New Britain herald., 1916-10-06
Millie de Marco, 19, Said to Have Engi. neered Plot to Steal Payroll by Bold Coup
FOUR ARRESTED AND
 OTHERS ARE SOUGHT

Mrs. Elsie Smathcrs, 2e, Although
 Wounded, Drives Auto to Safety ir@
 Rin of Bullets While Her Uncle|
 Lies Dead at Her Side-PoIice Have|
 der Arrest.
 Philadelphia, Oct 6.-With foul persons under arrest in this city and two in Camden, N. J., and the policeI dragnet closing about four others whc| are now under surveillance in connect and murder at Hammonton, N. J., yes1 terday, the authorities here today del Clared their belief that Millie de Mart co, 19 years old, of this city, one ot the prisoners, and an employe of Al J. Rider, president of the New Jery sey Cranberry Growers association engineered the entire plot.
 
 ians arrested in this city late lasI night were traced to the Italian coll ony here through the license numbeI of an automobile in which eleved men and one woman were seen in thl vicinity of the home of the Riders yes| tarday shortly before the murder o| Henry Rider of Howell, Mich, and the shooting of his brother and twd others. Survivors Will Recover. Rider and his daughter, Mrs. Elsil Smathers, who valiantly drove the au| tomobile after she had been wounded and James N. Rigby, who also occuI pied a seat in the Rider car at th| time of the attack, are in the JefferI son hospital, this city. Their cond1 tion today was hopeful and physI clans said they would recover. None of the men under arrest wal l in Riders employ, as far as the policI were able to learn by a hurried invesl tigation. The sight of eleven men and onI girl in an automobile aroused unud ual interest among the natives of Ali sion, N. J. Some one casually note|
 
 v;.nia license number. Detectivd | learned the number of the car and tn description of the girl, which cord sponded with that of the young wonl , an Rider employed on his cranberr| bogs.
 The girl knew the movements of MI Rider on pay days and was awar1 of the large amount of money rd
 
 cranberry pickers. The police are o| the theory that she planned the shood ing with the aid of confederates froII this city All have admitted the police sayI that they were at Atsion yesterday. Girl Widow a Heroine. Mrs. Smathers, a widow of a feJ l weeks and only 26 years old, was heroine today in the eyes of the pd lice and hospital physicians herd l She forgot her pain to speak lightll | of her courageous act in driving tn automobile away from the bandits d | they fired shot after shot in a vail 1 effort to get the bag containing $5, 00I She's the gamest patient we've hal l in years" was an admiring con| ment of a physician. Mrs. SmatheI I smiled and held her hand up deprd | catingly, as if her heroism in savin| | the money and lives, although twid wounded, was nothing unusual.
 Notwithstanding her weakened condition she drove her fathers bi| touring car at a racing clip for morj | than ten miles from the scene of thj | shooting to Hammonton, where hd l ic nf eI, l places. ! Two suspects were arrested at thl | Pennsylvania Railroad terminal il Camden, N. J., early today as the| stepped from train they hal l boarded at Hammonton.
 Auto Traced to Owner. The autom obile in which the twelI | persons travelled is owned by Franl 1 Vessela. He told detectives toda that he hired it to Giuseppe Russ l last Wednesday at $15 a day. He dd clared he carried the woman, Rusa and Frank Ladona, a friend of hi! not known by the other two, to liar l montOn yesterday morning. He sail he waited there several hours wit the woman while the other men wh were picked up in Camden, were ab sent
 He declared they returned excited | and that they talked in low tones. HI could not hear what they said. Al the persons mentioned are under ar rest. The de Marco girl and Russ are held on suspicion of murder an, the other two as material witnesses.
 The de Marco girl and Ladona, a, alleged accomplice, both have poIicl records, Capt. Tate said today. Tha ! (Continued On Fifteenth Page),