Evening star., 1935-10-16
.REAGUER CHARGED.
WITH HBR|DE KILLING.
Grand Jury Action Soon to
Follow Verdict of Cor.
oner's Jury.

oner's Jury.
Early grand jury action was predict
ed today in the case Of w. H. Reaguer,
50-year-old Culpeper, Va, undertaken,
who has been charged with murder
following an inquest into the fatal
slashing of Mrs. Willie Mae Wood, 81,
in a downtown hotel here early Satur-
day.
Authorities said they expected to
present the evidence to the grand jury
next week. Meanwhile, Reaguer has
been transferred from Gallinger Hos
pital, where he had been held under
guard since the murder, to the District
jail after being booked on the murder
charge.
In lengthy session yesterday the
coroners jury heard more than a
dozen witnesses while crowds of rela-
tives and acquaintances of those giving
testimony stood outside the stuffy
Morgue, from which they were barred
by lack of space.
DecilncS 70 TAKE STAND.
The middle-aged undertaken, who
looked more like rugged, weather.
beaten farmer. sat stoldly between his
defense counsel during the hearing and
declined to take the stand when all
witnesses had been heard. This is a
privilege optional with the defendant.
The jury arrived Immediately at its
verdict.
Bandages about Reaguer's wrist were
the only apparent traces Of his attempt
at suicide following the murder.
He was found in the hotel room be-
side the almost decapitated body Of
the young woman, his wrist and up
per arm slashed with the same knife
which had killed Mrs. Wood.
Seventeen -year-old Anna O'Ban-
non, business school student and
cousin Of the murdered girl, told the
jury how the undertaken forced them
to come to Washington from Gull
peper by threatening their lives with
a loaded shotgun he kept on the back
seat of their car.
The pretty, blond school girl said
Reaguer had threatened to kill her
cousin and end his own life if Mrs.
Wood ever went back to her husband
of three weeks, Herbert R. Wood of
Fairfax County, an employe Of the
Virginia Highway Department.
Girl Registered for Trio.
The O'Bannon girl testified she
promised her cousin she would never
leave her and went with the couple
to the hotel, where she registered
for the three as H. L. Thomas and
party of Richmond, Va" because
Reaguer and Mrs. Wood were too
nervous" to register.
The girl told of occupying an ad-
joining room in which she was awak-
ened early Saturday by the frantic
screams of her cousin, which came
in through the door and windows,
through the wall, so loudly I couldn't
tell who was screaming or what di-
rection they were coming from"
The dead girls mother, Mrs. James
Fletcher, wife of tenant farmer, tes-
titled her daughter had been going
about with" Reaguer for years, and
he had given her ring. money and
an automobile. She denied she had
told Detective Sergt. Aubrey Tolson
that Reaguer offered to buy her
daughter an automobile if she could
be persuaded to break I'd her mar
riage with Wood.
Miss O'Bannon said Reaguer alter
nately protested his love for Mrs.
Wood, planned to 60 to Reno so that
both of them could be divorced and
threatened their lives during the ride
to Washington. Reaguer is a mar
ried man with two grown daughters.
Former Threat Related.
Mrs. Fletcher testified that Reaguer
had threatened Woods life with shot
gun during quarrel at the Fletcher
farm shortly before her daughters
marriage.
Wood took the stand and told of a
trip he had taken to Dayton, Ohio, to
visit the gorl's uncle some time prior
to their marriage. 1t previously had
been testified that the girl wired
Reaguer for money during this trip
and he sent the required sum.
Police assigned to investigate the
murder said Reaguer had given them
no statement following his arrest.
A surprise witness, Policeman
Charles r. Burnett Of No. / precinct,
testified, however, that Reaguer vol
unfairly confessed the murder to him
as he was guarding the prisoner in
Gallinger Hospital yesterday morning.
Burnett quoted Reaguer as saying
Mrs. Wood attacked him with a water
pitcher and that he then switched on
the lights in their room and used the
knife which he found lying on the
sheets. Reaguer, according to the
policeman, said Mrs. Wood apparently
had removed the knife from his vest
pocket in the darkness.
The O'Bannon girl admitted she and
Mrs. Wood had come on to Washington
with Reaguer as much from fear that
Wood would learn they were with
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