Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-17
BY ARTHUR b. REEVE,

(N.A.N.A).-Faced down on the beach at
Caunlsett, 1,600-acre show-place estate
OF Marshall Field, I'd, on bloyd's Neck,
the body of murdered man was found
at o'clock yesterday morning the
tides of Long Island Sound having as
gorged as bizarre mystery as ever
"Craig Kennedy" tackled in Q, score OF
years in fiction.
week ago last night was burning
the midnight electricity in my STUDY at
Harbor Point, Center Island, that looks
across at Caumsett. / had just tnlshed
putting the finishing touches on book.
To a chapter entitled America leads
fhe world in crime" had just added
a revision: "Crime Is not something
merely statistical today. AT any mo
ment it may thrust its grizzly nead 1nto
your own peaceful, law oldlng ne.
was tired. ] looked o,, OUT sSro @,,s 81
should be Lloyd's Neck, turned on the
light and went to bed.
Within an hour there was peng en-
acted. out on that haZe-ridden water,
a graphic confirmation of my own OIL
reneated cynical observation that we
NAV look forward now to bigger ana
better murders. At the beginning OF
the Summer and of the book, 1 was
summoned to leave it for the stili I'M
sSlved starr Faithful case IN the DARK
some surf of the ocean. NOW, al tne
end of the Summer and OF w. pooA, Az
is the BENJAMIN Ceilings murder III tne
murky Weakness of the Sound.
C:ll From Canoe Heard.
Last wednesday night the Collingses,
husband and wife and 5-year-oIo
daughter, barbara, lay peacefully at
anchor in their cabin cruiser, the zen.
gum. off Prices Bend, in the haroor OF
Northport. perhaps 10 or IL miles away
from my home. They we're ABOUT TO
retire when they heard a canoe scrape
the size of the cruiser and call
Ceilings slipped on suit OF cover
alls and went on deck in ais pare leeV'
to find a man whom Mrs. Ceilings de-
scribes as about so and boy OF about
18 demanding that they ferry
wounded or injured companion across
the sound to q hospital at NorWalk,
Conn. Now, there is an excellent hos
pital in Huntington, only few miles
from Northport, on Long Island, to the
west. to say nothing of the great New
York State Hospital for the Insane
few miles to the east.
That's the last we shall hear OF the
wounded companion" in this story
verging on insanity, for when Ceilings
lights. the older man offered 500 for
the Job, climbed on the deck and few
moments later apparently -comman-
6eered the Penguin and starteo--well,
where did he go?
Mrs. Ceilings says she heard her hus-
band say finally, "That's not Norwalk:
that's Stanford" Getting mere and
more confused, the story, as she tells 1t,
recites that she heard from the cabin
blow, scuff1e on deck and her hus-
bands voice: They're tieing me upi"
shout: They're throwing me in the
water followed by splash.
Galvanized Into Action.
Then for the first time she seems to
have been galvanized into action. she
seized an inflated air mattress and
showed it out through portfolio as
possible nfe-raft for the bound man.
One of the so-called pirates" she says,
fished the mattress from the water with
a boat hook and deposited 1t in the
tender of the Penguin.
Just then, she says, the lights Of an
approaching boat appeared in the haze.
The two pirates forced Mrs. Ceilings
to go over the high sides of the cruiser
| into the low canoe, she continues, then
themselves got in, together with duf1e-
bag which contained at least half Q
dozen blankets. That's no mean feat OF
seamanship.
Now, all this time on beard the PEN
gum 5-year-oid Barbara was sleeping,
or waking and sleeping, apparently url-
afraid Mrs. Ceilings in implicit ODE
dience to the behest Of her husband, as
she tells it, followed his words: do
whatever these men tell ycu." She left
her child, left untouched .32-caliber
automatic and two boxes of cartridges,
as well as bowie knife-an OF Wnlcn
lay within easy reach in the cabin
throughout the enactment OF the
tragedy.
The two pirates" padded away from
the approaching boat in the haze unob-
served by those on the boat. Approach
ing Oyster Bay, the younger man Is al
legged to have jumped out on some mats
and waded ashore. Mrs. Ceilings de-
scrilbed what happened yariously, f1rst
/ as nothing at all, then as having been
offered indignities by the elder man.
then as having been mistreated.
Left Alone on Boat.
| with the denouement of this strange
| interlude she was left alone on the
Bo-Peep. small motor boat belonging
to a prominent resident of Cove Neck
and anchored of that point.
In a most kindly manner, 1t appears
| the elderly pirate left her six blankets
and padded off, Later the canoe was
picked UP and found to have been stolen
of the beach of Miner Crary, on Duck
| Island, near the point of the beginning
Of this narrative in Northport. bay
man of oyster Bay heard Mrs. Ceilings
| call for help at dawn and the mystery
was on the front page.
q
| lings is, 1t is surpassed by the grimneSI
| of the discovery yesterday morning OF
| the body of her husband trussed up hand
| and foot with a half-inch rope that
| pulled hands and feet together behind
him, making even treading water almost
| impossible; with head Dashed in, with
wounds on the throat and decorations on
the forearm and elsewhere.
Ceilings was clad in the brown over
alls just as she related. In fact just
about what must have happened to him
| was indicated by her story, except that
| it is difficult to believe that man with
| a head blow like that would still have
been conscious enough to talk when
| he was thrown in the water. However
we will let that pass for the moment.
Two Leading Possibilities.
What took place on those silent black
| waters of the sound week ago last
| night to help America lead the world in
| crimes? Well. there are two outstanding
J possibilities pending the scientific find
1 ing of Dr. Otto H. Schultz, medical
/ adviser to the district attorney of New
| York who has been retained in thi,
| case both by the authorities of Suffolk
County, where the murder seems tc
have taken place, and of Nassau County
where the kidnapping, If such it was
occurred. However, these possibilities
may be expanded or modified by DR.
Schultz, who l consider great medi-
co-legal expert. He Is the greatest au-
topsist in the world, and no celebrated
case can be even remotely complies
without him.
"Pirates?" I do not think so. TIC