The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-10
Quest FAILS
TO DISCLOSE
TWO BODIES
Sheriff at Lafayette Acts on
Letter Bearing Names
of Prisoners.
By United Press

By United Press
KOKOMO, Ind, Feb. 1o.-Thor-
ough search of two stone quaries at
Kokomo today failed to reveal any
trace of the bodies Of Deputy Sher-
ifs John P. Grove and Wallace Nc
Clure, who disappeared from here
while taking to hard
boiled" prisoners to the Indiana
State Reformatory, Pendleton.
Following receipt Of printed let
ter, purporting to have been writ
ten by the convicts, which declared
you will find your deputies in the
Kokomo stone quarry" Sheriff
Charles L. Thompson rushed here
to cooperate with Howard County
authorities in searching the quarries.
A detailed examination Of the
ground about the only two quar-ies
in this vicinity failed to reveal any
trace of footsteps leading to the
water, Sheriff Johnston said. Both
ponds were completely frozen over,
he said, and there was no posi-
bility that any bodies could have
been thrown into them.
Bore Marion PoStmark
The Tippecanoe County officers
returned to Lafayette after sew
eral hours spent in the investiga-
ton. They indicated they would
stop at Frankfort, where the letter
was dated and make an effort to
trace what they believed to have
been hoax.
The letter which was crudely
printed in crayon, with alternate
red and blue letters, bore Marion
(IndO postmark, which indicated it
had been mailed there Thursday
night.
Names of the prisoners, John
Burns and Samuel Baxter, were
signed.
Rumors that the two deputies
had been found chained to a tree
near Frankfort were exploded today
when the Clinton County sheriff re-
ported nothing had been heard Of
the missing men in that vicinity.
In transferring Burns and Bax-
ter from Lafayette to Pendleton,
the deputies were to have passed
through Kokomo.
The most extensive man hunt in
Indiana history spread in circles
from Lafayette today as American
Legion members, deputies, police
and citizens sought the officers and
prisoners.
The prisoners" unaccompanied,
were reported to have been seen at
Danville, ILL.,, late Tuesday morn
ing. They left here at 6 a. m.
Tuesday.
AS the hours passed, fears for the
deputies grew. If their prisoners"
were free by Tuesday noon, the
deputies, had they been overcome
and left helpless in some woods or
deserted building, would have been
seventy-two hours without food
today
Faced Five Year Terms
The prisoners were being taken
to the reformatory to serve FIVE
year terms for burglary. Mcclure
and Grove left with them in an au-
tomobile.
John Smith, uncle of Burns, re-
ported Burns and Baxter, in a car
resembling that of the deputies, ap-
peared at Danville between 9 a. m.
and noon Tuesday. He said he did
not known they had been convicted
of an offense, but that he ordered
them to leave.
Early Escape Indicated
Danville is about two and one
half hours by automobile from La
fayette, in the opposite direction
from Pendleton. This would indi-
cate Burns and Baxter must have
overpowered the deputies very soon
after they left Lafayette.
Since neither of the men, ap-
parently, wore handouts when they
were at Danville, it was thought the
discovery of a filed pair of hand
cuffs in South Chicago, Ill, proba-
bly, had no connection with the es-
cape.
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