The Sentinel=record., 1912-02-27
CHARGE AGAINST
 BEN LOCKET, GRIl.
EITHER RAPE, ENTlciNo, OR CAR. NAL ABUSE, WILL BE PROSE.
 cuTED AGAINST HIM.
Eliza Birmingham, His t4-Yearold slster-ln-Law, Is ths Victim of Most Unusual Experience
 at His Hands.

Either charge of rape, for which the penalty is death, or charges of enticing or carnal abuse, for which penitentiary sentences follow eonyic. ton. will be prosecuted against Ben Locket Jr. of 220 Pullman avenue following the unearthing of most unusual sensational case by the DO. lice yesterday morning in this city.
 Eliza Birmingham, tme 14-yearold daughter of farmer residing out on the Thornton Ferry road. and who is a sister of Ben Locket's first wife, is the victim of his abuses, and the prosecuting witness i1 the case.
 The story the girl told the police was a narrowing one, and is partially substantiated by the circumstances in the case.
 Saturday she came down to the city with Ben Locket Jr., and they were supposed to be going to the pic ture shows. The girl stated she was not heavily dressed, and complained of cold, and I.ocket told her to step into hotel, and she did so, for the purpose of getting warm, and that later she was escorted into a room was given drinks, and ruined. She declared her clothes were partly torn from her body after she was too eff fected to defend herself.
 Mike Birmingham. the father. and his two sons, missing the girl from home Saturday night, took the matter up with the police, and they were making general search for her. Telegrams had been sent to Little Rock and other railroad ponts. be- cause a couple had left on the after noon train Sunday which partly an swered the description of the girl.
 Late Sunday afternoon Locket is charged with having taken the girl back to within short distance of her home in cab and letting her out with a warning not to tell of what had happened, or if any suspicion was aroused not to duplicate his name in the affair.
 Iocket is the son of Ben Locket, a well established and trustworthy business man of this city, and this is the first trouble he has caused the father, according to information which the police have gained about him.
 The girl outraged is a sster-in-law of Locket, the latter having married Mary Birmingham several years ago, but she lived with him but a short while. and divorced him. Later Lock. ct married Miss Shackeiford, whose parents resided at that time in Mill Township. and Sunday morning be- fore Lockets arrest the second wife packed up her things and left on the 1:30 Rock Island train for the home of her parents, in Eastern Arkansas. after she had learned that the police were looking for Locket under the charge of having the little Birming- ham girl under detention somewhere in the city.
 Justice of the Peace Joe Afford will hear the case Thursday Deputy Prosecutor Scott Wood was conferred with yesterday morning, and there is doubt about which charge will be prosecuted against Locket, except that if the circumstances th1fousbly warrant the highest chars,. 1t will be pushed. The penalty ;o' rape in this state is death Locket was held under bond for minor charge, lt wss said, and when it appeared that .ha charge of rape might be prosecured. he was rearrested and not perlaii.ed to make bond.
 The little girl had been attending the Gardner school, south of the city. and that is where she met I.ocket. She stated that she met him again when she visited her sister in this city, and had been called out by him She Is a tall, young slip of girl and looks just about the age she gives. An examination by physicians yesterday morning confirmed the sto- " the girl had told of mistreatment at the hands of some man.
 Mir. and Mrs. Whit Stearns have returned from a visit to Lonsdale