The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-05-21
Former Shows Mrs. Guinness
Perished in Fire, While
Latter Says She Lives.
WOMAN WAS SEEN MAY q.
OMAHA MAN WHO KNEW THE
WOMAN RECOGNIZED HER IN
OGDEN, UTAH, ALTHOUGH SHE
TRIED TO CONCEAL IDENTITY.

Laporte, Ind, May 21.-Despite the
evidence already discovered to prove
Mrs Guinness perished in the fire, she
was seen alive May 4, according to a
letter received by Mayor Darrow to-
day. 1t is dated Omaha and signed
Samuel Harvey, who claims he knew
her and also Lamphere. He says he
talked with Mrs. Guinness May 4 at
the railway depot at Ogden, Utah.
She tried to conceal her identity but
soon admitted it and said she was go
ing to California to get her daughter
Darrow will investigate The grand
jury is in Sc essiOn behind closed doors
Observers of the Guinness case antic-
ipate that the big murder mystery will
be thrown anew before the public in a
manner as sensational as its first ap-
pearance. Several new spots of SuS-
piciOus appearance have been discOv-
cred on the Guinness premises and
Sheriff Albert E Smutzer announces
digging for new bodies will be resum-
ed Friday, by which time sluicing Oper-
atiOns at the ruins of the farmhouse
will have been finished and indict-
ments probably will have been re-
turned against Ray Lamphere.
The position of the state in Lam
phere's case was materially strength
ened by the formal verdict on the
death of Mrs Belle Guinness. rendered
by Coroner c. S. Mack. In his re-
port the coroner said:
1t is my verdict that the body so
viewed is that of Belle Guinness; that
she came to her death through feloni-
Gus homicide. and that the perpetrator
thereof is to me unknown"
Sheriff Smutzer received from Plas-
co. Mo, today a Swedish razor with a
horn handle, forwarded by l. l. Yout-
sler. a peddler. The razor bears the
inscription IF. Lind Chicago
YOutsler wrote that when he was at
Mrs. Gunness's house in 1906. a young
woman there gave him the razor.
Sheriff Shutter says other such razors
of Swedish make have been seen in the
house. 1t is presumed that the razor
is the property of one of Mrs Gun
ness's victims.
Mining operations in the ashes of the
Guinness home resulted in the recov-
cry of a heavy gold band ring that
may have been worn by a man or
fleshy woman. 1t is inscribed S. B.,
May IS, 1907" This. too, may have
belonged 10 some man murdered by
Mrs. Guinness.
That Lamphere, who is held with
out bail, on the charge of murder in
the first degree may have returned to
the home of Elizabeth Smith. after
setting fire TO the Guinness house, and
then made a second start for the
W-heatbrook farm, where he was en-
ployed. is the new theory advanced by
the state. Representatives Of the
prosecution profess to have discovered
evidence to show that not only was
Lamphere seen to go toward the Gum
ness house at about $50 a. m. April
IS, but he was also seen to retrace
his steps. This was just at about the
same time at which other witnesses
will testify they saw fire shooting
from the direction Of the Guinness
house. This new theory is that after
returning 10 the Smith house Lam
phere made a fresh start for the coun-
try about an hour after the first de-
parture. but that on this second occa-
sion he took the Guenther road. From
this road he could readily have seen
the fire If the state is able fully to
support this theory. It will be a blow
to Lamphere's defense, for the accus-
ed is relying on an alibi that will show
that he went north that morning on
the Guenther road about an hour after
the fire started.
Much depends upon the testimony Of
Albert Zolmer. the fourteen-year-old
boy who made a deposition before
Prosecutor Smith to the effect that he
saw flames shooting up from the Gun
ness house-flames that looked to him
frontinued On Page Seyenl