The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-01-05
TO SPEND FORTUNE
TOBRING OUT TRUTH
PITTSBURG MILLI0NAIRE PLANS
INVESTIGATION TO CLEAR SONS
NAME OF MURDER SUSPICION
Wanted by Officers. Young Man Fires
Rifle Bullet into Brain at Atlan-
tic City Hotel

| PITTSBURG, Jan. 5.-The name of
Bernard w. Lewis, son of wealthy
retired Pittsburg coal operator, is to
be cleared if possible of connection
with the murder of Maize Colbert, the
artists model, who came to "a tragic
death in her apartments at Philadel-
phia early in the week.
The father of the young man, who
committed suicide at Atlantic City last
night when officers were seeking ad
mission to his hotel room, has planned
an investigation. The elder Lewis
says he will spend fortune to bring
out the truth.
With his feet braced against the
head of the bathtub, Lewis pulled the
trigger of twenty-five calibre rifle
in the bathroom adjoining his bed
room in the exclusive States Villa on
States avenue last night at 1926
o'clock as detectives Farley and Tot
ten of the local headquarters staff
raped for admittance on the door of
his room.
The shot entered the mans temple
and death is believed to have been in
Simultaneous. That Lewis anticipated
arrest and made preparations to kill
himself is indicated by the fact that
the rifle was new.
Lewis name had been furnished the
the authorities by Misses Ethel and
Mabel Kyle, sisters, both of whom
were public school teachers, who said
that the young man had taken them
home in a taxicab after dinner
party downtown. Elwood Powell, the
chauffer, stated he had later taken
the man to the apartment house where
Miss Colbert lived.
Lewis twice yesterday afternoon tel
ephoned, apparently from Atlantic
City, to the home of the Kyle sisters
in Germantown. His calls were an
swered by Miss May Kyle, third Sis
ter, and Lewis, she said, plunged at
once into the subject of the murder.
What shall l do?" he is reported to
have said Isn't this terrible?"
Thursday night while Lewis was out
with the Germantown teachers he was
said to have called up Miss Colbert by
telephone. During the dancing that
night his collar became wilted, the
Kyle sisters said, and he bought
new one at the hotel. This collar was
the same size as the blood stained col
lar found in Miss Colberts apartment. |
1t also became wilted, the teachers
said. and, according to the detectives
working on the case, the collar found |
in the apartment had been discarded |
because it was wilted.
No murder in years so thoroughly |
aroused the police and the public as
the mysterious, brutal crime brought |
to light near midnight last Saturday
when Maizie Colbert's sister, after re-
peated efforts to get her on the tele- ]
phone, called at her apartment. The !
colored janitor of the apartment |
house finding the door locked, climbed
through window at the solicitation
of the sister and found the beaten I
body of the beautiful girl, clad only |
in violet silk pajamas, lying on the
bed. The form was covered with
sheet and an effort had been made /
by the murderer to indicate suicide
by attaching a rubber hose to gas
jet and placing it over the murdered
girls face. But the murderer over
looked the detail of turning on the
gas.