The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-12
MYSTERY CLOUDS
SHOOTING AFT AIR
/. In MELROSE PARK
Woman L a wyer Has
Case of Jailed Mexicans

The shooting at Melrose Park ear
ly Tuesday, resulting in the death Of
Jose Sanchez, Mexican laborer, and
Policeman Stahl, still presents ele-
ments that BATTLE the Investigator,
notwithstanding the evident intention
of the chief Of police to hang the
crime on another Mexican laborer,
August1n Moralez.
It was brot out at the inquest that
the affair started from a telephone
call from Mother Krueger's road
house, by some party unknown to the
chief or his officers, reporting that
woman was being attacked in the
Mexican quarters. From the evidence
so far brot out, 1t looks as If two men
were killed and another so badly
wounded that he may lose an arm, as
result of a fake alarm. How the
two men were killed and third
wounded still remains a mystery.
And the mysterious angles were
brot out by the testimony of the po-
licemen themselves. They testify that
only dim night lights were burning
in the two box cars when they arriv-
led. These two cars, fitted for single
men, are parts of two strings of 80
cars on two sidings, the other rs be-
ing rugged up for married men and
their families.
A Case of Sherlock Holmes.
The police testify that they were
met by a fussilade Of 30 to 80 shots,
not only from the bsx cars, but from
on top and beneath them, yet they say
that, the night being dark, not per-
son was in sight Then they testify
that, after the box cars had been emp
tied of their inhabitants by tear
bombs, not a gun or weapon Of any
kind was found there. The chief adj
mits that a woman was apprehend-
ed, but released. She vanished from
the picture, while the officers all tes-
titled that the only screams they
heard came simultaneously with the
shooting, evidently from women in
the camp who were frightened by the
sound Of firing.
About Twenty Fined.
Meanwhile, of the 81 men who were
taken from the cars and locked up
IN JAIL about II have been released,
while 20 were hauled before the judge
and sentenced to fines of $50 each.
Being unable to pay the fines, they
are still in jail. Mary Belle Spencer,
attorney for the Mexican consulate,
intimated that, as soon as she could
get hold of the Judge, she would pc
| tition for a reopening Of their cases,
and give them the benefit Of counsel.
Max E. Lira, the editor of Mexico,
who was, as reported in The DAILY
WORKER, ordered out Of the police |
station after he had spoken in Span |
ish to two women, relatives Of some
OF the men held, was later in the day |
ordered out OF the undertaking estab-
lishment and out Of town by police |
officer who hurried across from the
city hall when It was tipped of to
him that Lra had entered the place !
for information.
prejudice nuns TliHHs
National feeling ran high in Mel
rose Park on the day after the TRACE
dy, and it seemed to be more inter
ested in hanging the whole bunch OF
poor Mexicans than in discovering
who shot officer Stahl, OF whom the
community speaks we'll. The small
town psychology with regard to Mexi-
cans rose several notches when Miss
Spencer, a distinguished looking won
an-lawyer, was heard speaking in
Spanish to Moralez and when a rep
resentative of The DAILY WORKER
also addressed to him few. words in
his own language.
Now and then one hears word OF
sympathy for these laborers in
strange land. One citizen, IN telling
how the bunch OF 81 were marched
between files OF policemen from the
camp to the jail, said: Hardly one
of them but had clout over the head
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