Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-23
3 WITNESSES HOLD
CAMPBELL MAY Be
MAN SEEN IN AUTO
But They Fail to Identify
Prisoner Positively as Miss
Bakers ASSaiIant.
COURT ROOM is STILLED
AS SUSPECT STANDS UP
Father Of Slain Government Clerk
Among Spectators at MUIR
der Trial.

Two Government witnesses in the
murder trial Of Herbert M. Campbell.
Arlington County realty operator, today
pointed out Campbell as having the
same general appearance of the man
they saw struggling with Mary Baker.
murdered Navy Department clerk, IN
her car at Seventeenth and B streets,
last April.
Over objections Of the defense, the
eyewitness, MIR. and Mrs. Hugh r.
Wood, declared that while they could
not be positive that Campbell was the
girls assailant, he Is Of the same type,
build and features" to the best Of their
recollection.
A third eyewitness, Francis T. Rice,
gave narrowing details of what the
Government claims was the death
struggle Of the Baker girl about 6
o'clock on the evening Of April IL, but
ne was unable to say whether Campbell
was the man he saw In the car.
Court Room Is sim.
A dramatic stiffness came over the
court room as the accused real estate
man readily arose from his seat In back
OF the counsel table and faced the wit
neSSeS on whose testimony the prose-
cution hoped to convince the Jury Of
the guilt Of the dapper prisoner.
Campbell stood rigidiy and looked
undinchingly at the witnesses and then
turned his profile toward the stand so
That the witnesses might obtain q ret
ter view OF him. He made no gesture
or comment as Mr.. and Mrs. Wood de-
clared that there was q resemblance
between the prisoner and the girls as
sailant.
Sitting in an inconspicuous rlace at
the rear Of the spectators section dur
ing the tense scenes enacted today vas
q little gray-haired old man who leaned
forward attentively to catch every
word Of the witnesses and to glimpse.
from time to time, the prisoner at the
Dar. Inc man was Rev. Thomas p.
Baker, broken-hearted father of the
slain young woman.
Describes Seeing Face.
The venerable clergyman had come
ali the way from his home, in Oak
Grove, Va, to hear, for the first time,
the testimony through which the Gov
eminent expects to avenge the brutal
death OF his daughter. He seemed In
stinctively to recou when Rice. with
distinct emphasis, told of hearing the
low wailing of woman he saw rise
from q slumped position In the death
him.
His first impression, Rice told the
court, was that the face was that of a
child whose features had been disfigllred
by burning, and it was not for some
moments that he senSed the fact the
lace was that of a woman who had
been badly beaten"
Rice told of hearing a series Of froy,
three to six explosions as the man at
the wheel started the car west on 3
street at q rapid rate, and he was per-
mltted TO express the opinion that the
noises were either reports of a small
caIlber pistol or backfiring of the au-
tomobile"
Before court adjourned for lunch.
the prosecutor removed from q package
a pair OF soiled mems gloves that had
been found in sewer trap not far
from the culvert In which the Baker
Cemetery. The gloves, according Co the
prosecutor, at one time were identified
py Campbell as having belonged to him.
Tells Of Seeing Car.
In an effort to show that the Baker
girls asSailant drove the car from
Seventeenth and streets to a narrow
road entering into the Arlington Ex-
perimental Farm near the culvert, the
Government put on the stand william
A. Willis, veteran employee of the farm
who testified to having seen a small
car, of the same make as Mary Bakers
machine, parked in the roadway leading
to the farm. He placed the time of his
observation as $40 o'clock. He was
unable, however, further to identify the
car or to say that Campbell was the
man he saw bent over the steering
wheel.
Rice, an attorney for the Interstate
Commerce Commission, said ne was
walking from the Lincoln Memorial
along B street toward Fifteenth street
on the late afternoon of April IL. last,
when his attention was attracted to a
gray sedan parked on the north side
OF B street, facing west, probably 1856
feet from the corner of seventeenth
street.
The witness said when he first looked
at the car he was about is feet away
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