The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-03
BOTH SIDES LOSE
Priest Murder Case Opens With
Witnesses 4. w. 0. L.
William HightOWer Located
Grave of Father Heslin.
TOLD POLICE WEIRD STORY
Priest Lured From His Home
by Mercy Call.
Woman Who Last Saw Victim
Alive Has Vanished.
TOLD POLICE WEIRD STORY

alive Has tan1Sne0s
! Redwood City, Calf, Oct. 3.-Im-
portant witnesses for state and de-
fense were missing today as the hour
, drew near for William A. Hightower
to go on trial for the alleged murder
of the Rev. Patrick E. Heslin, Cath
olic priest.
+ The missing state witness was Ma
rie Bianchi. She, with the priests
housekeeper, Marie Wendell, alone, is
known to have seen Father Heslin
after an unidentified man took him
by night from the parish residence 20
administer spiritual consolation to
dying man.
! The missing defense witness IS
! er said he obtained the information
that enabled him to find the priests
/ shallow grave in the sands of Salada
beach. The district attorney asserts
Dolly Mason" is a mythical person.
age.
Answered Call of Mercy.
| On the night of August 2, a man
| said by Miss Marie Wendell, house
| keeper for the priest, to have been of
alien birth and riding in a Ford auto
mobile, called at the parish house and
asked the priest to visit a dying man.
The father in all good faith, an
swered the call. From that time he
dropped from sight, and a search by
: police and parishioners failed to re-
veal any trace of the missing man, de-
4 spite the fact that a reward of $11, 900
had been offered for information lead
ing to the recovery of the priest, dead
or alive.
While the search was on police Of
ficers and officials of the Catholic
church believed Father Heslin held by
! kidnapers, as an unsigned letter was
received by Archbishop Hanna de-
nanding $500 for the release of the
! priest.
Accused Man Found Grave.
On the night of August 10 a corps
of wspaper men and Chief of PO-
| lice Daniel O'Brien of Sah h Francisco.
were led by Hightower to a lonely spot
| on Salada beach, twenty-five miles
south of s. | Francisco, where the
| dead body of the priest, beaten and
riddled with bullets, was uncovered
from = shallow grave.
p over led the police to tie df-
recf Ot without trouble and assisted
in u earthing the body. He was held
Immediately by officials of San Mateo
county, and later cormal charge of
murder was placed against him.
In explaining how he knew the ex-
act location of the body and how to
reach the isolated spot in a heavy fog,
Htghtower told a weird story.
Told weird Story.
He said that he came to San Fran
cisco from Sacramento with a girl by
the name of Dolly Mason, whom he
Lake City. He admitted that Dolly
Mason" the enigma woman" was n
habitue of the underworld and that
he lived with her in San Francisco at
several hotels.
/ A few days after he brought Dolly
Mason to San Francisco he said, he
met her on the street, and she told
him of having met a foreigner, or
''wop," who had exhibited a pistol and
boasted sit has taken human life"
The "wop'' also is said to have told
Dolly Mason about someone held cap
tive and that a man, cooking flap
jacks, was guarding him
Evidence All Circumtstantial.
The following Sunday Hightower
claimed he went dLwn to Pedro road
and saw a signboard of a man cook
ing flapjacks. Taking this as a clue,
he went toward the beach, where he
| found a scarf and two caved-in places
one which had been disturbed recent
1y. He also found a AS caliber bullet
and a piece of bloodstained gunny-
sack
The following Wednesday night he
, led a party to the spot, and the partly
decomposed body of the Catholic
. priest was found.
Two days after the finding OF the
body Investigators of the case found
the floor boards and pegs of a tent
: | buried close to where the body was
, found and a tent, for which the floor
. and pegs fitted, in Hightower's room
, in San Francisco. Machine-gun-li Like
, apparatus was also found among
Hightower's possessions.
I Both Sides Claim Witness.
| In their investigation the police
discovered that a woman named Doris
Shirley came to San Francisco WITH
IHightower from Salt Lake City In
stead of Dolly Mason. Doris Shirley
admits she was living with Hightowel
I at the time the crime was committed
and will be the material witness in the
case, as both the prosecution and de-
fense will endeavor to prove thelI
case by her testimony.
The evidence. as known to the pub
: lie on which District Attorney Frank
: lin J. Swart, of San Mateo county
: will attempt to convict Hightower, Is
circumstantiaI, and E. J. Emmons at
? torney for the defense, claims he ma!
l concrete evidence which will teal
S down the contentious of the state
2 AMERICAN FAMILIES SMALLER
Now Only as Persons Per Family-Ir
1880 Were Five.