The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1922-01-20
James Farrell and Room No. 40
Are New Mysteries in Trial
at Valley City, N. D.
STATES ATTORNEY CALLS
FARRELL STORY "A FAKE
Proprietor of Fargo Hotel and
Son Relate Events Before
and After Murder
CRY United Press)

Valley ;City,SN. p, Jan. 2O.--James
Farrell and room No. 40 are the mys-
terry around which the state may
spring some Of its surprising testi-
mony in itssatsempt to convict Will
lam GUNNER Y as the murderer Of
Marie Wick, guest at the hotel at
which he was night clerk at Fargo. .
1t appears that some new evidence
which was withehld for some reason
at the preliminaries, or developed
later, my be introduced at the trial,
James Farrell is the only accounted
for guest at the Prescott hotel on the
fatal night of June Z. According to
GUNNER, he was a stranger, tive feet
and eight or nine inches tall, appar-
emily foreigner, who came into the
hotel at 2 o'clock that morning, regis
tered, was assigned and then shown
to room No. 40, and never seen after
that.
At the preliminaries, States Attor-
ney Green ridiculed Farrell as IL
"1ake." The state called Mrs. Law
renee, proprietor Of the Prescott, and
her soa, Fred, to establish in detail
Marie's actions when she registered
and the procedure the. next morning
when the crime was discovered.
Mr.. Lawrence said he made an in
lvestigation of the rooma and corri-
dors the next morning with the depu-
lty sheriff. Marie entered the hotel
with Mr.. Rasmussen, a former Grygla
boy, who had met her at her written
request when her train arrived. She
was assigned to room No. 30, and
GUNNER, who was. at the desk with
Mrs. Lawrence accompanied her to
the room with her baggage. She was
to be called at 6 o'clock to catch the
morning train to Pettibone, where she
was going to visit her aunt. After a
few minutes in her room she came
down and she and Mr.. Rasmussen
went out for few minutes, When
she returned she had her call changed,
they declare.
Mrs. Lawrence went out to lunch
| and retired to her room about IL
o'clock. When she next saw Marie
| Wicks, Dr.. Burton was performing
the medical examination for the state.
| On cross examination, she said the
fire escape could be reached from the
second floor, but it developed later
that this would be possible only by
passing through her rooms.
Mr.. Lawrence visited the single
mems rooms with the sheriff, and also
the room Of II. J. Hagen, former
president Of the Scandinavian AM
erican bank, who occupied the room
i connected with Marie's, and found
no towels missing or other suspicious
circumstances.
The window to the fire escape on
the third floor was locked from the
inside. There was no screen on the
bathroom on No. 40 but escape from
there would mean 40-foot leap4
Hans Wick, father Of the. girl,
broke down on the witness stand to-
day when he told of accompanying
his little girl to Thief River Falls,
and his goodbye to her as she took
the train to Fargo. When he next saw
her, her young life had been sacri-
feed to a moron's lust and she lay
in the Moore morgue, a mutilatcd
corpse.
Marie was good girl, not boy
crazy, was the evidence Of her father
verified by, Mr.. Johnson, president
of the Grygla State bank and by an
aged woman with whom she had sat
on the train. How simple had been the
young girls life was brought out in
the testimony by Mr.. Rasmussen, who
said she had taken an interest in the
street cars and player pianos, which
she had never seen before.