The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-06
TORTURE like.
|NQU|S|T|0NS
IS INDICATED.
Officials Think Mounts Body
Taken To Pier When Stu
dents Feared "Grave"
Would Be Dis
closed

CHICAGO, May ga grave"
where the body of Leighton Mount,
Northwestern university freshman
killed by hazers, is believed to have
been hidden before it was lowered
into a Lake Michigan pier is being
sought by Coroner Oscar Wolf and
police.
AS this hunt progresses, the states
attorneys Investigators continue
their sweeping probe, quizzing stu
dents and others. AS they unraveled
the tangled mystery bit by bit, facts
came to light that indicated Mount
died by torture like that in ancient
inquisitions.
The first week of day and night
search for the students who caused
the youths death brought no tangi-
BILE clues as to the individuals re-
sponsible. Wolf and Police Chief
Leggett, Evanston, were however,
able to give the first definite out
line of how Mount was killed, his
body secreted and partially destroyed
and the cunning resorted to by the
slayers to avoid detection
Theory OF Investigators.
Their theory;
Mount was killed by fellow
students in moment of reckless
class warfare, after freshmen had
fought all day and far into the
night, during the class rush of 1921.
fTying each other to piers, ducking
rival classmen into the lake, the
fighting was climaXed by freshmen
binding Arthur Persinger a sopho-
more, to pier and abandoning him.
He was reported to have been near
The incident threw spirit of reck
death when fishermen rescued him.
less determination into the students,
who continued their war till nearly
dawn. Young Mount was caught
freshmen who mistooll his identity
or by sophomores at a. m. They
bound him tightly and threw him
into Lake Michigan and jeered as he
struggled. When the struggling
ceased, they let him lie a while long
er to teach him IA lesson" Then
they hauled him out-dead from
drowning. Jeers gave way to scared
pale faces. Somebody remembered
that the Staying was murder in the
4eyes of the law and Il council was
held to determine what to do.
BODY Believed Secretcd.
Just before daylight. according to
the theory of investigators. Mounts
body was carried to a hiding place
weeks, it was kept. probably in a
cellar, and chemicals may have been
used to preserve it. Stories flew
about casting doubt on possibility of
I. Mount having been slain. The origin
OF these stories was not traced. Day
after day Mount was reported to
lAhave been seen somewhere" Stu
Sdent knowingly remark ed that so
andSo had heard from him" and the
men suspected of knowing the secret
of Mounts death saw to it that an
unsigned note purporting to inform
former sweetheart, Doris Fuchs,
that Mount was considering running
away or committing suicide was
given wide circulation.
Keep as quiet as a snake" the
note told the girl. Authorities be-
lieve it was planted" in the nurse
maids mail box by persons attempt
ing to throw the searchers off The
right track.
Exposure Again Feared.
After this campaign of whisper
ing and false reports that caused
police and the university to know
ingly" drop the case with only a
brief, incomplete probe, the students
were again threatened with expos
ure by decomposition of the body
Police believe that the hazers again
held counsel land appointed com
mittee" to do away wit the body.
This group long after midnight
when streets were desterted, took the
body from its secret resting place
hauled it to the pier and cut a hole
In the planking. Mounts body was
lowered. lime sprinkled on it and
huge rocks piled on top. theory
that the body may have been held
, in secret vault until it was odor-
less and then lowered into the pier
Iwas discharged because Of the bits
jof clothing clinging to the skeleton
The Whispering" on the campus
was so successful that 1t reached into
police records, resulting in no tan
giblc entry of Mounts disappearance
being made.> His name was merely
Tiled away among hundreds of