The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-24

gree, you are JuSIlllcu Ill I'LL
may be expected, for if
nothing is done we may ex-
pect to recur just such in
cidents as that which re-
suited in the maltreatment
and death of Shoemaker"
Under the vigor of these in
structions the grand jury was
ready to act.
On Dec. 10 Sheriff Mcleod ar
rested Sergt. Brown and Police
men Robert Chappell, G. w. Car
Isle, Sam E. Crosby. John Bridges
and F. w. Switzer, charging them
with the murder of Joseph A.
Shoemaker and felonious assaults
on Eugene F. Poulnot and Sam D.
Rogers.
THE next day Robert Cargell,
II a st. Petersburg attorney,
picked Switzer out of a lineup of
20 prisoners in the county Jail
and identified him as a member
of a gang which had seized him
on the streets of the neighboring
city, carried him out into the
country and mutilated him on
March 20 last.
A few days later Sheriff Nc
Leod arrested on similar charges
Arlie Gillian, an orange grove
caretaker; Ed Spivey, typewriter
repalrman, and James Dean, an
electrician, all of Orlando and all
said by the sheriff to have adj
mitted being Ku-Klux KlanSmen.
Gillian and Spivey were re-
ported to have served among the
1924 special city policemen i'm
ported by Chief Ellsworth and
paid $40 day each on the oc-
casion of the September primary.
incidentally, among the other
special policemen that day was
a we'll known Khan leader of Or
lando, Fred Bass, who was said
to have been accompanied to
Tampa by some 10 other men,
most of them klansmen. Bass
is political leader in Orlando.
NN Dec. "a the grand jury,
" after long sessions and hear
ing many witnesses summoned by
Sheriff Mcleod and State Attor-
ney Farrior, found true bills of
indictment for murder in the Sec
ond degree, assault and other
charges growing out of the kid
mapping and f1ogging.
On Jan. 8 former Chief Tits
worth appeared before the grand
jury at his own request. 1t is
understood he entered a general
denial of knowledge of a con-
spiracy in the Police Department
to punish Shoemaker, Poulnot and
Rogers for their political activities.
Nevertheless, on Jan. % the
grand jury, after listening to his
story, returned indictments
against him charging him with
being an accessory after the fact
to the murder of Shoemaker and
to the kidnapping of the three men
at the City Hall that fatal Satur-
day night.
The next day-Jan. 24-there
was another sensation when it
was discovered that Robert P.
Fariss, Tampa business man,
who had been secretly questioned
several times by the authorities
regarding his connection with the
f1ogging, was found dead in his
closed sedan parked in his own
garage.
Officials said he had committed
suicide. A garden hose had been
attached to the exhaust of his
motor and run through an open
ing the floor boards, with the open
end lying beside him on a pillow.
TT was revealed that FariSs was
l. one of two signers for an ap-
plication for a post office box
mentioned in a dodger passed out
in the name of the Ku KluX Khan
as the place to address applica-
tons for membership. Fariss lived
across the street from Tits
worth.
The latest development is the
MISUNDERSTANDING total of II
of Maurice A. MenedeZ, Tits
worth's clerk.
Immediately after Ellsworth,
Brown and the other defendants
were arrested the Whitaker broth
ers appeared as attorneys for all
the Tampa men involved, and ar
ranged for their release on bail