Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

rvirr vi Weather Report Somewhat warmer on Thursday with gentle to moderate winds In iwfiw- METROPOLITAN FINAL EDITION Thursday, April 2, 1942. No. 333 Over a Century 2fi 1 lllth Year 28 Pages Cents mm mm TollomSubsTaken She Saw the Killer by U.S. Forces toDate i-'V 4th Victim Believed a Hostage or Dead BV DONALD F. SCHRAM Free Press Staff Writer CONCORD, April 1 A mad killer was loose in Michigan Wednesday night, blamed for the wanton murder of three farmers in two days, and the disappearancepossibly the killing of a fourth.

Last to die was Cart McKenzie, 43 years old, Concord farmer, shot down by a fusilade from a rifle aa he attempted to investigate trespassers in a shack on his farm a mile north of Concord. McKenzie was slain at 5 p. m. Wednesday. Slain Tuesday night in the kitchens of lieir farm homes a quarter of a mile apart near Oxford, in Oakland County, were Romaine C.

Potter, 75, and his cousin, Cassius E. Barber, 71, A .22 rifle was used in both cases. Missing is Roy Thorpe, 51, Oxford farmer, who may have been slain, but more likely is held as a hostage by Dominick Piccone, twenty-year-old-cx-convict, identified as the killer of Barber. Piccone is believed to have fled in Thorpe's car, with Thorpe as his prisoner. Sighted in Oakland, Only 36 Miles from Detroit Chief of Police Vera Schultz, of Oxford, reported late Wednesday night that a car answering the description had been seen on the Seymour Lake Road in Oakland County, about 36 miles from Detroit, and that Thorpe had been identified as the driver.

Patrol cars were immediately dispatched to the scene. Piccone, released from Jackson Prison Qnly two weeks ago on expiration of his term after the State Parole Board had repeatedly refused him a parole, is believed to have killed Barber and Potter in revenge for having testified against him three and a half years ago when he was convicted of the kidnaping and attempted rape of a Highland Park teacher. The wanton killing of McKenzie followed when the farmer accidentally spied him and either an accomplice or his hostage in 'If lHHIiMtai, tHnjAxJt iV'ilih MRS. ELIZABETH MURPHY FAeryone, Including the murderer, called her "Gramma' a nicieout on tne concord man farm. Two men were seen in flight from the scene of the Concord killing, in a car which answered the description of that owned bv On Guard for Jap Bases Smashed in Philippines 22 Warehouses Are Kazed in Two Raids; Bataan Defenders Halt Big Attack WAR AT A GLANCE PHILIPPINES-In two spectac ular raids on Mindanao Island, defenders destroy 22 Jap warehouses filled with war supplies and wreck military installations; strong Jap attacks on Bataan line checked after minor gains by Japs.

FAR EAST British in Burma break out of encirclement and fall back on Prome; Allied bombers add to toll of planes destroyed in attacks on Japs' Australian invasion bases. RUSSIA Russians and Germans locked in battle all along the front, with furious fighting in Donets sector developing into crucial struggle. SEA WAR U. S. announces sinking of three more Axis submarines, including two in the Atlantic.

25 YEARS AGO TODAY PRESIDENT WILSON urged Congress, assembled in joint session, to declare a state of war existing between the United States and Germany, Br (he lnllrd Prrii WASHINGTON, April 1-Bayonet wielding defenders of Bataan Peninsula halted another large-scale Japanese attack today whi'e their comrades in the southern Philippines carried out two spectacular raids that destroyed 22 enemy warehouses and military installations. The actions were reported In War Department communiques which told of the heaviest fighting in two months. Activity burst forth from one end of the archipelago to the other on land, at sea and in the air. The biggest battle occurred on the right center of Lieut. Gen.

Jonathan M. Wainwright's Bataan line, where the Japs sought to break through, only to be stopped with heavy casualties in savage and sanguinary hand-to-hand fighting. Loss of some advance positions was acknowledged but the heavy assault was stopped at bayonet point Dcrore it reached the main defense line. Most spectacular action, haw- ever, was on the southernmost Philippine island of Mindanao. There, native Sulu units, fight- Turn to Page 4, Column 5 3 Norse Ships Sunk in Dash New Turk Timet Tarrim Service STOCKHOLM, April 1 Ten Norwegian ships which since the invasion of Norway had sought harbor in Sweden escaped a few days ago and at least three were sunk while running the German blockade, it was learned tonight.

Last month the Supreme Court had decided that the ships were at the disposal of the British Gov ernment rather than Premier Vid-kun Quisling, of Norway. Wreckage of three tankers has been found scattered along the Swedish coast. the center of quarrels In the plant and that her actions disrupted production. The company employs about 800 people, nearly half of whom are women. Miss Samp's statement was: "I want to make it clear that I have never at any time stated that the workers in the plant of the National Stamping Co.

have objected to increasing production in the plant Such a statement would not have been true. "The workers in the plant, like myself, are wholeheartedly in support of the effort to increase the output of war materials, and are doing everything in their power to do it. 'The fact is that there were disturbances in the plant which had nothing whatever to do with increasing production and I must frankly admit that I contributed my ihars toward tittrm dis- turbances. 1 recognize my respon- Thorpe. Officials of Jackson and and naval forces thus far in the war.

Of this total, 21 were blasted in the Atlantic and seven in the racinc. In addition to these, the Navy asserted that "there is evidence of additional sinkings of Axis undersea craft," but it said that no claims would be made to these until they are absolutely certain ana unui uie news will be of "no possible use to the enemy." Meantime, ship sinkings by Axis continued off the Atlantic Coast. The Navy announced the torpedoing of a medium-sized Panamanian merchant vessel, and it was disclosed that 13 of its crewmen, weak and numb from exposure, were landed at Norfolk, Saturday night. A rescue vessel picked them up after they had drifted for 45 hours in one lifeboat and two rafts. Two others of the crew were known dead and 38 presumed lost, At New York, the captain of a Norwegian the Gunny, told how he and 11 other survivors drifted for seven days on a raft after his ship was torpedoed in the South Atlantic March 2.

The torpedoing resulted in the death of 14 other crewmen. In a speech at Elizabeth City, N. Rear Admiral M. H. Simons, commandant of the Fifth Naval Turn to Page 9, Column 2 British Break Through Trap in Burma ISut Gateway to Oil Fields Is Imperiled BY P.

D. SHARMA lnllrd Prm CorifKpimilrnt NEW DELHI. Anril 1 British troops have broken out of a Japa nese encirclement and fallen back to Promc, gateway to the Burma on fields, but the Japanese are massing only 10 miles to the south and have complete control of the air, an Allied communique re vealed tonight. With all territory behind them firmly in their hands, it appeared that the Japanese were preparing anotner nanKing movement, possibly to force the Imperials to withdraw from Promc to prevent being cut off from their Chinese allies to the east. Prome Is on the east bank of the Irrawadcly River and the Japs are striking up both the east and west banks, as well as up the Rangoon-Prome Railway.

The British, including units of the Gloucester, Y'orkshire and Cameronian Highlander regiments and two Indian frontier battalions, had been encircled between Paungde, 30 miles sor.th of Prome, and Shwedaunge, 10 miles south of Prome. They fought their way through the Jap road blocks at Shwedaunge and moved on north to Prome, leaving all the territory from Shwedaunge south firmly in Jap hands. (A communique Issued Wednes day night in Chungking said that severe lignting was continuing northeast of Toungoo. where Chinese troops earlier had broken out of a Japanese trap in that Eastern Burma sector. The com munique also disclosed that Japanese forces had been repulsed with heavy losses March 24 when Turn to Page 9, Column 3 mobilized all their forces for a man hunt, as terror gripped the residents of the Oxford and Concord communities.

State Police Get Word Five Hours Later Although the McKenzie killing occurred before 5 rt. Stat '4 SanDiego loBc Cleared of Every Jap By I KilrA Prfts SAN FRANCISCO, April 1 The evacuation of all Japanese, about 1,000, both aliens and non- aliens from the entire City of San JUiego and "ccrtat i adjoining ter-ritory" was ordered today by Lieut, uen. Jonn Dewitt, of the Western Defense Command and the Fourth Army. The evacuations will be carried out April. 2-8.

Alll evacuees will be taken to the Manzanar reception center in uwens valley. The acquisition of six additional assembly centers for use in the evacuations was also announced today by Gen. Dewitt. Two are located in Arizona, two In Wash ington and one each In California and Oregon. They will supplement the nine centers already announced in California.

Mass Migration Begun LOS ANGELES, April 1 (AP) Five hundred Japanese from doll-like babies to elderly shop- Keepers boarded a special train today for the Government's new internment center at Manzanar. The greatest mass movement in the nation's history was officially under way. By the time the evacuation is over, six weeks or so hence, the Government esti mates that 139,000 Pacific Coast Nipponese will have been relocated in Inland areas. Fitness Drive Slows to Walk 111 Aorl(rf TrfM WASHINGTON. April 1-fhe controversial "physical fitness" program launched by the Office of Civilian Defense will be drastically curtailed, it was announced today by the Federal Security Agency, to which the program has been transferred.

It was understood tonight that Paul V. McNutt, security administrator, would Junk the idea of a far-flung promotion campaign by co-ordinators to, influence civil ian participation in amateur sports and that the Government would confine Itself to the role of adviser for local communities on recreation programs. police at East Lansing had heard nothing of it at 10:15 p. and no teletype warnings that the killer had murdered a third man and was still at liberty had been sent out. At 11 p.

'm. Lieut. Harold Mulbar said that 35 to 40 police cars had been. concentrated in the Jackson area. Sheriff Spencer C.

Howarth, Labor Bills Will Go to Senate Floor Connally Forces Action on Legislation by Threatening to Block Recess Bt CLIFFORD A. PREVOST Krrf ITfM Washington Rurran, i liil National 1'rMl Uuildlot WASHINGTON, April 1 Proposed labor legislation which has been locked in committee win come before the Senate on April 20 as a result of an agreement reached today with the Administration leadership. Decision to force a vote on pending legislation to amend the National Labor Relations Act and to repeal the Wage-Hour Act was reached after Senator Tom Connally, Texas Democrat, had threatened to block a two-week recess, beginning next Monday. Connally is insisting that the legislation, heretofore stymied in the Labor and Education Committee, be forced to the floor. Despite the agreement reached today, however, few senators believed that there was any possibility of labor legislation being passed this year.

It was pointed out that President Roosevelt had declined to approve any of the bills now before the House, some of which may get past that body. The group cf Southern representatives sponsoring this legislation is regarded as so decidedly anti-labor that an attempt will be made on the floor to emasculate both acts. Connally is pressing for a vote on his bill to give the Govern ment power to seize strikebound plant3 holding war contracts and will link this measure with labor legislation designed to outlaw all strikes. Senator Elbert D. Thomas.

Utah Democrat, chairman of the Labor and Education Committee, has declined to report out House-accepted labor legislation since the enactment of the Labor Relations Act in liKJT. believing that the Southern group would attempt to wreck all gains made in the last several years, Mac Arthur Declares Confidence in Labor lt.v the Cnltrd frets f. A i nrn.rr.n.r. Li nun "MiuAKTtiKS, April Gen. Douglas MacArthur said today that American labor will be the indestructible backbone" that will Determine the outcome of the war, turn to Page 9, Column 1 Uol-DogGirl wiiied Estate LOS ANGELES, April 1 (UP) -Once again Lucy Fay Bales, seat-packing house Cinderella, her dreams of a fortune dis- we into today as ler claims to $5,000,000 of the Michael 'rands O'Dea lpie denied for wcond time.

Bales, claims to champi. i Reiner pack. of the pack's industry, the Jfa fortune 7 1 a ing 'felf to Mis Bales daughter of the wealthy real-'ate broker and Mary Crane, a 'Sneer, Superior Judge Harry R. Arch-'0, after hearing numerous wit-Sss on Miss Bales' behalf and others who denied O'Dea marricd or been a father, ,1 Mlss Bacs, story Board Calls Lash, nHl of First Lady ApriI i-(Ap)- f4a ti Sprvice headquarters said "o-w 3osePh p- thirty-he if general secretary of hl tionaI Student Service, ordered to report for in-, Uon Into military service April nh p. of Mis.

Franklin iCVPlt amj formCv Hi. th 'nuUi division of i ''f f'lv'ilian Defense, in the Naval (, r-i earv this 3 application tt'si I fied State police of the earlier killings at 1 a. m. Wednesday. McKenzie, a member of the school board and a justice of the By lie AsotlnlI rrmn WASHINGTON, April 1-Don-ald Francis Mason, the naval enlisted pilot who recently .1.

o16m.eu bud, sanK same," has done It again, the Navy announced today, and for his unprecedented double success has been awarded me equivalent of a second Dis US.BomberSels Atlantic Record LONDON, April 2 (Thursday) (AP) An American-built four-engined Liberator (Consolidated) bomber has flown 2,200 miles from Newfoundland to Britain in the record time of six hours and 40 minutes, the Ferry Command announced today. The new time of 400 minutes eclipsed by exactly one hour the trans-Atlantic flight record set three months ago by a young English pilot. tinguished Flying Cross and given an officer's commission. Mason's second, successful attack was one of three submarine sinkings reported by the Navy today. The three, two In the Atlantic and one in the Pacific, raised to a grand total of 28 the number cf Axis undersea craft announced as "sunk or presumed sunk" by United States military Allies Smash 30 Jap Planes Off Australia 3 More Military Classes Called Up BV Bl'RON C.

TAVES I'nllfd I'rMB Corrpfcpondcnt GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEAD' QUARTERS, Melbourne, April 2 (Thursday) Allied bombers, slashing through tropical storms, have destroyed or damaged at least 30 Japanese planes in a three-day attack on Jap invasion bases, It was revealed today as Australia brought her land forces to full war strength by calling up tnrce more military classes. Calling up of additional con script classes was announced by War Minister Francis Forde as Australia's northern defenses went on a twenty-four-hour alert against the threat of invasion, Koepang Struck Heavily Heaviest of the Allied aerial blows, In which both American and Australian planes participated, fell on Koepang, Japanese base on the Dutch half of the island of Timor, where 24 planes, including tig four-motored flying boats, were destroyed Tuesday and Wednesday. Also raided successfully Wednesday was Salamaua, New Guinea, where heavy bombs fell along airdrome runways. Officlall reports accounted specifically for at least 30 enemy planes, and one unofficial source set the toll as high as 33.

Included were Jap losses in feeble sorties against the Allied bases at Darwin and Port Moresby. Great Fires Set In Raid In the first raid on Koepang, on Tuesday, 12 planes were shattered. Bombs also crashed near a ship in the harbor. Less than 24 hours later, early Wednesday, the Allied raiders were back again to double the score of planes destroyed or damaged and to set great fires. (Free French headquarters in London announced that Gen.

Charles de Gaulle had placed the Free French forces in the Pacific under MacArthur's command. The Free French hold New Caledonia and other island outposts northeast of Australia. On the Sports Pages Today HOCKEY Red Wings, confident of victory over Maple Leafs in Stanley Cup series, make careful plans and prepare for Toronto trip. BASEBALL-rTigers find three home runs too much and bow to St. Louis Cardinals, 5 to York hits homer and Cramer three singles.

GOLF-Nation's leading pro pick P.yron Nelson to win annual Masters tournament and are divided on second place between Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. Complete details of these and events will ta found on rages 22, 23 and 24. peace, set out in his car at appointment with a dentist in Description of 4:45 -11 if t. 1 Titanic Baltic for Russia Shaping Up Fighting Rages; Both Sides Mass Forces BY WILLIAM J. HUMPHREYS AganrUted Trees Correnpondeni LONDON, April 1 Bitter fight Ing now under way in the Donets Basin on Russia's southern front was reported tonight to be gradU' ally developing into a titanic clash Royce Howes' daily war analysis appears on Page 7 which ultimately may determine the outcome of 1942 a warm' weather operations on the entire Russian-German battlcfront.

Dispatches from both Moscow and Berlin indicated that the entire front from Leningrad to the Black Sea now is locked in see-saw struggle, with both the Russian and German High Com mands moving masses of reserves into the central and southern zones. In view of thii London observers find it difficult to predict that either side could develop any lightning spring offensive. they preferred to view the current action In the Donets Basin, where the roads are now drying steadily, as pivotal fighting holding the key to the entire warm-weather situation for the remainder of the year. The side winning the advantage here is expected to prevail. Incessant German counter attacks to recover lost ground and relieve the encircled Nazi Sixteenth Army in the Staraya Russa sector on the northwestern front are emphasized in reports from Stockholm.

These reports state that the beleaguered German force, which orig nally numbered 100,000 men, Turn to Page 4, Column 5 After Denying sibility for the disturbances and sincerely regret that they occurred. "The first I knew of the statements of Pearson and Allen (radio commentators) was when my attention was called to their remarks on the radio. I do not know where they got their information, but I do know that it is not true. "It seems to me that the people who are circulating this false story are trying to use me as a tool to attack and discredit my union and organized labor. "I have been a member of the UAW (CIO) for many years and no one knows better than I do the need which workers have for their unions and the benefit they get from them.

"Anyone who says that the members of my union are not doing eventhir.2 thev can to to Page 2, Column I Oakland Counties and State mlire of Oakland Count v. said he p. m. Wednesday to keep an Concord. Apparently he sichted a Car and Killer on his farm a half-mile from his to investigate.

Tuesday fver.mg Li Oxford Domlnlrk Piccone and hi prisoner, Roy Thorpe, are boll-vrd driving a 1937 green Chevrolet two-door sedan, with 1013 plate J.C-25-22. Piccone, 20 years old, Ik five feet, 11 Incite tall, h.wkv, dark complexioned, witu a puffy face. Thorpe, 51, is five feet tail and slender. strange car parked near a shack nome, and turned up a side road AN ABOUT-FACE FOR PEACE Girl Worker Reinstated by Union She Was Suspended for Doing Her Job Too Fast Sheriff Howard Capron of Jackson County surmised that McKenzie got out of the car and was met by a volly of gunfire. One bullet struck him below the ribs on the right side, and two others hit him on each forearm.

A fourth clipped a package of cigarets in his shirt pocket. Other shots hit a. fender of the car and shattered the windshield, still others buried themselves in a mound of earth across the road. Capron found eight empty shells from a special .22 rifle at the scene. Twice earlier in the day, neighbors had seen a car parked at the shack, once with two men in it.

A few minutes after the shooting, Mrs. William Warner, living a half-mile west, said that a car with two men had gone past her home at high speed. McKenzie, holding his hat over his bleeding wound, walked a fiflh of a mile toward his home before he collapsed by the roadside. A passing truck driver, Russell Steebey, of Albion, spied him and stopped to give assistance. "Help me to get home," McKenzie pleaded.

Steebey, ill at the sight of a hatful of blood, said he would go for help. "For God's, sake, don't leave me. They'll shoot me McKenzie moaned. Steebey went to a near-by farm for help. Glenn Hoaglin and a Mrs.

Chambers came with near and took McKenzie to a Concord doctor's office, where he died within a few minutes, without making a further coherent statement. Genevieve Samp, twenty five- year-old factory worker, was re instated as a memDer or me unit ed Automobile Workers (CIO) Wednesday afternoon after she had made a formal statement denying that she had been suspended from the union because she worked too hard on war production. Her reinstatement followed for mal withdrawing of charges against her made bv five members of Local 270, UAW (CIO), who had said that her conduct had been unbecoming a union mem ber. As a result, sne is eligible to be rehired by the National Stamping 630 Jean, where she worked up until March 5. The local had maintained that her suspension was not because worked too hard, thus '-killing jobs," as had been charged by i na'innsl commentators, but Lwa3 because sue continually was Today's Index Pages Amusements 18 Around the Town 8 Bingay, Malcolm 6 Clapper, Raymond 12 Classified Ads 24-25-2S Crossword Puzzle 24 Detroit Diary 1:1 Editorial Page 6 Financial Pages 17-18, Guest, Edgar A.

6 Inquiring Reporter 7 MjLemore, Henry 12 6 My Dav 12 Pyie. Ernie 12 P.adio Programs 19 Sports Pages Thorpe wa.s seen hist early hart Jwttv Turn to Pa: 11, (nlimisi 3.