The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-09-26
REVENGE limited
AS MOTIVE FOR
PIRACY MURDER
Quiz Swings to Nurse Who
Is Said to Have CIeW to
Ceilings SIayers.

DN tNtEfQ FGCSS
JERSEY CITY, N. j.. Sept. 90
Police reports that local nurse had
said she knew two men who had
good reason" to kill BENJAMIN P.
Ceilings brought investigators here
today as the inquest at Huntington,
L. L, into the Ceilings pirate muir
der" was to be resumed.
Assistant District ATTORNEY Fred
j. Munder of Suffolk county, N. Y,
and Felix Di Martini, noted private
investigator, hurried early today to
question Miss Leonora MutteH,
middle-aged nurse, residing aboard
a yacht with an elderly man de-
scribed as her foster father. DR..
Alden Muttert.
The woman was quoted by Lieu
tenant Henry Gauthire of the local
police as having knowledge of
father and son in Jersey City who
had reason for wanting to kill Col
ings, whose mysterious death has
not been solved after two weeks of
inquiry.
Nurse Fears For Life
The Huntington investigators
were joined here by Gauthier and
other local police officers. The
group proceeded to the Pavonia
yacht club, where the cabin cruiser
occupied by Muttert and his foster
daughter lay at anchor.
Gauthier was said to have talked
to the nurse Friday afternoon,
when she first intimated a knowl-
edge of Ceilings murderers. She
would not give any details regard
ing the two men, however, saying
she would be bumped off-my life
wouldn't be worth anything" if she
talked.
Later she informed him her at
torney had advised her to say moth
ing.
The second meeting had been ar
ranged at the first aboard the
yacht.
Later Friday night Gauthier, ac-
companied by other Jersey City and
police officials, rowed out
to the yacht but the doctor ordered
them not to board. The police re-
turned to the city to obtain IA
search warrant.
Illegal Operation Hinted
They could think of no valid rea-
son for a search warrant, so in a
drizzling rain they stood later to-
day in front of an apartment in
which the nurse rested, waiting for
something to happen.
The nurse insisted she would not
admit them there, warrant or no
warrant.
One of the questions Gauthier
asked Miss Muttert concerned a
doctor supposed to have performed
an illegal operation on a young
Italian girl of this city.
The girl, believed to have died
from the operation, was said to be-
long to family in which the father,
mother and two brothers were liv-
ing.
Widow Repeats Story
The lack of an apparent motive
in Ceilings murder has made the
case standing mystery. Even the
dead mans attractive young widow
was unable to furnish any clew to
a possible motive in her five-hour
account at the Huntington inquest
Friday-an ordeal which resulted in
her partial collapse.
Ceilings was killed the night of
Sept. 10 aboard the yacht Penguin
in Long Island sound. Two 'pi-
rates. one an elderly man and one
younger, boarded, beat the retired
engineer, tied him and threw him
overheard, to drown, she said. Then
they took Mrs. Ceilings away in a
canoe, leaving her child, Barbara,
alone on the Penguin, to drift help
less until rescued.
Mrs. Ceilings was found aban-
doned in a motorboat, the Bo-Peep,
in the morning, across the sound
from where the Penp11in was located