Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-14
WIFE OF BABE RUTH
PER|SHES IN BLAZE
Mate of Homer King Burned
to Death Living at Home
of Boston Dentist.
BY the Associated Press.

by the Associated fTeSS.
WATERFOWL, Mass, January a.
Babe Ruth, home-run king, today
mourned his wife, while police sought
for questioning DR.. Edward H. Kinder,
Boston dentist, in whose home here
Mrs. Ruth, known to neighbors for the
last year and a half as Mrs. Helen
Kinder. was burned to death last Fri
day night.
The New York Yankee star arrived
in Boston from New York City yester-
day just in time to halt the burial of
the supposed Mrs. Kinder, for whom a
death certificate had been issued on in
formation supplied by the dentist.
While State Detective Edward P.
O'Neil, who investigated the fire at the
instance of District Attorney Robert T,
Bushnell of Middlesex County, declared
had been committed, the district attor-
ney ordered an autopsy performed and
a search instituted for Kinder.
Ruth Grieves Over Wife's Fate.
Ruth was Frustrated by grief when
lie arrived in Boston from Scranton,
, Pa. From his hotel suite he gave a
brief statement to newspaper men:
MY wife and 1 have not lived to-
gether for the last three years. During
that time / have seldom met her. !
have done all that l can to comply
with her wishes. Her death is a great
shock to me; that Is all I can say now"
But Ruth, through his friend and
legal adviser, John P. Feeney of Boston,
Immediately took steps to see that a
new certificate was issued that the dead
woman might be buried as Mrs. Ruth
rofhov than &c NErc KirAar
The discovery that the supposed
dentists wife wa Mrs. Ruth came with
the publication last week of a picture
of the woman found in the house. A
friend of the Ruths identified It. Mrs.
Ruth's sisters, the Misses Catherine and
Nora Woodford of South Boston, were
summoned and established Identified
ton.
Kinder, who was attending a boxing
exhibition last Friday when his house
caught fire, was PACED at the show and
returned to identify the dead woman
as his wife and to make funerals ar
rangements. His whereabouts since
then constituted a mystery today.
The dentists father, William F.
Kinder, and a brother. William F.
Kinder. jr.,. said they believed the
couple had been married in Montreal
about two years ago. The dentist had
long been regarded as a close friend of
the Ruths. His family and that of Mrs.
Ruth lived in South Boston and, &C
cording to his father. he had known
her before her marriage.
Ruth first met Helen Woodford short
ly' after he became a member OF the
Boston Red Sox In 1915. The girl had
been a waitress and vas employed at
the time in a Back Bay restaurant near
the ball park.
Wedding Takes Place In 1916.
Late in 1915 or early in 1916 they
we're married and in September, 1922,
they announced that Is months pre-
viously a daughter, Dorothy. now 9,
had been born, but they had decided
not to nou it earlier. That the
path of their marital life has not BEEN
a smooth one in the past few years has
been generally known to their friends.
Kinder about a year and a half ago
moved into the house where the fire
occurred. The child. Dorothy Ruth,
Kinder and was frequently seen about
the place with her mother.
Fire officials announced that the
cause of the blaze probably was an
Overlooking of the wires in the living
room. coupled with badly worn insu-
lation.
Although Medical Examiner West,
who made an examination of Mrs.
Ruth's body after the fire, reported
that there were no evidences of alcohol.
drugs or foul play. Thomas p. Wood
ford, a brother of Mrs. Ruth, said that
ne was mot at all satisfied with the
police explanation of the circumstances"
attending the death of his sister.
Both he and his brother, william J..
Woodford. demanded a thorough in
v~estigation, expressing the belief that
the police had not learned all the facts
behind the tragedy.