The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-04-22
STRAIGHTFORWARD
TODAY FOR BODY
OF TURNER
Mill Pond at P0Wnal Has Been
Carefully Dragged
NOW WORKING IN RIVER
Henry Chiott of Burlington and An
other Experienced Boatman Crap
ling in Stream Below Village

No results were obtained from the
search at South Pownal yesterday al
ternoon for the body of Oscar Turner.
So far no clue has been found that
will throw any light upon his dlsap-
pearance since the time Mrs. Charles
Potter saw him lying in front of her
house between IL and IL O'Clock Sat
urday night only a few feet away
from the bank of the mill pond into
which he is believed to have either
stumbled or been thrown by some
one who had an object in concealing
his body.
Charles Chicott, the professional
boatman who arrived her from Bur
lington Tuesday night and who went
to Pownal yesterday morning with
States Attorney Meagher, continued
his search of the pond during the ear
ly part of the afternoon and later
took boat and dragged the river
nearly to the mill pond of the North
Pownal Manufacturing company. No
trace of the body was found.
Early this morning States Attorney
Meagher received a telephone mes
sage from Burlington stating that
Henry Batiste, another professional
Lake Champlain boatman who was
recommended by Chiott, would arrive
here this noon to assist in dragging
the river. The work was resumed
this morning under the direction of
Sheriff Fred Godfrey.
The authorities are gradually OBJ
tanning a more clear and comprehen-
sive story of just what happened in
front OF the Potter house Saturday
night The four prisoners in the
county jail, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Harris, Frank Moon and James Pratt,
who were naturally alarmed over the
outcome of the fight on the bank of
the mill pond and endeayored to avoid
duplicating themselves any more than
they could avoid, have since talked
more concisely about the affair.
Harris, who at first denied that he
had hit Turner with anything else
but his fists now admits that he used
a pickhandle in repeling what he
claims was an attack upon himself by
Turner He had with him at the
time not Only the pick handle but a
couple of shovels which were used by
the Daley Brothers when the Ben
nington and North Adams electric
road was built When he reached
home on the night of the assault he
hid not molly the pick handle but the
shovels, as his title to them was not
of the best When he was arrested
he undoubtedly imagined that he
would be charged with theft of the
shovels and the pick handle, but when
he learned that there were more seri-
Gus offences laid up against him he
told the officers about the implements
and they were found where he had
hidden them in the bushes
Harris is a native of Woodford. a
son of the late William Harris of
that town and he is well-known to
people of his age in that town.
There are a number OF people in
Bennington who remember Harris as
he was frequently here when he lived
in Woodford and he worked in town
at different times before going to
Pownal to live.
No proceedings will be taken
against the four persons held in the
county jail until after the body of
Turner is found or the young man
turns up alive as some people believe
is not entirely improbable If the
body turns up in the river with the
money that Turner was known TO
have still in his possession and the
gold watch still on his person some
rumors of a more or less ugly nature
will be disposed of. The officers are
fairly well satisfied that James Pratt
could not have been implicated in the
disposition of Turner's body, provided
the rather vague suspicion that the
young man was robbed and thrown
into the pond, intimately proves to
be the solution of the mystery. The
authorities are reasonably convinced
that Pratt's story that he went to the
house of Thomas Harris, who married
his sister, and remained there the re-
mainder of the night Why he should
leave Turner lying in the road, If he
saw him is strange feature, but
Pratt was considerably under the in
fluence of liquor and not entirely re-
sponsible. Frank Moon is the only
person other than Harris and his wife
against whom a suspicion of implica-
ton in a disposition of Turner's body
could be directed for it is known that
he left the Harris house during the
night and that he came back over the
road past the spot where Mrs. Potter
saw the young man lying when she
was called to the door by the noise of
the fight.
Turner must have had fully $50 up
on his person at the time he was
Knocked down in the road. He went
to North Adams Saturday with S57
and bought trunk for $3.50. On his
way back he stopped at the Pownal
Motel and patronized the bar but the
proprietor says that he did not spend
half dollar in the place. The mon
ey was in bills of small denomina-
tons, none larger than five.