Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-27
SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY
RIVALED IN MILLION-DOLLAR
WERNER VAULT ROBBERY
Chicago SIeuths Baffled at
Every Turn-Woman' With
SuitCaSeS of Loot Slips
Through Net
By J. p. YODER
Oeased Wire Service to The Journal.)
DOWNRIGHT 1922

Copyright, 1929
CHICAGO, Nov. ga Conan
Doyle, before he began communing
with spirits, never conjured up a
more intricate nor melodramatic
case for Sherlock Holmes to solve
than the amazing case of the mill
lion dollar Werner vault robbery
which today is engaging the best
brains of the Chicago detective de-
partment.
The case outfictions anything
that was ever written. That state
ment takes in lot of territory, but
here's the scenario of a crime that
makes the most lurid of them look
drab.
On October Is one of the string
of Werner safety deposit storage
houses was robbed. With an
acetylene torch. the most expert of
crooks had scorched his way through
several feet of brick and steel from
an adjoining building. Twenty-eight
safety deposit boxes had been open
ed. Bat only one, according to rent
ers of the %, had been robbed. In
one of the boxes that had been open
ed was left untouched d roll of thou
sand dollar bills big enough to choke
the proverbial COW. There were 80
of them
The one box that had been rifIed
of d million dollars in jewels, cash
and negotiable securities, belonged
t. the heirs OF famous Chicago
family--the Ehrhardts-and the own
ers told the police that all the Sc
curities had recently been signed as
transferable, which made them viz
tually as easy to pass as a gold dol
lar.
Trail Leads to Dentist
For more than a weel. the police
were completely baffled. Then the
trail led them to the Laboratory of
DR.. Spencer Brown, a taciturn, mys-
ferrous chemist and dentist, who for
Is years has been the human cul de
sac against which the police have
run in several mysterious robberies
which they never solved. Brown to-
day is held in $4,000 bond for a
hearing next Tuesday.
When police went to his town Of
flee to question Brown, they found
one entrance with seven locks on it.
Entering by force they found a suite
fitted with rare Oriental furnishings.
A small hidden door, found and
opened, rang an alarm when swung
on its hinges. A detective. climbing
10 the roof, found a secret trap door,
and captured Brown, who was at
tempting to enter that way. Brown
denies knowing anything about the
crime, but two slips of paper found
in this office bore the words 'tWerh-
er Deposit Vaults
Police have ripped out walls and
floors in Browns office in search of
some of the loot Their efforts
were redoubled when $24, 500 in Sc
curities taken in another raid twelve
hours before Brown was arrasted
were found to be a part of the
Werner loot.
They rushed to Antioch, where
Browns young and pretty wife lived
in spacious bungalow" She had
left with three suit cases a few
hours before and d woman answer
ing her description had boarded an
airplane with three suit cases. Three
hours later an airplane was wrecked
seventy miles from Antioch and two
men and a woman craWled from
the wreckage with three suit cases,
got into an automobile and sped
north.
The two men We're arrested later.
1t was believed the loot was in the
suit cases with which the woman
escaped. The police learned moth
ing from the men. They paid fines
of ten dollars each for landing with
out a permit, and were let go.
Torch Expert Jailed
Meantime, the name of certain
man kept bobbing up in the case,
and the police searched high and
low for him. Finally, this man. who
has a police record, was found quiet
ly working as a civil service en-
ploye in the municipal building. He
is held by the police, who say he is
an expert with the acetylene torch.
Brown, who, according to the po-
lice, is ''Morarity," master mind of
Chicago's underworld, has several
times gone bond for, or furnished
alibis for this man, Dick Wilson.
Now into this intricate scenario
enters Ralph Sheldon, notorious
beer runner and gunman. Sheldon's
name was the last word gasped by
Lewis j. Hauschild, a lawyer, shot
presumably by accident during a
hunting. trip up state.
Several days after Households fu-
neral, grapevine information reach
ed the police that Hauschild had
known quite bit about the Werner
robbery, as attorney for one of the
men implicated. The police began
to look for Sheldon. Donald Lager
strom, who now is held by the police
at Waukegan in connection with
Hauschilds death, has told two more
Or less conflicting stories regarding
Sheldon, who is known to have
been a frequent visitor at DR..
Browns office.
And there the case rests. There
has been robbery of the kind that