Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-26
z CENSUS CLERKS
COURTED At SAME
TIME BY W|MBLEy
Rejection by One and Mar
rage to Other Detailed in
River Deaths.
MISS MAUSER, II, GIVES
STORY IN OKLAHOMA
Miss Graves, in Missouri, Reveals
Details as Third Wife-Fifty
Grand Jury Witnesses.

harry e. Wimbley, 32-year-ol3 ex-
Soloier, accused by police of drowning
his wife and baby stepdaughter, court
ed two young Census Bureau clerks at
the same time, proposed marriage to
both and was accepted by one, the
police disclosed today.
The story of Wimbley's amours was
pieced together by police from informa-
ton obtained from the two women
Ida Mae Graves. %, of Exeter. Mo.
who became Wimbley's third wife. and
Flo Mauser, 81, of Hanna, Okla, who
turned him down.
Miss Graves who married Wimbley
at Rockville last April under the name
of Howard c. Dickerson, told a story of
a girl who was rushed off her feet by a
seemingly worldly man of affairs. &C
cording to Detective Sergt. Robert
Barrett, who interviewed her at
CaSsville, Mo.
similar tale, only minus the mar
rage. was related to Oklahoma au-
thoritieS by Miss Mauser, who is now
teaching school at Hanna. Washington
detectives asked the Hanna chief of
police to interrogate the woman after
they had received reports she too had
married Wimbley, or Dickerson.
Met Both In February.
Both women, who left the Census
Bureau here early this Summer, met
Wimbley in February, they said. Miss
Graves became acquainted with the
accused man at dance at Walter Reed
Hospital, while Miss Mauser was intro
duced to him by a mutual friend,
according to police.
After Wimbley began counting Miss
Graves, she said, he conflded that he
had discarded the name Wimbley for
Dickerson after being discharged from
the Marine Corps.
The courtship continued throughout
the Spring and on April Miss Graves
became his third wife, the ceremony
being performed at Christ Episcopal
Church, Rockville. She said she knew
nothing of Mrs. Elizabeth Traylor VIM
bley, 26, his second wife, who was
drowned September II in the CheSa-
peake & Ohio Canal with her daughter,
Wilma Traylor, 3, or his divorced first
wife. Mrs. Lulu M. Wimbley OF Balti-
mere.
After their marriage, the couple
rented basement apartment and lived
happily at 301 c street, Miss Graves
said.
Except for the fact he never worked,
her husband. was an ideal mate, she
said. staying at home and cooking their
meals, washing the dishes and doing
the homework, while she worked all
day at the Census Bureau.
On the first and fifteenth of every
month she turned over her Govern
ment pay envelope to her husband and
never questioned what he did with the
money.
Given $200 at Parting.
The only time she ever saw Wimbley
with any money, other than what she
gave him, Miss Graves said, was on the
Monday prior to the drowning of Mrs.
Wimbley and Wilma, when her husband
gave her 5000, which he said he had
borrowed, and put her on a train for
her home in Missouri. They agreed at
the time to meet either in Cassville or
Springfield, Mo-, she said.
She never again heard from her hus-
band, Miss Graves said She told De-
tectiVe Barrett that the first she learned
of the double drowning was last Sunday
when she was taken into custody at
Cassville for questioning by Washing
ton police. It was not until then, she
said, that her mother knew of her
marriage.
That Wimbley took out a 81, 900 in
surance policy on her life, naming him.
self as beneficiary, shortly after their
marriage, was confirmed by Miss Graves.
She said that upon her return home.
however, she substituted her mothers
name for that of her husband
Miss Graves was released after the
questioning and will not be detained
by police, according to Detective Sergt.
James F. Springmann, in charge of the
homicide squad, which investigated the
mysterious drowning. Springmann said
Miss Graves signifled a willingness to
come here whenever summoned to tes-
tify.
Meanwhile, Springmann has assem-
bled a list of more than so witnesses,
whom he plans to call before the grand
jury early in october when indictments
for first-degree murder viii be sought
against Wimbley and his companion,
John Crowder, "a. Both are being
held without bond in District Jail.