Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-18
OF DEAD
NURSE TO TESTIFY
Father and Two Sisters Ex-
peCted to Describe Do
meStiC Troubles.

Two groups of witnesses from the
Carolinas, whose testimony will relate
to domestic troubles of Robert A. Nc
PherSon, jr., and his strangled wife
and to technical circumstances attend
ing the wife's mysterious death, came
to Washington today for questioning
in the new grand jury investigation of
the Park Lane tragedy.
One group included A. A. Hurley,
father Of Virginia Mcpherson, and two
Of the dead girls sisters, Ernestine and
Beulah Hurley, all of whom are ex-
pected to tell of alleged cruelty suffered
by Virginia at the hands of her hus-
band, now in jail on a technically
faulty charge Of choking his wife to
death with a pajama belt.
The other Southern delegation was
composed of eminent medical authori-
ties of North Carolina, headed by DR..
James I. Built, pathogogist of the Uni
versity Of North Carolina, who super
vised the second autopsy OF. the body
Of the nurse at Kannapolis, N. G. The
medical group also included DIR. Frank
Marsh, surgeon, Of Salisbury, N. c.. who
assisted IN the autopsy.
Mr.. Hurley, short, gray-haired FORE
man Of textile mill In Chester, s. Cs
came here by automobile yesterday, acc
companied by the daughters and by Q
son-in-law, v. c. Blackwelder, OF
Greensboro, N. c. Mrs. Hurley did not
come with her husband.
Conductor Awaits Quiz.
The Hurleys and the physicians were
met on their arrival at the grand jury
room by Thomas r. Cullen, special
assistant to the Attorney General, who
ushered them into private Office ad-
joining the grand jury chamber. Nearly
a score of other witnesses awaited their
turn to testify in another witness room.
They included Mrs. Donald Mcpherson,
aunt of the accused husband, and more
than half dozen athletic club asso-
ciates of the latter, who will corroborate
McPherSon's alibi, and Conductor }. II.
Lewark Of the Georgia avenue street car
line, who says he will give testimony
tending to contradict 1t.
Mr.. Hurley, it is expected, will be
questioned regarding reports that Vir-
ginia wrote letters home complaining
of alleged mistreatment by her husband.
Mrs. Mcpherson is said to have written
her family at one time that she had
to obtain medical treatment from DR..
Frank A. Hornaday. DR.. Hornaday,
already questioned by the grand jury, Is
said to have denied rendering such
treatment.
Virginias sister, Beulah, who is in
her early teens, is said to have told
her parents of an alteration between
the McPhersons on the occasion of a
visit which the girl paid to the McPher-
son apartment some months before her
sisters death. It Is understood Beulah
never has been questioned directly by
investigating authorities. 1t Is known
the husband was Questioned by police
concerning this incident.
DR.. Bullitt signed the report Of the
surgeons on the outcome of the second
autopsy, which failed to disclose a
rumored fracture of the skull or any
other evidences of violence except those
produced by the tying of pajama belt
around the girls throat.
Findings Held Important.
The second autopsy was ordered by
physician had expressed the opinion
that a skull fracture might have con-
tributed to the death of the nurse.
The body was exhumed from the family
burial plot of the Hurleys at China
Grove, N. c., former home of the Hurley
family. Among the doctors present at
The autopsy, in addition to DrS. Bullitt
| and Marsh. were DR.. C. w. Armstrong,
county health officer; DR.. j. E. Stokes.
surgeon of the Salisbury, N. c., Hospital,
and DR.. c. C. Phillips of Charlotte.
N. c. These other doctors did not ap-
pear here today.
Although the negative report of the
surgeons was made public at the De-
partment of Justice several weeks ago,
| supplementary reports of roentgenol-
ogists who X-rayed the body and OF
chemists who analyzed certain tissues
never have been divulged. Secrecy
thrown around the supplementary re-
ports has led to rumors that the X-ray
examination and the chemical analysis
disclosed something important. These
findings probably will become known to
the grand jury today.