Police Baffled in Murder Plot

Hibbing, Minn., Oct. 9 (Special)— Mystery today enshrouded the fatal shooting of a man identified as Ray Chumsas by a Chicago Y.M.C.A. card found on his body in the wood land just outside the village limits, early yesterday morning. Investigation by both sheriffs and police forces failed to pierce the veil that surrounds the identity of the slayer and why the murder occurred in that lonely Hibbing district.

Two things have been established, that Chumsas, who is believed Polish and 24 years of age was killed where the body was found, and the murder was committed not many minutes before two boys hunting stumbled upon the body laying in the early morning snow. The body was still warm when deputy sheriff Bullen, assistant chief Naseath and Captain Fitzgerald of the Hibbing police department arrived at the scene, at 11 o’clock. The coroner said the murder had evidently occurred about 8:30 o’clock.

Image courtesy of the Iron Range Research Center, Stanley Olson Collection That Chumsas was murdered for the money he had in his possession was the theory of Assistant Chief of Police Naseath who conducted the preliminary investigator. Only a small sum was found in the clothing of the dead man. He had evidently just returned from working in the harvest fields of North Dakota. Wheat and chaff found in the man’s clothing leads to this belief. He had been working hard, the callouses on his hands indicating that he had labored long and hard with a pitch fork or some other tool used in the harvest fields. The address of an East Grand Forks man was found in his pocket.

The condition of his stomach which was opened at the request of the officers, showed that he had eaten but the simplest meals. No liquor or tobacco had been touched by him, possibly in his entire life, so excellent was the condition of the stomach, physicians announced.

“This leads us to the theory” said the Assistant Chief “That Chumsas had been lured into the woods and there murdered for what his pockets or money belt contained. Chumsas had been shot at least three times. Another bullet had missed its mark just glazing a nearby tree.

Chicago, Oct. 9—Ray Chumsas, whose body with five bullet wounds was found today near Hibbing by boys hunting rabbits, formerly lived in Chicago. When he left here a few weeks ago he told friends he would be back soon. He was 23 years old and was born in Christiana, Norway. He was employed here by the Delta Star Electric company as a laborer and had his residence at the Division St. Y.M.C.A. where some of his effects are now. Friends could find nothing to indicate a motive for his murder. Virginia Daily Enterprise—Oct. 9, 1925

ARREST ONE IN MATTSON DEATH MYSTERY

TWO VIRGINIA LADS STUMBLE ACROSS BADLY DECOMPOSED CORPSE OF SAILOR MISSING SINCE LAST DECEMBER 2; LAST SEEN BY GILBERT BROTHER-IN-LAW

LEFT TO VISIT PARENTS IN EMBARRASS AFTER LEAVING VESSEL AT DULUTH; BODY DISCOVERED NORTH OF MINORCA MINE; INDENTIFICATION IS MADE

Waino Kangas, Gilbert, brotherin law of Heino Mattson, whose decomposed body was found Saturday by lads while hunting in the woods north of Virginia, was arrested as a suspect in the case this noon by deputy sheriffs. He is being held at the court house.

With the finding of a badly decomposed body with a bullet hole through the right temple of the skull Saturday afternoon by two lads while hunting in the dense woods a short distance north of the city police believe they have partially solved the enigma presented by the disappearance last

December 2, of Heino Mattson, age 28, of Embarrass. The corpse was identified as that of Mattson by relatives late Saturday night.

A .32 calibre revolver found under the body indicated the manner of death. Papers, clothing, trinkets in the pockets, and teeth fillings aided in the identification.

A Lake Carriers’ association identifi- cation card, bearing Mattson’s name, was found in a card case a few feet from where the body was discovered. Several pockets in the clothing were turned inside out. In others, Mattson’s watch, comb, bill fold with a $20 bill was discovered under the body.

Leaves and rubbish partly covered the corpse when the two lads made their gruesome find. They notified the police immediately but became so frightened they had difficulty in leading the officers back to the scene. The boys were Hjalmer Sather, age 15, of 218 Sixth street north, and Joseph Klstavoski, 610 North Third avenue. Mattson was known to have had more than $200 on his person when he arrived on the range a few days before his disappearance early last December. He had been employed all season as a sailor on a Great Lakes vessel and the money represented his “stake.”

After stopping a few days with relatives here he went to Embarrass to visit his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Matt Mattson, accompanied by his brotherin law, Waine Kangas, of Gilbert. Kangas, apparently, was the last to see Mattson alive. He claims to have been with Mattson when the latter left his home at Embarrass, and says the two of them came to Gilbert. He also claims to have seen Matttson take a street car to Virginia a day or two later.

Mattson is survived by his parents, two brothers, Gust, of Aurora and Lee, of Brainerd, and three sisters, Mrs. John Wiikinen, of Virginia, Mrs. Adolph Cornell, of Virginia, and  Mrs. Lee Runn, Aurora.
Virginia Daily Enterprise— Oct. 12, 1925

MAY NOT BURY HEINO MATTSON

AUTHORITIES MAY ORDER SKELETON SAVED FOR COURT IF MURDER CHARGE IS PLACED

While Waino Kangas is being held without charge as a suspect in the death of Heino Mattson, 28, of Embarrass, whose decomposed remains were found in the woods north of Virginia Saturday, funeral arrangements are pending the results of an investigation being conducted by Assistant County Attorney Carl Onkka and deputy sheriffs. Announcement was made today that the skeleton may be preserved for introduction in court should new developments result in the placing of a murder charge against any suspect. Mattson disappeared last December 2 after visiting his parents at their Embarrass farm in company with Kangas, his brother-in-law. The latter was arrested Monday noon after a coroner’s jury decided that Mattson came to his death from a bullet fired by an unknown party. He has maintained his complete ignorance of the circumstances surrounding the death of Mattson.
Virginia Daily Enterprise— Oct. 13, 1925

REPRESSION OF OBSCENE LITERATURE NEEDED

Most of the nasty printed matter in the United States comes out of New York, complains the board of temperance and morals of the Methodist church. Of course. So does most of the virtuous printed matter. Probably more edifying religious literature is published in New York than anywhere else in America.

New York is a factory and distributor of print, as of everything else, and comes nearer to having a monopoly of periodical publications than of any other commodity.

And the printing press has no conscience. It will turn out filth or purity with equal impersonality.

Of course somebody does have responsibility.

“Guilt is personal,” as Woodrow Wilson said.

Somebody—a great many somebodys— in New York has found out that smut is more openly and safely salable than it used to be, and the market is therefore supplied.

Guilt is primarily on the purveyor of such goods. But it is also on the buyers. These things are not sold in New York.

Most of them are sold elsewhere. If rural police are less vigilant than they once were against obscene literature, if rural populations buy more of it, the guilt is national.

These things go in waves.

We are in an era of frankness, which is a virtue. The degenerate aberrations of frankness are its byproduct.

They need repression, not only at the source, but all over the country. We have been through that in the moving pictures. It is now the turn of the printed page.
Virginia Daily Enterprise— Oct. 13, 1925

NET TIGHTENS ABOUT SUSPECT

THINK MAN HELD IN HIBBING KILLED CHUMAS; ERRORS ARE FOUND IN HIS STORY

Hibbing, Minn., Oct. 14—(Special) Contending that a net of evidence has been woven around the suspect taken into custody Tuesday as the man who murdered Ray Chumas, Chicago youth, last week in Hibbing, which is certain to convict him, authorities today stated that they are prepared to go before the grand jury asking an indictment and trial when district court opens here the latter part of this month.

The suspect’s name is not yet divulged by the authorities although he is talking considerable more than when first arrested. He still maintains his innocence.

Police established the fact that Chumas was lured to Hibbing by the suspect who stated that his father operated a large logging camp and that Chumas would be given a job. Investigation shows that the father of the suspect worked on the county roads and never had engaged in the lumbering business. Chumas left North Dakota with the suspect with $200 on his person. When found fifteen cents remained in his pocket. The man taken into custody lived with his father east of Little Swan near Hibbing and had known Chumas for more than a year.

Authorities contend that the suspedt lured Chumas into the woods and after shooting him robbed him of his money. He will undergo a grilling examination this afternoon. The body of Chumas was interred in Hibbing cemetery today.
Virginia Daily Enterprise— Oct. 14, 1925

UNWILLING SERVICE

Before the war a considerable proportion of the women used to employ one or more servants. Out in the country districts such a helper was democratically known as the “hired girl.” But since the war, this type of workers has become somewhat scarce, and a great number of women who used to feel the need of such assistance are now doing their own housework.

In a good many cases, women will say they think they could afford to have such a helper and they believe they could find one. But they say that many of these workers are grouchy and discontented, so that it is more annoyance to have them in their homes than it is to do the housework themselves.

There may be something to be said on the side of these workers. In some cases, they may be asked to work unreasonably long hours, or they may be given poor and uncomfortable quarters. It naturally promotes discontent if they have to sleep in a stuffy room under the attic through the summer and in one without any means of heat in winter.

Yet it is the opinion of sensible women that these house workers fare pretty well nowadays, as compared with the ordinary run of girls who do clerical work. Their pay, added to the value of the board which they get, is probably more than the average wages of the business girl.

Many of the older women regret the old-fashioned servant, who was devoted to the interests of the family and seemed to keep somewhat contented. Her tribe is scarce now. There is much of the spirit of unwilling service in the world, among both men and women. The idea has been widely distributed that work is a kind of curse which should be avoided as much as possible, and that people who have to toil are in some way defrauded of their rights.
Virginia Daily Enterprise—Oct. 14, 1925