Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-24
PROBE TURNS BACK
TOSEEK WOMAN IN
BAKER DEATH CASE
Blood Stained ParaSoI Again
Examined as Pistol Test
Results Are Awaited.
INVESTIGATORS ASSUME
IT WAS USED AS WEAPON
Cloth Agrees Article Found, in
Car Not Usually Employed
by Man as Club

While awaiting the outcome of a
further check on the protestations of
Herbert M. Campbell that he did not
kill Mary Baker and that the murderer
y did not use his gun, authorities investi-
eating the battling mystery turned back
today TO earlier theories involving "a
woman in the case
The torn and blood-stained blue
parasol found in the back of the Baker
girls car was removed today from a
file drawer in the Office of Common
wealth Attorney William c. Cloth of
Arlington County and given another
examination.
The prosecutor, in weighing this grim
bit of evidence today agreed that a
parasol sis not usually a mans weapon. !"
. On this assumption, the parasol
could have been used in two ways,
namely, as means of defense by Mary
Baker or as an instrument of attack by
another woman.
Theories on Blood Stains.
II the Baker girl had used it to pro-
her murderer, the investigators point
out. it is unlikely the parasol's shredded
silk and its framework would have be-
come saturateG with blood.
Considerably more plausible is the
theory that the blood, is that of Mary
Baker and that the stains were made
when the improvised weapon was being
used upon her body. According 10 wit
nesses. Miss Baker was bleeding at the
mouth before her assailant hurried her
away from Seventeenth and B streets
In Miss Bakers car.
The parasol has been identified as
the property of Miss Olga Skinner, ac-
according to the prosecutor. He says
Miss Skinner recalled lending it to
Miss Baker. The Baker girl was in
the habit of carrying the sunshade in
the back of her car, 1t was said.
The parasol is of the steel frame
type. with ribs tipped with tortoise shell
and with handle of the same mate
rial fitted with hoop of cord. One of
the tips was broken and the whole cloth
covering of the parasol was literally
Z ripped to sfreds when found. The cloth
was stained with blood near the apex
of the cover and CONCEALED blood also
was on the upper part Of the ribs and
stem.
Found No FingerprintS.
Prosecutor Cloth said the handle was
carefully examined for hngerprintS, but
none was found.
The theory that woman was in
volved in the fatal attacks on the Navy
Department clerk first was expressed
: by Sheriff Howard B. Fields when he
examined the girls battered body in
the culvert near the Sheridan Gate of
Arlington Cemetery. At that time he
remarked about the red marks on the
throat of the girl and expressed the
opinion these had been made by long,
sharp fingernails."
Homer Thomas, son of Police Judge
Harry Thomas and voluntary assist
ant to the prosecutor in the Baker
case, also saw the fingernail marks and
is convinced they. were made by a
woman's hand.
There are so many mysterious an
giles to this mystery" Cloth explained
today, that any number of theories
might be applicable to the case. We
are going TO run down every possible
clue and consider every theory"
Checking Campbell "Alibi."
Early this afternoon Cloth, Lieut..
Kelly and Headquarters Detective Carl
ton Talley left the Arlington County
Court House on mission to check
Campbell cast his hope of vindication.
The real estate mans account of his
movements on the evening of April IL,
the date of the staying, were corro-
borated yesterday afternoon by his wife,
Mrs. Ruth Callahan Campbell, and her
son, Edwin Callahan.
The officials intended first to question
Thomas A. King, of 1349 Harvard
street, scoutmaster of Edwin's Boy Scout
Troop, with whom Campbell claims he
shook hands at 1880 o'clock on the fatal
!. night when he took the boy to a scout
meeting in q church near Fourteenth
street and Park road.
King previously had been visited by
newspaper men but he declined to make
any statement until he had conferred
with the authorities.
Statements made by Mrs. Campbell
concerning her husbands whereabouts
that evening also will be carefully in
vestigated. Lieut.. Kelly asserted that
every detail of Mrs. Campbell's story
was to be checked including her state.
ment that she left work at S o'clock or
April IL, bought Boy Scout belt al
the Parker Bridget Co. for her son
boarded a bus at Twelfth street anc
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