The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-29
HUNT HOODLUM
AND z WOMEN
FOR GRILL|NG
Detroit Underworld Figure
Holds Key to Lawyers
Killing, Is Belief.
PHONE CALLS TRACED
Taxi Drivers Story InvoIv.
ing GangSter Correct,
Detectives Say.
Copyright. 1885. by United Press,

DETROIT, June 29.-Wil-
liam Sweitzer, member of the
Detroit underworld and
wanted for questioning in
connection with the murder
of Howard Carter Dickinson,
prominent New York attorney
and nephew Of Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, was
reported today to have left
his hideout and to be fleeing
in precipitate haste.
Sweitzer, known to police under
many aliases as an underworld
hanger-on and procurer, was the
chief police hope of solving the
murder of the eminently respectable
lawyer whose body, with bullet
wounds in the head and chest, was
found in Rouge Park Thursday
morning. Every resource Of De-
troit and state police was concen-
trated upon finding him.
Two friends of the hunted man
were taken into custody last night
and questioned for hours. They
were believed to have provided au-
thentic information on the time
Sweitzer decided Detroit was be-
coming too hot" and the direc-
&c hi frIa IL ArI
driving a Hupmobile.
Police investigated a report that a
Hupmobile bearing false license
numbers drove away last night from
a filling station at Mount Clemens,
Mich, 20 miles from here, after the
driver failed to pay for gasoline.
The attendant took the license
number, issued for a Ford car.
Tells Story of Party"
Police also sought two women
on the basis of information provided
by taxi driver, Andrew Smygen,
who said Sweitzer told him
Wednesday night that he and two
women were having a party" with
big shot lawyer from New York
at the Book Cadillac who has
plenty dough-"
Mr.. Dickinson, here in connec-
ton with a suit about to be filed
against the estate of William H.
Yawkey, lumberman, was stopping
at the Book Cadillac Hotel. He was
last seen leaving the hotel Wednes-
day night, 10 hours before his body
was found in the park.
The wanted girls were known to
police only as "Bobbie," who has red
hair and is about "a years old, and
Florence" a brunette, about 81.
They were in Sweitzer's room at the
Detroiter Hotel. Two calls from
DickinSon's room in the Book Cadil-
lac were made to the Detroiter early
Wednesday evening.
Brief Case Clew Checked
One of the women, it was said,
fitted the description of the woman
who checked Dickinson's brief case
at the package room of the Book.
Cadillac Hotel eight hours after his
body was found. This mysterious
angle of one of the most puzzling
murder mysteries in Detroit police
history completely bafled detec-
tives.
Mrs. Elizabeth Carmichael With
erSpoon, formerly professional
actress, who is planning the huge
suit against the Yawkey estate on
the claim that she is Mr.. Yawkey'S
daughter, announced she was COM
pletely puzzled by the circumstances
OF Mr.. Dickinson's death. His MUIR
der, she said, seriously endangered
her case.
Mr.. Dickinson's legal associates
here said his contacts with Sweitzer
were undoubtedly professional, con-
cerned with the investigation he
was making of Mrs. Witherspoon's
claims against the Yawkey estate.
Sweitzer was known to police
under many aliases, though Sweitz-
er is his correct name. He was
tried and acquitted on a murder
charge in 1880.
Warrants May Be Asked
So certain we're police that he
and the missing woman held the
key of the mystery that Fred w.
Frahm, chief of detectives, said he
might ask for a warrant today
charging him with the crime. The
taxi drivers information, he said,
had been closely checked and was
true.
Mr.. Dickinson came to Detroit
Tuesday. Wednesday he conferred
with legal associates. Wednesday
night he left the Book Cadillac
Hotel, apparently to keep an en-
gagement. and was not seen alive
again. His body was found in the
park at 5:45 a. m. Thursday. He
apparently had been shot elsewhere
and the body taken to where it
was found in an automobile.
Although he was reported to have
been carrying a large sum of
money and his purse was missing.
robbery was not believed the motive.
His body was fully clothed except
for hat, coat and vest. The coat
and vest we're found in roadside
bitches about mile apart. Both
had bullet holes, showing they had
been stripped from him after he
was shot.