Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-22
WOMAN IS BOUND AND GAGGED
Three Masked Men Assault Young
Married Women at Her Home,
ONE SUSPECT IS ARRESTED
Mrs. Halle Thinks she Recognised Her
Brother by Patch she Had
Recently seved on His
Sweater,

That she had been bound, gagged and
brutality assaulted by three masked men
who surprised her alone in her home al
1929 Harvey street early yesterday evening
was the pitiful story that Mrs. Ora Halle
told the police last night To add to the
horror Of the attack, Mrs. Halle trembling
and half dazed, stated that she had recog-
nized one OF the men as her brother by a
patch that she had put on his sweater
Another Of the men she thought to have
recognized by his voice and the color OF his
hair as an old acquaintance. The police
are looking for the brother, Clyde Wroth,
and have already arrested the other man
and charged him with being a suspicious
character lie gave his name as Roy
Spencer The suspected assailant lightly
denies any knowledge OF the crime.
Mrs Halle is a young married woman
whose husband is a telegraph operator now
working in wyoming. During his absence
she Is living with her widowed mother
Mrs Hettie L. Wroth. Her brother, Clyde
wroth. had been living with them at in
tervals since he got his discharge from the
navy two years ago.
on Tuesday Of this week they told him
that he would have to go. that they could
not afford TO board him any longer. Young
Wroth threatened his sister at the time
saying that he would get even. He left
and was not heard from until Mrs. Halle
thought that she recognized him as one
of her assailants.
According to the story told by Mrs.
Halle to the police, she was sitting In the
drawing room writing letter TO her hus-
band at the time the men entered at 6l5
o'clock last evening. She was alone as her
mother had Just stepped out Of the back
door on her way to a visit with some
neighbors on Farnam street.
Startled by the sight of three men in
masks she rose from her seat. The men
seized her, thrust an iron gag in her
mouth and pinioned her against the wall,
threatening her with death IL she cried
out. Two or three times she attempted to
| cry out, but only once did she manage TO
| get out any feeble kind of a cry for help.
At every attempt to call for aid her as
sailants brutally struck her in the mouth
Her head was trussed back upon her
shoulders, as Mrs. Halle's account runs,
and her hands bound tightly behind her
back with some curtain cord that the
men found in the room. The men had
bandaged her eyes with some kind of silk
cloth.
Fortunately the men were frightened
away by someone entering a garage next
door, before they could do Mrs. Halle much
harm.
After they had gone Mrs. Halle will
much difficulty rolled herself along the
floor into the rear of the house, where she
was found by Mrs. c. c. jenkins. who
lives in the rear of the flat. Mrs Jen
lins freed the woman from her bounds
Mrs wroth, the mother. came home shortly
afterward, and after some deliberatior
called up the police over the telephone.
Mrs. Halle says she is sure that one
of the men was her brother as she coulC
recognize the sweater and the patch. TIL,
other whom she says is Roy. Spencer, 26l
Decatur street, whom she recognized b!
the voice and the color of the hair is al
old acquaintance. The third she did no
recognize.
Two Of them wore sweaters and all wer
about feet inches in height according
to Mrs. Hales description. One of tn
men had a gun and one had a knife.