The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-05-04

same night carrying a pie. Bull
lets extracted from two young
girls and a fourth victim were
also identical.
Mr.. Riedel, who was 81 and the
father Of two children, apparently
had no enemies. Police were un-
able to establish a motive for the
killing-and despite their vigi-
lance, the killer was never caught.
Mary E. Sheads
On the night of May "a, 1884,
John Bethea, an elevator operator
in a fashionable apartment house
in the 200 block Sixteenth st. N.
w., went to the apartment Of Miss
Mary Elizabeth Sheads, 67-year-olo
retired school teacher, to inVesti-
gate reports of tenants that
screams had been heard coming
from her apartment.
A passing traffic policeman
who observed Bethea climbing up
the fire escape joined him and
both entered Miss Shead's apart
ment together.
They found the ex-school teacher
Sprawled on the floor Of her bed
room, her clothes almost torn
from her body and deep scratches
on her face which was purple from
strangulation. She had also been
struck on the head with a heavy
instrument. The room was in the
greatest disorder. Chairs were
overturned and it was evident the
woman had fought desperately for
her life.
At first the police thought rob-
berry was the motive. But when
they failed to find anything miss
ing, the mystery deepened.
Bits of hair and. flakes of skin
found under the dead woman's
nails were turned over to the
District microanalysist, who said
they belonged to a "light-skinned
colored man."
Mrs. Mary Diggs, who lived in
an apartment in the 2400 block
Sixteenth st. N. w., reported that
few hours preceding the muir.
der she had observed a tall col
ored man, who carried his shoes,
prowling around on the roof of an
adjoining garage. She screamed,
she said, and the man fled.
Used Fire Escape
Miss Sheads was killed, accord
ing to police, sometime between
9:15 and 10 o'clock Thursday
night. She talked with her cousin,
Lynina SheadS, 10, at $50 and at
9:15 she talked to DR.. Parsons on
the telephone.
It was almost 10 o'clock when
the elevator operator in the apart
ment house, John Bethea, q,
colored, decided to investigate re-
ports of residents that they heard
screams from Miss SheadS' rooms
and that they heard the bottom
section Of the fire escape ladder
clank to the earth.
A passing traffic policeman,
Officer Randall, saw the elevator
operator Chamber up the fire
escape and with him entered the
Sheads apartment to find her
body SpraWled beside the bed.
The intruder had obviously
entered through the open window
leading to the fire escape on the
fifth floor.
Miss Sheads was native of
Gettysburg, Pa. She started her
career as a school teacher in
1889. She was cited for valor and
bravery by the Board of Educa-
ton in 1927 when she saved two
young pupils from the Bryan
School when the building was
struck by a tornado tearing the
roof from one of the portable
buildings. Her case is marked
"unsolved."
Paul Andrew Rice
Robbery was also the motive for
the Staying of Paul Andrew Rice,
40, who was found face down
ward on the Anacostia golf
course about 10 o'clock on the
morning OF May ~.
Rice, an employee of the Wash
ington Terminal Company, lived
in the 800 block N st. N. E.
He had few friends, police learned,
though he was said to have car
ried large sums Of money.
When he was found, his head
crushed by a blow from behind,
he had only 3 cents in his pockets.
AS Detective Sergt. George Oar
nell, chief of the homicide squad
reconstructed the crime, Rice was
struck as he walked the path. The
killer, not content with the first
blow, which landed on the base Of
the skull and would have resulted
in his death, struck again and
again.
It was learned that Rice had
left his home at Z p. m. the night
before to visit a house near the
links. That was the last seen OF
him until his body was found by
a caddy the next morning.
Though to all appearances these
murders have not been solved,
the police never give up. Some
times the evidence is not Suffi-
GENTLY strong to accuse an indi-
vidual, but sooner or later the
missing links may fit into the
chain of evidence and the case is
completed.
Then the police move-quickly
surely - without warning - as
was done in the Lindbergh case.
| And the rtnilnderer is h1.oiinht To