The Washington times., 1920-08-01

w EfFpbHrN W I" ~
cail from Miss Woods. The girl. how
ever. says LOFTS died after friend
ly struggle. with her. IL was not
until after he was dead that she ttle-
phoned for Shaync, she says.
TRIED TO ATTACH HER.
At nr't she said LOFTS nttemn'ed
TO attack her and she called shsyna
to rescue her.
Il am convinced Shayne cannot be
In any way responsible for the death
OF LOFTS" Coroner hoffman said to-
day. 1t would be unjust TO hold
him longer"
Detectives groped all day through
a maze of whiskey, women. and taxi
riders in an effort to clear up the
mystery.
Chief OF Police Gsrrity has con-
cluded that LOFTS came 10 his death
after some kind OF "A combat
Huida johnson. kous~keep~r for
Loftis In his luxurious bmrsrior
char smbers. said that Iiuy different
girls had visited the apa rtment since
January. These were mostly from the
cabarets. beaches, hotel bouns'ng
rooms. and bolLevUrds.
In the meantime the mystery OF the
tragedy that stalked into the splendid
bachelor quarters sim clings like the
fumes OF split wine.
Here Is Miss Woods hrst story:
MIR. LOFTS called me up yesterday
afternoon and asked me to come to
his apartment lie hinted he was
going To set Mr.. Shayne up In busl
ness and wanted to talk matters over
with me first. You see, Mr.. Shayne
and | were to be married. ! had met
LOFTS two weeks before through Mr..
Shayne.
INVITED HER TO DRINK.
when | arrived at the apartment,
Mr.. Lofts had been drinking. He
invited me to have drink, which ]
did. He then became boistcroUs. Sew
eral times he tried to make love TO
Sne. managed to quiet him for
Tine by talking to him. Finally. he
became unruly, and several times ]
had to resist his attempts. Some fur
niturc was knocked over in these
friendly. scuffles.
II soon saw I would have 10 call
Mr.. Shayne. | rushed to the telephone
and told him to come right over"
Here Shayne took up the story:
- arrived nt tho apartment, and
when . saw LOFTS, he wns atttrrd In
pnjnmas. Jumping about In mad
dance. lie wns laughing loudly. He
called to me to Join his party. say
Ing; Come ON Join US. we RTe haV-
Ing n h OF n time Then he slipped
on n rug. His hcnd struck n door
knob. His neck wns twisted. Hc lay
on the floor perfectly sI,i. ] tried
10 revive him with whiskcy and
water. Then I called n physician"
Miss'Woods later changed her story
thus:
La,y yfn- 1laN nj gtr,,
gle and my attention was momen-
tarily distracted from him. The next
instant ! was startled by the sound
OF his falling body. | realized some
thing terrible had happened. called
Mr.. Shayne. On his arrival he called
a physician"
After examining the body. the ply
sicians found that Miss Woods had
disappeared. She explained that by
saying:
while the physicians were there
| | was bewildercd and walked from
the room. On reaching the street |
called a taxi. when ] got in the
taxi the chauffeur drove me to the
South Side. He introduced me to a
man he said was his brother. We
drove around for a while and then
this man robbed me.
He took $50 and then tried to
attack me-
DRIVERS STORY DIFFERENT.
The driver told a different nara.
| tive. He said:
Il was called to the LOFTS home
| about o'clock. The man who called
me said he wanted me to get a
woman. AS my taxi was nearing the
Lofts home a druggist ran into the
r~'1d'o Of the street and called my
attention to Miss Woods, who was
| s,aSgeIng on the sidewalk.
Miss Woods got into my machine
! and cried: Drive, drive; ! don't care
where you drive
Then she. directed me to drive to
the West side. On the way she had
me stop a number of times so she
could get drink. / had no idea
what had happened at the Lofts
home. when we reached Garfield
park she stopped me and called a
| man. She talked to him a few min
utes and took him into the cab with
her. They told me to drive 90 a
house at kcdzie avenue and Jackson
boulevard. They went in and stayed
an hour and a half.
Then they came out and got into
the cab together. They told me to
drive anywhere. Later they got into
an argument and the man got out.
Then she told me tho man had robbed
her and told me to drive her home,
which | did"
Policemen had preceded the girl to
her home. They conce alcd themselves
there and saw her come in.
According to the story she told,
she rushed in and exclaimed to her
mother:
"Oh, Mamma, here arc some things
] brought home. Keep them and !
will tell YOU about them tomorrow.
Then she handed her mother, the
police say, a mans ring set with two
diamonds and ruby, watch. a
chain and a knife. These were later