The Cordova daily times., 1917-10-10
DEATH RESUL I PRO-GERMAN
 PL0T

trial of Claude Piersol and other de- fendants for the abduction of Lloyd Rect, the fourteen months old son of J. Holland Rect, a banker of Spring field. Mo-, which eliminated in the baby's death, started here yesterday and is attracting wide interest. It involves another alleged Kidnapping conspiracy, said to have been part of a German plot and the attempting lynching Of one of the so-called con spiratOTs in an effort to force him to confess that he was implicated in the Rect babys disappearance and death, While the child's parents were at tending a ball at the Springfield Country Club on the night of May 30 1917, the baby was stolen from his crib in the family home Ten days later the body was found, wrapped in an old black underskirt, at the bot tom of well at the Crenshaw man. sion, which had been uninhabited for ihdhy yedIS' 4htdH" me, ITlenuS, QS- teCtives, and the baby's father secured the Ozark hills and had even visited
 previously the old farm house in the search for the missing boy.
 70 threats had been made to the
 Rect family, previous to the abduc- tion of the infant, but on the follow  ing morning, Mir. Rect received note threatening mutilation to the baby if a ransom of $6,OOO was not paid the following night Mir Rect endeavor- ed to comply but failed to meet the
 kidnappers. Various rewards were offered, but these were followed up by a letter to the father that the ran som fee must be increased from $6,O0O to $1O0OO.
 Six days after the disappearance of the boy. Taylor Adams, his wife, Allie Adams, and his two sons, Maxie and Cletus, respectively IS and 20 years old, and Claude Piersol were arrested. All yehemently denied any connection with the Rect case but al legged statements of the prisoners told of a plan to abduct c. A. Clements of Springfield, a ieweler. and a baby other than the Rect child.
 The German plot angle entered the case, according to the alleged state ment by Piersol, that a man had em- ployed him to assist in Kidnapping Clements. The man was said to have received orders from a German agent in St. Louis and to have promised Piersol he might be called upon to kidnap persons in Canada and Mexi- l co as we'll as in the United States.
 All efforts to shake the statements of the person arrested were unsuc- cesful. They maintained they had 1 to do with Rect case.
 On June 9th, however, a party of | citizens made second and more | search of the Crenshaw | farm and found the body. A coro- | ner's inquest decided that the child | had died from exposure and lack of | proper nourishment.
 The excitement in Springfield be- | came so great that mob stormed the | County jail demanding that the pri- | soners who were being held there, be turned over to them that they | might avenge the baby's death.
 Sheriff Webb attempted to spirit | his prisoner away in an automobile. | The mob pursued and finally caught | them at Stockton, Mo-, 2S miles north | of Springfield where they took Pier | sol from the sheriff and went through | al the movements of lynching party | even to stringing the prisoner from | a tree limb. Peirsol held to his origi l nal story, and denied that he was res | ponsible for the Rect infants death | The mob surrendered him to the sher if and the prisoners were lodged in the Stockton jail.
 Federal agents of the department | of justice followed up the pro-German l angle of the case and arrested Dick 1 Carter, of Springfield, who is being held on a charge of being implicated in the Clement plot.
 Taylor Adams, Claude Piersol, and Cletus Adams are charged with ab- duction. Charges of murder against them were dismissed. Allie Adams in the Clement conspir-