The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-15
EDITOR, FAMED
FOR TRADITIONS,
DIES IN PRISON
Chaplin, FiCtionaI News
paper Model and Muir
derer, Passes.
BY PAUL w. WHITE
limited Press STAFF Correspondent

FAOL W. w IL
United Press STAFF Correspondent
OSSINING, N. Y, Dec. II. -
Charles Z. Chaplin, wife murderer,
and the man who as a metropolitan
city editor was so hard-bitten that
he became a. sort of fictional fixa-
ton, died before the coming of an
other spring could refurbish his
gardens and landscapes at Sing
Sing prison.
He succumbed Saturday night TO
an attack of pneumonia after a
six-week's illness.
Chaplin was 70 and he had served
almost twelve years of the twenty
year-to-life sentence imposed after
he had pleaded guilty to the charge
Of numbering his wife.
Although nearing the time OF
eligibility for parole, and although
friends said that he could obtain
a pardon, he was insistent that he
remain prisoner.
"T Want to Die"
Thus when he was dying in an
upper room of the death house"
where he was taken at his own re-
quest because 1t was so quiet there,
he was content to end his life in
flgurative stripes.
do you need anything, Charlie?"
he was asked by Warden Lewis E.
Lawes.
Yes Chaplin replied, II want to
die. want to get it over with"
Those were his last words.
Chaplin, born in Watertown, N. Y,
left his parents home at the age
Of IA, and went to the midwest
where in several cities he served as
newspaper carrier and telegraph
messenger.
In his autobiography he described
how, directed to deliver a telegram
from President Grant to a United
States senator, he had burst into
The latter's bedroom and shouted:
Wake up, senator; here's an i'm
portant message from the Presi-
dentl"
Gained Fame. as Editor
The senator later was to become
his friend and permit the youth
dLGECO W OIL talOAADAhC AANA "a
Chaplin began to read voraciously
and thus acquired his education.
After brief experience as an actor
he entered newspaper work.
It was. as city editor of the New
York Evening World that Chaplin
gained national prominence.
Many members of his staff later
went on to success in the writing
of novels. plays and short stories.
and their delineation Of him led
to what amounted to almost literary
Standardization of the city editor.
Even now, as far as fiction is con-
cerned, the type must be Acidulous,
ruthless, ever alert-a. Ia Chaplin.
Chaplin added directly and indi-
rectly to the nations list Of pet
phrases.
Supplied Perennial Anecdote
Once Irwin S. Cobb, then a re-
write man on the Evening World,
heard that Chaplin was i'll, he COM
mented Il hope it's nothing trivial
And Chaplin himself supplied a
perennial anecdote when he COM
manded young reporter, who had
been brutally beaten up by pros
pective interviewer, to go back and
tell him he can't intimidate me-
Promptness was his fetish and
n.snv of his men we're dismissed
for tardiness. A story pointing this
trait concerns a reporter who, hav-
ing missed a ferry boat, was late
setting to his beat at one of the
court buildings He stopped at
telephone in the ferry house and
called Chaplin to report for duty.
Cover the flood" Chaplin cried.
THE flood. What flood?" asked
the reporter.
Gambling Brought UndOing
There must be a terrible food at
the courthouse the editor eX-
planned. I can hear the boats whis-
Ting"
Chaplin had an unquenchable
thirst for gambling and it was a
series of unfortunate speculations
that brought about his undoing.
After getting badly into debt,
Chaplin was walking one day with
his wife, the former Nellie Beebe, to
whom he had been married for
thirty-nine years, when they passed
an aged beggar woman.
Mrs. Chaplin shuddered and said:
Suppose I should come to that"
From that chance remark arose
plan of murder and suicide. Chap
in shot and killed his wife in their
hotel suite and then walked out to
put an end to his own life.
Read Reporters Accounts
He found, however, that he could
not pull the trigger of his revolver
and subsequently surrendered while
newspapers were blaZoning the
words: Charles Chaplin wanted for
murder"
He took little interest in his trial,
but read avividly the newspaper &C
counts, commencing or condemning
the various writers for their repor-
torial work.
Once at Sing Sing he began the
editorship of a prison periodical,
but later confined his attention al
most exclusively to gardening.
Funds from outside, including a
monthly donation from Irwin Cobb,
helped him make the prison
grounds beauty spot.
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