Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-12
FIND -FOUR SKULLS
| HIDDEN IN TRUNK
Detroit Police Work on Clues
|. Of Grave Robbing and
Murder of Women.
~ the Associated Press.


DETROIT, February 12.-Doubtful
whether four skulls and two braids Of
hair, one biood-clotted, found in an
abandoned trunk in a house in Royal
Oak were those of slain women or
had been stolen from graves, police
today enlisted aid of authorities in
Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio in an
effort to locate James \. Coyner, alias
ed Grayton, believed to be owner of
the trunk.
The skulls were found by children
Of a. negro family which recently
moved into the house, the last preVl-
GUS occupant of which was Coyncf.
who left Royal Oak about a year ago:
Detroit detectives assisting Royal
Oak officials today uncovered a clue
which they believe might assist ma
terially i'm finding Coyner. Mrs. Sally
Smith, owner Of the house where the
trunk was found. said she saw clip.
ping in a Chicago paper several
months ago describing the arrest and
conviction of a man under the name
OF Ed Grayton in Palestine, ILL.,, for
grave robbery.
Known by Different Name.
> She declared Coyner had been
known under the name of Ed Grayton
here and that when he left ROYAL Oak
he went to Palestine to take work in
a. pottery concern. The article said
the man had been sentenced to a long
term of Imprisonment. The woman
did not recall the prison, but she eX-
pressed the opinion he now is IN an
Illinois institution.
The chief of police of Palestine said
early today that he recalled no such
name or case, but planned check
of records at the request OF Michigan
authorities.
Police said that Mrs. Smiths story,
sf authenticated, would make more
plausible the theory that the skulls
and brains were obtained by robbing
graves. They pointed out, however.
that such a theory did not explain
the blood clot on one braid OF hair.
Names of Society Women.
In the trunk were found letters
and a note book filled with the names
of society women of Pittsburgh,
Cleveland and Detroit. as well as a
number of newspaper clippings re-
earding prominent woman social lead
ers. Police declined to reveal the
names found in the note book, but in
one of the newspapers, with which a
skull was wrapped. a 1921 issue OF
the Pittsburgh Post, the names of
four women had been UNDERSIGNED,
with notations nearby. These were
Mrs. Joseph Scribner, with the nota-
ton Hazel 414S'' written over 1t;
Mrs. Arthur Little, with the notation
''Mar. 5, 1885,; Mrs. A. B. F'rampton,
near which was marked THE Bar
rington," and Mrs. William Porter
Witherow, with the inscription Hazel
P524.''
Police dispatched this information
to Pittsburgh authorities and asked
that they check the persons If pos
sible. They secuted the possibility
that the four persons named were
those whose skulls were found in the
trunk, but We're of the opinion that
they may have been marked for harm
by the writer.
From Detroit detectives, the names
Of two Detroit women, which APP
peared in the notebook were learned.
They were Mrs. Harold Wardell,
club woman, and Mrs. Horace
Esslystyn, but neither could shed any
tight on the case. At the home Of
each it was said nothing was known
Of the negro, Coyner. Mr.. Wardeil
and Mr.. Esslystyn, husbands of the
women, said they had employed negro
servants at various times, but did not
recall the man as being among them.
rnvNrEcI, SERVING TERM