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 15.-
| 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 n 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 a cot to plead guilty
to a charge of first degree murder.
His sixteen-year-ol nephew Alton is,
| with him, accused of the actual MUIR
der, although he pleads that he COM
| mitted the deed under the hypnotic
spell of his uncle.
Resorted 10 Hypnosis.
The dark pseudo sciences run all
| through Arthur CovelTs scheming.
| hypnosis, astrology, murder instruc-
tionS written in a code made up of
! the signs of the zodiac were his in
struments. Fate had marred him He
wits against fortune. He played-but
the stars were against him, and he
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 apmcnia- soaked
rag on September 2. was but the first
step in the astrOloger's plans, according
| to the confession May obtained from
too much about the astrOiogers plans.
beat Her With Crutch.
After she had fallen. to make doubly
witness against him, the sinister Grip
pie shuffied 10 her side and rained blows
on the body with his crutch. he has
confessed.
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 outwftted
/ 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
/ 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 Once.
! The break came instantly. Arthur
| CoveH begged, explained. and told
| the secrets he would not intrust even
! to his zodfacal code. He told how he
| had planned to slay Bandon's leading
| merchant, make it appear that he had
! fallen down the stairs and broken his
! neck. and place cleverly forged
! will in his pocket leaving the plotter
| half his estate
J Two men were to be enticed into a
| field and slain. Their relatives were
to be told that they had gone to join
! 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 Covell's study of the stars
| had given him an uncanny standing
| in the town. He was looked upon as
a mystic. His opinions were 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-
mitted plan was to bide his time until
| the horoscope he had Cast-always an
| ill 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
F., his own stars outwitted him. He is
through"