South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-17
THE EVERSOLE SUICIDE
PROOEl2l OF QUIT.

PROOElt Of' Ut HI
The suicide Of Silas X. EversOle (nOt
Ebersole), accused or the murder of
Hazel Macklin, may or may not be an
evidence Of his guilt. II is quite pos
sible that realizing the web of circum-
stantial evidence woven about him.
and the difficulty ne was 10 have ia
eliminating himself. he preferred an
innocent death 10 possible conviction,
with death by electrOcution in the
end. and decided TO reserve the be-
longings Of his lifetime for his fam
lily. rather than turn them over TO his
lawyers There is evidence aflOat that
certain enemies of the attorney whom
Eversole had employed were not doing
anything TO relieve him of the thought
that possibly this lawyer" would
bleed him to death" which may have
helped. or. maybe, it didn't. The at
torney. or the source. isn't material,
though it may have had its effect, and
that quite as effectually as the ar
rest IL would be we'll for the public
mind. perhaps. if the MackHn case
could be dismissed with the feeling
that her slayer had been run TO earth,
and. had put himself out of the way
but the authorities will have 10 place
more of their evidence on exhibition
than they have so far. before we at
least, will be willing TO conclude of a
certainty. that guilt and guilt alone.
could have been responsible for the
mans self-de2ruction.
This is not saying that Eversole was
Of necessity. innocent Only one thing
could convince US that such was ess
sentially the case, and that would be
the assurance that the wisdom back
of the arrest all emanated from that
print shop from which a newspaper is
sues on y. Main ST., as the aforesaid
newspaper is wont to claim. But on
the contrary, we happen to have an
inkIing that such claim is only another
bit of sublimated audacity such as
that with which the South Bend public
must constantly put up. and conse-
quently conclude that perhaps the pO-
lice and sheriffs offices acted upon a
more substantial knowledge. The sus-
picion of Eversole's guilt is within a
few days of being as old as the public
knowledge of the crime. 1T has taken
several months of effort on the part
OF the authorities to make that pos
sibility appear sufficiently like a
probability 70 justify taking the man
into custody. For months it had
buzzed in the ears of newspaper men,
county officers and city police and de-
tectives and for months it had been
known that the now dead man was be-
ing watched which if there be any
thing in psychological effects, might
have been enough to turn a mind %
su -,de IN itself
Accordingly. as we see it, the sui
eide OF Silas Eversole proves moth
ing; absolutely nothing, so far as con-
Germs responsibility for the death OF
Hazel Macklin. The states case is by
no means made by the incident. nor its
job finished OF course, il the Off
GERS are satisfied that they had the
right man. no further search for the
culprit is likely TO be made. but we
doubt If that court called public opin-
ion. will accept arrest and suicide. as
such proof of guilt, beyond all rea-
sonable doubt. as would be required
by a jury 90 convict IL is perfectly
right and proper 10 withhold judgment
in case like this. Silas EversoIe
even though dead by his own hand
and his privilege of being heard thu.
cut off by himself. is still entitled t.
his reasonable doubt. and that he d,
presumed TO be innocent until lie il
proven guilty.