Evening star., 1923-10-15
CODE SLAYER TO co
INTO COURT ON COT
Arthur CoveII, Confessed
Killer by Zodiac Signs, Pleads
for Quick Execution.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
MARSHFIELD, Greg, October 10
The evil stars under which Arthur
Covell was born are with him to the
end.
A hopeless paralytic, hobbling about
bent and gnarled on crutches. Covell
spent his pain-racked hours in study
of the occult, determined to make the
stars that had frowned on him do his
bidding
Today the astrologer lies in a cell.
confessed master mind in the Staying
of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Fred Covell.
OF Bandon. He will be carried into
the courtroom on cot to plead guilty
to q charge of first degree murder.
His sixteen-year-old nephew Alton is.
with him, accused of the actual mur-
der, although he pleads that he COM
mitted the deed under the hypnotic
spell OF his uncle.
Resorted to Hypnosis.
The dark pseudo sciences run all
through Arthur Covelrs scheming.
Hypnosis, astrology, murder instruc-
tions written in q code made up of
the signs OF the zodiac were his in
struments. Fate had marred him. He
was determined to match his crooked
wits against fortune. He played--but
lost on his first throw.
Hang me and get this over with"
he pleaded with Luke s. May, the
Seattle criminologist, who tracked
him down and unraveled the dIabolic
schemes by which May says the
cripple planned to make himself the
arch murderer of the age.
The murder OF Mrs, Covell, wife of
chiropractor in the little town of Ban
don, who was Smothered to death by
her stepson with an ammonia soaked
rag on September 2. was but the first
step IN the astrologer's plans, according
to the confession May obtained from
! him. Mrs. Covell died because she knew
too much about the astrologer's plans
Beat Her With Crutch.
After she had fallen, to make doubly
sure that she would not live to bear
witness against him. the sinister Grip
pie shuffied to her side and rained blows
on the body with his crutch, he has
confessed.
For years Arthur Covell had been
| planning his coups. His first went
awry. But had the stars not been
against him no less than seven families
would have been wiped out, he to be-
| come the beneficiary of their earthly
possessions He would have outwitted
i fortune. He would have been rich
In secret code. using zodiacal signs.
which he put on the type bars of his
| typewriter. he had written out these
things. Luke May, suspecting part OF
the truth. gained possession of these
/ prospectuSes of crime and studied them
out as he had studied out many another
sort of cipher. Then he confronted the
sinister figure with his discoveries.
! Confessed at Orce.
! The break came instantly. Arthur
Coven begged, explained. and told
the secrets he would not intrust even
| to his zodiacal code. He told how he
! had planned to slay Bandon's leading
fallen down the stairs and broken his
neck, and place a cleverly forged
will in his pocket leaving the plotter
half his estate.
! Two men were to be enticed into a
| field and slain. Their relatives were
an oil prospecting party in a newly
discovered field. Rumors were TO
! drift back that they had been lost in
the mountains. The astrologer was
| to share in their estates.
Arthur CovelPs study of tho stars
had given him an uncanny standing
/ in the town. He was looked upon as
a mystic. His opinions We're sought
and cherished. He cast horoscopes
: for his closest friends who were TO
become his ultimate victims.
! Believed His Prophecy.
] They believed his horoscopes. and he
. played upon their beliefs. So. his ad-
I mitted plan was to bide his time until
the horoscope he had cast-aiways an
{ i'll one-was near fulfillment. Then
! he was to strike-through some hyp-
MOTTO agency abetted by his own
shrewd contriving.
| Had that man succeeded he would
| have become the arch murderer of
| the ages" Luke May declared. HE
: had at least two programs fully out
/ lined for every murder. If one showed
flaws there was always the other. But
, his own stars outwitted him. He is
through"