South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-10-07
TWO COUNTIES IN
FIGHT FOR RIGHT
To HOLD SPENCER
Confessed Rexroat Murderer in
DiSpute-PoIiCe Think He
Imagined Many of the Grimes
He Confessed To.

CHICAGO, Oct IA legal battle
slayer Of Mrs. Mildred Allison-R Rex
roat, the Chicago tango teacher and
confessed slayer of "a other persons,
was started Tuesday by officers Of
DuPage county where the RexrOat
murder was committed.
Plans wire started for hasty trial
Of the self confessed multi-murderer.
Papers issued by the DuPage grand
jury were brought to Chicago. The
Chicago detectives holding Spencer
refused to permit the service of the
papers declaring that he was their
prisoner, and that he had confessed
enough crimes in Chicago, murders
and robberies, to warrant his being
held for trial here.
Spencer spent a sleeplesS, feverish
night and Tuesday paced his cell
trembling with weakness due to the
wearing off OF the effects of his last
opium orgy.
He smoked innumerable cigars,
struggling to quiet the nerves of a
system clamOring for the soothing
poppy vapors He made a brave but
unsuccessful effort TO conceal his
condition when he learned that he
was to be given another third degree
examination Tuesday, the fourth
since his arrest.
OF the murders Spencer has con-
fessed to, the police believe they will
be able to fix upon him only one muir
der or possibly two.
Captain Halpin. chief Of the detect.
I've bureau, announced his conviction
that Spencer, in giving his long. cir
cumstantial confession of fiendish
crime, was a consummate falsifier.
Four of the murders he says he
committed were perpetrated while
Spencer was in the Illinois state pen
itentiary at Joliet. OF twelve Of the
alleged murders the police in this and
other cities have no record. In one
records show that a body was recov-
cred, but the detectives have as yet
established no connection between
Spencer and the crime.
Except for possibly two murders,
Spencer's weird story of killing peo-
pie by hammering in their skulls and
sinking their bodies in lakes seem
pure fabrication" said Captain Hal
pin tonight. His imagination, slim
ulated by drugs, poured out one of
the most fantastic tales OF murder
that has ever come from a man whose
mind is given TO dreams of crime"
May Have Killed Others.
Captain HaIpin declared Monday
night that he has complete proof that
Spencer murdered Mrs. RexrOat and is
almost equally confident that he muir
dered Mrs Annabel Wight Mrs
Nights house was robbed Dec. 4,
1912. and she was beaten so badly that
she died in the county hospital July
Is 1913.
The body of Ida Oliver, recovered
from the drainage canal May 20. 1912,
may correspond TO the foreign wo-
man, whom Spencer said ne lured
along the canal and killed after rob-
oing her
Spencer was in the penitentiary
when Policeman Pencil and Devine
were killed Aug. II, 1902. He was
also in prison in 1908 when Fanny
Thompson was killed and when EN-
met McChesney was killed in Sept.
1911. McChesney was slain in the
rear OF $500 State street and the muir
der was at first thought to correspond
20 the man who Spencer said he kill
ed under the South side elevated
structure.
Denials were received today from
police authorities in other cities men
toned by Spencer that many OF the
boasted crimes were committed.
Identified as Murderer.
Complete Identification OF Spencer
as the murderer of Mrs. Rexr0at came
from several sources Monday. while at
least two sections OF his confession
referring TO the holdupS and robbaries