Evening star., 1935-09-13
ROGERS RELEASED
ON BAIL IN DEATH
OF TORCH SINGER
Posts $500 Bond as
Probe Continues to Point
Toward Suicide.
INQUEST SCHEDULED
FOR LATE NEXT WEEK
Mother Comes to Aid of Rich Son
and Father of Miss Hoey
Retains Attorney.

copyright. 1873. by the Associated PreSs)
WEST CHESTER, Pa, September
l3.-Henry Huddleston Rogers. Sd,
fingerprinted and under bond OF 81
500, was released today from the jail
where he has been held since early
Thursday in connection with the death
at his farm home Of the singing ac-
tress. Evelyn Hoey.
Freed with him was William ].
Kelly, young free-lance movie CAM
eraman. Kelly, with Miss Hoey. was
a house guest at the farm, Indian
Run, when the shooting-now consid-
cred by investigators as probably sui
cide-occurred Wednesday evening.
Mrs. Benjamin Rogers, first wife Of
the late Standard Oil multi-million-
aire, Col Henry Huddlestonl Rogers.
I'd, and mother of young Rogers, was
in town when her son, haggard, worn
and extremely nervous. emerged; but
she did not appear at the jail.
Inquest Next Thursday.
Bond of S2,500 was fixed by Judge
w. Butler Windle of Chester County
after counsel for Rogers and the dis
trict attorney had agreed upon the
amount.
The bonds are to assure the pres
ence of Rogers and Kelly at the in
quest next Wednesday or Friday into
the 25-year-old actress strange death.
1t was explained that there are no
charges against either man.
In announcing that bail would be
allowed. District Attorney William
Parke cautioned that the two men
must not leave Pennsylvania without
special permission from him. This
permission has not yet been sought,
he said.
Rogers was still wearing the farm
clothes he had on Wednesday night
when. after hours Of drinking and
quarreling. he was found, supported
by two men. on the lawn Of the farm
house in an upstairs bed room Of
which the girl lay dead.
Suicide Threatened.
His necktie and belt were taken
from him last night following ex-
pressions of fear that he might at
tempt to take his own life.
Let me have a gun, so I can kill
myself, too" he was quoted by Farmer
Claude Battin as having said. Battin
was present when the shooting oc-
CURED. 1t was Battin's story. strongly
bolstering Rogers and Kelley's ac-
counts, that strengthened ofhcial be-
lief today that the girl had killed her
self.
The girls parents. however. and
many of her friends refuse to accept
the suicide theory, despite the circum-
stances of the gun at her feet and
the evidence that she was alone in
the room at the time. The HoeyS
engaged Morris Ernst, prominent New
York criminal lawyer and we'll known
liberal, to represent them.
A battery Of counsel. headed by
James w. Gerard, former Ambassador
to Germany, has been active in the
interests Of Rogers.
Wife Rumored on Scene.
There we're reports, lacking confir-
nation, that Rogers young wife. the
former Virginia Lincoln of Cleveland,
Ohio, to whom he was married in 1929,
had arrived here. Other sources, how
ever, said she was in seclusion in
Cleveland.
Mrs. Henry J. Hoey. mother of Eve
lyn, remains under the care of a ply
sician at her New York apartment.
Her husband, st. Louis, Mo, drug
gist. few in from the West today.
The body Of the girl who is best re-
membered by night club and theater
patrons as the honey-haired. blue-eyed
singer of the song What Is This
Thing Called Love-" is held at a
morgue here. The autopsy was COM
pleted yesterday, but the results of
the examination remain to be an
nounced.
Girl Seemed Sober.
One of the points the investigators
sought to clear up through the au-
topsy was whether Miss Hoey, like
Rogers, was intoxicated. A statement
by the Rogers chauffeur butler, Frank
Catalano. said she did not appear in
toxicated when he saw her 20 minutes
(see ROGERS. Page ~