Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-09
DETZER WARNED
NOT TO GO TO
INDIANAPOLIS
Army Captain, Freed of
Brutality Charges, Receives
Threatening Letters.
DEFIEs DEATH NOTES

Capt. Karl w. Detzer, UnlIeu 0tdC0S
army, unassigned, of Ft. Wayne,
Ind. who was found mot guilty" at
a general court-martial in New York
Of brutality to soldiers in France has
been warned to keep away from In
Ndianapolis, it became known today.
Deter is in the east, at Ft. Jay, and
according to dispatches intends to come
to Indiana at once, despite the death
notes. he has received.
The letters were postmarked Indianap-
oils Chicago and St. Louis. In some
what individual and more or less home
made spelling, the writer's threaten Capt.
Deter with death if he ever appears in
their cities. few letters are Illus
trated. One from Chicago. addressed to
Americas Greatest Hun informs the
captain that although he is going to
Leavenworth for life, he is going to get
his" when he comes to Chicago. This
is signed an ''Ex-American Soldier
KEEP AWAY FROM
INDIANAPOLIS"
Another note, written on a yellow sheet
torn from a cheap account book, CON
tains the following extracts Your life
is not worth two sents ether is your
chums and the one who are defending
you. You tried to Kill all the Americans.
From ex-soldiers and sailors Of Fort
Wayne, Ind, and of Hammond and In
dianapOlis. Don't come back to our
town"
"I think I know some of the people
who wrote those letters" Capt Deter
said. 4 have obtained a short leave
and am going out first to my
indianapolis, St Louis and Chicago,
where 1 shall announce myself. l hope
shall meet these people, but I am
afraid they will remain under cover, be-
cause they didn't care to sign their
Eames."
NOTIFIED OF
ExONERATION.
Deter also has in his pocket his letter
of exoneration. This was delivered to
him at FIT. Jay Saturday with punctilous
salute by an orderly. 1t was signed by
Lieut.. Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, com
mander of the department of the east,
and said in military but otherwise cor
rect English that the general court
martial which since the 10th OF Decem-
her has been trying the captain under
twenty-eight specifications of alleged
cruelty to soldiers in France had found
"on all charges and all specifications. not
guilty"
Detzer's trial was the first ever held
in this country where an officer was
tried on the grounds of cruelty to mem
bers Of the American expeditionary force.
The most notorious case that of Lieut..
Frank Il C'Hardboied') Smith was
tried at Tours. France, Smith charged
under more taaglsNt thirts 5neci1cations,
was found guilty under eleven and SEN
fenced to eighteen months inrDrisonment
) on Governors Island. The wide notoriety
Of the Smith case, charged Detzars de-
tenders, encourag ged a band Of soldiers
with criminal records who terroriZed
the district around the American en-
barkation center at LeMans, France, to
frame" charges against Capt. Deter.
who was in charge of the department Of
criminal investigation at LeMans. The
twenty-eight specifications against Capt
Detzer included striking prisoners. ex-
tortion of false confessions and inhu-
man treatment of military prisoners. A
small army of witnesses, ranging from
colonels to privates and Leavenworth
convicts, were summoned from all parts
of the country to testify in the case,
which opened before a court of seven
colonels and majors on Governor S
Island, Dec. 10. For six weeks the trial
dragged on with a bewildering mass Of
testimony which all but swamped the
court reporters.
SOME RECORDS
ARE LACKING.
Deprived of the records of the 30Sth
military police company. Capt. Deter s
command at LeMans, which were
strangely missing after having been en-
trusted to a battalion of home coming
troops at Brest Lieut. Thomas L. Heffer-
nan, Capt. Detzer's counsel, was handl-
capped from the start through not being
able to obtain names and addresses of
men in the company who would testify
for the defense. Step by step, despite
continuous objections from Mat William
F. Kelly, the trial Judge advocate con-
ducting the governments case, Lieut.
Heffermen broke down the charges
against his client. He obtained with few
exceptions, admissions from witnesses for
the prosecution that either they had been
charged with crimes varying from "A
w. Q. L." (absent without official leave)
to robbery and murder, or, in the case of
members Of Capt. Detzer's company, they
had been transferred from that organiza-
tion for cause. The names Of Clarence
Lacey, Marcellus Gonzales and Fred
Yates former prisoners and complainants
against Capt. Detzer, were linked with
Sergt. Frank Hoyt believed to be a de-
serter in France, by the defense in its
endeavor to prove a 'frameup."
\ After having deliberated less than ten
minutes. the court of officers returned a
verdict of mot guilty" on all the charges
and specifications.