The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1923-06-04

took Nth him Marie Price,
shown here. The girl noW is
IN custody. The other photo
is that Of Whitfield pith mus
taehe shared off.
CLEVELAND. June - Fool or
" foxg Master mind or hlundercrY
Which Is John Leonard Whitfield.
wanted here for tire murder OF
policeman
Hunted criminals. In ttory books
and reel life. avoid the beaten paths.
Their conduct Is painted with oao.
terio mancuyera 20 avoid detection.
They do the unusua, and are
caught.
But Whitfield. spark plug sales.
man dc luxe. alleged thief and killer.
reversed tho criminal code
And escaped. hurting eerision al
the nationwide draguet pct 10 ap
prchend him.
Eleven days after he Il alleged 10
have left tho body Of his victim
lying warm in It's rouFh. shallow
grayc-oft lonely road near Cleyc.
land. whitfnld was trapped In Madl
son. Wis. And then once more. act.
Ing on his amazing. iniultlve faculty
of doing the obvious" he slipped
away. A will.o'.the.wlsp 10 Whit.
field.
Turnout his entire fitsht. whilr
N nation hunted with orders 70
''ahoot to kin" whitfield did The
obvious Whether he outthought the
police. whether Il was hind luck.
or whether he was a rank blunderer.
must remain for tho reader 20
fathom.
On May II. patrolman Dennis
Griffin. with a fellow officer. ar.
restvd Whitfield on suspicion OF
having stolen spark piugs.
Police say be operated en- a whole
sale scale. They contend no oh.
tanned the spark plugs thru con.
nivancc OF persons under his con.
troll, and that he was able TO sell
them hack 10 tho manufacturers
from whom no had stolen them AZ
a price cheaper than they could az.
ford 10 make them Themselves. Tho
|ramiflcations OF his operations. they
further aiiege. extended thruout tho
country.
whitfield wanted 10 rap goodbye
TO his wife. The Officers allowed
this. They had searched him. After
going with him to the SECOND floor.
the policeman permitted him to en-.
ter n bedroom alone. While there.
he slipped pistol In his pocket.
whitfield and Griffin started for
the police station in The formers
shiny. blue Jordan roadster. In the
traffic the other officer. following in
second machine. was lost sight OF.
Whitfield. say police. reached TO his
pocket. He pulled tho pistol. and
shot himself to liberty and Griffin
to death.
He drove to a lonely. abandoned
road. near chagrin FATS. just out.
side of tho city. There. police
charge, he stripped tho body Of
every stitch OF clothing. He built
three fires and tried TO burn the tell.
tale uniform.
In story book. he would have
buried the clothing in the grave pre-.
pared for the nude body. Brass
doesn't burn so easily, and GriffIn's
numerals a." indicating the police
precinct. were found. together with
brass buttons, and the remnants OF
| a club.
Even while the flames of the
three fires were half.heartedly eat.
ing away the evidence Of his crime.
whitfield prepared grave. the in.
dictment against him continues.
But In detective story, he would
have dug deep. and suicothed the
earth so that none could zee. Whit
fields grave was shallow. crude, OBJ
yious.
Here enters another unnatural
slant:
whitfield had been maintaining
a 15.year.old girl. Marie Price. IN
an apartment in Cleveland.
Sherlock Holmes would tell you
that. under the circumstances. Whit.
field should have fled alone. But
he didn't. He went back to Clcve.
land for the girl. Went back in
his glazing, blue roadster, and got
her.
Then he drove screnely along In
the late afternoon traffic thru the
heart Of the city. He stopped at
a bank to cash a check lie leisure.
~ trayersed main arteries teeming
with autos and wagons, and then
headed for Chicago on the Toledo
highway. bound for the very part
Of tho country where both the girls
mother and his own relatives lived.
The astonishing feature OF the
flight was that Whitfield stopped
frequently along the route TO sell
spark plugs 10 farmers. In this
way he financed tho flight
But no ono recognized the couple.
No one recognized the chr. despite
the fact The license number hadn't
been changed, nor had tho color
OF the body. lie merely ropuintcd
the wlro wheels from red 10 white
In Chicago whitfield and Marie