The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-08
Will COOPER KILLING
Be UNSOLVED MYSTERY?
DEPARTMENT NOT NEAR
SOLUTION.
Chief Sidebottom Silent For
tune Teller Refused to Visit
Scene of Murder.

cial.)-Will the murder of Robin J.
Cooper b, listed among the ansolved
murder mysteries of the country?
Chief of Police Alex Ba.thelI Sat
urday night authorized the statement
that after an investigation of more
than week the department was nc
nearer a solution of the crime than
the morning upon which the body OF
the murdered attorney was discov-
| cred in Richland creek, three quar-
tiers of a mile from his blood stained
automobile.
Capt. r. s. cunning, finger print
expert of the Cincinnati police de-
partment, who made an examination
of the bloody finger prints upon the
rear right-hand door of Mr. Coopers
automobile. left Nashville last night
for his home.
Sidsbottom Silent.
When Capt. Dunning was asked
Saturday whether or not his exam
ination of the finger prints would in
! dictate that two men were implicated
in the murder, he referred the re-
porter to Chief Sidebottom. The chief
declined to state what the examina
tion revealed, or whether or not the
examination ga e promise of any re-
suits. The car door was taken from
the car for the purpose of making
the examination, the finger prints and
other impressions on the door being
brought out with powdered alumni
mum. and all marks being. examined
under a powerful glass.
Saturday afternoon, In company
with Chief Sidebottom, Capt. Dun
~ in n -t1tta cd no - 4.
If anything was found that would
is known to Capt. Dunning and to
Chief Sidebottom, for the latter de-
clined to make any comment when
| seen Saturday night
Visit Fortune Teller.
| While some of the officers ridicule
the statements credited to fortune
teller. which were printed in an after
noon paper here Friday. it is learned
that Saturday afternoon two officers
made visit to North Nashville to in
duce the ''seess" to visit the scene
of the murder. They say that she de-
cined, giving as an excuse that she
was sick and telling them she had al
ready been there and that she had it
that the public building" mentioned
by her was the state capitol. I'VE
just went out to see what the fortune
teller KEW" said one of the officers
who made the trip.
| Several persons close to Mr. Cooper s
family, when questioned Saturday,
said that nothing had been developed
that could possibly be construed as a
! motive for the crime, and that about
the only two theories that seem at all
plausible were those of robbery and a
transaction with reference to the pur-
chase of whisky.
Scope Of Investigation.
| There has never been a case in the
history of the police department OF
| Nashville into which more real work
has been put than given by the men
at work on the solution of the murder
of Robin Cooper" was the statement
of Chief Barthell
AS an evidence of the scope OF the in
vestigation conducted since the morn
Ing when the first message came over
| the telephone that Robin Cooper's
| abandoned automobile had been discov-
cred and that there was evidence Of
foul play suspected. it is pointed out
that approximately ITS persons have
been summoned before the officers fol
examination, and that written state.
ments have been secured from mos
of these.
tective denartments bayo .heon ,rorl
ing on the case day and night, anc
three automobiles have been constantly
in service in chasing down informal ior
and possible clues which have flowed
into the offices by letter, telephone and
word of mouth from persons interested
in the apprehension of the murderer OF
| murderes
since oat uuaS, week ago every per
SUI ~ tilIs Sect'oit Known 10 nave
p"neu ROADSTER mas peeh summoned
before .he oiilcers ana ASKED 70 give an
J so-' u IT'S ms Ml sl On "gunes-
uag h'st NJ ihursaay nleht shd frloay
lisnt these statements nave peeh
checked up 100
In addition more than thirty persons
have been brought within hearing dis
lance of the family servants at the
Cooper home and they have been asked
to find the voice" that they heard call
Cooper. Cooper" just before Robin
| Cooper left his house and went to the
garage and took his car out, never to
return. Similar opportunities have
| been given the gardener, Metcalf to
| pick out from thirty voices the one
which he says he heard say: You
| could have had more if you had asked
for it."
Ever, thcorv-and there have been
| severaI-has been 6aveloped. every cline
| has been investigated: there have heen
| gruelling examinations of various per-
| sons behind closed doors In the Offices
of both chief RartheIl and Chief side
| bottom. reoms of paner have been GOV.
cred with the transcript of these grill
| lings, and vet. after more than a
weeks work. the officers find them
selves no nearer the answer to the
| question who killed Robin Cooper"
| than they were the day the body was
| found.
Some Facts Developed.
Officers seem positive on some of the
facts which have been developed,
| however.
They are confident that Robin Cooper
was murdered while seated at the
steering wheel of his car, an Overland,