The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-11-13

CuduC1 dAO AOCIAo ~ w A4hCAo oO
man.
Sixteen defendants were to
have gone on trial today, but
Louis Wyndt, Chicago en-
graver, charged with having
assisted in the alteration of
numbers on stolen cars, failed
to appear.
The jury:
Joe johnson; Martinsville, farmer;
Frank McConoughy, Franklin, bank
examiner; Edward Peek, Waldron,
farmer; Claude Meyers, Jefferson
vile, lumber dealer; Lawrence
Saltzman, Mount Vernon, farmer;
Nelson Phillips, Switzerland county,
farmer; Fred Neill, Bloomington,
contractor; Clyde Hoke, Winchester,
farmer; Hugh Giles, Sullivan, trans
fer business; Charles Riley, Craw-
fordSville, druggist; Harry Trotter,
Harrison county, farmer; Manford
Watson, Parke county, farmer.
Talesman Clyde Perigo, Warrick
county grain dealer, was peremp-
torily excused by the defense.
Charles F. Dell, Columbus mer-
chant, was challenged by the. de-
fense. and Ora Smith, Falmouth,
was challenged by Ward when he
said he knew one of the defense
attorneys.
The conspiracy case was the first
of ten involved in the general ring
inquiry, set for trial. Twenty-three
persons are under indictment in all
the cases, but five have not been
arrested.
The defendants on trial are:
Edward Traugott, merchant; Har-
ry Sussman, Traugott'S partner;
Wolf Sussrnan, jeweler, Harry's
father; Elmer Sussman, Harry'S
cousin; w. Lee Smith, former Indi-
ana grand dragon of the Ku-Klux
Klan; Robert F. McNary, former
Khan titan; DR.. Fred Binzer, Terre
Haute optician; Bertram Libowitz,
80 North Jefferson avenue, salesman,
brother of Harold Libowitz, who
died of injuries received in the
~Traugott store blast; William j..
Laffey, 925 West New York street,
soft drink saloon operator; William
M. Jones and his wife, Mrs. Pink
Jones, $500 Winthrop avenue; Jacob
Wohlfeld, furrier, 2819 Washington
boulevard, and Mortimer Wohlfeld,
Jacobs son, all of indianapolis, and
Ted Baldwin, Chicago, described by
government agents as one OF the
leaders of the conspiracy; Miss
I,loyd Harrison, Chicago, actress,
captured in a stolen car with Bald
win.
Ward in Statement
Albert Ward, United States dis
trict attorney, declared in his OPEN
ing statement that the government
would prove that the fifteen de-
PENDANTS in the courtroom and the
six missing by words and deeds en-
tered into arrangements to steal and
dispose of valuable automobiles, such
as Packards, Lincolns and CadillacS,
transport them from state to state,
alter motor numbers and other
identifying marks and obtain false
certificates of title and license
plates.
He said the government, which
has subpoenaed about two hundred
witnesses, would show the part
which each one played either in
forming the original plot or in car
rying it out.
Charges False Identity
Specific facts which he declared
could be proven included the charge
that Ted Baldwin stole and trans
ported cars and that Roy Hutfing-
ton, the Khan hea's brother, OBJ
tanned a stolen Lincoln sedan, trans
ferred it to Robert McNay, former
Klan titan, took the car to Harris
burg, Pa, and under an alias of j
w. Garrett obtained a fraudulent
certificate of title. Ward said he
would show that Roy Huntington
took the car back to Terre Haute
and placed it for a time in posses
sion of S. Beanblossom, secretary to
his brother Joe. Beanblossom is a
former head of the Evansville
klavern.
The district attorney said Roy
Huntington stored the car in ga
rage he rented under the name Of
Garrett and that when state police
man Charles Bridges started looking
for the car at Terre Haute he was