The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-08-25
EUGENE LEROY HELD;
IS ALLEGED SLAYER
OF trunk" VICTIM
RIO JANEIRO, Aug. 25-Eugene Lee

RIO JANEIRO, Aug. 25-Eugene Le-
roy, wanted by the police Of Detroit,
Mich, in connection with the murder
| of a woman supposed to be his wife,
was arrested on board the British
| freighter, Dryden, which arrived here
late Tuesday afternoon. Leroy was
| a member of the crew.
! Leroy was placed under arrest at
the request of United States authori-
| ties here and while the Dryden is in
port will be guarded by four members
of the maritime police. The ship will
| later proceed to Buenos Ayres, and
| from that port will sail for New York,
where Leroy will be turned over to
officers from Detroit.
| NEW YORK, Aug. 25-The British
freighter Dryden, upon which Eugene
Leroy was arrested yesterday at Rio
Janeiro in connection with the trunk
murder" mystery, sailed from New
York on August 3, 10 days after the
body of his supposed wife was found
| damned in a trunk in a local ware
! house.
Asked To Hold Him
The authorities learned a week
after the Dryden sailed, that man
answering Leroy's description was on
board and the freighter's captain was
requested by wireless to hold the sus-
pect for the Rio Janeiro police.
simultaneously, Detroit police Off
| Gals filed with the state department
at Washington an application for Lee
roy's arrest and extradition, should he
attempt to land in Brazil or any
country enroute.
| N1,c dor tn
nection with which Eugene Leroy was
arrested, has ramifications which ex-
| tend from New York to Michigan,
Mississippi and Alabama.
A few minutes after employe Of
the American Railway Express Com
pany here had discovered the nude and
mutilated body Of a young woman in
a trunk stored in the unclaimed bag
gage warehouse, police of New York
and Detroit began following the train
Of evidence which led to the victim s
! identification as Mrs. Katherine Lou
Jackson, of Sturgis, Miss, and the
location of A. A. Tatum, whose name
and a Detroit street address were
found marked on the trunk which con-
cealed the crime for more than a
| month.
Follow Detroit Trail.
| At 105 Harper street, Detroit, Tatum
was unknown but some one there told
detectives that young couple known
as Mr.. and Mrs. E. Leroy had disap-
peared from that address about June
10, the date on which the trunk was
shipped to New York.
The publicity given these two names.
Leroy and Tatum, brought forward
Andrew J. Branic, a New York express
man, who said he knew Leroy under
the name of Fernandez. He told the
police he had handled a trunk for
Fernandez or Leroy, who, he said, also
used the name of o. J. Woods. He pro-
duced a letter from Leroy, enclosing a
check for the trunk in which the body
was later found, asking that it be re-
moved from the express warehouse
and stored by Branic until Leroy
should call for it.
A Detroit policeman, Leo Trumbull,
then came to the front, declaring that
he and his wife, knew the young wo-
man who lived with Leroy as his wife
at the Harper Avenue address. When
the body of the murdered woman ar
rived in Detroit, Trumbull and his wife
identified it as Mrs. LeI oy."
Then from the south came positive
word that Mrs. Leroy" was really
Sturgis. Mississippi.
THE town was too small for Kitty
Lou and she went away, Jackson said,
when asked to tell what he knew Of
his wife's wanderings.
Next Tatum, the man whose name
appeared on the mysterious trunk,
walked into police headquarters at
Birmingham, Alabama and explained
bis connection with the case.
He told the authorities that he had
known Mrs. Jackson in Birmingham,
where he works as a linotype operator.
At her invitation, he said, he visited
her in Detroit, where she told him she
had married Leroy and that he was
terribly jealous" Shortly afterward,
Tatum said, he returned to Birming-
ham He declared that the next he
heard of the woman was when he read
of the discovery of her body.
Hear He's Seen Everywhere.
Reports have poured in from every
quarter of the continent indicating
that Leroy had been seen in this or
that place. A $4,000 reward offered by
the police of Detroit stimulated the
search and he was reported yariously
as escaping to Canada, hiding in
Mexico, sailing for Brazil and the
Bahamas and under arrest in Chi
cago