The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-04-25
BISHOPS SON IS
CHARGED WITH
Staying OLD MAN
Attacked Victim In Drunken Fren-
zy. Aspired to Be Writer of
Detective Stories.


New York, April 20.-James
Matthew Maxon, Jr., 81, an Epis-
copal bishops son who aspired to
be writer of detective stories,
Friday night found himself in a
predicament quite as ominous as
any he had ever devised himself
with vicarous thrills for charac-
tiers in his fictional plots.
White and shaky, as the alcohoI
gradually cleared from his mud
died brain, young Maxon, son of
Bishop James Matthew Maxon of
Chattanooga, bishop coadjutor of
Tennessee, sat in an uptown po-
lice station, accused by fellow
boarders of having killed, while in
drunken frenzy in the night,
shabby old man whom he had new
er seen before.
Maxon ran amuck, they said, in
the cheap brownstone rooming
house on West End avenue, where
he had lived only a few days, chas-
ed the landlady and the other
dodgers over the place, and finally
beat the life out of David Payn-
ter, 70, who despite the frailty of
his years, had the courage 10
stand up against him.
Witnesses Killing
One of the roomers, who said he
had fled in terror before the young
mans fury, told police that thru
a window he saw Maxon knock
the old man down and then bring
a chair crashing down over his
head. With the wreckage of the
chair lying about him. Paynter
was dead when police arrived.
Maxon, who earlier in the day
had appeared lightly impressed by
his plight, police said, and had
only said reproachfully, cts not
good craftsmanship to question a
man while he drunk" grew more
and more serious as the afternoon
wore on. Smoking many sigarets
and drinking water in huge gulps,
he sat in the station while police
and men from the district attor-
ney's office waited for him to So
Der up.
81 suppose if l didn't drink-if
l hadn't been drinking would
not be in the predicament Pm in
now" he told a police inspector.
Then he protested that he had
not killed Paynter-that he could
not have killed Paynter.
Had No Reason.
"I had no reason to kill him, -
he said to an assistant district at
torney. "I had nothing against
him. 1 couldn't have killed him.
know l didn't"
AS he grew more sober, young
Maxon said he had been drinking
with the landlady, Mrs. Rose Hick-
ey, and some of the other dodgers
in the apartment but had gone up
to his room and was working over
detective story when he heard
an argument downstairs. He said
he went down and, as he entered
Mrs. Hickey's apartment, some
body hit him with a plate. There
followed a general battle, he said,
during which he was more or less
dazed.
Several young men, students in
the school of journalism at Column
bia university, where Maxon had
registered last fall, called to see
him at the police station late Fri
day and it was announced that
Martin w. Littleton had been re-
tanned by friends of Bishop MaDon
to protect the boys interests. He
is to be arraigned Friday. Nc
charges had been filed as yet.
| Maxon told the police that he
had worked on several newspa-
pers in the south and for the City
Press association in Chicago. He
had left Columbia, he said, and of
late had been trying to find a
newspaper job in New York, and
had been writing detective stories
which he was unable to sell.