The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-09
SELLERS TO TRIAL
'PistOI Pete" Charged With
HOldup in Lunch Room.
Musical Comedy Actress Is
Chief Witness for State.

The trial of Orville Sellers. alias
Pistol Pete" ON a charge of high
way robbery. was begun this morning
before jury in Judge James Nc
Clure's division of the district court
he IS alleged to be the man who, with
ms accomplish, George Morand. held
up and robbed several patrons at the
Victory Lunch room. sos Kansas ave-
nue., the night of May ~, 1922.
Morand. soon after his arrest May
10, pleaded guilty and was sentenced
70 serve ten years in the state peni-
peka today. however. to testify against
his pal. which he also did at the pre-
hnlinary hearing of Sellers.
Actress Was Chief Witness.
Mrs. Margaret Lily Hall. musical
comedy actress. and wife of George
Hall, who at the time of the robbery
was owner of the Toby Wilson COM
pany then playing at the Orpheum,
was the states chief witness this
morning. She and her husband were
in the restaurant shortly after mid
night when the two unmasked men
entered.
My husband had stepped up front
to pay our bill. and had just stepped
out in front when the men appeared,
said Mrs. Hall. ''Morand pressed a
revolver against my stomach and told
me to step aside. 1 stepped back into
the restaurant and leaned against
one hand while he searched my hus-
band and took $47 from him. Morand
stood with his back to the door, which
he had closed. He kept his eyes on
the kitchen, and his gun pointed the
same way. and directed Pistol Pete
what to do
d, She Saved Her Rings.
After robbing the patrons of the
place, Sellers robbed Pete Vaxy, night
clerk, and took the money from the
eli, Nfre EIa1 soil
Eerted that she saved her rings by
slipping them off her fingers behind
her back and putting them INTO an
envelope in her pocket while the rob-
bers were busy with the other patrons.
She described an action of Morand
that might have been either chiValry
or diplomacy. When Sellers started
toward her. after robbing her nus
band, Morand motioned him away. she
said, telling him to go over there
Morand is dark and slender, nattily
dressed handsome to a degree, ana
appears to possess considerable de-
gree of education and refinement
Sellers and Morand were captured
IN Ripley park the night of May 1s
by Capt. Jesse Hill, Charles Holman
plain clothes man, and Detective car
ence Bundy. Within thirty minutes
after they had been placed in the up
stairs cell of the Jail. Morand PRED
the hasp from the door lock ana got
out. He tore a blanket into strips
hung it out the WINDOW OF the wash
room and was preparing to escape
when he was discovered The two
were then taken to the county jail for
safekeeping.
Beside the holdup of the Victory
Lunch. the two men are believed Dy
the police to have committed several
Sther crimes. among them the holdup
and robbery of C. NJ. Riner, motorman
conductor on the Shorey line; the
holdup and robbery of Albert Hayes
flaFuan at the santa Fe crossing on
East Fourth avenue; the attempted
burglary of the Harris-Goar store,
which was frustrated by a burglar
alarm system; the robbery of mouse
in Tawrence and the attempted holdup
of the Rev. W. H Young, $40 quincy
street