The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-01-18
JUDGES DEFY FLINT MOB;
SLAYER TO BE SMUGGLED
BACK TO CITY FOR TRIAL
Speedy Justice Promised
for Kidnap-KiIIer: May
Be Sentenced Today.
STATES PLANS AWRY
Police Chiefs Plea Against
Move Ignored; TangIe
in Law Feared.

By United Press
FLINT, Mich, Jan. 18.-An
immediate, secret trial for
Adolph Hotelling, slayer Of
Dorothy Schneider, was decid-
ed upon today by judges of the
Genesee Circuit bench.
The judges met with Sheriff
Frank A. Green and laid tentative
plans to smuggle Hotelling from
Ionia Reformatory to Flint, despite
the fact that Governor Fred w.
Green and Caesar J. Scarvada,
Flint police chief, had stated that
trial in Flint would lead to fur
ther rioting.
Judge James Parker declared that
Genesee County was capable of
handling its own criminal cases.
Lives undoubtedly will be lost if
we bring that man back here"
Chief Scavarda protested, but to no
avail.
Fears Mob Violence
Scavarda'S fears we're based on
the mob scene enacted outside the
Flint Jail Monday night, when it
was necessary to call out the mill
tia to diSperse rioters.
Hotelling climaxed his detailed
confession of the murder and mu-
tilation of Dorothy Schneider, the
5-year-old child who was kidnapped
as she returned from her kinder
garten class in Mt. Morris, with a
written avowal that he also had at
tackled two other girls in the Cwosso
neigh'oorhood.
The second confession was made
voluntarily, ON the advice of Will
liam A. SeegmiIler, Hotelling's at
torney. It read:
Esther Skinner was 7 years old
and the Horn girl 8. Neither was
mutilated, but the Elder girl was
chloroformed and left unconscious
by the roadside after the outrage.
VIII SpSeu lEIdl
Details of the trial were not given,
but it was indicated that they pro-
vided swift justice for Hotellin3. He
probably will be on his way to Mar
quette penitentiary to serve life
term before nightfall, it was under
stood.
Action of the county judges baked
the States intentions. Arthur e.
Kidder, assistant attorney general,
had arrived this forenoon and con-
ferred with William Roberts, Gene
see prosecutor, as to the best meth
ods of eXpeditionsly securing q
change of venue.
Three circuit judges already had
declared themselves as opposed to
peremptory action.
w. M. Seegmiller, Hotelling'S at
torney, intimated that he might
seek change of venue on the ground
this would deprive him of a fair
trial on the question of whether he
was sane.
Seegmiller said his action, how
ever, would depend on the outcome
of conference with Mrs. Hotelling,
the slayer's wife.
Wife May Intervene
Although Hotelling has stated
that he was ready to plead guilty
and be sentenced Immediately,
there was possibility that his wife
would insist on a plea of not guilty,
based on the insanity theory, and
a subsequent request for a change
of venue.
If the man were sentenced nrst
and later adjudged insane, he
would have to serve out his term
If he ever regained his sanity. II
found insane before trial, he would
be sent to a State hospital, and il
later found sane, he would be re-
leased without standing trial.
The informal refusal of the Judges
to accede to the proposed transfer
Of the trial from the county did not
preclude possibility that either side
might make a formal motion for
such transfer when the case is
called for trial.
In that event, legal arguments,
perhaps lengthy, might prolong the
proceedings.
Fred Brennan, presiding judge Of
the circuit bench, directed attention
to the fact that the jurisdiction of
the county in a murder extended for
100 yards into adjacent counties.
Governor Green said yesterday
that he could take no action II the
circuit judges insisted on trying the
criminal in Flint.
Defense Attorney Seegmiller, here
to attend the judges conferences,
claimed that the list of 100 women
found wrapped around the jack
knife in Hotelling's possession was
a list of women members of the
Church of Christ in OwoSSo, OF
which he was a leading members.
The name Schneider" in it re-
ferred to a woman member and not
to Dorothy's mother, he said, ap-
parently in an effort to correct an
impression that the Staying had
been premeditated.