Imperial Valley press., 1928-07-27
FOR NE R
RESIDENT
ARRESTED
Mrs. Alice Sawyer Said
to Have Used Sons Body
In Mail Fraud.
RELEASED ON BAIL
CONGRESSMAN InstigateG
Federal Action Follow
ing Complaint.

LOS ANGELES, July 2t.-MfS.
Alice Sawyer, 10, well-to-do Long
Eeach apartment house owner, was
arrested today charged with mail
fraud and accused of using the
petrified body Of her own dead son
as bait to obtain $4,000 fraudul-
emily.
Mrs. Sawyer was arrested on 4
secret federal Indictment after pos
tai inspectors uncovered details III
an investigation which was started
at the instigation of Congressman
Ross Collins, of Mississippi.
She was released on $4,000 bail
shortly after her arrest.
Mrs. Sawyer is alleged to have
sent more than 40 letters and tele-
grams to Mr.. and Mrs, John L..
Stutz, cousins by marriage, at Meri-
dian, Miss, to obtain the money.
She is said to have induced them
to ''loan" her money so she could
carry out plan to sell the body
of her son, Theron Sawyer, to scicn-
| fists.
The case of Theron Sawyer is said
to be extraordinary. He died in
April, 1928, at FL Centre, Calf, ac-
cording to records. 1t was inferred
in the Evergreen cemetery. Six
months afterwards til" surface of
the grave caved in, and it was dis
covered that the body had become
petrified.
The ease attracted considerable
attention at the time from scientists,
who said the petrification was due
( probably to the character of the
/ embalming fluid coupled with the
.wetness of the soil.
The body was inferred again.
/ 1t was then that Mrs. Sawyer
sought her loans, according to the
! investigators. She represented she
had offers of from SIS 600 to $3.50,
/ 600 for the body. Postal inspectors
said they have evidence that she
expended the money she obtained
from the Stutz couple for her own
! personal use.
Lody Still Here
Congressman Collins is said to
! have appeared in the case when
Stutz asked him for assistance, and
he turned the evidence over to post
al officials in Mississippi.
According 20 reports of Los An
| geles postal inspectors, Mrs Sawyer
represented that her son s body was
undergoing tests by scientists in a
mausoleum in san Francisco, where
as in fact they say it never was
removed from FL Centre.
Mrs. Sawyer is said to have asked
Stutz to destroy the letters and
kilograms she sent him and to keep
the matter secret.
EtutZ told postal inspectors that
Ire visited Mrs. Sawlcr four times
during the deals, while she lived at
Anahcim and Fullerton, Calf. More
recently she moved to Long Beach.
Will Sawyer, divorced husband of
] Mrs. Sawyer, now residing in Braw-
ley, Calf, was represented in a let
ter to Mr.. Stutz as having demand
ed $500 for his share of the money
to he received from the sale of the
son 5 body, postal inspectors said.
Sawyer stated in an affidavit to
federal officers that he never de
J HbdHucu any lHouCN anu H"N Nv
knowledge of the affair.
Mrs. Sawyer is alleged to have
represented that the owner of the
FL Centre cemetery offered her $25,-
coo for her sons body, a Long
Beach physician offered her $4,000
and eastern scientists had offered
$350,000
Postol inspectors investigated
and could not find the source of any
offers.
One paragraph of the letters to
Stutz, said to be written by Mrs,
Sawyer, said:
I'VE are putting the body through
a test and if it gets through as they
think it will, we will be high, dry
and handsome for all time to come.
for l can get fortune and still
own the body, which would be
glory for me.
In another letter Mrs. Sawyer
represented that her son was killed
by narcotics and that she had suit
pending agaist a doctor for $4,000
damages. Federal officials could
not locate such suit they said.
Mrs. Sawyer is we'll known by
many FL Centre residents, having