Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
ASKED HE BE FED
RAZOR BLADES, DOCTOR SAYS
Man Involved in GaIllnger
X-Ray Charge is Side
S-V trtist.
Ate Glass While in Jail and
Wants More, District
Physician Ayers.

Willie Kinard colored prisoner AT
| the District Jail, who was disclosed last
night as the central figure in the
razor blade diet" feature OF Galllnger
Municipal Hospital investigation, Is a
professional side-show tack-eating artlst
and now is hungering for more broken
glass.
These revelations from the hospital
and adjoining jail bring to light the
career of young man, just turning ~
years of age, whose apparently tough
stomach has suffered no i'll effects from
diet including all sorts of odds ana
ends, such as glass. sharp metals ana,
he claims, even razor blades.
The fact that Kinard is now in jail
on sentences Of violating the traffic law
while awaiting trial on further charges
in an indictment for violating the pro-
hibition law, have paled into the COM
monplace at the Jail, where his asso-
ciates have become keenly interested in
the glasS-eating proclivities of their
fellow prisoner.
Ate Up Light Bulbs.
The whole matter bobbed up first, 1t
was learned, when the prisoner one
day asked the Jail physician DR.. Morris
LYMAN. if he could have some glass to
eat. DR.. Hyman said heGcouldnt I'M
derstand the mans request at first, but
on investigation found reports that the
man already had been eating some
electric light bulbs. The matter was
brought to the attention of Mai. w.
L. Peake, superintendent of the District
Jail.
Satisfied that the man was Of sound
mind. DR.. Hyman and Mai Peake de-
cided to have the stomach of the man
examined at Gallirger Hospital, and
with the prisoners consent this was
accomplished.
Kinard is understood to have been
! quite proud of his accomplishments, and
instead of being worried about himself
was more than willing to demonstrate
his prowess. In fact. he was eager to Show
his ability to swallow glass or metal in
front of an X-ray machine, which would
show the processes of swallowing and
the descent of the glass or metal In
fact, according to DR.. Hyman, who said
last night he had recommended the eX-
animation and was present at the time,
the prisoner actually requested some
razor blades to chew up and swallow.
Thu vas denied him. but he was per-
e. o swallow two paper clips, ac-
to DR.. Hyman.
Hemler Witnesses Proceedings.
1t was in this manner, according to
the Jail officials. that the colored priS-
oner came to Gallinger Hospital, where
the proceedings were witnessed also by
DR.. William F. Hemler, former X-ray
specialist at Gallinger, the witness who
brought the raZor-blade matter into the
open before the medical committee of
the Board of Public Welfare Investigate
ing the hospital. DR.. Hemler objected
to the methods used and claimed before
the committee it was he who prevented
a messenger going out for razor blades
to be fed to the patient.
DR.. Edward E. Kaplan, now x-ray
specialist at the hospital and successor
of DR.. Hemler, conducted the examina-
ton in the new X-ray department of
the hospital. In addition to the three
doctors. Kaplan. Hemler and Hyman,
there also were present at the examina-
ton some technical attendants, it was
learned.
Charges by DR.. Hemler that razor
blades were ordered for the prisoner
were denied emphatically yesterday by
both the Galilnger Hospital x-ray head,
DR.. Kaplan, and the Jail physician, DR..
LYMAN. They both characterized the