The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-05-12
BODY is FOUND
RIDDLED WITH
SHOTGUN SLUGS
Ex-CoIumbia U. Student Is
Shot Down in N. Y.
Water Front Cafe.
FOUR BELIEVED KILLERS
Roy Sloane Mastered Law
Behind Bars to Win
Freedom.
FOUR BELIEVED KILLERS
BIZ United Press

DV tHtttU fftS5
NEW YORK, May II. - Roy
Sloane, 26, boy prodigy and former
Columbia university student, who
attracted nationwide attention
when he won his freedom from
Sing Sing prison through use of
his knowledge of the law, gained
while behind the bars, was shot to
death today in waterfront cafe.
4 His body was riddled with slugs
from shotguns, operated, police
said, by four men.
Sloane, who was out on bail
awaiting trial on a charge Of par
ticipating in a gem robbery barely
two months after he gained his re-
lease from Sing Sing, was the son
of Mrs. Anna Bogenholm Sloane,
N. A., M. A., Phi. D., founder of the
National Arts and Crafts Institute
at Washington, D. c., former in
vestigator for the department Of
labor and an author of several
books.
She had stuck by her son through
out all his difficulties.
In the Mad Dot Boat Club, a Dyke
man street cafe, shortly after mid
night. Sloanes body was not iden-
titled until several hours later.
His death recalled an assertion he
made shortly after his release from
prison. when a man has seen the
Worst-and have" he said, life
doesn't hold any terror for him."
Sentenced to Sing Sing
Sloane was convicted six years
ago on charge Of stealing an auto
mobile in Mt. Vernon, N. Y. When
it was discovered he had served a
sentence in Pennsylvania for two
similar offenses he was sent to Sing
Sing for ten years.
Hardly had the gates of the prison
shut behind him than this paradox
of prodigy and prohigate began to
study two exits from Sing Sing.
One was through the law. The other
over the walls. His study of the lat
ter was interrupted by a vigilant
keeper.
The keeper, who had received
word of an escape plot, searched
Sloane's cell and found a strangely
filed tool, guards cap and the
blue coat of a prison band uniform.
Conducts Own Defense
The state contended the tool was
a set of brass knuckles," posses
sion of which, in Sloane's circum-
stances, constituted misdemeanor.
Sloane maintained it was key with
which he intended to escape.
Although the youth had been as
signed an attorney by the court,
he insisted on conducting his own
defense.
Still clad in prison denim, Sloane
arose in court and announced he
was ready to prove the ambiguous
tool was a key-if the prison guards
would produce a screw driver he
had hidden in his cell.
The guards, who had thought they
previously had removed everything
from the cell, searched the cubicle
again and found not only the prom
Used screw driver, but two chisels as
well.
Years Added to Sentence
Blandly, he showed how the tool
could be used as a key. Then he
rested his case. For six hours the
jurors deliberated. Then they
brought in the verdict that while
the instrument was key, it could
have been used in the manner of
brass knuckles.
So even more years in prison
we're added to his previous SEN
tence. But on his return to Sing
Sing, prison authorities would t e
no chances with the slippery
genius. They put him in solitary
confinement.
In solitary, the youth avidly re-
sumed his study of the law.
Five times subsequently he sought
to obtain an appeal of his second
conviction.
Planned Wholesale Break
Then one day, prison authorities
said they discovered that Sloane
and two desperate long term pris-
oners had planned a wholesale
break in which his mechanical tai
ent was to be used in Gripping the
prison power plant.
Sloane and his confederateS were
placed in the death house for safe
keeping, a precaution taken only a
few times in the history of the
prison.
Despite his complete separation
from prison society, Sloane con-
tinued his bid for freedom by legal
means.
Finally, the youth won a new
trial on the automobile theft
charge.
He conducted his own case-and
did it with the shrewdness of a
flrst-rate criminal lawyer.
He produced two fellow prisoners,
both long termers, as his main
witnesses. They testified they had
stolen the car in question and that
Sloane had been framed" The
jury acquitted him.
But the brass knuckles sentence
still was against him and he was
sent UP to Dannemora.
At Dannemora, Sloane finally dis
covered a legal loophole which
won him his freedom.