The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1929-12-10
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have assumed a nationwide scope
because they have been aired on
the floor Of the Senate, and the
firms securities have been sold
In many States.
The fingerprint clue, which the
police have kept secret for three
years, was brought to light when
newspapermen interviewed De-
tective Sergeant Fred Sandberg,
chief of the police bureau OF
Identification and nationally
known finger-print expert, Just
after he emerged from the grand
jury room last Tuesday.
Sandberg told the reporters that
he had taken q partial finger
print from the side Of the death
gun three years ago, and compared
it with prints made from Scriv-
ener's fingers as he lay in bis
coffin. He said this print did not
Check at all with Scrivener'S.
This was the first major blow
struck at the police theory Of
suicide. ..-. .
Print Long in Files
When confronted with Sand
berg's statement, Major Henry G..
Pratt, Chief of Police, who was
chief of detectives at the time OF
the murder, admitted that his
department had had the print
buried in its files for three years.
He claims "credit" for finding it
himself.
The Grand Jury hearing de-
veloped other points that smashed
to shreds the carefully laid police
theory that Scrivener had COM
mitted suicide.
The police called IS newspaper
men into a conference on Octo-
Der 80, 1926, and told them that
the Scrivener murder wasn't a
murder at all, but that the dead
detective had committed suicide.
Chief among the spokesman was
Detective Sergt. (now heutenant)
Edward G. Kelly, late OF the
homicide squad. The police de-
clared Scrivener had taken his
own life because he had a n1alig"
nant disease and didn't want to
marry Miss Helen Barnes Parker,
OF Mclean, Va, whom he was
scheduled to take as his bride the
night he was slain.
Necktie CIew Shattered
They declared that the cheap
necktie, found clutched In the
slain detectives hand, which he
had apparently torn from the
neck of his assailant, was one
scrivener had given Matthew
Walsh, in whose home he was
a roomer. Walsh declared that
the person who quoted him as
saying that the death tie was his
was falsifying.
The next witness to give the
police stories a body-blow was
DR.. Joseph Bateman, personal
physician to Scrivener. He de-
clared he had examined Scrivener
q number Of times and that at
the time of his death he was in
perfect health and had no reason
to commit suicide.
Edward r. Norris, Scrivener's
roommate at the Walsh home,
also said that Scrivener had no
disease. Norris also said that
the necktie was cheaper one
than anything scriVener had ever
bought.
The weapon which killed Scrtv-
ener was identified by Henry
Miller Moore, a burglar now serv-
ing q term in Leavenworth Peni-
Tertiary, as one he had stolen at
Vero Beach, Fla, several weeks
before, and dropped in a trash
can near Seventh and H Streets
Northwest, when he spotted two
detectives trailing him.
Picks Gun From Six
He told the coroner's jury that
he saw these officers take the
weapon from the trash can about
two days before Scrivener was
murdered and offered to identify
them if given an opportunity. r.
stead, he was hustled back to
Jail by the police as soon as his
testimony was over. He picked
the weapon out from a row of
six without hesitation in the Dis
trict Attorneys office.
The coroner's jury rendered a
verdict of murder at the hands OF
o person or persons unknown,