Evening star., 1936-01-12
BODIES Of KOLTES
SUICIDES AWAIT
FUNERAL PLANS
Youth Thought to Have FOL-
lowed Mother in Drinking
Poison.
CHATTANOOGA KIN
REPORTED DUE TODAY
Coroner's Certificate Issued After
Autopsy-War Fear Theory
Discredited by Police.

The bodies Of Mrs. Capitola w.
Koltes, As, and her son, Robert Will
liams Ashworth, 21-year-old George
Washington University sophomore,
who committed suicide together Fri
day by drinking poison, remained in
the District morgue last night await
ing funeral arrangements by relatives.
Kenneth Durham, a nephew of Mrs.
Koltes' brother, DR.. J. Victor VIII
liams Of Chattanooga. Tenn, was re-
ported to have left Chattanooga last
night and is due here today.
Mrs. Koltes' estranged second hus-
band, Capt. Frank Xavier Koltes, Of
the Navy Medical Corps, is stationed
on the West Coast. He had not been
living with his wife for about six
years, department officials said they
had been informed.
Born in Chattanooga.
Mrs. Koltes, 1t was revealed late
yesterday. was born and reared in
Chattanooga. Her brother, DR.. Will
liams, is the "Victor" she mentioned
In q suicide note. She received her
college training at a denominational
school in ASheville. N. c., later going to
New York to become editor of the
Motion Picture Classic magazine
Little was known Of Mrs. Koltes'
first husband. DR.. r. E. Ashworth,
Birmingham, Ala. whom she divorced.
Ashworth visited his father in Birm-
ingham during the Christmas holidays.
His mother came here December Z and
took the one-room apartment in the
Dupont Circle Apartments where their
bodies we're found Friday.
Coroner A. Magruder Macdonald
issued certificates of suicide for both
mother and son yesterday. An autopsy
revealed they died Of a powerful
poison, a can of which was found in
Mrs. Koltes' apartment. DR.. Mac
Donald said he was convinced they
died In suicide pact.
When police entered the apartment
after being summoned by Arthur
Sherwin, assistant manager of the
Dupont Circle, who found the bodies,
they saw Mrs. Koltes stretched on the
bed. She was wearing q blue silk
dressing robe.
Phone Struck in Fall.
Young Ashworth was sprawled on
the floor, coatless. Nearby were a one
pound can Of poison and an empty
glass. Ashworth had injured his head
in falling on the concrete floor and
had knocked the telephone receiver
OF its hook 1t was the constant buzz
zing of the telephone inlet to the
apartment and means which the
switchboard operator heard when she
plugged in that led to discovery of the
double tragedy.
Police believe Mrs. Koltes swal-
lowed some of the poison and that
her son then took the glass from her
hands, drank from it, and placed it
on the mantelpiece, falling unconsci-
Gus as he walked back across the
room.
Further evidence Of suicide pact
was seen by police in notes which both
left. Mrs. Koltes, a pacifist, wrote
request that someone from the Ma
tional Council for Prevention of War"
give a talk on peace at their funerals.
Ashworth left in the apartment will
In his own handwriting. Among his
personal effects at the Dewitt School,
where he had been staying, was found
a note indicating his intention to COM
nit suicide.
Likewise, police found in the youths
rubber tobacco pouch phial Of poison
similar to that in the can. A pinch
of the powdered poison, dissolved in a
glass. killed mother and son almost
instantly; so quickly, in fact, that a
cigarette, half-smoked, was still smol-
dering in an ash tray when the bodies
were discovered.
Reported Conversation.
Ashworth's will and the note, also in
his own handwriting, police say, null
lilies the significance Of a converse
ton he was reported to have had
Thursday with a girl classmate at
George Washington. This girl was
said to have confided to a friend that
Ashwofth told ner:
What do you think my mother gave
me for lunch today-she gave me my
will to sign"
When the classmate expressed
amazement, Ashworth, it was under
stood, said: "well, my mothers always
doing nutty things like that"
Police discredited the theory that
Mrs. Koltes committed suicide because
she was afraid her son might be drawn
into war. She was a strong supporter
of peace movements, however, for she
went to the National Council for Pre-
vention of War a week ago and bought
two 81 peace bonds. She told Miss
Mary Ida Winder, council ofhcial
she'd "do anything" to keep her sor
out Of war.
Mrs. Koltes sent subscriptions to a