The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-07-25
MYSTERY is STILL
CLOAKING MURDER

Continued from page one)
.Julv 16 remain in custody for fur
Their grilling. They are Daniel
! Gaddy, young night Waterman,
! and /. D. Roddy, negro elevator
= Clevenger returned Friday from
Fletcher, O., where he attended
the funeral of his slain niece, who
! had come to North Carolina for
a vacation visit with him last
week. He was the only person
she knew in this vicinity, so lar
as authorities have learned.
CLEVENGER'S TESTIMONY
AT INQUEST REVIEWED
1t was Clevenger who found ms
niece's ravished body in her hotel
roo meight days ago. At the coro-
ner's inquest into her death a
week ago yesterday, ne testified;
Il retired about 10 30 the night
before. Helen and had returned
from a day in the country WIN
friends about 10 O'Clock. We said
Good night, and went to our
Tooms, | went right to bed.
THE next morning | awoke at
7.3O a. M, dressed, shaved and
went down the hall to Helen's
room. | have always been care
full about entering her room with
out knocking. and this time, as
usual, l knocked.
When she didn't answer, l rat
tied the door knob. The door
swung open, and | saw her body
living half out of the bathroom
door, with her legs doubled up
under her. Her face was horribly
mutilated.
II was stunned. l turned back
into the hall and saw Mr.. Lasch,
the hotel carpenter. l said:
look what they've done to
her.
He looked in the door, and
then we went to call the hotel
management" .,
The girl had been shot in the
breast, her face beaten and mu-
tilated with a sharp instrument.
Her body was clothed in blood
, stained green pajamas. Her room
key, also bloOd-stained, was 1ound
under a radiator. g,
A pass key of the type issued
only to hotel employees and found
in the door to Miss Clevenger's
roor, s+;ll ;s one of the unSolved
mysteries of the case.
Sheriff Brown has questioned 10
employes of the hotel in an effort
to trace the key and find out
more about a so far unidentltled
man who was seen to race through
the lobby and leap off the hotel
balcony shortly after l a. m. July
16-The time screams heard by
| other guests fix for the murder.
The sheriff has reiterated for
the last few days that he expected
Gaddy, the hotel night Waterman;
70 "tell me something important,
although he did not suspect him
of the actual crime,
| Release of Wollner had been
| expected. The German-born mus
ician was taken into custody last
Saturday night after a haber-,
dasher's clerk told officers he had
overheard him say he had "a
| date" at the hotel the night Miss
| Clevenger was slain. He estab-
lished an alibi that he was at home
in bed at the time of the Staying.
Wollner contacted at his home
last night said he had been treat
| ed fine" during his six days in
Jail and that he was "only too
| glad to help the investigation" he
said he intended to stay in Ashe-
Vile and go ahead with his music
work - playing at concerts and
teaching the violin.
Prof. Clevenger, whose home IS
at Raleigh, had not been expected
to return to Asheville until p.
m. 1t was not known whether he
was taken into custody here or
outside the city. He was slipped
! into Jail Yesterday afternoon thru
a garage in the basement and
taken to a cell on the 18th floor
by elevator.
C. w. Pegram, executive in a
local dairy cooperative and a
friend of the Clevengers, at whose
home the professor and his niece
had dinner the evening before she
was slain, said last night that
Clevenger had returned to Ashe-
Vile because he wanted to do
everything he could to cooperate
in the investigation.
9" know that Prof. Clevenger
didn't have anything to do with
the crime" Pegram said. "The Of
ficers are barking up the wrong
tree this time"