Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-10-27
AMERICAN FLYERS
WAREHOUSE CONNOLLY
SLAIN EVIDENCE SHOWS
CONTINUED from Page one)

| department officials.
A report on the finding of the two
ayiators' bodies reached the depart
ment some time ago. but officials re-
fused to comment on the announce
ment made tonight in San Diego by
| Maj. r. S. Bratton that the officers
were killed by Mexicans.
Owing to the often expressed
friendship OF the Lower California
| administration of Governor Cantu, it
was considered in official quarters to-
night that the prospects of appre-
bending the slayers of the Americans
We're more hopeful than had the
murders been committed in other por-
tons of Mexico.
No dispatches reached the state
! department during the day in reply
to the demand made yesterday on
the Mexican government that it OBJ
tain the release at any cost of Will
liam O. jenkins, American consular
agent at Puebla, who is being held
! by bandits for $4,000 ransom.
Account of Expedition.
The party which left San Diego,
October 10 included, besides Major
Bratton, who is attached to the
Twenty-fifth infantry at Nogales
several officials and soldiers of the
northern district of Lower California,
ana Joe Allen Richards, mining en-
gineer, who first reported finding the
bodies,
Mhjor Bratton in an account of the
expedition said:
The Aaron Ward arrived at Bahia
Los Angeles at 3;15 p. m, October 10.
m a ia n tsl,n h
Richards acting as guide and in a few
moments had discovered the grave.
The bodies had been disturbed, the
skulls being found under some brush
about ten feet distant from the bodies.
THE bodies We're then disinterrel
and the formal inquest started.
There was absolutely no question
that the bodies were those of Con-
molly and Waterhouse."
The officer then told of the partys
going up the gulf to Guadeloupe Bay, |
twenty miles to the northward, where
the plane piloted by Connolly and
Warehouse was discovered on the
beach.
Machine Looted BY McXicans.
THE two airmen had made a per-
feet landing" he continued, but
MeAcans subsequently removed the
motor from the fuselage, stole all the
ammunition for the two machine guns
and carried away other equipment
The motor evidently was too heavy to
carry, and it was found nesr by.
The wheels, engine, machine guns,
compass and other equipment worth
salyaging were taken aboard the !
Ward.
I'VE took notes of all the messages !
scratched on the fuselage and wings, |
the first one of which was made five
days after the men had landed. In |
this the men told how they had lost
their way, how they had tried unsuc-
cessfully to signal a passing boat |
their lack of success at catching fish |
and the growing hunger which rapid
ly was making them weaker. On the |
last week of their vigil both men |
scratched farewell message to their
mothers. AT that time the men must
have been near starvation.
Picked Up BY Fishermen.
September the aviators We're
picked up by two fishermen from the
Mexican sloop Esperanza, who rowed |
them in a canoe TO Bahia Los Angeles |
1t is doubtful if Connolly and Water |
house were given anything nourish-
ing by the fishermen. Just what the |
two aviators did between the time |
they landed at Bahia Los Angeles, |
September s, until they were MUIR
dercd the night of September IL, is !
not known definitely. 1t is a pathetic |
fact, however that Warehouse and !
Connolly could have secured food and |
shelter at the Los Flores mine, |
twelve miles to the southwark, if they |
had had the strength to traverse the
rough mountainous trail that led to
this refuge.
Through Investigations conducted
jointly by ourselves and the Mexican
court officials we found that Water
house and Connolly had been muir
dered by two fishermen from the Es-
peranza. Warehouse was stabbed to
death, evidently while asleep. Con-
molly was killed by a terrific blow
from some instrument which frac-
tured his skull He also was stabbed,
The evidence shows the motive evil
IDENTIFY was robbery. The MeXicans,
however, secured only a few dollars.
Cover Bodies With Sand.
after the murder the Mexicans
covered the bodies lightly with sandS
A few hours later, the morning of
September II, to be exact, the bodies
were discovered by Captain Jack Ross
of the American Schooner Trojan
Ross discovery was directly due to
the fact that one arm of each of the
alrmen was sticking up out of the
sand. The index finger of Connolly's
right hand had been severed. Water
houses hand and arm showed several
stab wounds.
Aware of Mexican customs con-
corning the dead, Captain Ross did ;
not take the bodies aboard the Trojan.
His report of the finding of the
bodies did not reach the army intelli ]
gence office at Nogales until three
days after Joe Richards personally re-
ported to that office. Richards found
the bodies September q, Therefore J
Richards will be paid the $1,000 re-
ward offered by the government for
leading to the recovery 5
of the bodies and airplane. Il
Mexican Officials Get Busy. Il
Immediately after trading the S
Mexican officials got in
touch with NJ Metzas, governor of {
the southern district of Lower Cali |
fornia, in whose territory the fisher
men had fled The murder occurred
in territory under the jurisdiction of
Governor Cantu and the trial courts
of the northern district" $
Major Bratton telegraphed re- |
port of his investigation to the adju- /
tant general of the army at Wash 9
ington. (
Full military honors were accord +
ed the airmen as the caskets, draped $
with the stars and stripes, were car /
ried from the deck of the destroyer to il
the municipal pier. Parents of both S
Tat TtNt,y al hal G