The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-04-02
HARRY DAVIS VICTIM
OF ASSASSIN'S BULLET
CONTINUED from First Page)

Slayer Ildu ClIllSu lllo aPPCoI duSC vi
the stairs, the police believe Satur-
day night.
lily come to stranger seeking to rob
his victim, the police believe and the
theory that personal enemy was the
slayer was given more credence from
the fact apparently no attempt was
made either before or after the shoot
ing to snatch the cash sack.
"Police were inclined Saturday
night to attach much weight to state
ments made by Mrs. Mabel Kelley,
who was stationed at the soda and
lunch counter a few steps from the
door leading to the stairway.
"Not 10 minutes before the shoot
ing, Mrs. Kelley said, small man.,
whom she remembered particularly
on account of his piercing black eyes,
had inquired of her way to the stairs
leading to the offices above.
She directed him and then, her at
tention still attracted by his pecu-
liarly glittering eyes, had watched
him walk to the stairway and disap-
pear.
"Her description as to stature and
say, with that given by Miss Poalar
Of Davis slayer.
1t was only few moments after
she had directed the stranger, Mrs.
Kelley said. before she heard the
sound of the shot in the stairway,
although at the moment she did not
identify the sound as a revolver re-
port, and second later saw the same
man she had directed upstairs open
the door and walk rapidly toward the
Seventh street entrance.
"To reach that entrance the man
would have had to traverse the en-
tire length of the store, crowded at
that hour with shoppers. Mrs. Kelley
saw him but moment, she said, be-
fore he had disappeared in the crowd
Three other strangers were in the
vicinity of the stairway a few mo-
ments before the shooting, Miss Marie
Doffing, clerk at another lunch coun-
ter beside Mrs. Kelley's, told the DO
, lice. They sat at chairs at her count
er she said and she served them. Thew
went away only a few moments be-
fore the shooting and she did not OBJ
serve whether they started to leave
the store or loitered near the stairs.
Miss Ada Novak, cashier, to whom
Davis delivered his money sack be-
fore he fell, was another employee
questioned closely by the police Sat-
urday night.
From the window of the cashiers
cage is afforded an almost unob-
structed view of the head of the stair
way. 1t would have been impossible,
police believe for any stranger to
have loltered about the head of the
stairs for any length of time with
out having been observed by Miss
Novak, or from the glazed windows
of the managers office directly at the
head of the stairs. '.uI..
ITO have reached the cloak room
beyond the cashiers desk a stranger
would have had to pass directly in
front of Miss Novak's cage. She was
positive that she had seen no one
pass and had not noticed anyone
near the head of the stairs.
"Police Saturday night began a
searching investigation of Davis pri-
vate life to seek a motive for the
killing. Davis had lived until some
thing less than two years ago in Sank
Centre. He had been employed at
the Kresge store for Is months.
Shortly after he came to St. Paul
he had returned to Sank Centre and
was married there to Miss Cleo Pick
EFT. They have one daughter, Ply
lis, a year old Friday, whose birth
day they celebrated at their home,
2274 Alden street, on the eve of the
tragedy.
'The parents of both Davis and his
wife moved from Sank Centre to Min
neapolis few months after their
children were married. Mrs. Davis
was Saturday night at the home of
her parents, Mr.. and Mrs. George
Pickett, there.
GIN addition to his parents Davis
is survived by brother, Richard, liv-
ing with the parents, Mr.. and Mrs.
Earl Davis, 2344 Nineteenth avenue
south, Minneapolis, and an uncle,
Lyle Davis, 1912 Ashland avenue, st.
Paul.
: 'tIn their search of Davis past life
for motive to the crime, police
seemed Saturday night to be up
against as blank wall as the robbery
theory offered. ~.
Friends in Sank Centre who had
known Davis as youth gave him a
good character. The home life of Da-
Wis and his wife, since their marriage
was said to have been happy.
Descriptions given of the assailant
seem to indicate, according to the
police, that he may have been man
of foreign birth. Two persons de-
scribed him as swarthy and Mrs.
Kelly's emphasis on the peculiar dark
ness of his eyes were also deemed inn
portan in this connection.
Discipline at the Kresge store was
evidenced after the shooting in the
fact that every employee remained at
his or her post, waited on customers
as usual, and that of the hundreds in
the store at the time and shortly aft
erwards hardly one was aware of the
fact that a murder had been commit
ted. ;"
AN UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE
E. H. Osborn was quite seriously
hurt Tuesday morning at his home
in the north part of this city, while
fixing the gas line on a gravel truck.
Mr.. Osborn was lying on his back
under the truck and in some manner
the truck rolled backwards and one