The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-08-22

N-'N -
made timely By the Smith
Reynolds tragedy IN North
Carolina.
BIZ YEA Service
1--WE years ago tall young
Il aviator who had been
World war pilot in the British
army and a diminutive, but nervy,
young woman who had been in an
airplane only once before in her
life, took off from London on
13,000-mile flight across open seas
and burning deserts to Australia.
In the same year young news
paper man, whose mother was a
professor of Journalism in Miami,
Fla, reached the age of 81 and
turned to broader fields of writing.
Last February, fate--or some
mysterious and inscrutable destiny
drew these three lives together.
A sinister love triangle developed,
soon to be followed by grim
tragedy.
Ten weeks after their meeting
the young journalist was dead, the
aviator was charged with his MUIR
der and half -hysterical woman
was trying to explain to police
how she had loved both men, but
had found it difficult to choose
between them.
So runs the thread of Florida's
most sensational love triangle. lust
brought to climax at Miami with
the trial Of Capt. William N. Lam
caster, "a, former British fighting
pilot.
He was charged with numbering
Haden Clarke, 26-year-old Miami
journalist, for the love of Mrs.
Jessie Keith-Miller, world famous
Australian aviatrix, his flying
companion for five years.
Captain Lancaster's defense was
that Clarke had committed sui
eide because Of dependency. The
jury returned a verdict of not
guilty after celebrating nearly
i've hours, generating the noted
fiier Of the states charge that
he slew Clarke because of jeal-
ousy The verdict was cheered by
courtroom spectators.
ELORIDA'S sensational love tri-
Il angle closely resembles the
Libby Holman Smith Reynolds-Ab
Walker tragedy in North Carolina.
A man died, shot through
the head in the middle of the
night, the friend accused of MUIR
dering him claims it was a case of
suicide, and the whole thing turns
on the alleged love of two men for
the same woman.
Haden Clarke, the Journalist.
had been commissioned by Capt.
Lancaster and Mrs. Keith Miller,
famed flierS, to write the story of
their adventurous lives in book
form.
He was working on the first
chapter, their daring flight from
England to Australia he
never lived to write the last, for
which his own' mysterious death
would have provided a sensational
climax.
With all the keen imagination
OF a novelist, Clarke perhaps
could not have contrived a fic-
tional murder mystery" stranger
than his own.
Here are circumstances adduced
in court:
During Captain Lancaster's alb
sences, Clarke and Mrs. Keith
Miller had fallen in love while
working on their book.
Lancaster, hearing of their
plans for marriage, wired them
his best wishes and asked the
couple to defer the ceremony I'M
til he could return and serves as
best man.
Next day Lancaster flew in from
st. Louis, they met him at the
Miami airport and drove him to q.
Mrs. Keith-Millers house, where
all three lived.
AT o'clock the following
"A morning, Clarke was mys-
teriously shot through the head
with a pistol that Lancaster had
bought in st. Louis. Lancaster,
whose bed was in the same room,
declared it was suicide, that he
had been awakened by the shot.
Nearby were found two type
written notes, signed in pencil
with Haden Clarke'S name. The
notes said he was respondent,
that he was committing suicide.
Lancaster and Mrs. Keith-Miller
were arrested, questioned and re-
leased. She declared that Clarke
had several times threatened to
kill himself and that once they
had discussed a suicide pact.
Eleven days later Lancaster
again was in Jail, this time on
a charge of murder.
A handwriting expert, employed
by the local prosecutor, had pro-
nounced the notes forgeries. They
had not been written by Clarke.
Lancaster then admitted he
forged the death notes. He ex-
planned that he had realized
quickly that the circumstantial
evidence was against him, that he
had to do something.
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