Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-31
POWERS DECLARED
SANE BY EXPERT
CIarksburg Police Chief Says
He ls"Not Through With"
:" ,,SIayer'S Wife.
CONTINUED From First Page9

one OF the VlCUlnnS OF HOWeIS.
Southern said the man told him Mrs.
Mccartney disappeared two months ago.
Mrs. Eicher and her three children
disappeared about two months ago from
their home near Chicago and police said
the man admitted he was in Chicago
several times.
An Associated Press dispatch from
Chicago. however, quoted Norton as
denying he had knowledge of the in
quiry concerning Mrs. MCCARTNEY.
In almost every State of the Union.
meanwhile police and postal authorl-
ties sought women who had written 10
Powers In his guise of Cornelius O..
Pierson, wealthy and E.ome-seeklng civn
Details of the killings came from him
little by little.
Boy Saw Mother Slain.
Harry Eicher, IL, saw his mother
killed, Powers said, but in the middle
of 1t he let out an awful scream. I vas
afraid the neighbors would hear 1t, so
picked up hammer and let MN
have it."
Discovery of his victims and his con-
fession seemingly affected powers little,
once he had revealed his secret. He
ate well and played poker with other
prisoners in the county jail, using
matches for chips.
At intervals he talked of himself.
Rudolph Valentino vas his idol, he
said, his hobbies were scientific
crime"-and sex psychology. His let
tiers, police said, revealed him as a
self assigned student of women. Mean
while, he was professionally rousta-
bout salesman.
Years ago he began dallying with
matrimonial agencies, for fun" he
said. More recently he became Cor
nelius o. Powers" civil engineer blocked
BY professional duties from social con-
facts, yet longing meanwhile for
woman to share. his wealth, his farms
in the Midwest, his beautiful 1o-roon1
house, completely furnished" In that
way he met Mrs. Eicher, seeking to
extricate herself from pressing debt
while seemingly well to do herself.
Similarly he met Mrs. Lempke, in re-
cent years a resident of worcester,
though in the past a resident OF st.
Paul, MINI.
Imprisoned His Victims.
The two women came to Clarksburg
At almost the same time. about Au-
gust l." Powers was quoted as relating.
Early in the day, he took the Illinois
widow and her three children to the
them prisoners in individual sound
proof tile chambers, specially fashioned
in the basement Of the small, frame
building.
Mrs. Lempke arrived from New Eng
land later in the day and she, in turn,
was taken to the garage and impris-
oned.
one by one, he removed his five victims
to the upper floor of the garage, where
a rope was suspended from rafter.
Each of the persons, excepting Mrs.
Eicher's son, was hanged. Fearing
STANDARDIZATION might not be complete,
the slayer then Dashed in their heads
with a hammer, he was quoted as say
ing The five bodies then were buried
in the sewer trench beneath the ga
rage where they were found last week.
The badly decomposed bodies of the
Eicher family we're uncovered Friday, a
day after Powers arrest here. Mrs
Lehnpke's body was found Saturday
night.
Tells Conflicting Stories.
Powers was asked how many persons
he had slain. With shrug OF his
shoulders he replied quietly, IT don't
Know" Later, however, he was told
that a gang of prisoners from the
county Jail had been taken out to the
murder farm" to dig for more bodies.
Let them 60. Let them dig up the
whole farm they'll not find any more
out there"
Powers wife, Luella, and her sister,
Belle Strother, were permitted to return
home after being held for questioning.
Chief Of Police G. A: Duckworth
that: he was mot through with her"
The woman, arrested shortly after
her husband, was released Saturday
after being questioned. In his state
ment confessing the killings, Powers
absolved her.
Mrs. Powers told Duckworth and
newspaper men who interviewed her
at her home that II love that kid" and
each morning I carried him two bot
ties of soft drink before he was out OF
bed"
The woman said Powers had given
her only SIP in their four years OF
marriage.
Newspaper men who attempted to
interview Mrs. Powers last night were
ordered away by the woman. Duck
worth accompanied them to her house
today.
Clue to Other Bodies.
The search for additional bodies was
predicated presumably on evidence that
over period of years Powers had cor
responded with hundreds of matri-
monially-inclined women and on the
discovery of bones in the ruins Of a
small cottage which adjoins the garage.
The cottage, as we'll as the land on
which it and the garage were built, IS
owned by Mrs. Powers. 1t was de-
stroyed recently by an unexplained FIRE.
Bones found Saturday near the Chin
ney5of the dwelling were turned over to
experts to determine whether they are
of humans.
A:bank book and letters which aided
in identification of Mrs. Lemke also
were found near the scene of the fire.
Mrs. Lemke, according to word from
Northboro, left the Massachusetts town
last July in the company Of man
identified from newspaper photographs
as Flowers. She married Albert Lenke
with him in ST. Paul, Mimi, for 10
years. The husband is reported to be
living in the Minnesota city.
Fresh Mounds Found.
The search for additional bodies also
was .spurred by the discovery of several
fresh mounds of earth in the rear OF
the. structure.
State police and county officers fought
to keep huge crowds of curious persons
from hampering the diggers. PeddlerS
did brisk business selling souvenir"
photographs of the confessed slayer and
his victims.
AT the Clarksburg Post ONCE mean
white letters from women throughout
theZcountry, who had answered Powers
matrimonial advertisements, continued
to Afriye by the score.
These letters were added to hundreds
of others found in trunks, boxes and a.
dozen other hiding places in the home
and in the garage where he slew his