RANCHER'S BODY
FOUND IN WELL
. Mystery More Baffling
] Than Fiction.
gan Francisco, Calif.—As a climax
to one of the weirdest murder mys-
teries that ever baffled fiction de-
tectives or flashed on the movie thrill
er screen, the body of Frank Roder-
ick, forty-year-old prosperous rancher
of San Mateo county, has been re-
moved from the bottom of a well 28
feet deep on his ranch on the Alpine
road, one mile south of La Honda.
As a result of the discovery of Rod-
erick’s body, his crushed skull show-
ing how his life had been ended by
a powerful blow from behind, the
rancher’'s wife, Minnie Roderick, thir-
ty-three, and the “hired hand” of the
ganch, William Woodring, forty-four.
were in jail at Redwood City.
: A “Red-Haired Gal.”
Although the Roderick ranch is only
a few minutes by automobile from the
heart of sophisticated San Francisco,
and in the center of a vacation and
summer home territory, the history of
the disappearance of Roderick and
the events preceding and following it
gre such as might be expected of the
days of 50 years ago when California
was frontier land and life was held
cheaply.
Cattle rustling, in which a nine-year-
old son of Roderick’s helped him
drive off steers from neighboring
ranches—jealousy of a wife over &
#pred-haired gal”—glances of affection
exchanged between the boss’ wife and
the cowboy from distant parts—bat-
tle to the death—betrayal by confed-
erates in crime—the astute sheriff
who solves the mystery—all the re-
quirements of the “western thriller”
are present in copious quantity!
Cattle Rustling Hinted.
The story dates back eight months
when Sheriff James J. McGrath went
into the Alpine country to investigate
reports of “cattle rustling.” There
had been complaints from the Galla-
gher & Zink ranch and the Lillicote
ranch near the Roderick ranch that
cows and steers had mysteriously dis-
appeared on dark nights. A dozen
head were missing altogether. The
gheriff was unable to pin anything on
anybody, but he closely questioned
Roderick and Woodring av that time.
The next chapter came May 20 last,
when Mrs. Roderick came to visit Dis-
trict Attorney Franklin D. Swart at
Redwood City. She said her husband
had beaten her severely, had dressed
up in his “store clothes,” had put
$2,800 in
appeared with a “red-headed gal.”
Swore Out Complaint.
On Swart’s advice she swore out &
warrant for her husband on a bat-
tery charge. But Sheriff McGrath, re-
membering his suspicions of a few
months before, questioned Mrs. Rod-
erick closely when she asked him to
géerve the warrant.
McGrath finally elicited information
from the wife which led him to visit
the Mindigo ranch, also in the Alpine
district. Buried under the floor boards
of a ranch outhouse he found many
steer hides—unmistakable signs of
cattle rustlers who had run off steers
—had butchered them, had sold the
beef, and had hidden the evidence of
the branded hides.
Again the sheriff questioned Wooa-
ring—Roderick of course was missing
—but again he was baffled.
Sheriff McGrath continued to brooa
over the story. He was ponplused,
and McGrath is a man who likes
things open and’ above board. So he
his pockets, and had dis-
returned to the Roderick ranch and
found young Filbert Roderick, nine-
year-old son of the rancher, alone. He
adroitly engaged the lad in conversa-
tion.
A few minutes later the sheriff haa
drawn from the boy the information
that he had accompanied his father
“and another rancher” when they
drove off a big roan steer from the
Gallagher and Zink ranch one ‘dark
night.
Father Killed Steer.
‘They had taken the steer to the
Mindigo ranch, where the father had
Killed it with a .22 rifle, left it to dry
in the ranch house, and the next day
had sold the beef.
After his talk with the boy, Mc
Grath arrested Ernest Hildebrand,
owner of a nearby ranch, and took
him to Redwood City for questioning.
Hildebrand was not charged, and was
released after a few hours. But that
afternoon the sheriff confided to Un-
dersheriff Edward Farrell that he
“had a tip” Roderick had been mur-
dered and his body buried in a well
pear his home,
The two went to the Roderick ranch
and found Woodring busy in the vicin-
ity of the ranch house with a borrowed
scraper. He had been plowing and
geraping geveral acres of land near
the house which was not used for
agriculture, although grain in the
fields, according to’ the sheriff, was in
need of attention.
‘rhe sheriff looked for the well. It
was nowhere to be seen. All the land
pear the ranch house had been plowed
and scraped, and showed no signs of
a well ever having existed.
‘Hut McGrath was determined to fina
the well. By searching through county
records, he discovered that Roderick
had purchased the ranch several years
ago from George Steinberg, now a
youd superintendent with the county.
He took Steinberg out to the ranch
fo his automobile and asked him
where the well had been.
Steinberg stood at a corner of the
house, squinted a sight on alignment
with a tall tree, and walked 100 yards
trom the house.
“The well should be right here"
he said.
McGrath returned to the ranch,
bringing with him Farrell, Depuly
Clarence Wyckoff, Constable F.
Grill, Eddy Chalmers and Charles
Roberts. Armed with shovels, they
attacked the spot were Steinberg said
the well had been,
At dusk they had
feet, and there they found unmistak-
abla evidence the earth had been
freshly disturbed. Unrusted pieces of -
iron, bits of autemobile tires and tin
cans showed that anything and every-
thing had been used to fill in & hole
Find Man's Foot. /
They again attacked the job the
next morning. Down and down they
went, Chalmers and Roberts were at
the bottom of the hols, while Me-
Grath and Farrel were at the top
lifting out the earth. Suddenly came
a shout from the bottom: i
“We've found a man’s foot!”
The two diggers were just twenty
six feet .n the earth.
“Come up @& minute,” ordered Mc
Grath. When the two men—gladly
enough—had arrived at the surface
McGrath went to the ranch house and
placed Woodring and Mrs. Roderick
under arrest. Then they returned te
the well. i
It was 8 o’clock—past dusk—when
the body had finally been freed from
the soil and brought to the surface. |
It was that of Roderick. It was plain
enough how he had come to his death.
A heavy blow from a bludgeon haé
erushed his skull from the back.
He wasn’t dressed in his “store
clothes,” as his wife had said. He was
wearing his overalls and rough shirt !
and shoes. There wasn't any $2,800
in his pocket, and the “red headed |
gal” also remained a mystery.
Questioned Long Hours.
Sheriff McGrath took the body to
Redwood City for a postmortem in- |
vestigation. In another car came i
Woodring and Mrs. Roderick, guarded |
by the guns of the deputies. In a third |
dug down six
| car rode Mr. and Mrs. F. E Ander- i
son, neighbors of the Rodericks, who :
volunteered to take care of little Fil-
bert, the boy rustler, and his six-year- |
old brother, Donald, until the children i
could be turned over to their grand-.
father, John Fayail, Redwood City |
rancher, at whose home Roderick |
courted and won Minnie Fayall :
There was no charge placed agalus.
Mrs. Roderick and Woodring at the
county jail. Deputy District Attor-
pey Richard Bell and Edmund Scott
questioned them into the small hours
in the morning, but volunteered no
information as to what their inquiries
had disclosed,
i
U. S. Firm to Finance
Costly German Canal
Berlin.—An American project for
an $80,000,000 inland canal linking
cities of the old Hanseatic league, and
which might help to bring them again |
into some measure of the commercial :
alliance which they enjoyed nearly !
seven centuries ago, has been submit-
ted to the German government. :
The proposed Hansa canal would ex |
Jend from the Mittleland canal near
the town of Rheine in Westphalia to
Minden, where it would join the River
Weser, linking Hamburg and Bremen,
two of the most important Hansa cit-
fes, with Germany's richest coal pro-
ducing areas in the Ruhr. !
The name of the American firm pro-
posing to build and finance the water-
way has not been revealed.
The project, if realized, would grea.
ty curtail large scale British coal de-
liveries along the German seaboard,
since the German coastal cities could
then buy domestic coal much more
cheaply.
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French Plan to Spend
$4,000,000 on Bourse
|
Paris, France.—France’s stock ex- |
change, known as the Bourse, is go-
ing to be enlarged at a total cost of
$4,000,000, the municipal council has
just decided.
The work will not be started un
dl 1931 and will Insure adequate
space for those dealing in stocks and
bonds at the financial center of
France. The Bourse was a project of
Napoleon, although not finished until
1826. In 1900 the building was &n-
larged, but France's growing interest
in. international finance has made
necessary another enlargemenet.
Nonspinning Airplane
About to Make Bow
washington.—A new type of air-
plane, claimed to be nonspinning, is
about to be demonstrated in Montreal,
the Commerce department has been °
advised. The nonspinning feature Is
achieved by special wings so designed
that they resist air currents and main-
tain the craft in a position in which
a dangerous spin is impossible.
Geoortedeedededoideodeoiedootedededniedededutodod
% 12 Cents Reward to
Finder of $12,000
Missenden, England.—A littie
boy found a woman’s handbag
containing money and jewelry,
amounting to between $10,000
and $12,000. The boy's mother.
finding a name and address In
the bag, traveled eight mijes
by bus, paying 16 cents for fare,
and walked a further three
miles to return the bug to the
owner in a remote part of Am-
ersham. She was rewarded with
a six-penny plece; (tweive
cents).
deeestedeete de dood doiodoiodeidoiniobdeiiog
Seeded tees de de esdesferieerodrste dedeofeode dodo
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where
Chevrolet Coach
DECKE
isin $
1924 Ford Coupe ened x
1926 Essex Coach i
1924 Ford 1 Ton Truck wd ,
1925 Rollin Coupe ..............- $ 2 2
1926 Chevrolet Touring ...... $ 65.
1925... Chevrolet Touring ....$ 50.00 1027 Ons yster Sedan
1925 Buick Touring (Win- So.00 a AL au
ter Enclosure) ....$ x ;
1926 Chevrolet Coach ..§ 150.00 1976° Chevrolet Landau
1924 Oldsmobile Coupe ...... $ 50.00 1929 Model “A” Ford
MILE-A-MINUTE MARTY —by— Decker Chevrolet Co., Bellefonte, Pa.
OP TNTO THE RUMBLE - SEAT, | WHAT § shes JL WRITE | | DON'T WISH E-6€ WHAT Plek UP
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Chevrolet “Six”
1929
; Coach ................. $ 400.00
1926 Chevrolet Coupe ........$ 175.00
1928 Essex Sedan ............. 350.00
i 1928 Chevrolet Coupe ......... $ 350.00
$ 50.00 1928 Chevrolet Sedan ....... $ 375.00
. 1928 Chevrolet Coach ........§ 350.00
275.00 1927 Pontiac Roadster
. (Rumble Seat)......$ 250.00
2p $ 175.00 1927 Chevrolet Coach ......... $ 250.00
er $ 300.00 Other makes of cars as
resins . IoW 88 .ocvrcrneen-..$ 5.00
CHEVROLET CO.
Phone 405 ...... BELLEFONTE, PA.
mission man to ship eighty lambs
market. The following day, as
ready to deliver the la
telephone rang. The
broken badly. By delaying
week, the farmer secured
pound more than he
original offer.
FARMER was advised
by his livestock com-
then ready for
he was getting
mbs to the railroad, his
arket, he learned, had
shipment another
one-half cent per
have made on his
would
The Modern Farm Home
Has « TELEPHONE
INHERITS $50,000; WILL
SPEND IT ON THE GIRLS
Youth Plans Great Things After Being
Named Beneficiary of |
Dad's Will.
Memphis, Tenn.—A nine-year-old |
heir to the $50,000 estate of his father
claims 15 girl admirers and is “going
{| to spend lots of money on them.”
The youth, Miller Jameson, Mem-
phis, is planning great things after
being named principal beneficiary in
the will of his father, Wylie Miller
Jameson, literary writer, who died iv
New York City recently.
The will, filed for probate in New
York, provided that young Jameson
should receive the major portion of
the $50,000 estate, but if he had died
before execution of the paper Col.
Charles A, Lindberg and Gene Tun-
ney, former heavyweight boxing cham-
pion, would have received the money
to “use as they see fit,” according te
the stipulations of the will,
The Jameson lad was reluctant in
permitting newspapers here to pub-
lish his announcement about the girl
friends, for “1 don’t want to get Ir
Dutch with ’em,” he explained.
Likewise he plans to be independ-
ent in business. “I'd go down to the
drug store and buy six hoxes of tor-
pedoes to make plenty of noise. Then
I'd buy three hoxes of soda water and
a refrigerator and go into the soft
drink business,” he speculated from
his bed at his home here.
Miller was sick when the joyous
news reached him, He had closed his
drink stand the day before because. as
his mother explained it, “he was sich
from drinking the excess stock.”
He will enter the fourth grade when
school opens this fall. “Between now
and then,” Miller said, “I'm gonna
spend some of my time riding my
bicycle, going to parties and dancing.”
Boy Inventor Routs
Fire With Own Device
Philadelphia.—It took the emer.
gency of a fire at his home to apply
the acid test to the chemical genius
of a Philadelphia boy inventor.
And Frederick Williamson, Jr. six-
een, of 1712 Moore street, was found
pot wanting.
For weeks he had been trying in
sain to ‘convince employment officials
of chemical plants of his ability. But,
though his confidence was not infec-
tious, he lost none of it. He kept on
working en the model of a fire extin-
guisher.
When the fire was discovered in a
sofa on a porch outside his room on
the third floor, his parents, who had
smelled smoke from their second floor
room, snatched up carpets to beat out
the blaze.
When young Williamson advancea
«ith his simple little device, his par-
ents kept on swinging their rugs—but
not for long—for the fire didn’t last
long after Frederick turned. his extin-
guisher on it, and Engine Company
' Pwentieth and Federal streets without
having to get into action.
The boy's home made device is &
&sllon jug containing water and baking
soda and four tubes of sulphuric acid,
which are affixed inside the neck of
the jar. The mixture is poured from
| am L-shaped tube in the top of the
container, and the chemical reaction
of the ingredients smothers the flames,
Frederick explained.
Ruling Strikes Gyp Car
Sale; Protects Buyer
Washington.—Even though the pur-
shaser of a used automobile enters in-
to a contract which states that the car
is purchased “as is,” he may recover
damages in an action for deceit, ac-
cording to a decision by the Massa-
chusetts State Supreme court reported
by the legal department of the Amer-
{can Motorists association.
Thomos J. Keefe, general manage:
of the motorists association, said the
decision was of great importance be-
cause more than three and a half mil-
lion used cars are sold annually.
The court ruled that the purchase:
could recover damages if it was shown
that the sale was made through mis-
representations as to the condition of
the car.
Slave’s Burial Rites
Held in White Church
Statesville, N. C.—The funeral of
“Uncle” Richard Wood. respected
slavery-day negro, set a precedent In
Statesville. “Uncle” Richard’s funeral
service was held in the $200,000 First
Presbyterian church.
When white residents heard of the
aged negro's death, his family was of-
tered use of the church.
When the congregation of the churci.
was soliciting subscriptions for the
pew church, Wood was among the
first to contribute and to pay his sub-
geription in full, {
French Youths Start
Round-World Auto Trip
Paris, France—Driving a tiny six-
horse-power French automobile, two
French youths, Pierre Martineu and
Antoine Bertin, said good-by to Paris
on July 16 on their departure for a
trip around the world via French Co-
chin-China.
Having been refused permission b,
the Soviets to cross Siberia, the two
motorists are en route to the United
States via Austria, Roumania, Bul-
garia, Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan,
{pdia, Burma. Saigon, thence to San
Francisco and back to Paris.
Light Stops Trains
Demonstration of a method of halt-
ing trains by the action of a beam of
light, was made with a small model
recently. A small hand lamp custs
ray which strikes a light cell on the
front of the engine. The cell then
cautes the brakes of the train to be
appiled through the “action of relays
get in operation hy the effect of the
No. 24 went back to its station at
fight upon the eell. =
Will you save,
or speculate ?
A savings account is not a quick rich
road to wealth.
But it is a sure road.
Which one will be ahead in ten years?
The man who saves - or
The man who speculates.
There is not much doubt about the
answer.
Methodical, persistent saving will win.
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK
BELLEFONTE, PA.
THE “JURY SYSTEM”
APPLIED TO HATS
Ir you could see the inside of ev-
ery hat you passed on the street,
youd find that more Stetson hats
are worn by the men of America
than any other make regardless
of price.
This overwhelming verdict in
favor of Stetsons is based on a
sixty-five year record of distin-
guished service.
When you choose a Stetson this
FALL you may be sure you’ll get
style, extra wear, added satisfac-
tion.
You can now buy a Stetson for
$8.00, only at
FAUBLE'S