Abductor Gets Long Sentence

Reading local newspapers from the height of the Prohibition era can be a heady experience. I often get the sense that the country was running wide open, the pedal was floored, the driver was drunk or high and civilization was on the brink of collapse. The papers were splashed daily with seemingly unending stories of violence, booze, drugs, bootlegging and murder. And it seemed to take the stock market crash of ’29, the Great Depression and the repeal of Prohibition to slap the United States back into some state of caffeinated or cold-watered sobriety.

These were the days before seat belts, people, so grab something and hang on. We're taking a two week drive....  -- Jason Scorich

 

 

ABDUCTOR GETS LONG SENTENCE

James Widmeyer, one-time conductor on the defunct Mesaba Railway interurban cars, was sentenced to state’s prison at Stillwater for an indeterminate term of from one to seven years, by Judge Edward Freeman in district court late Tuesday, after the defendant had entered a plea of guilty to a charge of abduction.

Widmeyer is alleged to have abducted a young Eveleth girl from her home nearly three years ago, and has been the object of a wide search by the police of the northwest. His arrest occurred in Minneapolis Saturday and he was brought to Virginia yesterday afternoon. His arraignment, plea and sentence followed quickly his arrival at the court house. Virginia Daily Enterprise—Wednesday, January 11, 1928

 

MICHIGAN STIRRED BY KIDNAPPING, MURDER OF CHILD

Flint, Mich.—A man, who police say answers in a general way the description of the man sought as the kidnapper and slayer of five year-old Dorothy Schneider, was arrested here today. His name was withheld pending a further investigation.

Officers said the man was driving a sedan which tallied in description with the car in which the child was kidnapped and carried to her death yesterday near Mount Norris.

Several severed parts of the child’s body were found today in the creek band near where her body was discovered late yesterday.

A reward fund for apprehension of the slayer was started this morning when Genesee county posted $1,000, the limit permitted by law.

 

Flint, Mich—The most intensive man hunt in Michigan history today sought the kidnapper and slayer of five year-old Dorothy Schneider.

Kidnapped from under the eyes of her mother, wife of an automobile factory worker, the child was taken in an automobile to the countryside near Mt. Morris, not far from here, and brutally slain. The child slayer then dissected the body and stuffed a portion of it under a ledge of ice bordering a creek. Some portions of the body still were missing today.

Dorothy was hurrying home from Kindergarten shortly after noon yesterday. She was snatched from the sidewalk a block from her home. Her mother, watching for the child from the porch, saw a man drag her into an automobile and then drive away.

Discovery of the body was made by members of posses and officials stirred to action by the mother, who ran screaming to the nearest police station, after witnessing the kidnapping.

The officials traced a dilapidated sedan which the man was driving, to a spot adjacent to the farm of Archie Bacon, near Mount Morris. Bacon told authorities he saw the man alight from the car carrying a bundle with which he hurried to the woods. The man, according to Bacon, returned to the car two hours later, minus the bundle and extricating the machine from a mud hole where it was stuck, drove away. In the creek which runs through the woods, officers found the mutilated body.

Coroner Brasie, who conducted an inquest, said indications were that the child died of a stab wound to the heart and that the body was dissected after death. He expressed the opinion that the deed was the work of a maniac, a detailed description of who was broadcast. He was described as about 5 feet 10 inches in height, of light complexion, stooped shouldered and slender. He was wearing a light suit and dark overcoat.

Mr. and Mrs. Schneider were prostrated. The couple, in modest circumstances, have one other child, Kenneth, 3 years old.

A grim object lesson to persons, whom he considered unduly sympathetic with criminals, was provided last night by Sheriff Frank Green, who called in members of every woman’s civic organization in the city, and invited them to view the remains of the child.

The invitation was accepted and the club women filed silently by the slab where the mutilated body lies. At the conclusion of the episode, the women were ushered quietly out of the morgue. They were deeply affected.

“I wanted to bring home to these people,” Sheriff Green said, “the danger and futility of pampering criminals.” Virginia Daily Enterprise—Wednesday, January 11, 1928

 

“ALKY” PEDDLERS BLAMED FOR MURDER IN CHICAGO

Chicago—Police turned to the haunts of “Alky” peddlers today to solve the murder of a 28 year-old woman known as Mrs. Betty Chambers. A maid found her body late yesterday in the Chambers apartment, clad only in pajamas. Adhesive tape had been wound around her head, covering mouth and nose, she had been struck with a blunt instrument on the back of her neck, and a tightly drawn electric light cord was fastened about her throat.

A man, who registered with her at the apartment as Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Chambers, is connected with a group of gangsters, police said. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Fri. Jan. 13, 1928

 

DARK STRANGLER PAYS ON GALLOWS

Charged With Murder of 22 In U.S. and Canada; Insanity Is Only Defense

Winnipeg, Man.—Earl Nelson, the “dark strangler,” to whom police ascribe 22 slayings, was hanged today for the murder of Mrs. Emily Patterson.

The hanging of Nelson ended the grim story of a criminal trail, winding from the Atlantic to the Pacific along which police credited 22 murders to Nelson.

Mrs. Patterson, mother of two children, was slain here June 10, 1927, a few days before the killing of 14 year-old Lola Cowan, Winnipeg high school girl, whom he also was accused of strangling.

Police said that Nelson, on Feb. 20, 1926, in San Francisco, Calif., began his trail of death, which stretched for 7,000 miles along the Pacific Coast, across the United States to the Atlantic seaboard, then doubled back into Canada and ended in Manitoba. Of the 22 murders for which he was blamed, 20 of the victims were women, one was the Winnipeg school girl and another a baby.

Nelson’s defense at his six-day trial was insanity. Records were presented to show that the prisoner had been confined in an insane asylum in Napa, Calif., during various periods between 1921 and 1926.

Nelson protested his innocence to the last. The trap was sprung at 7:41 o’clock. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Fri. Jan. 13, 1928

 

CONVENTION ENDS IN A POLICE RAID

Milwaukee—Nearly 200 men and six women, scantily clad, were apprehended by police here shortly after midnight at the Builders club, where members of the Master Builders association of Wisconsin were winding up their state convention with a stag party.

The raid was carried on under the direction of the morals squad of the police department.

When more than a score of officers had surrounded the building, detectives smashed their way into the main hall where women entertainers were staging dances.

Several men jumped from second story windows and fled, only to be recaptured by officers stationed outside.

Three patrol wagons were backed up to transport the throng to the central police station, less than 300 feet away. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Sat., Feb. 4, 1928

 

LIFE SENTENCE FOR HAVING BEER

Home Brew Is Found In Home; Woman Faces Life In the Penitentiary

Chicago—Home brew found in the home of Mrs. Mary Tokarz, Muskegon, Mich., may like Fred Palm’s pint of whiskey, write prohibition history in Michigan.

Mrs. Tokarz, 40 years old and a mother, was arrested here last night for Muskegon authorities. The brew had been found in her home following her daughter’s wedding. At liberty under bond, she came to Chicago, where she has been working in a laundry.

Michigan’s habitual criminal law provides that three previous felony convictions make a life sentence mandatory. Mrs. Tokarz, Chicago police were told, was found guilty on three former occasions, each case involving a liquor law violation, a felony in Michigan. It was fear of the life penalty, she said, that prompted her to flee her bond and come here.

Telephone calls from her husband in Muskegon were traced, resulting in Mrs. Tokarz’s arrest. She sobbed her story to detectives and pleaded for mercy.

Fred Palm of Lansing, Mich., is now serving a life term under similar circumstances. When arrested for possession of a pint of whiskey, Palm was found to have had previous convictions on felony charges, leaving the court no alternative but to impose a life sentence. Palm has appealed to the state supreme law, attacking the constitutionality of the law. Virginia Daily Enterprise—Fri., May 18, 1928

 

WON ARGUMENT

Near Dayley, Tex., George Elliott and George Lay, his best friend, went fishing. While fishing, they talked of the 102-pound catfish caught on a similar trip 21 years ago. Elliott said he landed it; Lay claimed the glory for himself. Both drew guns, both fired. Lay was killed; Elliott went to jail. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Fri., Mar. 2, 1928

 

DEATH SENTENCE IS JURY VERDICT

Chicago—The judgment of eleven married men and a widower started Dr. Amante Rongetti on the way to the electric chair today for the murder of a 19 year-old girl by an illegal operation.

The penalty, said to be the most severe ever recommended for a criminal operation, was reported last night after the jury had deliberated three hours.

Dr. Rongetti, his trial one of bitter strife and marked by charges of intimidation of state’s witnesses, appeared dazed when the verdict of guilty and the recommendation of death by electrocution were read.

Rongetti’s lawyers immediately asked for a new trial and Judge Comerford set Saturday for argument.

Rongetti was charged with the murder of Miss Loretta Enders, a girl of 19 years, who was brought to the hospital in a state of approaching motherhood.

Rongetti claimed that the state’s case against him was a conspiracy and that the young woman did not come to his hospital until after she had undergone the operation elsewhere. Daily Enterprise—Fri., Mar. 2, 1928

 

BUILDS ELECTRIC CHAIR; DIES IN IT

Spokane, Wash.—An experiment, apparently to test an “electric chair” he had constructed, caused the death here last night of Kenneth F. Brooks, 16 yearold high school senior.

The body, unclad except for a pair of cotton trunks, was found in the chair in the boys’ room by a brother. Handcuffs and chains to which wires leading from an electric light circuit were attached, encircled the ankles and wrist. The current was controlled by a small switch held in the youth’s hand.

Police scouted a suicide theory when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Brooks, told of his brilliant scholastic standing, good health and plans to graduate this semester. Officers were informed the boy had experimented with chairs, handcuffs and padlocks and studied electricity.

Authorities expressed the belief that the ordinary household current would be insufficient to cause death, except in the case of a weak heart. Daily Enterprise—Fri., Mar. 2, 1928