Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-24
mrs. GAMBLE HELD
IN LA PLATA JAIL
ON MURDER CHARGE
Separated From Children
Soon After Verdict of
Coroner's Jury.
BAIL WILL BE SOUGHT
FOR MOTHER OF TEN
Husband Takes Care of Home, but
Refuses to Aid Wife, Who
Shot Rival.
BY ARMsTEAD w. GILLIAN.

LA PLATA, Md, September ga
coroner'S jury last night gave Deputy
Sheriff Robert v. Cooksey the painful
| task of separating Mrs. Lulu May Gam
BILE. mother of TO- from her 4 small
children and locking her up in the Jail
| here, formally charged with the muir
| der of Mrs. Elsie Owens Davis, %, whom
Mrs Gamble shot when she found her
in an automobile last Friday morning
with Mr.. Gamble.
While in the Jail Mrs. Gamble
will be treated with all the respect
due lady" and her fare will be better
than the "hot dogs" which form the
basis of most meals served the ''ordi-
nary" visitors to the La Plata lookup
Jailer John F. Dorsey, colored, de-
clared last night.
| AS his wife went to Jail, Joe Gamble,
the thrifty owner of several farms and
! 300 hives of bees, announced that he
would not pay one cent for the defense
of the mother Of his children.
Goes Back TO Home.
"I'll guarantee, though" he said, 'to
take care of the children as well as she
ever did"
Joe Gamble, who had steadfastly re-
manned away from home since the
shooting, went back to his little house
across the railroad tracks with its or
derby row of bee hives about it, but
didn't get very cordial reception.
1t was Chester. 10, who greeted his
fathers return home with:
| II wish you were in jail instead of
ma"
AS soon as news of the death of Mrs
Davis, in Providence Hospital, Wash
| ington, yesterday morning, was re-
ceived at La Plata, the populace of the
little county seat of Charles County
| gathered in town to see what would be
done with Mrs Gamble. Hour after
hour they waited for the body of Mrs.
Davis to be brought to town for the
inquest ordered by States Attorney
Edward j. Edelen.
Jury Quickly Selected.
The body of the slain woman was
brought to town about S o'clock yes
| terday afternoon and q coroner's jury
| quickly was chosen, with r. w. PoSey
as chairman. DR.. James Nolan, who
first attended Mrs. Davis, was called in
i to identify the body and then the jury
heard the story of Joe Gamble. Mrs.
/ Gamble did not attend the inquest. She
was at liberty on bond of $500 on
| charge of assaulting Mrs. Davis, and
| when rearrested a short time after the
| inquest was going about her household
duties as usual.
| Joe Gamble repeated the story La
Plata knows by heart now, how last
! Thursday night he took Mrs. Davis in
his automobile, starting out between 8
and o'clock, to search for his step
son, Raymond Grim, for whom Mrs.
| Davis had been keeping house They
| didn't find Grim, he said, and returned
home after midnight, nobody seems to
be sure as to the exact time.
AS he drove up in the front yard of
the home the Davis woman occupied
I q O00 rSc fr.Ona he
home, Mrs. Gamble met them, a pistol
in her hand. AS he opened the door,
Gamble said, Mrs. Gamble thrust the
pistol into the car and fired it, the bull
let entering Mrs. Davis forehead.
Verdict Is Returned.
The jury examined the body and then
rendered q verdict, without discussion
that Mrs. Davis came to her death as
the result OF q pistol bullet fired by
Mrs. Gamble.
The inquest was held before Magi-
strate George H. Gray in the stuffy
little smoke-f1ll county commissioners
J room in the court house. Scores of
! children, not allowed in the inquest,
crowded about the windows of the room
and about the court house Railways
A few minutes after the inquest was
disposed of, Magistrate Gray announced
he was ready to proceed with a pre-
! nearing on the murder charge
against Mrs. Gamble.
Mrs. Gamble was arrested by Deputy
Sheriff Cooksey and brought to the
court house. The deputy sheriff re-
I ported that little Bessie Gamble,
| years old, offered considerable objec-
ton to her mothers being taken away
from the Gamble home, but composed
herself when her mother told her she
would be back soon.
Mrs. Gamble Arraigned.
Brought into the court house, Mrs
Gamble was arraigned on the murder
charge, and, through her attorneys,
John F. Mudd and State Senator Wal
ter j. Mitchell, waived a hearing and
was ordered committed to Jail without
bail until the grand jury meets next,
! on the third Monday in November to
consider an indictment against her.
| Attorneys Mitchell and Mudd i'm
mediately after the hearing went to
the home of Circuit Judge w. Mitchell
Diggs to confer on habeaS corpus pro-
ceedings to have Mrs. Gamble admitted
to bail and returned to her home, where,
, they contend, her children need her.
After short conference with Judge
/ DiggS, who Is confined to his home by
illness, the attorneys returned to the
court house and told Deputy Sheriff
CookSey to place Mrs Gamble in the
little jail, back OF the court house, for
Mr.. Mudd announced that he and
Senator Mitchell want the opportunity
| to go further into the case before they
instituted habeas corpus proceedings.
Confer With Husband.
Then the attorneys conferred with
Joe Gamble, and received assurance
| from the father that he would take care
| of the children; that he would try to
smooth over the hostility that has arisen
in his own family against him as a re-
suit of the shooting, and would see
that the children were clothed and sent
| to school.
Gamble then went home, where his
elderly mother has now become the
feminine head of the household
All yesterday morning Jailer Dorsey,
colored, prepared the top floor of the
| little La Plata jail for Mrs. Gamble.
| Many slot machines seized in a recent
] gambling crusade in the county were
moved out of the way, and an 8-by-4
cell in the second floor of the Jail was
made ready for Mrs. Gamble.
Last night when Mrs. Gamble en-
tered the Jail, she was accompanied by
her two sons, Chester and Billy. Billy
KEEP. a stiff upper lip, and helped the
jailer make his mother comfortable but
Chester found the ordeal too much and
broke down. The two boys went out
short time later and got their mother
some supper from q nearby restaurant,
Aa T. II.