The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-12-06
WANDERWELL,
FAMED GLOBE
G|RDLER, SLAIN
World Traveller Shot Down
in Cabin of Ship as He
Studies Charts.
KILLER MAKES ESCAPE
Bullet Through Heart From
Behind Ends Long and
CoIorfuI Career.

BIZ nfted Press
LONG BEACH, Cal, Dec. GA
background of wartime espionage
was developed by police today as
they sought the mysterious slayer Of
Wanderwell, professional globe
trotter.
Wanderwell was shot in the back
as he pored over sea charts in the
cabin of his schooner Monday night.
He was about to embark on another
of his cruises for landlubbers to re-
mote places.
From secret service operatives, po-
lice learned that Wanderwell's real
name was Valfrian Johannes
Pieczynski. He was arrested as a
German spy during the war and
sent to the Atlanta penitentiary He
and his wife we're arrested in 1925
and charged with illegally wearing
German uniforms.
Slain at Table
Wanderwell travel club organizer
who knew the obscure trails Of al
most every country, was slain as
he sat at a table Uttered with
charts of the South Sea Islands
His two small children were asleep
in the same cabin of his schooner,
the "Carma."
Four members of the party which
he planned to take on a world tour,
to begin in few days. sat playing
cards in another cabin, only ten
feet away.
Suddenly, they said a stranger
appeared in the doorway of their
cabin.
Where's the shippers cabin" he
asked.
They told him. A moment later
they heard a shot. Rushing to
Wanderwell's cabin, they found him
dead, shot through the heart from
behind. The stranger had van
ished. A pistol lay on the floor
near the globe trotter's chair.
No Trace of Killer
A search of the 110-foot craft
revealed no trace of the slayer. Yet
Cuthbert Mills. chief engineer; Ed
mund zeranski, cameraman; Miss
Marian Smith, Atlanta, Ga, and
Miss Mary Parks, Boston, Wander
wells secretary, the card players,
were sure the man could not have
reached the dock in the brief mo-
ment that elapsed between the time
they heard the shot and reached
the cabin of the slain man.
Police held the four, and, with
them, twelve other members of the
cruise party, who returned to the
schooner soon after police had
reached the scene.
They planned to check finger
prints on the pistol with those of
members of the party. Police Lieu
tenant Ralph G. Witler, in charge
of the inquiry, said there was evil
dence that there had been diSsen-
sion among some elements" of the
captains party. He refused to en-
large upon this statement.
Wife is Absent
The captains wife, the former
Aloha Hall, was in Hollywood at
the time of the Staying, it was an
nounced. She was said to have
been negotiating for a contract for
news reels to be made of the world
trip
Wanderwell served in the World
war with the Y. M. G. A. In Bel
GUM he met Aloha Hail. She was
of Canadian family that had
lived in Hawaii-hence her name.
Together they toured by automo-
bile all the continents, trip that
lasted eight years, and covered u.s.
900 miles.
In 1927 the Wanderwells began
commercializing their globe trotting
on a large scale. Mrs. Wanderwell
took leading part in those VEN
lures.
The Wanderwells Travelled in
small cars stripped to point where
only chassis, wheels and motor re-
manned. In each town and hamlet
they visited, they asked a hotel
and travel organization to attach
a metal tag on the machine. The
whole body of their car was ar
mored with these tags after each
trip.