The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-06-23
ARREST NEAR
IN PROBE OF
POISON DEATHS
Finding Of StryChnine in
Well Adds to Mystery
at Greenfield.
CHECK FAMILY HEIRS
Authorities Sift Insurance
and Financial Standing
of Simmons.
BY ARCH STEINEL
Times stan Correspondent

GREENFIELD, Ind, June 23.-
Arrest of the killer who poisoned
the picnic food of the family of
John w. Simmons, resulting in the
death Of his two daughters Sun
day. is expected within the next
forty-eight hours, it was learned to-
day.
The investigation was halted tenn
porarily and authorities said they
would not question members of the
family until after the funeral of
the girls, Virginia and Alice Jean
Simmons, Wednesday morning.
The girls ate food which was
poisoned with strychnine at a fam
lily reunion at Lebanon Sunday
They died shortly afterward In a
Lebanon hospital
Check on Heirs
Relatives who might have be-
come heirs of the sizeable estate OF
Mr.. and Mrs. Simmons in event Of
obliteration of the immediate fam
lily we're being tabulated by Han
cock county authorities today in
their quest for clews to the strych-
nine murders.
The three other poison victims
we're recovering today.
The new turn Of the investiga-
ton hinged upon developments to-
day. including the statement OF Sam
Gappen, drug store clerk, that his
recent sale of sixty grains of strych-
nine was not to John Simmons.
Gappen said he knew the pur-
chaser, and to the best OF his rec
objection the man was John Richey,
a farmer, who said he wanted 1t to
kill crows.
Sheriff Frank Stottlemyer of Han
cock county, leading the investiga-
ton. said authorities were con-
WINGED that the poison found IN
sandwiches after the two deaths,
was not placed there either in the
Simmons home or at the place
where the auto was parked en- route
TO Lebanon.
Sheriff Stottlemyer discounted the
idea that any member of the i'm
mediate family was responsible Tor
the deaths. He said that ne had
learned. however, that the Sim
mons family is considered wealthy
which led to consideration Of other
near relatives
store Check Fruitless
thorough inquiry into drug
store sales in the immediate vicinity
had divulged no information Oh
other recent strychnine sales In any
quantity, leading to the belief that
the poison was obtained from dis
tant locality
Lebanon officials aiding in the
inquiry returned home today as
lull developed, pending funerals
Wednesday for Virginia and Alice
Jean Simmons, the poison death
victims. They we're to return
Wednesday.
Authorities abandoned tempo
rarily the theory that recent in
creases in insurance policies of Dale
and George Simmons. sons of Mr.
and Mrs. John Simmons, could ave
had any bearing on the case, be-
cause of the reputed wealth of the
parents.
They were informed that the
$4,000 mortgage on the Simmons
farm was small, when considered
in relation to their property hold
ings.
Another weak point in this theory
as they viewed it, was the fact that
Simmons was one Of the three per-
sons who became seriously Ill from
the poisoned sandwiches.
Theories that a poison maniac"
may have been abroad were given
credence, as Thomas Martin.
farmer living near the Hancock
county line in Shelby county, be-
came i'll from water which he drank
from his farm well.
Poison in Well
An analysis of the water showed
1t contained strychnine sufficient to
kill three persons.
The Martin farm is approximate
ly seventeen miles from the Sim
mons homestead.
Oficials point out possibility of
the murderer of the two girls plac-
ing the strychnine in the Martin
we'll as blind to cast suspicion
on maniac slayer. The strychnine
was found in the we'll prior to the
picnic tragedy.
While plans are laid for the flu
nerals Of the Simmons children on
Wednesday. near Willow Branch,
the sheriffS of Hancock and Boone
counties are piercing the private
life of the Simmons family for pos
sible clews to the Sayings that
neared wholesale proportions.
Simmons admitted to Sheriff Stot-
tlemyer that he had increased the
life insurance policies on his two
sons, Dale and George, from 81 500
70 S2,500. The parents were bene-
ficiaries under the policies.
To Get Protection
Il did it to get more protection,
he explained.
Ignorance in the use of the poi
son leads authorities TO a possible
theory that a young person might
have loaded the sandwiches with
death For it is pointed out that
II would have been much easier to
have used the poison without cap
sules and less chance Of immediate
discovery.
Capsules that rolled out of sand
Wiches ct the picnic resulted in the
immediate discovery that they had
been poisoned.
technical custody, pending the fu-
neral