Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-09-18
RUSSELL SCOTT
FINDS LIFE In
JEOPARDYACAIN

CHICAGO, Sept II P-His life in
Jeopardy for the seventh time in the
four years since he slew young Joseph
Maurer in drug store holdup, Rus
sell Scott faced his third sanity hear
ing with the stake either death on the
gallows or life imprisonment as Grim
inally insane.
Immediately upon pleading guilty to
charge of having shot the young
drug store clerk to death, Scott was
sentenced to die.
Then came the first of the dramatic
incidents that have kept at a high
pitch interest in his effort to evade the
galloWs.
His lawyer, in tears and kneeling
before the judges dias, pleaded for
chance to change the plea and fight
for Scott's life before jury. The
plea was granted, but it led merely
to SCOTS conviction and new SEN
Ncnce of death.
Through all the legal naneuvers
possible under Illinois law, Scott has
been kept alive despite four addi-
tional sentences of death in the varl-
GUS phases of the protracted fight.
Once it seemed he might be safe
from the moose when midnight court
Eession decided that he should not go
to the galloWs before dawn because he
had become insane since he was con-
victed. He then was sent to the state
Prison for the criminal insane at
Chester, Ill.
Institution officials, after long OBJ
servation, concluded Scott was not in
sane and other alieniStS Substantiated
their finding.
Scott was returned to the jurisdic
ton of Cook county and was declared
sane by jury. A new date was set
for his execution.
Again the gallows was cheated when
the state supreme court remanded the
case for a new trial. /.
Scott's early career was most prom
ising. At 20 he was an actor, and 10
years later a millionaire in his own
right He headed a Canadian firm
organized to construct a $300,000,0OO
bridge over the Detroit river. Asso-
ciateS disagreed with him over his
business methods and forced him out,
and his personal fortune of $2,0OO,OOO
vanished in settling his affairs.
He became drifter, and little was
known of his affairs until, on April
2, 1924, he was arrested for the Maurer
Staying.
With Russell at the time, but not
found until many months later, was
his brother, Robert, now serving life
sentence in the Illinois penitentiary
on his plea of guilty to participation
in the murder. He denied, however,
that he fired the fatal shot.
The fugitive Robert figured indi-
rectly in one of the reprieveS granted
Russell Just few hours before Rus
sell was to have been hanged July II,
1926, Governor Len Small granted a
weeks reprieve after receiving tele-
gram in which Robert purported to
accept responsibility for the Staying.
The telegram later was found to have
been sent by a Detroit telegraph
operator.
Again the moose was prepared, but
four hours before Scott was to have
been hanged, his attorney won his
plea for a sanity hearing.
After entering the penitentiary Rob-
ert changed his trial testimony and
accepted responsibility for Maurer's
death, but officials refused to credit
the late confession.
Russell Scott's defense has been
marked by intercession of the mayor
and business men of Windsor, Ont,
with President Coolidge, the raising of
a defense fund by Detroit clubwomen
and the exhaustion of the Scott fam
ily's resources. Once, Mrs. Scott, the
mother of three children, publicly
starved herself in Detroit in an effort
to raise funds.
Since he has been incarcerated,
Ecott has written almost dozen
books, two of which, Mind Your
Mind" and Humanity and Business"
merit has been claimed.