The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-27
NEA Service Writer

l Washington An obscure little girl who was an usher in a theater
 has attracted more attention within the capital itself of late than MT i Hoover, Congress and the cabinet
 combined. Her name was Beu!ah l Limerick and someone murdered her.
 The intense interest in the Linn erick case has been characteristic of the Washington citiZenry, which ap- l pears to welcome it's murder myster- l ies as a relief from the hum drum I of federal activity and politics and | society. -' Lately it has been common to hear some of our folks boast, with par | donable pride, that Washington has | been having fine series of myster- ious murders and pointing out that probably no city of equal size. at least, has had such neat series of l unsolved cases.
 You may remember the strange murder of Mary Baker and the pre- vious killing of Virginia MacPher- son. And quite a few other killings, l including a run of deaths which 1 large sections of public opinion still 1 consider neither suicidal nor acci- dental.
 POIlceman Suspected
 Beulah Limerick lived in an iso- lated small frame house at one end of town with her brother Vernon l and another young man who posed | as her husband. One morning she was found dead in bed. That even- l ing the undertakers discovered She had been shot through the head. A policeman named Robert F. | Langdon was held as suspect when | it appeared that he had been both | ering Beulah and had found, strange | ly enough, such clews as a bullet | shell in a coffee cup and whole l bullet under the bed after detectives
 had failed to find them in search. | Senator Carey of Wyoming started
 a small investigation of the police department. Tabloid reporters swooped down from New York. l Other cops raided Langdon's home, l seized two stills, liquor and mash. 1 The inquest developed plenty of conflicting testimony, such as over the point whether there had been
 any blood on Beulah's pillows. There l was testimony about a young folks
 society known as the Skyhigh
 Whoopie Club, of which the victim
 had been an organizer and officer. l Four Finally Held
 l Lots Of men were dragged into the
 case, as always happens when a
 Washington girl is murdered. There was evidence about a mysterious gun
 which had been hidden in Miss Llm-
 erick's stove and had disappeared
 Several suspects were arrested and released. Four men were finally held
 without bail for the grand jury -
 Langdon, Beulah's brother Vernon
 and two boy friends named Richard
 Reed and Ed Paddy.
 An all this has been the talk of
 the town. The president was fighting
 with congress. Drought relief and
 unemployment arose as huge nation
 al issues Mir Lucas and the senate l progressives were locked in bitter
 combat. The power fight grew hot as
 Hoover tried to rebuke the senate
 The Wickersham committee conclud-
 ed its strange report. Statesmen bel
 lowed. But officials and government
 clerks, members of congress and or
 dinary citizens united in finding more
 dramatic human interest in mur- der story whose principal figures were truck drivers, filling station at-
 tendants, cops, barbers, house paint
 CTS. soda jerkers and whoopee girls.
 Just as a matter of comic relief
 did you hear how Ambassador Pau
 Claudel of France finally got Lind
 bergh decorated with the cross of a
 commander of the Legion of Honor
 The cross was on a long red rib
 bon and the ribbon had to be hung
 around Lindbergh's neck. Lind.