Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1923-01-05
Pollard Indicted
On Murder Count
- 80 -. Fas
Is Charged With Killing His Form
err Stenographer--Women In v
quire For Him

Richmond. Va, Jan. 5.-Pdliee:
headquarters today received two let
tiers from women in other States
making inquiries as to Thomas Pol
lard, local real estate and insurance
agent, who was indicted yesterday
afternoon on the charge of murder
ing his former stenographer, Mrs:
Thelma Ham Richardson, pretty di-
vorcee, the night of December IL
last by shooting her with pistol AT
his home, 251S Grove Avenue.
One letter came from Mrs. Thos.
Pollard, of Detroit. She wanted TO
know whether the alleged slayer was
her missing husband. She said that
she had not seen her husband IN
some time and that pictures of Pol
lard, which had been printed in the
the papers of Detroit, resembled her
husband.
The other letter came from Mrs &,
Led Ford, of Orlando, Fla. Mrs.
Ford wondered whether the alleged
murderer was her father, Thomas
Pollard, who has been missing Since
August 4. 1902. Both women will
be Informed that the man held for
murder here has been resident of
Richmond all his life and is evident
" not related by marriage or other
wise to either of them.
Inquiry disclosed today that cur
rent reports that Pollard'S wife,, a
former Richmond society girl, who
left him some time in November, had
f,-nt IA
were found to be without foundation.
1t was stated that she had gone baci;
TO him on a previous occasion after
leaving him, but that she resolved on
the second occasion never to live with
him again and is determined to stand
by that resolution. IL was said that
decision to leave him the second time
was the result of her discovery OF
Pollard and Mrs Richardson with
each other one night at l a. NJ, IN q
house in another part of the city.
In this connection il was recalled
today that Mrs. Richardson on sub
seuuent OCCASION, after Pollard had
thrown her overheard, as it were, for
Mrs. Bertha Louise Beck, pretty
choir singer. of South Richmond, sue
ceeded in locating him at Mrs g.
Beck's home b. means Cf his car
standing i'm front of her hQuSe,
Cororer Whitefeld, teslifying BE-
fore the grand jury today, said that
in his opinion it was within the
range of possibility though highly
improbable, that Mrs. Richardson
could have shot herself in a scuffle
with Pollard. The fact, that she was
very thin chested, yhe said, made il
possible for her right hand to have
been twisted into position to cause
the revolver to make the wound in
her left chest that caused her death,
but even then it would have been nee
essary for her to pull the trigger
with her thumb Powder marks, he
said, indicated that the pistol was
fired at close range AID that the
hammer was pointing upward at the
time. this being determined by the
fact that the hole was eccentric 10
the burns. as ne described it. An
cher witness before the grand 1ury
was Mrs. S. Parke Register, who
occupies a flat directly under Pol
lard's and who has been quoted as
having said that she saw Pollard and
his former typiSt on the dcorsisT
lust before the shooting and tha.
the latter dared Pollard to shoot her
The character of her testimony given
today was rot disclosed. February
u was fixed as the date tor Pol
lard's trial in the Hastings Court
Pueblo, Colo. has a real municipal
theatre, the productions being hookea
In the rivic anditn1inrn thrnu0h tn