Evening star., 1933-02-16
!!ECKLUND'S Staying
DESCRIBED IN COURT
by EYEW|TNESSES
Four Persons Give Accounts
of Shooting in Attempted
Pay Roll Robbery.
CONFESSIONS REPUDIATED
IN SIMMS MURDER TRIAL
Attorneys Claim Accused Pair
Were Beaten by Police Before
Admitting Killing.

Eyewitness accounts Of the fatal
shooting of Elmer H. Ecklund in an at
tempted pay roll robbery near the new
House Ofice Building January 20, were
given in District Supreme Court this
morning. as the trial Of four men
charged with first degree murder, went
into its second day.
Meanwhile, in another division Of the
court, attorneys for two other men
charged with first degree murder In
connection with the Staying January %
of William Simms, 65-year-old watch
man, In the burglary Of the Dickey
Bros. feed store, Benning, sought to
have alleged confessions, made by their
clients to police, suppressed. 1t was
claimed the two defendants, Joe Good
man and George Mckinley Pitmond
both colored were beaten to make them
admit the killing.
Patman's Secretary on Stand.
In the Ecklund trial four witnesses
testified they saw two colored men run
from the scene of the shooting Rus
sell CLANCY, secretary to Representative
Patman of Texas, told the jury he saw
Ecklund shot. He said Fewell Work
man, one Of the defendants, was one of
the two colored men who ran from the
scene with guns in their hands and got
into waiting taxicab which took them
away.
Other witnesses testifying this morn
ing, who were at the scene and either
saw the shooting or saw the men run
ming away, were Phillip Oscar Keefer
and Albert Coates.
Other defendants in the case are
Albert Ernest Cash and Everett Lee
Blackwell, who, the Government claims,
plotted with the two colored defendants
to commit the hold-up and steal the
Stumm, who was wounded In the hold
up, were carrying.
The case Is being heard before Justice
the murder of Simms is before Chief
Justice Alfred A. Wheat.
In the Simms case the Government
was expected to close sometime this
afternoon. The prosecution probably
will not have completed its presentation
Of the Ecklund case until tomorrow.
Stumm Tells Of Shooting.
Assisted by trained nurse, Harry
Stumm, who was wounded during the
attempted hold-up and Is still being
treated at Providence Hospital. took
the stand late yesterday and told of
the shooting.
Standing, Stumm pointed to Myers
and said: That's the man who shot
me-"
Pointing to Workman, he said,
that's the man who shot Ecklund"
Under cross-examination, Stunm was
positive in his identification of Myers
and Workman as the men who fired
the shots.
Eleven-year-o Donald Dufrane, 6
D street southeast, testified he saw
yers and Workman running from the
scene with guns in their hands. He
also identified Blackwell as the man
who signalled to a waiting taxicab
and shouted get behind that automo-
bile" to the two colored men as they
were fleeing.
Although he testified he had identi-
ned the driver of the taxicab to police,
the boy was unable to pick him out
in court.
The two colored defendants also were
Identified by William w. McQueeney,
Takoma Park, Md, as having run from
the scene of the shooting. He said one
OF them held a gun in his hand.
The entire morning yesterday was
consumed in selecting jury and the
prosecutors statement to the jury was
not made until afternoon. The court
adjourned after hearing the boys testi-
mony.