Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1913-07-18
JOHNS CHARGED
WITH MURDER
FIanCee Of Lake Victim Held
Without Bail.
.CORONER'S JURY IGNORED
Suspcion Also Envelops the Father
of Alice CrispelI and He is Under
surveillance.

Herbert Johns, accused OF numbering
his sweetheart, Alice Crispell, whose
body was found in Harveys lake, was
held on the charge Of murder in the
first degree alter hearing before an
alderman in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
A coroner's jury had exonerated
Johns of any connection with the ira
gedy, although deciding that the girl
met her death through violence.
.. Although Johns will now face trial
on the charge of killing the girl, with
whom he spent the last night she was
Geen alive, tangle of suspicion has
also enveloped William Crispell, the
girls father, who, it Is alleged, once
threatened to kill her because of her
waywardness and irregular habits.
A man in the dark, seen hiding
along the road near the scene Of the
tragedy, about the time the girl Is
thought to have lost her life, is believ-
cd by some to have been the father,
who observed her in company with
Johns during the day, but did not
speak to her.
William Aicher, who was with Johns
and the girl on the night of July 4,
ut the Oneonta hotel, Harvey's Lake,
was the first witness. He said the
girl had a few drinks and was slightly
Ill after drinking lemon and seltzer.
He was forced to admit that he heard
Alice coax Johns to accompany her
home, promising to get a place for
him to stay with relative.
Mrs. Martha Holcomb, sister OF
Alice, admitted that Alice was slightly
under the influence of liquor and that
she was sick during the early even
ing.
George Casterline told of finding the
body. DR.. P. J. Higgins added to his
testimony at the coroner's inquest,
saying that he had been engaged to
ascertain if Alice Crispell met with
foul play. He was asked concerning
the abrasion over the left eye, and
said the wound had not bled.
He declared he had not examined
the stomach or the lungs. He said that
1t would be possible for the girl to
have been dead when thrown into the
water and that the lungs would not
fill with water in such a case. He
gave drowning as the cause Of death.
Third degree methods were used in
examining the father of Alice. He
cIung tenaciously to his story that he
was home in bed at the hour the girl
was last seen alive He was unnervel
by the ordeal Of the sweatbox and
showed signs of great anxiety, but he
offered nothing that would tend to
break down his original story.
Crispell's admissions that he had
threatened to shoot the girl and his
statements that he was often called
upon to chastise her because of her
irregular habits, prompted the author
tiles to suspect that he might have lain
in wait or the girl and in beating her
pushed her into the lake.
Letters which the authorities have
In their possession show that Herbert
Johns, the girls lover. was never anx-
ious to meet the girls father. The let
ters limited that Johns vas blamed for
the girls waywardness.
This has led the authorities to be-
Iteve that Crispell may have become
angered when he saw the girl and
Johns together at the Oneonta hotel
and that he waited along the roadway
for her.
1t is reasoned that If Johns did
leave the girl, as he says he did, that
the father might have been the mys-
terious man in dark suit and met his
daughter, and as result of a possible
attempt to chastise her caused her to
fall into the lake.