The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-10-29
SLATER, MODERN
HAWKSHAW,' ADDS
eANOTHER VICTORY
Countrified S!euth Gets
Fame in McDermott
Capture.

OOISAAi W.
BIZ NEA Seruice .
CANTON, Ohio, Oct. 29.-They
said the Canton underworld was too
tough for Detective Ora Slater, the
private Hawkshaw."
His critics couldn't see how coun'
tryf1ed sort of fellow who seemed to
have nothing much more than fund
of funny stories could capture the
slayers of Don Mellett, the crusad-
ing Canton editor.
Slater's sugar catches more
crooks than vinegar" gave the hard
boiled police departments Of the big
cities a hearty laugh-even a guffaw.
AS Fiction Would Have 1t
But, working on a cold trail, De-
tective Ora Slater captured the "key
man" in the murder, Pat McDermott,
the former convict who had been
hunted over the Nation for three
months after Mellett was shot down
at his garage door one July night.
It was bloodless capture. Slater
hadn't even a gun when he went 70
bring McDermott back to the scene
Of the crime He simply walked up
to McDermott and said:
Pat, I'm very glad to meet you
Pat, without a word, went right
-s1ong. From Twin Rocks, Pa, to
nton, the unarmed Slater and Nc
Eyetmott rode quietly back to Canton.
1t was like leading McDermott back
by the hand
Wagging Tongue Is a. Winner
On the way back Slater enter
tanned. His humorous stories, his
quiet way, his ugar"-these made
an immediate friend Of the man po-
lice of the nation hand hunted as a
desperate criminal.
1t was not the first big murder
case into which the stocky little
Hawkshaw from Cincinnati had
stepped-nor the first that Slaters
quiet way had worked out.
A few months before, at Troy.
Ohio. he won a confession from Jake
Nesbitt, noted wife murderer. Here,
too, sugar" did the work, He won
Nesbitt by talking of the weather
and the crops.
Slater's methods have worked out
many other crimes, but his quiet &C.
centric ways were too much for the
newspa per men covering the Canton
murder
They had been on the job hardly
twentyfour hours when funny stor-
les about" Hawkshaw" Slater began
to trickle out Slater was too good
a subject for banter to pass up.
He seemed to be wasting his time
He dawdled around Canton, talking
to this one and that To cap the
climax, after' he had been at work
on the case two months, Slater an
nounced he thought he ought to take
q ten-day vacation.
after that" he said, Tim com
ing back and get McDermott.
Curses. Jack Dalton, I'll go and
lake a nap and when | awaken, be
are. for I shall camp upon your
Trail! That was the way it sounded
to the visiting humorists of the
press.
Slater was hurt when the stories
were printed. His pride ranked.
Fifteen Years a Crook Chaser
For fifteen years he had campet
on crimes trail. When he was e
sheriff out in Indiana, back in 1907
he Jailed thirty-eight men who had
attempted to wreck a train. But per
haps the humorists had forgotten
that
Perhaps they forgot, also, that ir
1922 Slater put five men behind the
bars in a big Cincinnati hold-up.
He trailed and caught Red" Holt
after Holt had killed Cleveland pc
liceman.
His sugar" coaxed confession
from a prominent official of Mich
gan concern that he had swindled
the company out of more than a
quarter Of a million dollars.
Then the famous Nesbitt case
Then this--these stories about the
Hawkshaw who probably knew more
funny stories than Chauncey Depew
but who was just a bit out of his
line at detecting criminals.
Vacation Ends-Back to Work
But after his ten-day vacation Sla
ter came back. He quietly resumed
work.
"If they'll only let old Dry alone
a while maybe he'll show EN- yet. y
he confided to a friend in Canton.
They let him alone. Slater began
sewing his net.
II was on the members of Pat Nc
Dermott's family at Manly Clio, Pa.
that his sugar was used. He wor
Npeir aid.
" It's history now how this message
went out to Pat over "grapevine'
lines of communication:
"Your mother is very Ill, anc
hasn't long to live. Send the family
some signal as toyour whereabouts.
1t worked. Pat went to Twir
Rocks. Soon McDermott and Slater
were face to face.
Pat, I'm very glad to meet you,
Slater said.