Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-26
NEWBAKERMURDFR
CLUES RAISE HOPES
OF ENDING MYSTERY
Secret Information Regarded
as Most Promising Received
in Two Weeks.
POLICE DENY FATHER
OF GIRL GAVE "TIP'"
Arlington County Officials Check
Colored Residents of Queen
City, Va.

Washington detectives investigating
the murder of Mary Baker, uncovered
several more new leads today which
again raised their hope for a solution
of the mysterious crime.
The information was guarded with
utmost secrecy, but Lieut.. Edward j.
Kelly, chief of the homicide squad, in
timated that he believed 1t to be more
promising than any Of the scores of
tips turned over to the investigators
in the last two weeks.
The new information, it was an
nounced, came from reliable source
The officials denied, however, that it
was furnished by Rev. Thomas F. Baker
Of Oak Grove, Va, father of the slain
woman.
The denial was made in view of re-
ports that DR.. Baker had received adj
ditional information concerning the
death of his daughter and had asked
the Arlington County uolice to send a
man to Oak Grove to discuss the case
with him. DR.. Baker likewise denied
the report.
Check Colored Residents.
While the headquarters detectives
were running down the new leads.
Arlington County officials were making
careful check on all colored residents
in Queen City, Va, and vicinity. Queen
City Is the little colored settlement
near Arlington Cemetery, where the
Arlington County police arrested Frank
Smith and James Vollin, the two COL
ored men held in the Arlington County
jail on charge of removing Miss
Bakers small coin purse and scarf from
her blood-stained automobile.
That Miss Baker may have been muir
dered by an automobile thief is one of
the two theories on which the investi-
gators have been assiduously working.
The other is that she was killed by
some one with whom she was inti-
mately acquainted.
If the woman was the victim Of
thief, the officials believe that some one
in Queen City can throw some light
on the crime. Otherwise they are I'M
able to account for the fact that her
hat, coat and pocketbook were found
with q collection of stolen jewelry and
a novel in the sewer nanhole on the
Arlington Experimental Farm Of the
Department of Agriculture.
Immunity Promise FruitIess.
The thieves who were promised i'm
munity from prosecution If they ex-
planned how the stolen articles got into
the sewer with Miss Bakers personal
effects thus far have failed to come
forward. This plan was formulated at
conference between Commonwealth
Attorney William G. Cloth of Airing
ton County and United States Attorney
Leo Rover with the idea that it would
solve the mystery over clothes and
jewelry angle of the case and per-
haps, provide the investigators with
a valuable clue.
Like all other "tips" given the police,
those that Miss Baker had a Seance
with a clairvoyant several weeks before
her death and was warned that she was
to be killed, and that World War
veteran under mental observation in a
Washington hospital might be able to
throw some light on the crime were
found to be worthless upon investiga-
ton.
Detectives interviewed two sooth-
sayers having the same name and both
denied having known woman by the
name of Baker or having forecast that
quarters Detective John Fowler ques-
toned the World War veteran, but he
was unable to furnish any information
on the case.
Detective Picks Up Trail.
The Washington police are being as
sisted in their investigation by pri-
vate detective, who late yesterday picked
up the cold trail of the slayer. The
private investigator went to work after
a protracted conference with Inspector
william S. Shelby, chief of detectives.
While several members of the homi-
eide squad started a check on the new
information this morning, other men,
bers, aided by Department of Justice
agents, began to recheck the earlier
clues and leads discarded as worthless
in the belief that some important bit
of evidence may have been overlooked
in the original investigation. All of the
correspondence and photographs found
in Miss Bakers home in Lyon Park and
in her desk in the Bureau of Aero
nautics in the Navy Department will be
gone over again, it was announced, and
the finger prints and palm prints taken
from the abandoned murder car will for
the second time be compared with those
(Continlled on page q Column 81