMBAST SOUTH An outbreak of wild November County Blood Group Hopes To Remain No.

1 A total of 350 pints of blood is the goal set for Portage County residents when the Red Cross Bloodmobile visits here Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 26 and 27, according to Richard Rothman and Gordon Nickolie, co-chairmen of the county's blood program. Rothman recently was named to replace Carroll G. Smith as a co-chairman. The blood center will be operated at the American Legion Hall from 1 to 7 p.m.

on Tuesday. Nov. 26, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov.

27. Prospective doners are asked to make appointments in advance, if possible, to insure a smooth operation. Appointments may be made at the Red Cross office at 111 Strongs Ave. Rothman and Nickolie said that information received this week from the Badger Regional Blood Center, Madison, indicates that flu should not hamper the program much. "The donation of a pint of blood should not make a person more susceptible to flu, nor is there any chance of the virus being transmitted from one per son to another due to a transfusion," blood center officials stat ed.

It was also learned from Madison that donors will be accepted 24 hours after immuniz ation for influenza, which includes the new Asiatic flu shots. The directors of the blood center stated that once a person has recovered from the flu and feels able to give, he will be acceptable as a donor if temperature and blood pressure are normal. The Stevens Point Youth Council has pledged It's support to encourage more blood donor volunteers during this drive. Gof Thomson, Park Ridge, president of the council said, "All members are planning a house-to-house campaign in Stevens Point this weekend. We believe that residents of our city will be interested in knowing the current need for blood.

Since January of this year, 948 pints have been used by Portage County residents. We are hopeful that our efforts in recruiting donors will lead to an Increased blood supply in our community." Portage County was cited recently by Red Cross officials at Madison for being the outstanding chapter in meeting it's high quotas set for the Spring and Summer Bloodmobile visits. The co-chairmen said, "Our residents deserve all the praise for making this citation possible. There are 45 chapters in this region participating in the Red Cross blood program and we are proud that our chapter rates No. 1 in the blood received during the past two drives.

We are sure that Portage County will hold it's top position after this drive is over, even though some donors may be concerned about the flu situation and the weather." Name Busbey Brotherhood Week Chairman Robert E. Busbey, Park Ridge, has been named Portage County chairman for the 1958 Brotherhood Week observance, Feb. 16-23. The appointment was announced by Judge Byron B. Conway, Wisconsin Rapids, Brotherhood Week chairman for District VIL A Portage County Committee will be appointed soon to work out details of Brotherhood Week activities.

Brotherhood Week, sponsored annually by the National Confer-, ence of Christians and Jews, promotes respect for people and human rights and dramatizes practical activities for bringing about understanding of the brotherhood ideals, "All weeks are equally in need of the practice of brotherhood," said Busbey today. "But this one week is the time of resolution to sustain brotherhood throughout the year. This can and should be done without seeking a union of religious bodies, without modifying the distinctive beliefs of Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and without weakening the loyalties of those of any faith. "It is our hope that the people of Portage County will make every effort to participate in this observance." Driving conditions in Portage County and most of the rest of the state remained hazardous today in the wake of snow and rain which fell Monday and today. "A liitel was the Portage County Highway De partment's description of the road situation here.

Snow has packed down to ice on well-traveled roads. But not many accidents have been reported here since the storm, probably due to the fact that most drivers have had the good sense to stay off the roads as much as possible. The Highway Department said that all the county trunks in this area are open. Most town roads are probably passable too. However, a department spokesman said that with the ground unfrozen, dirt roads may be muddy underneath the snow.

Precipitation from noon Monday to noon today amounted to nearly an inch, mostly in the form of rain. It turned colder last night and another inch and a half of snow fell on top of the four and one-half Inches which came down Monday morning. Precipitation in November so far has been 3.47 Inches, a phenomenal amount in view of the fact that moisture for the entire month averages only 1.9 inches. The extra moisture is not unwelcome, since the precipitation so far in 1957 is about five inches below normal. I TO 15 INCHES OF SNOW IN STATE By The Associated Press One of the biggest November snow storms In years piled snow up to 15 Inches in northwestern Wisconsin and left at least four persons dead today.

The northern and western parts of the state took the brunt of a storm that swept into the Great Lakes region Monday and Monday night on gale-force winds. Lawrence Thomley, 55, of rural Colfax, was killed this morning while plowing out the driveway of his home with a tractor. The vehicle struck a beam supporting one end of his carport, causing the roof, laden with 10 Inches of snow, to crash down on top of Bad Roads Stop Holding Of lola Hearing For the second time, a hearing on a petition to transfer part of the lola School District to the Rosholt District has failed to come off. Bad roads prevented a quorum of the county school committees of Portage, Marathon and Waupaca Counties from attending a hearing at lola Monday night. Nine were present and 10 were needed, said Ronald Piekarski, Portage County superintendent of schools.

Waupaca County's full six-man committee was present, and the other three were from Portage County Chairman William C. Hansen, Ben Redfield and Earl Olson. None of the Marathon County members were at the meeting. The hearing had originally been scheduled for Sept. 17, but had to be postponed because of a technicality.

Through an oversight, the Marathon County committee had not been formally invited. The Rosholt District, though mostly in Portage County, also Includes territory In Marathon County, and thus the committee from that county is reouired to act on the petition. The lola District Is centered in Waupaca County. The territory which is seeking to detach from lola lies in the Town of Harrison (Waupaca County), Twenty-four persons in a 10-square-mile area signed a petition for the change. Piekarski said the three school committees will meet Thursday night at Central State College to set a date for a new hearing.

After the hearing, the committees will issue an order either approving or disapproving the transfer of territory. The committees have 30 days to act, but in most cases the orders are issued the same night. At last night's meeting, said Piekarski, a good-sized crowd was on hand from the lola and Harrison areas. weather numbered at least 19 and an over-all total of 30 since the weekend. Several persons were injured.

Property damage, mostly from tornadoes and floods, mounted into the millions of dollars. The season's heaviest snow storm which hit the Midwest appeared tapering off today. Snow piled up to more than a foot in sections of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. While the heavy snow diminished in eastern parts of South Dakota and Nebraska, more snow fell from Iowa and southern Minnesota into northwestern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Depths of 8 to 12 inch es were general.

Tornadoes ripped across areas in Alabama, Kentucky and Mis sissippi. More than 20 persons were injured in Alabama. The twisters hit the Birmingham area and several small Alabama communities. Central and western sections of Kentucky were hammered by tornadoes and electrical storms, while Hopkinsville was hardest hit by floods as the Little River overflowed. Some 150 families were evacuated.

Waters appear ed receding and some roads into the city of 12,526 were passable. Floodwaters covered about 60 per cent of seven counties In the Missouri "Bootheel," forcing the evacuation of more than 150 families from The overflows extended over thousands of acres of cotton and soybeans. In Tennessee, a flash flood near Portland halted service on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad between Franklin, Ky.f and Nashville. Windstorms hit many areas. More than 100 families were forced to leave their homes in sections of southeastern Tennessee after storms overflowed.

Mississippi reported at least six persons injured in tornadoes. a fourth year, WILLIAM GIRARD Mrs. Naka Sakai, victim of Gi rard shot last Jan. 30 on an Army firing range, were "almost heartlessly indifferent and said they could not understand why there was so much fuss about it." The Girard case attracted world wide attention when veterans groups and some newspapers and congressmen in the United States protested the Army's turning the soldier over to a Japanese court. The State Department was particularly concerned about congres-sional attacks on the status-of feree agreements providing for foreign trials of servicemen for offenses committed off duty.

The fuss finally subsided after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled there was no constitutional bar to letting Japan try Girard. Kayoko a a 18 year-old (See Girard, page 10), Girard Convicted, Sentence Suspended By GENE KRAMER MAEBASHI, Japan (AP) GI William S. Girard was convicted today of shooting down a woman scrap collector to satisfy a "momentary caprice." A three-judge Japanese court gave him a three-year suspended prison sentence In the midst of debris accumulated over a period of many years, searchers have found skulls, heads, skin and other parts of human bodies as well as other grisly objects showing the 51-year-old recluse had lived for many years with parts of bodies scattered about the two rooms he occupied in the eight-room farmhouse six miles southwest of Plainfield.

Investigators say they found the house so full of old papers and magazines that "you had to step high to get around In there." Waushara County Sheriff Arthur Schley broke into a lean-to at the rear of Gein's home late Saturday and came on the body of Mrs. Worden, decapitated and disemboweled, hanging from the heels in the lean-to. Gein was picked up a short time later at the Lester Hill store at West Plainfield, halfway between the village and his home. Hill told authorities that Gein had stopped at the store as he had done many times in the past and had been invited to eat supper with the family. Hill said he saw nothing unusual in Gein's visit Saturday night and that he had acted as he usually did during the meal with Hill, his wife and two children.

Hill said Gein had often played ball with the children. Others told of him being considered "different" but said everyone felt he was a "nice man." He worked when he felt like it, often getting part time jobs with the Waushara County Highway Department cleaning roadside ditches or helping in other jobs. Men who had worked with him said he was a hard worker and a good one. The other side of his personality came out as investigators delved through the mass of litter in his home. One grisly find followed another, with heads, skulls, objects made of human skin, turning up scattered amid the litter.

Some of the heads were found wrapped in plastic, others in a large round box. A total of 10 heads were found, including one believed that of a woman of about 60 and another believed that of a child. Law enforcement officers from all parts of the state converged on the scene in an attempt to solve disappearances dating back many years. One officer estimated that 150 officers had been at the scene Sunday and Monday at different times. State Crime Laboratory investigators were on the scene Saturday night, Sunday and Monday, working by the lights of a portable generator borrowed from Wood County officers.

Monday Gein was arraigned in Waushara County Court on a charge of armed robbery based on the theft of a cash register from the Worden store. The arraignment was adjourned for a week to permit Gein to obtain counsel, and bail was set at Then, in a statement Monday to Waushara County Dist. Atty. Earl Kileen, Gein confessed the murder of Mrs. Worden but said the other heads had been obtained by grave robbery.

He said he was In a "daze" when the crimes were committed. Charles Wilson, director of the Crime Laboratory, was quoted at Madison as saying that If human bones found at Gein's farm came (See Slaying, page 10), Gem Monday afternoon when that you thought you were dress ing out a deer. Gein: That is the only explanation that I can think was in my mind. Kileen Do you remember if you had the body all dressed before those people came out or after. Gein You mean the girl and her brother? Yes, it had to be.

Kileen: How about Mr. Uueck? Gein: He came before; before the girl and her brother came. Kileen: isetore the body was dressed and hung up? On these other ten skulls found in your house (or shrunken heads) those other ten shrunken heads. You got from a cemetery-or ceme teries? Gein: Yes. (Nods his head.) Kileen Did you ever kill anyone else besides Mrs.

Worden? Gein: Not to my knowledge The only thing I am not too sure that I killed her; that is the only thing, because I didn't have any weapons with me or on my property. Services For Mrs. Worden On Wednesday Funeral services for Mrs. Ber- nice Worden, 58, murdered Satur day at Plainfield, will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Plainfield Methodist Church, with burial in the village cemetery. Plainfield business places are expected to close during the services.

Friends may call at the Goult Funeral Home in Plainfield from this evening until the time of the services. Mrs. Worden, born in Canton, 111., on May 9, 1899, was a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Frank Conover.

She came to the Plainfield area as a girl with her parents, who settled on a farm west of the village. Her husband, Leon, operated the Worden Hardware and Implement Store in Plainfield until his death in 1931. Since then, his widow had run the store. Mrs. Worden is survived by a son, Frank, Plainfield; a daughter, Mrs.

Donald (Miriam) Walker, Lincoln, four grandchildren; a sister, Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Plainfield, and three brothers, Lloyd Conover, Plain-field, Lester Conover, Almond, and Burl Conover, Aurora, 111. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and the American Legion Auxiliary in Plainfield. Pravda Calls For More MOSCOW VP) Pravda called today for large increases in basic industrial production within the next 15 years, the period in which Red party boss Nikita Khrushchev claims Russia will overtake present U.S. output.

(Mr. Kileen first warns him of his constitutional rights and that everything he says will be used against him.) Kileen: Now you start from the time you went into the Worden Implement Store TeU us exactly what happened, the best you can recall. Gein: When I went into Mrs. Worden's, I took a glass jug for permanent anti-freeze. When I entered the hardware store she came towards me and said, "Do you want a gallon a anti-freeze?" and I said, "No, a half gallon." She got the anti freeze and pumped it out, and I held the jug for her to pour it in and then she pumped out another quart and I was still holding the jug while she poured that.

Then I paid her with a dollar bill. She gave me back one cent because it was 99 cents. This is what I can't say from now on because I don't know just what happened from now on, you see. She glanced out of the window towards the filling station across the street and said, "They are checking deer there." Then she looked towards the west, out of the west and north windows, and said, "There are more people up town than I thought there would be." She might have said something about opening of the season, she might have said that. Kileen: Do you remember striking her or shooting her? Gein: No.

That is what got me; whether I took my anti-freeze out. That is what I can't remember. It is hard for me to say from now on. My memory was a little vague, but I do remember dragging her across the floor. I remember loading her body in the trunk; then I drove the truck out on the East road at the intersection where 51 and 73 separate East of Plainfield.

I drove the truck up in the pine trees. Then I walked to town and got my car and drove it out there and loaded her body in the back end of the car, and also the cash register. I loaded the cash register in the truck when I put her body in there. Then I drove out to my farm and took the body out of the car and hung it up by its heels in my wood shed. Kileen: Tell how you took the blood out and buried it.

You used the knife you made from the file to cut her up? Gein: That is what is as close as I can remember. I was in a regular daze-like, and I can't swear to it. Kileen: Then you said that you took the blood from the body and put that out buried it out by the toilet house where you pointed out. Gein: East of the toilet. Kileen: Do you remember what you had the blood in? Was it a pail, bucket or jar? Gein: It must have been a pail.

Kileen: What kind of a pail? Gein Probably galvanized. Probably a 10-quart pail. One was a 10 qt. and one was a 12 qt. Kileen: Then you proceeded to dress out the body? You told me PLAINFIELD Wt You step through the kitchen door and there is an ordinary kitchen chair, except that its seat is upholstered with human skin.

There is what appears to be a small bowl on the table, but it is not a bowl, it is the top half of a human skull. This is the home of Eddie Gein, 51-year-old handyman and sometime babysitter. It is inside the sagging old farmhouse where he has lived alone since his mother died years ago of a stroke. Eddie Gein is held under bond under a charge of armed robbery of a Plainfield widow. He has admitted robbing her, and he has admitted killing her somehow but just how he says he doesn't remember and bringing her to his home last Saturday to be dressed out like a beef animal.

Officers who went to the house and found the eviscerated corpse hanging from its heels in a summer kitchen found that only the first of a series of grisly testimonials to Eddie Gein's necrotom-ic obsession. They also found 10 human skulls. Eddie Gein says he dug them up out of new graves in the area and authorities are inclined to believe him. They found the chair with its horrid upholstery. They found a box piled with scraps and tatters of human skin and a ghastly pair of puttees apparently made from the skin of human legs.

They found old books on medicine and embalming and a few lurid but current magazines. And they found other relics they did not describe and that no one is likely to describe in the near future. Newsmen were allowed to enter the house today. Added to the clutter and filth of years was the debris left by a painstaking Crime Laboratory investigation. Most of the trophies found in the house when authorities first entered were gone.

But even then, newsmen didn't stay long. The Weathei WISCONSLV Cloudy and cold with diminishing wind tonight. Some snow flurries northeast and extreme north tonight. Wednesday partly cloudy and not quite so cold. Low tonight around 15 northwest, around 20 southeast.

High Wednesday generally in the 30s. Winds strong gusty westerly except mostly northwestern west half this afternoon, diminishing slowly tonight and Wednesday, Stevens Point Temperatures. Yesterday's maximum, 33. Last night's minimum, 23. Noon today, 26.

Precipitation, .95 inch, rain and snow. and put him on probation tor Girard called the verdict after the three-month trial "kind of tough" but said he was glad the court "gave me another chance." The 22-year-old soldier from Ottawa, 111., and his Japanese bride are scheduled to leave for the United States quickly if neither prosecution nor defense appeals the verdict during the next 14 days. The court said the" probationary period would apply only if he remained in Japan. Girard also was ordered to pay the court costs of the Japanese witnesses, about $20. Chief defense attorney Itsuro Hayashi said the defense does not intend to appeal unless the prosecution does.

A prosecution spokesman indicated his side also would not challenge the court ruling, saying, "We are happy that all our contentions were accepted." The prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence, which under Japanese custom would have ruled out a suspension. Girard, a specialist third class, told a news conference he would like to re-enlist when his term expires Jan. 27. An Army spokesman said any re-enlistment application would be judged on its merits, although conviction for a felony normally rules out an applicant. U.

S. officials said a visa application for Girard's wife Haru (Candy) "is being processed normally and we see no complications." Candy, meanwhile, was hiding from reporters. Although the case at its outset had created a furor in Japan and America and a crisis in U. S.Japanese relations, there was little immediate, public reaction to its outcome. The newspaper Asahi said the friends and neighbors of.