Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-09-16
Church had AID
IN KILLING men
Garage Manager and Another
Man Helped Kill Auto Sales
men in Chicago.
POLICE SEEK ACCOMPLlCE
Motive Was "spIIt" of Proceeds From
Packard Car-Victims Taken to
Basement of Fulton Street
House and Hacked and
Beaten.

Church was aided by two accOmpllceS
in the murder of Bernard j. Daugh-
erty and Carl Ausmus, Packard sales
men who were lured to their death
in the basement of Church's home at
1922 West Fulton street. The motive
of the murders was revealed as a d.
vision of S., 400, the purchase price of
the Packard automobile Church had
professed his intention to buy.
Church admitted that his original
confession was false in many details.
He then named two men as his ac-
completes.
Within a few hours one of the aids
named by Church, Leon Parks, tWen-
ty-four years old, 2523 West Jackson
boulevard, had substantiated Church's
confession by one of his own, and
Jointly they named the third man in
the plot as Warren g. Wilder, 10
West Locust street.
Parks is night manager of the
Benario garage, 2815 West Lake
street. Wilder, a former roommate
Of Church, was employed at the gar
age as an automobile accessory sales
man. Together, according to the two
confessions now in the hands of the
police, they planned the robbery of
Daugherty and a split in the pro-
ceeds.
In his second statement Church ac-
cuses Parks of plotting the murders
With reference to this feature
Church says:
1T was one of the nights shortly
after the car was taken in there (Be-
nario's garage) for repairs, and he
says to ne, he says, Wouldn't you
like to make some easy money!
says, 'How?' He says, BY stealing
car he says, and selling it,
Il says, Gould you get away with
it?' He says, Don't worry about
that And didn't give him a definite
answer as to whether would or /
wouldn't; and night or so after thar
he asked me if / didn't think l could
get hold of a Packard, and / think
asked him, Did you mean a single
or twin
Il told him that / would be there
some time between four o'clock and,
or possibly it might be one or two.
At this time | asked him what he was
going to do. He said he was going
to take and bind the gentleman
that brought the car. and also tie my
hands, leaving my feet free so that
after the car was gone | might get
up and make an alarm after a short
period of time and l told him would
do that, and would be there that
afternoon not later than three, and
possibly one or two.
1t has been many a day since police
men and the states attorneys Office
forces have listened to dispassion-
ate recital of such unparalleled bru-
tally as has been revealed in the joint
confessions.
Parks has been under arrest as
suspect in the murders since Sunday
night, when police began to believe
that Church had not committed the
crimes unaided. Search is being made
for Wilder, who is revealed as the
most fendish of the three slayers in
the two confessions now in the hands
of the police.
Murder had not originally been
planned in connection with the rob-
berry, it appears from the two confess
sions. now believed to be substantially
correct. But Daugherty put up a fight,
said Parks, after his hands had been
cuffed behind him, and, frightened,
they had resolved to finish the job.
Several times each Of the men spoke
of the mess" they were getting them
selves into, but each was determined
to cover their crime If necessary
When Ausmus, suspicious of the delay,
entered the house, Church was waiting
near the cellar steps with gun, and
he was forced to march into the base
ment, where he was subjected to the
same clubbing with the baseball bat
that had been administered to Daugh-
erty.
Church said Parks had made some
protests at the projected plan of bury
In either of the bodies on the prem
Uses, but the two accomplices silenced
him with the assertion that it was not
going to be possible to take them any
further from the house without excit-
ing the suspicious of the neighbors,
It was not until hours later when the
time was growing short and Daugh-
erty's body was still undisposed Of
that they resolved to abandon the bur-
ial plan and dump him into the Des
PLANES river