Evening star. [volume], February 24, 1937, Page A-4, Image 4

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
«
Rules No Evidence Offered
of First-Degree Murder
of Monaghan.
Br the Associated Press.
SOMERSET, Pa , February 24 —Su
preme Court Justice George W. Maxey
guaranteed State Trooper Stacy Gun
derman his life today by directing the
Jury it could not return a verdict of
first-degree murder against him on the
State's charge that he beat a prisoner
to death in a "third degree.”
Justice Maxey declared:
"No evidence of first fdqgree murder
has been presented and 1 instruct you
that you cannot return such a verdict.”
Chief Defense Attorney John Dug
gan, jr„ then made his closing address
in defense of the 25-year-old State
policeman indicted with six other
Unlontown peace officers in what the
State called the “Dark Ages” slaying of
Frank C. Monoghan last September 13.
Attorney General Charles J. Mar
glotti had charged Gunderman beat
the 64-year-old Unlontown hotel man
to force his confession to cutting De
tective John C. Wall.
Defense Admits Violence.
Duggan agreed that Gunderman had
Injured Monaghan. He told the jury:
“ * • * There isn’t any question,
from what the doctors say, that
Frank Monaghan's death resulted from
external violence. Furthermore, there
is no doubt that violence was In
flicted by the defendant, Stacy Gun
derman. • • • But the whole pic
ture here is the circumstance under
which this assault was made.”
Attacking the State’s contention
that the beating was "deliberate,”
Duggan continued:
"The State contends this defendant
wilfully and maliciously killed Frank
Monaghan.
"If that were all, then this defend
ant would be guilty of some crime—
manslaughter or second degree.”
Defendant Noticeably Relieved.
Gundermar. sat calmly In the court
room, noticeably relieved by the
Justice's charge which counter
manded Margiotti's previous request
that the Jury send him to the electric
chair.
Six other officers and officials of
Fayette County are under Indictment
for murder and five were indicted for
"concealing true facts about Mona
ghan’s death.”
: A crude, anonymous letter that
Bharged a juror had been bribed stirred
the court room.
Spain
rContinued From First Page.)
prominence, held a large segment of
the summit but were blocked from Im
mediate occupation by spraying ma
chine gun fire from a house doggedly
held by the insurgents.
Insurgent artillery on Pinzarron
Hill has blasted at the Valencia road
for days. Domination of this vital
highway, running southeast from
Madrid, is the immediate objective of
Gen. Francisco Franco’s offensive in
the Jarama River sector.
The thrust of the government troops
up the shell-tom slopes was hailed by
their commanders as ‘'undoubtedly
one of the strongest battles in Span
ish history, if not the heaviest. It
has shown our men have ceased being
defenders only and have turned Into
formidable attackers.”
Two advances were executed before
the militiamen attained the summit.
They opened the way on the first
push with grenades and a sweeping
fire from rifles and machine guns.
Steadily, seeking cover at every for
ward step, they attained the crest to
be met full in the face by a counter
fire of insurgent machine guns.
They fell back, consolidated their
death-thinned ranks, and then started
the upward movement again. This
time they held fast to their gains
while enemy bullets dug Into the
ground around them.
Pinzarron Hill has been heavily for
tified by insurgents during the two and
one-half week battle of the Jarama
River.
LEFTISTS ROUTED AT OVIEDO.
Franco Reports Enemy Leaves 2,500
Dead on Field.
SALAMANCA, Spain, February 24
(A3).—Government attackers of the
Isolated insurgent garrison at Oviedo
have been routed in the “most crush
ing defeat of the civil war.” leaving
2.500 dead on the northern battlefield,
Gen. Francisco Franco’* high com
mand announced today.
More than 10,000 government
militiamen have been wounded in two
days of attacks and counter attacks,
the insurgent commanders declared,
while many government soldiers were
drowned attempting to cross the
Nalon River near Trubia, a few miles
west of Oviedo.
The government attacks, launched
H»inly by Basque supporting troops,
W4re repulsed by heavy machirie gun
Abfi rifle fire from insurgent trenches,
the high command said.
(Government reports from the
Franco-Spanish border disputed
this claim. They said the Militia
men were slowly closing in on Ovie
do with principal fighting centered
around the Vega arms factory.
(Ten thousand Basque troops, in
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Peggy Visits Father
Peggy Garcia shown with her father, C. H. Taylor, whom
she visited at Roanoke, Va.. during a delay of her suit against
David Rubinoff in New York. —Copyright, A. P. Wirephoto.
eluding government militia from
Santander, participated in the drive
in which two villages—Prenodio
and Areces—were captured, govern
ment officers said.)
A government retreat under in
surgent Are was turned into a rout,
an insurgent communique asserted.
Work squads connected with the in
surgent troops buried 375 bodies after
j the attacking government militiamen
retired, it was declared.
Suit
iContinued From First Page t
parties separated, is still only a void
able marriage and is binding and con
clusive upon both parties unless set
aside by a court of competent jurisdic
tion in an action where both parties
to the contract are parties.”
The discontinuance took place over
the objections of Abraham Halprin,
Rubinoff’s attorney, who said that
"serious charges” had been made
against his radio violinist client by
the Garcia girl and he wanted an op
portunity to prove they were not true.
Explains Dismissal.
In dismissing the jury which had
listened to testimony for the last 10
days, the justice said that he thought
he did the best thing "in the interest
of justice” and that "plenty of dirty
testimony would have been brought
out and the trial would have dragged
on for two or three weeks.”
Cornelius H. Taylor, 67-year-old
W. P. A. employe, Peggy's father,
testified that he could not "exactly
remember to a day” when his daugh
ter, the eighth and last of his chil
dren by his first wife, was born. As
near as he could recollect, after seeing
the record in the books of Dr. M.
P. Rucker of Bedford. Va.. the ob
stetrician at Peggy's birth, the father
said he thought Peggy was born in
Bedford City on January 6, 191*',
which would have made her 11 years
and 2 months old at the time of her
alleged first marriage.
Defense counsel had contended that
Peggy was married when she charged
Rubinoff promised to marry her.
Reads From Minutes.
Justice Cotillo read from the min
utes of last Friday when Peggy in
sisted time after time that she had
never been married nor "ever stood
before a minister or priest and en
gaged in a marriage ceremony.”
“Do you remember saying you never
married any one except your present
husband La Rocca?” asked Justice
Cotillo.
"I was Justified in saying it was
not a marriage,” the young woman
answered.
"How old were you at the time?”
“I was ll‘/2.”
"Eleven and two months,” Sander
broke in.
"All right, all right, make it 11 and
2 months,” said Justice Cotillo, "we
will marry them in Incubators next.”
Pecry Telia Her Story.
Peggy then told her own story of the
marriage to Quinn. "I was 11 when I
ran away from home and it caused my
father to become very bitter toward
me and he threatened to place me in
a reform school, and when I thought
he called the authorities I ran in town,
where I met a boy I knew casually.
“He asked me what was the matter,
because I was crying, and I told him.
He said, ‘Why don’t you get married?
They can’t touch a married woman.*
“Then another boy I never saw be
fore came up and he drove us to Salem,
where we went to the clerk, who told
us he wasn’t marrying any babies to'
men that day. Then the second boy
said he was my brother and we were
orphans and it was all right for me to
get married.
“The clerk said: ‘All right, but if I
find out you're lying you’ll all be
charged with rape’ ”
Justice Cotlllo asked: ‘ Did you ever
live with him?”
"About two weeks.”
"Did you ever see him since?”
"Never.”
Questioned by Judge.
“Then that is why you consider the
ceremony not a marriage and that
is why you testified last Friday that
you were never married?”
“Well. I went to see a New York
attorney," said Peggy, “and he wrote
to Salem and was told there were no
records of such a marriage. Then I
went to see a lawyer in Roanoke and
he told me there was no legal mar
riage, so I never considered myself
married.”
It was at this point that Justice
Cotillo read the Virginia law digest
and asked that counsel make a move
to drop the trial.
RubinofT and his three brothers left
the court room, smiling at the abrupt
ending.
After both parties had left the court
Justice Cotillo explained the "tech
nicality” on which he had acted by
pointing out that the law in breach
of promise suits is that a married
woman cannot bring such an action.
"The moment a marriage is proved a
plaintiff is barred from evidence to
show that she had contracted for
another marriage," he said.
Justice Cotillo explained that the
marriage record in Virginia and Miss
Garcia's testimony this morning, had
established she could not continue her
suit. The court, he said, could not
go into the “collateral” matter whether
the marriage was legal or not.
Assistant District Attorney Eugene
Finnegan, a spectator at the trial
today, announced that when he reads
the minutes, he would ask Miss Garcia
and others concerned to appear before
him for examination.
"I consider,” he said, “that Miss
Garcia has cleared herself of perjury,
but I want to find out If there was
any extortion attempt. I want to
know whose idea it was to start and
prosecute this suit.”
iKiulISr
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YOUR CREDIT IS GOOD
Holes About Piling of New
Bridge Explored—Truck
Driver, 45, Is Held.
By the Associated Press.
NOTTINGHAM, England, Febru
ary 24.—Divers searched the River Idle
today for the body of 10-year-old
Mona Tinsley, dark-eyed schoolgirl,
who police believe was kidnaped and
murdered.
A frantic search has stirred Eng
land since the girl disappeared Janu
ary 6 after leaving the Newark home
of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. E.
Tinsley, to return to school.
Tinsley was one of the more than
3.000 spectators who watched the
divers explore deep holes around the
piles on a new bridge across the river.
The spot was considered one of the
last hopes of the widespread search for
the dimpled little girl, which has ex
tended over 400 square miles of coun
try in the Newark and Retford areas.
Six hundred citizens have assisted
the police, digging up gardens and
ditches and dragging canals and riv
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The more I see the
more willing
I am to
wait
two
BUICK
‘ -s’
•rs in an effort to locate Mona’s body.
Police have pressed their search in
order to secure sufficient evidence to
lay a charge of murder against a 45
year-old truck driver, Frederick Nod
der, now held on a charge of abduc
tion in coninectlon with the girl’s
disappearance.
Nodder, who pleaded Innocent to
the charge, was remanded for trial
March 9 at Birmingham.
The prosecution charges Nodder
met the girl in Newark and took her
by bus to Retford. 25 miles away, and
kept her at his home that night.
A child who answered the descrip
tion of Mona was said to have been
seen standing in the doorway of Nod
der's simple home the next day and
then to have dropped completely from
sight.
Nodder admitted to the committing
judge he had met the girl and took
her with him, but insisted he placed
her on a bus for the return Journey.
Show for Needy Veteran*
Unit No. 1 of the United Veterans
of American Wars will sponsor an
entertainment program tomorrow
night for the betieflt of redey vet
erans. Ths show, which will include
amateur vaudeville acts and motion
pictures of Byrd’s last Antarctic ex
pedition, will be held in Harding Hall,
Government Printing Office, at 8 p.m.
HELD IN SLAYING
Jones Must Face Grand Jury in
Estranged Wife’s Death.
Benjamin Franklin Jones, 24, col
ored, was held for the grand Jury by
a coroner's Jury yesterday follow
ing testimony that Jones entered the
home of his estranged wife with two
drawn guns Friday night and shot her
to death.
Alter the shooting at 14 N street, !
Jones went to the home of Detective 1
Lieut. Clement P. Cox at Seat Pleas
ant, Md., and gave himself up. On
the way to headquarters Jones volun
tarily repaired a flat tire on Cox’s car.
Sweden may provide loan* of $250
for young couple* about to marry and
$750 for expectant mothers.
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