Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-13
THIRD WITCH CASE
DEFENDANT GUILTY
Hess Verdict Carries 10 to
20 Years Impris-
0nment.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,


YORK. Pa, January 12.-York
County has Laid its witches"-for the
time being. at least.
A jury early this evening returned a
verdict of second degree murder against
Wilbert Hess, l8-year-old farm boy.
for the killing on Thanksgiving eve OF
Nelson D. Rehmeyer, aged recluse and
alleged sorcerer.
The verdict against Hess carries a
sentence from 10 to 20 years.
The two other defendants, John
Blymyer and 14-year r-old John Curry,
already had been convicted Of first de-
gree murder, carrying a sentence Of
| imprisonment for life. Justice moved
with machine like precision during the
week of the trial. Blymyer, the child
like bewitched witch doctor, who was
an unsought fugitive from an insane
asylum, was convicted in three days.
| His trial was slowed up by an attempted
| insanity defense which apparently had
no effect on the jury. Curry, waif OF
the York mill tenements, was tried and
sentenced in a day and half. Even
while the jury was celebrating on his
| case yesterday another jury was being
drawn for the trial of Hess.
Allegedly Dupe Of Other Two.
Alone Of the defendants, Hess had a
| lawyer not assigned by the court. He
was allegedly the dupe of Blymyer and
| Curry, having accompanied them only
because of the sore straits OF his family
which they believed were caused by a
spell cast upon the household by
Rehmeyer In the employ of one OF their
enemies.
Angry at the Nationwide publicity
received by the case, York tried from
the first to. minimize the witchcraf1
angle and the commemorative attorney
insisted that the motive of the murder
was to rob the recluses house. Here
he lived alone, his nearest neighbol
being his wife who occupied house OF
her own about two miles distant. AL
three defendants insisted that their sole
motive In going to the house was to gel
lock of his hair to break the spell
and all three insisted that they be-
| lieved he had them bewitched.
The gawky, unsophiSticated country
boy, reared in an atmosphere of age-ol6
superstitions, was a pitiful figure as he
took the stand yesterday in his owr
defense, knowing that his two COM
panions in the eerie tragedy Of
Rehmeyer's Valley had been sentenced
to life imprisonment.
He had heard Commemorative Attor-
ney Herman tell the jury that the
evidence indicated that he himself actu-
ally had struck the blow which frac-
tured the skull of the recluse and prob
ably caused his death. This was based
on the confessions Of John Blymyel
and John Curry, the other participants
| in the murder.
Strange Series of Setbacks.
The trouble had started last Summer
in quarrel between Hess father ant
| his aunt over right OF way. The
| father, Milton d. Hess, got the best OF
this quarrel, but shortly afterward he
was beSet by strange series of misfor-
tunes. He became sick. His poultry
flock began to dwindle. Wilbert himsel!
began to feel strange sensations.
Then the father met John Blymyer
who pretended To him that he was {
witch doctor although himself undeI
constant delusions of having been be
witched. Blymyer told Hess that fo
from $40 to $50 he could lift spell
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