New-York tribune., 1920-11-22

sapphires and platinum scintillated
This was by no means the first time
Mrs. Palmer and her gems had been
conspicuous in a Broadway cafe. AL
most always she wore them, affording
ample temptation to avarice,
The Police Theory
The police theory is that the rob-
devious, were tipped off by telephone
when Mrs. Palmer's shadow" made sure
she was out for the evening. They
repaired to the house, and their scout.
in an automobile, continued to trail
Mrs. Palmer's limousine. 1t was about
9 p. m. when Sazone, the Filipino but
Ter, and Margaret Creevan, the maid,
say they were s,ized, bound and gagged
by the intruders.
At ! o'clock or thereabouts Tuesday
morning they are supposed to have got
their last and NEST vital message, after
which they cut the telephone wires
Mrs. Palmer had started home from
the Montmartre. One Of the burglars
quickly took his place at westerly
window on the top floor. from which,
through a flap-covered slit they had
cut in the shade, he could look down
Ninetieth Street toward Madison and
Fifth avenues. Presently he saw the
Palmer limousine turn from Fifth Ave
nue., at the corner where the home of
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie is situated 1t
glided up to the curb before Mrs.
Palmer's house and stopped. The
burglars tiptoed down one fight and
hid themselves behind portiere in
her bedroom.
They had plenty of time to get set.
Mrs. Palmer stood on her stoop few
minutes, chatting with Jack Erich,
who escorted her home. Then she en-
tered and walked into the same fate
that had befallen her servants.
The police and the private detectives
Of the Corrigan Agency, retained by
the company that issued d policy on
the jewels. have complained from the
start that they are being handicapped
in their quest by Mrs. Palmer's reti-
cence in discussing with them things
she insists are exclusively personal and
private affairs. They have told her
that if she, in close confidence, would
tell them the names of some of the
persons she has met in the promiscu-
Gus playground Of Broadway where the
two halves of the city mingle they
their fingers on the plotters of the
crime. But she will not tell.
They have told her that if the
burglars were not admitted by some
one to her house they must have had
latchkey, and they have advanced
the theory that some light-fingered d
habitue of cabaret could have alb
stracted Mrs. Palmer's own key long
enough to make a wax impression of
it. She does not take kindly to the
suggestion.
Paris Trip Rumored
In her statements to the detectives
and in interviews with newspaper men
Mrs Palmer has endeavored to make it
understood that the feversh gayety of
Broadway held no lure for her and that
last Monday nights was one of infre-
quent like excursions.
Rumor has it that Mrs. Palmer,
whose Ninetieth Street house was on
the market for sale or lease, planned
to go to Paris.
knowledge Of her ieputed intention
to seek relief from ennui on the other
side Of the world, the detectives sug-
gest, may have impelled the plotters to
get her jewels before she slipped from
their net.
But Mrs. Palmer has not succeeded,
the detectives said yesterday, in alto
gether blocking this lin. of inquiry. A
great many men and women knew Mrs.
Palmer, and they have been able, they
declare, to find quite few of them.
Some they have questioned. Others
they are watching. Some of them have
satisfied the police they know nothing
that would aid in clearing the mystery.
Others have supplied bits of informa-
tion that promise results. Some are sus-
pected of Withholding facts that might
help the authorities, while two or three
are under direct suspicion Of having
guilty knowledge of the crime.
Where the confraternity of Broadway
meets and gossips between sips of for
bidden liquid there is much talk of
this and that bearing on the iewe' rob
berry. But the underworld is not the
only element in the community that has
its scouts where dazzling gems reflect
soft lights. Detectives can don even
ing clothes and step fox trot on oc-
casion. A good deal of information,
some Of it worthless, part of value, has
been garnered in this way from
wagging tongues, and it is gradually
say the police, enabling them and De
tective Corrigan to formulate a definite
theory, which they are not yet prepared
to disclose.
To Be Questioned Again
To-day or tomorrow it is likely that
Mrs. Palmer will be questioned again
The things that they have learned with
out her aid will be detailed to her, anc
she will be urged to assist them ir
running down the new clews they have
unearthed.
If the supposed plotters, who begar
to stalk their prey wnen first they laic
eyes on her pearl necklace. can b,
! identified tine DOljce are confident :;
viii be comparatively simple to find tn,
actual robbers. The trail that lead
from the depths to the upper crust o
the underworld is often indstinct. bu
it can generally be discovered.
Ex-kaiserin Grows Weaker