Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-10
Fate in Hands of Elderly
Farmers, Nearly All Fa-
theirs of Families.
BL YMYER FOUND GUILTY;
LIFE TERM IS URGED
Curry Youths Lawyer Says He
Would Not Stress Witch Angle.
Trusts to Mercy.
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.
Staff CORRESPONDENT OF The Star,

! YORK, Pa, January 10.-A 14-year-
old disciple of the York Countys eerie
witchcraft cult went on trial for his
life this morning before jury of stolid
elderly farmers nearly all of whom are
! fathers of families.
John Curry, barely out of short pants
| is accused of helping murder Nelson D.
Rehmeyer. recluse and reputed witch, "
on Thanksgiving eve. Last night the
boys mentor in the witchcraft cult,
32-year-old John Blymyer, was found
guilty with recommendation Of life
Imprisonment.
| Curry is accused of clubbing Rehmeyer
and afterward pouring coal oil over his
unconscious body to which Blymyer ap-
piled match.
Accompanied by Mother.
The boy was accompanied in court
by his 32-year-old mother, Mrs. Anna
| McLane.
| Although under the Pennsylvania law
| he might be sentenced to the electric
chair, there is little actual likelihood of
this, not only because of his age, but
because of the more lenient sentence
given Blymyer.
Curry's lawyer, w. w. Vanbaman,
said that he would not stress the witch
| craft angle and would urge the boy to
tell the entire truth and trust to the
mercy of the jury. He will appeal for
a verdict of voluntary manslaughter
Commonwealth Attorney Amos Herri-
| mann painted gruesome picture of
the Staying of Rehmyer and urged the
jury not to be swayed by sentiment
of the boys environments.
Yesterday, Blynyer, who admittedly
introduced the child into the witchcraft
cult, tried to put on his shoulders al
most the entire blame for the murder.
Boy Defendant Is Calm.
The boy seemed entirely unconcerned
at the gravity Of the charges against
him as he faced the jury men. but he
did cause the perempt0Ty challenge OF
one man by whispering to his attorney.
was Mrs. Alice Rehmyer, the dead mans
widow, who lived in her own house and
cultivated her own farm, adjoining that
of her husband
Blymyer late yesterday afternoon was
found guilty of murder in the first de-
gree for the. killing of Rehmyer. The
Jury recommended life Imprisonment
after considering for slightly over an
hour the evidence concerning this gro
teSoue tragedy.
Blymyer accepted the verdict without
the slightest trace of emotion. Nothing,
according to his own testimony. can
affect him now that the spell which was
killing him has been removed.
Strange Stories Heard.
Seldom has an American jury listened
to stranger story than came from the
lips of these primitives who testified
| yesterday to their faith in supernatural.
malevolent powers. The effort of Herbert
r. Cohen, attorney for Blymyer. to
prove his client insane was failure.
The defendant was his own worst wit
ness In this respect, with his story OF
| the hallucinations which have followed
| him all his life. He has lived in a
strange, borderland world of his own
| creation between the world of reality
and the world of gruesome phantasies.
| The final verdict, it was understood,
was a compromise reached after a full
consideration of Blymyer's childhood
environment, and after several members
had stood out for the death penalty.
Attorney Cohen announced that he
would make formal appeal.
Blymyer Occupies Stand.
Blymyer, with childlike blue eyes set
deep In an infantile face, took the
stand in his own defense and told with
| out interruption the story of child
about whose uursery hover the grotesque
figures out of the folklore OF the child
hood of the race
| It was a childish story of the phan-
| tastes of child mind. Yet this country
boy who had never grown up In 81
years displayed the apparent craftiness
of small boy mingling truth and false
hood to his best advantage.
| His testimony revealed the strong
| hold which this eerie witchcraft cult
has obtained among a considerable
number of persons In York County. In
a few months before the murder he had
visited six different witch doctors IN
the city of York, paying them from So
to $40 each for their unsuccessful efforts
to take the spell off him, he said. AL
| told him he was beWitched.
He was unable, he said, to rest, sleep
or eat. First he went from medical
doctor to medical doctor and was told
that he was a victim of chronic
melancholia. They did not help him
Finally he turned to the "hexers," he
| said.
| "Hexer" Revealed to Him.
They all told him some enemy was
| beWitching him but were unable to
| locate this enemy. At last one woman
"hexer" revealed to him that 1t was
IAN old gentleman down country" For
more money she crossed his hands with
dollar bill and he saw form in his
open palm the features of the bearded,
| grotesque appearing recluSe Rehmeyer,
| he told the jury.
He recognized the man who long had
had an uncanny reputation among be-
levers In the witch cult, he continued.
He knew Rehmeyer's valley, lonely
stretch of woods and farmland about
20 miles from York, which had an
unsavory reputation among the neigh
| boring rustics as witch ridden"
| The witch doctor told him that in or
| der to break the spell, he must either
get Rehmeyer's book, THE Long Lost
Friend" or a lock of the recluses hair,
which he must bury feet underground,
he said. Still he had his doubts. Five
| times he went back to see the witch
DOCTOR Each time she gave him the
same advice. Then he met 14-year-old
John Curry, who confided that he also
was losing his appetite. He took Curry
to the witch doctor. who assured the
boy that Rehmyer also was bewitching
him, according to his story. She charged
Curry SIS for this information.
Up to this time. Blymyer said. he had
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