Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-18
WIDOW IS ABSENT
At CEILINGS PROBE
Policeman Says She Told
Him She Saw Body Float
ItTg in Sound.
fcontinued prom First page.l

the elder took her to an anchored
motor boat, where he left her.
Forest said this first story made no
mention of an attack upon Mrs. Col
lings by the elder of the two men. In
later stories she said She was attacked.
The inquest opened today without
the presence of the widow, who had
been asked to testify,
Coroner william Gibson called Anna
Biggs, the patrolman who found Col
lings' body on the beach of the Marshal
Field estate, as the first witness.
Before the inquest opened District
Attorney Alexander Blue announced he
had requested the presence Of Mrs. Col
lings despite previous statements that he
did not intend to call her. He said he
made his request to William A. Kelly,
associated with Homer S. Cummings as
counsel for the Ceilings family.
Widow Held Ill.
Kelly arrived for the inquest with a
stenographer, but Mrs. Ceilings did not
accompany him. He acknowledged
having received the request from Blue,
but said the physical condition of Mrs.
Ceilings, who he said is under the care
of two physicians in Stamford, did not
permit her appearance as a witness.
When DR.. Gibson, who had previous
" announced that he would like to
have Mrs. Ceilings as witness, heard
thatr she was not coming despite Blues
request, he told reporters, before
ascending the bench, that the only way
to get her would seem to be eXtraditton
as q material witness Blue said that
this step had not been considered.
Biggs told of finding the trussed body
lying face downward on the beach and
of calling his superiorS to the scene. He
was followed on the stand by Police
Sergt. Robert Forest, the first official to
question Mrs Ceilings after she was
found on a motor boat to which she
said her husbands aSSailantS took her
after throwing him into the sound to
drown.
Blue is to refer the case to grand
Jury in hope Of obtaining indictments
against the slayers, a dispatch from New
York said.
1T now have clear picture of what
happened on the Penguin and after the
events on the Penguin were over" he
said, adding that he had information
he did not care to reveal. He announced
= that Felix de Martini, private detective.
and one time an ace of the New York
police, had been retained as his special
investigator.
Martini figured prominently in the
AAAA-A42AAo AAhA ACA tA4o4 uo q dCACAAcS III
vestigator.
Blue has a brief case full of papers;
which his detectives have taken from
the Penguin. 1t contained copies of a
will left by Benjamin Snyder, Wash
ington banker, and Mrs. H. p. Ceilings,
grandfather and mother, respectively
of Ceilings. The papers indicated there
had been legal tangle over one or
both wills
Cummings said he decided not to let
Mrs. Ceilings go to the coroner,S in
quest. as she had only the same story
to tell: That her husband was beaten
and thrown into the sound by two men,
one middle-aged, the other a youth
She was taken away in another small
boat and attacked, while her daughter
Barbara, 5 years old was left behind
on the drifting cruiser
Cummings said that his own inveSti-
cation led him to believe that the MUIR
der was committed by a paranoiac. The
Older mans actions, as described by
Mrs. Ceilings. he said, indicated that
the younger man was under his donina-
ton.
Fred j. Voos, president Of the Bridge
port, Conn, base ball club, is to examine
a blanket Mrs. Ceilings says the men
threw over her when she left the Pen
gum. Mr.. VooS borrowed such blanket
from hotel in Springfield, Mass, and
recently it was stolen from his yacht,
he told police.